State of Emergency Ends in Lake-I

Cordel Hyde

Now that the state of emergency for the Lake Independence community has been lifted, there is great hope for peace to prevail. As Area Representative for Lake-I, Cordel Hyde says the course of change in his constituency begins with education. Here is how he responded, when asked about the S.O.E. coming to an end.

Cordel Hyde, Acting Prime Minister

“Thank goodness it has come to an end. As I have said before, this is not an overnight problem. This is a problem that has been there for decades. We continue to do all we can daily to try to address the issues, to try to alleviate the issues really. This is not an overnight problem. This is a problem that has been there for decades. We continue to do all we can to try to help, to try to alleviate the issues, and to try to address the issues really, to make sure that ultimately that is not a choice, you have other choices. That is what it is about, making sure you have other choices. The truth of the matter is there are see other people who no matter what you do will go down that road. Our job is to be there for the people who don’t want to go down that road, who want to go down a different route. But, at the end of the day I am a big proponent for making sure the young kids stay in school, trying to make sure they don’t fall out of school and don’t become easy targets, easy candidate for gang membership and that sort of stuff. Every year for many years over fifteen hundred kids drop out of school each year and lots of times they don’t go back to school. Lots of times these are kids in standard five and six and first form, and second form. And, why do they fall out of school? They fall out of schools because of economic reasons. Ultimately, the job of this government is the firm priority we have. We started already with the free education campaign of south side Belize City where we are making sure kids will have everything they need to go to the four government high schools on the south side. I am a firm believe that once you finish school you won’t join any gang, you won’t get into trouble and you won’t get killed.”