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Day Ten

Saturday, April 18 , 2020
th

5.52am:
I’m awake. Why, for God’s sake?

This is day ten.

Nobody really knows when this lockdown is going to end – I’ve probably said that before, but
it’s true. Around the world, lockdowns are impacting humanity in ways never previously
experienced, and times are only going to get tougher and more challenging. Ten days in – better
keep those hatches battened down – there’s a storm coming, I can feel it.

Over five hundred Belizeans have been arrested for breaching curfew and day-time lockdown
regulations. I know this because yesterday, one hundred and forty were let out of Hattieville
(Belize Central Prison), after having served thirty days detention following their arrests back in
March, when the first elements of the national lockdown were introduced. Those arrested were
mostly petty gangstas – youth enticed into gangs and petty criminality by adults who are
basically cowards, and who prefer to get kids to burgle, rob and even murder, instead of doing it
themselves and risk being caught. It’s a sad state of affairs. Crime is raging out of control here,
enabled by those cowardly adults, and fuelled by youth who have nothing much else to do.

The fact that so many youth are embroiled in this gangsta lifestyle is as much to do with the
corrupt, greed-driven Government as it is with poor parenting, poverty and lack of opportunity.
Since Belize gained independence from Britain, back in 1981, successive Governments’ have
promised to improve life for citizens; promises made and then quickly forgotten. Far too many
politicians have been caught with their noses in the trough as money from overseas institutions
flooded the country and investors looked to make a quick return on land and infrastructure
development. In addition, scandals involving the sale of passports to non-nationals, land to non-
residents and back-hand payments from construction contractors, all revealed the unwillingness
of Government to prosecute – to the fullest extent of the law – any minister and elected public
figure that was caught breaking the law. This left ordinary citizens with a false sense of security,
in the belief that, if people in authority can do things and get away with it, then why can’t they.
Even the police force was infected with corruption and ill-discipline, resulting in criminals able
to get away with murder. Against this backdrop, crime has continued to spiral, and today, it is
well and truly out of control.

Politicians can’t be trust. That is a worldwide phenomenon. But here, in Belize, we also have a
police force that, despite countless press conferences by successive Commissioners, community-
based projects lead by specially appointed Community Officers, and meet n’ greet exercises up