The 2010/11 budget presented was premised on seeking to address four key areas, namely: social investments, job creation, access to credit and addressing crime and violence.  A review of the proposals put forward clearly reveals that there is a lack of substantive and meaningful interventions that were presented.  To address the escalation of crime and violence, the PM proposes a new intake of police recruits and the intention to find funding for ballistic testing equipment.  The IDB funding of a community action for public safety programme can be expected to be plagued with the lack of institutional capacity that resonates within government.  These initiatives are surely insufficient to assure the safety of the Belizean people.  The Government has a constitutional obligation to maintain law and order and when such a function is not being addressed adequately and it impinges on the economic sustainability of businesses providing services and employment; the Government needs to make conscientious interventions that will restore safety to the people.  This does not seem to be forthcoming.

With regard to access to credit, $4M is being sourced from CABEI and IFAD for a rural finance programme; this is being executed via the Credit Union League.  This micro-finance program will be targeting rural communities with disbursement not expected to be fully expended in the 2010/11 FY.  An indication of a dedicated fund for young entrepreneurs of no less than $5M provides no real commitment as to a concrete implementation schedule for access to such line of credit.  Consequently, with the amendments to the banking legislations there remains no guarantee of interest rate movements downwards, and the likely expectation is that upon GOB issuance of new T-Bills and T-Notes crowding-out of saving funds within the financial system can be envisaged.  Therefore, with no concrete proposition that seeks to address the implementation and use of monetary policy instruments, access to credit will remain but a fleeting idea.

On the third issue of job creation, the current administration has failed to aggressively promote any new investment.  With the threat of nationalization and possible litigation investor’s confidence within the Belizean economy has dwindled over the past year, with the expectation that the no-confidence of the current administration will not cause any significant investment to be attracted.  Furthermore, new investments by the Social Security Board, as a key partner that has a mandate to contribute to the economic development of Belize, has not materialized over the past year.  So where will the jobs come from?  The public sector investment programme which is tasked with the execution of infrastructural development, recorded a less than stellar performance.  Project execution continue to be plagued with lack of institutional capacity, as Government has failed to utilize and place qualified persons cognizant of project management and procurement processes, to ensure draw-down of loan funds are received to execute projects in a timely fashion.  Thus is the reason why very little was accomplished in 2009/10 of the $100M that was approved for capital projects.  It remains highly unlikely that if the capacity constraints are not addressed, that the infrastructural projects would not be realized in 2010/11.

Now to address the primary focus of the budget, that of social investment to support a poverty alleviation programme is a quid pro quo that disadvantages the poor even further.  The total value of the relief measures proposed, will net the Government $10.5M in foregone revenue, which will be completely eroded by the 25% increase in GST to 12.5%.  This increase in GST is expected to net Government an additional $42M.  Thus, the net effect on Belizeans is negative and does not auger as pro-poor policy initiatives.  Personal income tax relief of $23,600 per annum will only apply for persons earning less than $24,000 per annum or $2,000 per month.  The majority of who were not liable for paying income tax as previous level of personal relief was $19,600 per annum.  This proposal ought to have gone across the board for all employees, in light of the increase in consumption tax.

A review of the items that would be exempted from import duty and GST indicates an extremely limited list of consumable items, especially when compared to what are currently available as zero-rated items and not subject to GST.  A summary in table 1 below provides a quick snap-shot.

The inclusion of processed meat items surely does not support healthy dietary and nutritional value to Belizeans.  Such processed meats are high in sodium, cholesterol and saturated fats, which are the underlying contributing factors to life-style deceases such as hypertension and diabetes.  To provide the utmost benefit for Belizeans, items such as the following in table 2 should be zero-rated for GST.

What will be felt immediately is the effect that this increase in GST will have on users of hotel services both local and foreign users. This will of course discourage local travel and make the Belize tourism product that much more costly. Gone are any ideas of a few days away with loved ones for the Easter holidays.  When the voice of the PM subsides all that remains are the hurt that this budget will inflict on the majority of Belizeans.  As one search for areas to give compliments and encouragement as meaningful benefits of the 2010/11 budget, one is forced to conclude that this presentation of the 2010/11 budget is short on vision, short on creativity, extremely short on government curtailment measures of its activities and very long on measures to inflict pain on poor and vulnerable people and the business community.  The record will reveal in time, that this budget of 2010/11 will result in greater levels of poverty when the full brunt is realized upon Belizeans.

The group, dubbed the “Z-Seven” by Vaughan Gill on Vibes Radio Morning Buzz Show when he broke the news of the conference, said that because they are not robots, but were elected individually, they are calling on Mayor Zenaida Moya to respect the law.

They issued a statement in which they accuse the Mayor of illegally crowding the agenda with last minute items, and of illegally ending Tuesday’s meeting when they tried to bring a resolution up for vote.

They said that the Mayor and the councilors who support her, walked out of Tuesday’s caucus while their group of seven stayed and passed a resolution calling for new elections for the Deputy Mayor’s position.

