by Colin Hyde

Borrowing from Mrs. Rosanna, I will say to my Mayan friends that when Dolores quoted the celebrated Tolstoy she, ehm, “didn’t mean it that way.” But the sense I have is that she did think that some Mayan leaders were getting greedy.

Like the Maya, we Kriols, Garinagu, East Indians, and Mestizos, are very much “indigenous.” Just 40 years ago, most Kriol villages in Cayo and the Belize River Valley were very similar to Mayan villages in Toledo. Many Kriol villages didn’t have electricity, the women went to the river to get water, the men hunted and cut firewood, the men cut milpa, and families planted rice, corn, beans, pumpkin, plantain, and ground food. There were chickens and turkeys in the yards. Every family had hunting dogs. Only a few families had cattle. Everyone ate tortilla and roti baked on comals over fire hearths. A few boys went to high school. Almost no girls went to high school. 40 years ago, Kriol and Maya villages were a lot more similar than different. Sometimes I don’t think some Maya leaders know the country they live in.

We applaud that the most indigenous of us, the Maya, are getting communal land so that they can preserve the beautiful culture. When Judge Conteh said yes to Conejo and Santa Cruz, villages that did not share land with non-Maya villages, he was spot on. When he said yes to all the others, in some there were grey areas. In Laguna and Midway our Mayan leaders shouldn’t have stiffened.

Hmm, when I was in Crique Sarco the folk there gave me a bowl of soup with a big, fat piece of fish, and tortillas for my midday meal. Well, I waks aaf the soup wid the coco and the greens and I mash the tortillas. But I only eat fish tail. I’m not proud of that. I’m definitely at the bottom of the ladder in my family as a fish eater. I might have an excuse. When I was a little boy I got a bone in my throat—and my mom had to chase it with a piece of boiled plantain.

That fish, I bet it could outfight a boani fish or taapong. That big, fat piece of fish, it had bones sticking out of it like needles in a pin cushion. I Googled that fish, the machaca, and no surprise it said it is a prized fighter.

If you haven’t read Brother Marshalleck’s piece, which was published in the Reporter last week, please do. This is as important a local story as any, maybe the most important local story at this time, and we have to be informed. Whoa there, I bet you’re saying, not that Marshalleck, not that so-and-so who lost our case against a few who were practicing largesse with our property. Ouch, when the case finished, we who were suing had to respond to a hundred lawsuits based on faulty process. Maybe in the shame of this defeat Mr. Marshalleck gained humility. You know, good coming out of bad.

There is no easy solution here. I found Brother Marshalleck’s presentation respectful, informative, and insightful. Great, Braa! With you and Dolores at the helm for the government we’ll get something good here, and Justice Conteh won’t go down in history as a villain to our shores.

Stevedores won a moral victory

I can stop wondering now, how a judge would rule in this sugar redundancy matter, that mental exercise becoming redundant after Krem News reported there was consensus between the CWU and the GOB. It was a rotten decision by a PUP government to privatize PBL and not include the stevedores, and the UDP presided over rottenness for 13 years, and the rottenness didn’t end until a PUP government bought it back last year.

When the PUP privatized PBL the people, all of us, including stevedores, lost legal rights to the company. None of us, including stevedores, had any real legal rights there until we bought it back. Based on the knowledge I have, this matter was a lot more moral than legal.

I say these things

… I don’t forget that when the MLA went to court the first time that I wrote that if Mayan Belizeans had been pastoral they would have owned all of Toledo. Of course, that was stretching the facts. But a lot of truth was in what I wrote.

… When Ms. Cristina spoke about the taxes paid by Maya Belizeans she didn’t factor in that the bulk of those taxes derived from the private land ownership system, not the traditional system that is being formalized into communal land tenure.

… Laguna and Midway should contemplate communal land tenure only in areas where they don’t border Barranco and Yemeri Grove.

… There was a charge that some young people disrespected the Alcaldes, said most of them weren’t formally educated. Well, there’s some truth there. It is likely that villagers would demand a lot more from Alcaldes if they knew they would have to represent outside of the village.

… There is a divide between modern Maya and traditional Maya that could disintegrate into something unsavory. Note that modern Mennonites and traditional Mennonites share many things, but they don’t and can’t live in the same space.

… Government intervention, steering is essential, critical. Of course, these proposals need sifting, refining. Go, Dolores! Go, Andrew Marshalleck!

… This isn’t a new point. It’s a little controversial, and I’m pretty sure I’ve never offered it in this column. In this discussion about communal land tenure there’s a certain fact about the tribes in our country that we cannot ignore. Among the tribes who are the greatest victims of Columbus – the Garinagu, the Kriols, the Maya – there are individuals among them who will sacrifice creative satisfaction for economic prosperity. The Mennonites, both the modern and the traditional, they, every man, woman, and child in those communities will sacrifice creative satisfaction for economic increase.

Who’s foiling Pastor Lance and Reverend Benguche?

Reverend Benguche and Pastor Lance, according to reports in the Reporter, have experienced conscience pangs over what Israel is doing in Gaza. The church leaders, both Christians, naturally ally with Jews over Muslims, but what the Jews are doing in Gaza has been condemned across the globe.

Even if you are so warped that you think that Muslims are lesser people, you have to consider that Christians and Baha’is are being massacred in Gaza too. Oops, I forgot that Baha’is don’t count with some Christians.

It’s possible that Moses would embrace Netanyahu and his gang for what they’re doing to innocent men, women, and little children. (O, ingratitude! It is a non-Hebrew that saved Moses’ skin!) I say, some of these Muslim children could very well grow up to become Christians, if they aren’t murdered in their mothers’ arms.

Both Pastor Lance and Reverend Benguche have alluded to parties in their ranks who are holding with Netanyahu’s murderous agenda. We know that Christians aren’t 100% alike in their beliefs. Foregoing differences, the one thing we have in common is that we revere the teachings of The Christ. People in the middle of a fracas for various reasons might not be thinking straight. It’s our choice to give them/us a pass if they/we are in those types of situations. About this horrible situation in Gaza, I don’t see how a pass can be given to anyone way over here.

We understand that Israel was created in 1948, and when that country was created the Palestinians were terribly hurt. We know that all British leaders and all Jews were not in favor of the creation of Israel. We know there are Jews who want Israel’s walls to come down. The people of Arabia wanted that to happen too, and in 1967 they got together and waged war on Israel. With the help of its greatest ally, Israel won that war, and took more land from the Palestinians.

Israel, apart from its expansionism, is about creating a greater buffer around their country, and about teaching the Palestinians a lesson they will never forget. You know that Hitler thought the perfect solution was to exterminate Jews. Well, it would appear that the Israelis have taken the page out of that book.

There is no easy path when you go and take away someone else’s property. Of course, there’ll be a period of peace when Israel puts down its arms. Either all Palestinians will be dead, or they’ll be so weak and scattered they will not be able to do more than simmer. Ethnic cleansing, genocide, kill them all, that is Israel’s solution. No true follower of Christ’s teachings can support this.

There is no easy solution to this Israel that was carved out of Palestine. Israel’s solution, just like Hitler’s perfect solution, is a blot on mankind. I’ll say it again. The Israelis are scoring a great victory over The Christ with this war. Jesus is taking a beating from Christians who support Israel in its atrocities.