On Wednesday morning, January 5, Prime Minister, Hon. Said Musa, suggested that he and I discuss the situation. This meeting was held late Wednesday evening.

On Wednesday afternoon, Lumumba reported that UDP officials were prepared to meet with representatives of our ad hoc UBAD group. Details of such a discussion are yet to be agreed upon.

As I?m writing this column before dawn on Thursday morning, the situation in Belize City is tense, probably more tense than the leaders of the two major political parties realize. The reasons for the tension are the financial crisis in Belize linked to mismanagement and corruption at the Social Security Board and the Development Finance Corporation; the ouster of three Southside Ministers on Tuesday, January 28, 2004; the expectation of higher taxes in the new budget to be read next week Friday; the loss of more and more jobs as the private sector and GOB both downsize; the demand for higher water rates by BWS; the continuing controversies involving BTL and Intelco; and the annual early January stress.

One thing that strikes me about the present situation is that the people in the five other districts of Belize, apart from the Belize district, do not have an accurate picture of the situation in the old capital. This is because, for whatever the reasons, the only national radio station has been careful to ?hold it down.?

I suppose this is being done because the ownership of that radio station does not want to influence the situation. Anyone can understand such a position, but this tension in the streets has little to do with the radio stations.

The only radio stations which discuss the situation in detail are the UDP?s WAVE Radio and KREM. (Of the other three radio stations in Belize City, two are PUP-owned and one is evangelical.) WAVE has been lashing out at the PUP government for years on their morning talk show, so they are not doing anything extraordinary right now. KREM listeners have discussed the situation on the Wake Up Belize morning talk show, but cycling has been more of an inflammatory issue than politics. (Well, maybe not.)

My point is that the tension in Belize City, the media capital of Belize, is not on the airwaves as much as it is in the streets.

The Prime Minister is under a lot of pressure, of course, and I have to assume that the hard line element in the PUP is coming to the fore, even as the anti-government grumbling in the streets grows louder.

Overall, this is not a pleasant situation, and it could become dangerous very quickly.

The UDP is not sure how it wants to proceed presently, or, at least, that is my impression. The UDP is not in charge of the tension in the streets. Any trouble which embarrasses the ruling party, however, will benefit the UDP politically.

We UBAD/Kremandala have adopted a position of political neutrality, so that is why we have met in the last week with the leaders of both the major political parties. We have a problem which is a national problem right now, and we need to address it as a nation.

Amandala. Power to the people.