Belize Times May 20, 2012

Sunday, May 20, 2012

1

THE BELIZE TIMES

SCAN HERE

SUNDAY May 20, 2012

Issue No. 4796

www.facebook/Belize Times

Dean and “the Devil” Back in Love?

event, which Ashcroft attended, ending a four-year long travel boycott to Belize.

And, neither did he inform his Party or key advisors that he would be heard begging the Belize Bank for help to end an impasse he created.

This has spun the UDP into confusion and disarray and has undone and falsified what they claimed they fought and stood for since 2008. Not even their best spin masters on Wave Radio, the Amandala or Channel 7 have been able to ex-

Ashcroft & Barrow greet & smile at Belize Bank’s 25th anniversary celebration

City of Belmopan, May 16, 2012 Wet road conditions and oil on pavement is the perfect recipe for disaster, and disaster was just what happened at 7:25 this morning on the Western Highway. This morning, it spelled tragedy for a family of four who left their Belize City homes with no idea that their early voyage would result in

Continued on page 22

First PUP Leader, John Smith, passes away

View of mangled Geo Prizm car following Wednesday morning’s collision

Brian Brown Wanted by GSU!

Continued on page 6

Retrenchment continues at Ministry of Works Fired employees blame DPM Gaspar Vega for witch-hunt Orange Walk Town, May 11, 2012 A sinister plot to fire hardworking employees from the

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

Majority of Belizeans support a military takeover

03 14

GOB pays $5000 rent for office with no electricity

23

Mark Espat’s treacherous silence

Belize City, May 16, 2012 An arrest warrant has been issued for Brian Brown, a well-known Belize City street figure and affiliate of the George Street gang, after the Gang Suppression Unit searched his residence on Jimmy Dyer Avenue and

Continued on page 4

Belize City, May 15, 2012 The BELIZE TIMES received the sad news on Tuesday, May 14, 2012 of the passing of John Albert Smith, the first leader of the People’s United Party.

TOP MODEL

Family of 4 Killed in Crash

Continued on page 4

See page 9

Belize City, May 14, 2011 Prime Minister Dean Barrow has yet to inform the nation that he held secret meetings with billionaire Michael Ashcroft in Miami last week, prior to him appearing as the surprise keynote speaker at a special event on Friday for the Belize Bank, which is one of the Ashcroft-related companies in Belize.

Neither did Barrow inform his UDP colleagues of his plans to speak at the

plain what is taking place.

For four long years, the Barrow Administration painted Ashcroft as an enemy of the state. Barrow used nasty and scurrilous descriptions such as “puppet master” and “the ungodly”. The UDP called him the “white devil”, the “virus” and said he was the worst kind of investor for Belize.

This is how the Prime Minister got away with

Ministry of Works in the Orange Walk District, first exposed by the BELIZE TIMES in

Continued on page 6

2

THE BELIZE TIMES

Sunday, May 20, 2012

Oh what a country we live in

No hope for art and culture under UDP Dear Editor, What is the cultural and educational direction of this country?

For four years we have not heard one sentence from the Minister of Education or the President of NICH on the issue of the teaching of African and Maya History in our schools. This program had started at the primary level and is now left in the dustbin of history.

Is there a plan by our dysfunctional Ministry of Education to radically shift the prospect of how we educate our children to a more technologically dynamic method? No. All we get is a two-week Education Week. It was pure torture to watch all the talk shows with washed up, uninspiring Ministry people talking foolishness.

The worst performance of Education Week goes hands down to CEO

David Leacock. He was on Channel 5’s Open Your Eyes looking like a dead dog in the middle of the street. His face looked constipated and his manner comatose.

He projects a level of boredom that should never be made public.

The record of Patrick Faber speaks for itself. Some 16% of our Belizean children will not complete Primary School, and a crushing 59% will not make it out of High School. Failure is a mild description for this kind of stewardship. This is Patrick’s responsibility and all he can give us is lame excuses about why he can’t finish the Marion Jones Stadium or the Civic Centre.

The issue is direction. There is none with this UDP government.

Signed, Association of 1 Concerned Belizean (AC1B)

Oceana pursues two major lawsuits against GOB BELIZE CITY, Wednesday, May 16th, 2012 Oceana in Belize (OiB) and the Government have dates, but it’s nothing romantic. Oceana has obtained official Court dates as it continues its litigation it launched against the Barrow Administration.

The suit against the Government of Belize over the oil concessions given and shared amongst 7 companies between 2005 and 2007, namely: Island Oil Belize Ltd., Tropical Energy Ltd., PetroBelize Company Ltd., Princess Petroleum Ltd., Providence Energy Belize Ltd. and Sol Oil Belize Ltd, which was filed on December 21st, 2011.

But the biggest news on this suit is that there will be two potential co-claimants, namely the Citizens Organized for Liberty through Action (COLA) and The Belize Coalition to Save our Natural Heritage. But they will have to face-off with the Government over their ‘legitimate’ status as co-claimants, and that is scheduled for May 23rd, 2012 at the Supreme Court, with the case management hearing to follow, also at the Supreme Court, on June 7th, 2012, one day before World Oceans Day on June 8th, 2012.

The second lawsuit against the

Governor-General of Belize, Sir Dr. Colville Young, and the Chief Elections Officer by Oceana and two interested parties, Tom Greenwood and Audrey Bradley, over their rejection of 8,047 signatures from a petition to hold a referendum on offshore oil drilling.

Dear Editor, Oh what a country Belize has become under the UDP Government and Dean Barrow. We have gone from a caring to an uncaring people.

Can we become “ONE PEOPLE” when the politics of division continues to spread daily? Will we ever be one people when exclusion is dished out instead of inclusion? Instead of compassion and love, we feel pain, suffering and fear as many of our people become sick mainly from the pressure of the thing called stress.

Most cannot afford medical attention now. To die now means there is no peace in death because that too has not been extinct, due to the rapid and high cost of living.

Rather than incentives, disincentives and lack of growth plague many of our businesses and work places. Whilst our voices and our cries continue to fall on deaf ears, can we ever claim to have” ONE GOVERNMENT”?

As the Rule of Law continues to break down led by many of our elected leaders, disrespect continues to be shown on our elected leaders in Opposition, which now number to 14 members. Whilst Dean Barrow should consult, he continues to ignore any suggestions brought forward. We will never have “ONE BELIZE” as long as we are governed the way we are today. Our country is like a ship at sea with no captain. No rudder to move our ship to development and prosperity.

For our urgent surviv-

The case management hearing is scheduled for June 20th, 2012 before Justice Michelle Arana at the Supreme Court.

THE PEOPLE’S UNITED PARTY Wishes all teachers a productive Teacher’s Week and a relaxing Teacher’s Day

al, we need to become united as a people. Many things that once only affected a few now affect our entire nation and people under this regime.

Our political persuasion does not matter, if we call ourselves true Belizeans. United in common purpose, we must move Belize forward where true social justice prevails. We need to unite against crime, hunger, lack of employment and opportunities. We need to unite to respect our Laws, where rights must be upheld. If we are to become ONE PEOPLE and under ONE GOVERNMENT Mr. Barrow, then heed our cries, listen to the lowly and meek. Let us stop whining on talk shows, but join together in solidarity and action, ALL FOR ONE, AND ONE FOR ALL. Mr. Barrow your colorful signs look nice, but they stand as meaningless monuments, as long as you continue to use our hard earned tax dollars for your food pantry, which is payment to illegal gangs prohibited under Belize Law. Stop creating more dependency which takes away the dignity and integrity of our greatest resources, human beings. Mr. Barrow, the elections are over, it is time to govern. Stop behaving as though you hit your head from one of those dizzy spells you now have. Sit down and listen to the voices of our people.

Mr. Barrow a lot of sacrifice has taken Belize and its institution towards our development. Having said all of the above, step aside, relieve your stress, look after your health, then and only then can we have ONE GOVERNMENT, ONE PEOPLE, AND ONE PEOPLE. Move over and out Mr. Barrow.

Life Haad Out Ya. Signed, The Advocate

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, May 20, 2012

THE BELIZE TIMES

3

Mark Espat’s

treacherous silence

Shouting match in Cabinet over Zenaida Belmopan, May 15, 2012 Tensions were high and voices loud in Cabinet on Tuesday when the discussion turned to the Zenaida Moya Restaurant Project.

Moya has reportedly applied for a licence to operate a restaurant over the water in the area just in front of the Supreme Court in downtown, Belize City. Ministers quickly took sides with Finnegan leading the charge for Moya, and PM Barrow himself, reportedly firmly against her. We all know, of course, that Barrow has never forgiven Moya for her publicly humiliating and calling him out.

In the end Barrow won out and Moya has reportedly been denied her licence. Word is that Moya is steaming mad and says dis da war!! Let’s see what her next move will be.

Boulevard crossfire kills 1, injures 2 BELIZE CITY, Monday, May 14th, 2012

By Alton Humes Police are investigating the death of 25-year-old Leo Palacio, who was at the corner of Central American Boulevard and Pelican Street, when a pair of dark-complexioned gunmen riding on bicycles from the direction of Curassow Street, accosted him, 17-yearold minor Dennis Talbert, and cycling Champion 22-year-old Byron Pope, and shot at them.

Palacio was the sole casualty of the trio, being hit multiple times to the body and succumbing to his injuries at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital, while Talbert was hit to his upper right leg, right hand and groin area.

But Pope, who only joined up with the youths after delivering his bike for repairs at Ordonez Bike Shop nearby on Pelican Street, only got a graze to his back.

It’s important to note, even as Palacio was the chief victim, that Pope’s near-brush with death comes on the heels of the murders of his cyclist father, Elbert, some years ago and his younger half-brother, Aaron earlier this year. He rebounded from the latter to take fourth place in the recent 82nd Cross Country Cycling Classic, and was a National Road Champion a few years ago.

There was no motive for this crime, and Police investigations into this incident continue at this time.

Belize City, May 15, 2012 Former PUP representative Mark Espat has remained mysteriously silent in the face of the revelation that Dean Barrow and Michael Ashcroft are back in romance.

Espat was one of the most outspoken critics of the British peer.

He called Ashcroft a “modern day pirate and profiteer” from 2005.

He resigned from the PUP afterwards over controversy related to Ashcroft. When Barrow passed the 9th Amendment, Espat supported it, signalling that it would prevent the likes of Ashcroft from owning even a sizeable amount of shares in a company like Belize Telemedia Limited.

So why is Espat so silent right now, when it appears Barrow will allow Ashcroft to could get his tentacles around BTL once more? Is it because he has had a change of heart and was part of the negotiations to get Ashcroft and Barrow back in love? Is it that because he is now working for the UDP, he is fully loyal to them? Or is it because Espat knows the re-negotiation of the superbond has failed because international creditors have no confidence in Belize, and they cite Barrow’s treatment of investors like Ashcroft as an example?

Speak Mark, speak. Let your voice be heard, and let us know what you have to say now.

4

THE BELIZE TIMES

Dean and “the Devil”

Continued from page 1

roughing up the Belize Bank and taking Belize Telemedia Limited, while fattening his ex-wife Lois Young’s bank account with millions of tax payers’ money for legal presentation. The purpose of both was, according to Barrow, to get Ashcroft out of Belize.

But now Barrow and “the devil” are dancing together. The BELIZE TIMES understands that the Miami meeting resulted in an alliance and an accord.

Prime Minister Barrow has refused to comment on his relationship with Ashcroft. He has neither said what will happen to BTL, which the Government took without being able to pay. But the BELIZE TIMES has been busy at work to find out what Belizeans should expect.

Our information indicates that BTL will soon be back in Ashcroft’s hands. Ashcroft intends to hold as much shares into the company, as well as compen-

sation for the shares that must be held by the Government.

To prove his commitment to the alliance, Barrow had to make a public declaration – a sort of repentance or public mortification of the flesh. Though his words were carefully scripted, just being at the Belize Bank event attended

by Ashcroft himself was proof enough.

After the speeches, Ashcroft walked to Barrow and shook his hand, a gesture the two are very familiar with after having worked together for decades through the Barrow and Williams Law Firm. It is Barrow who knows what it is to serve the Lord of Chichester, and serve him well.

When William Shakespeare penned his now famous line “all the world’s a stage…and one man in his time plays many parts”, he was referring to men like Barrow, who have mastered the art of deception and masquerading.

Brian Brown Wanted by GSU!

Continued from page 1 found marijuana, cocaine and suspicious paraphernalia.

Brown was not at home when the GSU barged through his towering gate shortly before six on Wednesday morning.

The GSU officers spent the entire day searching through the well-fortified and secured premises. After Items found at Brown’s residence 11 hours of searching, Police found a slew of incriminating items including two counts of Use of Deadly Means crack, cocaine, marijuana, a pair of of Harm in the shooting of Kenneth handcuffs, ski-masks with eye-holes “Big Tom” Flowers and James Young and what appeared to be bloodstains, Sr. Big Tom was shot dead in April a Government vehicle license plate, 2010.

