by Colin Hyde
I saw this clip in which former British PM, Tony Blair absolutely gushes over the stewardship of the famous Lee Kuan Yew, the Singaporean president who took that struggling little nation to the pinnacle. Singapore is the poster nation of a number of headline Belizeans. Singapore is the “Mike” they want us to be like, and they know by rote many of the decisions he made to propel the little nation to the very top. Tony Blair knows well the story too.
In the clip, Blair pointed out three decisions of Lee Kuan Yew that he thought were brilliant. One, in the face of nationalists who argued that one of their languages should have prominence, he said English is the language of the world, English will be at the fore; two, he said Singapore must reach out to every corner of the globe for the best technical and management talent; and three, he said top government officials would be paid well, partly as a measure to discourage them from teefing, because there’d be zero tolerance for corruption.
Of course, Lee Kuan Yew was right on all points. Present Singapore is the proof of that. Beginning from the first point, there was a time in Belize when some who speak Spanish were pushing for that language to be on par with English, that we have two national languages. That crowd felt that our large Spanish-speaking population justified such a move. Of course, from a point of practicality, that wouldn’t make sense.
On the second point, we remember how many were insulted when the present PM said we didn’t have enough talent in the public sector to make us all win. Aha, some of the reaction there had to do with the belief that he would be reaching for crony friends and family.
A number of Queen E’s men, some of them pretty sharp talent, were shown the door when we took over the reins in Belize. I think it could be argued that local replacement talent didn’t realize that a few years at foreign school doesn’t give you sufficient grasp of the foreigners’ system, which was very much in play here and still rules the world. But that might be countered with the argument that George P wasn’t too interested in the dominant European system; he had his own Rerum Novarum-based mixed economy he was about implementing here.
This third point, zero tolerance for corruption, and paying top officials well so they are less inclined to teef, we remember Manuel Esquivel being pretty rough on some of his own for minor infractions, plus opening the check book for government leaders and delivering a fat retirement package so they had no worries when they got the boot.
I must repeat, from me to you, that corrupt and talented should get the nod over honest and sh*t’n. Before there can be corruption, there must be a product. If you are on a boat in a storm, put the premium on competence. Keep a keen eye on the corrupt captain who can do the job. If the honest captain doant wot a whit, you might have to sail the boat yourself.
Damas y caballeros, you notice that Mr. Blair didn’t note the fourth leg of the chair: the cane with sass, not sugar. Of course, it would have been easy for Mr. Blair from the UK to bypass that essential tool. That’s because they, the UK, were rulers of the world for a couple hundred years, are a modern wonder, and the home of the Bank of England.
According to End Corporal Punishment, the British abolished sash kaad from public schools in 1986, and a decade or so later it was also removed from private schools. The BBC said in 1962 that they stopped caning prisoners in Britain. The BBC said the death penalty was abolished in stages, and in 2004 it was abolished for all crime, even treason. More from the BBC: Emaan Warraich, in a 2023 story titled, “Government rejects call to ban smacking in England”, said that “in England and Northern Ireland it is legal for a carer or parent to discipline their child physically if it is a ‘reasonable’ punishment.”
Returning to Singapore, the president knew that if he would lift his country to a place where everybody wins, they couldn’t afford the right fu du r—. There’s a cost there. Rich countries can afford to pay. Poor countries don’t have that luxury. Absolutely yu can’t ignore the cost. Mr. Lee Kuan Yew did not take control of a developed nation; he had to build from the ground up. He knew he needed the cane. I say, without it, Singapore would be a struggling little nation, jos like we.
A relative of mine had a pair of those fierce, beautiful dogs, and they had pups to give away. I said, wow, I’d like one. My relative told me that I couldn’t afford the pup. My relative knew my economic status. I understood right quick that my relative was right. Boy, if I was really quick, I would have told the relative, “I will sell my house and lot, and out of the winnings I’ll pay for a fence around my lot, and buy a quality dog house so the pup has a good home”. By the time my relative figured out that something was faulty with the math there, I would have had a string around that pup’s neck and been off with it, straight to the bar room, where I’d put a for-sale sign on him/her and parlay that popular little bohga into a big spree.
Gullible, haaf-staaving we, our Belize where most of us are yet to win, prefer to incarcerate someone who breaks the law—forego their labor/positive contributions to society for years, feed and clothe the felon for years—because the cane is uncivilized. Well, excuse mi, Lee Kuan Yew didn’t swallow that.
The cane is the cure for accidents on the highway
In more “I told you so”, I tell unu years ago that Belize needs a police motorcycle patrol to bring traffic on the highways under manners. These Belizeans dying in motorcycle accidents, my, they are so young. Their minds are not fully developed. They, and some behind the wheel in vehicles, need to be restrained.
Please, our ComPol isn’t the only officer in our country who has restraint. My, it’s a cold-seed moment when di showoff Belizean from America chalinj ahn, and Williams, with full legal right to neutralize him with the rosewood cudgel he had at the ready, and maybe walk away with the adversary’s girl while he was out on the pavement kak cold, reined in his temper. Man, what an incredible exhibition of restraint there!
I tell you, we have lots more officers like him. Oh no, not every police officer is a sadist looking to beat the stuffings out of anyone who gets a little fresh. And on top of that, there are hundreds of hungry lawyers in the country who wahn bring case if an officer goes rogue. Of course, if we refuse to allow the cane, bah, we are limited to impounding the motorbikes/puncturing the tires of Evel Knievel types, or taking away freedom.
That terrible weed law need fu geh waip aaf di buks
Ouch, Louis M. Wade, Jr., or a person purporting to be LMWJ, wrote on a social media page: “Most people who smoke weed in Belize take angel dust and meth and don’t know it. Fools.”
If the poster is the Louis Wade from Plus TV, and I thought the individual behind the post to be sinister, I would say that his efforts to block the legalization of weed is an agenda, the aim there being to create more “clients” for a project of his called Hedges, if that enterprise is for profit. Weed, a rather benign drug which can be overused just as sugar and wine can be overused, can be adulterated by unscrupulous sorts as long as it remains illegal.
Some young people are inquisitive. Many of them give up weed after a time, and if the weed they smoked is pure, they have no chronic issues. This weed law is unforgiving. Our young people are victims of a criminal law.