by Colin Hyde I came of age to travel around the country alone around the mid-seventies, a time when traveling in truck back was well on the way out. I did a few trips in the back of Bedford trucks. There was a little step at the front of the “truck back”, near the cab for ladies and oldsters. Young males who had self-respect hopped in at the rear end. There was a rope across the back, a safety belt, and when you vaulted into the truck from the back, you had to slide underneath the “belt” to make your way to a free bench. I’m pretty sure I have it right when I say that for many years the main players in the bus industry were Novelos and Batty on the Western Highway (George Price Highway), Gilharry on the Northern Highway (Philip Goldson Highway), and James on the Southern Highway (TV Ramos Highway) and the Hummingbird. I’m not sure about James, but the others had bus terminals in Belize City, and the one for Gilharry was a cut above. Z-Line was the first big operator to challenge in the south, and Guerra-Mena challenged Novelos’ route after the UDP formed the government in 1984. It was rough for villagers in the old days. Villagers were/are icing for the big bus owners, not the main course, and over the years they were badly neglected. If the bus was loaded or the driver or conductor didn’t like your luks, yu get left. Bay Shaw tried a smaller bus between BMP and the Twin Towns. Later, enter “Parker” McFadzean and his busito in Cayo South and, overnight, villagers became people. I might have given Parker some poor advice. Early on, he was thinking of putting more busitos on the highway, and he asked my opinion; and I told him he had to be careful about making sure that his employees gave the same quality, respectful service he gave. I will tell you, I’ve met a few bus drivers and a number of conductors that I didn’t care to have around my girl or the females in my family. Some of those fellows weren’t just daam fresh, they were rude, too slek. The 1998-2003 PUP government sought to bring the entire industry under a single owner, but all their best laid plans collapsed, and the industry splintered. On Friday, one of the larger bus operators, Sergio Chuc, told XTV that from around 2007-08 he told the smaller bus owners that they needed to come together instead of operating independently. There is a BBOC (cooperative), but when new transport minister, Luis Zabaneh spoke of the big picture in the industry today, he said there were 31 operators. I don’t know if, when the smaller operators decided to go it alone, they understood that they weren’t giving the commuters their best. If they had, the commuters would have been hollering to the minister to leave a good thing alone. No one doubts the minister when he said that “economies of scale” will make a great difference in the bottom line in the industry, but I’ll be surprised if there is as much leakage in the business as he suggests. The smaller operators run their own show, and to reduce pinching the bigger operators have used undercover agents to scout their runs. Foreign government has the right to donate a fancy ride, but Francis shouldn’t drive it My gudnis, all Francis Fonseca’s humility went down the drain with this story that he is driving a vehicle worth a quarter million dollars, $350,000, duty-paid, brand new. Braa, did he drive up to Swift Hall to defend the 13th Amendment in it? I wondered about the priests’ big sweat that we are doing away with the “presumption of innocence”, but if Francis drove up in that SUV, that would have ton faada stomach; and a churny stomach not only makes one not think straight, ih mek people very angry. Francis Fonseca, all the PUPs go to church, but he is the only one the people said they were sure wasn’t a Pharisee. Francis Fonseca, everyone who hears him talk comes away with the feeling that, here is a man who is from humble street; everyone says he is the sober one in Cabinet. Bah, if there isn’t a giant mistake, one ZERO too many on that price tag, we’ve been had. Aha, now you see why people have to investigate, demand the credentials of people who are out to lead. He got a pass, but maybe he shouldn’t have escaped suspicion. It shouldn’t have slipped us that he chose lawyering as a profession. Senate President Carolyn Trench-Sandiford said she tried it, but the amount of fraud in that profession turned her stomach so much that she had to find a new major. Fidel, Mandela, and the Mahatma completed the course, and then turned their backs on it. You sell your soul, but there’s big money there, folk. Diki Bradley and Dean Barrow, dehn lap it up like puppy and puss on warm milk. It’s not impossible that mansions and SUVs were in Francis’s dreams. The lens I bought at A & R only magnifies objects 5 times. For the scrutiny we need here, we have to enter forensics, something that can blow up what you want to read or study a hundred times. Such a lens being out of reach, to find out who Francis really is, we are limited to asking around. Borrowing from Mr. Torres, Lordy, we will begin by aksing Diki. Here’s the question for that devil. Jorge Espat cursed the crooks in the PUP government and left politics. All the dots lead to Diki seducing, convincing Francis, to walk where Jorge said was a series of bloated contracts. That’s an intriguing story there, folk. I read in the 7News Friday night transcript that Foreign Affairs CEO Amalia – I pause here to say we had such high hopes for her, the days when she was Comrade Amalia. Ai, I would want to say here that I don’t trust women, but I don’t dare. Ah, Amalia, she has a madabig excuse for Francis. Responding to a query from 7 about the luxury ride, Ms. Amalia said a strategic partner bought it, and the A1 ride will be available for high-level guests who require reliable and efficient (I must add plush) vehicles to move around in. Foreign government, benevolent/legitimate partner, nobody shud drive a 250-thousand-dollar ride in Belize. Do our guests know that in a country like ours, roots territory, points are taken away from people who flash around in rides that cost ten times more than a starter home? How insensitive! The public service whistleblowers who passed the report on to Channel 7 should name them, name da who, so we could shame them. Braa, it is safe to travel around the cities and towns on motorbike, and if you want to stand out, on mule and cart. I think any old Ford or Chevy would do nicely for them on our highways, thank you. Hmm, there is a plausible rumor that the ride is really for Ms. Amalia. There was a time when she was a hero to us; but she gave that up when, after the PUP got chased from office, she put on a custom-made suit and high heels and joined the billionaire’s crowd that used to hang out on Regent Street. My, it’s an incredible wonder how she could go straight from Fidel and the “pro labor” PUP to the Ashcroft Alliance. Naa, she doesn’t owe us anything. And we down here have to call things as we see them. You take a permanent job there; well, you can’t drink from two cups, eat from two plates. Nothing personal with the philistine who owns that show, but the only left he knows are two of his limbs, and oh, an ear, an eye, and a nostril. When her party got back the reins in 2020, Amalia smoothly slid over to the CEO seat in Foreign Affairs. And that’s where we find her making the excuses for Francis. You know, if we listen to the lawyers, Francis is making chump change with government. Maybe the extravagant ride consoles his soul for the gobs of chum that would be falling into his account if he gave up serving the common people and joined the mammon chasers. I say, everybody is looking for a high, some on rum, some on weed, some on caffeine, and some from showoff, looking down on the little people from a fancy ride.