(Essay first published in this column in the Belize Times of November 13th, 2009)

Perhaps it is my fanciful imagination but with each passing day it seems the wheels of our economy grind just a little slower. Each week brings news of another business closing under the threat of foreclosure or bankruptcy, and certainly each weekend some newspaper editions are replete with a fresh batch of housing foreclosures.

It is heartbreaking for me at least, to read the names of the soon-to-be ex-property owners because it seems I am seeing more and more some familiar names. In some cases the properties are places people have called home for decades. Why is it, I wonder, can’t we recognize that this is a crisis and we need collective action to alleviate the suffering?

There is little research and therefore little by way of analysis being done on this issue. At first, a couple years ago, the fallout from the bankruptcy of the Development Finance Corporation was that the real estate market was being flooded with properties; mostly land it seems to me, and second, homes that had been bought as an investment during the boom years when money, namely financing was very available.

A lot of the properties back then were in the new housing projects, or so it seems, and most were being done by the DFC.  These days it seems to me that most of the auctions are by the commercial banks, I’m  even seeing auctions by the credit unions, and like I said some of them are for properties I know people have lived on and in for decades.

By the same token it is also fairly obvious that new home construction is way, way down.  In fact it would seem that construction overall is way, way down. What will happen if these two trends continue? Imagine they’re two lines on the same graph, what happens when the sinking new construction line intersects the rising foreclosure line? Are we there yet? Would that mean we’re in a recession? Or a depression?

I don’t want to hear that the Government, the political executive, can’t do anything. We elected them to lead – they cannot abdicate their responsibility even if they think that there isn’t anything they can do.

Maybe it is just me but it seems to me the number of auctions of all kinds are increasing. It’s ok, if you are so partisan that you wish to dispute this, go ahead. I can’t prove it ‘cause I haven’t been counting and I don’t have the time or the energy to go back and count, and no one else seems to want to do it either.

The signs of sufferation are all around us. I could hardly bear to watch a family being evicted from their former home this week. They had to take refuge in a smaller much more dilapidated dwelling with broken plumbing and no electricity, at least for a few days. They went from property owners to tenants in what seems in a blink. One day they were in their own yard, complete with backyard, front yard, driveway and enough rooms so they could sleep separately. In less than twenty four hours this family of six was trying to bunk together in two small bedrooms, hunkering down from the elements and hoping it wouldn’t rain because they have two windows that can’t close.

What happens when one out of every five able bodied person can’t find work? You can see the trend as you drive through the villages that line our highways. There are lot more young men hanging out on verandahs these days. It’s easy to holler that they could go plant but plant what, weed? Sure you can plant enough to feed yourself and your family but what are you going to do for clothes, transportation, school fees, light, telephone, toilet paper, medicine, and so on? Somebody is going to set up some place where you can go barter?

According to Mr. Barrow we have money in the bank called our foreign reserves, though he didn’t say why or what they’re reserved for. Are they being held in case of a crisis or some catastrophe?

Belize is in the midst of a worsening economic crisis. The four horsemen of the apocalypse are stalking the land. I am not being apocalyptic when I say that these are the end of days because I sense that we are seeing the end of an era, a time in our lives when those of us who survive will be able to look back and understand that our lives are being irrevocably changed.

We are passing through a storm Belize, and none of us know where the other side is.  I write these things because I think that it is important that we know that we who are not Barrow and/or UDP are suffering alike. We need to stand together as we face this Armageddon.

If I were a “journalist” I would be insulted by an “invitation” to attend one of the Dean Barrow’s so-called press conferences. I simply have too much self respect to be assigned a spot in the back of the room like unwanted paparazzi, behind the special invited “guests”(diplomatic corps, Cabinet ministers, heads of departments) and Barrow’s personal cheering section of specially-connected-to-the-UDP-persons, and other various and sundry party apparatchiks.

Today, Wednesday, June 08, 2011, even Jules Vasquez had to remark that he thought he had been duped into thinking he was attending a press conference only to find out that he was attending a political rally.

And in the back of the room typically are the roving lunatics, UDP partisans whose mission it is to try and “persuade” the working media stiffs to not ask the hard questions.

I often ask myself: Why would I subject myself to that charade?

Give credit where credit is due – Dean Barrow has mastered the use of his bully pulpit and it serves him well. From the protection of the podium he mocks, derides and scorns. He is omnipotent, all-knowing and the paragon of virtue. He is also an accomplished liar.

