Editor Amandala,

The well-known basketball superstar and activist, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, one of Ellis Island’s 2017 honorees, traced his ancestry back to Belize. His grandmother and grandfather emigrated to the US in the first quarter of the 20th century.

What the primitive politicians in Belize do not know, and will never know, is that a nation’s most valuable asset is its people. And, they continue to ignore this at our own peril. That is what Singapore’s visionary leader, the great Lee Kuan Yew, understood and that is why his tiny state, with absolutely no natural resources, is a giant today among  the world’s nations in almost every key index of development.

Therese Nweke

(See article: Robin Roberts, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Tisch family honored on Ellis Island in this issue.  http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/2017/10/robin_roberts_kareem_abdul-jabbar_tisch_family_hon.html)