According to the findings, revealed in the summary report on “Male Social Participation and Violence in Urban Belize,” spearheaded by Herbert Gayle, social anthropologist, “There is a big hole in urban Belize.” Indeed the Gayle report revealed what many who are involved in social work in Belize have been saying for years – there is a serious social problem in Belize and decision makers continue to bury their heads in the sand.

In the nation’s largest metropolis the situation is reaching the point of desperation and the problem seems to be related of geography.  We have always known that in Belize City the divide between those who live on the north side and those on the south side are markedly different.  It now seems clear that the divide is far greater than the distance across the Haulover Creek which splits the City in two.

Aware of this, the previous PUP administration instituted the South-Side project, identifying millions of dollars to aid in the renewal of the south side.  Whatever gains that may have come from the South Side Renewal Programme, today under the UDP those benefits are lost, since youths on the south side of Belize City are poorer, less educated, more prone to domestic violence and one in every three south side youth has been approached to become involved in some form of gang activity.

While these conditions have not remained localized, the area that requires the most immediate attention is the South Side of the City.  Ironically, every elected member of the Barrow Administration who represents a south side constituency is a member of his Cabinet, namely Boots Martinez, Michael Finnegan, Patrick Faber, Sedi Elrington and the Prime Minister himself.   Together these five men control more than a half of all of government spending, yet the relationship between elected officials and those in the most affected communities could not be worse.

Based on the findings from this report, political interference and corruption is playing a significant role in making the situation worse, instead of better.  In the summary report it states: “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.”

With many of these gangs located on the south side of Belize City, the accusations of political interference are pointing its finger at some of these very same government ministers.

Another area of the country where violent behaviour is spreading fast in the young population is in the West of Belize, in the Cayo District.  Again all elected representatives in that district are members of the United Democratic Party.  In fact the minister of Sports is a representative from Cayo as well as the Minister of Agriculture, and until just recently, so was the minister of Youth.

Clearly the problems facing Belizean society today is one that is rooted in poverty, which did not happen overnight.  In fact in looking at the summary report, there is plenty of blame to go around and no one can walk away from this feeling exonerated.  Still the people elected Dean Barrow and the United Democratic Party to make their lives better.  No Belizean should be content with the knowledge that one in every three school-aged Belizean is living the harsh life on the streets instead of being in school. If nothing else, we all expect our government to do all possible to ensure that they too can live the spirit of the Constitution which promises liberty, opportunity and the pursuit of happiness.

Where did it all begin? Where is the spread of the disease most noticeable?  Over the past few months, have the people in public health been collecting data on the number of cases at the clinics and hospitals?  How did they go from reporting 28 cases in one week and then announce an epidemic a few days later?  Do we have enough medicine to deal with the current situation?  Do we have a plan should it get worse?

Already Belizeans are getting uncomfortable with the situation; of course who can blame them when you consider all that has gone wrong in the Ministry of Health since the Barrow administration took office in February 2008.  There was the scandal over the fleecing at the KHMH where inferior drugs and over priced medicines were being bought.  Then there was the case of all the babies who were dying in the hospitals.  We have had trouble with management at just about every one of our regional hospitals.  Our health system is in a mess and we have a minister who is clueless.

In the months after those first deaths in Mexico as a result of the H1N1 virus (swine flu), the public health authorities reacted first with resolve, and then later seem to have run out of steam. While the epidemic never became as deadly as we initially feared, it exposed some serious shortcomings in our public health response, which is now being manifested.

According to the Web MD, Dengue fever is an acute viral disease that can last up to 10 days, but complete recovery can take as long as a month. Dengue fever is not contagious; the virus is transmitted to humans through mosquito bites, usually from the aedes aegypti (but frequently aedes albopictus) which bites during morning hours.

Last week the Belize Times was the first to predict that there was a dengue epidemic in Belize.  In this very same article, the writer asked whether the Public Health Department “paid any attention or conducted any studies to find out if the mosquitoes here in Belize have developed a resistance to malathion.” Studies have shown that in other places, the aedes aegypti mosquito developed a resistance to malathion, the substance that is sprayed to kill the larvae.

