'Young people need to have a stake'- Youth Parliament Chairman
Pickering described, those catastrophic events, “exposed every deficiency we had here in the Virgin Islands but it also provided us an opportunity for a fresh start.”
He went on to say, the recovery may have different paths, but the goal must be the same.
“What was needed to be understood in the redevelopment and revitalization of the VI is young people need to have a stake and must take a vested interest as they are the ones who will have to carry it forward.”
He question weather or not there is any room for young people to sit at the decision making table and make their contribution to a strategic national development plan for these Virgin Islands.
The Chairman of VI Youth Parliament further2 explained that he would have started with the reopening of the Ports in order to provide free movement of people, not to mention that those entities are also revenue streams.
He would have then tackled the platforms of our infrastructure which would have placed us in a better position to address the Education of our children.
On the matter of the Education System, Mr Pickering stated that taking young people from a distress position and putting them in a ‘corner’ even with the shift system, is still not providing them the time and tools to be properly educated.”
Our greatest resource is our human resource and the order of my priorities is not accidental. He explained, the current environment gives way to demotivation, then drop out, then unemployment and then crime.
Leadership
On the matter of Leadership, Sonniel was asked what makes for, or who, and how, should we go about choosing the right leader? Sonniel explained in choosing our next set of leaders the people must be more discerning.
"We must look at their character, their discipline, their moral standing their ethics, how they deal with their peers and how they conduct business. ...anybody can be a politician but anybody can’t be a leader,” Mr Pickering painstakingly noted.
He said further, "in our Territory we live in a culture where “Loyalty is Bought” and we align ourselves accordingly...In so doing, we overlook the best people for the job and choose friendship or that’s my boy knowing full well they are not able.
He explained that they "go in the first term and perform well by the second term, they take on a God complex because these things are getting accomplished through me...It then degenerates to where they believe no one else can get it done but them, they are the only channel. By the third term they begin to hold on to what should be flowing to the people...The power becomes too sweet and there’s no succession.” Whatever we may think and from wherever or whomever it flows, Truth is truth and we should pay attention."
Also appearing on the show was Kevon S. Lettsome, and Jacob E. Edwards.
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13 Responses to “'Young people need to have a stake'- Youth Parliament Chairman”
Ask guy hill about that.