Dear Editor,
When you look at the actions of politicians and various other “Belizean Elites,” many of whom are attorneys, it becomes apparent that it doesn’t exactly take a genius to go through law school. As a matter of fact, I’m not at all sure the requirements are much more rigorous than those of a newspaper ad currently running in Japan, seeking laborers to help with the ongoing and risky cleanup after the Fukushima nuclear disaster: “Help Wanted – you must have common sense, and be able to carry out a conversation.”
I imagine, given this criteria, that not every applicant is hired, and not everyone successfully completes law school.
Gratefully, there are no nuclear issues in The Jewel, but like a ruined Garden of Eden, Belize continues to waste away as it staggers under the weight of its institutionalized dishonesty and its cowardly and corrupt judiciary; after all, why follow the rules when there’s no penalty for breaking them?
A hustler’s haven, to have a government job in Belize, where its citizens are easily bamboozled and political gibberish and double talk can make the preposterous seem rational; change will come about only when the people DEMAND accountability (no matter who’s in office!).
As long as a climate of impunity exists, there will be more crime. Are the laws of Belize only “suggestions” that may or may not be enforced, depending on how well connected someone is? Only the people of Belize have the power to put things right. It will take courage and, among other things, you’ll have to put down the crack-pipe; you’ll have to quit waddling around in your flip-flops drinking a cola, and you’ll have to quit imitating what you see on TV. The people are the “boss,” and if you’re the boss of something, then you have to be responsible for what’s going on.
Sometimes I truly wonder if it’s just incompetence, or is it corruption in government? The corruption is essentially so sophomoric – as in a children covering their eyes with their hands and thinking no one can see them – that it’s difficult to believe they see themselves as anything more than bit players who, in the end (although leaving an impoverished country behind), will wind up with not enough money to shop at Brodies, let alone in their favorite place, Miami.
Always in the struggle…
Russell Czarnecki