by Colin Hyde
The first time I became aware of inequality in our school system was at Compre, which opened its doors to students in Belmopan and its environs in 1970. Almost all the offspring of the public servants, government ministers, and teachers in Belmopan were placed in the Academic group, the supposedly smarter set, while the great majority of youth from the villages were placed in the Industrial group, the supposedly less smart set. Forget that many in the Industrial group went on to successful careers. My point here is that one group was supposed to be smarter, and that is the group that would dictate what happened in our country.
I picked up on the observations of a Yale man, Daniel Markovits, who is about shaking up the status quo in the US, through the mighty JC Arzu. In the 2020 story, “How Meritocracy Worsens Inequality — and Makes Even the Rich Miserable”, published in Yale Insights, Ben Mattison opens with this discussion of Markovits and his book, The Meritocracy Trap:
In the middle of the 20th century, American institutions embraced the idea of meritocracy. Top universities, and the banks and law firms they fed, which had been populated by a hereditary aristocracy, instead sought the smartest and hardest working. But while the meritocratic system was intended to democratize American society, argues Yale Law School’s Daniel Markovits in his book The Meritocracy Trap, it has instead contributed to increasing inequality and the decline of the middle class.
“Although meritocracy was embraced as the handmaiden of equality, and did open up the elite in its early years, it now more nearly stifles rather than fosters social mobility,” he writes. “The avenues that once carried people from modest circumstances into the American elite are narrowing dramatically. Middle-class families cannot afford the elaborate schooling that rich families buy, and ordinary schools lag farther and farther behind elite ones.”
In a Youtube piece shared by JC, “The Lie of Meritocracy”, Markovits says rich people use their money to determine what happens in society, and even if everyone has enough to eat and adequate shelter, they don’t have equal power. He said the defining factor in this unequal meritocracy isn’t natural ability or effort, it is TRAINING. He said the new elite throw their energies into training their children, and they have the resources to do so.
We can borrow from Markovits to spot the light on inequality in Belize. As the situation at Compre exposed, in our country the children with a disproportionate advantage are those of the rich/well off, the top public servants, the lawyers and politicians, and the teachers. They go to the best schools; they get the extra tutoring. They are the ones who will excel in school; they are the ones who will get the top jobs and perpetuate the status quo.
Some years ago (an old story here), Patrick Faber was on a Lik Road show—I can’t recall if the UDP was in or out of power – and he got to talking about his objective for schools to be subsidized by government equally. His “rant” hadn’t gone on ten minutes when UDP elder, former leader Dean Lindo, appeared in the studio to simmer things.
I am yet to understand why the government decided to do away with the PSE. I have heard that the exam was discriminatory. But let me not guess about motives here. That exam showed that the children from rural schools and poorly subsidized schools, though every bit as naturally gifted as the children who went to the “better” schools, were lagging behind. To me, the easiest way to gloss over that fact is to do away with the exam. The children getting the best grades aren’t necessarily smarter; it is that more investment, TRAINING is being put into them.
On Monday morning, I listened attentively to a call from Brother Clinton Lightburn to XTV WuB host, Ms. Yaya Marin Coleman during which he informed every Belizean who wants to know why youth in the deprived areas of Belize City, mainly on the south side of Haulover Creek, have such a difficult time. Lightburn spoke from a lived experience, from the bottom up; and because he has studied the social sciences, he also has an overview of the reality he discussed. Lightburn explained that youth who live in depressed conditions and lack opportunities are on a dead-end street.
Markovits extended his discussion to sports, but I think that the difference there is really between countries. Sports is the “levelest” table in the capitalist state, everywhere. Generally, if you are a top talent in sports and have a great work ethic, the best TRAINING that is within the country where you live will be available to you.
If we look at sports between countries, Marion Jones doesn’t grow up to blow away the field at the 2000 Olympics if her mom had decided to settle down in Belize. My, Marion had no need to be associating with sorts who weren’t on the level. I think she allowed suspect stuff to be used on her body because of injuries. You know an injury to an athlete is like a lawyer or politician having their tongue tied, or a surgeon coming down with the tremors.
Looking at Marion’s story on Wikipedia: she was chosen as an alternate for the 1992 Olympics, but declined. Ah, even at 17 she had to be top dog, or be nothing at all. An injury forced her to skip the 1996 Olympic trials, and in 1999 she was also hampered by an injury. We know what she did in 2000.
It must be Hulu
This insistence by S. Barrow to push this case to prove that he and his crowd followed the law, and Tracy and her crowd were renegades, there is something behind this show that isn’t easy for minds like mine to figure out. Well, you know when you’re in the dark what you do: you put some numbers in a hat; get a handful of straws, one short; or spin an Esquivel dollar. My guess here is that some kind of promise was made to Hulu that Shyne would hold on to the leadership of the party, because that was needed to keep the show alive. I do hope it’s just old stubbornness, not pressure from the movie house up north. I wish the brother the best with his earnings.
Shyne made a bold gamble to cement his control of the UDP. He said he was the best fit to see the UDP through the 2025 election; and maybe, because he had quite a bit more financial backing than the other main leaders of the party, and because traditional donors were shying away with the PUP looking like a shoo-in, that could be considered fair thinking. Shyne made moves to oust key members of the old guard, and maybe he did that because he did/does believe the party needed to be cleaned up. It isn’t lost on anyone who was paying attention, anyone who wasn’t up to the gills with bias, that UDP faithful hadn’t given him the mandate to clean house, and that successfully checkmating old heroes instead would have secured his leadership into 2030.
Two devils at Vibes, Bennett and Montejo, said a faction of the UDP doesn’t want Tracy because her dad was a big PUP. If that is so, then that UDP doant got no love. With the PUP, it is welcome to the paati! Said Musa pa was an NIP; John Briceño pa or grampa was an NIP; great PUP hero Lindy Rogers was an NIP; even George, “their” greatest hero, he yooz to follow Philip Goldson. What does pa or ma have to do with it? Enough house eena Belize split down the middle.