Dear Sir,

With great interest, I read the feature story: “Belizeans Abroad: An UntappedResource”byNuri Muhammad, in your publication of 3rd March, 2018. It contains some of the most positive and thoughtful recommendations on how to strengthen Belize’s present parlous situation by actively utilising its Diaspora.

However, it is necessary, in the interest of those who do not know, that certain historical facts are set straight. The Consortium for Belizean Development was NOT the brainchild of three Belizeans, namely, the Hon. Philip Goldson and Ambassadors Edward Laing and Bert Tucker. (Incidentally, all three of them are dead.)

The Consortium was actually the brainchild of only one Belizean, the International Jurist and Scholar, Professor Edward Arthur Laing, Jr., who was Belize’s ambassador in Washington, and at one point in time its Permanent Representative at the UN. He singlehandedly wrote the Consortium’s Constitution, and registered it in the State of Maryland, where he resided at the time. It was definitely NOT the brainchild of either the Hon. Philip S.W. Goldson or Ambassador Adalbert Tucker who, though Belizean patriots, played no part in its formation. Nonetheless, Mr. Goldson was extremely supportive of the idea and, therefore, attended its inauguration in Los Angeles, California, in 1985.

Thérèse Belisle Nweke
Lagos,
NIGERIA