Belizetimes July 1, 2012

Sunday, July 1, 2012

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THE BELIZE TIMES

SCAN HERE

Issue No. 4802

www.facebook/Belize Times

SUNDAY July 1, 2012

Retrenchment

Budget measures that will bring further suffering to Belizeans.

Out of gas Barrow’s tank is running on “E”. Over the last years, he has been heavily reliant on oil revenues as he has been dipping into oil funds to feed Government’s wild spending and wastage. Even the special petroleum fund, created to source social

projects, has been dried up.

Belize Natural Energy once produced up to 4,200 barrels a day, but that output has shrunk to 3,000 and is reducing. Experts believe that production of oil will continue on the decline and so will its

UDP Campaign Manager accused of sexually Belize City, June 27, 2012 Residents of Benque Viejo del Carmen in the Cayo District are at a boiling point after political interference by UDP officials made a man, accused of sexually assaulting two minors, get away from facing justice.

Alejandro Rios, known as “El Mexicano”, is accused of assaulting a 13 year old in the western town. The minor says she was lured by Rios on Facebook and that while on the social network, he attempted to gain sexual favors from her.

The 13 year old claims that during their conversation, Rios admitted to sexually assaulting another girl, this time an 11 year old.

When the child and her mother reContinued on page 6

See page 11

assaulting 13 yr. old

GOB bruk… but taxpayers pay Herman Longsworth’s 2nd luxury vehicle

Herman Longsworth

See page 6

Hallmark

or ALL MARK?

6 yr. old boy killed in traffic mishap

Mark Espat

Barrow and the UDP are paying Mark Espat through a company called Hallmark

See page 2

revenue.

Government has already suffered because of the decline in oil production. It has resulted in $30 million less than had been projected, leaving the Government high and dry.

Austerity?

Barrow will pretend that his Government plans to curtail spending, as he tells Belizeans that austerity measures are a must. But while Belizeans will face the brunt of it, the reality is that Barrow Continued on page 4

See page 27

TOP MODEL

Belize City, June 27, 2012 Prime Minister Dean Barrow is days away from unveiling what will be his worst financial budget ever. With a financial gap of $120 million, including a $30m shortfall from decreasing oil revenues and very little ideas to bring about economic stimulus on Friday June 29th, Barrow’s Budget will introduce harsh

INSIDE THIS ISSUE Teachers battle for pay raise

02 Banishing Lucifer 09 Murder count nears 70!

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THE BELIZE TIMES

Sunday, July 1, 2012

6 yr. old boy killed in traffic mishap Trade Union Rights are not respected in Belize Dear Editor, I would like to draw your attention to a recently released International Trade Union Federation (ITUF) press release on the functions and practices of Trade Unions within the country of Belize. The report goes on to suggest that internationally recognized Labour Standards are being violated, especially with regard to child labour and Trade Union Rights.

The same report gives credit to the fact that Belizean workers have rights to organize, collectively bargain and strike thanks to rights afforded by past PUP governments who worked with and listened to many of the workers pleas and demands. These rights now face serious limitations because of the practices, policies and actions of this corrupt UDP gang in government.

The situation is worse for workers in smaller business areas and even worse for those working in Belize export processing zones (EPZs) where the employers refuse to recognize trade unions, whilst the Labour Department and UDP govern-

ment fails to ensure the laws are respected.

Where are our so-called union leaders whose mission and objectives have been narrowed down to changing the government from the PUP to UDP? They fail to even recognize that the PUP respected the workers and gave them the very rights and benefits which are now being taken away by this tyrannical UDP government. Have our union leaders sold out to power, corruption and greed like the UDP? We need a change of leadership at the Unions so true leaders fight for the principles, goals and objectives of what the Trade Union truly represents.

The Unions must defend all workers of Belize, from the boardroom to the streets. The workers are the greatest assets this country possesses. Let us rally together in unity, rid our Unions of impotent leaders whose time have passed.

Let us heed the Unions’ war cry song “Solidarity Forever” as the greedy, corrupt and uncaring politicians dish more pain and suffering

Belize City, Tuesday, June 26, 2012 A six year old boy lost his life in a traffic accident on the Northern Highway on Tuesday.

The accident happened just past the mile 35 marker heading towards Orange Walk and at the wheel was the child’s mother, Michelle

which has become unbearable.

Belizean workers, the people of San Ignacio stood up and continue to stand up; we too must unite, stand up, arise, unite, protest, change for those true values that make the trade union.

We must fight against any form of injustice. We must also no longer accept being ignored by our workers organizations called Trade Union; after all they were not designed to be social clubs.

Let’s rise workers for if we love Belize then we must become true and dedicated builders. Let’s march across this country in unity against crime, nepotism, corruption, disrespect, lack of rights, and lack of jobs. Through action, the Unions will make us strong as a people.

All for one and one for all.

Signed, Liston Hendricks

Teachers battle for pay raise BNTU’s George Frazer to Patrick Faber: “Show yu face!”

Belize City, June 26th, 2012 For four long years, the Barrow Administration has refused to honor a promise made to the Belize National Teacher’s Union that they would increase the salaries of thousands of hardworking teachers.

“Dis da di longest ih ever tek we fi negotiate with any Govament,” said a bemused BNTU General Secretary and seasoned unionist, George Frazer, as he appeared as a guest on the Vibes Radio morning show on Tuesday.

The BNTU had written the Prime Minister, reminding him of his promise made in 2008 and requested that the salary increase be included in the budget for the 2012-2013 financial year, but Union has been shut out by the Barrow Administration.

The Union called for a meeting with Minister of Education Patrick Faber,

but at best, they got the Chief Education Officer, Ms. McNab. Frazer said a meeting was scheduled for Thursday June 21st, but it never materialised. When the BNTU attempted to contact Ms. McNab, they learnt that she had left the country without rescheduling the meeting.

Union leaders are livid over the situation. Frazer’s comments about Minister Faber “hiding out” and the Government taking them “for joke” were proof of that.

“Patrick, he noh show ih face yet fi ovah three years. Patrick you like show yu face, think yu da saviour. Yu noh bigga dan di world and yu dah no saviour. Learn to listen or you will get us to a point when we will boil,” warned Frazer.

The Government has rejected the BNTU’s request every year. In 2010, the BNTU was close to tak-

ing protest action as a result of the Government’s intransigence, insults from the Minister of Education and the Prime Minister calling their request “unreasonable” and “impossible”, but cooler heads prevailed.

A change of BNTU leadership has not given the union much hope.

The President Luke Palacio has remained silent since taking the leadership last year, and Frazer even had words of advice for him.

“Some union leaders sit and wait too much. I dah noh like that, I noh believe inna dat. If unuh cyaant stand di heat, haul you ass and go,” he remarked.

Frazer will retire from the union movement in July. Whether he will get his wish for teachers to get their pay raise, only time and the teacher’s ability to mobilise will tell.

Saldivar. The mother said she was heading towards Belize City when she lost control of the Toyota car.

The child was flung out of the car and knocked unconscious underneath it, in a flooded marshland off the road side.

At the scene, the flattened grass and tire imprints clearly show a vehicle barreling off the right hand side of the road heading towards Orange Walk. It cartwheeled as it ripped through the bushes, trapping little Leron Jacobs under it.

The police are investigating the mother’s report and the statements taken from passengers on a bus that arrived on the scene shortly after wards.

One of the passengers on the bus said that at first Saldivar could not even locate her young son and when they reached the scene at around 9:05 a.m., she was crying and looking for the little boy. This was at least five minutes and perhaps as much as ten minutes after the incident happened. He was found by one of the passengers underneath the car already unconscious.

This suggests that he was likely not wearing a seat belt. Efforts to revive the child were unsuccessful and he was then taken to the Northern Regional Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

THE BELIZE TIMES EDITOR

Alberto Vellos OFFICE MANAGER

Fay Castillo McKay PRINTING/PERSONNEL SUPERVISOR

Doreth Bevans LAYOUT/GRAPHIC ARTIST

Chris Williams STAFF REPORTER

Alton Humes TYPIST

Rachel Arana OFFICE ASSISTANT

Roberto Peyrefitte Printed & Published By The Belize Times Ltd. #3 Queen Street P.O. BOX 506 Belize City, Belize Tel: 671-8385 Email: belizetimesad@yahoo.com editortimes@yahoo.com

Sunday, July 1, 2012

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THE BELIZE TIMES

…while Belizeans struggle & suffer This is how the UDPs roll…

Prime Minister Dean Barrow’s new Law Firm Deputy Prime Minister Gaspar Vega’s 2012 Land Cruiser valued at $230,000

Ministry of Energy and Science CEO Colin Young’s 2011 Toyota Hilux – valued at $65,000

Where Is the Beef GSU?

Belize City, June 27, 2012 The Gang Suppression Unit’s callous attack on popular and wellknown business, Smiling Meats, in Belize City raises a lot of questions about the real purpose for the UDP’s special Police attack unit.

After four hours of halting the business and ransacking the New Road store, the GSU left emptyhanded without absolutely nothing incriminating.

There is little doubt that the raid was more of a politically motivated attack than a rational act by the GSU. Instead of going after the gangs who are wreaking havoc in the city streets, the GSU wastes time attacking political opponents of the Barrow Administration.

Smiling Meats is owned by the family of Winston Smiling, who is a senior member of the People’s United Party and the grand-nephew of Rt. Hon. George Price. His son, Matthew Smiling, is a respected businessman and the head coach for Belize’s National Under-17 basketball team. Smiling Meats is also one of Belize’s premier meat stores. So, where’s the beef?

What we do know is that GSU has racked up quite a reputation for infringing on the rights of Beliz-

eans. Remember the terror in Belmopan when they raided the home of a businessman who slept inside with his children and family? Remember how they shot up the yard dogs and the home, putting the children’s lives at risk?

Remember too how they have raided Belize City neighborhoods with little regard for children and the innocent? This is the modus operandi for the UDP’s GSU. Remember how they raided American investor John McAfee’s property and as he explained, it was because he refused to donate to a UDP candidate’s campaign?

In the case of the Smiling Meats raid, we must ask who sent the GSU. With just a couple hours before a Budget reading on Friday, is this a distraction from the hardships that are coming?

The People’s United Party has condemns the recent attack on Smiling Meats. It is an attack rooted in political mischief aimed at distracting the nation from the real issues of an economy slowing down and a do nothing Prime Minister who is frustrated with the lack of competence in his ministers and cronies.

What was it they were hoping to find at Smiling – Blue Beef?

Minister of Youth & Sports Herman Longsworth’s 2012 F-150 – valued at $71,736

Minister of Gangs Mark King’s Ford 150 - valued at $74,500

AGAIN - Minister of Youth & Sports Herman Longsworth’s 2012 Toyota 4Runner – valued at $75,000

Minister of Works Rene Montero’s 2012 Toyota Prado – valued at $133,000

Ex-Minister of Indigenous Peoples Lisel Alamilla’s 2012 F-150 – valued at $71,736

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THE BELIZE TIMES

Sunday, July 1, 2012

UDP spy machine in action

GOB to spend $300,000 more for surveillance equipment Belize City, June 19, 2012 The UDP Government’s high tech contraption, imported from Israel, was

seen in full operation.

The spy machine was parked inside the Public Utilities Commission

Retrenchment

Budget

Continued from page 1

doesn’t plan to curb the waste by Government. While Ministries will get less for operational budgets, the high salaries for their cronies will remain untouched.

Knowing that the Budget was due

by July, every UDP Area Representative and Minister was advised to purchase new vehicles post-haste. While Barrow claims that a cap exists at $75,000 per Minister, how does that explain the Deputy Prime Minister’s $200,000-plus 2012 Toyota Land Cruiser or Rene Montero’s $186,000 2012 Toyota Prado? The explanation that Ministers must pay the amount that goes beyond the cap is nonsense, or if true, it demands that the Ministers explain where they are getting so much money to spend.

Since the election, the Barrow Administration has spent over $1 million on 10 vehicles for its Ministers.

