VI constitution must enshrine protection for indigenous Virgin Islanders– Dr Pickering
“I happened to have a chat with the Governor on this issue, and the point I’m making is unless you understand why the indigenous Virgin Islander feels threatened, you are not going to be able to understand a lot of the issues that come about,” he said.
Dr Pickering was at the time speaking as a guest on the July 5, 2022, edition of the Honestly Speaking radio show with host Claude O. Skelton-Cline on ZBVI 780am.
“We have basically been a people that have always been accommodating and friendly to everybody, but any country in the world there has to be protection for the indigenous people,” he added.
Dr Pickering pointed to instances in places like Brazil and Fiji with conflict between indigenous populations and foreigners.
Constitutional protection for locals
“These issues exist anywhere in the world, so it’s nothing unique to us here in these islands… so no matter what you do, anything you enshrine in the constitution it has to be done from the perspective that the indigenous people are protected,” he said.
Dr Pickering added that at the ‘bottom’ of the UK’s BREXIT deal, it is about the protection of a particular set of people and added that there is an absolute need for any constitution to protect the indigenous people of its country.
“Where I think the BVI should be heading… is that the BVI in Building a great little nation, must embrace multi-culturalism,” he said.
Dr Pickering underscored that the extent to which the VI embraces multi-culturalism will determine how successful the country is at nation-building.
“Those rights to protect indigenous people, once they are enshrined, it allows us all to focus on other issues and not get divided,” he added.
39 Responses to “VI constitution must enshrine protection for indigenous Virgin Islanders– Dr Pickering ”
Stop with the indigenous nonsense.
Do you have some in your country were you came from
What you all want us to do? Take the BVI and give it to you all for staying here 10 or 20 year's. Tortola people need to see the plan you all came here with. Killing our people and saying they were sick to take what they have. I never here anyone of you get on the radio and thank the BVI for anything. What we get for thanks is how stupid we are. You all are so correct because of what them stupid political leaders did to this country. It is a shame. You give them the right to stay now they look for the right to Wright the constitution. We are so dum. Just to make sure you have enough votes to get reelected you sell out your country. That is a dam shame. This country now is for expatriates people. Thanks to those political fools. If i had my way i will get rid of all of them and let some street man run the country
talking bout Indigenous yall need to start speaking about the mother father sister brother and cousins yall forfathers slept with and made offsprings thats why most of the so called BVI landers are so closely related and out deh dating each other
So how come you all ain't going with your family. Living here but nutting go to say about here. You stupid political lenders is not listening to these people when they talk . You can't hear the hate in their voice. They only here for what they can get. Them politicians fxxk we popper.
Look at history .. they are no longer here who destroyed them the white man
2. Then came the Africans … who destroying us now the white man
3. Then come belongers who putting you against expatriate
The white man how …. Divide make identity crisis create chaos amongst your black brothers from other island …
We are in the third leg … what a crisis
Moreover, concur with former legislator Dr. K. Pickering that, “ VI constitution must enshrine protection for indigenous Virgin Islanders.” This is suggestion is neither unique nor a discriminatory practice, for other municipalities/locales have protection in their constitution for citizens. For example, in the US, only candidates who were born in 1 of 50 states can be elected president. Further, some cities in th US have policies that require preferential treatment for local contractors on contracts. Let’s take a peek at birthright (jus soli, right of the soil) citizenship. Not all countries have birthright citizenship; a majority of countries that offer birthright citizenship are in the West, ie, US, Canada, etc. I’m not absolute but it seems that the UK may not have birthright citizenship.
are called first nations. These people were put on reservations in their own land. Our people were brought to this land from our homeland Africa.
And for those who wondered where the indigenous have gone, ask the Europeans!
Don't hate on the Africans, who were brought in to fill their places, and fought thick and thin, to remain in this place!
We now have the right to call ourselves indigenous. We did not cause the extinction of the indigenous; whites did!!!
Blame them for the LACK of indigenous peoples, ...
The ex minister made a valid point too late I guess because when he was in power he was happy to say the bvi has over 100 ethnicity which I knew would have become a problem decades to come. The bvi is too small to have a open door immigration policy there should have been quoters many decades ago to minimise the influx of persons coming to our shores to reside indefinitely. The process was abused and mishandled resulting in the problems we have today. Once you bring a large number of people onto your shores for years with no proper rules in place the native people way of life will always be violated.
So you cannot today blame the people who came for a better life and seeking free education and status, the system was broken from the 80s,so here we are. Australia had a similar problem but on different grounds, UK too and they all put proper policy in place to rectify the problems. The bvi may need to do the same, that's if they got courage, but for now the bvi is finished.