What’s different? Cancun is different, and I’m not talking about the level of infrastructure development, which is obviously way ahead of anything in Belize. I know that Mexico has problems just like any other country in the world, so what else is new? When I went on line a week ago to search for a hotel, I did notice that one establishment advertised that it was located “in one of the best residential neighborhoods in the city.” This clearly means that there are neighborhoods that are not so good and that particular business saw the advertising edge that their location would give them.
I arrived a bit early. My wife flew in the following day. This was not my first time here, but in the context of the mess Belize is in, certain features of life in Cancun stood out. It was 11:30 p.m. and the city was alive! I’m not just referring to the vehicular traffic, which is considerable at all hours of the day or night. People were actually walking on the streets at this hour! Whatever street crime may be like in other Mexican cities or maybe even in other neighborhoods in Cancun, those problems were not at all in evidence here.
I was extremely hungry, perhaps dangerously so for a diabetic, so I went downstairs to a restaurant. The sidewalk in front of the place had a constant stream of people going places. Several city buses passed by as I waited for my food. They weren’t old USA throwaway school buses. They were modern, and they looked as though they were built for adults rather than midgets. Couples would get up and dance on the sidewalk. At one point, one of the waiters began dancing with a waitress. Remember that this was taking place after midnight. Different, different, different!
The point of all of this is that after dark in Belize City, anyone who really doesn’t have to be out, doesn’t go out! Belize City exudes a sullen, foreboding atmosphere, particularly after the sun goes down. It becomes a dead city, almost no business taking place and no money circulating. Yes, every place in this world has problems, but what a relief it was to sit outdoors in a sidewalk café after 12:00 p.m. without having to worry about a potential burst of automatic weapon fire. Live in Belize City long enough, and it changes your mindset. Think about it.
This leads me straight to the issue of crime and a children’s curfew that is apparently supposed to go into effect as of July 13th in Belize City. This curfew prohibits children under 16 years of age from being out on the street between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m. without being in the company of an adult. Is this a good thing? Not really.
First of all, it has been tried before – during the 1993-1998 UDP government, and again in 1999. In both cases, enforcement of the curfew was abandoned after a few weeks because government simply couldn’t find the resources to sustain it. Now in 2007 corruption has created a situation where we have even fewer resources than we had in the past, so you tell me, what are the chances that a curfew can be successfully and consistently enforced? Not very likely, isn’t it?
There is also no doubt in my mind and in the minds of many of my friends and colleagues, that the curfew will be selectively enforced and that black youth on the south side of Belize City will be targeted. The Ministry did claim that the curfew will be enforced on the north side as well, but there are poor areas on the north side too, and those will undoubtedly be the neighborhoods where the hammer will be swung. This just happens to be discrimination: “selective enforcement” is simply a nicer way of expressing a nasty concept.
Young people in the districts as well as those in wealthy neighborhoods in the City, will not be bothered by the authorities, while Southside kids playing basketball or going on an errand to the store, or maybe even sitting in their own yards but not inside their houses, will be detained. It would be interesting to see how many crimes committed by minors are committed during the hours of 6 a.m. to 8 p.m., as opposed to the number committed at night. Remember that young men and women over 16 years of age are free to be out as late as they please, and it appears that the majority of the perpetrators of violent crimes are between the ages of 17 and 25.
I heard one of the spokespersons for the Ministry of Human Development claim that they have the resources (fat chance), and that this time they will keep the children in custody until the parents can be found. Are they out of their minds? What are they going to feed these kids – bread and water? Where are the youngsters going to be held? Presumably males and females will be held in separate facilities, but what about age differences within the sexes?
Any plan to detain minors requires strict and constant supervision, which translates into mucho expense. It can’t be done on the cheap. What is the Ministry going to say in its defense when older boys bully, beat up and perhaps rape the younger ones? This scenario is possible with girls too.
What happens when a child is taken into custody; becomes ill and asks for medical attention? The authorities have a dismal record when it comes to brutalizing people in custody. In a number of cases, detainees were severely beaten when they asked to be seen by a doctor. “Shiney” Tillett had his jaw broken after he told police that he was asthmatic and needed help! It’s very possible that a child might die while being detained. This has happened more than once in the so-called “boot camps” for delinquent children in the US, so don’t say “it can’t happen here.” There is no way that things are going to end up with positive vibes.
