Ian Jones: A New Vision for Collet
Ian Jones
Jones, who is now employed by the Football Federation of Belize, continues to explain the steps that he took in respect of the application process. He also describes the existing social conditions in Collet and what his plans are for the constituency.
Ian Jones, U.D.P. Candidate, Collet
“If it were that the Nominations Committee had sent me a letter stating that your application met the requirement, however, the Honorable Faber appealed his decision and we have reversed on our decision against him and his application is now accepted, then by all means I would have stood down. I wouldn’t make it an issue, I would not call foul, I would say, “Okay, I was one of the persons who agreed to the fact that elected area reps would not be challenged if their applications are successful during the vetting process.” So that was where I stood with that. The type of person I am, for my entire life I have been a highly driven person in terms of, if I see something I want to accomplish, I will put all my efforts and interest into doing it. Now I was raised in Collet, I will not lie and say I was born in Collet because I wasn’t. I was actually born in Belize Rural North. My family migrated to Belize City in 1989 and we settled in Collet. So I spent most of my years, right up to adulthood, in Collet. So I’m not an outsider looking in, to say, “Oh, bwai well Collet need this, Collet need that.” I lived it, I experienced it. I know the problems that exist in our community. We have high crime and violence rates within our community. Well poverty, that’s widespread across our country. Our community on a whole, the streets or infrastructure is deplorable. Now I’m not the type of person to just sit back and complain about the problem. I’m somebody who tries to find solutions. So if it is that I have to go and partner with the current government or with other entities or go and find resources on my own as I did when I was at the National Sports Council, to accomplish the task at hand, then that’s what I will do.”
The United Democratic Party is hosting a press conference on Friday morning, after another tumultuous week of infighting. Earlier this week, U.D.P. Chairman Mike Peyrefitte announced that following a vetting of the petitions that were submitted to the secretariat, the remaining signatures were not enough to trigger the recall mechanism. On Wednesday, a faction within the U.D.P. that is intent on unseating Shyne Barrow as party leader, sat down with reporters to rebuff the turning down of those signatures. We’ll have more on that in Friday’s newscast.
