On Sunday, December 30, former Roaring Creek Village Council Chairman, Mr. Richard Smith, on his My Refuge Radio morning show, announced that he is abandoning his candidacy in Belmopan, to run in his natural base – Cayo South.
It was a complete mystery to people on the outside when Smith announced last year that he would not be running in the R. C. Village Council elections, because he was moving on to contest the general elections in Belmopan, on the Christian platform. At the time of Smith’s announcement, Belmopan was already considering three deeply religious candidates trotting under Christ’s banner: Anthony Chanona (PUP), Paul Morgan (VIP), and Cayo South area representative, H. John Saldivar (UDP). True, these men weren’t evangelical, but they all sported squeaky clean images and professed Christ to be Lord and Master. In Cayo South, no candidate who had declared even came (comes) close to such religious affirmation. What exactly had been Smith’s logic to throw his hat among known Christians in Belmopan?
On Sunday, Smith had a change of heart. He offered that he had chosen to run in Belmopan because it is an easier division to canvas. Whatever, this latest lightning bolt from God has Smith abandoning the Garden City for a shot at the title in the nation’s most demographically diverse division – Cayo South.
The formalities are set for this Saturday evening at the Roaring Creek Sports Field. There will be gospel bands throwing it down for Smith. There will be buses rolling in from all 12 villages in Cayo South, loaded with Crusaders for Christ and interested parties. And heavyweights like Hipolito Bautista (WTP), Wil Maheia (PNP), and the people’s champion himself, yea, Brother Derek! will be whipping the throng to a froth for the Holy Warrior from My Refuge Hill.
On the political landscape in the Cayo South race, this may be the best news yet for the Blue’s Charlie Galvez. The Cayo South PUP diehard base, because it is well pampered by “the party” when they have the reins, is larger than the Red’s. But the sins of government fall heaviest on the candidate they set out in this division, so the Smith decision, by pulling votes from their main rival, could provide a consequential boost for the government’s man. Yes, if the Reds can’t find a way to neutralize Richard Smith, they could lose enough of the hefty evangelical vote to derail their candidacy.
For Hubert Enriquez and the VIP, Smith’s entry is worse case scenario. Hubert is out of his natural base in Cayo South, and he was counting on votes from the strong religious right in the area to make his candidacy meaningful. The Yellow’s dissing of Derek Aikman may be coming back to haunt them. Remember, the VIP pulled the rug from under Derek, shouting “theatrics.” They may find out that, “theatrics or no theatrics,” Belizeans love Derek Aikman because he is proven one hundred percent Belizean to the bone.
Richard Smith will have to prove that he can win, that the simple logic of God Sent Me can attract support outside of the right wing churches, or the Reds will jostle back the votes they might lose in the immediate excitement that will come out of the Saturday night gala, in time for the big showdown. He will also live in fear that the National Reform Party will send their own Holy Warrior from God’s camp, and scatter his forces. Once again, Cayo South is getting hot.
By himself, thank God!
Well, I was concerned when the columnist searching for truth in political life (no questions for him in his religious life), a man steeped in red dye, appeared on Yaya’s Show last Sunday, stumping for a little more “mek dem wait” stew. Now, why will a government wait until the last moment before they can do right by us? Ai, power must be so sweet they measure it by days. But 3 more months is a lifetime for the masses who measure time by the next meal. So, nyet! Good for the Reds (last week’s The El Guardian), the clarification that while they agree to referendum they are holding on firmly to the empowered Senate. Bravo! Mr. Henry, you stand alone!
Let’s get this straight: after 3 years of being lorded over by any who of popular heroes, the only way we can stand the sight of ‘em again is if they submit to the fish bowl and compare favorably with other wannabe lords. With the Reds seemingly in the driver’s seat, they would be wise to understand that greedy choke puppy: do the obvious arithmetic and run it for 4 YEARS. If the UDP win without a 4-year promise in their manifesto, put your head on the block that they will be clearing out their desks in 2013. Any future government hoping to go past 5 years better be ready to accept it in 4-year increments.
