Isn’t it amazing that no one at Wave, not even Joe, can tell Mr. Samuels to put a mask on his face when he comes on their show to taak bad about the other party? Since the new coronavirus gripped our world, there have been numerous magnified photographs to show how spit di fly when we are talking, especially when we shout, and this Mr. Samuels taak louder than Joe. Hasn’t he seen any of these pics? Are those brave people at Wave afraid to tell this gentleman to mask up?

Oh how I love to hear about all the wicked deeds of PUP-past and what PUP-present is up to; tell me again and again, I can never get enough of hearing about PUP dirt, but whenever I scroll over to Wave and I see the flagrant violation of the safety measures, I turn to the wicked Vibes, the Plus, or back to Nuri.

Hn, I don’t scroll over to the Love crew anymore because they are a daam bad example for the people. It doesn’t matter if all the hosts there are absolutely sure they are not carriers. Congratulations to PUP Vibes for reining in the media complainant, Mr. Gill. I am sure that Ms. Wendy is so, so grateful to the leader for explaining to Gill that the best example isn’t talk, it is walking the walk. Now the man masks up every day.

This story, it’s really about the inspiration I got while listening to Joe and Alfonso inputting on the education story and the need for us to improve. I’m sure that Brother Francis is working overtime to get the best out of this bad situation; I know because he is a serious guy. I hope he believes that ideas from various corners, including from the enemy side, can help get you over.

While the Wave brothers were making suggestions about how to get more juice out of home schooling, I got to thinking that by the time school reopens, every child and youth should know their times tables, and all the mathematical formulas and the English grammar at their level. I say we forget about developing their critical thinking while they have one leg out of school and get to the rote fundamentals that they MUST HAVE to build on.

Please don’t dump on my contribution because I’m no scholar. Okay, I’m no poster boy for schools, I hated the four walls, but common sense is everywhere.

I tell you, if I had done my grammar basics, the devil parsing, I wouldn’t have needed to drink rum before I speak Spanish. Point blank I won’t converse in Spanish when I am sober, because my grammar isn’t good, and my grammar isn’t good because I don’t know English grammar on paper. I’m pretty well- read, so I can handle myself somewhat with writing the English, but when it comes to speaking, I get a B in the Queen’s language and a D in Spanish. Of course, when it comes to the Kriol, I give myself a fat A.

50% limit in buses can and must be done

I heard that the bus owners want to be allowed to run at 100% capacity, after the new GoB very wisely limited them to 50%, and disappointingly increased that to 75% within a week of their decision. Look, if we are going to defeat this disease, and we accept that physical distancing is the number one measure to fight it, we can’t entertain this request.

Part of the reason that the buses are hurting is because people aren’t traveling like they used to. Our school children and youth aren’t traveling; many people are out of jobs, so they aren’t traveling, and we don’t go visiting family, friends and places like we used to.

When they were dividing up the pie among the bus operators, they had to share it so that a bus operator couldn’t cherry pick the runs that move the school children/youth and workers during rush hours. Over time, as our economy shrank and the cost of fuel went up, and with the government unable to adjust the rates upwards, the bus operators reduced the number of runs and packed in more commuters. It’s business.

If the Transport Department doesn’t have the information, which they should have, it is for sure that the bus operators know the number of buses that they filled in normal times, and the buses that they can fill now if there are no restrictions.

Of course the bus operators are hurting. It is a fact that they are taking a big hit, but the answer is not to give them the right to pack us in, not at this time. Belizeans are aware of what is going on in the UK right now. This disease spreads like crazy in crowded environments. We must maintain elbow room in the buses no matter the cost. Really, it’s not forever.

There’s a difference between the cost of running a full bus compared to running an empty one, in fuel, and in wear on tires and engines and suspension. We don’t have to go to great trouble to find out the cost of fuel for a bus run. All we have to do is run an empty bus, a half-full bus, and a full bus between Belmopan and Belize City to determine that.

Some of the supplementary funds going to Wellness should go to subsidize public transportation. The subsidy will only be needed for the peak hours, when people have to go to work or get home. I haven’t been traveling much since the epidemic, but my guess is that two or three extra buses during the peak hours in all areas will give us the space we need so that public transportation can do its part to help conquer this disease. Really, it’s not forever.

It’s an aside, but that National Assembly building could do with extractor fans to improve the quality of the air inside there. Air movement is funny; particles that should fall to the floor don’t always do, so it would be good for each Area Rep to have an extractor fan directly over their cubicle. The extractor fans would suck out the air and expel it through a pipe that leads behind the building.

Those Reps and the Speaker and public officers were in that building a long time. They will have to stop trying to be like Melvin Hulse.

Were some UDPeez trying hard to go to jail?

It’s around that the PUPeez are blowing hot air with their talk about putting the bangles on UDP bad boys, and loading a flatbed trailer with ill-gotten gains for distribution at auction to the people. Personally, I prefer open auction to these sealed bids. I don’t know why private auctioneers have an open show, and you bid for government articles in sealed envelopes. I won’t speculate on the pros and cons; I jos doant like the secret documents.

Getting back to the substance of this piece, people who don’t believe anything will come of the accusations have to put into the pot the fact that after years of getting away with brazen acts, politicians and friends became wild with their misdoings, to the point where some of them jos never kay who si or who bex.

Never in our history have we had government ministers and cronies who tried so hard to get a space at Mr. Murillo’s big house. It’s like some of these former folks in power baan fu goh deh. It’s like all their lives they were honing their skills at bayrface graft, and then they went full bore to fulfill a destiny to be poster boys in orange jublung for the Belize anti-corruption movement.