Well now, the party’s over, and the hassle begins. The most important conflict in the world is the one between the Israelis and the Palestinians. In hard currency, geopolitical terms, Barack Obama is committed to the Israelis. From the beginning of his presidential campaign in 2005, 2006, he’s been surrounded by Jews. That’s what our sources were telling us from back then.
For us Belizeans, the most relevant conflict in our reality is the one between the Guatemalans and the Belizeans. Barack will support Guatemala, because that is what the American oil companies want. Even though Obama will be moving the United States to alternative energy sources, oil is still real, and its strategic value is enormous, overpowering in fact.
I explained to you last week that the only possible allies we have in Washington are the members of the U.S. Congressional Black Caucus. And the two most important Congress people, in our situation, are Charlie Rangel from New York City and Maxine Waters from Los Angeles, California. They are both Democrats.
Rangel has gotten himself into some corruption controversy lately, but he is still very, very powerful.
Maxine Waters came to my attention when she took up the issue of the Gary Webb cocaine charges against the CIA in the middle 1990’s. It was a brave position she took, and all indications are that Maxine Waters is fearless. I feel that she would support Belize if properly lobbied. Her South Central L.A. district, incidentally, has a lot of Belizean voters.
The late Philip Goldson famously said that we should fight for (save) our country before we lose it. This is what the Palestinians did not do, at least not enough of it, and we can see that they are paying a heavy price for that. Once we lose Belize, we will never get it back. Now is the time for salvation.
In Washington, Belize simply must find a way to neutralize the Organization of American States (OAS), which has exposed itself as pro-Guatemala. What I mean by this, is that the career diplomats in the OAS will make the safe decisions. This is what diplomats do, by definition. The United States government is pro-Guatemala; Central America is pro-Guatemala; South America, except for Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador, will go pro-Guatemala. It is, therefore, “safe” to support Guatemala. Only the Congressional Black Caucus can balance things.
We have, in Belize, taken the Caribbean for granted, I think, and this is perhaps understandable. They say familiarity breeds contempt. The Caribbean has always, always been there for us. The problem in our relations with the loyal Caribbean has been air and sea contact. The most important country in the Caribbean, because of her petroleum and natural gas reserves, is Trinidad and Tobago. Belize has little contact with her. Our cause would benefit greatly if air and sea contact are re-established with Jamaica, as a stepping stone to Trinidad. I mean no disrespect to Jamaica. Culturally and historically, Jamaica is Belize’s contact person in the Caribbean. But in Washington, they will worry more about what Trinidad thinks. That’s because of “the oily.”
When we were growing up in the 1950’s, we had regular flights (at least once a week) between Belize and Kingston. That was BWIA. Was that “British West Indian Airways”? And there was a regular shipping service between Jamdown and The Jewel. Remember the Caymania? Why were these transportation links abandoned, and why were they not resumed?
If there were sufficient trade reasons, our direct air and sea contact with the Caribbean, our strongest allies in the United Nations, would be resumed, but “were” is subjunctive, not declarative. Guatemala has the most developed economy in Central America. They would make a lot of money trading with the Caribbean. But they would make more if they didn’t have to pay Belize any taxes when they moved goods and products east across our territory.
Guatemala doesn’t want Belize to start making money before she can dismember us. That is because Belize is potentially the wealthiest country in the region. The point is that Guatemala is not pushing for Belize to make air and sea contact with the Caribbean, from which Guatemala would benefit immensely, because Belice es nuestro. And what this means is this – they can’t allow us to be Belize. At some point, we have to demand that right for ourselves, which means proving that we are men, not manure.
47 years ago, when we in British Honduras were in love with Jack Kennedy, because he was Catholic and appeared to care for blacks, he promised British Honduras to Guatemala if they would allow the Cuban exiles to train there for the Bay of Pigs invasion. You can love Barack Obama all you want, but you and I don’t live in Obamaville. We are Belizeans. The party’s over. The hassle begins.
All power to the people.