If we were to conduct an opinion poll among Belize City residents today, we would quickly find out that Mayor Zenaida Moya Flowers is suffering from an extremely low job approval rating.  And it is not as if though her numbers hit rock bottom on account of unpopular steps, such as cutting municipal spending, that she has taken to put in order the City Council’s business.  On the contrary, we think that she has done absolutely nothing for the city or its residents.

In fact, if much of the mayor’s job involved only being a figurehead, representing the city during official ceremonies, such as the Independence Day Celebrations and ribbon cutting events, and flying away to exotic lands to attend international conferences then Moya Flowers would have our goodwill.  We cannot deny that she has taken full advantage of every opportunity to have her face splattered in the media, and she has surely racked up those coveted frequent flyer miles jet setting around the world with her husband in tow.  Of course it is not.  It is a fulltime job.

But a well paid one.  Moya Flowers is reportedly taking home $10,000 a month in salary and benefits.  Yet she cannot find the time to do a good job unless her family and close friends stand to benefit financially from her actions.  Since she took office in March 2006, she has constantly displayed that she knows little about public finance and that she is incapable of running the country’s largest municipal government despite her much touted Master’s degree.  The city is broke and there is no immediate relief in sight that will close the shortfall because the central government well has run dry.  We are truly not getting value for our hard earned taxes.

Apart from the burgeoning fiscal imbalance, the city is also in a physical mess.  There are piles of garbage strewn everywhere in the commercial, residential, and public areas, while residents have to put up with clogged drains, tall grass and bushes, potholed streets, flooded streets whenever it rains, and public buildings that have been left to fall into a state of disrepair.  To make matters worse, city residents are flocking to the emergency room because of diseases such as dengue that are spread by mosquitoes which thrive in the high grass and settled water in drains.

Despite this, Moya Flowers has not put forward any plans to ameliorate the conditions of the beleaguered city, such as specific recommendations on what the Council should do in order to set it on a firm financial footing, and start providing the basic services, such as garbage collection and street repairs, to residents.  To us, the city appears rudderless and dysfunctional at best.  It is as though she has no vision.  But that was to be expected.  After all, it is no surprise that she is all pomp and circumstance and no substance.

And because of Moya Flowers’ incompetence, Belize Maintenance Limited that is charged with keeping the city clean this week had to lay off 100 workers who are wondering where they will find employment in our contracting economy to keep their families from falling below the poverty level.  The Council once again reneged on its promise to pay its outstanding debts to the company and cannot find the money to pay its weekly subvention.  Expect the garbage to pile up higher throughout the city.  The Grinch has nothing on our fair mayor.

We know that there is no panacea that will cure what ails the city.  But anything just now will be a welcome change to what Moya Flowers and her councilors are doing.  In all fairness, she is not up to the job.  She has had all the time necessary and has not come up with a plan to transform the city.  Actually, the state of the city has gotten worse under her guidance.  Day by day, she is making us regret our choice that made her the city’s mayor because she has so far failed miserably at providing leadership of any kind.

Once more it seems that the ruling United Democratic Party’s area representatives cannot do right by the people.  And it is not as if they would have lost major political mileage by doing so.  On the contrary they could have gained immensely by just paying attention to their constituents’ troubles.  Even that is too much to ask with this bunch.

The latest case in point is that of Honorable Marcel Cardona, Hon. Mark Pech, and the Deputy Prime Minister Hon. Gaspar Vega of the Orange Walk District, and Hon. Nemencio Acosta, Hon. Pablo Marin, and Hon. Gabriel Martinez of the Corozal District who all represent a large number of people whose livelihoods are heavily dependent on the sugar industry’s fortunes.

Yet not one to date has publicly ripped into the Belize Sugar Industries Limited for delaying the third bonus payment to sugar cane farmers without a valid reason for the second year in a row despite the fact that sugar prices have increased sharply on the world market recently.  On top of that BSI last week admitted without apologies to using the higher than expected earnings of its sugar exports to the European Union on factory expenditure.

Never mind that cane farmers desperately need their bonus monies to make payments to their creditors particularly financial institutions because each day past their loans’ due dates accrues very high interest payments and greatly increases the likelihood that their loans’ collaterals may be foreclosed.  And that they need the financing to get ready for this year’s crop season.

