UDP Politics as Usual…

Despair…!

According to Prime Minister Dean Barrow, those affected by Category 1 Hurricane Richard can sleep easy at night, since they have his personal assurance that they will receive the assistance they need. Of course he didn’t say exactly when they would receive the assistance…he just made the commitment, stepped off the podium and into his air-conditioned ride for the chauffeured drive back to his seafront mansion equipped with an emergency generator for those pesky power outages and plenty, plenty steak in that fancy sub-zero freezer. The level of desperation displayed by residents of the city who have lost all their possessions, have no food to eat and no means of earning an income is lost on our Prime Minister. He feels that he has done his duty with a fly-by (can’t get his fancy Gucci loafers damaged in the mud) and a commitment made with his sincere face on. This morning on one of the talk-shows a woman called in railing up about the behavior of the people who were seeking assistance and for a brief moment I agreed with her…until I realized that she had probably eaten a hearty breakfast before calling in and my belly was also full. It’s hard to fathom the frustration and anger of those who have no money, no food, no home, no possessions and can do nothing but wait on assistance from a government which seems to have broken down on the roadside on the way to making the delivery. What we’re seeing is a reaction from a people who were already living in abject poverty before Hurricane Richard and have now been pushed even further into the pit by circumstances beyond their control. I agree that GOB can’t do it all…but in times like these they need to do something.

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After the storm…!

Seems like the sticky-fingered Mayor and the sticky-brained Philloughby didn’t get the memo informing them that dealing with a hurricane isn’t only about gesturing like mad when the cameras are turned your way and profiling at every opportunity. Guess they didn’t realize that the City Council also needs to try and help people affected by the storm. I mean hell…this isn’t rocket science. Everybody knew the storm was coming days before it did…everybody knew what winds it would be packing and everybody had an idea of what damage would be caused. Deputy Mayor Philloughby is always patting himself on the back for having CEMO in tip top shape but apparently all those so-called simulations he carried out were just a means of stimulating himself and nothing else. While people are bawling on the streets for help Zenaida and Philloughby can waste time at a press conference which does nothing to help the people. Can you imagine…after the storm the incompetents at City Hall claim that they had to go out and do an assessment and then prepare a report which took 48 hours and then try to see how they can get stuff for the people. God help us with these people in charge of the city. It doesn’t take a damned Einstein to figure out what type of damages people suffered and what type of assistance they need. Then again this is the same City Council which tried for over a year to pave two streets before finally giving up and calling in the Ministry of Works to get the job done. We shouldn’t be surprised.

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Lawd Mr. Barrow…

Two days after Hurricane Richard impacted the country of Belize, Prime Minister Barrow showed what a compassionate and caring leader he really is…by raising the price of fuel at the pumps. What the hell is wrong with that man? How can Mr. Barrow stand before God and the nation one day pledging assistance to alleviate the suffering, and then the next day raise the cost of fuel? Everybody knows that things are already really bad in Belize. Everybody knows that things will be worse after the storm financially. But now Mr. Barrow decided that we haven’t suffered enough so he is going to raise the price of fuel. Of course he’ll say that world oil prices have gone up and so acquisition costs have gone up…but a cursory search on the internet will reveal that nothing is further from the truth. And even if it had gone up, couldn’t Mr. Barrow have just decreased GOB’s take just a little so that Belizeans would be spared any extra hardships during this time of crisis due to natural disaster. Guess where Mr. Barrow’s at planning his next little junket there’s no hardship and no poverty.

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Kudos where due…

To round off the storm section…all thanks to God for sparing Belize from something much worse than a Category 1 hurricane. Thanks to the men and women of NEMO and other essential services who did the jobs they were supposed to do before and during the storm. Thanks to Love FM for providing coverage throughout the storm. Thanks to organizations like the Red Cross who do not seek publicity but work tirelessly to assist those affected by disasters. Some unsolicited advice to the Red Cross and those organizations trying to help…stay far, far away from the Belize City Council and people like the Deputy Mayor because incompetence CAN be catching.

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Dat Liad Melvin Hulse…

With the exception of Prime Minister Dean Barrow and my ex…nobody tells lies like Minister of Transport Melvin Hulse. Late last week the bus situation was center stage on the talk-shows cause let’s face it…two years after Melvin claims he fixed the bus problem, it is worse than it ever was. Commuters are being left in terminals and on the roads because there are just not enough buses to deal with the rush. I take buses regularly so I know. For almost the entire two years, Melvin has been telling the nation that the problem will be fixed in a few weeks…but dat man liad bad. So regular as clockwork, last week he called in claiming that finally everything is in place and the problem will be fixed. Get this..Melvin claims that there is no need to rush into buses because every line will have a standby bus ready to transport anybody who doesn’t get a seat on the scheduled run. No man, woman or child will be left behind, claimed Melvin. What a crock. I remember way back in the 1993-1998 UDP term when Melvin was Minister of Works and somebody called in to complain about the horrible conditions of the Boom to Hattieville road. It was a Friday and Melvin called in right after to assure the nation that all the materials were already on site and the paving of the Boom to Hattieville road was scheduled to begin on Monday. But anyway, some years after it was a PUP Government that finally paved the Boom to Hattieville Road. That is how liad Melvin is. Just a word of advice…don’t sit back and wait for the standby bus that Melvin claims will be there shortly…you’ll have a long, long wait.

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Placencia says NO…

I’m not sure how much clearer it can be stated…residents and stakeholders in Placencia want nothing to do with a cruise tourism village. They’ve said so time and time again and the consultations recently held there underscored that. But like everything else, this government tends to ride roughshod over everybody when it wants to get its own way. Hell…this cruise tourism thing down south was a done deal and was even part of the BTB’s action plan…set in stone (so to speak) long before anybody in Placencia was even consulted in any way. According to some people in the know in Placencia, the Minister of Tourism denied any knowledge of the cruise tourism thing even after the action plan was made public (what a moron). So it’ll be interesting to see how GOB will backtrack now (or if they will) considering that promises have already been made and deals brokered – all based on this cruise tourism thing working out…

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