They also accused the Mayor of signing contracts and entering into agreements without their knowledge, and in some cases even going against their majority vote.

The dissident councilors are former Deputy Mayor Dion Leslie, two-term councilors Laura Esquivel and Leila Peyrefitte, and first time councilors Eric Chang, Roger Espejo, Kevin Singh and Andrew Faber, all of whom were present at this morning’s conference.

Tuesday night only new Deputy Mayor Philip Willoughby, former Deputy Mayor Wayne Usher and Dean Samuels attended the Council’s regularly scheduled monthly public meeting which was broadcast live on a television station.

It should be noted that those three councilors and the Mayor are all serving their second term, and last night all four remarked on the absence of the dissidents.

The apparent bone of contention would seem to be the February 16^th election of Phillip Willoughby to be the deputy mayor, with the then deputy mayor Dion Leslie and councilors Roger Espejo and Eric Chang out of the country. (The trio had gone to Taiwan to attend Chang’s wedding.)

Philloughby reportedly received four votes in an election at the meeting, with councilors Wayne Usher, Andrew Faber and Kevin Singh voting for him along with his vote for himself, while rival Leila Peyrefitte got her own and councilor Laura Esquivel’s votes. Dean Samuels, who apparently also had ambitions for the post, ended up abstaining.

In an interview broadcast on television last night, a defiant Mayor Zenaida Moya-Flowers stopped just short of telling the dissident seven to go to hell while Philloughby seemed resigned to the a fate of being replaced shortly.

The Z-7 for their part has indicated that they have the backing of central government, the Ministry of Local Government and the executive of the UDP.

Of course we all know that this is simply a bunch of crooked politicians fighting over the “spoils” at City Hall and at this point, having bankrupted the coffers, it hardly matters who is in charge over there.

As the Department searches for answers, a team comprising Assistant Commissioners of Police Miguel Segura, James Magdaleno and David Henderson have been assigned to investigate the fatal shooting.

At a press conference held inside the San Pedro Magistrate Court today, Assistant Commissioner of Police Miguel Segura pointed out that just before midnight on Wednesday Sergeant Reyes had ordered another officer to escort Sanchez to the Police Station after he was allegedly observed behaving unruly at Wet Willy’s night club.  According to senior police officers, Sanchez appeared to be under the influence of alcohol and was taken to the police station. When questioned, the senior officers could not explain how Sanchez was shot in the room of Sergeant Reyes. Segura stated that questions such as those will be determine by an internal investigation.

According to Assistant Commissioner Magdaleno, beside the expended shells, a number of firearms and ammunition was recovered within and in the immediate area of the fatal shooting, including a .45 caliber pistol and a 9mm pistol and an M16.  According to Segura, they are investigating whether or not officers were assigned to have those weapons and if Sanchez had access to them.

Police say that during the altercation and while at the station Sanchez mentioned that he would kill Reyes. Investigations reveal that Sanchez, equipped with a bulletproof vest, entered Reyes’ room located at the Police barracks armed with a firearm and a metal pipe. It is not clear what happened then but Reyes told Police that he was attacked by Sanchez with a metal pipe. Reyes, who went to his room in the company of an officer of the Belize Defense Force, claimed in his statement that Sanchez took out a firearm and pointed it at him. Segura stated that the BDF officer and Sanchez began struggling but Sanchez kept hold of his firearm. Segura explained that Reyes shot Sanchez in his feet first but Sanchez did not surrender. In the end, Sanchez was shot multiple times to his feet, hands, his head and a shot to his body which lodged in the vest.

When asked about a possible motive for the altercation that led Sanchez to want to attack Reyes, Segura explained that there are a number of allegations that they will be investigating

Sergeant Reyes had a large cut wound to his head and was treated and released. At the time of the incident Sanchez was off duty and Reyes was coming off duty. Given the circumstances of the shooting, Police say that they will conduct both a criminal and internal investigation. The file for the criminal investigation has been sent to the DPP’s office to see whether or not Reyes will be charged. The Commissioner of Police has also ordered an internal investigation by a team of senior officers. Sanchez’s body was transported to the KHMH where it awaits a postmortem examination.

The shooting of the Police Corporal ended week filled with criminal activity on the island.

On Wednesday morning, residents awoke to learn of two stabbing incidents. The first occurred outside Tackle Box night club involving a male and a female.

Police told the media that just before one on Wednesday morning an angry and jealous Rosa Roches attacked her ex-boyfriend identified as Stephen Bowen outside the establishment. Roches pulled out a knife from her purse and stabbed Bowen on the right side of his chest, leaving him in a critical but stable condition. As a result Police picked up Roches and charged her for grievous harm. Roches went to Court and pled not guilty and was offered bail in the sum of three thousand dollars.