Besides it is not as if though the cane farmers made a lot of money in last year’s season.  Some did not even break even.  And that is not factoring in the huge losses suffered by the industry on account of the February strike.  A vast majority of them suffered huge financial losses in the cultivation process because the cost of inputs such as fertilizers was too high and because they had to find the money to pay their laborers or risk having their cane remain in the fields.

To make matters worse cane farmers also suffered losses in the delivery process.  Aside from the high cost of fuel the unnecessary time delay between harvesting and delivery to the mill hurt the cane farmers’ pockets because it affected the cane’s sucrose content.  Cane farmers have been told at every turn to increase the yield of their cane but it is difficult to say if they did this year because the time waiting in the delivery line worsened the cane quality.  But poor cane quality results in fewer tons of refined sugar for export that ultimately results in smaller export earnings.

Now factor in the sky rocketing cost of living and we have worried men and women who are finding it difficult to make ends meet on a daily basis.  As a result many of the promising minds of the north have had to relinquish the hope of an education to join their parents in the fields to lower overhead expenses or find employment to put food on their families’ tables and to cover household expenditures.  We may never know if these dropouts could have been the experts desperately needed to overhaul the fading industry.  This is truly unacceptable.

As it is today the very survival of small cane farmers is in jeopardy without more government fertilizer and fuel subsidies or direct government investment in the overhauling of the industry.  And do not forget that the industry will face its greatest challenge soon on account of the 36 percent reduction in the export price of sugar previously guaranteed by the EU.  It is clear that only those cane farmers who can increase their cane’s yield and reduce their production costs will survive.

But the abovementioned area representatives’ abandoning of their constituents at a time when their support was most needed did not come as a surprise.  Now that they have settled into a lavish lifestyle courtesy of the public trough and have become plumper, they have forgotten from whence they came.  A word to the wise though those heavily tinted late model Sports Utility Vehicles and gated residences may keep the riff raff at bay for now but time marches on and you will soon find yourselves at their doors in search of votes.  It is funny how life is really.

When Dean Barrow spoke to the nation in the months leading up to the general elections of February 2008, he promised transparency in government. When Dean Barrow and his government were carried to victory on the shoulders of a majority of Belize’s electorate, he swore that his UDP would govern with transparency. In the months following general elections and as recently as this week, Dean Barrow has still gone on record to trumpet and laud his transparency and the transparency of his government. And you know what the funny thing is – Dean Barrow is absolutely right. He has been completely transparent in his dealings with the people. He has been completely transparent in what he has allowed his ministers to do. He has been completely transparent in his dealings with his family members. Dean Barrow never lied when he said that he would be transparent. We, the Belizean people, just didn’t want to see what was being flaunted right in front of our faces. We weren’t ready to accept what was being paraded in plain view. But now…it’s a whole different ballgame, you can believe that. Now, less than two years into this UDP term, and Belizeans can now see right through this bogus, arrogant, incompetent and yes, completely transparent UDP administration.

Let’s take the last case first. GOB just announced that the newly formed Brads Gaming Company will be getting the contract for Boledo. For almost a year, the Belize Times and Vibes Radio have been announcing that Brads will be getting the contract for Boledo. Week in and week out the Opposition media disseminated that information. So after a couple months, it should have been no news to anybody that Brads would be in charge of Boledo. Now it’s official. Barrow and his government didn’t and don’t care that everybody knows that ‘Brads’ is known as the informal Cabinet Room where UDP ministers congregate on weekends to gamble and drink. Everybody knows that Brads is a financial backer of the UDP. So kudos to Barrow. so to speak! He was completely and brazenly transparent in giving Brads the contract for Boledo.

When Dean Barrow wanted to reward his faithful ex-wife for her services, he was completely transparent. He made her the Chair of the Social Security Board, where she is paid handsomely for attending a meeting a month. He made her the non-resident High Commissioner to the UN, he gave her one of Belize’s highest awards, he made her act as Attorney-General, he paid her millions to represent GOB in Court and he put her on the Board of the new BTL (Barrow Telemedia Limited). Our Prime Minister never once hid anything about his dealings with Lois from the Belizean people – he just did what he had to do.

When the Prime Minister took over BTL he immediately and without a care in the world appointed his son and ex-wife to the Board of Directors of the Company. He went so far as to place his son in a position to direct the day to day activities of the company. The leader of this nation took his 27 year old Moet-guzzling loan shark with a license son and placed him at the helm of a company worth hundreds of millions. He made no apologies for his move.

