By Colin Hyde

   Some of us don’t like to think about “body” postmortems — leave the morticians to their business — and for various reasons some don’t like to think about postmortems of any activity they were involved in. Hmm, some, maybe they just don’t like the bother. I say, if the cattle got out and are on the loose and causing a ruckus at the neighbors’, and you were the one who was supposed to lock the gate and forgot to, you will want to move on quickly. We could languish here awhile. I just want to say it is very important that from the ball game to the business venture to, like, everything, we must have the courage and make the time to do the review.  

   Okay, I told you I didn’t want to hear Plus TV’s Wade tell us how they won the referendum. Bah, that’s gloating. But, but I would like for us to get a better understanding of the reasoning of our fellow Belizeans on Caye Caulker re: that vote. Me, I think it was a missed opportunity. Lástima, I see three people are in custody, heading to the place where, when they slam the door it is years before you walk freely again. It matters. Their pounds of weed could have been entirely legal. Strictly speaking, in this country we are not about stopping weed-smoking. We decriminalized 10 grams.

   There’s a lot to talk about our thinking of this weed. Both sides in the weed referendum argued that they were about protecting the kids from drugs, the anti-weed crowd saying that if the other parts of the industry were legalized it would lead to youth having increased access to the drug; while the legalize-it crowd said that by regulating the industry from end to end we would be better able to keep it away from our youth. I absolutely side with the crowd that said legalize it, from cultivation to sale. I know, I know what was proposed wasn’t perfect. Is there anything manmade/man-designed that is?   

   It is because rum is regulated that we don’t see drunk kids around Belize. The NDACC (National Drug Abuse Control Council), I respect their work; but if we buy into what they are saying about rum and young people, we would believe that our youth are abusing it. But if kids and youth were abusing alcohol the way the NDACC suggests, the evidence would be all over the place. I don’t know if people can hide marijuana or cocaine, but you can’t hide drinking. Of course, young people will sneak a drink; and, of course, it is critical for the NDACC to teach them about the folly associated with drinking alcoholic stuff.

If you don’t read, you won’t know about dangerous insurgents

   It’s important to read a lot; and if you don’t, then it’s important that a few trusted people in your close circle do. I was looking for a piece by Brother Ismael Perez on the importance of reading, but it must be a while back. Anyway, a number of his pieces deal with the criticalness of the black and white. I’m about telling you today that you could be caught napping if you aren’t paying close attention to the written word.

   Sure, listening is great; but if you depend on the ears for your information, know that you won’t get all sides from oral presentations. For real, we’re bound to miss a lot if the spoken palabras are our sole informer. See, we have the right, the left, and the various middles; and while we have two ears, remember they function as one, unless we are super at the multitasking. With the black and white, you can sift through things at your leisure; and when something important catches your eye, you can zero in and get the full exposé from all the corners.   

    You can learn serious things through reading. I try to keep up, and you can thank me from now for what I am going to share.

   Ahem, if it wasn’t for me – yes, I’m patting myself on the back – some of you might be completely ignorant of the doings of the modern Catholic Church, all that they are up to. But before I get there, what a madabig disappointment for me that the church of Francis and Leo chose to insert itself in the weed fray on Caye Caulker and, compounding the felony, on the side that, when you peel back the layers, supported illegal big dons running the show instead of legal big capitalists. Whoa there, we are living in a capitalist country! There will be big business people!     

   I didn’t go to SJC, but people who are in the know told me that the faadaz have a room full of wine. Hmm, everyone flirts with hypocrisy. That’s why Said told Dean, noh watch me, watch yuself! I expect pressure came from Catholics on the caye, threats to switch congregations, blackmail business. I will give a pass if they were coerced. But I’m not here to talk about weed today. The hot button today is the modern Catholics and their insistence on pushing dangerous communist ideas. I give max points to Francis and Leo, but what’s with the communism, Brethren?

   In last week’s Reporter, there’s a piece from the desk of the Roman Catholic Constitution Commission, “How does social teaching react to the upheavals in agriculture worldwide.” We pick up the story here:  “Often the basic problem is that farmland is in the hands of a few major landowners. Where such landownership leads to exploitation of the rural population, is detrimental to the common good, and stands in the way of positive development of the national economy, the church’s social teaching calls for agrarian reform and a new distribution of the land. Such steps must be taken in an orderly, legal way. Old injustices must not be fought with new injustices.” Hmm, I couldn’t copy and paste, so forgive me if I missed a letter. Know that the full substance is all there.

    Of course, you know I don’t have up a brake sign for the Catholic Commission. It’s an awesome lesson there, and in my lee way I’m sharing it. What the church said there is the way it should be. Bully for us, we have lived this social restructuring to a great extent in our peaceful, constructive Belizean revolution.

   But it wasn’t perfect. Unfortunately, sometimes private owners dig in, refuse to be reasonable. In urban and caye settings, our leaders sometimes find it necessary to reacquire land for the common good; and we have run into problems because, the way our world is set up, the people have to pay hefty compensation for the land, land that government sold a while back for a pittance. Inevitably, there is bloody revolution. The Catholic Commission says we should work it out, yes, for the common good.

 Chauncey Billups, named to be a risky fellow

   Aha, we’ve been down this road before. I guess some things should be repeated. A rose by any other name would smell as sweet, but beware how you put names on people. The daam thing is that, while a rose will always be a rose, whether it grows up between the cracks in the cement in Harlem or in a fertile rose garden, people are shaped by a lot more than DNA.

   I don’t know if Mr. Billups, a basketball star for the Detroit Pistons when they won the NBA title in 2004, and the head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers when he was sent on leave for suspected involvement in a fraudulent gambling ring, is guilty or innocent of the charges; and I’m not going to research the matter or give it more than a glance. I wish for him that there’s not much fire under the smoke there; but if I had to bet, because of a name like that, I’d put my money on guilty.

   You know the world’s worst Chauncey is Mr. Chauncey Cavanaugh, the judge’s son who ruins Newt’s romance with his girlfriend, Arcella, in The Learning Tree. If I remember correctly how the story went, Chauncey, a white boy, is the son of the judge, and Arcella’s mom is the housemaid. Oh, Newt and Arcella are black. The son of a rich, powerful man has a lot of advantages. Arcella’s mom being the house maid, she is a frequent visitor. And Mr. Chauncey takes advantage of his advantage and the proximity. Poor Newt, he got chaansd!

   So, Mr. Chauncey Billups! I told you Godwin had no choice but to be great, and Rufus X had to feel that he was the most cantankerous man. Today I throw in Paul (Morgan); he had to be a man who wanted to put things right. The Enriquezes are a study. Hubert, he should have been a bad one because Hubert is the villain in Richmal Crompton’s William series. Ah, but Hubert Elrington, aha, he’s a wicked one. Wa, you don’t think so? Well, I’m aware of a number of people who will tell you that in his heyday he was a thorn in their side! Speaking of Jerry, he should have been under the bow with the ripe bunch a banana; but no, he wants to tohn oava our precious system that maintains our, ehm, wonderful status quo.

   I say, Mr. Chauncey Billups, if da true he has friendship with the US Mafia, fu hihn ma an pa responsible, because they gave him a very risky name.