Early in 1975, the PUP and I ?signed? a kind of truce, and the major benefit for me was that I was allowed to broadcast football and basketball games on Radio Belize, which was then a national radio monopoly. My partner in these broadcasts was the senior public officer, Manfred Atkins, who had been Radio Belize?s sportscaster for maybe 15 years or so. Previously, his partner on most of his broadcasts, especially Holy Saturday Crosscountry, had been Michael Hulse, another senior public officer.

But between 1975 and 1977, there was a ?new kid in town? on Radio Belize, and his name was Evan X Hyde, rescued from Belize?s garbage heap. I was still young, and probably flamboyant, at least by comparison to Hulse and Atkins.

During those three years, my younger brother, Ronald, did most of the newspaper editing. We were still letter press, so almost no pictures. Florence Burns and Lois Flowers did the type setting. Cecilia Zetina was our typist/receptionist. Noel Ferguson was the printer and Winston Denton pumped the press by hand.

I tried everything I could, but there was no way Amandala would ever compete with REPORTER unless we went offset, and so we began to do when Said Musa decided to become my partner early in 1977. (That specific partnership broke up in 1981, but that?s another story.)

As a result of Said?s giving me a fighting chance to compete in the newspaper business, I felt a certain gratitude to him. The ruling PUP were going into Belize City Council elections in December of 1977, and PUP leadership had decided to dispense with the party hacks and go ?high tech?. Said was considered the leader of the slate, because he was the only candidate who had been a general election candidate (Fort George in 1974, when he lost to Dean Lindo).

Following my Collet candidacy in October of 1974, I had retired from electoral politics. But now, around September/October of 1977, PUP leadership began pressuring me to be one of their CitCo 1977 candidates. In retrospect, when the PUP went ?high tech? in 1977, they were in a kind of panic mode. This was a time when Dean Lindo?s UDP looked like a sure bet to form the next national government. The UDP was heavily financed, ultra-modern in organization and technique, and they were actually the incumbent Belize City Council administration. The UDP?s Paul Rodriguez had been the Mayor since 1974, and he was popular.

The transition from letterpress to offset was an emotional time on Partridge Street, because Noel, Flo and Lois did not know the new technology. Noel went to work at National Printers to learn offset printing. Flo and Lois went to the States: they were not pleased with me, to put it mildly.

Anyway, to shorten a long story, I yielded to PUP pressure and became a candidate. The UDP won a tremendous landslide. I finished dead last in the list of 18 candidates, and that humiliation changed my life.

Following the disaster, the PUP leadership declared an official party line, which was that the UDP had ?stolen? the election. I really did not believe that this party line applied to me, editor of Amandala. I wrote an article in the newspaper detailing the reasons, in my opinion, why the PUP had lost. PUP leadership became very, very angry at me, and there were people who threatened me physically.

In early 1978, when the intimidation was easing up a little, Chief Broadcasting Officer, Everal Waight, hired me to broadcast an interdistrict football game, monster game ? Cayo vs Orange Walk in Orange Walk Town!

Broadcasts like these were done out of the back of a truck on the eastern sideline at midfield. Poppa Treetop and I travelled to Orange Walk together the Sunday afternoon. Manfred was handling pre-game. When the game started, ?the star? leaped into the back of the truck to begin taking care of business. But Manfred kept broadcasting. Then, I noticed Michael Hulse at his side.

After about 15 minutes, Hulse came next to me and said, under his breath so that only I could hear, ?You come fu announce eena Spanish or what?? The set up had been beautiful. The execution was impeccable. The victim was dead on the spot.

My face showed no emotion. A couple minutes later I jumped out of the truck and linked up with Tops. We drank some beers, watched the rest of the game, then made our way back to Belize City.

I vowed I?d never broadcast again until I did so on my own radio station. The PUP, in response to inquiries, put out a rat that I?d been taken off Radio Belize because I had cursed a bad word during a game. A clever untruth, but the reason was really that I had not toed the party line. For this, they brought out the hatchetman. Big time.