Definition of Democracy

My friends. I'm sorry for the long hiatus. I have three half-written blogs, but I haven't had the inspiration to finish them.

It's not as though the issues have disappeared... they're still there!

Case and point being the situation in Honduras. I'm perplexed by the OAS's support of President Zelaya's. Please read the following, which is taken verbatim from an article titled "Honduras defends its democracy" by Mary O'Grady. {I strongly suggest Googling the full article}

"... Mr. Zelaya acted as if he were above the law... While Honduran law allows for a constitutional rewrite... only... through a national referendum approved by its Congress.

But Mr. Zelaya declared the vote on his own and had Mr. Chávez ship him the necessary ballots from Venezuela. The Supreme Court ruled his referendum unconstitutional, and it instructed the military not to carry out the logistics of the vote as it normally would do.

The top military commander, Gen. Romeo Vásquez Velásquez, told the president that he would have to comply. Mr. Zelaya promptly fired him. The Supreme Court ordered him reinstated. Mr. Zelaya refused.

...

The attorney general had already made clear that the referendum was illegal, and he further announced that he would prosecute anyone involved in carrying it out."

Now, I'm shocked and surprised when I learned that Secretary of State, Mrs. Clinton had leapt to the defense of President Zelaya. Next came the support of President Obama, our own Hon. Dean Barrow, and the UN.

I ask you, my fellow Belizeans, to look in your hearts and define democracy. The Honduran constitution allows only a one-term president, because of atrocities of the past. Look in the history books, and you'll quickly understand why. {It's not taught in Belizean schools, but Central America has had a very turbulent history.} There is a reason so many Central American immigrants come to our nation.

Personally, I stand behind the Congress of Honduras. True, a military coup was NOT the way to go, but their actions have foundations in righteousness and goodwill. Through their actions, however, of expelling President Zelaya, their "good" has been severely tainted in the eye of the world. I pity them. May I remind you that President Zelaya only had a 30% popularity vote earlier this year. His referendum most likely wouldn't have passed.

Sometimes the boundaries between good and bad aren't as distinct as we want them to be. Sometimes you have to put yourself in someone else's skin and walk around a little bit.

Comments, please.

The Voice

Looking back before running ahead

I usually take the time to look back on my life on my birthday. Since the birth of our nation is forthcoming, I think I'll take a little time to look at our country. Only in knowing the past can we fully and successfully take advantage of future opportunities.

I feel that we're at a crossroads. The documentary by Kemp, no matter how much I disagree with it, is a wake up call. Crispin Jefferies said it, and I'm agreeing with him {I can't believe I share an opinion with this man.} In this world ruled by the G7, where relations are governed by the rich for the advantage of the rich, we cannot live by the conventional rules of the so called first world countries.

We have to define our own Belizean reality. You know the days we used to yell, "Belize for Belizeans?" We need to relive those times. My knowledge of the past, however, is limited by time. Because I'm an Independence Baby... born Nineteen-Eighty-something, I've flourished under the shade of the mahogany tree...somewhat. Like those of my era, in my words, thoughts, and deeds, I've come to define what it is to be Belizean. I follow American fashion, I have a cell phone on my hip, and I eat rice 'n' beans with gusto every Sunday at noon.

There is so much of the history of Belize that isn't transcribed. I miss the blank spaces. They say you can't miss what you don't know... I have to contradict this long standing opinion. I've read and re-read 13 Chapters from cover to cover and I'm left wholly unsatisfied. There are stories whispered on screen covered verandas as neighbors pass to buy Boledo in the moonlight. There are so many things only the dying old people remember, stories and memories that are dying with hypertension, diabetes, and heart disease. I find it ironic that in a country where we so praise ourselves on our cultural richness and diversity, we're becoming quickly diluted in the "bling, bling" mentality of North America. The British were supposed to have left on September 21, 1981. So I ask you, why are our minds still shackled? Why are we yet to be freed? We're no longer slaves, yet we work hard to spend every dollar on 21st century skin and credit for our pre-paid phones.

