Belize Times 101121

Sunday, November 21, 2010

The Belize Times

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Barrow is a BRAT! SUNDAY NOVEMBER 21, 2010

Issue No. 4720

$1.00 www.belizetimes.bz www.pup.org.bz

Bar Condemns PM’s Disgraceful Behaviour…

On Monday, November 15th, the Bar Association of Belize released a scathing release condemning the actions of Prime Minister Dean Barrow in the House last Friday.

In one of his rambling episodes of pontification, Mr. Barrow launched a pointed attack on the attorneys in the Bar Association, accusing them of all being PUP. The leader of the nation got decidedly personal in his words, referring to the attorneys as ‘a bunch of hypocrites and frauds.’

Not surprisingly, the Bar Association pulled no punches in its response telling Mr. Barrow to ‘man up’ and stop behaving like a spoilt child.

The release states – “The Association condemns in the strongest possible terms the very public and unwarranted attacks upon the Association launched by the Honourable Prime Minister Dean Barrow in the House of R e p r e s e n t a t i v e s o n F r i d a y, November 12, 2010. The Honourable P r i m e Minister has obviously sought to put political labels on and personalize the reasoned position of the Association…” The executive of the Bar goes so far as to accuse the Prime Minister of dodging the

real issue, orchestrating the attack to distract attention from allegations of very real and deliberate interference in the Judiciary. The Association

Police Stumble on a $100M Coke Bust

states that the Prime Minister was attempting to “inflame and incite his supporters and thereby avoid the manifest need to address in a sober

and rational way the very serious allegation that the Honourable Prime Minister has sought to undermine the rule of law through unwarranted and unjustified interference with persons holding high judicial office.”

This is not the first such attack on the Bar Association. Indeed, the last time that the Prime Minister was condemned for awarding indecent sums of money to his ex-wife by ensuring that she was government’s attorney of choice, he retaliated by claiming that all the members of the Bar Association except for his exwife had been bought and paid for

by Lord Michael Ashcroft. Nobody could have imagined then that Dean Barrow’s own law firm is also on Lord Ashcroft’s payroll and was receiving (and is still receiving) vast sums of money from Ashcroft. But that is the caliber of the man who is the leader of this nation.

And after making the point that the Prime Minister is interfering with the Judiciary and trying to dodge and hide the fact that he is doing so, the Bar Association really gets rough on Mr. Barrow for his unbecoming (Continued on pg. 3)

Sweetheart Deal for BTL

$48 - $63 Million Over 5 Years Minister of Police Doug Singh appeared perplexed and not even slightly exuberant as he faced the media days after the apprehension of a drug plane and the discovery of

what is alleged to be approximately $100M worth of cocaine packaged in 80 bales. One would have expected the Minister to be beside himself with (Continued on pg. 3)

Last Friday the Prime Minister of Belize introduced for its first reading the Income and Business Tax (Amendment) (No.2) Act, 2010 in the House of Representatives. The Leader of the Opposition Hon. John

Briceño immediately seized upon it and accused the Prime Minister of creating his own sweetheart deal for the future shareholders of Belize Telemedia Ltd. So how sweet is (Continued on pg. 3)

Gibe Memegili Wayumaha; Lidanba Uarani Wawansera

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The Belize Times

Sunday, November 21, 2010

No Obligation?

On February 2, 2009, Prime Minister Dean Barrow claimed that he had no obligation to meet with cane-farmers in the north who were pleading for his intercession in a dispute with BSI over the use of the core-sampler. He felt that instead, his obligation was to demonstrate his power and put his ‘cojones’ on display for all those troublesome cane-farmers to see. Mr. Barrow instructed his security forces to ‘use any means necessary’ to break up the peaceful protest at BSI and within the hour one cane-farmer lay dead with a policeman’s bullet in his head and eight others were injured. For M r. B ar r o w it mu s t h av e b een s o mew h at o f a p er s o n al tr iu mp h , widow with six fatherless children notwithstanding, because he showed that he was ‘the man.’

If memory serves, and it does, on the afternoon of February 8, 2008, a certain gentleman placed his right hand on a bible, raised his eyes to the heavens and said - “I Dean Oliver Barrow do swear that I will bear true faith and allegiance to Belize and will uphold the constitution and the law and that I will conscientiously impartially a n d t o t h e b e s t o f m y a b i l i t y d i s c h a rg e m y d u t i e s a s t h e P r i m e Minister of Belize and do right to all manner of people without fear or favor, affection or ill will so help me God.” While the word obligation is not spelled out in that sacred oath it is understood. Yet almost on the anniversary of taking that oath, the Prime Minister claimed to have no obligation to the cane-farmers in the north.

In the House of Representatives on Friday, Prime Minister Dean Oliver Barrow stood tall in front of the nation and stated clearly that he has no obligation to the cane-farmers in this time of crisis.

As the situation stands on the economic front, there is a very real and present danger to the sugar-cane season which was slated to start in the first week of December. BSI has been unable to make its third payment to the cane-farmers and unable to generate the finance necessary to prepare the factory for the new season. With farmers lacking the funds to make their own preparations and BSI unable to get underway, this crop season is in real jeopardy.

On another very serious front, there are approximately 8,000 cane-farmers in the Orange Walk and Corozal districts. More than 50,000 Belizeans in the north of this country depend on sugar-cane for their very survival. To date the cane-farmers have been unable to access the monies due to them from BSI and this translates into very real economic hardship and suffering for the people. Many farmers have expressed the real fear that by this week’s end their utilities will be cut and they will be unable to put food on the table for their families. There should be no greater immediate concern than the day to day survival of our people in this time of real crisis, but Mr. Barrow says that he has no obligation to them.

It is no surprise that the crisis in the sugar industry has escalated to this point. For many months there have been indications of trouble within BSI and trouble in the Cane Farmers Association. For many months Mr. Barrow has been accused of turning a blind eye to the s i g n s w a r n i n g D a n g e r A h e a d . F o r m a n y m o n t h s M r. B a r r o w h a s played deaf mute when the blaring alarms have sounded. And now that the chickens have come home to roost, the Prime Minister says nonchalantly that he has no obligation to deal with the problem.

In an interview with a local media house on Friday, Mr. Barrow stated that he has yet to really look at the situation and figure out if government will need to become involved. And even if GOB does have to intercede, says the Prime Minister, he doesn’t have any idea what they’ll be able to do for the cane-farmers and for BSI. A t t h e t i m e o f M r. B a r r o w ’s i n t e r v i e w, 8 , 0 0 0 c a n e - f a r m e r s had been 7 days without receiving monies due to them. At the time o f t h e p u b l i c a t i o n o f t h i s n e w s p a p e r, t h o s e 8 , 0 0 0 c a n e - f a r m e r s have been 14 days without receiving the monies due to them. The government’s position has not changed. Mr. Barrow couldn’t care less because, as he’s said for all to hear, he has no obligation to the cane-farmers in the north.

We have no obligation to Mr. Barrow, but nevertheless urge him to deal with this matter most expeditiously as tensions continue to flare in the north of the country. The mix of unpaid monies, an insolvent BSI and an uncaring government is a volatile one. If Mr. Barrow cannot fathom the time-bomb waiting to blow then he is even blinder than we thought.

Happy Garifuna Settlement Day

from the Management & staff of the Belize Times THE BELIZE TIMES ACTING EDITOR

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Sunday, November 21, 2010

The Belize Times

Barrow is a Brat!

(Continued from pg. 1)

behavior, reminding him of his duties and responsibilities as Prime Minister and as a member of the legal profession which he seems to have forgotten – “The Association reminds the Honourable Prime Minister that, as Prime Minister, he was elected to govern and

refrain from conduct which is detrimental to the profession or which may tend to discredit it. As an attorney, he is further clearly prohibited by those Rules from engaging in undignified or discourteous conduct which is degrading to his profession.”

Notwithstanding the fact that Mr. Barrow insists that the Bar disagrees with and condemns his actions and

decisions because they are (a) all agents of Lord Michael Ashcroft or (b) all agents of the People’s United Party, the allegations against the leader of the nation by no less than the nation’s Bar Association is cause for extreme concern. There is no doubt that interests in the region are sitting up and taking note. There is no doubt that Mr. Barrow’s days are numbered.

that they knew exactly where it had landed the minute it did so. And in addition, Singh claimed, they received calls from villagers who informed them of the circling aircraft before it even landed. Yet, with all that, by the time personnel from the Independence Police Formation (which Singh said was about 20 minutes away) finally arrived on the scene the plane had been offloaded of its cargo and that cargo 80 bales of (30) 2.2kg packages – had already been transported elsewhere.

If the plane had not been damaged on landing that too would have been long gone from the scene.

Sources close to the investigation tell the Belize Times that were it not for the persistence of a few lowlevel police officers who insisted on responding to the scene of the alleged landing and the fact that the plane was damaged and had to be abandoned,

there would have been no evidence that anything at all had transpired; no apprehensions, no plane, no cocaine haul. That source told this newspaper that the events had nothing to do with intelligence or tracking or a rapid and coordinated response…it was just an ‘accident.’ Maybe that’s why Minister Singh does not look very happy.

