If a very wealthy individual decided that he would be king in a small country like Belize, it would be possible for him to do so. The good citizens of the country, which is a democracy, would contend that their country has a Constitution which provides that they elect their representatives in free and fair elections and, that they are mandated to serve the best interests of the people, who are the only judges deciding their fate at the next general elections. Furthermore, the candidates are men and women of high integrity, who have answered the call to serve the nation, well deserving to be called “Honorable.” And, finally, these honorable men and women are required to swear an oath of office before God and man to perform their duties conscientiously and impartially, to uphold the Constitution and the Law and to do right to all manner of people, without fear or favor, affection or ill will.
The Hon. Prime Minister’s training as a lawyer is no doubt responsible for his great caution in making statements to the press, and in general, this is a good thing.
In a sea of sense, a very sober piece in my opinion (In Search of Truth, Amandala # 2241), Senator Henry Gordon teed off on the PM, suggesting that his decision to pull the Preventive Detention (PD) could be a dangerous/bad precedent, and reminded him that bad precedent does not make for good law.
It is so good to see the generosity of Belizeans towards those who were seriously affected by tropical storm Arthur. We ran an assistance drive at Edward P.Yorke High School. The day after the appeal from administration, the principal’s office was full of supplies. Some of us donated cash. What a demonstration of concern for our fellow citizens. As I rode by the Love FM station on my way home today, June 6th, the front of the building was full of supplies too. This shows that everything in Belize is not always negative.
Check, the purpose for the Preventative Detention (PD) initiative was to compensate for the courts’ failure to bring violent criminals to justice. We can’t get jail sentence, so we proposed to apply band-aid. Unfortunately, the not so bad would be caught in the net with the bad, so the people didn’t want it. Unfortunately, some of the bad, who are in the uniform of the good, would use the law to cause havoc among those who they do not like, or who their masters do not like. So the people didn’t want it.
While many of us were snuggling up in bed on Sunday night, and listening to nature’s fireworks, families in Southern Belize were fighting for their lives. The brown, forceful flood waters swallowed the lives of at least five Belizeans. Bridges, culverts, roads, homes, vehicles, trees, animals, citrus crops, and farming equipment felt the power of the strong, fast moving river waters as it rose rapidly and swept away almost everything in its path.
The PUP would be well advised to stop reminding us about wild UDP promises. We don’t give a damn. See, because there is no transparency in the system, the incumbent party gets away with a lot of craziness. For recent example, in their audacious bid to remain in control of the Central Bank vault, the PUP spent money it didn’t have, and started projects it knew it couldn’t finish. Scratch, scratch, the PUP even pull out the old 5% and 8% trick promise to fool the teachers and public servants again…just like they du in 2003. Hee, hee, Ms. Willoughby and Mr. Frazer refuse dehn raise a pay.
If an ordinary, reasonable citizen sat down and thought for a few minutes about Michael Ashcroft and Said Musa, and that citizen was familiar with bilge rats, after a while, the comparison between the two, that is, Musa and Ashcroft, and an oily bilge rat, would become obvious.
I must admit that Fortis’s CEO Stanley Marshall’s diatribe on Wednesday night’s news was not unexpected. I warned readers a few weeks ago that BEL’s fight for a rate increase was just beginning; that the initial PUC denial was going to be resisted, because Fortis is a multi-million dollar company and it would not fold so easily, but the brazen attitude that Mr. Marshall exhibited at BEL’s annual general meeting speaks volumes.
This is one of the hard lessons you learn in life. Diana and I left Belize in 1981 to pursue our goals. We returned in 1993 to a completely different country. As a matter of fact, even my return to the country I was born and raised in - the US, made me realize that the same principle applies, but this article is not about our personal struggles: it’s about what Market Square is trying to accomplish with their current strategy in Belize.
Speaking on the hiring of a foreign expert in the Police Department, our new Prime Minister commented that he was only being paid $6,000 per month. Clearly, the educated elite live in a different world from the rest of us. $6,000 per month can hire 10 heads of households in Belize at above the minimum wage rate.
Thirty-six years ago, the United Black Association for Development (UBAD) celebrated African Liberation Day on May 25, 1972. Of course the celebration did not end there, because UBAD extended its celebration to climax on May 29, in honoring our ancestors of 1773 who fought the slavemasters with their machetes and slew six of them.
