I must admit that Fortis’s CEO Stanley Marshall’s diatribe on Wednesday night’s news was not unexpected. I warned readers a few weeks ago that BEL’s fight for a rate increase was just beginning; that the initial PUC denial was going to be resisted, because Fortis is a multi-million dollar company and it would not fold so easily, but the brazen attitude that Mr. Marshall exhibited at BEL’s annual general meeting speaks volumes.
I discussed that statement with other Belizeans who watched the news that night, and the unanimous opinion is that the position taken by Mr. Marshall qualifies as extortion! Extortion is defined as the use of threats to obtain money or other valuables, and Mr. Marshall made his position clear – give us our rate increase or we will begin rolling blackouts in a few weeks! This, after an admission that BEL made $29.5 million in profit in 2007, after which Mr. Marshall stated that Belizean customers owe BEL millions of dollars because of the ridiculous “rate stabilization account.”
This whole scenario makes me angry because I feel that Mr. Marshall would never try to fly this albatross to Canadian citizens; yes it sounds more and more like “white supremacy.” How can a company make almost $30 million in profit and still cry about money owed, when his company has admitted that BEL is the most profitable operation that Fortis runs, unless the company brain trust figures that BEL customers are too stupid to see through this bullshit and government will come around with the offer of a few dollars in significant places!
“Give us what we demand or we’ll use our monopoly position to wreck what’s left of your economy!” If that doesn’t qualify as extortion, nothing does. It looks as though the legacy of the 1998-2008 PUP government will haunt us for a while.
What these guys refuse to admit is that competition is what businesses fear the most. Utilities are given monopolies: in other words, they don’t have to be concerned about any rivals, because the logistics of say, electricity or water pretty much require that kind of arrangement. Five sets of poles or pipes make no sense, therefore the lucky company becomes the sole supplier. But, in return for not having to deal with competition, they have to submit their operations to regulation from government so that the customers get a fair shake. It seems that the last ten years of the PUP government have spoiled Fortis. They seem to think that the role of the PUC is to rubber stamp whatever demands they make!
Sorry to wake you up, Mr. Marshall but things have changed, and all that your blustering and threatening has accomplished is to get a majority of Belizeans really pissed! Now I know that this suggestion is probably unrealistic, but I would like nothing better than to put Mr. Marshall on a plane back to Canada, and to have government nationalize the company! Essential public services such as electricity and water have no business being privatized in a small country such as ours to begin with. Kudos for John Avery to point out that if Fortis tries to make good on its threat, it will be the one losing revenue!
As of today, Tuesday, May 27th, BEL has advised the news media that the power outages over the weekend were due to grid problems, not corporate decisions. That may well be so, but given the current state of affairs, the Belizean people and BEL are not friends. When a company makes almost $30 million and then claims that is has a problem with “cash flow,” something’s wrong. Didn’t top management keep in touch with economic forecasts and trends, all of which had been predicting a huge spike in the price of crude oil from back in 2007? Wouldn’t it have been prudent to hold some of those profits for circumstances such as the present one? Maybe the shareholders of BEL need to take a second look at management!
One of the things that got me pissed off to the nth degree was watching Belizean shareholders in BEL sitting there silently as CEO Marshall threatened and thrashed their country. No wonder we’re in trouble! Much of our fish have been depleted, but Belizean crabs are alive and well!
Chief Justice Abdulai Conteh ruled in favor of KREM in its legal battle with a company called Sagis Investments. All well and good, but as anyone who understands where Market Square is coming from, this war is far from over. Their financial resources are limitless, and even if their case is weak, they can put a hurting on their adversaries with their willingness to spend and spend.
Crime continues. There has been no massive retaliation for the grenade attack so far, but unless a fundamental change in the goals of our society is made there is no real hope of progress. As the cost of living skyrockets, desperation will skyrocket as well, and desperate people do desperate things! There are limits here. At some point people will simply not be able to cope. This is already happening to more and more people. It’s not only luxuries that are beyond reach: it’s necessities too. People are fast approaching a crisis situation; does my family eat or do I see the doctor and buy medicine, do the lights stay on or do the kids go to school? Human selfishness is about to create one of the greatest crises in human history. Buckle up for the crash – it’s coming soon!