Today Barrow sought to persuade Belizeans that all is well, and what’s not well is being fixed, and what’s not being fixed will be fixed. He started off on the economy where he assured that he has everything well in hand.

Tourism arrivals, he boasted, are up 3% over last year. He forgot to mention that last year was the second worst year in the past ten, twelve years. The year before, 2009, was the worst since the 1993-1998 UDP administration but who’s counting? Dean boasts that an uptick is great news, and nobody dare point out that is papering over the mildewed and rotting boards of a failing economy.

Typical Dean, he starts off putting his best foot forward. Our mainstay agro-exports are doing just great. All estimates are that we will have a historic sugar cane crop because the TC-TS ratio is down to maybe 8 tons cane to 1 ton sugar. No mention that the Belcogen plant is grossly underperforming, and that the long drought-like dry has been good for the caneros but terrible news for all the root crop, vegetable and subsistence farmers and livestock producers.

The citrus industry by all estimates is doing just terrific. CPBL is terrific. No mention that the discord in the industry is threatening to completely derail that locomotive.

Next year, not this year, we are going to (finally) export 5 millions boxes of bananas, assuming we escape one of the (predicted) most active hurricane seasons ever.

And hurray, oil production is up because the new Never Delay field is producing a whopping 435 barrels per day. Just great. Spanish Lookout has fallen off but don’t worry, BNE has just drilled a sixth well in Never Delay that will produce another 30 barrels per day.

On the unintentional comedy scale this would be off the charts if it wasn’t so tragic.

And the cheering section applauds and cheers every syllogistic conclusion. Hurray and yeah, we’re doing well because if you ignore this, and omit to mention that, then this is really great news.

And it would not be a Barrow press conference with remarks on the economy without the presentation of yet another “stimulus” package of infrastructure works.

These packages are all about borrowed monies that, to paraphrase quotes from Barrow when he was in Opposition, our children will have to repay. But no, never mind that inconvenient truth, today he is the Grand Poobah so what??!

But let’s give credit where credit is due, perhaps in some acknowledgement of his previous deceitfulness he only mentioned the superbond twice.

After insulting the media, telling them quite truthfully that not only were they duped but that they are easily duped, he warned BEL that they were next on the hit list. In answer to a question (one of about 6 the media found the temerity to ask) he reiterated the threat.

The headline is that Barrow will rescue BEL. I am sure Stan Marshall and those guys are salivating at the thought. They know that Barrow is about to hand them a blank cashiers cheque. Don’t worry, the taxpayers of Belize will eventually pony up the money but in the meantime, the intervening years, the value on your books is better than the devaluing Belize dollar.

Kudos to Adele Ramos, Marion Ali, Rhenae Nunez, Jules Vasquez and Louis Wade for asking a few questions and braving Barrow’s now patented scornful imperiousness. We know the script by heart by now – it’s time the media got together and flipped the script on Barrow – boycott the next press conference if you don’t get to be front and center and get to ask your questions without the “interference” from the gibbering mob.

Is Belize prepared for the 2011 Hurricane Season? Does anyone care? It seems we’ve been in a cycle of crisis after crisis for so long that the advent of the hurricane season seems almost an afterthought.

I’m not making light when I saw that usually the public announcements pre-dating the season create a bit of a fear fest, and the folks over there on LOVE FM usually give the predictions the “Holy Moley! Did you just hear that?” treatment except that this year everything seems to have been put on the backburner and toned down.

Or is just that in the past week, in the midst of yet another surge in murders, violent crimes, and the usual raft of tales of corruption or corrupted behavior by government officials that everything else pales in comparison?

Let’s see – how many new ways did this Barrow administration just *eff up again as the young bookies would say, in just the past couple of weeks.

First there was the GSU pre-dawn raid on the Menjivar residence just 12 days ago.  You remember how heavily armed men dressed in camouflage uniforms and unmarked vehicles descended on a sleeping family with guns blazing? We are still surprised that the only casualties were two poor dogs who we can safely say, deserved a far better fate.

The ludicrous spectacle of the homeowner and family frantically calling the police to report that they were being assaulted by the police I thought topped the cake but it got better. By the end of the week the GSU had released a botched video of the botched raid at a botched press conference. Wee, wee, wee, cried the little pig, all the way home, I thought but wait, the prison’s CEO then announces that he has barred an attorney from visiting his client because in his interpretation of the constitution a prisoner, even just on remand, has no rights.