In 2007, Brown was charged with a smoking pipe, jewellery and over possession of unlicensed firearm and $7,000 in Belize and U.S. currency.

The premises was well-secure ammunition but he claimed that the with a high concrete fence and se- weapon was planted on him.

In 2009, Brown and a woman curity cameras that showed multiple screens under surveillance from a flat beat a drug trafficking charge at the Magistrate’s Court. Police alleged screen inside one of the rooms.

The Police said they had a war- that 175 grams of weed were found rant to search the premises but did in his Jimmy Dyer street home. But Brown’s attorney Ellis Arnold acnot disclose the reason.

They said that following the dis- cused the Police of mishandling the coveries a warrant of arrest was pre- evidence when the weed was placed pared and issue for Brown, who has inside a zip lock bag instead of the usual brown envelope. not made an appearance.

In 2010, he was one of four The BELIZE TIMES understands that Police and Brown’s mother have men detained in the investigation of spoken about him handing himself the shooting of 8 year old Marquis over to the authorities, but he refus- Mahler. He was freed without charges, but Police claim that while he was es.

Brown is has had many run-ins held under detention, one of their officers received a text message warnwith the Police.

In 2003 he filed a civil suit against ing that if any “Brown brothers” were the Attorney General, accusing the charged a police officer would die.

Police or wrongdoing after they tore down portions of a high fence at the same residence. Brown was defended by current Prime Minister, Dean Barrow.

In 2006, he was charged with three counts of Attempted Murder, two counts of Dangerous Harm and

Visit Us Online at: www.belizetimes.bz

Sunday, May 20, 2012

Sunday, May 20, 2012

THE BELIZE TIMES

5

Recall Dem! It was good news last week when the nation learnt that Oceana in Belize along with Audrey Bradley and Retired Major Tom Greenwood applied to the Supreme Court for leave to file a Judicial Review related to the Referendum on offshore oil drilling. Oceana is taking the Government of Belize and the Governor General to Court, and is asking the Court to reverse the decision so that the referendum can go ahead.

This is an important exercise in many ways. Most important is that unlike the Unions, Oceana in Belize has not fallen into slumber. Audrey Matura-Shepherd must now get ready for another slew of attacks and vilification at the hands of Prime Minister Dean Barrow’s minions and the UDP’s mouthpieces.

The other important aspect is that Barrow has fully exposed himself and everyone knows he cannot be trusted. Just days to the March 7 election, Barrow attempted to fool Belizeans into thinking he supported the referendum. He would allow a referendum, he said. Of course, this was after he had rejected the notion over and over and had called Oceana’s unofficial referendum in thousands of Belizeans participated, an exercise in futility.

Barrow is in favor of the large, multi-national oil companies. He failed to create a national oil company, as he promised in 2008, because BNE favors its monopoly. He also failed to respect the ruling of the Supreme Court that mandated Government to recognize the Mayan people’s rights over communal land in Toledo. Instead, he unleashed oil companies and when questioned about the legality, he responded, “Drill they will”.

Barrow was also caught with his pants down when it was exposed that his nephew, a computer technician with no experience in geology, had obtained a lucrative oil exploration contract. Today, Barrow’s Law Firm is a life-sized multimillion dollar building, funded to an unknown extent with payments from oil companies. His law partner does the legal work for multiple oil companies, and even sits on their boards. He calls this a “vanilla exercise”.

Barrow didn’t only disrespect Oceana when over eight thousand voters who affixed their signatures to Oceana’s petition were disqualified. He disrespected the Coalition to Save Belize’s Natural Heritage. He disrespected the 8,000 voters who were disqualified and also the other 12,000 who were refused their right.

While Oceana is looking to the Court for a just ruling, so is the People’s United Party who is seeking reviews in three separate electoral petitions. Like the Barrow Administration’s fraud in disqualifying Oceana’s petitions, so was there fraud in allowing illegal UDP candidates to run for office.

The UDP railroaded the referendum and then stole the elections. They did so by using tax payers’ money to bribe the city folks and to pay for the naturalization of hundreds of immigrants just days leading up to the elections.

Belizeans should follow what is happening in the Courts closely. Its ruling can open much-needed new doors for Lake Independence, Albert, Cayo Central and Cayo North East where residents are more than ready to recall non performing UDP representatives. There also exists a mechanism to achieve this with signatures, but we know the games Barrow can play. We’ll see how the Court process goes but Belizeans have to get ready. The decision really always lies in the hands of the people, let’s recall DEM.

6

THE BELIZE TIMES

Retrenchment continues at Ministry of Works Continued from page 1 its April 1 2012 edition, has continued on its tracks with little remorse and no respect for labour laws and workers’ fundamental rights.

So far, five persons have been terminated since the UDP took office for a second term on March 7th. The firings have been without proper explanation or sound reason.

Those persons, first Cirilo Teul and Adrian Wade (fired in mid-April), and now Steve Leiva, Cesar Cal and Cornelio Leiva were among a group of seven who the Minister of Works Rene Montero targeted. The BELIZE TIMES had learnt of the Minister’s plan to fire them when we obtained a copy of a letter in which Ministry’s Administrative Officer Alfredo Cruz rebuked the notion.

Cruz advised the Minister that the terminations would be detrimental to the Ministry not only because the several employees have been in the public service for many years, up to 24 years, but also because his investigation revealed that the employees have been performing well.

“I have discussed with the Acting District Technical Supervisor, Ministry of Works, Orange Walk on the issue of performance of the Officers. He has confirmed that the Officers performance is good. Based on the above, I find that there is no basis for the termination of the Officers,” advised Cruz on March 22nd.

But Cruz’s advice turned the Minister’s fury on him, as eleven days later he received his marching papers, a letter which informed him of his transfer to the Ministry of Fisheries and Agriculture.

With no one else standing in his

way, Montero went ahead with his vindictive plot. Not even the BELIZE TIMES’ publication of Cruz’s letter to the Minister prevented the firings.

Last week Steve Leiva, Cesar Cal and Cornelio Leiva got their letters of termination. Together, the men have been in the public service for 46 years.

Cornelio Leiva is the most senior employee of the three. He began working as a carpenter in 1996 and then switched to driver and mechanic.

He was employed for 16 years. Leiva told CTV-3 News in Orange Walk that he and his work colleagues are victims of a political witch hunt spearheaded by the Deputy Prime Minister Gaspar Vega.

“The letter came from Belmopan. I understand this letter was pushed by Mr. Armando Leiva who is a watchdog for Mr. Gaspar Vega.

This is political victimization because according to rumours he was the person that took note of who he wanted to be fired. Three of us went home today without any valid reason, they did not even tell us when we are going get paid and why is the reason we got fired the letter says nothing and here is the proof no advice as to why we got fired,” explained Leiva.

Leiva said they went to the Labour Department for assistance but were told to seek help from the Public Service Union. They have not been able to contact the Union.

The BELIZE TIMES hopes the Union intervenes in this matter urgently, as the two other employees who were named in Cruz’s letter to the Minister, namely Cecilio Carballo and Shelma Herbert, could be next in line in the UDP’s cruel victimization scheme.

First PUP Leader, John Smith, passes away Continued from page 1 Smith who lived in Metairie, Louisiana, U.S.A. passed away at the age of 93, seven days after celebrating his birthday on May 9th.

Smith was one of the powerful forces who established the People’s United Party in 1950. The nationalist movement was birthed from a period when workers agitated against exploitative labour conditions. The workers eventually achieved official recognition for the Unions in 1941. Smith was an official of the General Workers Union which was registered in 1943. After tackling labour issues, Smith along with Philip Goldson, Leigh Richardson, Nicholas Pollard and George Price challenged the authoritarian colonial structure with the start of the Bill Board Newspaper in 1947 and the formation of the People’s Committee which then became the People’s United Party in September 1950.

The PUP was formed with the support of labour unions, with the aim of gaining independence, after the British Honduras dollar was devalued despite the opposition of the Legislative Council. Nationalist leaders recognized the extent of British colonial authority over the local government.

Smith led the PUP until 1951, when he resigned. The PUP was then led by Leigh Richardson (deceased – October 2008) until 1956 when Rt. Hon. George Price (deceased September 2011) became the leader.

Smith was also a member of the Belize City Council from 1944 to 1955, and Mayor from 1947 to 1950. He was a member of the first Legislative Council in Belize from 1984 to 1954.

He is survived by his wife, Consuelo Smith (Nee Riverol) and four daughters: Jean Benard, former Honorary Consul to Belize in New Orleans; Anne Angelle; Donna Bodin, and Patricia Smith; Sons-in-law, Gary Benard, Terry Angelle, and Russell Bodin; eight grandchildren, Tosha Benard Harris, John Angelle, Andy Angelle and Laine Bodin, Russell Bodin, Jr., Christina Bodin, and Connor and Ethan Bodin three great-grandchildren, McKenna Harris and Benard Harris, and Patrick Harris, and many nieces, nephews, and friends in both Belize and the U.S.A. On Wednesday, the People’s United Party expressed condolences to the family of John Smith.

Funeral Services will be held in Metairie, Louisiana at the St. Phillip Neri Church on Saturday, May 19th.

Sunday, May 20, 2012

Sunday, May 20, 2012

THE BELIZE TIMES

Humor

in UDP Politics!

The following matters were discussed in Cabinet: - A resolution was debated that Government form a company to purchase all the gold being stolen out of the Chiquibul Area. Sedi said the strategy is to allow the Guats do the hard work for Belize and when they are ready to get back the gold, the company will buy it. When asked what Cabinet will name the company, Sedi said “Artificial Gold Inc.” - Saldivar has asked Cabinet to bring in an exorcist for the next meeting. When asked what was going on, he said the ghost of Arthur Young pulls his pinky toe at night while sleeping.

- The Committee set up to investigate the GSU has asked for an extension to set up another committee to establish whether the GSU isn’t a gang. Boots agreed, saying that they dress in the same colors, cover their faces with mask and that the letters “GSU” means in gang language: George Street Underboss”.

- Cabinet was interrupted again his week when the senior minister began having another dizzy spell. When the doctor could not be reached, Santi suggested that Perdomo should call “cu cu” Jones from Cayo for head-

7

ache healing. Just then Saldivar said, “too bad Dougy is not around anymore”.

- Just before the meeting was over, Finnegan nudged Barrow and asked if he won’t tell the others about his meeting with Ashcroft in Miami. Barrow winked and said, “it’s supposed to be a secret you know”.

In other related news: An envelope decorated in gold and black trimmings was sent to Cabinet by Ashcroft. When it was opened, inside was a Bill that said “remember, BTL: $700m”. …………………

While touring the North for education week, Patrick Faber was asked if he knew the difference between a Feeder Road in the north and a road in Belize City.

Patrick gave up and the kid told him that the difference was in Belize City they were known as “Fraider” Road. …………………

The DPP just doesn’t know what to title Cuthkelvin’s file regarding the precursor chemicals at the Customs. Her choices are “Fool or nave”, “Dumb, dumber and dumbest”, “Fertilizer King”, or “UDP Cat with Nine Lives”. …………………

While stepping out of his home in Belmopan, Longsworth was asked by a resident if he ever planned to complete the fence at the Marion Jones sporting complex. Longsworth replied, “If the price is right!”

8

THE BELIZE TIMES

22 yr. old walks from Murder charge for second time BELIZE CITY, Wed. May 16, 2012

By Roy Davis On Friday evening, May 11, 22 year old John Chessman, beat a second murder rap when a jury of 8 women and 4 men found him not guilty of the murders of Karen Crawford, 19 and Maurice Cadle, 44 in the Court of Justice Adolph Lucas.

The jury deliberated for about 4 hours before it arrived at its verdict.

Crawford and Cadle were shot and killed around 8p.m. on Thursday, May 29, 2008 in Bermudian Landing. The prosecution had alleged that Chessman and others went to the residence of Emmerson Wade where Crawford, Wade’s common-law wife, resided with Cadle. Their motive was, reportedly, to steal drugs and money but other sources say they went to the house carry out a “hit” on Wade.

Robert Panting, a witness for the prosecution, testified that he stopped at Wade’s residence on his way home and while he was there a man dressed in a camouflage jacket and armed with a pistol came from the back of the house

John Chessman and pointed the pistol at the deceased and Owen Hendy who were on the verandah. Panting said the gunman asked for Wade then he began to fire shots at the trio on the verandah. Wade was not at home.

Panting said he ran and while he was running he heard some more shots.

Jason Canto murdered in barber shop ambush BELIZE CITY, Monday, May 14th, 2012

By Alton Humes The second of the City shootingsmurders, and the third overall to occur before the start of the weekend took place at a barbershop (of all places), and left one man dead, and several others injured. But it’s the key target of this shooting-murder that will now have Police scrambling for answers.

