UDP Politics as Usual

Bloody, bloody Belize…

The last week or so in Belize City has seemed almost surreal, like some scene out of a bloody crime/gang flick. Certainly a far cry from what we used to call our jewel in the Caribbean, our pristine paradise and Mother Nature’s best kept secret. Well the secret is out, and now everybody knows that Belize is a very dangerous and deadly place to visit, and an even deadlier place to live. As recently as his last media and photo op, Minister of National Security Carlos Perdomo insists that the escalation in violent crime is just a figment of our collective imagination, a perception which is far from the truth. How could things be the way you all say, claims the crime minister, when all OUR stats indicate that crime is way down. I wonder what the crime minister is saying now, when gunshots are ringing out on the streets every day, students and innocent bystanders are shot like blackbirds on the street and our youth are being gunned down in pools of blood. We have negotiated a truce, said the crime minister and his prime minister, but apparently they were as successful at that as they are at addressing the other issues in Belize. Since that truce, open warfare has been waged on the streets. I’m writing this relatively early in the week. Call me a prophet of gloom and doom if you will, but I have no doubt that there will be much more bloodshed before this paper hits the streets Friday morning. Our crime minister and our prime minister are clueless. They seem to think that allocating a measly $40,000 to renovating some sporting facilities in the city will address the problem. The community has lost all confidence in the Police; the criminals seem to be the only ones that are organized. When the Police do manage to get somebody in Court the chain of evidence is so messed up that they walk anyway. Our police investigators and the office of public prosecutions seem content to blame each other while criminals walk free. WE ARE MESSED UP. The crime minister needs to be removed from office, sooner rather than later. In fact, NOW would be a good time.

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BPD/DPP breakdown…

I hear tell that the Director of Public Prosecutions Cheryl Lynn Branker Taitt got married to a Police Officer the other day. I wish her all the best. No disrespect intended, but I also wish that their relationship is a lot more productive and cohesive than the relationship between the DPP and the BPD. Seems like every week on the news, there is word about alleged murderers walking free! Just the other day some very dangerous characters were let go off what was supposed to be an ironclad murder rap. When the word gets out (and it is out, believe me) that you can kill in broad daylight in the most gruesome fashion and odds are you will walk free, that’s a very, very bad thing indeed. As I understand it, the way things are supposed to work is that the DPP’s office is supposed to collaborate with Police investigators every step of the way – from the collection of evidence to the protocol governing arrest to the creation of an airtight case leading to conviction. Hell, we’ve all seen Law and Order. So why is it that when these young men finally have their day in Court, that is when we find out that the thing was messed up from the beginning. Why can’t we get this very simple thing right? I think that our DPP needs to be removed from office as well. She is a joke, her office has become a joke and the only ones who want her around are the criminals and the defense attorneys who laugh all the way to the bank. But we aren’t laughing.

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Big disrespect from the baldhead…

Our youth ambassadors who attended an important heads of government summit in Suriname are very angry indeed. Apparently only four heads of government bothered to show up. Nobody is surprised to hear that our Prime Minister Dean Barrow did not bother to attend. That is big disrespect to our youth. Especially with the issues affecting them right now. I guess what the youth are saying is that Dean Barrow could have taken a week off to head to New York with his wife last week to receive a completely bogus award from people who certainly have no clue what he’s all about, but he was too busy to listen to his concerns. They are absolutely right. Dean Barrow had time for the glitter (a meaningless bauble In New York) but no time for the substance (the voices of our youth). Those wrong decisions will certainly come back to haunt him. Big respect to our youths who attended and to all youth ambassadors who have stepped forth to find solutions to the issues which affect them and affect all of us!

