NCL Received 25 Year Exclusive Deal in the South

The Prime Minister and a delegation are now in Washington DC where they will be meeting high level officials of the U.S. Government on the correspondent banking issue. On Friday that matter came up at the House Meeting which was the shortest we’ve ever attended, and certainly the least bloody. There were no fireworks or name-calling and very few insults. Just about the only hint of fire came during an exchange over Norwegian Cruise Lines twenty-five year exclusive with G.O.B.  Toledo East Area Representative Mike Espat took exception to the exclusive contract being given to the cruise giant and told the PM so. The PM took exception to the remarks in turn and fired right back.

Dean Barrow

Prime Minister Dean Barrow

“It is true that this government gave Norwegian Cruise Lines a twenty-five year exclusive contract for the cruise port in the South – a port that initially you supported as I recollect when you were dealing with NCL. Let me not get out of order. I won’t say why you supported at the time you did, but you and the member for Toledo West certainly supported initially. Now the question of exclusivity…we’re not like you. That Port Loyola Cruise Port we talk about…you had given exclusivity to your brother and to Carnival, and then you turned around and you gave exclusivity to FSTV, or do I have it the other way around. You gave it to FSTV and then you turned around and gave your brother and Carnival at Port Loyola a similar exclusive. You fellows are magicians, you know. You really know how to jump through hoops….a Kind of Alice in Wonderland or Through the Looking Glass thing where words mean what you want them to mean. There are no objective definitions, no objective criteria. You gave two exclusives. That’s a hell of a thing. What a contradiction in terms.”

PM Barrow returns to Belize on January thirty-first.