39 years ago, the ruling PUP leased a lot of swamp land on Partridge Street to the United Black Association for Development. In those days, Partridge Street was on the western outskirts of the capital city, and it was practically a picado trail.
By 1973, UBAD had filled some of the land and built a 20’ by 30’ one flat cement building. That same land is now completely filled, and is the site of the three buildings which contain Amandala, KREM Radio, KREM TV, and the Library of African and Indian Studies.
Over the years back here, we have seen the birth, growth, alienation, drug addiction, incarceration and murder of many of our young people in this neighbourhood. Partridge Street itself, between Mahogany to the north and Cemetery Road to the south, is stable and businesslike. Apart from Kremandala and the St. Martin De Porres Primary School and church, Partridge Street is home to such businesses as Ferguson’s Photo Studio, the Carlos Diaz businesses (corner with Vernon), Mike Chan’s Mexican food service, Frank Lizama’s woodwork and art studio (Cemetery Road), Rosado’s Hardware and Carter’s Upholstery (corner with Cemetery Road), Lloyd Flowers’ motel, Julie’s Chinese Shop and Patrick Rogers’ accounting and printing (corner with Vernon). Further north on Partridge when you cross Mahogany Street, there are the Lake I Baptist Church and the Sadie Vernon High School.
So, Partridge Street, compared to the streets around us, is relatively prosperous. Beginning in the middle 1980’s, Kremandala began to sponsor the young men in our neighbourhood in various sports, primarily basketball and football. It was not an exercise in ego on our part. Sure, we wanted to win, and our young men dedicated themselves to winning, but our financial and management involvement in sports was the least we could do for our ‘hood. More than that, in our area of town, sports was emergency medication for all those teenagers who were dropping out of the poorly financed and largely irrelevant schools on the Southside.
The point we wanted to make in this essay is that, all the while Kremandala was travelling through sports, it was education which was our real and ultimate goal. There were European people who had decided, centuries ago, to control education, however, and they had achieved their control in Belize “in the name of God.” Kremandala never got beyond sports. The artillery fire under which we came from the electoral politicians and the churches who represented the power structure of Belize, drove Kremandala into isolation several years ago.
Around us, we saw that things began to become worse. On Monday morning of this week, things reached rock damn bottom. Three youths decided to jack a primary school principal, with a gun, amongst all the baby children of our community. This was a heinous act, unthinkable a couple decades ago, but our thesis is that, Monday’s vile act of armed robbery must be seen, at the very end of the day, as a cry for help. There is something desperately wrong amongst our youths. When we condemn them absolutely, then we condemn ourselves, and we condemn our own.
We have watched innocent, beautiful baby boys become vicious, cruel, insane killers. This has taken place right before our very eyes. Yes, some families have a history of sociological problems, but we are losing too many of our young boys/men. Some of these youths are being practically driven into a life of crime. This community, especially on the Southside, is a crime factory.
In desperation, the people of Belize are begging for the death penalty. It would slow down things, but it would not solve the problem. We have seen the power structure bring in the army to assist the police. That was not a solution.
From the get go, the power structure of Belize rejected the Kremandala approach, because it challenged the partnership which runs Belize – soft, sweet Christianity in the absolute service of rapacious capitalism. That is the package which has been running Belize all these years. That is the package which has always had the power, so they must accept the blame. Those PUP and UDP politicians who swear blind allegiance to the Christianity/capitalism package, must also accept the blame.
So what do you want Kremandala to do? We, the people, change PUP for UDP, and then we change UDP for PUP, and then PUP for UDP, and so on and so forth, but after a while the game is always the same – soft, sweet Christianity in the absolute service of rapacious capitalism. A change must be made, a rough change in the name of the real Jesus. As it is written:
And Jesus came into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves. MATTHEW 21:12