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Penner under attack

Minister of Youth Elvin Penner was the victim of a vicious attack on a talk-show this morning, an attack from the wife of a senior UDP Minister no less. According to Diane Finnegan, he is an absolute waste of time who can do nothing for our youth and he needs to be removed immediately. Ouch! She claims that in his time as Minister of Youth he has visited Youth for the Future only once, and he has no idea what he’s doing. Now that’s a serious hit. See, it goes like this. When Dean Barrow wants to attack somebody, he uses Lois. Like when he wanted to attack Sedi but couldn’t in public, Lois was there like a vicious attack dog demanding to know how Sedi could have the audacity to stand up in Cabinet and refuse to apologize for calling the border between Belize and Guatemala artificial. It’s the same thing here. Penner is the victim of a hit from Finnegan through his wife. I mean, I agree that Penner is a joke as Minister of Youth and a joke as Minister of Sports. Hell, who wouldn’t agree? There is a serious unraveling in the UDP Cabinet. Ministers are fighting with ministers and its getting downright nasty. The bad part is that even when they were all getting along way back at the beginning, they did nothing for us. Imagine how much worse it will get now.

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Take a bus ride, flippin’

The UDP got into power, took a transportation system that was basically working and turned it ass-forward. That’s the long and short of it. For reasons ranging from political malice to nepotism to cronyism to incompetence to sheer stupidity, our whole bus system is messed up. There are not enough runs and the schedule does not work. Commuters are being left in terminals and on the roads. Employees and students are reaching to work and school late. There is a veritable riot at high traffic hours and there is a report that Police had to be called to the Belize City terminal last week when things got heated. Minister of Transportation Melvin Hulse does not ride the bus. His family members do not ride the bus. Just ask his daughter who has been accustomed to flying first class to the UK at our expense. Every time Melvin Hulse is asked about this problem, he claims that they will get it fixed in about a month or so. Somehow that month or so has been very elusive. He keeps talking about studies they are carrying out to determine numbers of commuters and peak times. How the hell long can that take? Melvin should realize that the frustration of commuters is reaching another level. That is not a good thing. He needs to get this right.

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A crying shame…

I wish I had $10,000 to give to dialysis patient Jose Cruz. I would do it in a second. It makes me sad and frustrated and angry to hear about his plight, and to learn that two of his fingers have been amputated. I am sad because he is a man who has always fought for the rights of dialysis patients and now he is in so much pain and needs help urgently. I am frustrated because I wish I personally could do more for him and I know many Belizeans feel the same, but the $15,000 seems like an unlikely prospect because things are so bad for a lot of us these days. And I am angry because things are very bad for many of us, but they are very good for some people too. How hard would it be for Dean Barrow to give $10,000 to Jose Cruz? He would be giving the gift of life. How about Lois and Deanne and Anwar? What’s $10,000 to them? The very least they could do is give Jose Cruz a fraction of what they’ve gotten from all of us. Dean’s daughter Deanne just billed GOB $2Million. Compare that to the $10,000 that will save a man’s life. The world is round. The Barrows would do well to realize that. One of these days one of them will need something that all the money in the world cannot buy.

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UDP Animal Farm…

The Chairman of the Village Council in Gracie Rock has been arrested and charged with allegedly putting his hands in the village’s cookie jar. The figure that he’s been accused of ‘pilfering’ is somewhere in the region of $9,000 or so. If he did it or not is not the point! The thing is that there was an accusation and the law acted swiftly. But some animals are more equal than others on this UDP farm, it appears. Why is it that Mayor Zenaida Moya is still allowed to sit in her office like some queen of the garbage heap? The audit report points to hundreds of thousands of dollars missing, maybe millions but Zenaida is still living in her multi-million dollar mansion in front of the sea. This UDP is bogus. This is only a game to them. Trust me, if Zenaida apologizes to Dean and assures him that his balls have been firmly re-attached, they will be sweet as pie again. Belizeans still want to know why the Prime Minister did not release the findings of the City Council Audit Report even when it sat on his desk for five months. And now that it’s come out, Belizeans really want to know if the Prime Minister will do anything about the corrupt mess in City Hall.

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