by Colin Hyde

It isn’t funny, the way L Ashcroft and his group are so feverish about this Waterloo project. It is believed that he put his money behind the PUP in the last general elections, and because of that “investment,” he expects his “vote” to get more respect than ours. Government of the people, by the people, should be for the people, but on the ground too often it doesn’t work out that way. Some, by affiliation, and some by money pumped in, get more oomph from their votes.

You see why the people clamored for campaign financing laws. There’s no perfect thing made by man; the closest we can get to that in a political system is the democracy with transparent, practical laws so there is some control of the funding. Bah, so much fizzled away when the GOB was led off to do a full review of the Constitution.

This massive port proposal, it’s some kind of obsession. I got the sense listening to Ashcroft speak to Marleni that he recognizes he’s aging, and like he has this ambition to build something big before Father Time saps his juice. Hurray for ambition, but why did he have to choose a cruise port when we’ve got one already? That project that calls for massive dredging, dumping, and construction work should sink or swim on its own demerits/merits. Ai, an oldster desperately trying to show he still has it makes a donation to a political party, and now it seems he wants that to give him an edge in the decision.

Those PUP politicians made a deal with a devil so they could beat the UDP devils, and now the devil is pulling out everything he’s got to see that dredge sink its suction hose into the mud and those cranes start driving massive piles into bedrock. If not for the help of the good people and the educated NGOs, those PUPs would have rolled over a long time ago. But it’s not over yet for this party donor. That man’s digging in to satisfy his ambition to see mammoth ships land and look down on our country’s biggest city.

Babies and animals have same quantity of the selfish gene

It’s true that the dastardly selfish gene can be found here and there in people of all ages. But it’s 100% dominant in babies and animals. There are studies that have concluded that it is not true that babies are selfish, but that is just embarrassing researching, flat-out not objective. While it might be true that babies, like animals, aren’t deliberate in their selfishness, no question they are all about “me.” Have you ever heard of a baby who gave up their bottle of milk before they’re done with it? No, you have not. Those little bohgaz, they are the inventors of me first, me second, me third.

Selfishness is a behavior we should all strive to grow out of, put behind us and never allow back in. Rip it out, for the good of the whole. But whoa, it’s stubborn, sometimes. Fortunately, we are not alone, fortunately there’s help out there.

Moms, a breed especially gifted by the Almighty, are the first ones to try and help us to excise that vice. They are usually quite enough. Hurray, we guys don’t have to deal with the little breed for more than a couple hours each week. We couldn’t be blamed if we lost our cool.

God gave women many qualities He didn’t give men, and that’s because He knows it’s some task to tame little ones, to teach them to stop being selfish. Moms, they deserve maximum praise and for all their efforts they should have the license to do anything they want, except pull it out in public places. Please don’t ask me why I call for a halt there. I’ll go no further than saying God blessed women with fine upper bodies, to feed children, and He gave them plenty patience to raise them.

Bah, sometimes the avarice is so deeply embedded that moms fail, but all isn’t lost; here comes the support staff, in waves and waves to dump the ugly devil ‘me, me, me’ into the ravine, into the same place the Master chased the horde of swine.

Second up to the plate are the teachers, and if that brigade fails and one reaches adulthood a selfish brute, then it will be up to the people, and NGOs, if you’re a fiend to the environment, to give you the sense.

Sedi and Arturo big Waterloo supporters, but what about the thousands

It isn’t lost on anyone that besides the fascination an old man has to see megaships and 15,000 screaming tourists touching the shore, there are these megabucks dreams. My ears perked up and my eyes grew big when the head table at the Waterloo consultation mentioned they were after money from banks that I know lend cheap. Braa, Ralph Fonseca, in the name of our country, had to borrow expensive money from private Italian banks, and from Bear Stearns, a private investment firm that we helped crash. Well, this private group is after sourcing funds from public lenders who charge much less interest than the Belize Bank.

Keeping things innocent, staying in waters where we don’t need an oxygen tank or to be a pearl diver to reach the conchs, wait, hurray, what great news that konks season is on again! I love that frittaz, and a konks soup made by a cook who has all the ingredients and knows how to make a roux, but you can keep all the ceviche, especially if it has too much habanero.

Sedi is on board. Somebody has to tell him that the ship sailed when his party chose Stake Bank. Arturo Lizarraga is on board too. When Arturo said we have to consider environmental impacts and such, I saw a big future for him in the political game. No less than a former PM told of virtue in fibbing, sometimes.

Sedi got his 13 years, and it might be time for Arturo to get his. Of course I know it isn’t fair to judge a book by its cover, but I can’t help thinking Arturo was saying what he knew people wanted to hear when he claimed to care much about the environmental impact of Waterloo, and Stake Bank, and Miracle Port, and any other port that could spring up along our shore.

For me, he was just too lukewarm to make a sale there. However, you could see the excitement in him, you could feel he was from the heart when he said the more the merrier, let the market decide who swims and who sinks. That brother is pro-capital, and that’s no shame, because in a democracy everybody defends their interests. My, certain elite will get a bite if Waterloo gets the green light, and they couldn’t avoid dropping some crumbs.

Fantastically, no one has bothered to try and explain what Belize would do with 15,000 cruise tourists who land in Belize City for five hours. If half of them smoked weed, they could go to the cafés and shoot the breeze, but 7,500 is still a whole lot.

For sure, early on there would be a burst of action, a feeding frenzy, but then as night follows day around the clock, the balloon would burst. Have the authorities considered people who come here for the pace, for a break from their hectic world?

Can you see 2,000 tourists tramping up the steps at Altun Ha? And when they came down, has anyone considered how many bathrooms would be needed for men folk to ease their bladders and women folk to freshen up? Wasn’t it just a year or two ago that a poor tourist needed to find a lamp post and there wasn’t any to hide him as he sprinkled the lawn?