When the Prime Minister of this nation decided to appoint his brother as a judge on the Court of Appeals, it was no secret. For months before that topic was the hot issue on the streets. Despite cries of nepotism and conflict and the blurring of the lines between the executive and the judiciary, Barrow couldn’t have cared less – he just forged ahead with his plans, to hell with the rest.

And the list of Barrow’s  transparent acts and the transparent acts carried out by his government could fill a five-subject notebook. The reality is that Barrow and his UDP have never bothered to hide the things that they do. What they have done is forget the words that should be attached at the hip to transparency – words like integrity and accountability and honesty and service and humility. Without these, the UDP’s transparency is just a slap in the face.

But Belizeans have started to get the sense. In the months following elections, Barrow and the UDP got a free pass, but it was not stamped ‘in perpetuity.’  The people have now seen right through Barrow’s transparency and the reality of these times of plenty for the UDP ‘special’ and times of famine for the rest of us has bred a sense of desperation, frustration and intolerance which do not bode well for Barrow and the UDP. If Barrow dares to look into the transparent sheet of glass beyond which lies the sure future of the UDP, he is not a contented man tonight.

Last week Thursday at his overdue quarterly press conference, Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Honorable Dean Barrow finally admitted that the country is in the throes of an economic recession on account of the global financial crisis.  The Statistical Institute of Belize had said as much since the second quarter of 2008, yet he and the Governor of the Central Bank of Belize Glenford Ysaguirre were adamant that we would emerge safe and sound.  Both got it wrong.

Despite his public admission, we have that sinking feeling that Barrow is not coming clean with the facts surrounding the recession and painting the true picture.  While some of the negative forecasts may not come through, its full extent cannot be determined at this time as it is still unfolding.  We, however, do not need him to tell us that that things are going from bad to worse in a hurry.  It is the everyday reality that is eroding our quality of life and making us distraught because we cannot find work.

It should be noted that an increasing number of family members who, in the past, had no reason to be part of the workforce, are hitting the streets in search of jobs to subsidize their family’s declining incomes so that they can weather the economic hurricane as best they can.  This includes housewives, children, and the elderly, whose household income earners, not so long ago, provided the comfort of a middle class lifestyle.  Thanks a lot, Barrow.

Sadly, the likely outcome of this new reality may be an increase in exploitative child labor that may have a profound negative impact on these children’s intellectual development and their physical and mental well being.  An alarming amount of girls and a surprising amount of boys are “keeping” sugar daddies and mamas or are getting caught up in our thriving commercial sex trade that is fueled by tourism to put food on the table or to cover household expenditures.

That is why it is difficult for us to believe Barrow when he claims that the International Financial Institutions such as the Caribbean Development Bank will provide project inflows to the country to get the economy moving again.  It is clear that he omitted the fact that the crisis has resulted in a global credit tightening that is making access to loans more costly and difficult to access, and that investors have become more risk averse and unlikely to invest in developing countries.

This may result in either increased taxes by the government or reduced expenditure or both depending on how bad it gets for the government.  Nonetheless, we should get ready to sacrifice even more as we will soon have to pay more of our hard earned money into the national treasury.  Just now as Barrow admitted, government revenues are falling and will continue to fall as its collections are not meeting projections.  For that reason, one way to bridge the burgeoning fiscal deficit is for the government to tax us literally to death.

And with the economy contracting and revenues declining, this unimaginative government is on the fast track to massive retrenchment and wage freezes.  And Christmas is not too far away now.  Hundreds of public officers may soon find themselves unemployed as their predecessors did not too long ago courtesy of former Prime Minister Right Honorable Doctor Manuel Esquivel and Barrow.  It does not bode well that Esquivel is Barrow’s chief financial advisor today.

Meanwhile, teachers and those public officers, who are lucky to keep their jobs, may not see a salary increment anytime soon.  The government desperately needs to bring under control its wage bill that has been expanded unnecessarily by lucrative contracts and perks to political lackeys.  In addition, politically unconnected teachers and public officers may become more susceptible to worker exploitation as they will be unlikely to object to absurd demands such as unjustifiable transfers in order to keep their jobs.

We should brace ourselves for worsening crime and violence, if that is possible, as increasing unemployment coupled with the out of control cost of living will push more people below the poverty line, and as a result push more people into a life of crime to survive.  Hungry stomachs tend to wreak havoc on rational thinking, causing the affected to find whatever means possible to vent their frustrations.  It is the stark reality that many more people will be murdered and become victims of robberies and home invasions.  Expect domestic violence to increase as well.

