“Belize doesn’t need promises—we need action. We don’t need slogans—we need solutions.”

By: Omar Silva I Editor/Publisher

National Perspective Belize 📰 Editorial

www.nationalperspectivebz.com

Belize City: Friday 22nd August 2025: From the slow creep of Fusarium across our cane fields to the stinking shores littered with sargassum and the silent but deadly advance of the New World Screwworm, Belize is under attack—not by a foreign power or external empire—but by government inertia. These crises are not new. They’ve been reported, analysed, and presented with solutions by independent voices, most notably The National Perspective Belize. Yet the response from the Government under Plan Belize 2.0 has been: silence, spin, and surrender.

⚠️ Fusarium: A Blight on More Than Just Cane

For months, cane farmers have cried out about the devastating effects of Fusarium Wilt on sugarcane—the backbone of the north’s economy. And yet, all we hear from the Ministry of Agriculture is recycled rhetoric and vague references to “technical support” and “pilot plots.”

• Where is the emergency funding?
• Where is the long-term action plan?
• Where is the public-private mobilization to save one of Belize’s few functioning industries?

“The 2025 crop will fall far below expectations, and the blame will not be on climate—it will be on complacency.”

🐛 Screwworm: From Cattle to Humans

The New World Screwworm, once thought eradicated, is back with a vengeance. After wiping out livestock, it has now infected not one, but two humans. This is no longer just a veterinary problem; it's a public health emergency.

Where is the national strategy to procure sterile flies—a method proven successful in past eradication efforts? Why hasn’t Belize joined hands with its regional partners or the IAEA to tackle this head-on? The sterile fly solution has worked for decades in Mexico and Central America. Why not here?

“How many more children and elderly must suffer before the Government takes decisive action?”

🌊 Sargassum: A Rotten Welcome to Belize’s Shores

The PUP government boasts about tourism figures while ignoring what tourists actually see when they arrive: rotting heaps of sargassum choking our coastlines, killing marine life, and driving down bookings.

Fisherfolk in Sarteneja, Placencia, and Hopkins watch helplessly as their catch dwindles. Meanwhile, hotel owners rake and bury seaweed daily with no help from a government that appears allergic to innovation.

Where is the inter-ministerial task force on sargassum? Where is the public-private partnership with eco-tech companies to convert sargassum into compost or energy? Other nations are turning crisis into opportunity—why not Belize?

🚨 What Plan Belize 2.0? Where Is the Fight?

This was the government that came in on a wave of promises. Promises to restore agriculture. To fight for the environment. To protect the working class. And yet, what we see is a government waiting for solutions to fall from the sky, rather than rolling up its sleeves and confronting these national threats.

“This is not leadership—it’s a dangerous, colonial-era passivity dressed up in party blue.”

✊🏽 FUTURE Must Be Built on Action, Not Excuses

It’s time for Belizeans to recognize the deadly cost of political apathy and legacy thinking. We must stop worshiping plans that offer slogans instead of transformation. FUTURE must mean:

• Protecting what remains of our industries
• Supporting manufacturing and local production
• Eradicating pests and invasive threats with science, urgency, and coordination
• Investing in resilient systems, not just PR campaigns

If we allow sugar, cattle, tourism, and fisheries to fall… what is left but a nation dependent on foreign aid and loans?

 That is not economic independence. That is not transformation. That is a trap.