“Since the movement of liberation from colonial status began in 1950, America has been like a shining beacon and a home away from home to a large number of Belizeans, even though most of them have never been there. How else can you explain the fact that the supporters of the movement, whenever they marched in the streets of Belize City, sang at the top of their voices ‘God Bless America, My Home Sweet Home’?” (from “ A Bit of History”, by Janus, Amandala of August 16, 2009.)

It doesn’t matter who you are, there are things in your life that make you say, ‘I can’t believe that was me’. You could be the Pope; you bet there are things in his life that he’d like to forget. You could be Donald Trump; you bet there are tons of things in his past that he is sorry for. You could be Said Musa…

Ah, congratulations to the 1998-2008 hero for winning such a great award. We can’t swear on the Bible about his honesty (he did say…sohn time wahn leader haffu lai), or his fiber, but we have no doubt that the new “Mr. Malice Toward None” believes in civil behavior, and for this he received a United Nations Peace Award in Washington DC last week. Congratulations!

You bet that Brother Said has got things in his life that he’d rather not have done, or wished he had done. The man has been in public life a long time, so the transgressions must be, could very well be legion. For sure I bet he regrets taking the job as PM. That sojourn shouldn’t have ended up the way it did, but he was just too nice a person, mostly too soft on his closest buddies. Oh, if he was just a wee bit more firm, he wouldn’t have been heaved so rashly from high office.

You bet that leadership is tough business. Some are too soft, like Said; some are cruel, and a select few are just right.

Leadership can expose the worst in a person. Take D Barrow. In just a few short years he went from a man with a double-edged machete chopping at every whiff of corruption, to one who now stands up on his bully pulpit and shouts that corruption will always be with us.

In his youth he called other people, “whitéd sepulcher.” I bet he regrets that. He accused people of nepotism and when he got into office, it was, from the point of view of many Belizeans, kom soh lebeh, hib ahn lang shoa, libing deh ya, with wife, ex-wife, brother, sister, son from Belize, son from States, nephew, cronies, all sharing (partaking) in the sweets in the feathered nest.

Of course, of course, all these horrible things I mentioned might not be causing any of those bohgaz to be losing any sleep, because we never know what goes on between the ears. Man could be guilty of the worst crimes, but he wiggles into some form of justification. But their escape isn’t total. Those very same fellows could worry themselves to death over a trifle.

There are things we did, and things we failed to do. Things bother us. Those monks that go far away from people, it’s because they want to escape the worry that comes if you live around people. They don’t know that we know they are wasting their time. There is only one escape from being damned, and it’s not here on earth.

Now we come to this daam disgrace of singing other people’s second anthem. We don’t know what song our Mayan ancestors sang to celebrate their dominion over this land, but when the ancestors from the British Isles came and started British Honduras, we started singing “God Save the King or Queen”, and when we got self-government we also started singing “Land of the Gods”, and then when we became Belize we dropped the queen and sang “Land of the Free”. I’m not sure of the perfect chronology there, but a lot more mas than menos, that’s how it went.

Look, I could plaster the entire PUP for this anthem business, but why take them down kit and caboodle when one man can take the fall for the team? We have seen Barrow take the fall for his team, not Belize, his team, and while we cannot tell how much blame falls at his door, the one we are going to finger here, to pin the blame on, we are strongly of the opinion that his guilt is total.

You really have to do some figuring to understand this Mr. Price, and some of his friends too. What manner of man takes another man’s poem, changes a critical word, and makes it the national anthem of our country, all without the man’s permission? It’s on record that Samuel Haynes complained. Do you see why nobody in Belize respects any daam copyright?

Price lusted after that poem/song. It looks like this Price, when he wanted something he went after it with the full force of his office. It’s not that he couldn’t make his own. “Builder” is a thriller. He wrote other excellent poems too. But he set his eyes on Haynes’ song, put to music by Selwyn Young; he desired it and he took it. Okay, okay, it’s not impossible that he thought that Haynes (and Young) would have been overjoyed to have his/their work so honored. I’ll allow that.

But I won’t allow the anti-colonial movement singing no “God Bless America.”There is no absolution for that. We have to understand that from its inception the anti-colonial movement was guided by Father of the Nation. The records show that it was at Price’s house, in the same room where he had the piano that he could have used to make our national anthem by putting to music one of the poems he wrote, that the first leaders gathered to fight for independence.

Price, after he gave up on the priesthood, went to work for the British hater, Bob Turton, and it is there that the seeds of hate for our colonial bosses really took root. Turton was all about his business, and the British were not supportive of his trade with America. Price got roped in, lock, stock and baril, into his boss’s anti-British stance. Pay attention to the lock, stock, and baril bit because that just might, just maybe it will be regurgitated later, to damn Price.

So, we have an anti-British leader at the helm and at every turn he is giving the finger to our British friends. Suddenly, the picture of the king, good King George, is no longer good enough to hang in a prominent place in City Hall. The British are no patsies. They don’t take kindly to this native upstaatnis. Price would have had to be saved from a sedition charge and certain jail by a good word from “The Man in Khaki,” otherwise he would have been eating his rice and pupsi and kraana out of a milk pan, and he would have been doing his fast walking in a ten-foot cell.

The early 1950s was a tumultuous period in Belize’s life. We were pro-American and we were pro-Arbenz in Guatemala, and then the Americans ousted Arbenz. I think we should pause here so I can tell you the true story about these Americans, again. I flat out believe the historians who say that if the British didn’t have interests they wanted to protect in India – the British were addicted to tea and fine Indian textiles – the Americans never would have won their War of Independence. They can brag, they always do, but the British could have clobbered them.

Oh, how different this world would be if the British had disciplined that upstart American colony. The British are now singing, “Sari fu maaga daag”, because look how the braggart US put them in such a bad position in Iran with the ship! I really don’t like that. The British have their faults, but the Americans don’t have the etiquette.

Think, if the British didn’t ease America, Guatemala would never have dared persevere in their unfounded claim on Belize. I better quit there, before this piece gets too political. I’ll just say, God Save the Queen, and get on to what, whom I’m after — Price.

Where was I? Oh, Price had us singing, lustily, at the top of our voices, “God Bless America,” while we were a British colony. You bet our colonial masters were spoiling to make him pay for his treason.

Ah, every fat fowl has his Sunday, but this lucky Price has a lot of friends. Recall how he was saved from certain jail for sedition by a star witness? Well, the day came when the British had him over a barrel again, for trying to sell out our country – lock, stock, and baril – and the people Price had singing “God Bless America” came up with another tune, this time a local one – Contact or no contact, Vote PUP all the way. And thus the hash of that Americanista, Price, was saved from certain jail again.