To be blunt Barrow, we did not all underestimate the effects of the crisis on the economy.  How could we when our backs have been against the wall since early 2008.  So, we could not be the ones hiding our heads in the sand.  That would be you and your highly touted financial experts.  And what is scary is that the worst has not yet been felt.  Still, the government has not presented us with the economic measures that it will put in place to mitigate the impact.  Imagine that.

The village of Duckrun III in the Cayo North East Division of the Cayo District has been a quiet, peaceful and (“dry”) village – dry in that there have been no liquor establishments in the village until recently.  The youth in the village have taken football as their recreation and sporting activity despite the fact that we have no usable football field.  This is because a football field established by then standard bearer of the PUP Mr. Orlando Habet along with our village council was closed down after the elections of February 2008 by Mr. Elvin Penner, area representative.  Although we are aware that some of our young people do go to have their drinks in other villages and in the major towns, such practices have not occurred in the village proper because the people of Duckrun III have requested not to have  a bar established in the village.

Since August of 2009 one Mr. Jose Anibal Molina moved from Selena Village to reside in our village where he has a property and opened up a bar despite the fact that the villagers are against it and despite the fact that the Village council and myself have not approved a license to be granted to Mr. Molina.  It is stated in the Village Council Act that the chairman of the village council must sign the application before the District Liquor Licensing Board can approve and grant a liquor license.  Since this new establishment has opened we now have bar fights, young boys under the age of 16 years drinking on the streets and having their parents’ normal lives disrupted by their actions.  One weekend some school aged children were drinking on a Sunday and could not go to school the following morning.

In September of 2009, I reported the matter to the police in Spanish Lookout and sent a letter to the officer in charge of the San Ignacio police station informing them of the ‘illegal bar” in the village.  I also went to visit with the chairman of the Cayo Liquor Licensing Board, one Mr. Elias Juan who informed me and assured me that they had not granted a license to Mr. Molina.

This past Saturday night October 31, 2009 some young men were drinking in that same bar owned by Mr. Molina and a fight ensued in which machetes and farm forks were used as weapons.  Indeed our entire village’s peace and tranquility are now at stake.  On Monday morning I decided to make another attempt to investigate how it was that Mr. Molina could open a bar in our village without approval of the village and the Liquor Licensing Board.  I decided to meet with Mr. Molina and visit his place.  He then did present a Liquor License which he said he obtained through Mr. Elvin Penner, since he was told that he did not have to check with me because I am a PUP chairman and that it is the area representative that makes the decision.  The license certificate for Mr. Molina was signed by Mr. Elias Juan, chairman Liquor Licensing Board, San Ignacio, for the period August 1, 2009 to January 31, 2010.

I spoke to a police officer who told me that there was nothing they could do because the owner, Mr. Molina had a legally signed license and that the police enforce the law only if the owners do not have a license to operate.

I must mention at this point that I have also reported the matter to NAVCO, the National Association of Village Councils which promised to do an investigation into the matter but have not visited my village as yet.  I also reported this matter to the leaders of the Spanish Lookout Community so that hopefully they can have some influence over Mr. Elvin Penner and his decisions but it seems as if it is to no avail.

It seems as if we are operating not under a Belize Constitution and Belize laws anymore but under a UDP law which is not too kind to non-UDP and the law of the day seems to contravene all social, political, religious and human order.  I appeal to all Belizean citizens to take note of how we are living today, how we are being treated with disregard and how our families and especially our children are being destroyed by the government of the day.

In his Independence Day 2009 speech (as is detailed on the government website), PM Barrow stated the following:

“While there has been a 9% hotel drop in our overnight tourism, preliminary bookings for next year’s high season are bouncing back. Meantime cruise arrivals have remained steady and are projected to increase with the plan for a southern Belize cruise itinerary. The 60 million dollar Sustainable Tourism Development Project is in place and physical tourism improvement works in Belize City, San Ignacio, San Pedro and Placencia will commence early 2010. Construction on our second international airport at Riversdale proceeds apace and new high-end resorts have 2010 start up dates.  As well development of the 3000 acres purchased by the Koreans in North Ambergris Caye is imminent. “

The PM certainly sounds like he is promoting mass tourism  and perhaps that explains why he was notably absent at last week’s International Conference on Responsible Tourism held in Belmopan, hosted by his own Ministry of Tourism.  He was listed on the agenda to give a keynote address at the opening ceremonies but he was a no-show.

