UDP Politics as usual

Barrow’s bills…

And no, I’m not referring to the bills that keep going into the deep, deep pockets of Lois et al. I’m talking about all the crap that Mr. Barrow is pushing through the House of Representative in the guise of being tough on crime. In particular I’m talking about the interception of communications including phone calls, text messages and emails. First of all, could somebody please tell me how exactly allowing Mr. Barrow to listen in on our calls and read our texts and emails will stop all the killing on the street? I mean I understand that Mr. Barrow is the ‘most brilliantest’ of them all and I’m just a humble writer, but I’m not understanding what impact intercepting communication will have on crime. That’s one – and two, can somebody please tell me if there is anybody who actually believes that Mr. Barrow is planning to intercept communication so he can stop crime. I mean REALLY. Just the other day the head of Special Branch was instructed to monitor all activities by members of the People’s United Party. Imagine, with crime the way it is, Mr. Barrow prefers to utilize his already strapped resources to spy on his political Opposition. Is there anybody who believes that Mr. Barrow would not stoop so low as to eavesdrop on political conversations and other conversations of ‘interest’ (like members of the Judiciary or Bar Association, for example)? Anybody? For that matter, is there anybody who thinks that Mr. Barrow is not already eavesdropping on these conversations? Seriously Mr. Barrow, nobody trusts you worth a damn, and it is with good reason. We applaud any serious move to crack down on crime, but this isn’t one of them. This move is bogus just like the man who came up with it…

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Rhetorical flourishes…

On the 10^th of September when the Prime Minister was asked about the theme for September and what it should mean to Belizeans, he said that it ‘should mean just a kind of rhetorical flourish.’ That sounds wickedly intellectual and coming from Mr. Barrow a lot of people may have thought that it was. But a ‘rhetorical flourish’ is a fancy euphemism for ‘bullshit’ or to be a little more tactful and nice, fancy words meaning absolutely nothing. That makes me wonder why the Prime Minister would refer to the September Celebration theme as bullshit and meaningless. Did he know what he was saying? Did he go on the Internet and find out that US President Obama had used the term ‘rhetorical flourish’ and he turned around and used it without knowing what it meant? Either way, I believe that now that the truth has come out, Mr. Barrow owes the person who came up with the theme an apology. And it makes me wonder if we haven’t been bamboozled by Mr. Barrow’s endless proclamation of his own brilliance. Maybe he isn’t as smart as he thinks he is. While I’d dearly love to take credit for catching Mr. Barrow’s slip of the tongue, I must give thanks to the reader who immediately noticed the alleged word-master’s gaffe and brought it to my attention. Mr. Barrow…you just got punked J

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The BTL/SSB incest thing…

The unions and the private sector have voted ‘NO’ on using SSB funds to purchase shares in the company Mr. Barrow hijacked, BTL. That’s a significant vote of opposition and should be reason for rethinking the plan, but that’s not how things work in Belize these days. This deal will go forward despite the opposition from the unions and the private sector and despite protests from Belizeans who don’t want their money to be used to purchase shares in BTL. The whole thing stinks, not least because the same two persons who are negotiating the sale from BTL, Net Vasquez and Lois Young, are negotiating the buy on behalf of SSB. If they were using their own money nobody would give a damn, but it is our money they’re playing with. In an interview, Net Vasquez claims that it is not a conflict of interest because an ‘independent’ law firm contracted by UDP stooge and SSB General Manager Merlene Bailey-Martinez said that it isn’t. Is it possible that the ‘independent’ law firm is that of Lois Young and Company? Hey, stranger things have happened right?. And when all is said and done, our money will be used to purchase an undisclosed amount of shares in a company with an undisclosed value, all because Mr. Barrow says this is how it should be.

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Industries in chaos…

Little by little, incremental inch by incremental inch, Belizeans are realizing that Prime Minister Dean Barrow is as bogus as they come…he talks real purty for sure, but it’s nothing but rhetorical flourishes (LOL, had to use that one). A very well known and respected talk show host this week quoted from the Leader of the Opposition’s Independence Day speech where he stated – ‘The problems faced by almost every sector of agro-industry, sugar, citrus, banana and papaya, mount daily, and aquaculture faces disaster.’ The host almost nonchalantly claimed that the PUP leader was completely right because our industries are in chaos and everybody can see it. The thing is that in the Prime Minister’s speech immediately after the PUP leader’s address, he claimed that our industries were in good shape. In fact, Mr. Barrow scoffed at Briceno’s comments, saying that he had no idea where he was getting his statistics from.  We can tell you where his statistics came from Mr. Barrow…have you ever heard about that little thing called reality? The Prime Minister can stand on the pulpit every hour on the hour and tell us that we’re living in a good country with a great leader in 24 different ways, but we see and feel the reality out here. The Prime Minister and his loved ones past and present are enjoying the best of times with no shortage of cash and perks, eating steak while the rest of us eat noodles…it used to be condensed milk and pack bread but under this UDP government even condensed milk is too expensive.

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101 Murders…

By my unofficial count the total number of murders already this year is 101…just two less than the record set last year and there are still three whole months before the end of 2010. The most recent happened just this morning when a 25 year old was shot in his head and left on a feeder road just past the Haulover Bridge. Could somebody tell me if the Minister of Police and Public Safety and all things Carnival is in the country, because there is absolutely nothing coming from him? He has been mute on the increasing crime but that’s not surprising – he simply has no clue what to do. The Prime Minister has put on his magician hat and is pulling rabbit after rabbit out of the hat but they disappear as fast as he pulls them out. Mr. Barrow has said that he will put more BDF on the streets but has not said how they will pay for it. He seems to have conveniently forgotten the short-lived Operation Jaguar which died simply because GOB could not maintain it. He has stated that they will build a fully equipped forensics lab, but most people remember that he made the exact same promise more than two years ago when he was in campaign mode. He has made vague references to a whole bunch of initiatives to alleviate poverty, but very few people believe that those are anything more than rhetorical flourishes. The fact of the matter is that 31 months after the Prime Minister was elected to office on the strength of many of these same promises, they are still unfulfilled and he is busily rehashing them over and over again. In 31 months, there has been no concrete plan set in place to address crime. The biggest thing to come out of any crime-fighting initiative crafted by Barrow is a song, and that sure as hell hasn’t put a dent in crime. 31 months, Mr. Barrow, and you still expect us to be imagining the possibilities.

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