What’s that you ask? Oh, yeah, Mr. Barrow probably passed that constitutional amendment and that is the one that amends the constitution so he doesn’t have to tell us which parts of the constitution he has suspended. Don’t laugh – you know you wouldn’t be surprised if you found out that he had suspended all constitutional rights and hadn’t bothered to tell you.

We had hardly recovered from that affront when the bus blitzkrieg hit. Bam, si deh! The bus operators tired of the lunatic Hulse in the rarest show of unity shuts down the national public transportation system and blocks two of the three highways for a few hours. Barrow is forced to scramble, eat crow, and is again sandblasted at his own press conference.

No doubt that there is another constitutional amendment in the offing.

The bus drama has been a soap opera for years and years, if you’d been paying attention and an honest and competent government would have easily avoided all this. Those in the know, know that one of the first acts of this Barrow administration was the repeal of the Belize Land Transport Authority Act, thereby ensuring that the industry returned to the days when ministers could play fast and loose with bus operators. The coming riot is inevitable – the only question is where and when.

And even before the bus business had had its seven day wonder cycle, the police and a goon gang attack sleeping squatters and dismantles their homes even as they lay abed in the early hours of the morning. Before these defenceless people can even cry shame at their pain the gang of vandals disappears into the morning mist.

An angry mob of former homeowners are quickly met by a 40-strong unit of cops, BDF, B-SAG, GSU, Patrol Branch and Special Branch and are soon herded aboard a bus for transport to some unknown gulag. But wait, ala the dangerous Fabian Bain, some escape when the bus pauses in the burial ground.

When they re-appear and re-assemble on Belcan Bridge a near-riot ensues! Boy, I can hardly wait for the evening news.

Today’s episode of destruction of dawn is playing out in the streets. Angry people, truculent police officers – wait it is another crisis!

But this is only today’s crisis – do I hear they’re closing a factory down in Stann Creek and another hundred or so people will be losing their jobs? Oh wait, that’s tomorrow’s or next week’s crisis ….

Barrow is bogus.

I am not in the least surprised that the Gang Suppression Unit showed up a private citizen’s home in the wee hours of the morning and ended up firing almost 50 rounds through his windows and doors. In fact I had been anticipating just such an event since one morning about six weeks ago when one of my co-workers and her family woke up to find them about to break down their door and barge in.

They are respectable people in a working class residential northside Belize City community and they could hardly have imagined such an occurrence. Unlike Mike Menjivar they do not own a licensed gun and so after initially resisting the demand to open their door they recognized one of the officers and let them in without incident.

All Mr. Barrow’s new laws have done is criminalize an entire nation because he cannot deal with the criminals he represents. I have to put it that way because Mr. Barrow is the area representative for one of the most violent areas in the nation. He and fellow cabinet ministers Michael Finnegan, Boots Martinez, Patrick Faber and Sedi Elrington represent 5 of the 7 southside Belize City constituencies.

I wrote in this column over two and a half years ago that if you were to subtract the number of murders and other violent crimes which occur on southside Belize City from the national total, Belize would immediately revert to being one of the most peaceful countries in the world.

Unless he simply has become too adept at ignoring reality Mr. Barrow knows that southside Belize City was a growing, festering problem that is now erupting.

But Barrow is bogus and doesn’t even want to have a clue.

The deployment of the GSU, like Restore Belize, like the increasingly draconian laws, was welcomed by many until it became clear that they were square peg policies for round hole problems.

We should be prepared for the Mexican/Guatemalan/Columbian cartels moving in on Belize with the near total departure of the British Army and the failure of the Barrow administration to negotiate a replacement strategic “training” arrangement with the US. And when that happens we are going to need something that may have to be even bigger and ‘badder’ than the GSU. But in the meantime the GSU can’t solve the “gang violence” problem because it is not a “gang” problem per se.

There has to be a more comprehensive plan to address southside Belize City, and Mr. Barrow has known this all along. It has to be carefully calibrated and balanced to ensure growth and development in all areas.

Southside Belize City needs more schools, more jobs, better living conditions period.

To suggest that a few social dependency programs and heavier policing is the solution is insulting and ultimately an aggravating factor. It can’t just be so called pro poor projects and heavy-handed policing. It has to address the myriad problems through a variety of ways.

I have to believe that the decision to halt the building of the cruise port and the delay in implementing the southside poverty alleviation project are also aggravating factors.

I have to believe that discontinuing the PUP-initiated program of giving land to Belizeans that was extending Port, Collet and Lake I is an aggravating factor.

