Belize’s Commonwealth Youth Parliament Representatives Debate Remote Work Bill

Kalen Middleton

The Eleventh Commonwealth Youth Parliament is underway in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. As we reported on Monday night, Belize has representation at the event. Young Leaders Alliance of Belize (YLAB) members, Kalen Middleton and Daril Avila today made their contributions to the debate on a Remote Work Bill 2022. It is a fictional piece of legislation being proposed for a fictional country. But, the issues arising from the debate are common among the participating countries. Here is a brief look at the remarks made by Middleton and Avila earlier today.

Kalen Middleton, Commonwealth Youth Parliamentarian

“According to the International Energy Agency, the world wide CO2 emission statistics for 2019 reached a record high of thirty-six point seven billion metric tons. I did my little fact finding and found out that mature elephants can weigh up to a ton. So basically, we have thirty six point seven billion metric tons of mature elephants hovering above us and among us, trapping the sun’s heat in our atmosphere. Then we wonder why rivers around the world are breaking their banks, why food supply disruptions have increased, why our coral reef systems are becoming bleached. We breathe in these elephants daily and wonder why so many of us are sick. These dangerously high carbon dioxide levels are degenerating respiratory systems and then we wonder why the world had a high mortality rate during the COVID-19 pandemic. However this does not have to be out fate. In 2020 the COVID-19 pandemic caused global C02 emissions to plummet five percent to thirty-four point eight-one billion metric tons. This is because we were forced to confine to our homes and work remotely.”

Daril Avila

Daril Avila, Commonwealth Youth Parliamentarian

“Firstly and very importantly madam speaker, polling shows that one of the challenges faced by the population regarding working from home is that internet penetration is low on smaller islands and where internet connectivity exists the service is often unstable. Additionally, all five islands experience frequent disruption in power supply. Given these circumstances, it is a recipe for economic disaster for our labor force to be able to work remotely and on a shortened work week. Wouldn’t it be more practical and feasible for the government to address these problems firstly before seeking to bring a law into effect where unreliable infrastructure exist? In my view Madam Speaker that would be like putting the proverbial cart before the horse instead of the other way around.”