Urban Budget

By Abdulmajeed K. Nunez

Trick or treat money or sweet
I got a headache listening to Shakespearian budget speech
This clearly has no teeth!
With a billion dollars being proposed to be spent
Was there due consideration for the country's development?
Clearly it's all about the UDP government
Still trying to win the people's confidence
Mesmerizing Belizeans with so called infrastructural development
Belizeans don't need to be economists to see it
This budget is just to ensure that UDP supporters continue to eat
"Better cannot be done!" Remember!
These were the words of the prime minister
He forgot to say, "Then let worst continue!"
Since this is the best that he and his technocrats can do
Poor people's punishment will surely continue

The best analysis came from Requena and Mai
While the ruling party was clowning about Ramin
Laced with aluminum, food the digestive system can't break down
Given to animals for them to calm down
This is a reality that the working poor are living
With poor people unable to buy pantry weekly, hence their cronies are benefiting
While the national deficit keeps hiking
With no mechanisms in place for the laypeople to feel the trickling
Increasing 160 percent in twenty-six years
With every citizen born and unborn owing seven thousand three hundred dollars
Majority of the population is living every day on less than five dollars

The gimmicks in the house made my blood boil
When will the citizenry start paying less at the gas pumps for oil?
Belize City has too much constituencies
Listening to this city budget means the districts will get nothing
People in the South are still punishing
Praying for the day the Commerce Bight port will be opening
This to me is a most frightening thing
The government can't tell the country they can't do anything
It's high time we start constituency merging
And stop the southern district marginalizing
Its time our people start analyzing
This budget passing will be a crippling thing
Paying bad man to hold it down is not a good bargain
We need to start lobbying

For the first time our figures are reaching one billion
Certainly with no consultation from the opposition
Is this how we develop a nation?
How will it benefit the rural areas?
There is still no electricity in San Narciscio and San Roman
No Community Center in Santa Clara
No police station in Libertad
Dilapidated roads in Buena Vista
San Victor Road is being built thanks to the cane farmers
Louise ville and Concepcion still needing water reservoir
Nothing for South West it is copy and paste
A budget lacking in taste made in haste
A government marching at the IMF's pace