I have to believe that not building more schools and providing more government services to those areas is an aggravating factor.

I have to believe that the lack of proper streets, drainage, lighting and other “amenities” is an aggravating factor.

I have to believe the squalor, the congestion, the grime, the generally deplorable conditions are all aggravating factors.

I have to believe that the now institutionalized neglect is the greatest aggravating factor of them all.

And Dean Barrow has been the area representative since 1984 and has done nothing about it in all that time.

Barrow is bogus.

“In the Far East all Commonwealth countries – all countries that belong to the Commonwealth of Nations as we do. India – done away by jury trials. Pakistan, Bangladesh, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Vanuatu, Singapore, Malaysia. In Africa; Botswana, Kenya, Kiri Batwi, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Swazi Land, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia.” – Dean Barrow

The Barrow administration released statistics this week that purport to show that overall crime is down in Belize the past two years or so. I can’t argue that their statistics don’t show a downward trend overall but I can gainsay by saying that our perception of crime, particularly violent crime, has been increasing the past several years.

If I was robbed I doubt I would report it unless under the most unusual of circumstances. I have been a “victim” of crime over the past three years, but I did not report it. In fact when the Social Security Board demanded that I produce a police report because I had “lost” my social security card in an incident one night nearly two years ago, I was resentful that I had to take valuable time out and spend money to go get the said same report which for all intents and purposes (other than Social Security’s I suppose), is a futile exercise and a waste of time and money.

Perhaps SSB feels that it somehow indemnifies them if my stolen card is used for some nefarious purpose such as to commit some malfeasance. I know that all that policy did was delay me getting a replacement card for months until I could find the time to make two trips to the Police Station on Raccoon Street to apply and pick up the said same report.

And yes, I had to pay for it too.

A quick poll of some of my relatives, friends and acquaintances reveal that the majority have not reported being victimized by crime, even though they nearly all say that they have either been the victim or witnessed criminal activity over the past several years.

I presume that the statistics are reports of crime, and not what has been verified by the police as crime.

In most of the literature I have read regarding crime, the more violent and explosive the incidences of crime, the less likely are ordinary people to report these incidents to the police. In our case, we have long lost confidence in the ability of the police to detect, apprehend and convict criminals.

We have lost faith in our criminal justice system, and it is my personal opinion and intended solely as a commentary and nothing else, that we have lost a lot of confidence in the judicial system overall, for a variety of reasons.

Just last week Barrow unleashed a “suite” of new laws and constitutional amendments in the House of Representatives as part of his administration’s effort to curb rising crime. And then this week his Ministry of Police says but hey, crime’s down anyway.

So far I am totally opposed to all of the new proposals: preventative detention, anonymous testimony, death penalty enforcement, and trial without jury, the entire kit and caboodle. I am opposed because no one can prove to me that they will bring about any improvement to our crime situation.

Firstly, I must argue that the record so far is that the more we enact draconian laws, the more violent crime continues to escalate.

Secondly, none of the nations Barrow cites as having done away with trial by jury are role models for us as the type of society we want to become. They are nearly all very unequal, unjust, border-line democracies if not outright authoritarian states.

Thirdly none of these measures address, or are accompanied by what I consider the type of effort needed to address the root causes of crime.

Barrow alluded to the fact that they are experimental. If he recognizes that he wants my support then he needs to put an expiry date on all of them.

Fifthly, they are not the result of the kind of comprehensive brain storming that I know that we as a people are capable of. If here I seem to digress, bear with me.

Some years ago some cycling people approached me to ask if I would consider becoming the president of the cycling association. I told them that I would only consider it if the first order of business was the convening of a council of veteran members of the association, particularly the past presidents, with a view towards re-structuring the organization to make if a federation.

I told them that I would have to demand that past executive members be brought back to the association to play an advisory and mediation role. Because of the feuding amongst themselves, they rejected this, preferring instead to continue the perpetuation of the divisions that were destroying their attempts at properly organizing the sport so it could provide the greatest benefit to the greatest number of people.

This week it was announced that Commissioner of Police Crispin Jefferies one-year contract had been renewed for third time. I wondered why?

I know that Jeff would accept the renewal because he passionately wants to do whatever he can to improve policing in Belize, and as such would almost accept any role so he can continue to apply the wealth of experience he has for the benefit of the people and nation he loves.

As I understand it, he will be sequestered in an advisory role whenever they’ve managed to hire a “foreign” commissioner.

