We cannot envisage a situation where the Hon. Finnegan would do this without the sanction of the party, which is to say, without the approval of Party Leader, Hon. Dean Barrow.

The charismatic Zenaida, who came to national prominence battling the Said Musa/Ralph Fonseca/Glenn Godfrey administration over political corruption, fiscal imprudence and financial improprieties, appeared cool-headed and determined. She may have told voters what they wanted to hear, but we think her statement that she would use tourism to save the city bears discussion.

Once upon a time, the Belize City mayor?s responsibilities were ordinary. By this we mean that as elections approached, potholes were repaired, the drains cleaned, buildings painted, broken street lights repaired and garbage collected.

The Belize City of today, however, is a vastly different animal. The realities of the industrial capital are cruel poverty, hopelessness, homelessness, uncontrollable drug addiction, violent crime, joblessness, and perhaps most devastating of all, a real perception by the poor that their leaders really do not care about their suffering.

The PUP, it is evident, spoke falsely to the most marginalized of the city ? the residents of the Southside, some of whom still live in swamps, among crocodiles, rats and snakes, while the ruling politicians and their cronies loot the national treasury at will and with impunity.

We say these things to make the point that the mayorship of Belize City has become a tough job.

We believe that if tourism is to be the vehicle of recovery for the city, which must include the betterment of the quality of life for the long-suffering Southside, then a number of things must happen: crime and violence must be controlled, at least to the point where the Southside is not walled off from the tourists; Belizeans must begin to be owners of the industry, instead of being merely fronts for foreign interests; a grimy and neglected city must take on a new look; and the problem of area representatives usurping the authority and responsibility of the council for political gain must be solved.

There is a city in Mexico, our neighbour, where criminals rule ? Ciudad Ju?rez. They murder, or try to murder all who oppose them, with impunity. The honest policeman, judge or politician is soon found dead. The situation is so terrible that even the media have stopped reporting on crime, because the criminals also shoot reporters and editors who are too brave, or too foolish. The city, reports say, is the most deadly in Mexico.

Belize has not yet reached that hellish state, but we are on the road leading there. Our God-given common sense tells us that crime and drug trafficking cannot become entrenched without the participation of politicians, the police and public officers. We do not speak of the policemen and public officers all-inclusively, but rather, of political interference in places that allows and encourages some members of these institutions to become corrupt, and then protects the corrupt from prosecution.

The Musa/Fonseca/Godfrey administration may have been mainly successful in hiding the fact that uncontrolled crime and violence have a very real price for the nation. By this, we mean a price apart from the obvious ? the grief of the victim?s family, the loss of a breadwinner and the fact that society has lost another youth to the walls and bars of the prison.

Crime adversely affects the economy. Because citizens fear jackings, shootings and property damage, they stay home. Because of decreased clientele, the businessman cuts staff and eventually closes his business. With citizens locked in their homes, the ancillary businesses suffer. Taxi operators have fewer jobs; businesses specializing in clothing do less business; hair stylists have less work; restaurants suffer; and some close. You get the picture.

A suffering business pays less tax, and a closed business pays none. Crime, we say, is directly correlated to unemployment and increased taxation.

In placing tourism as the underpinning of her recovery efforts for Belize City, Zenaida must declare war on crime, which would mean that she would be on a head-on collision with every crooked politician, policeman and public officer in the land.

The statistics are against her. Politicians of both the red and the blue have, at various times and in various places, waxed eloquently about their intentions to ?fight crime.? None have succeeded. Crime, conversely, has prospered by leaps and bounds, it seems.

And if she wishes to nationalize the tourism industry, she must fight with the foreign investors, who have steel cables tied to Cabinet.

A city cannot be ?tourist-friendly? with an embarrassing number of mentally ill and homeless evident on the streets. Politicians come and go, but the suffering and neglect of these unfortunates have remained.

We wish Zenaida luck, if she wins. That is all we can say ? we wish her luck. She will need it badly. David, we feel, had it better against Goliath.