PM Chastises Crowd for not Singing Belize’s National Anthem

During today’s ceremony in Caye Caulker to celebrate the island’s new water treatment plant, Prime Minister John Briceño made an unexpected move. He paused the event and asked for a restart because the attendees weren’t singing along to Belize’s national anthem. Once the music stopped, students from Caye Caulker R.C. Primary School and Ocean Academy were invited to lead the anthem alongside the prime minister. We spoke with him after the event, where he explained why he felt it was important to correct the audience.

 

Prime Minister John Briceno 

“I think I want to start off by what I said at the beginning.  love of country. It really upsets me that people don’t want to sing the National Anthem. I always say we love beliefs, but show it. Sing the National Anthem, pick up the garbage, show by practice how much you love this country. And it’s important for us to inculcate that in our children. That’s why I, if you notice when I started, I said, let’s stop, let’s start again. We have to do that at all times. You, the media, also should call out, whenever that may happen, Hey, you need to sing the national anthem. Show how proud you are of this country.”