A few hours later at about 3:30am Police were called to the scene of another stabbing. A 22 year old student and part time bartender Francisco Mendez was stabbed five times to different parts of the body before being robbed of a bag containing $437.00. Mendez was attacked near his home on Angel Coral Street in downtown San Pedro. Those stabbing followed a previous stabbing on Monday where Deon Pitts was stabbed on Tarpon Street.

But stabbings were not the only crimes on the island recently. Two business establishments were jacked at gunpoint. On Thursday night Liquidita Deli was jacked of about $1700 in cash, phone cards and other personal belongings. On Friday, a similar crime took place at a popular hangout spot. Just before midnight on Friday, armed men stormed into BC where they made off with cash, credit cards and other personal belong. The incident occurred in front of a number of tourists. Luckily no one was injured but the incident caused alarm since the gunmen fired a shot after they were attacked by a dog.

Because of the increase of crimes on the island, island resident are now calling on both local and national government to intervene before the crime situation gets even worse on the island.

All across the world, political leaders have stuck to one commitment, a commitment to no additional tax burden on the middle class. Many are also doing their best to increase revenue without drawing too much attention to the tightening fiscal noose.

Here in Belize, however, the Barrow administration is doing just the opposite; they are passing the financial burdens brought on by the recession as well as their obvious incompetence unto the Belizean people by increasing the gross receipt tax by 25 percent.   In addition they are putting more jobs at risk by introducing a new tax on EPZs, this coming after the Prime Minister reported in his budget speech that EPZ in areas like the shrimp farm, the citrus company and others had marginal or no growth in the past financial year.

In all the Prime Minister intends to collect an additional $109M in new taxes, none of which will come from “stealth taxes,” none from casino gambling, and a mere $1.8 million from Belize Natural Energy (BNE).

Given the public anger over the windfall that the owners of BNE collected and boasted about in an Irish newspaper last December, this meagre $1.8 in additional taxes on one of the richest and most profitable companies in the nation is not going over well. Belizeans from talk show hosts to the person on the street are asking how their government can ask them to make such huge sacrifices, and not ask the same of one of the country’s largest corporate entities.  Somehow it appears that BNE is in a privileged position.

This feeling that BNE is enjoying a certain level of entitlement started when the Prime Minister announced the introduction of his windfall tax on crude oil.  At an early stage in his administration, the Prime Minister threw out what his predecessor had done in relation to taxes on oil and introduced his own measures.  These measures saw the introduction of a windfall tax which would kick in once the price of oil hit US$90 per barrel.

From the day this announcement was made people were sceptical,  The Opposition leader and former petroleum minister told the Prime Minister that a $90 threshold was too high; he cautioned that $60 would be more realistic.

Since the $90 threshold was set, government has received no income from this initiative; however,  over that same period of time, the Belizean taxpayers have been burdened with over $50 million, with $30 million alone coming from additional taxes collected at the fuel pump.

This year, BNE will be asked to give up an additional $1.8 million in new taxes; this year the Belizean people will be asked to dish out an additional $109 million.

Instead of trying to come up with creative solutions to bridge its financial gap, the Prime Minister and his economic team will implement taxes that will not only destroy an already shrinking middle class, but will be bound to cause more suffering on the Belizean people, particularly the 43 percent of Belizeans who are poor. As if that were not enough, he will punish the productive sector with his burdensome new EPZ social tax, which could result in more job cuts and will squeeze 300 percent more from utility companies.

Last Monday when the Prime Minister lost his cool in the House of Representative and behaved in a most vulgar manner some thought he was simply buckling under the strain of the job, others argue that he was simply using this to divert attention away from the fact that he had just burdened Belizeans with an additional $110 million in new taxes.   Whatever the reason, on April Fool’s Day 2010, Belizeans will be given the biggest “whap” of all, only this time it will be no prank and there is no end in sight.

The Editor

The Belize Times

Queen Street

Belize City

Dear Editor,

I write to express my great disappointment with the indecorous behaviour of the Prime Minister and his colleagues at the House Meeting held on Monday last. I had the displeasure of being at home sick with the flu, confined to my bed and happened to be listening to a radio station that was airing the meeting.

At first I was very interested when I found out through the radio announcer that the Prime Minister would be presenting the Budget 2010/2011. I wanted to know what was the strategy of the government to improve the standard of living of our people and what they would be doing to combat poverty that has become pervasive in our communities, how much the government would be investing in the health and education and what was the plan to address the already disastrous crime situation facing the country. What a shock it was when I heard the disorderly and unruly mob!

What a disgrace and an insult it was to hear the words and expressions used by the maximum leader of this nation in what should be an honourable house  and where  we should be discussing the business  of the people. How unbefitting of someone who is supposed to be a paragon to our children. All this was already bad and never thought it could get worst until I heard him refer to the Leader of the Opposition as a village idiot and a naïve. Then I really took offence!

