The more I read and hear about the new Labour law, the more I wonder what glorious, illicit and mind-altering substances our politicians are on. No, that was facetious of me, and I apologize for saying it. But I'm pissed, and as you should know, anger leads to ugly thoughts. On the surface of it, I should be thrilled with this new law, since I'm an employee and it's all about keeping me in my job and making it more difficult for me to get fired. Oh yes, and guaranteeing me an available toilet when I need to visit one. It all should make me want to climb a ladder up to the highest rooftop and shout for joy so that all may hear my gratitude, right? Instead I'm angry because the jesters in Cabinet are insulting my intelligence.
You see, unfortunately for the people I made the mistake of voting for, I'm one of those employees who ensures my job security via the old-fashioned method of working hard and having my employer appreciate my efforts. I'm comfortable in my job, happy that I have one in these hard times, and I'm weird enough to think my boss is pretty cool. See, he assists us with education costs, gives us excellent health insurance, and I have ways to earn extra holiday time, and so many other benefits. His business isn't huge, but he tries to share the good news with us. And do you know what happens with the benefits he gives us? The Government of Belize, currently run by the same sad clowns who say that our welfare is their only thought (yeah, they all say that), makes us pay taxes on those benefits.
Now, if you are heartless enough to tax me for getting help in my quest for higher education, how the hell am I supposed to believe that you care in the least about my welfare? It seems to me that what's in play here is the endless political goal of keeping us poor and ignorant. This law isn't for me or for anyone else who wants to improve themselves, to excel in their chosen profession. Because the moment we do that, the moment we climb above a certain level, as my employer is trying to help me do, the tax man's waiting to pick us off. So what I should be doing is sitting in a packing crate with the sign 'Home, Sweet Home' over the door, which opens onto swamps and London bridges, and waiting till the day of the week when I go to see my area rep for my weekly handout, correct? Beloved area rep then feels the love, and I remain happily ignorant in my fetid swamp and financial slavery, indebted to 'the man' for my daily bread. Yes, Mr Amandala, slavery is alive and well in Belize -we are all whipped, beaten, fed crumbs for good (servile) behaviour and kept subservient by the political party du jour.
Then again, this law is about jobs, so to be fair the picture I paint above, though all too real, isn't applicable to the situation under discussion. Okay, that's true, but what we're talking about here isn't too much different. What this law creates is a tidy balancing act that can't be healthy for culture or economy. Employees who barely do their jobs are granted security of tenure, while those of us who are ambitious and want to rise to the top are punished through taxation. Excellent way to develop this developing country of ours, I cannot but admire the sheer genius of it.
Mr Prime Minister, please don't do me no favors, I can't afford it. But then, you aren't doing it for me, I'm not your slave.
Friday, February 18, 2011
Monday, November 22, 2010
What's That Smell?
As a writer, I've been watching current events in my Belize and as we stumble through the news cycle from murder to scandal and back again, have composed numerous articles in my head to describe what I'm seeing. As quickly as I compose them, I dispose of them, running them through a mental shredder because 'that's not quite what I wanted to say.' However, as I'm sure someone profound said at some point, the only way to get to the destination is to start the journey.
Make no mistake about this: I love my country. I love Belize with all the desperation of two lovers who fight all the time, but in the end acknowledge that they can't live without each other and thus after a day of argument, go to bed secure in the peace of that knowledge. What I don't like, the thing that causes major conflict between head and heart, is what's happening to my beautiful country, and why.
Now, before you rush to apply your personal labels, let me make clear that I am neither PUP nor UDP. I have no patience with blind loyalty, and this is the primary requirement of party membership, therefore neither side will tolerate the likes of me, a fact of which I am inordinately proud. So if you are a blind party loyalist who can bear no message that isn't tinted with your favorite color, what I have to say isn't for your ears, or um, eyes.
That, however, is where I begin with my observations of the flaws that mar Belize's natural beauty. Whatever happened to freedom of speech? It seems these days as though the thought police are on patrol, armored in ignorance, equipped with a full arsenal of abusive language and growing rabidly (pun intended) in numbers. Say the wrong thing too loudly and find yourself 'bashed' by one media house or another; become someone's weekly cartoon. Maybe we never have had freedom of speech. I mean, my grandfather always tells me stories about Leigh Richardson being threatened and leaving the country and about the Billboard Press being burned down. Is this ancient history, or was it the beginning of current events?
These days, a lot of the 'wrong thing' that you may rashly criticize fits under the heading of corruption. Today a politician comes from the people, and he'll remind you of that every chance he gets, even though he's long since forgotten it himself. Grassroots-poor, he wins in a division and within months, if he has landed a cushy Cabinet portfolio, he suddenly has multiple houses, expensive women, a car he might once have had the job to wash. Dare to openly observe this sudden wealth to the nearest loyalist of his chosen party and brace yourself for a tongue-lashing. Sadly, the accusations will include calling you an opposition supporter, telling you that the opposition did worse, claiming that "it's our turn; we have to give our people a break." Lately, the shrill tones of "where were you when the opposition was doing their dirty deeds" overpower the voices of protest against the profligacy we can no longer afford -not that we ever could afford it, mind you. Right versus wrong no longer have any relevance in the national debate, and this is a sad, sad thing for our democracy.