Or perhaps it is because the alleged involvement of Police Officers is yet another stain on an already maligned Police Department and even further erodes the public’s confidence in our law enforcement authorities. In his interview Minister Singh made an unsuccessful attempt to claim that the public’s confidence should somehow be inspired by the detention of these officers but even he looked a little shame-faced to be trying to pass that one off. It is no secret that there is rampant corruption in every level of

the Belize Police Department. When Minister Singh was appointed to that post, it was expected that he would address that corruption. Instead he focused his attention on a Police gym and a running race to prove his manhood. Nobody believes that these officers who were detained were the masterminds behind the landing of the plane. The web of corruption goes much deeper than that. Perhaps that is why Minister Singh looks so unhappy.

So while this $100M drug bust should be occasion of much pride and achievement, it has done much more to underscore the inadequacy of our law enforcement and for sure it has done much to highlight the corruption within the Police Department which is unabated. About the best anyone can hope for right now is that the drugs are destroyed before packages miraculously walk out of the evidence room or magically turn into high-grade flour.

this alone represents $35.0 million in taxes that Barrow is writing off for his favourite company.

Then there is the tax on dividends for BTL shareholders. In an unprecedented move, Barrow is proposing to exempt all dividends paid to BTL shareholders from the 15% in income taxes to which they are presently subjected. And because Barrow has guaranteed a minimum dividend payout of 45% of net income this means that Barrow is foregoing a minimum total of $12.7 million in income taxes over the next five years.

But because the tax exemption on dividends is not limited to 45% of income, should BTL directors decide at any time to payout more than 45% of income all of these additional

dividends will also be exempted from taxes. In effect, Barrow has committed the government to waive as much as 100% of income from taxes should BTL decide for whatever reason to pay all income as dividends. This commitment works out to $28.3 million over five years.

By the stroke of a pen, Barrow has decided to remove from government coffers a minimum of $47.7 million and as much as $63.3 million in taxes.

But it doesn’t stop there. Because legally Barrow cannot pass a tax law that benefits one private telecoms company (BTL) without applying it to other private telecoms companies (Speednet, Broadband, etc.), Barrow’s tax giveaway is actually greater than what we have detailed in the chart

above. All telecoms companies will similarly be exempted from taxes on their dividends and see their business taxes reduced by 18.4% as a result of Barrow’s convoluted attempts to extricate himself from the BTL mess he has created.

So, is it fair? Not if you ask other investors who will continue to pay their 15% tax on dividends declared by their companies. Not if you ask the Belizean consumer who recently saw an increase of 25% of the GST they pay on all goods and services they buy. And certainly not if you ask the cane farmers and the sugar industry who desperately need $10 million to finance the start of the sugar crop while Barrow is writing off that same amount every year for Barrow Telemedia Ltd.

serve all the people of Belize.

The Association wishes to further publicly bring to the attention of the Prime Minister that in accordance with the Legal Profession (Code of Conduct) Rules he, as a member of the profession, is legally obliged to maintain the honour and dignity of the legal profession and shall

Police Stumble on a $100M Coke Bust (Continued from pg. 1) joy, especially since this is the first and only significant drug bust made since the UDP took office in February 2008. Although indications are that the trafficking of drugs through our small country has increased in recent years and there have been many reports of planes landing to discharge their illicit cargo, the authorities always seem to arrive a day late and a dollar short.

Instead of brimming with pride as he spoke to the media, Minister Singh seemed strangely subdued and was on the defensive.

P e r h a p s M i n i s t e r S i n g h ’s confusion and lack of exuberance stem from rampant speculation that Police more or less stumbled onto this bust by accident. Minister Singh claimed in the interview that authorities had been tracking the aircraft from the time it entered Belizean airspace. He claimed

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PM’s Sweetheart Deal for BTL : $48 - $63 Million Over 5 Years

(Continued from pg. 1) the deal that the honourable Prime Minister has concocted? And how fair is it?

A look at the table above shows that the Prime Minister is proposing to forego anywhere between $9.1 to $13.7 million in taxes a year. Over the five year period covered by the prospectus published by Barrow’s very own Ministry of Finance the Prime Minister is proposing to forego a total of anywhere between $47.7 to $63.3 million in taxes that the government stands to collect now under the present tax regime.

These taxes are of two types. First there is the business tax which Barrow proposes to reduce from 24.5% to 19% of gross revenues. Using the figures published in Barrow’s prospectus,

Veteran Journalist Wins Two Regional Awards

Marion Ali is no stranger to Channel Five viewers or indeed the very select media crew here in Belize but this week, instead of covering the news, she made the news when the Caribbean Media Corporation headquartered in Barbados announced that she won two awards for stories she entered in the yearly regional competition.

Ali won with her submissions in the Investigative Category for the illegal clearing of Vi c t o r i a P e a k , w h i l e h e r s t o r y entitled "Disabled but Able" captured an award in the Best Feature segment. The Belize Ti m e s c o n g r a t u l a t e s M s A l i o n her accomplishments.

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The Belize Times

“Gibe Memegili Wayumaha; Lidanba Uarani Wawansera"

" We c o n t i n u e t o h a v e many aspirations; in Unity we advance” In the early hours of Friday morning in Dangriga, Barranco, H opkins, Punta Gorda, Belize City and in other parts of the c o u n t r y, t h e d r u m s w i l l r o l l and the paddles will hit the waters, moving the canoes towards the shore. This will m a r k t h e o ff i c i a l s t a r t o f t h e re-enactment of the arrival of the first Garifuna to our shores.

For all Belizeans this is a significant moment and one that n e v e r l o s e s i t s p a g e a n t r y, b u t more so its importance in our national culture.

Upon arriving on to the shores, a parade will commence and will end at a nearby Roman Catholic Church where a mass of thanksgiving will be held.

During this mass, gifts will be offered in the name of all of us but especially for the Garinagu.

Prayers will be offered for the nation and for all our people.

For the Garifuna, the symbolism of the events associated with Garifuna Settlement Day cannot be underscored enough. For the nation the significance of such events reminds us all that we are blessed by a rich culture.

This day also reminds us of the tremendous contribution of the Garinagu to the development of our nation.

Of course while we celebrate the many accomplishments of our Garifuna brothers and sisters, we must also pause to reflect on the work that lies ahead. The challenges facing all of us are many. Today, too

Sunday, November 21, 2010

many of our Garifuna men are without jobs, too many are living with and dying from HIV/ AIDS. Currently HIV/AIDS rates are among the highest among Belizeans of Garifuna descent. Dangriga, which is considered the centre of our Garifuna population, has one of the highest prevalence rates in the entire country. The effects of the economic slowdown have also affected Garifuna businesses and economic activity among the Garifuna has not shown any significant improvement in recent years.

The migration rate among the Garifuna is another issue that must be addressed, as many Garifuna women migrate to the United States in search of jobs, leaving behind young children in the care of grandparents who sometimes are not able to keep up with the demands of parenting.

Wi t h t h i s i n m i n d , i t i s fitting that this year we celebrate under the theme: “We continue to have many aspirations.” All of us as Belizeans aspire to create a nation where everyone can live free from fear and v i o l e n c e . We a s p i r e t o p u t a n end to the inequality which has resulted in 43 percent of o u r p e o p l e l i v i n g i n p o v e r t y.

We aspire for all our children to have access to meaningful education and for the creation of jobs so our people can work and lead dignified lives.

And yes, we must join together as one people to work to face these challenges and find meaningful solutions.

Garifuna history is rich because of the many brave people who prevailed even when the challenges seemed insurmountable. Garifuna culture celebrates the dedicated service of their ancestors whose contributions to Belize must never be forgotten and always celebrated.

As we come together this G a r i f u n a S e t t l e m e n t D a y, let us be thankful for the contributions of our Garifuna ancestors, striving to be more like them. Let us all be proud Belizeans working together for the betterment of everyone Happy Garifuna Settlement Day to all Belizeans.

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NOTICE GOVERNMENT OF BELIZE TREASURY BILLS ISSUE NO. 16/2010 Tenders are invited for an issue of Government of Belize Treasury Bills. The amount of the issue will be $35,608,200.00.

St. John’s College advises Club Next and the general public that the use of the St. John’s College logo in print and electronic forms to advertise and promote events and activities not sponsored by St. John’s College is not authorized.

Use of the St. John’s College logo without specific authorization from St. John’s College is a breach of law.

St. John’s College advises Club Next and all other members of the public to whom this advice pertains to immediately cease such use.

The Bills will be issued in denominations of $200, $1,000, $10,000, $20,000, $50,000, $100,000, $200,000, $500,000, $1,000,000, $5,000,000, $10,000,000 and $20,000,000 and will be repayable at par 91 days after issue. They will be issued on Wednesday 1st December, 2010 and will be redeemed on Wednesday, 2nd March, 2011.

Each tender must be for $200 or a multiple of $200 and must specify to five decimal places the amount, which is offered for each one hundred dollars face value of the Bills sought.

Application forms are available at the Treasury and at the Central Bank of Belize in Belize City and at the Ministry of Finance in Belmopan; and when completed they must be forwarded in sealed envelopes addressed to:

TREASURY BILL TENDER CENTRAL BANK OF BELIZE P.O. BOX 852 GABOUREL LANE, BELIZE CITY Tenders must reach the Central Bank not later than 12:00 noon on Friday, 26th November, 2010.

Successful tenders will be notified by Tuesday, 30th November, 2010 and will be expected to pay for and pick up Bills allotted them on Wednesday, 1st December, 2010.

The Government of Belize reserves the right to accept or reject any and/or all tenders in whole or in part.

