The Northern Highway

What a disgrace the Northern Highway between Belize City and Ladyville has become. In fact, it has become the symbol for the sorry state of the country we live in.

When it is dry it becomes a dust bowl. When it is raining it becomes a swamp. In between, it is a mixture of potholes, badly patched tarmac, half-fixed tarmac and Indianapolis speedway for buses, taxis and blue plated vehicles. If this is not just like our country, what is? Everything is falling down, while the few elite breeze on through. GOB attempts to patch itself, but it keeps raining on them, and bigger holes soon appear. When it does stop raining, they are so relieved that they forget to work on the issues that cause the disrepair in the first place.

As we continue to dodge countless potholes and drive through chassis high salt water on a regular basis, we must wonder...are we really living in a country moving forward? Where are our priorities? And shouldn't the highest priority be to fix the one piece of road in the country that is not only the most driven, but the first stretch of road that visitors, investors and the IMF see? The people that keep Belize going.

We've thrown down millions for a now trash littered Marine Parade, but those tour buses still have to chug through the eyesore we call "Friendship Street". They still drive on the stretch of road that is a killing field for pedestrians and motorists. Several years ago, someone coined the term Kamikazi Junction. Well, this road should be called Snipers Alley. Every time you take a drive on this road, you are risking your life, dodging holes, vehicles, people, water and even the odd real bullet. Mostly we avoid all the perils, but occasionally we fall in that big new hole and never come out. Will Belize finally fall into a really big hole and never come out? Some would argue that we already have.

Lets fix the road, fix ourselves, and fix our country. We deserve it. Our children deserve it.

Dean Barrow and the Twist of FATE! - and the multiple court cases against Lord Ashcroft

When a few months ago the then PUP administration wanted to make the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) the Court of Last Appeal for Belize, replacing the Privy Council in London (I fully agree with and support this move), the PUP did not have the necessary three fourths majority in the House of Representatives to pass the necessary amendment to the Constitution. The then Leader of the Opposition. Dean Barrow, refused to support the move, later agreeing only after attempting to 'blackmail the government', i.e. making demands on the Government that would have emasculated the PUP. The motion was withdrawn.

FATE is now has a cynical smile for Dean Barrow, now Prime Minister, and blessed with the the required three fourths majority! IF ..... if only he had agreed to replace the Privy Council with the CCJ back then, he would not have to worry about the Lord dragging him and the Government across the Atlantic in the multiple court cases against Ashcroft, should the Lord not have his way.

"Bottom Line"

The POLITICS the PUC and BEL PLAY!

How asinine can the Chairman of the PUC get: he says that "B-E-L is not obligated by law to pay out dividends!" Who are you kidding – do you think that BEL and its shareholders are in business because they love you? John Avery is the former Editor of the Guardian Newspaper who was known to use the pages of that paper to vent as an outspoken critic of the rate setting process between BEL and the PUC. So, how low can you go to play politics for your UDP masters? The new UDP administration appears to 'have it iinn' for BEL. This same administration readily admits that it cannot stop the rise in the price of fuel at the pump, but in the same breath, via their recently appointed PUC Chairman, it is saying that BEL is not entitled to get an increase in its rate, in a business where the cost of fuel is predominant.

And BEL? Well, if they were not playing politics, I don't know what to call this: for weeks before the recent election they spent big bucks running a high class, expensive ad campaign for several weeks BOASTING that despite the big increases in the cost of fuel, BEL was successful in keeping the electricity rate unchanged. I wonder why! And then, a week or two AFTER the election, they bawling that they NEED an increase in the rate because of the uncontrollable rise in the cost of fuel!

So, Mr. PUC and Mr. BEL, please stop playing politics with electricity rates! Let's get real! Electricity affects everyone and all aspects of the economy; it’s TOO BIG to play politics with, using us the consumers as pawns.


Comments welcomed.

"Bottom Line"

...and the truth shall come to light!

