By Colin Hyde
The consensus, from what I have heard and read, is that PM Briceño did not tell the nation the whole truth when he said that Minister of Agriculture José Abelardo Mai had taken a leave of absence from Cabinet so he could get medical attention for chronic pain in his back. Did Manuel, George, and Dean tell lies? We are pretty certain that Said did, and when.
When our leader who had to lai told his whopper, his government was caught between the UK’s Ashcroft, the US’s Jeff Prosser, and a Mr. Glenn Godfrey who Ashcroft, John Avery, and Ambrose Tillett said held shares, a retirement plan, for the boys. One day down the road, Said would tell Dean noh watch me, watch yuself; but when he stepped to the podium to fib, all the eyes in the nation were on him. Said went from a shaky promissory note straight into a secret accommodation agreement.
Ah, back pain, dat da notn fu play wid. You know the back is the fulcrum; everything physical starts from there. Crippling back pain can put a hero on crutches, or on a stretcher. I must have told you the story about my uncle, RB. He’d been in a motorcycle accident, riding one of the big ones. Naa, people who are showy don’t ride small ones. I say, young Sylvia Waight had no right to ride a 750cc! If she took that to the training course, the trainer would say, “No, Lady, you’re for 125 or 100; that bike you’re riding, that’s for a 3 or 4 term minister of government.”
You know after 3 or 4 terms those bohgaz are broad. I wonder if after 5 years out of office John and Kontri have slimmed down some, shed some of the non-muscle, non-bone part of the carcass. Those guys were avid in sports, John in organizing and Kontri over the ball. Whee, look what good living did to them! Uy, I can’t talk little bikes without telling you again about another uncle, JV. He wanted a bike for his job and Grampa advised him to get a tuk-tuk, because it was very economical on the gas. Uncle JV said, Me, ride a tuk-tuk? I’d rather die! Boy, I had some showy uncles!
Returning to RB, he got flung from his big bike, he injured his back, and he spent some time healing. Both sides of my family are maritime – hmm, is that was or were? – anyway, we were always at caye during the July and August long holiday. That year my uncle sent his wife, Miss Naomi Lara, and their children to caye, while he stayed home to convalesce. He was at the quay, at Southern Foreshore, waiting for them when their long escape from the concrete jungle was over. There was no bridge there; the folk and the luggage had to be ferried from the sailboat to shore in a dory, and coming over, the dory capsized with Miss Naomi and the children, and a couple of the toddlers couldn’t swim. My uncle said he was fixed to the wharf like a statue. He said he watched them flailing in the water and couldn’t go to their aid. Luckily, a brother who was passing by jumped in and swam to their rescue.
Aha, re: horses and backs, Abelardo has the height for a jockey, but his girth would keep him out of the saddle, out of the stirrups, outside of the rails. After one term as minister, he isn’t fat, not yet. His luck is genetic, a stocky frame instead of a beanpole. So, a horse threw him, eh? Oh my! A cattleman’s life is plenty rough.
There are people with credentials who say the powerful US dictated, gave us orders. If I had to decide between the falling off the horse and the powerhouse US pointing in our face, if I had to I would have to go with the latter. A few weeks prior to Mr. Mai’s back giving out, certain people had been floating rumors that made him out to be not so good material for the Boy Scouts. I’m not going to go beyond saying that elected leaders will come into contact will all sorts, and in the world of business many are not as clean and fresh looking as the presentation at their front door; ah, and some politicians are not as clean as their guayabera. Hmm, this falling off a horse story that PM Briceño told, no humbleton he, he probably couldn’t bring himself to say he was under orders from US bullies to put our brother in a back seat, for a time.
I cut away here to John Saldivar, a government minister who ran afoul of the US. The story out there is that he got the brush for his association with a man who would later be convicted of committing fraud against the Americans. Some Belizeans wanted to know about the “vehicle” John used to ferry funds between the US and Belize, funds which he said were for sponsorship of his many sports clubs. Re: that US matter, John maintains that he didn’t know his foreign associate was an unsavory person. Ah, a political leader should be very circumspect about whom they hobnob with, and whom they take money from.
If what we heard is all there is to John’s case, the US was pretty harsh. I said, if all we know is all there is. Since the US bashed him, John’s political fortunes have crashed. Boy, so much of politics is association, perception, personalities, and timing.
Inspiring, compassionate ruling from the judge in the Michael Cowo case
I am aware that we have to be careful commenting when we think a judge got it wrong, but I don’t know of any rule that blocks us from heaping praise when we encounter what we believe are brilliance and compassion. The decision by the judge, Justice Pilgrim, to put Mr. Cowo on probation for 3 years for his dangerous negligence with his child, instead of giving him what some media say is a mandatory 15 years behind bars, that looks so like a ruling from the greatest judge of them all, Harun al-Rashid, the famous Caliph of Baghdad.
A 7News clip said Cowo was drinking at home, and then he went to a nearby store, where he continued drinking. At the store he got into a ruckus with his common-law, who had followed him. The 7 report said a little later Cowo chased the woman “from the home and told her to leave the [2-year-old] toddler inside … the child was found at 4:00 the next morning, abandoned in the middle of the street.” When the child wandered into the street, I don’t know if Cowo was still drinking at the store, or if he was snoring in bed. Cowo pled guilty to the charge of cruelty to a child. While on probation he is to stay away from alcohol and he is to attend counseling.
He disappointingly separated from his kid for a few hours, and bully, beautifully, compassionately, the court did not separate him from the kid for 15 years. How terrible it would have been if the judge didn’t, ehm, tek the law into his hands.
It seems that Cowo likes his flood, and that was at the root of his negligence for which he was exposed to being locked away, not seeing his son without bars between them, not seeing his son until his beard reached his knees and the boy could vote in elections, for 15 years his son seeing him only in orange jublung.
I don’t have to tell Mr. Cowo to count his lucky stars. I will tell him to be very selective about his company. The Amandala said the brother is well on the way to being cured of drinking. I will advise him that if there is any lapse, if he will take a drink, he has to first ensure that his boy has proper supervision. Then, then he should go to a caye that is not too populated, and not return to shore until he is properly sober.
