By Bill Lindo
Belize City, Oct 26th 2021: In order to critically look at the current state of Belize’s economy and how to improve it we must first go back to the fundamentals – the philosophy, the creed, the belief system of our country and people.
Man made in image of Creator
We as Christians will soon be celebrating the birth of our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ in this year of our Lord 2021. With the birth of Christ the Redeemer, and the role of his Apostles, there was a new concept of man and his society, which was based on the foundations of the Classical Greek tradition, especially the ideas associated with the works of Plato. It was a powerful idea – the idea that man is not an animal. Man, unlike the other species, is capable of wilfully increasing our species’ power in, and over the universe. Our Christian Bible’s first chapter, Genesis, states: Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fishes of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” (English Standard Version of the Bible).
This is possible, because we have a power which is called cognition – the power to discover universal physical and other principles, to prove that those principles are correct, and to apply those principles in ways which enable us humans to increase mankind’s power in and over the universe and to improve the conditions of life of the human being. Now when cognition is combined with the determination to do good, society progresses. Here good is described in the sense of improving the conditions of life of human beings through the use of this power – it was called in the Ancient Greek of Plato, Agape, which in English is love akin to the love that St. Paul wrote about in 1st Corinthians.
From the above flowed the events of 1776 and the events that shook the World. For the first time in recorded history (the over ten thousand years of recorded human history) a nation-state was wilfully founded on the principle of man made in the image of his Creator – the Constitution of the United States of America which was mostly written by that American genius, Alexander Hamilton, an early and great American economist and brilliant American lawyer, along with the universal genius, Ben Franklin.
From Franklin and Hamilton came the idea that a national government has no moral authority, except as it is founded on an absolute commitment to promote and defend the general welfare or the common good of all of its people, including their posterity. The only foundation of law, is the principle of the general welfare/common good — all human beings are equally made in the image of the Creator. Therefore, it is our obligation to promote their general welfare/common good as creatures of cognition, and reason, to develop and cultivate, to develop all children, to develop all adults, equally, and to promote actively that general welfare/common good. Our concern as Belizeans and inhabitants of planet Earth is the emergence of governments which correspond to this principle of the general welfare/common good, which also happens to be the foundation of law in the Preamble of our Belizean Constitution and of the constitution of the People’s United Party. Belize’s Constitution was written by Harry Courtney while its concepts came from George Price. George Price, who gave us our Constitution as a nation-state and the Constitution and Creed of the Peoples United Party (PUP), as a founder, was educated in America — NOT trained, before the year 1971.
Our founding fathers would never submit to the Aristotelian ideas of a “steady state society,” in which the only changes allowed were associated with warfare among squabbling oligarchs.
Our Belizean ancestors sought to give immortal meaning to their lives by creating a New Belize in which creative contributions would be encouraged, cherished and passed down to succeeding generations. Any new thoughts, strategies or products which might affect the old “steady state” relationships between oligarchs and underlings were, and to some extent are still persecuted in many ways by the colonial masters. Over time the empire’s methods and practices became very subtle.
This brings us to the impetus for this writing — what is killing our Belizean economy? How is hope being extracted out of us? Take a look at what has been happening to people who uplift society with new ideas. What has been happening to the source of wealth—the human mind?
Creativity is usually sparked by a problem. The irritation, inconvenience, inability, or barrier, spurs the creative mind to search for new ways, new approaches and new vantage-points. Often the creative solution lies in application of a principle different from the problem. A new insight or as Plato said, “hypothesis” lays the basis for progress in society, and the increase of potential relative population density.
