Strange April Happenings

I know it is the month that April Fools call home, but this month has just been weird.

Firstly, we have had rain in April. In my life, I can never recall such an occurrence.  And it has rained profusely twice....once right before Easter and now over the last few days. Is the dry season over? I doubt it. Is Mother Nature pitying our water bills? Maybe. Are we to be grateful and enjoy it? Absolutely.

Next, we have had Dean O. (and his wife by all indications) become chummy with Barack O. Now maybe Barack O, was just trying to make Dean O feel good, or maybe Kim was just checking to see (by the looks of the pics) if he (Barack) was wearing Armani, but I surmise that either Barack is just a genuinely nice guy or he and the USA wants something. I would like to believe the former, but I suspect the latter. I never trust Uncle Sam, nor GOB for that matter. If we trust the Yanks, next thing you know C-130's will be doing Baghdad style descents into the PGIA.

Then, we have had the bizarre Shoman Fiasco. What the hell is wrong here? Big bad Shoman is quarreling with some no-names from Guate? Interesting and very strange, but I will leave judgments on this up to you all?

And, finally...all you passionate Belize bloggers have disappeared this April. Where have you all gone? Spring Break in Cancun? Fido's in San Pedro? Come on. Belize can't be that boring that you have nothing to write about. All you passionate ones have nothing to say...that is really strange.

So we look forward to May, the month of Mothers. Will all you Momma's boys and girls find something to write about this month? :^)

All over the roads

The recent sad accident with the truck crushing the little boy in Ladyville brings to light a really serious problem in our country.

There are kids and adults all over the roads, jaywalking, dashing across highways, running out of alleys, walking drunk, talking in the middle of the road, laying on highways, riding haphazardly, riding without holding on to the handle, riding and texting, riding with someone on the handlebars...the list goes on and on. If you live in villages, it is even common to see someone riding a bike with a butane cylinder balancing on the handlebar or kids playing football on the highway.

It is truly amazing to me, and a testament to the Belizean drivers, that we don't have more accidents. And we should all be thankful for that.

Yes, there are inconsiderate and crazy drivers and they should be dealt with by the full force of the law, but something must be done about the sheer chaos that are the Belizean roads.

As a society we have no respect for the damage a vehicle can do to the human body till it is too late.  Till your kid decides to ride his bike down the wrong side of a one way street while going to buy a bread, gets hit and injured. 

Why don't we exercise common sense? Are we that oblivious to danger? There is a  pedestrian overpass, but we prefer to "frogger" it over the highway.  There are some pedestrian walkways, but we ignore them, and prefer to cross 10 feet further up.   I have yet to see a "jaywalking fine" sign, real CONSISTENT enforcement at crosswalks and high foot traffic intersections, or even a public awareness campaign.

This is a national emergency, and national health issue. Government must get involved. But we must also start exercising good traffic judgement when crossing streets or riding bikes. We must start obeying laws, and we must stop blaming drivers every time there is an incident.

As someone who has had a knock down incident with an unruly rider, I can tell you that you are always presumed to be at fault, even if in my case, the cyclist was gawking at some young lady and rode into oncoming traffic (i.e. me). I had to spend hard earned money to prove my innocence and the cyclist's idiocy in court. In fact, according to the cyclist I "knocked him down because he was black" . Can you believe that? Making a stupidity issue a race issue. I digress....

So, how do we start to fix this horrible problem. First suggestion is to have bicycle and pedestrian laws with  real teeth and enforce them. Yes, GOB constituents will probably complain and belly ache. But wouldn't you rather have your taxpayers alive?

Have a safe and happy Easter, and please don't drink and ride.