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?”

I had the opportunity to travel with PUP Party Leader Johnny Briceno on a meet and greet trip through several villages in western Toledo, southern Belize a few weeks ago. It was an opportunity to observe the interaction between Johnny and ordinary Belizeans away from the media-centric urban centers and yes, I was curious.

As the fourth leader of the grand old party and at this point a likely next prime minister I was more than interested. In the old capital the PUP is overtly divided and the factionalism has tended to define both the party and Johnny’s image.  During the course of a single day I may get as many different opinions on Johnny’s leadership as the individuals I meet. It is a tireless subject for some.

I hardly know Johnny on a personal level, and I am certainly better acquainted with former Party Leader Said Musa who I will always be personally fond of. I have also known Dean Barrow longer and our personal relationship is at this point negligible. The antipathetic feeling may be, as they say, mutual.

It could be argued that under Said Musa’s administration Belize ended up being more polarized than at any other time but I would argue it was hardly mostly his fault. It could be argued also that the PUP that Johnny Briceno inherited was already factionalized and whether it is more so or less so depends on your point of view.

I had no idea what kind of reception Johnny would get from the villagers of what are some of the most remote villages in Belize. I did not even know how to even create a construct from which to anticipate so I just put it aside and decided to just watch.

My first observation is that Johnny was hardly recognized visually, and half the time when he was introduced and identified, he still drew blank looks while the villager assimilated the information. For context I tried to ask a couple of villagers if they knew who George Price, Said Musa or Dean Barrow was. I had a language problem with the three men and one woman I asked in the first village of Dolores.

All four seemed to know who George Price was while two of the men and the woman appeared to know who was Said Musa. Incredibly none of them gave any indication that they knew who I was talking about when I asked in first broken Spanish and then in Kriol if they knew who Dean Barrow or El Primer Ministro was.

In another village I asked a young man who spoke fairly good English, wore more modern clothes, (boots, baggy jeans and a too large T-shirt advertizing a European soccer team), and who rode a motorcycle, the same questions and he knew all three. He also had an opinion on all three.

He thought Mr. Price was a good man, and remembered seeing him in the village when he was a child. He remembered meeting Said Musa 10-12 years ago when he visited the village, and was impressed that he had come all that way. He said that both men were humble and attentive when they visited.

He had never met Dean Barrow but thought that he was a very proud man from what he had seen and heard, and doubted very much that he would ever visit his village.

He described Barrow as having taken over from Manuel Esquivel whom he said he had seen in person in Punta Gorda Town once.

He was hesitant, reluctant even to offer an opinion on Johnny at first but in the meeting with the villagers he was very attentive and asked a couple of good questions.

Johnny, he finally offered, he had heard of and knew he was the Leader of the Opposition. He would wait to hear what he had to say before he formed an opinion.

Most good politicians know how to carry on conversations with complete strangers in an easy amicable fashion. It is difficult to tell whether it comes naturally or it is something they had to learn. In Johnny’s case it is clear that being out in the villages and rural areas, talking to the people; particularly farmers, is something he enjoys.

He is very comfortable and after the initial awkwardness that follows the introduction the people respond to him easily. This facility transcends ethnicity, age, gender and from what I saw, even social status.

He is normally good tempered and easy going and it shows. He is approachable and he listens well. And on that day some people who appeared uneasy and even distrustful of the strangers at their gates opened up and invited him in.

That night the party was invited to a traditional Maya meal of Caldo at a home. To reach the home we had to walk in the dark up hill and down gully and ford two streams.

Our hosts never hesitated to invite Johnny and when we got to the streams it was only then we were told we would have to wade in bare feet through cold running (and rising water) and over rocks that were either slippery or had sharp edges.

They seemed to have presumed that there wouldn’t be any objections and while a few of the City folks in the party balked, Johnny B simply rolled up his pants, took off his shoes and socks and took off across the water and rocks in the dark.

Our hosts and guides didn’t blink or comment. At the time I had to pause and decide whether or not it was wise for me to do the same. Even though I hardly wore shoes as a child, since then I am nearly always shod even when I am at home.

The prospect of wandering around in the dark in a strange place was definitely not appealing but I figured, what the heck, if he could I would.

The meal was delicious and well worth the adventure (I did end up with two small cuts on my feet and a few times I almost fell). Johnny B seemed totally unperturbed by the entire episode and predictably was the last one to leave our hosts’ cottage.

Somehow I can’t imagine Barrow doing the same.

I hardly envisioned when I wrote the first “Barrow is bogus” column four months ago that I would still be at it now, that it would take on a life of its own, and that my faithful readers would demand that I do not stop until I had mined this unfortunately rich vein until it was arid and sere.

Each week I see so much more I want to wax politically on but somehow my perspective always returns to the disappointments that the promise of Dean Oliver Barrow’s ascension to Maximum Leader is visiting on us all daily.

