Conference promotes conflict resolution
It’s been a while since we’ve heard anything about the Guatemalan claim to Belize, and while the O.A.S. sponsored facilitation process has disappeared into history, the dispute was very much on the minds of scholars today at the Princess Hotel in Belize City. Day three of the Higher Education Conference sponsored by the University of Belize and San Carlos University saw presentations on regional conflicts, namely Belize-Guatemala, Guyana-Venezuela, and Barbados-Trinidad. In the case of our own situation, Rector of San Carlos University in Guatemala City, Dr. Luis Monteroso, says while diplomacy has not really failed, perhaps the time has come for the two countries to approach the claim from a different perspective.
Dr. Luis Monteroso, Rector, San Carlos University
“I think maybe university people can find a better solution than politicians. I think that when the people get in touch, know each other, see the reality of the things, maybe the mind change. Because from the capital, from Guatemala City, we can see the reality, where here, trying to get in touch with the people from the university trying to get some papers together, work together, some investigations on all this land which is in dispute, I think all this helps because I don’t think that we can find a solution with the army.”
Ilda Chiac, Second Year Student, U.B.
“One of the things I believe this conference will achieve is, well, first and foremost create an awareness and help Belizeans and students to find better ways of solving conflicts in our world. For instance the Belize-Guatemala issue, for ages this has been going on and on and up to now we haven’t found a solution to that problem. So this conference will open our minds and create a better environment for us to approach the problem perhaps from a different perspective so that we could find a solution finally to settle or to resolve this issue.”
Arnoldo Villas, First Year Student
“A conference like this, as I said before, brings a lot of awareness, makes people aware of what the issues really are. And it gives a lot of insight, a lot of food for thought of how we can go ahead and solve their conflict that has been going on for many years.”
Professor Rex Nettleford, Vice Chancellor, U.W.I.
“Well its not a question of one or another and this notion of separating academic from political, practical from intellectual, it’s something again that we have inherited from our masters. All human acts are acts of intelligence, which means that they are reinforced by thought and critical thinking. And we have to prepare ourselves for this, otherwise, first of all to be able to define the problem, the nature of the problem, and secondly to find ways of solving them, our modalities which will take us along the route to a solution. And this is an intellectual/practical exercise and we mustn’t get into this anti-intellectual attitude that academics are fit only to think and not act. Those who act must think and those who think must act.”
The conference continues through Friday at the Princess Hotel.
