A Protest Against the High Cost of Living

Last year, Moses Sulph’s Belize Leaders for Social Justice carried out a protest on the high cost of gas prices. While results were mixed as prices have gone up and down since and a third price hike in as many weeks just went into effect, Sulph is hoping for better luck with a protest that will cover a wider range of issues this coming Saturday.  With increases scheduled for electricity and cable, Belizeans are being asked to initiate a discussion on how to pressure the government to increase wages to keep up with rising costs.

Moses Sulph

Moses Sulph, Co-Chair, Belize Leaders for Social Justice

“This protest is about the cost of living; the cost of living is too high. And there are different branches or different items that are under that high cost of living: we have high rent costs, we have high light costs, we have high water costs, now cable is going up – and all these things are increasing; the cost of living has totally increased over the last twenty years by about a hundred and fifty percent, I would believe, and then people are asked to survive on the same wages that they are making. So we realize and we know that there is a lot of hardship and suffering and we just want to appeal and get people to understand that we as a people who are directly affected by these different things can directly get involved by taking direct action. And this is our duty and our responsibility as citizens: when you’re facing these hardships, you need to cry out and to take steps in order for those who are in government to understand that you are not able to survive and provide the basics for yourself and your family based on the high cost of living.  On Saturdays, there are more people off work than on work, I believe, and there are also thousands of mothers who are not working who has to survive with the high cost of living and the little bit of money that they either got from their spouse or who provides for their family. I am not dissuaded by the outcome of the past marches; however, I am hoping, and I am always optimistic that because people are facing a hard time, that at some point, they are going to realize that only by taking direct action that change comes.”

The protest begins at ten-thirty Saturday morning at Constitution Park on Cemetery Road, from which protestors will march to Battlefield Park for a rally.