Between 1970 and 1972, the now chairman of Kremandala was arrested on four different occasions, and tried twice in Supreme Court and twice in Magistrate’s Court. In the early years of this newspaper, then, we anticipated disrespect in public, official places, and we fed off that disrespect. We used it to increase our credibility, because the Belizean people were also experiencing that disrespect from the political rulers. We identified with the people, and the people identified with us.
Today, Amandala is 41 years old. When Adele Ramos, a lady of regal dignity, represents this newspaper at press conferences and other official functions, we do not expect her to be disrespected, and we have no evidence that she has ever been. To a certain extent, things have changed for Amandala.
In the first ten years of KREM Radio’s existence, three different physical attacks were made on our broadcast installations – twice in Belize City and once on Baldy Beacon hill. On Partridge Street, we understood that some very large people had problems with the fact that we now had radio voice, but the support of the Belizean people was strong and steadfast. Today, KREM Radio is 21 years old, and our broadcast teams, usually led by Deseree Cain, a lady who does not tolerate foolishness, do not experience problems with authority figures when we go anywhere to do our work.
KREM Television is just 7 years old, and it is only lately that we have developed live television broadcast capability from non-studio sites. The Chamber of Commerce’s EXPO at the old Belize Technical College campus on Saturday, September 18, was the first time live KREM TV has ever been a part of such a huge Belize City event.
And KREM TV was center stage, so to speak, because we were being sponsored by Telemedia/DigiCell. The hottest business competition in Belize since August of last year is the one between Telemedia/DigiCell and SpeedNet/SMART. Telemedia was taken over in August of 2009 in a bold move by the Dean Barrow UDP government. The telephone company had previously been controlled by Lord Michael Ashcroft, a man who does not like to pay taxes. Lord Ashcroft had used his massive power in Telemedia to establish the SpeedNet/SMART competition to Telemedia. This would not make any sense – for you to compete with yourself, except in Belize and except if your name is Lord Ashcroft. In SpeedNet/SMART, Lord Ashcroft reached out to a highly prominent PUP family as his partners. At the time the deal was cut, the family leader was the Deputy Prime Minister of Belize in a Said Musa PUP government. Today, that family leader is the Leader of the PUP Opposition.
It so happened that on Saturday, September 18, 2010, at the Chamber EXPO, KREM TV and Telemedia/DigiCell were kicking SpeedNet/SMART’s ass in a business and promotional sense. The assault on the KREM TV broadcast crew by a Corporal Berry, a gun assault which has been extolled in the Said Musa/Ralph Fonseca weekly newspaper, is not something we view as business as usual.
Kremandala has very powerful enemies. There are people they hire, from time to time, to perform assignments. This is how it works, and this is how it has always worked wherever and whenever there is Kremandala. Our road is the hard road. On Saturday, September 18, KREM Television experienced a baptism under fire. This could have become quite a violent situation but, praise God, it did not.
A police officer chose to behave aggressively and threateningly towards KREM Television. Our crew was not doing anything illegal. We were carrying out a professional assignment. On Partridge Street, we are taxpayers in this country. In a sense, we pay that police officer’s salary. So then, why did he come to us in this disrespectful manner?
Belize is a country where they tell you how you are supposed to go about if you want to make progress. But, if you come from Trenchtown, so to speak, then there are all kinds of obstacles you will meet. The oligarchy here practices favoritism and discrimination, and this is everywhere you turn. Some people, in the words of George Orwell, are more equal than others. The people of Belize know this, because they experience it every day. So, no matter how many mouthpieces the oligarchy hires for its newspapers, radio and television stations, they are only “talking loud and saying nothing.” The people of Belize know who is real and who is bought.
Power to the people. Power in the struggle.