Pass the Ball, Pass the Ball, Pass the Ball…Stop the Ball

February 7^th is here. The second anniversary of the Barrow led UDP administration, and if this was any other country, the UDP government would have already handed in their resignation with heads bowed low, eyes cast downward in shame, and would have retreated into the political diaspora, never to be seen or heard from again.

The recent developments in the city and country can now leave no doubt in anyone’s mind that the Barrow led UDP administration is bungling the management of our country’s affairs terribly, and has been doing so for the past two years, as it seems that anytime a crisis emerges, which is now the norm, rather than the exception, whether it is the economy, crime, cost of living, unemployment, Belize-Guatemala relations or health care, whatever, blame is assigned to who has the ball when Prime Minister Barrow says, with his hands over his eyes, “Stop the Ball”.

Remember that game we played as children. Someone is blindfolded or covers their eyes with their hands, as they  were not suppose to peek, and see who had the ball, and say …Pass the Ball…Pass the Ball…Pass the Ball…Stop the Ball. Who had the ball had to leave the game, until only one person remained! That person was declared the winner of the game. The fun of the game was the squiggling and squirming, for when you got the ball, it was treated as a hot potato. You would get burned if you did not get rid of it immediately.

The latest death toll to be inserted on the Barrow led UDP administration record of achievement for a single killing operation, climbed to 3, shattering previous records set for similar time periods, as the family of a 19 year old young man had to make the excruciating decision to take him off life support, while a 7 year old girl lies in the hospital, with a possibility of being paralyzed for life, and two more persons have injuries of varying degree, all victims of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.  How can the neighborhood in which you live be the wrong place to be?

Without warning, the dreams of parents and of children were snuffed out as easily as throwing water on the flame of a candle or crushing a mosquito.  In the case of the father of the 19 year old, his only son, his link to immortality, the person who would be joining him in his lifelong dream of a father and son plumbing business, was plucked away in an indiscriminate manner.  In the case of the family of the 7 year old, a financial nightmare and an emotional rollercoaster is now their reality. Not knowing the future of their child, and to make matters worse, their savings of $20000.00 is not enough to meet the escalating costs. They have to dig deeper, as this is an expense they did not plan for, and could never have imagined they would have to find.

And as for the child, the possibility of a life in which she may never be able to walk again, play with her friends, walk to school and to church, to grow up and dance, and be a fun loving teenager and unleash her full potential to be a mother, and be whatever she wanted to be, is now her reality. She may never be the butterfly that emerges from the caterpillar, or the swan that tentatively at first, and later with confidence, majestically raises its wings and flies into the sunset.

And what does Prime Minister Barrow do and say when asked if enough is being done by the police department and the commissioner, he puts his hands over his eyes and says…Pass the Ball, Pass the Ball, Pass the Ball….Stop the Ball…..and looks around to see who has the ball…the commissioner….the Minister…..oh…it is the society…they are growing too fast… Did he cheat? Did he peek?  [Hon. Dean Barrow, “I don’t think that we can ever do enough. The fact is that as the society continues to grow….” Channel 7 News February 3, 2010]

Does the Barrow led UDP administration understand that there is a war going on in the streets of Belize, particularly south-side Belize City? And does the Barrow led UDP administration understand that passing the ball, while a game that children play, is not a game plan or a strategy for addressing the senseless killings that are occurring right before our eyes, each and every day?

Can someone, can anyone explain to the Barrow led UDP administration that a commitment to work and a dedication to the job by the Police Commissioner is not what people want to hear right now? That people do not want to listen to how satisfied he is with the efforts of the Minister when their children, their spouses, their brothers, their fathers, their uncles, their nieces and nephews have now become the main ingredient in the blood stream flowing toward the pool of collateral damage, their lives cut short, by the refusal of a Prime Minister and his government to admit that they are short of cogent and workable solutions, and thus cannot present a convincing and structured approach to reigning in a situation that is out of control.

Rather than giving us hope, and taking responsibility as a leader, for the failure of the Minister of National Security and his UDP administration, and making a commitment to do whatever it takes to resolve a situation where solutions have eluded them so far;  rather than projecting an image of confidence and authority as leaders do, and pointing the way forward to give comfort to and rescue our people from more pain and suffering; rather than, as a matter of urgency, convene a partnership with the People’s United Party and all stakeholders to put a stop to the downward spiraling of our country, the Prime Minister places his hands over his eyes and say Pass the Ball…Pass the Ball…Pass the Ball….But very soon, it will be the people who, with wide open eyes, will say, when the ball is placed in Barrow hand…Stop the Ball…

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