We think the morale of the Belizean people is presently the lowest we have seen it in our lifetime. In the 1950s and 1960s, we were all poor together in British Honduras, but we had love. Beginning in the 1980s, money began to pour into Belize to purchase our citizenship and our real estate. More money poured into Belize in the 1990s to purchase our public utility infrastructure. And then there had been, beginning in the 1970s with the weed and graduating in the 1980s to the pills and the powder, there had been and there was the drugs. Then came the oil, which should have been icing on the cake.
The masses of the Belizean people could see that there was money around and about in Belize. The vehicles were late model and the buildings were huge. The Belizean high rollers vacationed in Cancun and they shopped in Miami. The clothes and the jewelry in Belize were as fine as anywhere in the world when you got a chance to enter certain circles.
The morale of the masses of the Belizean people is low, because the fabulously wealthy people of Belize live in a world of their own. There is not a functioning national football selection in the country; neither is there a functioning national basketball selection. Our track and field facilities do not deserve such a name. The most impressive new construction going on is a new gambling casino in the hallowed Newtown Barracks area of our old capital. Belize does not have a national dance troupe, or a national theatre group. All Belizeans do day and night is watch television and talk on the telephone.
We watch our desperate young men murdering each other as if they are taking shooting practice, while too many of our young ladies have developed BET mentalities. We change governments, and only a couple thousand party faithful benefit. The masses of the people remain depressed.
What is the problem? Belize is not a nation. The Belizeans who have made money have taken the money to banks in Canada, Miami, Cayman, Panama, Switzerland, etc. What they spend in Belize is only a little bit of what they own. Belize’s money is in foreign banks because we are not a nation. We don’t believe in Belize. We believe in anywhere else.
It must be that the Guatemalan claim, as longstanding as it is, has taken a toll on our psyche. If this is so, then it is understandable. People who become rich, unless they just inherit the money, are mostly smart people. The more wealthy they become, the less inclined they are to take chances. Belizeans who have money, believe their money is safer abroad than it is in Belize. They do not have much of a national consciousness. And now, the masses of the Belizean people are convinced that there’s something wrong here: the nation talk is a lot of political rhetoric, but the cheese isn’t real. There’s no hope, just desperation. And casualties …
North of us, older Belizeans continue to marvel at the miracle of Chetumal as a transformation which we have seen in our lifetime. Why did Chetumal rise so wonderfully from the swamps of Payo Bispo, while in Belize our population centers just limp along? Well, Mexico is a nation, and Mexicans think Mexican, totally. Belize has not reached that level of national consciousness, and there are reasons for this. One of these reasons is The Claim.
In our editorial Tuesday on the General Motors bankruptcy, we pointed out that the United States was weaker than she appeared to be before last year’s financial crash. Foreign money had kept pouring into America’s banks and financial institutions because of Uncle Sam’s established military status and dominant reputation. So, even though the industrial and manufacturing fundamentals of the American economy had deteriorated, on the surface things remained in an upbeat mode.
In the case of Belize, on the other hand, money has poured out of our country because of Belize’s shakiness as a nation state. If that money, made in Belize, were to return and get working seriously, Belizeans would become hopeful and energetic. “If,” of course, is such a mighty big word.
In one sense, there are two kinds of people in Belize – those who bring money here and those who take money out. The people who bring money home and dedicate themselves to Belize, are true nationalists. Those who make money here and bank it abroad, do not believe in Belize, no matter what their rhetoric. As it stands, Belize is no nation. We love everybody more than we love ourselves.