Contributing Writers: Azad Ali, Tangerine Clarke,
George Alleyne, Nelson King,
Vinette K. Pryce, Bert Wilkinson
GENERAL INFORMATION (718) 260-2500
Caribbean L 10 ife, Sept. 27 - Oct.3, 2019
By Anna Shen
MERIDA, Mexico, Sept.
23, 2019 (IPS) — In a world
of increasing fragility and
declining resources, can the
world foster peace? With a
looming climate crisis, is
war inevitable? Will nuclear
war be the final result? Are
women the ultimate peace
builders? How do we train
and engage youth to promote
peace?
These are some of the
questions posed during
last week’s three-day World
Summit of Nobel Peace
Laureates in Merida, Mexico
which brought together
1,200 youth and 30 Nobel
Peace Laureates — individual
and organizations —
Juan Manuel Santos, Former
President of Colombia; F.W.
De Klerk, former President
of South Africa; Lord David
Trimble, Northern Ireland;
Jose Ramos-Horta, Former
President of East Timor;
and Lech Walesa, former
President of Poland.
Women continue to claim
a larger seat at the Nobel
Peace table. In attendance
were Rigoberta Menchu Tum
for her work promoting the
rights of indigenous peoples;
Jody Williams, awarded
for her work to eradicate
landmines; Shirin Ebadi, for
the struggle for women and
children’s rights; Tawakkol
Karman of Yemen; and Leymah
Gbowee of Liberia.
A few key
takeaways:
Former President of
Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos,
awarded a Nobel Peace
Prize for work with FARC to
negotiate peace and end a
brutal civil war, noted positive
developments at home,
but said some segments are
taking steps backwards.
However, he remained
steadfast in his commitment
to peace: “For each terrorist
blinded by hate, there are
millions of youth that wish
to preserve it. We are not
here to say everything is
fine, but we are here to leave
our mark for peace.”
Discussing the social
and economic dimensions
of peace, Nobel Laureate
Jody Williams railed on the
world’s grotesque amounts
of income disparity, and
called for a total restructuring
of the world’s socioeconomic
systems.
While many citizens
move to massive cities —
megalopolises — to access
employment, education and
health care, they end up
encountering racism. “How
do we move forward on the
common good?” she asked,
noting that in America
alone, 57 percent of the US
disposable budget is spent
on the military and weapons,
while only 6 percent
goes to health and education.
Nobel Laureate Lord
David Trimble of Northern
Ireland expressed concern
over several regions in the
world where conflicts continue,
such as the Mideast,
where there are proxy wars,
as well as Iran’s moves to
become a hegemonic state.
There are dangers in
the South China sea, and
threats of a US-China trade
war – all of it having a ripple
effect, with a potential to
greatly impact business and
other activities.
Things are getting worse
on the democracy front,
according to Trimble. “It
is not going as well as we
would like,” he said, referring
to the elections last
week in Russia, where the
state coerced and manufactured
results, producing
outcomes that were presented
as democratic, but
were far from it.
Highlighting the danger
of technology controlled in
the hands of a few mega
corporations, Nobel Laureate
Kailash Satyarti called
for democratization of tech,
and added that, the world
has globalized everything,
but that it needed to “globalize
the compassion that
exists in all of us.”
Bernice King, CEO of
the King Center, and the
youngest daughter of civil
rights leader Martin Luther
King, challenged all those
who came to the summit.
“All of you have a passion to
see positive change in our
world. We all want peace
but it has to be intentional
on a daily basis,” she said.
Her practical advice? Peace
builders need to find an
accountability partner to
support them when frustrated
or depressed.
King offered a message of
By Wellington C. Ramos,
adjunct professor History
and Political Science
Our country of Belize
received its independence
from Great Britain on Sept. 21,
1981. Yet, many of our people
are living in a state of dependency,
our government keep
borrowing money from several
countries and institutions
to survive making us more
financially dependent and our
nation’s independence is still
haunted by the Guatemalan
claim to our territory.
According to the Miriam
Webster dictionary the word
independence means “not
dependent,” or not having to
depend on anyone or anything
else. It also means being strong
and able to survive alone. Anything
can be dependent or
independent. We the Belizean
people are educated and we
know that we are not independent
in reality because the
definition is clear for us to see.
Yet, we have failed to demand
of our PUP and UDP governments,
their plans for us to
experience living with true
independence. The failure to
plan is planning to fail and
that we have witnessed since
September 1981 under these
two political parties.
When the United States
founding fathers were demanding
their independence from
Great Britain, they all assembled
in Philadelphia in 1776
and wrote; “The Declaration
of Independence.” At that time
the British were against granting
them their independence
and had troops in their country
to stop any activity for
independence. In addition to
writing that document, they
assigned members of the convention
with various tasks to
prepare for war with Great
Britain and to achieve their
independence.
We were given our independence
by Great Britain because
the British prime minister at
the time Margaret Thatcher,
saw us a financial burden to
them after they had exploited
our country for a total of
343 years from 1638 to 1981.
Not only did they exploit our
country but they also enslaved
some of our people and had
them working free of cost as
slaves until slavery was abolished
on Aug. 1, 1834.
No compensation was
received from the British for
the labor that was provided
through the use of force,
unlawful imprisonment,
human rights violations and
genocide. Still, many of our
people are still proud to be
British and cherish the names
they gave us which were not
our original names. The purpose
for achieving our independence,
was for us as a people
to forge our own identity
as a nation, love each other
as fellow citizens of Belize
despite our various ethnicities,
OP-EDS
All of you have
a passion to see
positive change
in our world. We
all want peace
but it has to be
intentional on a
daily basis.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR are welcome from all readers. They should be addressed care of this newspaper to the Editor,
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address and telephone number included. Note that the address and telephone number will NOT be published and the
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the right to edit all submissions.
Continued on Page 11
Continued on Page 11
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World Summit of Nobel Peace
Laureates calls for decisive
action, with no time to waste
Belize still dependent
after 38 years of
independence
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