I think it is criminal to not give a man the chance to avenge a loss. When I was a little boy I was a total hound after a football. There were three younger boys, each two years my junior, in my yard — my younger brother, Ronald; my cousin Dave di Dude, who lived in Lindo’s Alley but spent all his free time in our yard at West Canal, and Francis Acosta, whose family lived in the lower flat of my dad’s two-storey house.

Hey, bear me with me a little as I tell you all about my pain again. Ronald didn’t like football. David didn’t like football that much. Francis didn’t like football. Ron was a matinee boy, a bat an rikits boy, a Cowboys and Indians/Police and Robbers boy. Di Dude was a matinee boy, and a Cowboys and Indians/Police and Robbers boy. Francis was a matinee boy — Abott and Costello were his favorites; he was also into electronics and he liked Cowboys and Indians/Police and Robbers games. Incidentally, Francis, a well-brought-up boy, is the author or relator of a poem that has never been published.

I had to beg or seduce those boys to play with me. To get those little ——z into a game with me, I had to low-rate myself, make a fool of myself, and go play Cowboys and Indians/Police and Robbers with them. I wasted my ten cents at the matinee a few times, but I can’t remember that being about getting any points with them.

So, my quid pro quo for playing their games was that they would play with me. Ronald and di Dude rarely won. Ronald, Dude and Francis rarely won too. Those bohgaz came hard, they had their pride, but they seldom drank from the cup, because I was doubly motivated to kick their little behinds. I liked football, and, pardon me, I will not accept losing at things I like. Agh, when those little philistines won, I would have to grovel like a dog that has no pride to get them to give me a chance at redemption.

When I won, they were eager to go at it again. I loved the game, and also, it is proper that they got a chance to redeem themselves. They had no honor when they won. I think when we are in the hereafter the Lord will tell my lee breda, who was the ringleader of the dissidents, “you were wrong and people who seh your bigger breda was chaansi to beat you up, it’s bikaaz dehn neva know”.

People who don’t know sports don’t know its tremendous value as a teaching tool. In a well put together sports program you will learn discipline. You will also have to learn how to deal with the agony of defeat, no matter who you are. If you’ve got your peers covered, there are bigger boys who will put you in your place.

What do you do with the agony when they puncture the ball on you? Well, knowing the whole deal about that, how can I tell Juan Manuel Marquez to let Mr. Manny Pacquiao stew in his pain? There’s some kind of fever going around that is making old heroes think about past glory, and the latest story is that Juan Manuel Marquez, who is in his mid-forties, is in some kind of shape, and maybe he is thinking about duking it out with Mr. PacMan again. Why?

These dudes fought four times when they were in their primes, all thrillers, total wars, with the PacMan winning the first three, squeakers on the judges’ cards. In the fourth fight no judges were needed; Marquez clocked Pacquiao, knocked him out cold.

Pacquiao fans say Marquez stepped on the PacMan’s foot, before knocking his chin into the back of his head, but on the numerous replays I have watched, I refuse to look down. I only look above the belt, so I can savor to the fullest the single most dramatic punch ever thrown. Throw away the judges’ scorecards; they are not needed. What is needed is a stretcher to carry Pacquiao to the locker room for smelling salts and specialist’s attention.

Under normal circumstances, I say a man who is legit would give that bohga PacMan another chance. But there are times when a man gets too old for that. This is one of these times. Don’t fight him, Juan Manuel.

A vote in FPTP is huge

BPP leader, Mr. Patrick Rogers, I think he said in a Facebook post that people who vote for third parties have no interest in voting for either of the two PUDP parties. I would say that I am not in full agreement.

There really are people who have totally lost hope in better coming to the country with either of the two PUDPs, but such people are few. What’s more common are people who don’t feel VERY hopeful when they see red and blue, and if their hope is weak, they might be picked off by the third parties. Third parties’ picking off votes here and there doesn’t impact that much in countries that practice Proportional Representation or the Alternative Vote, but in countries that practice the First-Past-The-Post system (FPTP), it is huge. In FPTP countries like ours, ONE VOTE can give a party 100% control of the people’s business for FIVE FULL YEARS!

To my mind the last general election, 2015, was consequential, very, because we had a party in government for two terms. There are sayings that are like 100% true, and the one about absolute power corrupting absolutely, that is fixed in stone. We Belizeans have to be very wary of governments that deh eena power too long, because these philistines trample all our systems.

I believe that third parties should work with the main opposition party or one-term governments to get political reforms that will improve our country, and they should work to get political reforms that make third parties viable.

In another post Mr. Rogers pointed out that it is only in countries that have the Republican system that crooked political leaders get sent to jail for their misdeeds, a view I am sure is shared by Krem’s Mr. JC Arzu. What Mr. Rogers said is true, but what is also true is that a lot of these Republics have been horrible, though a number of them have been doing better in recent years.

I have tremendous respect for Mr. Rogers and his colleagues; these guys sacrifice a lot, and on most things I’ll defer because guys like him have been battling for years, but I think I have a right to contribute, because if we look at the Belize our leaders made, we have to ask, what the hell happened?

We watched our murder rate go up, up, up, and all we get for an answer is that we are on the drug route. How come we are satisfied with a justice system that delivers no justice for the murdered? How come we let these lawyers get away with presiding under wigs and robes and acting so lofty and smart and we have so much corruption in our country? I think I’ll stop there.