It is just mid-August but everyone has already been preparing for the ‘bashment’ month coming up. The carnival groups have already started to practice their routines and many Belizeans have already marked their calendars for all the September events they’ll attend. But one event you better forget about is City Council’s annual Municipal Multicultural Fair. It is usually held after the September 10th official ceremonies and citizens’ parade but there just isn’t enough money to host it. That’s because their budget was cut by 20 percent. Deputy Mayor Oscar Arnold told us more at a press conference this morning.
Oscar Arnold, Deputy Mayor
"It’s not that we're not able to build the support from the business community. From an outsider looking in - in the previous years the tent has been gotten smaller and smaller and with this with the budget being cut by 20 percent we had to see what we could do. There are other activities that will cover that people might want to attend on that day, we have the carnival and the J’ouvert, everything that will be prior to the 10th this year, so there's quite a bit of activities that still will be happening."
Reporter
"Is it your authority to separate, perhaps your authority to lump together what should be an individual celebration if you're saying to me that I have the J’ouvert and the carnival celebration, you have something that should have happened on the 10th as a separate day then you're basically trying to serve the whole thing as opposed to..."
Oscar Arnold
"But the September celebrations are just that, it’s not only the 10th, it’s not only the 21st, the 21st is our national day but all these events have become a great part of what we celebrate as Belizeans come September. What I'm saying there are other events leading up to this event, we will still pay homage, we do have the official ceremonies, the parade that takes place on that day. As far as I know on the calendar of activities there is an event that will be hosted over at the bird's isle, so what I'm saying is instead of having competing events, we had to look at how we will try to stretch whatever we received from NICH to the best of our abilities. So it’s not that that we don't believe in the 10th or we believe more in the 21st but it’s to look at reality of the situation where each date has their own special history within our psyche. We are the largest municipality, I don't have the information to what the budgets are for other municipalities but I share their view and their sentiments on it that if there was a cut, then maybe it should have been shared across the board. That would have been a little bit easier to swallow and palatable for all the residence. What you've done in one singular decision, in one stroke of the pen is that you're punishing the 80 thousand plus residence of the city of Belize."
The exact figures are not available. Arnold says the Council is preparing for its next budget exercise and will plan for future issues.
Email
Print