By Colin Hyde
The PM had publicly advised Brother Wil Maheia and the Territorial Volunteers to not travel to Sarstoon Island to plant our flag this year, because of some misbehaving Guatemalan soldiers (GAF). The 1859 treaty establishes the deeper/southern channel in the Sarstoon as the border between us and Guatemala, and that puts the Sarstoon Island on our side. The PM shared that he isn’t of the view that the belligerence of the Guatemalan military in the Sarstoon stems from orders at the top. I expect the PM to say what he said. Guatemala has gone to the ICJ with a claim that we are living on their land. They encroach, we resist.
Our governments prefer that all our resistance is done by our military personnel. The BDF and Coast Guard comported themselves outstandingly on September 10 when the faysi GAF stepped out of line and planted their flag on the island on September 10. Personnel in our military perform remarkably well alongside the Friends for Conservation and Development in the Chiquibul too. Of course, our resistance hasn’t been perfect.
Wil and the Territorial Volunteers had to go to the Sarstoon on September 13, as they had planned. As they always do, in the face of guns and unruly GAF behavior, they stood their ground and did our country proud. The Belizeans who make that trip walk in the footsteps of some great heroes. They walk in the footsteps of George Price. They walk in the footsteps of Philip Goldson, who went to jail as a man of strength and peace, and after he did his time (for challenging colonial rule) he was still a fearless and peaceful man. Our brothers and sisters who make the trip are made of that same beautiful, strong material.
Wil, Brother Nigel Petillo, and all Belizeans who made the trip this year, they are our heroes. As I noted, our BDF and Coast Guard are remarkable too. I give them maximum points!
There are Belizeans, many of them, who should never be on those trips. There’s no dearth of hot heads among us. Sometimes we hear people talk utter foolishnis that we are a docile people. I hate repeating myself, but they don’t know what they are talking about. They are instigators. The many sober heads made in the mold of Philip and George work hard to keep our heads screwed on straight.
Braa, I give the old colonial rulers what I believe is their due. I hear a lot of people holler, “divide and conquer”, but I say “divide and manage”. I see their part in the weaving of a national fabric with threads from all over. Breda, dat noh easy! I’ve read enough and followed enough news from abroad to know that there is NO melting pot like ours. The soup we have here is some kind of special. We can be grudging about it, but those bohgaz have a share in the making of our extraordinary black dinner, escabeche, cow foot soup, wata nege conch soup, and caldo.
What, Brother Jerry being denied his wish to find out the lawyers’ pay?
Brother Jerry Enriquez isn’t taking the answer “no” from the government to his request for the names of all the lawyers who were hired to beat down his challenge that was aimed at getting our election process stayed until a proper, necessary redistricting was carried out. The Belize Peace Movement (BPM) actually challenged successive governments for going into elections with the electoral districts so malapportioned, but they, they didn’t push it when political leaders bulled ahead.
It’s possible that Jerry and his crowd are pursuing this angle because of the threat that they might be charged for their failed effort, and/or they might be on a big ego trip here, because of the ranks. The BPM’s lawyer team is from the humble side, not a senior counsel. Jerry’s lawyer is a big shot, a former AG of Trinidad and Tobago.
Greater Belize Media (GBM) says Jerry’s request filed under the Freedom of Information Act was rebuffed in a 6-page response from our AG’s Ministry. GBM said the AG’s Ministry said “the information is ‘exempt material’ and that sharing it could hurt the government’s position in ongoing legal battles… that disclosing the info could leave the government ‘flat-footed,’ and compares it to revealing the salaries and allowances of every attorney on their payroll.” GBM said Jerry has appealed to the Office of the Ombudsman. This columnist says he doesn’t understand the denial.
Despite Brother Jerry Enriquez not being mindful about the Catch-22, the damned-if-you-do-damned-if- you-don’t, di hoo-bayg-noh-wahn-get–an-hoo-noh-bayg-noh-want situation which he and his friends put Justice Hondora in when they asked him—really!—to stop a government from exercising its Constitutional right to call an election when it wants, I still support his request to find out what all the government side did to get the judge to pitch them aside. Ah, Jerry is backed up by a big time lawyer, and there is ego and money involved. But how the government spends our funds, well, I don’t understand how they can deny Jerry on this one.
Maybe the government is trying to spare us the pain of knowing. You know it’s going to hurt when we learn about the big fat pay. Speaking for me, well, I really don’t want to know the who or the quantum. I’m too fragile fu dat. Boy, those lawyer bohgaz are biting way too much out of our national pie. I expect all of them passed math in school, some of them even with top grades; but getting big grades on book laaning often just means you can paarat things. You know a lot of math is memorizing formulas that other people researched. I am saying they might not grasp the enormity of their bite. Oh my, people are soooo good at justifying themselves.
Ouch, this lawyer crowd is getting the best of Belize, and they have the face to scoff at us at every turn, try fu mek we feel small. I can’t believe that Brother Nuri’s favorite lawyer got on his show and cursed the curtsies and white gloves and the “hear ye, hear ye,” all the trimmings at the beautiful coronation ceremonies for our Queen of the Bay 2025/2026. A symbol of love is the Queen of the Bay … that song makes a patriot tingle all over.
Whoa there, Braa, if you had read the Good Book with a discerning eye, if, when Said Musa chektaiz Dean Barrow eena di House you hadn’t missed the wisdom because of the wit, you wud have, ehm, watch yuself. I want to know how people who dress up eena robe an wig an powder dehn face every January, ku come an hib word at other people about the way they celebrate their queen.
How long will it take for Belize to realize …
… that Lenny Bailey’s birthday song is the flat-out best song to sing for anyone celebrating their very special earth day? Lenny Bailey di bring it! Personally, I was never excited by that birthday song we’ve been hearing from since wi baan, so when I was told that the song had an owner, I thought the world hadn’t lost anything if we never heard it again. Since the world didn’t lose anything (my thinking), it would have been on trivia alone, intafayring bizniz, for me to run a sweat on a verification test. If I had, I would have found out that the report wasn’t entirely accurate, that Belizeans who like that “staple” weren’t infringing on people’s rights, cheating, when they sang … how old are you now.
Aha, after listening to Lenny Bailey’s refreshing “Birthday Song” the umpteenth time on the XTV Morning Stew, and never having heard the song played anywhere else, it entered my mind that that “too” must have a copyright, why it isn’t splashed all across the airwaves. And so, and so the prompt for me to find out what the fuss was about the original.
An AI Overview says the “Happy Birthday” song from foreign is not copyrighted, that it “is in the public domain in the United States and the European Union, following a 2015/2016 court ruling that found the music publisher’s copyright claims invalid. A federal judge in the U.S. ruled that the copyright on the song was only for specific arrangements, not the song itself, allowing it to be used freely without royalties.”
For some background, AI says, “The melody for ‘Happy Birthday to You’ was written by sisters Mildred and Patty Hill in 1893 as the song ‘Good Morning to All’;” and in 1935 the “copyright was registered for specific arrangements of the song, not the core melody or lyrics.”
Best Lawyers says, “Warner/Chappell Music actively enforced a copyright on the song ‘Happy Birthday’ since 1949, and charged commercial users a royalty for such use as in movies, games, and public performances for profit”; however, they were challenged, and it was proven that their rights claim wasn’t legit. Best Lawyers said, “Warner/Chappell was required to create a $14 million pool for repayment of royalties it had collected since 1949.”
My, out there they are fighting over a bland tune. Lenny Bailey’s “Birthday Song” knocks the pants off that insipid song from foreign.
