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THE BELIZE TIMES
DREAMSCAPES in Belize Became a Nightmare Belize City, June 13, 016 Litigation is ongoing before a US Court in West Palm Beach, Florida where several Americans and Canadians were hoodwinked by some investors claiming to be developers of a 563-acre expanse of land located in the Stann Creek District. Dreamscapes in Belize was the name given to the project where lots and model homes were being marketed online with the amenities of an 18-hole golf course, a marina and cascading waterfalls in its surroundings. Many persons bought into the project, spending anywhere between twenty to thirty thousand dollars for a vacant lot plus much more if they wanted model
homes constructed. Buyers, after some years, however, got anxious and began looking into their investments. In 2015 a lawsuit was filed to see how their monies can be retrieved. According to the Miami Herald, there were persons who spent all they had set aside for their retirement fund and were now left empty handed as all that exists on this plot of land is overgrown grass. Following a review of some of the files in the Panama Papers, it was found that a pair of offshore companies set up by Mossack Fonseca, the law firm in Panama which is at the center of the Panama Papers scandal, and a Florida-based skin-care company that is now non-existent were the initial developers. The project changed hands
over the years but the lawsuit names director and founder Clifton Goodrich and Kenneth Dunn, among others as the defendants. Dunn is reportedly a disbarred attorney and makes up part of the group behind this scheme. According to the Miami Herald, the players includes a disbarred lawyer whose penny stock offering ran afoul of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, another disbarred lawyer who went to prison for scheming with mobsters, and two Palm Beach County-based company directors — one past, one present — each of whom blames the other for the project’s troubles. It is estimated that in total the investors had put in about ten million US dollars into Dreamscapes in Belize.
Drought heightens seasonal food scarcity in Guatemala SAN JUAN ERMITA, Guatemala (AP) — A prolonged drought has worsened the hunger problem among Guatemala’s heavily indigenous population. In a country where about 60 percent of the people live on less than $3.50 per day, hunger is always a concern. But now, it has hit especially hard in areas like Chiquimula, one of the provinces where meager rainfalls limit farmers to one crop per year. The victims are like 2-year-old Narcisa, who is being treated for severe malnutrition at a Chiquimula clinic. Her father, Samuel de Jesus, doesn’t leave her bedside, but he couldn’t feed her either. A farmer, Samuel de Jesus hasn’t been able to get the work he needs to tide him over between harvests for four months. With a wife and two other children, there was no way to make ends meet. It is part of what experts call “seasonal hunger,” the period between June and September when the previous harvest runs out and the Guatemalan government has to provide food assistance for about one million people before the crops come in. The farmers, many of them Chorti Indians, live off corn, beans and coffee, but don’t grow enough to make it through the year. Jovita Vasquez says she needs a 110-pound (50-kilogram) sack of corn each week to feed her 11 children. They live in a shack with no running water or electricity in the mountains near the border with Honduras. “Last year we planted corn, but it didn’t rain and we lost everything,” Vasquez says. “There is no work here, and my husband has to really hustle to get even tortillas for the kids.” The Jupilingo river is one of the few sources of fresh water in the area, but its level has dropped and the surrounding hillsides have been largely deforested. “We walk three hours a day to get water, and after that we go out to look for firewood,” said local resident Elda Perez Recinos. Farmer Enario Martinez said it has been four years since there was enough rain to bring in a decent crop of corn and beans. Martinez said he had been able to get some day labor jobs, but they weren’t enough to even keep his family fed.
In this May 31, 2016 photo, too tired to play, Giovani Martinez rests on a makeshift bench outside his home in the village of Caparrosa, in Guatemala’s eastern state of Chiquimula. Historically affected by poverty, thousands of people in eastern Guatemala are suffering from a prolonged drought that has resulted in a food crisis. Many of the children are beginning to show signs of malnutrition. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)
26 JUN
2016 PM slow to act in call to ban dangerous chemical
Belize City, June 17, 2016 Every year the Coordinating Group of Pesticides Control Boards of the Caribbean meets in one of its member countries for a few days to discuss the management of pesticides use in their respective countries. The 21st meeting concluded on June 10, 2016 with Belize as its host country and was held under the theme, “A Changing Climate; A Changing World; Responsible Pest and Pesticide Management - Our responsibility”. Interestingly enough, however, despite the 5-day discussions held on disposing of obsolete pesticides, promotion of alternatives and strengthening of pesticides management in the Caribbean as well as the multilateral environmental agreements in the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries, the Southeastern Watershed Alliance Group has highlighted the Government of Belize’s irresponsibility through inaction when it comes to the Glyphosate pesticide. The alliance group began a petition on the website, www.change.org asking the Prime Minister, Dean Barrow to ban the use of the Glyphosate chemical; a decision that several countries have already taken.The petition is seeking the public’s help in bringing to the forefront the hazards of this chemical which is used for killing broad leaf plants and grass and in some instances to regulate plant growth and ripen fruits. The discussion over the Glyphosate pesticide has been taking place around the globe. In Argentina, the world’s largest exporters of soy, the Supreme Court was petitioned to place a ban on Glyphosate use after a high incidence of birth defects and cancers in people living near the crop-spraying area. Even genetic malformations in amphibians were linked to exposure to the pesticide. Last year, in Sweden, a scientific team found that exposure to the chemical is a risk factor for people developing non-Hodgkin Lymphoma. Meanwhile, the World Health Organization’s arm in France, had declared the pesticide a cancer-causing agent. For Belize, this petition began almost two months ago by a local group called South-eastern Watershed Alliance Group (SWAG) whose focus is to monitor the water quality along north Stann Creek, and Mullins River, with an emphasis on organophosphates, carbamates, and other toxins. The petition remains online at the CHANGE. ORG which is geared at helping persons and/or organizations from around the globe to lobby their local decision makers for changes in various areas of their country. Prime Minister Dean Barrow is one step behind. He has yet to respond to the petition while several countries including El Salvador, Mexico, Peru, Chile, Canada, Colombia, among others, have ruled Glyphosate as a restricted pesticide.