What is happening in Iraq today, and has been happening there ever since these oil fields were discovered, is a greater instability and turmoil than exists in other parts of the world. In stark terms, people are killed and murdered in Iraq more than anywhere else on planet earth. It is not because the Iraqi people are more violent or quarrelsome than other people in the world. No, the bloodshed in Iraq and these fights have been going on, to a greater or lesser extent, ever since the oil was discovered in such huge quantities in Mesopotamia. The discovery of the oil, in other words, sparked the uproar.

The post-World War II generations of Belizeans have not experienced any bloody turmoil in British Honduras/Belize. No one was killed in the 1966 Thirteen Proposals uprising. No one was killed in the 1968 Seventeen Proposals uprising. No one was killed in the 1972 UBAD uprising. Two people were killed in the Heads of Agreement rebellion in 1981. No one was killed in the bus transportation-related violence at Tower Hill (2001) and at Benque Viejo (2002). No one was killed in the political uprisings between January and April of 2005. (The murder of Leslie Rogers, Jr., was not directly related to the uprisings.)

Future generations of Belizeans, however, will remember the BNE discovery of oil here earlier this year as the beginning of greater tension and confrontation in The Jewel. The price of oil continues to reach record highs on world markets month after month after month these days. There has been talk about alternative sources of energy for decades, ever since the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) began to ?kick up dust? in the middle 1970?s. There is talk of solar power, wind power, nuclear power, ethanol, and many other things. But the reason the price of oil keeps going up, is because there is no energy source quite as convenient, nothing quite as suitable, as the fossil fuel called petroleum.

Belize was a rich country (with poor people) before oil was discovered here ?in commercial quantities.? Belize was rich because we had all the natural resources (pristine rain forests, fertile land, rivers and valleys, millions of fishes, the largest Barrier Reef in the Western Hemisphere, etc.) to sustain a population five times greater than we have. So now, we are that much more wealthy, our country, that is. The Belizean people remain poor.

It is not the Belizean people who are responsible for the rise in tension and confrontation here. It is the upper class element in Belizean business and politics who have begun to fight. Quarrels and fights among the upper classes, always spread to the masses of the people, because no side amongst the upper classes wants to lose. So they recruit amongst the lower classes, who then get a sense of their own power. That is what happened, classically, in the Yucat?n, and precipitated the Caste War in 1847.

The politically and sociologically explosive quality of oil has to do with the fact that, not only does it sell for a high price, but it is non-renewable, finite. Petroleum deposits took millions of years to form. When the oil is finished, those who did not manage to get on that particular gravy train, will have to pray for some other windfall.

So that the question is greed, which provokes anxiety, then the quarrels and violence begin.

A letter from PUP Emeritus Leader, Rt. Hon. George Price, to National Development Minister, Hon. Mark Espat, was leaked to the national television stations on Tuesday, July 18. I do not believe Mr. Price himself leaked the letter, because that is definitely not his style. Mr. Price is an extremely secretive man, especially where party business is concerned. In 1993, for instance, Hon. Jorge Espat, who had just become a Cabinet Minister in a PUP government led by Mr. Price, gave a public speech which was seriously critical of Mr. Price?s administration. Mr. Price was angry, but he has never said anything about that in public. Why should he now, in retirement, want to publicize a personal letter responding to a personal letter?

But, you see, in less than a week, tension within the ruling PUP has risen to unprecedented levels. Last Wednesday two PUP ?cronies? attacked a PUP Cabinet Minister on national television. This Monday the PUP Minister retaliated; on national television. On Tuesday, a letter written by the PUP Leader Emeritus, taking sides with the PUP ?cronies,? is publicized, in detail, on national television.

Within the Opposition UDP, which is a party less obsessed with secrecy, a recently elected City Council had a public (national television) disagreement over a street contract. There is a bitter public quarrel going on for months in Orange Walk Town between two UDP standard bearers, one of whom is the new First Deputy Leader of the Opposition party.

In southern Toledo, the Mayans have been publicly (on national television) divided by an oil company?s bid to do seismic exploration in a protected national park. This is an area of Belize, the Sarstoon/Temash, which has always been quiet, with the notable exception of the Francisco Sagastume ?invasion? in 1961. Now the people are tense and quarrelling amongst themselves.

Belizeans, we have a rocky road ahead of us. Not to worry and panic, though. As a people, we have to study the issues carefully and educate ourselves. We have to go back to school now, Jack. No jive.