Budget cuts and retrenchment While they spend loosely on luxury rides, it is expected that budgets for all Ministries will be cut. One way to cut the budget will be to cut staff. The BELIZE TIMES understands that the UDP intends to fire 500 workers within a period of time.

The process has already started. The Ministry of Housing has been reduced to 6 employees, and information is that it will soon be totally phased out, as it is one of those non-performing Ministries.

Another program that will fall under review is Youth For the Future. Several employees have already been laid off, but the entire program faces closure to save money.

The budget for charities will also be slashed, with less support for social programmes and communities initiatives.

The Boost programme, introduced by the Prime Minister some months ago will be stillborn, as it will not even take off the ground.

The only programmes that will survive are the UDP’s gang truce and the food pantry programmes, which are the hallmark of the UDP’s “pro-poor initiatives”, yet it only benefits some 600 persons in Belize City among tens of thousands from across the country who fall in the 33% poverty bracket.

Hopeless, bogus budget Barrow’s 2012-2013 budget is bogus.

Either that or the 2011-2012 which preceded this one, claiming that the Barrow Administration was “Celebrating Growth, Sustaining Recovery” was a total lie.

The truth is that the Barrow Administration has found money for everything else, from taking $50 out of Social Security and the Central Bank for BTL, to paying for Ministerial vehicles, to finding money for Christmas Ham and turkey and other political gimmicks, but not for the important things.

If you are a teacher, a police officer, a soldier or a public officer and you were hoping for a salary increase, Barrow’s Budget is not the answer. If you are a struggling parent hoping there will be more scholarships and education assis-

tance, Barrow’s Budget is not the answer. If you’re a recent graduate, hoping to hear of a new job programme, Barrows Budget is not the answer. If you’re a concerned citizen, wishing the Government finds the money to invest in much –needed Police resources or a forensic lab, Barrow’s Budget has nothing for you. If you’re a Belizean tired of seeing the nation in crisis, stagnant, and regressing, Barrow’s Budget only keeps things in that direction.

compound on Gabourel Lane with its scanner raised high up in the air, eavesdropping on who knows what. A cable connected the scanner to secret equipment inside the building, possibly recording whatever it was eavesdropping on.

A couple days later, the Opposition Leader and along with other Belizeans’ emails were hacked into.

If there is any reason why the Government has failed to fight crime is because it has its priorities mixed.

Instead of dismantling gang members, they pay them. Instead of fighting drug traffickers, the UDP allows them to get away. Instead of spending Government resources in Police patrol vehicles and the much needed forensic lab, they spend it on equipment to spy on ordinary Belizeans and political opponents.

Just last week, the Barrow Administration announced that it was spending $300,000 “for the purchase of

Continued on page 26

Sunday, July 1, 2012

THE BELIZE TIMES

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San Ignacio Patriots We applaud the stand taken by the people of Cayo last week, especially the women who came out by the hundreds, to send a loud and clear message to the rest of the nation that they have had enough of crime and that they would not stand idly by any longer.

But there was also an important underlying message that was being sent with the placards, loud chants for “justice” and heavy ropes ready to take justice. That underlying message was that the people viewed the Barrow administration and its 4 ½ years as having miserably failed the fight on crime and violence. It was that the people were tired of the nation’s out-of-control murder rate. They were also signaling to the Opposition that they will demand more of any Government because they want to see much more than just rhetoric. They were also telling the churches, the NGOs and other stakeholders that they were disappointed that they have chosen to sit and just pray while Rome burns down.

The actions that we saw live on television, as sensational as the OJ Simpson trial but this time in the court of public opinion, was that citizens don’t even trust those expected to carry out the functions of the law. Citizens who swarmed the Police Station compound refused to leave unless they witnessed their suspect being charged and taken to Court. Why don’t citizens trust the Police and Court system? Maybe it is the whopping 97% failure rate under the Barrow Administration. Citizens said that if they had to, they were prepared to serve justice with their own hands, in their own way.

You can spend all the time examining the psyche of the angry protestors who left work and disrupted their daily business to take a stand. The one common feature you will find is that they are tired of the system failing them. The system failed Cayo big time when Jasime Lowe went missing. It failed them yet again when she was murdered.

It failed them miserably when the Police lacked the capacity to conduct the necessary forensic analysis which could have led the authorities to her murderer so quickly. Sadly, the system could fail them again if no one is found guilty of the murder.

The San Ignacio uprising on crime is still speaking to us today. Don’t ever stop listening to it. The people demanded justice and they demanded it now but how can they with so many things missing like a promise Forensic Lab, timely trials, proper police investigations, and effective prosecuting?

This is not a time for pow-wows and this is not the time for studies. We know what the problems are, we’ve known them all along. It’s time to deal with them. It’s time for new ideas and a better way forward, time to stop the killings and less you missed it, Cayo got the rope, and they got the will to hang you on the people’s conviction.

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THE BELIZE TIMES

GOB bruk…but taxpayers pay for

Herman Longsworth’s 2nd luxury vehicle Belize City, June 27, 2012 The Barrow Administration is about to present its worst budget, which will bring more pain and sorrow to Belizeans. Yet Minister of State in the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports Herman Longsworth has purchased yet another luxury vehicle with Belizean taxpayers’ money.

A document dated June 14th 2012 obtained by the BELIZE TIMES shows that Longsworth intends to purchase of a late model Toyota 4Runnner valued at $75,000 from a car dealer located on Buttonwood Bay Boulevard in Belize City.

This is Longworth’s second gasguzzler. The first, a 2012 Ford F150, 8 cylinder pickup truck had also been bought with taxpayer’s money for $71,736.

That’s a total of $146,736 spent for two luxury vehicles but only for one UDP Minister. How facey in these hard times for Belizeans! All that mon-

UDP Campaign Manager accused of sexually assaulting 13 yr. old Continued from page 1 ported the matter to the Police, Rios was detained for questioning, but the BELIZE TIMES understands the well-placed UDP officials called the Police Station demanding that Rios be released. The Police did not object.

Rios is no ordinary man in Benque.

He is well connected in the UDP, as he is Cayo West Area Representative Erwin Contreras’ campaign manager, driver and close business associate. Just who called the Police Station demanding Rios’ release is anyone’s guess.

When pressed by residents about Rios’ release, Benque Police claimed that they did not have sufficient evidence. The child returned to the Police Station with proof of her allegation, but when the Police went looking for Rios, he had already left town.

Speaking to Plus TV News, a resident who has been following the case closely spoke more on the alleged assault, “The conversation is very graphic and obscene. It is of a sexual nature, where various parts of the female body are mentioned. That would have been enough to charge Mr. Rios with an offense. Based on the conversation with the thirteen year old, the conversation was referring to another young lady of eleven years old, which according to the conversation - Mr. Rios was having some kind of contact with her”.

Benque residents are now up in arms and plan to hold a protest this Friday beginning at 2:30pm from the Becol Park and ending at the Carnation Park in Benque Viejo.

Rios’ political counterpart, Minister Erwin Contreras has not issued a statement about his involvement with Rios’, nor has he showed interest to help Police catch the wanted man.

ey could have sponsored some good summer programs of school scholarships.

But why does Longsworth need a second vehicle when he already has one? The BELIZE TIMES understands that the first vehicle, the F150, is currently non-operational as it was specially-designed to use a type of synthetic fuel which is not available here in Belize.

We are told that Longsworth was unaware of the special-type vehicle and was fooled into buying it. How could a Minister of Government be so reckless with taxpayers’ money is anyone’s guess?

Such a thing only happens under the UDP.

Sunday, July 1, 2012

19 yr. old Tevin Andrewin charged for murder

Tevin Andrewin BELIZE CITY, Wed. June 27, 2012

By Roy Davis Police investigation into the fatal shooting of Myrick Gladden, 19, a resident of Police Street Extension has resulted into the arrest of Tevin Andrewin, 19.

Continued on page 26

Sunday, July 1, 2012

THE BELIZE TIMES

Humor

in UDP Politics!

The following matters were discussed in Cabinet: - That no one other than Barrow would speak at the Budget Presentation. When Saldivar asked if he could speak on the economy because he was the best qualified, Barrow said only his Team Leader would speak on the economy.

- Pablo Marin asked if the Budget had anything for Corozal Bay, Finnegan looked at him angrily and blurted, “continue act fool and they might get a real Minister of Health”.

- An envelope was handed to Santi with a memo asking him to leave Belize City at 5am just in case his Santino bike got punctured. If that happened, the memo said that he should pack enough energy bars so he finishes the rest of the walk.

- Cabinet looked at a proposal sent by Vernon Cuthkelvin to make him cover the 30 million shortfall in oil revenues by excavating his special containers. If they didn’t Cuthkelvin said he had more containers coming already.

- There was a proposal to have the Cuban who had been arrested for making fuel present at Friday’s budget presentation as part of Barrow’s strategy to start an oil refinery. When asked under what they would call the fuel, the PM response “miracle oil”.

- Cabinet burst into laughter when Minister Joy Grant told them that she had recently given a speech about BEL, giving thanks to the new ownership for avoiding rolling blackouts. Not even five minutes later the whole nation was in darkness, causing her to say “I miss Brussels”.

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- Erwin Contreras was asked to explain how his right hand man turned out to be a sex predator suspect. Contreras replied saying that as far as he knew, El Mexicano was his best campaigner.

- Longsworth was asked how come he wasn’t smart enough to know he was buying the wrong kind of vehicle for Belize. He replied that he knows more about fences than he does cars. This caused the whole of Cabinet to burst into laughter.

In other related Cabinet Matters:In a late paper filed by Cabinet, it was recorded unanimously that Cabinet voted against Mark Espat and Cordel Hyde to be brought into Cabinet. The reason given was that if they can sell out their own party what more wouldn’t they do to them. ………………………….

Hutchinson called the CabSec asking if because he won his seat as UDP caretaker for Belize Rural Central if he could begin attending Cabinet meetings again. The CabSec responded, “You serious? Did you get mechanical grease on your brains or something?” ………………………….

Darrel Bradley was heard whimpering inside the Mayor’s office this week. When someone entered the office and asked him what was wrong, he replied that he thought people loved him so he doesn’t understand how he lost to Hutchinson and Godwin Hulse. The person replied, “I know, I still wonder how you won the city council elections too”. ………………………….

A student was overheard asking his father why there are so many pawn shops and pharmacies going up in the country. His father response was that it was because government got the people broke and stressed out.

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THE BELIZE TIMES

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Sunday, July 1, 2012

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THE BELIZE TIMES

Banishing Lucifer – Missed opportunity – the PUP dilemma Contributed “On Wednesday, March 19, Price wrote PUP Secretary-General, Henry Charles Usher, citing two reasons for Espat’s expulsion: (1) that Espat has made repeated public attacks on the party and its members, including his statement of March 17, which he made when he stepped out of the leadership race, and (2) that Espat “has been conspiring with certain members of the UDP Cabinet” to have Musa and other PUP officials “arrested on trumped up charges as early as next week.” – Amandala article, “Francis or Johnny on Sunday”, 28 March, 2008.

Mr. Price, Mr. Price. Thank you for not forsaking us.

The radical spawning that willed the PUP into being on September 29, 1950 was a humble, focused sense of purpose. Since then, the PUP as an ideology has survived time, persecution and the odds by obsessively chanting four principles: loyalty, love, service, and vision.

The voters of Belize are no pendulum addicts. It has been echoed in these pages that there is no such thing as a UDP supporter. There are only disgruntled PUP’s. The UDP has never “won” an elections.

These truths account for the changes in government since Belize was a colony and the evolution of this political fact is embodied in the open tent policy which yielded two terms of government to the grand old party between 1998-2008 and ultimately the disgruntled protest vote that, to none of his credit and by his own admission, swung Barrow into office in 2008.

The truth is that during times of plenty, groupies and opportunists are harder to identify and without healthy suspicion many of this kind infested every level of the PUP’s political structure. This is the real summary of the debacle that is being stoked.

