MOSES Jn. Baptiste, Parliamentary Representative for the constituency of Vieux Fort North, has been elected to head the Caribbean Parliamentary Forum on Population and Development.
His election to Chairman of the Regional Organization took place in Trinidad last weekend (June 1 and 2, 2018) during a meeting of Caribbean Parliamentarians including Ministers of Health, Social Affairs and Gender Relations.
The organization is a continuation of work of the Inter- American Parliamentary Group on Population and Development in CARICOM which was started in Barbados in 1985.
The Caribbean Parliamentary Forum is made up of committed Parliamentarians who are dedicated to advance and promote the sexual and reproductive health and rights agenda, within the framework of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) Programme of Action and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s). Is also affiliated to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), and will operate its Secretariat out of the office of the Inter-American Parliamentary Group (IAPG) in Panama.
Hon. Jn. Baptiste who is also the Saint Lucia Labour Party’s Spokesperson on Health and Agriculture has indicated that he is humbled by the confidence which has been placed in him by the ministers and parliamentarians of the Caribbean who attended the meeting, among them the long-serving Speaker of the Dominica Parliament, Saint Lucia’s Minister for Health and other parliamentarians from both government and Opposition.
According to the Vieux Fort North MP, his job will be to work with parliamentarians locally and regionally to identify common areas of interest , strengthen collaborations with civil society groups on issues of the MDG’s, broaden the working relationships between national and regional legislative bodies on population and development among other legislative actions.
Mr. Jn. Baptiste, thanked his constituents of Vieux Fort North and the Saint Lucia Labour Party for the opportunity to serve. This in turn he says, will allow him to work for, not only the people of his constituency and Saint Lucia but the people of the Caribbean as a whole.
Hon Jn. Baptiste’s term as Head of the Caribbean Parliamentary Forum is for two years.
Again, none of those people seem to have even the very faintest idea about strategic development for the 21st century. This forum is the poster child of just an abysmally low understanding of issues critical to the development of the existing regional population.
It is more like a solution looking for a problem. A stupid waste of time.
It fails to answer what drives growth in stagnant populations like ours. It is, up to now, and as currently formulation just another talk shop. The results will be minuscule. Who is paying the dollars for this? I wouldn’t these opposition characters in government. They are out of touch with reality.
These people should be ashamed of themselves for projecting their visionless future. They should forever remain in opposition. They are just hell-bent on grandfathering stupidity into the culture of future generations of Caribbean people.
Whereas other developing nations are leap-frogging their developmental gaps with technical education and provision, these here are busy backslapping each other on the settlement of meetings that generate only other meetings. There is no concrete agenda that can be arranged by technological means. How slothful!