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| THE MERCHANT OF VENOM & ANGER |
While the Flambeaus were busy spewing anger and venom at Micoud, Lorne was quietly refining the way forward for Choiseul/Saltibus. The methodology, which was inclusive and participatory, involved touching base with individuals, homes, groups and organisations across the constituency to get further feedback on his vision and constituency development programmes.
Under Tucker, development in Choiseul/Saltibus has been “kept back” by five years; and “the urgency of now” is to get Choiseul/Saltibus back on track before it’s too late.
Over the weekend small group “roving discussions” of enlightening and educational nature – nothing political - were held on a variety of social and economic issues affecting Choiseul/Saltibus.
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| ROVING DISCUSSIONS TO REFINE PLANS |
One of the key areas of discussion was the development and maintenance of road and community infrastructure. The people of Saltibus and surrounding areas are very concerned by the state of their road network. Well Lorne had good news for them!
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| ROADSIDE ROVING DISCUSSIONS |
The road development programmes (RDP 004 & 005) which were in the planning stages in 2006 were unfortunately removed from this government’s list of priorities complaining about “cost-overruns”. The Labour government will revive those Road Development Programmes and will bring “road relief’ to the people of Saltibus, Jetrine, Daban and Fiette; and those communities will now get a state of the art road network on par with RDP 001 & 002, that is the road from Soufriere to Black Bay.
Lorne will place much emphasis on Social Transformation. Although, we are now tapping into the creativity and imagination of our people on the way forward, we will not try to re-invent the wheel. We will learn from the models and best practices elsewhere (eg New Zealand, the UK) and come up with the “best project possible” for the people. Lorne will only provide firm policy guidelines to the authorities with the mandate; but he will not micro-manage for the purpose of seeking votes.Lorne will have systems in place to reward community development efforts. There are lots of great people all over Choiseul/Saltibus doing great work and they are not recognized and honoured. Lorne has promised to correct that anomaly. In fact, he did not only outline a broad policy framework in that regard during the last constituency conference; he also started the process when he recognized a number of great Choiseulians who had been pushed to the brink of the wilderness. Many of those persons are now aging or aged and time is running out for them.
Youth empowerment will be a major pillar of Lorne’s development thrust. The young people have an unlimited reservoir of energy and creativity and we should never let that go untapped. Lorne will not mobilise the youth for political exploits. He will not take them on boat rides to win their vote. To him, that is tantamount to brainwashing. The youth is to critical to our development to brainwash.We will post a link that will give you comprehensive and up-to-date information on the youth plans and programmes.
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| JIMMY IN A LIME WITH LORNE |
An area which is close to Lorne’s heart is Choiseul Village – his native village. He has a vision of making the village “a mecca”, “a nerve centre” in the constituency. He wants to restore and maintain the beauty of the village which holds the “plus-belle-village’ record. He wants to have the beauty of the early days juxtaposed to a new paradigm of development. The Japanese have already given us a start by the construction of the fisheries complex which can be significantly expanded to bring out - not just development -but also employment opportunities through tourism, craft and technology.
Lorne does not believe in “job-for the-boys doctrine”. At the moment, Tucker’s honchos are “the winners take all” and are aiming to be millionaires like him, with the lesser persons (in Delcer, La pointe, Industry etc) getting crumbs while the majority of constituents are groveling in poverty.
Apparently, Tucker has introduced a “dollar-a-day” employment in Choiseul/Saltibus. He is now running around offering constituents $400 contracts to cut grass or dig drains by the road side. Lorne says “this is not the way to develop a constituency or its people”.
Dr Anthony established Universal Secondary Education; he also pilot-tested Universal Health Care and well on his way establish it. The STEP programme was another “pilot employment project in the direction of providing “Employment for All”. These programmes will be brought to their completion stage.Contrary to Tucker’s “job-for-the-boys-for-vote”, Lorne strongly believes that everybody deserves bread, irrespective of his/her political colour. He does not believe in playing politics with people’s daily bread.
At the moment, even Tucker’s henchmen confess that he is not interested in the genuine development of Choiseul/Saltibus; but only in using money and projects to win votes. This is the rationale for the proliferation of the haphazard Ti canal projects all over Choiseul/Saltibus for the benefit of his henchmen.
Finally Lorne believes in effectiveness and efficiency and those will always be the centre of the execution of all his programmes and policies.
Keep it up. This is the sort of approach which I want the powerhouse to adopt. keep on talking about our vision for development. I am enlightened and I'm voting Lorne all the way.
ReplyDeleteI believe it was Juke Bois who coined "job for the boys"; how come he is saying nothing about it now. When Kenny fired him as a consultant and employed the best talent available in the country, he went to war against Kenny. But we saw the benefits: growth and development in the country.
ReplyDeleteToday, it's not just job for the boys, it's "JOB-FOR-THE-BOYS-FOR VOTES". He uses stolen money that should have been placed in the state treasury to buy votes. Can we call that development? Gaddafi used similar techniques to to entrench himself in power. But the longest day has an end. I hope the day will come when he will have to return all the money to the treasury and of course pay the penalty.
When , when will Choiseullians look further than the end or our toes ?
ReplyDeleteAre we really so shortsighted that a $ 400 contract for a ti canal or bus shelter is preferable to a sustained livihood in a cottage industry , a doctor in the health centre more often than one morning a week , a well maintained infrastructure and perhaps most important of all a decent future for our children ?
We aren't really that stupid , or are we ?
Great going Lorne. It shows that your philosophy is very much in synch with that of the labour party. I respect a man with vision, that is ethical and is guided by principles that would develop the social, economic and physical framework of the Country. I have to be honest and let you know that I'd been long awaiting this type of information from you. I wanted to believe that it was in you but would not make any assumptions, prior to hearing it from you. Now, I am privy to this information I will share your vision as much as possible. I also want to take this opportunity to send Kudos to your team & yourself for being so active and frequent in the constituency. You've got my vote!
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