And one group that definitely preferred Barrow's speech was the Association of Concerned Belizeans. On Saturday morning the Association will lead a demonstration in protest of government and Social Security's decision to lend Sunshine Holdings $20 million. Both the Opposition and trade union movement have already agreed to join in and bring out their supporters.
But is that enough to rally Belizeans? Well Association President Karim Berges says GOB has once again pulled the trigger that set off a firestorm last year, Social Security, and Saturday's march will give frustrated Belizeans the platform to vent publicly.
Karim Berges, President - Association of Concerned Belizeans
"The Social Security scandal is actually what triggered us off and once again we are back at this same situation, even after the Senate hearing and with Godwin Hulse's press release stating that the government (promised) they would not go forth with any loan until the Senate hearing was concluded. That was an abuse so again it sort of triggered off a whole lot of protests, we could say private anger in people, so what we are trying to facilitate is for the people to actually come out now and express that; to show it in a placard or just demonstrate and show exactly that. So with this latest abuse I think people are ready again to show their dissatisfaction."
Keith Swift,
Are you concerned about post-celebration lethargy?
Karim Berges,
"No we're not. The issues are a slap in our face and that's not any kind of lethargic situation that we are faced with. The size, based on the feedback that we are getting, should be something significant or more than what we are anticipating. We have calls coming in from Orange Walk, coming in Cayo, and P.G. And from those particular areas we have already at least two buses from each district that have confirmed their going to be here in Belize; we have at least that. And we have the actual feedback from Belize itself, the concentration is Belize City for us, being that ACB does not have the logistics to go nationwide, but to show you we're going all the way to P.G. where people are coming in from."
Saturday's demonstration begins at 8:30 am at the Memorial Park. It will travel through the principal streets and return to the park at 1 in the afternoon.
