President of the United Workers Party (UWP), Isaac Baptiste, has responded to recent remarks by businessman Karl Nassief in which he called on the opposition in Dominica to make a public statement in support of mandatory vaccination.
In making his case recently, at a Dominica Business Forum (DBF Inc.) for mandatory vaccination in the country, which he claims Dominica’s laws permit, Nassief wanted to know why the country’s leaders, the opposition, the unions, churches and The Dominica Association of Industry & Commerce had not put forward a statement on mandatory vaccinations?
“Are we all being myopic?” the businessman asked?
But Baptiste who spoke during an interview on Q-95 Radio, made it clear that the country’s parliamentary opposition, UWP, is not in support of making vaccination mandatory and advised Nassief to “leave the UWP alone” and instead, take a position on the many issues that are affecting the development and good governance of Dominica.
“Mr. Nassief, let me ask you a question since you pose questions to the United Workers Party in particular, of all the many issues of government that is faced in this country – electoral reform, the issue about the missing hundreds of millions, that the evidence is out there; it is unaccounted for – why haven’t we not heard you make [a] statement about it?” Baptiste asked.
He continued, “If the vaccine is not made mandatory will you close your businesses because you want to protect your employees? Also, if it is not mandatory, will you decide that persons who are coming to your business to shop, if they are not vaccinated, will not be allowed to enter?”
Baptiste said he believes that the position of the unions announced by General Secretary of the Dominica Public Service Union (DPSU), Thomas Letang, is right.
“Let the scientists do their work; don’t make it mandatory,” he stated. “As we go forward, we will know where we are going, but it is not, at this point in time, necessary to make it mandatory because there are ways to avoid getting the virus and this is what we should be concentrating on.”
Furthermore, Baptiste who admitted that he is fully vaccinated, said the UWP has been educating the public speaking on the issue of Covid-19.
“We have been educating the public; we have had many radio programmes and flyers speaking about the vaccine,” he noted. “We do not believe at this point in time it should be mandatory. “
He reiterated his party’s position as previously announced by its political leader, Lennox Linton, to encourage those who want to take the vaccine to do so, but most importantly, he says, the focus right now should be to promote the “various things that have been recommended to be observed to avoid transmitting and getting the virus.”
With only 20,568 people in Dominica having so far received of the COVID-19 vaccine, public appeals by the government and ministry of health officials for more people to take the vaccine, have intensified.
However, Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit has consistently stated that he will not implement compulsory inoculation for COVID-19 and last month, he publicly gave the assurance that his government will not pass any law in parliament to make vaccination mandatory in Dominica.
However, the prime minister believes that everyone has an obligation to each other as “this is a public health emergency and we have to take the vaccine.”
Admin: wonder what I said about Karl that was so incendiary, or untrue which caused the censorship of my comments!
One can only respond accordingly based on what the authors or commentators wrote and said.
If he has the nerve to write comments; which the ordinary person cannot relate to; one should have the privilege to speak out and show their intolerance for such people especially when they have never experience what the poor of the country has suffered, especially at the hands of their forefathers!
Slave labor on their Estate, near Grand Bay and store in Roseau from way back in the 1920’s to even in the 1960’s of which most of that changed after the civil war of 1979!
ADMIN: Free people worked for Elias Nassief (slavery had already been abolished by that time) and its a stretch to call the events of May 29th 1979 a civil war. These are just the examples from this post.
Precise wording matters, these are not paltry differences.
Bare in mind, your statements are misleading particularly when taken literally by others.
For example, it is false and potentially defamatory to claim Elias Nassief (or any of the Nassiefs) ever owned slaves or used slave labour.
Please view our comment policy for further guidance: https://dominicanewsonline.com/news/policies/#comment-policy
Admin: They say I know everything; that is not my belief; so too, I am not a linguistic major!
I did not major in linguistics; nevertheless; I am very fluent in the English language, though not so much in English grammar; but I can stake my life on it when I say there was a civil war in Dominica in 1979.
