Well, well, Ms. Mia Mottley, Barbados’s George Price, swept all 30 seats in a snap general election she called the other day. The opposition there said the turnout for the election was poor. Reports are that 5,000 people were disallowed from voting because they had Covid, and I guess others who didn’t vote stayed away because they were afraid of getting infected. Mia has all kinds of explanations for why she called the elections about a year and a half early, but we’ll forget that, I’m thinking here about our John Briceño and his PUP, what they can do to top her, and redeem George.
Topping Mia would be cool. Barbados only has 30 seats, we have 31, and with the UDP in total disarray, a snap election now would be a wipeout. She is so much like George Price it wouldn’t be surprising if she emulated him, and she has feathers in her cap: one the clean sweep, something never done by Price; two, a snap election victory more than a year early; and three, she divorced the Queen, something Price drooled to do but only could get himself charged with sedition for.
The bio says Mia has no children, and there’s no mention of a man in her life. Hmm, George had no children, but he being a man, we can’t be certain he didn’t sire any. We know that our George never married because there are public records of such alliances. Of course I’m not questioning how those guys live/d their lives. I hear our Pope has said that people who don’t have children are selfish, but I don’t know if that arrow was aimed at people who choose to live like Paul the Apostle.
The LGBT news medium in San Francisco, Bay Area Reporter (BAR), reporting on Mottley’s general election victory in 2018, said she “won despite a homophobic smear campaign in which the ruling Democratic Labour Party questioned her sexual orientation.” BAR said same-sex business is illegal in Barbados, that gays in that country face a lot of discrimination, and that a conviction for the act could lead to life in prison. I think that last part must be a daam lie.
BAR said it was a platform of Mottley’s BLP to call for a referendum on gay matters, but members of the party said ‘not so’ after that election. According to BAR, Hon. Cynthia Forde told reporters “the BLP would not pursue any ’gay agenda’” because “nobody in the Barbados Labour Party is interested in any same-sex marriage.”
Every male in our country who remains single for too long – we let our women be, we always have – yap, any single male has to answer questions, and our Price got his share of scrutiny. Price had a number of LGBT friends in his entourage, but that doesn’t say he was partial, because as long as one voted PUP, there was space, special privileges in his tent for you. Is it true that man said a politician exists to win elections? The history books say he was as popular as Mia. The people said if he ran a mule we would have had braying in the House.
Some in her country have scolded Mottley for divorcing the Queen; they say she rammed through her agenda without allowing for meaningful consultations. Hmm, we know how our George wished he could have done the same. Aha, if you want to know about the mischief Price did, go read a book called, The Man in Khaki. There you will learn how nearly he, if not for a very loyal friend and the love of the people, came to being a guest at Her Majesty’s Prison. And the rest, they say, is history.
My, it must be some temptation for Briceño to whitewash the crumbling UDP. Forget the ridiculous math of calling an election with FOUR years left on the PUP mandate. An opportunity to accomplish so much does not come in every politician’s lifetime.
It’s history that Price, the master politician, saw the UDP in shambles in 1993, split down the middle over the Maritime Areas Act, and he dissolved the House early, to finish them off. But the winds shifted quickly, and the sure thing melted away. Many people much more respected in the political world than I, have offered explanations for the massive shock at the polls in 1993. Clearly, a free tuition promise by the UDP, and a surprise announcement of a British pullout, maybe a “gift” from the Queen to punish George for some of his past mischief, were key factors, but humbly I say the key to that election defeat of the PUP was the Godwin Hulse Tuesday Night Show on the newly minted Krem Radio.
The PUP had unleashed Ralph Fonseca and his first growth economics philosophy, and John D’rectly would say that man was Henry, spending money like ih kyaahn done. The PUP should never have given Ralph the big job. We all know how he got it. Ralph’s father, Rafael, had earned a lot of respect for his handling of the nation’s purse during the 1970s, and it’s on his dad’s laurels that Ralph got the chance to do weh ih want with the nation’s business. My, how we in Belize always di get head tek.
Now, allow me to tell you about bulldogs. If you don’t remember Jack London’s classic, “White Fang”, well, White Fang was a hero fighting dog, and as we all know, every bully got ih kecha. When White Fang met his, it was a bulldog that grabbed him by the jowl on his neck and refused to let go.
One bulldog is bad enough; two on the same show was the worst news for the PUP. Godwin’s co-host on Tuesday nights was Amandala editor, Russell Vellos, and there you have the definition of tenacity. The PUP, with Ralph at the helm, had engineered the Italian projects, and it was obvious to all that we weren’t getting value for money and, to compound the felony, the funds came from commercial borrowing, something Albert Einstein warned about. Godwin and Vellos sank their teeth into those bloated projects, and it was not until the results of the 1993 election were in, and the PUP had been booted out, that they let go.
It’s a blot on the PUP record, what happened to them in 1993. In a shocking moment of madness, they reportedly tried to bribe two UDPees to defect. They had had success with this type of skullduggery before, getting Vicente Choco and Stanley Usher to cross the floor, but not for the kind of prize that was up in 1993, the control of our National Assembly. It’s no consolation that in the big USA they had a somewhat similar attack on democracy in 2020. I really wish you’d pay a little attention to me when I tell you things. I told you the US was once just a lee British colony, jos like we.
I have no doubt you and your gang are thinking about it, John. Oh sorry, I should call you, Johnny. That other one who shares your first name still can’t apologize for his terrible associations. Bah, he says that even if he messed up, it was for a good cause, buying boots and other gear for his teams. Think on it. If you called it, that other John is bold enough to run again. Maybe Belmopan didn’t speak loud enough: Braa, you got to wear the sackcloth.
There’s a heck of a lot in the plot. For braata, remember when Red Dean one-upped Blue George with his own snap election and won convincingly with the aid of the Good Samaritan? FOUR years early will make everyone forget that. My, it would be sweet revenge for the 1993 debacle and, the final icing, 31-30 Briceño over Mia.