Sat. Oct. 28, 2023

The above is a line in his Odes, from Horace, the Roman lyric poet, who lived during the time of the Emperor Augustus. In English it translates as; “It is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country.” Wilfred Owen, the English poet who survived WWI, used this as a title for his poem describing the horrors of that war. War has been romanticized, usually by the victors, since time immemorial. I suppose the war in Ukraine will also be, in time, by the Ukrainians. The war in Gaza can’t ever be looked at in that way—too savage and brutal and one-sided.

In 1938, the Nazis took over Czechoslovakia without firing a shot. They had no allies to help them fight the powerful German army, so they just let them in. The Czech resistance was putting up a fight, though; they weren’t just going to let Nazis wander about their country at will, killing and subjugating them. Hitler sent in his number 3, Reinhard Heydrich, who later became known as the Butcher of Prague, because of his cruelty towards its citizens. He was a 38-year-old psychopathic general who was killed by 2 resistance fighters while driving home from his office. The number 3 in the Nazi hierarchy after Hitler and Goring, the head of the Nazi Secret Police, was taken out by these 2 disorganized Czech heroes, who parachuted in from London for that purpose. They knew how steep the price would be for that act, for their citizens, but did it anyway, for love of country.

I write this because I’m thinking of the Sarstoon, which I could never let go of; it haunts me. I’m thinking of the ICJ, in whose hands we have put our trust and hope and future, hoping they’ll do the right thing and confirm our sovereignty, as is! After seeing all that the Guatemalans have been doing to us on the Sarstoon, in the Chiquibul, in fact all along our border areas, and deep inside the Cayo District, one has to wonder how a ruling against us would affect us as Belizeans, and our psyche. Would we just throw our hands up in the air in resignation, or would we put up the fight of our lives to preserve our homeland? Would we have the courage of the Czechs, against all odds, to fight for our survival?

My opinion is that we would hem and haw and quietly fold our tents and abide by the ruling of a court in the Netherlands. I don’t believe that we have that burning patriotic flame in us to fight for our rights. Not knowing our value and history, and not caring to learn either, makes us patsies for the Guats, who want our oil and minerals and coastlines and everything else! And when I use the word fight, I don’t mean as in an army, but resistance fighters like David, who slew Goliath! No, we are too busy partying and struggling to feed our families and killing each other, to pay any attention to the eventual partition of our country!

Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori. “It is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country!” How many of us believe that? Mayans, Garifunas, Creoles, Mestizos, Arabs, Chinese, Mennonites, East Indians! How many of us?

Glen