Ex-minister takes heat over video lecture
Originally printed at
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/Ex-minister_takes_heat_over_video_lecture-164161976.htmlBy Gyasi Gonzales gyasi.gonzales@trinidadexpress.com
July 28, 2012
FORMER health minister Therese Baptiste-Cornelis, now the country's ambassador to the United Nations in Switzerland, has been slammed on social media networking site Facebook and BlackBerry Messenger, following a lecture on cultural diplomacy she presented in Geneva in June.
The video, which shows Baptiste-Cornelis's speech, was uploaded to YouTube on June 28 and began spreading to Facebook over the past two days.
The Sunday Express viewed the video presentation, and although Baptiste-Cornelis addresses the subject of cultural diplomacy, throughout her 30-minute presentation, she also spoke at length about her stint as health minister, how she got the job as health minister and about how she met her husband on the Internet as well.
About her one-year stint as minister of health, she said, "I caused chaos. I told doctors they were making mistakes. They hated the fact that I pointed out they were making mistakes. They pleaded for me to get out, so I agreed with them in that plea, so I gave them even more stress so that they would plea louder, and then I was replaced by the MP (Dr Fuad Khan) who I was the campaign manager for in the elections. He's a doctor so he took over."
She did not receive many "likes" on Facebook for her presentation, which was described as rambling and embarrassing.
Some of the comments included:
"Have you ever seen a diplomat carry themselves with such lack of professionalism, diplomacy is all about how you appear to the outside world, how you represent your country. I am upset because the way she behaved does not represent the Trinidad and Tobago I know, the Trinidad and Tobago I'm working to help build. This is a disgrace, and I'm happy that people can recognise that. Accountability. That's the order of the day."
Another comment: "This is what happens when people just get appointed to diplomatic positions simply as a means of getting rid of them from active politics...."
Other viewers were a bit more understanding.
One wrote, "Forget being an ambassador and all that... As an educated female, she was disappointing to listen to. She clearly forgot what it takes to deliver a successful speech! She had the structure but lacked in delivery.... She had too much of her personal baggage in there.
The Sunday Express yesterday attempted to get a comment about the video, which has almost 3,000 views so far, but Foreign Affairs Minister Dr Suruj Rambachan could not be immediately reached last night.