REPORT #363 August 2000
OLD COLONIAL CAPITAL OF BELIZE TOWNIES CONTINUE TO THWART THE WORKING DEMOCRATIC DEVELOPMENT PROCESS OF BELIZE!


Produced by the Belize Development Trust

In all of Central America, South America and the Caribbean countries, there is only one moderately performing working democracy. That is Costa Rica! All other countries in these sections of the American hemisphere continue to be plagued with autocratic dysfunctional governments inherited from colonial days in one form or another. At heart of the problem are the instincts of human nature. Human beings are designed through evolution for hunting, which graduated to family and then clan groups, and from there to larger social groups to gain success. During this development, instinctive methods of hunting and protection of territory were developed, and like chickens and roosters, humans also have a pecking order. In one way, we are like a pack of wolves. There is most often an Alpha male leading the pack and each wolf knows it's place in the hierarchy. This instinctive hunting and survival inheritence of humans plays havoc with larger social groups dealing in thousands, or millions of people together. At least from the standpoint of social theories and practices of best performing governing methods.

We know in our current period of evolution and population levels, that the best social results found by many professional economic and social studies are found by humans being able to thwart the instincts of pecking order and Alpha Male pack leader process. What marks civilization and maximum returns for the social economic national order today, are the ability of humans in large groups called countries, to bury instinctive behavior and organize themselves in a different manner. To overcome instinct through human intelligence. All of Central, South America and the Caribbean, except for Costa Rica are failing in this newer civilized behavior. The economic and social results show how old instincts of a pecking order and the Alpha male leader/ruler autocratic syndrom are ruining, what should be otherwise, one of the strongest wealthiest regions of the world.

In Belize, we are now seeing meetings of groups of Village Council leaders. The published purpose our Alpha Male, Prime Minister, Said Musa announces, is to get more involvement by groups of District regional rural villages and then more national involvement of village councils to advise national government in Belmopan for legislation.

The problem with this scenario, is that it perpetuates the various European inherited colonial systems of concentrated centralized political power and policy making. This is a variation on the wolf pack Alpha Male pecking order. Both in Spanish and English ex-colonies of the Americas, all such elected representative groups are denied any actual part in the political power process and the policy making. They exist as solely sops to the public masses in a cold calculated method of bleeding off dissension, disatisfaction into formal organizations and associations of talk and debating groups, that lack any real part in the political power process and policy making. Final decisions are always made in these old instinctive pecking order groups, by a very small group, usually a handful of old colonial capital political party "leader/rulers". Results and recommendations are always SUBMITTED to the pecking order Alpha Male, or a coterie of a small group running an old colonial capital town, or city in the political party pecking order. It doesn't matter if you use the English variation, or the old Spanish variations, the operating modus operendi are the same. Political power is not shared! It is concentrated in the hands of an autocratic few, a cabal, a clique, a mafia of corruption if you will from the old colonial towns.

Yet, all contemporary studies of scientists, economists, political scientists, social scientists and others, point out that the only successful model for maximum production and efficiency of large groups called nations, is the shared political power process ( federation ), through smaller parts comprised of relatively autonomous groups within the larger whole of a nation. It does not seem to matter if you are talking, or studying national performance of a country, or very large business organizations larger than many countries, the economic returns and social returns always come out best when policy making is autonomous by smaller groups within the whole and the policy and power decisions are shared through consensus voting at the top levels.

Very few countries have achieved this newer human successful civilized model. The USA, Switzerland and a Costa Rican version are the only real ones I am familiar with. All other countries follow in one form or another, the human instincts to concentrate and centralize political power and policy decision making into a small group of people at the top of the human style wolf pack. Topping all, is usually an Alpha Male.

The poor performance in third world national debts, and large separations between the poverty lower classes and the wealthier higher classes are the results. There are a number of very large private international businesses that have used the loose autonomous federal method of organization very well, for tremendous financial success and profits.

If you study the Indian Empire under British colonial rule up until the 1940's, you can see the current organization of the Associations of regional and national Village Councils is a CLASSIC case of Empire colonial divide and conquer. A method of allowing the masses to throw out dissatisfactions and vent frustrations. But in this ex-colonial methodology are always reserved the right to have such conclusions SUBMITTED to a clique, or cabal in Belmopan, who will pick and choose what they wish to include in National legislation. This is usually based on personal goals of opportunism, greed and a lust for concentrated personal political power over fellow citizens done through the party method.

In order for Belize to get out of this dysfunctional model of governing, we have to go to district consensus finding of national legislation and district voting control of national policies made in Belmopan on an equitable sharing basis. This is done by voting, so that each district in the nation of Belize has an equal part in the policy and shared political power process in Belmopan. The districts will propose through a group of managers ( cabinet ) and the legislature will dispose and make the legislation, checked by an elected Senate for corruption. This is the method that Belize needs and almost every other country in Central, South America and the Caribbean to realize the wealth and opportunities that the region really has in the world. Without doing these basic political changes, recommended by various successful models of scientific studies, we are spinning our wheels following human hunting instincts and drives of organization that are outmoded in these current world population levels.

Our Prime Minister Said Musa, his sidekick and crony Ralph Fonseca , or Barrow, or Lindo, or Hall, cannot be blamed for following human instincts that were inherited from a hunting clan group of social organization. It is understandable, but what separates humans from animals, has always been the ability to evolve through intelligence. A so-called different I.Q., than the normal animal kingdom. The studies are in, on organizing either a country, or an international business. The best results and newer methodologies are known. All that is keeping Belize backwards now in a state of perpetual mediocricity are human instincts of our political party organizers in the old colonial capital, the port town of Belize City.

( see report #87 and report # 171 for suggestions and ideas )

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