THE BELIZEAN PATIENT: A Diagnosis and Prognosis

The views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not necessarily those of Breaking Belize News.

This article can also be found on the Belizean Diaspora page on Facebook

By Bernard Bulwer: During the “ICJ orgy and debate” I wrote words and posts to the effect that Belize needs to take stock and focus on, or at least give equal emphasis to, our internal decay.

Why? Because history has shown that most nations are first destroyed from within.

British Honduras was the product of a land grab by foreign pirates and despots. In post-“Independence” Belize, its political leaders opened the country up for grabs … again to foreign pirates and despots. Among them was a big pirate.

Those with understanding and discernment recognize that beyond today’s sensational headlines, there is a bigger picture.

Recent events underscore how “lightweight”, how “spranghead”, how debased our nation has become. Belize, along with many small nations, has a checkered history of attracting and stooping to international mischief, including to wanted international gangsters. (See Aljazeera documentary: “Diplomats for Sale” and “Anatomy of a Bribe”, about international criminals fleeing from justice who pimp and corrupt local politicians, who love money and power, but are otherwise bankrupt of ideas for true nation building).

The Belizean patient is increasingly subjected to an unwritten “Keep them poor, keep them stupid, and control them for life” political philosophy. Whether Belizeans refuse or choose to admit this is their prerogative. But the evidence is that Belizean politics succeeds at getting “desperate people to do desperate things” … things against their own self-interest and that of the nation.

This is why you can get Belizeans to vote “Yes” for nefarious agendas and positions that gamble the nation’s future, or demand that they pay for things like that gangster-deal hospital that they don’t even own.

It is also why independent thinkers at home and abroad are marginalized, deliberately.

This is also why Belizeans abroad will never ever be given voting rights (despite all the nice talk and platitudes that cynically impose impossible terms and restrictions, and why local politicians cleverly feed a wedge between the Belizean people at home and abroad).

BELIZE’S MOMENT OF TRUTH IS FAST APPROACHING. Yesterday Feb 12, I woke up before 4am to do the final edits on a first-of its-kind 590-page illustrated textbook (on the Physics and Engineering aspects of Echocardiography–ultrasound of the heart). However, I interrupted this because of a very unsettling thought about “Belize being invaded”. I started writing, but then decided against it, and toned it down, because it was about local sheenanigans in Belize creating to a “perfect storm” and an invitation for “foreign intervention.”

This morning I awoke with similar thoughts, but decided to ponder aspects of the invasion that have already materialized. Belize has already been invaded.

The state of our current politics is largely about men who can win elections, sign papers, but many are largely controlled, even in their electioneering, by modern day pirates and despots.

The Belizean patient is anemic; the Belizean patient is now high-risk. It can continue to play games, and it can play the fool … with dire consequences.

If I could advise the Prime Minister of Belize, and the Leader of the Opposition, I would say to their faces, “STOP PLAYING POLITICAL GAMES, RISE ABOVE POLITICS AND PURSUE STATESMANSHIP, even at this late stage.” Belize is at real risk. You know it, I know it, and every thinking party animal knows it.

Politics as usual cannot save Belize. It is a fundamental part of the problem. It is precisely what has our nation where it is today. UNITE YOUR PEOPLE, STOP THE SELF-DEFEATING DIVIDE AND RULE.

YOUR REAL LEGACY WILL NOT BE YOUR POLITICAL PAST … BUT THE STATUS AND FUTURE HEALTH OF THE NATION OF BELIZE.