And as we mentioned earlier, the Cabinet also saw it’s first Rasta-man sworn in today in Edmund Castro. As a Minister of State, Castro will not sit in cabinet, but took the oath and can be invited to Cabinet meetings. And he earned it. With his ‘Clear the Land’ campaign, Castro won every box in Belize Rural North and claimed a victory of over a thousand votes in a division where the margin is usually less than 100 votes. He discussed the history of him being the first Rasta and the difficult job ahead in the Ministry of Works.
Hon. Edmund Castro, Minister of State in Works
“I knew from the start that when I declared five years that I would have earned my keys and I would then be the first Rasta-man in the House. But I am basically the poor people’s representative. I am not just for Belize Rural North but for other poor people across the nation of Belize. I am looking forward to see what we could do to help them.”
Jules Vasquez,
How do you help them when you are only a Minister of State and you know a Minister of State doesn't control he doesn’t control the purse as does the Minister?
Hon. Edmund Castro,
“Yeah but in this case Boots and I work good together and so we will both be co-managing the Ministry of Works to ensure that we get maximum use of the equipment that the Ministry of Works has.”
Hon. Anthony ‘Boots’ Martinez, Minister of Works
“Jules I went to the Ministry this morning early and that Ministry is a disaster. The PUP has sold off almost every equipment that was road worthy over there, bulldozers, trucks, and almost everything. Well as I understand they sold it to a lot of cronies but I haven’t seen any documentation yet to see directly, I got it from the mechanic that the bulldozer they sold, almost everything. So this morning at the Cabinet meeting I think our first motion is to move a proposal for us to get equipment to work. We have no equipment to work with in the Ministry of Works.”
Jules Vasquez,
Said Musa always used to tell me about the revolution of rising expectations; no matter how much you give, people want more. How do you hope to deal with that, you are a representative now, you can’t call on, ‘I have nothing to give you’?
Hon. Edmund Castro,
“It is basically you can’t have one without the other. You need to continue to touch base with your people and at the same time delivering the goods and services that the people deserve and need. Once you have an art in building both of them then Said, poor thing, that is why he is out of office because his Ministers believed in high positions and title and overlooked the needs of their constituency.”
