VICTIM OF CRIME IN BELIZE

As a naturalized citizen of Belize, I found a posting on Facebook concerning the rate of murders in Belize particularly disturbing for a number of reasons. The people who suffer from this kind of misdirected journalism are hard-working folks who own resorts but also all of the thousands of people who work in the tourism industry. There is little or no disputing the facts, which are easily verifiable facts. In addition. the journalistic tendency for exaggeration and sensationalizing these facts is something we have learned to live with. What disturbs me is the misdirecting of responsibility for some but not all of the criminal acts. The fact that all of the crimes are done by criminals also makes it a difficult topic to discuss. By that I mean, Belize does not have some unfair or exotic criminal code that labels accidents as crimes. In this era of political correctness in dealing with date rape, enticement, and myriad other forms of temptations, it is import to point that out. There is no question what the reporter is talking about are criminal acts. Many factors contribute to the problem of crime in Belize. Belize is not a rich country. We see tourist arrive with money they have saved for a very long time for vacation and spend it all in two weeks like it had no values. Belizeans see this and think they are all Americans very rich. As is true with all people, if you have two it will not hurt you to share one. I see this reflected in many ways for example the fees native people charged tourists for services. In addition, I have had grade school teachers tell students it is not stealing if you take something from an American but it is a crime to take from a fellow Belizean. Another factor is that a great many Belizean youths immigrate to the United States as late teenagers and young adults. This is such a pronounced phenomenon that the population distribution curve in Belize is a bicameral curve with the young at one peak and the older people in the other. The young people migrate to the large cities, for example Los Angles, Chicago, and New York. Keep in mind the Belize population is a predominately black and Hispanic; therefore, the young people once in the United States, they end up in those areas of the large cities, which happens to be where gang activity is at its worst. In addition to being overwhelmed by the vastness of activities and number and varieties of gangs involved they become involved in gang related behavior. Consequently, they are arrested, tired, and deported back to Belize, where they bring what they learned from street gangs back to Belize. In other words, the United States acts as a huge sieve but also a school room for our young people; it keeps the good ones, and there are many good ones, but ships back the bad ones. The numbers involved are not huge but because Belize is a small country this has an disproportionate impact on Belizean culture. In addition, I would like to make the point that many tourist come to Belize looking for the kind of excitement they cannot experience in the United States. They seek and find drug ridden bars and corners of society that would never visit in the US. White college age girls, who have never been out of their suburban neighborhoods, arrive with a friend and seeking exotic sexual experience with black men wearing dreadlocks in the allies of Belize. I stopped a young white girl jumping line at the airports. Through her sobbing she said she hated Belize and had to leave. She and a young friend was beaten up and raped at gun point in a hotel Belize city. She named the hotel, it was a house of prostitution in one of the worst areas in the city. Her friend was in the hospital, who she was abandoning, but she just had to get out of this hatful country. The people featured in the post, thus ties them and their guest to the criminal activity to the alleys in Belize City. Thus, the author of this post makes the hardworking resort owners on a beautiful River the victim of crime. Their resort is as far away from crime and skullduggery is you can possibly get anywhere in the world. However, this post has made them the victims of “all the crime in Belize”. The post did the same thing as the young line jumper in the airport made me, my country, and my friends who owns the beautiful resort on the Macal River, the victim of her lust for exotic adventure. URL: firetreepub.blogspot.com Comments Invited and not moderated