Our leaders, when in opposition, make the most beautiful promises. They tell us what they know we want to hear, promise that they'll do what we want them to do, and we, their dance partner in this eternal tango, go along and give them the chance to keep their promises, even though we know they won't. Twelve years ago, we heard the promises and saw instead wholesale delivery of our country into private hands. Yes, the Lord became our Shepherd and he did not want for anything, and we were outraged, remember? Two years ago, we were promised deliverance from the Lord and his bloated, corrupted, decaying lackeys and we greedily swallowed the hook with which that promise was baited. As part of the package, we were promised transparency but instead got corruption wrapped in the pretty, crackling cellophane of vengeance and tied with a thick ribbon of nepotism.
Where were we when the last crowd did the dirty deed of fiscal rape? Right there biding our time. We know not from revolution; our teeth and claws are sharp, pretty things that we've never learned to use, but we do know how to vote out the nasty boys, so we did what we knew to do. But the opposition-who-became-government asks that question every single time we point out the obvious. It is their only defence, this offensive question. My answer to them? I was preparing to give you a chance to be the better man, and I see now that you've blown it.
Don't tell me we're less corrupt than we were, that comment alone confirms that we are corrupt. Don't tell me the other guy did worse, voting you in was not granting you a license to do whatever you want as long as you keep it 10% below him. For one thing, your measuring stick is way off, and we now think you're just as bad. See, corruption is corruption, regardless of scale. According to the law a thief is a thief no matter what he steals, and thus it is with you. While people continue to starve and live in shanties, don't content yourself with blaming the other guy when you aren't doing that which it is in your power to do. Oh yes, and by color-coding everyone and filing them according to assigned color, you take us further down the path of national destruction. We, yes, WE elected you to govern ALL of us. If we have broken the law, deal with us accordingly. If we have not, and we are in fact law-abiding citizens, productive members of society who just happen to have a difference of political opinion, suck it up, quit whining and let us be stupid and wrong in our thinking and you just get on with governing the entire country responsibly, which is the job you were hired to do.
What can we do anyway? Who listens to us? Are we to vote in yet another failed-government-in-waiting come 2013? A thousand times 'no!' to that one, emphatically no, because John & Co. have done nothing to earn my respect, much less my vote. They've been too busy saving their own ample derrieres and fighting over the spoils instead of cleaning up their well-exposed act. But I'll tell you flat out that this gang, this fountain of excuses for not properly leading, can't be allowed to continue either. The way I see it, if we don't begin to demand better, then we deserve to stay on the downhill slope, hurtling headlong toward the cliff's edge.
I'll leave you with this question: do you remember when Belcan Bridge was blanketed with the smoke of burning tires? Do you remember the government of the day's howls of indignance because a certain Opposition Leader had called for civil disobedience?
Maybe it's time we took up his suggestion.
Make no mistake about this: I love my country. I love Belize with all the desperation of two lovers who fight all the time, but in the end acknowledge that they can't live without each other and thus after a day of argument, go to bed secure in the peace of that knowledge. What I don't like, the thing that causes major conflict between head and heart, is what's happening to my beautiful country, and why.
Now, before you rush to apply your personal labels, let me make clear that I am neither PUP nor UDP. I have no patience with blind loyalty, and this is the primary requirement of party membership, therefore neither side will tolerate the likes of me, a fact of which I am inordinately proud. So if you are a blind party loyalist who can bear no message that isn't tinted with your favorite color, what I have to say isn't for your ears, or um, eyes.
That, however, is where I begin with my observations of the flaws that mar Belize's natural beauty. Whatever happened to freedom of speech? It seems these days as though the thought police are on patrol, armored in ignorance, equipped with a full arsenal of abusive language and growing rabidly (pun intended) in numbers. Say the wrong thing too loudly and find yourself 'bashed' by one media house or another; become someone's weekly cartoon. Maybe we never have had freedom of speech. I mean, my grandfather always tells me stories about Leigh Richardson being threatened and leaving the country and about the Billboard Press being burned down. Is this ancient history, or was it the beginning of current events?
These days, a lot of the 'wrong thing' that you may rashly criticize fits under the heading of corruption. Today a politician comes from the people, and he'll remind you of that every chance he gets, even though he's long since forgotten it himself. Grassroots-poor, he wins in a division and within months, if he has landed a cushy Cabinet portfolio, he suddenly has multiple houses, expensive women, a car he might once have had the job to wash. Dare to openly observe this sudden wealth to the nearest loyalist of his chosen party and brace yourself for a tongue-lashing. Sadly, the accusations will include calling you an opposition supporter, telling you that the opposition did worse, claiming that "it's our turn; we have to give our people a break." Lately, the shrill tones of "where were you when the opposition was doing their dirty deeds" overpower the voices of protest against the profligacy we can no longer afford -not that we ever could afford it, mind you. Right versus wrong no longer have any relevance in the national debate, and this is a sad, sad thing for our democracy.
Our leaders, when in opposition, make the most beautiful promises. They tell us what they know we want to hear, promise that they'll do what we want them to do, and we, their dance partner in this eternal tango, go along and give them the chance to keep their promises, even though we know they won't. Twelve years ago, we heard the promises and saw instead wholesale delivery of our country into private hands. Yes, the Lord became our Shepherd and he did not want for anything, and we were outraged, remember? Two years ago, we were promised deliverance from the Lord and his bloated, corrupted, decaying lackeys and we greedily swallowed the hook with which that promise was baited. As part of the package, we were promised transparency but instead got corruption wrapped in the pretty, crackling cellophane of vengeance and tied with a thick ribbon of nepotism.
