The Belize City House of Culture and Downtown Rejuvenation Project – it’s been dubbed revolutionary by its creators, the Government of Belize and the National Institute of Culture and History. The plan is to take downtown Belize back to the days of old when the area was a small colonial settlement on the Haulover Creek. In fact, the plan is to replace the House of Culture with a National Colonial Museum. The project was launched on Wednesday with much fanfare, but one man is not impressed. Yasser Musa is an artist and the former President of the National Institute of Culture and History. He told News Five today that the project is just a sick joke.
Yasser Musa, Former President, NICH
“That is a crazy idea that came forward yesterday, but it is not an idea that was unexpected because last year September, the Minister of Culture announced that they were going to establish a national colonial museum, his words. So this is just a repackaging of that stupid idea. It was stupid then and it is even more stupid now because they have put fifteen million dollars on the table for it. And that is a disgraceful and a disaster for our development especially as it relates to two things—culture and education; this thing is about education as well.”
Yasser Musa
Mike Rudon
“They are saying that what they want to do fundamentally is take Belize back into the olden days when it was just a small settlement along the Haulover Creek. Do you see that as fundamentally flawed?”
Yasser Musa
“I see it as an ideological problem. Belizean people fought for, resisted and struggled against a colonial power to win their independence. And what does that mean? Their right to self-determination, their right to free speech, their right to freedom of a conscience, their right to express themselves; which is important especially as an artist. The fundamental problem with this idea is that it holds on to something that doesn’t exist. It is trying to create something that is a complete crazy, absurd idea in our national consciousness. Why am I saying this? Because instead of building a structure to celebrate a colonial mentality; we should be unleashing the ingenuity, the creativity of our people, especially our young people. They are the majority of the population; they should have their say. And what do they want? They want the tools of creativity.”
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