CENTRAL BANK OF BELIZE

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Paranoid dementia…

Word reaching this concerned columnist is that my favourite and much beloved Prime Minister whom I cherish above all others has been diagnosed with a rare condition referred to in medical circles as ‘paranoid dementia brought on by the untimely intrusion of reality.’ Poor Dean! I know there are some people

who just love to bash my buddy, but in times like this we must do as Kim says and be a little sensitive. You remember when Dean O stood up in the House and accused the attorneys in the Bar Association of all being agents of Lord Ashcroft and we all just thought he was being his usual stupid, egotistical self…well seems like the medical condition had already taken hold of him. Why, just last week the poor fellow lost his tenuous hold on reality and accused the attorneys in the Bar Association of all being agents of the People’s United Party who are out to get him. I heard the snickers from some of his very own colleagues and friends on the UDP side, those damned insensitive fools. Obviously they haven’t seen Kim’s commercials and don’t realize that we shouldn’t look down on Dean or make fun of him and call him retarded but should gently hug him, pat his head and call him ‘mi bally’…If Da Noh Soh! PGIA…not PG! Sources close to the investigation into the plane which landed on the Southern Highway in the Bladen Area have indicated that elements of the Cali Cartel, implicated in the attempted transshipment of cocaine, has put a hit on the pilot of the abandoned aircraft. No wonder this guy has gone far, far underground.

According to reports which are being circulated, the pilot has been placed on the execution black-list after he

misunderstood the coordinates and instructions given to him by his contacts in Colombia and his liaisons in Belize. As we understand it, the pilot was told to land with his cargo at the PGIA but something was lost in the translation and instead he landed on the highway leading to PG. Hey, it’s an excusable error, I think, but the cartel is pissed because they claim that

The Belize Times

if the damned pilot had just followed directives carefully and landed at the PGIA they wouldn’t be looking at the loss of about $100million worth of drugs at this point. Judging from recent activities at the PGIA…guess we can’t blame them for being pissed…If Da Noh Soh! My friend Carlos…

On Friday at the House of Representatives my friend Carlos did a very cute and curious thing, especially since he always claims to be such a good and saintly church-going paragon of virtue. See, he was under attack for his involvement in the smuggling of illegal foreigners through Belize into the US. So he stood up and told a blatant lie. This former altar-boy stood there in the House in front of the nation and accused the family of the Leader of the Opposition of benefitting from the sale of visas under the previous

administration. Even more cute and curious was the fact that after the House meeting when the Leader of the Opposition asked Carlos about the blatant lie Carlos stated that he knows it’s not true but he just had to throw something out there because that’s how the game is played. Okay buddy. The Leader of the Opposition is a better man than I am. If it were me in the House I would have reminded Carlos about when he got stupid drunk, took off all his clothes and ran down the street naked. There are a great many things that Carlos could be reminded of. Isn’t that how the game is played, my friend? If Da Noh Soh! A message for Kim… Last night I saw a television ad which confused me. See, the writing prefacing the ad made me think that it would be a Children’s Day Message, but the images were all of Kim. Tell you the truth, I can’t even tell you what the message was because I was distracted by pictures of Kim followed by pictures of Kim which then faded out to be replaced by pictures of Kim. Seriously, Kim is cute, but I wasn’t too impressed by what seemed to be a fashion show featuring Kim modeling different clothing and different hairstyles. You know what would have impressed me greatly? Since I have no doubt in my mind that we taxpayers will pay for the airing of that ad, it would’ve been great if our Special Envoy for Women and Children had used that money to take pampers and milk and warm clothing and medicines to all the children in Belize City who have suffered because of Hurricane Richard. Wouldn’t that have been nice…Kim visiting the Yarborough area to help where it really counts? Of

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course the mud would have been hell on the Manolo Blahniks. But seriously, Kim…your intentions may be as pure as the driven snow but people out here need work, not words…If Da Noh Soh! Nasty Nemencio Part II When we left you last week, nasty Nemencio was in the midst of a drunken spree in Corozal Town. Just to recap, he had just whipped out his little pal, urinated on the fellow beside him, was escorted out of the establishment and had driven his government vehicle into a ditch. But that was only the beginning of a wild night, it seems.

I understand that Nemencio, in the company of six of his buddies, visited

two other bars and Police had to be called in at both to escort them out.

And this is where the story gets a little scary and disgusting. In the wee hours of the morning, residents of Patchakan observed what looked like a body lying at the side of the road in the bush. When they investigated, they observed a drunken, snoring, NAKED Nemencio.

Now God only knows what happened between bar #2 and the roadside, but reports are that nasty Nemencio had, to put it as nicely as I can, messed himself. Yuck. Anyway, a family member had to be called in to get the drunken, disgraceful fool off the side of the road. Oh, by the way, Nemencio has also made a report against the six persons who were with him, since they allegedly made off with his wallet full of cash and his laptop which was in the vehicle. Somebody needs to do something about this fellow. This is not even funny anymore…If Da Noh Soh! Promotion UDP Style…

I hear that my friend Naco from Corozal Bay who still can’t get anybody to tell him what ‘laureate’

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means has taken up a new hobby.

Apparently, he offers tutoring for select persons after hours. Hell, I feel kinda ashamed that I’ve been coming down so hard on him, calling him a dodo-bird and moron and all that, cause apparently his tutoring sessions

are doing wonders. Check out the case of one young lady who was working in a dead-end post at the Corozal Hospital supervising the domestic staff. Nobody thought she would get anywhere because she had no education to speak of, but she surprised everybody. This young lady signed up for Naco’s after hours tutoring sessions and it has turned her life around. After just a few closed door personal and private intense sessions, this young lady left the job of supervising domestic staff and is now the Statistical Officer in Charge of Computers. Wow! That Naco must be a great teacher, right?

Remind me to tell you the story about the physical therapist who gave Naco a private back-rub and was immediately promoted…If Da Noh Soh! Vision and Values…

The anonymous source who absolutely does not keep giving me information about Naco for this column has openly launched his campaign for Corozal Bay. Hilberto ‘Casino’ Campos has not been afraid to tell people that it is time to rescue Corozal Bay from the idiot who has to read the manual before he can change a lightbulb. My confidential informant has erected a billboard at the entrance to Corozal Town in which he promises to restore the values and vision of the UDP. Ouch for Naco, who absolutely did not ask someone to tell me that the only vision Campos has is blurred vision after a night out and the only values he knows about are those displayed on the slot machines at the casino…If Da Noh Soh!

It’s been days since the Kendall Bridge was washed away. How much longer must we wait for a new bridge, Mr. Prime Minister?

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PARTY PAGE

The Belize Times

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Party Leader spends time THE BLUE MACHINE with residents of Cayo South

We Da Blue

Sunday, November 21, 2010

The Belize Times

UDP Politics as usual

So said so done…

It comes as no surprise to anyone that Doug Singh is patting himself on the back for events in the south over this past weekend. Hell, he has nothing else to crow about. But the fact is that this UDP administration has been in office for nearly three years and although everybody knows that planes have been landing with alarming regularity, this is the first major bust. Like with everything else though, there are more questions than answers right about now following the landing. For example, if the Independence Police received calls from villagers about the plane even before it landed, why the hell did they take so long to get there?

By the time the plane was secured by Police the cargo had already been offloaded and transported to another location miles away and hidden.

Yet Singh says that Independence Police were only 20 minutes away when the calls about the plane came in. Something’s not quite right there. And how about the reports that there was another plane which offloaded and took off? The plane confiscated by Police was damaged on landing and any pilot would immediately have known that it couldn’t be moved. So it wouldn’t have been refueled. Yet there are a lot of empty fuel containers on the ground. Hmmm! Since our intrepid Minister of Police claims that they tracked the plane from the point it entered our airspace and knew exactly where it landed the minute it did, maybe he can explain why Police response was so slow.

And how about this…

And here’s another question for my friend Minister Singh, who cleared his brother Mike and the Civil Aviation Department even before the investigation into the stinking Immigration mess had gotten properly underway. If the authorities can and do track unauthorized airplanes from the minute they enter our airspace, how come they didn’t track those three planes that landed at the Phillip Goldson International Airport with illegal Chinese nationals last month? Those planes arrived without authorization afterhours – landed at our international airport, discharged their illegal cargos and disappeared into the sunset. Yet Mr. Singh and his Prime Minister would have us believe that nobody else is involved but these six junior Immigration officers who were arrested. I guess one of those officers was in charge of the radar which tracks these airplanes when they enter our airspace without authorization, right?

The way things are going right now, the pilot of the drug plane would have been better advised to land at the Phillip Goldson International Airport…

I have an idea…

How’s this for a great idea? The Minister of Police should hire Channel 5 reporter Jose Sanchez to head the investigations into both the Immigration scandals and this latest landing of the drug plane.

It was on Channel 5 that we heard the news that on Thursday, just a couple days before the plane landed, a chartered flight from Guatemala landed at the PGIA with five Colombian nationals on board, and it was from Channel 5 that we learned that on Sunday, the day after the bust, those 5 Colombians left from the PGIA on another flight chartered from Guatemala. It is also Channel 5 which is providing all the information on the Immigration mess which is so obviously much more intricate, far-reaching and deep-set than the Prime Minister and Doug Singh would want us to believe. But then again, you know what? Maybe Doug Singh shouldn’t hire Jose Sanchez because it is quite clear that there are things which this UDP government would prefer not come to light. The tentacles of both the Immigration thing and this drug thing reach right into the highest levels of this UDP government. Anybody who doesn’t realize that is a fool.

A time-bomb…

According to our Prime Minister Dean Oliver Barrow, he has no obligation to help the 50,000 Belizeans who depend on the sugar-cane industry for their very survival. He said so in the House of Representatives on Friday. It has been two weeks since cane-farmers were due their third payment from BSI but they have not gotten one cent since that company is broke.

