Dear Editor,
The February 13th From The Publisher that looks once more at the Michael Ashcroft acquisition of Scotia Bank took me back to 22nd June, 2020, when I read the news, and to another From The Publisher a few days later dealing with that event.
I was moved to write a response to the editor, but did not submit it. Maybe I just needed to vent. This is after the fact – the deal is done — but please allow me to share that letter now. That text follows:
The Empire Strikes Back… AGAIN! … and guess who’s laughing, all the way to the bank — literally!
When I got the Ashcroft Scotia Bank acquisition news on June 22, my immediate gut response was, “So the capitalist imperialists are leaving the Caribbean and the imperialist son was waiting in the wings. Surely there are born Belizeans who could put US$30 million together? When will Belizeans OWN Belize?”
If there ever was a time for Belizeans to express their disgust and turn the tide, this is one such time. One doesn’t have to understand banking to know the smell of rotten fish. The gut says, “What, one man controlling? Dat no good!”
It has been labeled a private transaction. Big deal. Most importantly, as power and money-hungry capitalists do, it is designed to benefit the few by, if I may draw on a parallel currently on the world’s mind, putting a ‘knee on the neck’ of the masses, putting a chokehold on the competition.
The June 27th From The Publisher analysis is spot on. How could GOB let that happen, it asks. It also wonders who psychologically is the man Ashcroft; what does he really want?
The man is a capitalist, pure and simple, an imperialistic one at that, this time not going for the land and its natural resources, but for the very engine that drives everything – the banking system.
The real question, though: what is the relationship between the Lord and Belize (governments)? It is a symbiotic one, I conclude.
This Lord psychologically cannot be “Lord” without underlings, servants, dependents to “lord it over”, under the guise of benevolence to boot. Belize finds it cannot psychologically shake off what typically develops into a dependency on being “taken care of” — being good and loyal “subjects”. It is so much easier to stroke the Lord than tell him off, cut the navel strings and make one’s own way, come what may. Some fear economic peril. Listen, that comes with Independence and the reclaiming of our human dignity!
Wake up, Belize. A new day dawned more than 70 years ago. Kings and queens, dukes and duchesses, lords and ladies, belong to a different era, on the ash pile of history.
When will Belizeans OWN Belize?
A final note:
Belizeans did express their disgust, but they were sold out anyway. At what price is left to be seen. The present government jumped on the acquisition like it is the best thing since sliced hot Creole bread. They ignored all the doubts and cautions from various quarters which, get this, did not include the Central Bank — of all bodies! That institution, seemingly impressed by their count of some four hundred sixty-nine thousand INDIVIDUAL bank accounts (way more than people – what’s up with that?!), was too busy bowing and curtsying.
Beryl Young