Before looking for answers to this question one has to ask whether the public health authorities have been spraying anything at all, for prior to the recent complaints on radio and television, there were no public announcements about spraying or any public campaign about dengue.

It is estimated that dengue kills about 20,000 people each year. As with most viral diseases, there is no vaccine to protect against the disease and no drug to cure it.

Dealing with what they now say is an outbreak is not an easy task, considering the complete lack of leadership from the minister of health and from the Barrow administration, but our public health department needs to become clearer about all the uncertainty when it comes to handling these kinds of situations.

Our children are currently on summer break, but soon school will start and the Ministry of Health will need to be figure out how to balance between infection control and the daily activities of schools.

Perhaps the time has come for the Prime Minister to take the advice of the Leader of the Opposition and fire Pablo Marin.  Tomorrow is already too late.

The Party is right in its timing to issue such a statement, but more so, it reaffirms the commitment of the PUP to principles of justice, including doing what is right to ensure the protection of our environment while at the same time being mindful of the Nation’s development.

Currently, many Belizeans in the fishing industry have expressed their concern over offshore drilling and how this could affect migratory fish stock.  Our Belizean fisher folk as well as the many that form the larger fishing cooperatives have all been concerned over the future of the industry.  Coping with some of the current challenges is already overwhelming; to add to this the fear of an oil leak reaching the reef would be unimaginable to those in the industry.

Likewise those in the tourism industry have come out to say that anything which could have a negative effect on tourism is of concern.  Their fears are equally justifiable.  Considering the many tourists who come to Belize to dive the Belize Barrier Reef, to fish or just to swim with the sharks off the San Pedro coast contribute millions in tourism earnings.   Anything that could have a negative effect on the sustainability of the reef or for that matter Belizean territorial waters is a cause for concern.

Since coming to office, the UDP Administration and particularly Gaspar Vega, the Minister responsible for the issuing of licenses to explore for oil, has issued a number of licenses for offshore exploration.  His silence in the midst of this entire discussion is an indication of his complete lack of leadership in the matter.   The incompetence by Vega and his cronies closest to him shows that with respect to the development of the petroleum industry in Belize, they are clueless.

The problems currently facing US President Obama in respect to the oil leaking in the Gulf of Mexico provides us with a kind of hindsight by proxy.  In May, despite complaints from those in the oil industry and others in favour of drilling, President Obama suspended deep-water drilling activities in the Gulf of Mexico.

Our lesson from all this should be that we can never allow anyone to drill for oil offshore in Belize unless they have the money and the ability to deal with a spill.  Any oil company that seeks to drill offshore Belize must show their ability to drill safely and have the capacity to fix any problem, to assure Belizeans that nothing they do will ever cause damage to the Belize Barrier Reef.

Will any of the smaller oil companies ever be able to offer such comfort to Belizeans?  Do we leave whatever is down there untapped?  These are only a few of the questions that must be addressed before any new licenses can be considered for offshore drilling.

For sure the PUP will not support any move to drill for oil offshore  until everything has been done to make drilling as safe as it can be and to ensure that all the safety measures are in place in the event that something goes wrong.

This year’s Ministry of Education budget is $190 million. With all these many millions at the disposal of their government, thousands of mothers are still scrambling to meet harsh deadlines imposed by school managements to pay tuition fees, to purchase school books and to satisfy various other activity costs. Despite the frequent grandstanding of the Minister of Education, the fact is that many students are being denied their place in the classroom because they cannot afford that seat. The scramble for fees is a bonanza for the pawn shops and loans sharks. For families, especially the 43% of our citizens who are poor and whose Constitution supposedly guarantees “educational on the basis of equality,” the scramble is a dehumanizing and debilitating ritual.

For those young men and women graduating from high schools, from sixth forms and from UB, their prospects for securing a job is dismal. 25% of our young people are already unable to find jobs, according to the last unemployment report. Adding another five thousand job seekers (the estimated number of graduates that will be looking for jobs after this summer) to this depressed market will raise that already alarming jobless rate and drive down wages.