On the aptly named April Fool’s Day the increase in the General Sales Tax kicked us in the rear pockets where we keep our wallets and almost immediately we “heard” that it would not be enough to fill Barrow’s deficit because once again he had mis-calculated.

Simultaneously the price of oil on the futures market edged up near the US$90 per barrel benchmark reminding us that it was at that price the now mythical “windfall” tax is supposed to kick in, but alors and alas for Dean Barrow at least, it started to edge back down.

With a gallon of premium gas now $9.95 per gallon at the pump we are all braced for it to hurdle $10.00 in the next round of hikes. What we never seem ever able to prepare, however, is escalating prices of everything at the stores and shops. It is a psychologically wearing experience that ultimately produces a sort of “life-fatigue.” Where will it stop, you wonder, and will it ever get better?

Just this week PUP Chairman Carolyn Trench Sandiford reminded me that Barrow and the UDP had pledged that if elected they would LOWER GST. I know, you think I am making this up because even in retrospect it seems impossible that anyone could’ve been that reckless and we would’ve still voted for them.

The reality, however, is that on January 10^th, 2008 Dean Barrow and the UDP solemnly pledged that they would lower GST and on April 1^st, 2010 he not only did just the opposite and increased the tax, but the prospects are good that this is not the only time he is going to increase the GST. Awesome, as my girls would say, it just takes your breath away.

Even in the midst of my contemplation of these and other things bogus about Dean Barrow it hit me that I had overlooked perhaps the greatest example of them all. And it struck me because last Friday evening I met some kids reading my column by lamplight way in rural Toledo West.

I am sure that the village I was visiting along with PUP Party Leader Johnny Briceno Dean Barrow has never visited. It was an inspiring experience to meet two kids – I figure they were about 10, 12 years old, who actually thought that reading a newspaper on a Friday evening was entertaining.

I am sure the fact that the village didn’t have electricity, hence television, may have something to do with it, but hey, I am a writer and I love readers. I was also pretty sure that unlike the majority of children and students in Dean Barrow’s constituency, these young persons, a boy and a girl, had every reason to be optimistic about their own and their village’s future.

See, in my view Barrow is bogus because in seven terms as the area representative for the Queen Square division he has yet to have built anything at all. Since he became the area representative in 1984, the area has gone steadily downhill.

It is difficult for me to see why anyone would want to vote for Dean Barrow as the area representative for Queen Square when the people there are worse off now than when he started.

If Dean Barrow should run again, and is re-elected, he would become one of the longest continuously serving area representatives in Belize’s history, tying Florencio Marin, Sr., I think.

But it is not the people who actually live, no suffer in Queen Square who’ve decided that they want Dean Barrow to represent them. No siree, it is a bunch of Belizean Americans who are flown in every election to vote for him. They don’t live in Belize, they just vote here.

They don’t have to live amidst the neglect and squalor, amid the jackers and the gun shots. They don’t have to watch their young men shooting one another dead with regularity while their area representative, the most powerful man in Belize, does nothing.

It is even worse when you consider that he is joined by three other UDP representatives whom he has made powerful Cabinet ministers, and none of whom are political novices: Finnegan is a four-time area representative, while Faber and Boots are both two-term representatives.

Queen Square is no better off for Dean Barrow’s record long stewardship and he is so bogus he doesn’t even have the decency to resign.

Oil prices have spiked sharply over the past ten days and despite a small decline to US$86.74 per barrel as I write this, most of the talking heads (experts) on CNBC and on the internet are saying that US$100 is likely in the short term.

Coupled with the just imposed 25% increase in the General Sales Tax and the 12.1% increase in water rates it will also mean a sharp jump in the cost of goods and services as the inflationary consequences of these factors kick in.

The seemingly inexorable rise in fuel prices over the past year has almost wiped out the respite and memory of the fall from US$147 per barrel oil and nearly $12.00 per gallon gas at the pump, and we may not have recovered from the effects of historically high inflation.

That huge blow knocked a Belize economy that was struggling but still buoyant into decline and then recession. We may have bitten the bullet when the elevator plunged down faster and lower than the escalator ride to the peak, and just in time because the first tsunami waves from the world economic earthquake had only just appeared onshore.

Belize’s economy declined in the third quarter of 2008 as stratospherically high oil prices had sledge-hammered the economy into submission. The high growth of the preceding years had started to dampen in 2007 due to the deleterious effects of the loss of Williamson and Nova, coupled with the damages from Hurricane Dean and Tropical Depression Eight and the three-year and continuing escalation in energy prices.

The economy had proven resilient to that point though, as continued high foreign direct investment, the advent of multi-million dollar investments in new telecommunication systems by both BTL and Smart, increasing oil production (and prices), and the onset of construction on the Vaca Falls hydroelectric facility and the Belcogen co-generation electricity plant helped to offset.

