I cannot satisfy everyone with the way I write and the issues I write about, including excerpts. All kinds of information come to my attention, but I choose which one I want to write about. In this case of the sugar industry, I go back into history, where we can learn how the selfish bully masters took advantage of our people. There are those who dislike my writings about the Maya, and they want me to say that we are living in the best system and everything is beautiful and promising. But that’s for them. The settlers of the Bay of Honduras tried to plant sugar cane to produce sugar but were not successful, for they did not know the procedure. However, when our people were forced to come back, they brought their seeds to plant their milpas; this was and still is their ancestral way of living.

The point I want to show is how our Maya and Mestizos could have cultivated the sugar cane and processed it into sugar for their consumption and also for sale. The master saw wealth and “strong it over” for themselves, turning our people into slaves. There are those who do not like me to write about it, because they are of that kind and their bread is buttered on four sides. Anyhow, in 1857, it had been reported that eight hundred acres of land were under sugarcane cultivation and the produce of sugar and rum would have been fully supplied by the Maya. Later that year, the first shipment to Europe of almost a hundred barrels of sugar produce was made by the landowners. After these small farmers were able to cultivate sugar and successfully sell their product, the landowners followed in their footsteps, taking over the business.

Between 1862 and 1868, sugar exports quadrupled, causing more land to be cultivated, totaling ten estates — an estimated 1,683 acres in cane, of which 1,176 acres were located in the north and 507 in the south of British Honduras. The biggest sugar producer was the British Honduras Company, whose four estates were at Santa Cruz, Trial Farm, Tower Hill, and Indian Church. This is the beauty with history; it gives us the opportunity to trace things down, such as the British Honduras Company, who played a decisive role in taking away the sugar business from our Yucatec Maya and Mestizo ancestors and turned our people into laborers in a semi-slavery system. The British Honduras Company had changed its name to Belize Estate and Produce Company (BEC). It is the same one which had benefited from the slaughtering of our Maya and Mestizo ancestors, the Icaiche, up in the Yalbac Hills.

Only to learn how the British Baymen clan got so wealthy off our people. And others are glorifying them as gods. What a shame on chicken brains. What do you think, sisters and brothers? After British Honduras became a politically independent nation by the name of Belize, in a Westminster Parliamentary Democratic system, the sugar industry had continued to be the main source of income. It is assumed that in a democracy, we all have the right to a dignified life, which includes food, shelter, education, health for all, not only for a privileged few. Up to now, there is no country that has a real democracy. For that reason, we have so much crime, suicides, accidents, and people who are mentally affected by the situation who cannot reasonably meet their basic needs. Why do we need to investigate outer space when there is so much famine among humanity? Why do we need to spend on so many weapons when there are so many sick people and they cannot be cured due to lack of money; they cannot buy health insurance, and this is prior to the pandemic? The wages are so low that it creates corruption. Education is very expensive, and what is taught is geared toward ensuring that students continue being slaves. Violence and war in different countries force people to move from their country in search of a better life, and as they enter another country illegally, they receive “starvation salary”.

We, the citizens, elect leaders to administrate the natural resources of our country. However, they have to obey the dictates of the markets of large corporations that lecture on democratic principles and that control and appoint the directors of the banking system which squeezes out the last blood of the working class. It is a fact that no corporations, no businesses of any kind can exist without the laborers, so it is necessary for the working class of all services to receive a fairer salary if we want to see an end to corruption. Nonetheless, these corporations, businesses of all kinds, can survive without a director but not without the working class. In 2009, it was reported that we had 9,000 cane farmers. Now, in 2021, we only have 5,000, according to reports. What became of the other 4,000? What is the reason they are not in operation?

This takes us to an emergency to analyze the neoliberal capitalist philosophy where they are opposed to the existence of the workers’ unions or syndicates and the interference of the government in their business profits and demand holiday taxes which benefit their corporations. How the hell do they want us to survive? We are already receiving a slavery salary that leads to hunger. Do you want it for free? We thought we were out of that system since 1838, but we continue to live in a slavery system, not only mentally but also physically. Democracy by the people, with the people, for the people, equality on a whole.

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December 11, 2021
Finca Solana
Corozal Town