UDP Politics as Usual

The ‘Magical’ Convention…

The Prime Minister was as verbally flatulent as a man blessed with diarrhea after a long bout of chronic constipation as he addressed the masses at the UDP Convention on Sunday. What this very same man called ‘grotesque’ just two and a half years ago when the PUP had their Love Fests, he now calls ‘magical.’ What he found repulsive just two and a half years ago, he now claims is supreme acclamation of how wonderful and glorious is his United Democratic Party and how much they are loved by the masses. Yeah, well, back in the day the PUP thought the same thing when thousands massed to dance and chant and give support at Love Fests across the country. If memory serves, about the week before the elections, 185 buses filled with a blue wave of supporters entered Belize City for one final rally….by the thousands they came. A few days after, the PUP suffered the worst defeat in its history. If Mr. Barrow thinks that having 10,000 people at his bash means that he is a great man and the UDP is on the right track and all is well in the country, he’s a fool living a fool’s dream. A magical one indeed!

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Money wasted foolishly…

Conservative estimates put the cost of Sunday’s bash at around $150,000. That’s $150,000 for a fete that lasted around 6 hours. The UDP gained absolutely nothing from that exorbitant waste of money. The Belizean people certainly gained nothing. The only tangible things left on Monday to show that $150,000 was wasted were probably spoilt food, a litter-strewn compound and a whole bunch of hangovers, and by Tuesday even those will be gone. Our people are still living in abject poverty; our children are still dropping out of school because education is too expensive; our people are still losing their homes because they have no money to keep up payments; businesses are still closing down because the economy is in recession; workers are still being let go because there are no more jobs for them; Belize City is still covered in garbage; the UDP Mayor is still considered a thief and the UDP is still rife with corruption. Yup, nothing has changed…nothing at all!

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The gift of life…

By the time you read this, if 6 month old baby Daniel Estell did not receive $16,000, his family will have been torn apart by grief. The child lies in a hospital abroad fighting for life. His parents have managed to raise US$144,000 of the US$160,000 needed for the life-saving surgery. Doctors have said that they will not proceed with the surgery until the money is paid in full. I find that heartless. I find it repulsive that a price tag has been put on the gift of life. This also makes me think of the $150,000 plus which Dean Barrow spent on a 6 hour party on Sunday. For a little fraction of that money, baby Daniel could have received the gift of life. I think about $150,000 spent like nothing for a fete, and then I think about how much god that money could have done…how many children it could have saved; how many children it could have fed; how many lives it could have made better; how much misery it could have relieved. Things are very very bad out here Mr. Barrow. You maybe could have made it a little better, but you didn’t. Instead, you threw a party!

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A Song Called I am Belize…

I love this new song called I am Belize. It reminds me of a song commissioned under the PUP called Believe in Belize. In Belize we’re truly blessed with some serious talent and that’s no lie. Kudos to Tanya, Berne and the other artists who collaborated on this piece! But really Mr. Barrow, a song? After all the fanfare over Operation Restore Belize we got a song? It’s a great song for sure but what’s the expectation? Are Police Officers supposed to listen to the song and get so inspired that they’re transformed somehow into effective enforcers of the law with all the training and resources at their disposal? Are criminals supposed to listen to the song and decide that they won’t jack the neighbourhood grocery and shoot up the Chinese proprietors after all? Will the gangbangers listen to the song and put down their guns? Will Mayor Moya listen to the song and stop mismanaging the Council and misappropriating taxpayer funds? See, this is the problem with Mr. Barrow and his administration. After months of the worst times ever, crime and otherwise, we’re given a song and expected to be so agog over this musical bounty that we ignore the misery on the streets. Like I said, great song Mr. Barrow, but we’d really like to see some concrete plans on how you will deal with crime. Hell, you’re good at coming up with stuff which never pans out, so what we’d like to see is some action, Mr. Barrow, some sign that you and your administration are not really as worthless as we think. Please?

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Burying the dead…

I wonder where people are burying their loved ones who pass away? About two weeks ago there were only twelve spaces left at the Lord’s Ridge Cemetery and I’m absolutely certain that those spaces have been used already. The City Council led by the idiotic Phillip Willoughby picked a spot by Hattieville which it said was high ground which would not be prone to flooding. Philloughby even took the media there to show off this prime piece of land…only thing is that they had to wade through a quarter mile of foot high water to get there. What a joke. But get this one…nobody told the people of Hattieville that they would be ‘gifted’ with a brand new cemetery courtesy of the UDP clowns in City Hall. So hundreds of residents in Hattieville are now saying – hold up just a minute, bubba, ain’t no way you’re gonna put a new cemetery here. Meanwhile, there’re still no spaces at the Lord’s Ridge Cemetery and people keep dying. Can you imagine?

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The Kendall Crossing

After almost a year, the UDP is finally moving to fix a hazardous stretch of road near mile 7 on the Northern Highway. They started work on it sometime last year and then just ran out of steam, leaving the small stretch as an inconvenience and a danger to motorists on the Highway. It was only after the Belize Times reminded them of their incompetence that works started up again a few weeks ago. We’ll see how that goes, because nothing is without pitfalls when it comes to this crew. And yeah, the Kendall crossing is still there without a bridge. It’s been impassible several times over the past week and the forecast calls for more rain down south. In fact we’ve got a couple active systems heading our way which could spell a threat to Belize, but the UDP doesn’t care. Any sort of serious threat will mean that the south of the country is completely cut off, and that could spell disaster, but nobody in the UDP gives a damn. Mr. Barrow can spend $150,000 on a six hour party without blinking an eye, but after more than two years he still cannot give the people of the south another Kendall Bridge. In 2008, Boots and Cadet Henderson told Belizeans that they would get a new bridge in 45 days. Almost 800 days after, and still no bridge! So now Boots says that construction of a new bridge will start in October and the bridge will be operational in a year and a half. You do the math.

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