Enter Mark Espat and Cordel Hyde.

Both were protected firebrands, well insulated within the steam engine that is the post modern era of the PUP. But lest we forget, the Cordel Espat duo was but a speck in the intimidating All Star talent that brought Francis Fonseca, Godfrey Smith, John Briceno and Dickie Bradley to the forefront of Belizean politics.

Although the PUP was slow to admit it, at times too desperate to acknowledge it, and at other times too compromised or embattled to declare it, the presence of Mark and Cordel was acidic and divisive. They plotted from the inside with surgical precision, guerilla tactics and ruthless mischief making against their own.

They cannibalized their contemporaries. In the redistricting of Pickstock and Lake I, they cut Smith’s throat, a possible competing candidate for leadership at the time. They leeched Dickie’s wizardry as the championing voice of the black Southside and excommunicated him from both Cabinet and PUP office. The people’s champion of the North, Johnny Briceno was systematically and unfairly, deconstructed and undermined by the Cordel Espat deviance while blaming every assault

Mark Espat

they conjured up on the unseen hand of some “Old Guard” saucer.

It was ruthless but coordinated with the cleverly crafted flamboyance of Amandala and the flashing dazzle of Channel 7, both of which Espat had secured shares in, whether by matrimony or mammon. The enemy of their enemy was Cordel Espat’s friend, UDP and all.

How bad their treachery was, is evident by the still choking flatulence lingering even after their betrayal had long been sounded and verified. The PUP limped to a glorious and inspiring 14-17 victory on March 7, 2012 in spite of the secret sell out packages which came to light immediately after the 2012 elections. The tentacles of their underhanded, disingenuous scheming and treachery are as deep as they are long within the PUP. Officially crowned as Deputy Party Leaders, twice over, with responsibility to coordinate the southside, Cordel Espat, with calculated sabotage, dishonored immediate Past Party Leader John Briceno’s leadership repeatedly and openly. They contaminated John’s efforts in the city and compromised his ranks in the West.

No one in the PUP hates Cordel Espat. Hate is against our creed as PUP’s. No one hates Cordel Espat, no more than any informed human being hates snakes as a creature of God. But no one wishes that this repeated offender of a biting two headed snake be let loose in our house.

Sure it can remain in the wild or be properly corralled safe from the children and vulnerable in the house but which idiot puckers up his lips for another bite from Cordel Espat?

The salt in the wounds for most Belizeans is the audacity of the two and their “played out” game of shadows. A prime example is an article called “Missed opportunity – the PUP dilemma” stashed in the June 24, 2012 Edition of the Amandala, where ghost columnist CXH which translates to Cordel X Hyde, wrote a piece which can only be described as “facey”.

In this dummy article, designed as an attempt to foster discontent and division, UDP Ambassador Mark Espat and cold feet UDP Ambassador Cordel

Corde Hyde

Hyde are without sin, in fact, they are beacons of “PUPness”. Even more they are “…the “New PUP” represented by Mark and Cordel…” pg 34.

They go further in campaigning that any “New PUP” faction should just go over to the UDP because they have more “in common with the UDP leadership, than with the “Old PUP” leadership.

The quotation at the beginning of this piece is eerily poetic. Mr. Price tried to warn us. The very spirit of Belize as walked with Mr. Price to mass at Holy Redeemer warned the PUP and Belize. In his prudence, the Father of our democracy, tried to exercise the shaitans.

In blasphemy, and hiding behind normally unobserved red tape, Cordel Espat, spat in the face of the PUP in very much the same way as Bert Vasquez hit behind the robust barriers of police uniforms and protested his innocence.

Cordel Espat, as history reminds us, dared to sue Mr. Price on March 25, 2008. Mr. Price had gotten wind of the two timing betrayal and selling out of Cordel Espat and moved the ODS to expelling the cancers from our midst.

Hindsight is twenty twenty, back then oh how Cordel Espat protested.

Mr. Price’s “allegation that Espat [was] conspiring with the UDP?”: preposter-

ously senile, flat out impossible.

By threat of legal death to Mr. Price, he was snarled at with the distraction of a libel suit. Mr. Price, the national hero, stood alone as he had done when he led us into the promise land of Independence.

Back then Cordel Espat tried to play off the now confirmed truth of their selling out and secret deals as being “untrue, scandalous and...a most reprehensible libel.”

One of our own faithful lawyers was used to smear Mr. Price, commanding that he “immediately withdraw this scandalous allegation…and to do so in writing…before the end of business today.”

We doubted God in Mr. Price’s warning in 2008. Oh wise one, we beg your forgiveness, only the light in 2012 converted the doubting Thomas’.

Cordel Espat forces us to compare them to the folklore of Muslim and Christian theology. Parallels to the menacing character of Lucifer is befitting here. Origen and Tertullian, believed that Lucifer was the devil’s name before he found himself evicted from heavenly realm. Promising guy, Lucifer was. In fact, he was the head of the music ministry. The Biblical prophet Isaiah in his fourteenth chapter at verse 11, almost nostalgically says “Your pomp and the music of your harps have been brought down to Sheol”.

These guys are just facey. As a mother noted of Bert Vasquez, if Cordel Espat had done what they did in our neighboring republics of Guatemala, El Salvador, or Mexico, they would be swinging from the political rope and tangled web that they wove; not being facey and trying to wiggle themselves back into political life.

Marcel Cardona was made to sit on the opposition side in his hard hat, as they read the budget on Friday, where would Ambassador Cordel Espat sit?

“And you shall crush his head and he shall bruise your heel”…that is written.

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THE BELIZE TIMES

Unemployed man admits to shoplifting,

says he had to feed his family

BELIZE CITY, Wed. June 27, 2012

By Roy Davis The economic hardships many Belizeans are facing have resulted in an increase in crimes of dishonesty and even persons who have no history of such behavior have become criminals.

Such was the case of Kirk Castillo, 31, an unemployed family man residing on 6th Street in King’s Park who became a shoplifter because, according to his Court testimony, he could not afford to pay for all the grocery items he needed to feed his

family.

Around 8:40 a.m. on Saturday, June 23, Castillo went to Williams Supermarket located at 24A Sixth Street to purchase some food items. He couldn’t afford to pay for everything so he put a circular box of Happy Cow Cheese and 4 packs of baking powder in the pocket of his pants. The items he had money to pay for remained in a shopping basket.

Unbeknownst to Castillo, two employees at the supermarket saw him put the cheese and baking powder

Joseph Myers

murdered near primary school Belize City, Tuesday, June 19, 2012 A volley of gunfire blared out at around seven last Friday night, sending a group of friends darting for cover in near bushes and behind cement walls.

At the end of the gunshots, a man was dead and four others were injured, and bullets that hit the concrete walls left their mark on a nearby school building.

Cast aside were two black ski masks that the shooters left behind. It happened on Maskall Street on the Living Hope Preparatory School and across from a neighbourhood basketball court.

The group of friends, Elvis Olivera, 20, Kenya Brown, 16, and Fenton Maskall, 24, barely escaped with their lives. Joseph Myers, 22, was not so lucky.

The neighborhood, proliferated by undeterred bloodshed, was quickly provided with heavily armed police and BDF personnel, whose presence remain there even at night, especially since the last two murders have occurred on Pen Road at night.

In this case, last Friday, two gunmen approached from the back of the building and pounced on the group as

they were drinking on the stairs of the school building. According to Danny Maskall, 29, he was the target, but luckily for him, none of the bullets hit him. His other friend, Fenton Maskall was shot in the lung and is now recuperating in the KHMH. Brown and Olivera have been released from the hospital.

Ironically, Danny Maskall started to beat his brother, Fenton and his childhood friend, Joseph Myers in the chest when he noticed that they were slipping in and out of consciousness. That was what momentarily brought them back until they reached the hospital.

Myers died there.

Danny Maskall says that he moved away from Belize City some months ago to avoid the same type of attack that occurred on Friday night. Now with the murder of his friend and a brother recuperating from bullet wounds, he says he will now have to keep an even lower profile and stay away from city life.

Police have since arrested and charged William Vasquez, Andy “Ants

Gunmen invade house with 13 yr. old girl inside!

Belize City, June 20, 2012 A 13 year old girl from Jane Usher Boulevard in the Port Loyola division experienced a most horrific attack when gunmen broke into the house she was in, held her hostage with the gun pointed at her, while they stole house items.

The teenager was at home alone on Tuesday afternoon, when she heard some noise near the front door. Even though the television was on, it didn’t stop two intruders from breaking in. The minor sat frozen as one of the men ran to her with a gun in his hand, and grabbed her around the neck.

She told Police the man put the gun on the side of her head and told her to be quiet.

Meanwhile the other man ransacked the house and packed up as many items as he could, including cell phones and computers.

The minor said the men then left through the front door.

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Joseph Myers Head” Forbes and Clifton Harris with one count of murder three counts of attempted murder. They were remanded to prison until July 18th.

Just a few weeks ago Vasquez’ brother, Frank, was gunned down

Kirk Castillo in his pants pockets. When he left the supermarket he was stopped by Zing Lee Zhow, the supermarket owner.

Castillo ran but he was apprehended and a search of his person resulted in the discovery of the stolen items.

He was detained and handed over to the police.

He was charged with theft and when taken to the #2 Magistrate’s Court on Monday, June 25, he pleaded guilty to the charge. He explained to Senior Magistrate Sharon Fraser that he was not a habitual thief and he had only committed the offence because he wanted to feed his family.

Castillo was fined $300 plus $5 court cost.

The BELIZE TIMES has learnt that after the story was aired on national television, two persons have emailed Channel 7, asking for the man’s contact and offering to pay the fine.

in similar fashion as he returned from the store with his dog.

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BELIZETIMES SUNDAY JULY 1, 2012 THE BELIZE TIMES see full color at www.belizetimes.bz or Facebook/ Belize Times

This Week’s Sunday, July 1, 2012

TOP MODEL Make-Up

tips

By Tania Tanesha (E-mail: mua.tania@ gmail.com, Cell: (501) 604-0736) Most people have beautiful brown eyes. What I love about being a browneyed beauty is the fact that the color brown can blend in with almost any other color.

It’s almost universal. There’s no reason to think that brown eyes are dull and boring, and to prove it, I’ll teach you how applying eye-shadow colors can make your beautiful browns glimmer!

Know thy Colors!

To understand how different colors can have glimmer effects, you must first know a thing or two about colors, the color wheel and creating harmony with these colors. A color circle (red, yellow and blue) is traditional in the field of art. When looking at a basic 12-color wheel or circle, you can easily pinpoint which colors are best for brown eyes. There are 3 categories in the color circle that you can use to better understand.

1.

Analogous Colors are any three colors which are side by side on a 12 part color wheel, such as yellow-green, yellow, and yelloworange, etc. Usually one of the three colors is more dominant. For browns, this would be the reds, coppers, golds, and bronzes.

2.

Complementary Colors are any two colors which are directly opposite to each other, such as red and green and red-purple and yellowgreen. These opposing colors create maximum contrast and maximum stability. Again, for brown eyes, blues are the opposites, here.

3.

Natural Colors: My favourite rule of thumb in makeup (and fashion): Nature! Nature provides a perfect departure point for color harmony. Example: Red, yellow, and green create a harmonious design.

If it works in nature, it can work anywhere! And what better place to get inspiration from!

Now apply it to makeup!

Brown eyes can blend with any color.

On the color wheel the complementary colors (rule 2) for browns are Aqua and navy blues. The Analogous colors for the color brown are oranges, bronzes, coppers, even reds. And my favourite rule #3: Colors inspired by nature: For browns I love to contrast with blacks, golds, greens, and blues. In no way are you limited to these colors. For eye-catching browns use a navy blue eyeliner instead of the usual black. Go for metallic eyeshadows to really perk up your look. Even blue mascara does wonders in making your browns fierce.

The basic knowledge in art and color schemes are important for any beauty queen to live by in fashion, decorating, even makeup. It’s important to have this knowledge when applying makeup and to answer the important question: “what color is going to match me?” Do your research! Be confident in yourself! You’ve got what it takes to put your best face forward!