The screams for fees and for jobs are met with a frightening silence from this administration. Barrow and company have absolutely no solutions to offer.

What is more frightening is that Barrow and company have offered no rebuttal to the statement issued by the IMF after their recent visit to Belize. Just two months into a national budget built upon the largest tax increased in Belizean history – $110 million in new taxes – the IMF is apparently calling for public servants’ jobs to be cut, for pensions to be reduced and for yet more tax increases. If a full quarter of our young people are already unemployed, and if this figure will balloon now that an estimated five thousand graduates have entered the job hunt, can we even begin to imagine the havoc that retrenchment and higher taxes will have on our communities?

Because the link between poverty and conflict is so firmly established, the scream for fees and for jobs goes to the heart of our crime problem. The truant and the jobless are far more likely to commit crimes. In their work published in 2008, the economists Raymond Fisman and Edward Miguel cited multiple studies showing that economic security is the greatest contributor to the security of persons/property. “The calculus of survival can turn anyone into an economic gangster,” they wrote. Fees and jobs are a matter of survival for so many of our people.

What is needed is for the Ministry of Education to guarantee a space in the classroom for all students, from kinder garden to sixth form. $190 million in education expenditure is roughly $3,000 per student yearly. Guaranteed access must be achievable with this level of spending. What is needed is a well managed jobs program that will put our young people to work, in private sector generated jobs and if necessary, in government sponsored enterprises. Barrow and the UDP were elected to provide fees and jobs. Belizeans must hold them to their pledge.

When the PUP was in office, that administration sought a constructive engagement with the Maya people and their Alcaldes and representatives. Because this issue of communal lands is so explosive, the PUP government sought to strike a balance between tradition and modernity. One alternative the PUP had put on the negotiating table, in general terms, was to allow for specific areas to be designated as communal lands while in other areas, the normal rules of land ownership and development would apply.

When the PUP administration put forward this reasonable option, it was the then Leader of the Opposition, now Prime Minister Dean Barrow, and his ex-wife who advised the Maya leaders to reject any settlement. To embarrass the PUP government, to secure immediate political gains even at the expense of national unity, Barrow and company prodded their clients into yet further confrontation. They actively blocked any settlement.

Now that the UDP are in government, Mr. Barrow has shamelessly switched sides; Lois is being paid (from the taxes of the Mayan people) to defend the government’s petition that the Maya people are entitled to no customary land tenure rights. In effect, those same UDP personalities who made arguments on behalf of the Maya people are today the merciless spear carriers against their erstwhile clients.

What has been especially repugnant about the UDP government’s case to discredit these significant and symbolic communities and their leaders is the argument that the Maya of Belize are not direct descendants of the ancient Chol Maya people who inhabited these lands long before the arrival of the European invaders. To buttress their position, the UDP utilized senior personnel from the National Institute of Culture and History (NICH) who testified in support of the case against the Maya people. So vile is this administration that it would publicly disown its own citizens, the original inhabitants of these lands that now constitute the nation of Belize. So wicked are the UDP that they co-opt professionals whose salaries are generated from the fees that visitors pay to enter our Mayan sites and deploy them to the courtroom to disavow the contemporary Maya.

Alienating the Maya people is unpardonable. But the implications of this government’s posture and of the ruling are immense particularly in the midst of this prolonged, biting recession. For the global community of investors, this ruling essentially pushes the pause button on Belize. Property and forestry development, mining, hydro electrical investment and land transactions will come to a virtual halt in the Toledo District. To retard the progress of the people of Toledo could not possibly have been the intention of the Maya Leaders Alliance but they were obviously left with no choice by this UDP Government.

No sooner had the Chief Justice delivered his ruling than the government announced its intention to take this matter to the Court of Appeal. So much more productive it would be for the Government to engage with the Maya Leaders Alliance and with the citizens of the Toledo District in order to arrive at a reasonable resolution. But that is not the way of this administration. The UDP tendencies are to confrontation and the rule of the hammer.