What did the Prime Minister mean? Did he mean that us villagers are all idiots? Does he have anything against villagers?  What is it with this nincompoop? Is it that only urban residents who have had all the opportunities to educate themselves are intelligent and qualified? While some villagers are numskulls, like his deputy who was sitting beside him with his imbecilic grin and not realizing he was being insulted, I must remind the once honourable gentleman that in the villages we have highly competent, qualified and talented people. Even with the obvious disadvantages we have, as villagers we have made significant contribution to this nation and have built this nation. It is because of villagers that you eat Prime Minister; it is because of villagers that you have foreign exchange that allows you and your family to buy all your luxurious commodities; it is because of villagers that the nation has developed and it is because of villagers that you are where you are today.

Let me enlighten the Prime Minister, as I guess he certainly would not know that in the early 1990’s the Corozal Junior College graduated 4 young men who were awarded the most prestigious “Open Scholarship” for four years consecutively. These young men all came from villages of the Corozal District and today are highly competent professionals engaged in shaping the development of this country. Like these young men we have hundreds of villagers who are today professionals and leaders in their own right. In rural Belize we also have intellect and competency even though we do not get an equitable share of the country’s wealth, the very same wealth we have created!

I am now asking all villagers to prepare because the season for the Prime Minister to start visiting us all the ignoramus villagers, is right before us. We will soon be honoured with the visit of the Prime Minister and his team of morons coming to beg us to vote for their team.  This is at the heels of the Minister of Education calling our teachers ignorant and the Prime Minister now referring to us as village idiots.

Fellow village idiots, please let us give the Prime Minister the welcome that an arrogant, despotic, insensitive and megalomaniac person deserves. Prime Minister we are patiently waiting!

Sincerely,

Elisa Guttierez

Proud Villager

SSB Employees Afraid…

Word reaching this columnist is that employees of SSB from all over the country are calling for increased security in the wake of the broad daylight robbery in Belize City. They are justified in doing so because the situation could have been very different and any of those employees could have been shot and killed. But it looks like Merle Bailey Martinez, the head of SSB, doesn’t exactly see it that way. We understand that she has refused to implement any additional security measures because she says it is too expensive. Guess the lives of the employees aren’t worth that much, are they Merlene? One suggestion coming out of the SSB is that if Merlene wants to cut costs so she can afford security, maybe she could start with her four secretaries or any one of the UDP cronies who have been given cushy contract jobs for doing nothing….If Da Noh Soh!

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No comment…

This gossip-monger broke the story first last week when the drunken minister from up north, along with his equally drunken driver, was stopped at a checkpoint by Escuela Mexico. That’s when both ‘borrachos’ decided that they were bigger than the law and cussed up the policemen at the checkpoint for daring to stop the ministerial ride. Well it got worse than that. The ‘borrachos’ allegedly came back even after they were allowed to pass and the driver Campos apparently assaulted the policeman. Well, the policeman did the right thing and charges were brought against the driver. Anyway, when the press asked the drunken minister about the incident at the House meeting on Monday, he said he couldn’t comment. What he should have said is that he doesn’t remember. That would have been closer to the truth. Hahahahaha! No worries, drunken one, I know firsthand how overindulgence in the beverage tends to cloud the memory. But I’m no representative of the people. You’re a disgrace to the nation and should be kicked out forthwith…If Da Noh Soh!

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Best Escabeche in the land…

I couldn’t hold up when I heard this one, and decided to jot it down here since gossip, like much else is better shared late than never. Remember when the government brought in all the ambassadors from their posts for the annual get together of diplomats the other day? Well word is that there was a round table session, and each diplomat was asked to share their achievements at their respective posts over the last two years. So when it was Chendo’s turn, he stood up proudly and informed the gathering that he, Chendo Urbina, is renowned throughout Mexico for his escabeche which is the best in the land. Okay, that’s a true story! Really! Word is that the Prime Minister was so embarrassed that he refused to allow Chendo to join his delegation when he travelled to Mexico on official business…If Da Noh Soh!

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A hog for the hog…

That thing with the hog head left on the desk of the hoggish dread was the funniest thing. The predator lookalike actually appeared to shed a few tears on the newscast because he couldn’t figure out why someone would do something to poor little him, who has never hurt a soul. Dry your crocodile tears, crybaby dread. Nobody believes you anyway. Everybody knows that you placed that hog head on your own desk in an attempt to get some sympathy, but nobody cares. We got too many things to worry about right now, like the taxes your boss is heaping on us. We hear you had a barbeque over the weekend with pork ribs and chops and all the trimmings, Mr. Dread….care to comment?…If Da Noh Soh!

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The R-Word…

Mr. Barrow’s wife has asked us not to use the R-word, but it’s so very hard to resist, so I won’t. Mr. Barrow, since you’re so fond of the dictionary I looked up the word retarded and the definition is ‘a person who is stupid, obtuse, or ineffective in some way.’ Aw hell, PM, I couldn’t have defined you better than that. You may be book-savvy but you’re sure stupid when it comes to dealing with the affairs of state. The way things are going it looks like you don’t know your ass (also in the dictionary, Mr. B) from your elbow. Obtuse you certainly are, oh learned fellow. You most certainly are not getting a hint of the frustration and anger of the people out here as you try to push your misguided agenda our way. See, Mr. B…you can’t just listen to what the folks at home tell you. And ineffective for sure – do we need to mention the state of the economy and the fact that the country is heading steadily downhill? So Mr. B, with apologies to Mrs. B I must conclude that you personify the R-word…for real!…If Da Noh Soh!

