by Colin Hyde
How disappointed I am that Neri Briceno has joined his voice to other hard-to-believe Belizeans who disrespect Jimmy Carter. In his piece in last week’s Reporter, Neri said that in 1980 Carter had the US “in turmoil—plummeting economy, high unemployment, a deep recession, skyrocketing prices, long lines at gas stations due to an oil embargo, and American hostages held in Iran … Instead of leading, he gave Americans advice on conserving energy and respecting the environment. The voters were furious, and they made their frustration clear at the polls. Reagan won in one of the most decisive landslides in U.S. history.” Did a Belizean actually write that? Oh, I forgot; some BelAms are more American than the Americans.
Someone pointed out to me that Ronald Reagan did not bow to Israel’s crazy demands. Someone who knows history will tell you that Reagan picked up on the Jimmy Carter blueprint for the Middle East. But Reagan deserves his points. Reagan didn’t try to turn back the decision by Carter to follow the UN’s lead on Belize’s independence either. Of course, Reagan gets points for that too. Do these BelAms know why Panama is the richest country per capita in Central America? They can ask Jimmy Carter about that.
What does Neri mean by, “leading”? Does he mean that Jimmy Carter should have bombed the blank out of Iran? If getting hostages back was so easy, Israel might have followed its Entebbe blueprint. If getting back hostages was so easy, why has Israel massacred 40 plus thousand, maimed tens of thousands, and obliterated an entire city?
John Briceño, earning his “honorable”
The PUP promised a fixed election date in their Plan Belize manifesto, but after setting up the People’s Constitution Commission to oversee the overhaul of the document that guides us, a move that was initiated by the social partners to impede the passing of the 11th amendment, the PUP have a big excuse for their failing to deliver on that promise. On coming to office, the PUP, with its overwhelming mandate, could very quickly have delivered on this promise which needed only the stroke of a pen, but you know how our leaders dilly dally sometimes, sometimes solely for the party’s agenda.
In our system, in which elected representatives are referred to as honorable this and honorable that, governments have the power to dissolve the House anytime they wish. On a point of honor, when a government has serious internal problems or the people take to the streets repeatedly to express their dismay in their leadership, an election should be called. This facility also allows governments to take advantage of an opposition that is not in election form. Taking advantage, that has been done before, but there’s nothing honorable there, only selfish glory.
The present main opposition is at its weakest, has been in that state for some time, thus the door has been wide open for the PUP to pick up the roses smiling fortune has strewn in their way. I expect that some of his horses have tried to nudge the PM in that direction. I give John Briceño big points for staying the course on his mandate when his party could have easily picked up another five years.
Some leaders of the main opposition say they believe the election will be called early, and while the party is in disarray they find hope in the year 1993, when they were fractured and won an election that was called more than a year before it was due. Many things fell in favor of the 1993 UDP. That UDP is also guilty of some major dishonorable deeds. The UDP promised the people free education and land; the former they couldn’t deliver, the latter they didn’t deliver. Okay, some say the fault is on the people, for not being discerning. Well, there was also a giant untruth the UDP told their partner, the NABR. Okay, maybe the NABR should have known that the UDP was fibbing.
What does the Shyne faction have to offer Tracy’s faction so that they get together with them before the next election? For the people’s sake, pray it isn’t just for hatred of the PUP that Tracy’s faction is expected to kiss and make up. Is the Shyne faction about returning to the fold all the standard bearers and delegates they disenfranchised on the pretext that they were cleaning up the party?
Now, there are few saints in Tracy’s crowd. There are substantial sins, but based on what we have in the public domain, none that deserve the gallows. Whoa, only people who can’t handle the truth say that all sins are equal. No, sir; the person who nipped a cellphone that was left about carelessly isn’t as, ehm, glamorous a crook as the person who stole the ATM. Heck, from wi small the church taught us about venial and mortal.
Getting on with the suspects and what they were charged and “convicted” of: ungentlemanly Faber, for kicking a door and pulling a girl’s hair; rude Castro, for misdemeanors and disappointing freshness in Taiwan; trophy hunting John, for taking money from a dirty crook named Dermin so he could buy the best players so his team could win ALL the football tournaments in Belize; Boots, not for walking, but for an extra shield for money hidden in his socks.
Boy, we could have had a fixed election date, preferably every 4 years, if Henry Charles had been bold enough to ram through the necessary 11th amendment. I am amazed at people who fail to grasp the essentialness of that clause. Hey, man, we know that democracy has holes, that it is flawed. Hey, man, people, like individuals, are vulnerable sometimes. And when they are, they can get chaans.
A strategic rich man in the “right” circumstances can buy an election; bad luck/good luck can sway an election; things and things can happen to distort the process, so, so you put in place some guidelines to prevent the failures you can ward off. Guidelines are part of our system, you know. For example, power is doled out based on the strength of the mandate. There’s a simple mandate, a 2/3 mandate, and a 3/4 mandate. Unfortunately, that one is not a good fit because of our first-past-the-post system, where a majority of 31 votes can give you a clean sweep of the House.
The PUP has five more years – please, make it a four-year term – yes, if the PUP calls it now they roll over the UDP. It’s a big prize for John B that he has indicated that he will wait, make it happen next year. It is expected that the PUP won’t wait until November 2025, that they will call it by March. That would be 7 or 8 months early, but for practical reasons the election should be called by June. It makes no sense for a country in the hurricane belt to be calling elections during the storm season.
No amount of hype could have made me watch a turkey fight
This fight between Tyson and Paul, okay, it probably was for charity, for two human boxers, one of whom certainly doesn’t belong in a ring, but my watching didn’t contribute a thing, so I tried to get my zzzz. There’s a thing called old man leagues, where oldsters go to play to stay in shape, and in those environs they and their friends reminisce, wallow in the nostalgia, etcetera.
Man, America is ALL about the money. To push the hype, you couldn’t slip any lower than sending a little girl to interview Tyson. The, ehm, only reason Tyson never faced a murder rap is because he got it all out of his system in the ring.
A number of famous oldster boxers have tried at boxing for show, and of the tens of them the only credible one was a guy named Bernard Hopkins. Few boxers in his weight group could beat his blank, and at the ancient boxing age of 43 he actually performed credibly against the top super middleweight boxer of the day, Joe Calzaghe. One of the judges actually, and very wrongly, scored the fight for Hopkins. Maybe that judge sacrificed his credibility for pay, or, knowing that the other two judges were voting overwhelmingly against the former great, he decided to take a fall to secure Hopkins’ legacy.
I watched Hopkins vs Calzaghe; but I either turned to other channels or went to sleep when an almost 50-year-old Hopkins fought Joe Smith. After failing to get a match with any of the name brands for what he declared would be his final match, Hopkins settled on Smith, a journeyman. I don’t care to see an old man getting pummeled, and after a quick research on Smith showed that one of his former professions was cement mixer, I knew that Bernard was in for the beating of his life. If I’d seen delivery man, body builder, or truck driver on Smith’s résumé, I might have been mildly intrigued. An oldster with slowed-down reflexes scrapping with a young cement mixer, they shouldn’t have allowed that.