The great Russian writer and historian, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008), won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1970. He spent many years in Siberian prison (the Gulag archipelago) in communist Russia because of his outspoken views. Solzhenitsyn must have been a very brave man, but he must also have had a streak of arrogance. I suggest the arrogance streak, because Solzhenitsyn once said (or wrote): “A great writer is like a second government.” (Solzhenitsyn was charged with treason and deported by the Russian government in 1974.)

Personally, as a young man I intended to become a professional writer, but six months after this newspaper was founded, I was arrested and charged with seditious conspiracy because of a headline story I wrote. I was tried, along with the late Ismail Shabazz, in the Supreme Court of British Honduras, and we were acquitted in July of 1970.

The case was a sensational one, partly because the two young attorneys who defended us, pro bono, were considered sympathizers of the ruling People’s United Party (PUP), which had made the arrest. Being considered a PUP sympathizer was especially so, I think, in the case of Assad Shoman, who was already very friendly with the ruling PUP when the Shabazz/Hyde arrest was made. So that, the arrest and trial may have been viewed perhaps as a kind of split in the ruling party, which had been practically monolithic from the time the Rt. Hon. George Price had replaced Leigh Richardson as PUP leader in 1956.

The trial in question essentially diverted me in my supposed writing journey, and pushed me into politics, and a few years of controversy and confrontation not only with the PUP but also with the new Opposition party, the United Democratic Party (UDP), which emerged in September of 1973.

Writing and politics began to merge for me after 1977, so that one may say that I became a journalist instead of a writer. By 1981, I had begun to make a reasonable living as a journalist, so much so that I became involved with a radio station, KREM, in 1989, and then I made a major business move with semi-pro basketball (Raiders) in 1992. The basketball move failed because both major political parties here were very hostile to myself and the venture.

I’m trying to set the stage for the entry of my second son, Cordel, into party politics, with the PUP in 1994. By 1998, Cordel had become a PUP Cabinet Minister, which began to create problems for me as a journalist/writer.

In November of 2020, Cordel became Deputy Prime Minister of Belize, which is, of course, a high-ranking position. Personally, I am now in a kind of retirement, but I suppose it is possible to describe the newspaper, radio station, and television station which comprise the Kremandala businesses, as the source of opinions which are often at odds with initiatives of the ruling PUP Cabinet. Sometimes I feel that I am in a tricky spot.

Be that as it may, I turn to the issue of today, Wednesday, November 6, 2024. That issue has to do with the presidential election that took place yesterday in the United States which has resulted in an outright victory for Donald Trump, a man who had been promising mass deportations of immigrants if he was elected. The implications for Belize and Belizeans, both at home and in the diaspora, need to be studied by the Government of Belize, because the implications may be serious, and they may be sociologically and financially negative.

Belize is blessed with a plethora of media, both broadcast and social, but it appears to me that the bulk of Belize’s media discourse may be viewed as frivolous. I hesitate to make opinion statements like the above, because I am a septuagenarian, and I must give maximum respect to the generations who are now in the trenches, so to speak. Still, the Trump victory demands examination and analysis in Belize.

Another aspect of the Trump victory, apart from the threatened deportations, is that it may have implications for our relationship with Guatemala, the no. 1 ally of the United States of America in our region, and Belize’s neighbor in the west and in the south. Guatemala is a hostile neighbor to Belize, and has laid claim to Belize’s territory for decades.

That claim has been submitted to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for arbitration, and supposedly will be settled on strictly legal bases. The historical reality is that the land we call Belize was settled by our ancestors when Guatemala did not even exist. Guatemala became a nation-state in 1821, when it achieved independence from Spain, which had been awarded the territory by the Pope of Rome in the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494.

These historical facts are irrelevancies to Mr. Trump, if we are to judge from his public behaviour over the decades. But, as of Tuesday, Mr. Trump became once again the most powerful man on planet earth. He will have a say, even a defining say, in anything he wishes to address.

A key ally of Mr. Trump’s, Elon Musk, just a couple weeks ago attempted to become a player in Belize’s internet/telecommunications sector. Belize’s initial reaction to Mr. Musk’s attempted penetration was negative. If Mr. Musk, however, puts his case for investment in Belize to Mr. Trump, Belize would not be in a position to resist pressure from Trump’s Washington. 
   
I’m just saying, and this is only a humble newspaper column. But, I submit that it is not frivolous.