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| CRISIS |
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| Written by : | ||||
| Friday, 09 May 2008 | ||||
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The euphoria following the dramatic UDP victory at the polls
on February 7th has come to a screeching halt. Skyrocketing fuel prices, a
pending electricity rate hike, basic food items like flour, rice, milk, cooking
oil, meat and chicken increasing by as much as forty percent at the shops and
supermarkets in a society caught in a spate of violence and crime have quickly
transformed Belize into a state on the edge of a crisis.
There is too a growing crisis of the spirit that is gripping
Belize today. People are beginning to
feel duped and dejected. You can see it in their faces. You can hear it in
their cries for help. Many are shocked by the early blatant display of
arrogance and hypocrisy by a government consumed by their absolute power. Many
people believed them when they promised in their manifesto to provide thousands
of new jobs. But no sooner had they taken the oath of office “to do right to
all manner of people, without fear or favour, affection or ill-will”, that they
began to carry out a systematic purge of known and suspected PUPs in the public
service. Scores of senior and middle management officers have been sent home.
Hundreds of open-vote workers fired. And yet not a word of protest from the
Public Services Union or the National Trade Union Congress. It shows that these
union bosses are either totally politically compromised or have been cowed into
sheep-like submission.
We never of course expected to hear any concern from the Association of Concerned Belizeans (ACB). They are too busy taken up with the big posts and large contracts/largesse bestowed by their party in government. Meanwhile children from poor working families are having the bread snatched from their hungry mouths. Many mothers are going through severe stress. Where is the rent money coming from? Where is the money to buy food, pay the water and light bills? School fees are due… It is a downright shame that while Prime Minister Barrow callously condones and unapologetically tries to justify this mass political victimization, he and his Ministers make a virtue out of a policy of naked nepotism and cronyism. They cannot pretend that the previous government left the treasury broke. Indeed they are spending extravagantly like there is no tomorrow. There is no new budget yet presented to the National Assembly but every member of Cabinet can be seen in their new high end luxury vehicles. In the face of this obscene extravaganza from the rulers, the people are already feeling the pressure from the ever-escalating food prices and rising cost of living with no respite in sight. The situation is bleak for the average citizen in a climate of fear and foreboding. The tipping point of a looming crisis is fast approaching. We are seeing young people destroying their own lives with drugs and alcohol. We see men who make a business of the drug trade destroying the lives of others. We see teenage boys get hold of 9 millimeter revolvers and gun down other teenage boys over ‘old beef’, revenge or just for the kick of it. We see children having children and the fathers of the children walk away and abandon them as if they don’t amount to anything. We see in our nation’s Constitution that one of the people’s fundamental rights and freedoms is “the protection of the right to work”. But we see a Government that is sworn to uphold the Constitution and the law, fire and retrench citizens at their whim and fancy. What is all this doing to the psyche of Belizeans? How can hope stay alive when there is so much fear and uncertainty? What kind of freedom and democracy is this if people are going hungry and sick while our elected leaders are only concerned about striking political blows against their opponents while the country is going to hell in a hand basket? If a free society cannot help the many who are poor it cannot save the few who are rich – said John F. Kennedy. More apropos are the words of John Steinbeck: “Must hunger become anger and anger fury before anything will be done?”  Add as favourites (8) | Views: 49 | Print | E-mail
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