30-year-old Jason Canto was shot multiple times to his shoulder and body as he was at Dale’s Barber Shop at the corner of Bishop Street and East Collet Canal on the evening Thursday, May 10th, roughly after 7:00 p.m. He was getting a ‘mark-up’ for his dreadlocked hair when two gunmen, believed to be looking for a certain businessman (name withheld by Police, despite being exposed by one of the TV media houses), entered and opened fire upon Canto. The businessman, who was inside the shop with Canto and other patrons, including Adriel Pelayo (who was hit in his foot), fired back at the assailants with his 9-mm licensed pistol and hit one of them, 23-year-old Norman Slusher, as they escaped towards Bishop Street. Slusher resides at #15 Tigris Street, just a couple streets away.

It isn’t clear why the gunmen fired upon Canto specifically, nor is it clear whether Canto and the businessman had any prior connection/contact with each other before this. Slusher was eventually found by Police on Bishop Street, heavily wounded to the right leg and right lower abdomen, and

Jason Canto was taken to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital. He was eventually be released, and is expected to be slapped with a myriad of charges, inclusive of murder.

For his distraught mother, it’s a sign that the violence she thought would never reach her doorstep has stormed in and brought misery and pain upon her and family, and making her Mother’s Day far sadder than it ought to be.

“There are no words to describe how I feel. Last night, I was up in my bed. I tried to sleep but sleep wouldn’t come, and my question is why. There is no way to describe what I feel. I would never think that my turn would have come when I will have to bury a child, especially to gun violence,” said he grieving mother.

Police are seeking another suspect and their investigations continue.

Panting did not identify the gunman.

Hendy, who identified the gunman in a statement he gave to the police, did not testify. He could not be located.

In his statement, Hendy said the gunman pointed the gun at him and pulled the trigger three times and each time the gun misfired. Hendy said he ran into the bushes and escaped.

Cadle was shot in the left side of his temple from close range. When the police arrived at the scene they found him lying on the ground in a pool of water.

Crawford was not there when the police arrived. Apparently she was taken to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital before the police arrived at the scene.

She was shot in the back of head while she attempted to escape, it seemed.

When the prosecution closed its case the only evidence against Chessman was a purported verbal statement he gave to police sergeant Nicholas Palomo. The statement was admitted as evidence after a voire dire was held.

Palomo said Chessman had told him that he wanted to know how he

Sunday, May 20, 2012

was linked to the crime because it was so clean. Also that he and the others were hungry and they wanted to eat a drug dealer’s money.

Chessman also said, according to Palomo, that the others got jumpy when they heard a vehicle coming and “they shot the crack head and the bitch”.

Palomo testified that Chessman appeared remorseful when he gave the statement and he sounded as if he wanted to cry. He said he asked Chessman if he wanted to give a written statement and Chessman declined.

Chessman gave a statement from the dock in which he said he did not give a statement and he didn’t confess to anything.

A second man Nelson Henry was charged jointly with Chessman but in June 2008 the charges were withdrawn from him on a direction from the Director of Public Prosecutions, Cheryl Lyn Vidal.

About 2 months prior to him being charged with double murder, Chessman and his brother, Robert Gillett, were acquitted of the murder of Mara Naomi Garcia.

In 2005, Garcia, who was working as a maid at a house in Lord’s Bank, was raped and brutally killed when the rapist cut her throat with a samurai sword that at the house.

The culprits had apparently gone to the house to commit burglary.

Jury acquits man of rape charge BELIZE CITY, Wed. May 16, 2012

By Roy Davis A jury of 6 men and 3 women deliberated for about 2 hours and 15 minutes yesterday in the court of Justice Herbert Lord before it found Brian Smith, 35, not guilty of rape. The jury’s verdict was not unanimous. It was in the proportion of 7 to 2.

The incident occurred during the day at Smith’s residence, located on Berry Street. The complainant, who was a 17 year old high school student at the time, testified that Smith, a close friend of her father, gave her 50 cent to buy noodles while at her father’s house.

She said that upon returning from the shop where she bought the noodles, Smith who was in his yard told her he wanted to talk to her and he invited her into his apartment.

She testified that Smith closed the door when she went into his apartment. She sat on his bed and he began to make sexual advances at her.

When she repelled his advances Smith, she said, pushed her on her back and held her hands with one of his hands and tried to take off her ¾ pants. She struggled with him but he was too strong for her and he succeeded in pulling down her pants and underwear, she said.

The girl said she wanted to scream but Smith told her that if she creamed he will cover her mouth with a pillow. She testified that Smith then took off his pants while he was still holding her hands

and he had sex with her against her will.

She said that the sex act lasted for about 6 minutes and after it was over she noticed that there was blood on the sheet. She said Smith laughed at her and told her to go home.

The girl said she went and told her father and her father went to Smith’s apartment and confronted him about the incident.

After reporting the incident to the police, the girl was taken to Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital where she was examined by Dr. Jose Guerra. Dr. Guerra confirmed that the girl had sexual intercourse and that there were lacerations of 2 or more centimeters in her genital area.

When the police detained Smith, he had a bag that contained a sheet with blood on it. The sheet was admitted as exhibit.

Smith testified and admitted he had sex with the girl but he said the girl told him that she was beginning to have her menstruation and she asked him if he had a condom to which he relied in the affirmative.

He said he produced that condom and the girl opened her legs and he proceeded to have sexual intercourse.

Smith testified that shortly afterwards the girl said “blood”, and he stopped.

Smith said he had the sheet in the bag because he was going to spend the night at the house of a relative.

Smith was represented by attorney Brian Neal. It was Neal’s first case at the Supreme Court since he was called to the Bar about 3 months ago.

Crown Counsel Talia Meighan Francis represented the prosecution.

This Week’s Sunday, May 20, 2012

9

BELIZETIMES SUNDAY MAY 20, 2012 THE BELIZE TIMES see full color at www.belizetimes.bz or Facebook/ Belize Times

TOP MODEL Make-Up

tips

By Tania Tanesha (E-mail: mua.tania@ gmail.com, Cell: (501) 604-0736) Last week I looked at sensitive skin care. This week, I’ll be speaking to women who find it tough to deal with really oily skin. Women with oily skin tend to fight off blemishes and acne more than others.

In this article I’m going to help you understand the types of oily skin; provide minor tips to deal with it and share my knowledge on what makeup is best.

Do you have oily skin?

People with oily skin have large pores, excess shine and grease on the face. They naturally produce excess sebum, which is the natural fatty, oily substance produced by the body and secreted through our hair follicles to keep our skin and hair soft and healthy. When these glands produce too much sebum, it clogs up pores which along with the dead skin cells and bacteria cause acne breakouts.

Here’s an easy skin-care regiment: Cleanse OR Exfoliate Make sure to use an oil-free cleanser.

This doesn’t mean washing your face 3x a day to wash away the all body’s natural oils. Chances are you might over dry the skin causing more breakouts. Try to exfoliate once a day. Pay attention to your skin’s reaction when using facial scrubs, daily. Once we wash our face effectively though, the oil is no longer a barrier to keep the skin’s own natural water content inside.

Moisturize!

Sounds crazy, right? Adding more moisture on a greasy face? The truth is your skin thirsts for it. Besides, an oily face is not a hydrated face. You don’t water your plants with oil, hence, your skin needs to rehydrate after losing (and washing off) all that natural oil from your face.

The key is to shop for a moisturizer that is oil-free and stay clear from those that say “occlusives and emollients” as these contain oils. Test any moisturizer between the fingertips for that smooth and silky feeling.

Use a primer For makeup application, it is important to use a primer, even for oily skin. The best primers for oily skin are gel-based and tend to absorb excess oil produced naturally. Use a powder foundation or mattifying foundation. Matte means no shine, and no shimmer added and this is best for oily skin. Also, to set your foundation, use an absorbent face/setting powder preferably sheer. And the one tool no oily skin should do without: Oil-blotting sheets. These can be purchased at almost any beauty store. These thin sheets absorb oils from the skin without smudging makeup. It also prevents you from re-applying and layering your makeup throughout your day, causing that cakey look.

No matter what your skin-type, you can enjoy the beauty of makeup worryfree. All it takes is a little research on your own skin and a few tips from yours truly, to feel confident in putting your best face forward.

Mariceli

• Career Plan: Accountant • Sign: Libra • Favourite Foods: Lasagna & Barbecue ribs • Likes: Volleyball, baking, spending time with family and friends, modeling • Lives in Belize City • Fav. Quote: “I’m not afraid of tomorrow for I have seen yesterday and I love today”

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

10

BELIZE'S #1 SPORTS PAGE

THE BELIZE TIMES

Placencia

Assassins win Premier League championship

Ashley Torres controls the ball

Belmopan, Saturday, May 12, 2012 The Placencia Assassins won the Belize Premier League Football Championship on aggregate scoring, after tying against the Police

NICH wins

Other finishers:

Wateva Boyz – 1st Intramural/Junior team & 4th overall Paddlers - Jesus Lenares, Adrian, Darren Williams Ocean – 5th Overall & 4th Male Paddlers - Leon Gillett, Jermaine Sanchez, Chris Guydis Beat di Burn – 6th Overall & 1st Mixed Paddlers - Jerry Rhaburn, Francisca Cruz, Keron Cabb Creative Marketing Missiles – 7th overall & 2nd Mixed Team Paddlers - Nalbert Seguro, Shermain Faber, Jamel Seguro Sea Sports Belize – 10th Overall & 1st Masters Paddlers - Michael Searle, Robert Bailey and John Searle Print Belize – 11th Overall & 2nd Pleasure Paddlers - Jesus Cruz, Rudolph Gentle, Javier Guardado SMART Police – 12th Overall & 1st Females Paddlers – Audrey Moody, Jane Usher and Ruth Cruz D & A Construction – 13th Overall & 3rd Intramural/Juniors Paddlers - Euken Arnold, Raymond Gillett, Jeff Rhaburn Grumpy Old Men - 14th Overall & 2nd Masters Paddlers – Joe Fuzy & Jerry Wilken Gold Nuggets – 15th overall & 4th Intramural/Juniors/Perseverance Award Paddlers - Matthew Mask, Ray Nicholson and Dominique Alvarez Burrell Methodist School students Spitfire – 16th Overall Paddlers - Pauline Vicente, Nyssa Batty, Jayda Guydis

Sunday, May 20, 2012

Team NICH wins Lamanai River canoe race Orange Walk Town, May 12, 2012 Team NICH’s Oscar Cordon, Jimmy and Efrain Cruz paddled their canoe across the finish line in solo fashion to take the win in the first ever Lamanai River Challenge canoe race sponsored by the National Institute of Culture and History on Saturday, May 12.

The winning trio finished in a time of 4:21:14. Some 5 minutes later, the Belize Bank team’s Armin Lopez, Amado Lopez and Daniel Cruz, crossed the finish line to take 2nd male and 2nd overall with a time of 4:26:20. Cobb’s Arms’ paddlers, Erick Cano, Roberto Cabb and Roy Cano, sponsored by the Cobb Family, took 3rd place male and 3rd overall in a time of 4:36:11.

Sixteen teams had lined up in front of the Lamanai pier on the New River Lagoon with their destination being the Banquitas House of Culture in Orange Walk Town, some 32.2 miles away. The start wasn’t easy as the wind caused the lagoon to be a bit choppy, and several teams capsized, some more than once! Five teams tipped over when they were caught in the danger zone of the wake caused by two of safety/service boats. The Grumpy Old Men showed good sportsmanship by sacrificing their time to help 2 teams get back into their canoe. The only sprint to the finish line was between Natius and Westrac who were registered in different categories (Intramural/Juniors and Pleasure). Video playback confirmed and the officials agree that Natius with Sergio Lopez, Byron Cruz, and Alfred Lopez took the 8th overall spot by a split second over Westrac, who was 1st Pleasure with Ervin Cruz, Jerry Cante and Hener Cruz.

Cash prizes and trophies were presented to first, second and third place winners in each category. All first place teams received $800, second place received $500 and third place received $300.

The 1st place team to cross the line also received a bull. A wooden carved trophy for the overall winner was refused by the NICH team, since they were hosting this event, and they opted to award it to the 2nd place winners, the Belize Bank Team.

United Football Club in Game 2 of the championship match in the City of Belmopan last Saturday night, May 12th.

Goals were scored by Elias Donaire for Placencia Assassins in the 12th minute and the Police’s Evan Mariano in injury time.

Neither the Assassins nor Police United could get a winning goal, but that was a comfortable place for the Placencia squad who had won Game 1 last week with a score of 2-1. This also made it more difficult for Police United because they had to score three goals or more to win.

The champs received the first place trophy, a $20,000 cheque and individual medals. The sub-champions collected a 2nd place trophy and medals. Dalton Eiley was named the Most Valuable Player.

