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By Aabigayle McIntosh
Former United Progressive Party member Edmond Mansoor has broken his silence months after resigning from the party.
Mansoor along with St John’s City East Constituency Caretaker Sean Bird were welcomed into the fold of the ruling Antigua and Barbuda Labour Party.
During an address at the Party’s central executive meeting Friday night Mansoor shared reasons for his departure and why he joined the ABLP.
“ You have a situation where they were taking the one engine Sezna which is usually a four-seater down the runway and when it taxi down the plane can’t take off,” he said
“They brought back the one engine Sezna to the parking apron and the captian said no, you take over and the captain left. The person who took over, with all due respect, could not start the plane,” he continued.
Mansoor explained he is not in any way trying to be disrespectful, but was rather sharing his honest opinion.
As it relate to the ABLP he explained the party has a four stripe captain in the person of Prime Minister Gaston Browne.
Providing further details he pointed to the bail out of the Antigua and Barbuda Investment Bank (ABIB), the construction of the new cruise pier to accommodate Oasis Class Ships, and the opening of the University of the West Indies Five Islands Campus.
“That will transform Antigua and Barbuda for generations to come. I am a proud graduate of the UWI that was thw third stripe”.
He said thw final stretch was the opening of the Burton Nibbs International in Barbuda.
He said the Prime Minister is not flying a Senza but a jumbo jet.
The former Information Minister under the UPP thanked the ABLP for welcoming him.
He declared his commitment to being a team player emphasizing that he brings a high sense of personal discipline and to any organization that I am affiliated with politically and i plane to bring these same qualities to this organisation.
What a sell out, his reasoning make no sense.What captain with four stripes? Hope God have mercy on us.
Once again the true Antiguans and Barbudians citizens will be second class citizen in their own country. We need leaders who will care for the country and its people ,and not who can fill their personal bank books.
Mansoor, given historical, racial/ethnic background, should NEVER be granted a free pass into the ranks of the ABLP! This character, who can today call himself Antiguan and Barbudan due to the largesse of our FATHER OF THE NATION, the Right Homnorable Vere Cornwall VC BIRD who allowed himself to be talked into allowing a new wave of white-skinned Arab and Jewish refugees to settle in Antigua as a replacement for the disappearing hated and hateful pockets of white European colonists still around trying to squeeze the last ounce of cane juice from the island. (In my humble opinion, a serious lapse in judgement by our great Father of the Nation). So they came in their numbers, fleeing political and social strife in their countries of origin and seamlessly slithered their way into the now vacant “upper class” slot in the island’s social hierarchy. Sadly for most of the black population, still mentally enslaved though legally freed since 1834, the moves were not met with even a hint of opposition. After all, they came with smiling faces, had their suitcase boys undertaking to visit homes in person peddling their wares. How convenient, how accommodating, how nice! The black population meantime counted themselves lucky even blessed, to be employed by these new migrants. Messengers, cleaners, porters to the more lofty sales clerks positions, these people became revered while their racist tendencies were overlooked and at times even condoned.
From father to son. The Hon. Lester Bird, continued the policy of empowerment of these people, even to the fatal error and AGAINST THE STATED WISHES OF THE FATHER OF THE NATION, of a extending their privileges into government/parliamentary involvement in the shaping and building of this now independent country of Antigua and Barbuda, to the extent of becoming Ministers of Government and Ambassadors under a waste-of-time PLM/UPP experiment. It was during his tenure as a minister during the UPP missile that Mansoor made his most disrespectful, ungrateful and hurtful remarks about “dumping the legacy of the Birds into the dustbin of history”!!!!!!!!!!!! As a faithful national of my beloved Country I am not likely to ever forgive the Arab/Jewish for his disparaging statements.i keep hearing that he has apologized. But when, and to whom?
“If you cant beat ’em join ’em”
That’s all I can say as I watch all of these persons who previously espoused views and voiced beliefs and principles antithetical to GB’s philosophies sink into the quagmire. But if what you wish is to see YOUR bread get well buttered, then move on.
Nation building is not for the faint of heart. Nation building requires that we not only look at the short term goals of meeting payroll, or turning a profit, but we must ensure policies implemented are guaranteed to be sustainable and keep this nation island afloat for GENERATIONS to come. Unfortunately, those who keep putting themselves forward are really showing themselves to.be wolves in sheep clothing.
The Hippocratic Oath, should be adapted from medicine and be imprinted on the foreheads or in the palms of all who wish to assume leadership roles in THIS country. FIRST DO NO HARM! If you cannot ascribed to this sacred rule, Step aside and make way!
Why all the smart people leaving the UPP ?
The writer needs to go back to English class, the aircraft is spelled Cessna. Spelling mistakes are plentiful in this article how sad for so called writers. What a bunch of dummies.