Barrow is bogus!

by glenntillett@yahoo.com

This week Prime Minister Dean Barrow added insult to the injury that is the massive mis-management that is so characteristic of this Belize City Council by “proposing” that City residents pay a fee for the collection of household garbage.

A pox upon this tax I say. Barrow is so out of touch with reality that I am starting to believe that his judgment has been indeed warped by his meds, the ones he is taking for a chronic and painful back problem.

I questioned my own judgment this week because I started off the week trying to convince myself that the honourable PM would tone down his rhetoric and take a more conciliatory stance viz-a-viz the former majority shareholder(s) of Belize Telemedia Limited and the British Caribbean Bank. I was almost certain that after reflection and consultation he would’ve realized that continued public hostilities could not bring about any “good” resolution to what is now a full-blown crisis. I was thinking that when you shout at the Devil, you know that that single act of bravado can carry the gravest of consequences and there comes a time when you should tack in the direction of caution as you wait to see what unfolds.

But not the feckless Dean Oliver Barrow, self-styled master of the game. Instead of toning it down the man instead ratchets up the rhetoric in a desperate strategy to shore up faltering support. The numbers don’t lie, all the polls I have seen show that support for the move to expropriate BTL for re-privatization is fading. I can’t say with any certainty if it has passed the tipping point, but it is near there.

A harsh reality is beginning to seep in and sop up the initial euphoria. Here we are three months later and not only have none of the promised scenarios for expropriation materialized, but the company is faltering to boot. There is not only no prospectus three months after the fact, but it would seem that there are no prospective buyers.

And not only has he through his legendary powers of legal prestidigitation saddled us with a debt to be paid of >$300 million in compensation for the shares, but it would appear we are also being stuck with an additional $60 million plus in loans he believes he can make disappear.

And to top it all off, at a time when we need to ensure that we stay in the good graces of our allies and trading partners, as well as in good standing with the IFI’s and international ratings agencies, his penchant for provocation is eroding goodwill and trustworthiness.

Be honest, ask yourself, where will all this end and how do we “escape” serious damage?

It is no wonder that when this week Dean Oliver unveiled his grand plan for “rescuing”  the Belize City Council from moral and financial bankruptcy we were all left totally aghast. In his by now familiar penchant for double speak, Barrow told the nation that city councilors will be persuaded to reduce their pecuniary remunerations in return for our accepting paying a heretofore never imposed household garbage collection fee. Until that happens he most solemnly assured us, his government would not bail out the City Council.

And he touted this even as he attended a gathering that exemplifies and illustrates one of the many many things that is so wrong about his governance philosophy. This week Dean O joined his works minister Anthony “Boots” Martinez to tout what they call their City Rejuvenation Project. It is worth touting they say because it is doing the work of the Belize City Council.

If only the pair would spend as much time and energy (and money) guiding the affairs of the Belize City Council it is quite possible that we would not need a so-called city rejuvenation project. But then again Barrow and Boots are spending $5 million dollars to do the City Council’s work, and I am sure any assessment of the effort will give it a massively failing grade, the very same grade any sane person would give the City Council.

But be that as it may, Barrow has the gall to suggest that the City Council is bankrupt because it does not collect enough revenue. The problem is not a lack of money. The simple facts are that after nearly four years of a UDP administration in City Hall, the City is much the worse for it. Like with the BTL debacle, they have not only not fulfilled a single promise to date, but the very opposite is the reality.

Not only is the City spending more money to provide less (and fewer) service, but it is also deeper than ever in debt even as it has the largest payroll in its history.

The problem isn’t just that the City Council is bankrupt, but that Barrow is just bogus. In the end I figure his so-called brilliance is just so much bulls—t. He should resign.

| | | | | |