If Belize’s tourism growth is to be done responsibly, why is the Prime Minister boasting cruise plans for the southern part of Belize?  Shouldn’t we focus on controlling this type of tourism? Instead of expanding it, shouldn’t we be discussing how we can manage the existing traffic we are getting so that our protected areas, cultural sites and other natural features of this country (both marine and terrestrial) are no longer being desecrated and damage by the volumes of people who come to our shores just for a few hours?  If we are to really Be One With Belize shouldn’t PM Barrow speak more about plans to promote the overnight sector that boasts boutique style hotels, trained and qualified local guides and local tour operators, standards and best practices for operators, restaurants and all others involved in an industry that should promote the natural beauty of this country and not one that will cheapen it?  Do we really want cruise tourism to go any further than it has? Don’t we learn from our mistakes?

He unabashedly spoke about a second international airport in Riversdale.  Was the EIA done on this?  Are the conservation groups satisfied that this development is a responsible one for the south? What are the tax and fee implications for locals and foreign visitors since this will now be an international airport? What are the implications for the two local airlines? And by putting in an international airport in the south, what size planes is it expected to accommodate and where is the study that indicates there is demand for a second airport? Is this realistic in a country whose national hotel occupancy has always been lower than 50% and whose overnight arrivals have only reached 280,000 as one of its highest levels?  The reality is that the Philip Goldson International Airport is underutilized for the majority of the day.

Then PM Barrow further comments on “high-end resorts with 2010 start up dates”.  When is the last time our Prime Minister conducted a tour of the country? Construction is practically at a standstill and evidence of any development that does exist is mostly condos and villas, so either time share or second homes (and most likely not for Belizeans).  So, is this the type of “hotel development” he is promoting for Mother Nature’s Best Kept Secret?

The Prime Minister also spoke on the 3000 acre development by the Koreans that is imminent for North Ambergris Caye.  How far north – Bacalar Chico National Park?  Development of 3000 acres is surely not low scale development.  With South Beach development, road to Mexico, mangrove clearing and crime to name just a few, San Pedro is in for a rude awakening in the coming years with the quality of its product.

One thing is for sure, with these tourism plans PM Barrow unveiled in September of this year, there won’t be any more secret to the Jewel and there will be nothing to Be One With.  Buckle up Belize we will be in for a bumpy ride on PM Barrow’s tourism train!!!

The house of cards that is the United Democratic Party run Belize City Council is on the verge of collapse.  And if it comes to pass, it may be as a result of the revelations by the Office of the Auditor General, whose employees have been embedded at City Hall since the start of Mayor Zenaida Moya Flowers’ second term.  Clearly, without their input the exposure of the ongoing malfeasance at City Hall may have continued to be dismissed as political mischief.

Last month, the auditors pointed out that Moya Flowers has been reckless in handling taxpayer monies, unable to account for almost $300,000 in her now infamous phony accounting “under deposits” scheme.  If that were not bad enough, they also uncovered that she and the five 2006-2009 councilors, who sought reelection in March 2009, allegedly siphoned off our hard earned taxes to their campaign to pay staunch UDP supporters and cover miscellaneous expenses.

Furthermore, the auditors revealed that it is customary for the Finance Department to pay either phantom employees or payroll employees without their knowledge or consent for work done on behalf of the Council. Yet the checks were cashed and pocketed.  We were warned about Moya Flowers’ penchant for dipping surreptitiously into the “cookie jar” by former UDP Councilor Mark King, but we dismissed his revelations as sour grapes. In the end, we may never know the amount of money that the pilfering has cost us.

Perhaps to disprove further Moya Flowers’ claim that their boss Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Honorable Dean Barrow does not have “cojones,” last week the auditors revealed that between March 2006 and December 2008 she was overpaid almost $70,000 in benefits such as fuel for her husband Troy “DJ Dalla” Flowers and unapproved vacation grants.  Meanwhile, they are tracking down a missing checkbook that may prove that she was additionally overpaid tens of thousands of dollars.  Home was never like the public trough, “lee gyal.”

You know, Moya Flowers is indeed powered by the people, the people’s money that is.  And she should be ashamed for bleeding dry the broke Council, while the majority of us are finding out that “life haada out ya” with no relief in sight under the UDP.  It is clear to see that she is all about greed.  What else would explain why she is unable to survive on $10,000 a month in salary and benefits, which is already $4,000 more than her remuneration package that was agreed upon by the Council’s caucus in March 2006?

