Bishop of the Diocese of Roseau, His Lordship Gabriel Malzaire has made a strong call to the nation to unite following the passage of Tropical Storm Erika which devastated the country last week.
He made that call while addressing a press briefing, post Tropical Storm Erika, at the Financial Centre on Friday evening.
He said the country cannot overcome the challenges that it is faced with, if its citizens’ “modus operandi” is divisive and if we do not see the need for “brotherly and sisterly love” relationships.
“We cannot overcome this situation if our modus operandi become divisions, or splitting hairs as to rightness and wrongness, splitting hairs as to who is better and who is worse when there are more important things to deal with, when people are dying, when people are suffering, people are in need,” The Bishop stated.
Crisis situations, he said, can either make a nation or break a nation. They can help us to challenge ourselves and to get in touch with our “best selves.”
“And it is my hope that this situation will be seen as one of nation building, rather than nation breaking,” Malzaire noted. “But how do we express that?” he asked and pointed out that we have seen “a tremendous flow of love, of compassion, of generosity, of kindness, one to another.”
He said this spirit needs to continue.
“It’s not only in the crisis situation that it ought to be, but that it will translate into other times. These are challenging situations for us, but we need to allow ourselves to develop the disposition that will help us to survive through this particular situation.”
Bishop Malzaire cautioned, “We don’t want Dominica to be seen as a place that is in decadence that people don’t care about each other anymore. I think situations like this one help to rise among us those dispositions which unfortunately were being lost.”
He sees the Erika disaster as an opportunity to regenerate the goodness that has existed in Dominica before.
The Bishop commended the efforts of the Prime Minister, his Cabinet, the religious community and other agencies as well as individuals who are responding to needs of affected Dominicans.
Thank You Bishop Malzaire, very well said. We heed your call.
Honest and honorable men do not run for political office anymore. Such office is contaminated with corruption, greed, sorcery, malice, selfishness, un-godliness, ugliness, uncleanliness and everything deplorable.
The Bishop should copy THE lord Jesus; the most comments he made only contain three lines but the disciples made up to thirty chapters from that one line THATS “Power” and we LOVE HIM. All the Bishop is asking is for care and respect for each but, you can feel the hatred, envy and jealousy in some comments. We Love “GOD” but we care for human. They cannot even address The Prime Minister as” Mister”
The bishop is surprising me, the people to bring in country at time lke this is the governmnet by ruling imprtilly nd objectively and fairly with laws which respect the people. All the peole. The onus is on the Bishop who is an advisor of the PM to talk to the Pm, so the Pm can discuss thing with all Dominicans , and make decisions based on the people wishes and not just on the wishes of his cronies. The current situation has been brought about by the Bishp nd the Government who has forgotten what democracy is . The asty renaming of the Melville hall airport did not bring unity to the island peole, the fighting an election wasting so much money, in a land so poor did not bring unity, the disrespect shown in the house of parliament to the members of the opposition did not encourage unity. The onus is on the government to rule justly. The scripture says it, what does the oLrd desire of thee oh man, but to rule justly.. bisho you are a big part of the problem of Dominica.
Whose song is he singing now. Who told him that Dominicans have time for disunity now.
Why does it have to be a storm to unit in a small country such as D/A every body knows one another some how. One of the reasons Jesus was crucified was jealousy.Wake up you lots read the bible to expand your brains
“Bishop Malzaire cautioned, “We don’t want Dominica to be seen as a place that is in decadence that people don’t care about each other anymore. I think situations like this one help to rise among us those dispositions which unfortunately were being lost.”–News article
The problem which we are facing in Dominica is the result of a people who is dead of conscience and unless we are spiritually wise enough to acknowledge that flaw –we will not change.
A dead conscience means that we are wandering the place without God–His Love and Holiness–for God connects to us through conscience, and from conscience Holy Spirit trains and disciplines the mind. Without that stature of the mind, there is no feeding from God; man is simply responding to his natural senses which can only gratify the flesh–but Jesus has warned us: “the flesh profits nothing!’
Life is in the Spirit. Dominicans, think about this! Are you in Life with our God of Spirit in Love and Truth?
until the Salisbury people are not free fire must burn.water will flow God is not please with the oppression
Bishop yes we havs to put all our differences behind usand. Ome together in unity for the betterment of our island. Sir we ads prepare to do so, but in this time of hurt, helplessness, dismay and anguish, all hands have to come together, do you think that what tthe Prime Minister, his members of parliament are doing is unity?. Sir the Prime Minister and his PR need to practice what he preaches, Sir do you think what is taking place sith the distribution of water, foods, clothing ect by those aho were hand picked by the Prime Minister and his members of Cabinet and the village councilors his die heart supporters is unity, Mr Bishop the donations coming from all the donors all over the globe was not shipped to Dominica only for Labour Supporters is was donated to Dominica by hardworking tax payers to assist all those in need, not only for Green, Blue, white and RED, when you seeing it right in your face, where those wearing the RED Tl-shirts etc bypassing none LABOR is this unity
Peter, didn’t the Honourable Prime Minister give the 21 Elected Parliamentary Representative in the 21 constituencies in the country the responsibility of being the caretaker of their individual constituency? So if all of the 21 do what have to be done together with the PM and Government, we should be seeing unity if all do what have to be done.
Hopefully the 21 know each person in their respective community and report back to the Leader of the country what is happening in each community. In case you conveniently missed it, that included the UWP Elected Members, who would know who can do what and who cannot do what have to be done in their individual area.
But if instead of working together for the collectively good of the country and their constituency we are trying to continue to play our usual bad politics and have not learnt a thing from Erika….God Help Us.
Could you please publish Peter R Augustine speech.
Under which banner should we unify sir? Is it the Roosevelt skrrritt banner or the Dominica banner? It is so sad that false prophets like you seem to consider skerritt as God’s gift to Dominica and can only call for others to dance to his beat but never for him to see the good in what others have to offer no matter how sensible it is. We will begin to listen to you when you start accepting and give credit to other ideas which do not come from skerritt.
Unity will never mean jumping to the sound of one man but accepting the best ideas from many and accepting the fact we not all there is. Add in moral consciousness.
Every Elected Member in a constituency………..
I support the call for unity after the disaster of the storm. We live in times when much will be required from us and we have to submerge our personal and individual interest for that of the community and while we recognize that each of us have our own burden to carry because each man thinks that his burden is the heaviest it does help if we can lighten the burden of those who are suffering by our kind words of encouragement and right action.
Remember the journey is not for the swift nor the battle for the strong but for those who endure. There is a prize for those who stay in and run the race with faith because faith can move mountains and as we encounter difficult periods in life let us not give up hope but do what is required to improve ourselves and by doing so we will improve others also. May we continue in our recovery effort with everyone doing what is necessary to restore hope and promise in our moments of despair. Strength and courage to all in the time of need.
But what is going on in the country with them bus drivers. The Government should do something about the busses charging $100 from Portsmouth to Roseau. So what is going to happen when the students begin to go to school in Roseau? The Government should step in immediately and end the price gouging these bus drivers are implementing to exploit the general public as a result of the disaster.
These bus drivers should follow Bishop Malzaire’s advice, and at the same time, the Police Force should come down heavy on them.
Thank you Bishop for sound words,.”Jesus said love your neighbour as yourself “. The Opposition has made a great effort i did not hear you say anything about that, thats where Unity should start. Please Bishop do the right thing always. I love Dominica and i am praying for my Nation. In the words of Pope Francis. “I am a sinner whom the Lord has looked upon “
When will we learn politics again .