The Placencia Assassins are now enjoying back-to-back national championship since they had also won the 2011 Belize Bank Superleague competition.

Orchid Blazers double up on the Hurricanes Belize City, May 14, 2011 The Orchid Blazers posted back to back wins over the Hurricanes when the Belize City women’s softball competition continued at the home of softball at the Roger’s Stadium on Monday night, May 14.

On Monday night the Orchid Blazers blew the Hurricanes away by a score of 220. Orchid Blazers pounded the combined pitching of the Hurricanes for 17 hits. They scored 10 runs in the 1st inning and led 19-0 when they scored 9 more runs including a 2 run homer by pitcher Ashley Lucas in the top of the 2nd inning. They added 3 more in the top of the 3rd inning, including a 2 run homer by leftfielder Nicole Arnold.

Both home runs were hit off relief pitcher Delsie Lizama.

Continued on page 11

Sunday, May 20, 2012

11

THE BELIZE TIMES

Kaya

BELIZE'S #1 SPORTS PAGE

Cattouse takes over cycling reins Belize City, May 13, 2011 Team C-Ray’s Kaya Cattouse won the Belize Cycling Association’s 7th annual Women’s Cross country Cycling Classic on Sunday, out-sprinting Team Sagitun’s 3-time defending champ Shalini Zabaneh.

Kaya played Sunday’s race the intelligent way, tailing Shalini and waiting to strike at the right times.

She clocked 4:29:08 on her 71-

Orchid Blazers double up on the Hurricanes Continued from page 10

On Friday night, the Orchid Blazers blasted Hurricanes: 13-0 in 3 innings. Orchid Blazers scored 13 runs on 8 hits, 3 bases-on-balls, and 7 errors that were committed by the Hurricanes defence. The Orchid Blazers pitcher Nicole Arnold keyed their offensive, collecting 2 triples in 3 official-at-bats and driving in 2 runs.

They scored 1 run in the 1st inning, and they closed down the Hurricanes when they scored 12 more runs in the bottom of the 3rd inning.

Arnold was also pitching the first no-hitter of her career, not giving up a single hit to the bats of the Hurricanes, as she struck out 6 batters and walked 1 in the process. The losing pitcher for the Hurricanes was the veteran Delsie Lizama.

Other game: Telemedia vs. Mirage Lady Rebels – 3-0 Winning pitcher - pitcher Mary Flowers

mile ride from San Ignacio to Belize City.

Her prizes included the $800 first prize, the champion’s trophy and the winner’s garland from Florasol, a $500 Digicell package, a gift basket from Grace Kennedy, a manicure set, and a Victoria’s Secret gift package from Steve Benedict Auto Sales and a plaque from the Women’s Department.

Shalini won the

…wins 7th annual Women’s Cross Country Cycling Classic $600 2nd prize and trophy from the Belize Cycling Association, a gift basket from Grace Kennedy and a manicure set from Dream nail & hair. Marinette Flowers won the $400 3rd prize, a gift basket from Grace Kennedy, a manicure set, as well as the $300 prize for Queen of the hills since she was the first rider at Go Slow at mile 62.5, at the Three Sis-

ters behind Mount Hope at mile 60 and at the Old Man Hill in Teakettle village.

Team Becol’s Patricia Chavarria won the $125 4th prize, while Team CRay’s Kirah Eiley took the $75.00 5th prize and a trophy. Team Sagitun’s Iris Centeno clocked 4:42:00 as she pulled in 6th to win a medal.

Unity Presbyterian girls & St Luke’s boys win softball games

Other Games:

Belize City, May 15, 2012 The undefeated Unity Presbyterina girls posted their 3rd win while St Luke’s Methodist primary School boys enjoyed their 1st win in the Belize City primary school softball competition at the Roger’s Stadium on Tuesday, May 15.

On Tuesday afternoon, winning pitcher Ashonti Unity led the Presbyterian School girls to their 3rd win 11-8 over the St. Luke Methodist School girls and the pitching of Ishell West.

Samantha Singh

St. Luke Methodist vs. St. John’s Anglican – 14-1 Winning pitcher: Marcos Martinez Muslim Community girls vs. Holy Redeemer – 7-0 Win by default Holy Redeemer boys vs. St. Mary’s Primary – 12-9 Winning pitcher: Daniel Echavarria Salvation Army girls vs. St Martin De Porres – 9-5 Winning pitcher: Shanell Rowland Buttonwood Bay Nazarene girls vs.

Wesley Upper – 14-7 Winning pitcher: D’andra MacFadzean Unity Presbyterian girls vs. Calvary Temple – 11-7 Winning pitcher: Ashonti Carr St Martins de Porres RC boys vs.

Salvation Army – 11-6 Winning pitcher: Derrick Menzies Buttonwood Bay Nazarene boys vs.

Wesley Upper – 11-4 Winning pitcher: Brian Pavon

Victor Valencia & Kayla Myvette are 2012 Strong Man & Woman

Continued pageWilliams 1 Blazers’from Georgia

Belize City, May 14, 2012 Up to ten bodybuilding and fitness buffs signed up to compete in the 2012 Strong Man and Woman competition held on Saturday May 12th at the Riverside Tavern.

After a series of challenges which tested strength, muscle endurance and determination, Victor Valencia

beat six other competitors to win the title in the male category. In the female category, Kayla Myvette took the top prize among the three-way competition.

Among the challenges were deadlifting, squatting with weights, clean and presses, dumb-bell speed walking, tire lifting and the final male course which was

pulling a fully-loaded H2 Hummer for a distance of 60 feet.

The winner was selected based on who lifted the most weights and those with the best time.

Kudos must go to all the competitors who participated in the event. They all showed bravery and strong will. The event was organized by the Belize Bodybuilding Federation.

12

THE BELIZE TIMES

Sunday, May 20, 2012

Sunday, May 20, 2012

THE BELIZE TIMES

13

High Commissioner optimistic about Belize-India relations BELIZE CITY, Wednesday, May 16th, 2012

By Alton Humes India’s High Commissioner to Belize and Mexico His Excellency Dinesh Kumar Jain made his second official visit after arriving in the country yesterday, May 15th, 2012 and the BELIZE TIMES was the first media house (print, radio or television) to meet and greet with the long-serving diplomat at the Radisson Fort George Hotel today.

Ambassador Jain has been the High Commissioner at least since 2009. We first asked him about the strength of the Indian community here in Belize, and how he personally measures their contributions to our nation. On that, he reserved his personal judgment, essentially saying that only Belizeans can rightfully judge the contributions that the 200 or so citizens have made here. But he was far more forthcoming with his previous initiatives as well as his future plans going forward, and suffice it to say, it’s a staggering list. In addition to a non-immediate-repayment grant/credit line of USC$10,000,000 (BZC$20,000,000) for the Government of Belize to use on various small projects, as well as planned projects to build a pathology lab for Belize, there are the continuous plans, such as draft legislations on taxation and a future waiver for Belizeans who travel to India on passports, as well as cultural and political exchanges (such as a future visit from an Indian parliamentarian at an unknown date and time), and contributing to the agricultural sector through land plots brought by an Indian consortium which will then be re-distributed to Belizean farmers.

But what are his thoughts on our young nation, our culture, our people and our progress? His Excellency was highly

BEL triggers 5-hour power outage in Corozal Corozal Town, May 15, 2012 A 5-hour long power outage which had a majority of the Corozal District in complete darkness was caused by the electricity company during maintenance works by mistake, according to the Belize Electricity Limited.

The company has indicated that the outage was triggered by damages to its underground cables connected to the transformer at the Corozal Substation that occurred just before 5pm on Monday.

Those damages appear to have been major as it sent the entire Corozal Town along with villages of Paraiso, Consejo, San Andres Village, Ranchito, Patchakan, Xaibe, Carolina, Calcutta, San Joaquin, Pueblo Viejo, Saltillos, Copper Bank, Chunox and Sarteneja into obscurity.

BEL’s repair lasted for hours, until around 8pm electricity was restored to a portion of Corozal Town, and the villages of Pueblo Viejo, Saltillos, Copper Bank, Chunox and Sarteneja.

Full restoration wasn’t complete until midnight.

complementary, but honest about his feelings. He praised Belize as a ‘beautiful, strong and confident country’ whose overall developmental progress is ‘particularly appealing’ to him. But with all of that, he added that despite Belize’s ‘bright future’ looming on the horizon, ‘there’s a lot of work to be done’ in the country.

Finally, we asked him what lessons could Belize learn from the ‘world’s 2nd-largest democracy’, and where he sees relations between our 2 countries going moving forward.

It was surprising to learn that for the Ambassador’s part, “We’re (India) not here to teach anyone]. Rather, he added, it is up to Belize to ‘see and decide’ who they wish to learn from in order to improve our internal makeup. But as far as the latter goes, he’s staying optimistic, citing the already ‘strong ground’ where relation stand as well as further opportunities for relations between Belize and India to grow exponentially.

As part of his working visit, Ambassador Jain paid a courtesy call upon the Leader of the Opposition, Hon. Francis Fonseca today to discuss further important matters.

We at the BELIZE TIMES wish His Excellency a most pleasant and informative visit.

H.E. Dinesh Kumar Jain, PUP Leader Hon. Francis Fonseca & H.E. Arun Hotchandani

14 Majority of Belizeans support a military takeover

Belize City, May 14, 2012 Belize’s political development has been relatively peaceful. There have been riots and protests and politically-motivated upheavals but nothing compared to the civil wars and military coups that have scarred other nations in the Central American and Caribbean regions. But is a military coup in Belize imminent?

A U.S.-aided research conducted in 2010 found that 58% of Belizeans would support a military coup if conditions of high corruption exist. The findings were released by the University of Vanderbilt today May 14. This percentage in Belize, of persons in support, was the highest among 26 countries surveyed in the Americas including Mexico, Guatemala, Jamaica and Honduras.

The central question asked during the research was: “In your opinion would a military coup be justified under the following circumstances: when there is a lot of corruption?”

Another survey question asked Belizeans whether they believed that the Government was combatting corruption sufficiently and only 36% said “YES”, while 64% said “NO”. Belize rated below Mexico and Jamaica.

The researchers explained that there were several factors which influenced one’s support or opposition for a military takeover. Persons with higher education and mature respondents showed less support for a military takeover.

The survey found that corruption victimization is the single greatest predictor of supporting a military take-over under conditions of high corruption.

“The more victimized an individual is by corruption, the more likely he or she is to accept military intervention under a scenario of high corruption. As expected, the results also show that positive perceptions of the government’s efficacy in combating corruption negatively predict support for a coup,” stated the research.

Corruption is defined by Transparency International (TI), a leading Non-Governmental Organization which has spent nearly two decades raising corruption awareness, as “the abuse of entrusted power for private gain”.

Interestingly, Transparency International conducts a similar exercise every year to discern the level of public’s perception of corruption, but because of a lack of support from Barrow Administration officials, no research has been carried out on Belize for the last two years.

If only the research has spent more time studying the current Administration, the results would show that the Barrow Administration is the most deceptive and corrupt Government in the entire region.

THE BELIZE TIMES

Sunday, May 20, 2012

Hon. Julius Espat joins More Tomorrow’s 219th Anniversary celebration Belize City, May 15, 2012 PUP Cayo South Area Representative Hon. Julius Espat joined village elders to celebrate the 219th Anniversary of More Tomorrow village this past weekend.

Along with village leader Ismail Omar Shabazz, Espat and residents and developers of More Tomorrow spent time discussing the development of the village.

The special day was celebrat-

Hon. Espat with More Tomorrow village leaders

ed with presentations on the history and potential of the community, sporting activities, and food sales.

In addressing residents, Hon. Espat declared his support for the community and commitment to lobby the Government for more resources for the village.

Evidence of this commitment and collaboration was the Ministry of Works’ assistance with grading and watering of the entrance road to More Tomorrow. Hon. Espat said that collaboration across party lines will be necessary for the people to see progress.

Sunday, May 20, 2012

THE BELIZE TIMES

Of this and that…

Asbestos Underwear Politicians are going to hell. The government gives out chicken coops for houses. Twenty million bucks in fowl coops. They squinge them into stingy 50’ x 50’ pieces of land. This is in crowded Belize City.

Belize City feels like Police “Piss house”.This is why crime is the norm. Belize City is a prison.

Election victories are more valuable than dignity. Belizeans are not “living” in Belize City. Death becomes them. Death.

Wet. Heavy. Depressing. Miserable.

Death.

Belize has lots of land. Belize has lots of greed. We have acres on top of acres of green. Miles upon miles of clean and fresh. We have mountains and mountains of potential. We have pastures on top of pastures of fertile.

The stars are aligned for Belize. The numbers are in our favor. 8,886 square miles to only 330,000 people. Omnipotent God to one selfish government and it is 329,984 of us versus 16 of them.

