I have to disagree with Belizeans who are waving the Constitution and the Regulations for the Public Service to try and block the Prime Minister from making selections for key positions in his government. In normal times, all this follow-the-letter-of-the-law is good, but that doesn’t hold in a crisis. We are in the grip of a pandemic, praying that we escape the dreaded third wave of this disease and that it doesn’t mutate into something much worse, and our country isn’t just flat broke, we owe to our gills.

Of course governments should be challenged every step of the way, but we can’t ignore the time we are living in.

The Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Finance, particularly, are not functioning in normal times. There is stress throughout the system; everything is connected, but those two are the main areas in crisis. I guess if they need to, the government could find a way to suspend the Constitution in just these two areas, Health and Finance, so that they can do what they think is best for Belize.

Even if there were ZERO cases of Covid-19 in Belize, but in countries all around us people were getting sick and dying, which translates to a world not in a normal state, a new government looking at the situation should have the prerogative to put whom they want in the driver’s seat.

I like to say that governments in Belize too often act as though we are a big ship, not a lee dory. You can be a big, clumsy ox on a big ship, move slow like a log, but in a lee dory, nimble is where it’s at.

It is my opinion that Dr. Manzanero should have gone hat in hand to the new leaders and asked them if they thought, like the previous government did, that he was the man for the job. Of course, he couldn’t do that, because at about that same time when the old government gave way to a new one, he got sick.

It is my opinion that Dr. Manzanero would have accepted being moved to another position, if he had been left alone to move his pataki and personal files quietly. Of course, in normal times I would understand the position of the senior managers, because as the story goes, same knife weh stick sheep stick goat, so they have their end to protect.

Minister Chebat’s response to the former DHS digging in is a little rough, because the fact is that the entire Oversight Committee has to answer for what happened on San Pedro, and why Belizeans who don’t live there were allowed off the island before it was locked down a second time.

You remember, we were sailing along, we had paid in full the enormous price of a month-long lockdown, and then we let it all get away. Ah, a rich man flew in from Texas, and then there were clusters in three spots in San Pedro, then the blame was laid entirely on border jumpers across the Rio Hondo.

I do have a beef with Dr. Manza, and it has to do with his on-principle stand against providing the names of infected persons to the Minister of National Security. If we recall, we had lost control of Covid-19; the government didn’t want to call for another lockdown, mostly because we couldn’t afford it, and so it reached for a tool that would make people who were taking the disease lightly, get the sense. That’s all they had; they couldn’t get it, and the downward slide accelerated.

Now it’s all over the place that we had a super-spreader election. Allow me to divert briefly so I can insert here that the election should have been called in 2019 because the government was completely spent. The country desperately needed a change.

Give Barrow and Pere a lee point for calling for the names of infected persons to be handed over to the Minister of National Security, because we desperately needed to jail someone, get ourselves a poster boy for what happens to people who think they are smarter or more important than everyone else. Forget that the UDP government had no support system in place for people who were infected (that wasn’t put in until Minister Chebat took charge); we have to forgive them for clutching at straws.

As it relates to the election, the UDP knew it had to be called, and that it was important that our infection rates be rock bottom low when the campaigning kicked into high gear, and the only idea they had was nixed by the DHS, on principle.

By the way, the UDPeez who knew the state of the country’s finances wanted to get rid of us. They had borrowed until they couldn’t borrow anymore, and the people were fed up with them, as proven in the elections.

Ooh, lookee at the master politicians who didn’t build but know how to tear down. Oh how elements of the former government are enjoying themselves as they blame blue for the mess the red left behind. The UDPeez who are shouting loudest are the ones with money. They’ve been hoarding our resources for 13 years, and boy, they are in a very good place now, having a tremendous ha ha as the new ones in power struggle to keep the ship afloat.
When we look at our economy, I am at a loss to figure out how our people are surviving. Someone once told me that in El Salvador all the pastures are eaten down to the ground, like they were cropped by sheep and horses, but the cattle looked okay. I think the government is taking too long to tell the police to leave people alone with their few sticks of marijuana. The stress in our country right now has to be past unbearable; what is happening between the ears of our people has to be leading them toward terrible despondency and anger.

The Customs Department is critical for the collection of revenues in our country. I don’t know if our first prime minister cited TC Vernon in the House of Representatives for outstanding work when he was at the Income Tax Department, or after he had moved him over to Customs. One of my brothers, Charles, told me that when Mr. Vernon took over Customs, he hired a number of new staff. See, Mr. Vernon knew he had to change the culture at the department, and the best way to do that was to dilute the staff that was there.
My brother told me it was impossible to be completely clean at that department, because the graft was entrenched. I have a good friend who could explain in full color some of the tricks of ticket sellers and people who check things, to get past the system.

I don’t know anything about the senior customs officer who insists that he must be the top guy at the department. In normal times he might get my vote, if I knew his credentials and thought them praiseworthy. The new government knows that they’ll have to take drastic measures to right this ship, and I can’t use my veto to block them on a key decision like who heads Customs, because I am so concerned about a normal-times Constitution.

Things are not good for 80% of us out here. Oh if Barrow was in all our corners, oh if Barrow thought all of us were worthy to be saved from the mercies of the world. It’s a frightening jungle we’re living in. Things are far from normal. We can’t operate like it is.