Last night we told you about the launch of the city rejuvenation project that focuses on reconstructing the House of Culture as well as upgrading other key areas in downtown Belize City. While it has been approved and has received a resounding applause from stakeholders, one cultural critic says it stinks. Yesterday former NICH President, Yasser Musa went on a facebook rant against the project, calling it "retrograde, racist and disturbing." He continues by saying "The crowd called NICH must mark April 8th as a celebration of colonial and myopic thinking." We caught up with Musa today and he explained why he considers this project an affront to Belizean history and identity.
Yasser Musa, Artist
"To be pulling a very sick stunt like this is completely, in my view, retrograde, it is racist and it is something that should be thoroughly condemned. That colonial museum idea is stupid. With fifteen million dollars, that is what they are spending on a colonial museum. With that money there should be a culture fund that artists, musicians, writers, researchers, historians, teachers can access small grants to 
go and do their projects. They have to tell stories, they have to build exhibits, they have to design concepts, innovate things, and create things. That is the beauty of art. What this colonial museum is doing is taking the side of the colonial power, taking the side of the people who are the oppressor, not the oppressed. So my view is to flip the coin and to say that the teaching, the education system must be connected to the cultural system and that has to happen. Belize is not a building, Belize is not a colonial idea. Our people have overcome that long ago."
Musa recommends that instead of investing all that money in reconstructing and upgrading spaces, NICH should create a culture fund, transform Liberty Hall on Barrack Road into a museum and creative arts center and distribute the money across the country for artistic and cultural development.
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