Fayemarie A Carter

Is it a calling or just in it for the money by: Hubert Pipersberg

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Is it a calling or just in it for the money

This underscores the point that we have been discussing on social media for awhile now. The
system is in need of serious structural reforms. Insanity is define as doing the same thing over
and over and expects to get different results. Public service is a choice that one makes and it
comes with certain sacrifices. It’s a given that one’s compensation will not reflect that of the
private sector, The public sector and the so called third sector(non-profit) will never be able
to compete compensation wise with the private sector. The reason is that in public service the
compensation is under-written by taxpayers the government gets its money from tax collection
unlike a business that operates for profit. One enters public service with the assumption that you
are serving the public good. You are doing so strictly for altruistic reasons. It is suppose to be
a calling to service higher than yourself. What better way to make a meaningful contribution to
society via public service? The goal becomes blurred when we expect more out of public service
than what the stated results can give. Having said that, how do we determine compensation?
Aligning it with the cost of living would be a start. Offer civil service protection with built in due
process to protect from arbitrary dismissal. In addition, appointed positions such as the CEO
of a ministry who essentially serve at the whim of the minister is still a bureaucrat working in
public service as such they cannot be expected to receive CEO type private sector compensation.
Granted they signed a contract. However, their compensation should commensurate with
scholarship and experience. They should also be evaluated based strictly on performance. Since
they are in fact public servants, they should be compensated enough to do their job for the
public good without compromise or any under-hand dealings. They should be able to serve with
integrity. This is where ethics in government plays a significant role. Bear in mind morality
cannot be legislated. In short, they must still be held accountable to the public trust. I can think
of interventions such as the integrity commission as a start.

As for these powerful elected government ministers with mandates to intimidate bureaucrats,
they operate under a different banner the spoils system. Suffice to say again it boils down to
sacrifice for the public good. I believe that they should be compensated. I am not prepared to
suggest a number. However, it should be aligned with the cost of living. This is an example of
where the Westminster model exposes its short comings. An ongoing discourse or framework
is what is needed to determine the most effective reform to our system of governance and
jurisprudence. What is the most effective model if so how will it be implemented? I am not
prepared to suggest one only because I believe that input will be required from all the stake
holders (the people). I will say this; the stated goal should be for proportional representation. In
addition, I have argued consistently, in this space, that I believe that it should in fact begin with
s sober look at our carbon copy constitution; a constitutional conference/convention would be
my preference. Since the constitution is the highest law of the land we should fashion one that
mirrors our struggle as a people.

Daily Dingleberry 01-25-12

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English: Barack Obama delivers a speech at the...

Image via Wikipedia

I think we are all getting a little exhausted bc now we are starting to turn on each other…so let’s look elsewhere for today while we gather ourselves and our thoughts. Can we say OBAMA!!! Wow! He left his opposition basically stuttering. It was awesome! Even if you won’t vote for him, that was so admirable last night. He was  eloquent and confident. But what I liked even more was, he addressed accusations made against him. He addressed less than popular issues and he made a stand. I loved how he called out the Congress and I hope they felt ashamed because basically they are just cock blocking. That is never acceptable. At this point, I think the Republicans are their worse enemy and has been for a while but if that’s what it took to get our first bi-racial president elected? Then so be it. I hope they get over their outdated views and get with what is best for the country. We all need representation. We are all important. It takes all kinds. Sounds just like Belize doesn’t it? Maybe Belize will finally get a female president…but under what banner? Which party will be brave enough, forward thinking enough to accept a female leader?????

Pro Con List: By: Aria Lightfoot

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Elections are drawing near; the propaganda machinery is in high gear.  Information, money, mortgage write-off, Belizean citizenship, finger pointing and empty promises are being thrown your way from every direction.  We are all weighing in on this circus for our votes. The media sources, political foot soldiers, religious organs, special interest groups and citizens are making noise.  The frenzy is confusing and feels like mosquitoes irritatingly buzzing in your ear.

