Rhenae Nunez has Foot and Mouth Disease

THE FLY CATCHER

Contributed by Rhenae Nunez Sunday, February 26, 2006

What Qualifies a S-hero
It is unclear when the so called women’s movement started in Belize. Our history is dotted with names and events of women who we can consider to be heroes or s-heroes. Every so often a woman is recognized for her contribution to Belize, yet I have never heard of this being attributed to the so-called women’s movement. Nonetheless, there is a women’s movement in Belize and today more than ever, women are rising to places of prominence by their personal struggles.
The so-called women’s movement in Belize has existed without a clear agenda or a clear definition of what constitutes a “s-hero”. The talk for over a decade has been about ‘gender equity’. Recently it seemed that this has evolved to the issues of domestic violence and HIV/AIDS. I guess I can take it to mean that the women’s movement has latched onto these two issues and does not embrace or acknowledge other trail blazing women. The recent ascension of Justice Michelle Arana to the Supreme Court was historic. It is a first for Belize and not a regular occurrence anywhere in the world – not even in the great U. S. of A. The news was downplayed in some parts of our media and in some cases downright dismissed. Sad. The so called women’s movement was mute on the event. But then I ask myself, where I place a gem like Justice Arana in the context of this women ’s movement? This is important because there was a time in Belize when women could not vote in this country. Then came what I suspect was patronage and tokenism when it was fashionably and politically correct to put a woman “there”. This is not to say that the Nurse Seay’s and Ms. Gwendolyn Lizarraga and many others did not earn their spot. Indeed they may be greater heroes than others who proceeded them because when they rose to prominence men were not in that frame of thought that would have entertained the notion of a woman sitting on seats of power next to them.

Fast forward to today. There are over forty women contesting the upcoming Municipal Elections - Twenty-two for the PUP and nineteen for the UDP. This can be billed as the year of the women. Zenaida Moya who vies for Mayor of Belize City has been hailed by her people as a hero and has been described by many colorful words like “avatar, gem and s-hero”. Yet the imageries have not caught on with the greater Belize City populace. Why? Because of a few basic things - Zenaida Moya has basically been on a free ride. She has not paid any real dues. In this business called politics, you earn more detractors than you do supporters when you do not pay dues. She was invited out of Belmopan to contest the mayoral seat. It is bad for a man, worse for a woman. This free ride offered Zenaida Moya is cause for much consternation amongst the UDP body politic. She comes with a history of getting free rides to high chairs without really earning her spot. In the eyes of those who were bypassed by the UDP leadership, Zenaida is no Evita Peron, or Coretta Scot-King or Gwendolyn Lizarraga or Rosa Parks. There is an air of disingenuousness and opportunism that pervades her latest pursuit. Belizeans first heard of this so called s-hero when she was Registrar of Cooperatives, then she later resurfaced as a member of public service senior managers, then a senior member of the Public Service Union. A trace of her public service past leaves a cloud of doubt right up when she “heroically” resigned to become the UDP’s babe for Mayor of Belize City. Zenaida comes with bag loads of cynicism from her own people who do not think she is really one of them. Her candidacy is shrouded in doubt about her very integrity that she has been held up as a paragon of morality.

In the meanwhile the women’s movement withholds it’s observations if any on the new developments in our political history. Hopefully when the dust is settled we can at least know what criteria we use to qualify a s-hero.