ASK ANYBODY! A Reversal of UDP Fortunes…

By: Mike Rudon Jr.

Ask anybody on the streets or in your neck of the woods. Hell, ask any bus driver, commuter, taxi-driver or casual passerby. Ask your friends and neighbours and family members. Ask your Church brothers and sisters. If you’re shy and don’t want to ask anybody, take a look at your own circumstances and it will be as plain as day. These are some serious times, bad times, and with 23 days to go till Christmas Day, your regular everyday Belizeans like you and me are looking at the absolute worst Christmas in recent memory – no lie. There sure aren’t going to be any extras this festive season, and very few of the basics, for that matter. This Christmas is going to be dread, make no mistake about that.

Oh, how the mighty have fallen, but boy, the sad thing is that the nature of the political game means that we have been dragged down right along with them. See, the thing is that our leaders in government do asinine things and play power games and make monstrous mistakes, but we pay the price. Seems like the leaders doing those bad, bad things only seem to get richer while our pockets get empty and our country goes down the drain. But bulging pockets and fat bank accounts aside, there is no denying that the fortunes of the red army have taken a definite turn south.

Seems like I remember not so long ago when the UDP was riding a very high horse, a very high horse indeed. Leading up to elections, Dean Barrow and the UDP could do no wrong. Truth be told, the story of the February 2008 elections was writ in stone from months before. People wanted a change, and when it comes to that point there’s no stopping people power. Cars and buildings and posts were festooned with UDP stickers declaring that the era of enlightenment was at hand, the promised land was in sight…etc. etc. The air was ripe with promises of better times. Who can forget ‘we will reduce the cost of living NO MATTA WHAT? Methinks that Prime Minister Barrow has nightmares about that promise these days. It was all supposed to get better – infrastructure, health, education, the economy, lower taxes, cheaper medicine, cheaper basic goods…you name it and the UDP promised it.

But that hasn’t happened, has it? In fact quite the opposite has happened. After the UDP took office things got really, really bad very, very fast. The very same people who had been chanting ‘Life Haad Out Ya’ and ‘Time for a Change’ realized that times might have been difficult, but under the UDP it was all a lot worse. And yes, the people got the change they wanted, but it sure as hell wasn’t the change they expected.

Today things are sure different in Belize than they were just about a year and a half ago. The most telling signs of the changing tides for the UDP are the voices of the common man and woman on the street. Absolutely nobody is spouting the UDP line anymore. Taxi-men who proudly displayed their ‘Zenaida’ stickers like badges of honour not so many months ago are angry and frustrated at the reality of the UDP. Everybody, and I mean everybody is waiting for the promised better times, the lower rates on EVERYTHING. On the buses, commuters are angry with the UDP for the desperate times facing us, for what they feel is a betrayal of the confidence they placed in the UDP by electing them into office. All across the country Belizeans are realizing that they made a mistake when they went to the polls and elected the UDP into office in February 2008. All across the country Belizeans are realizing that the UDP has not changed one bit since they were last kicked out of office.

Less than 20 days to go to what should be a joyous time for Belizeans. But thanks to the UDP, all we can look forward to is a ‘bruk pocket Christmas’ like never before. Thanks to the UDP, there are some people who will not be able to enjoy ham and turkey with all the trimmings this Christmas. Hell, there are some people who will not be able to put any food at all on the table this Christmas. There are some people who won’t have a shelter over their heads this Christmas. That’s the reality of life under the UDP.

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