The indigenous historian Ward Churchill writes of the centrality of land in a colonization process he labels “the American holocaust.”  On the island of Hispaniola, for example, occupied today by Haiti and the Dominican Republic, the slave policies of the Viceroy Christopher Colombus reduced the Taino population from eight million to 100 thousand in seven years, according to Churchill. That was 500 years ago. That genocide was perpetrated so that Taino land could be seized and used by European “settlers.” The history of this entire hemisphere, not just of Hispaniola, gives the Maya people of Belize every cause to be conscious of land tenure. The future of the Mayan people of Belize cannot be divorced from their land rights.

It is truly a blight on our already fragile national spirit for this UDP government to pursue any further this confrontation with our indigenous people. Humble yourself, Mr. Barrow and settle this matter with the people you swore to represent.

Instead, the Barrow administration has sought to play petty politics with the most urgent issue facing this nation – the safety and security of its citizens. It is not bipartisanship or shared responsibility that Mr. Barrow craves but a chance to deflect the blame for rampant crime, a chance to diminish the Opposition; what he seeks is a cheap storyline for the UDP media to flog and a photo opportunity to placate his prospective international funding agencies.

The record shows that no sooner had Mr. Barrow stepped out of the offices of the Leader of the Opposition after their crime summit than he, Barrow, launched an attack on the previous government, and on the Opposition Leader himself. The UDP newspaper, in a headline story subsequently distorted the PUP posture. Next, Mr. Barrow launched his broadside against the Chief Justice and the Judiciary. How can the PUP, in the face of these unmistakable acts of bad faith and in the ongoing UDP campaign of victimization against PUP supporters and perceived supporters, countenance any real partnership with this administration?

Throughout the ten years that Mr. Barrow was Leader of the Opposition, he rebuffed any overture at bipartisanship. Not even the constitutional amendment for Belize to join the Caribbean Court of Justice fell outside the gambit of partisanship, according to the Barrow Doctrine. Barrow opposed every single PUP attempt to toughen crime prevention laws. He spoke against every new funding measure for the Police and the BDF. He resisted any collaboration without blinking an eye. Now that he is in the hot seat, skewered daily by the orgy of violent crime afflicting the nation, Barrow wants nothing more than to share the blame for his administration’s abject failure in providing any sense of security to the Belizean people. He will not have that luxury. He does not deserve this.

It is his government that rightfully must bear the burden of producing results. And what positive results can come when the UDP slashed the national security budget by more than $6 million this year? How can the PM chop spending on police officers, on intelligence gathering, on the Training School, on the forensic laboratory and then expect that crime can be controlled? How can he accuse police officers of operating a crime ring, yet to date bring no officer to justice for this activity? How can he tap an inexperienced and puppet Senator to stand in as Public Security Minister and expect to be taken seriously?

Barrow has moved from failure to greater failure. The much vaunted Operation Jaguar, the precursor to Restore Belize, has already fizzled, defanged by the criminal elements. Established as a stage for the UDP’s Commissioner-in-waiting to shine, the curtains came down prematurely on Jaguar and on the pitiable Aragon. Murder after brazen murder has ‘restored’ mayhem to the streets, not law and order. Since Jaguar was launched, the PM’s law partner was gunned down, two teenaged girls have been murdered, a popular cyclist was assassinated and the steps of the Courthouse became the scene of the most sensational gang murder of the decade.

When Mr. Barrow gets serious, when he behaves as though crime transcends party politics, then he will discover a willing and capable partner in the PUP. But he cannot be sincere when he will appoint an unelected UDP politician as Attorney General. He cannot be sincere when he will disrespect the Chief Justice and the Bar Association. He cannot be sincere when police officers whom the Mothers for Justice have fingered as complicit in murder are allowed to intimidate their victims’ families while in uniform.

