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Dec
23
Written by:
Godfrey Smith
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Sedi’s Foot in Mouth Disease
The word “artificial” has been used before in relation to the Belize-Guatemala border dispute.
It was used by V.S. Naipaul, now Sir Vidia Naipaul, Nobel Laureate, in a piece he wrote for the Daily Telegraph Magazine in July 1969 when he was still a mere mortal.
Naipaul wrote: “The Guatemalan claim has made the politics of British Honduras artificial and static.”
Wilfred Elrington, Belize’s Foreign Minister, couldn’t disagree more. Engulfed in a firestorm of controversy, his ministerial record badly singed, he can testify that the politics of the Guatemalan claim is anything but static and that “artificial” can be a very bad choice of word.
Speaking off- the- cuff to an OAS information officer in between sessions of a ministerial level meeting between Belize and Guatemala at the OAS HQ in Washington, DC, Elrington said “the fact of this artificial border does not make us different. We are still the same people, with the same aspirations and desires.”
He did not then imagine – though he should have – that his comments would have fueled a public relations conflagration in Belize.
The Foreign Minister’s statement was well-intentioned but inexcusably foolish.
It was well-intentioned because what he meant was that notwithstanding the border separating the two peoples, as Guatemalans and Belizeans we all aspire to improve the standard of living for our families and should therefore be cooperating to achieve this.
It was a foolish thing to say because for over a hundred years the Republic of Guatemala has claimed Belize. They resist the clearing of a border precisely because the existence and recognition of a border signifies statehood.
The stretch of ground on which the border falls is what animates the controversy. Watching the degradation of the Chiquibul Forest Reserve by Guatemalan farmers on “our side of the border” is what sparks anger in Belizeans.
The republic aspires to own half of Belize; Belizeans desire to remain independent and free of the anachronistic claim.
In this context, to have described the border as "artificial" and the two peoples as “the same people” has understandably provoked a severe public backlash against the minister.
It is inexcusable because in a cabinet of ministers widely regarded as weak, Mr. Elrington is supposed to rank first among the handful of second fiddle ministers.
Mr. Barrow sits contentedly alone as first fiddle in this orchestra of discord.
For Elrington to make such a sophomoric political blunder speaks volumes for the remainder of the Barrow cabinet.
A foreign minister is expected to perform on the international scene in prime time. He is expected to skillfully navigate the minefield that is the Belize-Guatemala dispute – without setting off explosions at home or abroad. But Elrington did; he was clumsy and unfocused.
In defending himself against the public allegation that he is a “sell-out”, Elrington responded that the reaction was irrational and that he himself had opposed the Webster proposals in 1968 and had been jailed during the so-called “Heads of Agreement” demonstrations because he was against the sell-out of Belize.
It will not be lost on students of political history that the same “sell out” accusation was made against George Price by the movement of which Elrington was a part, during the Heads of Agreement demonstrations in the summer of 1981.
Price, in fact, never entertained any notion of accepting Ambassador Bethuel Webster’s proposals which effectively put sovereignty of Belize in the hands of Guatemala. Nothing contained in the Heads of Agreement could rationally have been interpreted as ceding anything to Guatemala.
The reaction of the people then, stoked by political opportunism of the Opposition to which Elrington was allied, was irrational and explosive.
Watching the media-challenged minister struggling under Channel 7’s charge that he was perceived as “crazy” and a “sell-out” is nothing if not ironic for a party that quite literally spent twenty-five years building a case that Price was selling out Belize to Guatemala.
It does not end there, for the minister’s diplomatic gaffe is layered, onion-like, with irony. It should have made his ministerial eyes water to hear the impassioned, public excoriation of himself from the mouth of morning talk show host Mose Hyde.
The two-day verbal flogging administered by Hyde, whose media organization enjoys a monthly payment of $3,000 from the minister’s personal funds for hosting his television show “Belizean Exposure”, bordered on cruel and inhuman punishment. It was a crucifixion of the pious Methodist minister.
The loose-tongued Elrington of course deserved it; still, it was excruciating to watch.
Hyde described Elrington’s defence of the unfortunate phraseology he used while representing Belize in Washington as “arrogant”, “condescending” and “out of touch”.