Vashti Career Plan: Psychologist Sign: Virgo Favourite Food: Pasta Likes: Swimming, dancing, hanging out with friends & modeling • Lives in Belize City • Fav. Quote: “If its not ok, its not the end” • • • •

CATWALK FASHIONS What’s Hip...What’s Hot...What’s Now! Phone: 203-2936 / 620-7481 #148 Cor. Queen & North Front Streets Belize City, Belize

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THE BELIZE TIMES

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Grace Strong and Weak tournament

Belize City, June 24, 2012 Arturo “Tux” Vasquez and Aaron Stock won the 2012 Grace Strong and Weak tournament while Harim Ochaeta won the 15 and Under/Cadets’ tournament organized by the Belize Table Tennis Association (BTTA) at the Belize Elementary Auditorium on Sunday morning.

Some 15 Double teams took part in a “Double Elimination” of the Strong and Weak competition, where teams’ elimination depended on losing two sets. Each team had one Strong and one ‘Weak’ player making up the doubles teams. The “Top 25” rated players could not play on the same doubles team, and had to select a partner from the other rated players, making the “teams” more evenly matched.

Senior partner Hollis Parham and junior partner Harim Ochaeta made it to the finals by defeating Wen Te Chen and Jason Lin, and Jorge Espat and Joe Sukhnandan. They then lost to senior partner Tux Vasquez and junior partner Aaron Stock, by a score of 3-1. They rebounded in the “loser bracket” by defeating Carlos Cui & S.P. Cheng 3-1 to win thru to the finals and another bite at the apple.

Tux Vasquez and Aaron Stock also made it to the finals “undefeated” by defeating Lopez and Perrera, Guerrero and Young, Cui and Cheng, and Parham and Ochaeta, to win thru to the finals, where they faced a rematch with Parham and Ochaeta.

Vasquez and Stock

won the finals, again defeating Parham and Ochaeta by a score of 3-1 to win the championship.

STRONG & WEAK Results 1st place - Tux Vasquez & Aaron Stock 2nd place - Hollis Parham & Harim Ochaeta 3rd place - Carlos Cui & S.P. Cheng 4th place - Nick Martin & Willie Chang

Under 15 table tennis tournament

Harim Ochaeta wins U-15 table tennis tournament Belize City, June 24, 2012 In the 15 UNDER/CADET event, 7 junior players under the age of 15 participated in two groups of Round Robin competition with the “top two” from each category advancing to the Final DOUBLE ELIMINATION ROUND. Making it to the DOUBLE ELIMINATION were Harim Ochaeta, Ashar Arthurs, Misjek Musa & Matthew Usher.

Harim Ochaeta defeated Ashar Arthurs and Matthew Usher to make it to the finals. On the other side, Matthew Usher defeated Mishek Musa, but lost to Ochaeta and then rebounded by defeating Ashar Arthurs to make it to the finals. In the end Ochaeta defeated Usher 3-2 to take the CHAMPIONSHIP position.

15UNDER/CADET results 1st place - Harim Ochaeta 2nd place - Matthew Usher 3rd place - Ashar Arthurs 4th place - Mishek Musa Winners were awarded medals and on hand to deliver the medals was Mrs Trudy Suaso, Brand Manager for GRACE Kennedy Belize. She delivered the message to the participants and spectators on behalf of the sponsors, thanking them for the opportunity to support

BELIZE'S #1 SPORTS PAGE

Team Vasquez/ Stock wins table tennis tournament

the table tennis event, and promised to continue to support this event. This is the 3 year that GRACE has sponsored this event for the table tennis association. We look forward to their continued participation in the future.

Visit Us Online at: www.belizetimes.bz

Champions Cup football competition

City Boys, Westlake & FC Belize stay alive in Champions Cup Belize City, June 24, 2011 R ay m o n d Gentle City Boys, Westlake FC and Fc Belize all enjoyed wins when the Champions cup football competition kicked off at the MCC garden on Sunday afternoon.

City Boys vs.

Rural All Stars – 2-0 The City Boys stomped the Rural All Stars 2-0. City Michjael Martinez takes on Whitfield Patnett Boys’ Mark Leslie got an early look at goal in the first half, but his left foot 2-1 shot missed the target. He got anWest Lake FC upset the BDF Footother opportunity but was thwart- ball Club 2-1. Travis Eiley and Clinton ed by Rural Stars’ goalie Victor “Pin” Jergenson led West Lake’s offenVillamil. A few minutes later, City sive. Vallan Symns anchored the BDF Boys won a free kick from just on defense with the help of Byron Usher, top the 18, and Delroy “Thinman” Philip Nunez and Khalil Velasquez, but Andrews scored the first winning poor marking allowed Travis Eiley to fingoal with a textbook execution to ish a pass and give Westlake in the 1-0 find the back of net to give City lead at the 22nd minute of play. In the Boys a 1-0 lead at the half. In 2nd 2nd half, Paul Nunez and Lisbey Castilhalf, Gilroy Thurton sealed the 2-0 lo relieved BDF’s Michael Martinez and win with a 2nd goal, much to Vil- Harrison Tasher, but it was Westlake’s lamil’s embarrassment.

Clinton Jergenson who scored a secWest Lake FC vs. BDF FC – Continued on page 13

Sunday, July 1, 2012

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THE BELIZE TIMES Olympic Run

BELIZE'S #1 SPORTS PAGE

Leon O’Brien & Jamie Chanona win annual Olympic Run

Leon Obrien won 1st place

Jamie Chanona won 2nd place

Other finishers: Shane Pascacio –3rd overall; 1st place Secondary School Boys’ division Ervin Hamilton – 2nd overall Isaiah Martinez – 3rd overall Ashontie Carr – 1st place Girls Students’ Division Ashantie Carr – 2nd Girls Students’ Division Tisha Ottley – 3rd Girls Students’ Division Veteran Louis Haulze – 1st Masters’ Division Wilhelm Bailey – 2nd Masters’ Division Anthony Flores – 3rd Masters’ Division Oscar Williams – 1st Primary School Boys’ Division Deon O’Brien – 2nd Primary School Boys’ Division Daniel Echeverria – 3rd Primary School Boys’ Division

National Road Cycling Championship

Roger Troyer & Shalini Zabaneh win National Road Cycling Championship Santa Elena, June 24, 2011 The Western Spirits Cycling Team’s Roger Troyer and Team Sagitun’s Shalini Zabaneh dominated the top 4 places when the Belize Cycling Association held its National Road Championships on Sunday.

City Boys, Westlake & FC Belize stay alive

in Champions

Cup

Continued from page 12 ond goal in 71st minute of play. The Westlake defenders blundered into taking down Byron Usher inside the 18 yard box, and referee Tablada had no choice but to rule penalty. BDF’s sweeper Vallan Symns stepped up to convert for their only consolation goal in 82nd minute of play.

FC Belize vs. Maskall – 6-0 FC Belize blasted the Maskall squad: 6-0. FC Belize’s Leon Cadle scored the 1st goal in the 18th minute of play, Rasheme Pitts added a 2nd goal in 24th minute of play, and George Estrada added a 3rd goal in the 31st minute of play.

In the 2nd half, Dalton “Chicken” Cayetano completed the rout with 4 goals in the 71st, 87th and 89th minutes of play.

Upcoming games: BDF vs. Maskall, 2:00pm FC Belize vs. S & W Old Road, 4:00pm West Lake vs. City Boys, 6:00pm

Top 5 champs The race was from Mile 30 on the Western Highway to St. Margaret’s Village on the Hummingbird Highway and returned to Belmopan before heading

National Road Cycling Championship

Oscar Quiros & Liam Stewart win Jr. & Master’s Santa Elena, June 24, 2011 Junior Cross Country champion Oscar Quiros of the Xibalban team clocked 3:11:00 as he won the Junior road race from Belmopan to Loma Luz, via St. Margaret’s with Aiden Juan of the Cayo High Road team taking 2nd in the same time. Team Cayo Uprising’s Michael Wagner took 3rd in 3:11:35.

Quiros had also clocked 238:22 to win the individual time trials, while Aiden Juan was 2nd in 29:08 and Team Belize Telemedia’s Giovanni Lovell clocked 29:44 for 3rd place.

Zamir Guerra of the Cayo Highroad team won the youth category in 3:15:25, while his teammate Anfernee Young was 2nd, and Delawn Abraham of the AAA Loans team took 3rd in 3:15:50. Guerra’s teammate Zahir Figueroa had won the individual time trial in 31:29, while Delawn Abraham clocked 31:38 for 2nd place and Young was 3rd in 31:42 seconds.

Robert Liam Stewart had also won the Masters’ time trials in 46 minutes 47 seconds, while John Newport of AAA Loans was second in 51 minutes 51 seconds. Steven Bissett had won the Masters Category 4/5 time trials in 30 minutes 13 seconds, while Luigi Urbina of the C-Ray team was second in 31 minutes 21 seconds.

Belize City, June 24, 2011 Leon O’Brien and Jamie Chanona won the annual Olympic Run men’s and women’s divisions held on Albert and Regent Streets in Belize City on Sunday morning.

Some 75 athletes completed the course with the National Youth Cadet corps having the largest group of 33 runners.

O’Brien took 1st place with a time of 13:45, while Kenrick Duncan was 2nd in 14:22 and Alex Alvarado was 3rd in 15:55.

Jamie Chanona Usher took 1st place in the women’s open with a time of 19:55, while Teresita Grajalez was 2nd and Desi Figueroa was 3rd.

west to the finish line in front of the Loma Luz Hospital in Santa Elena on the Western and Hummingbird Highways.

Roger Troyer led the Western Spirits 4-man peloton team which finished the 112 mile ride in 4:48:53 seconds.

Team Western Spirits’ Jose Choto was 2nd, Peter Choto was 3rd and Giovanni Choto was 4th.

Peter Choto also won 1st place in the under-23 category Shalini Zabaneh clocked 3:20:25 to win the women’s ride from Belmopan to St. Margaret’s and back to La Loma

Luz, while Team BECOL’s Patricia Chavarria clocked 3:25:52 as she took 2nd place for a 2nd year. Shalini’s teammate, Iris Centeno, was 3rd in 3:56:22.

Shalini had also won the individual time trials in 30:16 over the 12-mile circuit on the Burrell Boom bypass road, while Patricia was 2nd in 34:15 and Iris was third in 36:02.

Men’s Cycling results: Team M&M Engineering Robert Liam Stewart – 5th place, 1st place Masters Team Benny’s Megabytes Angel Tzib – 6th place Team Capital City Erwin Middleton – 7th place Team Benny’s Megabytes Byron Pope – 8th place Unattached Gregory Lovell – 9th place Team Capital City – Sherman Thomas – 10th place

Central American U-23 championship

Team Belize girls compete in regional volleyball Belize City, June 23, 2011 Team Belize U-23 female national team competed in the Central American under-23 championships in San Jose Costa Rica from June 19-24.

Belize vs. Guatemala The competition began with Belize playing Guatemala on Tuesday at 5pm. The Belize team had a good first match and almost won over one of the favorites of the tournament but Guatemala managed to win 3 sets to 1: 25-21, 19-25, 25-18, 15-12. The ladies played hard, well, and with confidence.

Belize vs. Nicaragua The Belize girls had a heart breaking 1st set against Nicaragua on Wednesday June 21. Up by as much as 6 points early and 23-20 late, inexperience showed its face and the team played tight and lost 25-23. Although the girls made a strong effort but they lost the next two sets.

Belize vs. Costa Rica On Thursday, the team had a day off to rest for their match with the host team, Costa Rica, at 7 pm Friday. The Belize girls hoped to bounce back, but they started out very nervous and made many errors. In the second set, they got themselves together and were very competitive in the 3rd set, leading twice in the middle of the set but Costa Rica finished strong: 25-10, 25-13, 25-19.

