Brother Albert Vaughan, a high-up in the PUP hierarchy who is presently the City Administrator of the Belize City Council, in a recent guest appearance on The Whip Talk Show, which is aired on the government’s television station, Vibes Media, chektaizd a group of teachers from Dangriga who gathered on Independence Day and made a demand for more from government’s coffers. Mr. Vaughan, a close confidant of Foreign Affairs and Education minister Hon. Francis Fonseca, came down hard on the protesting teachers, said they had “no sense of occasion”, and accused them of “political mischief.”
Sister Denise Flores-Henry, the spokesperson for the teachers, a group of 20 or 30, explained to the media that during the pandemic teachers agreed to an increment freeze (as did other public employees), and received a promise from the government that when the economy rebounded the freeze would be revisited. Teacher Flores-Henry explained that government has spoken glowingly about the performance of the economy, but they are yet to get back their 2021 and 2022 increments. She said that presently teachers are living on 2020 salaries, and inflation has driven up the cost of living significantly. She cited the cost of a bottle of cooking oil, which was $3.75 per bottle in 2020 and is $6.50 per bottle today, and a tray of eggs now costing $9.50, from $6.00 in 2020.
Indeed, the government boasts that the economy is doing well, and most agree that is so, under the circumstances. Across the globe the times are difficult, and the primary cause is the inflation the teachers spoke about. The 2020/21 pandemic and major wars involving the world’s powers have negatively impacted the production of goods across the globe and greatly disrupted the supply chains, and as a consequence the price of food and the supplies of industry have been inflated much beyond normal levels. Abruptly, the purchasing power of our dollar has decreased, in many instances by over 30%.
Life haad out ya! For thousands of Belizeans it’s haad time, kech ahn kill, hand to mouth. The present economic situation isn’t a surprise to mature Belizeans who know our history. The hard times of 1919 which sparked the Ex-Servicemen Riots followed on the heels of the 1914-1918 World War I, and a world in the grip of an influenza pandemic; the 1930’s strikes led by trade union hero Antonio Soberanis followed the Wall Street stock market crash in 1929 and the devastating 1931 hurricane; and the formation of the People’s Committee, the antecedent of the People’s United Party, took place in a period of serious economic deprivation that was caused primarily by the 1939-1945 World War II.
Looking at our main industries/foreign exchange earners, tourism has rebounded to the point where tourist arrivals are approaching numbers seen just before the pandemic brought the industry to a halt, and the BPO industry continues to grow by the proverbial leaps and bounds. But our production and export of primary products, the backbone of our economy before the emergence of the tourism and the BPO industries, are stagnating in a number of areas.
The most notable achievement of this government in the agro-sector is the expansion of the export of cattle to Guatemala and Mexico. In August 2020, a couple months prior to the general election, the Belize Press Office crowed that 27 heads of cattle passed through the western border in “the first formal exportation of cattle to Guatemala”—this after the UDP government had shut down the “illegal” exportation of cattle to Guatemala for some months. Immediately after the PUP took office in November 2020, trucks loaded with cattle started rolling from Belize to Guatemala.
Subsequent to “reviving” the cattle export trade with Guatemala, Hon. Jose Mai and his Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Enterprise were able to get over a number of hurdles that were preventing the export of cattle to Mexico, and our country won a significant victory in 2021 when Mexico’s equivalent of our BAHA, SENASICA, approved the export of cattle from Belize to Mexico. Belize’s cattle industry has an estimated worth of BZ$90 million.
Success has been limited in the other sectors of the agriculture industry. There have been efforts to find markets for our vegetables in Central America, but that initiative is unlikely to be successful, because we have our share of problems with climate change, and in the region where we live we don’t have a competitive advantage in vegetable production. There are the stirrings of hope in the farmed shrimp industry, which has been in decline for over a decade, but despite all of government’s efforts, the citrus industry continues to struggle.
The banana industry has had better days, and while always being a positive in the area of employment, it gives back a considerable share of its foreign exchange earnings through imports of fertilizers and pesticides, and shipping costs and purchases of packaging supplies. The Corozal/Orange Walk share of the sugar industry, our number one foreign exchange earner among primary producers, is benefiting from a relatively high price on the world market at this time, but continues to have issues over the division of the pie. Despite the nudging of government, the sugar milling company, ASR/BSI, has not budged on the 65-35 revenue sharing ratio that has been in place for decades.
Our fishing industry is not as vibrant as in past days. Despite solid scientific evidence which shows that to preserve the lobster industry we must increase the minimum size of lobsters that are harvested, government, because fisher folk complained that upping the size of the “pass tail” would hit their earnings too hard, has not acted. A couple decades ago, fish was a staple of the diets of Belizeans who live near the coast; but today, largely because of a depleting fish stock, which is clearly evidenced by smaller fish on sale at the markets and high prices, only the well-off have the cash to buy marine products.
We once had a promising oil industry. Today we are looking for new wells, while the old ones produce only a trickle.
The reality at this time is that we are in a building/rebuilding phase, so government most likely will continue to be wary about how much it spends on salaries. Our economy isn’t doing as great as the Prime Minister says, so government might not be able to deliver those increments. Hopefully, though, they can find it, and maybe in ongoing negotiations between them and their employees the missing 2021 and 2022 increments will be part of the package, because the cost of living di bite.
Teachers are better poised than most to seize available opportunities
The government is putting a lot of emphasis on MSMEs. A 2012 report from the Belize Trade and Investment Development Services (Beltraide) estimated that “MSMEs [Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises] generate over 70% of private sector employment and incomes, and contribute significantly to the GDP.” Apart from the critical role of small businesses in our economy, there is the potential for some of them to grow into big ones.
Teachers are in one of our more hopeful professions. Not only are their services in demand in the developed world (please stay and educate the children and youth of Belize), their skills make them more poised than other groups to take advantage of the many opportunities in the new digital world. We have brilliant talents in academia that, if they came together—retired teachers in the lead with active teachers contributing what they can under their present work load—they could generate wealth for themselves and for Belize through creating their own businesses, or by forming alliances with Belizeans who have products but lack the skills to access external markets.