The Association of Justices of the Peace & Commissioners of the Supreme Court held its 11th Annual General Meeting on Sunday, 29th January, 2012, at B.I.M.  Justices of the Peace from all over the country arrived and the meeting started at 9:30 a.m.  The guest speaker for the occasion was Ms. Margaret McKenzie, Attorney-at-Law and Sr. J.P.  The guest speaker gave all J.P. valuable information about the justice system and a history of the Justice of the Peace.  She also offered her services to the association in the training of J.P.’s and also joined the association as a member.

The national president Hon. Adrian (Danny) Madrid, then gave his report.  He reported that the association continues to have its monthly meetings and for the year 2011 three quarterly meetings were held.  The first one was held in Belize City on the 1st May, the second was held in Belmopan on the 23rd July and the 3rd quarterly meeting was held on the 13th November in Patchakan in the Corozal district.

As all members of the association who attend meetings and have email addresses are aware of the situation between the association and the ministry of the Attorney General since 2006 after the Belize City Council elections and in 2008 after the general elections, that there has been no relationship with this administration.  To date the Attorney General refuses to sign the J.P. Act 2005 into law preventing the association from doing its work more efficiently.  Nevertheless the association continues to operate and continues through its members to serve the people of this country.

The leader of the opposition called Hon. Adrian (Danny) Madrid, president and informed that the next P.U.P. Government will officially recognize the association and that the Justice of the Peace Act 2005 will be signed into law by the next Attorney General. That new Justice of the Pace will continue to be appointed by area representatives but as stated in the Act will work closely with the association and in turn the association will do all necessary vetting and especially training as this is very important for new Justices of the Peace.  No training is being done new J.P.’s continue to make mistakes.

A new P.U.P. administration will commit itself to give the association an office and a place in the Ministry of the Attorney General and that a stipend will be given to the association to properly conduct training for all Justices of the Peace and Commissioners of the Supreme Court.

When Barrow announced that he would call a double election for March 7, one member of cabinet fainted, one sent a text message to Lois’ Smart phone to see if she could stop it, but the best tell-tale sign of UDP fear and desperation was that after Cabinet the cleaning lady confided that no less than seven members had wet their pants.

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Barrow has received his mail from the “Retirement Home for Failed Leaders” in Miami, which he signed up for in November 2011. When Barrow read the deadline for applications, it said March 7 and he thought to himself “perfect timing”.

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In a desperate move, the Flippin member from down South asked if they could imagine the site where the Kendal Bridge will go, which caused a member of Cabinet to say “you must be Flippin crazy”.

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In other related news Perdomo has asked to act as Prime Minister one more time so that he makes Santino call him “Prime Minister”. If not, he will continue to call Santino “Suavecito”.

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In Freetown, young men have taken Lee Mark’s name to an all-time low. On seeing him, the boys on the base shout out “give we something Lee Mark…if you dare give less than a fifty,  you dah wah Lee Lee Mark”.

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When asked why Barrow would call for an early election, Sedi was quick to respond “he’s artificial…he just doesn’t want to read the Budget”.

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In other related news, as a last minute gesture Cabinet approved a brand new SUV for SSB’s Martinez who now suffers from numbness of the toes, a condition related to insider trading. To overcome the numbness of the toes, the vehicle is outfitted with a toe massage along with a special AC unit just for her toes.

Belize City, February 1, 2012

Disgraced UDP politician Edmond Castro may have been kicked out of Cabinet on allegations that he scammed an American woman of money in exchange for land, but he’s been getting the royal treatment like nothing ever happened.

Despite the serious allegation, Castro continues to collect special perks. He was granted a new vehicle which he and his cronies have been parading up and down the country as if it was their own. Castro has also been allowed to run for the UDP, as if he embodies and reflects the values of the UDP.

But it is Castro’s abuse of taxpayer’s money that caught our eye this week. The new vehicle purchased for him, with taxpayer’s funds, was seen this week jammed in a ditch in Belmopan. Castro was nowhere to be seen, so it’s unclear whether he was inside the vehicle when it careened out of control, but his documents were seen scattered everywhere.

