The British, of course, are
something special. I’m not talking
morality: I’m talking diplomacy.
I remember when I was a child here
in the 1950s, the British would always
enter a British Army team in the Belize
City senior football competitions. The
soldiers would usually be very good,
very organized, totally committed to
the team concept, but towards the end
of first halves the tropical heat would
normally cause them to begin to fade.
But I personally can’t remember the
British players being anything other
than gentlemanly, even when they
began to lose.
The diplomacy in the process had
to do with the fact that the British were,
essentially, humbling themselves
before us black Belizeans who were,
in every single respect, their subjects.
The master was bowing down before
his servant.
I can’t move on in this column
without recounting a Stretch Lightburn
joke, courtesy of the one Paul Cain.
Stretch said that the great Paul Cain
said one time that we Belizeans were
the only black people in the world who
were guarded by white men when we
went to bed. We’re talking, again,
about the 1950s, when British
Honduras was a colony protected from
Guatemala by British soldiers.
In the last couple months, I’ve had
sit-downs, separately, with two of my
third form Belize Technical College
students from the 1968/69 school year.
Perhaps I will tell you about these
conversations sometime, but the
reason I brought up the subject was
the controversy which has recently
erupted at two Ladyville pre-schools
because they were refusing to admit a
dreadlocked child to their classes.
Both are religiously affiliated schools
— Christian.
I believe I got to know the father
involved, Kevin Pollard, when we
both lived in the First Street area of
King’s Park (late 1970s, 1980s).
Kevin has chosen a road of courage
and principle which may lead to
problems for his son. I say this
because religion is so very, very
powerful in the school system of this
country, and all responsible parents
have their children’s education as a
primary consideration.
I have said to you before that
Rastafarianism is a religion which
emerged in the 1930s in Jamaica with
its roots in Garveyism. But I think most
Belizeans are reluctant to accept
Rastafarianism as a religion.
But I have also said to you before
that most of the power of Roman
Catholicism, just as an example,
comes largely from its superb
collection of schools all over the
world. When Ignatius Loyola
organized the Jesuit order of clerics
in the 1540s, his express intention was
to use education to fight the Protestant
forces in Europe which had the
previously invincible Roman church
reeling in countries like England,
Scotland, Germany, France, the
Netherlands, and so on. In this respect,
the Jesuits have been very successful.
They are in the vanguard of Roman
Catholic missionary work.
Incidentally, my second son, Cordel,
went to an American university on a
half-scholarship from the Jesuits.
The mention of Belize Technical
College factors into this essay because
Technical was the first government
secondary school established in
British Honduras. This was in 1952,
when we were still a British colony.
Technical was fabulously successful.
The school is dear to me because I
taught there as my first job in Belize
after returning home; my maternal
uncle, Buck Belisle, was the viceprincipal
there; and his oldest
daughter, Georgia, was to have
become the Technical principal to
succeed Owen Morrison in the early
1990s until party politics intervened.
Oh, and my oldest son, Mose, is a
Technical high school and Sixth Form
graduate.
Technical’s incredible success was
of concern to the Roman Catholic
hierarchy, so much so that the
legendary Fr. Leo Weber, S. J., the
boss of St. John’s College,
opened a vocational section
at SJC in the early 1960s. But
that was just educational
competition, I presume. I now
sincerely believe that
Technical incurred the wrath
and hatred of the People’s
United Party (PUP) when
Socorro Bobadilla led
Technical students on a citywide
rampage which closed
down all the Belize high
schools during the Heads of
Agreement uproar in 1981.
The incident has never
been properly investigated,
but recently what I got to
understand was that the
Technical administration and staff did
not intervene to prevent Socorro from
leading the insurrection. This would
never have happened at any of the
religious schools in Belize.
We can’t deal with this subject
adequately in a newspaper column. I
surely admire Kevin for his courage
and principle. Courage, I say, because
we know the Romans used to feed
Christians to lions.
In other words, courage can be a
problematic proposition. I worry about
the implications for his son. I saw what
the power structure in Belize did to
Technical. I still don’t believe my eyes.