Dud pathway
I am staggered by the fact that more than twenty years after I came to live in Camalote, we STILL don’t have a pathway running from end to end of our village. For over twenty years I have watched my people all over this country walk and ride their bikes on the highway, just a tire blow out, a faulty steering, a drunk or sleepy or tired driver away from the big SORRY. How the blank do you wipe away a human life with a SORRY, pray?
I remember well when I volunteered my services to the Camalote Village Council, to take my mattock and rip a drain across the Western Highway (passing thru the village) in 1980 to slow down the traffic. I didn’t live in the village then. I was working on my uncle’s farm and I was commuting daily from Belmopan, between 5 a.m. and 7 p.m. The councilors I spoke with told me they had things under control.
Dammit, all we needed (need) was an old D-4, an old backhoe, an old dump truck, and about 4 men. In this limestone country we could have, should have pathways for villagers to walk and ride on across the length and breadth of this country.
I applaud Honorable John Saldivar for making a good start on our pathway when he was political officer for Cayo South back in 1997-98. Your effort has saved precious lives and limbs, Braa. The Cawich family got surveyors to line the rest of the pathway and piled a mountain of limestone to complete it. But the red tipped pegs were just for show, and the limestone was just filling for one of their favorite’s yard.
The present political officer for Cayo South, Mr. Charles Galvez, made a start. Then some genius at the Ministry of Works, or inside his party, got to him and he started talking about…paving pathway. I knew then the pathway was down the tubes once again. See, that’s exactly what the old Village Council leaders told me some time back…yap, the government was going to build a pathway and pave it. I told them: push it…just push the daam thing! See, the GoB’s barely got the money to maintain the highways, so…
Oh woe, woe to leadership when it doesn’t understand that protecting life and limb of citizens is its first obligation. See the young men slaughter each other in Belize City Southside. See vehicles crush citizens into the pavement on the highway. Damn, why can’t we get the bare fundamentals down in this country!
Winless tour in Honduras no cause for alarm
News spread like wild fire last week that certain faint hearted Belizeans saw gloom and doom…that blood pressure went up to precarious levels when they learned of the “apparently” failed trip by the FFB team in Spanish Honduras. Rest easy, aficionados, rest easy. All is well. Yap, the FFB’s team (we will be playing under that flag, by the way) is running on cruise control. I repeat, cruise control. Check it, WE DID NOT WANT TO WIN IN HONDURAS!
When the whistle blows to start hostilities with tiny St. Kitts and Nevis, then it will be time for us to show the fireworks. Look for the small island boys to get a thorough beating from us, in Mexico. Oh, we’ll fete them alright, show them the grand tour in Chetumal, but I will not be me if they don’t get back in their boat for home with a bagful half-a-dozen…or maybe 7!
Ai, why some of you people so shaky, me noh know. And so negative, man. I hear some are about the place gossiping that we played 3 games in Honduras, and that it was not 1, but 2 smackings we got across the southern border. Braa, check it. Just like you listen to LOVE FM for the true-true hurricane advisory, look to the FFB only for official news about the FFB’s team.
And so what if it were so, that there was not 1, but 2 shellings? Ever heard about ta-tiks? Playing low passam? There is precedent here. Last year when everybody an ih graama mi think that Bertie and his gang were for the garbage heap after leading Belize football from fame to shame in only 8 short years, look at the role “ingenuity” played on the real. An astounding victory, another 4-year term for our football leaders. Well, that very same wiliness that put that FIFA gang over the hump is being imbued in the team that will trot on to the field in Chetumal under the FFB flag. They’ll be pleading mercy rule for St. Kitts and Nevis. Trust me!
Notes
Someone who isn’t a woman has just recently learned that maternity leave has been increased from 12 weeks to 14 weeks.
Also, Prospero Nuevo Año to Brother Clinton Uh Luna. I will get around to sharing my perspective very soon.