by Colin Hyde
Readers of this column know that I noh partial to people—politicians and the wealthy especially—who run to court with matters that should be laid before the public. Immediately after the results of that convention showed that Tracy was their girl, the honorable thing for the other crowd would have been to hand over the keys to BelChina. If these people lived in the other motherland—British, my people—they couldn’t show dehn face.
The spurned BelChina crowd had the option of countering with their own convention. I don’t know the innards of these parties. It’s possible they could have mustered a legitimate crowd. They chose to run for succor in the slow-grinding mill of justice.
Is there a suggestion in the UDP that you can’t change a horse if you see it is running off the track? If the leader of the party faced a credible rape charge, or some serious malfeasance, is the party bound to stick with him/her? What if someone goes bloody crazy, or starts doing the things Tracy’s BelChina charges them of?
Private land—the market price and how much you want it
I think by now we all accept that land in some areas comes with prices regular citizens can’t wrap their minds around. Mr. Brackett said 6.2, the lucky owners said 9 plus million, and they settled at 6.9.
The value of land, anything, is what it is worth to the world, AND what it is worth to YOU. Government wanted that land, so it paid $0.7 million above the value the Lands Commissioner set on it.
People who say the government could have gone eminent domain—well, they could have, but the only gain there would have been political. The government and Mr. Brackett would have received zero flak if they had kicked the can down the road. Working it through the courts, maybe in 2031 the owners would have gotten their pound of flesh plus the interest, from the new UDP government. Of course, it is believed that government really liked settling with the lucky owners who got favor when they got the land in 2018 or so, and the Jackpot in 2024 beyond their wildest dreams.
Guys in support of criminalization of abortion need an artificial womb
I flat out don’t understand guys who insist on jailing women for abortion. Look, I am as much for the, ehm, repression of women as the next guy; indeed, they really have gone too far; but I can’t go so far as to dictate to them what they do with their bodies. That is not my right.
Unquestionably, carrying a child is a labor of love by a woman: more than half a year, 9 long months sacrificing her body and her time. And after delivering the child, she is committed at least until the child reaches adulthood. Before I go on, let me say, again, that I don’t endorse abortion. I support the right of any anti-abortionist to say that the woman who aborts will burn in hell forever. I put the brake on when they push laws to put her in jail.
It happens sometimes that a woman wants no part of the process. How can anti-abortionists insist on a woman’s obligation if she conceives? Their argument is that it is murder.
Prior to modern medicine, the fusion of an egg and a sperm could not become a baby unless the owner of the womb in which the fusion took place agreed to be rented for 9 months. Now they are doing all kinds of things. But let us confine ourselves to unaided pregnancy.
Within the first three months, the first trimester, what is growing inside the womb does not resemble a child. Up to a month or two or three after conception, those of us on the outside looking in might consider it normal if the connection between the woman and what’s growing inside her is minimal. After this, the mass of cells becomes a fetus, and in the third trimester, 6 months onward, the fetus can survive outside of the mother’s womb. There has to be a serious debate about terminating a pregnancy in the later stages. But in those first three months, really, it should be entirely a matter for the woman’s heart. We pray she has a good one.
Anti-abortionists consider any interference with the process as abortion, and advocate for it to be classified as a crime.
Okay, it happens that there are women who don’t have this love for the potential growing inside them. I think we can forego the many explanations for her unhappiness, or hatred. I don’t know what goes on with the psychology of a woman who aborts. There are studies, and I expect some of them are well- researched and sincere.
The woman who decides to abort has a few options. The most natural is to stop eating. Farmers know that when their farm animals are carrying young ones, they have to ensure that they get the right nutrition, or the animals will absorb their young to feed their body. Nature knows who comes first. Nature will use the unborn to feed the mother.
Interestingly, the book of Leviticus, which provided a blueprint for the use of sexual organs, the foods we eat, and whom and how we worship, everything one needed to know for healthy living and good standing with the Almighty, didn’t directly call out this sin. Surely, in all of wild Israel there was one renegade woman who needed to be corrected.
Daniel Darling, in the story in Lifeway Voices, “What Does The Bible Say About Abortion?”, says the Bible repeatedly affirms the humanity of the unborn at the earliest stages. He lists the many times the prophets recognized the developing life, none doing so more beautifully than Jeremiah, whose words we meet in song: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you through and through. I chose you to be mine…”. If you don’t tremble inside when you sing or hear that line in song, you are a stone. Darling says that from all the references we can conclude that “it is a sin to kill innocent life.” But the Old Testament, which is busy in prescribing penalties to keep us in line, never mentioned abortion.
Sadly, and incredibly, in the Old Testament we have instances where Jewish leaders got “divine” orders to slaughter innocents; clearly, every printed thought of the prophets did NOT come from the Father. Of course, the innocents who got the death penalty weren’t Jewish.
The state absolutely oversteps when it makes abortion before 3 months, a crime. You/we can believe it’s a sin if you/we want, but until the fusion becomes a fetus that can live outside of the mother’s womb, unquestionably she has all rights over it. For men who don’t like that, I am sure modern science can provide us with an artificial womb, so we can carry the baby.
Happy Garifuna Settlement Day
Like forever, every November it’s on my list to meet the dawn on the beach in Hopkins to witness the reenactment of our Garinagu brothers’ and sisters’ arrival to Belize’s shores.
God spare life, I guess November 19 will find me in my corner far from the coast, as usual. In the morning, I will listen to the mass to celebrate the arrival of the Garinagu ancestors and offer prayers for the continued good health and prosperity of their offspring.
My family here will cook hudut, and I expect it will be good, as always. Throughout the day, when I’m in my farthest corner, it is for certain that I will have a little libation, sacramental doses, while listening to Garifuna spirituals. I love songs that wrench my soul.
What a glorious occasion, the celebration of our ancestors. The happiest Garifuna Settlement Day to all my Garinagu friends on this special and sacred November 19. A happy Garifuna Settlement Day to all!