As I drive around this community where I grew up, I feel this sense of calamity and helplessness. How did what I knew as a child become what I see as an elder? How did a proud, disciplined people become this desperate, slovenly, unfocused group?
In late 1993, our community was already well on its way down the proverbial slippery slope. With February 9, 1994 about to mark the 25th anniversary of the founding of the United Black Association for Development (UBAD), I thought the time was right for us, as a people, to hold a so-called black summit.
But it was the United Democratic Party who were in power in late 1993, and this is a party with a clique which has always considered itself black, at least compared to the People’s United Party. I do not agree with that perception which the UDP has of itself relative to the PUP, but because of their perception of themselves as black leaders, the UDP in power would not consider the idea of a black summit to be desirable. That has always been my firm belief. They cannot tolerate the idea of criticism of themselves coming out of a black summit.
I decided to go against the odds, and began the feel out process for a February 1994 black summit. Things went wrong very quickly, and I ditched the idea. In the world I live in, where my enemies are very wealthy and powerful, I have to test the waters for everything I do, because I am a target. Once I am exposed, I will be blown away. If you wish to call it paranoia, fine with me. I live my life. You live yours.
Fast forward to 2003. The situation within this community had reached a point of real desperation. The PUP were in power, elected to a second consecutive term of office. I had campaigned for Sylvia Flores in Dangriga the five weekends prior to the early March general elections, as part of an arrangement I had made with the PUP leadership. Sylvia became Hon. Sylvia, and a member of Cabinet.
In campaigning for Sylvia, I made a deal with Dr. Ted Aranda, on the advice of Garrincha Adderly. And during that campaign, I became reasonably close to Dr. Aranda, the leader of the World Garifuna Organization (WGO). Subsequent to the elections, through the summer of 2003, the leadership of the UBAD Educational Foundation (UEF) and WGO worked together, holding multiple meetings both in Dangriga and Belize City, to put together Belize’s first ever black summit.
Despite the fact that the Musa/Fonseca PUP government was hostile to Dr. Aranda, and vice versa, the government did not oppose the black summit initiative. In fact, there were Cabinet Ministers who contributed to our budget, which was controlled by Virginia Echols.
I am positive that Hon. Dean Barrow, the UDP Leader, contributed to the summit, and I believe that Wilfred “Sedi” Elrington also did. (I don’t believe that Sedi was a part of the UDP at that time.)
The first ever Belize Black Summit was held at the Belize Biltmore Plaza Hotel in September of 2003. We had a Ph.D. guest speaker from Temple University in Philadelphia, and the whole process was professionally organized. I don’t think that any of us thought, at the time, that such a summit would not be held again fairly soon.
As it turned out, the summit reached a peak at its conclusion with emotional exchanges between persons from the Garifuna and Giao (Creole) peoples. I remember particularly Fred “Maximo” Garcia, Sr., from Dangriga, and Mrs. Muriel Laing Arthurs from Belize City (and New York). So, the issue of the traditional tension/hostility between Belize’s two black tribes ended up as the issue at the Belize Black Summit of September 2003.
I don’t believe that we were able to analyze the issue which is the most dramatic, and catastrophic, inside the Belize City community – the homicidal/suicidal behaviour of our young boys and young men. My personal thinking is that there were all these international moneys which began pouring into Belize, from thirty and forty years ago, for the welfare, protection and promotion of our girls and women, because this was the American agenda and the international agenda. During roughly the same period, our young boys and young men were abandoned at the social welfare level, at exactly the same time that Belizean families, under economic duress, were being fractured by migration to the United States.
In this community, we have very serious issues with the Musa administration, but they supported the black summit of 2003 and they supported the teaching of African and Mayan history. The UDP government does not have the guaranteed black credibility they appear to assume they have. Not in my opinion. The purpose of a black summit is to provide a forum where our best minds and experts can discuss the issues. It’s not about X. If our political leaders can’t see the social catastrophe in this community, then it is because they don’t want to see. And if they really believe that they have all the answers to the problems, then their arrogance surpasseth understanding.
Houston, we have a problem.