Showing posts with label citizenship. Show all posts
Showing posts with label citizenship. Show all posts

Thursday, June 18, 2009

On Dual Citizenship in the House

This isn't a long one, I just have a few questions that were forwarded to me:
  1. Who will benefit from amending the Constitution to allow dual citizens to sit in the House?
  2. Everyone seems to be thinking about Belizean-Americans, i.e. people who were born in Belize but have acquired citizenship in another country since. Has anyone thought about the other way around? Will people born in, say, Guatemala, qualify also?
  3. Will Economic Citizens qualify under this amendment?
  4. What restrictions can possibly be placed on such a person who may end up negotiating key agreements or treaties on our behalf with their 'other country.'
  5. Obviously, these dual citizens can then qualify for being Prime Minister -again, what happens when a Guatemalan Belizean sits in that position?
  6. Our relations with Taiwan are pretty critical to our financing these days. What happens if a Chinese-Belizean becomes PM and instructs that we vote against Taiwan in the U.N.?
I suspect that Item 6 hits close to home in an opposite kind of way, but any way it all goes, this notion cannot bode well for Belize, for all the above reasons and many more besides. If you have a problem with this amendment, be sure to speak to your area rep, and make sure everybody you know does so too.

We've sold our citizenship, let's not now give away our House!