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From The Publisher

PublisherFrom The Publisher
On the Kremandala Show held on Tuesday night, October 7, panelist Rufus X charged that Zenaida Moya’s campaign for the UDP’s mayoral candidacy had been financed by Lord Michael Ashcroft while being supported 100 percent by the Kremandala organization. This was a patently incorrect statement, since Rufus X owns 20 per cent of KREM Radio, 10 per cent of Kremandala, Ltd., is a board member of the UBAD Educational Foundation (UEF) and an esteemed panelist on the Kremandala Show, and he had publicly supported Zenaida’s challenger, Anthony Michael. I therefore immediately took issue with Rufus X’s statement with respect to Kremandala, because I knew his charge was inaccurate. Let me try to explain, however, why Rufus felt the way he did.
 
In its business capacity, Kremandala is basically divided into three units – Amandala newspaper, KREM Radio and KREM TV. The newspaper is a personal proprietorship, while the radio and the television are limited liability companies.
 
There is another company, however, called Adsmasters, which is a spinoff from the radio. Adsmasters is a limited liability company owned by Mose and Michael Hyde, who are the general managers of KREM TV and KREM Radio, respectively. As far as I know, and I do not interfere, Adsmasters’ main business is promotions and advertisement productions. Adsmasters owns the sound system known as Dignitariz, and they have run clubs in the past, such as Honeybees.
 
Zenaida Moya’s husband (common-law), Troy “DJ Dalla” Flowers, has invested in an established music distribution company – Record Shack, and he is one of the founders and owners of the sound system known as Belizean Movements. Over a period of time, DJ Dalla’s businesses and Adsmasters’ businesses have overlapped, so to speak, and my understanding, from a distance, is that the two entities have been doing an amount of collaborating on promotions and other business for quite a while now.
 
My understanding is that Michael Hyde was visibly involved in Zenaida’s campaign on polling day, Sunday, October 5. I say this is “my understanding,” because I have not yet sat down and discussed the matter with Michael.
 
In the wake of the Kremandala Show charges by Rufus, I made inquiries. At the management level of our newspaper, for instance, there was a feeling that the level of Michael Hyde’s involvement in the Moya campaign was unseemly. Certainly, that involvement gave opportunity for Rufus to attack me publicly.
 
In the weeks leading up to the UDP’s October 5 convention, KREM Radio personalities, Tony Wright and Frankie Rhys (Frankie also writes for Amandala), had openly endorsed Zenaida. In the Kremandala yard itself, Zenaida was substantially more popular than her opponent, Anthony Michael, one reason being that Zenaida has made it her business to pay respect to the “zinc fence” from way, way back.
 
Personally, I preferred for Zenaida to win, but I did not involve myself in the October 5 campaign, because this was UDP business. I never personally endorsed Zenaida in my columns or on the Kremandala Show.
 
The issue of Zenaida’s campaign financing was not my business until the Rufus charge came on the radio/television show that I chair, to the effect that Ashcroft had paid her bills. As you know, Lord Ashcroft and Kremandala have been at war since March of 2007. If Kremandala had supported Zenaida, and she was financed by Lord Ashcroft, then the conclusion would have been that Kremandala could have been shooting itself in the foot by so supporting.
 
If the general opinion is that Kremandala was friendly to, and supportive of, Zenaida Moya, I don’t have a problem with that. I have explained that Adsmasters, an offshoot of Kremandala, has a growing relationship with Zenaida’s husband. Various Kremandala personalities are Zenaida’s friends and supporters.
 
Over the last two months, Nelson Hyde, my younger brother who retired after more than thirty years in management at BTA and BTL, has been chairing meetings with the general managers of our newspaper, radio and television. The purpose of these meetings is to create meaningful integration energies. The three businesses have been operating more independently of each other than is efficient.
 
In conclusion, I have been told that Lord Ashcroft’s purpose in supporting Zenaida was to embarrass Prime Minister Dean Barrow. Well, the Prime Minister was one of Lord Ashcroft’s lawyers for almost two decades. In fact, when the letter came from the Lord to declare war on Kremandala, it came from the Prime Minister’s law firm. These two are much bigger men in Belize than we are on Partridge, so the African proverb is here apropos. When elephants fight, the grass is trampled.
 
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