From the Desk of…

In the streets of Belize City our young men are dying, killing each other in broad daylight.

In our homes we live in fear that at any moment someone may storm in and hurt us.

On the job we pray God that we won’t be the next one to be sent home.

Our streets are broken up; our society is broken down

The Belizean economy is in a recession, we are headed for a depression

The social fabric that holds this society together is being torn apart

and despair is turning to desperation.

IN the midst of all this, hope fades.

Never before in the history of Belize City and in our nation has so much gone so wrong.

We must come to terms with the sad reality that Dean Barrow and the UDP cannot manage the affairs of our nation.

They have NO Plan

They have NO heart,

They have no compassion;

They care little for the needs of the Belizean people

And they lack the capacity to get the job done.

As a result of this Belizeans are being neglected.

It is time we start the movement to send the UDP back to where they came from.

Two days ago the Prime Minister stood before the nation and told the Belizean people that come April 1^st he will collect $110 million in additional taxes.

Two days ago the Prime Minister also told the Belizean People that he will collect $1.8 million in new taxes from BNE.

I said before and I say again, the People’s United Party unequivocally rejects the proposal by the Prime Minister to raise taxes on the Belizean people and we call on the Prime Minister to reverse this decision.  The PUP will not sit quietly while this UDP administration shackles the Belizean people with burdensome taxes.

After his announcement that he was raising taxes, the Prime Minister offered the Belizean people, as consolation, $10 million in relief for the poor.

To give you an idea of how much this will help poor Belizeans, this $10 million when divided by the 143,000 people living below the poverty line, amounts to 7 cents per day per person.

Yet the Prime Minster has the nerve to stand up before this nation and talk about the “caring husbandry of the UDP Government?”  How can you say you care then turn around and squeeze an additional $110 million in taxes from Belizeans?  Where is the equity when Belizeans are asked to pay over $100 million in new taxes while BNE is asked to sacrifice a mere $1.8 million?  Where is the love, Mr. Prime Minister?

Let me put it to you this way.  At the moment, for every gallon of fuel Belizeans buy they pay a tax of $1. Come April 1^st on all fool’s day, Barrow is telling the Belizean people that he will beg BNE for an additional $1 for ever barrel of oil they take from Belizean soil.

So the man who says he has honour and loves Belize and Belizeans charges you 100 cents per gallon of fuel, and BNE pays just over two cents per gallon of crude oil.

Mr. Prime Minister, how can you accuse others of lacking morality, when you are sucking from poor Belizeans over $100 million in new taxes while at the same time charging the most profitable company in the country only $1.8 million?

This very Dean Barrow, who in a year and a half  paid to his ex wife, Lois Young Barrow $1.5 million dollars,  in legal fees; the very Dean Barrow who says he makes no excuses for how much he pays her, comes before the Belizean people saying that he and his government is doing all that they can.

Let me tell you what else he is doing to you, to me, and to all ah we.  He is talking about all the relief he is providing Belizeans.  Let me get my list and it is a new list.

Dean Barrow is fooling no one with his list of exemptions, he is talking about removing duty from sesame seed oil, rape oil, palm oil, irrigation pipe, washing machines as if that is a part of everyday use by Belizeans; well here are some of the things we use on a daily basis and for sure these items are bound to go up – items like toilet paper, toothpaste, soap, corn starch, soap powder, evaporated milk, all of these will see an additional 25 percent increase in the amount of tax you have to pay.  This is how he intends to squeeze another $42 million dollars from Belizeans pockets, by taxing their toothpaste and toilet paper.  Shame!

Now I want to remind you of what Barrow and his bunch of dodo birds promised you when they came for your vote and by now you all know that in Spanish lie is mentira and in Garifuna it is marasalugu.  But eena creole it is the plain and simple LIAAD

• Barrow said that under the UDP there would be no corruption, (    HE LIAAD)
• Barrow said that he would bring down the cost of utilities,  (HE LIAAD)
• Barrow said that they would create 5,000 new jobs, (HE LIAAD)
• Barrow said there would be no victimization, (HE LIAAD)
• He said they would institute a new text book program, (HE LIAAD)
• He promised you $300 for every high school student, (HE LIAAD)
• He said Belizeans will get shares in the oil company! (HE LIAAD)
• & Dean Barrow said he will bring down the cost of living “no matter what!” (LIAAD)

But let me tell you what he gave the people of Belize City, he gave you Zenaida Moya and under deposits.

He allowed Zenida to put sanitation workers out of their jobs.

He gave you the most broken down streets in the entire country.

The UDP has sat back while Belize City has become one of the most violent places in the world.

Ladies and Gentlemen when the PUP was in office we used to write songs that said “Believe in Belize.”  We used to say that in Belize we live in a good country.

Today all this optimism is gone.  It has been replaced by fear.

No Belizean deserves to live like this, we are good people.  We have a country rich in resources, the most precious being our people.

The UDP’s lack of respect for the people, their lack of a plan to move the country forward and their incompetence has put this country and the Belizean people on a path that is leading us towards destruction.

We have to stop this.  We have to say to Dean Barrow and the UDP, No Mas, NO MORE!

It is time for the UDP to lead or to leave.

It is time for the People’s United Party.