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Share LocalNews ‘Pierro got it right’- Ambassador Henderson by: – July 9, 2012 Dominica’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Vince HendersonA former prime minister who died while in office has received accolades from one of his colleagues who is Dominica’s ambassador to the United Nations.Ambassador Vince Henderson, a guest on the Next Level radio program at the weekend, praised former prime minister Pierre Charles for his “heroism” with which he led the country. “Pierro” as he was affectionately called, came into office at a very difficult stage in the country’s history, when it’s sitting prime minister, Roosevelt Douglas died on October 1, 2000 and Mr. Charles, deputy leader of the Dominica Labour Party as he then was, was sworn in to replace him.“I used to think at one point that the man had lost his mind because I remember when he made the statement that it doesn’t matter whether we win this thing or not [general elections], he has to do what is right during the austerity program and he pushed it through till his death…He was correct, I mean every day I look at this thing”.Former prime minister, Pierre Charles. Photo credit: findagrave.comHenderson highlighted the current financial crisis which has plagued countries in the Caribbean region that have had to “follow the same thing; they had to move with the VAT, they had to do the austerity programs, they had to make structural adjustments,” as well Greece, Spain and Italy within the Euro zone.“So we see that what was done ten years ago by the leadership of Pierre Charles was in fact the right thing to do. Today the treasury of Dominica, the government of Dominica is in its best fiscal health that it ever has been. Now even before we got into this program, and we’ve had quite a bit of breathing space, so even while some of our neighbors are going through this very difficult times especially in meeting their recurring expenditure, we’re able to do that and still meet our PSIP, so that has shown clearly that what Pierre Charles struggled to achieve back then was then was in fact the right way to go and today we can see the benefits of that”.He noted that Mr. Charles “sacrificed himself” by remaining in Dominica while his siblings moved on to overseas territories.“Pierre Charles … sacrificed his own future, he left teacher’s college to join the struggle, he abandoned every opportunity …his entire family had moved to the states; brothers in St. Thomas, in St. Croix, in the US, he stayed back because he decided that he had to fight that struggle and when Labour lost, he stayed building the party at his own sacrifice”.According to him, it is almost as if Mr. Charles was “driven by a passion that was almost irrational”.Meanwhile, the other guests on that radio program, Tourism & Legal Affairs Minister, Ian Douglas, who supported Henderson’s claim that Charles was correct in his decisions, reminisced on “defending” those austerity measures in parliament. “Some budgets man, I don’t know how we defended them. I mean it took us strength; an inner strength to walk into parliament and stand and speak but we all bought into it, we identified with it and I mean that is what leadership was about and we understood that that was something that we had to do for Dominica”.Mr. Charles served as the deputy leader of the Dominica Labour Party and parliamentary representative for the Grand Bay constituency for a number of years.When he died on January 6th, 2004, he had been in office for four years.His wife, Justina Charles is currently Minister of Culture, Sports and Youth Affairs, having contested the Grand Bay seat at the 2009 general elections.Dominica Vibes News
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