Since taking office in 2008, the Barrow Administration failed to stimulate the necessary economic growth. Instead they have, over the more than four years, continued on a path of borrow and spend,accumulating huge additional debts.
Belize pledges it continued support to the aspirations of the 23 million people of Taiwan to be full participants in all organs and agencies of the international community.
There is growing inequality. The families of the all-powerful Ministers are getting richer. The poor and hard-working Belizeans are getting poorer.
For me, it was an amazing experience. I saw where my father came from. I was given a royal welcome in El Bireh - they even slaughtered a sheep in my honor.
Unfortunately, in my home, we didn't speak Arabic; it was a mixed culture. My mother played a dominant role in our educational upbringing, and we grew up as part and parcel of Belize's culture.
Chairman Arafat has invited me several times to visit him in Ramallah and to see El Bireh again.
The Barrow Administration, with its misguided philosophy of big government wanting to own or control every facet of economic activity in Belize, has depressed and squeezed out the private sector. The inevitable result is mass firing of workers, foreclosures, and downsizing.
Let us work toward greater cooperation with all Caribbean Countries, whether we speak English, Dutch, French or Spanish, whether we are independent or not, and whether we be island or continental territories.
We in the small developing countries are beginning to understand that our own citizens share a common fate requiring the active role of government to ensure that every citizen has a chance and means to participate productively within the society and to curb society's dangerous encroachment on the physical environment.
We don't think it is fair for these environmental groups to be beating up Belize over this little dam when their own countries have so many of them. Now they are trying to tell us we can't have one.
We need to diversify the economy. We need to get away from sugar.
The instinct to improve oneself materially is necessary for growth. It is at the fountain of the enterprising spirit which drives private enterprise.
When the people gave them the mandate to govern in 2008, these UDP leaders had one thing in mind: They run things. They forgot all their lofty promises to the people. They set out to crush the PUP and to erase all the accomplishments of the PUP years in government.
Too often, customary practices and discrimination on the basis of gender, ethnicity, race, religion, social status, or class are the root sources of pervasive inequality in many countries.
Our Government is committed to pursuing policies and programs which facilitate a further lowering of the interest rates in order to fuel investment and growth. We call on the commercial banks to partner with us in this effort.
I was elected by the good people of Fort George for another five-year term, and I certainly intend to continue serving them in this, my seventh term as a member of the House of Representatives.
Despite all the hoopla - despite all the umpa - after 5 years of UDP mismanagement, corruption, and incompetence, we have sunk deeper into debt of $2.4 billion: some $200 million deeper in debt.
The 'Belize Times' will be back. I can't at this juncture say exactly when it will be back in printed form. As you know, it is presently published online. But this historic newspaper will one day, hopefully soon, rise again.
None can be more negative in its impact than the limitation on human resource capacity.
Independence did not mean chauvinism and narrow nationalism.