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Dean Oliver claims that he will wait a while to see if BSI can get itself out of this mess and if that doesn’t happen, he will take some time to look into the situation and see if government can help. He makes no commitment, mind you. He says he doesn’t know what GOB can do, but if worse comes to worst he will examine the situation. Does the Prime Minister not realize that there are 50,000 Belizeans in Orange Walk and Corozal who need his immediate and urgent intercession? Does he not understand that as I write this there are farmers who have had their utilities cut off; farmers who have not been able to provide food for their families? Mr. Barrow needs to step outside of his pimped out pink bubble where life is sweet and get a sense of the reality out here.

Desperation has set in and the north is a time-bomb ready to go off if this situation is not resolved in a hurry.

Clean up your mess…

A week or so ago the sticky-fingered integrity-challenged Mayor of Belize City was crying bucket-loads of crocodile tears after the prosecution played dead on the charges laid against her. She claims that she felt vindicated. Well, the Mayor needs to get off her vindicated ass and take care of business in the city.

Now we hear that Belize Waste Control does not pick up garbage from schools anymore and schools will have to find the money to pay to have their garbage picked up. The first reaction is to blame the sanitation company, but the truth is that the Belize City Council owes that company hundreds of thousands of dollars and refuses to pay.

How can any company continue to function for free? And this situation is nothing new. About the only monies that the Council makes sure to pay out on time are salaries for the Mayor and Deputy and bloated stipends for the other Councilors who do absolutely nothing. Hell, I don’t even know if Laura Esquivel is still in the country. Nobody’s heard a word from her for months. How about Leila Peyrefitte? Is she even still alive? But yeah, just check out payment vouchers and you’ll see that they are very much alive, collecting nearly $4000 every month to do nothing. Dry your tears, you useless Mayor and get your ass to work…at least until we can get you out of there.

Attacking the Bar…again!

On Friday in the House of Representatives Dean Oliver launched a vicious attack on the Bar Association of Belize, claiming that all the attorneys of the Bar were members of the People’s United Party. This attack comes on the heels of the Association daring to question the motives and actions of the Prime Minister in regard to moves he had made recently against the Judiciary of Belize. Not so long ago, the Prime Minister had also attacked the Bar, but that time claimed that they were all agents of Lord Michael Ashcroft and were in his pocket (all except his beloved Loisy, of course). Apparently no individual is allowed to bring the spotlight on Dean O when he does his stupidity. Right about now our Judiciary is in a shambles at a time when crime is out of control and we need all systems firing with precision. And it’s all because of the actions of the Prime Minister. But I guess nobody is allowed to say that or they become either agents of Lord Ashcroft or the PUP. According to the Prime Minister nobody is allowed to have a brain and an opinion on what he does…they are just to agree with him.

If they don’t, they’ve been compromised or bought off.

Political ads…

Lately there has been a whole hell of a lot of political ads being aired by this UDP administration. Every single night there are ads – from people telling us that the white man is dead and BTL is now safe so we can buy shares to Melvin Hulse telling us that Dean Barrow is the greatest thing since white bread. Every single night! The thing is that these ads are damned expensive and I’d have absolutely no problem with them if Dean Oliver was reaching into his own pockets to indulge in this self-masturbatory frenzy.

But that’s not the case. Every time you see an ad glorifying Dean Barrow hold your head because we are the ones paying for them. While we are being told that things are really bad and the government is broke; while we can look all around us and see the state of the nation; while 8,000 cane-farmers in the north haven’t been paid for two weeks, we are paying for the Prime Minister’s time in the spotlight. Thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars are being pumped into Dean Barrow’s new PR campaign. I should have said – thousands and thousands and thousands of OUR dollars because that’s what it is.

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The Belize Times

Sunday, November 21, 2010

We are Screwed…We-we are Screwed!

By: Mike Rudon Jr. The other day I was watching one of those generic cheerleader movies… you know the ones where all the babes are in a bus chanting…we are driving…we-we are driving. Yeah, yeah I know, but I was bored and they were cute. Anyway, for some reason I made the thought progression from brainless bimbos to our Minister of Police Doug Singh. Go figure!

Right about now that boy must be deep in the throes of orgasmic ecstasy after events down south over the weekend. But he shouldn’t be. For one thing, everybody knows that drug planes have been landing in Belize with almost as much regularity as our local commercial airlines, so for the Police to stumble across one after almost three years is no major shakes and certainly nothing for Doug Singh to crow about. Secondly, it is very likely that this major haul will miraculously and magically transform itself into 80 bales of high grade, Colombian pure flour (good news for bakers all over the country). We’ve seen it happen before, in fact just recently. Thirdly, there are already indications of shoddy, shady happenings, for instance this one bullet which materialized in the van in which five men were allegedly fleeing the scene. The Police Press office released a lengthy briefing in which they detailed minutely all the items which had been found in the van. No bullet was mentioned. Now suddenly, all five men have been taken to Court for a single ammunition charge (the bullet found in the van) which is so bogus that defense lawyers will tear it into shreds.

So when Doug wipes his hands clean after this self-masturbation session, he’ll still have to face the cold, hard light of reality. In the past two weeks there has been a spate of unsolved, unanswered murders and shootings. Violence on the streets is still escalating and months after the Prime Minister’s much ballyhooed Operation Restore Belize, absolutely nothing has been done to address the crime situation, much less restore the nation. As much as he pretends that it is not so, the fact is that Doug Singh is the Minister of Police. Notwithstanding the fact that he would much rather parade around in tights and sequins, he is receiving more than $100,000 plus a fancy government ride and perks courtesy of taxpayers to handle the crime problem. He has been in the post for months now and under his watch a new record for murders will be set and criminals seem able to ramp and ravage with impunity. Not one iota of confidence in the Police Department has been restored and citizens continue to live in fear. The DPP’s Office is in a shambles, there is corruption at every level of the Police Department and Doug Singh has turned into the blind deaf-mute monkey.

Seriously, if Mr. Barrow had decided to just leave the position of Minister of Police vacant instead of appointing the captain of the UDP cheerleading squad to the post, things would not have been any worse. Doug Singh is that much of a dud. About the only initiatives he’ll ever be known for are his insistence on a gym where police officers could get all good and sweaty and his challenging officers to a push-ups competition so he could get a good look at their butts.

Of course, Singh’s predecessor was just as much of a dud. During the

last campaign, all the way up to 2008, Carlos Perdomo’s ego was making promises that his intellect and skill level couldn’t keep. He took up the post of Minister of Police like it was tailor-made for him and criminals held a block party to celebrate and haven’t looked back since. It was under Perdomo that things really got out of control and the streets ran red

with blood.

But you know what isn’t fair.

Perdomo screwed up as Minister of Police and the people suffered as a result – mothers cried; loved ones mourned; citizens became prisoners in their own homes and their homes were rendered illusions of sanctuary which criminals attacked at their whims. And to add insult to injury,

when Perdomo was removed for incompetence he was still gifted with another post which he did not deserve and responsibilities which he could not fulfill. We paid with blood when he was Minister of Police and we paid out of our pockets so his feelings wouldn’t be hurt. Not much has changed – we paid out of our pockets so that another ridiculous UDP stooge could be presented with the gift of Minister of Police and we’re now paying with blood for every day he remains in office.

So yeah forgive me for not jumping up and down over the news of a drug plane landing down south, cause there are much bigger things wrong right about now…and the political will to fix those things is nowhere to be found, kinda like the pilot of the plane who seems to have disappeared. The fact is that we’re screwed, and a bevy of brainless bimbos masquerading as UDP Ministers ain’t going to change that fact.

Sunday, November 21, 2010

The Belize Times

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Murder of Homeless Pregnant Woman Shocks Dangriga Ruthless and gruesome murders are generally associated with current times in Belize City.

On Saturday night, however, someone in Dangriga tried, for a moment, to snatch that notoriety from the old capital when they senselessly raped and murdered Sheleen Martinez, 34, a pregnant homeless woman of that municipality.

The incident unfolded from a bus stop recently built in memory of the late bus pioneer, James Williams, located in front of the Texaco Gas Station on George Price Drive, which is also the main entrance to the town. Visible blood stains at the bus stop indicate that Martinez was stabbed (perhaps a superficial injury) there. From there, the victim and her attacker made their way to a property where a building is presently under construction. It is there that Police believe Martinez was raped and viciously stabbed to death. A spot of blood, presumably where the sexual assault and stabbing occurred, is still clearly visible in a patch of sand at the back of the construction site. Police also retrieved a used condom and pieces of Martinez's torn clothing from the site.

The attack did not end there, however.

Somehow Martinez managed to make her way, blood pouring from the fatal wound on her head, over to an adjacent property where she was found dead at around 6:00 Sunday morning in a sitting position on the stairs. Although the highway is a frequently trafficked one and there are a few houses in the vicinity, no one has come forth to say they heard any strange noise on Saturday night. Her mother, Helen Cayetano, says Martinez used to visit with her regularly in Belize City and that she always had a place to stay at her house when she visited.

Martinez, however, her mother laments, wanted to remain on the street.

She took the bus stop where her attacker accosted her as her sleeping quarters.

The residents of the area and people who knew Martinez said it was unlikely that she

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provoked the attack because though she remained on the streets, she was not one to start a fuss. Police, meanwhile, have launched a search for someone they believe can help them with their investigations. They would not say whether that person is the suspected father of Martinez's unborn child. The baby was due to be born in December.

