26 JAN
2014
THE BELIZE TIMES
05 5
EDITORIAL What Needs to Change In presenting the New Social Justice Agenda at Independence Hall on Wednesday morning PUP Leader Francis Fonseca said: “It is fair to say that at times, we have walked away from the straight path that we have been on, and today, we’re saying that we recognize that. We accept that, and we are absolutely committed to making sure that we are walking on the path of social justice.” Poverty is on the rise in Belize today. Almost half of the population is living in poverty. Thousands of Belizeans are living in abject misery, no job, no income, wretched housing conditions, dependent, unskilled, hopeless and penniless. What is equally disturbing, hundreds of families who once were part of a growing middle class of Belizeans are now falling into the poverty trap, a vicious cycle that finds many high school and Sixth Form graduates at the street corners of our cities and towns struggling, begging, caught up in the sub-culture of gangs, crime and violence. We see so many mothers desperately trying to find food for their children. So many cannot pay their grocery bill, the light bill, the gas bill, the water bill, the school fees. The high cost of living and the high cost of dying (with the ever escalating funeral expenses) are a heavy burden for the many struggling jobless families. One way out of this vicious cycle is through an effective education system. Education is crucial. Firstly we will all have to have some skills if we are to survive in this cruel state of affairs where opportunities for gainful and dignified employment in the Belize today under a heartless and vindictive UDP administration are extremely limited. Secondly we have to be equipped to cope with life. We need an education system that actually prepares our people for living in the real world – and then helps us to change ourselves when we have to change. The task of education is to develop competence and capabilities as much as to impart knowledge. Education should be more about learning “how” than about knowing “things”. With the information revolution all the information that you actually need to know is available to you. The real educational questions are how to obtain access to that information, what to do with that information, how to turn that information into something that is useful to other people and how to relate to other people so that the information can be sold or imparted to them. Our education system needs major changes. The present Minister of Education spends his time beating up on the teachers. Says Faber, the teachers are lazy; some of the teachers are child molesters. How dare these teachers take to the streets and criticize my government about the national issues that plague our country. They cannot be trusted, says the Minister, all they want is a raise of pay. Well Minister, your confrontation style of arrogant scolding and blaming the teachers for the sorry state of our education system under your vain, conceited, visionless administration, is simply driving the final nail in the coffin of this corrupt, incompetent Barrow government. The teachers have every right to protest the many failed promises made to them for a salary ad-
justment. After all they have been waiting patiently while the cost of living has skyrocketed during the past six years of the UDP. The last salary adjustment that the teachers and public officers (police, nurses, BDF) received was in 2005 under a PUP administration. The irony is that it is the leaders of these same teachers and public officers who sold the rank and file members of the unions, Barrow’s phony promises of manna from heaven and who helped to install Barrow and the UDP to the seat of power in Belmopan. Is it any surprise that the vast majority of teachers and public officers feel betrayed? Barrow promised transparency and accountability. The only thing that is transparent is the blatant, in your face, corruption and the cover-up of corruption. Elvin Penner has broken the laws of Belize – the Passport Act and the Nationality Act. He has lied and fraudulently sold our birthright – Belizean citizenship to a South Korean accused of criminal wrongdoing who never one day set foot in Belize and who was at the time in a jail in Taiwan. But the Prime Minister and his Cabinet have rallied to the defence of Penner, refusing to allow any investigation by the Senate. The police have been instructed not to investigate Penner for crimes he may have committed. They have only investigated how files from the Immigration Department got into public hands and the media. Instead three public officers, two of whom are data entry clerks have been made the scapegoats. The other, a known UDP public officer, has already left the country assisted by his political friends in high places. We have to dig ourselves out of the morass in which Belize under the UDP is fast sinking. The PUP leader in his 10 point dynamic agenda for social justice described the way forward for the party which was founded in the labour and union movement to return to its roots of advocating for social justice and reforms. Our vision and programmes must be rooted in values. Values provide a compass with which to navigate our way through the political jungle of greed and corruption our country finds itself. Our value system which must be instilled in a reformed education system is based on a belief that the people must have a stake in society – equal opportunity, sharing and caring for each other in a strong and active community – the very essence of social justice. But for all Belizeans to share in the fruits of production and wealth of the nation, there is need for economic growth and greater investment in the productive sector. The historical record has shown that economic growth is a powerful force for pulling poor people above the income poverty line. This growth must however be sustainable and the benefits spread equitably if we are to break the pattern of growing income inequality. The goal is to achieve true human development based not just on sterile statistics like GDP but also standard of living issues like life expectancy, infant mortality, rate of employment, literacy. This human development approach emphasizes empowerment, expanding people’s choices, our freedoms and capacities to lead long healthy and creative lives and to find fulfillment in doing so.