Bicentennial logo and theme launched
The calendar of activities leading up to the two hundredth anniversary of the Battle of St. George’s Caye has been released. The Bicentennial Committee this morning hosted a press conference at the Radisson Hotel during which the logo and theme to be used for the celebrations were launched. According to Chairperson of the Committee Janine Sylvestre, the logo which depicts the battle and the theme: “Belize: Historic Past, Glorious Future,” is open to interpretation.
Janine Sylvestre, Chairperson, Bicentennial Committee
“Two hundred years doesn’t come by very easily and we certainly need to commemorate that. We have a very rich history and I think we have a very promising future, so as a committee we came up with the theme and it’s something that is really beautiful. It has a wonderful meaning as well.”
Sylvestre says thousands of visitors, including Belizeans living abroad, are expected to be in Belize for the celebrations. Among the highlights are the re-enactment of the Battle of St. George’s Caye and the anticipated visit of a member of the Royal Family. According to Janine Sylvestre, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs through the Belize High Commission in London, has sent an invitation to Prince Andrew to visit Belize for the Bicentennial Celebrations which will be launched next Tuesday by Prime Minister Manuel Esquivel.
While members of the Bicentennial Committee keep their fingers crossed in hopes that Prince Andrew will accept their invitation, plans are proceeding quite smoothly for the historic re-enactment of the Battle of St. George’s Caye. According to Coordinator of the exercise Tom Greenwood, the forty five minute dramatic presentation will be put together in such a way as to take spectators back in time two hundred years.
Tom Greenwood, Coordinator, Reenactment Exercise
“Luckily Belize caters to some sailing ships for tourism purposes. So the first thing we did was to contact these people and at the moment it looks like we’ve go three with the possibility of another three more. And as you know, these sailing ships as you’ve seen them in the harbor, look pretty much like the gunships of old, and we’re going to doll them up a bit and all that, so that angle is covered. The Honorable Paul Warren thought we should strap some barges together and we can put smoke grenades on them and all that and they can represent St. George’s Caye. But we’re fortunate; we have a very nice little island out there called Stake Bank and that is nice and solid ground, so I see that being portrayed as a scenario of St. George’s Caye and Caye Chapel.”
Q: “The whole activity will not only be entertainment, will it be educational as well?”
Tom Greenwood
“I certainly hope so because I mentioned during this press conference that the Battle of St. George’s Caye has been a political football and that is a sadness of politics. It’s a world I entered once and it’s not the best of worlds but it is beyond the shadow of a doubt, a historical fact, that on the third September 1798 a flotilla of 32 ships came in from the Bay of Campeche into the area of Caye Chapel and St. George’s Caye and that the attackers were threatening to drive out or kill the residents of British Honduras and what would in the future become our jewel called Belize. And because those people stood up and fought we are where we are at today.”
The re-enactment of the Battle of St. George’s Caye will be staged in the Belize City harbor at Fort Point on the morning of September Tenth.