Elrington, he said, was an “educated idiot” who was “not representing Belize well” and should be reprimanded by the PM for his careless representation of Belize.
It should have naturally occurred to Elrington who recently signed a visa waiver agreement with Israel, that builder of epic boundary walls, that the notion of a border is anything but artificial for a people being claimed by a larger, culturally alien neighbor.
The primal first instinct of a politician is to dig in and defend his actions. Mr. Elrington was no exception. His legal instincts took over and he took refuge in the technical, dictionary definition of “artificial” arguing that it simply meant “man-made”, not “unreal” as contended for by Channel 7’s Jules Vasquez.
He is right. When one fits the competing definitions of the word “artificial” into the sentence he used, the meaning contended for by Elrington is the one that makes sense. But that is to miss the point.
People simply don’t want to hear their foreign minister speaking internationally about an artificial border between themselves and a country that has claimed them for generations.
They have been programmed for generations by people like Elrington himself to react to Belize-Guatemala issues in precisely the way they have reacted to his blunder.
As if to drown the minister, already gasping for political breath in the rushing waves of irony, his campaigner, law partner and patriot par excellence, Sharon Pitts-Robateau , publicly condemned both his word and his definition of it.
One gets the sense that Mr. Elrington feels that he who has strived to be so sincere and forthright, deserved a fairer treatment than he got. He says he is being persecuted.
Except that he has been making it a trademark of his public utterances to put his foot into his mouth. He says and does strange things, like signing a visa waiver Agreement with Israel who supplied arms to Guatemala against Belize in the 1970s.
Precisely one year ago he warned the public that “it’s either we go to the ICJ or take up arms in defense of Belize” against Guatemala.
This was widely interpreted and condemned by the media as an attempt by the minister to “scare Belizeans into voting for the ICJ” when the referendum is eventually held.
He stuck his foot in his mouth again during the course of this year in his public remarks about the judiciary and, shockingly, allowed Channel 5 to bait him, just last night, into making more inappropriate remarks on the question of the Chief Justice’s continuation in office.
But all may not be lost. The minister’s indirect reference to himself as a cockroach, while masochistic and strange was penetrating truthful. After three successive defeats in the Pickstock Division, he refused to go away and persevered to eventually triumph.
His political life story therefore lends the lie to the Ugandan proverb he quoted in his defence. In the court of public opinion manned by chickens, this cockroach may yet survive.
44 comment(s) so far...
Re: Sedi’s Foot in Mouth Disease
neat article! keep up the good writing mr smith.
By poor belize on
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
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Re: Sedi’s Foot in Mouth Disease
Excellent writing style. One of your best pieces. Sedi just seems to bring out the best in you.
By Bring it On on
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
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Re: Sedi’s Foot in Mouth Disease
Godfrey, you and the media houses give much too importance about this "artifical border" business regarding Sedi Elrington. I heard it in the news and said to myself "Whats the big deal ? Those damn Elringtons half crazy anyhow...minister or no minister..senior counsel or no senior counsel" As to you last sentence, I hope your were referring to X, Amalia and Jules...them and you are the chickens who are making much to do about a crazy man.
By Wise one on
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
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Re: Sedi’s Foot in Mouth Disease
Nice one, Godfrey... you scored on each of the many things wrong with this whole big-mouth episode.
By Porkeater on
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
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Re: Sedi’s Foot in Mouth Disease
That cockroach aint no Gregor Samsa.
By Franz Kafka on
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
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Re: Sedi’s Foot in Mouth Disease
The best part of the whole ordeal is that Elrington admits that he looks like a cockroach!
By SAID BARROW on
Thursday, December 24, 2009
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Re: Sedi’s Foot in Mouth Disease
If I were a cockroach I'd be offended!
By SAID BARROW on
Thursday, December 24, 2009
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Re: Sedi’s Foot in Mouth Disease
That Cockroach beat Godfrey
By Irony on
Thursday, December 24, 2009
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Re: Sedi’s Foot in Mouth Disease
Naaah, da neva di cucaracha beat Godfrey, da mi the ten year record of "accomplishments" of Said Musa and his merry band of ratones (of which he was one) that did the trick. Sedi couldn't beat a one legged man in a race! I wonder if da because da christmas time why he deh pan tv so much? This week my lee gial ask mi "da why Santa look so?".