Belize vs. Honduras Saturday’s match with Honduras was an exciting match for the fans.

Belize U-23 females started slow again and could not catch up in the 1st set, losing to Honduras 25-16. But they battled in the 2nd set, point for point and won 28-26. The 3rd set was also point for point and Belize was up 21-20 when there was a 15 minute rain delay because of a leaking roof. The game resumed and Belize lost 25-21. The 4th set was very similar with Honduras taking small leads and won 25-23.

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THE BELIZE TIMES

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Sunday, July 1, 2012

THE BELIZE TIMES

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THE BELIZE TIMES

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Sunday, July 1, 2012

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THE BELIZE TIMES

Belize remains transit country for human trafficking Belize City, June 27, 2012 Drug trafficking remains the deadliest form of illegal activity in Belize.

Coming second to that is human trafficking, which over the past years has been on a steady rise. Belize has been put under scrutiny and criticized before by the United States for not doing enough to shrink the numbers. A recent report from the United States Department of State and published by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) states, “Belize is a source, destination, and transit country for men, women, and children subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor.”

This does not bode well for a developing country dependent on foreign aid. The report goes on to state “child sex tourism, involving primarily U.S. citizens, has been identified as an emerging trend in Belize. Additionally, sex trafficking and forced labor

of Belizean and foreign women and girls – primarily from Central America – occurs in bars, nightclubs, and brothels throughout the country.”

As if that were not enough, however, there is the ever-present migration of droves of people to Belize via chartered flights. Haitians and Asians appear to be among the greatest of these immigrants who enter illegally seeking a better life, either in Belize or using Belize as a trans-shipment point to north America. Just last two weeks, there was a flood of 16 Chinese nationals who arrived in Belize under suspicious circumstances. These people had legit documents, signed by Belizean authorities, yet they had never stepped foot in Belize before.

“Foreign men, women, and children, particularly from Central America and Asian countries, migrate voluntarily to Belize in search of work; some may fall victim to forced labor,” states the report. This has been the case for some time now, but the clincher in the whole report lies in the following line: “The Government of Belize does not fully comply

Female Police Officers complain of “Disrespect” and “Abuse” Belize City, June 18, 2012 Acting on condition of anonymity, female police officers have come forward and disclosed what they consider to be “degrading, disrespectful and outright inhumane” treatment they have been receiving as officers at the Eastern Police Headquarters in Belize City.

According to the officers on many occasions they have had to tolerate and endure the abusive behavior of their superiors including verbal and emotional disrespect on them, although they have chosen in the past months not to relate their ordeal to the media.

The female police officers say they have had no choice but to accept a meager $150 in payment for a 12-hour shift “overtime” service rendered every month, although their payment often takes weeks to be disbursed.

The morale among police officers, mainly female officers who have to use the bathroom facilities at the Eastern Police Headquarters in Belize City which is in such an undignified condition for any law enforcement officer. The officers questioned whether the Minister of Police John Saldivar was truly taking notes during his so called tour of police stations.

It gets worse. The BELIZE TIMES understands that female officers are subjected to demeaning conditions on Queen Street, where the bathrooms are almost always not functional. Officers also complained that

due to their night shift, they have no choice but to use deplorable sleeping quarters which is in such a bad state that it’s better to sleep on the floor of the rooms with no ventilation or a basic mattress to use for the night.

This newspaper has shockingly learned that the female officers have to supply their own drinking water in spite of their persistent complaints to the OC Eastern Division Elodio Aragon Jr. “It is a typical case of adding insult to injury”, one of the officers reported to the BELIZE TIMES. “What we are advocating for is respect from our Superiors. Too many times we have been disrespected or taken for less. Our OC Mr. Aragon seems to care less. If he believes that deploying Staff Officers who work on the 8am to 5pm shift will best serve his personal agenda and cause him to look good, he has his priorities all confused”, the officers reported.

A few weeks ago, a letter to the media signed ostensibly by members of the Belize Defence Force, exposed the cynical attitude and treatment of law officers by this UDP government.

The letter writer claimed that preferential treatment was given to nurses and a few selected public officers over salary increases and that the BDF was being sidestepped.

It is clear that the UDP Minister of Police Department John Saldivar has lost touch with the Police Department in all six districts of this country.

with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking…”

The report also points out the flaws in current legislation, a very low victim identification rate, and official complicity as ongoing challenges. How can we ever be upgraded from the Tier 2 category in which we have been placed in the ranking for the second year, with 3 being the lowest grade?

In its analysis of Belize’s human trafficking woes, the US has made specific

recommendations for Belize. These include but are not limited to: enacting legislation that would prescribe penalties for human trafficking that are commensurate with those for other serious crimes, such as rape; demonstrate more vigorous efforts to investigate, prosecute, and convict government officials complicit in sex trafficking and forced labor, and seek criminal punishment of any guilty official; demonstrate transparency and appropriate followthrough regarding the prosecution of the police officer allegedly linked with human trafficking; employ formal procedures to guide officials in identifying victims of sex trafficking and forced labor among vulnerable populations.

If he does not have the smallest clue of addressing the crime problem in the old capital, then the female public officers of this country can expect far less from this incompetent Police

Minister who continues to receive a fat salary at the public through for doing almost nothing to address the escalating problem of crime and social decay in Belize.

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THE BELIZE TIMES

US group gives free medical services to residents of Ladyville BELIZE CITY,Tues. June 26, 2012

By Roy Davis Maury Hills Belize, a church group from the United States consisting of medical and lay persons, provided free medical services today to the residents of Ladyville at the village’s Community Center.

There are 26 persons in the group which include 5 doctors, 1 dentist, 3 nurses and 1 pharmacist.

Connie Adcox, the leader and coordinator of the group, said that before they came to Belize they sent all the medical licenses of the doctors and a list of the medicines and had them approved by the Medical Council.

Apart from Medical services, the group has an educational program called Dream 514 through which they pay tuition for 220 school children countrywide. The program is for primary school and high school students.

“We have been doing clinics in Be-

Summer program focuses on education BELIZE CITY, Tuesday, June 26th, 2012

By Alton Humes Peter Lacey Jr. may not have been successful in his bid as City Councillor in the last municipal election, but that hasn’t stopped him from continuing his community advocacy.

Lacy has organized an after-school and summer programs to assist younger primary school students transitioning into school and prepping the older students for higher classes, and in most cases, for higher education.

This year marks the 9th year of the annual program, and will be split this go-around into 2 locations – one at the Holy Redeemer Parish Hall on North Front Street in Belize City, and the ‘Suga City’ Program, to be held at the St. Peter Anglican Primary School in Orange Walk Town, which is estimated

by Lacey to have the 2nd largest base

of students in the country.

The motivation behind the program, he told the BELIZE TIMES today, came from the fact that despite volunteering for many programs over the years, it never translated, for him at least, into a meaningful opportunity for summer employment. Rather than continuing to laze about doing nothing, he decided to start his own summer program. And, at least by his lights, it’s been a rousing success, with roughly 1,500 students ranging from Infant 1 to Standard 6 graduating from the programs.

This year’s set of programs will host the same topics as in previous years – Reading, Creative Writing, Phonics, Mathematics, Primary School Examination (PSE) Preparation and Sports.

Both programs start days apart – Belize City on Monday, July 2nd, and ‘Suga City’ on Wednesday, July 4th, and end-

ing concurrently on August 3rd, 2012.

Available spaces are limited, and registration is BZC$60.

You can register by calling Peter Lacey at 664-9317, 620-6639, or 6677397 anytime between Thursday, June

Sunday, July 1, 2012 lize for 8 years and the education program for 2 years and this year two students we helped have graduated from high school; one was a salutatorian and the other came in fifth in her class”, said Adcox.

“Our goal is to see the children continue their education and graduate”, she added.

Yesterday the group provided free medical services to 116 residents of Burrell Boom. The group plans to see more than that number of patients in Ladyville. The patients not only include adults, but also children.

Tomorrow the group will go to Bermudian Landing and on Thursday and Friday it will be in Belmopan.

“We are happy to be able to serve the people of Belize and we love them”, said Adcox.

The group consists of volunteers from Tennessee, California and New Orleans.

The group, based in Colombia, Tennessee, has been providing free medical services and educational assistance from the past 15 years.

Before it came to Belize, the group was in Guyana.

The group has been coming to Belize every year and sometimes twice per year for 8 years. This is the group’s 9th year in Belize and the group plans to come back to Belize next year.

28th, and Saturday, June 30th, 2012 at the times of 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Thursday and Friday and 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. At the very least, it’ll be sure to be a great alternative to children engaging in other, less stimulating pursuits.

Sunday, July 1, 2012

THE BELIZE TIMES

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UDP CitCo tax squeeze Belize City, June 25, 2012 These may be the hardest of economic times for city residents, but the Belize City Council led by UDP Mayor Darrel Bradley has started a tax campaign that could see residents being squeezed out of the little revenue they may have left to survive.

Through an announcement published last week in every newspaper other than the BELIZE TIMES, the Belize City Council has informed that they will put a freeze on all properties with outstanding taxes. How is the UDP Council planning to do this? They will place the outstanding tax amount as

Darrell Bradley

a charge on the property owners’ accounts, and the properties will be frozen, prohibiting the property owner from conducting any kind of transaction with the land without the permission of the Council. It is like the Council is indirectly usurping control over residents’ private property.

The Council did not indicate under what authority they intend to wield such authoritative power. They also did not indicate at which Council meeting the proposal was tabled and who all supported the draconian idea.

The Council has also not consulted with city residents, and this comes

only two weeks after they announced that they will implement a residential garbage tax. Belizeans are barely surviving to put food on their tables. The City Council’s latest move is like throwing salt on open wounds. We would like to know which Councillors are so cold and heartless to place poor people in such conundrum – PAY UP or lose your LAND RIGHTS! At least in other municipalities, residents are given discounts as an incentive to attract payment. Or sufficient time is given to allow persons to settle their debts. In Belize City the UDP is all about tax squeezing.

Conservationists alarmed over new oil exploration prospect BELIZE CITY, Wednesday, June 27th, 2012

By Alton Humes That Maranco Energy Belize Limited (MEBL) plans to explore for oil in the Orange Walk District doesn’t sound all that controversial at first glance. But the Spanish Lookout -based company’s intentions to explore in one of Belize’s protected areas ought to be creating a firestorm of controversy, but it’s not, at least not yet.

Maranco Energy has a license to conduct oil exploration within a block in the northwestern Orange Walk District. This block includes the Rio Bravo Conservation and Management Area.

While the awarding of the license to explore in a protected area sparked objections in March 2011

PfB’s Edilberto Romero says Maranco may not be allowed to conduct oil exploration inside protected area from the Association of Protected Areas Management Organizations (APAMO), there is silence as the company seeks approval to go ahead with exploration. Maranco has sub-

mitted an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) to the Department of the Environment (DOE). This document will likely be approved following a consultation event with residents of the town, this coming Wednesday, July 5th.

The protected area falls under the management of Programme for Belize (PfB).

PfB’s Executive Director Edilberto Romero, a noted conservationist and a director of PFB, told us that he and his team were aware of the EIA submitted and that they will be reviewing documents from the company in due course.

Romero said that that Maranco has already laid out seismic lines in the area, with drilling of 6 wells to follow, even though the EIA has not

been approved.

Romero said that two zones make up the massive area of the RBCMA – the Strict Conservation Zone where no extraction, petroleum or otherwise, is allowed to take place and only tourist and researchers are allowed to visit, and the Buffer Zone, where there is ground to engage in “sustainable use” of the area.

In addition, he told us that Maranco’s EIA must factor in 2 key elements – conservation that will not stunt or destroy the area’s natural biodiversity, and environmental services that will protect other elements in the area (water, soil, etc.)

While Romero said they will ensure that Maranco goes through the right channels to be properly approved, he was adamant that ‘nothing (drilling or otherwise) should be happening in the Strict Conservation Zone, but couldn’t say where exactly the activity was taking place.