The physical economy – not FIRE is the real economy
The globalized system which puts money over physical production is now in its inevitable collapse-phase. Today’s shortages and higher prices are not going to go away under the current system. The so-called supply constraints are not because of COVID-19 but the face of the global collapse caused by the gutting of the physical economy by the financiers, et al. The supply constraints will only cascade. This collapse started September 17th 2019 when the inter-bank market buckled. The big boys/the global oligarchy knew there could not be a repeat of the financial bailout of 2009, so a new bio-weapon was released on the countries of the world – COVID 19. The success of COVID 19 was great. The global oligarchs got a windfall. Suddenly, the possibility of what the Davos group called the Great Reset was possible beyond their wildest dreams – the return to feudalism and slavery for us to be serfs and peons.
Now, the subject that my detractors like — the collapse of the global financial system. Read any of the financial press and you will be struck by the fact that every one of them knows the crash is underway. For those who are interested see, www.bonnerandpartners.com ; https://wallstreetonparade.com ; www.zerohedge.com; who speak of the problems in the FIRE (financial, insurance and real estate) sector which acts as a parasite by attaching itself to the real physical economy. Debt cannot be created without the physical economy’s ability to repay debt. The late physical economist and statesman, Lyndon LaRouche “Triple Curve” describes the situation when the physical economy of agriculture, manufacturing, wages, profits is contracting, but both financial aggregates (debt) and monetary aggregates (money supply) are raising rapidly and at a rapidly increasing rate. At the point where these curves cross (because the money supply must head for the sky to replace cascading losses in debt assets) the financial system is set for a collapse. Only God knows the time.
If Belize’s economy grew by 2 % or 20% is not important. We need to change our mind-set, and stop playing the games of the international oligarchy. The average citizen of Belize cares little or nothing about rates of growth. SIB says the average income per month for the 190,000 labour-force is Bz $ 1,134 or about Bz $ 56 per day. But we know that about 74,000 or 39% of the total labour-force earns some Bz $ 695 per month or $ 34.75 per day or Bz $ 4.34 per hour. But there’s another 36,000 (19% of workers) whose monthly income is about Bz $ 520 or Bz $ 26 per day or Bz $ 3.25 per hour. And the few, about 10,000 men and women earn more than Bz $ 3,000 per month or about $ 750 per week. This is about 5% of the total labour-force. Imagine – only 5% of the population has a living wage! This lack of income for the vast majority of Belizeans is the fundamental problem facing our country. We can take the methodology that was used in the 2008/2009 Halcrow study on poverty in Belize and using data from SIB, and the result is that 58% of our population is living in poverty. A couple months ago, SIB reported that the number for 2019 was some 52%, but that the COVID-19 collapse has pushed it to some 60% or more. Sixty percent equates to more than 252,000 citizens. Shame on you, Belize!
Today, local manufacturing which is the only sector that can pay high wages is less in contribution to the economy than in was in 1970. Belize too often follows the dictates of the global elite, think of the Rothschild’s and Rockefellers here, and the multilaterals. A direct result of this disregard for manufacturing is the low wages and productivity of Belizean workers. This sector of Belize’s physical economy currently contributes about 16% to GDP. In a properly functioning economy the industrial sector should be at least 38% of the GDP.
In 1956 after George Price became the undisputed leader, the goal of the PUP shifted to “full independence” or what is known as a “full-set economy”, meaning political, economic and financial independence for the new nation-state of Belize in the heart of the Caribbean. It does not mean putting all our eggs into one basket. It means creating an economy that uplifts the Belizean man, woman and child.
Making Plan Belize a Reality
The current government is governed by members of the Peoples United Party (PUP). The Manifesto that the PUP presented to the Belizean electorate in the run up to the 2020 elections, promoted three main areas:
- Creation of 50,000 high-paying and new, permanent jobs at living wages
- Building 10,000 new durable homes
- Allocation of 60,000 + house lots and farm lands
These promises can never be accomplished if our government continues with its current neo-liberal economic policies. If we continue our efforts, the way the global elite (Rothschild’s and Rockefellers) have designed the post-COVID world, such as the Great Reset and the Green New Deal, or promoting the covid police state where about 30% of Belizeans are skipping meals, then things will get worse. It certainly will not get better.
