The Garifuna Ego
Posted in Raymond Martinez on 12/20/2008 12:44 pm by adminthe Garifuna Ego.
Is destreying the potential, of the garifuna community.
there is no dought that there are , great minds in our community, but our ego,s is bigger than our potential.
I could assert to this, because for the last 17 years i have been directley involved, in the garifuna organized
movement, I have spoken, one way or the other,with most of our leaders and have seing how they operate many things
have been acomplish, yet many more could have been, acomplished if it not have been, for the garifuna ego.
Ego, is a great thing but it can hurt, I see garifuna ego, right here in garifunalink. the progressive idealism of a
community lies in the power of its people, because we have so many powerful people, were not seing or recognising
the potential, of each individual, becuase each individual is tryieng to be, the or the king or queen. the garifuna ego tells our
great leades that, their idea is the best way, of looking at things. this concept of thinking is carried, into the organized
movement, and each organization, competing with each for position of power, causing caous, and after a of pirod of
time, this causes, a delay in development. everybodies concept and ideas is good.
my biggest, picture of garifuna ego, has been the garifuna coalition, the coalition is big and beautiful word, and I am and
allways been a fan and suporter of the idea, of the idea of the Garifuna Coalition, because I always thought, that a coalition
of all the garifuna organization could realy, impower our community, unfortunatly the, member of the coalitolition, was lead
by individual,s who, lead their own organisations, and their affiliations. based on what side of that affilialiation you belonged to
so, goes the community, so since the garifuna coalition was born, we had many flip flops, in the direction of the garifuna community
I Am sure the garifuna coalition, is going to here for a long time, because the original
founders had a, great concept, but the garifuna ego is powerful, me personally will continue to fallow the concept of the original idea
of the garifuna coalition, and the people that represent the coalition, but will not fallow, any ego,s because they might lead me wrong.
And believe me I am not, trying to Blame garifuna or members of the garifuna coalition for, any wrong doing, it just that I still
see and feel the, affects of a comminity in movement, being sometimes stagneted, becuase of people’s Ego’s.
Especial Thanks, to those people that thuoght we could function as a coalition.
I hope and Pray that, the new young leaders are not endawed, with the concept of the past, so that this community.
Raymond Martinez
02/21/2009 at 4:42 am
I ,as a young garifuna female, have come to an understanding that my culture is very vauliable and very diverse. It is a very rich culture beyond belief. I love being garifuna although i was not born in guatemala. although i love my culture there are a lot of issue that we as garifuna have to face. for example egos like Raymond martinez said our culture have so much potentential ( i think i spelt that wrong) but our ego is what hurt us the most. if we focus our time and energy in our garifuna culture. we will be able to put our self on the map where everyone in this american society will be able to recognize a true garifuna person when they see one.
another issue that i have come across. is the fact that a lot of young garifuna do not want to be recognize as a garifuna person..due to the fact that our culture is not as stronge as it us to be. we have all this young people not believing in our culture anymore. which is a big problem due to the fact that if we don’t identify our self as a garifuna and give our culture the respect that it deserve who is going to keep our culture a live…i identify my self as ROSELIN GOTAY-MARTINEZ I AM A GARIFUNA AMERICAN. BORN IN BRONX NEW YORK. I LOVE TO BE A GARIFUNA
02/08/2010 at 12:39 pm
This is my first time on this website and this topic interests and bothers me. What you refer to as the garifuna ego is what others call egalitarianism and outsiders blame this for the appropriate lack of success among us as a people.
We do not like to support each other and at times we don’t seem to like each other! The problem is that other groups see it and use to divide us further.
I left Belize in 1957 and I still speak garifuna because I am proud of who I am and I will speak my language in front of anybody. This is a big subject worthy of debate and I am glad to see you brought it up. Keep up the good work.