Disrespectful, Facey & Hopeless

Those were only a few of the adjectives used to describe Dean Barrow’s performance at a press conference held on Wednesday morning at the Radisson Hotel.  In typical bembe form, Dean Barrow displayed his lack of statesmanship and unprofessionalism when he poked fun at a journalist and said “he dah noh di one when Chendo box?”  The audience and listeners across the country were stunned by Barrow’s disrespectful and brazen admission that one of his UDP candidates (now Ambassador to Mexico) had violently assaulted a Belizean journalist.

Then came the question that all had been anxiously awaiting: “How much is your ex-wife making?”  For the umpteenth time on record, Belize’s Prime Minister dodged the question, pretending as though he did not know the million dollar answer.  But what he did reveal about his ex-wife was damaging enough.  Barrow declared that he had absolutely no apologies and went even further to say that whatever it is that Lois Young Barrow is making is “well worth the price” since she led the charge for the now defunct ACB.  In other words Belize, Dean Barrow confessed on national radio that Lois Young Barrow, his ex-wife, is being handsomely rewarded for her activism in a UDP support group.  Classically Barrow and classically facey.

Finally, and most importantly, what Wednesday’s press conference proved to all the nation is that it has taken exactly two years for Barrow to smell the stench coming from a Government riddled and plagued by nepotism and gross incompetence.  Finally, Barrow has gone on record to concede that his Government is going nowhere.  And, in typical doom and gloom fashion, Barrow made no qualms in declaring that “the upcoming year will be the hardest of the UDP term”.  The question however is, hard for who?

Just one week ago, the Guardian Newspaper ran a headline declaring “Two Years of Success”.   But what the editor of the Guardian failed to add to this headline was the phrase “for the Barrow Family”.

Indeed, for the rest of us, the past two years have been the toughest, most difficult and most trying in the history of our young nation, rich with oil reserves, natural resources, and a tourism product unparalleled in this hemisphere.  Yet, our Prime Minister and his motley crew of dismal Ministers cannot find the answers and deliver the solutions that the Belizean people so desperately need.

The truth is that there is no reason why Belizeans should continue to suffer like this.  Yes, we made a mistake when we voted for untalented candidates, but to undergo such torture was certainly not expected.

Mr. Barrow needs to stop focusing on his family’s riches and start focusing on the cries of the nation.  People need jobs!  Belizeans demand to live in a safer society; they need food to feed their children!  They need the Minister of Education to stop canceling scholarships and start issuing new ones!   If Barrow cannot deliver on the basics then he needs to start preparing for an early election, because there is no way in hell that the people of Belize will tolerate three more years of abuse, nepotism and an incompetent government.

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