I also wondered, considering that at least four of the past commissioners of police are still alive, still vital, still around and available, why aren’t we trying to utilize their vast and unique store of experience and institutional knowledge? I am sure that Ornell Brooks, Sherman Zuniga, Hughinton Williams, Carmen Zetina, and Gerald Westby would all still be very useful.

See, me, I think outside the prism. I would have assigned the implementation of the Crooks Report to a panel or committee made up of any three of these men, and left Jeff to the day to day policing. If we had done that two years ago I doubt whether anyone would be arguing whether or not crime has gone down and there would be no justification of any kind for making Belize at lot less democratic place.

Barrow is bogus.

Prime Minister Dean Barrow talks a good game, and that is hardly surprising because he is both a top lawyer and a successful politician.

He came to office riding an unprecedented wave of credibility, a veritable tsunami that gave his party a super majority in the House, and the capability to do just about anything it wanted to do. His was the broadest of mandates ever given to any Belizean post-independence administration.

Their popularity extended beyond the polls to the streets, the airwaves, the social media, and into the Belizean Diaspora, particularly those in the United States. Dean Barrow was also very well regarded by his peers in the Caribbean region, and most of my fellow political observers are of the opinion that his UDP was more “liked” by the British political establishment than the PUP.

The PUP on the other hand, was perhaps at the lowest ebb of its political fortunes when it was thrown out of office in February 2008. It was its worst defeat. It was so divided following the shellacking that some wondered if it would ever be able to recover.

It had been beset from within and from without. Belize’s greatest and most successful party had splintered and for a time it seemed that All The King’s Horses and All The King’s Men would not be able to put it back together again.

I mention the PUP in this context because the Westminster Parliamentary System is an adversarial system, and for one party to fly so high it means that the other party must be brought so low. In this case the PUP had crashed as the UDP soared.

In retrospect it is clear that the PUP’s problems were not all of its own doing. It is clear now that the UDP and its media allies had rode a confluence of circumstances and the skillful deployment of one of the most massive propaganda campaigns ever to bring down the PUP.

They had succeeded in creating a deep and even lasting impression in the minds and hearts of the electorate that the former PUP administration and party was wholly and irrecoverably corrupt, and the electorate had become revulsed.

So great was the revulsion against the former administration that even today many of the lies and exaggerations are still believed by many. They are accepted as factual even though it shouldn’t take more than the most cursory of examinations to “see” that most of it was the proverbial tissue of lies enfolding a mere kernel of so-called “truth”.

The irony today isn’t that Barrow’s and the UDP’s popularity has faded and continues to fade, and fast. It isn’t that their disapproval rating has slid past the 50% mark. No, the irony is that even though their propaganda success against the PUP still lingers, it is that the electorate seems to be concluding that they are even more corrupt than they said the PUP ever was.

Belizeans watch with a mixture of trepidation, shock, horror, and “confound-idness” the sheer scope of this administration’s brazen hustles, chutzpah and wanton disregard for public opinion.

Dean Barrow and the UDP no longer even bother to pay lip service to their promises of accountability, transparency and good governance. They no longer make reference to integrity in public life. Their last defense, that is that they weren’t as bad as the PUP has worn thin and sounds hollow so now that too is being abandoned. In its stead will come promises of a better life, a better Belize, a new world unfolding.

The excuses of burdensome debt, a recalcitrant world economy, intractable fuel prices will continue to be repeated. And, of course, Commander Zero knows how to play hero. Boy, does he know how to rescue industries.

Belizeans are long past being tired of the demonizing, the poor excuses, the propaganda and can barely wait for the day when they will get a chance to kick Dean Barrow and his cabal out of office. I hope they can continue to remain law-abiding until then.

It was never in question that the PUP was far more competent than the UDP. Now it would seem that it is no longer in question that the UDP are not only far more incompetent than the PUP, but that they are also far more corrupt. My, my!

Barrow is bogus.

“…Recall mechanism for elected officials, prosecution under an unjust law for officials who are living a lifestyle, an empowered senate, not an elected, an empowered senate controlled by the social partners and not by the government of the day, an airtight accountability of the executive to the auditor general, the contractor general and the ombudsman among others.”- Dean Barrow, January 8th, 2008

Jamaican PM invites regional comments on special prosecutor’s office

MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica (JIS) — Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding has invited commentary from regional prosecutors meeting in Montego Bay, on Jamaica’s planned move to establish a special prosecutor’s office, through a Bill now before Parliament.

