Budget session has its lighter side
Yesterday’s marathon budget debate in the House of Representatives produced some moments of high drama, but as anyone present in the gallery or listening on the radio could attest, there were also some interludes of humour. Using tapes provided by the government press office, we’ve put together a few minutes of comic relief. The compilation begins and ends with the politician who has become famous–or perhaps infamous–for his elongated rhetoric. With his three and a half hour oration on Wednesday, Mesopotamia rep Michael Finnegan easily surpassed Bill Clinton’s longest speech and began to approach the likes of Commandante Fidel Castro.
Michael Finnegan, Area Rep., Mesopotamia
“Times out there are rough. Times out there are hard. Things di buck.”
“Why deh rob the bank?”
“A hundred and eight million dollars in interest alone. My God, that’s shameful!”
“When they came to the house last year… no easy you know… got him. (Does a thumps up)”
Ralph Fonseca, Min. of Budget Planning
“He continues to repeat over and over, demonstrating his ignorance for the process. But we need not be tortured any longer.”
Michael Finnegan
“I think the member should apologise.”
“Tourism is so glorious and so gargantuan and so grandiloquent.” (members laugh)
“Eleven tastic…stastic…stastitical officer.” (members laugh)
“I am prepared to show the Prime Minister and his government what he ought to do with the surplus.”
Dean Barrow, Leader of the Opposition
“And voila! Surplus appears.”
“In this new Musa/Fonseca, borrow and spend, tax and spend, borrow and sell Belize.”
Michael Finnegan
“It makes a mockery of justice.”
Sylvia Flores, Speaker of the House
“I don’t mind your making reference in Creole to exercise a point…”
Michael Finnegan
“I will speak perfect English now Madam Speaker. I will even use words that some of us in here will not even know, if that is a problem.”
“Now you will build schools out of money that you borrowed. I di come to that derectly (soon).”
Dean Barrow
“I made no allegation of corruption against you.”
Prime Minister Said Musa
“That is not true.”
Dean Barrow
“Then you deal with it when you reply. I made no allegation against you.”
Sylvia Flores, Speaker of the House
“Honourable Members would you please…”
Dean Barrow
“It looks like hog weh bawl feel the lick.”
“So please Madam Speaker, would you look at your standing orders and rule properly on what the standing order says.”
“Who does he think he is, some magic illusionist? A Belizean version of David Copperfield?
Michael Finnegan
“But because of Salomon Smith and Barney they spent two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.”
“All because of Salomon Smith and Barney!”
“Which came from where? Salomon Smith and Barney!”
“Because of Salomon Smith and Barney they spent four point five million dollars.”
“Was able to assist town boards Madam Speaker with nine million dollars, all because of Salomon Smith and Barney!”
“Because of Salomon Smith and Barney. If there was not Salomon Smith and Barney money, there would have been no Capital 2, nor Capital 3 projects, unu dah shame!”
“Because of Salomon Smith and Barney. If unu nevah get Salomon Smith and Barney sixty million U.S., unu mi wah deh pah unu tail. (you all would have been on your tails) There would have been no Capital 2, nor Capital 3 projects.”
“But because of Salomon Smith and Barney again, we were able to spend five point five million dollars.”
“Spent another million dollars Madam Speaker, on school buildings, because of the Salomon Smith and Barney money.”
“But was bailed out with three million dollars, which came to from guess who… Salomon Smith and Barney!”
In case you were wondering, Salomon Smith Barney is the international brokerage firm which raised a twenty-nine million U.S. dollar bond issue for the government of Belize.