We're composed of contradictions, we Belizeans. "This tranquil haven of democracy" our anthem cries out. Have you seen this haven recently? Between the bullet ridden bodies, skeletons in sugar cane fields, grenades launched in from of the hospital, and gun shots during Carnival? My homeland by the Sea.... I feel you slipping through my fingers, and all I can do is cry, because I wonder if we'll ever return to the days of open windows at night instead of sliding down a slippery slope into urban terrorism. Are we so in-confident in being Belizean that we must create an alternate ego? We have to be ourselves... or we'll lose everything.

Bottom line, the way to thrive, nationally {as well as personally} is by living within our means. Things may not move at the pace that we all wish, but brick by brick, we'll build our own success. On our own terms.

WHAT! Flour gwain up?

That's right, ladies and gentlemen, fresh off the press! The price of flour is almost doubling... from 58c to damn near a $1. Didn't the Chicken Association announce last week that the cost of chicken {our Belizean staple} is increasing as well?

Now, if we add that to the price of gasoline, diesel, and kerosene... As a matter of fact all petroleum based products, with one barrel of the Black Gold floating somewhere around $110US... then we have the US economy in seriously recession and falling currency problems, so there goes the majority of our tourism industry. Does anyone remember the BTIA commercials? "Almost 40% of jobs in Belize are directly related to the tourism industry."

Does anyone have a calculator? Where the hell does that leave the common man?

We're in dire straits. Someone... come hold me! I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed and desperate!

Here we are, developing nation, 2008. We have oil. We have some of the most beautiful biolife the world has to offer. We have a great number of naturally intelligent people. We have fertile farmlands.

Here we are, developing nation, 2008. We have an oil company paying us somewhere around 7% of their earnings. We have our reefs being destroyed by the cruise tourism industry where we barely get one freaking dollar for every "tourist" that touches our blessed soil. We have a people unable to afford education, and those who can, flock to America, Canada, England, anywhere but here. We have foreign developers coming and buying our most prime pieces of land and Central Americans squatting on our sovereign territory.

We're living in a world of ever widening social disparity. The rich ARE getting richer. The poor ARE getting poorer. And it is getting harder and harder every single DAY for a man to jump this social gorge.

1 murder every 3 days. If I hear ONE more mother bawling on the TV saying, "My son wasn't bad," I'll scream! Our streets erupting in violence was NOT an overnight occurrence. No honey, from the time Johnny was a boy, he was running amok. What happened to discipline? What happened to respect? What happened to the BELIZEAN WAY. You shoulda mi BAX all rebel outta that boy long time and teach him to be a gentleman. You shoulda mi erase all this "thug this" "gansta that" nonsense outta his head LONG time and guide that boy toward some real dreams.

I am so disgusted with the direction my country is headed. I have to ask, how much lower do we need to go before we RISE as a community? What depths must we reach before we CLEAN our streets. From the Legislature, from the Judiciary, from the Police, from the churches, from the schools, and most of all from the average Belizean home, baby, we gotta make some BIG changes. The question is, are we ready?

Flour price going up. I need to get me some land and start to farm. How can I starve in a country such as this? With the grass so green. With the breezes so gentle? With the sun so warm? And with a people, who I believe -- I have to believe -- so wonderful?

Think, my brothers and sisters, think! How are we gonna solve the problems -- so many problems riddling such a small nation.

The Energy Question

I'm listening to people debate about the proposed 15% increase of electricity by BEL. I can't help but thinking, "HEY! Guys! Look at the big picture, please!" In this light, let me teach you a little something about energy and hopefully prompt some discussion and thought about energy on a national and global level. You may disagree with me. You may say I'm advocating for BEL, but this is my perspective of the truth.

Let's start off with some basic explanations. There are two kinds of energy -- renewable energy and nonrenewable energy. The difference between these is that renewable sources of energy are replenished at the same rate they are depleted. Look at the sun, wind, or waves, for example... as one gust of wind dies, another is born to replace it. Conversely, nonrenewable sources of energy take millions of years to form. Think about oil, gas, and coal. These products are remnants of life that have formed under intense heat and pressure as well of eons of time. Another thing I should add here is that nonrenewable sources of energy produce harmful by-products -- the greenhouse gases.

