HOPE IS NOT LOST!
INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY has been held on 8 March every year since 1913, and has been recognized by the United Nations since 1975. The UN says it’s a time to reflect on progress made, to call for change and to celebrate acts of courage and determination by ordinary women who have played an extraordinary role in the history of their countries and communities.
The theme of this year’s day is “Planet 50-50 by 2030” – aiming to achieve global equality in areas such as education and end all forms of discrimination.
LET US CELEBRATE THE ACHIEVEMENT OF WOMEN ESPECIALLY THE FACT THAT WITHOUT WOMEN, THERE WOULD BE NO MOTHERS, NO DAUGHTERS, NO SONS, NO FAMILIES, NO SOCIETY…. ON that note, I must submit that like we acknowledge the love of MOTHER MARY for giving birth to Jesus, let us celebrate the lives of our mothers and grandmothers-so on this day do not just celebrate women’s day in vain-take the opportunity to mend bridges and grow the relationship with her.
TELL YOUR WOMEN THAT YOU LOVE THEM!
And do not just use this period to increase awareness of the negative impact of violence on women, children and society as a whole, but to
And that is why it is a great honour and privilege for me to join my voice in the Activism Campaign on empowerment of Women and their Children. This Activism Campaign on EMPOWERMENT of Women and Children is a United Nations-endorsed campaign. And we have a collective responsibility in DOMINICA to protect the human dignity of women and children. However this campaign is larger than secular agenda’s, we have a moral and spiritual responsibility as a nation to build our families, women and children! We must not just say we care, but act with love and purpose. And if we improve the status of the family, women and children, Dominica MUST BECOME A BETTER PLACE.
There must be updates and inventions in that process such as the establishment of specialized police units dealing with domestic and sexual offences and other crimes against women and children. This development will mobilize the expertise needed to enhance management and successful prosecution of crimes against women and children. We also need to provide more resources and support to the government departments and Non-government departments in the fight. BUT ABOVE ALL WE MUST BUILD OUR FAMILIES AND SUBMIT TO THE WILL OF JEHOVER GOD.
Once again, to all our women-mothers, daughters, grandmothers, wives, friends…HAPPY WOMEN’S DAY 2016.
@Peter Karam…I am sure Mr. SKERRIT SPOKE TO Ian. ..who did the right thing to step down..with these kind of allegations the MP should resign…that is the honorable thing to do…Mr. Linton stand firm..no one wants this for their children. ..smh
Really Joshua Francis??
“There must be updates and inventions in that process such as the establishment of specialized police units dealing with domestic and sexual offences and other crimes against women and children. This development will mobilize the expertise needed to enhance management and successful prosecution of crimes against women and children. ”
garday la mwe yay la boyyy
In my opinion this is a classic manoeuvre – attack is the best form of defence!?
Do the honourable thing and resign until such time your are proven not guilty or guilty. At least Pinnard showed some dignity and character rather than ‘flying a kite’.
We love you my brother but when something is wrong it’s wrong so until justice is serve and you a cleared resigning would be it because that stigma will always hang over you give yourself time and hopefully it will dye down, I don’t know what advise your lawyers are giving you but I wonder were you doing yourself any good by writing the article after all your name is mention with a minor , Joshua don’t allow yourself to be used as a political ball that doesn’t be come you, and I do believe for the values you stood for it’s not to late to meet with your leader and others from your Party keep talking and planning together don’t be wrong and still strong because it’s not going over nicely we are concern about you.
I pray that all of this will pass as long as you a honest with God, you can fool all the others but not him because you will pay. Just stop talking and do the right thing for you and your family they are hurting also.
By their fruit you shall know them. Let us wait and see
This was not a smart nor the wises move on you part Mr Francis to come out now, in defense of women on international women’s day, amidst the allegations of violating a young girl rights
innocent until proven guilty is your undeniable, irrevocable right.
However it would have been better served had someone else made this statement,
what you have written no one can disagree to, however the timing of your statement is flawed and has tarnished the message
I always ask which God we sometimes pray to eh. JEHOVAH JEHOVAH JEHOVAH NOT JEHOVER! But rather telling. This sounds like a punishment essay I would give my students just to prove the point! Write a piece on women and children since you know so well how to treat them, write it!!!!! Or sounds like community service already, penance, saving face, I am sorry, what else is new? You had become too vocal in the media, and clearly something was amiss. We questioned initially where was the disconnect, because it was the elephant in the room, we all heard it, saw it, confused by it…… we understand now clearer, a bit, let the birds of a feather flock together… God keeps watch…. and life goes on. Roll on brother roll on..
Way papa. I had hopes in u as becoming our leader but u fall short of faith and trust. Please restore your moral values. We see this situation as a way to make labour party winning again. I’m soo mad eh but you know the law and u break it so you got to pay.
He has the audacity?
I hope that the allegations about this man are not true as Dominica needs such articulate people to develop the country.
It makes me so sad that Dominica is blessed with great talented people, but the island does not appear to benefit from it.
We need to pray more fervently as we need Divine intervention.
