By G. Michael Reid - The Prime Minister took the podium this past week to
apprise Belizeans of the current state or our nation and as could have
been expected, the prognosis was grim. Not even the
normally glib and gifted orator could find the words to make the landing
of his message soft. Things are dread and gonna get
dreader!
Anyone living in this country at this time will tell you
that things are…well in a word, terrible. Cost of living
is astronomical and climbing higher each day, unemployment is bad and
getting worse, crime is ridiculously out of control, our security forces
make us more ashamed than secure and corruption seems the normal and
acceptable modus operandi among public officials. Hustling
is the order of the day.
Mr. Barrow let
loose sighs and phrases like: “huge deficit”"the worst is yet to come”
and “The upcoming fiscal year will be the hardest.” In a
rare and unusual display of humility, Mr. Barrow
asked Belizeans for their “support and understanding”. Well
for sure, that request could be more readily considered if Belizeans
would see the same inclination to austerity from Mr. Barrow
and his band of bungling bandits. For Mr. Barrow
to shake his Rolex in our faces and asking us to keep our Timex
ticking, is unreasonable. We are basically being asked to patch our
bikes and keep peddling while we watch his clueless ministers and hand
pick hustlers high roll past us in their Infiniti’s and custom fitted
SUV’s.
Belize folk are not known to be unreasonable and have
in fact, been often criticized for being too complacent and lenient
with politicians. This current administration in
particular, has been given a long rope when we consider the number of
misappropriations and blatant misuse of public trust; from the halls of
Capital Hill to the corridors of local government. Yet,
shielded by a shamelessly partisan media (probably embarrassed by their
obvious misdirecting of the people), this government has been allowed to
function, or malfunction as the case may be, free and san souci.
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