The only person seen in the area was his driver Bruce Jones.

The vehicle, a white Isuzu D-Max, could hardly be identified as belonging to the Government because it has no license plate. It had an Atlantic Insurance sticker attached to it, but that seemed to have expired since September 2011. Inside, fuel orders were found for a vehicle bearing license plate number BZB-1810, and assigned to the Ministry of Finance, but one couldn’t tell if it was for Castro’s vehicle.

While Castro doesn’t seem to have a problem with the wanton abuse of public property, tax payers certainly do. It is our money that is being abused with no restraint or respect at all. More incredulous is that the Government or an elected official could allow the use of a vehicle that is not fit for the road. Traffic regulations prohibit the use of vehicles that don’t display license plates. Moreover, driving with an invalid insurance is even more serious.

There are many Concerns over volatility in the food and agriculture. This stems from fears over price rises and behind this, fears over food security.  The price rises of concern are those of inputs for the producer (seed material, fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, labor, fuel etc. and the retail prices for the consumer.

There are some producers who can benefit from rises in prices, however, consumers, especially poor consumers, are severely and adversely affected.

Most agricultural commodity markets are characterized by a high degree of volatility.  Volatility here described as the variation from the average value over a measurement period. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations describes it as “an indication of how much and how quickly a value changes over time”.  It therefore indicates both change and uncertainty.

In December of 2010 a report from the Food and Agriculture Organization at the UN called for global leaders to take action to ease the fluctuations in prices and calm the fears over food security around the world.  The report presented to the G20 summit of ministers laid down a series of measures to calm the markets.  These were focused on National Policies that would ameliorate the impacts and reduce likelihood of occurrences with similar or greater impacts.

The FAO said that when looked at in the long term there is little or no evidence that volatility in international agricultural commodity prices is increasing. However, volatility has been higher during the last decade than during the previous two decades. According to the FAO report, since 1990, the implied volatility for major crops has increased significantly and the period since 2006 has been one of extraordinary volatility. Prices rose sharply in 2006 and 2007, peaking in the second half of 2007 for some products and in the first half of 2008 for others. For some products the run-up between the average of 2005 and the peak was several hundred percent. On the rice market the price explosion was particularly pronounced. Prices then fell sharply in the second half of 2008, although in virtually all cases they remained at or above the levels in the period just before the run-up of prices began. Market tensions emerged again during 2010 and there have been sharp rises in some food prices.

By early 2011, the FAO’s food price index was again at the level reached at the peak of the crisis in 2008 and fears emerged that a repeat of the 2008 crisis was underway.

The degree of processing of final consumption goods also affects price transmission. Lack of domestic infrastructure and generally undeveloped or inefficient market structures can have a significant effect on prices as they also reflect higher transportation and transaction costs.  Developing country markets like Belize often lack the capacity to absorb domestic shocks, and can be subject to high domestic price volatility.  We have a poorly developed manufacturing infrastructure.

Agriculture Economists claim that there are three major reasons why agricultural commodity markets have high volatility.

Firstly, agricultural output varies from period to period because of natural occurrences such as weather and pests.

Secondly because production takes considerable time in agriculture, supply cannot respond much to price changes in the short term, though it can do so much more once the production cycle is completed.

Third, there is little flexibility in supply and demand as regards price to cope with sudden shocks in the market. Prices have to vary quite strongly, especially if stocks are low, to regain equilibrium.

Growing population and income in emerging and developing countries will add significantly to the demand for food in the coming decades.  The UN estimates that by 2050 the world’s population is expected to have reached about 9 billion people and the demand for food to have increased by between 70 per cent and 100 per cent.

The demand for food and feed crops for the production of biofuels is another significant factor. During the 2007-2009 period biofuels accounted for a significant share of global use of several crops – 20 per cent for sugar cane, nine per cent for vegetable oil and coarse grains and four per cent for sugar beet.  Projections encompass a broad range of possible effects but all suggest that biofuel production will exert considerable upward pressure on prices in the future.  Agricultural commodity prices are now becoming increasingly correlated with oil prices. Countries like Russia and China are producing much of their own grains and meats and will become less dependent on imports from countries like the US and Brazil.  The effect can be an upward trend in commodity prices within the exporting countries.