By SAID BARROW on
Thursday, December 24, 2009
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Re: Sedi’s Foot in Mouth Disease
Godfrey are you planning a return to Pickstock? Is this the first of many jabs to come against this cockroach?
By Curious on
Thursday, December 24, 2009
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Re: Sedi’s Foot in Mouth Disease
can't help but feel sorry for Mr. Elrington for some reason. i'm such a ditz most of the time that I could see myself making a mistake like that. really scary how one word can cause so much damage. yikes! politics is a tough career.
By Public defendah on
Saturday, December 26, 2009
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Re: Sedi’s Foot in Mouth Disease
Elrington's comment was 'sedi'tious
By humah on
Monday, December 28, 2009
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Re: Sedi’s Foot in Mouth Disease
Godfrey. You are obviously a gifted/hard-working writer and comparatively speaking a very knowledgeable individual. But as I have read more and more of your blogs/articles, I keep seeing an underlying pattern that is undeniable: You bear too much envy and hypocrisy, and you use your gifts not to reveal the truth, but to force across your points of view and satisfy your ego.
You would be surprised how far you could go if you would only let your ego get out of the way of your talents.
By TheEqualizer on
Monday, December 28, 2009
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Re: Sedi’s Foot in Mouth Disease
Public Defendah,
The problem with the cucaracha is not so much that he made a mistake. We all make mistakes. The problem is that he does not have the cojones to admit to the Belizean people that he did screw up. Who can argue with an apology?
By Said Barrow on
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
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Re: Sedi’s Foot in Mouth Disease
Godfrey, write one about Dean 0 Barrow n all the family ties!
By Said Barrow on
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
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Re: Sedi’s Foot in Mouth Disease
Equalizer I agree with you and I would even say the man narcissistic but I sure as hell like his writing style and like any op-ed I am entitled to disagree or agree and you are too.
By Gadfrey defendah on
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
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Re: Sedi’s Foot in Mouth Disease
Godfrey. Once again, while you have the chance ... It is clear to me that you very clearly understand what Sedi meant to say and that it was in fact a bold and actually a good thing to say. It is the kind of thing you expect to hear from an Obama and, if you did, you would be in praise of him. In fact, John Lennon's song 'Imagine' sparked a new generation of thinking of a world without borders. So Sedi appears to be in laudable company with what he said.
But you have in fact chosen to follow-up the Mose Hydes and their limited understanding of what happens on the ground even to this day. Is Mose Hyde aware that after the official Western 'border' is shut at night, Belizeans and Guatemalans cross back and forth between the 'artificial' border unchecked? Is he aware that our public works have fixed streets in Melchor? Is he aware that Guatemalan children go to school during the day in Benque and return (back home) to Melchor in the evening?
You claim that Sedi has 'Foot in Mouth' disease, when you in fact have 'Ego in the way of Sense' disease. Start being honest with yourself Godfrey ... Sedi did not make a mistake by what he said, he is in fact pointing the way forward to a possible 'solution' to this problem. But it takes a man to see things that way ...
By TheEqualizer on
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
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Re: Sedi’s Foot in Mouth Disease
Equalizer, Yu ah chat schupidness. Sorry fi seh. Sedi ah wa bona fide simpleton n fi u ah support weh him ah seh mek u one too!
By SAID BARROW on
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
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Re: Sedi’s Foot in Mouth Disease
Equalizer, can I have some of what you are smoking?
By Bring it On on
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
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Re: Sedi’s Foot in Mouth Disease
Said Barrow and Bring It On: Back up your inane comments with sensible reasoning; otherwise, shut up!
By TheEqualizer on
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
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Re: Sedi’s Foot in Mouth Disease
Afta me mi read Amandala dis week, me canvince Dean and Lois waahn get rid ah Sedi and da dehn di push Mose and Jules fi kill di man politically and discredit ahn wid dis "hartificial" borda thing. Me think the 7th Constitutional Amendment wehn get push down wi throat soon 'caaze di 90 days lang time up and Dean waahn mek Lois AG. Mind yuh dis damn Sedi just di give dem rope fi hang ihself and di blessed Butty he gaahn and embarass Dean wid dat deh hitting di reef predickshan.
