There was a showdown today between the PUP's Kareem Musa and UDP's OJ Elrington, which played out on the Buttonwood Bay Basketball court on Seashore Promenade.
The two sides butted heads over a pair of basketball rims and backboards which Musa and his team installed months ago.
This morning, staff from the National Sports Council went to the court and took them down completely. The National Sports Council says that they have to change them to accommodate the ongoing Sprite Eastern Division South Youth Basketball Cup. You'll remember that this tournament, which allows youths from warring gang territories together to intermingle and socialize in a positive setting, started last Friday. The teams will be playing games all over the City.
One of those games will be played at the Buttonwood Bay court this upcoming weekend, and the organizers want to make sure that the court is properly outfitted for game day. But, when Kareem Musa's divisional representatives saw the Sports Council employees taking down the equipment he installed, they became incensed. The one most offended by it was Paul Ferguson, better known as "Chicken Dread". You can see him in this video having a few hard words with the OJ Elrington.
This evening, Kareem Musa told us why he and his team are upset that the improvements to the court that he has made are now being reversed:
Hon. Kareem Musa - Area Representative, Caribbean Shores
"I'm out there concerned as the area representative because for the last 12 years the UDP city council has done nothing for Buttonwood Bay Park. As the area representative you know it's not normally my job or my duty to take care of parks in my community but I have seen where the city council has fallen astray, they have not been doing their job and so we had to put in backboard here about 8 months ago. High quality backboards, fiber glass the best you can find in Belize City. This morning I was notified that Mr. OJ Elrington came along with people supposedly from city council to take down these backboards I have not been given any reason as to why they are taking them down and now we are left out here with no basketball rims, we have no idea when they are going to be replaced so it's a really terrible disappointing situation because here you have an individual I believe he works at the Ministry of National Security as the legal advisor and when you look at what we are going through in this country Daniel, last night a 12 year old lost his life. We are trying to make a positive change for the people in Caribbean Shores, we are trying to uplift them and here you have the UDP just destroying something that is good. I'm being told now that they want to refurbish all the parks, there is a lot that could be done in West Landivar, the West Landivar Park next to the police station needs rehabilitation. Why is that you are so upset that we have put in lights on this basketball court, that we have fixed up the bleachers, that we had painted the court and put up backboards and rims that were not there, why does that anger them? We should be above the frame, we are the new generation of politicians, we should not be destructive like this."
Daniel Ortiz
"I'm told that you didn't get permission as you were supposed to from the Belize City council to install these pieces of equipment."
Hon. Kareem Musa
"You don't need permission to do good work in your community Daniel. If I have to show you the amount of letters I sent to these municipal bodies, to the government to ask them for land for my people and they have no conceded, why do I need to ask them for permission? I am the area representative, the place is dilapidated, I am going to put in work, that is just my nature, I am going to do it because that's what the people want. They will never give me permission Daniel, they are a UDP City council."
So, while that's Musa's perspective, OJ Elrington and the National Sports Council are of a different view. He told us that he and the Council are not trying to vandalize Musa's efforts. According to him, the plan is to repair all parks and playgrounds countrywide. Here's how he explained today's face-off at the Buttonwood Bay court:
Orson Elrington - Rep. National Sports Council
"The project undertaken by the sports council underneath the directorship of the new director of sports council who took office last year has undertaken a unprecedented investment in terms of parks and playgrounds and sporting facilities across the country. So what he has been doing is repairing and renovating parks throughout the country. Now why this park, this park last weekend Sprite, the Belize Police Department, Belize City Council and the sports council launched the city wide basketball tournament. This weekend's tournament is being hosted right here, that is a part of a wider family fun day that is going to be taken place here but the tournament is going to be hosted here. So just like we did last week, we come in, we renovate the park, we do what is necessary to upgrade the facilities in the park to prepare it for the tournament. Just as we did in Jane Usher last weekend we come in and we replace and repair the backboards and the rims. Where they are in good condition we keep them there and that is more than likely we have already done so before the tournament. Now why did I come out here today, I came out here today because the workers of the sports council who were doing the renovation called to say that Mr. Musa's agent, I'll be kind calling him an agent right because normally he's my friend but he was acting rather thuggish today in a goon like manner which apparently for others is his normal, modus operandi. So I said I would come to try to calm the issue. He did not want to hear any logic, they just wanted to keep up their political banner, their political billboard. Again as Mr. Musa himself said it in his interview, he feels as if though he's above the law, the law clearly states that if you want to erect any billboard in a public park or facility you need seek permission from the council. He did not do so, nor does not intend to do so at all but that is not even the reason we are removing it, the reason that we are removing it is because it is part of a comprehensive plan to upgrade the facilities throughout the country. He was in violation of the law and we've been replacing backboards not only here but for other places as well because we are proving uniformity to the facilities across the country. My uncle is the area rep for Pickstock and we are going to do the same thing at the Samuel Haynes Institute which is one of the host facilities so how could it be out of malice?"
Elrington assured us that come this weekend, the Buttonwood Bay Court will be ready for the basketball competition, with new backboards and rims to replace the ones Musa had installed.
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