Stronger demand for food crops and animal products in conjunction with slow growth in agricultural productivity and low stocks results in upward pressure on prices.

The same underlying factors that are leading to increased demand for food – growth in population, affluence leading to increased demand for animal protein, urbanization, and biofuels – are also increasing pressure on finite resources such as land and water.

A depressed US dollar has also had an effect on the market as most commodities are traded in dollars.

The FAO says that the extent of potential future increases in prices and volatility cannot be estimated accurately, but the risks are sufficiently large to warrant serious reflection about what can be done to mitigate it.  Significantly higher food prices are disastrous for the poor especially in developing countries and food price inflation can also be a serious issue in middle income countries.  Low or volatile prices pose significant problems for farmers and other agents in food chains, who risk losing their investments if price falls occur while they are locked into strategies dependent on higher price levels. The FAO report calls for investment in developing countries to help create stability, with most of the investment from private sources. It also calls for greater investment in research which in turn requires greater management skills.

The FAO told the G20 leaders in the report that increasing public investment in transport and productive infrastructure, as well as in human capital, is central in stimulating productivity and reducing post-harvest wastage. All these responses to increase the resilience of agriculture and stabilize prices require public interventions and government expenditure on agriculture can have a significant positive impact on productivity.  The FAO also called for an improved information system on the food chain with better information on stocks.  It said that monitoring food prices, both on cash and futures markets, is essential in a food market monitoring system.

FAO adds that attempting to stabilize prices by using buffer stocks is potentially very costly and has had a reverse effect in the past. FAO adds that there are divided opinions about whether speculators on the futures markets, the markets themselves and hedging on the futures markets stabilizes or destabilizes commodity prices. However, it calls for more transparency in these markets and dealings.  Comprehensive trading data need to be reported to enable regulators and participants to monitor information about the frequency and the volume of transactions to understand what is driving commodity prices.

The FAO said that trade can help ease the fluctuations in domestic markets but the trade has to be free from markets distorting prohibitions and obstacles.

It recommended:

•    substantially improved market access, while maintaining appropriate safeguards for developing countries, especially the most vulnerable ones;

•    substantially reduce trade distorting domestic support, especially by developed countries; and,

•    eliminate export subsidies

The FAO also called for a system of national and international safety nets to handle short term crises. It said that these are necessary because food price surges, as well as increased prices of inputs such as fertilizers, reduce the incomes of poor and vulnerable households, and put stress on family budgets.

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How Has Belize heeded to the FAO report and advice?

Producers are more concerned about low prices, which may threaten their living standards as well as their longer term ability to continue, when income is too low to provide for the farm family or for the operational needs of the farm.  In Belize, I have taken a look at the meat production and income.  While some costs of production increased from 2008 to 2011 (labor, fencing, seeds, medication, feed), fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides reached a peak and reduced a little but still some 40% above 2007 levels. At the same time, prices changes somewhat for poultry but that too was volatile.  Chicken and egg prices follow a more normal trend with increases and decreases based on demand but more often change with an increase in feed prices.  Beef prices suffered the most.  At a price of around 1.35 per pound for steers on the hoof in 2007, prices went to lows of .85 cents per pound in May of 2011.  This represents a yearly loss of more than 400,000 on eight thousand steers weighing 1000 lbs each.  This does not include the loss on the value of heifers and cows which went from 1.20 per lb. and 1.00 per pound to .90 and .70 per pound, respectively.  The cattle industry lost more than $3,000,000 in the past 3-4 years.  This translates to lower and fewer investments in the sector.  Poultry may be the lowest cost meat for the consumer but at the expense of the producer. Here, the middleman makes up his profits by moving more chicken at the expense of moving less beef. The poultry producer is making pennies and is only hanging in there because they already have the infrastructure and because they do other farming activities to complement their income.

