by Colin Hyde
Congratulations to all the young leaders who participated in the parliamentary exercise in the National Assembly Building. No, no, no, not Children’s Parliament. The story I have says that hiding its head in the sand didn’t help the ostrich escape danger. Really, that’s like believing that what you don’t know can’t hurt you. I say, if you’ll escape danger, you have to face it head on.
The UN definition of youth is 15-24 years. I like to think of youth as 13 to 18 years, 19 to 21 as pre-adult, and 22 to 28 as young adults. Anyway, the young people who participated in the parliament are not children.
I don’t think I’m as brave as the little boy who revealed on his first public appearance that the emperor had on no clothes, but if that naked emperor struts down the promenade parade after parade, somebody has to speak up. If we want these “children” to respect us, we have to acknowledge the biology. The law, respects, protects the bodies of youth the same way it protects children. I know it’s a bother for some people to explain things, but we have to. You’re a youth, but for special reasons the state gives you the protection it gives a child.
That out-of-the-box, vocational education was a tame topic they gave our young people to discuss. It would have been great to have our young people debate corporal punishment. I am certain that Belizeans from end to end would have been on the edge of their seats to hear their arguments. And after they had debated on the pros and cons, it would have been nice to have a vote, with a division. Of course that division would just have been for the formality of it, because, thanks to our present system, it would have been along “party” lines.
If we had gone with the sash kaad, it would have been good if a conscience vote had been taken prior to the debate, and after that, when they were filing out of the aisles, they voted again, just to see if any “swaying” took place during the debate. But, I expect the nay on the belt, heavy slippers, and shooti broom would have been near unanimous — one, because they are the ones who bear the brunt of that, and two, because the indoctrination against whipping is huge. Even the churches are timid on this critical Bible principle. But what should we expect. They are chasing weed. Whoa there, weed, now that would have been a topic.
Tell Guatemala fu leave Belize alone
The more you live, the more you see things you can’t believe. Well, well, well, Guatemala hibbing words at Belize for our acknowledging Honduras’s weak claim to the Sapodilla islands. Guatemala has never had any real claim to those islands. It is just because we are not the type to deny our neighbors, them, why they got to know and enjoy those white, sandy beaches and crystal clear waters. Now if they had owned those islands, they would have had them under full military guard, even from their own who don’t belong to the dignitaries’ class.
The Krem News headline said, “Guatemala calls Belize’s late move to take Honduras to the ICJ DEPLORABLE”, and all I can think about is their “face.” I think we should have a talk about deplorable. It begins with reneging on the 1859 treaty. It continues with reneging on the “exchange of notes” in 1931. It gets taken up a notch with putting that un-neighborly claim in their constitution. The list of deplorable things our neighbour to the west and south has done to us is long. They have face to turn such a charge on us.
The KREM News story said Guatemala said it “laments the move and finds it deplorable, particularly because Belize’s submission to the ICJ was made on November 16, only days away from December 8, when Guatemala is set to make its final submission in the written phase of the process regarding its own territorial claim to Belize.” But we know why Guatemala is putting on this show. See, by us acknowledging the feeble Honduras claim, Guatemala’s claim gets even more exposed for the absolutely empty thing that it is.
A friend of mine who makes sure I am well-educated sent me a copy of the facts we presented, and they’re darn airtight. Don’t let anybody come and tell you we have to wait to hear the other side, because there isn’t any. The presentation explains that our Sapodilla Cayes are “approximately 75 kilometers east of the Belizean mainland town of Punta Gorda”, and mentions the most prominent ones – “Northeast Sapodilla Caye, Frank’s Caye, Nicholas Caye, Hunting Caye, Lime Caye, Ragged Caye, West Ragged Caye and Seal Caye.”
The paper explains that the UK had over 200 years of uninterrupted possession of the islands, and that since 1981 we have been in charge. The evidence includes exercises of jurisdiction by magistrates over the Sapodilla Cayes; expressed statements confirming sovereignty, including as expressed in official maps; protests against conduct on the part of other States that was inconsistent with British sovereignty; the construction of lighthouses; the granting of licences and concessions in relation to natural resources; the regulation of land ownership, fishing and entry to the Sapodilla Cayes; and the performance of military activities in and around the Sapodilla Cayes.
Belize declared that Honduras never exercised sovereignty over the cayes, that “prior to 1981, it repeatedly acknowledged British sovereignty”, that “it was only in 1981, with the independence of Belize from the United Kingdom imminent, that Honduras first made a claim to the Sapodilla Cayes”, and that “since Belize succeeded in 1981 to the sovereignty of the United Kingdom over the Sapodilla Cayes, Belize has continuously exercised exclusive sovereignty over the Sapodilla Cayes.”
I like ORANGE, but I think the discussion is on the surface
I’m not going to insert myself in the middle of this ORANGE thing, because I know where I’m not wanted, but from the edges I have to throw dyaahn two cents, that a lot of numbers and a proper engagement would help the cause.
They’ve been doing these activism days to deter violence against women for some time now. It would be good to have a presentation of the statistics compiled by the Belize Crime Observatory (BCO) on all crimes considered as gender violence. Our young lions and lionesses in the tertiary institutions could research the data from the years before the BCO came into existence. We also need our young educated talent to find a way to get data from those who have never entered the system. We need to know how our efforts, our type of activism, have put a dent on violence against women.
We’ve seen “gender violence” derail the candidacy of a man who dedicated his life to serving Belize in the political arena. Yes, I’m talking about Mr. Faber. The last time Mr. Faber faltered and it ended up in the public domain, he claimed he was a victim too. He was invited to Channel Seven’s UNCUT show to explain why, but when he attempted to do so, even though he explained that the “other” victim, his fiancée, had given him full license, the show’s host, Mr. Vasquez, declared he was victimizing the victim, and shut him down. It is tricky turf. But if we stay off it, we won’t get to the root of anything.
I understand the culturing process first hand. I also understand that we train young men to fight wars. Indeed, these days we train young women to fight in wars too. We see young women in kickboxing. I’ll bow out with this. We need to see those statistics. The only way we’ll know this activism is getting the job done is if we are shown the numbers.