Monday, April 9th. The 6 p.m. news carried a story about the death of an Argentinean chemistry teacher, one Carlos Fuentes Alva, who was hit in the head by a tear gas canister fired by police who were trying to break up a protest by teachers for higher pay. The response by trade unionists not only shut down the schools across Argentina, the entire country was shut down, brought to a standstill!
My fellow Belizeans, doesn’t this make you feel ashamed of yourselves? How can we continue to congratulate ourselves about the supposed heroic behavior of our slave ancestors at the battle of Saint George’s Caye in 1798 when it appears that the majority of their descendents are chicken? Or will Belizeans wait until activists are murdered before they finally stand up?
I also watched a CNN news story about conditions in Iraq. This story was centered around the incredible amount of substance abuse that is occurring in Iraq. Iraqi pharmacists appeared on camera, openly talking about selling anything and everything to civilians and to Iraqi policemen and soldiers. Cough syrup with codeine, tranquilizers such as valium and xanax, other opium-based drugs, and even drugs such as Viagra! The reason? People under extreme stress will do anything that they believe will reduce that stress, even though they know that the stress relief will be only temporary. Why Viagra? Extreme stress can make men temporarily impotent.
Well, what about conditions in Belize? Although nobody will seriously argue that conditions in Belize are the same as conditions in Iraq, the level of stress today is extremely high. We are not at war with each other like in Iraq, not yet, but the incredible increase in senseless crime, and the desperation of Belizeans who simply can’t pay their light bills, water bills, phone bills, medical bills, and their rent or mortgage payments, has created an edgy, violent society. Under these circumstances, a careless comment that should be ignored and would be ignored if conditions were different, may easily result in another murder, another Belizean life gone.
If the reader of this article is doing all right, try to put yourself in the place of your fellow citizens who are facing disconnection of utilities, no money to put food on the table, no money to pay for school fees or books for their children, and no money to pay the mortgage or the rent. You better, because when stressed-out people lose it, you are at risk too! What happens to you if you are in a store when someone decides to “jack” it? What happens to you when somebody just goes berserk and runs amok with a high powered weapon shooting at anything, everything and everybody who is unfortunate enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time? An incident like that recently occurred, apparently triggered by a minor traffic accident.
We all have a stake in creating a peaceful and orderly society but the old adage “no justice, no peace” applies whether we like it or not. Want to know how the country is doing? Pick up the papers and look at the number of homes that are up for auction. That will tell you how desperate things are!
I made a comment a few weeks ago about the beast that has teeth, claws and that it is willing to use them. Although that comment was referring to how the authorities might behave at a demonstration, it is applicable to many other situations. The beast attacks outspoken employees on their jobs, the message being that if you want to keep working, shut your mouth.
Now the beast is openly gunning for Kremandala by initiating legal action for a seventy-five-thousand-dollar debt that may well have been left there as a Trojan horse years ago just in case it was needed to be used for something just like this. With interest the claimed amount is now a quarter of a million dollars. Do not, I repeat, do not ever underestimate the beast. A business can be shut down by using the police and the soldiers, but that gives a bad impression to the outside world, especially if that business is a media house. A much smoother way is to attack it with lawsuits. After all, isn’t that the way “civilized” people do things?
Several years back, it seems like a lifetime ago, I appeared as my own attorney in a case that involved the cold-blooded theft of property by some so-called relatives of mine. My wife and I fought the claim successfully in the Supreme Court and when the adversaries appealed, we fought the case in the appeals court too. Why? Because lawyers, especially Belizean lawyers, are so devious we knew that they could not be trusted.
The Chief Justice in the Court of Appeal (he is now deceased), a judge with a long and distinguished career in the Caribbean, asked me what I wanted out if this case. I replied, “justice.” His reply remains burned into my memory, word for word. “Everybody wants that. The courts are not a place to find justice. They are a place to settle disputes.” Then he added the following, “Mr. Rhys, what did you expect from a small town society?”
That exchange took place eleven years ago. What is even more interesting is that the same players are still playing today, and the same is still true. Belizean lawyers are so devious that they can’t be trusted. They still haven’t learned anything, or maybe they have learned something. They have learned that up to now, they can continue to get away with things like this. That won’t last forever, but it has gone on far too long as it is. When it ends, look out!
One of the most impressive events that recently occurred was the Mayan appearance in Belize City to protest what is happening to their land. They have been ripped off for generations and they are serving notice that they won’t take it any more. They have the courage and the unity to fight back. Think about it. Over three hundred people traveled all the way from the Toledo District in buses, a six-hour ride here and a six- hour ride back. We couldn’t get three hundred trade unionists to go to Belmopan from Belize City.
I don’t believe that the people of Belize City are going to let the beast eat Kremandala for dinner. There are too many things at stake and there are people in Government that know that too. We have been witness to a level of disrespect towards the courts from a company that is secure in its feeling that it is untouchable. I don’t feel sorry for many of the Government types. They had a first class time playing with the big dogs, but they forgot that he who lies with dogs gets fleas. At some point they are going to have to put a stop to this nonsense or face the consequences of a society that is already marching inexorably towards anarchy. To be continued …