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The Zenaida Moya Show

On Tuesday night the Adele Ramos Show on Krem Television was cancelled to make way for the Zenaida Moya show, the council’s normal monthly meeting which results in absolutely nothing. I’m relatively sure Krem won’t make that there mistake again. See, only about ten people showed up for the much advertised public meeting…and that includes three councilors and the Mayor. The Mayor seems to be as obtuse as her boss – in the city she stinks just as bad as the garbage on every street-corner; even worse. Nobody wants to hear the crap coming out of City Hall. No matter what they say, nothing happens anyway, so what’s the sense of wasting time listening to Zenaida and her crew. Hell, seven of her councilors didn’t even waste their time going to the meeting, so why should we?…If Da Noh Soh!

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Z-7 in effect…

Word is that the rift which led to seven councilors breaking away from the Mayor and her three Moyalists got real testy for a while. Reliable word is that the Mayor got in the face of Dion Leslie like she wanted to throw a punch. When she was quietly reminded that she was a woman and that kind of behavior was not becoming, she walked out in a huff after some choice words. It’s anybody’s guess what will happen now, cause the word is that the PM refused to accept Philloughby as the Deputy Mayor. Poor Philloughby claims he doesn’t know why nobody wants him there, since his record speaks for itself (would like to know what that record is). So anyway, for now it’s all out war in the Council again, with Belizeans the biggest losers as usual in this UDP war.

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The Auditors are back…

This is one of those cases where you can say you saw it here first. Auditors have been sent back into City Hall and they have discovered something big. According to reports, the latest findings make the money found missing in the last audit look like small change. Get ready for the latest scoop out of City Hall in the coming weeks…If Da Noh Soh!

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On Lois and the PUC

Reliable word out of the PUC is that Lois Young has been expressing her serious dissatisfaction with the telecommunications orders sent out by the PUC. Those orders give any provider the right to have access to the ARCOS cable, and Lois doesn’t like that very much. See right now BTL is playing dictator by with-holding access to ARCOS and the orders would change that. A source inside BTL told us that Lois has stated that she will personally write the orders and deliver them to the PUC to be implemented. We haven’t been able to confirm that, but it sure does sound like Lois. Anyway, we do know that the PM called John Avery to inform him of Lois’ displeasure, and Avery referred him to his nephew Kimano…If Da Noh Soh!

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More on BTL

We’ll have much more on BTL next week, including word on a list of employees who will be given the axe, but we’ll leave you with this…employees are pissed off because there was a post open a few weeks ago, and policy required that the person to fill the post would be taken from inside the department. One person with all the qualifications applied for the job, but for some reason he was told that he couldn’t get the post because he was overqualified. That was convenient, since a nephew of Net Vasquez was then brought in from outside and pushed into the job. Things are about to erupt in BTL…look for it…If Da Noh Soh!

In our homes we live in fear that at any moment someone may storm in and hurt us.

On the job we pray God that we won’t be the next one to be sent home.

Our streets are broken up; our society is broken down

The Belizean economy is in a recession, we are headed for a depression

The social fabric that holds this society together is being torn apart

and despair is turning to desperation.

IN the midst of all this, hope fades.

Never before in the history of Belize City and in our nation has so much gone so wrong.

We must come to terms with the sad reality that Dean Barrow and the UDP cannot manage the affairs of our nation.

They have NO Plan

They have NO heart,

They have no compassion;

They care little for the needs of the Belizean people

And they lack the capacity to get the job done.

As a result of this Belizeans are being neglected.

It is time we start the movement to send the UDP back to where they came from.

Two days ago the Prime Minister stood before the nation and told the Belizean people that come April 1^st he will collect $110 million in additional taxes.

Two days ago the Prime Minister also told the Belizean People that he will collect $1.8 million in new taxes from BNE.

I said before and I say again, the People’s United Party unequivocally rejects the proposal by the Prime Minister to raise taxes on the Belizean people and we call on the Prime Minister to reverse this decision.  The PUP will not sit quietly while this UDP administration shackles the Belizean people with burdensome taxes.

After his announcement that he was raising taxes, the Prime Minister offered the Belizean people, as consolation, $10 million in relief for the poor.

To give you an idea of how much this will help poor Belizeans, this $10 million when divided by the 143,000 people living below the poverty line, amounts to 7 cents per day per person.

Yet the Prime Minster has the nerve to stand up before this nation and talk about the “caring husbandry of the UDP Government?”  How can you say you care then turn around and squeeze an additional $110 million in taxes from Belizeans?  Where is the equity when Belizeans are asked to pay over $100 million in new taxes while BNE is asked to sacrifice a mere $1.8 million?  Where is the love, Mr. Prime Minister?