Free up the land. Or you will continue to taste hell, sickness and death.

Belize’s First Gay Minister Belize is “boom bye bye” country.

Obama is on the cover of Newsweek Magazine. He has a UNIBAM wrist band as a halo. There is a caption: “First Gay President”.

Lisel Alamilla does not have a wrist band over her head. She wears it proudly on her hand. The UDP is Gomorra!

She is not alone. Three eights of them should come out of the closet as they come out of Cabinet.

Lisa just for being the attorney was picked on. Caleb Orosco was punched on. Lisel Alamilla will be picked on. Why have no funny men been picked on? Sodom!

30 Years of Failure Zee Edgell is a sweetheart. She forced them to have a poor people viewing of the Beka Lamb play.

Such a darling as Zee must be protected. She must be protected from insults. It is an insult of sorts to celebrate thirty years of the book Beka Lamb. This is because it means a bad thing. It means there has not been a good Belizean book in thirty years. That is a drought of more than a generation.

Not one single Belizean writer has followed Zee. Not one book of fiction.

Not one new Zee Edgell was begotten in thirty years.

She blazed a path. Local creative writers have allowed that path to be over grown with sour head and cutting grass.

Belize has had thousands of graduates in 30 years. They can think. They can write. Yet creative literature is only imported in to Belize.

This is a shame.

We should close down UB, Galen and SJC Sixth Form. Their sin is 30 years of failure.

321738 I was seven And in New York Not fiery yet, but Proud – even then “we can spell our country on the calculator,” I said to my host. by Kiren Shoman Swear to it The PUP should learn from the USA. The USA is the supermodel of democracies. The PUP was betrayed. It was be-

trayed by its very care takers. This should never happen to them again.

The USA has a massive army. They are nothing to play with. The US makes sure that all soldiers take an oath. It is called the Oath of Enlistment. It is from the US Revolutionary War. It is as old as June 14, 1775. Everyone who joins their Armed Forces must swear to this oath.

The PUP has a new oath. It is modeled off the US Oath of Enlistment: “I, (NAME), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the Peoples United Party against all enemies, inside the Party and outside; and to serve honestly and faithfully against all its enemies and opposers whatsoever; both foreign and domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the Party Leader of the People’s United Party and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the principles of Social Justice. So help me God.” Snitch Soldiers of the PUP should be happy.

They should rejoice and be exceedingly glad.

There was an executive meeting of the PUP. Yet there was not one leak to the media.

Some time ago, Channel 7 got the secrets of the PUP in real time. Jules used to know before it even happened.

He would know before the Secretary General wrote it down.

This is no more. There are no more leaks.

Mark is gone. Cordel is gone. Bill is gone. Steve is gone. Rachel is gone. Stuart is gone. The leaks are gone.

Confidentiality in an army is big. It is the biggest thing. It is as big as loyalty.

The new PUP should be happy. No leaking is healthy.

The PUP is united. The PUP is purged of traitors. The PUP is well staffed. The PUP looks ready. The PUP will fight and protect the people.

Mr. Price is proud.

Sedi High fool Belize is going to a referendum. Sedi says “education” campaign first. Sedi is unfit. He is a functional idiot. He erased Belize’s border. He cannot teach. He cannot educate. The chap does not even know what “artificial border” means.

Sedi wants Belizeans to agree to go to the ICJ to lose. The OAS, Brits and Yanks cannot set us up.

Sedi sold himself. He did it in front of the whole world. He said his “education” effort was to get Belize to vote “yes”. Not to inform them.

Now, he calls for a propaganda campaign. Propaganda is not education, papito.

Who trusts Sedi? He lost four times before he got one right. He is wrong in politics four out of every five times. Truth is that Sedi is wrong 66% of the times.

Check Elections and Boundaries Department.

Those odds do not sound righteous.

Especially when, you could lose 100% of Belize.

Thief More than Vehicles A Ministry of Works pick-up truck was stolen. But why stop there? All Ministers’ vehicles should be stolen. All government vehicles should be stolen.

Having a body guard should be illegal.

The government is fat, insensitive

and clueless. They are not ready. They are just lazy.

This government needs to catch the bus to go to work. The ministers need to walk the streets. They need to ride bicycles to go see their sweethearts.

Of course, all Cabinet members would be mandated to live on the south side of Belize City. Their house should by law be subject to random home invasions and burglaries.

In fact, once in government, they should be banned from shopping at Brodies, Save U and Mirab.

Their visas should be seized and suspended. They should only be allowed one time visas; only issued for necessary government business.

Bet you, Belize would get better leaders.

Bet you, Belize would get substance.

Before it is too late Cayo is the emotional backbone of Belize. It has the most suicides. It has the most Romeo and Juliet tragedies. It has the most Romeo and Romeo tragedies.

It has the most Juliet and Juliet tragedies.

That is a border town phenomenon.

This murder of Marco Thompson in Cayo is bad news. Not because it reads like the Richard Hulse’s murder in Belize City or the other naked men killed in passion.

It is bad because that district lost a counselor. That district needs people to talk to. It now has one less answer. One less ear. One less heart.

So the next question is: will the government send more counselors to Cayo?

That district needs counseling. More than an exorcist they need counseling. That district clearly needs emotional therapy.

15 It needs it now.

Sell out The UDP is in bed with Aschroft again. Cordel and Mark supported Barrow. KREM supports Cordel and Mark.

KREM supports the UDP. They said it was because Ashcroft is a snake. He is a “vampire”. He is the “virus”. He is a “devil”. He has “tentacles”. He is an “enemy of the people of Belize”. So they said.

But KREM is aroused by the Barrow/Aschroft public display of affection.

KREM and Aschroft are supposed to be enemies. Yet they flatter and glamorize Ashcroft on the front page. And they are silent everywhere else.

It is all about the money behind the zinc seashore drive fence.

Breaking the law Belize City is dangerous. Deadly.

The government is putting citizens in danger.

By 9:30pm the streets are empty.

There is no traffic. The traffic lights do not come off until 11:00pm.

These stop lights are in bad neighborhoods. In the U.S., 53% of car-jackings occur at stop lights.

Belize should save some current.

Take the lights off earlier.

It is just unsafe.

Choices “And if it seems evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve.

“Whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: “But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD” - Joshua 24:15

16

THE BELIZE TIMES

Ashcroft-Barrow Détente

Flashpoint

The Dassault Falcon 7X carrying British billionaire Lord Ashcroft had not landed on Belizean soil for a full three years, and with good reason. His million dollar campaign contribution in 2008 to the then opposition United Democratic Party had helped to make Dean Barrow prime minister of Belize, the small, impoverished Central American nation of which Ashcroft had once said, “if home is where the heart is then Belize Godfrey Smith is my home”. But by 2009, Mr. Barrow had declared Lord Ashcroft - who had once served as Belize’s UN ambassador and been nominated by the Government of Belize for a knighthood - public enemy number one and a “new age colonial master”.

Mr. Barrow nationalized the highly profitable phone company once associated with Lord Ashcroft, enacted ad hominem legislation with stiff jail sentences for anyone seeking to arbitrate against the Belize government anywhere in the world and launched a sustained public relations campaign characterizing Ashcroft, Lord of Chichester, as the enemy of the Belizean people.

It was a risky, reckless move for a country dependent on foreign direct investment and highly vulnerable to external shocks. But Mr. Barrow gambled and rolled the dice, calculating that, if nothing else, expropriation of public utilities would ignite nationalistic fervor and secure his legacy as the great restorer of Belizean pride, dignity and nationalism. In much the same way that George W. Bush framed his presidency with the war on Iraq, so too, Mr. Barrow hinged his first term squarely on the partisan war against the so-called Ashcroft Alliance. Making his rounds on the local radio stations following the taking of the phone company, he declared that if the alliance wanted a war they should “bring it on”.

The alliance did bring it on: in wave after wave of unending litigation across three continents, in theatres of war that included Belize courts, US courts, British courts and international arbitration tribunals. Every ruling was appealed and every piece of legislation challenged. Mr. Barrow resolved that it was not a war he was going to lose; he certainly seemed prepared to do anything to avoid at all costs the political embarrassment of defeat.

When the Belize Court of Appeal, in June of 2011, reversed the high court and ruled that the government had in fact unconstitutionally nationalized the phone company, Mr. Barrow initially accepted the court ruling but later that same night, under pressure from party hardliners, he re-seized the company with the aid of state security forces and then enacted highly controversial constitutional amendments in an attempt to neutralize and nullify the court of appeal judgment. The Jamaica Gleaner newspaper warned that the prime minister was placing Belize on a slippery slope.

It should have been obvious from the start that it was foolish to commit the sparse resources of a tiny country to an expensive litigation war with no end in sight. Flashpoint had cautioned in its December 9th 2009 instalment that : “In protracted battles in which opponents are roughly evenly matched, a truce is sometimes declared to save money, time and resources, the initial fit of egotistical pique that precipitated the battle having succumbed to the reality of the pointlessness of it.”

The government and the alliance could be considered roughly evenly matched, except that one was using taxpayer’s money in an unproductive, unbudgeted enterprise for which the approval of the people had never been sought; the other was using private resources. But Mr. Barrow ploughed on, inflated by his perception of widespread support from the people for his patriotic defence of them. He ignored the warnings that foreign direct investment was dangerously plummeting, the Belizean economy stagnating and that business houses everywhere were complaining bitterly. Meanwhile, spiraling violent crime was getting Belize free international recognition as the fifth most dangerous country on the planet and dead bodies of feuding inner city youth were piling up in the streets of south side Belize.

Mr. Barrow called national elections a year before they were due, to get, he said, a mandate from the people to continue his defence of the country’s patrimony against the predatory alliance. The government was confident of a huge victory to the point of being complacent; their analysts were predicting that the party would capture even more parliamentary seats.

Mr. Barrow barely managed to hang on to the reins of government. In fact, but for the ignoble, treacherous resignation by two opposition safe-seat parliamentarians two weeks before the election, the government would have lost. Having captured 25 of 31 seats and by staggering margins just four years earlier, to have won by the skin of its teeth, aided by treachery, could hardly be considered a mandate or a vote of confidence. A 66 vote difference kept Mr. Barrow’s government in power. One of the PUP deserters reemerged as a high-flying ambassador and economic advisor; the other was offered a high-profile diplomatic post in New York.

It was predictable then that rapprochement would be sought, and fittingly too, in the Colonial Garden of the Radisson Hotel. The stage used to signal to the public the commencement of negotiations between the government and the alliance was the Belize Bank’s 25th anniversary celebration. In a carefully worded 15 minute key note address confined to the context of the Central Bank of Belize’s ongoing dispute with the Belize Bank, Prime Minister Barrow declared that the time had come to choose cooperation over confrontation. He extended the olive branch to the Belize Bank; one cynical guest muttered wittily that an olive tree would have been more appropriate. The Belize Bank chairman, Lyndon Guiseppi, accepted the peace offering and pledged to work with the government while Lord Ashcroft stood listening among the audience like just another invited guest. Noticeably absent were the Governor of the central bank and those two beneficiaries of Ashcroft generosity in former times, Ministers Michael Finnegan and Boots Martinez.

The road to a full and final settlement of outstanding issues between the alliance and the Government of Belize will be difficult and tricky to navigate, requiring large doses of compromise on both sides. Mr. Barrow will be beset by hardliners in his party who view any compromise as capitulation to foreign interests. The opposition will naturally prefer if the hostilities continue to keep the government distracted (as it has been for the past four years) from the critical issues of crime, employment and economic growth.

But Belizeans should support the process. Unless and until a settlement is found, Belize will continue to slip further into the economic hole it has dug for itself; the country will be consigned to another decade of stagnation while politicians desperately divert taxpayers’ money away from stimulating investment and economic growth and sink it into unsustainable programmes to keep the unproductive pacified and the steadily advancing criminals at bay.

This article was reproduced from www.flashpointbelize.com.

Sunday, May 20, 2012

Air Conditioning regulators bring on the heat BELIZE CITY, Tuesday, May 15th, 2012

By Alton Humes If you’re out there and have never heard of the Association of Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Technicians (ARACT), you’re not alone. What started as yet another initiative with the assistance of the Department of the Environment (DOE) and the Belize National Ozone Unit (BNOU) to make progress on combating global warming by reducing our carbon footprint from refrigerants such as R-11, R-12, and ‘502’ has evolved into an organization dedicated not only to training and educations these highly skilled laborers, but to make them, as it were, more legitimate.

The organization currently has 15 to 16 technician members (and that’s not counting other various stakeholders in grocery and other businesses), and it was those mostly male members who gathered together in presence at the Princess Hotel and Casino’s State Room to discuss the organization’s history, its ideologies, its work plans and what its future will look like. ARACT’s chief executive members, Hezron Hernandez (Interim President); Anthony Bell (Interim VP); Eddie Holiday (Senior Member, Standards Committee) and Charles Hinds (Public Relations; also Master of Ceremonies for the event) presided over the gathering.