Where are the policies recommended by FAO? “Policy measures should improve market functioning and increase countries’ resilience to shock.  Authorities should seek better coherence and coordination in their policy responses.”  Other policies says the FAO include “more reforms of existing instruments, such as the Compensatory Financing Facility and the Exogenous Shock Facility of the International Monetary Fund, could help vulnerable countries cope during times of crisis by providing global safety nets.  These instruments need to act ex ante (beforehand) by providing import financing or guarantees with minimal or no conditionality to alleviate the burden of credit and foreign exchange constraints, which have afflicted countries’ ability to meet food needs in past crises.”

On the contrary, the productive sector in Belize has for years been advocating the taxation of agriculture post harvest so as to reduce cost of financing and thus production but with no heed to the voices of the sector.

Belize removed GST and other duties on products such as canned imported meats (spams, chicken sausages, hams etc.) and put its pork producers in dire straits. The marketing and development corporation a.k.a. marketing board, imported tonnes of onions while our local producers had to dump all their onions and suffer the loss of income and of investment. Then we ask why there is no local investment? Later, the same Belize Marketing and Development Corporation imports URUGAYAN rice while we have our Mennonite producers in the north and the producers in the south who cannot sell their rice. Will the Blue Creek producers continue investing in rice production after this? Is this the Food Security we are promoting as a policy and as recommended by FAO?  FAO states that the “Coherence and coordination must yield both greater assurances of unimpeded access to global supplies, and improved confidence and transparency in market functioning”. How transparent is the BMDC?  In October 2011, we celebrated World Food day.  The theme was: Food Prices, From Crisis to Stability.  While this theme may have been adopted from FAO, in Belize we are far from stabilizing prices.  The Government of the day has not come forward with any policies to address the crisis and political elections for a change in government are now imminent.  The turkey and chicken handouts for Christmas will not solve our poverty problems. While it can be conceived as a way in which a country can distribute food to its poorest populations when there is food reserve, it is a not a long lasting action or policy. The FAO recommends that “In the long run, countries can lower their vulnerability by raising agricultural productivity for a diverse set of crops that proves both competitive and sustainable, as well as by promoting dietary diversification.”

Source:

1.   FAO Policy brief 12, December 2010;

2.   FAO’s Initiative on Soaring Food Prices: Guide for Policy and Programmatic Actions at Country Level to Address High Food Prices.

3.   Personal documentation

How much more

Black on Black murders

How much more

As seen on TV

Wanna be gangsters

How much more madness

How much more sadness

How much more

Mamas’ without gladness

How much more

Black youths must be laid to rest

How much more chops

How much more glocks

How much more shots

How much more

Black youths must drop

How much more

Grieving mothers

How much more

Weeping sisters

How much more

Fallen brothers

How much more

Dead Niggers

How much more coffins

How much more wreaths

How much more funerals

How much more Blood stained sheets

How much more Black youths

Must drop in these streets.

How much more sorrow

How much more pain

How much more black man

Will not be alive tomorrow

How much more black youths

Must drop in this drive my game

Before Black youths

realize

sensitize

actualize

and open

your eyes

to put aside

your foolish pride

to put down the gun

and to put down the crime

and join hands in harmony

to bring back peace and unity

in the black community

This is your REVENGE!

•     Plan for taxes. Although there are several months left to file your 2011 tax returns, now may be the best time to begin filing. This is a good time to look at Property Taxes, etc.  If you haven’t already begun, a good first step is to pull together and organize all of the information you will need for filing.

•     Fix expenses: This is surely a good time to make down the fixed payments that you have to make. Things like car insurance, renewal of drivers licenses, vehicle licenses and any annual membership fees you have with a club or association that you are a part of.

•     Take on your debt. This year, 94 percent of young adults have said that saving is a priority for 2012, ahead of losing weight and other typical New Year’s resolutions*. One of the best ways to increase your ability to save, is to cut down your debt. There are several strategies for doing so, including making additional payments, focusing on your highest interest debts first and debt consolidation. Remember, you CAN pay down your debt AND save at the same time.

Join the BELIZE TIMES and share how you are saving this year, you can contact us at (editortimes@yahoo.com). We will share your savings tips with the rest of Belize.