Let me put it to you this way.  At the moment, for every gallon of fuel Belizeans buy they pay a tax of $1. Come April 1^st on all fool’s day, Barrow is telling the Belizean people that he will beg BNE for an additional $1 for ever barrel of oil they take from Belizean soil.

So the man who says he has honour and loves Belize and Belizeans charges you 100 cents per gallon of fuel, and BNE pays just over two cents per gallon of crude oil.

Mr. Prime Minister, how can you accuse others of lacking morality, when you are sucking from poor Belizeans over $100 million in new taxes while at the same time charging the most profitable company in the country only $1.8 million?

This very Dean Barrow, who in a year and a half  paid to his ex wife, Lois Young Barrow $1.5 million dollars,  in legal fees; the very Dean Barrow who says he makes no excuses for how much he pays her, comes before the Belizean people saying that he and his government is doing all that they can.

Let me tell you what else he is doing to you, to me, and to all ah we.  He is talking about all the relief he is providing Belizeans.  Let me get my list and it is a new list.

Dean Barrow is fooling no one with his list of exemptions, he is talking about removing duty from sesame seed oil, rape oil, palm oil, irrigation pipe, washing machines as if that is a part of everyday use by Belizeans; well here are some of the things we use on a daily basis and for sure these items are bound to go up – items like toilet paper, toothpaste, soap, corn starch, soap powder, evaporated milk, all of these will see an additional 25 percent increase in the amount of tax you have to pay.  This is how he intends to squeeze another $42 million dollars from Belizeans pockets, by taxing their toothpaste and toilet paper.  Shame!

Now I want to remind you of what Barrow and his bunch of dodo birds promised you when they came for your vote and by now you all know that in Spanish lie is mentira and in Garifuna it is marasalugu.  But eena creole it is the plain and simple LIAAD

• Barrow said that under the UDP there would be no corruption, (    HE LIAAD)
• Barrow said that he would bring down the cost of utilities,  (HE LIAAD)
• Barrow said that they would create 5,000 new jobs, (HE LIAAD)
• Barrow said there would be no victimization, (HE LIAAD)
• He said they would institute a new text book program, (HE LIAAD)
• He promised you $300 for every high school student, (HE LIAAD)
• He said Belizeans will get shares in the oil company! (HE LIAAD)
• & Dean Barrow said he will bring down the cost of living “no matter what!” (LIAAD)

But let me tell you what he gave the people of Belize City, he gave you Zenaida Moya and under deposits.

He allowed Zenida to put sanitation workers out of their jobs.

He gave you the most broken down streets in the entire country.

The UDP has sat back while Belize City has become one of the most violent places in the world.

Ladies and Gentlemen when the PUP was in office we used to write songs that said “Believe in Belize.”  We used to say that in Belize we live in a good country.

Today all this optimism is gone.  It has been replaced by fear.

No Belizean deserves to live like this, we are good people.  We have a country rich in resources, the most precious being our people.

The UDP’s lack of respect for the people, their lack of a plan to move the country forward and their incompetence has put this country and the Belizean people on a path that is leading us towards destruction.

We have to stop this.  We have to say to Dean Barrow and the UDP, No Mas, NO MORE!

It is time for the UDP to lead or to leave.

It is time for the People’s United Party.

A little understanding…

Well, the Prime Minister has presented his budget called ‘recovery today, prosperity tomorrow.’ Wonder what clown came up with that one. Ask anybody on the street and they would tell you that it would be more aptly named – ‘pay today, poorer tomorrow.’ But anyway, driving down this morning I was listening to WAVE Radio cause the other talk shows were on commercial break, and I have to say I felt a little tug on my heartstrings. There was Fonso valiantly trying to defend the budget, backed up by his buddy with the 100 year old face and 20 year old hair. See, sometimes I think we’re a little too hard on the sissy boy from the Guardian. I heard him say this morning that Belizeans are happy because here we were thinking that we would have to pay more out of pocket, when the reality is that because of the PM’s brilliance, the coming year will be a time of plenty for poor Belizeans. Normally I’d bash him for being an idiot, but in a reflective mood this morning, I realize that Fonso really is just singing for his supper and nothing else. He must realize that the budget is a bad one which will bring even more pain and suffering down on Belizeans. Everybody else realizes it. I mean, if Fonso really believes what he is saying, his brain would already have exploded from stupidity overload. Just ask anybody, Jack, this is a bad budget presented by an incompetent and insensitive government led by a millionaire who has no clue how poor Belizeans are living.

