Sun. Jan. 30, 2022
The reported grave robbery mentioned in a recent news update, which indicated that thousands of dollars were reportedly entombed with the body of a well-known gang figure, is a wake-up call to many, who have been stunned by the fact that such an act (the burial of huge amounts of cash with a dearly departed) could be conceived, and secondly, that persons in the country would go to even greater lengths to steal the buried cash.
In analyzing this situation, it must be considered that those involved on both sides of this sordid affair are apparently living in a different world, though occupying the same space and time as the rest of ordinary, hard-working Belizeans.
Sometime ago in Belize, perhaps beginning in the mid to latter-1970s with the huge growth of the illegal marijuana export industry, and gaining greater momentum from the mid to latter-1980s and onwards with the explosion of the illegal cocaine transshipment and distribution business inside Belize, there began to develop amongst some citizens of this little colony and then nation, a new culture, a new set of values and thinking among certain sectors of the population. Whereas the old Belize culture placed great emphasis and value on things like honesty, family loyalty, respect for elders, the dignity of work, and the pride of principles, which were couched in sayings like, “a friend in need, is a friend indeed,” and “good name betta than pocket money;” there was slowly developing among certain sections of the population a different outlook, a different set of values, a new way of thinking and living; and it is evident that the quest for material things, however they were gotten, had overtaken the focus on personal dignity, principles and values that would not allow a person to think of causing harm to others in the quest for financial or material gain. The new mantra that good parents have to battle to try and protect their children from following, is ensconced in sayings like, “it takes a friend to f___ a friend,” “the end justifies the means,” “get rich quick, or die trying,” “it’s all about the cheese,” and “all a dehn di teef anyhow,” referring to government and officials generally, thus justifying whatever one might need to do if he/she also wants to “get deh.”
True, studies have been done dissecting the underlying factors in gang violence and crime among young people that have plagued our communities, and there seems to be no quick-fix solution that can stem the murder rate of a hundred plus over the past three decades in little Belize. It may be refreshing and encouraging to consider that, indeed, there was a time in this colony of some 130 to 140 thousand citizens, and before the advent of the illegal drug industry in our streets, when a murder was something big in the news that left the community buzzing with grief and concern for weeks.
What may complicate any analysis of this murder phenomenon that has engulfed our society, is that historical records will show that also coinciding with the times when the illegal drug industry took off and became a major factor in the Belize economy, was the introduction of large-scale Central American immigration into Belize, facilitated by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and welcomed by the Belize government, likely for both party political advantages, as well as for satisfaction of the private sector in regards to their traditional complaint that Belize needed more people (customers) for businesses to thrive. True, immigration all over the world plays a part in injecting new energy and skills into the resident population; but the process is fraught with possibilities for social problems if not properly managed and controlled. And the risks are most evident where the demographic balance of coexisting ethnic groupings can be suddenly or drastically affected with large-scale, accelerated immigration, as has happened in Belize.
There has been the argument and suspicion expressed in various media in Belize that these accelerated and major demographic changes in Belize were by design and not by accident; that the purpose and the intention was to reduce the influence and political impact of the previously majority ethnic group, the so-called Kriols, who have traditionally been the most vocal in opposition to American proposals for some sort of political affiliation with our western neighbor, Guatemala. There were uprisings and street demonstrations against the 1966-68 Webster’s Proposals; and later with the March, 1981 Heads of Agreement. And the negative local response to the Guatemalan claim has always been fueled by the historical narrative, that black-skinned people as well as the indigenous Maya have suffered discrimination in that neighboring country.
Hurricane Hattie played a big role in the exodus of Belizean citizens to U.S. cities, but only because the U.S. embassy gave free visas to accommodate our refugees from the hurricane; it served our individual purposes and it served theirs also. And the exodus continued in the following decades “through the back,” because Belizeans were in search of jobs, as the lumber industry was in sharp decline.
And while many Kriol Belizeans were going “hand over fist” to the U.S., and crack cocaine was ravaging the population left behind, mostly Mestizo immigrants from the raging civil wars in Central America were pouring into Belize, in UNHCR-sponsored settlement programs, so that “overnight” there were many new villages across the country. Many of these people worked in farming, but others came to urban areas to seek employment, and their cheap labor inevitably displaced some of the Kriol resident population in the towns and cities.
The details of the crime and violence studies are certainly revealing and demand meaningful intervention, but the big picture also suggests that more “reparation” assistance from the U.N. should be forthcoming to offset the apparent side effects of their immigration program. Any casual walk through the streets of Belize City will reveal the reality that by far it is Kriol Belizeans that make up the wandering homeless, the mentally ill and the destitute scavenging for survival, and they are also the vast majority in prison, when that was certainly not a problem in Belize before 1980.
The numbers tell a story. According to a Wikipedia page which highlights the 1946 census of Belize, at that time, in a population of 59,000, the blacks (Kriol & Garifuna combined) represented 45.2%; the Maya (Q’eqchi, Mopan & Yucatec combined) were 16.9%, and the Mestizo/Spanish/Latino were 31.0% of the population. By the 2010 census, in a population of 325,000, the blacks were down to 26.8% (an 18.4% drop), the Maya down to 9.9% (a 7% drop), while the Mestizo-Latino were now 49.7% (an 18.7% rise) of our population. What will the 2022 census reveal?
Amazingly, there are no signs of ethnic strife in Belize. What we have in Belize has been described by experts (Dr. Herbert Gale) as a high level of “social violence”, where the civil-war level murder rate encompasses all ethnicities, but mostly blacks. “At the core,” said Gayle, “is a stew of social problems” accompanying “extreme poverty in the midst of wealth.”
And while large numbers of those persons are just surviving in a world of poverty and deprivation, and some have fallen by the wayside to become a burden to society, a few have escaped, mostly through the illegal drug trade, into the world of the rich or super rich, where money and “the good life” are all that matters. So extreme and decadent has become the intoxication of wealth in the new drug-based culture, that we are now talking about decorating the deceased in a casket with bundles of cash, as if that could somehow ensure entry through the “pearly gates”.
The challenge for Belizean elders and our political leaders is how to make the real world a much better place for our young generation to thrive, so that they don’t get ensnared by the false glitter of the underworld dealers, which leads to vanity and death. The political will is absolutely essential, and according to Gale it will take “bravery” and it will also take “people who have a heart.”