by Colin Hyde

It was disappointing to me that in the over a hundred comments I heard or read condemning some fellows because of their barbarity to a horse, not a single person called for them to be caned. The entire mouth-and-pen class said the fine, a hundred dollars, was insufficient; everybody called for the fellows to be incarcerated. I’ve said before that you have to be cold indeed to call for the incarceration of a human being – heck, the animal rights people consider it inhumane to chain a dog, or cage a parrot – or you have to be ignorant about the impact that life behind bars has on the human mind and body. If you say you didn’t call for incarceration, look, if the fine was “sufficient,” where do you think young fellows would find the money to pay, so they don’t go to jail?  

We are paying a heavy price for having full-blown intellectuals dominating our show. Before I go on, I want womenfolk in our country to know that they have no reason to fear lashing. The crime most lashing advocates want the cat-o-nine for is rape, and in real terms female folk can’t do that. Lashing females has never been commonplace in Belize.

These intellectuals tell us that ignorance is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Do they talk so much that they never have time to listen to themselves? Whoa there, your jail system isn’t getting the results. According to an AI Overview, Belize officially outlawed corporal punishment in jails in 1993, and we know we stopped using that form of punishment some time before. Incidentally, or interestingly, it was after 1993 that all hell broke loose in Belize.

You know that this is a Kriol thing. Do I have to tell you why? Looking at our jail, a 2017 Amandala story says 50% of the males in there are Creoles, 25% are Mestizo. Guess what, 60% of the population is Mestizo; only 25% is Creole. The Amandala story said that most of the Creoles in the prison are there for “murder and crimes of dishonesty: robbery, burglary, theft, etc., while the majority of Hispanic inmates are at the prison for immigration offences and crimes of dishonesty.” Guess who are committing crimes that call for a whipping. Shegs, here come our brilliant intellectuals again. We are not to wap because that reminds Creoles of “slavery days”.

Do you know that the elders of the other roots tribes – East Indians, Garinagu, Maya, and Mestizo – don’t like their youth associating with ours? I don’t blame them! Fact: our other roots groups are doing a far better job of raising their children. We Kriols are ruining ours.

At times, physical boys need a firm hand. Boys go at each other hard, and if you don’t rein in a boy who has a physical advantage, he will bully. That boy who tends to bully needs to be taken to a room to get his batam wap. Some males are too “square” to fit into the round hole. We have to make our males fit, because people who don’t are destroyed, or they destroy others. Our boys need counseling, and when they commit crimes they must be punished. The intellectuals insist that we stay away from the cane. What folly!

Allow mi to go to my archives. Two of my aunts, Grace and Chrystel, Chrystel especially, they had a thing for Sister Catherine. Getting on, I never heard my aunts complain directly about my mom, whose arsenal included heavy plastic slippers, a belt, and a shooti broom. My mom had 9 children, my Aunt Chrys had 2, and my Aunt Grace, she married at the age of 38 and she and my Uncle Harry had none. I think people with few children are on easy street to advocate against lashing.

Ah, they had a thing for terrible Sister Catherine. Mind you, dehn oanli yer, secondhand business, because they went to Anglican school, not Catholic where Sister Catherine reigned. When I was at Compre, a story was about that a boy, a son of a top security officer in the country, pushed a young VSO teacher into a corner and groped her breasts. If he had met Sister Catherine, he wouldn’t have dared! Let me tell you about her again, what my dad told me. My dad went to Catholic school, and knew Sister personally. He said that if his sisters knew Sister Catherine, they would not have had bad vibes toward her. My dad said Sister Catherine saved her best for boys who chaans’d girls. My dad said that for that kind of boy Sister sent for Faada, and she had the boy lie on his belly on the floor while Faada wayl ih a*s. Go, Sister Catherine! For males who believe it is their duty to protect females, you are a saint!

There are only two individuals on the media circuit whom I have heard sing the virtues of whipping, two ancianos: Don Hector and the late CB Hyde. Let it not be lost on you that they fit the category of physically competitive men. Of course, all human beings are physical. But physically competitive is different. Those two weren’t just big on physical competition, they excelled. We have heard about Don Hector’s exploits with Queen’s Park Rangers and Avengers. CB was a top striker on All Star, a star in track & field, and also in cricket. These men knew/know how to raise a physical boy.

I respect the contributions of the intellectuals. But one should not bring their baggage to the marketplace. It blows my mind that there are people who think it nothing to call for incarceration. It blows my mind that there are people who talk hanging, but recoil when they hear lashing. Your insistence on incarceration and condemnation of the cane is the ruination of male youth.

Those fellows need a whipping, and counseling

I have some difficulty believing one of those fellows deliberately chopped a horse. He might have been slapping it with a machete. He shouldn’t have been doing that.

There might be an environment thing at play here. It is for sure that our environment impacts what we become and how we behave in this world. My sense is that some guys who have horses can get comfortable with physical pain. I have read of gentle ways to break in a horse, and there’s a lot of time that has to be invested there. Even the best horse tamers will use some physical coercion. In the common brutal “break in”, both the rider and horse take a physical beating. According to an AI Overview, “It’s difficult to pinpoint an exact number, but a significant percentage of riders, especially those involved in activities like breaking in horses, experience injuries at some point. Roughly 81% of equestrians get injured at some point, and 21% experience a serious injury. Falls are a common source of injury, and serious injuries can occur, even when not mounted.”

Let me tell you about horse racing. You ever see a jockey without a whip? You have never seen a jockey without a whip. Someday someone will holler horse cruelty and take away the jockey’s whip. Then the horses that are more cerebral will win the races.

These fellows need counseling so they appreciate their horse more. They need a whipping because criminal behavior, animal cruelty and stealing, must be punished. Don’t kill them with incarceration.

If that is PUP blue, UDP red could get closer to pink

I know I’m being ungrateful—I got a vamos bien shirt—but I’m not so easily bought, so I’m going to vent. The shirt isn’t PUP blue. PUP blue is like the color of the water outside of the quebrada at St. George’s Caye, deep sea devil blue where George Price used to sail his little boat. This PUP thinks they are so smart, mixing in the color of the sky. I guess the UDP has license to pastel down their fire engine red.