Friday, December 13, 2024 at 3:18 PM
In May of 1971, I was at a luncheon in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, hosted by Don Manuel Nasralla, a vice president of Banco Atlantida. He introduced me to a person at the luncheon as someone from British Honduras; and this gentleman, who had no clue what British Honduras was, had questions. Don Manuel replied, and I quote, “Es el unico pais en Centro America adonde mandan los negros!” Translated it means, that it is the only country in Central America where black people are in charge. He was wrong, of course; the Brits were in charge, but he was acknowledging the fact that the majority of British Hondurans were black! Things have changed, spectacularly and astonishingly since then, but I was filled with pride at that time, due to his opinion of Belize. He was not being derogatory; he was just stating facts. Wat a ting!
As we begin our journey into 2025, we should count our blessings to have been born in the Jewel! A country that has never experienced war or civil strife or famine or religious extremism. A country that has never been invaded, and not for lack of trying by Guats. A country that has always had elections and a peaceful and immediate transfer of power!
Yes, before we became a colony we had the Battle of St. George’s Caye, but that was naval warfare and did not cause death and destruction to the inhabitants of Belize; the reefs did much of the damage before the Spaniards gave up and went back home. Yes, there were incursions by Mayan fighters during the Caste War in the 19th century, but those were quickly quelled. Yes, we had the quixotic failure of Francisco Sagastume, trying to invade Belize; but, when we compare all this to the rest of the neighborhood, we were, and are, a haven of tranquility and democracy!
Belize is a gem, a Jewel of a country! We, who were born in Belize, take it for granted. We have never fully realized how lucky we were to be born on this precious plot! The immigrants and the expatriates do, but we take our freedom and our rights for granted. We never had to fight for anything, spill blood to ensure our survival as a nation. We are spoiled and blessed and mostly unaware of our Shangri-La like existence, while the rest of the world is in turmoil!
In the 1970s, we were introduced to WGN TV, and the Cubs, and eventually to the Chicago Bulls, and then to tourism and violence, and we started to change! Independence brought more changes, challenged our vulnerability, but we still maintained a lot of our innocence. Our social structures started changing more rapidly, with mass migration and a constant flow of immigrants! But our fundamentals remained the same. Free, democratic, and prosperous, for the most part.
Sometimes our patriotism can be questioned, but we have to realize that the gods must have seen something good in us to have blessed us, to have given us the opportunity to grow up and live, in this special place!
We, the many who left, we have to question our patriotism. As we look back at what we left behind, all the possibilities that others took advantage of, which made them thrive and made the Jewel a better place, we have to look at why we didn’t stay and struggle and survive and eventually thrive, as most of our compatriots have done. Was it shortsightedness, impatience, a lack of imagination? Whatever the reasons, we f***ed up royally, returning only as tourists to a paradise that once belonged to us!
This “8,867 square miles” is indeed a “Land of the gods” by the Carib sea! Let us always cherish and nourish our beloved Jewel. Let us hope it always remains that Jewel, for eternity!
Glen