Absolutely nothing gets resolved…

By: Mike Rudon Jr.

The news that Dean Barrow and his entourage had to be evacuated from their Miami hotel this weekend because of a pervasive and terrible stench was guaranteed cause for grins and giggles. Imagine that in the middle of the Prime Minister’s grand speech the smell became so terrible that the entire hotel, more than 1,000 guests had to be evacuated. Man that must have been one heaping load of bulls@#t Mr. Barrow was spouting out. We have the same situation here in Belize when the PM opens his mouth…the only difference is that we’ve gotten so used to the smell of garbage and filth that it doesn’t faze us much.

But seriously, that situation in Miami must be the most supreme of ironies and superior intellect that he possesses, I’m sure that irony was not lost on Mr. Barrow. I’m certain that even as he was being ushered out of the room by US Secret Service agents he was thinking – oh damn I’m going to be the butt of some really cruel jokes at home. After all, Mr. Barrow is the original ‘whiff of corruption’ man, the leader who promised to put on his ass-kicking boots and stomp all over anyone in his administration who emitted even a hint of Eau de Corruption. What a joke that turned out to be! What a sissy the leader of the UDP turned out to be!

Mr. Barrow has presided over what is arguably the most corrupt administration ever in this young nation. The gentleman who promised to react to a whiff must surely have swooned at the stench. Maybe that’s what happened – the corruption within his administration was just too much for him. Within weeks of the Barrow administration coming into office, the breeze was already ripe with the smell of UDP wheeling and dealing. That smell hasn’t abated one bit; in fact it’s turned into a foul miasma which just won’t go away. Mr. Barrow has made not even one serious attempt to recognize, address, deal with or stomp out this corruption as he promised.

You know what’s really frightening? There have been so many issues rocking this nation from week to week that the corruption thing has been reduced to just a persistent hum underlying everything. You know what else is really frightening…none of these issues get resolved -they just get overwhelmed by another issue which gets pushed to the side by another issue which gets smothered by another issue which gets absorbed by another issue. While all this is happening Mr. Barrow bobs merrily along in his little cork boat with not a care in the world. Isn’t that a pisser?

Who would ever have thought that the Mayor would be allowed to get away with all the crap she did in City Hall? Makes no sense now to rehash all the hand/cookie jar cohabitating but hell, months ago an official audit showed hundreds of thousands of dollars missing from public coffers and raised hundreds of questions about distinctly funny-smelling (Eau de Corruption for sure) transactions and dealings. Barely anybody blinked. Mr. Barrow certainly didn’t miss a beat. Nobody asked any questions and indeed it passed like ‘wah lee breeze!’ – sort of like the ‘under-depositing’ thing. None of that was ever resolved. Neither were any of the allegations against Boots Martinez and the Port Loyola Housing for the Poor. Mr. Barrow waltzed determinedly around those questions and around questions asked about Gapi Vega and the Ministry of Natural Resources. And how about Mr. Clear the Land, who has got to be in line to receive a prize for most accomplishments and whopping financial success in the shortest period of time? Our Prime Minister doesn’t have time to deal with that. But notwithstanding Mr. Barrow’s studied nonchalance toward corruption, the fact is that it is rampant.

The only thing saving Mr. Barrow from the corruption thing right now will likely be the very poisoned arrows that secure his political death. This week and last the big issue is Mr. Barrow’s move against the Judiciary with his ill-advised attempt to get the Chief Justice off the bench (and replace him with one of his own liking?). Then there’s the oil thing, where Mr. Barrow seems hell-bent on promoting offshore drilling even at the risk of destroying the nation. Just before that it was the Operation Restore Belize fiasco and the bogus Cabinet reshuffle/expansion. Before that it was something else, and before that something else. And if that’s not enough, there’s this overlying crime thing which just never goes away. And of course there’s the state of the economy which has gone into recession under Mr. Barrow and everything that brings with it…unemployment, rising cost of living, inflation, school dropouts…!

Take some time and think about it…all this corruption, all this issues week after week after week; has anything been resolved to the satisfaction of the Belizean people? Have the questions been answered? Or does Mr. Barrow think he can bob around in his little cork boat indefinitely? If he does think that, then he’s even more delusional than I think.

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