Labor Ministers

"My topic today is Public Speaking. In my own understanding. We must first isolate the word “public ” for us to understand what we are dealing with. The fact that you can stand in your living room and order your siblings or your maid around does it mean you are a public speaker. So public in this case would entail people other than your family. Could be a church. A school. A workplace. A hall. Anywhere. And people must be there. The number of people must be significant to justify for it to be called “public ” and so for purposes of our discussion, let’s say, any crowd from 20 of people with whom you are NOT related can constitute a public."

"The tricky part is speaking to a group of people who hold a different opinion to yourself. Consider going into a village who so much believes in marrying off young girls for money.And you as a new project officer for a local NGO has to go into the same to tell them that this is wrong and that it is more lucrative for the girls to remain in school."

"At the end of your venture, you will win some of the people and lose some. As you speak, pay attention to the crowd.There will.be others who will constantly nod their heads in agreement. I like to pick up those and focus my eyes on them, it makes things a bit easier. Basically….this is the essence of public speaking…. I will pause there for now."

"This is what I mean. So you are called upon to be poised. Confident. Resolue. Believe me when I say, this is easier said than done. You sweat from your back all the way down your spine. Your legs feel like they will fail you at times yet you must still deliver your pitch."

"And so when you stand in their presence to speak, about anything, it matters less the reason for gathering, it could be a funeral, a party, a wedding, a meeting etc., your intention is for you to get your audience not only hear what you have to say, but that ultimately they understand, buy into and agree with you."

"“You say you are bored; you have nothing to do; you cannot be interested in people just because they are people, but only try it! Do things without being interested, and perhaps the interest will grow.”"

"Yes, I moved out at night because I was at work during the day. I searched for another house and within an hour, I had a new home."

"Now if we are going to be cowards, then we are not going to implement anything. The generation of today, if it was the generation which was there to gain independence, by now, we could still have been under colonial rule because people are scared of the unknown. Now us as Ministry of Labour, we are not God; as minister, I won’t guess what is happening in Kafue, I am not a super human being. So that’s why relationships between employer and employee, the most important thing is communication, we should communicate to each other. So I am appealing to all the workers to know their rights and communicate to us, we even have a toll line now, we have told them they can call us on a toll line and tell us. If they are cowards, they should tell us that this is the employer and this is how we are working without necessarily them telling us their name, we have done all that."

"The generation of today, if it was the generation which was there to gain independence, by now, we could still have been under colonial rule because people are scared of the unknown."

"So those people have not reported to us, we don’t know the workers, we haven’t seen them. Anyway, for the mayor, yes he apologized and I think our Labour Commissioner will be getting the details from him but we haven’t heard anywhere else. That is also the only one we saw but what I am saying is workers have the right to report the employer if that employer is forcing them to do what is not in the labour laws. They have a right to report to our ministry or utilize the District Commissioners, they are there and they have been very active to help us on issues of labour."

"The problem in Zambia is that we don’t analyse and evaluate those aspiring for leadership. We only get excited when they tell us what we want to hear."

"If the current generation was the one that existed during the liberation struggle, the country would still be under colonial rule because today’s workers had too much fear of the unknown."

"My ministry had not received any complaints from workers working for Chinese businesses but would get details from Lusaka Mayor Miles Sampa on the Chinese companies that were forcing employees to stay on their premises in a bid to avoid them being exposed to the Coronavirus."

"We have labour laws, people must read and understand them and I tell them every day, there is no one who can fire you for saying the truth, let them fire you if you are lying."

"As a free market, the remuneration for a job is determined by the supply and demand of a particular skill, hence reflecting the market value which is more objective than an employer's judgement of certain inherent values of different jobs. On the face of it, the implementation of the concept of equal pay for work of equal value seems to be fraught with difficulties and complexities."

"Even dishwashing is a kind of work experience. Having a difficult work experience on your resume may impress employers, who may think you are self-motivated."

"In Hong Kong, market forces generally determine the rates of remuneration. While "equal pay for men and women for equal work" is now a generally accepted principle in the local community, the concept of "equal pay for work of equal value" is an entirely new one. To put this concept into operation, an employer must ensure that all workers are given equal remuneration not only for the same job, but also for jobs of a different nature yet having the same value. The determination of wage level shall be guided not only by the "invisible hand" of market forces but also the principle of equality and equity. This means that an employer has to objectively appraise different jobs and determine their relative values."

"Meanwhile, Hong Kong puts a lot of emphasis on innovation technology. It ranks very high on our policy agenda. In the last 23 months, we've invested $100 billion into innovation technology. We are doing our very best to put Hong Kong on the IT map, and in fact, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area development will strengthen Hong Kong's IT development so that the Greater Bay Area will be Wall Street plus Silicon Valley in the future. This is also what Hong Kong's long-term future is all about. But after all, we rely much on Facebook in our daily life because you are such an important medium of communication, bridging the digital divide and also contributing to our society, assisting the underprivileged and strengthening people-to-people connection."

