Barataria-born Trinidad and Tobago citizen, Desmond Parker, was last month appointed United Nations Chief Protocol Officer by UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon. The top appointment came three years after his having served as deputy chief protocol officer. Parker's inspiring story tells of a young man who bathed out of a bucket and lived without electricity at his humble Barataria home and now heads a staff of 13 at the UN headquarters in Washington. Amy Roach Partridge, in a report on Parker's appointment as deputy chief protocol officer in the Mississauga magazine, wrote, "From his lofty perch at the iconic United Nations building in Manhattan, it is hard to imagine Desmond Parker taking a shower using a bucket. Or living without electricity. "But the 60-year-old diplomat has endured the lack of basic human comforts, and much more, during his remarkable journey from a poor childhood in T&T to his current post as deputy chief of protocol for the United Nations."
He is the fourth of six children born to a policeman and a teacher. Parker and his staff serve the protocol needs of the UN's 192-member states, as well as UN agencies such as UNICEF and the World Health Organisation. He has been part of several peace-keeping missions in countries where there was war, instability and deprivation. "After Haiti, he spent six years in Liberia during the country's second civil war, and later served for a year in Nepal in the midst of the Maoist insurgency," Partridge wrote. "He lived without running water or electricity for years at a time with war and political instability as his constant companions."
Traumatic business
Parker said, "Peacekeeping is traumatic business. We were called upon to make peace in areas where people are depraved and where war is the order of the day." It is Parker's responsibility to ensure that the United Nations implements its policies and procedures in an orderly fashion and in a way that is acceptable to all member states. "We set the ground rules for how discussions take place, how agreements are arrived at, how meetings are held and how people interact at the United Nations, and by extension, in the international community," he says. Parker's daily schedule could include welcoming heads of state such as US President Barack Obama to the United Nations; advising the UN Secretary General; preparing for the General Assembly and other UN conferences; or travelling anywhere in the world, Patridge said.
"Having just returned from the Climate Summit in Copenhagen, he was fielding calls and answering e-mails at 9.30 pm and getting ready to depart again for London shortly–but loving every minute of his work," she wrote.
Empty wallet
Parker's determination to succeed is remarkable. He began studying at the University of Toronto in Mississauga in 1970. "He arrived on campus from T&T as an undergraduate with an empty wallet and big dreams. "I came to Erindale College to study languages because I wanted to become a diplomat," Parker recalls. "I had no money and no hope of completing my education, but I knew I had to find a way to excel." Partridge said he supported himself by cutting grass for the Mississauga Parks Department but it was his connection with the McLeary family that helped him. "After graduating from the university in 1973, he got married and began a career of continuing education and international diplomacy that spanned the globe."
"Parker studied French-African literature in France, earned a master's degree in Nigeria, as well as post-graduate diplomas in Nigeria and Trinidad. "He worked in the foreign affairs ministry in T&T, served as the chief of protocol to two prime ministers and was assigned to a post at the T&T embassy in Washington, DC." Parker's entry into the UN began there. "I was working at the embassy in Washington in the early 1990s when a violent coup erupted in Haiti and (President Jean-Bertrand) Aristide was ousted from office," Parker says. "The Organisation of American States and the UN mounted a joint international mission to assist the government of Haiti and I knew I wanted to get involved." Parker became a UN human rights officer and stayed in Haiti for two years fulfulling his desire to use the power of his education to make a difference.