Send your letters to the editor to:

Sheleen Martinez

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The Belize Times

Farewell Adrian Harris!

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Carlos vs. Roger

Keon Williams

Belize this week lost one of its veteran media personalities.

Adrian Harris, 46, died on Monday morning after a long battle with diabetes. Harris, who for many years served in different capacities throughout his broadcasting career, started out at the now defunct Broadcasting Cooperation of Belize (Radio Belize and Friends FM). He moved on to Love FM in the early 90's and then went over to Power

Mix FM in Dangriga Town. After 2 years Harris returned to Belize City and worked at FM 2000 where he was a program manager for several years before returning to Love FM, the last place of his employment.

The Belize Times joins the entire media fraternity in mourning the passing of our colleague. We extend our deepest sympathy to his wife, children and extended family.

The internal wrangling in the UDP ratcheted up a notch with the announcement last week by City Councilor Roger Espejo, that he will challenge the Caribbean Shores representative, Carlos Perdomo for the seat at the upcoming UDP convention. Espejo has made no secret of the fact that he feels that Perdomo is a dud and a political incompetent, and so he has decided to step into the ring. Perdomo dejectedly claims that Espejo gave his word to not challenge him in the upcoming UDP Convention scheduled for December 5, 2 0 1 0 a t Tr i n i t y M e t h o d i s t

School, but he should have known better than to trust the w o r d o f a f e l l o w U D P m e m b e r, a p p a r e n t l y.

In public statements he made only this week Espejo said that he never gave his word that he would not seek the position. Perdomo, on the other hand, does not take the news lightly and has vowed that he will not take it sitting down.

Wi t h h i s d i s m a l t r a c k r e c o r d a s Minister of Police and in the wake of recent revelations in Immigration, Perdomo will have a hard fight come December 5.

The convention on December 5 will be one to watch.

r

d

o .

Sunday, November 21, 2010

The Belize Times

Auto mechanic And Step-son Remanded to Prison

Floyd Ford Jr.

Lyndon Peters

BELIZE CITY, Tues. Nov. 16, 2010 A 41 year old mother, her 19 year old son and her 33 year old common-law husband were charged with possession of 7 grams of cannabis and keeping 19 rounds of .25 calibre ammunition without a gun license when they appeared yesterday in the #2 Magistrate’s Court. The mother is Desiree Lewis, a domestic worker residing at #1 Zericote Street. Her son is Floyd Ford Jr., a student at Wesley Junior College. Her common-law husband is auto-mechanic Lyndon Peters. Peters pled guilty to the cannabis. He was fined $300 and given until December 15 to pay. If he defaults on payment he will serve 3months.

They pled not guilty to the second charge. But Lewis was not

sent to prison because her attorney Hubert Elrington brought a document to the Court to show that Lewis has a medical condition which makes it difficult for her to survive if she is incarcerated. Senior Magistrate Sharon Fraser put her in the care of Community Rehabilitation Officer Andre Rivero. Ford and Peters were remanded into custody at Belize Central Prison. The three defendants are to return to Court on December 15.

The bust occurred at around 11:05 p.m. on Friday, November 12.

The Police searched Lewis’ house and found a small transparent plastic bag with cannabis in one of the rooms.

They reported that when they searched another room they found 19 rounds of .25 calibre ammunition in a suitcase of clothes that was under a bed.

FOR SALE

BY ORDER OF THE MORTGAGEE Scotiabank (Belize) Ltd., a company duly registered under the Companies Act, Chapter 250, of the Laws of Belize, Revised Edition, 2000, and having its registered office at Cor. Albert and Bishop Streets, Belize City, Belize, hereby gives notice of its intention to exercise its power of sale as Mortgagee under a Deed of Mortgage made the 24th day of June, 2008, between OSCAR ROMERO and EVITA ROMERO both of #312 Maurice Bishop Street, Belama Phase 2, Belize City, Belize District, Belize, of the one part, and Scotiabank (Belize) Ltd., of the other part, registered as Instrument No. LRS-200804948, and the said Scotiabank (Belize) Ltd. will at the expiration of two months from the date of the first publication of this notice sell the property described in the schedule hereto.

All offers to purchase the said property must be made in writing and full particulars and conditions of sale may be obtained from the said Scotiabank (Belize) Ltd.

DATED this 12th day of November, 2010.

MUSA & BALDERAMOS 91 North Front Street Belize City Attorney-at-Law for Scotiabank (Belize) Ltd.

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Jury Finds Darrell Grant Guilty Of Sandra Ruiz Murder BELIZE CITY, Tues. Nov. 16, 2010 Darrel Grant, 24, a resident of Gentle Avenue charged with the murder of his neighbor Sandra Ruiz, 39, was found guilty of the charges on Friday, November 12. The jury of 8 women and 4 men deliberated for about 4 hours and 15 minutes before it arrived at its verdict. The trial judge, Justice Adolph Lucas, has deferred sentencing until Thursday, November 18, in order to give Grant’s attorney Dickie Bradley time to prepare a plea for mitigation.

The murder occurred at around 10:30 p.m. on August 10, 2008, at the Ruiz residence on Meighan Avenue. Ruiz was at home with her daughters, one 8 and the other 13, when the assailant came and bludgeoned her to death with a hammer. Ruiz’s 8 year old daughter was with her in the room at the time.

The 13 year old was in the bathroom and she remained there in hiding during the ordeal.

Grant gave the Police a caution statement that was admitted into evidence after a voire dire was held. In the statement Grant said he and another man, Dale Saragossa, w e n t t o R u i z ’s h o u s e . H e s a i d Saragossa began to beat Ruiz with a hammer and a struggle ensued between Ruiz and Saragossa. Grant said Saragossa fell to the floor during the struggle and he grabbed Ruiz from behind and held her while Saragossa continued to beat her with the hammer. Grant said Saragossa also beat-the 8 year old on her back with the hammer.

Grant said Saragossa told him to brush the house to see what he could find and when he searched

Darrel Grant

the house he found a silver box with jewelry. Grant said when he returned to the room he saw Saragossa pulling up his pants and buckling his belt.

Dale Saragossa took the witness stand and testified that he does not know Grant. Grant also testified. He said that he was a “snitch” for the investigating officer Nicholas Palomo and that it was Palomo who told him what to say in the caution statement. Grant said Palomo promised that he would not be charged and he would be used as a witness. Grant said he was not at the scene when the incident occurred. He said that the gold chain that belonged to Ruiz which the Police found him with on November 11, 2008, was given to him to sell.

Grant’s sister and girlfriend who both appeared as witnesses for the prosecution were charged with handling stolen goods for jewelry that was stolen from Ruiz. Senior Crown Counsel Yohanhseh Cave represented the prosecution.

Robber Leaves Firearm Behind after Foiledat around Attempt 8:40 p.m. on Monday,

Kevin Pott

BELIZE CITY, Tues. Nov. 16, 2010 Kevin Pott, 19, a laborer of 6437 Mahogany Street who the Police believe was one of two persons involved in a robbery attempt, was charged with attempted robbery and 3 counts of aggravated assault when he appeared in the #8 Magistrate’s Court on Friday, November 12. Pott pled not guilty to the charges. Magistrate Emmerson Banner explained to him that the Court could not offer him bail because the offences were committed with a firearm. He remanded Pott into custody until December 14.

The incident occurred

November 8. Kent Moss, 39, a House Inspector who resides at 8797 Freedom Street, reported to the Police that he was standing at the corner of Jasmine Street and Marigold Lane with three friends when they were approached by two persons. Moss said one of them pointed a .38 revolver at him and grabbed at the gold chain he had around his neck. But Lincoln Thompson, one of Moss’ friends, foiled the attempt by punching the would-be robber and causing the .38 to fall from his hand.

Both assailants then fled the scene. The Police recovered the firearm and labeled it as an exhibit.

Two days later the Police detained Pott. He was charged the following day, November 11. One charge of aggravated assault is for Thompson and the other two are for Kenron Clarke and Elsworth Fuller.

The second suspect is still at large.

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12

The Belize Times

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Low Court Gets Two New Magistrates Alleged Shooter in Rodwell Williams Case Back Behind Bars

Ricky Valencia

BELIZE CITY, Tues. Nov. 16, 2010 A bail of $10,000 that was offered to Ricky Valencia, 27, charged with the attempted murder of attorney Rodwell Williams, 53, was revoked today by Chief Magistrate Margaret McKenzie. The bail, which Valencia met about 2 weeks ago, was revoked because Valencia was charged with handing stolen goods

when he appeared today in the #4 Magistrate’s Court. One of the conditions of Valencia’s bail of $10,000 was that he was not to get charged for any other offence while he is on bail.

Valencia pled not guilty to handling stolen goods. He was offered bail of $2,500 for the charge and his case was adjourned until December 21. The charge arose from an incident which occurred on November 15. The Police reported that they were on mobile patrol on Caesar Ridge Road when they saw Valencia near the bus stop sitting on a Lifah motorcycle, valued at $1,500 that was reported stolen. Angelito Conorquie, 25, a teacher at St. Luke’s Methodist Primary School, reported to the Police that his motorcycle was stolen from in front of his residence on Neal Pen Road between 9:00pm and 10:00pm on November 7.