Having ascended to the highest political office in the land, the Prime Minister, for the first time in his career, confronts problems that his prodigious tongue cannot solve. Effective governance is much more about work than about words while Mr. Barrow is so much more about words than about work. The PM finds that he cannot intimidate criminals into good conduct; in many instances, these youth are forced into a life of crime and hustling because there are no other options. When someone’s best friend is hungry, when hopelessness shades his life and only juggling makes ends meet, how can the bluster of a Prime Minister, especially one so vain and narcissistic, induce a pause to your conduct?

Sadly, the murders, maiming, raping and robberies will continue. The UDP have spat in the face of all the social partners long before inviting them to support Restore Belize. To the business community, Barrow gave the finger as he levied $110 million in new taxes in March of this year. With the unions, he ignored their pleas for constructive engagement. With the Bar Association, he rejected any notion of consultation. To the NGO Coalition advocating an offshore ban on oil drilling, he has unilaterally decided that their case has no merit. And to the Opposition, he has now made it clear that scoring political points is more important than meaningful engagement.

First restore yourself, Mr. Barrow. Only then can you Restore Belize!

For some time now, this government has been rushing headfirst down the perilous, unconstitutional path to outright control by the Executive of the Judiciary. It is not just that the Prime Minister chose to appoint his brother to the Court of Appeal, where that conflict of interest has forced the brother to withdraw himself from the court’s deliberations; or that by using legislative stealth, the UDP government has instituted one year contracts for Court of Appeal judges, effectively putting them under the heel of the ruling politicians; or that the PM has now appointed a withering, unelected Attorney General. It is not only that the Solicitor General, no doubt acting on political instructions, had clumsily attempted to throw out the CJ by way of early retirement leave, as if the Chief Justice was no more than a useless clerk.

No, the case against the UDP is more compact than these unsettling instances. The UDP wolf first snarled at the Judiciary when the then Attorney General Wilfred Elrington chose the ceremonial opening of the Court Session to attack the CJ, Judges and Magistrates. Un-tempered by his own stint on the bench or by the absence of any UDP plan to alleviate the adverse conditions in the court system, Elrington’s bombast was, in retrospect, a portent of the coming assault on the courts. What has followed has been a ceaseless campaign to bend the judiciary, at all levels, to the will of the UDP politicians.

The bedrock principle of our Constitution is that the judiciary must be accorded its independence. When the last PUP government sought to fill the vacancy of Chief Justice, the process was sterilized of any partisan politics. Working with the Commonwealth Secretariat, the PUP advertised the post internationally, actively seeking out a judge that would possess the breadth of experience and reputation that would restore confidence in our justice system. This is one of the PUP’s proudest achievements. And the PUP changed the rules to guarantee judicial independence: judges would now have tenure rather than contracts, so that their rulings would not be made under the shadow of threats from any politicians or Prime Minister. Moreover, as a matter of policy, the PUP government sought consensus on all major court appointments with the relevant stakeholders including the Bar Association.

Not so with this UDP government. This week, the Bar Association in an unusually explicit press release, castigated the conduct of the government vis-a-vis the Chief Justice and demanded that as stakeholders, the Bar be consulted on key judicial appointments. Said the release, “We express our disapproval of the unseemly manner in which the tenure of the Chief Justice has been treated by the Government of Belize.” The release continues, “The Bar Association of Belize asserts that it be accorded a meaningful role and input in the appointment of the Chief Justice, Judges of the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal of Belize.”

This rebuke of the UDP government by the Bar association should not be taken lightly by the people of Belize. It is the equivalent of the harbor pilot warning the ship’s captain and crew that the vessel is about to run upon a rocky reef. Like the harbor pilots, the lawyers know the looming dangers of this government’s interference with the courts.

For the business community, whose final refuge for relief is the courtroom, this UDP assault upon our courts will be truly alarming. If the government is allowed to pull the strings of puppet judges, there is no investor or entrepreneur that can sleep soundly at night. Tampering with the courts can only drive away already scant foreign investors and worsen our persistent economic recession, a downturn triggered in the first place by the ineptitude of the same UDP.

For the ordinary citizens, who in too many cases simply cannot afford the cost of lady justice or await her tardy delivery, the UDP meddling with the courts will strip this administration of any remaining credibility in the fight to roll back the tides of crime and violence. When lawyers- turned-politicians pursue professional grudges against those on the bench, public confidence in the state wanes. Can this government credibly restore Belize with one hand and molest the judiciary with the other?