Where were we when the last crowd did the dirty deed of fiscal rape? Right there biding our time. We know not from revolution; our teeth and claws are sharp, pretty things that we've never learned to use, but we do know how to vote out the nasty boys, so we did what we knew to do. But the opposition-who-became-government asks that question every single time we point out the obvious. It is their only defence, this offensive question. My answer to them? I was preparing to give you a chance to be the better man, and I see now that you've blown it.
Don't tell me we're less corrupt than we were, that comment alone confirms that we are corrupt. Don't tell me the other guy did worse, voting you in was not granting you a license to do whatever you want as long as you keep it 10% below him. For one thing, your measuring stick is way off, and we now think you're just as bad. See, corruption is corruption, regardless of scale. According to the law a thief is a thief no matter what he steals, and thus it is with you. While people continue to starve and live in shanties, don't content yourself with blaming the other guy when you aren't doing that which it is in your power to do. Oh yes, and by color-coding everyone and filing them according to assigned color, you take us further down the path of national destruction. We, yes, WE elected you to govern ALL of us. If we have broken the law, deal with us accordingly. If we have not, and we are in fact law-abiding citizens, productive members of society who just happen to have a difference of political opinion, suck it up, quit whining and let us be stupid and wrong in our thinking and you just get on with governing the entire country responsibly, which is the job you were hired to do.
What can we do anyway? Who listens to us? Are we to vote in yet another failed-government-in-waiting come 2013? A thousand times 'no!' to that one, emphatically no, because John & Co. have done nothing to earn my respect, much less my vote. They've been too busy saving their own ample derrieres and fighting over the spoils instead of cleaning up their well-exposed act. But I'll tell you flat out that this gang, this fountain of excuses for not properly leading, can't be allowed to continue either. The way I see it, if we don't begin to demand better, then we deserve to stay on the downhill slope, hurtling headlong toward the cliff's edge.
I'll leave you with this question: do you remember when Belcan Bridge was blanketed with the smoke of burning tires? Do you remember the government of the day's howls of indignance because a certain Opposition Leader had called for civil disobedience?
Maybe it's time we took up his suggestion.
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Parasite!
–noun
1. an organism that lives on or in an organism of another species, known as the host, from the body of which it obtains nutriment.
2. a person who receives support, advantage, or the like, from another or others without giving any useful or proper return, as one who lives on the hospitality of others.
Synonyms:
2. sycophant, toady, leech, sponge, hanger-on.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
par·a·site (par'?-sit')
n.
1. Biology An organism that grows, feeds, and is sheltered on or in a different organism while contributing nothing to the survival of its host.
2. 1. One who habitually takes advantage of the generosity of others without making any useful return.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
parasite par·a·site (par'?-sit')
n. 1. An organism that grows, feeds, and is sheltered on or in a different organism while contributing nothing to the survival of its host.
The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
You guys get the drift? Parasites are nasty little things that feed off their hosts, sometimes to the point of destroying them, but give absolutely nothing in return. In our politics, that person is a fixed part of the food chain. In our politics, sometimes we even have layers of parasites, i.e. the ones who are running the state feed off our taxpayer funds and the leeches attached to them feed off their fat host in turn. Otherwise known as catching the crumbs from the master's table.
What we are seeing now, the implosion of the two major political parties, is the result of their parasites taking turns draining the ultimate host to the point of near death. The spoils are fewer, and the scrambling for them both more vicious and more desperate. The ultimate host is our beleaguered, nearly destitute country, and every leech in every hue is responsible for Belize's deplorable condition. See, a greedy leech will kill its host, and therefore ultimately destroy its sole means of support. This is the message behind the fable of the golden goose, but we never learn, do we?
The easiest way to recognize this leechlike political creature is to look for someone who, before entering politics, was near bankruptcy (in business) or of a certain salaried income level. He (or she) enters politics and is suddenly, inexplicably, oozing wealth from every pore. He/she builds a multimillion dollar mansion; he/she brings their business from pending death to crazy wealth; he/she can own multiple houses for rent when the bank was once foreclosing on the only house they had.... Again, you've seen it and you know someone whose foot fits that metaphorical shoe. Unexplainable wealth elsewhere triggers investigation, but not in Belize, because parasites on the other side are satisfied merely to think "my turn will come." You see, parasites cannot survive without their host body to feed on. Parasites cannot successfully run an honest business, and parasites are never satisfied with a decent, honestly earned income. When in opposition, parasites' names are called in foreclosures, and parasites get listed for unpaid bills of every kind. But parasites out of power cannot loudly condemn ruling parasites lest they cut off their own path to wealth.
Have you ever met someone who holds no official position but who can still get things done almost effortlessly? Think of land transactions, trade license and property tax discounts, passage of goods with no duty paid, that kind of thing. These days it seems you can even include the phrase nolle prosequi in their repertoire. This parasite manifests the kinds of sudden, unexplained wealth gains mentioned above, and is nine times out of ten attached leechlike to the side of a powerful minister. The tenth parasite has assumed a position that gives power to make a profit without toadying to a Minister...except to keep the position, of course. This parasite will use his(her) affiliation to cajole, bully, bribe public servants to get things done for himself and his friends, legality be damned.