P.s. There should not be an apostrophe in agendas.
But mista mad man? Nah man mista doe understand the gravity of his situation? Awa wi
How can he when he seems to be suffering from the “I am loved by my constituents syndrome”?He seems to think he is untouchable and what he did is not wrong.
The man is innocent until proven guilty. Don’t get me wrong, if he is guilty he should pay for whatever he did. What if we find out that he was not involved, what would we say then. The spoken word can never be taken back. All I am saying is be careful we crucify an innocent man.
A joke that man?
You do need to talk to god.
Is it too late to say I’m sorry?
Mr. Francis, I think your message is inappropriate under the circumstances. It smacks of sacherine and does not help your cause, guilty or not. If you want to cross the floor as rumours have it, in order to save your political career I have to say that there is no hope because you will be making a pact with the devil. I do wish you well but please, it would be better right now to keep a low profile.
Well sir/madam Moses
Your advice on keeping a low profile is indeed wise but it seems that you all want to disown the gentleman all of a sudden! How would him crossing the floor save his political career when someone on the other side has taken the correct and noble high ground and resigned pending the due process of law?
I am sad about this young man because he had so much potential and seems to be a people’s person but his situation has now struck a balance because I am sure that this is an embarassing situation for many of you and perhaps even frightening because you have no idea whether there may be others on that side involved in similar situations. I guess the anxiety is even worse because the entire group on the government side was being tried, convicted, condemned and executed in the court of rumour.
Why not just accept the situation and deal with it in a mature way instead of trying to mix the message and somehow shift the accountability, because you can’t!
and if we let children be children they sure will grow up to be great mothers.
Mr. Francis! Over for the last several months, you have been enjoying a high level of respect and admiration from Dominicans, both locally and overseas, for how professionally and maturely you handle matters. Suddenly, we wake up one day last week and hear this news about you with speculation and sordid allegations rushing around the world like a tsunami after a magnitude 8 earthquake. You might be totally innocent of all the charges, and if not, you could have been well setup, but it is just reasonable for your constituents and general public to get some sort of explanation from you before you go about making public statements like the above. You need to make a public statement about the present accusations against you, a statement that will prevent the public from questioning your moral authority on anything, be the subject women, children, subordinates, hit-and-run accidents, or ethics. Something has happened! and it needs to be addressed before life goes on as normal.
I feel insulted by this post. This is a condescending post in light of current events. Please do not try to insult our intelligence Mr. Francis.
I can only conclude from the statement of Mr Francis that he is 100% certain that there is zero evidence of inappropriate behaviour with a minor or he is incredibly naive to believe his ‘holier than thou’ attitude will override any ambiguity of information between himself and a minor that has led to the current state of affairs. At the end of the day an ‘adult’ is an adult and must take full responsibility for their actions and their behaviour. A minor is a minor and must also take full responsibility for their actions and their behaviour. However there can be no excuses for a person of responsibility to fail to recognise that the relationship between a child and an adult has clear demarcation lines that cannot be crossed under any circumstances. It remains to be seen what evidence, if any materialises.
Mr Linton, whatever happened top Innocent until proven Guilty. U mean u cud not wait for the man to get his day in court? Sir, u must have patience. This is what u said in the article as follows,
the member of our team has the right to a defense as much as the alleged victim has a right to have the matter justly prosecuted without fear or favor; affection or ill-will.”
I suspect u just perhaps may lose the seat for not standing by your Candidate thru thick and thin. See The Pm has not called on Ian to resign from parliament from the Pointe Michel Constituency, so why wud u go down that road on Mr Francis>?
Patience Sir, Tread slowly Sir, for the Vultures are hovering, just look at the haters comments , let the wheels of Justice roll slowly and in time let the chips fall, but let Mr francis be please,,,
Take a page from our Pm, see how he is treading slowly and softly on Ian, but here u are going with too much speed to slaughter, decimate and cut the ties with Mr…
Peter sir, it does not matter whether Mr. Linton make a statement on behalf of the party or the accused makes a statement in his defense. The fact is we have a situation that cannot be swept under the carpet. It is NOT a political matter but rather a criminal one. I believe a lot of patience was exercised by the party but to this day we have heard nothing from the accused. People are just blah blahing and that my friend can be detrimental to all.
I love the accused and believe that with time he will rise based on how things roll but we the Dominican people need to hear from him so all these rumors as to who did what, when or how can be put to rest. Let him come and tell us what transpired between he and the party. Let us take the emotion and egos out of the equation. Lastly, please say a prayer for the children of Dominica, the current victim (s) and the family of the accused. STOP making this a political issue because it is not.
Always assertive!
Thank you Pedro for sharing this here; I have been kind of baffled concerning Mr. Joshua Francis and this Saga of adult/minor situation –even more so that Mr. Francis is on DNO speaking for the interest of women and children–I really could not and still cannot understand this!
Mr. Francis is human, and we now cannot put anything pass human beings; but I am thinking that Lennox did not have to be so quick in deciding throwing him out This seems like something he wanted to do all along.
