21.7 C
Belize City
Friday, March 29, 2024

World Down Syndrome Day

Photo: Students and staff of Stella Maris...

BPD awards 3 officers with Women Police of the Year

Photo: (l-r) Myrna Pena, Carmella Cacho, and...

Suicide on the rise!

Photo: Iveth Quintanilla, Mental Health Coordinator by Charles...

From the Publisher

PublisherFrom the Publisher

A friend of mine from the diaspora (a septuagenarian like myself, incidentally) e-mailed me to say how much he looked forward to my post-election column. I hate to disappoint him, but I don’t have that much to say.

The most important thing is for us at Kremandala to congratulate the People’s United Party (PUP) Leader, Johnny B, who becomes the new Prime Minister of Belize, and his winning team.

On the first two occasions when I was a part of a winning general election team, in 1979 (PUP) and 1984 (United Democratic Party), I did not bother to congratulate the winning Party Leader.

Mr. Price, the PUP Leader in 1979, had won a lot of elections, so he must not have worried about my negligence on the congratulations score.

As soon as those elections had been decided in 1979 and 1984, I removed myself from any party work and returned to Partridge Street to resume my newspaper work and continue hoping for a writing career.

I’ve often wondered if Mr. Esquivel was offended by the fact that I did not congratulate him personally in 1984. I felt that the post-election period was a time when tons of people were crowding and congratulating the winning Party Leader, and I would not be missed. But, looking back, I’ve thought sometimes that a situation like that, where an individual does not personally congratulate, would be an opportunity for someone to sow bad seeds for that individual, an opportunity to suggest to the new Prime Minister that such a person was jealous or negative in some kind of way. Just saying.

The outgoing Prime Minister, Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow, felt that it was important for him and his UDP to build their own radio and television stations, probably because Kremandala had become very powerful in the 1990s. Remember, we were the first media organization to control both a newspaper and a radio station. I think we achieved our status in the media world because we had built a reputation for credibility and perhaps some bravery. For sure I don’t feel so brave any more, that’s if I ever was, so we’ll just let that be.

The point of the comment about Mr. Barrow is that he directed huge gobs of financial support to his WAVE Radio and WAVE Television during his three terms of office. At the same time, he began, I would say specifically at the time of the Elvin Penner/Citizen Kim passport scandal in 2013, to victimize Kremandala business wise in every way he could.

Things got rough, and this year, of course, the virus just brought its own extraordinary pressure. Many, many Belizeans have things worse than I do, so I don’t want to be weeping and gnashing my teeth.

The UDP refused to do any advertisement business with Kremandala during this recent campaign. They had placed us in the PUP camp, so no food for Partridge. Politics is politics. Things cannot possibly be worse under Hon. Johnny B and the new PUP. Hence, once again, congratulations to Mr. John and his winning team.

Power to the people.

Check out our other content

World Down Syndrome Day

Suicide on the rise!

Check out other tags:

International