This is one of the few times where the door swings in an opposite direction and the people make the choices rather than the leaders. In this season rather than people sitting outside politicians’ homes and offices for hours to see them, waiting for months to get simple requests fulfilled, the pendulum swings. Now the aspiring politicians come to your house, your long lasting request becomes priority, and you are dealt with almost immediately.

Suddenly streets that have banged up your car for years are within weeks repaired, write offs are granted, land is issued, and nationality is rewarded on an overwhelmingly massive scale. I have yet to understand the common sense or wisdom of a country who will grant citizenship ‘voting rights’ to citizens of another country who does not recognize their sovereignty, who plays football home games in that country, who calls their own precious borders adjacency zones or artificial, and allows the citizens of that country to come across the borders cutting down pristine reserve lands and precious leaves on a day by day basis!

It’s apparent that the Government’s understanding of what is right and wrong only becomes active when they are not in power. But on entering into office their memory seems to immediately become as short as that of Belizeans who are, destructively too forgiving, forgetful, and passive when it comes to politics. Well it seems that this type of disposition is rapidly coming to a halt!

A “Mark” difference between a kingdom and a religion is the need to call elections. This is a five year reminder to both the electorate and the elected that the ‘elected’ are only temporary leaders. Unlike a kingdom, the citizens in a democracy can demand transparency from the government and may even remove them from office.

Not so in a kingdom simply because everything stops and begins with the king, everything is for the king, and everything exists only by the permission of the king Colossians 1:16! Because of this difference it brings me to a couple observations. We will only see change in our country as we elect those who are of a more pure heart and not of “pure words”. Meaningful change will only come when we the people and citizens of the nation demand it. We do not have to wait for five years, as so much damage can be done in this time, instead when we see something dire happening the time to act is now! This is a most important and urgent step toward the process of steering our ship away from the iceberg it is about to hit! Remember in a democracy, unlike a kingdom, the citizens agitate for change, for improvement and for transparency.

In a kingdom on the other hand, we are left with much fewer choices. We cannot fight laws, or change them, we do not decide who becomes the next king, and worst of all we do not tell the king what to do. Instead every word He speaks instantly becomes law! In any kingdom disobedience to His instruction is a serious, in-fact fatal mistake! You know, I read the manual of God the same way a lawyer would read the constitution or report of previous cases before his appearance in court. Early this morning I read this scripture in Mark 10:14, 15 where the king says unless we are like little children we will not enter into His kingdom. In other words to satisfy the requirement of the kingdom we have to completely come out of the ‘democracy mentality’ and what the king says then becomes law!

While I encourage protests and lawsuits as it relates to earthly politics, becoming like children to enter the kingdom is completely the opposite. A child does not protest, a child is forced to and obeys the instruction of the parent, he or she goes where mommy tells him to go, washes the dishes when instructed to do so and a child does not hold long grudges. Not long after you spank that child he is right back in your arms smiling with you!

I would like to end by encouraging you in two things. Vote in this elections based on principles and on that which is better for the living conditions of the nation we are so blessed to be a part of!

Secondly lay down your ‘voting rights’, and strong convictions when dealing with the kingdom. Make the laws of the kingdom your strong conviction and plum line while becoming like a little child, as only so will you enter the kingdom of God!

Until next week. God bless and remember “vote wisely”!

By Gregory Ovado

“It was a coalition of the true hearted that won. It was a patriotic unity effort of the worker and the businessman, the teacher and the public officer. It was a joint enterprise of the media and civil society and all persons of goodwill that did away with the kleptocrats and recovered now for our country the moral, political, and social high ground.”

These are the words of the prime minister on the steps of the national assembly building. Note that credit was given to the media and civil society for their input in the victory of the United Democratic Party. In my humble opinion, we have not attained that moral, political and social high ground that our prime minister spoke so proudly of at the steps of the National Assembly building after the 2008 elections. In fact, it seems that a serious disease of silence has afflicted the civil society. Now more than ever, we need to sound the alarm that all is not well in our country. If ever there is a perfect time to march to the steps of the national assembly to demonstrate our discontent, now is the time!

