To Be or Not to Be Independent

By Bill Lindo

Hong Kong, April 27^th 2025:  I’ve traveled to Asia for decades.  On every visit I learn something new.  As I sit in a hotel room here in Hong Kong, I am thinking of my recent trip to Taiwan, to the Northeastern area – Yilan county.  I used to visit Taiwan frequently.   About 20 years ago I visited Taiwan at least 15 times, but I never saw what I saw on this last trip with Mei Lin. 

We stayed in Jiaoxi, with the famous hot springs.  Tourism is big business here because of the hot springs from the mountains, but outside the high-rise windows there are lots and lots of rice being grown, especially sticky rice. The fields are grown right up to the houses, perhaps 4 ft away and the fields are all leveled with irrigation drains, and canals all of concrete.  They are built by the government for the private sector.  And next to the miles of rice fields are the miles of fishponds for crabs, shrimp, and expensive fish, like grouper.

Yilan is also located along the sea.  We visited three man-made inlets made by the government to protect the thousands of fishing boats that catch fish from the sea and giant shrimp from near a high stone island called Turtle Mountain (Guishan Island).  And on the highway between the sea and the hot spring mountains, there are several cement and steel factories.

So, what is happening here? In this rural community (about one hour by car from Taipei, the capital and large modern metropolitan city of some 2.5 million people) of about 450,000 people, close to the size of Belize’s entire population, exists tourism, agriculture, heavy industry, fishing and aquaculture, giving its citizens about USD $ 29,450. income per capita.  A lot of people farm rice or aquaculture and work at the same time in heavy industry or tourism, since while the rice or fish are growing, there is extra time to earn income from another venture.

All the roads, including the farm and aquaculture roads, are all paved with either concrete or hot-mix – made in Taiwan.  Thus, it is easy to move and transport goods and supplies and people.  The high standard of living in Yilan county resonates with the Creed of George Price’s Peoples United Party (PUP).

Article Six of the Constitution of the People’s United Party details the Aims and Objectives. It is in this article that the support for the principle of the General Welfare/Common Good is based. It provides the foundation for the crafting of a Political-Economy for the PUP and any future PUP Government.

The PUP from its beginning (1950) was a Party whose fundamental belief or creed was Belizean nationalism dedicated to social justice based on capitalism with Belizean characteristics. The PUP was never a cosmopolitan or neo-liberal party. The father of the nation, Hon. George Cadle Price, called the PUP’s policy — the “Peaceful Constructive Revolution” working the mixed economy, which was firmly of the belief that full Independence (political + financial + economic independence) can only be achieved by pursuing a national policy that simulates higher economic productivity and development and that eradicates poverty through self-reliance and full employment.

This is the example of Yilan county, Taiwan – self-reliance and high economic productivity based on unity.

To move forward, it is imperative that Belize adopt and implement a well-designed, comprehensive and pro-active strategy, grounded in the Political Creed of the PUP — “That it is the sacred duty of government to intervene actively in the economic life of the nation in order to achieve full employment and the eradication of poverty and secure a better life for all Belizeans.”

The new BRICS grouping coupled with the election of Donald Trump has now left Belize with only one choice if it wishes to survive as a nation-state.  The neo-liberal age is over – finished. Belize must now adopt George Price’s nationalism of self-reliance or perish as a nation-state. The begging has to stop – time to work, with our God given brain.

Only industrial manufacturing can pay workers $ 150 per day ($ 39,000 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 educates its population to at least a high school level.  And that education MUST be grounded in science and engineering. 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 Taiwan, who is a global leader in high-tech machine tools.  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, robotics, and AI if we want to be competitive in today’s world. Any machines we buy must be of the latest technology.

