This columnist wasn’t happy when he read the response of the head of the Fisheries Department, Ms. Wade, to a question put to her by Ms. Janelle Chanona. In a story titled Slaughtered sharks are gory sight, but Fisheries says it’s not illegal (Amandala # 2314 (Wed. Mar. 4), the journalist, Ms. Janelle Chanona, asked the Fisheries Administrator, Ms. Beverly Wade, to comment on fishermen taking nurse sharks near to Caye Caulker. Ms. Wade said that fishermen slaughtering sharks may be unsightly to tour guides…but to the fishermen, this is a good catch.
Ms. Wade’s talk sounds soulful, you know, identifying with the common fishermen…but that nice talk is paving the road to hell for the fishermen and the fishing industry. Hey, nurse sharks are not the most prolific fish in the seas! Ms. Wade did say that the Fisheries Advisory Board would be meeting later in the month to see if legislation needs to be put in place to protect the sharks. Nice. The way this department works, the fish stock will be saved…WHEN IT IS TOO LATE.
When will the scourge of the seas, the totally uneconomic, wasteful, destructive shrimp boats be removed from our waters? When it is too late! When will gill nets be outlawed in Belize? When it is too late!
It may be unfair, we don’t have all the facts, but it must be noted that we lost the grouper under the watch of Ms. Wade and Mr. Myvett at the Fisheries Department. The fishermen of Belize aren’t smiling about that!
We sent our talented people at our Fisheries Department to train abroad, to get education. How much of their technology have they passed on to our fisher folk? When was the last time you heard about special training workshops for fisher folk? When was the last time a fishing expert was brought to Belize to work with fisher folk? When was the last time fisher folk were sent abroad to improve their technology? When was the last time we re-stocked the reef with young conchs?
How much do our fisher folk know about what is going on at the cobia farm near Robinson Point? Did our Fisheries Department collaborate with the co-operatives to investigate the feasibility of acquiring the shrimp farm at Ladyville for the raising of catfish, tilapia, and shrimp? Are there any discussions going on about cage farming mutton snapper…or are we waiting for a foreigner to come along and get the ball rolling?
Please, I understand the fishermen very well. I guess if I were on that Sarteneja boat I’d probably slaughter as many nurse sharks as I could too. No, we can’t expect fishermen to sneeze at desperately needed dollars, even if they know the terrible consequences awaiting them down the road.
Our fish catch is getting smaller and smaller. The tour guides have every reason to complain, because they have seen gill nets severely deplete the surface swimmers. When the bonefish and the jack family are gone, that is the end of the fly fish industry.
Fisher folk don’t need nice talk from the Fisheries Department. Fisher folk need Ms. Wade and Mr. Myvett to buck the shrimp boat lobby, and steer gill netters and subsistence fisher folk into cage fishing, and deep sea fishing. We are rooting for you guys to do well. Yap, we’ll do cartwheels when we hear something really exciting coming from your department.
Did Mayor Simeon cop the football vote?
According to the VIP Chairman, Mr. Paul Morgan, the UDPees outspent them and the PUP big time in BMP, so the football vote might not have mattered. Still, it is worth pointing out that Mayor Simeon was the only voice for dignity on football matters in Belmopan in 2009. (I read it in the Amandala)
It was a grievous sin when the FFB ripped football from Belmopan’s Mr. Dave Griffith. Everyone in BMP/Cayo South knows that from the old Burgos Plumbers days, back in the eighties, Mr. Griffith’s name has been synonymous with football. Yes, after he retired from the sport, Dave, for love, dedicated his life to the football family here. The gangsters at FFB ripped the football from Dave because he wouldn’t bow down to their bogus business.
When Dave was forced into retirement, another honest stalwart, Mr. Luis Pena, picked up the ball so we could continue having games untainted by demagoguery in BMP/Cayo South. When the grossly dishonest FFB couldn’t have their way with Luis, they rigged an election to oust him. Everyone knows the story. The proud footballers in BMP/Cayo South shot the FFB down, 8 votes to nil. Then the president of the FFB, who is trained to take care of cattle, went to a new low so that he and his men could continue feeding off the money FIFA sent to help the kids improve their game. We know that story well too.
Mr. Morgan, who has a son with star potential, has dedicated his life to the youth in Belmopan. He should have empathized with the legitimate football family in Belmopan/Cayo South, and stomp down the FFB. Maybe he feels that football should be kept out of politics. True, sports does not belong in traditional red and blue and yellow and green business. But when something as ugly as dishonesty up top tears apart the children’s games, politicians have to step up. Yap, Mr. Morgan will buck Prime Ministers, but he will not buck Dr. Bertie and the FFB.
Instead of staying mum, Mrs. Rosalie Gardiner Casey, the PUP mayoral candidate, should have put her best foot forward for the BMP football family. Rosalie should know football. Her eldest son is former All Belize midfielder, Denmark Casey, and two of her brothers, David and Stanley, played for Guatemala’s national team. Her three young grandsons are talented, passionate footballers. Hasn’t anyone told her that as long as the leeches at the FFB are left to suck the children’s milk, her grandkids are dreaming empty dreams?
Much respect and appreciation are due Mayor Simeon Lopez for his tremendous stand for the genuine football family out here. May he send his bulldozer and wipe this disgrace from our district. Yap, raze the FFB buildings to the ground, grind them to stones and powder, and use the rubble to fill the bad streets that the people are complaining about in Piccini.
P.S. You know that the FFB bloodsuckers have already booked their plane tickets and hotels for South Africa 2010. They and their spouses and their select friends and children will be jetting across the ocean. They will pose for pictures with Mr. Nelson Mandela, for their archives. Mr. Mandela won’t know that they paid for the tickets and the hotel rooms out of money that was meant for the children. Someone will ask them… Braa, what’s your rankings? They won’t bat an eye. You won’t find any shame in people who brazenly stole the 2007 football elections.
New Sports Minister
Who’ll go to bat for former Minister Cardona now that he has been stripped of the sports portfolio? Nobody! What an undistinguished one-year as Minister of Sports, Braa. Maybe the environment was bad, not conducive to stellar work. The bottom line is that sports in Belize remained in the doldrums while he was king.
I hope that H. Penner wasn’t made Lord Brundage (hope I spelled that gentleman’s name correctly) so he can elevate paddling dories downstream to “sport” status in Belize. (Hey, a lot of things right with good clean fun.)
Seriously, though, a fresh face at the head of sports might be a good thing. The crooks, and the dead heads among the sheep must find their chute…herded away from the children’s paddock.
Then again, Minister Cardona was a fresh face, and his new blood didn’t do one damn thing for sports. Notably, he was afraid to tackle Dr. B at the FFB. Why? If he had bothered to ask, we would have told him that he had nothing to fear but fear itself.
Some years ago a gentleman named Mr. Miller wrote naively, in a letter to the editor of the Reporter, that the “real” reason why some football people were after Dr. Bertie was his ethnicity. (Dr. Bertie is supposed to be a Garifuna.) It was such a joke! Everyone with an eye to see knows that Dr. Bertie’s “real” ethnicity…is Mammon for self. Ha, last year the said Mr. Miller was sending notes to the Amandala explaining why Dr. Bertie had to go.
H. Penner will get his one hundred days to set his teeth. Hope springs eternal in sports aficionados. He will get a chance to look good.