While the men lawyers line up to follow di money, women lawyers in Belize battle for justice. Add the name of Mrs. Audrey Matura Shepperd alongside Ms. Lois Young (the battle for BTL), Ms. Antoinette Moore (the battle for the rights of our brothers and sisters in Toledo), and Mrs. Candy Gonzalez (the battle for clean water, and the rights of river dwellers).
It is just that the forces at the Fisheries Department who insist on the rape of our waters with shrimp trawling and gill nets, meet a force, a breeze powerful enough to blow them down. Batting fourth, for the health of marine life in Belize, Mrs. Audrey Matura Shepperd! Save us from the nearsighted rake and scrape philistines, Audrey.
Reporter yooz op Belize Times
The smack down took place nearly two weeks ago, before Krismos, and ordinarily that is too long to be “front page” news. But the Belize Times has been begging fu get the sense quite a while. They got it in spades. Get thee and thy foul-mouthed self behind us, Belize Times. You are a disservice, a disgrace to the noble profession of journalism in Belize.
Commenting on the Belize Times’ use of rude language, the editorialist of the Reporter described the guys over there as “frustrated and angry”…and showing signs of “anti-social behavior.” Use of expletives is “vulgar”…”indecent expressions by law”… “define the user as a coarse and unsavory person who cannot find words to express himself/herself adequately,” the Reporter said. Wow! What a lashing! I say, after a so-so year the Reporter really closed 2009 with a bang. Hats off to the Reporter for having the ba!!z fu kos up dehn PUP raaz…excuse mi.
This ya PUP crowd da noh like bifo time PUP. Remember how classy RH George P and his PUP were, after the Blue took a very bad whipping in 1984? Well, so much bile is coming out of this Blue party since 2008, they can fill two newspapers, a radio station, and a teevee. Sanavawich! Whoa there, you have to allow space for the government the people voted for to carry out their mandate. What happened to the party for love? All we see and hear now is hate…hate…hate.
We probably will never know which bitter who wrote the offending front page article because dehn bogaz too shame fu sign dehn name. So, they will have to share the liks.
Sorry, Brother Rudon, you should have…heh..heh…read the piece I wrote a while back about space in the PUP for only one saint. By hook or by crook, that party will drag you down into the gutter.
Sorry, Brother Sylvester, but you should have known that a man who keeps bad company wahn geh daab.
As for Mr. Glenn Tillett, who can have pity for his obsession? Imagine, investing three full weeks worth of ink and paper trying to brush our national leader with the paint of…of…what did the guy on Krem say? Yes, boagositi!
Get over it, Glenn. Your leader had seven whole years free fretting upon our big stage. That other crowd’s hero hasn’t yet got two, and you ingrates want to see him crowed down. The same sauce weh di goos get, good fu di gyanda tu.
PR 2010 almost out of the starting gates
There are two awful reasons why we must replace our First-Past-the-Post System (FPPS) to elect representatives, with our stable PR. For one, our FPPS polarizes the country (red or blue camp has absolute grip on nation when they are in power), and for two, FPPS wastes (disrespects) votes.
To ehm…serve you better in 2010, I spent some of the holiday time thinking about, and reading up on PR. Hey, got to get the package in order before we take it on the road.
On the matter of rumination, I see two little gates we need to close. Those are the Governor General’s office, and the Senate. On the matter of the GG, she/he would have to be selected by vote in the House, with the agreement of the Prime Minister. That office would also have to take on a special duty. On matters deadlocked in the House, the GG will cast the deciding vote.
In respect to the Senate, I think that body should revert to its pre-Independence days. As per election to the House, and the Cabinet, parties will get a senator based on percentage of votes garnered. There is a sound mechanism based on the percentage system already on the table in Belize.
On the research side, I found two interesting things in da foreign PR. Many of them have mechanisms that allow voters to vote for candidates, and they allow for participation by small parties, and individuals.
On the former offering, voting for candidates, “they” claim that form of PR is “more” democratic. I disagree. We’ll look at the mechanism and how it works. Then I’ll explain myself.
In some PR systems they allow voters to choose which candidate(s) they prefer in the party they voted for. For example, if the pecking order in the Ram Goat Party (RGP) is: Rufus X (leader), Patrick Rogers (1st Deputy Leader), Clinton Uh Luna (2nd Deputy Leader), then Colin bh, the sober voters of Belize naturally would prefer to see…ahem…Colin bh head da list. So, when they place their X for the RGP they will change the pecking order and declare that Colin bh da di man.
Get real! The top three leaders of the RGP love Brother Fidel, and talk bad about America. Colin bh loves Fidel too, but he also understands the power realities. Those rotten radicals hate Queen E. Colin bh absolutely adores Queen E. Full speed ahead, eh?
Not so fast. If we peel the onion we would find sound reasons why Colin bh is only 4th on the RGP’s pole. Within any organization, people who are intimate with the group and its business will choose the leaders after long, careful scrutiny. In the RGP scheme, Colin bh might not be ready to hold top office. It could also be that Colin bh, being fully aware of the Peter Principle [every (ambitious) man will climb to his level of incompetence (quote not to the letter)],might be very comfortable, in his comfort zone, being 4th in line.
And if he isn’t comfortable? Well, nobody is stopping him from going out and forming a party of his own.
Many PRs allow for small parties and individuals to contest elections. There is some water in allowing small groups and individuals to have such a voice. But if you look at the culture of Belize, naa goh work. Small parties and individuals would make our PR a wild scene.
In our present system, single interests do get their business served, of a fashion, by the national parties. Because PR would allow for candidates to be placed in a pecking order that almost guarantees their election to the House, it would increase the decibels of special interests groups a hundredfold. So, there is no need for small parties and individuals participating at the polls. Yap, it is better that we limit the starting gate to parties that are national in scope.
Ha, maybe I am working up a lather about nada. Maybe the $20,000 entrance fee per political party will be sufficient to keep the rabble out.
Belize has made slow gains under our present system. Under our stable PR, which will ensure that the representatives that the people want make it to the House in 2013, Belize will grow by leaps and bounds.