UDP Politics as Usual

Life in a time of recession…
For the longest time this columnist has been trying to figure out just how GOB plans to get us through this time of recession. For the first months of the economic crisis, I figure that Barrow’s strategy was to just play deaf, dumb and blind. I mean, how else could Barrow have stood in front of the nation and said that little Belize would be quite fine when other world superpowers were battening down the hatches? Of course, playing deaf, dumb and blind means that while other countries were making preparations Barrow was making preparations to build an expansion to his mansion in front of the sea. Serious! Absolutely nothing was done in Belize to ready us for the economic storm bearing down on the nation. And the thing is, with the winds of that storm now battering us all we’re hearing from GOB is that the US is coming out of recession so Belize should eventually follow. Hell, if there’s anybody who can tell me one concrete thing which this Barrow administration has done to ease the burden on Belizeans in this time of crisis, you’ll win an all expenses paid overnight stay at the Barrow Seashore Drive Mansion, courtesy of the Belize Times. Up to hmmm 5:00pm on Thursday night as this is being written, let the record show that the Barrow administration has still not told us their brilliant plan to get us through this. Things are very bad. They are going to get worse.

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Tourism News
Not that it’s any surprise, but things aren’t looking so good in the tourism industry. After a short spurt at the start of the season, arrivals and hotel stays have fallen way off. In San Pedro, resorts are talking about cutting back on staff in an attempt to last through the season. Restaurants and small hotels are talking about closing their doors. While tourism stakeholders were hoping against hope for the best, they have now had to accept that in already bad times, this tourism season will be one of the worst. Barrow and his UDP will of course try to push the blame somewhere else, cause that’s the UDP modus operandi. But the truth is that the responsibility for the destruction of the tourism industry rests squarely on the shoulders of the UDP. Just take a look around Belize City. If you were a tourist would you come to Belize City to walk in the garbage and filth? Hell no, you’d probably head a little further north to more attractive destinations like Cozumel or Cancun. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not knocking the jewel, far from it, but the fact is that under the UDP Belize has become a place with nothing spectacular to offer. And again thanks to the UDP, Belize has earned a name as the murder capital of the world, and foreign governments have started to caution their residents against visiting Belize because of the rampant crime. We are messed up under the UDP.

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Crime…what crime?
Dean Barrow is not the only UDP playing deaf, dumb and blind. Our Minister of National Security Carlos Perdomo is playing a sick, sick game of poke your head down a hole and imitate ostrich! According to Perdomo and his Police Press Officer, they are right and the rest of the world is wrong. They still continue to insist that crime is way down and all those pesky little murders and robberies and assaults and home invasions are just figments of our imagination. Carlos Perdomo is now starring in his own GOB produced ad in which he attempts to paint this glorious picture of what has been done in the Police Department and in the fight against crime. You know what Perdomo is boasting about? He boasts that he changed the Police Commissioner and he organized one neighbourhood watch. THAT’S IT. After almost two years in office, that’s it. Right about now, Police morale is at an all time low. Police have no vehicles with which to respond to emergencies. They are being overworked with no overtime and only vague promises of time in lieu which never materialize. Our men and women in uniform are angry and frustrated and our Minister of National Security is absolutely clueless. Yesterday a prominent business was jacked at gunpoint on Baymen Avenue just down the street from Perdomo’s house. But Perdomo says crime is going down.

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GOB’s response to recession
As best we can figure it, GOB plans to spin their way out of recession this Christmas. So far we’ve seen ads from Carlos Perdomo on all media houses. We’ve also seen ads from Gapi Vega on all media houses. These ads attempt to portray a wrong impression of what is really happening in Belize. A newcomer to our shores with absolutely no prior knowledge of the country would watch these ads and think that everything’s honky-dory in our young nation. But we all know better. And then there’s the other thing. The economy is in recession, right? There are people losing their homes left right and center. Isn’t that so? There are people who have no idea how they will put food on their tables tonight and tomorrow, much less in the weeks ahead. There are people losing their jobs every single day. Ad campaigns are expensive. We figure that Perdomo’s ads on all stations will probably run in the region of $50,000 between now and Christmas. Gapi’s ads will be about the same. Then of course we’ll see ads from Boots and from Finnegan and from Castro and of course from Barrow. All told we’re probably looking at $250,000 in ads which we will pay for over the next few weeks. This is the wrong message for Barrow to send. This is a time when we should be dispensing with all these frivolous things and dealing with how to help our people.

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The BTL mess…
Yesterday BTL has a press conference for the media. They had absolutely nothing good to report. Chairman Net Vasquez could only state that there will be practically endless litigation ahead between BTL and the Bank and Lord Ashcroft. Remember that PM Barrow had said that his taking over BTL would bring an end to the litigation? And Net Vasquez also reported that BTL has recorded a loss this past fiscal year and will show another loss in the next fiscal year. That’s not exactly good news, especially if GOB intends to find an investor to take over BTL. Nat Vasquez also gave some reports about projects set to go online. The funny thing is, he and the UDP are taking credit for these projects like the new GSM network though all that was in the works long before Barrow decided to hijack BTL. The entire scene at the press conference was somewhat surreal. And something else – it’s obvious that the mother and son team of Lois and Anwar are really in charge of BTL. When Net was stuttering and fumbling his questions it was Lois who scribbled notes on a paper and passed it to Vasquez to remind him of his script. And when Vasquez spoke a little out of turn it was Lois who scolded him. What a joke this whole BTL saga must seem to the region and the world. But it’s not funny at all. The reality is that any loan which Barrow takes on, we taxpayers are liable for. So it’s not funny at all.

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