Mr Barrow sir, I am ashamed of you and of the fact that I voted for you. In the past couple of weeks you've shown yourself to be vindictive, vicious, unsportsmanlike, a sore loser, a sore winner, an almost complete liar, and more than a few other negative things. You seem to be under the very false impression that the power you hold is yours to do with as you please.
I cannot believe, as I listen to the news this evening, that you are vilifying Lynn Young for terminating his people and giving them the benefits they deserve, forgetting to mention that a major chunk of it is money they put aside themselves from their salaries, and instead twisting the truth for your own propaganda purposes. Mr. Young, as anyone who knows him will attest, is a patriotic Belizean and a good man. He is, or was, a supporter of yours, and you still casually tossed him to the wolves. Hell, something tells me you took a certain sadistic pleasure in having his dad sign the law that would rip what he helped build out from under him. None of what you have done marks you as a true leader or a good friend.
Dangerous though it be, you have thrown out a number that Mr. Young supposedly received on resignation and, whether it was a true figure or not, you did so purposefully to rile up the poor of this nation because it's more money than they've ever dreamed of having. You, in this society whose crime you have no time to clean up in between nationalizations, whose economy you've done nothing to grow because your obsessions leave you with no time for such mundane things as job growth, have very likely put Mr. Young in danger just for your own ends. I therefore put you on notice that if anything happens to him, you will be held responsible as though you did it with your own two hands.
Since you're all about the openness and transparency these days (well, you did promise it during elections), so that you want to reveal everyone's income, how about giving us the details on the following:
You and all your Cabinet ministers -and here we'd like comparative financials, how they entered office versus now, let's say. We want it for all of them, but feel free to begin with Boots and Gapi;
Lois -since we're her main client anyway, it's only fair we get a full accounting of how much we've paid her to date;
Anwar -yes, we know he's an astute businessman, so he need not be shy about letting us see just how astute he's become from 2008 to now;
Joe & Juliet -we're just curious how much poison costs nowadays;
Oh yes, and Cellular Plus -assuming all the paperwork wasn't accidentally destroyed when it fell down the shredder by mistake.
That's not all, but it makes a good start. By the way, before you accuse me of being a tail-sucking Ashcroft PUP, you can toss the opposition's financials in there just for kicks. Let's see how much pay it is they're not earning. The point here is that I remember the Integrity Commission and the publishing of annual financials even if you don't.
Now cut the BS rhetoric and go run my country...like a mature adult!
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Monday, June 20, 2011
Travesty of Democracy
Today was a perfect day for demonstrating just how thoroughly our democracy has disintegrated and how apathetic we are about it.
First, our government, as personified by our Prime Minister, seized a company that they always meant to seize from its owner. The simple fact is that Fortis made the mistake of making a profit, of running a utility everyone loves to hate, and of getting between Nestor Vasquez and his dream of having all utilities revert to government, whether or not it makes sense. And (this is me being a cynical conspiracy theorist) probably because they couldn't afford to buy the utility in a straightforward negotiated transaction they used the Public Utilities Commission to bring it to its knees. Then today the PM delivered the coup de grâce by passing legislation to acquire the 'insolvent' utility.
Second, despite the critical importance of acquiring BEL and saddling the taxpayer with the attendant costs, or perhaps because of all that, the government did it all in one day, with a House meeting in the morning, a Senate meeting in the afternoon and the Governor General signing the paperwork before punching the time clock on his workday. There's something a little sickening about having the father sign the legislation that legitimized everything the son fought so hard against, but such it is in Belize these days, we have no loyalty, not to anyone.
Third, there was not even the pretense of a House debate, and why should there be? After all, the opposition hadn't even bothered to show up. A more than slightly whiny press release issued later in the day suggested that the opposition was in a bit of a sulk because they found out about the House meeting after the media, etc, etc. No, Mr. Briceno, we weren't impressed by your integrity and your nobility of stance. We were, and are disgusted, because you couldn't be bothered to show up and record your feelings on the acquisition or on the way the House meeting was called. If you had a problem, as we all do, with the way today's meetings were you should have gone there snd ripped rass about it. You have the ultimate bully pulpit, after all. This way you actually weakened your party even further -and who knew that was even possible?
Fourth, the Senate performed as expected. This is a body that is as rubber stamp-y as it gets, and without the opposition there they were even more so. Senator Gordon wins the denial prize (which is a lovely set of almost-leather horse blinders) for in essence suggesting that 'God will provide' and 'people will understand.'
People, what makes you think it will stop here? Our PM hijacked the House for his own purposes, subverted the processes more than he ever has before, and none of you noticed because he took over a utility that he had convinced you had to be taken over, and hell, you never liked those jerks anyway because your light bill is too high.
What's next?
First, our government, as personified by our Prime Minister, seized a company that they always meant to seize from its owner. The simple fact is that Fortis made the mistake of making a profit, of running a utility everyone loves to hate, and of getting between Nestor Vasquez and his dream of having all utilities revert to government, whether or not it makes sense. And (this is me being a cynical conspiracy theorist) probably because they couldn't afford to buy the utility in a straightforward negotiated transaction they used the Public Utilities Commission to bring it to its knees. Then today the PM delivered the coup de grâce by passing legislation to acquire the 'insolvent' utility.
Second, despite the critical importance of acquiring BEL and saddling the taxpayer with the attendant costs, or perhaps because of all that, the government did it all in one day, with a House meeting in the morning, a Senate meeting in the afternoon and the Governor General signing the paperwork before punching the time clock on his workday. There's something a little sickening about having the father sign the legislation that legitimized everything the son fought so hard against, but such it is in Belize these days, we have no loyalty, not to anyone.
Third, there was not even the pretense of a House debate, and why should there be? After all, the opposition hadn't even bothered to show up. A more than slightly whiny press release issued later in the day suggested that the opposition was in a bit of a sulk because they found out about the House meeting after the media, etc, etc. No, Mr. Briceno, we weren't impressed by your integrity and your nobility of stance. We were, and are disgusted, because you couldn't be bothered to show up and record your feelings on the acquisition or on the way the House meeting was called. If you had a problem, as we all do, with the way today's meetings were you should have gone there snd ripped rass about it. You have the ultimate bully pulpit, after all. This way you actually weakened your party even further -and who knew that was even possible?
Fourth, the Senate performed as expected. This is a body that is as rubber stamp-y as it gets, and without the opposition there they were even more so. Senator Gordon wins the denial prize (which is a lovely set of almost-leather horse blinders) for in essence suggesting that 'God will provide' and 'people will understand.'
People, what makes you think it will stop here? Our PM hijacked the House for his own purposes, subverted the processes more than he ever has before, and none of you noticed because he took over a utility that he had convinced you had to be taken over, and hell, you never liked those jerks anyway because your light bill is too high.
What's next?
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