by Colin Hyde
The most famous American president, JF Kennedy, told Americans they should ask themselves what they can do for their country, not what their country can do for them; and for the benefits derived, every citizen in every country should think country first. This corner has to call out this power push by some members of the MLA that put the rights of the group before Belize. They are not alone in this; other ethnic groups and individuals have selfish agendas, yes. They, whoever, are to be called out whenever their ambition is selfish.
From the get-go this corner expressed full support for communal land rights for Conejo and Santa Cruz. Those two villages are far from Punta Gorda Town, so they could “be themselves” without interfering with anyone. The Belizeans in Conejo and Santa Cruz are the real indigenous ones among us, as per the UN description of people who “retain social, cultural, economic and political characteristics that are distinct from those of the dominant societies in which they live.”
Later, Judge Conteh extended communal rights to all Mayan villages. And that was good too. But, clearly, many of the villages weren’t living the indigenous reality, and communal rights had to be negotiated where it clashed with private land ownership.
It never was a concern that many of these villages weren’t truly indigenous, not until the MLA really started to flex. I oftentimes disagree with the positions of Steve the Groove on the Krem Morning Stew, but I’m much on page with him on his understanding of indigenous. Really, some Maya are so Westernized that they are the equivalent of pigtail-and-fashion Dreads. Whoa there, I voted for communal land rights. But some are going overboard!
On the matter of communal lands, I am disappointed by this report on Krem News that the MLA is saying “it is not for the Government to define its territory but, rather, to recognize it.” You know, it is a failure of GoB to not have moved to delineate the villages immediately after the ruling. But shortly after the ruling there was a change of government, to the UDP, and the UDP thought the brilliant ruling preposterous, and they haggled until we ended up at the CCJ.
There are some other issues where this hard-balling MLA is not on the page with Belize. Before going there, I give points for demanding that the Infrastructure Ministry report when they are doing jobs in any village. That’s respect, common courtesy.
Bully, we learned this week on Krem News that San Benito Poite is getting electricity. But we haven’t heard from two villages that seem to be stonewalling on oil exploration on land. The money for rural electrification doesn’t drop from the sky. And carbon credits won’t pay for it. Belizeans made a stand against drilling for oil in the sea, not on land. It’s not impossible that one day we will have to drill at sea, hopefully not until these well rigs present next to nil danger to the reef. If we “simpa” about drilling on land, we hasten the day when we will have to look for oil in the sea. We are not being real here.
People who live in glass houses must not throw stones. People whose lives are very much dependent on fossil fuel usage, people who aspire for modern trappings, they must be careful with hypocrisy.
Old men duking it out for presidency of US
I read that most Americans are shocked that two octogenarians are the lead candidates for their big job in November this year. In 2020, when the world was in turmoil, in fact absolutely frightened by the Covid, most Americans didn’t give too much thought to giving a pass to these ancianos.
Ha, when their day comes to face Janelle, I bet at least one, if not all three of the local triumvirate – Contreras, Patt, and Vallejos – will look the Commission of Inquiry in the eye and say, we thought the world was coming to an end, we thought we were going to die, so we did not give the agreement and the swamp land entire scrutiny.
Moving on to the old fellaz vying to be the man with his hand on the world’s biggest bomb, yap, Americans thought, what the heck, give those two old bogaz the pass, not knowing that they’d get faysi and want to stretch their inch into a yard. I blame the American people for lots of things, but not here. What were the odds on those two still being at the head of their parties in 2024? Did someone say slim and none? You are daam right!
If you make it to 80 hale and hearty, it’s legitimate for you to be giving trouble in an advisory position. Kissinger still had his hand in many murders across the globe well into his 90’s. Whoa there, is this a Jewish thing? No, no, we shouldn’t be profiling people, but how can I not be suspicious when I am more than 30 pages into the Acts, and every step of the way the Jewish leaders are after murdering the Apostle Paul.
Concerning ourselves with the possibilities of these two, beginning with the more spry Trump: he’s from a refugee family, and he wants to chase newcomers out. It’s interesting what kind of support he has from American Blacks, Native Americans, and Mestizos who became Americans when Santa Anna lost Mexican lands to the Stars and Stripes. Ouch, there’s a percentage there who want folk from south of the Rio Grande to go home. But I bet that white Americans spread the red carpet for ALL brothers and sisters who are of the European kind.
As for Mr. Biden: Flip Wilson’s pastor said nobody’s all bad—we have to congratulate him for not imposing his LGBT agenda on us. Wow, I read somewhere that 75% of Americans support gay marriage. Man, we have to love our Pope. Okay, if you want to live together, and if you don’t have separate beds in your house, we’ll never know because we won’t step beyond the parlor. But walking down the aisle hand in hand, no man, no, we’ll not be going that far.
Anti-weed lobby really needs to stop it
The people who were anti-rum in the US in the first half of the last century are kindred to both the anti-marijuana lobby over there and over here. We have to give space for opinions that differ from ours. What I don’t understand is how people who say they have the truth, lie shamelessly to gain their objective. There are times, few, when the end justifies the means. A former leader said that sometimes the one in charge “haffu” lie. Yes, fair enough, but it is not acceptable to perpetuate it. The lie is told to give time to get a message through, and for just a few other reasons. Truth must not stay crushed to earth.
Evan Andrews, in his story, “10 Things You Should Know About Prohibition,” which can be found at the website history.com, showed how otherwise honest people used less than sincere methods to advance their agenda. Andrews said World War 1 “served as one of the last nails in the coffin of legalized alcohol.” He said “dry advocates argued that the barley used in brewing beer could be made into bread to feed American soldiers … and the war allowed them to paint America’s largely German brewing industry as a threat.” They declared that “the worst of all our German enemies, the most treacherous, the most menacing, are Pabst, Schlitz, Blatz and Miller.”
Robin Foster, in a January 2024 story in Medical Xpress titled, “FDA review supports reclassifying marijuana as less risky drug”, said “Scientists from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration conclude in newly released documents that marijuana has less potential for abuse than other drugs with the same restrictions and it should be reclassified as a less dangerous drug”, and also that they had found “some evidence backing its use as a medical treatment.”
The report said that presently “cannabis is classified as a Schedule I controlled substance, a high-risk category that includes heroin and LSD”, and that in August their “HHS Assistant Secretary for Health Adm. Rachel Levine” had written “a letter to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) … supporting the reclassification of marijuana to a Schedule III drug, a list that includes ketamine, testosterone and Tylenol with codeine.”