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FROM THE PUBLISHER

PublisherFROM THE PUBLISHER


Arifah attended St. Catherine?s Elementary School, then went on to St. Catherine?s Academy, St. John?s College Sixth Form, and the University of South Florida. She?d been working at KREM Radio for a while before she began writing a column for this newspaper.


In my mingling with young, university-educated Belizeans, I find that they are highly intelligent but almost completely apolitical. This is how the system of oppression wants it. They want for our best young minds to get caught up with internalized and individualistic issues, like beauty tips, sex and entertainment issues, financial portfolios, and so on. What Arifah added to our newspaper were the perspectives of our younger, more educated, ?liberated? generations.


Arifah?s dad, Chef Ramon, is one of the most politicized and political people I have ever met. I ran with Chef Ramon a lot between 1975 and 1977, when I first worked along with the ruling PUP. In fact, it was Chef Ramon whom the PUP sent to open negotiations with me in late 1974/early 1975.


Chef was the editor of THE BELIZE TIMES, the official organ of the ruling PUP, at the time. His loyalty to Premier George Price and Deputy Premier C.L.B. Rogers was absolute. So even though he and I became good friends, his loyalty to Price and Rogers took precedence over his friendship with me. I understood this very well.


Ray Lightburn?s mom, the late Lucille ?Ma Luz? Eusey, had fallen in love with his dad, the late Bill Lightburn, in the late 1930?s, and she had three sons for him ? Sydney ?Stretch?, Ray and Clinton ?Pulu.? The thing is in British Honduras at that time, the Euseys were a brown, middle class family, and the Lightburns were ?roots? ? they worked with livestock at the old Belize Slaughterhouse. Even though Bill Lightburn was one of the colony?s greatest athletes, besides being a brilliant thinker, the relationship was considered a downward move for Lucille, who reacted by becoming hostile to Belize?s class discrimination and hypocrisy.


Belize is such a strange and complex place. My understanding is that Bob Turton?s mother was a Lightburn. Turton was the richest and most powerful ?native? in British Honduras from the late 1920?s until his death in 1955. His father was a British army officer, but Bob Turton?s mother was a Lightburn, and the royal Creoles in these parts did not ?rate? the Lightburns.


Lucille Eusey became 100 percent PUP, and Ray Lightburn, a combination of size and brains, inherited his mother?s socio-political rebelliousness. He became the leader of Belize?s most powerful trade union, the Christian Workers Union, as a very young man. He may have been still a teenager when he was the union leader. And then he became one of the PUP?s most visible and loyal forces later in the 1960?s.


Ray apparently kept Arifah completely protected from party politics. You can see this in all her pre-G7 writings, absolutely nothing about socio-politics. But then the G7 uproar in mid-August of this year activated Arifah Lightburn in an incredible way, and she began to ?lick out.? It was like an explosion. Everything was sincere, spontaneous and spectacular. As her editor, what could I do?


Last week, when I thought her energy, reflecting the energy of all her generation, was beginning to subside, Arifah got fed up and blew up everything about what?s going on financially and politically in Belize right now. Perhaps I should have protected her from herself, if you understand what I mean. But this is an adult, truthful, clear thinking writer. I could not undermine the integrity of her package of expression.


I understand why Arifah felt the way she did when she wrote. When she grows older, she will read the material she writes now, and she will want to adjust some of it. This happens to me. There are some things I wrote 30 years ago that I now consider practically puerile. But you can?t change the past, especially if it was ?real.? I was a young adult when I wrote certain things. I was, as ?Creole say?, in my ?full senses.? I felt that way.


Today, I?ve learned so much, experienced so much that I don?t talk or write the way I did as a young adult. As her godfather, I was supposed to protect Arifah. But as a young man, I had not wanted for anyone to protect me. Arifah is a new generation. They will be heard. They must be heard, and I try my best to listen. The Government of Belize will ignore the generation for which Arifah writes, at their own socio-political peril. There is a time when the young bird takes flight away from the home nest. This is such a time. Arifah has flown.

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