American presidential candidate, Bernie Sanders, told Anderson Cooper in an interview on the CBS Show Sixty Minutes that it’s unfair to say everything about Fidel Castro was bad, and across the political spectrum in America they are raining blows upon Sanders’ head. Really, is there anything or anyone under the sun who is all bad? Sanders pointed to the massive literacy program in Cuba as a good thing when he was challenged to explain remarks he made many years ago, that Cubans on the island didn’t rise up against Fidel, because he transformed their society.
Both Republicans (no surprise) and many Democrats (some surprise) wanted Mr. Sanders to swallow his words, and one Democrat said he was singing praises about a murderous tyrant. I think Sanders, an Independent who has become part of the Democratic party, is too much to the left to win a presidential election in the US, and the blowback from his own party confirms that assessment.
It is very concerning to me that there are many Belizeans who are of the view that Fidel Castro was a dirty rotten leader and he deserves to burn in hell. Sometimes you have to be like that wicked Dean Barrow, and call for a separation.
Nelson Mandela said that Castro and Cuba were instrumental in ending apartheid in South Africa. What is the position of these philistines on that? When the South African racists invaded Angola again, it was Cuba and Castro who helped them get rid of the horrible invaders. What is the position of the philistines on that? Castro and Cuba have educated hundreds of Belizeans, and their doctors and nurses have been strengthening our medical system for many years. What is the position of the philistines on that?
It is for sure that capitalism is the best system to produce material wealth, but it is also the most brutal system, so brutal that in the USA, the country that is the system’s foremost exponent, over 500,000 persons are homeless. The exact number of homeless in America in 2018 is 552,830 according to the website whitehouse.gov. On one Wikipedia page a reference is made to a 2018 assessment by the U.S. Census Bureau which shows 38.1 million people, 11.8% of Americans, living in poverty.
Speaking of material wealth, of course what the Americans call poverty is not the same as what we in Belize call poverty, but on the spirit level their experiences are the same as what our poor feel. It can be uncomfortable for an adult to live in a society where they can’t meet their monthly bills, and it must be especially tough on their children.
The capitalist heroes say that deprived persons, if they have the will, can lift themselves out of poverty. They say that the toughness of the system exerts a pressure that brings out the best in people. Poverty causes desperation which forces most people to try harder, but it also brings out the meanness in people. Desperation is a bad thing, because it makes people sick, and they turn to drugs.
The drive human beings have to excel has more to do with their DNA than their environment. Some people want to be excellent because they want to show themselves. Some people want to be excellent because they love to serve people. There are people who will drive to excel wherever you put them. The drive in the altruistic person to excel will not be bested by the person whose drive is for self, greed.
The communist or far left socialist state comes into being when the capitalist state fails to deliver the goods for the people. Everyone wants freedom, as much freedom as we can get in this world, but when the system collapses we have to give up some of it. If Belize continues at this murderous pace, at some point, the state will have to curtail our freedom. Heck, we have voluntarily given up a lot of freedom already.
Some Belizeans in our capitalist state are happy when the police declare a state of something in their area to curb crime because most Belizeans no longer walk the streets in certain areas at night, and Belizeans lock their doors as it turns dark and fret when their children don’t come home from school early.
We have to give up some freedom too when the economic system is a dud, when the economic system is not delivering the goods and services for the people and there are innocent children who have less than what some dogs and cats in the country have.
No one WANTS to live in a communist or far left socialist state, but the capitalist state of Cuba had become a playground for rich Mafia gangsters from the United States and too much of the hope for regular Cuban families was to have their daughters become the consorts of the rich and their sons become waiters and gamblers and pimps. Of course, the rich and the well-off wanted things to continue the same in Cuba.
Sometimes it seems that some people don’t have compassion. It’s either that, or they have been brainwashed about the Cuban story. Are these people pleased with what is happening in Belize today?
Can’t they see the ever widening gap, can’t they see so many of our people being left behind, don’t they know that if we don’t put this ship on a better course that we will have to give up our freedoms?
If they can’t feel the pain of the artist or sportsman or laborer who has been shut out of the sweets of Belize, can’t they feel the pain of their children? No, they can’t believe that it’s the children’s fault that their parents are poor.
Somewhere in the Bible it says that the sins of the parents are visited on the children, and it is just terrible that leaders of a country will use that to cop out from taking care of the children of people who don’t have much.
One argument of these ultra-capitalists is that if you don’t have, it is because you don’t deserve to have. I could start calling names, but let me keep the focus on the sin, not the sinners. I do so in the hope that people will come to their senses before they get called out.
Let’s take a closer look at children suffering for their parents’ failures. When it comes to parents there are two things to consider in this vein, one is the wrong things they have done in this life, and the other is being poor.
It follows that if we do bad things our children will pay, because when we get punished our children will get hurt too. If we go to jail, our children will hurt. If people hate us, our children will hurt. But it can’t be that God will pile it on our children because we are wicked. God won’t condemn our children to hell if we mess up. Nobody gets punishment from God because of what their parents did. God will kech Heri; Hihn noh have to kech Heri shirt.
When it comes to us being poor, our children will suffer if we live in a country that goes for the cop-out. A sensible country will be tough on lazy people, but make sure that the lazy man’s children don’t live in financial misery. God won’t punish our children for the sins of us parents, and the conscientious state won’t let our children starve because we can’t provide.
The contract every government must make with the people is that Santa Claus will leave no child out of ham and turkey and a water gun at Krismos. We don’t have to have compassion to ensure that every child has healthy meals, good schooling, good clothes, good medical care, and wholesome recreational activities. That is an investment we must make, because human beings are a country’s greatest resource, and for the glory of the nation we need everyone in Belize to reach their full potential.