RE-ENGINEERING THE CULTURAL ECONOMY

Remarks by Alan Slusher

Annual Meeting of Heads of Departments MINISTRY OF TOURISM AND CULTURE

Burrell Boom 6 December 2013

Honourable Minister, Chief Executive Officer, President, Directors, and Department Heads, Ladies and Gentlemen: First, I would like to thank you for inviting me here today. It is not every day that one gets the opportunity to do ones work in ones own home village. Yesterday afternoon I had the good fortune to listen to a very informative presentation by Laura Frampton, Alyssa Carnegie and Abel Castaeda of the Belize Tourism Board, and Tracy Panton of the Ministry of Tourism. I very quickly came to the conclusion that there was not very much that I could say today that you folks dont already know, are already doing, or are planning to do in tourism. Except perhaps for one little area that was touched on briefly but not followed up in the presentation, perhaps because of time considerations. And I know that some work has been done in the area, perhaps by NICH rather than by the BTB, but for one reason or another I guess shortage of resources has not been followed up as consistently as perhaps it might be. Please bear with me for a moment while I go over some background that you would probably be familiar with. The word culture, if I remember my elementary sociology, refers to the particular ways and patterns in which an identifiable group of people, individually and together, engage in living and making a living,
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that is, their patterns of social and economic interaction. An important component of this culture lies is the manner in which these ways and patterns of behaviour are manifested and represented. Thus: language, and the ways in which it is used; science and technology, and the ways in which they are utilised in daily life; cuisine, both what is prepared and how that preparation and consumption take place; norms, taboos, and behavioural practices and conventions; gender roles; values and ideology; recreational activities; commercial practices; social structure, and the ascription of social status; the practices of politics, governance, and the management of the affairs of the group; religion and religious practices;

