On Friday night the Maximum Leader of the George Street gang was ambushed and killed at a Northside Belize City gas station. As the news spread late Friday night and early Saturday morning, a hush fell over the old capital, because most adults residents believed that this sensational murder marked the end of the gang truce, of sorts, which had been in place in Belize City since September last year.
On Sunday, one of our sources indicated to us that the significance of Friday night’s assassination was not lost on the socio-economic elite of the Northside, that they were scared of what the future held for Belize City, and for themselves. Now, then, this may be as good a time as any for this newspaper to move away from the Southside model we introduced, as a graphic teaching tool, about 17 or 18 years ago.
As with most such models, the Southside model was imperfect in application. It was imperfect because there are at least four specific areas of the Northside where Southside conditions are the norm. There is, however, much more residential evidence of prosperity on the Northside than there is on the Southside. And, over the past years, gang violence has become mostly Southside.
The Southside model was controversial from the beginning, one reason being that any concept introduced by Amandala is always greeted with skepticism. A big reason for that chronic establishment skepticism, frequently controversy, is that, while Belize is a predominantly Christian nation and everybody else in the Belizean media waves the Christian flag, this newspaper, while manifestly respectful of Christianity, has a reputation of being sympathetic to Islam.
In any case, the main criticism of our Southside model was that it was divisive, and that is, we concede, a fair criticism, except for the fact that the divisions were already in place: we did not create those divisions. Another criticism came from long-time residents of the Southside who felt that the Southside model reflected negatively on that section of the city they have known, loved, and held in high esteem for decades and decades.
Where the commonality of our existence in Belize City is concerned, we understand that the drug business always brings a divisive culture with it. Drug dealing is illegal, so it has to be secretive. The principals are suspicious, seek to establish an aura of intimidation, and they are absolutely violent when they have to be. Belize City residents began to feature high, hard fences, and vehicles became heavily tinted. We citizens had to draw away from each other, instead of reaching out to one another as our culture had been before Hurricane Hattie.
We can remember wealthy businessmen like Guy Nord, Ernest Black, and David Estephan, Jr., who sponsored championship football teams between the 1950s and 1970s (we are referring to Dunlop, Berger 404 and White Label, respectively), and ended up in comfortable relationships with their roots players.
Money did not divide Belize City as much back then. There was interaction/camaraderie between the rich and the poor which took place at horse race meets, political functions, and the like. In fact, the undisputed political leader back then, Right Hon. George C. Price, practiced what some called social engineering – in handing out lots and designing new housing areas, he often structured it so that rich and poor Belizeans lived next to each other.
Today, there is alienation, separation and polarization in Belize City. This climate affects business very negatively. Anything that reduces the alienation, separation and polarization in the old capital will contribute to better business. They say the rising tide lifts all boats. The question is, how would you go about creating a rising tide, how would you go about reducing tension and suspicion and hatred and violence?
At this newspaper, we thought we saw something about to happen before it began taking place. But you can’t really do anything about anything here unless you acquire political power, or unless you are extraordinarily wealthy. We think that Belize City has reached the present crisis state because the politicians and the wealthy didn’t care, and they had no vision. The more important part of that is “didn’t care.”
The Southside model made it so that no one can now claim he or she cannot see. Today, all of us can see. Now, what we need to do is begin to care.
All power to the people.