St Kitts Prime Minister Addresses Parliament
The Prime Minister of St. Kitts and Nevis, Dr. Denzil Douglas delivered a speech to Members of Parliament today [May 21] focused on strengthening cultural connections and on encouraging support and cooperation between Bermuda and his country in tackling common issues of concern.
From the outset of his address, Dr. Douglas relished the fact that there were strong familial ties between Bermuda and St. Kitts.
He said, “I am told, Mr. Speaker, that some 60 percent of Bermudian families can trace their ancestry, in some way, to St. Kitts and Nevis. This pleases me. It pleases me because I am keenly aware of the strength, the resilience, and the determination of the people of St. Kitts and Nevis. And we all know that throughout the world, the people of Bermuda are respected for their sense of focus, for their discipline, for their standards. I chose to believe, therefore, Mr. Speaker that these positive traits being common to both your people and mine, are best explained by our shared genealogy.”
-
Prime Minister Douglas addresses Members of Parliament. Photo courtesy DCI
-
The Prime Minister also touched on a myriad of other topics that the respective jurisdictions are tackling, such as the effects of the global economic challenges, anti social behavior among the youth and the rise in violent crime.
He said, “We find ourselves at a cross-road. Not so much at the level of the individual, or even the level of our individual islands, but at the level of the entire world. A complex and interlocking global economic crisis is trashing and pummeling economies far greater than yours and mine. The economic dislocations being experienced in nations great and small, industrialised and non-industrialised, have been documented and quantified…. And it is this reality that makes it particularly incumbent upon us as Parliamentarians to skillfully and correctly identify and assess the threats to which global events may expose our people, and to move with dispatch and discipline to either eliminate – or at the very least minimise the exposure of our people to these threats.”
Prime Minister Douglas added, “I realise at this juncture that it would not be appropriate for me to close without raising the issue of the unprecedented new wave of crime and violence that is causing such distress, globally. All over the world, the words ‘crime’ and ‘violence’ have been used so much that sometimes I fear that they may have lost their impact to the affect the listener. In order for our societies to remain ever sensitive to, and always emotionally affected by, the enormous shift in the 21st Century social realities, we are going to have to constantly find new ways to capture this new inhuman reality that we must all face.”
And he pointed out that the time has come for regional Governments and jurisdictions to have an in depth “review into the causes of the violence and anti-social behaviors”.
The Prime Minister ended his address to Parliament by encouraging unity and collaboration between the Island nations and by wishing Bermuda a “happy heritage month”.
Prior to his address to MPs, the Prime Minister paid a courtesy visit to the Speaker of the House Stanley Lowe, Deputy Speaker, Dame Jennifer Smith and Clerk to the Legislature, Ms. Shernette Wolffe.
Pictured below left to right are Erasmus Williams [Prime Minister’s Press Secretary], Shernette Wolffe, Premier, Prime Minister, Stanley Lowe, Astona Browne [St Kitts Permanent Secretary for Foreign Affairs] Dame Jennifer Smith and Stanley Lowe.
-
Photo courtesy of DCI
-
The Prime Minister was also presented with a Cultural Memorandum of Understanding for his consideration by Neletha Butterfield, Minister of Culture and Social Rehabilitation and he met with Governor Sir Richard Gozney. This evening he will attend a dinner hosted by Senator Thaao Dill.
-
Photo courtesy of DCI
A dinner hosted by a Senator?
That should be Hott Hott Hott…………………