This newspaper as the voice of the Opposition People’s United Party registers its outrage at the Prime Minister’s conduct toward the Chief Justice. Moreover, we summon every citizen, every NGO and every businessperson to become attuned to the shameless campaign to manipulate the courts spearheaded by this UDP government. This sinister plot must be exposed and defeated.

Belize’s diplomatic “blind spot” may well be the cozy relations enjoyed between our generous ally Taiwan and our covetous neighbor to the West, Guatemala. Oil, it has been suggested, lies at the heart of Guatemala’s baseless claim to Belize. And now, oil may also stand at the center of an emerging Taiwanese claim to the jewel’s coastal waters.

The Belize Coalition to Save Our Natural Heritage, an amalgam of 23 tourism and environmental organizations with aggregate membership that may well number in the thousands, recently demanded of the Barrow administration an immediate ban on offshore oil drilling. Precipitating this ultimatum was the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, where an estimated 100,000 barrels per day, the equivalent of 2,800 gallons per minute, are contaminating the ocean, killing wildlife, suffocating coral reefs and destroying fisheries and tourism. So far, Prime Minister Barrow has stubbornly refused to accede to the Coalition’s request. Why would the PM not consent to at least a temporary ban – a moratorium – on offshore drilling, which several countries including the US, have already instituted in the wake of the Gulf incident?

The answer to this blazing question may pivot on one word: Taiwan.

Recall that on May 19, 2008, the freshly-elected Barrow travelled to Taipei for the inauguration of Taiwanese President Ma Ying-Jeou. Even before his departure, Mr. Barrow announced that Taiwan would be “gifting” the Government of Belize $50m for so-called budget support. This $50m was Taiwan’s congratulatory gift to the new UDP administration, a reward justified by Belize’s membership to that exclusive though dwindling club of 23 nations that maintain diplomatic ties to Taiwan. Belize has since secured additional multi-million dollar loans from Taiwan.

A few months later, in September 2008, a report surfaced in the international press that Taiwan’s state-owned Chinese Petroleum Corporation (CPC) would be signing an agreement with the government of Belize granting CPC exclusive rights to explore some 1,800 square miles of Belizean offshore waters. In the report, a former Taiwanese Ambassador to Belize was quoted as saying that “Belize is the Kuwait of Central America.” This agreement was officially signed by DPM Gaspar Vega in January 2009.When the report of the concession to the Taiwanese surfaced here in Belize, PM Barrow had this to say: “The Taiwanese have been saying to us that they’re ready to go. Maybe what is happening is that the actual physical activity is about to commence but we’ve known for a while that they have their license and are prepared to do offshore exploration which is welcome because not too many private sector companies want to do offshore drilling.”

The Prime Minister’s statements of September 25, 2008 to the effect that drilling was imminent and those he made this week in response to the Coalition’s public plea on offshore drilling simply do not square. Either he did not know what he was talking about in 2008 or he is now deliberately misleading the nation.

Of further interest is the recent and sudden visit to Taiwan of the Deputy Prime Minister Gaspar Vega which took place during the week of May 19, 2010. The visit by Vega, who signed the exploration agreement with the Taiwanese in his capacity of Minister responsible for petroleum, took place just days after APAMO, COLA and Oceana declared their demand for a ban on offshore drilling. While COLA had first advocated this ban in January of this year, it was on May 11, 2010 that this unprecedented Coalition took shape. There was no advance notice of Vega’s Taiwan trip, which proceeded even though the PM would also be away from Belize at this same time attending CDB meetings.

Is it, as some political insiders have suggested, that Mr. Vega travelled to Taipei to offer assurances that the CPC contract would NOT be altered despite the groundswell of public opposition to offshore drilling here at home? Mr. Barrow has certainly ducked and dodged from the clear cut case for the offshore drilling moratorium put forward by the Coalition. Do contributions from Taiwan outweigh an environmental Armageddon like the one unfolding in the Gulf? (Quite apart from the Taiwan connection is the recent revelation that the law firm of Barrow and Williams, a firm from where the PM says he “publicly and openly draws a share of the profits,” were attorneys for Princess Petroleum Ltd., another beneficiary of an offshore drilling concession.)

