by Colin Hyde
From ground level I say give high marks to the media for correctly labeling as a bust, the reported nabbing by police of a guy with bricks of cocaine in his vehicle. Bah, it is double injury for people with a little weed to be collared by police officers, and then to see their names in a headline that refers to their few grams or pounds as a—bust.
The report says the man in the headline for the right reason is a car dealer, that he was stopped at a checkpoint and found with 23.25 pounds of that white stuff that has been a scourge to our youth and destabilized our country. That’s no chump change worth of illegal drugs there, especially if it reaches the US, the ehm preferred destination.
The editorial staff at Zinnia Health, in a 2024 piece titled, “How much does cocaine cost?”, said “for the average user, a gram of cocaine might cost $60-$200 in the U.S.” Zinnia said “the high cost is one reason why addicted users often switch to cheaper alternatives like crack cocaine.” At $60 a gram for that Lotto, and with a pound still having 454 grams, we’re looking at 454 x 23.25, a total of 10,555 grams, a potential of over US$630,000 cold cash.
You’d need a mighty load of weed to earn that kind of loot. I think we’re talking truck loads there. Weed is a relatively benign drug, according to the scientists of the mighty US and the mightier UN. The government really ought to stop sending our police officers to harass people for a few sticks of weed.
Belize has to stop wasting that waste
Sometime back, a star female alumnus from old Compre shared a documentary on social media about the Chinese growing garlic in waste. Now I close my eyes when I eat my garlic. I will eat my garlic!
The Belmopan sewer pond has been in the news lately for its smell. Someone who knows things told me that is nonsense—that the sewer pond gives off no smell. I’m a BMP original, and the story we had on that smell there is that it is connected to the rum factory. The source who knows things said the smell comes from bagasse, what’s left after we extract the juice from the cane to make sweet golden rum.
People who have issues about the “relocated” hospital need to drop the sewer pond from their argument. When you get caught up in misinformation, you apologize. Everyone makes mistakes. Some mistakes are a mountain. The sewer pond mistake story is a molehill. Apologize and get on to what could benefit our country.
That sewer pond in BMP, and the one in Belize City, and all the waste across the country, we need to corral it and put it to good purpose. It is fantastic fertilizer! You see Chinese garlic, how all the cloves are fat? Well, guess what, it’s, it’s from … no, let’s not think about that. Just tell the authorities to, to do it.
Verbal media fu blame fu this
Wa, absolutely regretting here that when I hib this beef my voice will appear to be in sync with Vaughan Gill and Hilly at Vibes, and Fonso and Joe at Wave, notoriously biased parties that rain hell on the legitimate media daily. Almost every word from the mouth of a PUP or UDP is to sucker people over to their cause. I didn’t say that they were total frauds, through and through, just that when you sit down to a meal with them you must have the salt shaker filled to the brim, kaaz whatever they present yu haffu saal it good.
This October 18 story on XTV News in which SIB’s Director General, Diana Castillo “reminded the media that a low inflation rate still means higher prices”, that wouldn’t have been necessary if we didn’t allow people with unbalanced views to proliferate in the nation. Reporting on recently released data from SIB, the XTV story said there is a constant complaint “that prices continue to go up”, and Castillo informed that it is important for Belizeans “to note that the inflation rate is calculated as an average over a specific period.” XTV said “Castillo explained that the SIB does not yet collect data to explain why the prices of individual items are increasing, but says that Belizeans purchasing lots of imported products is a factor.” Talking price increases, some local products are also on the inflated list.
Of course, it wouldn’t change the price of anything if we were sober, but we can’t afford to promote talk that doesn’t serve the best interests of the nation. The Americans can afford ignorance and dishonesty. I read this week that a former president of theirs, Bill Clinton, tried to convince a group that Covid had much responsibility for the high inflation in the US. I’m not about getting involved in their business, but it’s like incredible that people would ignore the pandemic’s impact.
We have to keep our feet on the ground, be focused. What’s up with all this inflation? It is a fact that the price of imported finished goods and inputs have gone up. Yes, we have to watch price gouging. The price of fuel is very high. In place of propagandists, could the economists step forward and debate the pros and cons of high taxes on fuel?
Is it possible that there are citizens in our country who don’t know that our citrus farmers have been enduring a more than decade long battering because of a disease, that the trees aren’t bearing like they used to, that the price of imported inputs have shot up, thus 8 oranges for a dollar isn’t feasible anymore? There’s a sound reason why it’s 6 bananas for a dollar now, when we used to get 8. And in respect to the price of plantains, why hasn’t the vocal media joined in to explain to our people that our plantain walks were devastated by the April/May heat and drought, and it takes a full year to produce a bunch from a corm?
It’s a good question why the market isn’t flooded with cheap pineapples which is easy to grow and doesn’t suffer from a major disease. Are we not buying pineapples when the farmers bring fruits to market? The price of grind meat, from cows, has gone up a dollar fifty per pound since 2018, but the price of local cheese, from cows, has doubled. We could do with a little explanation there too.
No Pogba
El Clasico, Real Madrid vs Barcelona, is one of the big treats for football fans across the globe, the kind of thing people plot their week around. Ouch, I see Press Cadogan got it all wrong, this time. But he only needs his fame for the Boledo! I only watched the first half, which ended nil to nil. Barcelona exploded for 4 goals in the second half and thrashed Madrid 4-0. Madrid could have been up by 4 in the first half, if Mbappe wasn’t living in the offside zone.
Getting caught offside is not a good thing. Game reports said Mbappe was caught offside serially, a whopping 8 times! I heard one pundit question his intelligence, a legitimate comment.
In explaining his lackluster performance for France during the recent Euros, part of which could be blamed on his suffering a broken nose early in the tournament, Mbappe explained that he missed Paul Pogba, who was serving a suspension for using a performance enhancer, which he might have used to help him get over a major injury. Mbappe explained that his signature great runs had disappeared from his game because there was no Pogba in the midfield to serve him.
Most of Mbappe’s infractions were hairline, a knee too far, a shoulder just past the line held by the defense. Why would the player who is the fastest on the pitch need to cut it so close? It’s possible that Mbappe isn’t as quick as he is fast. Most of football is decided in a small space, and there is as much or more premium on quickness off the mark than long speed.
The pundits put all the blame on Mbappe, but his failures, much of it might be on his midfielders, none of whom are named Pogba.