After the welcome and a brief history on the organization (founded officially in 2010) as was delivered

by Hinds, there was a presentation

by Bell on the licensing, registration and educating of technicians, as well as Hernandez’s keynote address that outlined, among other things, that because of recent legislative changes for refrigeration and air conditioning technicians, there will be ‘no room for hustling’ for those who are either untrained or unlicensed, because all prospective techs must go through the full procedure to get their license, and must live up to the expected standards set for them by the organization.

But the question always is, how will this ‘new’ organization hope to make an impact in Belize not only through its commitment to improving its standards, but also engage in assisting to combat global warming effects of greenhouse gases?

Speaking via phone today with Valentino Blanco, a member of the Department of the Environment, he noted that because of the switch from ozone-depleting, greenhousewarming substances, technicians will need all the training and support they can get, even as finances are not at great condition and as there aren’t more members joining up at present.

Rest assured that ARACT’s fight will be tough, as the organization is continuously making ways to raise their profile throughout the country. But no one out there will deny it: staying cool in the face of global warming is going take a lot more than just press conferences; it’s a full–fledged challenge…. one that ARACT is hoping to meet head on.

Sunday, May 20, 2012

THE BELIZE TIMES

----Local Investor speaks out----

The story of Verena’s & Danai

by Richard Harrison I started Verena Foods in November 2002. We came along very well, expanding from VERENA’s brand of honey, to vinegar, to soybean oil, to olive oil, to tomato ketchup, BBQ sauce, Pizza Sauce, Spaghetti sauce, Salsa Dulce Catsup, Hot Habanero Sauce, coffee products (we packaged the oils and coffee and manufactured all the others) with several more shelf-stable manufactured food products already formulated and in the pipeline based on Cassava, eggs, rice, tamarind, herbal health products, citrus pulp, cohune oil, coconut oil, cucumber, plums, craboo and cocoa butter.

In 2003 we were awarded a Development Concession which exempted the payment of import duty for inputs that we required from foreign sources.

We stopped packaging honey since 2007 after being the first to package honey in hygienic, convenient, squeeze bottles with safety seal and flip cap with our brand selling in stores all over Belize because the Government, through its various agencies (Beltraide, PACT, Taiwan Cooperation, Ministry of Agriculture) spent over $300,000 “helping” honey-bee farmers with free bottles, labels, marketing courses and machinery.

The result was that they no longer wanted to sell me their honey and they also raised their farm-gate price above where I could make a profit. The honey bee industry has decreased in production over these past years and the retail price has doubled. They should have helped the farmers to increase their production and quality as we were already doing a good job with marketing, sales and distribution. Rather the government officials with green-eyes came after my segment of the product-market chain.

In 2007, I started Harrison Chemicals, expanding from DANAI brand of all-purpose cleaners: dish-washing liquid, fabric softener to glass cleaner with many more chemical cleaning products in the pipeline. My ambition is to reach cosmetics/beauty products and pharmaceutical production for which I am trained with a Bachelor’s degree level.

We grew from our kitchen in San Ignacio to our factory and 36-acre property at Mile 46, Western Highway, near Belmopan. Our products are accepted in the best resorts, restaurants and supermarkets across Belize such as Radisson Fort George, Chaa Creek, Turtle Inn, Blancaneaux Lodge, Cahal Pech Village, Brodies, Save U, Publics, etc. We have tested our products in Guatemala, Mexico and Honduras and our products are well accepted in price and quality for those markets but we are not yet certified nor registered to trade in those markets. We do not yet have the funds required to make an aggressive push into exporting.

We currently value-add on domestic sugar, habanero peppers, papaya, onions, carrots, cilantro, limes, mango, pineapples, water and labor, as well as services in accounting, brokerage, advertising, air, sea and ground transportation/ freighting services, fuel and gas supply services, courier services, government services (Customs, BAHA, Central

Bank, Social Security, Taxation), banking services, insurance services, property valuation services, auditing services, construction contractor services (land clearing, aggregates, building, plumbing, electrical, furniture), metal works services, computer repair and maintenance services, data entry services, water purification services, telephone services, electricity services, satellite tv and radio services, personnel and electronic security services, mechanical maintenance and repair services, appliances repair and maintenance, factory equipment repairs and maintenance, tire installation and repair services, and lawn maintenance and landscaping services.

Our small volumes at this time do not allow us to use tomato and other produce that pose cost, quality and availability issues for us (but our objective is to convert to using fresh local tomato and cassava (tapioca) starch whenever the factors are made right for us to compete using this). We currently import industrial tomato paste and raw material to formulate the cleaning products as well as the packaging materials including bottles, caps, labels, casing material. As you can see that services are built around industry, not the other way around!

In January 2010, our development concession was not renewed. This raised our cost of production.

In April 2010, the government reduced import duties on oils (soybean and olive oil), coffee and other products to ZERO so that finished brands like 1-2-3, Olmeca, Chef Choice, Goya and a flood of others could be imported already packaged for retail sale without paying any Import Duty, GST (General Sales Tax) nor ET (Environmental Tax).

This increased pressures from a flood of import competition and forced our prices downwards, compressing our margins.

Yet we have to be paying import duties on all our bottles, caps, labels and casing material as well as on all our inputs that go into production (industrial tomato paste, chemical raw materials, concentrated acetic acid, and additives).

In December 2011, the government removed ET from imports of all CARICOM products, again making import competition, like Grace Kennedy ketchup, cheaper on the Belize market and forcing our prices downwards and further compressing our margins.

These three hits over the past two years dealt by changes in government policy and decisions have reversed a lot of our gains over the previous 8 years.

We allow students from many

schools to come visit our plant so that they can be exposed to production and industry.

We make donations where we can to schools and various charities.

We employ people from surrounding communities.

We purchase a lot of our supplies from the stores, farmers market and direct from farmers.

We keep our properties, surroundings and environment ‘manicured’ as a good example in our community. With our plant and SANTORINI, we were the first to bring development to this area of north Belmopan, now much more devel-

17 opment is taking place around us.

We keep good relations with our customers and they look forward to seeing us and buying our products. Yes, we have much more to do and we work extremely hard to earn our customers’ confidence and gain new ones.

Our own governments have not been “friendly” to us. We have been an outcast so far in our industrial community. What other production companies take for granted, protection from import competition and/or duty exemption on inputs, we are not afforded.

Many of those industrialists who hear my story sympathize but are afraid to stand up with me because they are afraid that they will be victimized and lose those benefits that they currently enjoy.

However, all of us should stand together because this tragedy can befall anyone of them at any moment if they do or say things that are not considered “friendly” to government officials or if an investor that is “more friendly” to the government officials become interested in producing what they currently produce.

The young people should become more interested in this topic and in joining with my struggle because if this lock and key is broken for good by an INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION many more opportunities will open up for them. They will be able to use their education in more optimal ways and not have to resort to taking menial jobs that require much less and pay much less than what they are educated for.

Belizeans, countrymen and lovers… hear me for my call!

18

THE BELIZE TIMES

Sunday, May 20, 2012

Sunday, May 20, 2012

19

THE BELIZE TIMES

Happy Teacher’s Day!

A+ Teacher!

Teachers inspire us to do better through the example they set Teachers inspire us to do betterfor through the they set for us and by their encouragement. us and byexample their encouragement.

Can you find and circle the good qualities of teachers listed below?

Can you find and circle the good qualities of teachers listed below?

G W Q U R G B I Y I X U E O Y Teachers are one of the greatest people whom you can across in your life.

They are not only the selfless givers but also the mentors of your life. At every step of your life, you come cross teachers who devote their entire life in the enlightenment of students like you. For sure, teachers’ definition can’t be limited to a subject teacher because anyone who guides you in your life is a teacher. Many a times in life, you feel like thanking your teacher but you do not find a proper occasion. So this teachers’ day commemorate your teachers’ efforts and thank him/her for being the guiding light in your life.

H O Q L I N T W L F T T O R T

Z A C M E O Q A P H N W V C Q

J I R I B R S F R E L D J A C

T Z D D E T A C I D E D L N R

O V U D W S C T S X N Q E K T

A Y R A H O A Z U Q C L B F X

X W W Z G P R D B G O P M F N

M V N I D N I K L Q U Z U S X

O K A Y I S N W I E R B D T U

P G E N Z G G X C N A E K L B

S B C D M W D I H V G D X S Y

U Y B S U P P O R T I V E W M

I N S P I R A T I O N A L R S

T Z V I C V T Y T I G I H R N

CARING DEDICATED ENCOURAGING HARDWORKING INSPIRATIONAL KIND LEADER PATIENT STRONG SUPPORTIVE

A – mazing!

Can you help the students find their way through the maze to an amazing A+?

20

THE BELIZE TIMES

The Power of Rejection I remember a couple years ago, when I had just broken up with my girlfriend. I was very hurt as I thought that we had something going but only to find out from another source that she felt that I was bothering her too much. I cannot even attempt to explain my sadness and pain. Afterwards I attempted to pursue another young lady. She was abrupt right at the start basically dumping me before we even began a relationship. By this time, my hope of a sensible relationship was slowly dwindling away!

Finally I gave up the hunt for a girlfriend and decided to dedicate my time to the God. I would stay at the church building after Sunday school and just play my instrument, singing along, spending time with the King of Kings. Next thing you know I met one of the most wonderful women to ever enter my life. Everything I had been through in previous relationships was worth it for this one that I finally met. She was a ‘keeper’!

In my experience, I suffered great rejection; at least it was great rejection for me! The thing that I learnt the most was how to respond to it. Responding in a “wrong” fashion leads to many ills. It can make one sick with diseases like ulcers, cancers, and chemical imbalances!

Rejection may even lead to murder or suicide! It may be the cause of drug abuse. Rejection comes in many forms and fashions and its effect greatly multiplies when coming from an authority! It may come from a teacher or parent telling you that you’re stupid, that you can’t do anything right, an adult sexually molesting you, or a girlfriend, boyfriend dumping you. There are so many possible sources of rejection that it’s best I stop here as the most important thing is not the styles of rejection but rather our response to it!

If you read Genesis 37:17 you find Joseph walking into his greatest hurricane of rejection and having no clue about it. Regardless of your age, color, education, financial status, or looks, you will suffer from rejection at some time or the other. Rejection is as common to us as the clothes we wear! So how do we respond to it? I recommend three principles of response! These three things you should guard with your life as without them life somehow doesn’t seem to be worth living!

First is to guard your “self worth”. Regardless of the situation you are in or where you are, your value doesn’t change. A hundred dollar bill in Belize value remains the same whether it is in a septic tank or a wallet, whether it is wet or dry, in-fact its value remains the same even if it is torn in half! God has set a value on you when he made you in His image and therefore no one or no situation has the right to adjust your value whether it tries to take it higher or lower.

Second is to Guard your “identity” You were created for a specific purpose. People who have failed at formal education have in-turn become successful entrepreneurs, athletes, or vocational and technical engineers etc. Do not let someone tease you because of your voice as you may become a big-time radio announcer or singer like Tina Turner who has such a unique voice. If you’re too tall you may become a basketball player. But I’d like to address one serious area: if you have been sexually abused by a man or woman it doesn’t change your gender.

Nothing they do to you can change that. God created you with the identity of a male or a female and you should let nothing change that!

The third and final but also very important advice is to Guard your response. In the story in Genesis, Joseph all through his journey guarded his response, his value, and his identity. You do not have to kill because you’ve been rejected, you don’t have to destroy yourself or someone else, you don’t have to stop living and trying! Rather use rejection as a tool, which is its most divine benefit, to shape you, to carve and chip away at attitudes and mentalities that are unproductive, that are selfish and immature. Try to find out what you should be doing, what you should be learning while suffering and going through rejection. If you can avoid it then no problem but in Joseph’s case if he avoided it he would not have become the second in command for Pharaoh, eventually saving his complete family and country from destruction!

With that I leave you until next week and remember although rejection may seem negative, we cannot dodge it the same way we cannot dodge death forever. One day it comes knocking at your door and you must answer. Instead of dodging or getting angry, let’s look deeper into it and use it instead as a tool for personal growth rather than personal destruction!

Until next week, God Bless!

Sunday, May 20, 2012

Sunday, May 20, 2012

THE BELIZE TIMES

THINK ABOUT IT SAMANTHA CARLOS Sometime last year, the Reporter newspaper featured an article on one of their former employees. The person was also a beauty queen.

She worked diligently at one of the local banks and became Branch Manager in Orange Walk.

One day two bank robbers held up the customers and staff and robbed the bank. One of them punched the Branch manager to the ground. Put a gun to her head and forced her to open the drawer of the safe. Almost two hundred thousand dollars were stolen.