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Mounting frustration…

There’s a little lesson which I’ve learned after many years in the game. Whenever the woman does something wrong and is guilty, that is when she will be the most hysterical and angry, lashing out in an attempt to intimidate her partner into silence, muddy the waters and distract from the wrong which was done. Does that type of behavior remind anybody of somebody’s actions recently – the Prime Minister, maybe? Talk about hot flashes. See, the Prime Minister is no dummy, though he surely seemed like one on Monday. He knows that his budget is messed up. But he feels that he can lather up the bukut with some Vaseline and shaft Belizeans while smiling prettily. That was the reason for the ruction in the House, all the name-calling and all the drama-queen antics. I don’t need to go into the response from the streets, because the Prime Minister has already gotten the sense of how stupid he was. The thing is that there were school-children sitting in the House, and they had to witness that unruly behavior from the leader of the nation, Hell, if the leader of the nation can do it, then it must be okay, right? That is the example that Mr. Barrow is setting for our children, then he scratches his head and wonders why crime is completely out of control and our social ills are escalating. Just look in the mirror, brother! That’s the reason right there.

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Consumers WILL pay…

Belizeans are not fools. Barrow is saying on one hand that he expects to collect about $109M extra in taxes this year; and almost in the same breath says that price of goods will go down and Belizeans will have more spending power. Pray tell, Mr. Barrow, just where will the $109M come from? Will it just magically appear out of thin air? Where it will come from, Mr. Barrow, is out of our pockets. There is no getting away from that. No flowery language can disguise that fact. The whopping increase in GST will be passed on to consumers for sure. We all know that. The 300% increase in business tax on BEL will be passed on to consumers for sure. We know that too. Everything the Prime Minister spoke about in terms of taxation will come out of our pockets. So the truth is that the cost of goods will not go down, but will skyrocket yet again. The cost of utilities will go up. The cost of services will go up. The cost of everything will go up, and at a time when 43% of the country’s population is already below the poverty line, with another 14% vulnerable to falling below that line. Countries all around the world are stimulating economies to deal with the global crisis, refusing to tax residents who are already being burdened. But no, our Prime Minister’s answer to the crisis is taxation and more taxation. The truth of the matter is that Belizeans will be paying for the incompetence of this Barrow administration and for the lack of vision of Mr. Barrow.

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Sleight of hand…

In his budget, the Prime Minister of Belize is attempting a herculean sleight of hand. In one hand he is offering some trifles like income tax exemption for those making less than $500 (he promised less than $650 in the UDP manifesto) and $4million to youth and women in need. That is all Dean Barrow wants you to see. He wants you to be dazzled and blinded and pathetically grateful for those piddling plums. Because what he doesn’t want you to realize is that his other hand is digging greedily into your pockets, our pockets, for an additional $109M. You do the math. He is offering $4million a year (nobody knows how it will be disbursed, by the way) and taking away $109M. That’s the truth. We told you the Prime Minister’s budget was a joke. $4M a year for the seriously poor works out to something like 7 cents a day – like I said, you do the math.

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A damned disgrace…

Somebody asked me just yesterday if I thought that the Prime Minister was personally involved in some kind of shady deal with the oil company. See, the person figured that was the only explanation for Mr. Barrow’s treatment of that company. The thing is, Mr. Barrow’s big taxes will all cripple Belizeans. His whopping increase in GST will hurt us across the board. His 300% business tax on BEL will kill us when we get our electricity bills. Mr. Barrow is expecting Belizeans to come up with an additional $109M this financial year, and do you know how much of that is coming from the oil company – $1.8M. That’s right, $1.8M. Mr. Barrow most apologetically revealed that he will be levying a fee of $1 per barrel of oil pumped out of our ground. But Mr. Barrow was not so apologetic when he hammered us with a $1 fee per gallon of fuel at the pumps. So we poor Belizeans are taxed $1 per gallon (and that will surely increase) while the big oil company which is boasting of a bonanza all the way to the bank will be taxed $1 per barrel. Go figure. You know what, thinking about it, the person I was speaking to may just be on to something. That’s the only explanation.

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Waste of time CitCo…

Belizeans really do not want to hear one more s@#t about or from this incompetent and corrupt UDP City Council. Everybody in the streets believes the Mayor is a thief, even before the audit came out which proved that big money had been misappropriated from public coffers. The corruption is bad enough, but then there is the issue of incompetence. Not one damned thing has come out of City Hall since 2006 when the UDP took over there. Not one project, no infrastructure, no social programmes, nothing! The only thing which seems to have come out of City Hall is Zenaida’s mansion. Serious! The city is a mess. All we’ve gotten out of City Hall is rubbish, no pun intended. This latest thing where seven councilors are warring against the Mayor and three of her Moyalists is just more crap. If there was anything being done for the city we could excuse a little infighting and even call it healthy differences of opinion. But this is not that. For all Belizeans care, Mayor Zenaida and every one of the bunch in City Hall can get to walking.

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No distractions…

One person who is ecstatic about the ruction inside City Hall is the Prime Minister. See, he is taking so much flak for his bogus budget that he is happy for any distraction. And everybody knows that the bunch of clowns inside City Hall is good for a laugh, if nothing else. But no such luck, Mr. Barrow. Belizeans won’t be distracted from the fact that you plan to tax us $109M to pay for your incompetence. We will pay now, Mr. Barrow, but you’ll pay in the long run. No doubt about that.

