Preservation of Culture

There is a major question many countries all over the world have tried to answer – that is “How do we preserve our culture?” Our world is continuously changing and we continue to gain closer access to other nations through our ever-improving technology. While modern ideas and developments can improve a country’s wellbeing, at times they can threaten the very things that make that country unique. This destruction of culture has fallen under many labels - one of the more familiar descriptions is McDonaldization. That is a society becoming more uniform, ration and predictable – based on American values of efficiency. The symbolism of yellow arches shine with modernization and promise of a better life, as well as the guarantee of greasy hamburgers and french fries 24 hours a day. Yet, while McDonaldization is based on improvement of society, it disrupts the very things that make a society distinctive. Yet, some people aren’t willing to hand over their cultural identity to Roland McDonald, and protests and demonstrations have surrounded attempts at integrating restaurants and ideas into a society. In Belize KFC suffered at the hands of Belizeans who preferred their chicken fried in coconut oil, and failed to thrive as a business.
Culture is a representative word that covers a great number of areas and subjects. In the book Taking Stock of Belize at 25 Years of Independence Michael Stone, in my opinion, effectively describes culture. Stone said that culture refers to an entire way of life, a people’s shared perception of what is essential to the human condition, a dynamic set of ideas expressing a common sense of place, history, and social belonging, framed in terms of language, values, norms, customs, traditions, spiritual orientation, and the like. Taking this into consideration Belize faces many things that threaten culture. Belize must not only be careful of modern, specifically American, ideas and technology, but also the lack of the means to preserve and promote culture. In a recent documentary about Belize musicians titled Three Kings of Belize, there were undertones of the difficulties of preserving culture. In the documentary producer Katia Paradis filmed the lives of Garifuna guitarist Paul Nabor, Mayan harp player Florencio Mess, and Creole accordionist Wilfred Peters. Though they still continue to express their culture passionately through music, they are not living the lives of national celebrities. This documentary may be the most solid way their lives and careers will be commemorated. You can find Florencio Mess in a dirt floor house, living off the land and carving instruments out of the wood from his backyard. Paul Nabor, who has become re-popular because of his collaborations with Andy Palacio, still makes appearances on stage at 79 – his small fragile frame clad in a sharp suit and hat. But, take a bus to Punta Gorda in Belize and you can easily find him sitting on a bench, smoking and strumming in the sun, his paranda music the background of daily routines. After living here and being immersed in the music, it’s hard to imagine such powerful expression of culture lost – but, because of the lack of documentation, outside of these borders not many know about these three kings.
Andy Palacio was one of the first Belizean musicians to gain international acclaim. He was an advocate for the preservation of Garifuna culture and produced the album Watina, which immediately became a hit in the Caribbean and is still spreading to the rest of the world. But Palacio, such a great expression of culture for Belize, recently died after suffering a massive stroke and heart attack. His death is a tragedy – passing at such a breakthrough in his career. I realized what Palacio truly meant to Belizeans one night when standing in line at a grocery store. The T.V. at the front of the store was showing local news on mute and the store bustled with people gathering things for the night’s dinner. When a story about Palacio’s condition came on the whole store stopped what they were doing and looked at the T.V. - everyone became quiet as the volume was turned up. As I glanced around at the people standing still in the store, absorbing every word of the report I could feel the collective holding of breath. Time was stopped for a second. The report, at that time, said Palacio’s condition was still critical, and when it was over the T.V. was muted and the bustle continued in slow motion as people processed the news.
The sad news of Palacio’s death brought thoughts about culture into the front of Belizean minds. I recently attended a discussion about culture held at the Image Factory, a business that produces and sells art. The focus was how to promote cultural awareness and preservation in the next 5 years. Many ideas and proposals were put forward, including an Art Fund to support new artistic talent by supplying loans and grants, as well as a project called “One child, One laptop” which will provide computers to children. The event was held next to the sea and attended by some of the most popular Belizean artists. In such a sad time, there was audible and tangible hope and perhaps a new passion to enhance and document culture.
It is promising that Belizeans realize the importance culture plays in a country. Artistic expression has historical implications and at times, reflects the true feelings and interpretation of events. For example, in Mexico, the art surrounding the Revolution played a major role in not only remembering the Revolution, but in forming ideas and opinions during the Revolution. So cultural expression not only acts as a history book, but can even be used as a tool for social mobilization.
So whether sung by Paul Nabor, written in poetry by Kalilah Enriquez, illustrated in cartoons by Charles Chavannes, painted by Michael Gordon, photographed by Noris Hall, or sculpted by Luke Palacio – Belizean culture will thrive. It stays alive through Carnival, through kite season, through bramming, through rice n’ beans and Maria Sharps hot sauce. Culture lives in the brightly colored homes, in the mahogany wood cut games, in the meat shops and in steel drums. Culture is preserved by Creole Project, which puts the Creole language in print, documenting a language that is prominently oral and given a promising future through the support of Yassar Musa and the Image Factory’s “Culture is Cool” program.
I’ve met Belize’s culture face-to-face and proud to claim roots in this small Central American country. Though there are things that threaten Belizean traditions, the pulse is strong and the vein runs deep from Belize City and through San Ignacio, Corozal, Dangriga, Orange Walk, and Punta Gorda. I look forward to keeping an eye and an ear on the developments. Watina will remain a powerful song to me – meaning “I called out”. Palacio’s passionate singing has found a place in the hearts of all Belizeans, and won’t be forgotten; therefore, because of him, the Garifuna culture has a found place in history.

