BELIZEANS HAVE EVERY RIGHT TO BE PROUD!

BELIZEANS HAVE EVERY RIGHT TO BE PROUD!

One of the most notable things coming out of more education in Belize, is the NEW generation of Belizean people, who are very articulate, great vocabularies and means of expressing themselves. They also understand the outside world much better. You see it in primary school students being interviewed on television, certainly High School students and of course even most taxi drivers, or farmers, have a good grasp of what is happening in the world.
Some of these kids are using vocabularies which include big fancy words, dropping out of their mouths, that I can read and understand, but would in my generation never use myself, not being comfortable with such complicated words. I am constantly amazed on the television news shows in Belize how well educated these new generation of kids are. What amazes me is not only their understanding of the world around them, but the words they use, highly technical and sophisticated language, you would only expect from some Rhodes Scholar, or OXFORD graduate or something. All this in Belize.
As I grow older, I feel very PROUD and comfortable with this new generation tackling the problems of today. They are certainly more fit to do so, than my generation that tackled our problems of 50 years ago. ( I'm going on 73 years )

One of the changes that has occurred, which our old 'Belize Development Trust' project tackled, was the opening up of a restricted society to more consensus. I remember vividly the torturous years of the George Price tyranny. When to oppose, or offer an opinion contrary to his PUP, would get you brutally beaten by his police force, or persecuted, using the permit and licensing system, or other bureaucratic apparatus I watched many Belizeans flee the country into exile.
Yet today, the talk shows, television shows and the way ordinary citizens of the new generations say and explain their piece, opinion, without a second thought, to fear, terror and consequences from the political machines in Belize, just makes me feel very PROUD to have been a part of that opening up of our society and politics to contrary views, seeking consensus, instead of dictatorship. In Honduras, you can still get killed doing what we do in Belize, or in the Dominican Republic, certainly in Cuba, or Venezuela, or Ecuador.
We have achieved in my lifetime, a real democracy in Belize, without FEAR. I'm more fearful in the USA of persecution than I am in Belize and that should tell you something about democratic values. With such openness and seeking of consensus, our country for all it's small size is making great strides in working with the limitations we have in money, population, and other difficulties. The BELIZE of today is a DREAM come true, for my generation of old folk, who lived through the tyrannical years of the GEORGE PRICE PUP GOVERNMENTS. It is hard to listen to young children, or students, even ordinary folk, whose parents once lived in fear, express themselves in disagreement with bureaucratic and political party policies without comparing things with the 1960's, 70's and 80's. BELIZE is not the same place and it is in my humble opinion a BETTER PLACE than it has ever been. I think my generation can die knowing we have left a country for our children and grandchildren, which is far better than the one we had at their age. It is their duty now to fight monopolies in Belize. A job well started by my generation, but is still unfinished. The new generation also have to grasp the opportunities for world trade, which I fear many still do not understand in Belize. That was and continues to be a problem of education, attitude and a small population with which to do many things. We are making progress though. Slowly, slowly, in increments the changes are occurring. It is probably that a change to proportional representation would help make the economic commercial changes also. Consensus being better than the dictates of one single political party.
Looking back on 50 years of history, I have to say I'm feeling very proud of BELIZE these days. We are not inferior to any other country. We might be relatively poor, due to being yet an agrarian society, but with what we have, we are doing damned good.