FOR SALE

BY ORDER OF THE MORTGAGEE Scotiabank (Belize) Ltd., a company duly registered under the Companies Act, Chapter 250, of the Laws of Belize, Revised Edition, 2000, and having its registered office at Cor. Albert and Bishop Streets, Belize City, Belize, hereby gives notice of its intention to exercise its power of sale as Mortgagee under a Deed of Mortgage made the18th day of December, 1995, between MICHAEL CASIMIRO of 39 Fonseca Street, Orange Walk Town, Orange Walk District of the one part and Scotiabank (Belize) Ltd. of the other part, and recorded at the Land Titles Unit in the Land Charges Register (Legal Charges) Vol. 24 at Folio 6, and the said Scotiabank (Belize) Ltd. will at the expiration of three months from the date of the first publication of this notice sell the property described in the schedule hereto.

All offers to purchase the said property must be made in writing and full particulars and conditions of sale may be obtained from the said Scotiabank (Belize) Ltd.

SCHEDULE ALL THAT lot piece or parcel of land comprising 0.138 acres and forming part of the property known as Otro Benque situate in Orange Walk Town and numbered Lot No. 254 on a plan made by H.C. Fairweather, Chartered Land Surveyor and dated 18th August, 1980 Entry No. 146 and Register No. 1 a copy of which is attached hereto TOGETHER with all buildings and erections thereon.

(Property now declared under Registration Sectionof Orange Walk Town - Parcel 252).

DATED this 10th day of November, 2010.

MUSA & BALDERAMOS 91 North Front Street Belize City Attorney-at-Law for Scotiabank (Belize) Ltd.

Richard Bradley Jr.

Dale Cayetano

BELIZE CITY, Tues. Nov. 16, 2010 College and St. John’s College.

Cayetano was a public officer Two new Magistrates are going to be sworn in this week. They for about 25 years. He started out as are Richard Bradley Jr., 39 and Dale an office assistant at the Treasury Cayetano, 44. They are both graduates Department then worked his way of the Norman Manley Law School. to a Second Class Clerk at the BDF It is believed that they will be posted accounts section. He has worked as a cashier at the Post Office and a First in the districts.

Bradley, who is the son of Class Clerk at Supplies Control.

He worked as the Clerk of attorney Dickie Bradley, used to be an accounts manager before he decided Court at the Belize Family Court to study law. He is a graduate of the before he went abroad to study law. is a graduate of Chapel University Belize and he has THE a Cayetano BY ofORDER OF MORTGAGEE degree in Business Administration. School in Orange Walk and Belize He is also a graduate of Wesley Junior Secondary School #1.

FOR SALE

Teenagers Remanded To Prison on Robbery Charge

Scotiabank (Belize) Ltd., a company duly registered under the Companies Act, Chapter 250, of the Laws of Belize, Revised Edition, 2000, and having its registered office at Cor. Albert and Bishop Streets, Belize City, Belize, hereby gives notice of its intention to exercise its power of sale as Mortgagee under a Deed of Mortgage made the 24th day of June, 2008, between OSCAR ROMERO and EVITA ROMERO both of #312 Maurice Bishop Street, Belama Phase 2, Belize City, Belize District, Belize, of the one part, and Scotiabank (Belize) Ltd., of the other part, registered as Instrument No. LRS-200804948, and the said Scotiabank (Belize) Ltd. will at the expiration of two months from the date of the first publication of this notice sell the property described in the schedule hereto.

All offers to purchase the said property must be made in writKenjervie Wade may be obtained particulars and conditions of sale BELIZE Nov. 16, 2010 from theCITY, said Tues.

Scotiabank (Belize) Ltd. occurred at around 7:30 incident

Robert Roches ing and full

T w o p e r s o n s , R o b e r t p.m. yesterday.

Roches, 18 and Kenjervie Wade, F r a n c i s c o A g u i l a r, 2 4 , this 12th day of November, 2010.

19,DATED were charged with robbery an Administrative Officer who when they appeared today in the r e s i d e s a t # 3 6 Q u e e n S t r e e t , #8 Magistrate’s Court. Roches was reported to the Police that he was also charged with wounding. They standing on the sidewalk near the pled not guilty to the MUSA charges.& BALDERAMOS seawall on Marine Parade talking M a g i s t r a t e E m m e r s o n91B North a n n e r Front t o a fStreet riend when two persons explained that the Court could rode past on a bicycle. Aguilar Belize City not offer them bail because the said they stopped a short distance Attorney-at-Law forgot off the bicycle and offences were committed with a from him, firearm. He remanded them into approached him. Aguilar said one Scotiabank (Belize) Ltd. custody until December 15. The of them pulled a firearm which resembled a 9mm pistol from the waist of his pants and pointed it at him and told him to hand over everything he has. Aguilar said he handed over one of his two thicklink gold chains he had around his at www.belizetimes.bz neck which are valued at $1,100.

The gunman demanded that ~ POST YOUR COMMENTS he hand over the second gold chain and Aguilar refused. Aguilar said ~ VOTE ON ARTICLES the gunman then pulled the trigger but the gun misfired. Aguilar ~ VIEW OUR PHOTO said he then punched the gunman GALLERY and a struggle ensued between them during which Aguilar was ~ CHECK OUT A PDF wounded on his right thumb. A VERSION OF THE PAPER Police mobile approached and the robbers fled into a bushy open We are the most visited lot taking the gun with them. But newspaper website in Belize Police apprehended both of them shortly afterwards.

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Sunday, November 21, 2010

The Belize Times

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on s g n i t i r W the

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The Belize Times

WALL Sunday, November 21, 2010

rod says: November 16, 2010 at 7:49 am and it will get worse because we have a corrupt gov from the pm down people we need to rid ourselves of this scorge now no more waiting and talking revolution now.

EMS says: November 16, 2010 at 8:57 am Leadership crisis..SOS…LEADERSHIP IN PERIL….SOS..pm barrow has got to go? ic says: November 16, 2010 at 10:42 am ‘dean barrow is NOT acting as prime minister he is a DICTATOR”…THE justice system in belize has been under attack since PM BARROW came in power because he wants to have the justices as his puppets and if u are not with him then u have to GO! simple as that we see the exaple with justice Abdulai conteh,justice mottley,etc…he has someone at the DPP who like a puppet which he just gives orders and she complies’ so how do we call a government like that ‘DEAN HITLER BARROW”…THE DICTATOR..but his days are counted the people OF Belize are very disapointed of him’. he AND HIS X-WIFE LOIS YOUNG BARROW ARE THE BIGGEST HIPOCRITES OF OUR NATION”…THEY need an award for that. karla says: November 16, 2010 at 2:09 pm I voted UDP BUT i have not seen a most vindictive and dictator PM as far as i can remember.. He feels only he is right and that no one can tell him what to do. Not even the people which are the ones that put him in power. The way he behaves in the house is shameful. He thinks this country is his. Hardworking canefarmers arre suffering, hurricane victims are still suffering and has he still addressed this problem on a personal and direct front. NO.. he is worried about BTL shares that will fall in the hands of his son and ex wife and having the judiciary system for his brother.. what is happening MR. Barrow.. have you lost sight of focus in your arrogance or you simply have a personal agenda. I have heard many many people that were UDP very dissapointed about the government we voted for. Look at what happened to Obama for going against its people wishes.. he lost control of the house…

belizeanpride says: November 16, 2010 at 1:50 pm i think the pm went to visit mexico for ideas how to run a country with drugs trafficking but never got the sense totally and see his fellows doing mistakes now. Look like our gov. needs to step down, the trust in the pm and all his wanna be’s ministers are a joke and the others below them also. jeez what shame to our lovely jewel. oh, but the monies for the hurricane victims was flown to the south but we never knew the ideas they had. come on pm next time let us know so we don’t get surprised like this time. cali says: November 16, 2010 at 5:06 pm That was a good haul. But more need to be done. The key here is “intelligence” we need more better train officers with more modern equipment, to combat this plague that is hampering our country. We need the government to invest in these kind of equipments, from all that money they got from selling visas to the Asians and Sri Lankan national.

Put the money to good and help the people of Belize. The government can at lest can invest in a helicopter or two instead of taking unnecessary trip to other countries and don’t accomplish anything.

Valerie says: November 16, 2010 at 6:14 pm WHAT THE HELL! WE DONE DID IT NOW, THIS IS PAST NONSENSE. MR. PRIME MINISTER, WEH PAH YO DEH?

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Sunday, November 21, 2010

The Belize Times

Cholera spreads to Dominican Republic

The cholera outbreak in Haiti has spread across the border to the Dominican Republic and that nation has issued a maximum health alert, its health ministry said.

The first confirmed case is a 32-year-old Haitian construction worker who returned to the Dominican Republic last Friday with symptoms of the intestinal illness, the health ministry said Tuesday night.

Wilmo Louwes went back to Haiti October 31 to take money home, according to the El Nacional newspaper.

Louwes came back Friday with symptoms of vomiting and diarrhea and was hospitalized in Higuey, near the eastern resort town of Punta Cana. He was in stable condition and will probably be released from the hospital Wednesday, the newspaper quoted Health Minister Bautista Rojas Gomez as saying.

Two other suspected cases turned out to be negative, the health ministry said.

The cholera outbreak confirmed last month in northwest Haiti has killed 1,110 people, and 18,383 people have been hospitalized with the disease, according to Haiti's health ministry.

As cases of cholera spread throughout Haiti, violent clashes erupted in the northern part of the country as angry demonstrators accused United Nations peacekeepers of starting the outbreak.

Burning tires and cars sent thick black smoke across Cap Haitien, where the government appeared to have lost control.

