Former prime minister Basdeo Panday introduced late US Secretary of State General Colin Powell to scotch and coconut water during the latter’s whirlwind visit to Trinidad and Tobago in 1998.

And, according to Panday, Powell “never looked back.”

Powell was one of several dignitaries who had been invited to the country to help launch the Dr Eric Williams Memorial Collection at the main library of the St Augustine campus of the University of the West Indies on March 22, 1998.

Williams’ daughter Erica Williams-Connell, then acting president Ganace Ramdial, former UWI principal (St Augustine) Prof Compton Bourne and late pro vice-chancellor (Jamaica) Prof Rex Nettleford were also present at the inauguration ceremony.

Powell had also addressed a group of businessmen in Port of Spain during his short stay.

Williams, TT’s first prime minister, died on March 29, 1981, at the age of 69.

[caption id="attachment_920595" align="alignnone" width="800"] Prime minister Basdeo Panday, Erica Williams-Connell, former US Secretary of State Colin Powell at the inaguaration of the Eric Williams Memorial Collection, University of the West Indies on March 22, 1998. Panday recalls Powell as a "gentleman of the highest order." -[/caption]

Panday, who served as prime minister from 1995 to 2001, recalled that after the launch of the collection, he had hosted a reception for Powell at his official residence.

“There, I discovered that he liked scotch and coconut water,” he said in an interview on Thursday.

“Because, I remember when he came, I took him into the library and I asked him whether he would have a drink and he said, in typical army style, rum and something or the other. I asked, ‘Have you tried scotch and coconut water?’ He said, ‘No.’ But after I gave him the first one, that was it. He loved it.”

Powell, 84, a former chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff and diplomat, passed away on October 19 due to complications from covid19, his family wrote on Facebook. His family added he was fully vaccinated.

At the time of his death, Powell was also battling multiple myeloma, a cancer of plasma cells that suppresses the body’s immune response as well as Parkinson’s, Peggy Cifrino, Powell’s longtime chief of staff confirmed to CNN.

Panday recalled that apart from cultivating a taste for scotch and coconut water during his visit, Powell had also fallen in love with the music of legendary calypsonian Sparrow (Slinger Francisco).

“I had invited a series of calypsonians to perform and he listened to Sparrow and he fell in love with Sparrow.”

Panday said Powell had only one request when he was leaving the country.

“I remember telling him I would like to give him a gift and he said what he wanted most was a complete collection of Sparrow’s calypsoes. He left, of course, but I looked around and got a complete collection and I sent it to him. Those are the things I remember about him.”

But even before he visited TT, Powell, from social media accounts, was already a fan of the nine-time calypso monarch.

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