Romero said they will attend the July 5th consultation at the San Felipe Village Community Centre, and they will make their full position known then.

20

THE BELIZE TIMES

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Sunday, July 1, 2012

21

THE BELIZE TIMES

Godfrey Smith

Flashpoint

June 25, 2012 Sherilee Nicholas aged 13 years, Jackie Malic aged 12, Jay Blades aged 9, Erica Wills aged 9, Noemi Hernandez aged 14, Samantha Gordon aged 15 and Rebecca Gilharry aged 13 shared certain similarities.

They were schoolgirls. Each was victim of a grisly, serial killing over a short time span between October 1998 and February 2000. They - or at least some of them - might have shared a common killer. Sherilee’s remains were found in Jay’s clothing; Jay’s skull was found with Sherilee’s lost school supplies. Jackie was found at a spot near to where Sherilee had been found.

There was also a pattern of mutilation: decapitation, or severed body parts, or a proliferation of gashes.

An inexorcisable spectre haunts the families of these murdered schoolgirls: the killer was never discovered and walks freely among us, unknown and therefore unseen. A Belize City mechanic who had allegedly offered a ride to Jackie and her sister had Lady Justice? been detained and questioned but released to due to Pic courtesy Roland Parks lack of evidence. While he was in custody another girl had gone missing and later discovered dead. The BZ $100,000.00 offered by Channel 5 for information leading to the arrest of the killer went uncollected.

Fourteen years later, the apprehension of the alleged murderer of schoolgirl Jasmine Lowe, aged 13 years, whose decomposing remains was found on the Cristo Rey Road in the Cayo District of Belize, caused the spontaneous gathering of a thousand angry and raucous residents. The throng milled about the courthouse on Wednesday June 20th 2012 waiting for a glimpse of Bert Vasquez Haylock, the man the police say killed Jasmine. They chantingly demanded justice while hanging Bert Vasquez in effigy.

Justice, for whom the mob clamors, is, as is well known, blind. What is less known is that she is actually infertile and requires a handmaiden - in the biblical sense - if she is to deliver what the people want: Jasmine’s killer convicted. Forensics is that handmaiden.

Lack of forensic facilities to test blood, semen, fibres and bones stymied the efforts of Belize law enforcement officers to ever apprehend the killer of seven schoolgirls. But, in the case of Jasmine, the police seem sure they have their man. A ring identified to be Jasmine’s by her mother was supposedly found in the Bert Vasquez’s car and he has a previous history of allegedly assaulting young girls.

According to the Prosecutorial Reform Index prepared by the American Bar Association, the conviction rate for murder in Belize is 10% - one out of every ten. For the sake of Jasmine’s grieving family, a society numbed by wanton crime and a failing criminal justice system, we hope that the police department is guided in this emotionally charged case by Locard’s exchange principle.

Edmond Locard was a French forensic scientist who it is said pioneered the world’s first forensics laboratory. His principle put simply was “every contact leaves a trace”. Locard’s principle was later expanded into this piece of teaching, poignant in its applicability, chilling in its inescapable truth: Wherever he steps, whatever he touches, whatever he leaves, even unconsciously, will serve as a silent witness against him. Not only his fingerprints or his footprints, but his hair, the fibers from his clothes, the glass he breaks, the tool mark he leaves, the paint he scratches, the blood or semen he deposits or collects. All of these, and more, bear mute witness against him. This is evidence that does not forget. It is not confused by the excitement of the moment. It is not absent because human witnesses are. It is factual evidence. Physical evidence cannot be wrong, it cannot perjure itself, it cannot be wholly absent.

Only human failure to find it, study and understand it, can diminish its value.

There were no eye witnesses to the murder of Jasmine Lowe. Only her ring found in Bert Vasquez’s car links him to her.

Ironically, among the hundreds calling for Bert Vasquez’s head who were interviewed by the news agencies, only Christopher Lowe, Jasmine’s father, seemed alert to the tenuousness of the evidence: “They did find my daughter’s ring, but that doesn’t prove that he killed her.” Does the ring hold any microscopic evidence that will render mute testimony to police investigators with the aid of forensics?

Bert Vasquez has a history that includes previous charges of aggravated assault of an indecent nature and abduction of young women. He has not been convicted of any these charges. The day after his arraignment for murder, he was arraigned for eleven counts of common assault, one count of abduction and one count of aggravated assault, all in the Cayo District of Belize.

It has long been a principle of criminal law that the prosecution may not introduce evidence showing that the accused has been convicted of previous criminal acts or that his behavior or lifestyle are such that he was disposed to crime. The strictness of this rule was relaxed somewhat with the Brides in the Bath case, allowing for the use of “similar fact evidence” in the prosecution of an accused person.

In the Brides in the Bath case, the wife of George Joseph Smith, a small time British crook, was found dead in her tub without any signs of violence to her body. Forensic examination produced no evidence of poisoning nor did she have any known ailments. No actual evidence linked Smith to his wife’s death. Had this small time crook graduated to murderer? The police were later tipped off to evidence that three previous wives of Smith had died in similar circumstances: death by drowning in bathtub. Three different deaths. Three different towns. Three favourable inquests verdicts of accidental death.

With the aid of forensics, Smith’s fiendish method was discovered. When the wives were taking baths, he would creep up, grasp them by the heels and yank them up to his chest submerging their faces swiftly and suddenly in the bath water.

This apparently produced rapid unconsciousness that eliminated any violent thrashing about and the drowning of his victims without any signs of violence.

In the case of Jasmine Lowe, not only is there no evidence of how she died but also, the accused has not been implicated or charged with the murder of anyone before. It is therefore doubtful that similar fact evidence is applicable any at all to this case. Repeating his history of stalking women contributes nothing to the outcome of the murder case against Mr. Vasquez.

The media houses and the society at large should reign in rising expectations about the outcome of this case until they know the state of the forensic evidence. There has been wave after wave of demonstrations and candle vigils by frustrated, desperate, grieving citizens in Belize City calling for an end to unsolved murders and demanding justice. There will be no justice and no end to unsolved murders until the role of forensics is given the supreme respect and prominence that is needed.

In practical terms this means that the public and the private sector must quickly grasp the indispensable role of the National Forensic Laboratory and the Scenes of Crime Unit of the Belize Police Department and ensure not only that they are adequately resourced and trained but also that organizational obstacles to a competent and seamless interface between these two key units are removed. The best chance of getting justice comes not from a skilled prosecutor or a trial judge sitting without a jury, but from forensic science.

This article was reproduced from www.flashpointbelize.com.

LABOURING IN THE VINEYARD PART 2

[Book Review by Dr. The Hon. Ralph E. Gonsalves, Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines of Sir Shridath Ramphal’s Collected Counsel on the occasion of the Launch of Caribbean Challenges at Cave Hill, UWI, Barbados, on June 13, 2012]

Please permit me to quote, at some length, this inspired and inspiring address. In succinctly setting the historical backdrop and looking at the present and the future, Ramphal said: “Those who went before us travelled, as we know, a path strewn with hazards. They stumbled and sometimes fell. The journey was often halted and sometimes the course itself was changed; yet, despite this, the history of the West Indies for nearly a century now has been one of steady emergence and consolidation of a West Indian identity and relentless progression toward West Indian unity.

“There have been many times in the past, and in the not too distant past, when faith in West Indian regionalism and commitment to a continuing programme in fulfillment of it could only have been attained by an overview of history – lifting our sights above the seeming disarray of the prevailing regional scene. It is not so different today; for our times are compounded of the conflicting elements that drive from what is contemporary and what is ultimate, from what is transient and what must be lasting, from the perspective of history and the reality of change”.

Ramphal thus instructs that “The faith in West Indian regionalism” must be matched by “a commitment to a continuing programme in fulfillment” of that faith. Around the middle of the first century of the Common Era, James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, wrote an instructive letter to “the twelve tribes scattered among the nations” as follows: “Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.

“------You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on

Continued on page 26

22

THE BELIZE TIMES

Can You Live Without Enemies?

A couple years ago I developed a reasonably well acquaintance with a brother. For years we would relate on a casual basis, assisting each other in different endeavors. It so happened that one day he came to me with a specific request.

I could see that his request was not what he needed, so in good faith I proceeded to offer him advice that he did not want to hear. Because of my advice, the conversation turned into a verbal brawl in which he was doing ninety nine percent of the talking. Immediately I realized that our friendship was more artificial than hair extensions at a beauty parlor! He went on to completely disregard my advice as he merrily walked into one of the most detrimental seasons of his life.

As you look around you there are many different people, all sharing varying likes and dislikes. There are times when some of these differences become overbearing on our relationships drawing us apart. Regardless of which government is in power, there will always be some that approve of them and others that want nothing to do with them. I have seen churches break apart, marriages dissolved, employees walking off the job, unions formed, and even best friends moving as far as the east is from the west because of differences, some small and others not so small.

I will venture as far as to say that a person who has no enemies, (that is no one that had or has or will have some type of beef with them), is in danger of being better than God! In Isaiah 14:12-15 we find God ending up with an enemy. This person (Lucifer) does not like God because he is jealous that mankind worships God and he desires to be worshipped instead. So he goes ahead and plans his attack, managing to convince up to one third of the angels to join with him! Here we have God himself and He cannot or probably did not try to stop himself from having enemies!

My question to you is if God himself, who is love and who is all powerful who is filthy rich as He owns everything, if even in His greatness he has enemies then what about you?

If you operate out of honesty by reporting a thief or a murderer you make enemies. If you are dishonest and steal from someone you become their enemy. Sometimes just by working harder than others you become their enemy, like Abel who was killed by his own brother because he produced a better or more acceptable sacrifice!

In an effort to nudge one in the right direction, I believe that we have been given a set of instructions by the Manufacturer. He knows that we will be tempted sometimes to do things to preserve our friendship with our buddies, so he gives us a set of laws and says to us that whenever these laws conflict with a decision that will make your buddy happy with you, He expects you to place these laws above your friendship!

In other words since we cannot exist without enemies we should make sure we fight to maintain our friendship with the Manufacturer at all times! It is fully ‘worth it’ to end up with an enemy because of allegiance to the laws of the Creator for even when we do ‘good’ we will become enemies of those who are evil!

My encouragement to you today is to stop trying to avoid enemies as even God was unable to do so! Rather labor with all that is within you to make an unbreakable friendship with God! Until next week God Bless!!

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Sunday, July 1, 2012

23

THE BELIZE TIMES

KNOWING OUR RIGHTS‌

Connect the Dots

Connect the Dots

Have fun connecting the dots!

Have fun connecting the dots!

A few of our rights are: We have the right to be treated fairly. We should not be treated unfairly because of the colour of our skin, religion, being disabled, poor or for being a boy or a girl.

We have the right to live with our parents or parent. If we can’t live with them we still have a right to see them or keep in touch with them. It is also important for our parents to do their bestSudoku to care for and protect us.

Can you help Goofy?

We have the right to a name and nationality. This means Hint: Each of the four rows and columns of the large square, must have one of each we have the right to a get a Can you help Goofy? number.

(Hint: Each of the four rows and columns of the large square, must have one of each number) birth certificate.

Sudoku

We have a right to health, this means we have a right to see a doctor or visit a clinic.

We have a right to be protected from harm, abuse or injury.

Disabled children have the same rights as all of us but they also have a right to special care.

We have the right to be educated; all children should be allowed to go to school.

We have the right to speak or write our thoughts.

24

THE BELIZE TIMES

Sunday, July 1, 2012

‘Kungo Musik’ icon releases 10th album

PAGE

Facebook Education and Middle Schoolin’ Launched at the Image Factory

Author, Francis Palacio

Wednesday June 27, 2012 Today Francis Palacio presented two books to the Belizean public at the Image Factory Art Gallery. Middle Schoolin’: 50 Stories about the Challenges, Humor and Rewards of Teaching (co-written by Jacques Paul Rallion) and Facebook Education: From Middle School to Old School and From the USA to Belize.

