We have all, at some point in time, heard the phrase, “The American Dream” but is there a “Belizean Dream”?
Well…
Do Belizeans dream?
I dream. My friends dream. My two brothers, they have dreams. So I’d say yes. Belizeans dream. And if we can borrow from the idea of the American Dream, then when we talk about the “Belizean Dream”, we are talking about the national ethos of the Belizean people. We are talking about the common factors in our individual dreams; the set of ideals we share as a country such as liberty, rights, opportunities for prosperity and success, as well as higher standards of living and quality of life.
I’ve asked several of my friends and family members this question over the last 30 days.
“The Belizean Dream?!” they’ve all exclaimed, “that’s a good question!”
They were all clueless as to what the Belizean Dream is or that there was such a thing. But even without it being termed, the dream does exist. Even if we have not taken the time to define our national ethos, we have one. That was proven to me by the commonalities of each individual’s answer that I spoke to. In an effort to make it simpler for my subjects whom I caught off guard with the question, I rephrased it. “What is your dream as a Belizean woman?” or man… or child… or youth?
For a lot of people their dream is connected to becoming wealthy and being able to achieve the things they want through hard work. For others it is much more and is beyond materialism. For them it is the dream of living a simple, happy and fulfilling life and the most important features being freedom and equality.
Too many Belizean have perhaps never reached what they’ve hoped for because we have not been working together. To make “The Belizean Dream” come true all Belizeans have to work together.
We are individuals but together, we make the whole and it is equally as important to have collective goals as it is to have our individual life plans. So we must establish what our dreams are for Belize because it will give us a clearer understanding of the direction we want to take as a people.
You can do something that is good for you, you can do something that is good for your country …or you can do something that’s good for both.
They say, if you want to go fast, go alone but if you want to go far, go together. Life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement.
