The PUP would be well advised to stop reminding us about wild UDP promises. We don’t give a damn. See, because there is no transparency in the system, the incumbent party gets away with a lot of craziness. For recent example, in their audacious bid to remain in control of the Central Bank vault, the PUP spent money it didn’t have, and started projects it knew it couldn’t finish. Scratch, scratch, the PUP even pull out the old 5% and 8% trick promise to fool the teachers and public servants again…just like they du in 2003. Hee, hee, Ms. Willoughby and Mr. Frazer refuse dehn raise a pay.
The people are very tolerant, lenient with an Opposition fighting against a government abusing the people’s resources to win the people’s vote. The big reason why the VIP party is so strong on campaign financing is because they have seen the way local incumbents do it, an ih noh nice a-taal. Boy, it’s a wonder that an incumbent party ever loses.
Stop fretting yuself about all these extravagant promises you cannot fulfill, Mr. and Miss UDP. There are things in the economics we will hold your hand to the fire to…like getting us a bigger bite out of this oil, and getting the sense into Messrs Ashcroft and Fortis. We will grade you on initiative, and hard work, and creativity in addressing the rise in the cost of living. We will grade you on your work in public transportation, and the delivery of health services. As for the hot air halving the electricity rate, we knew that was just palabras. So we don’t give a damn.
Look, unu PUP, stop waste unu breath about red pie in the sky. The people know exactly what they voted for…and what they voted against.
UDP noh ready
The PUP has called for the government to step up and bring home the windfall tax. To quote from the Belize Times editorial of June 1, How can it take longer than 100 days to figure out that BNE, the oil company pumping thousands of barrels of crude oil every single day at the oil fields in Spanish Lookout, should be paying a windfall tax so as to bring down the $10 per gallon of fuel? Indeed, what is taking the UDP so long?
This government did not hit the ground running, except for carrying out election night promises to try and jail Mr. Coye. This isn’t a serious party. They are very good at criticizing, but we don’t elect a government for that.
This party must be from Mars. I mean, what the hell kind of contractor is this? Take this budget exercise, for example. More than 100 days after the election, these people are still doing their research. You say you can do the job, so we give you the job. Now we find out you didn’t know what the job was. I see now why you people need five whole years. The first year to find out what the job is, the second year to draw up the plans, the fifth year to campaign for re-election. PUP hire. UDP fire…because they don’t do their homework.
Shame on Fisheries Department
Mr. Kenneth Gale from Placencia has thrown some boulders at the Fisheries Department. In a well researched piece in last week’s Reporter (May 25), Mr. Gale slammed the trawlers plying our waters, and this week (June 1) he laid it on heavy again, this time on the use of gill nets. This isn’t the first time that Mr. Gale has vented his anger at the authorities at the Fisheries Department. He is not alone either. Ms. Lisa Carne, a conscious marine biologist from Placencia, has spoken loudly about this craziness in the pages of the Amandala. And so have Amandala’s outstanding Assistant Editor, Ms. Adele Ramos, the dynamic Mr. Wil Maheia, this column, and others.
The Fisheries Department has done, and is perpetrating a great wrong to this nation by allowing trawlers and gill nets in our waters. In defense of their sanction of these types of fishing, they (Fisheries Department) published a study on the effects of trawling in a nation’s waters sometime ago. If I remember correctly (I remember correctly), the study showed a constant decline in shrimp stocks where trawling is allowed. In the incredible opinion of the Fisheries Department, Belize still had a few years before the industry hit rock bottom. Until it did, license for the horrors of the seas.
Whenever this trawling business comes up I remember the UDP 93 to 981/2, and especially Minister Garcia. I have written before that it is my recollection (no one has refuted me) that the two havoc boats belonging to Northern Fishermen’s Cooperative were issued their first licenses from the UDP and Minister Garcia. I remember because Minister Garcia was (is) a Rasta, so it hurt especially. I still love that brother and one of these days when I meet him I will ask him what the hell happened! A Rasta does not issue license to trawlers.
Gill nets mean obliteration of fish species that swim near the surface. Trawlers mean death to corals and bottom dwellers. Trawlers and gill nets destroy the livelihoods of hand line fishermen, the only sustainable type of fishing in the seas.
You know why the Fisheries Department has gotten away with this travesty? It’s because the brain trust at Fisheries, Ms. Wade and Mr. Myvette, ku talk. Yap, these “guys” are smooth, like brother Lynn Young.
I tell you, the field environmentalists and the hand line fishermen think fire and brimstone whenever they see a shrimp boat or a gill net in our waters. But, all of us put together can’t get near the Minister’s ear because of the two sweet talkers, in whose educated eyes all a we put together da fool. Maybe we’d make sense if the University of Belize (Marine Biology Department) and the Department of the Environment weren’t so outrageously quiet on the matter. With them on our side we’d bust those criminal nets and set Belize seas free. Shame, shame on you, Fisheries Department.
Drat, Jamaica again
I bet you felt the old envy in your veins too if you watched Jamaica’s Usain Bolt blow away the world record in the 100 meters this weekend. While our amateur leaders eat the pie (foreign trips), our athletes languish. Of course, the real pain is in football. The FFB gang has no interest in our athletes. As former national football coach, Mr. Palmiro Salas, pointed out, it is a criminal act for a nation to allow a phenomenal talent like Lennox Castillo to waste away for want of a minor operation. But, as long as the “true stars” – the sports administrators of Belize, get their trips abroad, and maintain their hustle…
We have fallen so far under these criminal sports administrators, and politicians that only wish to use sports for gains at the polls, that Jamaica doesn’t even consider us worthy rivals anymore. In respect to athletics, Marion saw us languishing and set aside money to assist in a good track nearly a decade ago. There should be an investigation.
Hey there, welcome to Belize, country that doesn’t invest a blank in its athletes. But you’ll not find a cadre of sports administrators its equal anywhere. No, their athletes never “medal” at the meets, folks. Heck, sometimes they don’t even bring athletes to the games. But bet your bottom dollar they’ll be there for the wine and caviar.
Give it up for the new king, Mr. Hilly Martinez, recently inducted in World Hall of Fame. Go, Hilly. All hail the old king, Mr. Ned Pitts, hands down World’s Most Eloquent Man. Oh boy, here comes the super smooth operator himself, Mr. David Cruz, recently crowned into ISF Hall of Fame. And last, but definitely not least, perennial finalist for the world’s best dressed man, AND the Houdini Award – Lord Bert Chimilio.
Braa, our poorly supported athletes can’t show a lick, but those old buggaz have the foreign dignitaries holding their sides all night long at the dinner table. I think we had more bloody pride when we were British. Shame.