Barrow is Bogus – Dacta Gayle seh so!

by glenntillett@yahoo.com

Don’t get me wrong, but I am not happy that Dr. Herbert Gayle exposed the Dean Barrow administration as bogus. He didn’t say anything in that regard that we didn’t know all this time but like they say, some time it is as plain as the nose on your face.

I am not surprised that no one from the administration showed up Tuesday morning to hear the results of the months of research, and I figured Doug Singh showed up Tuesday night for the same reason he showed up at the grand opening of the Princess Casino and Hotel. And if you can’t figure that one out, I promise I’ll elucidate but in another essay at another time.

Ask yourself (and answer) this: what would Belize’s crime statistics look like if you removed all the reports of violence and crime that occur in that area bounded by Queen Square, Mesopotamia, Port Loyola and Collet from the national statistics? Would you disagree with me that Belize would once again look like a “peaceful haven”?

When you read the following excerpts from Dr. Gayle and his research team’s MALE SOCIAL PARTICIPATION AND VIOLENCE IN URBAN BELIZE in Belize, please bear in mind that Dean Barrow has been the area representative for Queen Square since 1984 and this is his third term variously as Minister of National Security, Attorney General, Deputy Prime Minister and Prime Minister. He is also a Senior Counsel and one of Belize’s most accomplished attorneys. He is also very rich, a multi-millionaire by his own admission.

Please bear in mind that Michael Finnegan (1993), Boots Martinez (2003) and Patrick Faber (2003) are all the area representatives for Mesopotamia, Port Loyola and Collet respectively, and all are powerful Cabinet ministers.

That area is the epicenter from which more than 60% of all the violence and crime that is committed in Belize emanates.

Fragile Central Political Authority

The central political authority of a country is the frame of control for a country. It is comprised of all the core groups responsible for organizing and controlling the actions of people to ensure that a society is stable and functioning. It is the compliance machine of a country and is therefore very critical. Weak central political authorities contribute to high levels of social violence. Institutions that function as part of the central political authority fall into four categories: political and administrative power, policing, judiciary, and social or civil society. In this study we assessed some of the core institutions of the central political authority under the first three categories in terms of their design or structure, capacity and position of readiness to achieve their objectives.

Political and Administrative Power and Efficacy

•             In order to effect development a government needs a set of policies designed with its skill set and capital resources in mind. A process moves from plan to implementation to evaluation to amendment to sustainability. This process is very fragmented in Belize. Government personnel complained that Belizeans are good at planning and starting but not as good at implementing and “terrible at evaluating so they can amend and drive for sustaining good ones and weeding out bad ones.” One of the weaknesses of small states is that they lack critical skills set in human resource.

•             The major crisis seems to rest in the absence of sector linkages and resources. If countries have large development plans they can achieve these objectives by either shaping ministries around these goals; creating statuary bodies or administrative committees that draw on various ministries to meet the development targets; or doing both.

•             Budgeting is always a crisis for small poor countries. Often what is done is that the decision is made to increase allocation to one or two different critical ministries. However, few ministries can achieve major goals without success in the related ones.

•             The mistreatment of the Ministry of Youth has been a major complaint from government personnel from both political parties. The tradition in Belize is to treat it as an attachment of some other ministry, some of which have been unrelated to youth issues

•             The most vulnerable youth in urban Belize have two agencies upon which they can depend. One is the YFF (Youth for the Future) and the other is the (CYDP) Conscious Youth Development Programme. These two agencies have conflicting political roots. Both are very focused and are doing tremendous work with vulnerable youth, especially of Southside.  These two units as picked up by the study, end up duplicating and not maximizing the country’s scarce resources. Any unit that is combined must get the full support aligned with the better funded unit or both sides will have regrets.

•             Belizeans, especially sport reporters and sports enthusiasts are usually embarrassed by two sets of images. The first is that of the shockingly lacking sport equipment that is prepared for the nation’s youth. Most football fields look like cow pastures. Sport infrastructure is so bad that the country cannot even accept gifts from international groups, since the acceptance of such gifts require space and infrastructure before the court or field is laid. The second embarrassment is the response to the question: where do the greatest Belizean raw talents come from? Belizean talented youth from extreme poverty often go and represent their country, stay at five-star hotels where they grab all the chicken they can pack in their plates to the shock of their competitors from other countries, who take a balance meal of meat and vegetables. After returning home they depressingly disappear into a night of poverty from which they had emerged.

•             In a country where there is a strong central political authority people are not be allowed to live in a morass and dump around them with garbage. Such pictures give the impression that people are on their own and there is little or no sense of parameters for social and physical action. Upon discussing the problem with Belizeans it became clear that there is a tradition of unplanned development.

Political corruption and Interference – It is very clear that some politicians who have symbiotic links with gangs and grassroots criminals enjoy the weaknesses of the system. They use the system to let their illegal bodyguards get away and soon they feel that they are untouchable. “People have become so brazen now that they stay right in the court with the recorder running and threaten people. They know the system can be beaten.” Politicians need to allow the courts to run without interfering. “On occasions as soon as one of their ‘people’ is caught they begin calling the magistrate. This could be murderer or rapist. How can the judiciary of a country function in this manner?”

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