But wait, there is more.  The auditors have also revealed that Moya Flowers may not be the only elected Council official who has been playing loose with taxpayer monies at a time when the Council has been unable to provide the basic services to city residents or meet outstanding payments to its creditors.  The city has yet to recover from the garbage that was left uncollected for weeks while the Belize Maintenance Limited workers were on strike to collect their salaries.

Two-term councilor Leila Peyrefitte, who is responsible for revenue collection, last week came under fire for allegedly writing off approximately $400,000 in taxes owed to the Council by big businesses such as Courts Belize Limited, the Princess Hotel and Casino and the Santiago Group of Companies. These companies are far from the financial rocks and can easily pay up their tax arrears because they are extremely liquid.  They do not need the incentives.  This will not do.

If true, Peyrefitte has blatantly disregarded the Council’s bylaws that do not allow for any elected Council official or employee to offer any discount on tax arrears or to swap Council debt with in kind payment, and clearly shirked her fiduciary duties to the Council, which just now needs every last cent it can collect.  Pray tell Peyrefitte, where can we find the bartered motorcycles, laptops, filing cabinets, and such? This is a travesty but it is hardly surprising.

In contrast, the names of struggling businesses and property owners, who oftentimes owe the Council a mere pittance, are plastered in the newspapers, and their cases sent directly to revenue court for adjudication.  And if they are unfortunate to have the verdict go against them, the Council quickly dispatches its bailiffs to crowfoot their property to cover the outstanding debts.  There is no reason for Moya Flowers and the councilors to treat a large percentage of their constituents so coldly.

While the audit did not ascertain if Peyrefitte’s family business Peyrefitte Brothers benefitted directly from her charity, it revealed that three of its employees did benefit handsomely by collecting taxes on commission for the Council.  Between March 2006 and December 2008, one employee collected an obscene $80,000, while the other two were not as fortunate, collecting only about $50,000 each.  And it is scandalous that they are still employed by the Council when the Council is laying off single mothers who are making minimum wage.

Moya Flowers, Peyrefitte, Laura Esquivel, Dean Samuels, Wayne Usher, Philip Willoughby, and perhaps the new councilors have not learned from their mistakes.  They have yet to accept that they have been entrusted with power to do right by us and not to plunder the public purse or use their offices for personal gain.  It is clear that they can no longer relate to us and are unrepentant.  Just now, we feel betrayed and are embarrassed by their actions.  In the meantime, we sit by patiently waiting to see when the house of cards will finally come falling down.

For the families and friends of murdered victims, and victims of crimes generally, there is this eerie and gritty feeling that life is not life. The memories of their loved one no doubt triggers the unmistakable reality that today in Belize, a person’s life hangs in the balance each day. Death, for sure, respects nobody. The frenzied spate of murders in Belize, understandably has catapulted many into a strained attitude of life. Life, for all the joy it brings at birth, these days brings also the painful reality of how mortal we are.

Everyday on the daily and nightly newscasts, there is the grim, ghastly reporting of Belizeans riddled with bullets, chopped, stabbed or mauled with some weapon; or our women and female children dehumanized by these sexual monsters who rape at will.

There seems to be no letting up by the criminals. They are cognizant of the fear we all have as Belizeans and thus they have become more brazen and callous in committing their violent crimes, caring not who sees them perpetrating their evil.

No one feels safe, no one IS safe- teachers, students, mothers, daughters, housewives, doctors, street vendors, religious ministers all are joined together at the belly of crime.

This fear is compounded with a sense of hopelessness as the UDP government and in particular the Minister of National Security daily manifests how clueless, incompetent and bankrupt of ideas they are in trying to address this engulfing crime tsunami.

People are fed up, tired, angry with the criminals and the Government’s seeming  indifference to the plight of the everyday man who has to square off with the criminals to defend his life, property, friends and family. Belizeans’ frustration is further enhanced by the obvious inability of the DPP’s office to secure convictions. Indeed, as a judge has commented, the word nolle prosequi has become a part of the Belizean lexicon.

So justice, which is really the only consolation families and friends of murdered victims can claim, has become deformed like just about everything else in society.

The DPP and the government says this is because witnesses refuse to go and testify at trials; that it is the situation where repeatedly, witnesses and/or their family members are threatened; that in some cases, the threats have been carried out- that a culture of fear has been instilled in the Belizean psyche.

Paralyzed by this state of affairs, this UDP government has responded, finally, but yet woefully off tangent. They have passed a law that will allow a statement given by a witness to be used in a trial where that witness fears for his life, or the life of a member of his family.

