What a year, right, and as usual it went by so quickly. In fact, so quickly that we may often forget to stop and smell the roses or acknowledge the thorns that are on the stem, constantly reminding us that something’s gravely wrong with our collective consciousness; it’s all about perspective here. I have seen a lot this year and prayed the Serenity prayer a whole lot too because the things that have been happening in Mother Nature’s Best-Kept Secret have a way of making empaths like myself run wild.
Some of these situations range from government ones like disregarding a regional court ruling or its $650,000 Christmas “Cheer” allocation project — the latter of which just further perpetuates the culture of “gimme tenk yuh” and paints a blatant picture of the inequity that exists as it relates to the dispersal of funds. These handout fund dispersals are the same spaces that groom us to take money on election days. We must be cognizant that bribery happens every day and in every way possible. Revelations 16:15 says, “Behold, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake, keeping his garments on, that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed!”
It is in the same way that our current crop of leaders come bearing gifts, distracting us with the glitz and glam. Stay woke and demand that your money is spent properly — not given back to you in $50 disbursements at Christmas time. Was there an assessment to see which constituencies are in a state of dire poverty? Did we find out what they need in a macro sense and used those funds to make real impact or build on a long-term benefit for not only chosen constituencies but also constituencies that border each other? Speaking of borders, the Jalacte border is still a situation in and of itself and the people of San Jose still have a road that puts their lives at risk every time there is a rainstorm, which, I remind you, is a frequent occurrence in the southern region of our country. I don’t know, I think that maybe that $650,000 could have just gone to better use than the business-as-usual willy-nilly spending.
Next, murder has been an obvious symptomatic social issue of ours and we have to claim it for what it is. The Belize Crime Observatory on December 18, 2018, noted the number of murdered persons to be at 140, surpassing that 2017 record of 137 people for the same time period. I sadly have to admit that by the time this piece is published more Belizeans would have fallen victim to violent crimes. Some days before that publication, the UNICEF Belize Facebook page noted that Belize has in place 50 social protection programmes as a part of the promotion of the Social Protection Conference that happened earlier in December. Now, if a country of well under half million persons has 50 social protection programs and 140 persons are still dying, at the hand of a gun in most cases, then I don’t know if that necessarily adds up.
Our programmes need to be more targeted and planned with monitoring and evaluation as a forethought rather than an afterthought and we need to have the money and manpower (with capacity and passion) to do it! How can that be achieved? Well, there’s the same old Sankey of cooperation and intentional coordination. The concepts of multidimensionality and intersectionality need to be more than buzzwords in our hotel conference presentations; we need to put it on our sleeves, remember and incorporate them in our own plans, even when the budget line items of the ‘Friends of Belize’ do not match. People first at all times. We are more than just checkbox numbers, although numbers are still important. Yes, the number of guns we take off the street, if any, is commendable, but as the incredible mind that is Dr. Gayle once said, “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.” We must then start there, for and in partnership with the people.
We have much to celebrate as Belizeans, so much to be grateful for, but there are so many facets where we can be doing so much better, such as sports, but that’s a whole other musing. As the time illusion of 2018 closes and we enter into 2019, an undoubtedly historic year for Belize, I challenge us to become a more reflective people, a people that take that reflection and translates it into positive, transformative action. We all have the capacity to be change agents within ourselves, our homes, our community, and our country, especially as it relates to the 31 persons we have sitting in the halls of our parliament.
P.S. To my Guyanese comrade, Member of Parliament Charandass Persaud, thank you for acting in the true spirit of being a non-conformist. Your act of bravery is one that will be remembered for decades in not only Guyanese but also regional history. Belizeans take notice!
Season’s greetings to one and all, and I’ll see you somewhere along our next journey around the sun!
Stay Curious.