Because the term Civil War is define as:
“A war between citizens of the same country.” no one can doubt the insurrection instigated by the now sitting president Charles Savarin was a civil war, since we were fighting against each other, in which at least one person died!
Note: American Civil War, English Civil War, Spanish Civil War.
Who caused the English Civil War?
English Civil War(s), 1642-1651. The English Civil War was largely caused by the actions of one man: the then king, Charles I. He believed in the ‘divine right of kings’, which stated that the kings of England were chosen by God.
ADMIN: That is your personal view but not the recorded fact. Provide one recognized Dominican historian who has referred to the incident as a civil war. Some accounts indicate that the country was on the verge of civil war but ,fortunately, never quite reached that point.
When one speaks of slave Wage or labor it is a term used to describe a situation where a person’s livelihood depends on wages or a salary, especially when the wages are low and person has few realistic chances of upward mobility.
That’s what took place on the Nassfif’s and other estates in Dominica!
The term is sometimes used to criticize exploitation of labour and social stratification, with the former seen primarily as unequal bargaining power between labour and capital particularly when workers are paid comparatively low wages, i.e.; in sweatshops; (in America), and the latter as a lack of workers’ self-management, fulfilling job choices and leisure in an economy.
The criticism of social stratification covers a wider range of employment choices bound by the pressures of a hierarchical society to perform otherwise unfulfilling work that deprives humans of their “species character” not only under threat of starvation or poverty.
The people working for Nassief had no…
ADMIN: “You are entitled to your own views, but you are not entitled to your own facts” James R. Schlesinger.
There is a difference between making the argument that they paid low wages or “slave wages” and that they used actual slaves to do their labour. The latter claim is false, in this case, and will be deleted. You asked why your comment was not approved. If you can be precise in what you claim and ,where possible, provide legitimate sources ,or at least avoid libelous hyperbole, then your comments are far more likely to be published.
Telemaque, why do you insist of making a complete and utter fool of yourself day in day out. I thought a successful business man, internet entrepreneur and author like yourself would have better things to do with his time. But again it proofs my point, you are just full of hot air…
In in the first place I am not an entrepreneur, I am way past that; I take no risks; when I organize, or set up business, it does not fail?
Before I get into it I make my assessments, and analyze what I am suppose to do to make a success out of it!
An entrepreneur a person who organizes and operates a business or businesses, taking on greater than normal financial risks in order to do so.
And as for the nonsense you talk about making myself a fool, if I was; for as long as I am alive; fools don’t live as long as I have!
Now hate and jealousy is a blinder; but I like it when I find people like you going on a tangent to criticize me I take pleasure in reading and laughing at you clowns!
Most of us peak in life whereas some of you struggle to get to a plateau; don’t mind me and my stupidity, the plateau shall forever evade you!
I am not going to argue; because as far as I see there is no convincing when the concept is missed construed; only that I’ll say there is no place in anything I wrote which suggest the people who worked on any Estate in the twenty’s and thirties and into 1964 were slaves in Dominica!
I’m not an idiot, therefore I do not wish to be treated as such; and surely I am sure I am schooled, not on Google or a smart phone!
January, 1814 slaves in Dominica were in revolt revolt against their slaver owners, and those who wheal the whip; many flee from the plantations and into the then very thick forest across the island.
On August 1, 1834, the Abolition of Slavery, passed by the British Parliament a year earlier, was put into effect in Dominica.
So, I asks after 1834, were there slavery in Dominica?
If these are facts which no so called historian in Dominica can deny, the arguments you present to make look stupid makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.
Breaking news – peddler of unhealthy food concerned about health of nation.
What about the hundreds of Dominicans employed by the Nassier’s and Astaphans.Views,IBO,%,RandyX will give them a job to pay their mortgage and utility bills.Luca there are 20,538 people who are FULLY vaccinated and 23,000 have taken one dose,even if a JACKA like you boycott KFC,KFC is not going to fail.A large number of people own land,business and homes because of the Nassief’s.Wicked and lying UWP.Evil losers……………………..