But nothing could shield us forever from high oil prices, the single greatest inflationary multiplier. The economy rebounded in the fourth and last quarter of 2008 as oil prices plunged, banana and shrimp production and prices bounced, and a citrus bumper crop appeared.

By October, however, the rest of the world was beginning to report the damaging effect of an economic storm the likes of which the world had not seen in a hundred years. The Barrow administration still on a spending spree that would have done any drunken sailor proud, “pooh-poohed” the warnings.

Having historically bayed at the former PUP administration’s storm damage estimates as exaggerated, the UDP administration also fell all over itself to declare storm damage to be far less than 10 million dollars.

It wasn’t until he actually met with other leaders at the Summit of the Americas that Dean Barrow realized that there was something going on called the world economic recession and that it was blowing like an untrammeled gale through other economies.

He decided then that he could handle it through his version of a “stimulus package.” Most of us thought it was far too little, too late and was more evidence of his lack of understanding than anything else.

As the economy began to lose ground early in 2009 he did nothing other than to announce his “cure all”  “stimulus package.” He never took it seriously and if we’re to judge by the last two budgets, he still doesn’t.

After a year of decline Barrow still seems disinclined to accept that we are in serious and worsening economic straits. Despite having seen how soaring oil prices ravaged what was a far healthier economy, he seems instead to be waiting for another fortuitous turn of events to rescue us.

My assessment of the status quo is this. Historically the New Year’s to Easter months used to be our “mawga” season but in our restructured economy around these times we would get a tremendous boost from the tourism high season and the sugar and citrus harvest. I don’t have any figures but the tourist, sugar and citrus seasons all had their share of problems this time around, and the evidences of my senses is that an economy in the doldrums may have hoisted sail but is still waiting for the breeze.

Dean Barrow’s economic stewardship has been that of an inexperienced captain who has dammed the torpedoes and pushed full steam ahead with a disastrous-to-investment “quitar” policy. I estimate that the Barrow Administration may have “quitared” thousands of parcels of lands, or otherwise extorted tens of millions of dollars from land owners who were accused of having “underpaid” for their property and could only avert the threat of “quitar” by paying into both government coffers and the pockets of the so-called “agents”.

And certainly the yet unpaid bill for the expropriated majority shareholding of Belize Telemedia Limited starts by all accounting at three hundred million and could yet triple that. The passage of the odious Supreme Court of Judicature (Amendment) Bill 2010 has no doubt scared away any sensible but brave soul who may have been willing to risk money in Belize.

Where, I wonder, will job creation and economic growth now come from?

Just last month Belize’s business sector representatives said: “In a survey conducted by the Belize Chamber of Commerce in March of 2010, businesses were reeling from the effect (of the recession). Of the sample, sixty percent (60%) indicated that they had to borrow from a financial institution in the past year to cover recurrent expenses. Forty-Five percent (45%) have had to downsize and reduce staff in the past year, and roughly ninety-five percent (95%) indicate that the cost of doing business has increased in the past year.”

Now throw in 25% GST tax increase, 12.1% water rate increase, likely increased electricity rates, soaring oil prices, continued evidence of endemic police corruption, escalating violent crime, and oh, “The Colorado State University hurricane team said the Atlantic season will produce an above-average eight hurricanes, four of them major. In its latest revised forecast, the team, founded by pioneer William Gray, also predicted a 58% percent chance of a major hurricane tracking into the Caribbean.”

Isn’t that a forecast for things getting worse? You do your own forecast. You decide for yourself if Barrow is on the ball or bogus.

The violent crime situation in the old Capital is so bad that nearly everyone I have spoken to over the past few months that don’t live in Belize City have expressed some reservations about visiting the City. Some have told me that they no longer go to the City to shop or for entertainment, and only go out of necessity.

Now please don’t run away with the conclusion that I think I am telling you something you don’t know. I sincerely doubt that almost anyone reading this article doesn’t know that this is a fact.

It may be that there are people who do not appreciate how extraordinary this simple fact of life is if only because it is so unprecedented to our way of life, and how at odds it is with our cultural “picture” of Belize as one of the most peaceful and friendly places on the face of the earth.

For people like me, and the generation that came just before me, and that includes Dean Barrow, the 21^st Century Belize is so at odds with the 20^th Century Belize we grew up in that back then, it now appears so surreal when I start thinking about those good old days.

The number one problem we face when attempting to deal with the significant increase in violent crime first on the streets of Belize City, and latterly in other areas of the nation is attitude. Barrow’s budget will cut the money allocated to our national security services by $6.5 million. I don’t know, other than from what I heard said in the House by Lake Independence area representative Hon. Cordel Hyde, but if he is correct there are not only no new initiatives but it seems most of the brunt of the cuts will be made to the Police Department.