The disaster in the Gulf is proof positive that decades of oil profits can be erased in a single spill. Belize’s coastline is arguably more fragile and more precious than the Gulf of Mexico. Expert simulation models have shown that within just a matter of hours, an oil spill in Belizean waters would wreak irreparable havoc upon our reef and wetlands, wiping out our fisheries and devastating our coastal communities. Quite literally, Belize would never be the same. No amount of Taiwanese money can justify putting in harm’s way the Belize Barrier Reef and the livelihoods and communities of tens of thousands of Belizeans.

For a quick buck, politicians have debased the Belizean passport and allowed hundreds of thousands of acres of prime land to be gobbled up. If the paltry share of onshore oil extraction accruing to the people of Belize is any indication of future profits, then the conspicuous risk of offshore drilling far outweigh the financial benefits. The Gulf is an open and shut case in so far as the environment is concerned. This UDP administration should implement an immediate moratorium on offshore oil drilling, lifting this only on the basis of the approval of the Belizean public by way of a national referendum.

Dropping their executive duties like hot potatoes, Ministers and aspiring Ministers alike scurried to their constituencies to badger and to bribe voters, all to prove their worthiness to their political leader. It is no surprise, then, that for example, the Hurricane Season is upon us and adequate preparations have not been made by the Ministers of Works and NEMO, not even the cleaning of the major canals and waterways that would drain Belize City in the case of a storm.

Mr. Barrow has also put politics first in the Cabinet juggle itself. From a pool of 25 Representatives elected to office, he could not find one person that would meet the task of heading the nation’s Security Ministry. Instead of tapping an elected Representative, the PM selected the UDP’s Chairman, a person bereft of any experience in law enforcement. Senator Singh’s forte, if he possesses any, is in the sphere of business management and investment. Does this appointment indicate that heavy-handed law enforcement tactics by the Police Department, those obviously preferred by some elements in the business community, will now intensify? It certainly seems that way to us.  Among the many stakeholders this appointment will disappoint will be the Grieving Mothers who have lost sons through the errant and unlawful conduct of the Police.

The appointment of B.Q. Pitts to the post of Attorney General is no less absurd. This is a man who in the twilight of his years would so obviously prefer the checkers table and the bar stool to the rigors of the AG’s chair. Insiders speculate that Pitts, a UDP crony who failed to win the confidence of the voters, will be nothing more than a proxy for the real Attorney General – the PM’s ex-wife. At a juncture in our nation’s history when nine out of every ten accused murders walk free, the best that this PM can apparently do is to appoint a fading, foundering shell-of-a-man like Pitts to a post that so patently demands a giant.

To put a glaze on the poisoned cake he is force feeding us, the PM’s juggle also included tacking on Sports to the Public Service Ministry and Youth to the Education Ministry. Without novel programs, without fresh funding, neither of which was announced with the juggle, these changes are ornamental; they will produce nothing but rhetoric from either Saldivar or Faber.

There is some intrigue in the instance of the Public Utilities portfolio, which was stripped from the loquacious Melvin Hulse and handed to Elvin Penner. Insiders have suggested that this is a maneuver to hand greater authority, again, to the PM’s ex-wife whose sword has been drawn against both the telephone and electricity providers. Hulse, it is said, was taking too independent an approach, so he had to be replaced with the more pliant Penner. Hulse’s lackluster showing in the village council elections in Stann Creek West provided Barrow with a timely pretext to demote Melvin.