…and how much are they paid? Think carefully about your answer, because I’m 100% in the know.
Mr. So-and-so, if you’re NOT equipped with the issues of this Failed incompetent Labour Government, and your FAILED Prime Minister role. We advise you Go “The HELL” out of our Government and people. Too much RORO going on under your Failed leadership. The RED BOBOL CLINIC’ was instrumented to appease and buy loyalty through the RED CLINIC Offering of our States Funds and now has people rather engaged in a job where one can earn and build up self to gain a job to be independent and Not be Skerrit:s RED CLINIC’ TAIL.
We have an VISIONLESS INCOMPETENT LABOUR GOVERNMENT PRIME MINISTER. We need a Focussed MATURED, VISIONARY, TRUSTED COMMITTED PRIME MINISTER for our government, country and people.
Again we say that Skerrit and his Failed LABOUR GOVERNMENT is NOT and SKERRIT should NEVER been PRIME MINISTER. A Failure with high ratings Incompetence.
We WELCOME our Visionary, COMMITTED TRUSTED MATURED Hon.LINTON to be our DOMINICA’s PRIME MINISTER. We need decency & Respect in our…
VIEWS is a DON KEY living overseas,and posting BS.Before Skerrit,there was no Clear Harbour,no NEP,no Yes We Care and no 2,700 people above the age of 70 getting $300.Dominicans no longer use PIT TOILET.They no longer live in wooden houses.Dominicans no longer carry water from PUBLIC stand pipes.Out of a population of 72,000 Dominica has 37,000 registered vehicles.Dominicans no longer travel on trucks with WOODEN boxes,and they no longer PAY to attend secondary school.The CDPF is almost 600 strong,with more teachers,firemen and nurses employed.The majority of Dominican household has between 2 and 3 TV sets with cable ,Wi-Fi and fire stick attached.90% of Dominicans own a cellphone.Before there was no Belvue Chopin City,Hillsborough Gardens,Georgetown or LAPlaine housing.UWP placed a hospital USER fee of $5.00 on Dominicans and $50.00 a night admission.After a year it was changed to $20.00 USER fee.SKERRIT removed the USER fee,and he built $250,000 and $300,000 houses for people FREE.
VIEWS,Dominicans no longer live in wooden houses.They no longer carry water on their heads from PUBLIC stand pipes.Dominica,out of a population of 72,000,has 37,000 registered vehicles.They no longer pay to attend secondary school and,they no longer travel on trucks with wooden boxes.Dominicans don’t use lamp to light their houses,they use electricity.Majority of Dominicans has CABLE TV,2 and 3 television sets WI-FI attached with FIRE STICK.Dominicans no longer has to BLOW the conch shell at 3 o clock in the morning to go to Roseau from LA Plains.Before DLP there was no Clear Harbour,no NEP,no YES WE CARE,no body above the age of 70 getting $300 monthly,no Hillsborough Gardens.no Georgetown,no LaPlaine housing,
no Belvue Chopin city.UWP put a hospital USER fee of $5.00 for Dominicans to access the hospital and $50.00 a day if you were hospitalized.UWP later moved it from $5.00 to $20.00.DLP REMOVED the hospital user fee.Was it better under UWP?1lb of Dolpin is $5.00.In the USA its $8
Please don’t speak the truth. You will upset the blue wagon
@Lin clown, what about the demise of the agricultural sector, the folding of some 35 local businesses, the mendicant and dependency culture which has taken over the country. Lots of persons now believe that it’s the government that has to provide for them rather than the self reliance which fostered entrepreneurs and the can-do culture, less flights into the country. We as a country have retrogressed under your Labor party in the past 20 years.
I’d be far more in favour of banning KFC than mandating vaccines.
Yes, let him put up a sign on all his businesses stating, only vaccinated people are allow. Advice him to do that.
Oh Baptiste, get a life and stop hashing that same crap over and over. What tangible evidence do you have that millions and millions of dollars have gone missing? All this is just hearsay and sounds like a broken record for years. Stop repeating what you hear others say and find something better to say and do with your life. You sound like a fish out of water.
