On Monday, June 22, it was announced that the holding company that owns the Belize Bank Ltd. was in the process of buying out the assets and liabilities of Scotia Bank (Belize) Ltd.
Then, one month later, on July 22, a peaceful demonstration by the Christian Workers Union at the Port of Belize Ltd, which is under receivership under the Ashcroft alliance (Private Investment Ltd. and British Caribbean Bank Ltd.), erupted in violence. Emotions, frustration and disbelief are still running high, and truth and insight have taken a walk.
Given the danger of this situation, it is time for some very blunt talk on these matters. Hopefully, such a discussion will provoke some people to look at this subject in a more serious and honest way.
Slavery and racism are features of the oligarchical domination which has plagued mankind for more than ten thousand years. The subjugation of large numbers of people into defacto ordejure slavery is the essence of oligarchical rule. Racist mass murders have always been a feature of oligarchical culture, but to understand it within today’s reality, you must lift your vision from the individual to the broader killing fields which are imposed by the economic policy decisions of the financial elite. Consider the post-1971 financial and economic diktats (a shift from the use of gold as a global reserve monetary system to an arbitrary fiat currency) of the City of London and Wall Street, which have led to economic looting and mass murder in Belize, Africa, and our neighbours and elsewhere at the hands of the trans-Atlantic mega-banks, the International Monetary Fund, the private equity funds and others.
Debt slavery, which destroys the economic basis for survival, has been imposed on the majority of the world’s population, savagely in the case of the poorest of nations (Honduras, Haiti), but also upon the “lower 99 percent” in England and America. Belizeans, murder is not simply a matter of pulling a trigger or kneeling on someone’s neck. Deliberate mass murder is as simple as “signing one’s name” to a document, issuing policy directives, withholding loans, extracting usurious debt payment, or cancelling contracts for national development. No one gets blood on their hands. No one has to gaze into the eyes of the victims. The dead are invisible. This is what we see today in the decisions made in the richly-carpeted and ornate mahogany-laden boardrooms of the Bank of England, the International Monetary Fund, the New York Fed, the European Central Bank and Goldman Sachs.
This is real racism, organized racism, organized mass murder, and it comes from the financial oligarchy based in London. Its intention is not simply to kill people, but to kill posterity, and to destroy any possibility for a productive future.
Likewise, Malthusian mass murder is the heart and soul of the “green finance” proposals of former Bank of England head Mark Carney (and his friend/pal Michael Bloomberg), which if enforced worldwide, will kill hundreds of millions. The same Malthusian game plan is seen in the current approach to Covid-19 medical care, where efforts are being made to find a “cure” that might not be accessible to all, while treatment is routinely denied to the very sick and elderly who no longer have “lives worth living.”
To the extent that prejudice/racism exists within the population of any country, it is the product of oligarchical masters who seek to divide the very people they wish to oppress, and manipulate them into fighting one another. It is a tactic of oligarchical rule, and to become a foot soldier on such a battlefield is very foolish. Indeed, it is a sign of one’s own acceptance of servility, of your acceptance of your “invisible chains”. Imperial systems have always been financial empires, controlled by a financial oligarchy.
This was as true of the Roman Empire as it was of the 17th century Netherlands, where the creation of the Bank of Amsterdam, the Bourse and the Dutch East and West Indies Companies—all between 1600 and 1610—resulted in the Netherlands becoming the greatest slave-trading empire on the planet. By the 18th century, the British Empire—with the new Bank of England, the Exchequer, the Royal Africa Company, and the East India Company—began to push the Dutch out. But always, the slave traffic—much like the later opium and narcotics traffic—was a financial policy, with huge profits financing the London stock market and the Bank of England.
This proposed takeover of Scotia Bank Belize by the Ashcroft Alliance should not happen and cannot happen. Why? Take note, Central Bank of Belize. Not even the Anglo-Americans would allow such a crazy (facey) merger in their countries. In the world of commercial banks, loans are counted as assets. At December 31, 2019, the total assets of the five banks were $3.539 billion dollars. The combined new assets of the two banks would amount to some $ 1.784 billion dollars, or about 50% of all the bank assets in Belize. This is crazy in a small country like Belize.
To understand, one needs to look at net loans as a percent of deposits. Scotia Bank has committed 95% of deposits as cover for loans. It means Scotia Bank Belize has confidence in Belize and its people. Belize Bank has only committed 57%, the lowest in Belize. The average is usually 80%-85%. But Belize Bank has the highest rate of net profit, which means high interest rates, no risk-taking, no confidence, and what could be considered in the context of local banking as “a form of looting.”
Belizeans, understand that banks don’t lend deposits. They lend money, which they create from thin air, and credit unions lend shareholders’ equity. If Belize Bank gets control of Scotia Bank Belize, the looting of the people of Belize will increase tremendously. With our economy devastated by COVID-19, and our refusal to save ourselves by the only means available – high tech manufacturing, especially fourth wave CNC machine tools – we would be letting our “invisible chains” willingly lead us into the seductive arms of the British oligarch. And if we do so, God have mercy on our souls.