The hypothesis that I believe holds true is the fact that all across this country the citizens are petrified. Before 2008 we were living in a good country. The economy was better and the social partners were not afraid to exercise their fundamental rights and freedoms. The media enjoyed freedom of speech and the citizens were not fearful of victimization, losing their scholarship, Job, land, house and even their pride and dignity. Today it’s a different story. Many are singing for their supper under this government and those who are not are trying to survive by keeping out of the way of the UDP. It is truly a sad day in Belize when our council of churches, NGOs, Unions, Concern Belizeans have become impotent in the face of national issues such as SSB loan write off, mass naturalization, unregulated cutting of rose wood in the Toledo District, corruption in purchasing of medical supplies for KHMH, tampering with the voters list questioning its integrity before a municipal and possibly general election and more. I stand corrected but I believe it was the late Hon. Philip Goldson who said that, “the best time to fight for your country is before you lose it.” Wake up Belize! Awake from your slumber and recapture the fighting spirit of our forefathers. Let us not allow those who pledge to serve us to take us back to colonial times where they become masters and we remain as servants. Let us hold our priority list the right side up and recognize that we the citizens of this country are the masters and those who we elect to serve are servants of the people. Therefore, I call on all those who assisted in the fall of the PUP in 2008 to rise up once again and restore the people’s party, the PUP back to Belmopan.

In these times of struggle it is very easy to forget what happened four years ago. Four years ago we were hypnotized by the sweet words of the honourable prime minister. To be honest I was a cautiously optimist and at times a little hopeful. These are the words of the Prime minister in his inaugural address to the nation shortly after winning the 2008 general election.

“I therefore use the solemn occasion of the inaugural sitting of the new parliament to repeat the solemn commitment of the United Democratic Party to fulfill its manifesto pledges. We will lower GST. We will reduce the cost of living. We will bring down the price of fuel. We will distribute land to the poor. We will expand free education. We will create jobs. We will do this, while stamping out ministerial corruption and creating an administration properly policed by the Contractor General, the Auditor General, the Ombudsman, and the Upper House.”

The above quotation has been proven to be bogus. Bogus! Bogus! This pledge was dead on arrival it was conceived on the steps of the national assembly and seems to have died there. Let me take you down memory lane. Shortly after taking over Belmopan there was mass victimization all across this country, thousands of Belizeans lost their jobs simply because they were perceived as supporters of the PUP. Unfortunately, many supporters of the UDP were also caught in that sinister drag net. This is the UDP way of creating Jobs. Do you remember the late Charlie Good and his wife? These were ordinary and poor citizens who simply wanted to retain their means of survival. This heartless government preferred to see the martyrdom of Charlie Good as he championed the cause of his wife and all those who became victims to wrath of the UDP. Are we paying a lesser GST? On the contrary all will agree that we continue to pay more taxes in this country like never before. This is our plight even as we face the rising cost of living and no hope what so ever for an increase in salary. The unions are negotiating for salary increases for years now and nothing has happened. Are we ever going to see a raise of salary under this government? I don’t think so! When the prime minister said, “we will bring down the cost of fuel.” I know now what he meant. The cost of fuel did come down to $5.00 a gallon for about a week and I stand corrected on this one. However, after that the rising cost continues to defy the laws of gravity. It went up and stayed up! Today poor people have lost all hope of driving a motor car and those who manage to drive cannot full their tanks anymore. Since that glorious day of $5.00 a gallon gas prices have soared to $11.00 a gallon. Are we living in a good country? We are rich in wealth untold! I learnt this as a small boy, but as a grown man, I pondered many days why in a country of only three hundred and twelve thousand people it is so difficult to get a piece of land. Right now to access land the minister must sign your papers and recommend that you get land and if you’re not politically connected “dog nyam you supper because you no got nothing fi get.” Yes maybe some people have gotten land but it is the exception rather than the rule because if you are not prepared to sing the praises of the UDP “nothing fu you!” The stench of corruption is so high even those without a sense of smell are affected by pungent odour from a distance. Today the sanctimonious ones in Belmopan have done no wrong because in the words of the prime minister they will stamp out corruption and put place “an administration properly policed by the Contractor General, the Auditor General, the Ombudsman, and the Upper House.” Today we do not even have an Ombudsman.