@ds, your memory can’t be that shallow. When Linton brought up the issue of the missing money in the budget it was Skerritt who agreed that there was an error and he would seek to have the numbers corrected and the missing money accounted for. We are still awaiting that report. In the meantime more money has been proven to be missing but Skerritt hasn’t reported to the leader of the opposition nor the citizens who are interested in good governance.
The onus is on Mr. Skerrit to open the books. If he operated above board, why is he so stubbornly unwilling to open up the CBI program to a thorough forensic audit?
The Skerrit-DLP led dictatorship wallows in corruption like a pig wallows in mud. Let’s not forget the garbage bins and fertilizer scandals and the ruling regime’s proclivity for cozying up to international, billionaire crooks and fugitives.
The onus is on Baptiste to prove that millions and millions of dollars went missing and how did they go missing and show how they went missing. All Baptiste has been doing for years has been braying like a donkey and cannot come up with any concrete answer. Baptiste is just another fox who could not pick the grapes and said the grapes are sour. He cannot get a hold of that CBI money and it is frustrating him to death.
You are clutching for straws. Whenever you guys run out of excuses that what all you do. The more you talk the more credibility you loose!!! CORRUPTION RAINS DA
Mr. So this ds have respect and thoughtfulness for we the readers of DNO. If you’re unable to grasp the bigger picture then shut your office and examine what is going on in Our suffering GOVERNMENT and Dominica under this FAILED FAKE Skerrit and his Failed LABOUR GOVERNMENT. Skerrit it’s obviously known that you’re NOT Prime Minister material. Rather than work with intellectuals around you, you have failed to raise the profile of our Government, our Struggling FAMILIES and our poverty Stricken Dominica. Again, you’re Just NOT this PRIME MINISTER to be sitted at our PM Office?
You have nothing of substance to raise up the profile and life of our Struggling Families because you’re just NOT Focused on Dominica’s Social Development. where are you taking Our Dominca to, “RED BOBOL CLINIC’?. Development is a Socio-Economic Development Concept and Framework in the interest of our people, children and Families all over Dominica. It is NOT a SKERRIT’s Pappyshow Loyalty.
We need YOU…
Come on Mr. Baptiste.. Don’t deflect. The existential threat to our economy right now is Covid19 and our ability or otherwise to control it. At the current levels of vaccine uptake we just will not have the community immunity to effectively deal with it. The scientists “doing their work” have consistently told us that the way out of the pandemic is through vaccination. So there are no options here. THAT is what you are being asked to address as a party aspiring to lead. Succumb to the virus or get vaccinated.. that is the choice. Succumbing to the virus stresses the entire health system and endangers ALL of us. So with consistently low vaccine uptake..what is your solution?
Stop blaming all the country’s woes, especially the economic ones, on covid as the clueless , ruling regime did with Hurricane Maria.
Pre-covid the country was saddled with a myriad of grave problems – low wages, high inflation, mounting unemployment, widespread corruption, low productivity, a dysfunctional public service, money laundering, over bloated government, electoral deform, entrenched poverty, serious indebtedness and the list is infinite.
The buck stops with Mr. Skerrit and his seventeen asinine cheerleaders. Lack of visionary leadership has the country mired in dark, murky waters. Dominica is like a rudderless ship. It’s shipwrecked on a rocky reef and being pilfered by pirates of the ruling cabal and battered by gargantuan swells of corruption.
@Calibishie Warrior, this is a piece well-spoken. I just do not see the reason why Dominicans cannot see the importance of getting vaccinated, and worse is that the authorities are continually discouraging them–good heavens!
https://www.google.com/amp/s/nypost.com/2021/08/13/wild-rainforest-villa-in-the-caribbean-can-be-yours-for-1-49m/amp/
DNO I have two questions to Karl Nassief:
1. Mr. Karl Nassief are you related to Gregor Nassief?
2. Karl Nassief do you have shares or any interest in Jungle Bay?
I am asking because I don’t believe in allegations and therefore I simply want to know
Of course they are related.