By Conspiracy Theorist on
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
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Re: Sedi’s Foot in Mouth Disease
Equalizer, mek ah back up weh mi ah seh wid sensible reasoning: I said what I said cuz yu ah wa eeeediat!
By SAID BARROW on
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
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Re: Sedi’s Foot in Mouth Disease
Hubert, Sedi n Equalizer cyant even put together one sensible man!
By SAID BARROW on
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
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Re: Sedi’s Foot in Mouth Disease
what Sedi meant to say and that it was in fact a bold and actually a good thing to say. It is the kind of thing you expect to hear from an Obama and, if you did, you would be in praise of him. In fact, John Lennon's song 'Imagine' sparked a new generation of thinking of a world without borders. So Sedi appears to be in laudable company with what he said." - Equalizer
One of the worst things you can do to any fool is to take him seriously. Equalizer has in one intoxicated breath compared Sedi ( and his heresy) to Obama and John Lennon. He probably missed Jesus Christ cos he was too bust trying to ketch back his breath.
Take the assertions in inverse order ( appropriate to this eediat - and go look uo inverse, fool, Sedi wants you to.) First off, Lennon only echoed his generation's apathetic idealism, he did not inspire them. Secondly, Lennon's other lines ask us to imagine nothing to kill or die for, and no religion too. Kind like the UDP empty slogan - we were being asked to imagine the possibilities. Dream on, dreamer of nightmares and naught.
Now on to the next inane and empty assertion - in what way was Sedi's statement the kind of thing you expect to hear from an Obama"? How bout you back up your vacuum with ANY kind of reasoning?
If " Sedi did not make a mistake by what he said, he is in fact pointing the way forward to a possible 'solution' to this problem" then God ( if you believe he/she exists) help us all, cos we would be assimilated faster than you can find your ass.
If it "takes a man to see things that way", then maybe we need to be rescued by a woman's vision. Hmmmm, I wonder if Hilary is free????
By CityCrab on
Thursday, December 31, 2009
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Re: Sedi’s Foot in Mouth Disease
Sedi is a daamn eediat fi gaan and give zinc fence his money. Look weh ketch Ashcroft and Said. Dean and Lois next...hahahahaha
By Whisky and Water on
Thursday, December 31, 2009
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Re: Sedi’s Foot in Mouth Disease
City Crab, why do you think I responded to Equalizer's comments with idle stupidity? That is all it deserved! Anybody who will compare our dim-witted Minister of Foreign Affairs to John Lennon and Barrack Obama has got to be smoking some serious Sh*^! Sedi should best be compared to the likes of his toothless brother, Boots, Finnegan and Tilapia. I figure that he makes one dumb mistake after another because the hair follicles in his beard interrupt the blood flow to his brain. Were he only to shave, Barrow would have half brain power more in cabinet to compliment the existing collection of 3.
By SAID BARROW on
Thursday, December 31, 2009
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Re: Sedi’s Foot in Mouth Disease
Whisky, you nuh hear Sedi tell Adele that he choose Krem for his show because di people deh look like him? I nuh know weh dat di seh bout di pipple da Krem, but if I mi work deh, ah wudda bex!
By SAID BARROW on
Thursday, December 31, 2009
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Re: Sedi’s Foot in Mouth Disease
much ado about nothing!!!
By observer on
Thursday, December 31, 2009
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Re: Sedi’s Foot in Mouth Disease
You right on the money Said Barrow. The problem with people like Sedi is that they are blinded by their racism and now he is getting stabbed in the back by the "brothers" beyiond the zinc fence. If he could only have seen beyond the color of his and their skin he would come to realize that you judge people by character and not by color.
By Whisky and Water on
Thursday, December 31, 2009
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Re: Sedi’s Foot in Mouth Disease
Whisky, You hit the nail on the head!
