“Sic Transit Gloria….” (Thus passes the Glory of the World)

It was a constant part of the morning show on the UDP radio station – Joe Bradley mouthing off the words: “we no di feel di oil.”  Not a day would go by when this would not be echoed by him and celebrated by his co-hosts.  Indeed it appeared that he was so angry over the situation and the ownership of BNE that he even made popular the nicknames “Sally & Suzie.” Of course now that the UDP has taken over Government, renegotiated the terms with BNE and set their own policy in place, Joe is either wallowing in black gold or he simply lost his script, since little is being said in those quarters today. Two years into the Barrow administration the UDP talking heads remain so quiet that little if any has been mentioned in that quarter about the payout that was made to the Irish investors in “Sally & Suzie’s” BNE.

In Tuesday’s edition of the Belfast Telegraph, an Irish newspaper it was declared that, “Irish investors are laughing all the way to the bank after striking black gold in Central America.”  What a difference, in fact a complete contrast to what the Prime Minister said in his budget speech on our earning from oil. He said: “Collections from our much vaunted windfall surcharge never materialized, but sic transit Gloria….”  So while Belizeans had to deal with the reality of little if any benefits from our non renewable natural resources, Susan Morrice was able to deliver to hundreds of people in Ireland.  The Belfast Telegraph celebrated their windfall by stating: “at Christmas they got their first, significant and massive dividend.”

The paper further went on to state that what started out as a US$10 million dollar investment in 2008 alone hauled in gross revenues of US$112 million dollars, so much so that investors in Ireland were able to cash cheques of over Bz$1.5 million.

So how much exactly did the government of Belize get?  How much did our local shareholders haul in?  How much did Belizeans benefit in share holdings?  Perhaps this should show up in next week’s paper as a question to the minister.

When the PUP was in office and oil was discovered in commercial quantities, Party Leader John Briceño, then Minister of Natural Resources, consulted far and wide. He spoke with exports in Texas, the Commonwealth, Trinidad, India and he spoke with any Belizean who would listen, including the then Opposition Leader Dean Barrow.  His message was about ensuring that we do all possible to manage this non-renewable resource in a sustainable and equitable manner. He spoke about setting up a Petroleum Fund and about making sure that oil revenues were being used in a way that would directly benefit Belizeans today and in the future.

Two years into their administration and after all the bawling about not feeling the oil, this administration has failed to make anything good from oil production, which went from 2000 barrels per day in 2007 to over 5000 barrels per day.  They never bothered to look at the plans and revisit the research; they did not listen to the advice of PUP leaders on the setting the windfall too high or about anything, so this one is all on Barrow and his UDP government.

And while BNE continues to suck our oil from the earth and their investors boast that it is like winning the lottery, Belizeans are getting poorer by the day.  Recent unreleased statistics show that currently poverty in Belize stands at a new high of 43 percent, a full 10 percent above where it was in 2005.

As if to add insult to injury, the Belfast Telegraph quoted Morrice as saying that what started out as a field with possible 6 million barrels of recoverable oil is actually a 20 million barrel field and that they also struck oil at another field.  While Belizeans had vaguely heard about the second field, it was not public knowledge that the agreement signed by Government and BNE for a field with possible six million barrels but more than three times that amount.

Susan Morris was quoted as saying that Belize is a very poor country, and that they are doing their part.  Last year they spent $200,000 on charities.  From gross revenues of $224 million, and handing out Christmas cheques of $1.4 million to Irish Investors, they share pride in a $200,000 donation.

Of course Belizeans cannot hold “Sally & Suzie” responsible for any of this.  We also cannot hold them responsible for the fact that for every penny we failed to collect in revenue from the sale of oil over the past four years our cumulative loss amounted to $7 million.  We cannot hold Sally & Suzie responsible for the fact that the Belizean people got an economy in recession for Christmas while Irish Investors got a gift of $1.5 million from our oil.  We must hold Barrow and his administration responsible for this and we must ask Joe and his crew: “are you feeling the oil yet?”

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