The special prosecutor will be empowered under the provisions of the law to investigate and prosecute corrupt high-level public and private officials.

“We are introducing that office because we feel there is a need to create a special focus on corruption,” Golding explained in his address at the Commonwealth Caribbean Prosecutors conference dinner held on Saturday evening. – Caribbean News Now, May 4th, 2011

The Integrity Commission, the only regulatory body with the duty and authority to enforce integrity among elected officials, is moribund.

It is now clear that Dean Barrow’s promises of “accountability, transparency and good governance” were hollow from the get go since the entire kit and caboodle – unjust enrichment, empowered Senate, enhanced Auditor General office, even the Public Accounts Committee, have proven to be farcical.

Barrow did not even have the decency to pretend to pursue the DFC Commission’s reports.

History may yet judge this Dean Barrow administration as one of the most corrupt and the most inept in our political annals.

There is a disconnect between Customs officials chasing and shooting after contrabandistas even as ministers and their darlings parade through the checkpoints with their bags and vehicles chock full of goodies.

There is a disconnect between Barrow administration officials ostentatious displays of wealth, through the building of multi-million dollar homes, and the GSU raiding homes and detaining people for less than a stick of weed or a single round here or a single round there.

This is the most unjust society yet.

There are persons in our society who have been granted immunity from prosecution of any kind hence they act with impunity. And because they believe they have immunity from the law enforcers, they are now threatening people like me because they want immunity from scrutiny and comment as well.

Is it any wonder our society has become so violent and crime prone?

Ghetto kids no longer want to grow up to be drug dealers – they all want to become politicians now. They see the ostentatious displays and figure that that is where the money and the lifestyle are at.

I don’t blame them because that is the God’s truth.

Is it any wonder come any election the begging and the demands from the voters are so overwhelming? If you want to get rich quick, being a Barrow crony is the way to go.

And the depravity of it all is that Barrow promised different – the diametric opposite. I did not put the words in his mouth – he stood before the nation and solemnly swore that he would do things differently. He pledged, he promised, he swore, he committed, before God and man, and here we are and he’s reneged.

What is worse is that he has not only reneged, but in the case of the 13th Senator, not only has he completely reversed his position at the penultimate moment and blocked its implementation, but remember he also denuded the Senate of much of its bite anyway. In short we are now in a worst situation where the Senate is concerned.

And he is so nonchalant where his complete and utter betrayal of his promises is concerned. Help me, we need a stronger description than “Hypocrisy on steroids”.

Barrow is bogus.

By all accounts, particularly those from the people I care about who used public transportation to go out to the cayes over the weekend, Belize’s National Coast Guard did a terrific job of trying to ensure safety and security at sea. I want to publicly thank the men and women of the national security and law enforcement services who forwent their responsibilities to their families to carry out their duties to the rest of us over the long holiday weekend.

The weekend was not wholly without incident, but the death and casualty count must have been one of the lowest in years.

Ladies and gentlemen, I salute you all.

It was the 2003-2008 Musa administration that conceived, planned and implemented the National Coast Guard. Ralph Fonseca as Minister of Home Affairs did an excellent job of overseeing the entire matter in record time.

He was ably aided and abetted by CEO Allan Usher (Brig. Gen. Rt.) and former BDF Commandant Cedric Borland (Brig. Gen. Rt.).

I thought they all did a superb job and although the unit has not grown the way they had planned, they have made a significant impact, particularly in the area of safety at sea, and in search and rescue operations.

Now Mr. Barrow has ordered them to man the Mile 5 Western Highway checkpoint as well, as a reward for a job well done.

I was born in what was then still a fairly bustling fishing and farming community called Monkey River Town, and consider myself a child of the sea. I have roamed our waters from north to south and from east to west. I was thrilled at the advent of the National Coast Guard and thought it another of the revolutionary things the Musa administration had done. I had hoped that the Barrow administration would build on its success.

That it doesn’t seem to be happening that way is one more disappointment but hey, now I know what to expect from this bunch.

I can’t help but wonder, though, if manning the Mile 5 Western Highway checkpoint is the best shore duty Mr. Barrow can find for the Coast Guard, especially when vessel theft has been one of our faster growing crimes.

If they’re going to be doing “police duty” on shore maybe investigating vessel thefts might be more in their area of expertise. I am not saying that I know much about anything, but that seems more of a logical area for deployment, just saying.

Anyway, if it had been this administration which had promised to plan and implement a National Coast Guard Service we might still be waiting. I have lost count of all the new and revolutionary things the former administration did that we now take for granted, so much so that the Barrow administration has shown no shame in its game in taking credit for some of it.