On the night before the general elections on February 7th, I had a dream; perhaps it was not as profound or poetic as Martin Luther King's, but all the same, I felt that it bore some salient symbolism. I dreamt that I while I was petting my cat, I noticed that she was struggling to scratch her ears. No matter how many times she scratched with her hind legs, she just couldn't seem to put an end to the itching in her ears. I got a tweezer and when I checked her ear, I discovered an enormous "wahry tick". It was fat and grey and had situated itself deep within the confines of a fold in her ear. I attempted to remove it, but it refused to budge. My cat began to fidgit and I found it difficult to get a hold of the creature. After a few tugs however, I dislodged it and I knew that my cat had found relief.

When I heard the results of the elections, I felt that indeed, the people of Belize had gotten rid of its parasites - those that had tried to hide within the financial and social folds of their party and those who had sought to use the law to their advantage. The breaking news over the past few days relating the sordid scheme of using public funds to act as security for private debts has only made me accutely aware of the blood-sucking that had been taking place in this country. (Who knows, maybe if I'd checked the other ear of my cat, I would have found even more of the little suckers hiding there too!)

It has been a long time coming, but the truth has finally surfaced and the criminals have been exposed for what they are and what they have been. It gives great comfort to know that my perceptions of the former government were indeed right - I wasn't crazy when I agreed that they were a criminal organization - Belize's own mafia.

In the Prime Minister's two press conferences, I had scoffed at the restrained tone with which P.M. Barrow outlined the past government's numerous scams and infractions. He should be visibly livid, I thought; he should be banging his hand on the podium - I would have given him all rights to pontificate if he so desired. But, he kept his cool. Fine. Let him keep his cool when he talks to the press, but when he deals out justice, just make sure he "buhns fiah" and put those scurvists in Hattivelle.

I have a demand...
SEND THEM TO HATTIVELLE!!

Lying by Omission

We all lie. Some of us more than others. I always feel guilty when I lie -- remnants of a semi-strict Catholic upbringing. I remember when I was a little girl in Religion Class; we were learning about lying one day. The Religion teacher and Parish priest taught me that even thinking about committing a sin was in itself sinning. And they also taught me that by withholding the truth, by knowingly saying nothing to someone when I knew the truth was indeed contrary to their thinking, I was lying. This kind of lie has a special name. To lie by omission.

I watched the news broadcast yesterday very attentively. We were told by the PM that not only was $20 Million Belize Dollars from the Venezuela Government used to pay UHS debt, but also another $20 Million Belize Dollars from the Taiwanese Government given in September of last year was spent on the same purpose! Now, it's not as though Belize has excess money to waste and give away. We're barely making it. And the world out there is getting harder. Food and Fuel are becoming more scarce and more expensive in the Global Market. We unwisely have our dollar pegged to a currency that is rapidly losing value. Our imports still far exceed our exports and the atmosphere in the country currently is not especially conducive to
entrepreneurship.

Yet, with all these external forces challenging us, we still had a greater internal threat. Because for the past ten years under our previous government... in addition to the bold face and brazen lies we, the Belizean people, the people they SWORE to protect and help, were told, they have also lied to us by omission. Secret deals with under-the-table additions. Time and time again they used our public monies for private interest. The moved the wealth of this country into their own hands and pockets instead of the hands and pockets and bellies of all of us!

We all suspected it... but now, in the face of real evidence, I'm just in shock. In a 6 month span $40 Million Belizean Dollars which was gifted to the people of Belize was diverted to a private enterprise. We, the Belizean people, pay and we get NOTHING. NOTHING. NOTHING.

I'm furious. I'm offended. And I wonder, how many millions, or dare I say billions, have been diverted away from our national coffers and into private hands?

I demand compensation. I am happy that the current GOB is looking into the possibility of legal action and implications for these actions that can be described by no other word but evil. And I pray, my Belizean people, that you feel as shocked and offended as I, and fight, along with me, for what is truly and justly ours.

All comments are welcome... enjoy the blog, and feel free to share it.

~The Voice