The law appears a novelty, an ingenious breakthrough in crime fighting. But the devil, as they say, is in the details.

No one knows, for instance, how it will be established in Court that a witness is fearful for his life. Will that witness have to go to Court to say that? If that is so, then the law is counterproductive. The main rationale for the law is to protect those who are being threatened, presumably, to shield them from having to go to Court in the first place. But the flip side of that coin is that if a witness can merely sign a statement which states that he is fearful for his life and his witness statement is taken as gospel, then all kinds of abuse can flow from that. I can, then, give a statement accusing someone I dislike of a crime and merely state further that I do not want to go to Court because I am fearful of my life. In such a case, I can have this person be convicted just like that.

The new law is fraught with confusion and shortsightedness. Reports are that no less than the justices of the peace, who under the new law will be the ones to record the statements, are up in arms. They have foreseen the potential abuse of the new law and they themselves are worrying about their safety. The feeling is that the criminals may eventually want to retaliate at them. In this regard, the new law, rather than addressing the problem of crime and securing convictions, further breeds a culture of fear. In such a culture, criminals can only thrive more. So much for this government’s 360 degrees plan!

Once again, the Minister of Housing Honorable Michael Finnegan wants us to believe that he stands on the moral high ground; that he alone is the moral compass of Belizean politics and everybody else is morally bankrupt.  It is as if he wears a halo and is an avenger of the downtrodden like his namesake the archangel.

This time around, Finnegan’s crusade is in defense of Dawn Jorgenson, a single mother of his Mesopotamia Constituency, who has fallen victim to the suspected crooked behavior of Minister of National Security Hon. Carlos Perdomo and his conspirator/s at Hon. Gaspar Vega’s corruption plagued Ministry of Natural Resources.

Finnegan is incensed because Jorgenson’s lease to a parcel of land in Perdomo’s Caribbean Shores Constituency, which has been in her family since the 1960s, was cancelled without notification and awarded to a ‘more deserving’ person by Vega in August 2009 on Perdomo’s recommendation.  And shockingly, the person has already secured full title to the land.

All this underhandedness took place in spite of the fact that Jorgenson had obtained a $5,000 purchase price to secure her title in 2005 from the previous People’s United Party administration.  At the time, she did not have the money to pay the sum in full.  As a result, she had been making payments to the Ministry of Natural Resources as she could afford and that is allowed for in the purchase price agreement.  According to her, the last payment was made at the end of July 2009.

For this reason, Finnegan brought down his wrath publicly on his two Cabinet colleagues for their alleged malfeasance.  On national television last Thursday, he fumed “Christ dah sin …  Yu get elected as wah politician to serve di poor people, especially di indigent … and di poor single mothers …  Yu no get elected fi squeeze and fu squash dehn and fu tek weh weh dehn got from dehn.  I will not stand for it …  It is not only unfair, it is illegal”  You think!

Although we wholeheartedly agree that an injustice has been visited upon Jorgenson and her family by Perdomo and Vega, it is impossible to take Finnegan’s chest pounding seriously because his words oftentimes ring hollow and they leave us with the feeling that our faith was misplaced.  It is disgusting to say the least.

The abuse of power and injustices, such as the cancellation of leases and the firing of single mothers committed against poor people on the mere suspicion of political opposition since the United Democratic Party took office in 2008 has been constant and deliberate.  Yet, Finnegan has scarcely uttered a word in their defense perhaps because he views them as what Prime Minister Hon. Dean Barrow coined “collateral damage.”

Suddenly, day to day transactions conducted at the Ministry of Natural Resources now require monetary kickbacks before they can be processed by public officers.  Good luck at the Ministry if you do not have cash in hand.  Meanwhile, the cancellation of leased lands for redistribution to favored UDP supporters at the behest of area representatives and land speculation for personal enrichment have become de rigueur in the higher ranks perhaps as way up as Vega.

And Finnegan’s Cabinet loitering partner in front of Brad’s Store located at the Belize Farmers’ Market Minister of Education Hon. Patrick Faber has fired hundreds of single mothers just because in his words he can “get away with certain things politically.”  But this is unconscionable because the majority of these single mothers were barely getting by to clothe, educate, feed, and shelter their children on the minimum wage salary of a school warden.