Now check out the logic of fining and/or imprisoning parents who can’t keep their children in the house. The parents who will be affected will more than likely be the poorest of our citizens, those who in some cases can’t supervise their kids because they are too busy trying to scrabble out a living. Charge them a hefty fine, right, so now they really have no money to put food on the table and pay the utilities. That makes sense, doesn’t it? Better yet, lock them up so that they lose their present job if they have one and if they don’t, the newly acquired criminal record will severely limit their future options for travel and employment!
And, what about those children who try their best to stay as far away from their “homes” for as long as they can, because of overcrowding, abuse and domestic violence? Some of them feel safer out on the street! This is great, Ministry of Human Development, you all really take the cake on this one. Tell me, when you plan and propose this kind of stuff, do you think at all?
Please don’t give me the “something has to be done” line. Indeed something has to be done, but that something sure ain’t this! A curfew is a feeble and desperate attempt to try to cover up 26 years of social neglect. The billions of stolen dollars and the lack of interest that politicians have shown for the plight of the people who elect them has come back to haunt all of us. This curfew is the equivalent of the “advice” given to a person who arrives at the hospital with a huge infection that is already turning gangrenous, only to be told, “Take two aspirin a day and make an appointment for next month!” Remember that this is the same government that fired its truant officers because they claimed that they couldn’t afford to pay them! Walk around Belize City during school hours and count the number of school age children roaming the street.
What needs to be done is the following:
1) Charge corrupt politicians and public officers with the crimes that they have committed (instead of charging parents) and take immediate steps to seize their assets in Belize while searching for those assets that have been spirited off to other countries. Then, use international laws to demand that those assets be repatriated.
2) Hire dedicated and experienced Belizeans to work with and to assist families and individuals who live in the most impoverished and dangerous Belize City neighborhoods. This would require hiring people who live in these areas so that they can communicate effectively with their brothers and sisters.
3) Develop projects and programs that will offer jobs to Belizeans; for example, the construction of decent housing for poor south side and poor north side residents should employ as many people as is feasible, and rehire sufficient truant officers to make sure that young people attend school as the law requires.
4) Make sure that police officers are assigned and promoted on the basis of competency, not on the basis of political allegiance, and train officers properly. It is not necessary to treat an entire community as “the enemy” when they have to make an arrest. Prosecute to the fullest extent of the law any officers who torture suspects.
5) Tax dollars are an investment in the public sector of the economy, not a gift to politicians and their friends. Those who steal from the public purse deserve to spend time in the Hattieville Ramada, just as surely as a purse snatcher on the
street does, and we need to elect representatives who will put them there!
6) Make sure that you vote for people that are several cuts above 90% of what we have now. Since many of the conventions for the major parties are rigged – the PUP openly does it and calls it “guided democracy” – we need to not only look seriously at third party candidates, but we can also explore the laws surrounding the write in vote. There is likely a way that the people in a constituency can settle on a person that they would prefer to represent them if they don’t like the candidates fielded by the two major parties. Then they can write that person’s name on the ballot. When we manage to elect a truly representative government, then we will have teeth.
7) Begin the long process of seriously reforming our educational system so that it teaches our young people life skills and real knowledge, not memorization and how to be good and obedient followers of politicians.
This is just an outline of things that need to be done. There is far more, but if this country was run as honestly as possible, then the kind of situations that lead up to desperate cosmetic tactics such as this curfew, should not develop. Moves such as this one, never work. They are far too little and far too late. Do you really think that a police force that can’t even run traffic patrols on our nation’s highways can spare the manpower, vehicles and the subsequent gas bills to patrol the city night after night, searching for children under sixteen? Will the next proposal be a general curfew for the entire south side of Belize City?
All that this law will accomplish will be to reinforce the feeling among black south side residents that they are second-class citizens, that they are and will continue to be treated differently from those who live in wealthy neighborhoods. The vast majority of south side residents are law abiding citizens, struggling to survive in a system that appears to be set up to marginalize them, and since the majority are not criminals, this Government is hell bent on enacting laws that will make them criminals for doing something as innocuous as sending a 15-year-old child to the store next door at 8:15 p.m.!