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02nd
March 2010
Independence
Day Faux Pas?
The
Editor,
St. Lucians in New York are up in arms over
the lack of respect showed to the office of
the Prime Minister by Ambassador St. Aime and
Foreign Minister Rufus Bosquet over the weekend
celebration of the 31st Anniversary of St. Lucia’s
Independence in Brooklyn.
As is customary, it is the duty of the Ambassador
to read the Prime Minister’s Independence
Day message at the annual church service that
leads of the Independence Day celebration in
New York.
This year it was not read and Ambassador St.
Aime explained to the congregation, “He
was unable to retrieve the message from his
computer due to a glitch in his system.”
He further went on to say that the message will
be read by the Foreign Minister, Rufus Bosquet,
who will pass through New York on his trip from
Mexico on Wednesday, 24th February 2010 to attend
the reopening of the Helenites Center . This
reopening was part of the week-long celebration
of the 31st Anniversary.
At the reopening of the Center, Mr. Bosquet
did not read the Prime Minister’s message.
When questioned by a curious St. Lucian about
the omission he simply answered: “I am
not the Prime Minister.” |
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When told that
he was the Foreign Minister and is in New
York as a representative of the government
of St. Lucia , he responded: “I am not
here to represent the government of St. Lucia,”
implying, to the understanding of the St.
Lucian who was questioning him, that he was
passing through New York in his capacity as
a private citizen.
The St. Lucian, well known to Mr. Bosquet,
believes that if the Foreign Minister’s
trip to New York and his boarding and lodging
was paid for by the taxpayers and if he received
a per diem expenditure for his time in New
York, he was indeed representing the country
and should have delivered the Prime Minister’s
speech or a message from Prime Minister King
.
The St. Lucian who wishes to remain anonymous,
believes that, for the Foreign Minister to
travel to New York at the taxpayers’
expense, if he did, and claim that he was
not representing the country is a misuse of
the people’s finances and constitutes
a gross transgression of misuse of the public
purse.
Franklin McDonald
Discuss
Story
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