Protesters set a police station ablaze and commercial flights were suspended to Haiti's secondlargest city. At least one protester was killed by a peacekeeper acting in self-defense, the United Nations said.

Aid agencies appealed for calm and said the protests were hampering efforts to reach the sickened.

Aid workers have suspended clean water projects to slum areas, and canceled flights to deliver soap and other supplies to affected

areas, a statement from aid agencies said.

Supplies in Cap Haitien are running out and the medical staff is overwhelmed as cholera mortality numbers climb, said Nigel Fisher, coordinator for humanitarian action for the U.N. "We call upon all involved in these clearly orchestrated demonstrations to stop immediately so national and international partners can continue to save lives with our response to the cholera," Fisher said.

"Every day we lose means hospitals go without supplies, patients go untreated and people remain ignorant of the danger they are facing. It is vital that everything possible is done to contain this outbreak in Cap Haitien while we still can -- but this is very difficult in the current environment."

The United Nations has denied the assertion that Nepalese peacekeepers were responsible for starting the cholera outbreak. U.N. statements said the protests may be politically motivated to create insecurity ahead of November 28 elections.

The last cholera epidemic in the Western hemisphere began in Peru in 1991 and spread to some 16 other countries, from Argentina to Canada, according to the Pan American Health Organization.

From 1991 to 1997, Peru alone saw more than 650,000 cases.

A similar pattern in Haiti could produce some 270,000 cases, which means public health officials likely face long-term challenges in Haiti.

Officials in the Dominican Republic, which shares the Caribbean island of Hispanola with Haiti, had feared all along the disease could spread into their borders.

Symptoms of cholera, an acute, bacterial illness caused by drinking tainted water, can be mild or even nonexistent. But sometimes they can be severe: leg cramps, profuse watery diarrhea and vomiting, which can cause rapid loss of body fluids and lead to dehydration, shock and death.

15

Swamp gas believed behind Mexico hotel blast

The preliminary investigation into a hotel explosion in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, points to swamp gas and a leaking pipe as possible causes, the Quintana Roo state attorney general told CNN Tuesday.

The Sunday blast claimed seven lives, including one minor, authorities said.

It was originally thought that a gas line or stove in a kitchen was the source of the explosion, but now investigators believe an accumulation of gas from a nearby mangrove swamp was behind it, Attorney General Francisco Alor said.

"The decomposition of organic residues in the area created gas that accumulated," he said.

Five of the victims were Canadian tourists and two were Mexican employees of the Grand Riviera Princess resort. About 15 other were injured, six who remained hospitalized in stable condition, Alor said.

In addition to the swamp gases, Alor said investigators are ex-

amining a leaking pipe that was filtering wastewater underground in the area. The collection of wastewater could also have created gases that could have ignited, he said.

The attorney general cautioned that until the investigation is done, it is too early to say whether the explosion was the result of naturally occurring gases or if the hotel was criminally negligent in some way.

Some have already cast doubt on the swamp gas theory.

The local representative for Mexico's Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, Gabriela Lima, said she was convinced that the explosion happened because of the hotel, not the environment. If swamp gas was the culprit, similar explosions would be common throughout the state, which isn't the case, she said, according to the official Notimex news agency.

"I'm 100 percent certain that this was a problem with the hotel, with its installations," she said.

A U.S. Coast Guard cutter was fired upon by suspected drug traffickers during a pursuit off the coast of Nicaragua, a Coast Guard spokesman told CNN. No Coast Guard personnel were injured in the gunfight, said Lt. Cmdr.

Chris O'Neil.

The incident took place in the early morning of September 14, but information about the attack was not released until CNN inquired Friday about the incident.

"While it is rare to have Coast Guard personnel fired upon, this incident serves to remind us of the ruthless nature of smugglers, the disregard they

have for human life and the dangers our men and women face when enforcing laws and treaties on the high seas," said O'Neil, chief of media relations for the Coast Guard said.

No shots hit the Coast Guard boat and there was no damage, O'Neil added.

The shooting happened after a boarding team from the Cutter Escanaba pursued a go-fast vessel suspected of smuggling drugs in international waters. The suspects managed to escape after entering Nicaraguan waters, said O'Neil.

The Coast Guard is still reviewing the event, he said.

Suspected drug traffickers fire on U.S. Coast Guard off Nicaragua

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The Belize Times

Sunday, November 21, 2010

MORE LAND GRABBING! LEASE No./ REF. No#

NAME

OW-502/2008 Ignacio German Vega

SIZE

LOCATION

9.626 Ac. Indian Hill East Reg. Sec., OW

RELATION

Minister Family

Sr. & Karen S. Vega

OW-607/2009 Isela Adela Hernandez

Miller's Bight Reg. Sec, OW

OW-671/2009

Yvette Hernandez

Miller's Bight Reg. Sec, OW

CY-342/2009

Nestor Hernandez

Mount Pleasant Reg. Sec., Cayo Nephew/Deputy Commissioner

CZL-586/2009

Baroni Hernandez

Xaibe Rural Reg. Sec., Czl

CY-343/2009

Baroni Hernandez

Mount Pleasant Reg. Sec., Cayo Registrar of Lands/Nephew

CY-120/2010

Cosme Hernandez

Mount Pleasant Reg. Sec., Cayo Registrar of Lands/Nephew

OW-721/2009

Cosme Hernandez Indian Hill East Reg. Sec., OW

Registrar of Lands/Nephew

OW-665/2009

Cosme Hernandez

2.69 ac.

San Estevan Reg. Sec., OW

Registrar of Lands/Nephew

OW-666/2009

Cosme Hernandez

7.24 ac.

San Estevan Reg. Sec., OW

Registrar of Lands/Nephew

OW-702/2009 Ignacio German Vega Indian Hill East Reg. Sec., OW

Wife to Cosme Hernandez

Registrar of Lands/Nephew

Minister Family

Sr. & Karen S. Vega

CY-345/2009

Christopher Hendricks

Mount Pleasant Reg. Sec., Cayo Driver of the Minister

OW 514/2008

Cosme Hernandez

San Estevan Reg. Sec., OW

Registrar of Lands/Nephew

11997/28 IGNACIO GERMAN VEGA

ORANGE WALK TOWN

BROTHER

12120/12

MR. EDUARDO VEGA

SUCCOTZ

FAMILY TO MINISTER

& ALMA VEGA

12120/12

MR. RONNIE VEGA

SUCCOTZ

FAMILY TO MINISTER

12321/28 IGNACIO GERMAN VEGA

ORANGE WALK TOWN

FAMILY TO MINISTER

3.19 Ac.

SR. & KAREN VEGA

Parcel 31

Omar Elmer Hernandez Indian Hill East Reg. Sec., OW

OW 110/2010 Ignacio Vega

FAMILY TO MINISTER

144 Ac.

Carmelita Registration

FAMILY TO MINISTER

101 Ac.

Carmelita Registration

FAMILY TO MINISTER

& Karen Vega

OW 108/2010 Ignacio Vega

& Karen Vega

No. 484 of 2010

Amir Amed Awe

10.14 Ac.

Mountain Pine Ridge Area

No. 556 of 2010

Carlos Eduardo Vega

25.08 Ac.

Southeast of Benque Viejo Twn. FAMILY TO MINISTER

No. 554 of 2010 Eduardo Vega

11.34 Ac.

Mountain Pine Ridge Area

FAMILY TO MINISTER

No. 482 of 2010 Ignacio Vega Jr.

9.9 Ac.

Mountain Pine Ridge Area

FAMILY TO MINISTER

No. 481 of 2010

Karen & Ignacio Vega

10.50 Ac.

Mountain Pine Ridge Area

FAMILY TO MINISTER

No. 483 of 2010

Omar Hernandez

6.92 Ac.

Mountain Pine Ridge Area

FAMILY TO MINISTER

Sunday, November 21, 2010

The Belize Times

MORE LAND GRABBING!

17

Under the UDP‌ these are the best of times for Gaspar Vega and his family!

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The Belize Times

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Happy Garifuna Settlement Day! Well, what are you doing to celebrate? My mommy and I are going to try cooking two Garifuna meals. We are going to have cassava bread porridge and brown flour soup.

Would you like to try them as well?

Brown Flour Soup – Tikini

Ingredients: Fish, salted or fresh pigtails, wheat flour, onions, salt, black pepper lard, recardo, bay leaf.

How to make: Melt a few tablespoons of lard, add flour to make a thin brown paste, add water and stir. Add salt, black pepper to taste. Mix in recardo and add bay leaf. Stir until it is as thick as you like. Serve with rice or areba cassava bread.

Cassava Bread Porridge – Farina

Ingredients: Cassava bread rims, coconut milk, sugar, condensed milk, nutmeg and vanilla.

How to make: Cook all the ingredients together until it is as thick as you like. Then add all the spices and condensed milk to sweeten.

Easy and delicious! Hope you have fun! We sure will!

Connect the dots

"Just give me my areba..."

Can you find and circle the Garifuna Recipes?

ADULU AREBA BUNDIGA DANI FALUMO FARINA GUNGUNDE

GURENTU GURENTUMOABI HUDUT LETU SAHOU TAPAU TIKINI

Sunday, November 21, 2010

The Belize Times

Grace

Amazin

The Hand Grenade of Prayer

Every time I sit to write this column I first take the time to pray, but not in that complicated and formal way. I never understood how to do that. In fact, I sometimes felt that it must be overbearing for God to sit and listen to those dragged out and structured monologues.