are all aspects of what I call the manifestations of culture, as opposed to what I call the representations of culture, what are sometimes termed the aesthetics of culture. These representations include art, music, dance, literature, fashion in all its aspects, architecture. In other
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words, reflections of how a cultural group sees itself. Of course, it is sometimes impossible to draw a hard line between manifestation and representation, particularly since they both influence each other. One critically important factor that straddles both aspects has involved the attempts by every cultural group to explain its existence and its reason for being, and to define a place for itself in the overall scheme of things; this factor has in fact been an ongoing process that has had tremendous impact on the relations between groups over time. The word economy has to do with all aspects of production, exchange, consumption and investment activities through which a people generate value and share the material and social goods that are required first for survival, and then, after the basic survival requirements are satisfied, for recreation, enjoyment, and intellectual and spiritual reflection and exploration. These latter processes, of course, also lead to expansion in the production of goods and services, of income and wealth, and most importantly, they lead to changes in the patterns of behaviour and representations of those patterns, that, taken together, define the groups culture. The reason for this is quite simple: satisfying the basic material needs for survival, and the required interaction with the natural environment in that process, have historically been the initial prime determinants of cultural practices. Differences in the natural environment in different parts of the planet have substantially influenced the nature of that interaction in those different parts, and by extension the manifestation and representation of cultural practices. Hence we have a world with different cultures. The point I want you to take from all of this is that the processes of development, which involve increases in the resources available to the
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group and to individuals, as well as increasing interaction with other groups in the course of trade and exchange, processes that serve to satisfy the increasing levels and range of needs and wants, lead inevitably to cultural change, both in manifestation and in representation. And an important characteristic of that change is a tendency towards cultural convergence as between the cultural groups engaged in the interaction. Of course, there is no suggestion of equity or balance or smoothness in the processes of cultural convergence; that would be unusual. What actually happens is that although there is absorption and adaptation of cultural practices on both sides when two different cultural groups engage in sustained interaction, one set of practices usually playsa dominant role, with the extent of the dominance reflecting a number of factors including the relative size of the two groups, the degree of aggressiveness of one of the cultures, or the extent to which one culture is technologically dominant and innovative in its interactions both with its natural environment and with its global social context. I present this brief background to make two points, with both of the points being premised on the notion that we are engaged in the development and promotion of tourism not just, or even mainly, because we love to have people from other countries visit our shores (although that physical and intellectual stimulation is good for us), but because providing for visitors generates the resources we need for our continued survival, growth and development. So that the first point is that there is money to be made from encouraging outsiders to visit, through the sale of our goods and services. And our tourism industry workers and managers have
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succeeded in turning the industry into the largest single employer, and the largest generator of export earnings in Belize. I dont have to list for you the products that we have been so successful in selling; you know them much better than I do. And you also know better than I do your programme for broadening and deepening the range and character of what we sell, and for expanding the marketing effort, training local suppliers, and intensifying quality assurance arrangements, while increasing the efficiency of all industry processes. The second point I would like to make is that our tourism is heavily natural-resources based, and is therefore very dependent on climate, season, and day-to-day weather, and the consequences of these for visitor comfort and safety. I make these two points to say the following: our primary objective is not just the sustained expansion of earnings from foreign visitors (what we currently call tourism) but the sustained expansion of incomes and employment for all individuals and groups in the society that are willing to work; although our tourism industry is heavily natural-resources based, there is a substantial component in the product mix that we might refer to as cultural tourism. This largely takes the form of activities related to the now collapsed Mayan civilisation and its artefacts, although more modern cultural representations (contemporary scenes in paintings, sculpture, and related locallyproduced memorabilia) form a small adjunct to the nature and adventure tours and visits to Mayan ruins. And city heritage tours clearly provide a living for some industry participants. In addition,
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the EU-financed project with the long name, intended to encourage industry participation on the part of residents living near visitor sites, and the nascent programme to develop village craft production and to bring that output to the notice of wholesalers and retailers where visitors congregate, are clearly efforts to be encouraged. So that we are beginning to sell to visitors a look at the manifestations of our living culture, and to sell some of its representations. But please remember, as I mentioned, that the acculturation process works both ways, with the extremely strong demonstration effects of North Atlantic lifestyles via our TV sets being reinforced by increasingly direct contact with people who appear to live those lifestyles, and who are seen to be no different from us (so why we cant have what they have?). So that the cultural differences on which we base sales could very well fade away;
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but while we are concentrating on visitors to our shores our own people who supposedly live our culture are regular and frequent tourists in a country to the north of us, in search of goods, services, and facilities that are seen as no longer available locally, resulting in a compression of our distribution sector (with negative effects for incomes and employment), shrinkage of our recreation arrangements, and, together with our recent past (and hopefully never to return) personal security issues, converting many of our municipal centres into virtual ghost towns after dark. Good restaurants are few; movie houses effectively do not exist; shopping centres and malls are not worth those names; good services quality is something to be prized when found; and, apart
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from higher-end consumables, appliances and hardware, the quality of goods on sale at the retail level is indifferent. Middleincome people no longer buy clothing and footwear locally, and bookstores, wellIt is almost impossible to purchase a new, foreign-made video or audio disc locally. The point of all this, and this is no reflection on our tourism industry, is that in my opinion, there is tremendous opportunity for income generation in focusing our efforts in recapturing the purchasing power of our own nationals, and encouraging them to spend locally, perhaps on the very same goods that they buy in Yucatan, but with us providing the accompanying services. How do we do this. Our society is diverse culturally. We have to make our visitors experience every aspect of that diversity, and pay for the privilege, and we have to generate the same desire on the part of our locals. You would be very surprised to know the extent to which our people are unfamiliar with our history, and with the current composition of our society. We can argue to what extent we are really a coherent nation, with a widely shared sense of nationalism. For many of us there is, in the words of Orlando Patterson, the Jamaican sociologist, an absence of ruins. We have only a vague idea of whence we came. I have a sense that in the past we were more together, or perhaps each municipality or village was closer-knit, in the sense of people interaction. Certainly the night-life in Belize City was infinitely more vibrant than it now is; and good quality merchandise was available in the stores, although incomes were much lower. But that is only a subjective memory.
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As an aside, an important issue here is what I see as a discontinuity for perhaps most Belizeans, including our Mayan communities, between the cultural practices of the civilisation the ruins of whose monuments contribute in an important way to our tourism product, and the culture which we actually live. For most of us, our cultural manifestations have evolved mainly from the consequences of what started with Britishdominated forestry production beginning in the 1600s, alongside (on the one hand) the ebb and flow of Mayan peasant descendants west into Guatemala and back again into Belize, first to escape British predators looking for slave labour, and then later to escape Guatemalan predators looking for the same thing; and (on the other hand) the flow of indios and mestizos into Belize from north of the Rio Hondo as a consequence of the Guerra de Castas. What we have from the very great achievements of the Mayan civilisation comes from what we read about, not what we live, except at the basic peasant level. And this has contributed to the desecration of those monuments for all kinds of purposes (beginning long ago with the British for road-building) without a strong negative response from the population as a whole. This raises the question of what kinds of products (and the relationship between those products and the actual, lived cultural reality) we can expect in the medium- and longer-term future from the current wellintentioned projects to increase the participation of people living near visitor sites in archaeological-based tourism. We can perhaps start by trying to address the ghost town syndrome. Take Belize City. Am I right that the tourism master plan for Belize City contemplates walkway development from Memorial Park right through to St Johns Cathedral, Birds Isle, or perhaps Yarborough? Even if it doesnt we might consider arrangements for mid-morning performingPage 9 of 12

