Thank you, Brother Clinton Canul Luna, for pointing out that we Kriol da noh Creole. In his piece last Friday, Brother Clinton said we are not a race, we are a mix-up, mix-up, and I’m cool with that. Oh, incidentally, Brother Clinton, you should have no indecision about which mix-up tribe you belong to. From your phenotype and the places you’ve lived, you da Mestizo.

Aha, Brother Henry Young told me that once when he was up in the north districts, a Mestizo, in some discussion about our tribes, identified himself as Spanish, and Henry said he told him, “Yu daam right. An I da Englishman.” Henry Young is one of those elder brothers, my dad too, who should really be holding beef with Pere. I bet if those whiskey-swilling upper crust guys had known that it’s on our books that doctors can prescribe weed, they would have called a meeting with the BMDA, and instead of good people sneaking around corners for a ten grams, all roads would have led to the pharmacy.

Ha, ha, you know I don’t like how these word-specialist lawyers and magistrates take advantage of our slowness of tongue, but a classic is a classic, got to get its due. Miss Emma told me that in a paternity suit a man told Magistrate Balderamos he was not the father of the child because the tot didn’t look like him, and the magistrate replied: “Yu daam right, this baby noh luk like you; ih luk like me. But you wahn mind ahn.”

Brother Luna said Kriol is broken, ungrammatical English…only because I want to remain friends with him, I’ll let that roll. Bah to these purists who get flustered whenever Kriol is called a language. I seh to unu to cool it; unu will get counseled by the proper authority, the distinguished linguist, Dakta Silvaana Udz, who picked up the baton from our celebrated previous GG, the honorable Dr. Colville. At my level, all I can say is it didn’t take me long to realize that this work on the true national language of Belize, to develop a spelling system and give us a dictionary, is all treasure.

These daam purists! Their hero, Mr. Ogden Nash, said the tour guide tell Professor Twist that haligayta gaan wid ih beautiful wife and instead of him getting together a party to go and rescue the woman in distress, he told them they were putting blame on the wrong reptile, that the culprit had to have been a crocodile.

Jawj Prais seh when the time come fu taak wi wahn taak, an we know Kriol ku taak, but sometimes wi haffu write. We all know that oral history gets lost. The difficulty was how to communicate, pass on the flayva on paypa, in print. We can’t write, Tiger gone with Banner dog. But since the Kriol Prajek come along, wi kud. Yes, Sir, what yu mean is: taiga gaahn wid Banna daag.

I “vote” for a “rogue” Chief Justice

An extremely famous man said we should judge a person by the content of their character, not by the color of their skin; but on the face of it, I had to wholeheartedly agree with a good friend who said it was good for Belize when we got a Cabinet with many black faces and a black person at the top, because it gave children of color hope that they too could aspire and achieve great things and positions. It should be all about capacity and philosophy, but that’s not all there is in the world in which we live.

There’s been some talk that a big reason why the new government hasn’t settled on the individual the previous government chose to head the justice department has to do with factors other than her qualifications, which are said to be nothing short of sterling. I must point out again that it is nothing new for the PUP to hedge on a judicial appointment made by the UDP. The files are still fresh, how the PUP literally ripped the UDP-appointed Belizean Chief Justice Manuel Sosa from off his seat, and replaced him with Sierra Leone’s Dr. Abdulai Conteh.

Of course, I’d like to see a Garifuna woman sitting as Chief Justice. There is a socioeconomic ladder in Belize, and the bottom rung in those areas is where you find the Black Kriols and Garinagu. No lie, straight-hair Belizeans and light-skinned Belizeans are on the higher rungs, and at the very top we find the children of the white tribes, the “true” Creoles of our world. It is what it is, and that’s why, based on ethnicity and color and hair texture, it is great for the Belizean fabric that we appreciate how much harder it is for some to climb the ladder to the top.

But the color thing hasn’t been a factor in the selection of Chief Justices in Belize. Aha, if one case makes a trend, far bigger to contemplate is how the PUP handled a choice the UDP passed on to them. Indeed, we have one sensational instance of that, but we’ll change the channel, because we’re looking for a happy ending.

I’m among those who have the least say in this matter, but in a democracy we all have the right to a voice, or to be silent, which I have been. Here’s why I have withheld my “vote.” I want a Chief Justice who’s willing to be a “rogue” for the people.

Ms. Michelle Trapp says judges must follow the letter of the law. In some instances, that is extremely tough. I once asked someone close to the law why a young man got a jail sentence for a little bit of weed, and I was told that our magistrates have to ignore their feelings and be guided by the big book that Godfrey Smith revised. Thanks to the law, people in Belize go to jail for a tin of spam and others walk away with awards of millions for Belizean patrimony that was as good as gifted by government to them.

On these mammoth awards won by individuals against the people of Belize, a far too common occurrence, I want a Chief Justice who will follow the law, with a mighty scolding. I have heard of magistrates who use their trained wit to use up poor accused. I want them to pour out their sauce on lawyers when they bring their wickedness to court. I have heard of lawyers who represent the people of Belize poorly. I want these lawyers to be thoroughly tongue-lashed. I want a Chief Justice who will call the media and tell them, “Report this: I just lambasted a government lawyer for shoddy preparation in defense of the people’s property, and I want to see his face and what I said on front page.” Yaa.

We haven’t always followed the law to the letter. Wouldn’t it have been best for us if we had given Ashcroft and friends their verdicts in the lower courts, and then banged the hell out of them with a proper lecture about the harm they have done to our country? And that certainly would have put an abrupt end to the piling up of spoils derived from the interest on loans. My, my, more than half of our people who have lost properties in Belize are victims of the terribly high interest rates.

Hmm, I’m not sure our Acting CJ wants to be “roguish” for us. Maybe she feels constrained from being so. It’s so much easier for one born at the top rung to let loose, but they would just be a star while doing nothing substantial for the people. Status quo defends status quo, unless they are named Fidel.

I hope I haven’t crossed any line. But there you have it. The lady knows how she can get my vote.