The UDP Abandoned the North…

Once more it seems that the ruling United Democratic Party’s area representatives cannot do right by the people.  And it is not as if they would have lost major political mileage by doing so.  On the contrary they could have gained immensely by just paying attention to their constituents’ troubles.  Even that is too much to ask with this bunch.

The latest case in point is that of Honorable Marcel Cardona, Hon. Mark Pech, and the Deputy Prime Minister Hon. Gaspar Vega of the Orange Walk District, and Hon. Nemencio Acosta, Hon. Pablo Marin, and Hon. Gabriel Martinez of the Corozal District who all represent a large number of people whose livelihoods are heavily dependent on the sugar industry’s fortunes.

Yet not one to date has publicly ripped into the Belize Sugar Industries Limited for delaying the third bonus payment to sugar cane farmers without a valid reason for the second year in a row despite the fact that sugar prices have increased sharply on the world market recently.  On top of that BSI last week admitted without apologies to using the higher than expected earnings of its sugar exports to the European Union on factory expenditure.

Never mind that cane farmers desperately need their bonus monies to make payments to their creditors particularly financial institutions because each day past their loans’ due dates accrues very high interest payments and greatly increases the likelihood that their loans’ collaterals may be foreclosed.  And that they need the financing to get ready for this year’s crop season.

Besides it is not as if though the cane farmers made a lot of money in last year’s season.  Some did not even break even.  And that is not factoring in the huge losses suffered by the industry on account of the February strike.  A vast majority of them suffered huge financial losses in the cultivation process because the cost of inputs such as fertilizers was too high and because they had to find the money to pay their laborers or risk having their cane remain in the fields.

To make matters worse cane farmers also suffered losses in the delivery process.  Aside from the high cost of fuel the unnecessary time delay between harvesting and delivery to the mill hurt the cane farmers’ pockets because it affected the cane’s sucrose content.  Cane farmers have been told at every turn to increase the yield of their cane but it is difficult to say if they did this year because the time waiting in the delivery line worsened the cane quality.  But poor cane quality results in fewer tons of refined sugar for export that ultimately results in smaller export earnings.

Now factor in the sky rocketing cost of living and we have worried men and women who are finding it difficult to make ends meet on a daily basis.  As a result many of the promising minds of the north have had to relinquish the hope of an education to join their parents in the fields to lower overhead expenses or find employment to put food on their families’ tables and to cover household expenditures.  We may never know if these dropouts could have been the experts desperately needed to overhaul the fading industry.  This is truly unacceptable.

As it is today the very survival of small cane farmers is in jeopardy without more government fertilizer and fuel subsidies or direct government investment in the overhauling of the industry.  And do not forget that the industry will face its greatest challenge soon on account of the 36 percent reduction in the export price of sugar previously guaranteed by the EU.  It is clear that only those cane farmers who can increase their cane’s yield and reduce their production costs will survive.

But the abovementioned area representatives’ abandoning of their constituents at a time when their support was most needed did not come as a surprise.  Now that they have settled into a lavish lifestyle courtesy of the public trough and have become plumper, they have forgotten from whence they came.  A word to the wise though those heavily tinted late model Sports Utility Vehicles and gated residences may keep the riff raff at bay for now but time marches on and you will soon find yourselves at their doors in search of votes.  It is funny how life is really.

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