Dean Barrow, El Caudillo succeeds in raising UDP gang approval rating 5 points. NEW SCORE 32%

EL CAUDILLO, PM Dean Barrow returns to Belize to meet with assorted port town gang leaders and capos. I was very impressed with the TV coverages and the responses by El Caudillo to Jules Vasquez hard questions.

Dean Barrow earns + 5 approval points for his UDP Government Report Card rating.

New Score - 32 %

This is the second such meeting with gangs in the port town by the Prime Minister and there is to be another one on Sunday. Nothing will come out of it, except possibly a peaceful Carnival atmosphere for the ten days of our annual celebrations. Which is enough.

EL CAUDILLO just doesnt get the gang business. He has been confused and led astray by all the SOCIAL issue type agendas in the government.

There is no personal animosity in the gangs in the port town. It´s just business baby!
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I don´t know if the UDP are stupid or what, or just swamped by the cacaphony of noise coming from all and sundry, with every solution under the sun, to do with gang violence. It´s just business baby!

Look you got gangs in the port town, making their living from an ILLEGAL business. They can´t buy a PERMIT, or a LICENSE from city hall. They have to stand on street corners and hide their stash in a wrecked car, or a cinder block of a vacant house. Walk by and drive by customers for marijuana are premium. Some spots are excellent for traffic ( customers ). Sure, Marijuana is illegal. Don´t know why, it is engrained in the historical culture of Belize going back to the mid 1700´s. Even the police, smoke, buy and sell marijuana. Have for all of my long life time. Watched them do it for decades.

INNOVATION, or LEADERSHIP, or IMAGINATION to imagine the possibilities, does not seem to be in the UDP LEXICON, when it gets out of a legal mainstream business model. The model in marijuana is dictated by the attitude and laws of the UDP government. They the government can make the situation, competitive, violent, or peaceful as they want by their actions.
You should have seen the movie on AMSTERDAM on TV the other day. The CAFE´s in AMSTERDAM district dealing with marijuana OPENLY, were doing a roaring business. The tourist trade is getting to be so big, it is actually scandalous. It is not LEGAL to sell marijuana in Amsterdam, but the City and the National government have established ZONES, like certain streets, were NOBODY will be hassled, or prosecuted. The CAFES can sell you a nice sidewalk table with a CAPACHINNO, some fries and you can go to the counter and pick out whatever brand of bud and papers you want. The sidewalk cafes are full. The government claims that in the past 20 years the arrangement has brought in $2.5 billion in business taxes to the country and city of Amsterdam per year. No gangs, no violence, no competition. It is normal business. NOW WHY THE HECK can´t our EL CAUDILLO make QUEEN STREET, or someplace along Handyside, or something, a TOURIST ZONE mecca, for locals and foreign cruise ship tourists, to spend a nice hour or two sitting at a sidewalk cafe, enjoying a smoke, some great conversation ( marijuana smokers are not violent, they like to talk a lot though ) FREE of police hassle, prosecution, or anything else, like AMSTERDAM. Are our leaders in politics so MYOPIC, or blind, or ignorant, they cannot adjust with the times. You would cut the feet from under the illegal gang related area market share, illegal marijuana trade. There goes your violence too.

The gangs are violent, because somebody from another neighborhood is always trying to take their market share. Think merchandizing baby! You are doing an illegal retail business, selling marijuana. You can no more stop that, than having sex. Always a percentage of the population will develop the habit. Teenagers will experiment. Somebody has to SUPPLY the product and take the risk of selling it to them. It´s just business baby! Somebody steals your market share, or somebody doesn´t pay for a wholesale shipment, then without a legalized venue, your only solution is violence. These days, the easiest way is by a gun. You can´t go to court. You can´t complain to the police, It´s normal business baby! AND YOU the government make it so.