Limeys go home!

by glenntillett@yahoo.com

“I suppose I could be persuaded otherwise, but it is hard for me to see, so to speak, how the continued public acrimony between the Government of Belize and two of our largest businesses, namely the Belize Bank and Belize Telemedia Limited, is helpful to anyone other than the fee collectors. Perhaps it seems so surreal, this massive expenditure of energy and money, because so many of us believe that the outcome is a foregone conclusion. Meanwhile an already backlogged and clogged court system is further overburdened, and many, many, many cases already unreasonably delayed, are now in the purgatory-like nether land of “don’t know when.”

“The constant personalization of this expensive quarrel is ruining investor confidence. I dare opine that this “commodity,” (“investor confidence” as quantified and tracked by economists in many countries), is at an all-time low here in Belize. I maintain that we’ve been able to weather the “sturm und drang” of the national and world economy primarily because of the historically high levels of direct foreign investment over the past decade.
“All I’m saying, let’s give the peace of mediation a chance. The parties can always recourse to litigation at anytime, but it is the most high-risk, most expensive option for all concerned. As the elephants fight, the rest of us are hurting.”

- Strictly Personal, August 2008
The Barrow Takeover Liability saga continued this week with our PM telling the British media that he had some advice for the next Prime Minister of Britain David Cameron, even if at home his hand-picked board of directors were reluctantly reporting that the company wasn’t all that after all.

Apparently while attending last week’s Commonwealth Heads of Government summit in Trinidad Barrow couldn’t keep his ego in check and recklessly “warned” Conservative Party Leader David Cameron about a role for Lord Ashcroft, the Tories Deputy Chairman in his government.

“It’s not for me to presume to advise Mr. Cameron,” Barrow said, and then did just that. Those of us familiar with his penchant for talking out of both sides of his mouth at once were not in the least surprised. But even those of us who are not unfamiliar with Barrow’s penchant for impetuosity, petulance and presumptuousness are surprised at his recklessness.

Barrow’s train-wreck approach to diplomacy is matched only by his obtuseness on economic matters. Belize is no longer experiencing the benefits of foreign direct investment but instead is hemorrhaging money from capital flight.

Barrow reportedly has a Masters Degree in International Relations and I have to wonder if it was there he was taught to insult the Man Who Would Be Next To King?

Barrow the military and economic expert warned that if his threats are not heeded well then the British will have to just take their soldiers and go home and in so doing he will also banish our only airbourne after dark emergency response – the Batsub helicopters. But no never matter mind, we know that he has already carefully thought it through and has already lined up replacements from Israel?

There goes our intelligence capability and our oldest ally if things hold true to form and the Tories are victorious within the next four months, as is widely expected.
There goes >$5 million annually … like I said, under Barrow’s economic policies foreign investment is a no no, capital flight is the in-thing.

Meanwhile on Wednesday of this week Barrow’s handpicked board of directors told the nation what most of us already knew – BTL is hemorrhaging money and market share and nobody is interested in taking it off Barrow’s hands and our books.

As we feared it is the opposite of the scenario Barrow painted in the House back in August of this year – more litigation, more debt, less competition, less applications, no VOIP – all accompanied by a litany of lamentation.

Ashcroft is still a problem so the news this week is that Barrow, not satisfied with declaring him an enemy of the state, wants to revoke his Belizean citizenship, seize his bank and declare him persona non grata.

I need something a little more than a Thesaurus for that one because somehow reckless doesn’t quite seem to fit the bill.

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