How about our elected leaders? Now, it's not fair to say that all of our elected leaders or their opposite numbers are parasites, but the growing unpopularity of our two ruling parties and the growing stigma attached to politics as practiced in our little nation state means that there's plenty of opportunity for the leeches to become legislators. Remember the UDP in 1998 and for the following five years? No one would have anything to do with them, and so they had to take any and all comers, leeches included. Today's PUP is paddling a similar watercraft up a similar creek.
In order for this country to survive...and maybe one day thrive, the few elected leaders that aren't parasites ought to wake up, step up and crack down on their colleagues. Those elected leaders ought also to be pushing for reforms that clip the wings of their fellow demigods, but no politician willingly gives up his own power, so here we remain. In political expediency (or will) lies the rub: will the current Prime Minister apply discipline in a decisive manner even when it may be politically damaging to do so? None have before him. From 1993 to 1998, Manuel Esquivel was managing a very fragile coalition, so that his Ministers could misbehave with impunity. The events of 1998 to 2008 include many more stories of Ministers pillaging our national accounts...and we know how that went. Now we have a rogue Mayor, but she's far from the only sinner. Were Cabinet to turn a mirror upon itself.... The question is, will Z be the sole example made in the name of transparency? If the UDP even makes an example of her, that is.
At the rate we're going, the messages being delivered through the endless red and blue scandals are: 1) don't get caught; 2) if you do get caught, brazen it out. At no point has anyone demonstrated why you shouldn't do the nasty in the first place. And the leeches continue to suck the host dry, and we as a people continue to tolerate them.
Whose turn is it next? Let's set them straight from now. No more leeches! No more leeches! No more leeches! Come on, say it...no more leeches!
1. an organism that lives on or in an organism of another species, known as the host, from the body of which it obtains nutriment.
2. a person who receives support, advantage, or the like, from another or others without giving any useful or proper return, as one who lives on the hospitality of others.
Synonyms:
2. sycophant, toady, leech, sponge, hanger-on.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
par·a·site (par'?-sit')
n.
1. Biology An organism that grows, feeds, and is sheltered on or in a different organism while contributing nothing to the survival of its host.
2. 1. One who habitually takes advantage of the generosity of others without making any useful return.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
parasite par·a·site (par'?-sit')
n. 1. An organism that grows, feeds, and is sheltered on or in a different organism while contributing nothing to the survival of its host.
The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
You guys get the drift? Parasites are nasty little things that feed off their hosts, sometimes to the point of destroying them, but give absolutely nothing in return. In our politics, that person is a fixed part of the food chain. In our politics, sometimes we even have layers of parasites, i.e. the ones who are running the state feed off our taxpayer funds and the leeches attached to them feed off their fat host in turn. Otherwise known as catching the crumbs from the master's table.
What we are seeing now, the implosion of the two major political parties, is the result of their parasites taking turns draining the ultimate host to the point of near death. The spoils are fewer, and the scrambling for them both more vicious and more desperate. The ultimate host is our beleaguered, nearly destitute country, and every leech in every hue is responsible for Belize's deplorable condition. See, a greedy leech will kill its host, and therefore ultimately destroy its sole means of support. This is the message behind the fable of the golden goose, but we never learn, do we?
The easiest way to recognize this leechlike political creature is to look for someone who, before entering politics, was near bankruptcy (in business) or of a certain salaried income level. He (or she) enters politics and is suddenly, inexplicably, oozing wealth from every pore. He/she builds a multimillion dollar mansion; he/she brings their business from pending death to crazy wealth; he/she can own multiple houses for rent when the bank was once foreclosing on the only house they had.... Again, you've seen it and you know someone whose foot fits that metaphorical shoe. Unexplainable wealth elsewhere triggers investigation, but not in Belize, because parasites on the other side are satisfied merely to think "my turn will come." You see, parasites cannot survive without their host body to feed on. Parasites cannot successfully run an honest business, and parasites are never satisfied with a decent, honestly earned income. When in opposition, parasites' names are called in foreclosures, and parasites get listed for unpaid bills of every kind. But parasites out of power cannot loudly condemn ruling parasites lest they cut off their own path to wealth.
Have you ever met someone who holds no official position but who can still get things done almost effortlessly? Think of land transactions, trade license and property tax discounts, passage of goods with no duty paid, that kind of thing. These days it seems you can even include the phrase nolle prosequi in their repertoire. This parasite manifests the kinds of sudden, unexplained wealth gains mentioned above, and is nine times out of ten attached leechlike to the side of a powerful minister. The tenth parasite has assumed a position that gives power to make a profit without toadying to a Minister...except to keep the position, of course. This parasite will use his(her) affiliation to cajole, bully, bribe public servants to get things done for himself and his friends, legality be damned.
How about our elected leaders? Now, it's not fair to say that all of our elected leaders or their opposite numbers are parasites, but the growing unpopularity of our two ruling parties and the growing stigma attached to politics as practiced in our little nation state means that there's plenty of opportunity for the leeches to become legislators. Remember the UDP in 1998 and for the following five years? No one would have anything to do with them, and so they had to take any and all comers, leeches included. Today's PUP is paddling a similar watercraft up a similar creek.