My brothers and sisters those who have eyes to see let them see and those who are blind can certainly feel. We are living in desperate times and desperate times require desperate measures. Let us be proactive and pre-emptive in our strikes against this government of oppression. In the February 7, 2008 general election 47,624 people voted for the PUP. We, the PUP have an obligation to serve these people and thousands more who are depending on the PUP to restore hope, pride and dignity in a free Belize. In the words of the party leader: We Must Win! We will Win!

I was born and raised on the Southside of Belize City, not very far from where I now reside.  It was early fifties so you might imagine that I have many memories of how things were long before polish was ever put to this jewel.  In fact, while I have trouble remembering things I did yesterday, I have clear recollections of some things from my early youth.

I grew up a few houses from what is now Central American Blvd.  At that time, it was little more than a mud picado trail leading into a swampy area that has now become the massive development known as Lake Independence; back then it was Prisoner Creek.  Back then, habitation was sparse but one family I remember who was already there was Carlos Diaz and his large family of brothers (all notorious for having extremely big feet).  A running joke was about a dog once having puppies in the shoe of one of the guy.

There were no street lights on Cemetery Road when I was growing up, at least not past the Pound Yard Bridge.  The last real light was an Esso sign at the gas Station near the Pound Yard Bridge.  That establishment seems to have been there forever.  There was no running water, no central sewer, no television and not even many radios.  There were three main movie theatres, (Majestic, Palace and Eden) all of course, well to the center of town.  They showed nightly flicks plus early matinee on Sundays and I believe Majestic showed on Thursdays.  Majestic also showed Spanish flicks on certain nights.

There might have been one or two houses between the house I grew up in and the Lord Ridge Cemetery.  I could not reach home without staring straight into the graveyard.  I was deathly afraid of ghosts and it presented the best curfew this young whippersnapper would need.   The Spanish people had a custom of leaving candles burning on the graves of their departed and the fluttering light conjured mean phantoms in the opera of this young mind.  I swear, I don’t know how I reached home many a nights with my hands covering both eyes.

I missed many good movies and double headers were definitely out of the question.  No way was I walking along that route late at night unless there was plenty company.  Road Lane, as we called it was heavily populated with all kinds of ghosts and ghouls and a few living characters like Masked Man, Jackie Vasquez and Fresh Dead. The accounts of encounters were too numerous and too real sounding to just readily dismiss.

The Pound Yard was there, where they were still catching dogs and impounding them.  Behind it was the slaughter house where the boys would kill the cows and hogs and smoke a whole heap of weed.  Much of the weed smoking occurred in the outhouse just in front, hanging over the edge of Collet Canal.  There were literally hundreds of these outhouses around, including a few over the river; my favorite was the one by Pilgrim Sawmill where the Vernon Street Fish Market now sits.  These were gathering places where big grown conversations were held by the elders and many a young lad went in green and came out well educated.  Little boys were not allowed in the Slaughter House toilet, ever!

There was the regular mischief of throwing rocks from the other side to wet someone’s bottom which usually led to huge hollering and sometimes a good whipping if one was ever identified.  The canals were loaded with catfish and it is only the bravest of Belizeans that will even today, indulge in what is for others, a delicacy.  We don’t eat cato, we know what cato eats.

One thing that I clearly remember, which amazes me, because I couldn’t have been more than two or three years old, were cows being brought in by truck and unloaded near the cemetery.  They were then herded by foot to be slaughtered and sold in the market.  Every so often one would break loose and the Pamplona Run of the Bulls had hell to rival that excitement.

Remember, there was no running water back then but there were standing pipes at different locations throughout the city.  Citizens would line up early in the mornings to get their water, in particular during the dry season.  Sometimes it poured okay but sometimes it was an agonizing drip that took hours to fill a bucket.  I can still remember the words “want not, waste not” in raised letters on top of the pipe. Many people had vats, so when it rained things were not so hectic, but in the dry season, you had better be early, be big and strong or set your bucket in the line from the night before and get there early.

