Last week’s piece had a paragraph pointing out that the Belize of 2008 rested on a foundation that was laid down during colonialism. This was the reason for me stating that, “I have a lot of reservations as to what will be the future course of events because of some of the things I’ve learned.” Well, hot diggity damn! Maybe I ought to turn prognosticator or something. Maybe I ought to go out and buy some boledo or lottery. The editorial page of “The Reporter” just made me go through the roof! I’m up to 99.99 on a scale of 100. Why? The last three paragraphs of that editorial, that’s why!
Arresting the former Prime Minister for corruption would be “a witchhunt?” A witchhunt? A WITCHHUNT? ARE YOU F—KIN’ SERIOUS? What kind of excuse for a logical thought process is at work here? Haven’t politicians been charged for corruption as well as human rights violations and often convicted in many countries, including the USA and Great Britain? Then why do you think that Belizean politicians should be immune? Did the former Prime Minister give a damn about little Kimara Rodriguez, the 5-year-old Orange Walk girl who died of severe malnutrition; in other words, she starved to death? Remember her, Mr. Editor? Did he give a damn about young kids on the streets of the city during school hours because his government “couldn’t afford to pay truant officers” who made $150.00 per week but could afford to set up multi-million dollar sweetheart deals for friends and cronies? Did he give a damn that schoolchildren attend government schools where classroom roofs leak in the rain, where there are no libraries and where teachers routinely carry teaching hours way over the 25-hour legal limit per week and try to teach classes that have anywhere from 30+ to 50 students?
Did our former Prime Minister care about “his fellow Belizeans,” you know, those who could no longer make ends meet as his government’s policies drove up prices for utilities and all commodities with crushing tax burdens while friends and cronies were given millions of dollars in “loans” that they never made one single payment for? Did he care about the burdens left for future generations of Belizeans as his government gave away national asset after national asset to foreigners whose ownership was cemented by long term contracts, in one case extending for 50 years – a half a century?
Did our former Prime Minister care at all when he lied time after time after time to the people? Did he give a damn when his government signed agreements and passed laws that were promptly and secretly broken before the ink on the paper was dry? Did he give a damn about lying to foreign governments, making an agreement for aid from Venezuela and then diverting the money that was intended for assistance to the poor, giving it to a predatory billionaire instead?
“The law of the jungle?” “Good faith?” Are you kidding me? “Neutralizing every constitutional gain we have made in the last 27 years?” Mr. Man, what country are you talking about? We haven’t made any constitutional gains in the last 27 years; how about constitutional losses instead? We’ve learned how easily our constitution can be subverted! All it requires are amoral politicians who are clever enough to take control of the security forces; the police and the BDF. What so-called “constitutional gains” have we made? A certain ex-politician wrote $164,000.00 worth of bad checks and the police didn’t even care to investigate, while a poor man stole a bag of chips worth 25 cents and was sent to jail for 5 years? Ben Abou-Nahra walked free from a poor man’s death because 4 cops “couldn’t identify him,” and even the judge “went off” because of how outrageous this scenario was? How about a company that simply disregarded orders from the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, orders that the police flat out refused to serve?
There has so clearly been one set of laws for the average Belizean and no laws for the so-called elite that our “system of justice” is a laughing stock on the streets! Eighty percent or more of those in prison in Belize are black Belizeans. Belize ranks between 5th and 7th in the world as a country with the highest percentage of its population in prison. The Mayan people have had to fight tooth and nail for land that they occupied and owned long before the rest of our ancestors even got here! What about complicity in the cocaine trade, a trade that has made untold millions for connected people while flooding our communities with drugs and high powered weapons, along with enough potential profit to create a genocidal crime wave among those who feel that they have no other way to survive?
Look here, Mr. Editor. We are the ones who have been forced to live in the jungle. Derek Aikman was kidnapped and the police wouldn’t even investigate, then his wife lost her job at a major airline, a job she had held and performed well at for years. A member of the Association of Concerned Belizeans lost his job at a prominent bank for no discernable reason. The MoE tried to forcibly retire me in spite of my excellent record as a teacher after first trying and failing to get the Principal to do the dirty work for them. Carla Heusner Vernon felt it necessary to flee the country with her children after threats to her children’s lives; we are talking about babies and infants here, all because she and her husband, Trevor Vernon, started a newspaper that was critical of the PUP government. The late Richard Hulse, a reporter for that newspaper, “The Independent,” was murdered and that murder was never solved. The police gave the rest of the media stories about the man’s alleged “sexual preferences,” but it appears that there was never a serious attempt to investigate all the leads that were potentially out there, certainly not the possibility that he may have been murdered to silence him!
Rufus X was attacked by a thug with an iron bar in his own yard. If his reactions hadn’t been so quick, he would have been killed instead of “only” having his left arm broken in two places. The guy was trying to hit him in the head! We had no problem identifying the perpetrator, even down to the store which sold him the iron bar, but the Police Department didn’t want to hear a word. Mose Hyde’s vehicle was vandalized in his driveway at 2 a.m. and shots were fired outside his bedroom window. A break-in was attempted atthe house of Amandala’s Assistant Editor, Adele Ramos.
Mr. Man, YOU “were fiercely pursued by Said Musa?” Don’t make me laugh! Yeah, he got you for some money! We were tear gassed and pepper sprayed in Belmopan, had rubber bullets fired at us, nonviolent teachers including women and the elderly were dragged across the pavement, then assaulted again in the police station, and every one of us knew that our lives were at risk along with the lives of our spouses, our children and even our grandchildren! For two years I never decided which of several routes I would take to my intended destination until I left my house, after first making sure that nobody was waiting to ambush me as soon as I opened my front gate! I never saw the writer of that editorial at a single demonstration!
Did you read a recent edition of “The Star,” a Cayo newspaper? One hundred twenty police officers were suddenly promoted just before the general election as the former administration amassed a huge arsenal of heavy weapons. If they had managed to buy the election, they would have shot “their fellow Belizeans” dead in the streets in a display of overwhelming force, or have you forgotten what happened in Corozal circa 1981?
Anybody remember the late Leslie Rogers? He was the grandson of a Belizean icon, the late C.L.B. “Lindy” Rogers. It didn’t help to save his life! And every day on the Southside, we run the risk of becoming the incidental victims of out of control crime exacerbated by an out of control police force, crime that could have been alleviated with targeted social spending if there was any money left to spend. There was none because the previous government had siphoned off every dime for themselves!
You need to wake up, Jack, and start making some damn sense! A set of politicians completely disregarded the law and subverted the Constitution that you claim to revere, caused untold amounts of pain and suffering to Belizeans who still had faith that the Constitution was the supreme law of the land, and then you accuse all of us who put our jobs, our lives and the lives of our families on the line, of wanting to apply “the law of the jungle?” Get real, Mr. Man. Stop trying to protect the former Prime Minister and his confederates with this kind of bulls—t because we see right through you.
The respect that I used to have for “The Reporter” has disappeared because of those three paragraphs in the March 16th newspaper. Wonder why those paragraphs were written, because they sure don’t make any sense in the context of the reality of today’s Belize. It’s the old colonialist mentality. The “master class” gets a free pass. Which witchhunt? A witchhunt? A WITCHHUNT? Are you daft or what?