Nassief, please be aware of the issues that is needed on a daily basis. Nassief, there are many issues affecting our people, families and Country. Where have you been to at least be opened to poverty and Unemployment state of Dominica and the on going Suffering People who are Unemployed, are Struggling FAMILIES and children including those who are infirmed and elderly etc.
Nassief, again you’re advised to talk with our highly professionals and hard working Civil Servants etc on the poverty, and the on going FAILED Socio-Economic Development Concept to raise the profile of our People, Families, Children etc. Where have you been all these years and doing what? We need upliftment, jobs, training, development and employment for our people and those students ending Colleges and Universities who will need to be prepared for decent jobs in Dominica’ that they are engaged in meaningful development and Jobs and NOT asked our poor People to Que Up at this ongoing Questionable”RED CLINIC…
Nassief’s inherited wealth is sustained by importing cheap, unhealthy, processed, additive- and sugar-rich foods that do nothing to improve the health of the nation. If anyone is myopic, it is him.
If I was close to you I’d have given you a fist bump for your concise but very analytical comment. That is a statement which is loaded with facts and cannot be disputed.
I myself have personally made it a point of duty to boycott his businesses. This man has no respect for Dominicans and clearly does not understand the situation. Getting vaccinated doesnt mean that you cannot get the virus. It doesnt mean that you cannot give the virus. It only means that YOU personally, will have a better chance of staying alive. Now we have new strains which the vaccines cannot fight against. IT has been said that it is because of the vaccines, the new strains have mutated and are vaccine resistant. So now, Karl the smartest man in the land, wants all of us to get vaccinated with what effect? ok, maybe less of us will die. But as things are, with or without the vaccine, we most likely will all get covid at some point in time or another, with or without a vaccine. Karl is an absolute …. and is part of this whole scheme to get people to be part of this experiment. Its like vaxed people who dont want unvaxed people around them. If you vaxed what you scared for?
“with or without the vaccine, we most likely will all get covid at some point in time or another, with or without a vaccine”.
That may be true, but if we all get it in a short space of time that will be the true experiment: How many sick people can Dominica provide medical care for before the hospital cupboards go bare?
“Getting vaccinated doesnt mean that you cannot get the virus”… No one said that… “It doesnt mean that you cannot give the virus” No one said that..it reduces transmission rate by 2/3. . . “Now we have new strains which the vaccines cannot fight against. IT has been said that it is because of the vaccines, the new strains have mutated and are vaccine resistant.” Completely the opposite…the virus spreads more rapidly among the unvaxed which gives rise to variants… “If you vaxed what you scared for?” If the unvaxed overwhelm the health service (like in Grenada).. the rest of us will not be able to use it. Not scary enough?
Hello Nassief come on. Hope you read what was said by Mr. Baptise
My 2cents, it’s imperative that the people in charge in the various health departments get their act together now! I have absolutely no background in health, but, we all know how contiguous and deadly the Delta Variant is. The virus will continue spreading as long as family members have to care for each other at home, most cases the accommodations for the infected persons simple isn’t there.
Cases keep increasing through community spreading, this is of serious concerns. I will not be traveling to Dominica unless the virus is under control. The denying people, While you don’t want the jab I respect that, but it’s not okay for your to infect others.
It is not contagious or deadly. You are being sprayed with pathogens (just like everyone around the world) and taken in by the media propaganda. If you have a weak immune system, it is likely that you will get sick. If you take the shot, you will get sick and be gone in a few years. They pray on the ignorance of people. Ventilators kill the people. This is no more than a flu.
UWP should not even waste time with Karl or any of the Nassiefs. These people are only concerned about the millions they can make from Dominica and to hell with the country. As for me I have decided not to shop or buy cars from a Nassief or whatever Tony is part of or benefits from.
Mareks disease is a highly contagious viral disease in chickens. There is no cure and once infected the entire flock has to be isolated and destroyed to avoid the contamination from spreading to other flocks. It are the breeders and authorities, who decide their fate, not the birds themselves however. It can be controlled through vaccination, which is highly effective. Karl, we are dealing here not with fowls but human beings with all their foibles who can and do think for themselves, for better or worse. You are one of them. Please remember and respect that.
