When you look at the tragedy of 265 men on remand for murder, and you do the math, you realize that this reality works out to the benefit of only one group in the country. This group can take that number to the bank. That number will work out for them, either as savings at the bank of their choice, or as collateral for loans for their big house or fast car or luxury boat.

It is not for us to complain about all people who capitalize on pain. But we should complain if the people who capitalize on pain, are contributors to it. We men know of the violence in our natures. We also know that it can be tempered, or stoked.

Now, from the little classroom knowledge I have, yes, straight from that, there are three kinds of big animals on terra firma, these being the carnivores, the omnivores, and the herbivores.

Herbivores are not killers. Cattle and sheep and deer and rabbits are gentle creatures that feed off the greens of the earth. The sexual energy in all animals will make them strike, get mad, especially when they are under threat. We know that male herbivores will protect their territory and the females will protect their young. Goading can also make the gentlest of animals become violent.

Carnivores, the meat eaters, were born to kill. Cats and dogs and sharks and crocodiles are killers. You know them by their teeth. Red Riding Hood knew them. When the wolf opened his mouth she knew it was time to run. The carnivores’ teeth are pointed and sharp, designed to rip flesh off bones.

Human beings are called omnivores, meaning they eat both meat and vegetables/fruits. But we’re really herbivores. It’s a sketchily told story, this craving human beings have for cooked meat. Nowhere in the Bible are we told that God came down and seasoned a piece of meat and roasted it over a fire. But in Leviticus we are told not to eat pork meat. We assume that the pork leg was stuffed with garlic and onions, and the cook had the touch with the black pepper and salt and thyme.

Everyone knows that we have zero desire for raw meat. The fact is that we discovered cooked meat by accident, and over time we started to season it. This love of meat we have, it is learned.

By design, DNA, we are not meat eaters. We are herbivores, herbivores that kill. We do possess a violent nature.

Very early in the Bible we learned that Cain killed Abel, and it was not to eat him. We can think of a number of reasons why the animal that doesn’t eat raw meat harbors a killer within. I could be corrected here, but I believe the blame within for the killing nature goes to sexual energy and the complexity of our brains.

When we look about, we see that there are factors outside of us that make us murderous. Cain was jealous of Abel. There is defense of self. There is greed. And so on and so forth.

We can see that our environment, and how we are cultured, has much to say about how we behave. We have proof of this. There are countries in the world where murder isn’t epidemic. These are countries peopled by blacks and browns and whites, so it has nothing to do with the color of the skin.

www.clements.com said that the murder rate in Switzerland, a “white” country, in 2014, was 0.49 per 100,000 people, and that in Japan, a “brown” country, the murder rate was less than one per 100,000 people.  The Wikipedia put the murder rate in Malawi, a “black” country, at 1.7 per 100,000 in 2012.

Regular folk in these countries have been cultured to respect human life. But even in such countries they have to be alert for persons who are pathological. Sexual energy and the complex brain can be volatile. It happens.

If we follow the line, how people in civilized countries behave, we recognize that the vast majority of persons who have committed murder, would not have done so if they lived in a society that didn’t cultivate the environment for such crimes. We are responsible for our environment. So our country is, in most instances, as guilty of the crime of murder as people on remand.

It is not a bold line, killing in war, killing for self-defense, killing for passion, and killing for profit. Tribes that have chosen the path of peace recognize this. The Quakers and the Mennonites are tribes that have seen murder in its many forms. But these tribes have chosen the path of peace. It is an environment thing. This is fact. Quaker men and Mennonite men have to be under extreme provocation before they turn into murderers/killers.

Clearly, Belize must be sponsoring an environment for murder. Some experts have pointed out to us where we are failing dismally. We know that much of the blame goes to unequal wealth, and asinine laws to control drugs. Parenting and peer pressure are also culprits.

The trouble at the bottom of the heap is that people live in desperation. A hungry man is invariably angry. People who live at the top of the heap have all the opportunities to set a good example, and do right by the society. Thus, they have more responsibility.

One factor, one group the experts (the fraternity of educated elites) don’t call out for their guilt in our now shocking country, is the lawyers. But our lawyers are far from innocent about what we have become.

The latest statistics are that there are 265 people on remand for murder, men waiting for a lawyer to guide them to freedom. We know there should be more on remand because in the last ten years there have been over a thousand murders in our country.

Lawyers live in an environment that does not encourage murderous tendencies – they are well educated and they know where their next meal is coming from, as much as two years down the road. But they are big contributors to the murderousness of our country. They contribute to the murderous environment because they have made it true that in Belize you can kill somebody and pay for your freedom.

We know their success rate – a whopping 93%! They are not ashamed of their shingle. If you didn’t know, it reads: We Can Get You Off!

And it is well with them because university education has expunged God and His hereafter from their minds. Lawyers, in their neat black and white suits, and with their smooth tongues, appear to be so civilized. But how can you trust a man who does not believe in God?

I’m not saying that God doesn’t love lawyers. I don’t know that.

We out here, we are just little people, struggling the day to day. They are elevated people, on a perch looking down on the show. They are the people who form thought, create the environment in our country. They say that every man deserves an attorney. Mahatma Gandhi had some things to say about how an attorney should conduct his/her business. They spit on Gandhi.

Lawyers, we are told, are our best brains. Gudnis, if they don’t know how to fix our environment, we are doomed. Maybe they’re not that smart. Or maybe they don’t check themselves. Really, we would expect intelligent people to stop talking gibberish about balanced scales when they KNOW the evidence is NOT coming to court. How can the scales be balanced when half the story is NOT being told?

Maybe we really are too stupid, just not intellectually gifted enough to create a state that is a peaceful haven. It appears so. However, in our dark hour, there is a light. There is hope for Belize. Congratulations to Lawyer Anthony Sylvester on the case which he brought for the girl against the sometimes excessive GSU. I’m the kind of person who cries easily, so tears were awash when I read that story in the Amandala. And as I comment on that, I’m crying again. What a story!

There is hope for Belize. There are many things we have to do, to save us. These lawyers must stop washing their hands of guilt. No, you are not alone in this crime, but the math says that the tragedy of 265 men on remand for murder, and the trend, adds up to benefit only one group of people in this country. And they’re using it as collateral at the bank. The math says so.