One of his supporters are saying that he may not have known about Joshua when sent that message of condemnation against the abuse of adults with minors–but now I am thinking that is part of the reason why he wrote that message–maybe I am wrong.
Joshua Francis is the only voice, of the UWP, I would listen to, from the first time I read from him; I was glad to know that my home village belong in his constituency–even if I am laborite, I would vote for him, and I am glad that my people did so.
I am sure that many of Lennox’s followers will agree with me. If I was Mr. Francis, guilty or not, I would not remain with the Team, since its leader has volunteerily condemned him.
The relationship will never be the same, whatever the path; Lennox Linton is destroying his own foundation of UWP –it there was ever any of that sort–it is too bad that he does not know it.
Stop the blaming
“And we have a collective responsibility in DOMINICA to protect the human dignity of women and children”!!?? What does that mean?
Well said mr francis! God will make your enemies your foot stool. Stay focused Josh!
Good job Joshua I didn’t hear the women on the governments side address us today or. The men where are they I love me Joshua very positive man stand strong there are more pedophile out there than they know about
Hope is not Lost! How refreshing to hear that from you sir! To every story there are three sides: Accuser’s side, the accused side, and the true side. I do not know which side is true. Let’s hope the true side wins this time
If you are on the side of truth, then please take strength from these biblical truthss:
1. The meaning of Joshua is “Jehovah is salvation”.
2. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. 12Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.- Matthew 5:11-12
3. When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee -JN. 8:10
The Evangelist does not condone wrong. But in the event the accusation is false, let’s all keep our heads up and be sure we are on the side of truth
Excellent excerpt Hon Jousha Francis!!!
I’ve always been impressed with you from day one of your inception onto the political arena. UWP and Dominica needs you and don’t let Labour Party distractors (e.g. PM, Ministers, Senetors and supporters alike) drive you away from UWP. Understand the Opposition Party has to preserve the image of UWP, as a credible force to oust from ruling position this inept government. Therefore, please don’t throw away “poor people’s” vote by crossing party colours because you’d be throwing away your dignity.
We all stand firm behind you in this fight to prove your innocence – until proven otherwise.
This appears to be a total sham and mockery considering the news that is now circulating in Dominica at the moment.
not guilty
Well said. I’ve always known you to be a decent and respectful individual. Hang in there. This too shall pass.
Aylas. I cannot help but admire his bravado.
Seems there was alot of deleting and adding in this press release. He started a sentence and didn’t even finish it. Left it hanging in the air.
Let’s not put the rusty halo on the guy’s head ok. You cannot crucify and vilify a person over one mistake. Furthermore, we don’t even know the full or real story.
This is the making of a cross-over. One more for Labour and one less for UWP.
But wait! Either I’m not up to date or I’m not informed because I don’t understand why Mr. Francis can’t speak about women or children , I’ve not seen or heard anything about him yet. Someone care to tell me because I thought what he said was positive.
Joshua
Do us all a favour and stay silent. At this stage you are better off to keep a low profile.
Abeh allu wiiicckkkeeeddd.
Where your purple?
I must be in a alternative universe
Wow! Only in Dominican
What did the scripture reads “if any of you find fault in the woman cast the first stone” What was the response to that ? GO LOOK IN YOU ALL BIBLE AND SEE THAT NO ONE IS PERFECT.
Mr. Francis Thanks for this message. Well said. If these words were deeds, then also they would have well done. God Be with you and all children of the world.
Where I be there nuh!!
hahahhahahahahahaha…..bonjai……yessa. thanks for the laugh. all behind my head hurting me
In ur conference room apparently.
meself was trying to wonder – eh beh weh
From My Conference Room,
That the first thing I said when I read it. The audacity of some people eh,like everything is normal, I would give him one toss up.
Thank you sir. God bless you!
u must be just like him
Oh Oh…he’s gonna get roasted on here for his “Hope Is Not Lost” speech lol. He should know by now that Dominicans are not interested in any “positive” messages from him Re Women & Children. All they want to hear right now is his resignation pending the outcome of the charges brought against him.
Know too that you and yours can say goodbye to the Roseau South seat. Its lost and gone, going and gone! Sleep on that. Yet another consideration. Innocent until proven guilty. Does that mean anything to you. We live in an ordered society where rules and regulations are meant for all and sundry. Yourself included. He/she who is without sin cast the first stone.
ou that TT, here you are again, abuse comes in many shapes and forms, you dumdum go and find work to do, you Judas. Josh, God will not allow them to triumph over you, he will surely see you through, and will suely make a way for you, to the judas, judge and juries on facebook their day will come
his not gonna get roasted. and only foolish Dominicans such as yourself would not take the positive words that come out his mouth and put it to good use.so what his name might be in a roro.he is still the pal rep and it is his duty to do is job in addressing issues such as these.so I say piss off to you and well done Joshua Francis.
Well said Joshua all hope is not lost, when one door close another will open. When situation for change are address change must come.
Thank you Mr Francis , GOD IS IN CONTROL
@Rose You should just tell the man to stay out of the media…You seem to be his friend..Go and give him good counsel…SHAMEFUL!!!