Hold Gov’t 'accountable' rather than just 'complain'– Cromwell Smith
Mr Smith was at the time speaking on his show ‘Umoja’ on ZBVI 780 AM on November 15, 2022. His guest was Dr Sharlon Lewis and the topic was diabetic awareness and the need for policies to prevent chronic diseases.
The talk show host said within VI’s national strategic plan of 2012, there were policies that put health at the forefront with the aim of preventing chronic diseases.
“There is something in that plan called a Health in All Policies {HiAP], and part of that Health in All Policies was to have persons designated in each department, that whenever something was happening, infrastructure was being built, it would be built in such a way to accommodate exercise.”
“So you would have bike lanes in the streets and you would have trees on the sidewalks,” he said.
'Enforcement & accountability often lacking'- Dr Sharlon Lewis
Dr Lewis pointed out; however, that people might not be aware of how everything impacts health.
“We need to understand how everything impacts health, so when plans are being approved for certain buildings, all of these things need to be taken into consideration and we need to have the fortitude to enforce them because that's the other thing.”
Dr Lewis added that while some plan might be there in policy, enforcement and accountability are often lacking.
“We as a people need to hold ourselves accountable. You can't rely on the government [to] always do everything and spoon-feed you,” she said.
'We just continue to complain'- Smith
Smith remarked, “We ain’t organising ourselves to hold government accountable. We just continue to complain all the time, because this policy been in place from… 2012,” he said.
Dr Lewis added that moving forward, the VI needs another plan since the existing plan will expire in two months, given 2022 only has another month left.
She added that the VI now needs to do an analysis of why the previous policy didn’t work, including "who dropped the ball" and why the plan didn’t work as well as come up with another plan that would cater to new challenges like COVID-19.
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21 Responses to “Hold Gov’t 'accountable' rather than just 'complain'– Cromwell Smith ”
All elected politicians, particularly, should be strictly be held accountable to their employers, the people, and to honour the pledge to serve their Oversea boss, the UK, in accordance to their sworned in pledged.
Mr. Cromwell Smith and other persons that are encouraging us to hold our government leaders for full accountability about how they are managing our affairs cannot be rightfully ignored and criticised, facts.
Particularly in the 7th electoral district garbage is deliberately left for weeks on the sidewalk. Criticise that. Isn't such a health hazards? Raw sewage water daily running in the street. Isn't that a health hazards?
Should we not hold our government leaders for these accountable passive neglects? Yes, we should.
Vote your conscience: like or dislike.
am sure he knew that before , regardless of which government he supported , if the country isn't being managed property , ( with integrity nthat the government has to be held accountable ) solely n why was he pointing his fingers away from
Moreover, the constitution is the foundational document that sets the principles, policies, practices, procedures and institutions by which the territory is govern. It also details how members are elected, for how long, and how they can be removed and who can vote; it also limits the power of elected members denoting the rights of the people. However, somehow along way, the people were misinformed that the politicians, not the people, have the true power. The people delegates some power politicians who are responsible to the people. The People have the True Power. Ultimate power cannot be delegated away. The misinformation has had an impact on people voting. They show an indifference to voting, believing that their vote will not matter and politicians will do what they want, when and how they want. Voting matters and it makes a difference. Though power is useful, it is useless unless used effectively for the common/public good. The constitution is not self-executing. It requires active engagement by the people to make it work. It requires changes from time to time. As such, people should actively engage with the Constitutional Review Commission (CRC) to provide inputs to ensure that the VI creates a constitution that is current, modern, and meets the BVI needs.
[Let’s lead like eagles, not careen off the cliff like buffaloes]
you going to give us the history on ( this island people culture and how it began , and what was the purpose of it , we have been begging U for answer for a long time now ???? U have been pushing history from centuries ago , BUT U ain't touching that kind of racism / the truth will free your mind of hypocrisy •¿• after all , we all have the same ancestry / so why U doing Michael Jackson's moonwalk on us like that for ???❓
The people in the Virgin Islands, Local or foreign.....Need to develop a culture where the corrupt individual fears the incorruptible individual and not the other way around..... Growing up in Road Town and living on main street you saw that everyday. People would call your silly @## out when you are doing bull-nonsense.