The premise on which the creation of 50,000 new jobs, 10,000 new durable houses, and the 60,000 + house lots and farm lands is based on the following from the PUP Research Committee Report:
“Only industrial manufacturing can pay workers $ 100 per day ($ 24,000 per year) or more and be competitive. Therefore, if Belize wishes to eradicate poverty, it MUST become an industrial manufacturing nation-state to be able to pay high money-wages. Today’s Belize cannot successfully industrialize unless it educate its population to at least a high school level. Only government for various reasons can cause manufacturing of the scale necessary to occur. And along with manufacturing industries must come the high tech modernization of agriculture. In an economy devoted to manufacturing the key is machine tools – the machines that make other machines. Belize needs new state-of-the-art CNC machine tools from say Germany or Taiwan. These CNC machines need operators with at least a sixth form education, and engineers to repair and construct them. Belize needs to “leap-frog” to high-tech manufacturing – automation and robotics if we want to be competitive in today’s world. Any machines we buy must be of the latest technology.
“The key question in economics is demand. But a country of 400,000 population will never generate enough demand for goods for a fully Independent nation-state. However, certain goods especially for reasons of National Security MUST be made in Belize by Belizeans and the factories MUST be owned by Belizeans/GoB. The following can be made in Belize: steel; cement; fertilizers; printing paper; drugs; cardboard boxes; cotton cloth; weapons (small arms); boats and ships up to 500 ft.; tractors; electric wire; paints; and many others. There is no list for what a country can manufacture. The market along with National Security will determine the products.
“Most manufacturing industries will be owned by GoB and perhaps after ten or more years some of the shares may be sold to local investors in a small capital market. But certain industries can NEVER be owned by foreigners because of National Security issues. While others can be joint partnerships of local private and GoB. Machine tool Shops are mostly partnership owned because the “knowledge & drive” of the private owner is necessary and the initial investment is high.”
The truth is that the good things the PUP proposed are yet to come to fruition. Sadly, there remains two opposing forces within the PUP. The first believes that man, created in the image of God, deserves a life worth living. The second remain fixated on colonial theories of what we deserve as Belizeans. Ultimately, the latter promotes extraction and servitude through plantation agriculture and the leisure economy led by foreign investors. At the end of the day, we have to accurately state why these factions exist and where we are heading in the future. This is a crucial battle. Only a full recognition of who we are and who the globalists and foreign oligarchy are, and the fact that this is a battle between two irreconcilable economic systems will prevent them from taking all of us down in their collapsing system.
Why Aren’t We Supporting Our Local Investors?
After the general elections of November 2020, some sixteen elected representatives were used to form a cabinet and thus a government, but decision-making is in the hands of a few, who are committed to the neoliberal agenda where foreign investors take precedence over local investors. In November 2020 the majority had its say; they did not get their way. The system became so blatantly pay-to-play. But it has not been only the average Belizean who have been squeezed, local investors also got a rude awakening. The spoils have been auctioned off to the large international players; the global oligarchy is now in charge in Belize. The deals being made across Belize are all interconnected. The players are the same. Where does PHX Capital fit in? More on that in a later blog.
Let’s take a look at the case of the three cruise terminals proposed for Belize City. We know that we can only afford one cruise terminal, given the possible cumulative effect on our carrying capacity. Period. Constructing more than one in this area will destroy our tourism product. Our former Prime Minister, Hon. Said Musa said, “follow the money”. We should note that one cruise terminal development is being led by a local investor while foreign investors are the proponents behind the other two.