I guess what is bugging me is my inability to write a pro and con list.  I know the importance of voting, but as a voter can I truly make a difference?  If vote for PUP, do they plan to change their evil ways? I am not sure.  Am I wrong? But it seems that PUP candidates are the same perpetuators of some serious corruption and flaws in judgment in the past administration.  These candidates and affiliates are proudly displayed on their websites and out campaigning.

 If I vote for UDP, do they plan on changing their evil ways? UDP has backtracked on most campaign promises to offset corruption and in fact celebrated the “spoil system” as PUP gave an approving nod.  They have conducted some questionable activities and lately they seem more like the PUP that was voted out of office.

Mein, I feel frustrated and powerless as a voter, I don’t even think there is a third party candidate in my division and if there was, would voting for them just be wasting my vote?  How can a party without the requisite seat plan to address any changes when they cannot even come up with 31 candidates?  

I am not like those abused, forgiving voters…the ones who make excuses and try to justify the evil of their  party.  I want to know what these parties are doing for Belize.  Will they change it? Will they run  Belize to the ground until there is literally nowhere else to go?  Do they care about my vote?   Let your voices and expectations be heard clearly as they canvass for your vote. Stop treating fellow citizens from a different party like your enemy because here is the real tidbit:  

Our politicians are becoming super millionaires with your vote endorsement.  Their children attend the best schools worldwide and have the posh jobs. Dean Barrow and Francis Fonseca don’t really hate each other!  Let me say it again! PUP and UDP politicians don’t hate each other!  They all hang out together, go to the same parties, belong to the same clubs, and celebrate each other successes in life and in many instances, RELATED to each other!    When we witness the argument in the House of Representatives, that is just the obligatory show time performance for the “fool fool” Belizeans.   So we di fool fool ones think that these politicians are sleeping at night worried about our well being.  IF they truly loved Belize, the first day in office they would begin implementing the changes to cure the deficiencies that create corruption.

Wake up my Belizean people, take off your red and blue and yellow lens and let’s start seeing where our country is broken and let’s start fixing it…! DEMAND ACCOUNTABILTY FROM THESE LEADERS WHO DEPEND ON OUR BLIND ALLEGIANCE!

Daily Dingleberry 01-24-12

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People make me soooo tired *sigh*

Eribadi just yak yak yak yak…are we listening to anything?

I see lovely, passionate people but instead of debating ideas…we are debating records…as in, who duh what, when, where….we are gonna get nowhere like this. We need to establish a solid, sound framework within which our government, blue, red, pink needs to work. We have to acknowledge that the system is ROTTEN TO THE CORE. As long as our rules and laws are outdated, as long as we are operating under the same old premises and archaic ideologies, we will be third world. Third world ideas, third word behaviour, third world life. Don’t like that? Meh…sux for you.

We need to stop this ‘crab enna bucket’ mentality. We need to stop letting rich and powerful families get away with murder, literally. Nothing can get done if people are intimidated and threatened at every level. The smart people keep yaking yaking yaking (wait, would that include me? LOL) but we continuously fail to address the fact that we are fighting some pretty strong, deep seated, (no, it’s not deep seeded cause anything planted too deep doesn’t grow, hence has no roots)  historical and cultural factors. ANd then it all comes back to who, how, when, where and with what the hell money?

 

Depressed yet?