By SAID BARROW on
Thursday, December 31, 2009
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Re: Sedi’s Foot in Mouth Disease
He actually did say, in an interview with Adele Ramos published in last week's Amandala, that he chose Krem because the people who work there look like Adele and him. I wonder if say Gaspar Vega had said that in an interview, do you think there would have been no issue made of it?
By SAID BARROW on
Thursday, December 31, 2009
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Re: Sedi’s Foot in Mouth Disease
But he did say his preference for the chief justice would be a mestizo. What do you think about this ethnic pronouncement Said barrow?
By Whisky and Water on
Thursday, December 31, 2009
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Re: Sedi’s Foot in Mouth Disease
He mi gaan from himself when he seh dat during one of the frolics his mind takes.
By SAID BARROW on
Thursday, December 31, 2009
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Re: Sedi’s Foot in Mouth Disease
Amandala headline tell the whole agenda...followed by Moses's pronouncements....the Agenda is set for Dean to shub Sedi out....and replace him with somebody close but yet so far away.....the politricks di get boring.....denh no try hide dem game.....2010 Mama Mia!!!!
By Agenda fi mek way fi di lady on
Saturday, January 02, 2010
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Re: Sedi’s Foot in Mouth Disease
As a favour to the Belizean people and to mark the start of the third year of the UDP government on February 8th I think Dean should make Sedi a backbencher and bring Lois in as a Senator. Only dat lef fi give Lois, jus get it over with.
By SAID BARROW on
Monday, January 04, 2010
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Re: Sedi’s Foot in Mouth Disease
To all you PUP hypocrites out there: Please! Hon. Dean Barrow is the only one who has the authority to decide who is Minister and who isn't. The Belizean people gave him that authority in overwhelming fashion on February 7, 2008, and further reinforced it on March 4, 2009. Mr Barrow certainly doesn't need any advise in that regard from such abject failures as you, so please keep it to yourself. As to that crowd behind the Zinc Fence, if they want to appoint a Cabinet, they should have Mark or Cordel run for leader of the PUP or form a new party and try to win a general election. Nuff said. Happy New year, all you hypocrites!
By Intolerant of Hypocrites on
Monday, January 04, 2010
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Re: Sedi’s Foot in Mouth Disease
PUP AND UDP DA HYPOCRITE so if u "Intolerant" da UDP dat mek u one too!
By SAID BARROW on
Monday, January 04, 2010
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Re: Sedi’s Foot in Mouth Disease
Bun Fyah pan all di PUP n UDP tief dem!
By SAID BARROW on
Monday, January 04, 2010
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Re: Sedi’s Foot in Mouth Disease
I think Godfrey should make up his mind what he wants to be. Is he still a PUP? A Musa/Fonseca pawn? Or is he just an Ashroft Puppet now?
By Godfrey Smith Musa Fonseca Ashroft on
Monday, January 04, 2010
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Re: Sedi’s Foot in Mouth Disease
Sedi has sold out. That's as real as it gets. Last year he tried to spook Belizeans with his 'ICJ or war' rhetoric. Then he frolicks in Pickstock with LMA. Now he says the border between Belize and her enemy is unreal. He should be tried and hanged for treason. But it won't happen, because the almighty Barrow has said that Sedi's words, though unfortunate, were alright with him. Intolerant, you are right. The Belizean people believed in Barrow and gave him a massive mandate in 2008. Now look where we are.
By the realist on
Tuesday, January 05, 2010
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Re: Sedi’s Foot in Mouth Disease
Call elections NOW!!!! Oooops, no wait till the Opposition get deh act together!
By SAID BARROW on
Wednesday, January 06, 2010
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Re: Sedi’s Foot in Mouth Disease
but then again, that might not happen before 2013 so betta call elections NOW!!!! Give Patrick Rogers a run! He cyant be worse than Dean and Said!
By SAID BARROW on
Wednesday, January 06, 2010
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Re: Sedi’s Foot in Mouth Disease
And now Barrow's mouth is in mouth disease, though I'd give anything to call Musa a jackass. By the way, Channel 5 won't publish any of my comments that critcises Said Musa and the former PUP administration.
By Student on
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
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Re: Sedi’s Foot in Mouth Disease
oh wait, correction: Barrow's Foot in Mouth disease.
By Student on
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
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