Friday 18 October 2013

Dean Barrow is making headlines in California

Belize Prime Minister and wife Kim leave Madeo restaurant at Beverly Hills, Los Angeles.
Prime Minister Dean Barrow is making headlines in California where he is on a tour with his wife Kim raising money from Belizean-Americans and seeking... medical attention for back problems. TMZ (Ten Mile Zone) reports that quizzed on what is wrong with the U.S. government and the shutdown, Mr. Barrow quipped back that America should consider changing its form of government.
The leader of the tiny and impoverished nation of Belize, a former British colony in Central America popular with SCUBA divers, was leaving the swanky Beverly Hills restaurant Madeo surrounded by U.S. Secret Service bodyguards. Reporters asked him if he had any advice for the U.S. government to avoid another shutdown.
His response “You have to switch to the parliamentary system.”
Now Belize has a system like many former British colonies with no president and power concentrated almost exclusively in the hands of an all-powerful cabinet. Jamaica, India and Zimbabwe are examples of parliamentary system governments.
Comments on Mr. Barrow’s faux pas range from outrage and admonitions that the leader of a tiny patch of jungle should not be giving governance advice to the U.S., to defensive comments from Belizeans residing in the U.S. saying the prime minister was simply joking.
(source: TMZ)