by Colin Hyde

I am not very interested in finding out what UB found in its investigation into the comportment of Dr. Pio Saqui; it is enough to go on what is out there, that he was farad, fresh with some of the young ladies at the national university. News5 said the “alleged inappropriate behavior” included “unwanted touching, persistent sexual remarks, and invasive questions.” The Amandala said the accusations go back some years. The cook on Channel 7’s Monday morning “Beef” said he has reports that UB has a culture of making young ladies feel uncomfortable, and in that hostile environment the accusations against Pio were forwarded by male friends of the girls who didn’t reciprocate his attentions.

I expect that all the young ladies who accused Pio were beyond 16, the line we have drawn for childhood. There is no story out there that he raped anyone.

Now, for my reason I balked on going abroad to university, but some things you don’t have to go to big school to learn. Students at a university are in a very physical stage of their lives. They are in the world of academia, and the male professors, the younger ones especially, in the normal flow of things will be like little gods. They’ve got the knowledge the young girls admire; they have money—college professors are well paid; and interaction between them and students is all legal, if not entirely ethical. Dalliance is not supposed to be encouraged, but the story from universities abroad is that it happens.

Tatiana McComber, in a story in Valley Magazine titled, “Debunking the professor-student relationship fascination”, said, “According to collegestats.org, from a poll of 2,000 students, 14% honestly admitted to having some sort of romantic relationship with a professor.” Another researcher said these types of relationships are less common on small campuses and at those colleges that are religion-based.

Hastening on, we don’t know the extent of Brother Pio’s motivation, but it is a fair assumption that the professor wanted to be liked; most everyone wants to be liked, and in the environment he “compensated” by being overly friendly. It couldn’t have been the easiest situation for him. Let me explain.

In the biology of the world, height is part of attraction. Yes, “different strokes for different folks”, but in the general scheme of things, height has its role. The guy is usually taller than the girl. Our fathers are usually taller than our mothers. The shortest Belizeans are the Maya of Toledo. Pio, a Mayan brother, is very short. Every ethnic group is represented at UB, and I expect he would be shorter than most of the refreshing young female flesh around him. In a university in Guatemala or Toledo West, he would have had to bat off attentions. In Belmopan, the girls would have been looking over his head, as the girls of the Dinka and Netherland tribes would be looking over the heads of most Belizean males if they took a trip to those places.    

Ah, imagine you’re a manly guy, and some, ehm, maybe wussy guys, and older guys too, are getting more attention just because they are taller. I don’t know anything besides what was reported. Of course, I have sympathy for any young ladies who were stressed. But Pio got sacked, he lost his job, got sent home ignominiously from a space where the academic qualifications he dedicated his life to gaining, are best-suited. I am wondering if the management at the university was lax, unseeing, or if they had warned him that certain girls didn’t like his personal attention.

Innocence gone

One’s head would have to have been deep in the sand for one to not know that human beings are crazy animals, but it took the LGBT and associated letters to make all of us aware that, while human beings only come in two shapes, their sexual fantasies are as numerous as leaves on a mango tree. We can’t be blamed if sometimes we wonder what God was thinking. 

Boy, I never knew that some female teachers have trouble containing themselves around young male flesh. Like every week there is a story on Yahoo about a female teacher in the US robbing the cradle. In the US, dehn noh play wid dehn, ehm, evil woman. Over there they are dealt with severely. They splash their faces all over the media, and then they fire them, and then they send them to jail.  

How “he” men Almendarez and Uk Espat can get back some macho points

I was definitely more disappointed with J. Uk Espat, than I was with D. Almendarez, when I learned that those two guys had put their names on the ballot for the S Barrow UDP in the March general election. Some people are supposed to run independent, or form their own party. Leave it to the softer sorts to latch onto the establishment red and blue. Remember, one time they said that if George Price ran a broomstick, the stick end of the broom would win. Great heroes are supposed to be above those two; they’re not supposed to be if you can’t beat them join them types. No one writes poetry, sings songs about those who capitulated.