It's important to realize that up until modern time, humans have relied solely upon nonrenewable forms of energy -- also known as fossil fuels. They are easy to extract and give very efficient energy amounts. But in the past 100 years, our population has increased to the point of becoming unsustainable. To complicate matters a bit more, as modern men, we're each individually using more energy than ever before in our evolutionary history. At the rate most people live, we'd need about six Earth's to sustain our current standard of living!

Now I know you're thinking, why don't we jump into this renewable sources of energy boat! Well, it's easier said than done! First of all, let me discuss wind, solar, wave, and tide energy in one. The processes of harboring these energy forms have very low efficiency rates. The initial costs of these technologies are comparatively expensive to the amount of energy derived from them; moreover, they're extraction is very conditional on weather and geographic location. These options use considerable portions of land to produce a relatively small amount of energy. Bottom line, more efficient technologies {solar panels, wind turbines, wave-energy harnessers} are needed.

Secondly, let's look at hydroelectric generation. This is a sticky topic. Personally, I love it! I think it's a good option, has high efficiency, initial investment pays back for itself, relatively low environmental impact, and so on. Environmentalist hate this option though... and I just don't understand why. The biological footprint that a dam creates comparative to its energy generation is negligible. On a very positive note, hydroelectric generation emits no greenhouse gases.

Next we have biogas, biomass, and biofuel. These sources actually harvest decaying material and waste products from activities such as agriculture {Yes, bagash, remnants of our sugar production} and use them to create energy! The energy creation process is by combustion, carbon dioxide is a by-product, but much less carbon is produced. Additionally, much less energy is created and you need obscene amounts of material to create energy. Bottom line, even if we collected every piece of crap from every baby's diaper in Belize, we would still not meet our own energy demands.

Like nonrenewable energy sources, renewable sources are not without their drawbacks. They have relatively low efficiency, high initial investment cost, some negative environmental effects, and require large tracts of land. These reasons in a nutshell are why fossil fuels are still being used, even though their consumption is slowly killing the planet. Burning fossil fuels is very cheap, and only the rising oil prices are prompting the slow exploration of renewable sources of energy now. 10 years ago oil was barely $10US a barrel, now it's $107US a barrel... and the cost is only going higher. At our current rate of consumption, there isn't oil enough to sustain life for the next 100 years. The price will not lower.

Now, let's get off the global scale and look at tiny Belize. We need a program that incorporates several processes for energy generation, not just one. The electric company is doing that. Because we're developing nation, we need the cheapest option. Buying power from Mexico during off peak hours is that. We need to start becoming self sufficient. BEL is trying, but please realize that our power needs are growing at a faster rate as our generation capacity! Cost of living goes up... naturally. Theoretically, the money we should be making should increase too, but that's a different topic for a different day.

Hope this spawns some discussion... I can't include all I want to say in one blog, but I'm looking forward to your comments.

Counting the Murders for 2008

"There has been another murder in the Old Capital"... Ladies and Gentlemen, if only I had a dollar for every time I heard this statement on the nightly newscast!

It's difficult for me to write this blog... I know that crime is bad and that it affects the lifestyle of all denizens of Belize, but it has never personally affected me. **Knock on wood** I don't want to have an elitist "them people vs. me and my people" air as I continue. It is so easy to judge and separate myself. Maybe even this mindset is a part of the problem.

At my own conservative, generalized estimates, I would say that 50% of the murders that occur in Belize are drug related, 25% due to domestic violence, and the other 25% split mainly between robbery and "beef" -- revenge killings for the above mentioned 3 topics. More than ever, the value of life is being lowered. It's a sad, scary reality. What is the worth of Belizean life?

It hurts me to mention that the majority of these murders are occurring in the South side of Belize City. What series of actions, over the years, has turned this area, perhaps the most earliest populated settlement in Belize, after the Mayas, into the most dangerous and crime-afflicted location in the entire country? Another obvious observation about the rash of murders is that the killers and people being murdered are young, black, and uneducated.

There is not one factor affecting the high rate of crime. But I propose that one of the most significant reason is a lack of Belizean culture in Belize. Now, I can't expound as much I would want about this subject, because I'm trying to keep the length of this entry reasonable. But, Belizeans are the greatest chameleons on Earth. We have chosen, by and large, to abandon the wonderful, beautiful Belizean culture that our "naivety" and "isolation" affords us, to embrace and emulate a capitalist American culture. Just as the past administration tried to follow an "international level capitalist economic plan" that failed horribly, we're trying to follow an American "societal plan". Like them, we're failing. These murders are an effect of this intangible cause. We have to start living like Belizean again.

