by Colin Hyde

We won’t know the story behind the tragic death of young Derrick Uh until a thorough investigation is completed—if he was beaten up, if they forgot him in the van, or if they wanted to punish him so they deliberately left him there, thinking that after his punishment he would be better for it, pray God, not knowing he would suffocate to death. There are many questions out there, as there also are in regard to the tragic death of young Leroy Cus in Belmopan. One certain thing is that in both cases there was major departmental failure.
Former ministers of police, Mike Peyrefitte and John Saldivar, have come down hard on the present minister and the commissioner, but they have no right to talk. Re: the Uh death, I understand that that police van was ferrying prisoners for 8 years, and re: the Cus murder, for decades the Police Department in Belmopan has been getting complaints that in the late evening and night evil men lurk near the pathways between the Belmopan Bus Stop and Site Seven and Bird Site, and prey on people.
I have heard people blame police failure on the greater population the officers are drawn from, but the real culprit is our culture of “ignore”; that is the story behind our inability to address our problems. In a piece in the Reporter last week, Neri Briceno wrote about the “cancel culture” coming to Belize. Well, that’s compounding a felony, for we are already mired in a culture that slows and blinds our path to progress.
I don’t know if it started with the British. Maybe it did. Maybe those masters sent here from England thought it a great tool to keep the colonial subjects in their place. The “ignore” culture certainly was here, suffocating our growth, under the PUP, and it was adopted completely by the UDP. In this culture, our leaders deliberately block us out. They are proud to say they don’t read newspapers and they don’t listen to newscasts. How unlike the great Caliph of Baghdad, who dressed like a civilian and went about in the late evening so that he could hear what his people were saying, not to punish those who weren’t kissing his backside, but so that he could address their problems.
The top brass apparently didn’t know that their van was a death trap. If they did, the top brass in the department are guilty of gross neglect and inhumanity. I don’t think they knew. And the reason they didn’t is because in the culture of “ignore,” it is easy for the obvious to escape you. In the culture of “ignore,” you practice line management to the extreme. Line management is good for the chain of command, and terrible for the flow of ideas. Line management won’t have a suggestion or comments box, and if it does it is just for show. Line management doesn’t want to hear anything, because line management knows everything. This is how we do it, and if you don’t like it, get the hell out.
You can’t tell me that in a department of 2,000 officers there wasn’t one person who knew that van was a death trap. But you can tell me that those at the top were ignorant, didn’t see that a breakdown could be disastrous. You can tell me that because in the culture of “ignore”, only a tragedy leads to a cure.
In the book Cheaper by the Dozen, written by Frank and Ernestine Gilbreth, the breadwinner of the family, the dad, earned money by improving designs of buildings and bridges submitted to the government, and showing how savings on time and other inputs could be made. His was a well- remunerated job that provided enough income for the dozen while the mom directed a household with support staff. Taking care of a dozen children is a task for giants, not for – if you want to know who can’t handle a job like that, go and ask L. Wade.
When it comes to safety, we have a bad culture, and if the death of young Uh is a case of terrible negligence, there aren’t words to describe the failure in Belmopan that led to the murder of young Cus.
They don’t need to cut down any trees. A law should have been passed a long time ago: six months for anyone found in a tree beside the path in those areas where criminals have been preying on innocent citizens for decades. What is so difficult about getting a couple officers to patrol these hot spots between 4:00 p.m. and 11:00 at nights? Really, over the years the police in Belmopan must have received dozens of complaints about predators lying in wait for people at the very spot young Leroy Cus lost his life. Did he have to die to make the authorities aware of their terrible failure?
We are all victims here, victims of this terrible culture of “ignore”. This week we grieve for two young men who paid with their precious lives.

I think Mahler needs to smoke weed

Going not from experience, but from the cool of Peter Tosh, I am recommending marijuana for Mr. Mahler, to help him simmer down. Why did he get upset when Shyne Barrow dropped a flag at the white-owned BET show? Brother, if Mr. Shyne unfurls a thousand flags, that shouldn’t get to you. That brother has a niche, and in that space, only that space, he can shine.
My, my, I can’t tell you how disappointed I am with Mahler, for him getting so snappy with Miss Courtney. So, there were some vacant spaces at the grounds at the music fest. We’re not going to debate that. Audrey said so, and she put up pictures to prove it wasn’t a packed yard. Braa, so what, it was the first time. Is it true that our artists got some tidy chum? I’m glad.
But I’m not glad about how you lost your cool with Miss Courtney. Praises there is a ready remedy to turn your churlishness into a good tranquilo. I didn’t hear you calling out to legalize it. What, are you afraid of the church?

Pehreh wasting himself

My calculator is telling me that all this relentless bombast from Pehreh adds up to Dean Barrow and Michael Finnegan promising him Queen’s Square. He’s doing what those devils want alright, but I have to warn him that if he continues wasting himself with the corrupt wing, Queen’s Square will be no sure thing. We all know the saying, if yu lie wid daag yu will rise with flea. No one can daub brush on Pehreh for a couple sofas only he can fit in, and some used laptops, but he’s hanging with a wrong crowd.
Braa, it appears you learned nothing from the episode with the lady, the one whose charge led you to brag that in a single day you earned the, ehm, pittance she was haggling over. That cost you more than the votes Francis dusted you by. You need to be more cagey, Pehreh. I know that all politicians are rotten arrogant, but man, defending the defenseless, sorry, you have to let those bohgaz slip to their political oblivion.

Divisions needed for Carnival

At the beginning, this Carnival thing was a spectacle for all, but now it is a rated show, not for everyone. I wouldn’t encourage any parent to take their children to watch from the street side, or on television. I say we need some divisions here. We should have a parade for children in the morning, a parade for sober adults in the afternoon, and after a two-hour break, loose adults can be let loose.
Properly, they should take their rude game to San Pedro or Placencia. I bet they wouldn’t be tolerated in Hopkins.