It hardly seems logical that in a time when citizens all across the country are terrified of the City’s violent crime problem that you would allocate even less money to the Police Department. I am sure that there is some rationale at work, but Police Minister Hon. Carlos Perdomo’s remarks on the subject at the House meeting were, to be as charitable is possible, markedly unhelpful.

This is the problem, the Barrow administration’s attitude seems to be that escalating violent crime is not an anomaly and a source of persistent concern if not anxiety for us, but it requires even less attention and thereby effort at curbing.

If you think about it you may even agree with me that reducing the policing budget’s fiscal appropriation amounts means if you’re not throwing in the white towel, (or at least waving the white flag), that you are satisfied with the effort to stem the rising tide of ever more violent crime. I think that I got the memo when Barrow refused to relieve Carlos Perdomo of his policing portfolio and has refused to take him to task for his decided lack of success in that regard. Now I suppose the rest of the nation has “gotten it” too.

Excuse me if I am very much a product of the past. It was now Justice Denys Barrow, then brother Dean’s unofficial campaign manager, who wrote the media following their loss in the 1998 General Elections to say sarcastically that it seems the Government was no longer responsible for crime.

Denys, (and I call His Honour by his first name now as I did then, and in no way intend to portend any disrespect), was reacting to what he termed then was a torrid torrent of criticism of the then UDP administration’s total failure at curbing violent crime. See, his older brother was the Minister of National Security then, and was perturbed by the political message that “BARROW IS IMPOTENT on crime.”

See, from way back then we knew that Dean Barrow didn’t really give a rat’s a$$ about crime and incredibly he seems to care even less now.

See, the one person who could really do something about curbing violent crime is Dean Oliver Barrow.

But Barrow is bogus.

“In response to a question from a journalist, Barrow expressed his personal support for Belize joining the jurisdiction of the new Caribbean Court of Appeal, which would replace the Privy Council as the court of final jurisdiction. He pointed out, however, that such a move would require an amendment to the Constitution.” – Channel 5 News, August 19, 1998.

By the time you read this column, the House debate on the Barrow administration’s FY2010/2011 debate will have raged and the bill would have been passed into law. It doesn’t mean that everything that should’ve been said will have been said, and for sure we will be living with the consequences for some time to come.

Dean Barrow has made questioning Said Musa’s integrity a crusade and his prepared routines on this subject in the House are performance art.

A few of his minions have opined to me that I am wasting my time and energy writing about his (Barrow’s) utter lack of integrity, his “laiyadnis,” his bogusness, et cetera, because he doesn’t read it.

There are so many things wrong with Barrow’s FY2010/2011 Estimates of Revenues and Expenditures that it is hard to know where to begin but obviously the second largest tax hike in the past two decades does jump out at you.

And the simple fact is that the humongous bite at the most inopportune time, i.e. in the midst of the worst recession in 50 years, is made so much worse because it is effectively an inflation promoter. Already consumers are seeing the spiking prices at their neighbourhood grocery stores as the shopkeepers anticipate the bill’s passage and enactment.

Why can’t the Barrow administration make do with what they have? It was obvious to the Barrow administration at least by the middle of last year that we were in the throes of an economic slowdown, and they should have made the adjustments by then to ensure that the Government of Belize did not incur a large deficit.

To so cavalierly blame the “planetary meltdown,” which by the way occurred in 2008, record fuel prices, which by the way occurred in 2008, Tropical Storm Arthur and Tropical Depression 10, which by the way occurred in 2008, for your lack of foresight is ridiculous.

It was somewhere around May 2008 or thereabouts that the Prime Minister of Japan described the world economy as about to be beset by an economic storm the likes of which had not been seen in a hundred years. No doubt lesser folks would’ve taken note instead of pooh-poohing the notion that it would negatively affect us.

I hate to belabor the point but Barrow’s cookie cutter budget is bogus in more ways than I have space to elucidate.

Its prioritizations are all glaringly unoriginal and lack targets or measurable results.

It is short-term (one year), and despite his paean to the benefits of program budgeting, it is short-sighted.

It is also woefully short on details.

It does not market Belize or encourage national or foreign investment.

It does not address the fundamental weakness of a country that consumes more than it produces.

It will not engender economic growth due to local factors.

It entails no sacrifice by the political directorate.

It does not account for the BTL debt bomb or any dividends.

The tax increases are totally unwarranted and unnecessary.

Obviously the 17% increase in water rates along with the tax hike will increase the cost of living for the people who can least pay.

I could go on, and on, and on …

Barrow invariably chooses political expediency over principle. It is an ingrained reflexive response. He should be the last person to excoriate anyone on the grounds of integrity. As the opening quote shows, Barrow has been lying to us for a long, long time. When it was politically expedient, right up to a few days before the August 28^th, 1998 General Elections, he supported Belize joining the CCJ. For the next ten years he was opposed. Now he has flipped his flop and is again supportive. Said Musa, on the other hand, has never changed his position on that issue.

