Before we proceed, let?s pull your coat to something. The UDP have been out of power for six years now, and some of their people had gotten used to money between 93 and 98, not to mention between 84 and 89. In fact, there are some people in key UDP propaganda spots who seem strapped for cash. PUP officials with moneybags have been slick enough to put certain UDP people on their payroll, and what they use these UDP?s for, is to attack those within the PUP who are not toeing their PUP line. We?ve been trying to get you hip to this since last year.

In the recent flap about a proposed national bus company, the UDP started out complaining about all the demands Eugene Zabaneh was making in Zabaneh?s offer to ?bail out? GOB where the Novelos bus mess was concerned. In the last two weeks, however, high ranking UDP people have started apologizing for Zab, taking pains to point out that he is only a businessman trying to make a good deal. No one ever mentions that in the original Novelos deal, Zabaneh came away all smiles and heavily liquid, because he was the one who sold most of the buses and runs to Novelos ? at premium prices.

In the bus and telephone games that GOB was playing, the games that have gotten GOB into trouble, Eugene Zabaneh was one of the PUP Big Four ? Musa, Fonseca, Godfrey and Zabaneh. (Mr. Zabaneh?s son, a Ph.D. in economics, is on Mr. Fonseca?s private payroll as his personal adviser). Yet, the UDP almost never calls Eugene?s name.

When you try to pick sense out of the nonsense, the first question you will ask is ? is Mr. Zabaneh ?soft soaped? by the UDP because he was the father-in-law of the Hon. Leader of the Opposition a few years ago? Well, probably not. After all, relationships come and relationships go.

Dig a little deeper. The loudest voice in the UDP, when it?s worth his while, is the Hon. Michael Finnegan?s. Finnegan, since 1972, is the ?personal? prot?g? of the first and former Leader of the United Democratic Party, Dean Russell Lindo, who also happens to be uncle to the present UDP Leader. Lindo and Eugene Zabaneh were and are the closest of friends. If you want to know how close, check out Zabaneh?s GOB banana farm acquisitions during Dean Lindo?s run as UDP Minister of Lands and Agriculture in the middle 1980?s.

Come to think about it, even within the UDP, people notice how lenient Finnegan is when it comes to Ralph. But that?s another story for another time.

The first Belizeans to discuss and explore the benefits of cross party connections were probably the lawyers, quickly followed by the businessmen. As with everything else, some people play this game better than others. This is not an illegal game. It is a very friendly game. It may even be a good game. After all, there may be overall, when you add it up, less political venom and vitriol around because of these cross party connections.

The thing is that the people who cannot afford to play these games, and remember money has to change hands during these games, come in for extra venom and vitriol to make up for the fact that certain targets are protected from attack. This is a problem deep inside the UDP. The party has been penetrated by the PUP.

There are UDP people who have become aware of the problem, and they are trying to address it. But it is a difficult proposition, because in one or two cases, the problem is a longstanding one.

Hon. Boots has told us what his grandmother told him when she sent him to the market as a child: ?No study di noise eena di market ? check yu change.? Good advice. The old people had another saying: ?Da no weh di crying de, di funeral de.? Part of the meaning of this is similar to the meaning of the first saying. Don?t be distracted by performances. Pick sense out of nonsense. Check yu change.