Over the years I have been writing this column, every now and then I take issue with the educated classes of Belize. Remember now, I was considered a member of such classes. Basically, I will say to them, on one matter or another: why do you continue to accept this or that when you call yourselves educated, independent, sovereign, and so on and so forth?
The truth of the matter, if you really think about it, is that many of these people are afraid. Even if the individual is a self-employed professional, like a doctor, lawyer, or accountant, that person can be victimized by Belizean society if he or she expresses views which are not in accord with the establishment. So even though the individual professional cannot lose his or her job, the individual can lose business. Belizeans who want to remain in good standing with the establishment will refrain from seeking the services of a professional who is branded as a non-conformist, or worse.
In my case, I was not a professional. All I had was a first degree in English, so I had to seek employment when I returned to Belize in June of 1968. At least, that’s what I thought. Needless to say, there are a lot of things I know now which I didn’t know then.
A vacancy opened at the Belize Teachers College, for which I applied. If I knew then what I know now, I would have known such an application on my part was a waste of time in August of 1968. The religious denominational powerhouses and the PUP government education bureaucrats, fifteen or more of them, interviewed me, and rejected my application.
Shortly afterwards, however, I was approached by the principal of the Belize Technical College, the late Clive Gillett, who needed an English teacher while the appointed holder of the post was on study leave. I think, in fact I am sure, bigger guys than the Technical principal had given him the go-ahead, believing that this was the least dangerous place they could place me.
At some point before this, and I can’t say exactly when, the principal of Lynam, Urban Kramer, S.J., telephoned and offered me a post at Lynam College. This appeared to me too obvious a decision by the Jesuits to get me out of the city, so I refused Kramer’s proposition. Perhaps I thought myself more important in Landivar’s scheme of things than I was, but remember, I had experienced remarkably negative things at Landivar, especially in 1964 and 1965.
By Christmas of 1968, I realized I only had a year to teach at Technical. Government would not appoint me. When the 1968/69 school year ended in May or June, UBAD was in full effect, and a revolution was under way. I did not seek a job again until two Supreme Court trials forced me to decide whether I was going to go all the way, or seek to stabilize my life. From roughly the middle of 1969 until the middle of 1971, I was unemployed for two years, in the first instance. When I got married, I was unemployed.
Already the father of three children, I found some stabilization in September of 1971 by accepting employment at Wesley College. That 1971/72 school year was a good year for me, but I decided to walk away from Wesley College, even though they had treated me well and would probably have accepted me back. The relationship between the PUP government and UBAD had become a violent one, and I was the UBAD president. I had to return to the streets in the summer of 1972. After Wesley College, I have never worked full time for any employer, except the people.
If anybody had told me that I would punish three years at Dartmouth only to end up hustling in the streets of Belize City, I would not have believed that. But that’s how it was. There were a lot of negatives about my life on the streets, especially for my children, but there was one big positive. I learned how to survive outside the mainstream. The other members of Belize’s educated classes feel they cannot survive outside the mainstream, and that is why they accept bull s— after bull s—, respect, Smokey Joe.
Ninety years ago in July of 1919, an absolutely sensational event took place in Belize, as the capital was then called. For two days in July, the colonial government was overthrown and black men ruled Belize. Suppose I would write and say, not as the street hustler I was but as the publisher of Belize’s leading newspaper that I am, let us mark this event and let us discuss this event, for the benefit of our children. What happened in July of 1919? Why did it happen? What took place afterwards? Why, those aforementioned educated classes of Belize would run and hide. They would whisper and mumble among themselves – why da Partridge set no shet up denh mouth? They would feel that what they consider “well enough,” should be left alone. The conspiracy of silence will remain in effect. There is no damage to the Uncle Tom psyche of the educated classes. The burden of ignorance instead remains visited upon the masses of the Belizean people – generation after generation after generation …
In this region of the world, people like us Kremandala will always pay respect to Jose Martí, Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, Walter Rodney, and Maurice Bishop, because they were members of the educated classes of the Caribbean and the Americas who became soldiers in order to fight for the rights of their people.
In Belize, education is used only for self-gain, posturing and privilege. The reality on the streets is, however, that so many of our people are under crazy pressure. Young men are deported home who can’t get jobs, and increase the pressure on stressed out families. The AIDS epidemic leaves children without fathers and mothers – greater stress on the community. Ignorant teenagers carry big guns and now they are throwing grenades.
Those who run the education system are saying, by their policy, that July 1919 never happened. But we know it did. Don’t you see, educated classes of Belize, that if July 1919 didn’t happen, the very same way the real March 11, 2009, for argument’s sake, will likewise be erased from the history of Belize? And you, educated classes of independent Belize, will not have the excuse of 1919 that you were colonial subjects. Today, you claim to be sovereign and independent. Prove it.
All power to the people.