I thought that this week I’d be writing glad to know you are doing okay, Mr. Andy P. It wasn’t until I read the Amandala headline story Andy P Serious that I realized that things were a lot more critical than had been reported in other media. I didn’t know Mr. Palacio personally, but, like every other Belizean, I knew him. This is a total shock.
The loss to the nation is huge. I am far more tuned in to sports than to other art forms, so I didn’t know the extent of this man’s personal achievement. Sure, from Ereba days I am well aware of Mr. Palacio’s wonderful musical gifts. But when I listened to Kalilah’s interview with him on Saturday (recorded), I understood his mission and why he deserved so much respect. There are many other super talented Punta artists in Belize, so the music will not die. And the path he blazed will make it easier for them to sail through. Belize is so much better because he lived.
Andy Palacio’s untimely passing shines a bright light on his brilliant legacy. The passing of a nation’s hero to a silent killer also spots the light on the nation’s health…and health facilities. So many of our people have been struck down in their prime with diabetes and high cholesterol. Diabetes and high cholesterol are caused by genetics, but also by our love of fatty foods.
I join with the nation in expressing sincerest condolences to the family and friends of the great Andy Palacio. Peace.
All media must speak on the matter
There is no greater act of patriotism than to lay down your life for your country. The strongest argument for the rights of eighteen-year-old youths to vote is not that at that age most youths are working, or that they are able to make babies. The strongest argument for the rights of eighteen-year-old youths to vote is that they should have a say in which old men will send them off to the battlefields to die.
In peacetime, we send our athletes to engage in war games, called sports, to show the world that our youths are spirited, ready and able to defend “home turf.” Symbolically, young men and women push their bodies to the limits of pain to bring honor to their “home country.”
How we arrived at the unthinkable, the disastrous decision to call a country “home”…a country that has threatened to invade us at times, and for a long time has maintained a claim on half of our country, is beyond common logic. Real nations harness sports tremendous potential to build their nations. In Belize, sports’ potential is reversed, turned to destroy our nation.
Now, if the men who run football in our country are so confused, or bad-minded, we in the media must stand our ground. The media in the countries where these world famous athletes that we love to gossip about reside, would cry bloody murder if any sporting organization would agree to such an unpatriotic act.
Brothers and sisters, sports is a frivolous exercise if we allow it to be cheapened this way. I am saying again, EVERY MEDIA PERSON who accepts money to write or talk about sports better speak up now. Otherwise your voice, though loud, will be nothing but market chatter. You will go down in history with this shame. Trust me.
Proportional Representation is not an easy sell
Last week I dropped a line that the VIP manifesto had inspired my comment about Proportional Representation (PR). In Mr. Rhy’s column on Friday, in which he wrote extensively of his support for PR, he mentioned that he had written about that very subject the week prior. I read Mr. Rhys every week, so his thoughts must have been in my subconscious when I touched PR. Anyway, I am glad that Mr. Rhys is sold on PR. When Mr. Rhys bites into anything he bites very deep, and even though I feel at odds with his thoughts once in a while, when he brings it, he brings it.
PR is an important discussion. With the formidable Mr. Rhys sold, we know we will be getting the beef. Many intellectuals feel that because they (and their various little group of thinkers (I am being rude fu spite)) feel strongly about some idea, for examples, elected Senate and republican system, it is well enough said. Let’s get it on, Frankie.
There are two obvious reasons why PR is a hard sell in Belize. One is the fact that when too many heroes (in our system not more than four or five run things in a government) are in the kitchen, there is always more argument than work.
But the real spanner in the spokes is our disgraceful history with crossing the floor. Honorable leaders will cross the floor for ideological reasons, and moral reasons…principles. Because of our disgraceful experience, a “reform” was put into place during the 1998-2003 government, outlawing outlaws who thought they could make a mockery of honorable movement from one side of the House to another.
The first example of PR I would like to see presented to us is the Italian experience. I get the sense that they don’t have any shame over there either. For the record, I am not one hundred percent against PR. To the proponents, I would advise that if you are going for it, please, don’t be grabbing here, there and everywhere…at other pieces of the cloth (other things you’d like to change). PR is a dream that will need all the love you can give…if you’re going to see it through.