It is only one of several issues in which Barrow has demonstrated his manifest lack of integrity.

Do I care whether or not he reads my column? That would be nice but the reality is that I don’t write the column for him – I write the column for those who read it.

When I consider “talking” to Dean Barrow I am reminded of the old story about two men driving down a narrow one-way alley from opposite ends and meeting in the middle. Neither can pass and it is obvious that one (or both) has to back out.

One driver rolls down his window and declares: “I never reverse for a—holes!” The other smiles as he puts his vehicle in reverse and declares: “I always do!”

Barrow is bogus.

Hansard, the printed transcripts of parliamentary debates in the Westminster system of government used throughout the Commonwealth, is replete with examples of parliamentarians finding ways to call their colleagues insulting names but yet staying within Robert’s Rules of Order “for fair and orderly meetings & conventions.”

Most deliberative and/or legislative assemblies conduct their discussions using Roberts Rules of Order. Anyone who’s ever quarreled with anyone else knows that allowing members to hurl insults at each other leads to fractiousness, chaos and even violence. It is for that reason that Robert’s Rules demand that “remarks must be courteous in language and deportment,” that is that members in their speeches should “avoid all personalities, and never allude to others by name or to motives.”

According to information widely available on the ‘Net: “Henry Martyn Robert was an engineering officer in the regular Army. Without warning he was asked to preside over a public meeting being held in a church in his community and realized that he did not know how. He tried anyway and his embarrassment was supreme. This event, which may seem familiar to many readers, left him determined never to attend another meeting until he knew something of parliamentary law.

“Ultimately, he discovered and studied the few books then available on the subject. From time to time, due to his military duties, he was transferred to various parts of the United States where he found virtual parliamentary anarchy since each member from a different part of the country had differing ideas of correct procedure. To bring order out of chaos he decided to write Robert’s Rules of Order as it came to be called.”

On Monday of this week, Dean Barrow again violated Roberts Rules of Order and insulted all those Belizeans who have been clamoring for decency in the conduct of members in our House of Representatives, by making up a story about reading an Afghan book as a device to call former Prime Minister Said Musa a “jackass.”

I was not surprised by the patently transparent device or the choice of word because after years of observing Dean the Divider, you can detect a pattern. He is no Renaissance Man, but rather a cardboard cutout who preens and prances by plagiarizing others’ wit and wisdom.

It is one of the reasons Evan Hyde called him “Plastic Man.”

Last September in what should have been an off-the-record moment, United States President Barack Obama said of entertainer Kanye West: “The man is a jackass.” He had been asked what he thought of West rudely interrupting another entertainer during her on-stage, acceptance speech at an awards show.

For obvious reasons both the incident and Obama’s subsequent remarks were much grist for the international media mill and I am sure even Dean Barrow heard it.

And just a few weeks ago, Evan Hyde referred to columnist G. Michael Reid in the same way in the pages of his newspaper. This was also the subject of much discussion in that nexus where political and media affairs circulate to create discussion so again, I am sure it did not passed unnoticed below Dean Barrow’s lofty perch.

Barrow’s behavior in the House of Representatives continues to deteriorate leading me to continue to wonder if it is a side-effect of his pain medication. He is, by his own admission, suffering from a severe back ailment and vertigo, and both are painful and confusing disorders.

As a fellow sufferer I can empathize because I know how irritable back pain can make you. Vertigo I imagine, can be discombobulating to any intellect, especially one as purportedly prodigious as Barrow’s.

Take the time to observe our Prime Minister’s deportment, as obverse to his behavior, while he is in the House. I’ve concluded from my observation that words like erratic (wild mood swings), neurotic, (intense emotional outbursts), frightening (veins popping in face and neck), come to mind.

I do not condone name-calling, the deliberate derogatory labeling of others with the objective that you will somehow be elevated by their humiliation. Members of the House are leaders, and when they lead in that fashion there, it is translated into the streets here.

I note that on the ‘Net two of my friends came up with a few synonyms to describe Barrow’s behavior in the House on Monday, and I thought I would share them with you. They all obviously begin with the letter “V” and even if at first thought you don’t agree, I think there are a few other words that could be added to the list. The awkward thing for me, and I hate to admit this, is not only the fact that I agree they are all apropos, but that I too had to look up the meaning of the last one: vitriolic, verbose, violent, vituperative, vain, venal, vindictive, vicious, vile, villainous, verminous, the Vitiator.

Barrow is bogus.

