I guess I shouldn’t feel the way I feel. Maybe I should have expected this, because it sure makes sense. I am not at all in the mood to jump up and down and scream: “Victory is ours.” Know why? Because it’s not! Sure more Belizeans than ever before chose to stand up and make public their anger and disgust at the Musa-Fonseca faction of the PUP for their arrogance and the contempt that they show for the people they were elected to govern. That does make the future seem maybe a tad more promising but; and it’s a BIG, BIG BUT.
We are nine long years into what can only be described as being as huge a financial debacle that a small country like ours could have ever gotten into. I do not doubt for a minute that in addition to all the stuff we know about, there are more UHS’s buried somewhere in the slime which disgorged this one! It’s hard for me to want to celebrate when I realize that my great grandchildren most likely will still be paying for all of this; and I don’t even have any great grandchildren yet.
I’m also more than a bit muted in my criticism of the Belizean people now. I have said and written some harsh things in the past, but I think some of that was frustration. Much of it was an attempt to get people fired up; to motivate them to don’t just stand there, DO SOMETHING FOR CRISSAKES! I realize that Belize as an “independent nation” is only twenty -six years old. I grew up in a huge country that is now over 200 years old, and it’s still screwed up!
Sometimes I forget that when I first came to Belize, there were no home telephones, no television and only one tightly controlled government radio station. Free and voluminous communication was something that I took for granted. The Amandala editorial, “The Test of Time” in the May 27th issue, accurately points out the significance of the introduction of American television some twenty years ago, along with the freeing up of radio beginning in 1989, in regards to the effect that it has had in developing a population that is becoming more politically sophisticated with each passing day. That is certainly a positive and a welcome change and I am proud to be associated with one of the main architects of that change – Kremandala.
I do want to emphasize, however, that we have only won the first minute and a half of round one, and this is a championship fight! Anyone who knows the fight game knows that a hurt fighter is a dangerous fighter. There appeared to be something in addition to contempt and arrogance that was displayed in the UHS matter – desperation! To quote from Russell Vellos’ article entitled “Half-Crazy” in that same May 27th issue of Amandala, “Of course, perhaps Musa may not really be half-crazy. It may be that for reasons only he knows, he has no choice but to ram his friends’ $33 million bill down the collective throats of Belizean taxpayers, no matter if it destroys him, his party and their chances in the next general elections, which are so near.”
Mr. Vellos and I are far from the only ones who have sensed that desperation. It seemed to hover around this matter from day one, and grew increasingly stronger and more disquieting by the day. This theme has surfaced in a whole lot of conversations I’ve had with a whole lot of people. I keep finding it difficult to believe that Said Musa is so delusional that he doesn’t know the damage that this has done to him and to everything around him. He couldn’t be that stupid, could he? Maybe we’re all wrong. He could be, I really don’t know. He won’t win a free and fair election for dogcatcher for the rest of his life, given his record as the PUP leader and Prime Minister of Belize for ten horrible and corrupt years. Maybe he figures that he’s a political dead rat. Maybe the coming election won’t be free and fair. Maybe he doesn’t give a s—t! According to one friend of mine whom I trust, it’s all about money and power.
Of course, we will now have to struggle to recover from all the damage, the stuff we know about, the stuff we will find out later and, UHS has not gone away! All Musa did was to take it off the table today! It can pop up any time, like a recurrent nightmare. Michael Ashcroft is not a warm and fuzzy guy; people who make that kind of money seldom are. He certainly is not going to write off millions or hundreds of millions of dollars while he waltzes off into the sunset singing, “That’s life.” Ripping off Michael Ashcroft is certainly not something you want to do if you are planning on dying of old age in your bed with your loving family by your side.
I don’t see Musa putting this thing to rest. He desperately needs to find a way to get Ashcroft his money. Ashcroft doesn’t want buildings with medical equipment in them. Selling that stuff would bring in a fraction of what he’s out if he could even sell it. The other way is to run the clinic and collect as the money comes in. He damn sure doesn’t want to do that either. As a banker friend once told me, “We aren’t in the business of selling foreclosed property or of maintaining such property until we find a buyer at a discount price which really means at a net loss. That’s a last resort. We are in the money business.”
Damn, how right we were! The pulling of the UHS bill was just a sham! Musa had already agreed to arbitration of the UHS claim in England (Ashcroft’s playground) and money was being disbursed even as the Solicitor General was swearing that not one penny would be paid while the case was in court. There is no point in negotiating with the Musa-Fonseca axis of evil.
Somebody at BTL obviously gave the order to take KREM off the internet on BTL’s portal. It’s obvious that Michael Ashcroft appears to be trying to hurt Kremandala in every way that he can, but this move made very little sense. BTL can easily be bypassed in many ways. It’s really the equivalent of the five-year-old that tells the playground crowd that if they refuse to play by his rules, he will go home and take his ball with him. It’s not like there are no other balls in the ‘hood.
Who knows if the order came from Mr. Head Honcho himself? Perhaps it came from boy-boy Boyce. In any case, I remember the reports on the news when the PUC (Public Utilities Commission) held hearings as regards BTL’s decision to block VOIP or Voice Over Internet Protocol. One of the angry people in the audience reminded BTL that, “they are not in the telephone business; they are in the communications business.” It appears that the message was not received.
Technology is no longer the exclusive possession of the extremely wealthy. When I first began recording music in the 1960’s, a properly equipped studio required an investment of at least $250,000.00 US. That’s a quarter of a million dollars, folks! Today, better quality recordings can be produced with an investment of less than $25,000.00 US. Internet technology, which also translates into phone technology as well as recording technology, has undergone a similar revolution.
What happens if inner city and village neighborhoods organize to access satellite phone services and use them to connect to the internet? What is Ralphie going to do, pass legislation to outlaw this? Do you really think that Ralphie’s boy-boy cops can run around with signal detectors to locate “illegal” phone access? They might take years just to learn how to operate the signal detectors! BTL will regret the decision to attempt to intimidate us. Besides, the phone service has become so lousy recently, who could be blamed for trying to find a better alternative.
Now as regards the kidnapping of Derek Aikman. Mr. Aikman and I sat side by side on last week’s Kremandala show. He has always given me maximum respect, and I consider him a colleague in arms. I am old enough to know that there are wheels within wheels. In this wicked world that we live in, things can often be not what they may at first glance seem to be. I hope and pray that Derek Aikman will be released and safely returned to his family. I believe that the public response to his referendum and the organizational ability that he demonstrated, scares the hell out of some people. He just may be the only person in Belize who is capable of leading a third party that may garner mass support. I am also aware that journalism is one of the world’s most dangerous professions and that any one of us at Kremandala is a likely future target.
I listened to Sandra Coye on WUB. Ms. Coye is a long time friend of mine. She is one of the most insightful people in Belize. Her analysis of the UHS and the BTL legislation was masterful. One of her most insightful comments was related to the fact that kidnapping is one of the biggest growth industries just across our borders; both in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, Mexico in general, and in Guatemala. Some of these are ransom kidnappings; some of them are elimination kidnappings, some of them, particularly kidnappings of women, are sadistic rape and torture kidnappings. Dead bodies turn up all over the place. Ms. Coye has predicted that the Aikman kidnapping is a test case. There may well be more! I guess Belize has finally been integrated into Central America!
As I am winding up this article, the news has come that Mr. Aikman has been found alive and well. We will learn more about what happened as the day proceeds. Actually, someone sent me a text message after midnight last night. It helped to make my night more restful. The fact that he is okay is the best news of the week. We still have the Musa –Fonseca problem. I suspect that we will soon hear something about that too.