I don’t know the financials of those guys, but for Uk Espat especially, I know he has been maligned, exiled, run over by both the red and blue. They hate the man. But the people loved and respected him because he went where they were all afraid to go. Almendarez is a pretty loud guy, and he, Tom Greenwood, and Yhony Rosado have defended their rights to a share in the cruise tourism industry. I don’t know much about that industry, but you have to give points to people who stand up for what they believe in against red, blue, and anywho.  

I mentioned financials. The story about town is that S Barrow has American money, and we know family members of his are deep into the Belizean money pie. They have won, earned financial wealth from dis ya lee Belize fu real, Braa. I don’t know that a big chunk of soon-to-be Goldson and Price notes was dropped in the path of Almendarez and Uk Espat. Ah, their decision to go Shyne red could have been personal—issues with parties in the old UDP camp. Maybe it was the headiness of the big political game that sucked them in, and maybe it was huge frustration, why they put their names on a ticket.

Of course, it could be that those guys actually saw something in S Barrow. What that could be, I don’t know. S Barrow is no system bucker. He was with the system, the conduit where the loot was, in the lyrics show in New York. He was with the system when he declared himself a Jew and went to hang out in Netanyahu’s Israel. He was with the system when he condemned Fidel’s Cuba. He was with the system when he hobnobbed with all the rich and famous in Belize.

Whatever the story, it was a disappointment, definitely to this corner, to see hero guys lining up that way. Ha, ha, you don’t know who is who on social media, but one of those media described Tracy’s team as duplicate PUP. We’ll have to fix the reporting on the March 12 general election. The PUP won, the duplicate PUP gave a very credible showing, and the UDP got banged, absolutely crushed.

Fast forward to the present, and we see a divided UDP and a country in desperate need of a viable Opposition. Everyone wants the UDP to come to its senses, even non-UDPs. It’s for the good of the party, and bigger than that, it’s for the country.

Ouch, politicians are a vengeful set, and in that cold vein, a story is about that the S Barrow faction is giving the Tracy faction a dose of their own medicine. You know that’s ridiculous. Tracy’s faction organized a putsch, and they marched to the Civic Center in their thousands and executed their coup. The story goes that God told the evolution devils to bring their own dirt. Tit for tat means Shyne, August and Company (call them SAC) need to bring their own crowd. Bah, this SAC wants to run putsch from the courtroom!

We all know what the SAC set is fussing about. Selfishness is in full feather; they are fighting to control the asset at BelChina and to keep S Barrow alive on Hula. They, the side weh di people don’t want, want the court to install them on Independence Hill! About the asset, this is a page from the rotten PUP book post-2008, pre-2020. We NIP stock used to be the honorable party. Well, on the matter of human quality, it’s a long time now that red to blue, blue to red, the people don’t know the difference.

Okay now, we have reached the prize. If it isn’t fake news, SAC has floated a unification paper that would see Belize Rural Central (BRC) up for grabs in October. SAC would have to leap worlds to arrive at a place where they could challenge T Panton in Albert, because she won; but the unification factory sees a crack in BRC, because a bona fide blue won the seat. Is it that Almendarez is to challenge Bev for the rights to BRC? These guys have no respect for numbers, or for the people who live in BRC. In the March election, the S Barrow UDP, represented by Almendarez, got 142 votes; and Bev, the duplicate PUP, got a whopping 1,367 votes.

Brother Uk Espat and Brother Almendarez, unu association with the court faction of the UDP di mek unu luk bad. What is a man, what has he got … You gained your respect and love in Belize as “he” men. Whatever is left of your macho, grab it and run with it, as far and as fast as you can from that mess you got yourselves into. Announce it from the rooftop that unu noh deh wid this. Belize need unu fu save unuself. Unu noh perfect, nobody is, but you had credentials for standing up for what you believed in. Brothers, Tracy win di election. Respect the will of the people.