"We will remain a staunch defender of press freedom and a welcoming, hospitable and dynamic city for law-abiding people from around the world."

"Hong Kong has always remained committed to ensuring press freedom, which is part and parcel of the city’s reputation as a vibrant international media hub and global business and financial centre. More than 80 daily newspapers and over 500 periodicals, both local and international, are published in Hong Kong."

"The Hong Kong government has a constitutional duty to uphold national sovereignty and protect national security."

"We managed to solve this by transferring the system from desktop to web-based which means one can access it everywhere on the internet."

"Every time we develop a new module to be used by government entities, we encounter issues which are seen at implementation"

"The people should make good use of the good produce they get, eat a healthy diet, and help them fight against tuberculosis in children."

"there is a need for the students to apply the knowledge they receive"

"It helps them (student) to get a job immediately because while they are learning on the job, they immediately know what they are learning, like a person who learns to sew and learns to do it. When they graduate, they quickly find a job or become self-employed."

"The (planned) visit (of Taliban to Oslo, Norway in January 2022 on human rights and humanitarian aid) was not a legitimation or recognition of the Taliban (government in Afghanistan). But we must talk to those who in practice govern the country today."

"We should promote policies on economic restructuring towards sustainable development, green economic growth and circular economy in order to mitigate the adverse impacts of climate change. Social policies to protect the vulnerable, including women, children and those impacted by climate change are also much needed."

"The world we live in today is witnessing many complex uncertainties,which represent a threat to peace, independence, cooperation and sustainable development of all nations. On the one hand, we rejoice to see the tremendous advances in science and technology that propelled mankind to new heights of civilization and knowledge and brought different political regimes, economies,societies, cultures and religions closer together to co-exist in harmony formutual development."

"The State of Vietnam dedicates different preferential policies to ethnic minorities to enable them to prosper and narrowthe development gap with other groups. As Vietnam is extensively integrating itself into the world, religious organizations in our country have been expanding relations with other religions and religious organizations all over the world."

"As one of the five countries most vulnerable to climate change, Vietnam highly appreciates and supports the international community’s efforts to tackle climate change."

"[Canada] is an imperfect country, but it is still a great country, just as John A. Macdonald was an imperfect man but was still a great leader."

"I know Justin. He doesn’t have a clue what he’s doing. This guy is an empty trust-fund millionaire who has the political depth of a finger bowl. He can’t read a briefing note longer than a cocktail napkin, O.K."

"At that one very public moment, of a very public declaration of one’s loyalty to one’s fellow citizens and country, one should do so openly, proudly and publicly, without one’s face hidden."

"Suzuki’s extreme comments reveal how offside he is with Canadians"

"Sometimes the government has to answer questions with ambiguous language."

"I don’t think it’s right to keep secrets from parents about challenges their kids are going through."

"We’re not climate deniers, we’re climate tax deniers."

"We cannot continue indefinitely to impair the social and economic — as well as the mental health and physiological health of the broader population — for potentially a year for an influenza that does not generally threaten life apart from the elderly and the immunocompromised."

"Nowhere in any of the principal human rights statutes of the world is there to be found a grounding for so-called same sex marriage"

"I became president of the pro-life group in my campus and helped to lead an ultimately successful initiative petition, which led to a referendum which overturned the first gay spousal law in North America."

"The fact is homosexuals aren’t banned from marrying under Canadian law. Marriage is open to everyone, as long as they’re a man and a woman. It doesn’t say you can’t marry if you’re a homosexual. The fact is that homosexuals have been married and do marry."

"I don't accept the Alberta bashing that is going on here."

"There has been no media coverage of D Suzuki's extreme anti-immigration views.What would happen if a prominent conservative said same thing?"

"Every time they say that what's happening in the country is... Stalin's fault. It's the moral of every speech: Stalin's guilty, it was Stalin, Stalin, Stalin, everyone against him. But Stalin died 35 years ago! 35 years! What does that have to do with today's troubles?"

"First, Stalin is disowned, now, little by little, it gets to prosecute socialism, the October Revolution, and in no time they will also want to prosecute Lenin and Marx."

"Without Stalin's politics, we would never have achieved anything, we would all have died."

"Iosif Vissarionovich was a really cautious man. Really cautious. A man who could see far."

"One former member of [the antiparty] group Molotov] became an ambassador. True, the country Outer Mongolia] may not be large, but it is an ambassadorship. I do not want to mention names, but you have some former Secretaries of State. I do not know where they are today, but they are not ambassadors. A second member of the group [Kaganovich] is now head of the state asbestos trust. Is that punishment, to head up a big monopoly? … It is better to confess to one's errors than to persist in them."

"Three reasons why young people don't have to worry about their future: education, politics and me."