And while those resolutions will be tested by time, time has already proven that, 2005 was the most turbulent year in Belize's independent history.
It started with the January announcement that government would increase taxes on individuals and businesses and freeze public service and teacher salaries. That decision launched a string of protests, industrial actions and un-civil disobedience that would rage through to the end of April. During that time, business owners, teachers, and public servants went on strikes. The national phone, electricity and water networks were sabotaged; BTL's telephone switches were zapped and its fibre optic lines severed causing a crippling one week national telecom shutdown. BEL's lampposts in the remote countryside were torched which caused national outages and load shedding. There was a night of mayhem in the streets of Belize City, angry students blocking the Belcan Bridge, street mobs stoning the Prime Minister's residence, and roaming bandits setting a police substation on fire.
And while that drama unfolded on the streets and highways, in politics, PUP backbenchers generously criticized and repudiated the policies of their own government, the Opposition encouraged acts of civil disobedience while the government flirted with sovereign defaults.
But through all this, and after all this, the nation state and the people of Belize emerged from a trying year with our faith maybe shaken, but our state intact: there were no losses of life reported in association with the unrest in the early part of the year, and the government, though it may have wilted and buckled under pressure, it is today, arguably, stronger than it was a year ago, having recalled its badboy backbenchers and having outdone, outlasted, and possibly outmatched the union dissenters.
What a year indeed, and 7NEWS was at the frontline every time. Tonight, as is our tradition, we take a look at some of the year's most striking images. We start in the first week of January when PSU President Dylan Reneau sent a stern shot across government's bow that set the stage for many events that would unfold thereafter.
Dylan Reneau, PSU President
[January 2005] "This government is seriously playing with public officers and we are tired of it, I've been singing it a long time now. It's coming to a head."
[Click here to see the dramatic videos that made the news in 2005]
And that, in brief, was the year in news...here at Channel 7, we were privileged to have served you for our 11th year and we hope you continue to invite us into your homes in the upcoming year when we'll be more and do more for our greatest asset, that's you. So thanks again for a wonderful year, and make sure to join us back here on Tuesday, for the first newscast of 2006.
7NEWS produced for broadcast by News Director Jules Vasquez
Edited and Prepared for the internet by Keith Swift
