In 2018, a time when the world was still “normal”, the Statistical Institute of Belize (SIB) stated on its website that 52% of our people were living in poverty. The SIB arrived at this dismal conclusion, with the assistance of Statistics Canada, after undertaking a “Poverty Study using information collected from the 2018/19 Household Budget Survey,” which looked at the spending patterns of households, “on food and non-food expenditure and other household information such as demographic and housing characteristics, household production and consumption, and income.”
The Poverty Study showed that 35,663 of us (9%) were indigent, dirt poor, which was actually an improvement over 2009, when 52,185 of us (16%) were in this category. The report, however, said 201,616 of us (52%) were living in poverty — an 11% increase over the 136,640 of us (41%) who were in that state in 2009.
Things were already bleak in Belize when in April 2020 the world went from normal into the grip of a pandemic that hasn’t let up. Tourism, the mainstay of our economy, collapsed, many other economic activities slowed, and thousands more Belizeans descended into a state of deprivation.
Gradually, Belize and the world are moving closer to what things were like prior to the pandemic, but as noted, for Belize (and many other countries) normal was not a state of prosperity for all. Just a few years ago, our poverty rate was over 50%, and in 2009 it was over 40%. But we don’t need statistical models to tell us what our economic situation is. We know that we’re poor, that poverty is endemic in our country.
The present government came to power promising that all of us will win, and one of its “big” promises was that it would introduce a $5/hr. minimum wage. That’s a noble objective, considering that the present minimum wage is $3.30/hr., but everyone knows that $5/hr. doesn’t go that far in 2022. While a minimum wage of $5/hr. might suffice for a bachelor or spinster, it won’t for a family in an urban area that has a single breadwinner.
There’s a lot wrong with Belize, the worst of which is our poverty. Our young men’s hopelessness is behind their violent behavior and our young women’s desperation is leading more and more of them into prostitution. It is a terrible situation we have, one we must all move urgently to remedy.
We must all work to end poverty, but it does look like an impossible task when 40 years after independence we have not come close to delivering on two primary needs: wholesome food and adequate shelter.
Too many of our people can’t afford nutritious food. Every study condemns the regular consumption of foods such as hot dogs, ramen, processed meats, and grains from which the germ and the bran have been removed, because they are loaded with carcinogenic preservatives or have poor food value, yet these unhealthy, mostly imported, foods are staples for many of our people.
Our housing situation is also critically deficient. Belizeans living below the poverty line live in poor- quality houses that have insufficient space, cramped quarters that lead to friction among occupants and cut down on their productive capacity.
In the modern world, wholesome food and adequate shelter are not the only basic needs. Belizeans, particularly those living in urban settings, need home appliances and computers, and they need access to, and money to pay for, reliable transportation and internet. In rural areas our farmers need modern equipment and good storage facilities, our fisher folk need efficient boats and gear. All our children need computers and internet access.
If we will conquer poverty, there are things we must demand of our government, and things we must do for ourselves. The job of the government is to steer the way so the energies of our people are harnessed toward the end of making us prosper. We need leadership that will prioritize the sciences and establish CETs all over the country.
For years we have been told that prosperity will elude us until we increase our manufacturing capacity. For Belizean economist, Bill Lindo, and others, like the late Richard Harrison, that was a mantra. Our political leaders are aware that more of the goods on the shelves in our grocery stores must be labeled, “Made in Belize”. At the Belize Investment Summit in San Pedro in November last year, the Minister of Agriculture & Food Security, Hon. Jose Mai, told local and foreign business folk that our country is in the habit of producing primary goods, that we “export corn and import Maseca”, and what we need are business folk who are ready to make “investments in the agro-processing sector.” The government must also invest our money where its mouth is.
We of course can’t abandon primary production; we do produce high-quality agricultural and marine products. With our magnificent inheritance of temples, the longest reef system in our hemisphere, pristine forest and water bodies which we have maintained, exotic flora and fauna which we have protected, and our unique and multi-flavored people, we have a competitive edge in the tourism industry. Our government must help our agro and marine producers access the best markets, and we must extract a lot more from our touristic blessings.
We are a small nation, and there are limits to what we can do in the line of manufacturing mechanical and electrical tools, electronic devices, pharmaceuticals, fertilizers, and toiletries, but some things we will have to produce for ourselves, or prosperity for all will continue to elude us. We have a thriving livestock industry, but we don’t produce footwear, belts, or bags.
Corruption in government has stymied our progress. The present government made many promises to stomp out corruption, as did the previous one, as did all our governments before. They all talk and talk and talk, and they all have done everything in their power to defang our oversight bodies. If we will end poverty, we, the people, must keep the feet of our leaders in the fire, so they do the right thing.
If we will end poverty, we, the people, must turn away from foreign luxuries and focus more on our NEEDS. And we must concentrate on our own – we must support our artists, our athletes, our small entrepreneurs; we must put emphasis on producing and buying products labeled, “Made in Belize”.
Years ago we believed in ourselves, we were enthusiastic about our future, confident that our country would prosper. We have to find that energy, that belief, again. It must be our primary goal to end this poverty that is sucking the life out of us.