Mayor Bradley is back from East Africa
Darrell Bradley
Mayor Darrell Bradley is just back from a ten day trip to Uganda, Africa where he participated in a local government conference hosted by the Commonwealth Local Government Forum. That body works to promote and strengthen effective democratic local government throughout the Commonwealth and to facilitate the exchange of good practice in local government structures and services. Bradley told us that the opportunities and experience gained at the conference will be of great benefit to Belize City.
Darrell Bradley, Belize City Mayor
“They asked me to do a presentation on the municipal bond because many of the local government leaders were interested in financing their municipality and I also had an opportunity to address a youth forum, a gathering of young counselors from municipalities and youth leaders throughout the Commonwealth. It was a very good experience. I had an opportunity to dialogue with a lot of my colleagues throughout the commonwealth and to share ideas and experiences and the focus was really how to empower municipalities to put them to the forefront of development so that they could be leaders in transforming cities and towns throughout the world.”
Mike Rudon
“What benefit can you see coming out of this conference maybe in the short medium, long-term?”
Darrell Bradley
“Well I think that the tremendous benefit from all of this is the networking capabilities. The CARILEC project which is a twenty-three million dollar project in the Caribbean of which Belize is a beneficiary is part of the Commonwealth local government forum. This is a project funded by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and CEDA and this is a relationship that is from municipalities in Canada and the Commonwealth Local Government Form assisting other municipalities. And it is these kinds of projects that emerge from the networking opportunities that you get from these conferences. So that the tremendous benefit is our ability to see what obtains in other countries and other municipalities to share experiences, to see how they face their challenges and to share with them some of our own experiences. And a lot of times, we are able to source financial assistance from these municipalities.”
Bradley told News Five that he was also able to discuss the possible formation of sister city relationships with his counterparts from Sri Lanka, Asia and Africa. Bradley’s predecessor, Zenaida Moya, has chaired the Commonwealth Local Government Forum, which has as one of its priorities the promotion of good governance.
This just means more terrorist coming to Belize from Africa watch out belizeans you will soon have no jobs with this gov. All the Africans will have your job.
@Storm Okay, let’s say next general elections results are 10 seats for the PUP, 10 seats for the new party, and 11 seats for the UDP… or we can hypothesize that the PUP gets the 11, but the new party gets no more than 10 seats. The foregoing would fulfill your theory of new blood. What would most logically happen in the jewel after that? How would this change things for (i) the Executive aka how the country is run? (ii) Parliament? (iii) the Judiciary? (iv) and most importantly, the quality of life for you and me?
@Rod, look, if this GOB gives jobs by race, then it would be racism? Does this mean that you are a racist? Seems you dont like Africans. That in itself nullifies any idea you bring up here. This is a free country, nobody is enslaved, no one gets abused because of their race.Please if thats how you feel, move out of here. And by the way, Uganda is not the hot spots where terrorists come from.
I believe this inter-continental mingling brings Belize to higher levels. Other countries actually learn from us, and look up to us. I believe were on the right track.
Obviously, Rod is a troll who is paid to comment on every article, every day. always, the same line, everything that happens is Barrow and the UDP’s fault. . If the price of corn goes up, its UDP fault. If it rains tomorrow, its Barrows fault.
And the PUP are all saints, just waiting to swoop in and save Belize. and give Rod a job and bigger salary.
This individual has no regard for truth, and is paid to lie and instigate racial and political fighting, All this to keep the people from uniting and rooting out the corruption. Don’t sell your soul for silver and gold.
Did any one know that Uganda had one of the most brutal dictator and was accused for genocide.Why go all the way to Africa when you can go to one of our neighboring country.
@xunaan, it’s a good question, and I’ll respond to it briefly with an example. More than that almost requires a dissertation on political history, because the books are full of minority blocs changing the directions of governments. The minority Bolsheviks stole the Russian Revolution, the Nazis in Germany mastered minority bloc politics — beginning with less than 3% of the parliament — until they controlled a dictatorship, and so on.
Minority parties need to have unified membership, because their power comes from always voting as a solid bloc — if the bloc fractures, the power disappears.
I’ll take your example to make a pretty startling illustration. Let’s suppose Party X, the new party, holds 10 seats, and UDP holds 11 seats, PUP holds 10.
Now, Dean Barrow says he wants Party X to join with him, and govern — with Gapi as DPM. Party X, if it is important to them, can say to Barrow, “No, Gapi is out of the question. You appoint someone acceptable to Party X, or we will join with PUP and rule with them.
Minority parties can demand concessions out of all proportion to their numbers, because they control the balance of power — they decide who will govern, AND CAN WITHDRAW AND FORCE A NEW ELECTION AT ANY TIME.
The details of how they use that power will depend on the leadership. In my dream utopia, the New Belize, the leaders of Party X will be patriotic, have a vision for the future, and will hang all crooked public servants, elected or not.
To me, that is the best way out of the death spiral Belize is in today — what alternative is there? Coup d’etat by the military, and take your chances with whether that is better? Have London throw out the crooks in government and start over somehow, which smacks or colonialism? Or revolution, in which innocent people will inevitably die along with the oligarchs and their cadres?
@xunaan, I realized after I scribbled my comment that I used 2 offensive examples of how minority parties can control a nation. Even in the States, though, political blocs have influence out of all proportion to their numbers, such as the Congressional Black Caucus that MUST be reckoned with on issues of interest to it.
The principle is always the same, the outcome depends on the goals of the minority party and the quality of its leadership.
How did this become “pick on Rod day”? I’ve only agreed with him once in the years I’ve read his comments (and I can’t remember today what I agreed with him about), and I agree he’s 100% PUP on every issue, and he always sides with the Latins and against the blacks on every issue, but I’ve never thought that we was a paid instigator, just a really rabid partisan. Maybe PUP helped him out once, and he’s repaying them with loyalty.
Maybe I’m just naive.