There was one pipe at the corner of Lakeview, one in front of where the Jehovah’s Witness now have their temple and I believe one around the corner by Lovell’s near the bridge.  I speak of those on Cemetery Road past the Pound Yard Bridge.  There were many others dotted throughout the city but this was our hood.

I left Belize for the first time in 1968, spent a couple of semesters at a junior high school outside of DC and returned to Belize in September of the following year.  I returned quite the revolutionary, big afro and all, and an eager participant to the newly established black power movement in town.  America had provided quite the culture shock, having been put in my place more often than I care to remember. I was put out of a barber shop, made to eat on the far side of the cafeteria with my own kind, got beat up by the white kids, etc., etc. My skin was light but I was not white. Racism is an ugly beast.

I remained at home for a few years until in 1972 when I once again departed for the green pastures of America. This time, my self-imposed exile lasted a full two decades, roaming the mean streets of New York City and Central Los Angeles. In future articles I might attempt a chronicle of my experiences, not only of my time abroad but also of my association with the whole UBAD experience.  Needless to say, those were very, very interesting eras and for the most part, memorable and educational.  For now, let me try and get to a point that I have been trying to reach.  I know, you were wondering when.

I hear quite often, people speak of how much money Belize owes and how we have nothing to show for it.  I forgot to mention that we had one lane rough roads to some districts and passageways that could hardly be described as roads to others.  We had few bridges (only one in town), a number of ferries and rough crossings at many river points throughout the country.  This was frontier country folks, in every aspect, and it was the country that George Price took on the challenge to develop.  May GOD rest his soul!

I hear of the Superbond and how much Belize owes and how much this one has stolen and that one has stolen.  Remember, sugar was the only game in town back then and that was owned by the British who took out every penny.  Tourism did not boom until 1998 and oil was not found until 2003.  Citrus and Banana and even Fisheries were all nascent and things like shrimp and papaya farming were unheard of.  By Independence of 1981, much of this had already begun to change and by the time I returned to Belize in 1991, this was a totally different country.

The UDP had already completed their first term in office by the time I returned and from the accounts of those who suffered the indignity, there had been made a mess of things.  They had stagnated growth, (as they are so wont to do) sold BTL (yes they were the ones who first did it) and introduced the whole concept of profiteering and heartless dig out your eye commercialism.  When I returned, the PUP was back in office and several housing projects, including Vista Del Mar, Faber’s Road and other communities were being constructed.

Ray Fuller by then had been married to my sister and he was in charge of a couple of building societies.  Yup, he is the same one who Dean Barrow was the other day dragging his name through the mud.  One of his brain children, Belize National Building Society, gave homes to several thousand of Belizeans and jobs to many, many people.

I was able to secure a job due to the relationship and that facilitated a more symmetrical replant to home soil. I was made warehouse keeper at the Vista Del Mar site where I was responsible for dispensing supplies and keeping stock.  There were no less than forty contractors employed there at the time. Among them was the very Herman Longsworth who is now running for the UDP in Albert Division and Lyndon “Jug” Bailey who runs the Tubal Trade School up in Ladyville.

Each contractor at the time had as many as twenty workmen in their employ at any given time.  When the UDP won early elections in ‘93, they scrapped all projects and sent every jack man and woman home.  You do the math and you check if that’s not the UDP way!

The point I have been trying to make is that we have come a long way baby. We have achieved much with very little and much of it has had to come by way borrowing.  Certainly there has been corruption and greed and graft and kick-backs and everything else that come with such a process.  Would that we could have a world in which this does not exist!  Under the PUP however, things happen.  People work, people eat, people live in dignity and relative safety.  Progress is made and yes, sometimes there is a price to pay.  The biggest Price we paid now lies in the Lord Ridge Cemetery.

With the PUP there is full term government, not just four years of gloating and blaming and then four months of superfluous and cosmetic fish-giving.  In their two previous terms the UDP contributed significantly to the burden of our debt and yes it was all included in the super bond.  The figures for these past four years will be staggering, when we consider payments for BTL and BEL and hold-it down payments to criminals and pre-election giveaway gimmicks.  Be concerned people, be very concerned.  I bring you facts and if you don’t know then you need to ask somebody!