“But back to Eco-Green, the new company promoted by the Minister of Agriculture that is registered in Santa Elena, Cayo, the Minister’s constituency. When we checked on its status, we found out that there are three subscribers, two registered at the same address in Guatemala, they are Mario Mendez Cobar and Mildred Aguilar.  The third is Gosen Products, also registered in the Cayo District. And when we followed the paper trail further, the documents show that Gosen is a subscriber of Eco Green and has two directors. Guess who? Ramon Matus Jr. of Macal Street in San Ignacio and Robert Jaime Montero of Church Street, the son of the Minister of Agriculture. Sources close to the Minister claimed to News Five that Eco Green  is employing Guatemalans and not Belizeans and  that it pays a nominal fee of one cent royalty to government when the going price is normally three or four cents per leaf. Its target is to export three containers per month so if you do the math, there is a substantial loss to government coffers. All be told, the Minister’s son is a director of Gosen, that is a subscriber of Eco-Green, and Eco-green is the beneficiary of a lucrative contract awarded by the Government.” – Channel Five Belize News, March 10^th, 2010

The recent revelation that yet another Barrow Administration Cabinet minister may be involved in a private business will not surprise anyone. Their credibility has fallen so far so fast that reflexively the electorate will believe the allegations to be true. This is because after more than two years a pattern has emerged.

In this particular case, there have been several allegations made on the morning talk shows that Cayo Central Area Representative Hon. Rene Montero is “benefiting” from the harvesting and exportation of the Xate leaves from Belize’s rainforest, including several of its nature reserves. He has neither admitted nor denied the charge but that is not necessarily “scandalous.”

The callers further allege that Montero, who is also the Minister of Agriculture, is using his ministry’s resources to facilitate “his” xate business, particularly a blue Ministry of Agriculture Tacoma pick up which bears blue Government of Belize license plates, to transport Guatemalan workers to and from Melchor. Again, for the record, the honourable gentleman has neither confirmed nor denied this allegation, and I have no idea if the practice is illegal or otherwise contravenes any of our laws.

It appears morally reprehensible, though, that a Belizean political leader would firstly employ Guatemalans when there are so many Belizeans who need jobs during this time of recession, and secondly, it does seem to be a perpetuation of the practice of hiring persons who by all appearances may be undocumented aliens.

In his defense the honorable gentleman told Channel Seven News on March 5^th, 2010:  “I think the question you should be asking me is who is benefiting from the harvesting of xate. This is a new company, Eco-Green established in Cayo for the harvesting and packaging and export of Xate to foreign countries like the USA and Europe. Right now what I know for sure is that they employ single mothers. Look at the major industries that are bringing in foreign exchange; banana, citrus, and sugar. Look who is being employed. It is foreign labour. As far as I am concerned we should be looking at the benefit this new industry is bringing to the country. It is creating employment and it will generate foreign exchange and that is something that never used to happen before, it was harvested illegally by Guatemalans. This company is doing it legally under the supervision of the Department, under the supervision of the NGOs. We are working together to ensure that Belize benefits from its own natural resources.

“Look at the major benefits that Belizeans will get from this industry in terms of employment, foreign exchange. As I said earlier 90% or 80% of the xate used to be harvested and taken across illegally. Now a local company, a local company owned by Belizeans will be harvesting the xate for the benefit of Belizeans.”

But perhaps the most grievous “sin” in all this is the un-refuted allegation that the Barrow Administration canceled the license that Earl Codd, a Belizean investor, had been given a few years ago, and who had invested nearly $250,000 in the business, without explanation or compensation, and before it expired.

Earl Codd told Channel Five News: “We had a license going back in 2006-2007, the license was cancelled by the Forest Department for no apparent reason before the expiration and was issued to one Gosen product for operation up in the Chiquibul area. We are still questioning why the license was cancelled and the reason for it. We had complied with all the necessary requirements set out within the license, setting in the proper proposal, security plan and harvesting plan and to date we have not received any response as to why the license was cancelled.”

In answer to a question by Jose Sanchez he replied: ““More than a quarter of a million dollars; it was significant. Prior to the cancellation I had invested almost a hundred and fifty thousand dollars in getting packaging materials and about a month after acquiring my packaging materials the license was cancelled. I have a letter from the Forest Department stating that the license was cancelled.”

It would seem to me that this is a clear case of unjust enrichment, and if it is not worthy of criminal action, it is surely one of those cases where the honorable gentleman would need to ask his lawyer to talk to God for him and plead his case up on high.

This is the latest in a lengthening line of questionable business dealings by members of Dean Barrow’s Cabinet. The cruelest part of all this is not so much that they are using their ministerial positions to further businesses they may have established otherwise. The cruelest cut is that they are simply taking away the resources and businesses established by other people for their own.

This is why when I heard an unsupported report that Dean Barrow himself is involved financially in the development of a cruise tourism port in Placencia I believe the report to be true.

When Minister Edmund Castro was reported to have “wrested” a portion of the cable business from a long established company it was true, and to date Barrow has not said a single word. There are several other stories of this type of Cabinet banditry, too many for us not to believe when we “hear” that one of these brigands has struck again.

