In other news, how many times have you uttered the phrase "noh wach me, wach yuself?" Many first heard it back in 2008 when Said Musa said it to the then Prime Minister, Dean Barrow in the House of Representatives.
Well, now it's the name of Musa's visual book with some highlights throughout his political career. It was launched today to coincide with his 81st birthday. Courtney Menzies was there and has this story.
Rt. Hon. Said Musa, Prime Minister
""No watch me, watch yourself."
Those were the iconic words spoken by former Prime Minister Said Musa back in 2008 in a heated house debate. And for his 81st birthday, he got to see the launch of a visual book in his honor, named after this very phrase. It's part of a much larger archival project documenting his work throughout the years of his 58 year political career which will now be preserved for generations.
This book, which introduces the archival project, and is accompanied by a special playlist of Musa's favorite songs, gives a brief insight into the former PM's life over almost 6 decades.
Yasser Musa, Founder, Imagination Factory/Said's Son
"The focus of this book is to capture a quick essence, a snapshot of his political life, which in a way started in 1967 when he returned from Manchester University in Manchester, England, involved himself in very radical politics. He aligned himself with the UBAD organization, he and Assad Shoman formed their own People's Action Committee, and the mapping of a person's life from 1967 to 2025 is not an easy thing so to say what are the other interesting things is hard to do that but what is easy to do is to say what are the big frames inside the book. Culture is a big one because as you heard, you were hearing music from Bob Dylan and at the back of the card that we created, which is a part of the archive, is a playlist of his favorite music from 1959 to now. So all of you, you Courtney, and you Jovany, you both have your own playlists so one day you'll be famous so shouldn't your archive get a sense so people could see what's in your mind so I think through music, through documents, through video and all that, that's how you build an archive, in my view, this is a very biased approach."
And Musa isn't the only former PM who'll get the archival treatment. The Imagination Factory has big plans for Belize's other four prime ministers as well.
Yasser Musa, Founder, Imagination Factory/Said's Son
"In the beginning we want to team up with the Ministry of Education and Culture, NICH, because we believe this is a national effort. We believe that all 5 persons who have been prime minister, Mr Price, Mr Esquivel, Mr Barrow, Mr Musa, and now Mr Briceno, they all deserve an archive. Whether you like them or not is irrelevant, they deserve for people to have access to what they have done so that the people can decide what to think. We are given things to think without proper data to feed ourselves so to me, an archive is a space you can go in and make your own freedom thoughts, your thoughts on your own terms, so to me, that's what special about building archives."
"I look at all archives as a form of the imagination because what do you decide to choose in a world that has so much to choose from. So you have to curate it, you have to decide some of the things you would want, like a buffet so that others can come after and choose what to take so there are many people that like to focus on things like photography, photos, images, there are many people that just like to look at texts, speeches, documents of law and other printed matter. But there's also people, like the current generation that would rather a reel or a video clip that would help them to understand what a person's life, in this case Said Musa, or what a society's life, in the case of the Belize Archives and Record Services so the important of having a multimedia approach is that we have tried to channel our imagination to see how we can create this buffet, I was talking about."
But for today, former PM Musa blew out the candles of his cake from his wheelchair, which he was confined to following a stroke. Still, he carefully signed each copy bought at the event, and his son says he's doing much better now.
Yasser Musa, Founder, Imagination Factory/Said's Son
"In my view, he's doing very well. Obviously, he still wants to walk but we have to remember that when he first had his stroke, he couldn't talk, he had to relearn how to talk, he couldn't eat, he had to eat with a tube in his stomach for almost a year so it's a miracle, I see it like that because we can still talk to him. He loves to watch tennis, and tell you who is who and who is beating who. He loves to watch football every Saturday and Sunday."
"He's enjoying himself, his life, he still likes to read, he's always been an avid reader and when he does his therapy he listens to the music, his playlist so that to me is the strength of his character that he is able to harness a situation that has been brought upon him and push as hard as he can, remaining optimistic, remaining positive and that's, to me, a very important thing."
The limited edition print books were sold for $20, however, the ebook is available for free online.