P.S.U.’s Eldred Neal Rails Against Garifuna ‘Takeover’ of Executive

The firestorm in the wake of a racially charged conversation involving the President of the Public Service Union, Eldred Neal, continues to burn fiercely tonight.  Various entities, including the Council of Management of the P.S.U., the National Garifuna Council and the Government, as well as the Opposition, are weighing in on Neal’s inflammatory remarks about the Garifuna community.  The disclosure of that taped conversation, which occurred in March, has once again brought to the surface the seemingly forgotten issue of race relations, particularly among the Creole and Garifuna people.  Earlier today, News Five sat down for a candid one-on-one with the embattled union leader, who explained the origin of the incendiary conversation, the content of which he firmly believes has been widely misconstrued.  But first, we revisit another snippet of that recording where Neal runs through a list of Garifuna candidates who will be offering themselves for seats on the executive of the Public Service Union.  He punctuates his spiel on the so-called power hungriness of the Garifuna people by flatly calling out his colleague union president Luke Palacio, who heads the Belize National Teachers Union.  Here is that clip:

Voice of: Eldred Neal, President, Public Service Union

“I spend one year di study dis [expletive] and ih reach di stage now weh I got it.  You know di amount ah people weh…”

Voice of: Lorelei Westby, President, Belize Water Services Workers’ Union

“Who all di run fi president?”

Voice of: Eldred Neal

“Lone Garifuna.”

Voice of: Lorelei Westby

“Da who all?”

Voice of: Eldred Neal

“Mario Caliz.”

Voice of: Lorelei Westby

“I know Caliz.”

Voice of: Eldred Neal

“Calbert Baaba.”

Voice of: Lorelei Westby

“Who Baaba? Baaba da Garifuna?”

Voice of: Eldred Neal

“Di man woman da Garifuna.”

Voice of: Lorelei Westby

“Yeah.”

Voice of: Eldred Neal

“Christina Sanchez.”

Voice of: Lorelei Westby

“Okay.”

Voice of: Eldred Neal

“This young lady Tablada.”

Voice of: Lorelei Westby

“Wahn lotta people.”

Voice of: Eldred Neal

“When I done with unu. No, no.  My AGM wahn be interesting because when I done wid unnu.  Listen to me, ih noh matta.  I got August twenty-sixth, I done got it down to wahn day.  I noh interested eena di powa.  I tell everybody I di give up more money fi [expletive] with this than anything.  But people look at me and people noh know.  Study these people.  Face value dah wahn whole different game.  Dehn people rile pan wahn certain position and the biggest one is right now Luke [Palacio]”