UDP Politics as usual

Barrow’s Big Loss

Everyone knows that the Mr. Barrow has a special love affair with Belizean who live abroad; nothing wrong with that as long as he is first concerned about those of us stay and work this land, pay our takes and build Belize.  Of course when you look at the people who get awards from this UDP Administration like the Order of Distinguished Service and the Order of Belize, many of these recipients are a part of that old Brooklyn or London crowd.   We also know that in his office most of his advisors are people who left Belize and are now coming back after contributing to the development of other nations.

When Belizeans heard about the UDP agenda for Reform they really expected to see a lot done on the side of governance.   Everyone agreed that term limits for the PM was a good idea, what we did not expect was that that would be it.  You see the real reform Barrow wanted was to bring back that old NIP crowd and put time in the House of Representatives and the Senate.  But like the idea of spying on innocent Belizeans and invading our privacy, Belizeans said hold on Barrow, not so fast.  Once again he finds his plan stopped dead in its tracks.  Perhaps if the PUP did fight we would not see the day when this PM would be withdrawing his proposal to have dual nationals serving in the National Assembly and that once again the people showed a vote of “No Confidence” in the Prime Minister’s so called reforms.

“Patience and Understanding”?

What is the matter with this Prime Minister?  How can he come before this nation and ask the mothers and fathers, brothers, sisters and girl friends who mourn the death of their innocent loved ones shot down on their jobs and in their homes to be patient?  How can he ask a father who must now live with his innocent seven year old daughter’s being made a cripple by a stray bullet to be “patient and understanding?

After two years of a government with no plan, a government that has victimized 100’s of Belizeans; after taking away so many people’s land; after doing nothing to help those sanitation workers who were laid off,  this Prime Minister is asking for “patience and understanding?”

People expected to realize the possibilities, we expected to feel the oil; we expected a government where not even the smell of corruption would be tolerated.  Most important, we expected a government that would deliver on those promises to create jobs give our children new textbooks and grow the economy.

Sorry Mr. Barrow our patience have long ran out and we get di sense long time, your Administration is out of ideas, you have no plan and you offer no leadership.  We can’t wait for 2013, and whenever you get tired of  carrying the burdens for the Dodoo birds around you, bring it on, cause we ready, because dis da wah one term government!

State of the Nation

Anyone who expected the usual fancy footwork when Barrow faced the media on Wednesday got somewhat of a surprise.  Delroy Cutkelvin at the start of the press conference stepped up to the microphone and announced that the Prime Minister would be presenting the State of the Nation.  Well what we got was 3 minutes of excuses.  So if you want to know what is the state of the nation, you simply have to go to www.belizetiems.bz and read with the Leader of the Opposition had to say about the state of the nation during his press conference, but in a nutshell Barrow simply supported the Leader of the Opposition’s assertion that the nation is in a mess.

Public Service Woes

If you are a public officer these days you have nothing to celebrate.  First the cost of living has gone up, according to your leaders, by 30 percent.  Second you now know that there will be no raise of pay at this time because as the Prime Minster said, “there is no money, Punto Final.”  If this is not enough to spoil your weekend, here is what we found out about your situation.  According to the Report on the Hon. John Saldivar’s countrywide Consultation Visits to Government Office, your working conditions will not improve anytime soon.

For those of you who work at the Golden Haven Rest Home, be happy you don’t have to live there.  According to the report, “There are a number of health and safety concern which must be addressed as a matter of urgency.  A small sample of the concerns includes: snakes and flooding.”  If you happen to work at the Ministry of Agriculture or in the Magistrates Courts in Toledo, or at the Customs in Belize City, well you get to work among rats, fat, disease infested rats.

If you work in these places you are still ahead of those at the Post Office in Belize City, the Dangriga Magistrates Court and at the Punta Gorda Hospital where the working environment is “hazardous.”

After two years of the UDP, not only are our bridges collapsing and  our roads breaking up before our very eyes bit  things are falling apart everywhere.  Our government buildings are also being neglected.   It is time for Minister John Saldivar to stop all the eating and drinking and fix the problems in his ministry if he expect any promotion when the PM shuffles his cabinet.

Works Worries

It is easy to make fun of the runaway grada, but this is serious.   An important piece of equipment valued at $300,000 was driven miles across this country undetected by anyone in authority.  To add insult to this situation, the CEO in the Ministry of Works immediately jumped out there to say that the equipment was seen in Guatemala.  How could such an expensive piece of equipment leave this country undetected?

We hear that trucks for BNE carry tracking devise so they can know where they are at any given time.  Considering the millions spent on vehicles each year should this not be something that all government vehicles have on them.  When this administration could approve $2 million for a special truck to check for frequencies, shouldn’t $300,000 equipment for the Ministry of works, which usually work in remote areas have some kind of device to track them?

Once again, the tax payer must come to terms with the fact that in these worst of times, we manage to lose expensive equipment and we must be consoled by the fact that once again it is the man at the bottom of the food chain who is expected to take the fall for this.

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