by Colin Hyde
I believe I don’t like to pick on anyone, and I definitely don’t like to appear to be picking on anyone, but this Mr. Richard Bradley is very provocative, apart from being the local grand champion of women’s rights. You know politicians should be most in the crosshairs, but the PUPs inherited a poisoned chalice, so they have to be given a little space; the UDP, my gudnis, somewhere someone is saying, never again; and in the third parties realm Wil is out fishing for barracudas with Valentino Shal, Nancy is raising ostriches, the VIP has become a peace movement, Patrick is writing a book, and Audrey, she is into glamour and pumping iron. It’s a vacuum out there, except for Mr. Bradley who’s been a constant star since his Wednesday night show and the Caliente girls.
On the Wake up Belize show on Krem last week, I believe he told the show’s host, Brother Nuri Muhammad, that the starting salary for a lawyer in private practice in Belize is around, wow, $150,000, and that there are about 200 lawyers working in Belize. Okay, Brother Bradley was shooting off the hip, but what he said serves my purpose.
Forget about what’s their real average take-home. Why should we get worked up about accuracy when we need to spark a bloody revolt? Sakraz, da lawyer breed di mek it!
Getting closer to the facts about lawyers’ pay
It really would be interesting to know what M Ashcroft pays Godfrey Smith to jet over Africa with him, and do his bidding in Belize. We heard of a local attorney’s firm taking home a thousand dollars an hour from our government in the battle to take back BTL. But they are the superrich of that elite band.
Salary Explorer at salaryexplorer.com says the average lawyer in Belize makes about BZ$7,830 per month; those at the, ehm, bottom, the poor of the lawyer class, make BZ$4,150 per month, and the average for the top feeders is BZ$11,900 per month. Benjamin Flowers of Breaking News said the PM said attorneys in government employ are making around $40,000 per year, which in the PM’s estimation is no kind of money for an attorney.
But in Belize lawyers’ earnings are indeed in the stratosphere
I think I’m not the only one who’s wondering where the money comes from to feed 200 lawyers at such high pay. Not all their feeding comes from our trough. They do have foreign clients, and some of them are quite big prizes. Attachments to oil companies make them drool, and acting as agents for big brands translates to rib eye for supper. The golden goose for lawyers is Ashcroft — working for him or working for our government against him. Bah, when it is all done, every penny paid out by that Lord is extracted from our national pie.
Looking at their take from the national pie, for common sense reasons, for keeping “sound bones”, I won’t put my anteojos on. I’m not an investigative journalist. I’m not even a journalist. Aw shucks, okay, you forced me to say what you already know. My, my, some people on the wrong side of the law have unclean cash to burn, and when the police or the FIU catches up with them, the lawyer sharks have a feeding frenzy. Talking sharks with fins, is it true that one of them swallowed a man? And just when sympathy was growing for their decimated ranks! Something will have to be done about those bohgaz if they molest the fishing at Gladden Spit this year.
Their capital philosophy
Things dread in our country; in fact, it has always been dread for at least 40% of us, but we have a breed that is enjoying the world of plenty. And their primary objective is to continue to enjoy that world, while the Devil takes the rest. They never touch their capital, until the doctor or the pharmacy puts the bite on it.
I understand that not touching the capital is useful philosophy when people are on their backsides. The advice from money experts is that you’re supposed to strive to put away a certain amount each week, focus on building a nest egg. They say you can’t teach new tricks to an old daag. These people never waver from building that nest egg, even if it grows into the millions. They never touch it, until medical things.
There’s a national thing called a tax system, and it really would be good if people who are alert to all that’s going on would weigh in to inform on how this tool can be improved to attack fat, resting nest eggs. Ai, the people never win. Very likely those with the knowhow have their own account number, so they won’t be telling us how to get at the cheese.
The biggest story is what lawyers do with the money
How capitalism works: We have to understand the system that allows individuals to make it so big. To create a wealthy class, capitalism encourages exploitation, even enters the crooked world. Capitalism works when people who acquire money via hard work, luck, pluck, lawyering, or the Boledo understand that money must be used to create more money, and to create jobs. The money must “trickle” down in gobs to the masses, so there is happiness, so there is no need for a revolt.
Yap, the job of this wealthy class is to be the movers and shakers of the economy; their job is to create employment and generate taxes for all.
How the lawyers get and insulate their wealth: They for sure know how to bite it. We know they and their friends in government create laws to keep our money rolling in. Years ago they passed a law for a minimum charge, to prevent altruism in the ranks. That’s why for the simplest of tasks you need to pay them two weeks of minimum wage earnings. In an attempt to separate themselves from the cursed Pharisees that they are, I yer they have a law that prevents them from announcing any donation they make to worthy causes. Thus, they can get away with donating “nothing.”
Notable good lawyers: One lawyer who would not be denied his humanness, a gentleman named Lionel Welch, defied the bohgaz and sponsored a football club. And Brother Wilfred Elrington sponsored a brass band. A few others have dabbled in sailing dory races. It’s a fact of life. Nobody or no group is all bad.
What this wealthy lawyer group must do, instead of sitting on it: I have heard that much of their loot they stash abroad, offshore. No, no, no, lawyers’ earnings can’t all go into SUVs and the foreign banks and the importation of steel and cement to make big houses. No developing country can grow if a little group siphons off so much, and doesn’t spread it.
Okay, we know our lawyers know about biting wealth. But they don’t know one preh-heh about creating it. We’ve heard about all the loose cash in the banks. We at the bottom have ideas, but we don’t have the “holy grail” cash flow, so we can’t borrow any of it. This group is loaded. Only they can access the loot. This group with the surplus cash should link up with an Ervin Perez. They could use advice on how to create businesses, so they can get their money working for the national good.
A next thing for the group and those in their class. They should be gobbling up and paying top dollars for the paintings and music and cottage industries stuff of our artists. The evening news should be dominated with stories of their sponsorship of local musicians and youth groups. They should be employing people and creating more wealth and creating more jobs, so we can stay a bloody revolution.