;)
Whats up Doc
It seems for some reason that we are unable to get St Lucian politicians to focus on ideas, debatable ideas that are in the people’s interests. Not the discussions that are supposed to make a politician look good or those topics that are meant to make the competition look bad. We would like to know the plans that these politicians have for our Island. Some of these issues which I think merits discussion are International trade, bilingualism, citizen and immigration.
What are we doing for example to help farmers survive in this era of global agricultural trade? Is there a plan in place to ensure that we are competitive and able to hold our own on the world market? Suffice to say attempts to implement and ratify the agricultural imperatives have caused the destruction of the banana industry in St Lucia. Are we going to be better prepared for the next rounds of agreements, these aimed at the service industry? I do hope that our governments are prepared to navigate these imperative more adeptly that they handled the agricultural rounds.
Consider this as well, we are in a position to be a bilingual country, although we are an English speaking nation we are lucky enough to have a strong foundation in French. We can build upon this and we should. I believe that St Lucia should become officially bilingual and adopt French as a second language and it should become part of a compulsory curriculum. This will considerably help open new markets for our tourism industry and bolster our ability to do international business immensely.
On the issue of protecting St Lucia’s passports and citizenship, it is a commendable attempt to try and protect the authenticity of Lucian citizenship and the electoral process, through this fingerprinting scheme. However what a thin line we walk, when we finger print our own law abiding citizens. Essentially it means that all law abiding citizens who are eligible to vote are having their names placed into a data base that can be used at the government’s discretion. Of course we all will be told that the information will be protected. And while the indentations may be admirable but the potential consequences of a data base of fingerprints and names being use wrongfully is scary.
I think this jeopardizes individual rights and freedom. It is ironic that with all the legal practitioners that we have in St Lucia none have broached the topic of, individual rights and privacy protection when it come to a fingerprinting campaign by the government.
What are we doing for example to help farmers survive in this era of global agricultural trade? Is there a plan in place to ensure that we are competitive and able to hold our own on the world market? Suffice to say attempts to implement and ratify the agricultural imperatives have caused the destruction of the banana industry in St Lucia. Are we going to be better prepared for the next rounds of agreements, these aimed at the service industry? I do hope that our governments are prepared to navigate these imperative more adeptly that they handled the agricultural rounds.
Consider this as well, we are in a position to be a bilingual country, although we are an English speaking nation we are lucky enough to have a strong foundation in French. We can build upon this and we should. I believe that St Lucia should become officially bilingual and adopt French as a second language and it should become part of a compulsory curriculum. This will considerably help open new markets for our tourism industry and bolster our ability to do international business immensely.
On the issue of protecting St Lucia’s passports and citizenship, it is a commendable attempt to try and protect the authenticity of Lucian citizenship and the electoral process, through this fingerprinting scheme. However what a thin line we walk, when we finger print our own law abiding citizens. Essentially it means that all law abiding citizens who are eligible to vote are having their names placed into a data base that can be used at the government’s discretion. Of course we all will be told that the information will be protected. And while the indentations may be admirable but the potential consequences of a data base of fingerprints and names being use wrongfully is scary.
I think this jeopardizes individual rights and freedom. It is ironic that with all the legal practitioners that we have in St Lucia none have broached the topic of, individual rights and privacy protection when it come to a fingerprinting campaign by the government.
posted by Garry at
3:37 PM
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