By Colin Hyde
If having the crown as head of state means nothing, we have to ask our leaders why less than 2% of our national product is spent on our military yearly. It is true that swearing allegiance to the Queen, King is not a defense guarantee; however, certain people will think twice, thrice, four times before they insult the Crown. True, when they were in their worst days they defiantly rattled sabers, but we don’t need to go into all the explanations for their bully behavior. What we have to look at is investing 20% of our resources on our military.
We are not Barbados and Jamaica and Antigua. Bully for countries that have no enemies in this world. Belize has a lot to talk about. People like me at any age would have no problem with 20% of our budget going to defense. People like me have no problem living off tortilla and beans. Our problem is that we’ll direct 20% of our budget to defense, and our fat cats will still want to drive SUVs and holiday in Miami.
Here’s something else to talk about. All these countries talking about removing the Crown, they must know that’s the first step in dismantling the Commonwealth. Who makes up the Commonwealth? They are countries that were abused by the British. Yes, a big part of the common in Commonwealth is that Winston Churchill lorded over all of us. Good and bad, we were all British-ized. We all speak English, and we all have the laws and the political system of the British. Oh, and everyone got football.
Please, the above are bullet points, things to bat about. Aha, here’s where I’m glued in my position. Madaz, look how these preventers of the 11th amendment gave the PUP an excuse for not implementing the reform section of their Blu Plan. These intellectuals who backed us into this Constitution Commission have delayed the urgent changes we need to make, will delay the entire reform section of the Plan for 10, 20 years.
And the one they saved has absolutely no gratitude. How has he repaid his saviors? Thus far, we’ve heard insults for Cuba and Venezuela, we’ve heard turning a blind eye on Israel’s transgressions, and we’ve seen a big rolling over for Waterloo and Vulcan.
Don’t trust men with selfish ambitions, and don’t go soft on innocents
Could someone please tell me what Mike Pehreh is doing between Shyne Barrow and John Saldivar? We’re familiar with the saying “birds of a feather flock together”, but we all accept that more apt in party business is the saying “politics makes strange bedfellows.” So, Mike Pehreh being so unlike that pair doesn’t make him out of place. However, one can’t bed down with just anybody. There must be some circumspection to our choices; because we don’t want fleas we won’t share a blanket with a dog, and because we don’t want anyone complaining about our boozing, we’ll not drink with pigs.
No, no, no, I’m not equating any political leader with common animals, I’m just being illustrative. There, I’m sure you got my point. Bah, if Pehreh doesn’t recognize the nature of the two gentlemen he is hanging with, then, with apologies to Mr. Jinnah and the saying’s originator, I must inform him that he is an innocent between two thorns.
More than the leadership ambition, Pehreh is in it for the theater. In a country with a vibrant movie industry, that brother would be a shoe-in for roles in the kitchen, at the dining table, or as a bad, rich guy with tons of swagger. In a Krismos role, nobody could play a better Santa. Aha, this brother loves to have the lights shining his way.
Sure he has his share of wikidnis, all of us do, and quién sabe if he isn’t more wikid than most, but all we have to go on are our public experiences, and what we have from that is that under this brother’s brash there’s a warm-blooded human. The two thorns aren’t. Those two thorns are cold, calculating fish who have set their greedy eyes on our prize, and they’re using Pehreh to get it.
I thought it was hubris that damned Pehreh in Freetown. Remember, Francis and the PUP were on the ropes in 2008. One of these days a political party will deservedly get whitewashed at the polls. If Pehreh was any relation to Derek Aikman, Freetown would have been his, signed, sealed and delivered. It was only his humanness, a kind of childish zeal to play macho that sunk him.
The people of this country deserve, need a functional opposition party. And Mike P is operating with a badly malfunctioning calculator. The UDP probably can use those two guys he is propping up, but for now they are bench material, not stars. Have you noticed that no credible third party leader has come within a 10-foot pole of linking up with the party in its present alignment?
Is it true that Ms. Audrey is forming a people’s movement? Audrey is from deep in the belly of that red beast. A former senator for the Reds, and editor of the party’s newspaper, this would be the moment for her to steal Sam Waight’s line and “come home to the UDP.” You’ll never catch me betting on dice or pitti pat; there’s nothing sure about those games, but I’d put up everything I have that datideh present configuration cannot bring Audrey back into the fold.
I think Pehreh is not taking this matter seriously enough. Trust me, it’s no laughing matter. What’s happening here is the reason we must beware of innocent men as much as selfish ones. Ouch, you know what innocent men will say after they have been used and the deed is done, after disaster has overtaken us. Sorry. That’s a good word at a tea party, maybe, but when we are talking about the people’s bread and their political affairs, sorry, I’m sorry but that ain’t good enough.
Then we must give up rum, wine, and beer
We should face and fight ignorance everywhere it shows its innocent face; we should never give up the battle against it. I believe it’s ignorance, not the ugly sin of hypocrisy, that makes some Belizeans hold the incredible position that weed must be stomped down. This ignorance started where ignorance usually starts, with terrible, ugly propaganda.
Now, before I continue, I have to let you in on something that is upsetting me: people who refuse to give devils their due. Disappointing as it is, we know that lawyers are licensed to argue a single side of a matter. Therein is the reason why many people can’t be lawyers. Mahatma Ghandi said a lot against arguing for people who all the evidence says are guilty. Ms. Carolyn Trench-Sandiford got to the door, but couldn’t enter.
I don’t think that in little developing Belize we can afford to squander our energies. We understand that the red and blue argue to win. Indeed, George Price infamously and truthfully said political parties exist to win elections. It is terrible for Belize when the rest of us engage in such games.
Please, you can’t sip wine, beer, or rum, and condemn someone who smokes weed. If you met Jack Sprat and his wife, you would know that people have different wiring. Ah, and some like it hot, some like it cold, and some like in the pot, nine days old.
In the world of nation-building, we are to grow what we eat/drink. Give it up for sugarcane, which gives us rum; give it up for berries, which give us wine; give it up for marijuana, which would give us weed if we weren’t living in prohibition. Bah, beer is a luxury; we don’t grow hops. Say absolutely no to cocaine, we don’t grow coca; say absolutely no to heroin, we don’t grow the opium poppy.
Hey, Happy Independence Day, Belize!