In order for this country to survive...and maybe one day thrive, the few elected leaders that aren't parasites ought to wake up, step up and crack down on their colleagues. Those elected leaders ought also to be pushing for reforms that clip the wings of their fellow demigods, but no politician willingly gives up his own power, so here we remain. In political expediency (or will) lies the rub: will the current Prime Minister apply discipline in a decisive manner even when it may be politically damaging to do so? None have before him. From 1993 to 1998, Manuel Esquivel was managing a very fragile coalition, so that his Ministers could misbehave with impunity. The events of 1998 to 2008 include many more stories of Ministers pillaging our national accounts...and we know how that went. Now we have a rogue Mayor, but she's far from the only sinner. Were Cabinet to turn a mirror upon itself.... The question is, will Z be the sole example made in the name of transparency? If the UDP even makes an example of her, that is.
At the rate we're going, the messages being delivered through the endless red and blue scandals are: 1) don't get caught; 2) if you do get caught, brazen it out. At no point has anyone demonstrated why you shouldn't do the nasty in the first place. And the leeches continue to suck the host dry, and we as a people continue to tolerate them.
Whose turn is it next? Let's set them straight from now. No more leeches! No more leeches! No more leeches! Come on, say it...no more leeches!
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Poor Little Rich Barry
I've been watching this whole episode of the new 'environmental' deposit law with more than a great deal of amused cynicism. See, to understand this law you have to go back to the PM's announcement in the House when he said (if I may paraphrase) that while he dislikes free trade, regrettably we are signatories to the CSME treaty. In other words, instead of encouraging exports, which we need to do badly, the PM wants to keep our borders closed and padlocked, which mentality explains why we're still an importing economy. Because free trade goes both ways, and were he to speak the language in the proper way, he would encourage our producers to take the next step and become exporters. He'd encourage other countries to shop in Belize instead of charging duty to those of us who stretch our dollars across the border. Alas, if only foresight were a thing readily available to our leaders.
Anyway, though economic ignorance often rules the day, the duties finally came down on the two relevant imported beers. Naturally, the local brewer went into hysterics because his gazillion years of protection had ended. So the brewery people duly raced up to Belmopan, put the well-practiced poor-me whine on full volume, and the result is this 'environmental' law that'll require everyone to put down a deposit of 25 cents on a perfectly useless bottle for absolutely no reason except that the local brewer is feeling a little pressured by the first real competition he's felt since Crown Beer died...or was murdered. Check it, Belikin has to spend real money on advertising! They had to buy Joe Bradley! What a barrel of laughs, thinking that we'll switch to Belikin just 'cause Joe says he drinks it. Ha! Everybody knows what Joe drinks, and it's not Belikin..
Now me, I do drink the occasional Belikin, but I'm still looking forward to the day, and I'm sure it's still quite some decades away, thanks to said local brewer, when I can drink a Corona in this country instead of hauling my ass up to Chetumal to do it. Hell, I work hard all week, and when Friday comes, as a taxpaying consumer, I deserve a choice of beers, no? Well, no, apparently not, because poor old Barry will starve. I saw him recently, and by my judgment, he could stand to lose a few pounds, so maybe we should all boycott Belikin while they try to take away our right to choose.
But do notice that Hilly is suddenly an environmentally conscious boy, and see how he's banging away on the airwaves, telling anybody who'll listen that he and his bosses are environmental angels. The peeps living behind the brewery in Ladyville know different, but it's fun to listen to. Doesn't matter though, as bogus as the law is, it'll pass, because Barry wants it to, and because he's made promises to the UDP. Mind you, he won't keep them any longer than he has to, after all he not-so-secretly hates the UDP. Wanna know the truth of his politics? Buy him a couple of drinks and ask him.
So kids, in the name of free trade, consumer choice and the environment, once Barry's Deposit passes into law, pay your shilling extra, drink your (newly affordable) imported beer, and raise a toast to the plastic continuing to line our streets with impunity. I guess the way to get that cleaned up is for someone to begin importing a beer in plastic bottles.
Anyway, though economic ignorance often rules the day, the duties finally came down on the two relevant imported beers. Naturally, the local brewer went into hysterics because his gazillion years of protection had ended. So the brewery people duly raced up to Belmopan, put the well-practiced poor-me whine on full volume, and the result is this 'environmental' law that'll require everyone to put down a deposit of 25 cents on a perfectly useless bottle for absolutely no reason except that the local brewer is feeling a little pressured by the first real competition he's felt since Crown Beer died...or was murdered. Check it, Belikin has to spend real money on advertising! They had to buy Joe Bradley! What a barrel of laughs, thinking that we'll switch to Belikin just 'cause Joe says he drinks it. Ha! Everybody knows what Joe drinks, and it's not Belikin..
Now me, I do drink the occasional Belikin, but I'm still looking forward to the day, and I'm sure it's still quite some decades away, thanks to said local brewer, when I can drink a Corona in this country instead of hauling my ass up to Chetumal to do it. Hell, I work hard all week, and when Friday comes, as a taxpaying consumer, I deserve a choice of beers, no? Well, no, apparently not, because poor old Barry will starve. I saw him recently, and by my judgment, he could stand to lose a few pounds, so maybe we should all boycott Belikin while they try to take away our right to choose.
But do notice that Hilly is suddenly an environmentally conscious boy, and see how he's banging away on the airwaves, telling anybody who'll listen that he and his bosses are environmental angels. The peeps living behind the brewery in Ladyville know different, but it's fun to listen to. Doesn't matter though, as bogus as the law is, it'll pass, because Barry wants it to, and because he's made promises to the UDP. Mind you, he won't keep them any longer than he has to, after all he not-so-secretly hates the UDP. Wanna know the truth of his politics? Buy him a couple of drinks and ask him.
