In a sea of sense, a very sober piece in my opinion (In Search of Truth, Amandala # 2241), Senator Henry Gordon teed off on the PM, suggesting that his decision to pull the Preventive Detention (PD) could be a dangerous/bad precedent, and reminded him that bad precedent does not make for good law.
Senator Gordon wrote that the PM’s decision may have opened the door to circumventing the Referendum Act. He chided the PM for using the radio/TV call-in morning shows and the House of Representatives, Constitution and Foreign Affairs Committee, (and) “One-stop national consultations” in district towns, as a barometer of public opinion…
You have my vote, Senator. The PM was wrong, wrong, wrong, not justified to pull the PD without proper consultation. True, he did say that if he sensed a vocal minority he would back off from the PD. Immediately that “vocal minority” included his fraternity, the exalted Bar Association, the PM didn’t wait to hear what anyone else had to say on the dangerous PD.
On a very sour note, in his sea of sense the Senator disappointingly lost his bearing when he went after other parties, specifically the 4-year term. I think it was a chaans lick. In a well thought out diatribe, the Senator shot down the notorious PUDP, saying that they seem to revel in the status quo of the revolving door/musical chairs exercise which occurs every five years at General Elections…And then the unfortunate swipe at the true reformers (Ms. Lois belongs to this reform party), dismissing us with his…four years won’t change anything!
Hey Senator, there is urgency in the lives of the masses. While our complacent leaders fritter time, people suffer. It is a clear mathematical principle that the less time we have, the faster we work. The only way we will get the correct bang for our tax dollar is by bringing these fat cats more quickly to the polls.
Lucia Ellis’ timely counseling manual
Thumbs up for Lucia Ellis’ Making a Difference for Humanity – A Procedural Manual for School Counselors; it is an essential guide for schools throughout the land. Parents recognize the need for counseling, and are grateful for the help, but have not been entirely comfortable with the idea of their children receiving serious guidance from the schools…especially since they can’t know how PROFESSIONAL that guidance is. We need to know that people who provide counseling are properly screened, and that they function in a highly professional environment.
Counseling is not a new idea. All teachers who attended the Belize Teachers College did a course in basic child psychology. With or without such training, teachers provide such guidance. We all know that a little knowledge can cause confusion, or even be injurious, ergo the need for the professionally trained counselor working in a structured program.
Belize has evolved in such a way that reliable, professional, sensitive counseling is indispensable in the schools. Ms. Ellis’ manual focuses on the role of schools and teachers in (this) nurturing process in Belize. Apart from the high percentage of youths in our society (41% of the population under the age of 15 years, the 15 to 24 years age group constitute 20% of the population (2000 census)), the author, who is a trained counselor, cites absentee parents, economically active females (as heads of households?), lack of community support, cultural change, saturation of drugs and guns in some communities, and television, as contributing to instability in Belizean families.
Young people have lost a sense of “connectedness” to their society, she notes, hence the need for professional counseling. She sees the school as one of the critical institutions to ground our youth in sound behaviors.
Even for schools that already have sound counseling services, it is good for parents’ confidence if they know that a clear structure is in place. Maximum respect for an excellent, well-researched, important guide for counseling programs in our schools, Ms. Lucia.
Big game on Sunday
If you are ever making a movie and you need players for the roles of those shameless few who sold our ancestors into slavery, or sold our you-know-what to Lord Ashcroft, you’ll find prime material at the FFB. Because of what these men did, in cold blood, it’s not healthy for me to think about Belize/Mexico on Sunday. So, I had my heart set on another big game on Sunday, June 15.
On Sunday, June 15 (until a sudden change of schedule) Camalote Playerade/Tuff Enough and Camalote Cristal Parrot were set to meet in Roaring Creek. Camalote versus Camalote is big. The last time two Camalote teams squared off on the field to settle who runs things in the village, there was a quarrel, then a fight. The Cayo Softball League vowed that never again would two teams from the softball rich village enter their competition again.
The storyline from 15 years ago is that Camalote’s Esso Tigers, a veteran team, was the champions of softball, and the new kids on the block, Camalote’s Wicker Wood, was, at that time, the worst team in Belize. The new kids would one day grow up to become Camalote Duurly’s Cristal, the finest team in all the land – with 10 consecutive Cayo titles and ownership of the Sir Andie’s Champion of Champions Crown. But then, they were so bad, so not a threat to anybody that there was a chant up and down Cayo Road – Wicker Wood, kyaahn win wahn game. Until one fateful Sunday in Belmopan, on the last day of the season, the dust settled on a Wicker Wood 1-0 scorcher over the vaunted Esso Tigers…And all hell broke loose.
When the 2008 teams do meet, things should be a lot calmer. After all, our girls are in re-building mode; they no longer run things in Cayo, so things can’t be all that hot. We hope.
Oh, there is another big game on to keep me out of harm’s way on Sunday. It’ a football match on the world stage…France versus the Netherlands in the European Cup Tournament. Go Claude Makalele. Go Frank Riberry. Go William Gallas, Lilian Thuram, and Patrick Vieira. Go France.
As for that other game, “our” game, it is not healthy for me to think about it. Those FFB crooks go to church to worship God on Sunday but their souls belong to the devil Mammon.