And concurrently I’ve lost count of all the promises the Barrow Administration made that remain unfulfilled.

There are some wits who will call it pendulum politics when dis ya crowd get the old heave-ho but with each passing day the disenchantment and disappointment is deepening and frustration mounts. To many Belizeans the last administration and the current one is a tale of two extremes.

Heck, even the people who voted for the UDP are saying those were the good old days when times were bad. Get outta here.

Barrow is bogus.

“The problem with the Tinting regThis week I am spending time in the courtroom of Acting Chief Justice Samuel Awich listening to attorneys spar over the interpretation of certain “Acts” or laws while Senior Counsel Lois Young tries to avoid looking at me. My mind wanders at times, especially when Dr. Lloyd Barnett gets up and starts speaking in a voice almost devoid of inflection or emotion.

Dr. Barnett is Lois Young’s attorney, and by all accounts he is an attorney’s attorney. He has yet to change expression as far as I can see, and as I mentioned, he rarely changes inflection either. Even though his arguments are well constructed and sounds eminently logical, listening to him is as interesting as watching paint dry.

Lois, on the other hand, goes from grimace to grin in a cavalcade of expressions depending on whether or not she agrees or disagrees with the various points in the submissions.

I am the claimant in the case and I vacillate between moments of utter boredom when I verge on the point of falling asleep to the drone of Dr. Barnett’s unchanging tenor and tone to moments of fleeting anger as I think how the collection of potential, talent, skill expertise resident in the court room could be put to more positive use fighting the rampaging poverty that is killing Belizeans at a record rate.

We are all gathered before Justice Awich because I am asking the Belize Supreme Court to declare the decision by the Barrow administration to have the Belize Social Security Board purchase $50 million worth of Belize Telemedia Limited shares unlawful and void. I am also asking the court to prohibit Lois Young and Net Vasquez from taking part in any future decisions by the Social Security Board on whether or not to invest in BTL so long as they remain government representatives to Social Security Board and maintaining their positions with Telemedia.

Lois Young is famous or notorious, depending on your perspective, for collecting millions of dollars in fees representing the Barrow administration. She is also the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Belize Social Security Board, and is the company secretary of the Board of Directors of Belize Telemedia Limited.

Net Vasquez is the Chairman of the Belize Social Security Board Investment Committee and the Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors of Belize Telemedia Limited.

Last November the pair used their respective casting votes to break their deadlocked board and committee on whether or not to “invest” in BTL. In the case of the investment committee, the two government appointed representatives were for the purchase but the man and woman representing the employers and workers whose contributions make up the fund disagreed.

In the case of the SSB’s board of directors the four government representatives voted for the proposal but the two employers’ representatives and the two workers representative balked.

On Monday Justice Awich heard arguments on the admissibility of three applications by both the claimant and the defendants. I am writing this Monday night and by the time you read this on Wednesday, on Thursday he will have ruled on the applications. Whether or not the case continues further will depend on his acceptance or rejection of the defendants’ application to strike out the action due to an archaic, anachronistic law that basically says that you have to give the public authorities thirty days notice that you are going to sue them.

The law was no doubt useful way back in 1893 when it was originally enacted but it is hardly necessary or applicable today. The filing of a suit is not an irrevocable process. The parties can settle at any moment. Because the court procedures have long since been amended to allow for mediation, the respondents are made aware of the grievance from the moment they receive notice of the action and can move to vacate it at any time. They do not require any statutory notice or time limit anymore.

In this case my attorneys filed on November 9th and there’s still time for Lois Young et al to address my complaints thereby making a ruling redundant or otherwise unnecessary.

The fact is that at the heart of all this is the Barrow administration’s penchant for political tribalism, nepotism, cronyism, victimization and authoritarianism.

Over fifteen years ago I wrote an admiring piece about Lois Young when she became the first woman to be named Senior Counsel. Back then I thought she stood for principle and rectitude. Today I think the opposite.

Back then Lois Young wouldn’t have needed anyone to tell her that you can’t serve two masters equally.

Back then Lois Young didn’t need anyone to tell her that to use an anachronistic law, a relic from the colonial era, to avoid a full ventilation of the issue of how $50 million of Belizean workers’ money was put at risk, is shameful and to be despised.

Heck, just 4 short years ago Lois would’ve been the one filing suit in the Belize Supreme Court, on behalf of the workers and the tens of thousands of ordinary Belizeans who have contributed to the Fund, and depend on it for their retirement.

