7 News Belize

Hon. King Holds Traffic Blocking Motorcade to Give 15K Gifts
posted (December 19, 2012)
If you know anything about politics at the people level - you'll know that other than elections, divisional Christmas Parties are one of the only times when politicians meet their voters en-masse.

Every politician has his or her own style, some do block parties, some rent out halls, some go house to house. But no matter which way they play it, the event has to be big because every child needs a gift - and you can't play politics with "pikni"!

But today first term representative Mark King did his in a novel fashion; he had a motorcade where he gave out thousands of gifts. 7news was on the street:

Jules Vasquez Reporting

Lake I residents - and their children - lined up for miles along Mahogany street and La Croix Boulevard.

A trailer truck blasting music and fronted with a Santa icon led the way for a marching band, and a trailer truck full of gifts and goodies...that took over the street and stopped traffic for miles

Area rep Mark King was leading the parade, beaming with pride:

Hon. Mark King - Area Representative, Lake Independence
"We want all the Lake I children to have a toy. We want them to be jolly also with us, and we want to show them that at this time of the year, it's for the children."

And the children were grateful - as were their parents:

Hon. Mark King
"We have 15,000-20,000 toys that we'll be distributing in this area. We want it to be about the kids, and we want to ease the parents from that little money to buy their kids that toy."

Everybody who was out on the street got a ticket - and from the political Christmas parties we've seen, this may be the most organized way of distributing gifts - and also one that gets a lot of attention:

Jules Vasquez
"How does someone like you afford this number of gifts? This is - I mean it's 15,000 - 20,000 gift, you said. I know that they are not any big gifts, but still, they cost."

Hon. Mark King
"Jules, you just said, 'a big person like you', and trust me, I am bigger than you think."

Jules Vasquez
"But, I'm saying that I know that the Prime Minister, last year in the pre-election run up, he gave every area representative $50,000 to spend to get Christmas treats."

Hon. Mark King
"Jules, if you want me to be honest, I took some out of my salary; I took some out of my security company, and we bought and gave it to the people of Lake I because they deserve it."

Jules Vasquez
"How do you respond to the criticism that something like this, it's a little demeaning, having people cuing up gifts like this, it's kind of like a hand out culture that you're sponsoring here."

Hon. Mark King
"Basically, if you don't give anything, they say that you're bad, and if you give something, you're still bad. So, you do, you're damned; you don't you're damned. At the end of the day, Jules, I am giving my Lake I people a Christmas. We're easing the parents from buy toys, and I am very happy and jolly about a good effort."

Home | Archives | Downloads/Podcasts | Advertise | Contact Us

7 News Belize