The Police eventually charged two persons for the robbery. And then to everyone’s surprise they charged the Branch Manager for conspiracy in the robbery.

The Branch Manager was Samantha Carlos, former journalist, beauty queen and hardworking bank employee.

A serving Police officer was appointed temporary magistrate in Orange Walk and he concocted a weird explanation to deny Miss Carlos bail and so off to Prison she went for many weeks until her attorney obtained bail from the Supreme Court.

The Bank promptly dismissed Miss Carlos. Months thereafter they foreclosed on her loan for her house, so she lost her residence. Efforts to seek employment all met the same negative response. Miss Carlos’ life was in ruins.

In the Creole community, the older generation have a saying “God noh like ugly”.

On Tuesday 15 May in the Orange Walk Court, the single charge of conspiracy was dismissed. There was no evidence in the file for the case to be sent to the Supreme Court for trial.

Samantha Carlos wept – openly.

Outside of the court, a family member asked if she could sue the Police for what she had been through.

It is hoped that the bank would do the decent thing and offer Miss Carlos a second chance.

Half way across the world, the Arab people who are oppressed by their own governments and for Palestinians oppressed by the Israelis, the phrase of praise is Allahu Akbar – God is Great.

BARROW AND ASHCROFT The Prime Minister of Belize met in secret with the Lord of Chichester abroad. Those who know this are in no way surprised about the events of last Friday night.

What happened last Friday night?

The Prime Minister accepted and attended an event for the Belize Bank.

He also accepted and delivered the keynote address to the gathering of employees of the Lord.

So petty had the Prime Minister become that all government functions and Press Conferences were removed from Radisson and conducted at Biltmore Hotel.

Belize Bank and Radisson belong to the Lord.

It is too early to predict if Ashcroft will seek the return of BTL or settle for a management contract. But what is certain is that the Prime Minister will start to pay for the expropriation of BTL with interest. Taxpayers are fac-

ing some four hundred million dollars in payouts over a period.

There is even talk that the Lord who skillfully purchased some 23 percent of Belize’s Super Bond debt notes (and resold them at a hefty profit) is being asked by the Prime Minister to help out with reassigning the super bond payments scheduled.

It is not certain which law firm will handle these two multi-million dollars paper work, but we can guess.

It is also not certain if the Cabinet of the country was informed of these about turns by the Prime Minister in what was an open warfare policy the government against Lord Ashcroft.

What is certain is that the National Assembly has been told nothing.

PUP SENATORS The official opposition party is only allowed three Senators to discuss resolutions, debate proposed laws and approve motions.

Those Senators are Miss Lisa Shoman, Mr. Collet Montejo and Mrs. Karen Bodden.

The Opposition should have a policy in which it appoints its Senators on a rotation basis, so that it can give exposure to its young and dynamic new politicians who will be taking over the government in the next four or so years.

HURRICAN SEASON In two weeks’ time it will by the month of June. In June the hurricane season starts.

Are all hurricane shelters in top shape?

Are all the groceries and canned food and stoves and items used for election bribery replaced?

Are the drains and waterways cleared?

DANGRIGA TO BELIZE From Dangriga to Belize City is just over 30 odd miles by sea.

So why is so much petrol at $12.00 a gallon being used to travel the distance from Dangriga to Belmopan and then to Belize City – 100 miles one way trip?

Are there no comfortable boats to provide the sea journey?

Is there no enterprising business person to provide this service?

CARLOS FUENTES One of Mexico’s great writers has passed away, at the age of 83 years.

Among his many novels are: “The Death of Artemio Cruz” which is about the Mexican Revolution of 1910 – 1920, “The Old Gringo” which was made in to a movie starring Gregory Deck and Jane Fonda.

And also “Tierra Nuestra” which contained three hundred and fifty thousand words and covered two thousand years of history.

PATROL BRANCH Although Belize and especially Belize City is in the grips of rising violent crime and murder; the CIB and Patrol Branches are grossly underequipped.

CIB, the Crimes Investigating Branch, has only two vehicles. The all-important Patrol Branch at Queen Street Police Station has one and a half vehicle to carry out their functions.

Is the government so broke they can’t provide vehicles for the Police to perform their functions?

THE RICH FOOL

A man in the crowd said to Jesus, “Tell my brother to give me a share of my inheritance”.

Jesus replied, “my friend, who appointed me a judge or arbitrator of your claim”?

Then Jesus said to his followers, “Watch and be on your guard against greed of any kind, for a man’s life is not made secure by what he owns, even when he has more than he needs”.

Then Jesus told this parable: “There was a rich man whose crops brought forth plentifully. He thought to himself. What am I to do. For I do not have enough room to store my crops. This is what I will do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones and there I will store all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul. You have plenty of good

21 things which will last for many years to come. Take life easy, eat, drink and have a good time”.

But God said to him “Fool, this very night your soul shall be required. And then who will get the things you have been hoarding?”

And Jesus said, “So it is for the person who is storing up treasures for himself but is not rich in the sight of God.” And a little later Jesus said: “Consider the lilies how they grow, they toil not, they spin not, and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

If God so clothe the grass, which today is in the field and tomorrow is in the oven; how much more will he clothe you o ye of little faith”.

22

THE BELIZE TIMES

Sunday, May 20, 2012

Family of 4 Killed in Crash Continued from page 1 an ugly and fatal traffic accident.

Nicholasia Tillett, 68, along with her daughter, Teacher and Counselor at Maud Williams High School, Karen Tillett Castillo, 45, and Castillo’s daughter, Alicia Smith, 13, and Smith’s father, Arthur Smith, Sr., 45, left Belize City under a downpour to beat the heavy traffic on the rainy highway. But tragedy struck when the small Geo Prizm car they traveled in lost its grip on the wet highway and skidded into the next lane just as they were passing a blue Isuzu Rodeo traveling from Belmopan to Belize City. The two vehicles crashed and the impact was deadly.

Only one passenger survived, Monique Robinson, 28, also a family member, who had to be cut out of her passenger seat at the front. Nicholasia Tillett, Arthur Smith and his daughter, Alicia who sat in the back were flung several feet away onto the road, where they died on impact. The driver, Karen Tillett Castillo, was killed when the car split completely in two and the back portion broke away to land a few feet away from the front portion.

The family were heading to Belmopan to seek visitors visas for little Alicia, who would have brought in her 14th birthday in the United States, provided the visa was granted. Karen Tillett Castillo’s brother, Denroy Tillett, was one of the first people to arrive on the scene after the news spread. He was the owner of the ruined Geo Prizm and had loaned it to his family for the trip. He told reporters at the scene in

Arthur Smith

Alicia Smith

Nicholasia Tillett

was not possible.

Arthur Smith, also known as “Smiggit”, was a popular bus driver who catered to people on mostly chartered trips across the country. He planned to take a break and accompany his daughter to the US for her birthday.

Karen Tillett Castillo had been a counselor at Maud Williams High School for the past ten years, dating back to when the school was named Saint Michael’s College. She is de-

scribed by the staff as a jovial, upbeat character who cared for her students and who had been spearheading a surprise for the 200 plus students at the school for this coming Friday. Those students are now left receiving counseling to cope with her untimely death.

Her passing marks the second such death of a high school counselor this week. The first was Sacred Heart College’s Marco Thompson, 45, who was viciously stabbed and killed in San Ignacio.

Karen Tillett Castillo still admirably strong composure that his relatives left early to try to avoid just what happened. Although it had been raining since Sunday night, they had to make the trip because rescheduling their interview for another day

THE WORLD IS READING

THE BELIZE TIMES www.belizetimes.bz

Sunday, May 20, 2012

Wasteful!!

GOB pays UDP family $5000 rent for office with no electricity Belize City, May 14, 2012 The entire UDP Cabinet needs to undergo urgent financial management training. Our country is facing its worst economic crisis, yet UDP ministers pretend they have a personal treasure chest at their disposal. Just look at the kind of Ministerial vehicles purchased with tax payers’ money, such as Gaspar Vega’s third luxury vehicle, a $184,896 Toyota Land Cruiser, and you’ll understand.

The UDP is already like poison to our economy. Being bad for financial

23

THE BELIZE TIMES

management just makes it worst. To drive this point even more, there is also the case of the Government spending $5,000 in rent for an office that doesn’t even have electricity.

Since 2002, the old but sturdy Government building on Gabourel Lane was used as the office space for the Vital Statistics Unit and the Legal Aid and Services Center. The Legal Aid office was renovated and equipped with special rooms for client services. It was funded through client fees and donations from the gov-

ernment, the Bar Association, corporations, and individuals. It had no major overhead expenses for the Government, as the building is crown property.

But the UDP Government had other greedy plans, the kind that will cost Government over $60,000 yearly. Without logic, the Attorney General’s Ministry decided to move the Legal Aid office from a government building to a private residence.

Its new location is a building on Albert Street owned by Norma PittsNembhard, the sister of the former Attorney General Bernard Q. Pitts, who is also a law partner at Pitts & Erlington, along with the current Attorney General, Wilfred “Sedi” Elrington.

AG Elrington told the Reporter newspaper a few weeks ago that the building is “dilapidated” and “condemned” by the Ministry of Housing.

Students say farewell to murdered high school counselor San Ignacio, Wednesday, May 16th, 2012 Disbelief and grief enveloped the community in San Ignacio on Wednesday as Sacred Heart College students and residents lined through the town’s streets to say farewell to murdered high school counselo, Marco Thompson.

Thompson, 45, had been stabbed to death. The English Teacher was found inside his home at 46 Corner Second

and West Streets around one o’clock on Sunday afternoon. His body had three large stab wounds to the neck, which had been inflicted by a butcher knife.

That weapon was discovered in the hall, where Thompson’s body was also found lying half naked and lying face up.

Thompson’s adopted son, cyclist Ron Vasquez, who lives at the address along with Thompson’s mother, made the horrific discovery. Vasquez later told

Gang-like execution targets James Hyde in Griga BELIZE CITY, Monday, May 14th, 2012

By Alton Humes The ever-present spectre of gun violence reared its ever-ugly head in the most unlikely and laid-back of spots, the ‘Culture Capital’, Dangriga Town.

James Hyde, a 36-year-old Belize Cityborn ‘transplant’ of sorts to Dangriga, was viciously and brutally shot to death on Thursday May 10th, just prior to the start of another long weekend.

The key question that Police must answer with regard to this particular incident is – was it Hyde’s past that ‘followed’ him to Dangriga, and thereby contributed to his death?

It’s a rather loaded question, but one that is very much necessary to solve yet another in the series of serial murders. Here are the facts as are known thus far: Hyde was at his residence at the corner of Riverside and Oak Streets, not too far from the North Stann Creek River, hanging out with varied friends whom he fished with at around 7:20 p.m. That is when two gunmen in a white vehicle, reportedly with Belmopan license plates drove up, entered the yard with their faces well-covered and opened fire on the gathering. Everyone but Hyde had to duck for cover, leaving Hyde to be hit with 6 shots - 3 to his head, 1 to his thumb, 1 to his knee and one to his left side of his ear, killing him almost instantly.

Dangriga residents have been left in utter disbelief at unadulterated, coldblooded nature of the murder.

Dangriga Police are tight-lipped about the case, only calling it ‘drugrelated’. For his family, he is the third in number to go down from this spate of violence.

Marco Thompson reporters that he had spoken with Thompson some hours earlier, after Thompson had dropped off his mother at the bus terminal. Thompson, he said, appeared normal.

Thompson started off his 25

But when checks were made at the Ministry’s Housing and Planning Department, no one had any idea that the building was condemned. Neither did the Local Building Authority of the Belize City Council.

If the building was condemned, as Elrington said, why would the Vital Statistics Unit still be housed there and why do they have no plans to move any time soon?

Then here is the issue of the rushed decision to move. The building on Albert Street does not have an adequate supply of electricity. The staff has had to rely on a “drop” (makeshift connection) from the upstairs neighbour to operate its computer equipment. This practice is prohibited by BEL and normally leads to persecution and a fine.

As we see it here, this is simply another move to fatten more UDPs.

year-long teaching career back in 1986 at Sacred Heart College in San Ignacio. He left for a few years to advance his education, after which he returned to the school where he continued his teaching profession and became the school’s counselor. He was last seen alive purchasing food across from a night club where he had been partying the night with a male friend. Police reported that his Digicell phone was missing, and only his identification cards and his empty wallet were in the ransacked bedroom.

Police detained three persons of interest, and released them, then detained a teenaged boy pending investigations. Authorities have also retrieved what they believe is the suspected murder weapon, a butcher knife. But no one has been charged thus far in connection with the incident.

Students say farewell to Thompson (pic courtesy Capital Newspaper)

24

THE BELIZE TIMES

Sunday, May 20, 2012

Sunday, May 20, 2012

THE BELIZE TIMES

THINK ABOUT IT BEST MOON EVER Ancient peoples must have been awed by the sheer majesty of the sight. Especially as it changes colour from a pinkish crimson, to yellow and a little later to white.

