by Colin Hyde

Belize’s two biggest rum giants, Travellers Liquors and Cuello’s Distillery, came out swinging against a proposed SSB loan of $9 million for a startup company to produce alcohol products locally and sell abroad. The SSB might have been less than forthcoming, or gullible, when it said the man behind the project intended to produce an entirely new thing. When the dust settled, it turned out that the spirituous product wasn’t new ataal; well, that’s the claim of the Cuellos. The story they put out is that the entrepreneur is actually a director of their company, and that he was privy to all their formulas. Maybe the entrepreneur, a hero named Waldir Cuello, is really after a brand new thing, but one can see his faamliz discomfort with the endeavor.

The beef Travellers published was largely on behalf of concerned shareholders of SSB. They said the project had little hope of flying. Travellers said they’ve been exporting for years, and it’s highly unlikely that anyone can just step out there and become a hit.

I have no knowledge of the internals of the Cuello family, but, like all human beings, I think, and one thought that came to mind is that Waldir sees a future out there for their rums; but it is a difficult proposition to take Cuello’s Distillery abroad because many Cuellos are involved in the company, and the majority might be thinking about standing pat with the business, keeping sound bone.

Both Travellers and Cuello’s might fear that Waldir will flop abroad, and the GoB, to protect the SSB investment, would facilitate his entry in the local market. Please, I don’t want to hear what the anti-rum lobby thinks. Bah, PSU president, Flowers, he had to stick his nose into this. Just a single look at Dean Flowers’ smooth face and you know this is a brother who has never taken a single drop in his life. To teetotalers everywhere, look, you can’t stop drink; people who like to drink, will drink. And 99.9% of them will call it a night before they’re too drunk to walk home. If rum is taxed beyond the pockets of drinkers, or the supply in the shops is limited, they will augment with spuddy and cheecha.

To Travellers I say, look, you shouldn’t have any concern about Cuello’s products saturating the local market because, generally, Travellers drinkers stick to their kind, and Cuello’s fans to theirs. I am a Travellers drinker. The only time I cross over is for Cuello’s Green Stripe, their glorious green ting.

To the Cuellos I say, look, if Waldir is a bad boy, I bet he has his eyes on that green juice. Maybe there is “green ting” out there that is as good as Green Stripe, but trust mi, there could be none better.

To SSB I say, look, I have my eyes on my brother, Emil Mena, a Belmopan boy. The rest of Belize can let down, but Belmopan must not. The why of that is that the lot has been the most privileged set of Belizeans. You say this Waldir has a good thing, Emil?

Lay off Mr. Ashcroft’s coinages

Last week I heard some media personality say that “we find a problem for every solution”, and while it might have been appropriate, you can’t say that without people thinking about you-know-who, even though he doesn’t own the coinage. Personally, I wouldn’t repeat a word from his mouth, because he is usually up to no good.

Remember when he said “retirement plan for the boys” and our Ambrose Tillett and John Avery got so hooked into it we sometimes thought it was their invention? I will give the PUP props for never using that coinage, though it might be because da poison arrow was aimed at them. Really, that Ashcroft is very ungrateful. The PUP opened the gates to the pond, and let that big fish in. In that dark day of the PUP, every plum went to Luke, or the big fish and his crowd.

Ai, a big fish in a small pond isn’t fair. You all saw the fights last Saturday night. The older Benavides couldn’t match Charlo, because Charlo had too much weight over him, and Andrade couldn’t match the younger Benavides because the younger Benavides had too much weight on him. It is no gentleman who takes advantage of his weight. I say that until he spreads his fat with the people, let’s not burnish his coinages.

Shoman and Wade are extremists

Assad Shoman couldn’t bring himself to condemn Hamas. We’ve heard all the history there, the horrible persecution of the Palestinians since the UN carved out a state for Israel in 1948. Assad has gone to great lengths to give us facts about Hamas other than that Netanyahu sponsored and used them as a tool for his ugly agenda. I think all of us understand Assad’s greater pain, because his ancestors are rooted in that land. But his refusing to flat out condemn Hamas for its vicious October 7 attack—what, Braa, no past injury or discussion of what others did can mitigate the slaughter of innocents.

Assad said he admires Norm Chomsky, but on Jules Vasquez’ show he told the host about his (Assad’s) one-state dream. In April 2023 Chomsky told Eliyahu Freedman of Al Jazeera: “I understand the reasoning of the one-state advocates, but I think … it’s almost inconceivable that Israel will ever agree to destroy itself and become a Jewish minority population in a Palestinian-dominated state, which is what the demography indicates. And there’s no international support for it.”

I don’t know why Mr. Shoman brought up something so way out there at this time when every effort must be put into the two-state solution, when any mention of one-state plays into far right Israel’s plan. Assad cited South Africa as the success story for two different people becoming one nation. You know there’s a fascinating story there.

The website Ask Historians said they’ve looked around for information on that, but all they have found “is modern stuff about racists living in the middle of nowhere.” One who goes by the name “nompilo” contributed that there was such a demand (for a separate state) by “some hard-right Afrikaner nationalists” but that went nowhere because “it was ideologically unacceptable to the ANC (Mandela’s party) and the broader anti-apartheid movement, which was premised on demands for majoritarian rule in the whole country, not the creation of a smaller white-supremacist state”, and “most National Party (white supremacists) leaders were not interested in giving up claims to their real estate and to most of the country’s productive economic assets (mines, railroads, etc), which is the only conceivable way that they could have even tried to negotiate such a split.”

Hn, too often this Louis Wade is as agenda-driven as Jacob’s mother, Rebecca. Jacob was hesitant to steal his brother’s birthright, but he was his mother’s favorite and she put him up to it. But nothing in the trickery line that Rebecca did should surprise us. Remember she was Laban’s sister, and when Jacob fixed his eyes on Rachel, Laban pulled a switch and made him marry Leah instead.

Why is Wade on his television station telling us that Israel is a democratic state and there are elected Palestinians in the Knesset when he knows, has to know, that that is empty, just token?

Reporting on the vote for the 25th Knesset (Israel’s 120-member government) in 2021, the INSS (Institute for National Security Studies) at the website inss.org.il said “85.8 percent of the Arab voters voted for Arab parties …” Well, in that wholesome democracy the “Arabs” got 10 out of 120 seats, 8%, and they constitute 20% of the population.

How could any Belizean ignore (pray God it isn’t support) those extreme right parties in Israel that are fighting tooth and nail against the ceasefire? They want to reduce the entire Gaza to rubble. They sanction blowing up a hospital to get at Hamas agents who are hiding there. We all know why sinister and gullible Americans condemned Jimmy Carter, the greatest president the US has ever had. Carter refused to blow up Iran when a radical Ayatollah wouldn’t give up American hostages. The civilized Carter would not throw bombs that kill innocents.