I make it my business to read every bit of news in the local papers almost every week. I’ve been doing that since I was about ten or eleven years old. I have read about some highs in my time, and some lows. I say, what was reported on, on the local political scene this week, has taken us down to the pits…lower than we have ever been before.
The writer of the item that shocked me out of my socks clearly was ashamed (and well he/she should be), so he/she only mentioned the matter in passing. I understand perfectly. A man’s (or woman) got to say what is on his/her chest, lest it eat out his/her insides. We call it, writer’s pain! I feel for you, brother (sister) writer. I know you wanted to say more, a lot more…let it all hang out…but you stayed the anger. An angry pen sometimes writes what it later regrets. So.
If you see a brother falling by the way because his burden is too great, step up and lend a helping hand. Willingly. Because I am only an observer, I can dispassionately pick up where you left off, and pay measure for measure. I say, a low act from the gutter should be repaid in full.
The Belize Times’ writer, Mr./Miss CP Mathers, in last Sunday’s edition of that newspaper, edited by Brother Alberto Vellos, recorded the cruelty of the blow. In an article titled Would The Real Prime Minister Please Stand Up! Mathers informed the nation that…hic…hic: Mr. Esquivel is now being driven in former Prime Minister Said Musa’s vehicle, ISN’T THAT A SLAP IN THE FACE OF THE BELIZEAN PEOPLE? You are damned right, Mathers. It is an insult to the former PM, all of us. This UDP has not changed any. Hate…hate…hate.
Now Braa, what hath Honorable Said Musa done, what could Mr. Musa have done to deserve such a poison arrow? The answer of course is: NOTHING! No man deserves to be treated so unkindly.
Look, if they didn’t have the money (if they inherited empty coffers, or wanted to pretend like they inherited empty coffers (their same old games)), they could have had the pick of any of the remaining fleet. Surely the PUP hadn’t disposed of them all at the fire sale! Yap, Right Honorable Dr. Manuel Esquivel could have had the pick of the lot…being that he is red royalty.
If anyone deserved to have his ride handed over to Dr. Manuel, it was former Minister, Mr. Joe Coye. Forget the friendly face, the winning smile; underneath the surface, that’s a man of galloping ambition. Mr. Coye tried his hand at many Ministries, but all the while his eye was set on Dr. Esquivel’s Central Bank. Let it be recorded that Mr. Coye engineered the G-7, just so he could get into Mr. Manuel’s Bank. If you doubt me, ask yourself why he lost interest in the uprising when he got his toe in the door? Even a moron could figure out the answer to that.
Once inside the bank, former Minister Joe Coye, without a blush, deceitfully set about stealing the plans to the kettle they had cussed, the one called the VAT. He then re-tooled it, called that rose by his own name – GST – and collected a mega whopper bonanza of millions from the pockets of the poor Belizean people. Mr. Coye stole Mr. Manuel’s seat in Caribbean Shores in 1998, AND ripped off the VAT scheme. Why not his ride, eh?
Then there is the young Hot Shot, H. Mr. Mark Espat. He, too, rode the G-7 into the Dr. Manuel Esquivel Bank. And just when the government was about to do the right thing, fire some people to balance the budget, he foolishly got the nation’s best brains together, rearranged the debt, and averted…postponed the inevitable day at the guillotine. My. A lot of people could have been, should have received the pink slip already, to pay for the debt. Oh how the UDP party heads were licking their chops in anticipation of another major wipe out of public servants. Oh, how they suffered when the PUP pulled that Houdini. For foiling their bloodlust, H. Mr. Espat should have been the one to see his ride being paraded about town by the dreaded Dr. Manuel.
And what about Mr. Ralph Fonseca’s vehicle? The things the former Minister Fonseca said about the old Esquivel/Barrow system are mostly unfit for publication. For nearly ten years, until the G-7 putsch, Mr. Fonseca, showed the world how NOT TO run a national economy, as described in the UDP book of high finance. If the UDP believes their own lies, Mr. Fonseca squandered the little money the UDP had struggled and pinched and saved up…TWICE! Yes, in 1989 and 1998! Then he rubbed salt in the wound by giving all the hard earned money to favorite entrepreneurs to kick start an economy he maliciously claimed the UDP had driven into the ground.
If that isn’t injury enough, he ran roughshod over Dr. Esquivel’s IMF-trained favorites at the Dr. Esquivel Bank. Is there a more appropriate way for the UDP to show Mr. Fonseca that he is an economics dunce in a blue suit than taking over his ride?
You just know that H Manuel and H Dean didn’t pull their most recent hate act out of a hat. They must have stewed about their revenge these ten long years…sleepless nights, plotting and scheming about the appropriate retribution for their humiliating defeat at the polls in 1998. No, no Finnigans, those two. No apologies for failing the people. Instead of remorse, acts of sickest malice festered in their evil minds. Ooh yes, they worked up a lather…a froth…just like the time, a little over a decade ago, when they hid inside a cold cement building poring over the lists, finalizing on the 860 whose little children would feel the pain of the empty piñata for Christmas.
Ai, why, why? Of all the rides in the whole wide world, why Mr. Musa’s? Heck, these men are polar opposites. Manuel can’t say yes. And Said can’t say no. Manuel is full of hate. Said is full of love. Manuel is a miser. Said is a spendthrift. Manuel fires. Said hires. Why would Mr. Manuel want to drive Mr. Said’s vehicle? Really, it makes absolutely no sense.
Ai, it is a sad day indeed for Belize when big politicians play at these wicked games. Yes, he could have had the pick of the lot. But he and his party wanted THAT ONE, for to satisfy his, and the UDPees’ diabolical need for revenge. No, for men like these, overwhelming victory at the polls in February is not sufficient.
Poor Mr. Musa. You know, they say that he disappeared when he couldn’t answer to the truth of the Venezuelan money. Lie! Mr. Musa was wounded by the poison arrow driven into his heart by new PM Barrow and RH Dr Esquivel! Yes, when he saw who was driving his ride, it was a mortal wound. He couldn’t tek it, and so he disappeared into semi-exile.
But don’t fret too much Mr. or Miss Mathers, time is much longer than rope. Just 59 more months to have this UDP sticking it to you, and us poor Belizeans where it hurts. 59 more months, it will pass just like a lee breeze. Just 59 more months and then those buggas will feel the barb of the heave-ho. Go on, enjoy unuself, Mr. H Dean and Mr. H Manuel, and all a unu. Just remember, God noh like people who mean and bad-minded. I say, you’re in the wrong ride, Dr. Manny.
P.S. Apologies to CP Mathers for my taking liberties. This piece, of course, like last Friday’s soup – Faysi PUP – is on the light side. Wow, the price of oil is hovering near $110 per barrel. Some answers are obvious.