Ruminating 2021 – “Not for the rich to have less but for the poor to have more…”

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

Contributed by David Nicolas Ruiz: With a span of 76 days in its term of office, the People’s United Party has opened a can of worms indicative of leadership that loses its focus and falls into ‘concupiscence’ with all its glamour, power, prestige, and possessions.  The disclosure of hefty employment contracts with luxurious benefits given by the former government to select persons at the expense of ‘we, the people’, causes dismay and consternation. Both political parties that have formed government have been guilty of crafting such gross and immoral arrangements, and may continue doing so unless we work ardently in bringing leadership to work towards fulfilling a vision of ‘commonwealth.’

This draws me to reflect on the introductory quote used by the late Fred Hunter but attributed to George C. Price.  Is it at all possible for the poor to have more without the rich having less?  The social doctrine of the Catholic Church challenges government leaders to champion the cause of authentic development aimed not at favouring an accumulation of wealth by a chosen few but at being inclusive of the rights of the citizenry to promote its own development.  In this way, governments should seek the best economic and technical ways of promoting ‘commonwealth’ with no one left behind or on the fringes.  As a champion of social doctrine, Pope Francis has insisted on doing away with neo-colonial trends that have failed nations by widening the economic breach of those who have and those who are found lacking.

The notion of ‘commonwealth’ underscores that of stewardship in the sense that we are keepers not owners of what we have, and that the right to private property is not absolute but secondary.  The right to property gathers human meaning when this facilitates the integral fulfilment of those around us.  I am because of others.  In other words, our individuality and life purpose transcend when we realize that ‘my story’ is part of ‘our story’ as a people and that “the riches we possess are not our own” (John Chrysostom).  It follows then that working towards ‘commonwealth’ is made possible through a concerted effort on behalf of the people and its leadership at all levels, with the public and private sectors working as partners and not as mere associates,  having as focal point the dignity of the many others who have an inalienable right in the ‘commonwealth’.  In this, the social principles of subsidiarity and solidarity are key.

As this government completes its first one hundred days of office, I trust and pray that it will make a firm resolve not to give in to ‘concupiscence’, and end up being a ‘populist’ movement favouring a chosen few at the expense of our common wealth, but aim at executing ‘popular’ governance, promoting the moral good and development of the individual and our homeland.

26 January 2021

David Nicolas Ruiz is the dean of John Paul II Junior College in Benque Viejo del Carmen.  He is a free lance writer and author of several anthologies of short stories in both English and Spanish.

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