The first book, as Image Factory’s director Yasser Musa, puts it “catalogues and records the teaching experience.” The second book Facebook Education records Palacio’s initial apprehension to join the social media website, the impact it had on his life

and how he now uses it for research and to connect with Belize and the world. It features interviews with a college professor, a deacon, an actor, an engineer, a beauty queen, a nurse, a business person and the founder of beinggarifuna.com Teofilo Colon Jr on the facebook experience.

Palacio believes that Facebook can be used for good. He states that this, Facebook, like any other tool, can be used either to destroy or create. Used properly, he said, it promotes business, networking on the international platform, and even “saves you the cost of a phone call with its ‘instantaneous’ connectivity.”

If you are a member of Facebook, and live in a world of ‘likes’, ‘pokes’, ‘timelines’ and ‘video/photo tags’, or even if you aren’t and have heard that you were tagged in someone’s album, this book will speak to you. Like it or not, we live in a Facebook world, the seemingly inescapable ever-growing ‘international friend connector’.

Palacio is a graduate of California State University, Los Angeles. He obtained a teaching credential and a Masters Degree in Education from Chapman University. In 2005, Frank was one of a select group of teachers chosen to attend the UCLA Writing Project as a fellow.

THE WORLD IS READING

THE BELIZE TIMES www.belizetimes.bz

BELIZE CITY, Wednesday, June 27th, 2012

By Alton Humes The BELIZE TIMES has an open-door policy for deeply-talented Belizean artists who are promoting their projects.

We often get the well knowns such Ras Indio, Grandmaster, etc., but this week was not your average; no, he’s not even close to that. Visiting us today is a legend – a man who’s not only put out albums prolifically for over a decade-and-change with his famous backing band formed in the 1990’s, the Tribal Vibes, but has been the creative genius who’s made his own specialized brand of music – ‘Kungo Musik’. We’re talking about ‘Bredda’ David Obi. ‘Bredda’ David’s brand will be expanding even further with his forthcoming 10th studio release, Day Di Dawn, on his label, Tribal Productions. It’s a very appropriate title; he told the BELIZE TIMES, because, as a young nation still learning and growing, ‘wi country jus’ di wake up’.

The entire album, comprised of 14 music tracks in total – some traditional, others more modern with a few remakes to dot up the package – are all full of that unmistakable ‘Kungo Musik’ spirit, which started in 1984 with his internationally-recorded debut, No Fear, and catapulted him into the national consciousness with hit songs like ‘Tribal Vibes Deh Yah’, ‘Stand Up Belizeans’, ‘Experience’ and of course, ‘Wi Noh Wah Stop’.

The entire process of the album - writing, recording, and all - took a year and a half to put together, and he worked steadily from both his home base in Dangriga and a studio in Belize City, which he described as his favorite place.

When we asked what were his best songs from off the album, he gave us tracks #2 and #4. Track #2, ‘Stronger’, is self-explanatory in that “we wah always get stronga” as a nation no matter what; while Track #4, ‘Wi Roots de inna Afrika’ is about the common human bond amongst all races, and that all civilizations, at least for him, originated in Africa.

The CD will be sold at most major music store outlets for BZC$20, and if you want additional copies directly from him, he can be reached at 602-3077.

He and the Tribal Vibes Band also will be playing a concert on August 19th, 2012 from 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at the Telemedia Park on Newtown Barracks in Belize City that will hopefully, as he put it, bring some “positive energy” to a city in desperate need of hope and renewal.

Sunday, July 1, 2012

THE BELIZE TIMES

THINK ABOUT IT THE BUDGET On Friday morning the Prime Minister, who is also Minister of Finance, will unveil his long delayed budget.

He has already informed the nation there will be no new taxes. Of course they can’t be any new taxes because there is no money to pay any taxes with. To have raised taxes would have changed the government to a grabament.

The economy is in melt down and no amount of statistics or adjectives or nouns can properly describe the hard times that have gripped the people of Belize.

For years no serious money has been allocated to job creation, skills creation or to the formation of small cooperatives in new areas of enterprise which would have eased the burden on the suffering poor.

The many millions spent on the police are for salaries, use of fuel and administrative costs. No new money has been spent on additional vehicles, additional CIB investigators, additional surveillance or upgrade of prosecutors in the Magistrate Court which handle the bulk of criminal cases.

The budget to be unveiled will be filled with the usual waste of monies in the ministries and departments and the pet political projects.

Next week we will bring you details of the figures from the budget.

We expect the opposition party to put off a spectacular response and criticism of one of Belize’s worse budgets when they get their turn in the National Assembly on the 5th and 6th of July.

THINGS FALL APART Belize is in the worst condition it has ever been since independence 1981.

We are worst off in every which way, by every indication.

Poverty is now above fifty percent of our small population. Which means one out of every two Belizeans is living in poverty.

Educationally, large numbers of young citizens are not and never will be college graduates.

Primary schools are increasingly become holding pens for young people who have no upward mobility.

Graduation season is under way and it means nothing except to the handful of proud parents and guardians who have stressed and sacrificed to see their children get an education. Not a single job is available in the society – except luck, pull-string or some kind of connection.

Socially, the Belizean nation is cracked open. It has not completely broken and fallen apart. For that we are to be thankful. But it is an open, festering sore, manifesting all the evils and ills and nightmares.

On the matter of crime, Belize is among the worse countries in the world. What a reputation for our beautiful nation to acquire. At home, in Belize City especially, murder and mayhem are now a way of life.

Religiously, only a small portion of the population are attending churches and worshipping God. These are middle-aged senior citizen and little children. Teenagers and young people are off on a frolic; hip-hoping and techno-

ing their way into the devil’s arena.

The past four years of the UDP administration is a text-book model of how to ruin a good country. Opportunities squandered, reforms never undertaken. Public education and information ignored. Hope and upliftment abandoned. Even a free gift of twentymillion dollars from Venezuela wasted without any goal or vision; only two hundred plycem houses can be shown to the public.

The one golden goose in our yard was allowed to lay its eggs abroad. Petroleum exportation reaped one billion dollars while our government settled for one third in taxes. Imagine the possibilities if our government had taxed at half/half. Belize would have had half a billion dollars.

But it wasn’t meant to be.

Four years have gone. The government won re-election and now we stare at emptiness – hopelessness and broken communities, and broken lives.

As with crime so with everything else. The government has neither solution nor money to solve any of the issues screaming out for solutions.

When there was money the government did not solve any of the nation’s problems. How can they do so now that they are broke?

Maybe there is some truth in the Maya Calendar. By December 2012, the way of life we used to know will be no more.

And let this be said. There is nothing wrong with our country. There is nothing wrong with our people. We just ended up with the wrong set of leaders.

In the prophetic words of Hubert Elrington; there was nothing wrong with the ship Titanic. It had the wrong captain. So an unsinkable ship ended up being sunk, because of an arrogant, haughty captain.

When the center cannot hold, things fall apart.

Do you see things falling apart in your society? It is because the center cannot hold.

EXCESSIVE BAIL We are told that the law is that when a Court offers bail to an accused person, the bail should be reasonable and should be within the reach of the ordinary person in ordinary circumstances. Bail is not to be used as a form of punishment. That is illegal.

The law is also clear in that bail, which is too high, amounts to a form of punishment.

Excessive bail in the eyes of the law is no bail at all. The law condemns excessive bail.

To offer a poor man who is on a manual labourer’s salary a bail of more than five thousand is excessive. To offer a businessman bail of twenty of twenty five thousand could be bordering on excessive. Bail is simply a means to get an accused person and an outsider to sign or to put up land documents as a means of satisfying the court that there is some commitment to attend court.

Recently a Magistrate Court offered bail to a Belizean but placed the bail at sixty thousand dollars. That is excessive bail.

BERT VASQUEZ DEPRIVED OF A

FAIR TRIAL It was the wildest, most sensational and most shocking situation in modern Belize. The allegations that a sexual predator had been caught in San Ignacio following an unprecedented number of complaints by minors that a person had tried to lure them into his vehicle. This against the background of the heavily publicized recent murder of 13 year old Jasmine Lowe, whose body was discovered in San Ignacio.

The person is captured by San Ignacio police and while in detention a large crowd of residents gathered in front of the station in an ugly mood calling for instant “justice”. One even carried a rope tied in the shape of a hangman’s noose.

The police charged the person for Jasmine’s murder and for thirteen counts of common assault against each of the minors who made complaints of the person making attempts to lure them into his car.

In addition it turned out that the accused person had been arrested in Belize City in January and again in March of this year for abducting and sexually assaulting a sixteen year old and twenty year old.

Last Friday night another sensational and shocking situation unfolded.

Channel 7 in their 6:30 television news broadcast carried a detailed interview with the sixteen year old minor who is the main witness in the forcible abduction at gunpoint and sexual assault by the said accused captured in San Ignacio. Never before has any news agency ever carried a detailed and comprehensive live report by a witness in such an important case.

This is contrary to a whole heap of important legal principles.

It is a violation of the constitutional protection of an accused person to have a fair trial.

It is very prejudicial to an accused person as every juror and potential member of a jury in Belize City would have seen or heard of such a story coming just days after Belize’s most sensational capture, arrest and multiple charges against an accused sexual predator and accused murderer.

It also provides for a live and direct account out of the mouth of the accuser which any lawyer or the accused person can use to highlight discrepancies and inconsistencies with the statement which the accuser would have given to police at the time of the incident.

It is interference in the justice system and a form of trial by media when a case has already been lodged and is to be tried in the Court.

On Monday of this week the television station in its 6:30 news carried another interview in regards to the same matter. This time it is with a witness who is also very important to the case as she is supposed to have seen and spoken to the minor shortly after being released by the accused after he had sexually molested her and physically beaten her.

The Chief Justice of Belize is the head of the Judicial Branch in our democratic system of government.

Because the Broadcasting Authority is as toothless and lame as any authority can be, we respectfully call on the Chief Justice to protect the sacred constitutional principle of a fair trial for every accused person in this country.

And put a stop to trial by media,

25 including police reports and press releases which are increasingly slanted against accused persons.

BELIZEAN MAGISTRATES RETURN We are informed that several Belizean Magistrates who were studying at the University of the West Indies have returned to their beloved Belize.

Foremost is Mrs. Kathleen Lewis whom holds a Law Degree and has now completed her two years of specialized legal training at the prestigious Norman Manley School of Law in Jamaica. Mrs. Lewis is a former prosecutor and a career public officer.

Mr. Dale Cayetano also holds a Law Degree and has now completed his two years of specialized training at Norman Manley School of Law. He is also a career public officer and has years of experience at the Family Court, and was a Magistrate in San Ignacio.

Mr. Emerson Banner also holds a Law Degree. He has completed his first year at Norman Manley Law School and has been a former prosecutor and a Magistrate with extensive experience in the districts and is a career public officer.

Mr. Leslie Hamilton also holds a Law Degree. He is a former Magistrate and has completed his first year at Norman Manley Law School and is a career public officer.

Mr. Hurl Hamilton also holds a Law Degree and has worked as Marshall to the former Chief Justice. He has completed his specialized training at Norman Manley Law School and is to be posted as a full time Magistrate.

Mrs. Aretha Ford holds a Law Degree from the University of London and is pursuing a Master’s Degree in the UK. She is a full time Magistrate on study leave and was also the Revenue Magistrate for the country.

Isn’t it wonderful to see so many Belizeans pursuing further studies in the legal profession even though they already have a career in which most of them are trained Magistrates?

Isn’t it time to start sending home the foreign Magistrates who have been showing such disrespect for the Belizean citizens whose only misfortune is to appear in front of a non-Belizean.

HERE COMES SUMMER The so-called summer is here. Primary school closes this Friday. High school students are already out. So is the devil. With all the negative and bad things that are happening, there are no programs, no projects, of wholesome, constructive activities for our youth.

There should be a multitude of summer camps all over the country especially in sin-city Belize City. These camps should be for sports, culture, for religious education, for social indoctrination. Camps to take our young people to all the wonderful areas that nature has blessed our country with.

