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Parting shot – KREMANDALA SHOW, Tuesday, May 6, 2008

FeaturesParting shot – KREMANDALA SHOW, Tuesday, May 6, 2008
My people, two days from now, Thursday, May 8, makes three months since the United Democratic Party won the February 7 general elections, on a massive mandate from Belizeans fed up with crime, political corruption and untouchable criminals both in government and outside government.
 
That leaves this new government roughly 10 days to complete the 100 days that mark the end of their honeymoon with the Belizean people. After that, no excuses, no more talk. We want action. Some big people had better start going to jail.
 
Tonight, however, I want to talk about the concept of a monopoly as it relates to the utilities that are indispensable to our lives, especially to the standard of living of the poor.
 
Last year, BEL and BTL, together, made roughly $80 million in profits, and this, from a poor country of fewer than 300,000 inhabitants.
 
Then BEL has the gall, the face of brass, the nerve to come to us and say that they need to raise their rates even more, because they cannot maintain their profits without such a raise.
 
Not to be outdone, BTL now refuses to pay their fair share of taxes, because that rotten, no-good, good-for-nothing, worthless previous prime minister signed a secret deal with them, guaranteeing them a certain level of profit. If they don’t make this profit, says BTL, that prime minister gave them the right, secretly, to withhold the people’s taxes. Imagine that! You, as prime minister, actually don’t care about the people to the point where you have no compunction in signing a secret deal, the only purpose of which, as even my dog and the crabs in my yard know, is to make a billionaire even richer? If your maximum leader has been thinking, screw the people in the interests of the rich, for ten long years, then you, my people, will understand why the times are so hard now.
 
I tell you, I still have trouble believing what that man did, a man who swore on the bible to do good for this nation!
 
People, let’s talk sense now. In the first instance, monopolies shouldn’t exist in a classic free market environment, because it is competition that makes products and services better. And when they have to exist in poor countries like us, such as for water, telephone and electricity, they should be owned, or controlled by the government. Our PUP leaders sold us down the river a long time ago …for 30 pieces.
 
Nevertheless, when a government gives a monopoly to a company, for whatever reason, that company’s profits are guaranteed, because by law, no other company is allowed to provide the same services, and these services, normally, are necessary to life. We die without water, and without electricity and telephone services, life would be unlivable as we know it today. Electricity and telephones are necessities of life and business: they are not luxuries, not by any stretch of the imagination.
 
So, with a captive market, those companies don’t have to worry about the biggest thing businesses have to worry about – competition.
 
But remember that a government’s first duty is to the welfare of its citizens, so a responsible government will let those businesses know, and make legislation to that effect, that their rates will be controlled, that the companies’ profits will come from good services, which will lead to an expanded customer base.
 
The responsible government will ensure that the companies will not price their services out of the reach of ordinary people, and that their rates will not become a burden to the poor.
 
Yes, rate increases naturally must be allowed at intervals, but it must be the result of necessity, which is to say, uncontrollable increases in the cost of production, and not the result of the raw, uncontrolled greed of the company’s investors.
 
In plain language, people, the responsible government will protect its citizens from the corporate greed of these monopolies, and we know that this greed knows no bounds – $80 million worth of profits in a poor country, and they want more?
 
Again, in plain language, my people, the truth is that the people who own these monopolies don’t care one damn about you, or me. They don’t do business in Belize because they love us. They do business in Belize because it is profitable for them. When it ceases to be profitable, they will pull up stakes and leave. We are nothing more than lunch for them.
 
My people, certain leaders should be in jail. You know who they are. The honorable Prime Minister knows who they are. We, the people, are waiting.
 
Thank you and good night.

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