The current government and previous governments hallmark is/was infrastructure building, spending millions of foreign loan dollars. Yet poverty continues to grip our people. Why? Our decision makers have forgotten two main concepts. First, importing cement, asphalt, steel, etc. does not create innovation in our local economy.  And second, non-challenging infrastructure does not create innovation.  Modern agriculture and high-tech manufacturing can only work along with the glue.  The glue is infrastructure. The crux of building infrastructure is because “The building of new challenging infrastructure is how new methods of production are introduced into the economy to create productivity which enables high money wages to be paid without ruining an economy. (Lindo, 1995) An example completed a few years ago, is the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau 55 kilometer bridge – tunnel system consisting of a series of three cable-stayed bridges, an undersea tunnel, and four artificial islands. It is both the longest sea crossing and longest fixed link on Earth. It cost some USD $ 20 billion dollars and was opened in September 2018. China had to invent many items including new steel alloys for the bridges and tunnels. Over 1,265 patents were granted to Chinese companies and some 200 research institutions for the new production methods and materials invented to make this project happened. This is how infrastructure causes a nation-state economy to innovate and able to pay high-money wages to its citizens.

 Two examples of challenging infrastructure for Belize are agriculture and a railway network. Agriculture cannot work without water – on/off, so many permanent canals and drains need to be built in Belize using our own steel, cement, sand, workers, etc. with the necessary innovation to complete this monumental task, so our agriculture can prosper. No modern economy can exist without efficient movement of people and goods.  Belize will need a high-speed rail system for both passengers and freight to link Southern Mexico (Mexico’s new Maya Rail System) to the South and the West with Guatemala, passing through Belize City and Belmopan.

In 2018 in preparation for the 2020 general election, the Research & Development Committee of the PUP National Executive submitted the following to the Party:

 “By-the-way no judicial solution will solve the Guatemalan claim. Judicial is win-lose. It must be a political solution. And the only way must be win-win. Each side must benefit.  So our idea is to connect Belize and Guatemala – Atlantic Ocean connect to Pacific Ocean through Belize (Commerce Bight) and Guatemala (Puerto Quetzal) via a high-speed railway for both passengers and cargo. A perfect win-win for both. The railway cost for the 450 kilometers route is about Bz $ 38.5 billion dollars. Such a project will benefit not only Belize and Guatemala, but the entire Caribbean with cheap access to Asia.”

In our High Schools every student must learn the sciences. Rote learning is for students up to about 7-8 years old; after those ages students MUST learn to think. No thinking = no innovation and no creativity = doom and destruction.  Memorization for exams is not learning it’s acting like a robot and that person is of no use to society.  Belize’s politicians need to understand that the future of the World is what is now called high-tech manufacturing.  It is Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, and Automation. These need high-level research labs which only the government can finance. But not all students will be scientists and engineers. So, what options can we offer the others? They need to be trained as both technicians to work with the engineers and scientists, and Belize needs plumbers, carpenters, metal workers, welders, etc.  Never forget that education is the key to wealth – “the sole source of wealth is the rise in the productivity of human labor effected through technological progress” — (Lindo, 1995)

 None of the above can work unless government protects the local markets in the national interest and from those who wish to import unhealthy and other dangerous goods.  Belize is a developing country so WTO rules are different regarding protectionists measures for Belize.  Belize is not the United States. Protectionism worked for the United States from 1862 to 1946, but then the US Dollar became the global currency, which meant that the United Stated had to run a trade deficit in order for foreigners to earn the income to repay loans/debt made in US Dollars.  President Trump knows that he cannot have a trade surplus plus have the US Dollar as the global currency; but he’s playing bluff poker, especially with the weaker nation-states.

 Government MUST practice the policy of capitalist dirigist methods to create the conditions to end poverty, defend Belize and create full employment for all citizens at high money-wages, thus making our Constitution’s Preamble true – Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.

As good Christians, who just celebrated Easter, we need to remember that man is made in the image of the Creator, and we can always think our way out of any situation.

Bill admire Taiwanese Fishing Boats at fish market

Bill at Taiwanese Shrimp Farm

View of Yilan County, Taiwan from Hotel with rice fields and Turtle Mountain in Sea

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Irrigation  Control Gates for Aquaculture, Yilan County, Taiwan

Some Taiwanese Fishing Boats

Rice is grown right up to houses because land is a premium