On the “liked” scale, former News5 anchor and current Vice President of Oceana in Belize, Ms. Janelle Chanona, is one of the most popular Belizeans. As a news person she was a trailblazer, a star when television news was novel to Belize, and at Oceana she has been a worthy successor to Ms. Audrey Matura, who saved World Heritage status for our reef when she organized a referendum in which Belizeans voted overwhelmingly against any exploration for oil in the sea in front of our shores. Hmm, if the price of oil keeps rising, there’ll be a hankering from some people to rethink our stance there…but haha, with the Blue Bond in our corner, they’ll have some mighty waves to cross.

Most Belizeans are pro-environment, and in the marine world we have deep concern for our groupers, and other fragile marine species. Oceana and Janelle have been at the fore in the fight for the reef, and in most of her engagements the wind and the people have been at her back. Only a few of her battles have not been all that easy. In the media she sometimes had to get tough with our countless wayward political leaders, and she has had to buck heads with some fisherfolk who resist change. But all in all it has been relatively smooth sailing. All that is about to change, now that she has been sent to the Senate, been chosen as the representative for NGOs. Her days of sailing in fair winds are behind her. There’ll be a lot of head winds she’ll have to navigate.

There’s SOME hot history behind the NGOs’ seat in the Senate. The 2008 UDP promised to improve the PUP’s enhanced Senate with a 13th senator, so that the Opposition and non-government senators would outnumber government senators 7 to 6. That new seat was designated, giftwrapped for the NGOs. We all know that the UDP didn’t deliver on that promise until two governments later, and why it took them so daam long.

My gudnis, PM Dean Barrow went through more contortions than Houdini slipping shackles in a sack, all to prevent Greg Ch’oc from taking up the NGO seat. And, and he didn’t cry uncle until the teachers broke the law over his back at the Biltmore.

When the teachers locked arms and got him to deliver the NGO seat, Greg was out of the country, studying law in Guyana. Osmany Salas was called on to take up the spear, and he has done a noble job, except for blocking Henry Charles’s piecemeal moves to reform, he and his colleagues opting instead for a repeat of the much-ignored Political Reform Commission recommendations which were presented in 2000. But we can give Osmany a near perfect score, because all the intellectuals are in favor of the soon to be constituted 2022 Constitutional Reform Commission. I veto that, because more than likely it will all be wasted air.

The other big shoe Janelle has to fill is her dad’s. She comes from a PUP family, and her dad, Anthony, was the first mayor of Belmopan, and once represented the PUP in the Senate. For those who don’t know, Godwin scolded Anthony after he voted yes to the PUP’s under-cover-of-night vesting bill. In his defense, Anthony chastised the PUP for giving them the bill the morning of the meeting. He then proceeded to say yay, explaining that as a PUP senator it was not his right to vote nay. Shortly after, Anthony showed his mettle. He resigned from the job the wikid PUP gave him in the Senate.

I’m sure Janelle is well aware that she is not going to a tea party, and yes, that she knows she has some big shoes to fill. The Senate doesn’t have mighty powers, but she’ll be voting on behalf of our NGOs on many controversial matters. There’ll be bills, bills to debate, and even though she’ll be seeking consensus before she enters the Upper House, she’ll personally be under the microscope.

Condolences, Brother Clinton

Much love to Brother Clinton Canul Luna, and strength, as he deals with losing his son, Manuel. Much love to all Manuel’s family and close friends too. The remarks in Brother Clinton’s column were beautiful. I think everyone who read it loved Manuel’s vibes. RIP, Manuel.

Accident or incident

I’m no big wordsmith, but because we could all use some uniformity here, I throw my two cents. It’s Love FM that started it, funny because they are the architects of stale, and now the trailblazing Channel 7 has joined, I noticed, in referring to an RTA as an incident.

Indeed, an accident has to be determined, while incident doesn’t commit to anything. If a man falls from a roof, we say it was an accident. But the man could have been pushed, as well as he could have jumped off. When two vehicles collide, one of the drivers could have maliciously hit the other.

Here’s why the law refers to a vehicle collision as an accident. Karns & Kerrison (law firm) says “in the world of workplace mishaps…an ‘incident’ is any unexpected event that does not result in serious losses or injury; an ‘accident’ is an unexpected event that causes damage, injury, or harm.”

On the surface it looks incidental, but if you take a little dive, it is downright cynical to refer to a fatal RTA as an—incident. Hmm, you know there are two kinds of people in this world. Those who want to believe that human beings are good. They will report “accident”. The second kind believes that human beings are all kinds of things. Those kinds will say “incident”.

Long years later I figured out that left signal

Despite much improvement to the highways in our country, there are still “straights” where it is a little tricky to pass when a big vehicle is ahead of you. Back when I got the left signal, there were many such areas on all our highways. My, the dusty PG road was 101 miles of can’t pass, from its junction with the Hummingbird all the way to Peini. Hmm, one would have expected after that highway was brought up to international standards that Jerry Enriquez would have stopped describing our governments as Belize City-centric.

The left signal that befuddled me, it was on the Hummingbird Highway. I was tailing a big truck for quite some distance, and the driver up ahead put on his left indicator and stuck his left arm out of his window and beckoned me to pass.

I was as confused as hell, so confused that I just sat back a while behind that big truck. If he had given me a right signal and beckoned me with his hand to pass, I would have pulled out and make a move, without committing. On the highway, vehicles are going too fast, so you have to be sure. Oh no, I wouldn’t have given him all my trust.

How can you give a left signal and then beckon someone with your hand to pass? Incredibly, when I told another licensed driver my story, he argued that a left indicator on the highway means the road is clear up ahead.

I could have gone immediately when he beckoned. But I sat back a bit, and then I did it my way. I drifted out from under him, went way wide of him, and then I hit floorboard. It took me years to figure it out. He must have been planning to turn across the road, but he was some ways off, the road was clear, and being a conscientious type he beckoned me to pass. Well, I didn’t bite.