UNICEF Belize

The quiet shuffle of papers is interrupted by the deep bluesy voice of Roy Bowen as his song trails through the office halls with a round of Lola. My office-mates who sit with me in the conference room late one Friday evening smile and chuckle at our current situation. UNICEF set up a meeting entitled “Boys and Education: The Unspoken Gender Dimension” and it was currently in full swing. But, as events go, preparation crunch time had brought us to this curious moment. We had just returned from the opening reception and dinner ceremony, which kick-started the weekend conference and we still had last minute work to prepare for the next days’ discussions.
Eyes glazed and minds slowly ticking, we prepared folders for the participants of the conference glancing out at the darkened Belizean sky. The assembly line was in steady swing. Papers were rhythmically punched, three ring binders clicked, stacks lined and put into place. As we moved, serenaded by round two of Roy’s disembodied voice, quiet Creole conversation ensued. Here were dedicated workers.
But, sometimes I think that they forget what they do – my UNICEF friends. I remember Rana Flowers, the director, once asking me as she bustled by my desk one day “Why am I doing this, Ashley, remind me?” I smiled and quickly responded, half-jokingly, “It’s for the children…” She laughed, sighed and then headed back to her office.
It’s easy to forget though. The connection of ends and means gets lost in the stress and the rush. Working with UNICEF has shown me more than I expected. Not only how a UN agency works in a developing country, but how much a struggle it can be to prove your country needs help. UNICEF Belize is teetering on the edge of existence. When a country reaches a certain status, UNICEF isn’t needed anymore.
Belize statistically has decent national indicators, but socially – on a ground level – it’s obvious Belize needs as much help as they can get. So for UNICEF it comes down to proving the situation is dire in order to survive as an organization. That is where the disconnection settles in. At a UN government level the proof must not come in sad gripping stories and pictures of barefoot round bellied children, but in graphs and numbers.
Liquefying funds. Something I’ve become familiar with sitting in the conference room with the programme staff as they discuss the various state of UNICEF’s money; Where it’s going, where it came from, but most of all, how to get rid of it. Yes, Rid of It. That surprised me when I heard it tossed into a conversation about getting potable water and improved sanitation to the villages of Belize. There is a need to use up all available funds in order to PROVE you need them – or else the next year you will see less, and maybe be out of a job.
Compared to other counties that have UNICEF, the Belize situation seems peachy – small and peaceful, without war or extreme famine. So the staff at UNICEF must struggle daily to prove the children in Belize need assistance. They must speak louder than the statistics. It is difficult to do so with information like infant mortality rates, which per 1,000 births in Belize is 24, and in a country like Guyana is 48. Taking this into consideration it isn’t surprising that a country like Belize gets pushed into the background.
This is one of the reasons the staff gets caught up in money and management. But seeing is believing, and field visits seem to knock the sense back into their heads. Visiting a village in the Cayo District and observing children getting drinking and washing water out of rusty broken sinks is an image that can stick with you for a while – hopefully all the way back to the office. It is easy to sit and tick off “yes” or “no” on a chart asking what UNICEF Belize accomplished that year. But look deeper into the questions and the humanity creeps back into the room.
During the “Boys and Education: The Unspoken Gender Dimension” conference I saw people coming together on behalf of humanity. The bottom line of this successful conference was that there is an infringement upon the rights of children to education. The denying of rights is revealed in insufficient access, poor treatment in schools, high rates of violence, dilapidated condition of schools, and lack of trained teachers. The holes are wide, gaping and often obvious. Below the surface, the boys struggle. It has been proven that boys struggle in the system a little more than girls. There are many reasons for this, written in countless books and articles and is a trend that has been discussed for years. Yet, the problems for both genders to obtain an education that is complete and useful are intertwined, so the main point is that the school systems are lacking. Both boys and girls need better education, and that means multiple things. It means improved after school programs, more parent involvement, more opportunities to continue education, and less encounters with drugs and violence on the walk to and from school, to name a few.
Hearing people speak passionately about this issue was refreshing. I got to meet the people I had only researched. I also got to see the development of new innovative ideas to address the problem from all angles. Meeting such as these are the types of things that bring purpose back into the job. There is an undeniable power to watching a video of a young boy in Belize talking about how he dropped out because it was impossible for him to afford education at age 14 or listening to an 11 year old speak about how he was expelled for bad behaviour and now thinks it’s too late to continue his education. These are the things that put fuel back into the minds of UNICEF and other attendees of the conference. It is a great scene to witness. Those moments are to be treasured – because it won’t be long till we are back in the conference room liquefying funds and ticking off questions with simple answers.
With realization, complications grow – there is suddenly yet another identified problem, waiting to be fixed. UNICEF continues to teeter on the edge of existence and more issues continue to pile on, adding to the imbalance. But that is what is beautiful about an organization like UNICEF. There is a constant discovery. A new catalyst hit each week. A constant refreshing remembrance of why you choose the path. As deep as a person can get buried in papers and deadlines, any accomplishment changes a child’s life for the better. And that is something to be proud of.