So kids, in the name of free trade, consumer choice and the environment, once Barry's Deposit passes into law, pay your shilling extra, drink your (newly affordable) imported beer, and raise a toast to the plastic continuing to line our streets with impunity. I guess the way to get that cleaned up is for someone to begin importing a beer in plastic bottles.
Ah, Z...
I'll just say it right now, just shoot it straight from the hip: Z is no fool. Okay, there, I've said it.
But I'll say this as well: as smart as she is, she is utterly lacking in ethics and morals, and she has absolutely no sense of personal responsibility. In place of these things, she has survival skills second only to the legendary cockroach, the one who is expected to survive nuclear winter. Mark my words, Z will survive this latest episode, and will have no conscience whatsoever about having to sacrifice a few of her minions, her order-takers, to do it.
Mr. Davis, you're a fool. Kiran Squared, so are you both. You remain silent, you protect her; your names are in the news nonstop. The way things are shaping up, your fingerprints, and only yours, apparently will be found on the shovels that were used to bury the metaphorical bodies. So...TALK!
Throughout history, the most basic of leadership lessons have included the rule that the leader takes the blame for what happens on her watch. It's why the captain of the Titanic went down with his ship. I have yet to hear the mayor display enough maturity and leadership to take the blame for all these misadventures at City Hall. At the same time that she's not responsible for the bad deeds, she seems to be the only person who can be credited for what goes right, and her Councillors are so cowed or compromised that they too opt to remain silent in the face of it all.
At the higher levels and the party levels, Z enjoys the protection of powerful ministers, the kind who are also incapable of distinguishing right from wrong beyond making sure the law works for them and theirs and that the votes and the money flow their way. She is therefore the anointed heir to the Mesopotamia throne, misdeeds be damned. We are led by financial sociopaths, it seems. Their mantra? We can do whatever we want, the PUP did worse. That truth is fast fading away for you guys, nor did we vote you in so you could be ten percent less corrupt. You've turned out to be the same breed of dog in a different collar.
No, the guiltiest heads will never roll, and Belize is worse off for that fact.
But I'll say this as well: as smart as she is, she is utterly lacking in ethics and morals, and she has absolutely no sense of personal responsibility. In place of these things, she has survival skills second only to the legendary cockroach, the one who is expected to survive nuclear winter. Mark my words, Z will survive this latest episode, and will have no conscience whatsoever about having to sacrifice a few of her minions, her order-takers, to do it.
Mr. Davis, you're a fool. Kiran Squared, so are you both. You remain silent, you protect her; your names are in the news nonstop. The way things are shaping up, your fingerprints, and only yours, apparently will be found on the shovels that were used to bury the metaphorical bodies. So...TALK!
Throughout history, the most basic of leadership lessons have included the rule that the leader takes the blame for what happens on her watch. It's why the captain of the Titanic went down with his ship. I have yet to hear the mayor display enough maturity and leadership to take the blame for all these misadventures at City Hall. At the same time that she's not responsible for the bad deeds, she seems to be the only person who can be credited for what goes right, and her Councillors are so cowed or compromised that they too opt to remain silent in the face of it all.
At the higher levels and the party levels, Z enjoys the protection of powerful ministers, the kind who are also incapable of distinguishing right from wrong beyond making sure the law works for them and theirs and that the votes and the money flow their way. She is therefore the anointed heir to the Mesopotamia throne, misdeeds be damned. We are led by financial sociopaths, it seems. Their mantra? We can do whatever we want, the PUP did worse. That truth is fast fading away for you guys, nor did we vote you in so you could be ten percent less corrupt. You've turned out to be the same breed of dog in a different collar.
No, the guiltiest heads will never roll, and Belize is worse off for that fact.
Come Out, Come Out, Whoever You Are!
"If home is where the heart is, then Belize is my home." -Lord Michael Ashcroft
I'm confused.
This is the accurate state of mind for anyone trying to disentangle Michael Ashcroft's usual murky maze of corporate relationships. In this particular case, Ashcroft emphatically claims not to have anything to do with Telemedia, but keeps popping up like the proverbial bad penny.
The Hayward Charitable Trust, reputed owner of 70% of Telemedia, is, if you click on its website, a joke. Proof of the joke is the hastily put together homepage, which states "The Hayward Charitable Trust was set up in 2009 by MAA [Michael Anthony Ashcroft] to help do some good stuff for people who live in Belize. This includes paying for some buildings BLAH BLAH BLAH etc. etc. Insert text here." It also has "Our current projects include building a shrubbery, one that looks nice, and not too expensive." It is interesting to note that while we've been hearing about the Hayward Trust for some time, it is only in 2009 that it was set up.
This 'joke' is apparently tied in with several companies having links to Ashcroft, and has lawyers in common with Ashcroft. According to his spokesman, Ashcroft helped set up the trust for the benefit of charities and Telemedia employees. Now, according to this week's Reporter newspaper, their lawyers are pressing for action using the UK-Belize Bilateral Investment Treaty of 1982, Article 5 of which apparently states that "investments of nationals or companies of either Contracting Party shall not be nationalised, expropriated or subjected to measures having effect equivalent to nationalisation or expropriation."
