Saturday, January 3, 2009

5 Lessons We Need to learn for the New Year

These are the lessons my fellow Belizeans need to learn for the new year. If we can learn them, perhaps....just perhaps we can begin to move forward.

Lesson 1: Don't trust David Gegg in a business transaction. There is not a single reputable business that is not owed money by this man and his litany of faltered businesses. Yet, he continuously seems to be able to get deals done. He checks, lines of credit and even his cold hard cash are not accepted anywhere in town. His trail of bad debt stretches from Chaa Creek to the shores by the Radisson....from Brodies to Maya Island Air...from little landowners to (now) the biggest landowner of all...GOB. GOB and the people of Belize will be the ones getting screwed this time with Diane Haylock's giveaway. Maybe we should just stop dealing with this man altogether and give some other folks a chance.

Lesson 2: How to fix a road. We see roads being fixed and paved, but being done so improperly. Any basic road building class will tell you you must make a pothole square before you can patch it. You must put proper drainage or it will wash away faster than a you can say Andy Palacio. Seems like Min of Works does not know this or cares to look it up. 

Lesson 3. Garbage cans do not work for nasty Belizeans. I see BNE has built some nice garbage cans around the country to try to stop the littering. Good intentioned, but pointless. Until we start ticketing my fellow prideless citizens, the littering problem will not stop. Will our leaders never learn?

Lesson 4: Save money for a rainy day. Rare is it to see a Belizean saving for when times get tough. We are living at and beyond our means. We are living on credit, pawn shops and pay day advances. When will we learn to be responsible to ourselves. When we learn that Murphy's law dictates that just when you do not have a penny in the bank you will need a CT scan to save your life. We must start to pay ourselves first before we buy that new iphone!

and Lesson 5: Stop blaming everyone else for our own failings. Get off your butt and take responsibility. Maybe if some of us actually tried to get a job instead of expecting your area rep to drop one in your lap, or blaming the "man weh only wa pay me $150", then we could actually get a job. Ok..yes..all these "haad back people" begging at every street corner are really starting to piss me off.

Lets see what the new year brings.

Oh..BTW....I really thought fire cracker (dynamite) was banned in Belize. One would not have thought so over the holiday period.  The streets sides are awash in exploded Guatemalan newsprint. One kid blew off his finger in my neighborhood because his parents thought they were harmless. Maybe this should be Lesson 6. FIRE CRACKERS ARE DANGEROUS!