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Referendum LGBT? Hell yes! Referendum weed? Heavens no!

FeaturesReferendum LGBT? Hell yes! Referendum weed? Heavens no!

The Religious Right (RR) in Belize, the most vocal of which is the Scott Stirm/Louis Wade duo, have been sounding the challenge some time now for the government to put its case for the legalization of marijuana sales and smoking to a referendum. That vocal duo have a 24/7 television station on which they decry whatever government initiatives they believe flies against their faith, and if you can translate, that also means, in their view, what’s deleterious to the good of the nation.

Weed is not the only indigestible food sticking in their craw. They and their many friends have been calling for the ballot to decide the path forward in regard to LGBT rights too, and they have been at that long before a previous government used their executive powers to push the matter into the arm of the courts, where the judges gave the go-ahead to all LGBT persons to do what they want in private spaces.

You’ll never find me hesitating when I’ve weighed the pros and cons. I have, and I give my full blessing, for what it’s worth, to one, but not the other. On the referendum on the LGBT, I say hell yes, and on a referendum on weed, I say, no, heavens no! It is a rare day when more than a third-party-sized bite of Amandala readers agree with me, but after my presentation today is read, I have hope, expect, that I’ll be as ranking as any PUDP.

Starting with the aggressive LGBT, if the local chapter of the RR was into the business of sneering and saying we told you so re: what this crowd would do next if we left the door ajar an inch, they would have every license. They warned us that after getting the closet they would be after kicking down other doors, the ultimate prize being marriage, in a church. My gudnis, the key-cutting machine was still warm after making the fit for the closet door, when the further demands were in a manila envelope ready to go to court for hearing.

I do not support the RR with a referendum on LGBT solely because I believe they would ehm win, massively. I’m a supporter because I drool over the financial potential of such an exercise. The thing we need most in Belize right now is money, foreign exchange money better, and the loot would pour in by the truck load.

Ah, thinking Eastwood in Fistful of Dollars — see the LGBT backed by Elton John and the Biden/Harris US government on one side, the American RR backed by ex-VP Pence on the other side, and we, desperate for money we, in the middle, being courted for our votes.

Now, as to the weed, there is money in those fields, but that’s way too dangerous for us to touch. Before I delve into the dismal prospects here, give me leave to say some bad things about Pere. Do you know I still haven’t had one smoke of decriminalized marijuana? In heaven’s name, how am I going to buy it! We aren’t saints here, there are these little grey areas, but this law is as black and white as they come. It’s a flagrant violation to buy weed! But, but, if you get it you can smoke it. I believe God excuses justified expletives.

One of these days, Pere will be in government again. That sure looks a long way off, but in this politics no one can tell — though without a Goldson about to save them it does seem that a snowball has a better chance in hell than they have in the short term. But, time longer than rope, Pere will get back, and I want him not to forget that he owes us big time for tantalizingly dangling weed we cannot reach. You remember that African tale I told you about monkey giving the birthday treats to turtle in a tall basket? You fit in the expletive for Mr. Pere.

Kareem isn’t off the hook. One of the architects of the initiative to decriminalize marijuana, one who certainly could not in one of his wildest moments have foreseen it coming to the halt where Pere left it, told me that this idea of a license to buy weed won’t fly, and I agree. Are all these fattening PUPeez living so high they don’t see the shame in that? Can you see me, a respectable rum drinker, applying for a license to smoke weed?

Sir Henry Young, he’s the architect of the wisdom, he said the far better option for the government is to GST the thing. He said whatever revenues the government expects to collect from the smokers’ license should be included in the tax.

Discrimination is real, Kareem. Brother, fu your info it’s not only weed smokers that rum drinkers don’t keep as associates. Whiskey man and a rum man da noh buddies needa. In this case, it’s the whiskey drinkers doing the frowning, but the divide goes way beyond class. Classic rum drinkers can co-exist with all the alcohol vice royalties, but it’s no friendship to die for.

Personally, I don’t give a daam about the world feeling that whiskey drinkers are better than me. As for this cane man’s association with Sir Henry, a connoisseur of sophisticated alcohol ferments from grains, apart from him treating me to a few ice-cold beers while this country boy soaks up the sea breeze on his island, it’s about the respect of a younger for an elder.

You’ve heard people speak about wisdom from the mouths of babes, well that’s so much bull——, excuse me. Whenever you hear a youngster spouting wise words, they got it from somewhere, and that somewhere is not from the playground. Stick close to the elders if yu want to learn.

Ah, the diversion behind us, I needs pin the tail on my nay for our local RR’s call for a referendum on weed — why I said there’s no money in it for us. The mega churches have money alright, and they are ready to spend, but the counter would be the cartels, and we absolutely can’t give them such legitimacy.

Sorry, RR guys, our lee country couldn’t sanction such a fight, so it wouldn’t be worth our while. But console yourself that you would save your money. This weed one is a groundswell. This one you can’t win.

I’m with Arthur’s mom

Forgive me if my ears didn’t hear correctly, but I swear Arthur said his mom had taken the jab, and that he hasn’t. For those who don’t know, Arthur’s mom was a senior nurse at the Western Regional, a highly respected professional, and Arthur, he is nothing but a common attorney.

Readers of Amandala really need to remember stories I tell. One of my old bosses, this one from India, said that in his country smart young people studied medicine and agriculture and engineering, and the stragglers studied law. The grains of salt aside, law must be the only subject where you don’t need to know an iota of science or math. If you’re feeling lazy, the sum there is that lawyers are the very last to talk about health issues. They don’t know drat.

But we all know what’s going on with Arthur. Like all political animals he craves attention, and when it comes to that, he is a total hound. God forbid our Zenaida is suffering from the same disease. My, she had Mesopotamia all sewed up, and then she said she didn’t adore the leader, and the braa lee forced her out.

Our brother, Arthur, desperately needs a redirect. Was it Nuri who said we need a Ralph Nader, someone of that leaning working for us? Arthur is in scrape after scrape, and before Chester gets tired of his antics, we need to find him a cause.

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