by Colin Hyde

I watched some of the two semi-final BPL football games on TNC over the weekend, and the players and team play were quite impressive, but oh, I saw two players disrespect the referee and get away with it, and that hurt my interest. Monki sih, monki du—we’ve always known that some people go to movies, and watch sports events from abroad on television, and they imitate what they saw. Okay, it’s natural, and that’s why we need people around us who aren’t afraid to tell us when what we’re mimicking da foolishnis.

Young footballers should never, ever walk away from the referee when he calls them. Place your hands behind your back, put your head down, and go to the man when he calls you. Don’t ever do or say anything when you are between those lines that could “show up” the ref in any way. I want the first player in Qatar who thinks he is so big, to get a tarjeta roja, for the day. No, I wouldn’t give a two-game ban for that insubordination—why? Because it’s an ignorance infraction, not violent play that could destroy an opponent’s career.

I don’t care how much talent you have over the ball, if you don’t understand the first rule of the game, that the referee is boss, I won’t pay to watch you. Be he competent, or be he incompetent, between those lines el árbitro is god. Coaches, fans, etcetera, etcetera can do most what they want, but players need to get the sense.

Dean Barrow completes 50% of the venganza

Aha, so Mr. Patrick Faber was chased out of Collet on Saturday. And that was all I had for Friday’s column, a title and a sentence … and then Tuesday came. Bwai, on Tuesday’s developments, I stun. I kyaahn believe the Barrows would move so fast to wipe out the whole hog, 100% get the two Port Loyola colluders wrapped up in a sack — signed, sealed and delivered. Naa, Willoughby doant have to worry, too much. He was just a pawn.

G Hulse and R Vellos gave UDP/NABR victory in 1993 election

I have heard from a number of quarters that Lord Ashcroft buys elections in Belize. Aiyayai, unu please stop insulting my people soh. No, no, no, Lord Ashcroft doesn’t buy elections; he buys politicians who will win at the polls. We can give him credit for being astute about which way the wind is blowing. Naa, neither he nor anyone can buy the Belizean people. Long before Patrick Faber strung a banner across CA Boulevard saying, tek dehn money and vote dem out, the Belizean people had been doing just that.

It is said that a promise of free education, and I believe free land was thrown in too, was a big key to victory for the UDP/NABR in that surprise booting out of office of a PUP that had gone astray. Manifesto promises play an important part in swaying electorates everywhere in the world. Indeed, that is what elections are about. The PUP had their pledges too, but we liked the UDP/NABR’s promises more.

Belize’s electorate is serious about issues. While the UDP didn’t explain how they would go about delivering on those promises, Belizeans believe that free education, and a parcel of land in our country, are rights, and things that could be delivered for the people by a properly focused government.

My gudnis, they didn’t deliver free education, they didn’t deliver the land parcels, and they didn’t send back the Maritime Areas Act. Flat out, the UDP (not NABR) fibbed to us—but we know the cause was gud. I say, failing to deliver on those promises wasn’t the reason why the UDP got turned out of office in 1998. But another time for that, this is about 1993.

The announcement shortly before the 1993 election that the British would be reducing their military expenditure here didn’t help the upstaat PUP. Remember that during the PUP 1989-1993 government, our bad neighbor had a progressive leader, Jorge Antonio Serrano Elías, from 1991 to mid-1993. The British, who had been ordered by the UN to remain committed to Belize militarily, yap, seized the opportunity in the friendly climate to declare an end to the defense “guarantee” in 1994.

Many factors play into a general election, and the great promises, as well as the blame placed on the PUP for the British pulling out their army, were pluses for the UDP/NABR. But all those would have been for naught without Godwin Hulse and Russell Vellos on Tuesday nights on the new KREM.

The PUP had gotten over the UDP in 1989 with the help of the promise of Radio KREM, after the UDP’s Hubert Elrington had threatened to jail anyone in the UBAD crowd that dared to broadcast their message on open air. You know this was an unkind cut, even a terrible betrayal, for no one had worked harder than the UBAD crowd to bring the UDP to power in 1984.

Hubert should talk. He should explain, no, expose the thought processes that were at work in his party that led them to threaten UBAD. I have an open invitation, free beer and dinner to sit with the great and famous Henry Young. But it’s Hubert’s baby, so he should go first. Look, I’m not about defending UBAD. I am NIP Kriol. I just like to hear all sides.

Ah, KREM had an exciting Diki Bradley Show on Wednesday nights – if Brother Nuri wants to find out when our women took control of our country lock, stock, and barrel, that clock began to tick with Mr. Bradley on Wednesday nights. I know that famous gentleman from the outside. I know he’s a great friend of my dad. Getting to the issue, if I’m not mistaken he is a single-mom child, and he was totally pampered. Ah, by their roots you explain them. On Wednesday nights, men got in their licks, but womenfolk controlled the run.

That Wednesday night show hurt the PUP government because people had open license to call in with their gripes. But it was the Tuesday night show that really shelled them. The lambasting on KREM Tuesday nights was for the same thing the NTUCB marched through the streets of Belize City in 2020 — transparency and accountability with our funds and properties. On KREM’s Tuesday night’s show, Godwin and Russell emptied the arsenal on large-scale corruption, with the largest bombs directed at the mother of them all, the “Italian” projects.

Looking at election returns in Belize City, where KREM had its greatest audience, we see flipping in three divisions in 1989 and 1993. The UDP had won a blowout, 21-7, in 1984, in which they swept Collet, Lake I, and Freetown, but in 1989 the UDP lost both Collet and Lake I, and lost the general election. However, they kept Freetown. In 1993 the UDP, with NABR, won back Collet and Lake I, and won the general election. However, the UDP-NABR lost Freetown, which had been won by Derek Aikman in 1984 and 1989.

Between 1989 and 1993 Mr. Aikman fell out of favor with the UDP when he joined, helped form, the breakaway NABR, and during this period the Red and Blue colluded to have the famous bank declare him a bankrupt. Mr. Aikman did not, could not, contest the 1993 general election, and thus Freetown was handed to the PUP. But the return of Lake I and Collet to the UDP fold was enough to help them eke out a 16-13 victory over the Blue.

Irony of ironies, and what would this world be without surprises, it would be boring, I tell you, yes, the irony of 1993 was that Hubert, who had lost his seat in Lake I in 1989, partly because or maybe all because of his disappointing stance on Radio KREM (UBAD), was returned to office because of, yap, KREM.