Mandatory Vaccination is crucial for everyone and needed at this time of the pandemic. Prevention is better than cure and every family has the responsibility to care and protect their children, elderly and infirmed. We need to look out for everyone especially the children, elderly and handicapped.
Let’s all be alert and and protect in our children and invalid and those in need of care and support. Lets all be aware and look out for our children, Families and People who are informed, homeless and in need of support and A roof to be safe and accommodated.
Baptiste, good morning 🌞. Thanks much for your well delivered Commentary to our people on the matter of immunization. Well said and well put. Keep up the good work. We hope that our people are well informed and knowledgeable of the import of the vaccination.
On the question of compulsory Vaccination of the protection of being vaccinated, I wish to strongly recommend and advised to please ignore the useless thoughts of this Prime MINISTER SKERRIT. He is out of tune and really appears not to be versed on this important Health Issue.
My dear people please focus and listen👂to our formidable Health Professionals and NOT Skerrit’s thoughts. Be advised and listen to our well designated Health Professionals. Please DO NOT be distracted with SKERRIT’s irresponsible thoughts. We have had enough of his irresponsible thoughts that makes absolutely NO SENSE. We strongly Advised that this PM Leaves all HEALTH Vaccinated matters to the MINISTER of HEALTH &Team of our well trained Nurses &…
Nassief is extremely vocal about this issue because it could affect his businesses negatively. On all the other issues in Dominica that do affect the island so negatively, he remains silent because it is in his interest to be silent. I said it a few days ago, he is quite satisfied with the status quo, with all the corruption, the nepotism, the wrongful arrest of opposition politicians and the non accounting of CBI funds. There must be a reason for him to keep stumm about those massive problems.
Everyone should stick together on this issue. Mr Nassief is not a doctor or scientist. I hope he will take full responsibility for everyone who he is pushing this vaccine on if anything goes wrong. This bullying to take an experimental medical procedure has to stop. He wants to create a two-tier society. Sooner or later there will be an apartheid system here if people continue a ‘them’ and ‘us’ attitude. Mr Nassief has made his millions and don’t care about poor Dominicans. So, if he wants to take the vaccine, then he should do so and leave others alone. Dominica is know as the nature island. So, promote health and wellness to the nation.
Another point. The people who are getting the vaccine are the ones suffering the most. Do not believe that it’s the other way around. You don’t have to believe me as in Mr Nassief’s own words ‘only time will tell!’. Both vaccinated and unvaccinated should respect each others decisions and stick together against this tyranny. Wishing…
Mr.Baptiste, you are so wrong in making a comparison between the country’s unemployment, missing CBI funds, electoral reform and others with the pandemic. Do you know the meaning of a pandemic? For your benefit, it means “a widespread outbreak of disease”. Are the current ills of society anything close to that definition.
You claim you have been educating the public.With what? Yes, masks, social distancing, good hygiene helps but you’re leaving out the best defense against this virus.
I wonder why you found it necessary to personally take the vaccine.Is it because you listened to the scientist and saw the benefits of taking the vaccine?
Common man, don’t protect yourself and feed the rest of us with the nonsense remedies.
I believe Karl Nassief was only looking out for the good of the people by advocating for the vaccine. This was his opinion. You don’t have to accept it.
Let’s see where playing games with the pandemic takes Dominicans.
Take the vaccine and live.
Pandemic or not, Covid or not, compulsory vaccination or not, it does not make the question of missing billions of our money from the government treasury go away. Maybe Covid is a convenient distraction for our PM. I hope not.
Have commented on Nassief’s statement already… Nassief put this sign outside of, and around the entrances to all your businesses.
“ONLY VACCINATED PEOPLE ARE ALLOWED IN””!!!
Karl Married has more money than common sense. If he were to lose his money, he would automatically become a nobody. What is his claim to fame? MONEY!