The corruption and cronyism is the worst I have ever seen it in Belize. A few months ago the Belize Times was one of several media outlets that reported that Anwar Barrow may be involved with Brads Gaming Company Limited, a company that was recently awarded a ten year exclusive contract to manage the Boledo and Sunday Lottery games.

Young Mr. Barrow, I am told, has denied this and is suing the Times.  I won’t comment on the merits or demerits of the case since it is my opinion that no matter what the Times should publish, young Mr. Barrow will continue to pursue his legal options.

I have been told by persons I consider reputable, but who would never set foot in a courtroom and admit so, that there are several Cabinet ministers who have a financial interest in Brads Gaming Company Limited. Because I cannot prove that that is the case I will not call their names.

What I see though, is a pattern. There has been no Lotto or BEL-3 games played since February 20^th, and many people are “speculating” that Tropical Gaming Company Limited’s contract to operate those games will not be renewed. Everyone, with one sole exception, who dares to venture an opinion out loud on this matter, believes that the contract to operate the Lotto game will be awarded to Brads Gaming Company Limited.

The sole exception would only say that If Dah No So, Dah Naily Soh!

Barrow is bogus.

As someone who attended four of the public consultations held by the House Constitution and Foreign Affairs Committee on the Seventh (Belize) Constitution Amendment Bill, I can say categorically that almost as many people objected to the provision to allow for the Attorney General to come from outside of the National Assembly as those who objected to the proposal to repeal the dual nationality disqualification for members of the National Assembly.

I make the point because I heard Prime Minister Dean Barrow say in the House of Representatives last Friday that the reason they were deleting the dual nationality provision from the Bill was because of its manifest unpopularity. If that is the case then clearly the Attorney General provision should also have been deleted.

But this is the bogusness of Dean Oliver Barrow. This is how he continues to divide the nation. Although it is clear that the vast majority of the persons who cared to offer an opinion on the matter at the constitutionally mandated consultations clearly opposed the proposal, he will do it anyway.

For me it was clear from the very first consultation held at the Bishop Sylvestre Memorial Hall in Belize City that this was very obviously the case.

The very first person to speak was Arthur Saldivar and he asked a question that is still being asked today, because as of yet there has not been a satisfactory answer. In fact in this week’s Senate debate, the Senator representing the business community, Hon. Godwin Hulse asked the very same question: Why is this necessary?

He postulated aloud that that he could see no “pressing or urgent need” for this amendment, and speculated that it could not be because of cost since ministerial salaries are fixed.

He concluded by saying that it should have been part of a more comprehensive package if it is an attempt at political reform.

Indeed his echoed the comments I heard at the consultation meetings.

That night in October 2009 at the Bishop Sylvestre Memorial Hall, Lisa Shoman, Yvonne Harshorn, Jihad Nedal, Carolyn Trench-Sandiford, Carmen Silva, Lincoln Gillett, Thomas Greenwood, Rufus X, Street Vibes, Danalyn Myvett, Harlan Barrow, Sylvanna Udz, Moses Sulph and Sharon Marin all in some form or fashion asked the same question. All objected to the proposed amendment, criticizing it as creeping Republicanism, and as weakening our tradition of parliamentary democracy.

Sure some of the persons who spoke out that night speculated that this was being done to accommodate the Prime Minister’s ex wife Lois Young-Barrow becoming the Attorney General and I believe that in the absence of a credible explanation, that speculation has to be considered fair comment.

If it should become reality, well, then how now brown cow?

Hon. John Saldivar, a member of the House Committee panel tried to argue that because the Government was having, in his words, “so much trouble finding a Solicitor General,” they needed the amendment because “… imagine the trouble finding an Attorney General.”

That was almost immediately countered by one of the speakers who pointed out that perhaps the Solicitor General’s long search had more to do with how the last Solicitor General had been forced to demit office, than with anything else. And if the Attorney General was to be subjected to the same kind of “discipline” … well you can imagine the possibilities.

The only member of the audience to speak in support of the amendment that night was Senator Henry Gordon, who explained that he preferred a Republican system of government, and he was consistent in supporting it in the Senate, for the same reason.

He also opined that the despite the fact that the Attorney General would come from outside the National Assembly, in his view that individual would still be answerable to the National Assembly.

He was critical of the process, though, and agreed with Senator Lisa Shoman that the government should resort back to using the procedure of writing and circulating a “White Paper” for discussion on all proposed constitutional change. And this goes to the heart of my opposition to Dean Barrow’s policy of deliberate division and discord.

Either you regard our constitution as sacred or you don’t. Barrow, I would opine, does not. I also believe that if you do not regard the constitution as sacred, you are at best a hypocrite for solemnly swearing to uphold the constitution.

