Twice in one day I heard the Prime Minister of Belize deliver his New Year’s Day message in Spanish. I heard the New Year’s Day message in English too. But I did not hear him deliver his New Year’s Day message in Kriol. I did not hear him deliver his New Year’s Day message in Mopan, Garifuna, Yucatec, Kekchi, Hindu, Chinese, Arabic, or German either.
A lady, who I will call our Super Nationalist (Super N for short), once told me that it is wrong, wrong, wrong…for our leaders to speak to the nation in Spanish on our National Day or on Independence Day. She (everyone knows her, but as I have never heard her speak on the matter publicly I will not call her name) told me that it is disrespectful to the other groups in Belize whose native tongue is not Spanish. She said if you are going to do it in Spanish, you have to do it in all our languages. I concur.
The other day I told her that I had heard a couple Area Representatives speak Spanish to the nation in the House. She was shocked. (I expect that Area Reps speak Kriol, Spanish, Garifuna, and other languages in the corridors, but when addressing the Speaker, they all (except for these recent changes of tongue) speak in English))
I tell you, I once saw no problem with speaking Spanish in officialdom. I was even proud to hear some who are not native Spanish speakers “break it up,” like the rest of us who are not native Spanish speakers. But after I gave the position of the Super N serious thought, I realized that she was one hundred percent correct.
Apart from the fact that it is disrespectful to groups who don’t speak Spanish as their first language, the Super N says that we are facilitating the Guatemalan cause when we speak Spanish in officialdom. The Super N is perfectly fluent in Spanish. I believe that Spanish is her first tongue. But she always speaks as a Belizean nationalist first.
Our Super N pointed out to me some years ago that if we were ever to decide to settle matters with Guatemala at the ICJ (our leaders have decided that they want us to go that way), they, the ICJ, will consider how close our culture is to our enemies when making their decision. If you remember, when the British dismembered India, it was to separate the Muslims and the Hindus, two religious groups that couldn’t get along. The Muslims were sent to what became Pakistan, and the Hindus remained in India.
So, with the ICJ factoring in cultural similarities and differences with Guatemala, you begin to see how disastrous for Belize was the crazy act by a gang of crooks (they committed blatant fraud in the last elections (I have “di hayr een a mi hand”)) at the FFB to play an international home football match for us…in GUATEMALA!
The argument may follow that we are all being disrespected when a language none of us speak as our first tongue (except for a few new Belizeans from America and Britain (that’s why they usually dominate forums presented in English) is our official language. You can run the pros and cons there, but I think a very persuasive argument to counter that, is that nobody should feel that any group (particularly) is being given any gifts.
Especially because of where we live, Spanish is an important language. To my mind it is imperative that persons in Belize who don’t speak Spanish, learn it. Spanish is an important language of commerce, and yes, we live among the largest Spanish speaking group in the world. (Wa, Spain couldn’t influence any other European nation to speak their language, but every country on the American mainland, except for the USA, Canada, Belize, the Guyanas, and Brazil, use it as their official language.) Spanish is also a very sweet language. I don’t know if Spanish literature rivals English (Spanish is difficult, tires me to read it), but some of the sweetest songs and sounds anywhere are in that flavor.
I understand why Area Representatives will want to speak to constituencies with large Spanish speaking groups, in Spanish. Politicians are always looking for angles to hustle votes. They have public meetings and newspapers to do that. The official language of Belize is English. In officialdom, it is the only language that should be spoken.
My vote is for Wil
I thought the winners of the KREM WUB annual awards were well selected. I would have preferred that Mr. Wil Maheia got the “Person of the Year” award over the very deserving Mr. John Avery, but John was a solid choice.
In his New Year’s message, Wil said that Our (the PNP) lack of experience caused us some disappointment in the election results (General Elections 2008). The truth is that the distaste for the PUP was so strong that people were terrified that splitting their votes could allow that blue horse that had lost its way to sneak back in. This hurt the turnout big time for the man, Wil Maheia, and a few other very solid non-PUDP politicians.
There is a group of media personalities calling themselves…something…but because of Belize being Belize, it is difficult for them to select the media awards for the year in this country. Maybe this falls into the lap of UB. There could be awards for so many categories. Belize being Belize, I would also like to see an “award” for the one who is most about where the money is at. They could call that one the…the…Belize Brown Nose Something…Heh, I promised to be a nice guy in 2009. Wa! I di try.