Dear Editor,
There are many more questions raised than answered after the US Presidential election and what they will mean for Belize, the Belizean Diaspora and our neighbors in Central-America. Most of us in Belize have family over there. Many are there as “illegal aliens” and many legal immigrants are considering to move back home because of the racism.
At least one of my sons is talking about that. One of his best friends born in the US of “illegal immigrant” parents is going through the nightmare of having to see his parents being shipped off back to Mexico who have-not been back there for 25 years.
They were even trying to find out if they could legally adopt his father and mother to be able to stay together as a family. That sad reality is probably very real too for a lot of our Belizean family all over the USA.
Can we now expect a lot of Belizeans returning home? And what will this mean for our society? Me personally I do welcome this development for Belize even though I know that not all Belizeans are always so positive toward American-Belizeans. There might be good reasons for that, but that’s maybe that Americans have brainwashed them into believing that Americans and America are superior to the rest of the world.
Now they probably understand a lot better what other people feel when that globalist “American Democracy” is stuffed down people’s throats like they did lately in Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, Syria and Ukraine and before in Guatemala, Honduras, Chile, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador and 20 or so more countries. With what result?
One thing at least is positive what Trump promised: NO MORE REGIME CHANGES! No more support for terrorist groups in Syria! Which really means no more war fought for the American corporations? That’s what he said, but what will he do after being elected? Maybe America should clean up their own home first too!
After all the treaties with the native tribes of the First Nation broken, history is played out all over again in the repeat of the Battle of Wounded Knee which is happening today in Dakota. All for another pipeline! Like the reason for the wars fought in Afghanistan and Syria . They can start with that! Drain the swamp!
The returnees might bring back a lot of the brain drain we experienced the last 30 years and I very much welcome that. But it might be a problem for our Government because they will be more standing up for their rights and be more critical of our living conditions and the management of our country.
What we cannot ignore either is that after this election 63 million Americans live in a country where they can now use recreational marijuana legally besides the states with legal medical marijuana. What will this mean for Belize? One of the main arguments in the liberalization of the marijuana laws here in Belize was the Americans would not allow it. What did Grandpa say? Well, what is good enough for the goose is good enough for the gander! The tme has come for Belize to decide what is best for the interests of our country. Let people grow their own, let it be sold taxed and let the proceeds go to the local Government.
Most people don’t know who started the war on drugs and why. It was started by Nixon and it was started to fight these darn weed smoking Afro and longhaired hippies who opposed his policies of the Vietnam War. They fabricated all these scare tactics about marijuana to give legality to their politics, said Nixon-aide Ehrlichman, when he came out of prison after Watergate. Those laws have been used for years to put away many thousands of predominantly black and Latino young men into the run-for-profit corporate jails.
The main argument of the GOB when they say there are no funds for this or that project which would benefit the people, is the yoke of the Wall Street bond. Colorado people tell me now there is enough money to fix the roads, pay the cops, have improved childcare and school food and other social programs, etc. There is a lot more tourism and a lot more people who want to move there due to the open and relaxed atmosphere after marijuana legalization.
Isn’t that what we need in Belize? All the arguments that people and local government had, are now melting like snow by the sun because there is funding separate from state/federal government. So much that other state politicians are scrambling to change the laws because of the amount of raised money.
California is now talking about 1 billion U$ raised a year. With all the marijuana consumed here on Caye Caulker we could have gotten the Social Security property for our secondary school and the Split property for the people of Caye Caulker with a real basketball court and a nice place to swim for the family and our children.
A well-funded Village Council would be able to work for the people to keep the village clean and maintain the streets and provide a positive place to house the Police Department. And that might help our Prime Minister to solve the bond burden which, in my opinion, should be renegotiated like all the deals with the globalists, including Lord Ashcroft. They jacked too much money from us already. Wall Street and the globalists like Lord Ashcroft are holding our country hostage! They are the real criminals! And you still say: “OK, just dream on, Chriss!”?
But where are we now in Caye Caulker? The CC community is now asked to lodge the police in their homes and pay for their new police barracks. We are back in the same position with the police again as before the riots: it is us against them, them against us. The cops are living in the barracks now condemned by the Health Department. But the people say: Hey, there are a lot of people on the island who live in similar conditions.
Like I said before: When you put a man in a dog house he will start behaving like a dog! We hear about situations where the cops start extorting tourists again and they take them to the ATM machine and get paid 500-1000$ a hit. That is extortion with a firearm, which is a double felony, so that’s minimum 6 years and no bail if you or I do that! What they forget is that all those stories come out on the social media and are very damaging to our Caye Caulker tourism. Both facts totally denied by the Assistant Commissioner of the Police at our village council meeting after the riots.
I believe that everybody agrees that we do not need a reason for another riot in Caye Caulker! We as a community have to solve this together! I have had 6 break-ins this year, so to stop that I offered my spa building to the police chief, but she refused because she could not accept living in such a nice place when her staff had to be housed in the condemned barracks. When I offered my house to the cops, one of the cops said that that might not prevent the break-ins.
So I feel I have done my share! I am starting to ask myself if this is really not the intention of the GOB’s no-win politics by neither supporting the police force or the people so they become the victims standing opposite each other? So they can divide and rule!? But this is why Trump got voted in by those “deplorable” people the Democratic Party did not want to listen to! Like the PUP were blown away by that lil’ breeze!
People of Belize, we better prepare for a 4 year lasting Hurricane Trump!—And an alternative third party!
Chriss Roggema-Commentaries from the Garden, Cocoplum Gardens, Caye Caulker. Belize. Central -America Email: [email protected]. Skype#: chriss.roggema1