Damn it man, wasn’t it just 4 years ago that Lois Young thought our workers’ representatives, the National Trade Union Congress of Belize, were heroes and people to be respected and listened to?

And who could’ve imagined the possibility back then that today she would be the one defending the oligarchical interests that is now the Barrow family, friends and cronies?

And you better believe that her ex-husband would’ve been standing right next to her…well, you don’t have to imagine, we’ve seen that play before.

Barrow is bogus.

“The problem with the Tinting regulations is that it was NOT thought thru clearly! …don’t get me wrong, I understand the reasoning behind it but instead of adding more cumbersome quality of life legislation to the books, they should have first looked at ways to strengthen the ENFORCEMENT capabilities of the ones we DO have! …It’s just another example of this administrations stumbling, bumbling ways!

“I mean for heavens sake! – We can’t even enforce the existing laws on littering, vehicle operation, licensing and inspections etc, loitering, drinking in public, bicycle riding on walkways, riding 2 persons on bicycle, underage drinking, etc etc – We can’t even enforce ANY of these and more, and they wanna add ANOTHER?!?!

“Instead, they MAY wanna look at ways to mitigate the kind of lackadaisical, “devil may care, attitude that permeates all levels of our society but especially in this case, in our enforcement authorities and their capabilities! THAT is the problem! …lack of the will ….and the ability …. to enforce!!!!

“Do you know how many people have been charged for littering in the last 20 years? ONE!!! A guy in Dangriga some years ago! Do you know who will be the most blatant abusers of the NEWest tinting regulations?? The GOB Ministers who have the blackest of tints on their vehicles!

“Again, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised however, because this administration is surely been garnering a reputation over the last 3 years for stumbling from one crisis/issue to another without any semblance of orderly thinking.

“What you can count on them for, and what they are famous for however, is to be longwinded, vociferous and lengthy on words but short on any kind sober, strategic and coherent thinking ability!!” – facebook post, Tuesday, April 12, 2011

For just us plain ordinary folks resident here in the Jewel, Belize is a frustrating and confounding place to be these past few years, but particularly the past year. As another of my bookies put it: “The cost of living is going up and the chance of living is going down.”

I was painfully reminded of that when I got a glimpse of a photo on the news of a taxi driver who had been shot because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, if you can call just being a few blocks from home but stalled because of car trouble, the wrong place the wrong time. I was not “friends” with Kirk Belisle, and did not know him more than to occasionally exchange pleasantries and opinions on sports. In fact if my recollection serves me right, he once gave me a lift home in his cab after a dance at Bellevue and on the way we had a fairly spirited exchange about our respective Belize semi-pro basketball teams.

He seemed a hard working guy, and he didn’t appear to have any bad habits as far as I could tell. Belisle used to operate what we call an after-hours taxi service. Late at night, especially on weekends, when the other regular drivers had quit, he would hustle jobs at the nightclub and dance spots.

The story is that Belisle had car problems and his vehicle stalled out a few blocks from his home in Lake I late Saturday night, early Sunday morning. A group of young men who were his neighbours came over to help him.

The story of the Good Samaritan is supposed to be an object lesson in the kindness of strangers, and why we are our brothers’ keepers but our lives here in Belize has been turned upside down by the escalation in murderous violence, and the decreasing ability of those in authority to stop it. Kirk Belisle’s murder is the reversal of the tale of the Good Samaritan.

While attending to his mechanical problems he was shot in the back of the head by a lone gunman riding by. He was not the intended target – apparently one the Samaritans who clustered around him to offer assistance was, and who instead brought death.

My fellow bookie says it best: ““The cost of living is going up and the chance of living is going down.”

Kirk Belisle was working harder than ever to make it, just like the majority of the rest of us. The cost of living just keeps going up, and our odds of making it keeps going down in equal proportion. It’s hard to remember when that trend was the other way round. And it is hard to imagine the possibility that it will be reversed again anytime soon under this Barrow administration.

Mr. Barrow won’t have any words of condolence, sympathy or comfort for the people who care about Kirk Belisle as a person they knew, and there’s little new with which he can come before the nation and say that will have any credibility with us.

He could, however, leave now, before there are more Kirk Belisle’s, and give someone else a shot at attempting to reverse this lethal trend.

I repeat: “The cost of living is going up and the chance of living is going down.”

Shout it out loud: Barrow is bogus.