The once a year closeness of the moon to the earth is awesome. Scientists say the moon appears 14% bigger and about 30 percent brighter when it made its annual pass so close to the Earth on Saturday 5 May 2012. It was about 15,300 miles closer to Earth.

The Moon is about 238,000 miles from the Earth. God’s great Sun is about 92 million miles away.

The brightness of this special moon not only lit up the sky but lit up the waters in front of Belize City – so that it glistened.

Beautiful.

GOING TO COURT Belizeans are being asked to agree to going to Court with Guatemala for the Court to decide how to settle Guatemala’s claim to our country.

Belizeans are being told that they will be required to vote in a National Referendum next October 2013.

The referendum will be on Sunday to facilitate Guatemala which prefers to hold its elections on Sunday.

In Belize, Sundays are a day of prayers, worship and church attendance as well as outings to recreation spots or rest at home.

The UDP Government is committed to following the British, Guatemalans and Americans in having the claim settled by the International Court.

There is no doubt our government will be campaigning to have its supporters vote yes in the referendum and that there will be the usual bribery and other corrupt practices to influence the outcome of the referendum.

We should all remember the shameless behavior of government bringing up its supporters and gang members to bleat out “yes, we support the 9th Amendment (to the Constitution)”.

The official position of the Opposition has not yet been made public but they will be under pressure from the British to tow-the line.

It is highly likely that the Court will award Guatemala portions of Belize land and sea. That has always been the position of the USA, Britain and Guatemala.

Guatemala is asking the Court for the whole of Stann Creek and Toledo.

They are prepared to accept Toledo and a big chunk of sea and some islands.

Is there not a single man or woman with some of the blood of George Price and Phillip Goldson??

George Price said “Not even a square centimeter of land or sea is to be given up to Guatemala”.

Phillip Goldson said “The time to fight four our country is before we lose it”.

VOTE OF RAGE The people of Greece voted in their general elections over the weekend.

They now have no government.

In their anger they have voted out the government and given power to many

parties.

Under their system of proportional representation, several parties are trying to join forces to form a coalition government.

The voting was all about austerity measures which their previous government said was necessary as an economic solution.

Austerity is another word for hard times.

FRANCE GOES SOCIALIST In Presidential elections on Sunday, Francois Hollande was elected by the French people to lead their country in a new direction.

The main issue in the election was austerity. The people said no to more hard times.

Hollande becomes the second Socialist in decades to win a Presidential election. In Europe the governments are usually right wing and conservatives.

Hollande has said “my true adversary in this battle has no name, no face, no party … it is the world of finance.”

He has already stated he is pulling French soldiers out of Afghanistan war in six months’ time.

BOCO-T, ANOTHER LIE Remember the last lie?

Arthur Young, wanted for murder is cornered in a building in Ladyville. He is badly beaten by Police, handcuffed and thrown in the back of a pickup with more than four police therein – heavily armed. They are seen stomping and kicking him. He is screaming.

He never reaches the Police Station.

His body ends up in the morgue.

At a press conference the Police Minister reads from a statement that Arthur Young was trying to get hold of a police gun and was shot.

Yeah! Yeah!

Now comes another incredible report from San Pedro, Belize.

Boco –T is being escorted to the Station. He escapes. He falls trying to go over a fence. Police recapture him.

At the station he is said to be fainting.

He is later dead.

Official Police report. He apparently broke his neck when he fell over the fence.

Yeah! Yeah!

Official autopsy: Death from internal bleeding. This is the same as death from internal beating.

DON’T CUT ME The poor people who are being used and abused in the so called Poverty Alleviation Programme suspected that after the elections they would be thrown one side.

They just didn’t believe it would happen so soon.

Twenty-five poor people given jobs at City Council to bribe them to vote in the elections were sent home one week after the elections.

Now several hundred attached to the Poverty Alleviation programme have been told that their pay is being cut. Straight up like that.

Instead of the dignity of going to work six productive days they are being told only to work “for three or four days”. It is a gimmick to justify reducing

their already small wages.

Not a single big shot UDP has had a pay cut or asked to go home.

Remember how the government Ministers were paying for aliens to get citizenship papers?

Remember how all 31 UDP politicians were given three million dollars to share up among themselves for the general elections.

But now that they got elected they don’t need poor people anymore.

VERTIGO Whether it be Vertigo or any other ailment.

Whenever the Prime Minister is ill, and it disrupts his official work schedule the country has a right to know.

It is with disrespect that the government three weeks after the fact tells the nation that yes, the Prime Minister could not start Cabinet on time.

The rumor mill was in full swing.

All kinds of talk about the Prime Minister. One respectable person even mouthed that God di lash Barrow for his evil deeds. Such is the inevitable results of covering up.

Our take is that when the Prime Minister is ill, the deputy Prime Minister is the lawful person to run the country.

Which brings up this other matter.

It is now two months since the general elections. The nation is running without a lawfully approved budget.

There has not been a single meeting of the new Parliament and to top it off a huge decision on a referendum with Guatemala is signed by the Foreign Minister, WITHOUT the permission or even a debate in the National Assembly.

MOTHER DEAR “Your brows are slightly furrowed, Mother Dear, A sliv’ry tinge has crept into your hair; But still you’re dear and wond’rous fair to me.

I pledge my love – and in eternity Will glow a warm and constant shining hue To mark the heavenly path that leads to you.

God’s blessing on your earthly sojourn here; Can I forget you? Never, Mother Dear!

By Belizean Poet, Hugh F. Fuller

25 THE GOOD SAMARITAN Jesus told this parable. It is found only in Luke Chapter 10 verse 29 to 33.

A man was going from Jerusalem to Jericho. He was attacked and robbed. They took everything and beat him, leaving him half dead on the roadside.

After a while a Priest passed and saw the man. The Priest looked at him and passed on the other side.

A Levite later passed. Saw the man and walked on the other side.

Then came a Samaritan. When he saw the man, he had compassion for him. And he went and attended to him.

He treated his wounds and put him on his donkey and took him to an inn.

At the inn he paid money and told the inn keeper if more was used he would pay the extra on his way back.

And Jesus asked the question, now which of these three persons was neighborly unto the man? And Jesus answered “He that showed mercy on him. Then go and do thou likewise.”

In Belize there are those who are paid to look after the poor, the elderly and the mentally disturbed.

Those who are paid are the Ministers of government, the public officials and the NGOs. The Ministers see the poor, elderly and mental people, but the Ministers drive pass quickly.

The non-government organizations who get money also see the poor, elderly and mentally disturbed, but are too busy hurrying to a conference at the Fort George Hotel.

At the conference the Minister gave the keynote speech. The public officials chaired the workshop. Someone mentioned the parable of the Good Samaritan but an NGO raised a point of order, that the issue of the poor, the elderly and mentally was not specified on the agenda. The point of order was debated at length and upheld, so the issue was not discussed or addressed.

A Priest blamed the gathering and ate the lavish food along with the participants. On his way from the Fort George conference he passed the poor, the elderly and the mentally but he didn’t stop as he was hurrying to attend a funeral.

And that same Jesus had said “leave the dead to bury the dead” Matthew 8:22.

26

THE BELIZE TIMES

Sunday, May 20, 2012

Sunday, May 20, 2012

THE BELIZE TIMES

By Right or Might!

Oceana takes GOB to Court over referendum

Over 18,000 petitioners are being disenfranchised by the stiff-necked Barrow Administration BELIZE CITY,Tuesday, May 8th, 2012

By Alton Humes Oceana in Belize could be facing off in the Supreme Court against the stiffnecked Barrow administration’s contin-

ued denial against the original volume of petitions to hold a national referendum on offshore oil drilling and drilling in protected natural areas.

When Oceana in Belize and the Be-

lize Collation to Save Our Natural Heritage joined forces to collect roughly 20,000 signatures for a petition intended to trigger a national referendum before the double General and Municipal Elections that were held this year, they played their cards fairand-square. Of course, GOB decided to not play fair, and thereby triggered their unlikely yet monumental ‘fall-back plan’.

Oceana along with interested parties, Thomas Henry (Tom) Greenwood and Audrey Bradley, have applied to the Supreme Court to challenge the disqualification of over 8,000 from the 16,000 presented to the Governor General Sir Dr. Colville Young, as required by the referendum act.

But well before this action, there was much going on. This included letters between Oceana Vice-President Audrey Matura-Shepherd and the Governor General as well as Charles Gibson, the former CEO in the Ministry of Public Service and

GOB can’t sustain Poverty Alleviation scheme Belize City, May 8, 2012 The Barrow Administration has unofficially announced that it cannot continue to sustain their Poverty Alleviation scheme and other programs under its “pro-poor” policy.

The Poverty Alleviation scheme is the first to be trimmed. Through this scheme, the UDP hires over 600 persons who earn low income salaries. The program has no defined social purpose and merely gives persons a small income and temporary employment. GOB started the program

since 2010 and despite criticisms that the program lacked depth and was bleeding Government funds, pressed by political needs it continued through to the elections. But now the elections are over and the UDP politicians don’t need voters, so they can take the risk of cutting down the program.

Another scheme that is getting the axe, even if just partially, is the gang truce.

The UDP has over 200 persons, acknowledged members of 13 gangs throughout Belize City, on the Government’s payroll.

GAPI’S

NEW RIDE

While teachers, police officers, nurses and public officers cant get a pay raise, Deputy Prime Minister Gaspar Vega can used tax payers money to purchase his third ministerial vehicle, a $184,896 2012 Toyota Land Cruiser.

This program is the Barrow Administration’s most controversial yet. Through negotiations with gang leaders and now gang ambassadors, gang members are offered a portion of jobs in exchange for a weekly salary. The Barrow Administration says this is the most effective way of reducing gang violence and the shootings that have plagued Belize City, yet both the number of shootings and gang-related murders are on the rise.

The BELIZE TIMES understand that the Barrow Administration’s financial troubles extend beyond those two programs.

The National Health Insurance Scheme which has been at a standstill since 2008, will continue on freeze and even worst, will see a cut to its meagre budget. The NHI, introduced under the former PUP administration, was geared to provide health care to poor and low income families. It was rolled out initially in a pilot phase in Southside Belize City. The result was tremendous. Health care became accessible to many who could not access services because of affordability factors. The program was beginning to roll out in Southern Belize when the UDP administration came to office and applied the brakes. Now its viability is on the line.

Reports are other programs in health, education, youth, sports and culture will see cuts.

The 2012-2013 Budget, which should reflect the financial status and outlook of the Government, has not been presented.

27 Elections and Boundaries turned Minister, demanding a formal explanation on the rejected signatures.

When the slew of letters yielded responses that were not up to any sort of respectful standard, Oceana and their allies rolled up their sleeves, and prepared for the litigation they would now have to face.

The key now, says Mrs. Matura-Shepherd, is directly challenging the flawed and politically-motivated amendment by the Barrow Administration to the Referendum Act, Chapter 10 (amended several years ago), which hasn’t been done quite like this. By going after (in paraphrase) the ‘right’ to ‘enable the general public to call a referendum on any issue of national importance’, and then to have it slammed down due to outright political interference and intransigence; well, that’s a powerful motivator enough, and why this lawsuit is a make-orbreak event for all parties.

Make no mistake about it, whatever happens will mark the Barrow Administration in every way possible, and will also potentially up-end the continued political dominance of the State over its citizens.

A date for the hearing of the application has not been set, but the BELIZE TIMES will continue to follow and report on this matter.

Police say he stabbed her to death Wednesday, May 9, 2012 Today Independence Police arrested and charged Manuel Peck, 79, with murder for allegedly stabbing his 81 year old common-law wife, Maria Chen to death.

The two were reportedly at home in San Pablo Village, Toledo, sometime after six last Friday May 4th evening when the Police believe that a dispute broke out between them. When they responded to calls made by villagers who heard Chen’s screams, Police found Peck lying inside a hammock in the house and Chen’s body on a bed. She was in a pool of blood lying face up, and had suffered a vicious stab wound to her throat, severing her windpipe. Peck had a broken arm and a small cut wound to his chin.

But in his report to police, Peck had an entirely different story. The Guatemalan farmer told investigators that he and his common-law wife went to lie down. He said that he was in a hammock and that he heard Chen exclaim that “someone is killing us”. Peck said just then he felt an excruciating pain to his face and realized that someone had hit him. He continued that he couldn’t see because the house was dark.

Police, however, have a different theory of how things went.

They say that she was cut to her throat with a blunt object and during their search of the house, discovered a piece of stick with blood stains at one end. They also say that based on their investigations and after interviewing several persons in the area, they have enough evidence to charge Manuel Peck with Chen’s murder.

28

THE BELIZE TIMES

Sunday, May 20, 2012