So my question here is, who is the UK national or company bringing the action? Those of you who live overseas may not be familiar with Ashcroft's typically opaque way of doing business, but here we have the brand-new (2009) Hayward Charitable Trust owning approximately 70% of Telemedia, supposedly for Belizeans and therefore by inference Belizean, but there has to be a UK national or corporation involved in order to bring suit under the terms of the UK-Belize BIT. A release from Hayward Charitable Belize Trust sent to local media and posted on the blog Developing Telecoms Watch (and probably a million other places) states that Hayward indirectly owns 70% of Telemedia and "is entitled to protection of its interests under international law and it will invoke the Investment Treaty between the United Kingdom and Belize to ensure that it is afforded such protection." However, searches for a UK-based Hayward Charitable Trust do not yield anything that mentions aid to Belize charities or Telemedia employees. Hopefully someone can clear up this omission.
Now that you're as confused as I am, let me summarize: an unheard-of Belizean or UK charity, which has zero visibility except as the reputed owner of Telemdia, is invoking its rights, which it may or may not have under a treaty our successive governments forgot to cancel. Michael Ashcroft may or may not be involved, but while he's highly visible in the matter, says he has nothing to do with the thing, except as advisor. Ashcroft, a dual citizen, is able to use his dual nationality to absolute advantage in two countries, which reminds me: don't we have a suddenly silent question still pending on dual citizens in high places?
I can't wait for the next few chapters.
I'm confused.
This is the accurate state of mind for anyone trying to disentangle Michael Ashcroft's usual murky maze of corporate relationships. In this particular case, Ashcroft emphatically claims not to have anything to do with Telemedia, but keeps popping up like the proverbial bad penny.
The Hayward Charitable Trust, reputed owner of 70% of Telemedia, is, if you click on its website, a joke. Proof of the joke is the hastily put together homepage, which states "The Hayward Charitable Trust was set up in 2009 by MAA [Michael Anthony Ashcroft] to help do some good stuff for people who live in Belize. This includes paying for some buildings BLAH BLAH BLAH etc. etc. Insert text here." It also has "Our current projects include building a shrubbery, one that looks nice, and not too expensive." It is interesting to note that while we've been hearing about the Hayward Trust for some time, it is only in 2009 that it was set up.
This 'joke' is apparently tied in with several companies having links to Ashcroft, and has lawyers in common with Ashcroft. According to his spokesman, Ashcroft helped set up the trust for the benefit of charities and Telemedia employees. Now, according to this week's Reporter newspaper, their lawyers are pressing for action using the UK-Belize Bilateral Investment Treaty of 1982, Article 5 of which apparently states that "investments of nationals or companies of either Contracting Party shall not be nationalised, expropriated or subjected to measures having effect equivalent to nationalisation or expropriation."
So my question here is, who is the UK national or company bringing the action? Those of you who live overseas may not be familiar with Ashcroft's typically opaque way of doing business, but here we have the brand-new (2009) Hayward Charitable Trust owning approximately 70% of Telemedia, supposedly for Belizeans and therefore by inference Belizean, but there has to be a UK national or corporation involved in order to bring suit under the terms of the UK-Belize BIT. A release from Hayward Charitable Belize Trust sent to local media and posted on the blog Developing Telecoms Watch (and probably a million other places) states that Hayward indirectly owns 70% of Telemedia and "is entitled to protection of its interests under international law and it will invoke the Investment Treaty between the United Kingdom and Belize to ensure that it is afforded such protection." However, searches for a UK-based Hayward Charitable Trust do not yield anything that mentions aid to Belize charities or Telemedia employees. Hopefully someone can clear up this omission.
Now that you're as confused as I am, let me summarize: an unheard-of Belizean or UK charity, which has zero visibility except as the reputed owner of Telemdia, is invoking its rights, which it may or may not have under a treaty our successive governments forgot to cancel. Michael Ashcroft may or may not be involved, but while he's highly visible in the matter, says he has nothing to do with the thing, except as advisor. Ashcroft, a dual citizen, is able to use his dual nationality to absolute advantage in two countries, which reminds me: don't we have a suddenly silent question still pending on dual citizens in high places?
I can't wait for the next few chapters.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Traitorous Greed
“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed” –Mahatma Gandhi
“He who is greedy is always in want.” –Horace
"For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil." –1 Timothy 6:10
The Seven Deadly Sins, also known as the Capital Vices or Cardinal Sins, is a classification of the most objectionable vices which has been used since early Christian times to educate and instruct followers concerning (immoral) fallen man's tendency to sin. It consists of "Lust", "Gluttony", "Greed", "Sloth", "Wrath", "Envy", and "Pride". –Wikipedia
When you think about it, if it weren't for the uncontrolled, insatiable greed of a few, we would probably be a lot further ahead today as a country. The most obvious case in point for this argument is the politician who takes a bribe to change or introduce a law, but there are so many other ways that greed holds us back.
Imagine, a billionaire who made his fortune in our country, but made the country poorer in the process. His minions take his sizable paychecks in order to look the other way as he grinds us under his boot. Some of them are paid well enough to participate in the pillaging of our country with as much conscience as a serial killer. And some of those well-paid financial sociopaths are our own leaders, past and present. Make no mistake, our unlovable billionaire may be temporarily down, but he's not yet out -not as long as avarice rules us. We can be bought, he knows. Everybody has a price, he's sure of it.