Sure, we were poor. We didn't have bling or cars. But every child was fed, clean, had a fear of God & authority, and went to school. That's a great starting place... and I'm sure that all children in Belize aren't afforded these basic things today.

God Bless all those affected by Arthur.... more to come on this subject with time. As always, I ask you to think, then comment for further discussion.

PUP Leadership

I'm young. Too young to remember when we sung God Save the Queen to the Union Jack. Too young to remember George Price ever being Prime Minister. And certainly too young to have witnessed the processes that led to the formation of the PUP, UDP, and other political parties. It would seem that the political choices most people make are not based upon current times, but what happened "all the way back when". This antiquated system of voting a certain way "because me granny da mi big UDP" or "Well, back inna the sixties, George mi give me grandpa piece ah land" have led to our debt and might continue leading to our downfall. The opinions I'm sharing are based on reading the Amandala with the great commentary of Evan Hyde and other "I was there" Belizean figures, the biased "13 Chapters in a Belizean History", and the observations of my short political consciousness. This is my personal anaylsis of the PUP and their current leadership crisis.

The PUP to me have been an infallible power. They rule by intimidation. If you don't agree with them, you're not patriotic and you stand against George Price, himself! They present themselves as having the best interest of the Belizean Public at heart, as they take our national resources and public monies to build and fund projects that only enrich themselves. They take advantage of the weak and uneducated and will do anything to enrich themselves. Maybe it's unfair to say ALL PUP are like this, but those in the leadership positions are. At the end of the day, that's what matters.

Now, as I understand it, these corrupt greedy souls, who are so willing to rape the country for their own riches, are a new wave of PUP, shaped by the puppet master, Ralph Fonseca. The "true" PUP and PUP spirit are embodied by people like Philip Goldson, John Smith, UBAD Movement, and lately, as the picture is being painted, Mark Espat, Cordel Hyde, and Johnny Briceno.

Mark and Johnny have both decided not to run for Party leadership, because of inter-party corruption and brow bashing, so Francis Fonseca will be declared as Party Leader at their convention, hands down. Strategically, I believe the PUP are making a mistake. Francis represents manipulation, corruption, and all the bad things that the PUP have done and continue to do. Without playing party politics, I can honestly say that this man is not who I would vote for as my Prime Minister. Let's look at the numbers; he won his division by 18 votes. That's the most narrow PUP victory. And let me speak the truth, the only reason he won is because the UDP candidate running against him is equally someone not suitable to be an elected representative. In good conscience, it was HARD to vote in the Freetown Division in 2008.

It's a battle between the "good" PUP and the "bad" PUP. At the end of the day, it all boils down to money {from where I'm looking}. The "bad" PUP are all about creating economic prosperity for themselves and to hell with everything else. Even if a PUP-inclined person would argue that this is not so, this is the face that they are portraying for all the world to see.

I don't understand why Mark and Johnny continue to be support a party who they see as corrupt. It shows a certain hypocrisy on their part... complacency, cowardice, and endorsement of the PUP and all that they are doing. I wish that they would break away from a franchise that are nothing more then a weight around Belize's neck. Ralph Fonseca and Said Musa are bad men. Not to punch below the belt, but look at their personal lives and the liaisons they've made for all the country to see. If a man can't keep his own marriage vows, that he made before God and man, an oath means nothing to him. They might have sworn to protect Belize, but these words are worthless to men of corrupt character.

To conclude, let me reiterate that I am not a UDP or trying to PUP-bash. I just want, now and always, what is best for Belize. We need to stop this open hand "gimme" attitude that George Price himself instilled in us, and change our societal mindset to "what can I do for myself and my countryman". Let's learn from the Chinese and Mennonites, who have immigrated to our country, found riches, and thrived. Everything we ever needed to succeed lies at our very fingertips. Reach out with me, let us grasp it, and damn to hell any power or person who tries to stop us. Be it PUP, UDP, or the Queen of England herself!

Again, I welcome all opinions and comments. And I encourage you to THINK for yourself.

~The Voice