UDP Politics as Usual…

$100,000…thanks a lot!

If it were not for the internet and the Agent from Vibes Radio who broke the news Belizeans would probably still be in the dark regarding the truth about ‘our’ oil being sucked out of ‘our’ jewel. According to an article in the Irish based Belfast Telegraph, hundreds of Irish investors got a most joyful Christmas gift when they received beaucoup bucks from BNE thanks to the oil bonanza in Belize. Some of them, claims the article, got as much as US$750,000 return on their investment, since the company is said to have generated revenues somewhere around US$112M for just 2008. Well, that’s all good for all those Irish investors (who the article claims are laughing all the way to the bank) and bully for them, but what happened to us? How did we benefit from this bounty right smack dab in the middle of our land? Oh, the article goes on about that too, stating that more than $100,000 has so far been contributed to schools and flood relief. WTF! This company is boasting that they pulled in revenues of $112M in 2008 and more than $700M in the past four years, and Belize has gotten $100,000. Whooppeee! That is messed up. Serious! Where is our government in all this? Where is the Petroleum Fund which had been set up by the previous administration to ensure that an equitable portion of money from the oil would be used in areas like health and education and on social projects? It is beyond belief that our economy is currently in recession and Belizeans are suffering while oil is being taken out of our country at a prodigious rate so Irish investors can ‘laugh all the way to the bank’ and we see absolutely nothing from it. Dean Barrow and his government need to answer some serious questions! How much money are we getting from the oil? And just where the hell is it going, since we sure aren’t benefitting from the bonanza?

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Charge a toll…

Did we forget to mention that the Kendall Bridge is still down after two years, despite that crossing being used by the hundreds of oil trucks taking their bounty to the port to be shipped out? C’mon, how much will it take to build a bridge over the Kendall? A million or two or three? How much did BNE rake in for 2008 alone? US$112M! Again I have to ask – where the hell is our government in all this? Do something, for Pete’s sake! Charge a toll on trucks using the crossing – the way GOB is moving, we’d probably collect enough to put up a new bridge by the time the Ministry of Works gets around to it.

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Pablo again…

Fresh on the heels of the tragic report that yet another baby has died because of negligence in the public health system is the news that Minister of Health Pablo Marin has appointed his wife the new Administrator at the Corozal Hospital. This is serious business, way past blatant nepotism. The thing is that his wife didn’t even finish high school. Health is no laughing matter, because you’re dealing with people’s lives. But Pablo probably doesn’t give a damn, because the Medical Chief of Staff at the same hospital is his nephew Nelson, who still hasn’t gotten his medical degree and is not licensed to practice medicine in Belize. To add to that his cousin, who used to manage a gas station, was placed at the helm of the Northern Regional Hospital with no qualifications whatsoever. This is way past the mark. The call has gone out far and wide for the removal of Pablo Marin as Minister of Health. How much more can Belizeans take? How long will it be before somebody else dies because of the stupid decisions made by the stupid minister and somebody takes matters into their own hands. Like I said, health is no laughing matter.

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Hurray…crime is down!

According to the Police High Command, things are all honky dory in Belize. Crime is way down and we’re living in a good country, a real paradise of peace and tranquility and stability. Yeah right! I’ve got to believe that somewhere down the line my good friend the Compol fell and hit his head. There’s no other explanation. But seriously, though. The last Police briefing was a joke, as have been the ones before. The nation has to sit by flabbergasted and listen to our law enforcement officials pat themselves on the back for a job well done even as the nation enters an era of urban terrorism. Even as grenades explode in our communities and murders, jacking, rape and home invasions have immobilized our citizens, we are told that all is well. The fact of the matter is that the community already has little trust in the Police, and listening to so much crap about crime going down while the reality slaps us in the face and slits our throats makes it just so much worse. The Leader of the Opposition has called for the removal of the Minister of National Security Carlos Perdomo. If you want to call that political, do so and be happy. But the entire nation is also calling for the removal of Carlos Perdomo. He is a joke. He is incompetent. He is impotent on crime. The US State Department has just issued another advisory cautioning visitors to our shores about the risks they take because of the crime infestation which plagues Belize. But our officials say that is not so. They say everything is okay. That is messed up.

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The City Hall Mafia…

The corrupt bunch in City Hall, led by the corrupt Mayor, is involved in yet another racket. Idiot Councilor Phillip Willoughby was on the news for yet another media op last night explaining in his own disjointed and semi-literate style that the City Council will threaten business residents of the city with the with-holding of their trade licenses if they cannot produce a receipt for the payment of the garbage tax or prove that they carried their trash to the dump. Hell! Who is the city council to be messing around like that when the city is the filthiest it has ever been. The businesses and the residents are putting out their garbage. It’s just not being picked up by the City Council. By the time they get around to it, dogs have already scattered the garbage far and wide and it is an unholy mess. But now Phillip and Zenaida and the rest of the motley crew want to blame the people of the city for the mess it is in. Typical UDP – just can’t take the blame for anything. And also in typical style, the UDP is trying to distract Belizeans with all this bogus talk about fixing up all the streets of the city. We’ve heard it all before from City Hall – in every form and fashion and dressed up in all the latest spins – remember the disappearing garbage magic act, when Phillip and the Mayor sprayed garbage with something out of a Febreze bottle, claiming that the garbage would disappear in a month. Wee, the month was up on December 23^rd, and nobody’s heard a peep from the dumb duo Phillip and Zenaida. The bottom line is that the City Council is still broke – end of story. So forget about any large scale paving of streets. And as for the paying of the garbage tax so that Zenaida and Phillip can keep the city clean – that’s just a big joke. All that will serve is to give the sticky fingered ones more money to take home. Whatever happened to the more than quarter million dollars missing from Council coffers? The UDP seems to have pushed that one under the rug. Typical UDP politics for sure!

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