You should not be so cavalier when it comes to any proposed changes to our constitution to declare a committee headed by two of your most confrontational ministers having poorly advertized meetings with small groups as adequate consultations. It is also offending to incorrectly declare that based on those inadequate consultations that the changes have been green lighted by the people and nation of Belize.

Last Friday Dean Barrow again divided the people of Belize between the FOB’s, SOB’s and ROB’s, and the rest of us.

Barrow is bogus.

“The Social Partners recognizing that there resides among them a mutuality of interest, an inherent interdependence and a maturity in the exercise of their relationships;

“And further recognizing that the sources of any sustained social and economic progress in Barbados will depend to a considerable extent upon their on-going individual and collective commitment to a philosophy of governance which is characterized by participatory democracy and the subjugation of their sectoral interests to the national good;

“Recommit themselves to a formal structure to govern their continued collaboration and consultation of fundamental issues affecting their individual and collective contributions to all aspects of national development.” – Preamble to Protocol Three, Barbados Social Partnership compact.

If I am to judge strictly by the feedback I get, sometimes I want to think more people read my column on-line than in the actual world of the pages of the newspaper. If you’re reading this on paper as it has been printed in ink, the chances are you reading it on Friday, February 19^th, 2010, and Belize’s Prime Minister Dean Barrow may even at this moment be behaving dishonorably in the House of Representatives.

As I write this on Wednesday afternoon, February 17^th, 2010, it is a good bet that once again at Friday’s meeting of the House of Representatives at the National Assembly in Belmopan, and as he has done on just about nearly every other public occasions when he addressed matters of state or tended to the business of the nation, Barrow will be doing all he can to the divide the people of Belize, and continue to damage our viability as a nation-state.

My on-line readers are most often curious about why I am so critical of Barrow’s behavior, and question the aggrieved tenor and angry tone of my columns about him. I conclude that they wonder about it because they don’t get to witness Barrow’s behavior first hand, and the majority of our media do not report his histrionics or question his exaggerations, misrepresentations, derogatory characterizations, untruths, lies et cetera.

Each and every time I have listened to Dean Barrow in the past few years I am left in awe of his limitless capacity to hyperbolize, overstate, amplify, magnify, overdraw, misinform, mislead – alas, my Thesaurus fails me.

And then I watch and listen to the reports of his “performances” in the so-called “independent” media and I wonder why they don’t think that Dean Barrow’s turn before the camera and microphones is not worthy of adjectival comment.

Belize, to put it mildly, is in the economic doldrums of a paralyzing recession, and the only breeze is Barrow’s hot air. But instead of breathing life into our limp sails it tends to blow off statesmanship and make enemies of the very people needed as allies in the cause of survival.

In the early Nineties Barbados was able, in the words of their media, “to avoid the prescriptions of the International Monetary Fund” and strengthen its economy to one of the top three in the region through the implementation of what became known as “The Social Partnership.”

Former Barbadian Owen Arthurs once told me that the Social Partnership ushered in a new era and indeed a paradigm shift in the concerts and practices of governance.

He said: “We have to a very great extent changed the meaning and interpretation of consultation and participation.”

Belize as a nation is failing on nearly every front and in every sector. We need a uniter, not a divider. I wrote in this space over a year and a half ago about Barbados’ social partnership and urged Belizeans to consider this as a core strategy for economic and social advancement and development, and today I am renewing that call.

I will continue to chronicle the many, many ways Dean Barrow’s political philosophy of partisanship over partnership fail us, and provide you with examples to show how and why a different approach would benefit us. For example, even as I write this I note the following story from Barbados. Compare these two Caribbean Prime Ministers. Just last week Dean Barrow called his quarterly press conference to once again pursue his petty, partisan, political agenda …

“Barbados PM to meet with social partnership on Friday

“The possibility of having a moratorium on wages is expected to be discussed this Friday, February 19, when Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, David Thompson meets with the social partnership.

“He made this disclosure last Thursday, during his first quarterly press conference for the year, which was televised live from Ilaro Court.

“Thompson told the media that there was a lot on the meeting’s agenda, because, “as a precursor to the economic consultation there are specific initiatives that are being pursued in the economy and in the society”.

“He said that the social partnership currently had before it the impact of the increase in local water rates. ‘Obviously I expect to be hauled over the coals by the private sector and the social partnership for the size of the increase; and government has to defend why, in these circumstances, it is necessary to do it for environmental and for other reasons,’ the Prime Minister stated.

“He added that concerns from the Catholic Church in relation to a more humane society in Barbados, and issues related to specific scenarios where government and the workers’ representative had matters unresolved, would also be discussed at Friday’s meeting.”

This is why I say Barrow is bogus. Check the contrast Jack – Barbados PM seeking to unite in the face of crisis, Belize PM trying once again to divide.