by Colin Hyde

… in the movies. Years ago, a friend/mentor told me that people with white skin look better, ‘show up’ better, in the movies. That’s a true statement. Ah, from the peak, it fades to brown, you can stay around, until we reach black—stay da back. I’ve had it in my mind to throw my two cents on that tochiz color subject, and the door opened with this story by Morgan Murrell on Buzz Feed, “‘So Many’ People Have Said This To Halle Bailey, But She Doesn’t Know If It’s A Compliment Or An Insult.” Murrell said that while spending a day with her followers “the Grammy-nominated artist revealed that when some fans meet her in person, one of the first things they tell her is, ‘You’re so much prettier in person!’”

You know the moment I saw the name Halle, I said, oh, Halle Berry; I don’t see that much sexual intrigue in her. Okay, I think that is so because she looks like she could be a close relative. Thanks for looking twice; the girl is Bailey, and I Googled her, and movie or no movies, she is dynamite. I bet the compliment/insult emanated from the Caucasian element. Ms. Bailey is more African than Ms. Berry.

You know that in everything they do, the white “ancestor” comes together for the glory of the race. When they choose their starlets and stars for romantic movies, acting ability, bah—it is based first, second, third on their ideal of sexy and macho. I don’t know who chooses brown and black starlets and stars for the movies. But let’s get past that for now. The lighter skin shows up better in the movies. Real life is a different story.

Thoughts provoked by David and the BDF

I listened to FECTAB’s president, Brother David Almendarez, a private entrepreneur, when he called the XTV morning show last week to rail about government’s unfairness to small local cruise operators, and I also read the letter from the BDF soldier, a brother on the public payroll, about his need for a higher salary.

I’ve worked for others. I’ve had my own businesses. I know what it is like to be out of a job. I know what it is like to have your business crash. I never went abroad to university, so when I worked for others, I didn’t get top pay. I’ve never complained about my pay when in the employ of others. I believe that’s because my nature is to be on my own. My best times financially were when I worked for private companies. I never stayed with any too long. Those are all lengthy stories.

I didn’t hear any response to David’s charge that local tour operators consistently get a raw deal from government. There’s a tricky side to that story. Belizeans first, yes, but it must be factored in, that the foreign businesses are owned by people from countries that are our allies. And they employ many Belizeans. That’s likely why FECTAB’s cry, it seems to not get that much attention.

There were many responses, all supportive of the soldier’s call for a salary increase. It’s a struggle for most Belizeans in this modern world where many trappings are seen as essential. Ignoring the particulars of the soldier, which I don’t know, I think the salary discussion would be more realistic if we acknowledged that in our little Belize, households with a single source of income are far fewer than households that have two incomes.

Things to dump related to 6.9

This 6.9 story, it is best for Belize that we discuss it without the baggage that was piled on to create a cloud. In my world, only red and blue are allowed to shoot around curves. The rest of us must shoot straight. You know what should happen to baggage. Dump it!

This sewer pond story, that argument that patients will be breathing in foul air, is a complete dud. Stop repeating it. Even if it does give off a not so pleasant smell at times, the farthest point from the pond in these two parcels at minimum is a third of a mile away. The restaurant that depends on the smell of fry chikin and barbeque to call customers from a third of a mile away will only get traffic from people with particularly, ehm, big nose.

The mantra of people in the land business is location, location, location, and consistent with that is where this saga starts. Top personnel in the medical department realized that the UB compound wasn’t ideal. I don’t think they arrived at that conclusion so that the PUP could run a scam, but yes, the PUP could have seen the opportunity to, to do a little something. My opinion is that our public servants at Health were brilliant in their vision.

Other lands have been suggested as cheaper sites. But the location that was chosen, for any other site to compete with it, that site would have had to be on the “right” side of the highway. That location that Mr. Brackett and Ministry of Health personnel decided on is directly connected to Belmopan (close to utilities too), and it is on the “right” side of the highway for patients, students, and staff bussing from Benque Viejo and Santa Familia in the west, and from Barranco and Crique Sarco in the south.

The champions for “what-was-stated-would-be-in-Belmopan-must-stay-in-Belmopan”, I must tell them they come over a little elitist. The hospital at the new proposed site is still accessible to Belmopanese, but it would have been a feather in their cap if it was placed closer to central BMP. Ah, it would have been a feather in UB’s cap too to have it placed on their compound.

There were calls, some of them from people who I feel should know better, that government could have used the right of eminent domain to acquire the property. That’s an option when government for the people needs a property and the private owner refuses to sell. Any forced acquisition of private property by government ends up in court, and anyone who cares to look will find out that we NEVER get the property at a cheaper price there.

There is the argument that if government had “stronged” the land, we could have gotten away with paying for it in its prime state. In its prime state the private owners had gotten the land from the City Council of Belmopan six years previously for a whopping $6 million less than what we paid them for it. The story is that the land wasn’t subdivided, or was only in the process of being subdivided. The certainty is that the owners had gotten government approval to subdivide. Here we enter the province of the law. Government said it was bound to pay the subdivision price.

Returning to eminent domain, really, I don’t know how many times people have to go to court and lose before they get the sense. In the case of the 31 acres at Jalacte, the government quite disrespectfully, yes, utilized communal land without permission. What government used it for should have made everyone happy. Government upgraded a dirt road to a highway, and constructed a BAHA outpost so that BAHA could carry out its Medfly campaign for the good of the entire nation. You know what happens to the value of land when a highway replaces a dirt road. Cañeros in the north would die for that!

In capitalist countries, the court always, ALWAYS favors the private party. One of the main arguments against one of our governments reacquiring BTL, which was in the control of foreigners at the time, was the negative impact it would have on foreign investment. Every country is in the market for rich and famous investors; we don’t want to scare them away. In the Jalacte case, the court awarded $6.3 million. It is noted that the lawyer for the “communal land owners” incredibly wanted more.

Ouch, I’m “way” out of space for another segment, a very juicy part: “my” “forensics” on how that brave Mr. Talbert arrived at his valuation. Day-deh, it has to be a to-be-continued.