Quite apart from the hopelessness of the juggle are the Constitutional and cost implications. Mr. Barrow has now reached outside the House of Representatives for his two new Ministers. Neither will be accountable to the House. Both will owe their complete loyalty to the Prime Minister alone. Barrow is manipulating our Constitution to arrogate to himself Presidential powers. And then there is that little matter of the huge costs involved with two new Ministers: salaries, benefits, offices, vehicles, drivers, etc. Hundreds of thousands more will be gobbled up in administrative costs that will produce nothing for the country. This is the UDP mantra – penny-pinch with public officers and splurge with UDP cronies.

Mr. Barrow, as he did in his press appearance this week, does not brook criticism maturely. He will consider these criticisms to be unfair. Actually, the criticisms we make in this editorial are unfair because they are built upon the premise that the Prime Minister of Belize should rate the business of governance as his first priority and that he should select the best elected officials to serve in his Cabinet. In the matter of Mr. Barrow, this is a faulty foundation. His priorities are his own political fortunes and those of his party. He assigns Cabinet responsibility based upon the perceived loyalty of the holder to the Prime Minister…and the people pay the price for his vanity.

Twice since the rains started the temporary crossing at Kendal has been underwater, stopping the flow of traffic and hindering commerce in the South.  It has been 720 days since the Kendal Bridge was washed away by flood waters on 1^st June 2008.

In a few days the new hurricane season will begin, and experts are predicting that it will be a, “Hell of a year for hurricanes.”  The threat of an above-average 2010 Atlantic hurricane season has increased over the last month and it now promises to be very active.  According to the experts, the water temperature in the Atlantic is getting warm faster than usual.  This warning comes as the season also sees an unusual factor added to the mix: the Gulf oil disaster.  Forecasters are looking at a season that could be as active as the 2005 hurricane season.  The 2005 hurricane season was the most active season ever, therefore a comparison to this can only mean that we in the hurricane belt will have to not only pay attention, but be actively prepared.

With the complete breakdown of services in most of our cities and towns, with the obvious lack of competence in the Prime Minister’s Cabinet to manage the day to day problems of nation building and with the immediate pressing issues like the overwhelming crime situation and an economy in peril, one has to wonder: “Is the Barrow Administration ready for an active hurricane season?

Natural Disasters are considered to be acts of God and as such you cannot prevent them from occurring, therefore governments invest in putting in place proper planning and preparation to try and minimize casualties and damage.   During the PUP administration, the Government established the National Emergency Management Organization (NEMO).  Today NEMO runs a full time operation, and in the event of a natural disaster, NEMO is the Organization that manages the emergency.  A critical part of its function is to ensure that the uniformed services, first responders and everyone who must work during an emergency are aware of their role and how they will aid in returning the country or affected area back to normalcy.  With the hurricane season only days away; with the knowledge that this season will be an active one, we have heard of no workshop, planning meetings or simulation exercise by NEMO.  In fact Belizeans must rely on the tips that come on during the weather news if they are to learn about hurricane preparedness.

When it comes to preparation for hurricanes, NEMO must do its work to ensure that the nation is ready to deal with a hurricane making landfall in Belize.   It must also keep informing Belizeans of what to do in the case of an emergency.  Every Belizean must know how to contact emergency services; they must know where the nearest shelter is located and which radio station to listen to for official information about an emergency.  Radio and television personalities must be trained in how to handle emergency situations and must be told to rely on the experts for information rather than assuming these functions themselves.

NEMO is an organization that can save Belizean taxpayers millions of dollars.  Numerous studies have shown that the economic cost of investing in disaster preparedness and disaster risk reduction is far less than the cost of dealing with the aftermath.  In fact, some estimate that for every dollar spent on risk reduction, at least four dollars are saved.

Given all this, the Minister responsible for NEMO must be someone in whom the Belizean people have great confidence and be someone with strong leadership and organizational skills.

We can have the annual Guadalupe procession to seek divine intervention in protecting us from a storm; this is welcomed, however at some point it is inevitable that one will hit our shores.  If this is that year are we prepared?  Is NEMO ready?  Have they done their job to prepare Belizeans and to ensure that lives are saved and damage kept to a minimum?  Given this government’s record of efficiency so far and the fact that NEMO remains quiet just days away from the start of what is to be an active storm season, many are doubtful.