Daily Dingleberry 01-22-12

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OK PIPPLE!!!! This one REALLLLLLY bothers me. We are being damn hypocritical about the way we express our feelings about immigrants coming to Belize…I can hear the spit fly and bile swallow when we seh “deh pania”. But people, many of our family members are immigrants facing the same prejudice in other countries, yes? Especially, the US????? How can we show such animosity to a group many of us represent? And then, cussing how they take our jobs while we starve? Why di hell you nuh di pick fruit and calleck garbage? Why you nuh di chap cane and clean toilet? What? You tu good fi mek an honest dallah? YEAH….you much rather work the biggest industry we got in Belize right? WESTERN UNION! Well mek ah tell uno di straight up straight. YOUR relatives tyad ah you di beg fi money. YOUR relatives tyad ah heah bout deh alien whe tek uno job and das why  u bruk! Cause the irony is? You di depend pan wa immigrant di tek somebadi job ret yah da states tu! And it aint no fun to feel unwelcome and unwanted and treated less than. when we are developing and contributing to the communities within which we live.  Don’t be hatin’ on your neighbours, man. We are all part of one world, one human family. Show some compassion and in the meantime, stop lying to yourself about why you are in the situation you are in. Dah yuh paliticians tief! Dah yu son di sell weed! Da u nuh wa do jobs yu feel are beneath you! If you want your country to grow and become strong, you literally have to toil the soil you are so desperately fighting about and for.

Put that in your bong and smoke it!

Daily Dingleberry 01-21-12

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Is it really the 21st already???? Sheesh! Time is whizzing by! Pet peeve today IS: people causing hysteria on these here blogs/Facebook pages about EVERYTHING the government does…remember di likkle boy who cried wolf??? One day, when there really was a wolf, nobody listened. My point? You lose credibility when everything you say is biased. This type of halarism will lose my interest quick because it just sung like sour grapes, ovah and ovah again. People, even the ones you think are stupid, quickly tire of constantly being yelled at “the sky is falling, the sky is falling!” It’s a natural human response to just tune yo ass out. We can’t take it, ok? It takes too much energy to worry and stress out that much. And common sense intervenes to tell us, “hey, we nuh dead yet, let’s go bathe sea”. I love all my people, blue or red or just green with envy. Look around and just for a second, truly evaluate this situation. I’m not asking you to ignore corruption and blatant disregard for the law, BUT LOOK RUNG!!!! We have been chosen as a top tourist destination. Join forces together with other lovers and clean up this place. Do fu yuhself and cash in on the good publicity we are getting. Bank that lovers!

Corruption is as Corruption does – By: Aria Lightfoot

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“Corruption is worse than prostitution. The latter might endanger the morals of an individual, the former invariably endangers the morals of the entire country. “Karl Kraus

Am I the only person who is dumbfounded by our level of corruption and how open and acceptable it has become? The new political proposal seems to resonate a message of “Never mind that we are corrupted, the other party is even worse than us“ .The major political parties are shameless and pathetic in their nonchalant attitude towards corruption. Yesterday, I read where someone tried to justify the measurement of corruption based on a dollar amount. I have read citizens justifying their choice of party saying that “their party is not as corrupted, or better the devil you know, or lesser of two evils.”

It signals to me that the apathy and sickness of corruption has invaded every crevice of society, even the thinking of the average citizen. (whatever citizenship means these days) We are in desperate need of a cure. The parties in Belize have successful convinced the Belizean population that corruption is inevitable therefore accept it; additionally the parties have seemingly surrendered to this conclusion by not addressing the issue of corruption as a national crisis. Recently, polls have been suggesting or attempting to convince the Belizean population that Belizeans do not care about corruption. I am not convinced.

My hope is that Belizeans begin demanding accountability for the rape of their taxes at the pleasure of elected officials and the disgraceful undermining of our citizenship for votes. I may be inclined to believe that corruption must be legal right? It must be! It is openly discussed, and admitted by our politicians; they justify or exempt their behavior based on the corruption of the other party. The last two Prime Ministers of Belize are prominent attorneys and senior members of the Bar Association, so there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that corruption MUST be legal. As a citizen, my instinctive approach is to raise hell and demand laws to offset this blatant and discouraging behavior of our elected officials.

So I decided to take a trip through The Laws of Belize Criminal Code 101, to see if laws exist to offset this corruptive environment, before I clumsily climbed on my rostrum. I didn’t expect to see any anti corruption laws. I mean our parties are operating on the premise of less corrupted. Additionally, an international journalist correlated our corruption to poverty ( http://p.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jan/16/tale-of-two-small-countries ). So if we all know corruption is the problem and it has become so ostentatious that even an international observer can see it and was compelled to write about it, I figured if I could advocate for strong laws, maybe it would deter our politicians and public officers from such contemptuous and scandalous behavior. Right?

