The Haves and the Have Nots in Belize

Said Musa

Former Prime Minister and Fort George Area Representative Said Musa this morning echoed the words of Party Leader Francis Fonseca, claiming that the budget is all glitter and no substance, a borrow and spend budget. According to Musa, while rhetoric is one thing, the reality on Belize’s streets is that the rich are getting richer; the poor are getting poorer and the gap between the haves and the have nots continues to widen.

Said Musa, Area Representative, Fort George

“While a few well-connected, well-off, rich are getting richer; the poor in Belize are getting poorer. This is perhaps a fact that we don’t like to talk about Mister Speaker, but the truth is that there is growing poverty and growing economic inequality and social inequality in Belize today and this is a very dangerous thing that is happening in our country, Mister Speaker. And the thing is I don’t see what this budget is doing about it. Yes, it is nice to have cement streets; the tourists and the motorists they love it. But who are the ones who suffer when it rains? It is the people in your constituency, member for Port Loyola. Yes, the people whose downstairs of their homes are flooded out whenever it rains. So Mister Speaker, and what about the hundreds of dilapidated streets that remain abandoned with potholes and the thousands of families in rural communities across Belize and the thousands of farmers, small farmers, whose feeder roads are forgotten. And yes, the hundreds of dilapidated shacks that people live in right here in the south side of Belize City while the Minister of Social Transformation is transforming his housing stock by the dozens.”