By Colin Hyde
The model the new government is following, a nucleus house on a solid foundation to be expanded on in the future when homeowners have the wherewithal, is a path to be followed. The government and people of Belize are subsidizing nearly 70% of the cost of the nucleus houses, to help Belizeans who need it most. Hurrah!
I can’t figure out the UDP’s criticism. Okay, most everyone wants to live in a mansion. I understand the houses are a tidy 12’ by 26’, okay, not big, but it’s a daam good start. WAVE superstar morning show host, Fonso, is saying that the houses cost a whopping $43,000. Has the cost of materials gone up that much? Is there something to the UDP suggestion that the blue habit of stealing the people is on again? Say it ain’t so, Blu. I hope the cost of materials hasn’t gone up that much.
This UDP, why condemn, shame us, because we can only afford to add on a plywood room on the starter home at this time? The way I see it, brothers and sisters, don’t even bother to put in a floor. Of course, you want a roof that doesn’t leak, but floor, for the extra elbow room we’ll get by on the ground, for now.
There are questions that homeowners have to ask the GOB engineers. Does the foundation for the additional rooms have to be of the same strength as the one for the core home? Off the top, I don’t think so. I don’t think the floor will have to be as strong either. Hurricanes don’t come every year. When one of those bad beasts blow in, the children and youth just have to haul into the core home and ride it out. If I understand the engineers at Infrastructure correctly, da beast can huff and puff, but it will never blow the core house down.
The UDP needs to check itself with all this starter houses negativity. If they did, they would find that if it isn’t jealousy, then it’s fat cats talk from a party that literally rolled through a billion dollars of Petro Caribe and local oil taxes. They should be coming up with ideas to improve on this core house. More than anyone else, they should know that finances are tight, because this time they didn’t leave anything for the PUP fu teef, and then the pandemic came and took even the rice bon from the pot.
These UDP bohgaz sound like those out-of-touch Americans who are blaming Biden for their not being able to live like they used to. None of them were around in the time of the last pandemic, but they have been spoiled to believe that hard times are for everybody but them. I don’t know if Americans don’t mind sounding ignorant, but I have my expectation of my people. Yes, I expect better from the UDP. Stop criticize da houses!
Incredibly gullible
Ah, Russia hurt us badly with its terrible invasion of sovereign Ukraine. It’s complicated for us, because Russia has continued where the USSR left off, giving support to countries in our region that the US has treated very unfairly. No country is an “island” in this world, and when the US cut off Cuba, the people of that country found a trade partner and ally in the USSR, a relationship which has continued with Russia since the countries that made up the USSR drifted apart.
The US really must end the inhumane blockade against our island neighbor. What’s their big fear? Is it that if they end the embargo, socialist Cuba will look so good it will become the model for other nations in the hemisphere? The math in the US has become very faulty. If they ease the embargo, more than likely the Cuban bird will open up its wings, and that includes flying more to the right.
Anyway, what I’m after today is this gullible disease that has infected some of my friends, and enemies. Point blank, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a terrible tragedy. How can anyone who numbers among the suffering masses of the world turn a blind eye to this massacre, and the terrible squander of resources that could be used to fight poverty, disease, and climate issues?
Space won’t be friendly here today, so let me just blow up one of many Russian myths. My gudnis, how people can believe what they want to believe. Really, Russia was afraid that Ukraine would join NATO and become a military threat on its borders? What nonsense! Russia has the world’s largest arsenal of nuclear weapons. If you don’t fear God, I bet you fear Russia. What, Russia afraid of being attacked? The only fear Russia could have was that Ukraine would no longer cower before her and her big, bully weapons.
Rubio wants to help Haiti
Marco Rubio is a Cuban-American senator (Republican, Florida) whose main support base is Cuban-Americans who insist that the US maintains its ugly embargo on Cuba. Relentlessly, for decades, Cubans in America, some of whom were unfortunate collateral when Castro overthrew Batista, have insisted that there be no ease on Cuba. Now Rubio, the leader of the group, is calling out for help for another island, Haiti.
Most of these Cuban-Americans are white, so they have been able to live the American dream. The Pew Research Center says “Cubans are far more likely than other Hispanics to identify themselves as white when asked about their race,” and that compared with other Hispanics in the US, Cubans “have a higher level of education, higher median household income and higher rate of home ownership.” Ah, it’s too fascinating to pass up. The Center says that in a census done in 2004, “about 86% of Cubans said they were white, compared with 60% among Mexicans, 53% among other Central and South Americans and 50% among Puerto Ricans.”
So, they’re doing pretty well in their new country, but you know nostalgia, and almost nobody put that pain to song better than Luis Aguilé, in one of the old Radio Belize favorites, “Cuando Salí de Cuba.” It should matter that the children of their old neighbors who were living in poverty are now fabulously educated, just waiting for the embargo to be lifted so they can fully spread their wings. It should.
Writing in the Miami Herald, Mr. Rubio said Haiti is on the verge of collapse, and US President Biden must act soon, send economic help, expand the IDB’s investment in infrastructure, and build closer economic ties with the country, as his “Haitian Economic Lift Program Extension Act would do by guaranteeing jobs and trade benefits for Haiti’s textile industry.”
We all know how the Europeans conspired against our brothers and sisters in Haiti, from the early 1800s; the unfortunate hits the island has taken from hurricanes and earthquakes; the troubles they’ve had with dictators propped up by those interested in exploiting the country, and the miserable way their neighbors in the Dominican Republic treat them. It would be good indeed if the US was to step up and give Haiti the support it needs.
Aha, Mr. Rubio said the Americans must help, but it must not signal that the US is open for illegal immigration. Rubio said an exodus from Haiti “would not help the island, which needs all the talent and resources it can get, nor would it help American citizens.” Rubio said what Haiti needs is political stability, so it can be better governed.
On the surface it is very nice of Mr. Rubio to be thinking about Haiti, but it’s not cynicism when I say if he loved people he wouldn’t encourage the embargo. Everyone knows charity begins at home. Haitians are black, and some would bet that white Rubio is worried about them landing in Florida and ruining the color scheme.