I was stupefied and confused by the laws I found in our criminal code. Turns out that corruption is illegal in Belize and in some instances punishable by imprisonment of up to ten (10) years. Surely these major political parties don’t know this? But why wouldn’t they? They are dominated by prominent and senior attorneys of the Bar Association of Belize. They have been the Legislature for the past 30 years and they have in fact written these laws themselves. So now my anguish grows and my anger rises…not only are politicians blatantly corrupted, they have no regard for our laws in Belize. Winning elections and governing in Belize have become an official pillage on the tax payers money at the pleasure of the ruling party.

The Criminal code 101 of the Laws of Belize Section 139 (1) defines Theft as “ a person who by ANY deception [(can be defined as misleading, deceit, cheating, circumvention)] dishonestly appropriates property belonging to another [tax payers] with the intention of permanently depriving the other [tax payer] of it.” Theft does not mention the dollar amount, because a thief is a thief! If he steals one dollar he will surely steal a million dollars.

The Criminal Code which can be located at http://www.belizelaw.org/lawadmin/ also specifically targets corruption of public officers and also targets those who corrupts public officers and voters (see Sec 139-146, 155-158, 296-) . Take a personal tour, my Belizean people and see how many laws are broken by the voters, public officers, politicians and bar members in Belize. We are all partners in this moral, social and legal decline in Belize. Obviously calling on the Attorney General, Minister of Police, Commissioner of Police and Director of Public Prosecution to investigate and prosecute our politicians and government officials is a monumental waste of time, especially since they serve at the pleasure of the government of the day. So what happens when we have laws that are not enforced, rabid corruption and no political will to address it? Justice can never be achieved in a country that selectively enforces laws and the culture of lawlessness will continue to corrode our jewel until we say NO MORE!

 My mom use to tell me, corruption begins with the first act and with each act you begin to convince yourself that such behavior is acceptable and eventually you are so corrupted you can no longer identify it. The parents who allows their children to walk into their homes with items they didn’t purchase for that child is contributing to corruption. The public officer who accepts money for services the tax payer is paying for, is contributing to corruption, the voter who accepts money in exchange for votes is contributing to corruption. The politician who uses his office for pecuniary gain is contributing to corruption. The judiciary that discriminately distributes justice is contributing to corruption. The entire moral fabric of our country is deteriorating. The dollar amount does not make corruption Belize…Corruption is our deplorable deeds and our omission to address it and our attempt to justify it.

Reunion by Fayemarie A Carter

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Faye 1Bernie Toucan and Doo Doo Chickadee are sitting on their usual spot by the junction of Fortification and Judgement Streets, having a bit of tea. It is a lovely afternoon and the long time friends are enjoying a lighthearted chat when they feel the wire dip. Both of them look over and give shrieks of surprise.

“Milli!!!! Millicent Audrey Avocet!”, exclaimed Bernie.

“Blue Shanks! Gial! Whe u di du ya?” asked Dodes excitedly. The friends come together for a warm embrace and kisses.

“Well girls. I’m here to bury my grandmother, Aurelia Avocet, memba shi? Granny Ray? She passed a few days ago and I brought her home. She insisted that she be buried here in Belize. U membah how shi does goh? Always have to have shi own way,” Mili smiled wistfully.

“I’m sorry to hear that Milli. I hope it wasn’t too difficult for you and your family?” asked Bernie.

“Well, she was almost 100 so we knew this was coming and the past few months, she was going in and out of the hospital. That was hard because it felt like I never left work, you know? Nurse at work, nurse at home,” said Milli.

“I’m sure she appreciated it, Milli,” said Bernie as she touched her friend reassuring on the shoulder.

