Elrington Was Right! All GLITTER But No Substance

It’s been 2 years with Dean Oliver Barrow as Prime Minister.  So how are he and his UDP government doing?   He came to power promising prosperity, good governance, respect for our environment and no more corruption.   He asked us to imagine the possibilities. Now let us look at the UDP’s 2 year progress report.

Crime:

It is pathetic that the Prime Minister took so long to finally react to the depressing state of affairs in the country with violent crimes.  And what is more pathetic is that he only reacted with a statement because the recent incident hit close to him.  He stated “ The child is the stepdaughter of my driver so it produced in me a painful sense of having to deal in a fairly immediate way with this terrible depressing reality”.   So basically, only until he was connected to one the victims (and there have been so many) he decided to speak up.

But in finally speaking, he didn’t say anything concrete.  Just a lot of words about he is pleased with Commissioner Jeffery, pleased with the Minister of National Security and believe they are doing the best they can.  Buckle up Belize, we are in for a bumpy ride with this crowd if this is all the leader can say or do to combat crime.  Speeches, words and more speeches and words are all that he has.

Economy:

After several months of declaring officially that the country is in a recession (several months late and no news to public who have been feeling the pinch for much longer) , he and his government still have no real plan to stop the hurting.  They promised a fuel price not to exceed $7, then $8 and then-well, the people stop hoping because fuel prices continue to climb not decline.   He promised greater share of the Oil revenues and now we learn we are losing millions and he has no intention of doing anything about it because in this case the agreement he negotiated was made public not secretly.  So basically, in the case of BTL he is only upset that the agreement was made in secret and that is the real reason why he nationalized it.  With the high interest rates at banks, all he can say is he just doesn’t know if any better situation can be arrived at.  But he did say in one of his radio interviews that they will need to look at the tax regime so Belizeans…..Buckle up as more taxation are on the horizon and the ride will get even bumpier.

Environment:

PM Barrow and his UDP government have made it clear that they are not into conservation or protection of Belize’s natural resources or the varied non-government organizations who work to protect them.   He sees no issue with cancelling co-management agreements only to give it to cronies of the UDP who have no experience in natural resource management.  He sees nothing wrong with signing a secret agreement to allow for dam speculation in the country’s highest level of nature reserves.  He sees nothing wrong with seismic testing in Sarstoon Temash National Park despite the damage it is causing to the ecosystem there. He has demonstrated that he does not really care if Jamaicans or anyone else for that matter can arrive in country for plans to rape our fisheries.  No urgency on the matter of our barrier reef being put on the in-danger list of the UNESCO’s world heritage site.

Corruption:

This is where PM Barrow has shown his most hypocritical trait.  He has granted all large, public government litigation matters to his wife, his daughter and in their absence already to his own company.  Million dollar lawsuits are being handled by the Barrow family.  How can PM Barrow even begin to understand the poverty and crime situation in Belize when he clearly is living large and far removed from the reality of what Belizeans have to deal with everyday?

Frequently  flying all around, purchasing million dollar vehicle for the PUC, allowing Government to use stolen vehicles (what an example he sets), allowing our borders to be referred to as artificial, defending the incompetence of his ministers only so he doesn’t have to deal with anything and only getting upset when the Mayor of Belize City public insults him.  No, he doesn’t come down hard on the Mayor for the poor state of affairs of city administration or the audit results of the City Council but basically because she made him look bad in public.

He is a good talker but that’s the beginning and end of it. I guess “Crazy Glue” is not so crazy after all.  Barrow is all glitter and no substance.

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