Imagine, a politician who, with no pretense of conscience, commits the wholesale version of the very sins she once rallied the unions to condemn. She may have once been the hope of many, but now most just hope she will disappear. But think about this: if she does go, is her potential replacement any less greedy? Are his fellow councillors, in the main, innocent of all sin? Or are they merely waiting for their current leader's outsize greed to be moved out of the way so that they can have their turn at the feeding trough?
Imagine, a multimillionaire who has, over nearly forty years, achieved success by destroying his competition -not less than five companies- in Hiroshima-like fashion. Competition and a possibly superior product are not enough; it's best to smash bottles and sabotage factories -the enemy's bankruptcy is the only acceptable option. And yet, successive governments, generations of corrupt politicians, have been persuaded to look the other way, have even fought to protect him, while he's fed his insatiable greed, but only because he let a few tasty crumbs fall from his table into their gaping, voracious mouths. Only he must survive, and an entire country must be held hostage to please only him. The politicians profess to worry about jobs he provides, even as they carefully overlook the jobs he's destroyed. The stench of greed chokes us all.
For ten years, we watched one man control an entire government, the embodiment of vicious gluttony. You want something done? Best to go to this guy and pay your fee, he's more powerful than the actual PM. He can get things done, and no matter how evil he may be, he runs the show, so get over your morals or get out of the way. Think that mentality is yesterday's news? Think again, the demons have possessed new bodies and this year is no different from the ten or so that went before it. Greed pulls us under, fills our lungs, prevents us from breathing and growing.
But knowing all this, you're reading this and thinking 'okay, but what do we do?' We have to continue letting them know that we have no tolerance for greed and its ravages. Boycott the greedy boys' businesses; remind the corrupt politicians that they work for us, not the other way around; tell the Lands Department officer that you aren't paying and if your papers get lost, you'll report his suggestion of a bribe -do the same for that Customs officer at the border, and the cop who wants his piece for doing the job he's already paid to do. Tell your friends, your family, your neighbours to stand with you, for greed cannot survive in the face of defiance; it is fed by complacency, fattened by apathy.
When you begin to realize that you can't wait for a savior to come along, when you begin to realize that it starts with you, is the day you'll begin to pull your country back from the edge of the precipice.
“He who is greedy is always in want.” –Horace
"For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil." –1 Timothy 6:10
The Seven Deadly Sins, also known as the Capital Vices or Cardinal Sins, is a classification of the most objectionable vices which has been used since early Christian times to educate and instruct followers concerning (immoral) fallen man's tendency to sin. It consists of "Lust", "Gluttony", "Greed", "Sloth", "Wrath", "Envy", and "Pride". –Wikipedia
When you think about it, if it weren't for the uncontrolled, insatiable greed of a few, we would probably be a lot further ahead today as a country. The most obvious case in point for this argument is the politician who takes a bribe to change or introduce a law, but there are so many other ways that greed holds us back.
Imagine, a billionaire who made his fortune in our country, but made the country poorer in the process. His minions take his sizable paychecks in order to look the other way as he grinds us under his boot. Some of them are paid well enough to participate in the pillaging of our country with as much conscience as a serial killer. And some of those well-paid financial sociopaths are our own leaders, past and present. Make no mistake, our unlovable billionaire may be temporarily down, but he's not yet out -not as long as avarice rules us. We can be bought, he knows. Everybody has a price, he's sure of it.
Imagine, a politician who, with no pretense of conscience, commits the wholesale version of the very sins she once rallied the unions to condemn. She may have once been the hope of many, but now most just hope she will disappear. But think about this: if she does go, is her potential replacement any less greedy? Are his fellow councillors, in the main, innocent of all sin? Or are they merely waiting for their current leader's outsize greed to be moved out of the way so that they can have their turn at the feeding trough?
Imagine, a multimillionaire who has, over nearly forty years, achieved success by destroying his competition -not less than five companies- in Hiroshima-like fashion. Competition and a possibly superior product are not enough; it's best to smash bottles and sabotage factories -the enemy's bankruptcy is the only acceptable option. And yet, successive governments, generations of corrupt politicians, have been persuaded to look the other way, have even fought to protect him, while he's fed his insatiable greed, but only because he let a few tasty crumbs fall from his table into their gaping, voracious mouths. Only he must survive, and an entire country must be held hostage to please only him. The politicians profess to worry about jobs he provides, even as they carefully overlook the jobs he's destroyed. The stench of greed chokes us all.
For ten years, we watched one man control an entire government, the embodiment of vicious gluttony. You want something done? Best to go to this guy and pay your fee, he's more powerful than the actual PM. He can get things done, and no matter how evil he may be, he runs the show, so get over your morals or get out of the way. Think that mentality is yesterday's news? Think again, the demons have possessed new bodies and this year is no different from the ten or so that went before it. Greed pulls us under, fills our lungs, prevents us from breathing and growing.
But knowing all this, you're reading this and thinking 'okay, but what do we do?' We have to continue letting them know that we have no tolerance for greed and its ravages. Boycott the greedy boys' businesses; remind the corrupt politicians that they work for us, not the other way around; tell the Lands Department officer that you aren't paying and if your papers get lost, you'll report his suggestion of a bribe -do the same for that Customs officer at the border, and the cop who wants his piece for doing the job he's already paid to do. Tell your friends, your family, your neighbours to stand with you, for greed cannot survive in the face of defiance; it is fed by complacency, fattened by apathy.
When you begin to realize that you can't wait for a savior to come along, when you begin to realize that it starts with you, is the day you'll begin to pull your country back from the edge of the precipice.
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