Mr. Barrow seemed a little frustrated during the presentation; so frustrated in fact that he behaved like a sissy and threw a tantrum. The dis-honourable gentleman stood up in the honourable House and tried to tell Belizeans that they would be taxed up the wazoo, but the cost of everything would go down. According to the learned fellow, he is imposing a 25% increase on GST which will bring in an additional $42 million into government’s coffers, but we Belizeans astonishingly will be paying out less. According to the brilliant PM, then, this $42 million additional revenue will probably just appear out of thin air, since he says that we poor Belizeans won’t feel the pinch.

Mr. Barrow’s obvious frustration has been born from the realization that his golden tongue is fast losing its luster. Belizeans are catching on to his antics and realizing that the equation just doesn’t add up. On one side of the equation are the lofty and practiced proclamations of the PM; on the other side of the equation are ‘haad’ times like never before. See, it doesn’t add up.

The frustrated gentleman will see no reprieve in coming days, as people realize that Barrow’s UDP colleague was speaking the truth – he is all glitter and no substance. His fits of verbal expression may well be written up in books of poetry, but that doesn’t do anything at all for the people out here who are reeling from the effects of economic stagnation. Barrow’s many-syllabled ramblings are doing nothing to stop the bloodshed on the streets. Barrow’s lyrical genius is doing nothing to put food on the tables of the 43% of Belize’s impoverished, or to send their children to school.

Dean Barrow will remain in our annals as the premiere hypocrite of our times – a true symbol of gleaming rubbish, golden nothings and sparkling dust in the wind. The sad thing is that the gentleman is possessed of so monumental an ego that his own hypocrisy is lost on him.

Though officials have remained extremely closed-lipped, sources inside the SSB have told the Belize Times that the figure stolen has been estimated at more than $440,000, and the calculations are still not complete. The department is still reeling after the daring broad daylight robbery on Monday, timed to net the biggest proceeds at the 15^th was the deadline for payment of contributions to the SSB.

The brazen thugs gained entry to the offices by entering through a back door close to 4:30 on Monday afternoon.  The Belize Times understands that the door joins the kitchenette to outside and that several of the employees’ teenaged children were in there when the thieves entered.

The attack did not last for more than two minutes as the two dark skinned youths bearing guns and with their heads covered went straight to the two cashiers and demanded the day’s collections. The terrified cashiers, who had to be examined by a physician from the neighbouring hospital, complied with the demands and handed over an undisclosed amount of cash and cheques.  The fact that there were several customers inside did not stop the thieves from carrying out their plans.

But the time of the attack has Police trying to figure out whether the thieves had help from someone inside since the timing of the heist was perfect.  Monday was the deadline for employers to pay their employees’ contributions.

There are functional video cameras inside the offices and the Police have them in their custody to see if they can identify the two culprits who pulled off this latest, broad daylight holdup in a section of the city not that popular for such crimes.  But with all that, there still seems to be no clues into the Monday afternoon armed hold-up.

The Police Press Officer, Sergeant Fitzroy Yearwood would only say that while police are following up some leads, a definitive amount of how much the two thieves escaped with has not been given.  Yearwood says police are now depending on you, the public, to help them solve the case.  They are asking you to be on the lookout for a dark Suzuki Vitara with license plates BZ-C 36066, which they say was parked outside the building.  The license plates have not yet been tracked down to determine who it was licensed and registered to.

Another factor police are zeroing in on is why the back door where the men entered and exited was left open.  Police would not say whether they are slanting toward it being an inside job, and would only say that they are not ruling out any possibility.

Meanwhile, they are also advising the public to closely examine Social Security cheques and report any suspicious cheque to the nearest police station.

It just proves how much more dangerous the city has grown and how desperate things have become over the last several months when thieves willingly commit themselves.  But the daylight crimes do much more than that.  They also show how incapable the Police Department is in making any real dent in the soaring crime situation which has paralyzed the country. And worse than that, it emphasizes the fact that the man at the helm, the incompetent and lacking Minister of National Security, is clueless and his 360 degree approach to crime was nothing but a joke on Belizeans. What has Belize come to?

Meanwhile out of the three big city heists at corporate or big businesses in just a week, police have only been able to make arrests in connection with the armed hold up at Doony’s Store in downtown Belize City last week Wednesday.  But the charge against the culprits is so slight that one is left to wonder whether they will be found guilty for the crime.  Twenty two year old Marlon Jones and a fifteen year old youth have been charged with Conspiracy to Commit Robbery and were remanded on Tuesday, Jones to the Hattieville Prison and the minor to the Belize Youth Hostel, while police hunt for their partner in crime.

Cops believe they along with another youth rode up to Doony’s Store on separate bicycles around 11:30 that fateful morning and at gunpoint held up and robbed the security guard of his gun and an employee of her cell phone.  The defendants will be brought back to court on Friday.