“Gial but hmmm! Comin home da neva no joke! Dey harass me every step ah di way. Dey act like ah midi try smuggle drugs or something. Dey nuh know dat if a midi do dat, di coffin mi gwein di opposite direction? What di hell ah wa smuggle into Belize from States?” Milli’s eyes danced as she giggled. “Yu wud tink dey glad dat the immigrant di lef di country, right? Dey stop my rass da every station! Ah neahly miss mi connecting flight home. Ah tell di lady if shi nevah let mi goh, mi granny miya haunt shi rass sake a lef ah fi travel by shi self,’ said Milli.

“Haha!” laughed Dodes.”U nuh change nuh gial. U still di give trouble, big time lady and all.”

“Well! Dey piss mi off man! Ih does be dat I mi glad fi have a Belizean passport. I used to joke that I would nevah want a American one cause dey wa tek mi mek hostage. But hell! Ah di change mi mind. Ah mean, who wahn go thru da process da states? You have to pay almost a thousand dollahs den you hafi study and tek exam. Hmph! But lately, I might prefer be American.”

“Well, u know Milli, lately, wha latta pipple di rail up bout fi we citizenship. How easy it is fi get it and dat anybody could get it fi leebit a money or a simple vote inna elections. Jus di oddah day, PM give hundreds a pipple citizenship. Pipple nevah tek tu kindly. Seh how dey only di du it fi get votes cause dey desperate.” Dodes shook her head. “Milli gial. You might glad u live da States fi tru. Dis country jus di go to rass. Ah mean, why d hell u wa give a bunch a Guatemalans citizenship? Dey don tink we da fi dey? Now dey could vote and buy land and send dey pickney da fi wi school. Ih just bun mi when ah tink bout it.”

“Shit! Ah neva know tings get so bad gial Dodes,” said Milli. But dis rass nuh new mein. When ah midi go da SJC, dey used to talk bout di Chiney di pay like $45,000 fuh wa passport. At least den wi mid get something firit, right? But dis? Dey just di come tek whe dey done tink da fi dey already and we jus give it to dey!” Milli looked over at Bernie who had gotten very quiet, just sipping her tea every now and again. “Bernie. Whe di goh tru da maze a yourns?”

“Ahh.” Bernie sighed.”Ah jus di tink fi tru Milli. Ah mean, what do you do when something like this happen? Who u call? Is there even a process of inquiry?”

“Hey Milli,” said Dodes. “Di one good thing whe come outta dis? Dey gat deya 2 gial name Aria Lightfoot and Fayemarie Carter. Dey two deh awn gial. You know whe Aria seh bout di passport ting? Shi call Belize a prostitute! Something bout open fi business with evibady!” Dodes’ body shakes as she heartily laughs.

“Buwahahahahaha!” laughed Milli. “Dat da wa gud one Dodes! Suh wi da still ‘soldier taffy’? Wi jus do it legal like now. Wow!” Milli sobered as the thoughts swirled around her head. The Belize of her Granny Ray’s days definitely seem to be gone with her. This is one of the major conflicts she struggles with deeply. How can she, Milli, say anything about what is happening in Belize when she lives in a nice house and has a nice job in sunny California? She thinks of coming home often but she knows she is not ready to face this type of life where politics and one’s existence were one and the same. She shook her head as if to shake the thoughts right out. “Anyway, Dodes. Tell mi bout whe deya gial di seh.”

The friends sat on the wire for the next hour, until the sun sprayed its golden tendrils across the land, closing one more day, signalling one more triumph of survival over continued difficulties and challenges to all the good these friends knew as home.

Daily Dingleberry 01-15-12

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I don’t like when people make sweeping generalizations about entire groups of people. Those generalizations become nothing more than veiled accusations of the most dastardly kind and it just serves no purpose but to spread hatred and angst. Rebel! It is our duty to change that which we can but rebel FOR something. Today is Sunday, a day of rest for most of us. Give your maleficence a break and smile with your enemy. He’s hurting just as much as you.