Let’s put it this way: this new proposed entity will become what they call “too big to fail”. I hope the average Belizean understands what this means. It means this new bank will be able to do whatever it chooses and be damned with the Belizean people. It will kill competition, and charge whatever usurious interest rates it feels like. It will lend to whom it wishes and destroy its enemies, at will. This is tantamount to giving the power of life and death to a ruthless British oligarch.
Nathan Rothschild in 1815 made a famous quote: “Who controls money, governs”. Do we really want to do this?
A letter written by Lord Michael Ashcroft, dated July 30, 2020, was made public today. Most Belizeans don’t know what such terms as “rule of law” means when used by members of the British Empire/oligarchy. It means that the rules are set by the oligarchy for their right to rule over humanity. When the United States won its Independence from the British oligarchy, one of the first things it did was to create its own Supreme Court, where its own trained lawyers decided right and wrong. No non-United States citizens were or are allowed to judge an American citizen. If Belize is an independent nation-state, then we do not need a foreign court to judge us. It’s as simple as that. Do we have so many chains around our necks that we really think that any foreign Court will give justice to tiny little Belize over a British billionaire, a member of the British ruling class? The British oligarch has lost court cases in Belize, but has NEVER lost in any foreign court.
This is what is meant when you hear from their mouths such foolishness as “rule of law” – it’s another means to control our nation-state, to financially bankrupt Belize. I hope the educated among us understand that letter of July 30, 2020, written by Lord Ashcroft to our Prime Minister, is telling him, and by extension the citizens of Belize, that we are NOT free. This letter is a gem. It is saying that Lord Ashcroft is not subject to our laws. He is above them. He, like Queen Elizabeth of the British oligarchy/empire, is above our laws.
Documents like the UK-Belize Bilateral Investment Treaty (April 30, 1982) need to be torn up if Belize wishes to be really free and independent. The British oligarch has always changed the names of his different companies so that he can get jurisdiction to come under this treaty. Why? The treaty gives a UK national, firm or entity the right to compensation for the nationalization of any asset, and trial in a foreign court with foreign judges. This means that if the proposed Scotia/Belize bank merger is allowed by the Central Bank of Belize, then Belize will be subject to the personal quirks of a person who not only apparently despises social justice, but also hates the very concept of freedom and independence. And should any future government object or have a problem with the merger, then they will be held accountable under the UK-Belize Bilateral Investment Treaty.
From experience we know that Belize has never found justice under the execution of that treaty. Remember the Universal Hospital matter? Lord Ashcroft’s letter also reminds us of that debacle and the claims that the Government of Belize owes in excess of $90 million to Belize Bank. But we know that he/Belize Bank was paid for the hospital.
Remember the monies from Taiwan? It must be what is known in international banking circles as “banker’s arithmetic”. Since the British billionaire loves Belize so much, then instead of investing USD$200 million in some worthless cruise terminal, he should invest instead in the rapid industrialization of Belize—in steel, a high speed rail, CNC machine tools, and pay high wages.
Stop exploiting man; exploit nature instead. Offer Belizeans a real future. In considering the nature of today’s financial oligarchy, don’t just think of Queen Elizabeth and her half-witted son. The 21st century imperial system exists more in the form of a foul-smelling stench of like-minded billionaires and oligarchical elite. Their policy is Malthusian: kill off as many people as possible and halt human scientific progress. Enslave all humans in a One-World Government.
Well, to hell with them! And Belizeans, which politician has said anything about the Ashcroft alliance’s proposal to purchase Scotia Bank Belize? Only the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow, has made public statements expressing his concerns that the merger will create a “too big to fail” monster.
Wow, Belizeans/politicians, are the British billionaire’s “invisible chains” so tight that you have all lost your voices–your dignity? Can we really keep our Independence? Did our Belizean heroes fight 31 years in vain?
To the Hon. Patrick Faber and the Hon. John Briceño, since one of you will be the future Prime Minister of Belize, please for the sake of Belize and its children, come together and stop the proposed merger of the Belize Bank and ScotiaBank Belize.
If the Central Bank of Belize plays games, then go to the National Assembly. It is high time we develop anti-trust laws in Belize. The National Bank of Belize should instead buy (and the US dollars to pay? Ask Taiwan for help. Are they not our friends?) the assets and liabilities of Scotia Bank Belize and create money for Belize’s development needs in scientific agriculture like Ya’axche’, not the Mennonite “mining of the soil”; fourth-wave manufacturing with CNC-robotic machine tools; and the “glue” infrastructure.
Unity is strength. Please, for God’s sake, don’t let the oligarchs divide us anymore. We have one country – Belize. There is no red and no blue; there is only Belize.