Summer camps for dancing, drama, music, creative activities, writing, painting, sculpting, etiquette, manners , respect for elders, respect for the laws, visits to the children home , home for the elderly and the poor, visit to the hospital wards, visit to the prison.

Summer camps to teach how to fish, how to farm, how to raise chicken, and how to enjoy riding horses.

To paraphrase Phillip Goldson – the time to save our young people is before we lose them.

26

THE BELIZE TIMES

TV Show in Punta Gorda promotes development Punta Gorda, June 19, 2012 The Developing Toledo Show is the first TV Show in Punta Gorda. It is aimed at promoting awareness of avenues for promoting development across the board in our wonderful district. Of course, we have the tourism sector, agriculture, marine, educational, cultural, social, entertainment and art, among many others which will be highlighted on the show on a weekly basis.

Every week we will feature a new guest who will be enlightening us about their take on development, issues and concerns of the Toledo District.

The show is aired after the Thursday news on PGTV at 6pm.

So far we have interviewed guests such as Pulcheria Teul, Wil Maheia, Ludwig Palacio, Greg Choc, Placida Requena, Dennis Garbutt, Edwin Paulino, Darla and Rick Mallory, among many others.

The show is hosted by Kenny Jacobs, co-hosted

by Melita Ramirez, and Wil Maheia is the Executive Producer.

Main Purpose: We are looking at different people ideas, from the business community, from the NGOs, the Public Sector, and everyone to find ways to create jobs and look at how investors can input resources and businesses into Toledo to generate jobs and betterment for the people.

19 yr. old Tevin Andrewin charged for murder Continued from page 6

Andrewin was arraigned on a charge or murder when he appeared today in the #1 Magistrate’s Court.

No plea was taken because the offence is indictable. Neither could the court offer him bail because of the nature of the offence. He was remanded into custody until July 27.

The incident occurred around 12:30 a.m. on Saturday, June 23.

Initial investigation by the police reached that Gladden and two others, his brother-in-law, Richard Wade, 24 and Wade’s girlfriend, Shyiana Allen, 234, were walking on Administration Drive on their

way home and when they were a short distance from its junction with Holy Emmanuel Street, a man rode up to them on a bicycle and began to fire shots at them.

Gladden who apparently was the target, was shot in the left and right side of his chest. He was also shot in his right shoulder and the left side of his back.

Allen was shot in her left calf but she managed to run and seek cover and she escaped further injury.

Wade was unhurt.

The gunman then rode away.

Gladden died while undergoing treatment at Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital.

Sunday, July 1, 2012

UDP spy machine in action

Continued from page 4

special equipment for the Belize Police Department”. We thought it was new vehicles and communications equipment, but the Minister of National Security John Saldivar confirmed in other news reports that more surveillance equipment would be purchased.

Belizean are tired of the Barrow Administration draconian ways of changing laws to erode human rights such as the right to privacy. First they important secret equipment to eavesdrop on people, then they legalised eavesdropping and tapping phone calls and emails, then they forced registration of cell phones and now they removed vehicle window tint as if that is the cause of all the shooting.

Belizeans must beware. The UDP Government is in full SIS operational mode. Big Brother could be spying on you right now.

LABOURING IN THE VINEYARD Continued from page 21 the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did”. [James, Chapter 2, verses 18-22].

Ramphal and James are of one mind on this matter of “faith and works”, and rightly so!

Ramphal further provided timeless advice: “Caribbean economic integration, CARICOM itself, is the product of a massive effort to preserve patience in negotiation and goodwill and understanding in regional development. It will not survive if we abandon patience in the pursuit of consensus or allow petulance, or, more so suspicion, to displace goodwill and understanding. Regionalism is a plant of tender growth. It must be nurtured and cared for or its early blooms will fall, and the tree itself will wither and die. The true measure of our desire that it should flourish is the quality of our attentiveness to its survival and growth”.

In this 1975 address, Ramphal insisted on three sets of responses in order to consolidate and strengthen regional integration. First, we must respond to the mandate of care which our commitment to integration imposes. Secondly, we must respond to the self-generating momentum of integration. Thirdly, we must respond to the environment of global and regional change within which our integration movement is obliged to function. All this is still of validity today!

In 2012, Sir Shridath was in Trinidad to deliver the Eric Williams Memorial Lecture. His blunt assessment of the condition of the regional integration movement fifty years after the independence of Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, must have pained him. He asserted: “On the regional slate, which is ours collectively, the record is not good, and the trends beyond 50 are palpably worrying. Caribbean people know of these failures, they know the state of the regional vineyard. They are no longer moved by political promises of its imminent improvement. Yet, political leaders over the years have sustained the pretence that

regional integration is moving forward.

The opposite is now so obvious that pretences are being abandoned”.

In supporting this conclusion, in part, he drew on the words of three current political leaders: Roosevelt Skeritt of Dominica, Owen Arthur of Barbados, and Ralph Gonsalves of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. He quoted the following extract of a lengthy, open letter which I had written to CARICOM’s Secretary General and all the Heads of Government in March 2012: “CARICOM’’s mode of marking time, at an historical moment of overwhelming awesome challenges for our region, which compellingly demands a more profound integration, is mistaken------. The times demand that we move resolutely beyond minimalism (in the integration process) which inexorably leads to regression: ‘pausing’ is but a euphemism for standing still which, in a dynamic world is sliding backward”.

The counsel of Caribbean Challenges assists us in grappling with the reasons for the ups and downs, and more, in the regional integration movement: the high-water mark of 1965 to 1975; the receding promises in the decade or more thereafter; a resurgence with the Grand Anse Declaration of 1989 and the “Time for Action” Report of 1992; the long-decade of insufficient progress thereafter up to the turn of the 21st century; the excitement of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas in 2001 and the heralding of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy; and the current “pausing” and “stalling” of CARICOM. Meanwhile, the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) is moving resolutely to an economic union and more profound forms of regional governance.

This issue of regional governance occupies much attention in Caribbean Challenges: The Grand Anse Declaration; the West Indian Commission and its coherent proposals for a central CARICOM Commission, inclusive of a supportive juridical framework; and the Rose Hall Declaration of 2003 and the subsequent political meanderings connected thereto. It appears that the ghost

of the Jamaican Referendum of 1961 is yet to be exorcised and the discordant notes of Eric Williams’ Economic of Nationhood are yet to become a well-tuned cymbal. The past is ruling us from the grave; too many look forward to the past and seem to think that our future is behind us.

Sir Shridath does not share any of that pessimism. Indeed, in every contribution in Caribbean Challenges which touches and concerns regional integration, he sets out a clear agenda for progress and is hopeful for its attainment despite a multitude of self-inflicted injuries or limitations. His recent call for leadership to be exercised in the regional movement by Trinidad and Tobago is an acknowledgement of the practical considerations at play.

Underlying much of Ramphal’s narrative on the necessity and desirability of regional integration are the issues of small size, resource limitations, common history, socio-cultural integration, an enduring West Indian identity, the quest for better governance, and the external challenges arising from the international political economy. Correctly he points to factors which pre-dispose and induce our region towards functional, economic, and even political integration – the push and pull factors. But he is not starry-eyed. He cautions that we must not assume that “unity” is our natural

state – one which will subsist despite ourselves”. This assumption he labels as “a dangerous falsehood” given our “history of colonialism and the geography of a scattered archipelago”. Indeed, he considers that “the natural state of our Caribbean is fragmentation”. Accordingly, he urges that “without constant effort, without unrelenting perseverance and discipline in suppressing instincts born of tradition and environment, it is to our natural state of disunity that we shall return”.

Next week, “the Rio+ 20” Conference on the Global Environment, Climate Change, and Development will take place to review and advance the conclusions of the “Earth Summit”, the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1992. Every delegate from the Caribbean to “Rio+ 20” will benefit from a reading of “Fragile World” in Caribbean Challenges, an extract from Ramphal’s “Our Country, The Planet” launched at Rio 1992.

Similarly, any one seeking to learn about the Caribbean’s jurisprudence and the legitimate quest for all West Indian territories to accede to the Caribbean Court of Justice as the final appellate court, would benefit from four lectures on these subjects in the collection before us. (Part III continues next week)

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Murder count nears 70!

Two more killed by gun violence Belize City, Wednesday, June 27, 2012 The reality of our people, including teenagers and children, losing their lives at such high rate is a scary one for Belizeans. It has gotten so bad in Belize, that a good week is now considered a week punctuated by just one or two murders.

In weeks when temperatures among street personalities are so red hot, the homicide rate can escalate to as many as five, as was proven only a few weeks ago. The last two victims were shot dead on the south side, one on Mex Avenue in the presence of his mother; the other on Administration Drive in the presence of his girlfriend.

In the first incident at around four last Friday afternoon, Edmund Panton, 37, was shot at close range while in his vehicle.

He had only stopped at 21 Mex Avenue to let his mother out of the vehicle at her house. It appears that his killer, a masked

gunman on a bicycle, had his plan timed perfectly. The attacker unleashed two bullets, one that hit Panton in the neck and the other that tore through his chest and back. He died within minutes at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital.

The Panton killing was the second in as many weeks of two brothers. Readers will recall the mayhem in front of Elements Bar when several individuals were shot. One of them was Panton’s elder brother, Dwight Panton, 38, who was killed.

The second weekend killing occurred at around midnight on Sunday when Myrick Gladden, 19, his girlfriend, Shyiana Allen, 27, and his friend, Richard Wade, 24, were walking on Administration Drive.

The trio were on the street across from the former Complex

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Myrick Gladden

building when a man identified later alleged to be Tevin Andrewin, snuck up on them on a bicycle and opened fire. Gladden got the worst of the injuries, with two bullet wounds to the chest, one to the right side of his shoulder and another to the left side of his back. He stumbled for about 20 feet and collapsed to the ground, with blood gushing from his chest wound. His girlfriend, Shyiana Allen was also shot in her left calf.

Wade escaped unhurt.

Gladden’s relatives feel that he was killed because of his association with another youth who was also shot to death earlier this month. Since that murder, Gladden had reportedly received numerous threats of death.

Hallmark

or ALL MARK? Belize City, June 27 2012 Former PUP Deputy Leader turned UDP mercenary Mark Espat will never be forgiven by the people of Belize. At a time when Belizeans throughout the length and breadth of the country clamoured for a change of political leadership, Espat huddled with the UDP to find ways of cheating and stealing the elections. He sat, ate, slept and did who knows with the enemy.

Now, Espat’s curse is upon us. The PUP is in opposition and so are the majority of Belizeans who must now suffer 5 more years of UDP terror. And while Belizeans suffer, Espat basks in a sea of red opportunities.

Shortly after winning the elections the PUP traitor was given an Ambassador’s title and salary. He was given a special role too, which he wouldn’t have qualified for under the PUP. But the titles and roles are really just a public spectacle. It is a mirage so Barrow appears to have won over one of the PUP’s brightest minds. While he’s inherited a strategist, it is the deranged and duplicitous mind that will leave its mark.

That duplicity is now in full effect as Espat works for the same entity he called the

enemy. Espat is paid for with taxpayers’ money to do the bidding of the UDP. And if you don’t believe us, then believe Espat who started a company called “Hallmark Advisory Limited”, which we understand is how he channels the payment he gets for his “services” to the Barrow Administration.

The company was registered

by Mark Espat and Eva HydeEspat two days after he was named UDP Ambassador. Of course, Mark is the majority shareholder, with his wife only holding 5 shares of a 100 total.

According to Espat and Hyde, their company advises on “matters relating to finance and management, and especially public sector debt” and to “undertake partnerships and collaborations with international financial and legal advisors who provide consultancies and advisories to government institutions”. Unfortunately, Espat is not required to attach his qualifications.

But the question is how much is Espat collecting?

Some reports say he collects quite a hefty some and has been promised even more by Barrow. One thing for sure is that while Belizeans endure hardships, Mark Espat is enjoying his “Hallmark” moments.

It’s always all about Mark.

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Sunday, July 1, 2012