Happy Birthday Mr. Price

On January 15^th the Right Honorable George Price celebrates his 91^st birthday. To celebrate this occasion I went to visit Mr. Price at his home. As always Mr. Price welcomed me to his humble home, always making a fuss over my being comfortable. As we visited together, I couldn’t help but have a flashback.

The year was 1979 and the general election campaign was in full swing. In Orange Walk, a few hundred of us were waiting on the San Antonio road for our Party Leader, George Price. Mr. Price was campaigning in the rural villages of the Orange Walk District. It was already getting dark when we saw an old Land Rover drive up to the group of us waiting there. I recall at the time being very excited. This was the first election I was going to be a voter. As the Land Rover came to a halt, Mr. Price got out of his vehicle and waved at us. I felt my heart racing and then and there I realized that this man would lead us to independence.

George Price has a way of having a lasting effect on people. All my life I heard about Mr. Price. We know that from a very young age he showed discipline and determination; he is a man who always knew what he wanted.

Before politics he joined the Seminary studying to become a priest, but it seems that God had a different plan for him.  That plan was for George Price to serve the people of Belize. After the 1931 hurricane, Mr. Price returned to Belize, worked for Sydney Thurton and shortly afterwards became involved in the Nationalist movement and the march towards independence began.

But while he is singularly recognized for attaining independence, he was the one that created this modern nation in Central America in the heart of the Caribbean called Belize.

Of course to create a country requires that as Belizeans we must all accept our own identity while at the same time understanding we are one people.  George Price was the first Belizean to consciously start the campaign that we are one people — Creole, Garifuna, Mestizo, Maya , Chinese and all other ethnic groups.

For many years, Mr. Price was harshly criticized for keeping foreign investors out of Belize. His rationale was simple; Belizeans needed the space to grow so that we could compete against these foreign investors. Central America was riddled with so many examples where rich investors came in and took control of many of the important industries, turning their people into second-class citizens in their own country. He was not going to allow this to happen in Belize.

He could have let in the big conglomerates and the big hotels, but the result of that would have been that Belizeans would end up as cooks and cleaners; he wanted us to also be the owners. With that in mind, he introduced legislation that limited foreign ownership of Belizean land. At the same time he started investing in education. Schools were built in all the major cities, towns and villages. High Schools and Sixth Forms were built. Scholarships were made available to our brightest Belizeans.

In the development of our economy, Mr. Price came up with the concept of the mixed economy.  He was convinced that as a young nation, the government must have an input in the development of its economy. That is why he encouraged industries in Belize that he felt were in the best interest of the nation.

One of his biggest gambles and successes was the sugar industry. He convinced Tate & Lyle to invest in a modern sugar factory in Orange Walk, develop thousands of acres of cane land and after a period of time, sell the cane lands to the cane farmers in the North. He did the same in the South with the citrus and banana industries. In San Pedro he encouraged tourism and he brought the Mennonites to come to Belize and settle in the Cayo and Orange Walk districts and work the land.

I recall as a boy in Standard 6 when Mr. Price came to our home for dinner, and took the time to speak to me about the importance of being bi-lingual in Belize. He said that in the future Belize would be trading closely with Central America and there would be many opportunities for Belizeans who spoke Spanish and English.

It is for the historians to write and translate the legacy of George Price, but this I know; Belize is a much better nation because of the hard work and dedication of the Rt. Hon. George Price.

And so on behalf of a grateful nation and of the People’s United Party, thank you Mr. Price, Happy Birthday and may God continue to shower you with peace, love and blessings.

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