The local investor, the Feinstein Group have been investing across the length and breadth of this country for the last 25 + years. They have already invested over $ 140 million dollars in the terminal at Stake Bank. At its completion it is expected that $ 400 million would have been invested. The Feinstein Group is one of the largest employer in Belize at around 2,000 employees. About 400 persons are employed full time at Stake Bank (the Port Coral project). The vast majority of these employees come from impoverished communities in Belize. And commendably, the Group trains about half of the Stake Bank employees in construction trade, such as carpentry, welding, and plumbing. This provides these 200 persons with skills they can carry forward to be productive Belizeans. Lately there has been an organised opposition to a central component of the Port Coral project – the causeway. Without the causeway the project is just not viable.
The other two cruise terminals, that are only a few miles from Port Coral are Ports of Belize (Waterloo) from the Ashcroft Alliance and the Port of Belize Magical led we are told by the Royal Boskalis Westminster from Netherlands, which just happens to be the largest dredging company in the world. HAL investments, a USD $ 17 billion dollar European company owns 45% of Royal Boskalis Westminster and are looking to divest from their fossil fuel interests. I have repeatedly said that the global oligarchs have two related concepts they pursue – extracting the most “ground-rent” from any project, business, and entity, and their view of humans as mere animals and thus to be culled to reduce population pressures on resources, especially natural resources. In some circles they are known as “white supremacists” – proponents of genocide especially against people of colour.
So the important question is why? Why the vicious attack on Port Coral? In Belize do foreigners come before Belizeans? Must we continuously destroy our own for forigners?
From the history books we can read about the American engineer George Westinghouse Jr, who created over 60 new industries from air brakes on trains, to transmission of natural gas to electric transformers, and filed hundreds of patents along with countless patents from his employees. It’s said that Westinghouse was always down on the shop floor or in the lab, personally solving problems. There were never any strikes at any of his firms, because he was pushing to uplift working and living conditions for his people just as he intended for society generally. Not surprisingly, Westinghouse’s problems were not with his workers but with the banks. He invested his profits into his people and projects, and during the Panic of 1907, with no separate private fortune to fall back on, he lost control of his most important company, Westinghouse Electric, to the JP Morgan and Rockefeller banks.
Over time the corrupting influence of the remote control by “investors” and financiers, gradually sucked the creativity and life out of Westinghouse Company. The same bank-takeover process had previously been imposed upon Thomas Edison and on most railroads, and was only later avoided by Henry Ford through extraordinary measures. Empire operatives became the theorists and experts in the area of manipulation of currencies, prices and “markets” and eventually were able to cut off credit for national projects and promising entrepreneurs. The premise was simple, if it could not be stopped, then “rationalize” it.
In rationalization, the oligarch will seek to apply the ground-rent approach to industry. As Rockefeller said: “We know how to produce the product. We just have to figure out how to extract the most ‘rent’ possible from the process: lower the cost per unit input, decrease the cost of labour, cut out research and development, buy out competitors’ patents, increase the scale and speed of production, and manipulate increased demand… We have a linear, steady-state process which we can extract (loot) indefinitely.” Such oligarchical thinking imposed mostly by the foreign bankers upon infant Belizean industry, and the Belizean worker, has nearly wiped out our budding Belizean industries. Such thinking has easily merged into straight British imperial free trade and globalization dogmas of the neo-liberals. It’s almost like we were never freed from servitude.
But make no mistake, such “rationalized,” steady-state system will eventually kill itself. At any given technology, the input resources easiest to obtain will be used up, and force the substitution of input resources more and more difficult to obtain, and therefore will likely be more expensive. Eventually this leads to collapse of the business or firm.
Fortunately, despite all of the traps set to kill off Belizean entrepreneurship, there are still people rapidly founding new productive enterprises based upon prospective new or better ideas for solving problems. However, most of these new start-ups are funded by speculators who are also part of the “financialization” of everything. We must allow the National Bank of Belize to issue credit not only to the great national projects, but also to issue the credit necessary to develop the creative new start-ups which will be the foundation of our future prosperity. Let’s finally make the National Bank of Belize viable so that it can help create the 50,000 new jobs Belize so desperately needs now — not five years later.
Servitude must end!
Bill Lindo blog 