On Thursday, February 26th one of our front page headlines read, “Monumental expansion of Hol Chan Marine Reserve is official”. The photo inside on page seven was taken at the grand inaugural ceremony which was held at the office of the Hol Chan Marine Reserve on February 25th. The image featured a group of stakeholders poising with two politicians who are grinning like the cat who swallowed the canary. And why so smug you may ask? Well, they knew what we all now know…it was a grand spectacle for, well, nothing really.
Sure the project was one step closer, but not a done deal, not by a long shot. Needless to say this was unbeknownst to us…the gullible, the visionary, the hopeful followers who believed that yes, finally, after YEARS in the works this dream was actually going to be realized. In other words we were duped my friends, and we took the bait…hook, line and sinker! We ran as fast as we could to the polling stations, eager to reward their Party with votes of confidence…and won they did! I personally know one tour guide who voted for these politicians (or Party I should say) for this sole reason…by expanding the marine reserve they were providing him with job security while protecting the area.
As you will read in our front page story this week, “Celebrated Hol Chan Reserve Expansion Yet to Happen”, there are still a few more hoops this plan needs to jump through, and we all know how speedy the legislative process can be…maybe another year, or better yet why not wait for the general election in 2017 to resurrect the promise once again? Now that’s getting a lot of mileage out of a campaign pledge if you ask me!
We shouldn’t be surprised, really…we’ve been here before, many times. What were we thinking? It WAS election time after all! Talk is cheap AND it wins elections. Case in point.
I have to wonder when will we ever learn? I certainly fell for it…did you?
