The modern history of the Maya of the south is different from that of the Maya of the west and north of Belize. You would have noticed that the words of the Alcalde and the Chairman of Indian Creek were much tempered after their initial response on learning of the visit of the Duke and Duchess. The difference between the group and the GOB over the application of land rights has led to ongoing tension, and in the midst of this they weren’t prepared for the surprise visit of children of the Crown who are associated with a parcel they are after. Given a day or two to ruminate on the visit, the sage Mayan leaders of the south would never have endorsed a sign telling the Duke and Duchess to stay off our land.

I don’t own history, but the fact as I know it is that beginning in the late 1800s, the core of the Maya in Toledo West fled across the artificial border with Guatemala, to the safety of the Crown.

In his Thirteen Chapters of a History of Belize, Belizean historian, Assad Shoman, citing the research of American anthropologist Richard Wilk, said European diseases decimated the population of the Maya of Western Guatemala, that in 1877 the Kekchi lost most of their land, and that by 1930 the Verapaz (the area where they lived) was “virtually a territorial possession of Germany.” Shoman says they were virtual slaves, and many fled to Peten and Belize.

The UDP lawyers weren’t wrong when they spoke of the Toledo Maya as fairly recent entries, but they were wrong to ignore their very different way of life. Communal living is very different from capitalism, under which the land is privately owned. The traditional Maya don’t see the borders the way we do. Aha, lest anyone get the misguided notion that I have capitulated to Sedi Elrington, please understand the context. I use the term “artificial” in the context of the reality of the Maya, not as a description by our former foreign minister who must have forgotten that he was representing a country that was being claimed by a bully neighbor. Technically, Sedi was correct that our western border is not a physical one, but because artificial is a synonym for “fake”, hihn noh mi fu yooz dat.

Here in Belize the Maya lived as they preferred, with some interference by colonial authorities to bring them into the modern western world. I have yet to expose my thoughts beyond “thumbs up” for Brother Jerry Enriquez’s book, To Educate a Nation: The Autobiography of Andres P. and Jane V. Enriquez. If I remember correctly, there was some flak from a Mayan corner; I think they would have preferred a watered down story from Jerry. The short here is that that became the discussion, and my thoughts about the very important book got pushed back.

The next area where the Maya of Toledo encountered the “modern” Belize/British Honduras was in agriculture. There have been a number of Belize and British-sponsored projects to teach farmers in Toledo agricultural practices that are more environmentally friendly and productive than slash and burn.

“Ambition” is a matter I think we need to talk about. As an introduction, are Africans and Native Americans generally as “ambitious” as Europeans in regard to material things? The wind blew the Europeans unto our shores, their diseases decimated us, and they trickily labeled the voyage as one of discovery. They have been on a roll since.

Hn, this Kriol is not impressed by Russian yachts. This Kriol was depressed when he saw a young lady run out of a shop on Albert Street to gawk at a Hummer. This Kriol does not number among the Belizeans former PM Said Musa said have a tidy appetite for good things (material). I don’t care for a lot of modern trappings.

Tacking back to the story, the Maya in Toledo West largely escaped the persecution which erupted into a terrible genocide in the 1970s and 1980s because they were safe in the bosom of the Crown.

Hey, I’m not here about supporting FFI. I’m about explaining a reaction that I believe was a little embarrassing to Mayan elders in the south.

Those pastors need to get smoked out

I propose putting all vocal anti-marijuana-legalization pastors in a room, and then having a tubumbu- looking thing loaded with weed pushed through a hole, to smoke them out. After a good hour of smoking them, they can be allowed fresh air. If they haven’t gotten any sense, at the least they’ll be calm. Pastor Louis Wade really needs to find out why musicians like that thing so much; I had such high hopes in Pastor Robinson and he let me down; well Pastor Santi, he will just say, ‘big deal, been there done that’.

No fret, no serious harm will come to them. All the evidence is that weed is not as strong as it smells, and the likelihood of any adult getting addicted after a single exposure is as close to nil as anything on this earth can get. Hey, I can talk like I have the hayr off that hass tayl eena mi hand because of research, reading all the readily available literature.

Hmm, going firsthand, in my childhood I got much exposure to secondhand weed smoke from Rick’s Bar & Club. But I was not corrupted. I barely ever got sucked into smoking that thing. Really, tolerance was the only lesson I got from the nightly exposure. Different strokes for different folks. I’ve heard a lot of people like the smell, but on the scale for unhealthy smoke I prefer smoke from Independence cigarettes, kerosene smoke, gasoline in salty air smoke, and my all-time favorite, smoke belched from the exhaust of an old Bedford truck.

Okay, let’s get deadly serious. We need to get those pastors in a room and ask them to write on possible good outcomes from legalizing it. We all know that there is no totally bad thing under the sun, so we can lock them in.

We all know the odds. All men come short of perfection, so incarceration might save a good pastor from a mighty fall. Going for more possible good in locking them up…: pastor gets to study impacts of incarceration, pastor gets to think more about God, pastor gets to meet and console people who were wrongly convicted, pastor gets to win some converts, pastor gets chance to pass mighty test of temper control, pastor makes savings on rent and food, pastor gets some forced exercise (please tell me incarcerated persons in Belize don’t loll around all day), pastor could write a book, pastor learns firsthand about the wikidnis of lawyers. Aha, and pastors come to their senses and acknowledge that legalizing weed can’t be all bad.

Who’s Mr. Pikaros

Congratulations to the organizers of the recent marble tournament. I haven’t seen the results, who won the Mister and Miss Pikaros awards, but I must record my respect to them from someone who was never worth a daam but had great admiration for those who were masters of spinning that taw.

Every boy in Belize, and a girl, Felice Romero, played back in the day when our country didn’t have TV. Felice was my neighbor, and she used to put a big hurt on the sock I filled from the winnings of my older brothers, who were the real deal pikaros. Man, some boys were good. Felice was too, and I was her taffi.

If you get the best writers and the right bets, you can capture people’s attention. There’s a sport on ice called “curling,” where the competitors chase a little disc with something like a broom. Another name for that game might be, “polishing ice”. Well heck, they are drawing crowds, and they’re even in the Olympics. I can see the district champions, knuckles on the ground—ping.