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arts shows at the Bliss whenever a cruiseship is in the harbour (I gather this has been tried before, but it is not a short-term project), representing some aspect of our cultural diversity: a short play, dancing, poetry-reading (or in combinations), together with the sale of related merchandise (video and audio discs, books and booklets, local designer clothing reflecting our cultural diversity [Mayan and Garifuna designs could prove to be particularly attractive], and so on). A mid-day end to a show means a need for good restaurants: North Front Street, Queen Street, Foreshore, Regent Street, Albert Street. Presentations of these same types in the evenings will attract those visitors who remain in Belize City (initially business visitors who must stay in town), and will attract locals too, as will the restaurants, particularly those with clublike characteristics. And the narrow strip from Memorial Park to Birds Isle/Yarborough should be relatively easy to police, with so much riding on making the arrangements crime-free. We may want to pay particular attention to the establishment of a carefully designed food-court that features our culturally diverse cuisine. In everything that we do we must emphasise quality and class, and we need to be very careful to avoid the creation and establishment of facilities that are not properly maintained, and that quickly take-on a slum-like appearance. I am very happy with the welcome change to Battlefield Square. Small is not beautiful in all things. We are now building sports centres. Let us keep them fully utilised with games that are attractive to locals and visitors. We may want to explore the possibility of some daytime games. All of this is going to be culture-based, of necessity.
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Clearly, arrangements will need to be put in place to develop or bring together the required skill-sets: play and story writing; music for dance and plays; visual arts skills for paintings and play backdrops; design and sewing skills for garments. These activities are all skills-creating and self-empowering, and stimulate the enterprise spirit in individuals. Laura mentioned yesterday the need for institutional arrangements for the training of hotel and restaurant workers; similar arrangements are going to be required here. A lot of curriculum development and teacher training work will be required in our primary and secondary schools to address not only the capacity requirements of a servicesoriented growing cultural production and distribution sector, but even more important, to create the can-do and will-do helpful attitude that is absolutely required if we are to acquire and maintain the market share of spending in our domestic economy from visitors and locals alike that is required for our sustained growth and development. Civic pride, and a sense of order and cleanliness, are absolute requirements. We dont throw garbage in the streets in Chetumal. We should bear in mind, too, that for locals travelling north the issue is not just entertainment and recreational services. There is a cost consideration, and this is in part related to the differences in arrangements for the collection of trade taxes at the Mexican and Guatemalan borders, as against the ASYCUDA-based systems at our seaports and airports. These differences need to be addressed. There is also the issue of the relative attractiveness or lack of it of local design work. Furniture is a case in point. But we have the capacity. We are just not utilizing it sufficiently. We will always be an import-dependent economy, so long as our consumption and investment patterns require goods and services that
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cannot be produced locally. But we are excellent learners; and with the right incentives and attitudes we can do a lot in the services areas. Over the last 50+ years the Mennonites have shown us what can be done in Belize with hard work and thrift. Our own non-Mennonite citizens from all our ethnic groups who have migrated to the north can point to success and achievement levels abroad second to none, except perhaps in foreign politics. So. How do we persuade our authorities to invest, beginning in a small way, in organised music training, writing, dance, and clothing design and manufacture, while we put the support infrastructure in place? What do our surveys tell us about what might keep our people spending a much larger share of their income at home, and encourage visitors to want more than nature-based activities and viewing the ruins of a collapsed civilisation, and therefore to spend on these and more? What might encourage our distribution sector to invest in Belize? The bottom line really is, in order to complement and expand our current laudable efforts in relation to visitors, how do we get our own people to stay in Belize much more of the time, and spend at home? Thank you for your indulgence.

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