“Therefore prepare thee to cut off the flesh.
Shed thou no blood, nor cut thou less nor more
But just a pound of flesh: if thou cut’st more
Or less than a just pound, be it but so much
As makes it light or heavy in the substance,
Or the division of the twentieth part
Of one poor scruple – nay, if the scale do turn
But in the estimation of a hair,
Thou diest and all thy goods are confiscate.”
– THE MERCHANT OF VENICE, Act IV, sc. I, 324–332.
So now, the Shylock of Market Square insists on his pound of flesh. The devil was in the conditionality of the loan, and from the beginning there was a Belizean betrayal of trust. Women make love to musicians: with moneylenders, they yield their favors for Mammon.
The humble people of Belize have been trying to understand the fundamentals of the case involving Ashcroft Sagis as the claimant, and KREM Radio as the defendant, since the first rumblings began in March of last year. Now that the matter has been heard in open court, we can examine the circumstances of the litigation and explain it to the people of Belize.
The masses of the people communicate with and in music, because in the sounds of music there is freedom, and all men are equal. The masters of the people resent the music of the people, because they are jealous of the happiness they hear being expressed therein. After all, the masses are oppressed. The masters are puzzled at their music. Sometimes, the masters actually become fearful, and then they become malicious, and vengeful.
In the beginning of the nationalist revolution in British Honduras in 1950, the music of the revolution was underground, because the one radio station was owned and controlled by the British rulers. With self-government in 1964, and the transformation of the British Honduras Broadcasting Service (BHBS) into Radio Belize, the nationalist leaders were awed by the power the monopoly radio station represented, and they preserved that power jealously.
Television entered Belize in 1982 when Prime Minister George Price decided to give a favored supporter (the late Mrs. Marie Hoare) permission to receive television signals and broadcast them to a small group of elite subscribers. The television genie got out of the bottle, and now here we are where we are – hundreds of cable channels for the viewing from the Rio Hondo to the Sarstoon, and from Benque to Half Moon.
In the case of radio, which is a much less expensive technology than television, the genie got out of the bottle when the British Forces in Belize were allowed to have their own radio station and broadcast from their Ladyville garrison. This was a secret deal for which the documents are still “classified.”
KREM Radio in 1989 represented the culmination of ten years of agitation by the publishers of the leading newspaper in the country of Belize. KREM was the result of a desperate decision by PUP officials who wanted to return to power. They supported the same newspaper which had helped to oust them in 1984, in the Amandala campaign for a radio licence. The PUP never intended for the new radio station to compete, and they did not intend for it to survive. KREM Radio competed, however, and KREM Radio survived, and the reason was that the people were hearing their own music. The people embraced KREM, and they treasured it.
There was a feeling in the Belizean oligarchy, after KREM competed and survived, that Partridge Street was becoming too powerful. And so the leaders of the PUP began to grant other radio licenses, beginning with the LOVE licence early in 1993. The leaders of the UDP followed suit, and soon everybody and his brother had a radio station in Belize, especially party politicians.
But KREM Radio is cutting edge, the same way Amandala was cutting edge, and KREM’s power provoked terrorist attacks from the oligarchy. The record was there for all Belizeans to see. The playing field was not level. The oligarchy had their favorite, and the people saw this for themselves.
Shylock’s days in Belize are numbered. You cannot extract a pound of flesh without shedding blood. The people of Belize will not allow KREM Radio to be sacrificed. We fought against British rule in 1950, and we will fight against it in 2008. The reason the original anti-colonialist party, the PUP, was devastated at the polls on February 7, is precisely because they sold the Belizean people out to the Shylock of Chichester. This is a fight which united the people of Belize across class and color lines.
The people united, will never be defeated. All power to the people.