As far as we know, all cultures determine who is ‘in’, who is ‘out’, who is clean, who is unclean, who are the chosen, who are not. Not until the rise of the nation-state, however, and the emergence of capitalism, did social competence take the form of intellectual competence measured by ‘scientific’ testing, quantifying, measuring and subsequent ranking. Just as Western movies, television, food and ideology have been exported around the globe, so has this ‘scientific’ sense of competence. Ironically it is reinforced by contemporary sentiments about equality: if everyone is equal and has access to the same things, then the truly gifted, intelligent, competent individuals will rise to the top and the other less competent, dumber and lazier will stay at the bottom (Bowles and Gintis 1976).

Belize, in Central America, is a recently politically decolonised country, which is frequently characterised as a ‘poor’, ‘underdeveloped’, ‘developing’ or ‘third world’ nation.