Injustice by any other name is still injustice, Finnegan.  Thus, the real outrage here is his fake, self righteous indignation, which is always on display, especially in the media, whenever it is politically expedient for him to do so.  After all, he only took up Jorgenson’s case because she is one of his avowed supporters and maybe he could not bully his Cabinet colleagues in private to right their wrongs.

But we have grown weary of the political moralizers and the self righteous, who rant and rave about all manner of corruption, but appear not to have a mirror.  It is clear that they usually have the most to hide and their personal morality is generally the opposite of their public stance.  Therefore, stop throwing stones and spare us the drama, Finnegan.  In the end, self righteous politicians are of particular concern to us because they often turn out to be hypocrites.

From his track record, Finnegan has demonstrated that he is not truly committed to rooting out corruption and only pays lip service to transparency and accountability in government.  No wonder that he is such a pal to holier than thou PM Barrow.  And it may come to pass that the misdeeds of his two Cabinet colleagues may eventually pale in comparison to his own.  As such, he hardly represents a standard against which anybody should be judged.

Freelance Journalist

Public attention across the world has been focused on the increasing value of sugar over recent weeks, in both the major European and American markets.  Understandably, many local cane farmers have been optimistically hoping for the positive effects to be felt within the Belizean industry, yet even despite Belize being a major international sugar producer, it is almost guaranteed that none of the perks of good trading conditions will be felt for the thousands of northern sugar cane farmers so desperately needing reprieve right now.

To understand the fact that no matter what international trading conditions seem to be, the Belizean sugar industry still does not thrive, it is necessary to first get a broad understanding of the concepts behind the sugar market.  Sugar is principally traded in two forms: refined white sugar, which is traded on the London Futures Exchange (Number 5 Contract), and raw sugar, which is traded in New York on the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) (Number 11 Contract).  Refined white sugar has peaked over recent weeks to a level not seen since the ‘black’ years of the early 1980s, and at the end of last week, the price stood at US$ 596.50 per metric ton.  Future trading has already increased the price even further, with December rates already peaking over US$600 per metric ton.  Similarly, raw sugar has sustained its historically high prices reached in September, and currently sits around the US24 cents/pound mark. Both sugar contracts represent an almost 90% increase in price since the beginning of 2009, which is both extortionate and almost entirely unexpected.

Experts are accounting the dramatic rise in prices to three principal causes: the late arrival of monsoons in India, investor speculation and a lack of investment due to the economic recession.  India is one of the world’s leading sugar producers, alongside Brazil; now that Indian supply seems unable to satisfy demands, the world market has increased its dependency on Brazil, but heavy rains in South America are repeatedly destroying its potential too, leaving the world with a potentially devastating sugar shortage.  Theoretically, this all seems promising for smaller producers like Belize, for whom the sugar industry is a key source of external financial revenue.

However, the Belizean market has long-standing access to the preferential markets of both the EU and the US, which offers vulnerable producers (like Belize) a means of protection from fluctuating prices on the open market.  This agreement (particularly with the EU market) began as a mutually beneficial understanding – guaranteeing a supply of sugar for the European market in exchange for a stable and strong selling price for Belizean producers.  Yet even if the fixed prices of only the past four years are compared, it is easy to understand the growing crisis which is increasingly dragging Belizean trade below endurable levels: the EU offered a price of €523.70/metric ton in 2006, and the price for the upcoming 2010 season has been set around €335 for the same metric ton measurement, representing almost a 40% fall in just four years.  Belize Sugar Industries now has the unenviable dilemma between fulfilling their quota commitments on the EU market (which, at 48,000 tonnes accounts for almost half of the country’s expected production), or to disregard their longstanding agreement and sell on the more advantageous US preferential market (anticipated to equate to around €480/metric ton for the 2010 season).  The difficulty in the decision-making process arises because the preferential access to the EU market cannot be guaranteed unless Belize repeatedly fulfils its requirements on an annual basis.  Thus, Belize Sugar Industries (BSI) could choose to sell on the preferable US market this year, but by ignoring the EU requirements and failing to meet their commitments this year, it could be penalised via exclusion to the preferential markets in future years.

Financiers from BSI disclosed this week that it is unlikely that the preferential agreements will be neglected solely in order to increase income during the 2010 season, meaning that – as usual – BSI will cater to the longstanding expectations of the EU despite floundering prices on the European market this year.  So – despite all the energy and hope invested by Belizean cane farmers that an increase in world sugar prices will positively impact them, it seems that not even this is able to lift them out of the dire circumstances of trade that they currently endure.