FICTION & FANTASY

Continued from page 1 find employment when he, Shyne Barrow, still cannot find himself a decent job. All jobs Barrow had had have been gifted to him in some way shape or form. He points to PM Briceño and casts doubt unto a man that has seen his days under the hot sun and working as Orange Walkeños do. Shyne lies about anything that he can. He lies about him qualifying for an Honorary Doctorate. He lies about his Billboard Ratings. He lies about the UDP having attained lower that five percent unemployment rate. Maybe Shyne meant how many of HIS family members who were unemployed under the Barrow administration. That percentage would be as close to zero as Math allows.

Why Shyne has to allude to fiction and bombastic terminological inexactitudes is flagrantly antiBelizean. He liad bad. And then there are about seven people that believe him and try to give his lies some traction. But Shyne is not going anywhere. Even without the 11th amendment, Shyne Barrow has no political future. He might have a 3rd stint with Leadership but that is as far as how he will match his father’s number of maladministrations. This paper has said it often and we will repeat. Shyne should be given a second chance at life. But first he must accept that he is wrong and wrongly elected. He must then resign and get himself a normal job…City Council has a few openings for street side cleaner. Shyne’s qualifications guarantee him that as a starting position. Then he can work himself up. What a Disney story that would be. People would like to watch that in 2050.

PM Listens to Retired Public Officers

Real Support for Funds Disbursement

The Association of Beneficiaries and Retired Public Officers were granted a permit to protest at the National Assembly and they used it to the most optimal manner. They got the Prime Minister of Belize to temporarily leave his chair in the House of Representatives and walk out among them and impromptu meet with them. As has been said often, this is when Prime Minister John

Briceño is at his strongest…among the people. And his method did not disappoint…well maybe it did disappoint some who were expecting PM to get a tongue lashing. It was quite the opposite. The crowd in protest was protesting again the Public Sector Workers' Trust. This has UDP-tainted Dean Flowers support all over. During the fight for increments, the retired officers were ignored by the PSU president. But this is no more…they got the attention of the Prime Minister and they were with the PM as much as he was with them.

For context: It has been highly documented that back in 1995 when the Esquivel administration froze the public officers' wages for two years, he gave them 480,000 shares in BTL to make up for it. After that it got complex since the matter of the Trust is currently before the Court of Appeal, which means the government's hands are tied. To be fair, it was complex before it reached the courts….and their might have been vested interest in tying it up even more. This is 27 years later, the retirees want their dough…and no one can blame them. “Dissolve the trust now, we want our money now." …was the basic chant. Hubert Enriquez wants to: "What we want to see happen initially is that the trustees be recalled, new trustees be named to oversee the resumption of the trust."

Prime Minister John Briceño told the protesting retirees, "You guys can get your money, you need, you're already retired. But unfortunately, it is in the courts, it is in the Court of Appeal so that's why the government will have to wait until we finish that case, now what Minister Usher, the Minister in shared of the public service is telling me that what we can do, we can send in an affidavit in support of what you are requesting .. I just came out to tell you that our government supports you."

Probably most touching was this, “I don't want to die before I get my little bit of money, I really need my money, and I think all of us need it too but I don't want to close these eyes because I want to use it myself, that's what I'm talking about."

The Prime Minister offered the retirees a meeting with them, Minister Henry Charles Usher, and the Attorney General after the Easter holiday.

20th March 2023

This morning, Hon. Francis Fonseca, Minister of Education, Culture, Science and Technology was accompanied by Hon. Julius Espat, Minister of Infrastructure Development and Housing, Hon. Orlando Habet, Minister of Sustainable Development, Climate Change and Disaster Risk Management, Mrs. Dian Maheia, Chief Executive Officer in the MoECST and Ms. Yolanda Góngora, Chief Education Officer, for a visit to St Matthew’s Government School in the Cayo District. On Saturday, March 18, 2023, a fire broke out in the main building located on the school's compound and affected a total of 7 classrooms and adjacent office spaces.

The group toured the affected structure and met with the principal, vice principal and teachers on the way forward for the school. Minister Fonseca expressed his sincere sympathy with the teachers and reassured them of the Ministry's support in the aftermath of the incident.

With a population of 405 students, St. Matthew's Government School is of critical importance to St. Matthew's Village and the surrounding communities. Our Ministry will work in close collaboration with the school, the Ministry of Infrastructure Development and Housing, and other partners, to ensure its students can promptly, safely and responsibly return to school as soon as possible.