We must remember that even Jesus really left us not with a formal prayer but when He was giving us the example of the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew/Matéu 6:913 He made it plain by saying do it “after this manner”. But as we were reflecting earlier in this column, I never really got the laborious epitaphs, and then I realized why. In that same chapter the Apostle recounts Jesus’ strong condemnation of exactly that: "And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him" or “Dan le hafurieidum lun Bungiu, belú humá hirumunrugun, darú humeime hubenari, ábeme hafurieidun lun Húguchi Bungiu le lábuguabei huma ñein. Húguchimeti Bungiu, le arihubalin le hadügübei lidan límanin, líchuguba hafayeiruáha. Lidan le hafurieidun, máguyuguagüda humá dimurei le málati kei hadüga ha ibidiñehabúbaña lun Bungiu; haritaguatiñati luagu laganbubaña lan Bungiu ladüga liibe hadimurehan. Mitaran humá lubeiti kei hagía, ladüga lubaragiñe hafurieidun lun Bungiu subudi laali ka lan habusenrubei.” Matthew/ Matéu 6:5-8.

Praying is super important, though. In fact the Bible makes a direct connection between happiness and prayer: "Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus" or “Gunda humá súnwandan. Afurieida humá lun Bungiu sun dan. Ru humá seremei lun luagu sun le asusereduti; anihán le labusenrúbei Bungiu húmagiñe, keisi afiñetiña luagu Hesukrístu” 1 Thessalonians/Tesalónikana 5:16-18. That is remarkable.

Honestly.

But wait…it gets better. I stumbled across this verse too: "This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us - whatever we ask - we know that we have what we asked of him" or “Hemenigitiwa luagu Bungiu, lugundun subudi wamuti luagu ánhawa lan amuriaha furumiñeguarügü katei keisi lugundan, laganbudadiwa lan. Ani ítara kei wasubudiruni luagu aganba lani Bungiu wafurieidún, subudi wamuti giñe luagu lóunabubadiwa lan.” 1 John/ Huan 5:14-15.

Now we are talking about the God that owns everything and controls everything. Right now I know you may be thinking that 62 inch plasma has got to be on your prayer list, above praying for the speedy recovery of Sister Mavis.

But the formula is a Godly one, see, because "When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures" or “ Anhein hamuriaha, mibihin humiti lugundun luriban hamuriahani; habusenruni lun hewesiruni luagu lagübüri hugundan.” James/Santiagu 4:3.

We must understand that and seek to be open to the peace of self-less prayer knowing that God takes care of us even when we are not asking Him to do so.

But if this prayer thing is so important and powerful then it must be hard to do right? Well not really, in fact it takes no effort at all…just a clean, righteous heart. No I am serious, it takes nothing of you. Seriously, you know what the Bible says: you really don’t need to know how to read or use fancy words, in fact Jesus, compared that kind of prayer to paganism. Ouch!!

Look at this verse if you don’t believe me. The Apostle reminds us that we do not have to do much. Can you hum? Well, that is enough, if you have a clean heart. Paul tells us: "In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express" or “ítarameme giñe, íderagua lumutiwa Sífiri Sandu lidan wadebilin. Lugundun mayumuraguaditiwa kei lubudubu, gama lumoun aymuraguati Sífiri Sandu wawagu lun Bungiu lau amumehani le siñati lariñawagúniwa lau dimurie.” Romans/Rómana 8:26.

So I want to encourage you this week to talk to God, just like you do your friends. Talk to Him all day. Grunt, moan, laugh, just know He is listening and knows the contents of your heart. Let me leave you with this little prayer that I liked. Hope you enjoy. And remember to send a prayer for our country and the contributions and progress of our Garinagu brothers and sisters.

Good morning Heavenly Father! I am very busy today, but knew I needed to stop and talk to You before rushing into my day. Forgive me for being too aggressive at times and rushing into projects that I never brought to You in prayer.

I've done so many stupid things and made some wrong decisions, yet You have kept Your hand upon me. I'm so thankful for that. Now purge my agenda today.

Take out of my life those who break my focus off Your assignments. Bring into my life those who grow Your dream within me. Protect me. Talk to me. Keep Your angels around me every hour of this day. I will speak Your name with joy and thanksgiving. I will celebrate Your presence and tell others of Your laws. I shall embrace Your wisdom every single day of my life.

In Jesus’ Name, Amen

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The Belize Times

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Education Ministry wins 2 back-to-back in Interoffice softball

The Education Ministry softballers enjoyed back to back wins in the Belize City interoffice softball competition at the home of softball at the Rogers Stadium over the weekend.

The MOE softballers won easily 7-0 when the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital medics defaulted on Sunday’s game.

The MOE softballers also stunned the BEL Powersockets 17-12 on Friday night. MOE took a 3-0 lead when Lorne Solis, Joseph Domingo and Earl Noralez came home in the 1st inning, and extended the lead to 5-0 when Solis

and Delvitt Samuels came home in the 2nd inning. BEL’s Adrian To r r e s , A d r i a n G e n t l e , J a m i e Young and Melissa Forman scored 4 runs in the 4th inning, but they trailed 4-5.

The MOE softballers took a 12-4 lead when Solis, Domingo, Noralez, Samuels, Jerry Crawford, p i t c h e r M a r c o Vi l l a n u e v a a n d Rhonda Flowers came home in the 5th inning.

BEL’s Gentle, Young and Jose Escalera came home in the 5th inning, but they still trailed 7-12.

Crawford, Villanueva and Samuels extended the MOE lead to 15-10

in the 6th inning and only BEL’s Torres, Gentle and Young came home. Miriam Dawson and Henry Linares scored for BEL in the 7th inning, but MOE won 17-12 when Jamela Bradley and Solis came home in the 7th. Belize Telemedia upset the Belize City Council 8-5 in the nightcap last Friday.

BCC led 3-2 when Reynaldo D u r a n , G o d s d e n F e rg u s o n a n d Glen Flowers came home in the 1st inning and only Telemedia’s Ryan Rivero and Otis Clother scored.

Telemedia’s pitcher Francis Usher, Lupito Acosta and Nelson Tillett came home in the 3rd inning to

lead 5-3, while Usher struck out 3 batters to shut out BCC in the next three innings. BCC’s Enid Dakers came home in the 4th inning, but Telemedia’s lead grew to 8-4 when Acosta, Tillett and Trenton Marin came home in the 5th inning and only BCC’s Duran came home in the 7th inning.

The City Council had done better in an 11-10 victory over the St John’s College alumni on Thursday night. The SJC alumni fared no better on Sunday when they lost a heartbreaker 19-20 to the Police, their fourth consecutive loss by one run.

Digicell Avengers win YFF female U-19 softball champs

The Digicell Avengers won the Youth for the Future Belize Softball Federation under-19 junior girls competition which ended at Rogers Stadium, the home of softball in Belize, on Saturday November 13, 2010. In the Grand Final, Digicell ‘Avengers’ defeated the number one seed Flowers ‘Crushers’ by the score of 13 to 1 in four innings to capture the Youth for the Future Belize Softball Federation Junior Girls championship.

Digicell ‘Avengers’ scored all 13 runs on 9 hits, which was keyed by left fielder Deanah Garbutt who collected 3 hits in 4 official times at

bat, including a 3-run triple in the top of the 4th inning.

The Avengers crushed the Flowers Crushers 13-1 with Katrecia Panting, Deanah Garbutt, Sheona Gillett and Crystal Hernandez coming home in the 1st inning.

Crushers’ pitcher Jahna Trapp tried to hold them down in the 2nd inning, but Shanice Pook slid home to give the Avengers a 5-0 lead. The Avengers’ lead grew to 10-0 when Panting, Garbutt, Hernandez, Ally Flowers and Amber Wade all came home in the 3rd inning. The Crushers got 5 hits, but only Kimberly came

home for the Crushers in the 3rd inning.

The winning pitcher was Amber Wade and the losing pitcher was Jahna Trapp who got relief from Ashley Lucas and the game ended in the application of the mercy rule when Panting, Hernandez and Flowers came home in the 4th inning.

In the final game, Flowers ‘Crushers’ eliminated Jr. Hurricanes by the score of 8 to 5. Flowers ‘Crushers’ scored all 8 runs on 7 hits, while the Jr. Hurricanes scored 5 runs on 2 hits.

The winning pitcher was Ashley Lucas and the losing pitcher was Sasha

Brown.

Tyra Moreira scored the Hurricanes’ first run in the 1st inning, and pitcher Sasha Brown gave up no runs, but the Crushers led 3-1 when Monique Tablada, pitcher Ashley Lucas and Vanessa Dawson came home in the 2nd inning. The Hurricanes’ Kesilyn Lizama and Kira Arnold scored 2 runs for in the 3rd inning, but the Crushers remained on top as Jahna Trapp also scored for the Crushers.

Ashley Lucas struck out 12 batters to hold down the Hurricanes who only got two hits, while the Crushers’ Trapp, Monika Tablada and Dawson scored 3 more runs in the fourth inning to lead 7-3.

The Hurricanes’ Lizama and Halima Munoz came home to add 2 more runs in the 5th inning, but the Crushers won when Trapp and Agnes Lucas came home in the 5th inning for the 8-5 win.

Philippa Griffith-Bailey, ISF Hall of Fame member who donated the trophies, presented them to the champion Digicell ‘Avengers’ and sub-champions Flowers ‘Crushers’ at the end of the championship game.

Sunday, November 21, 2010

The Belize Times

21

BES girls & Ladyville boys win Belize District primary school volleyball champs

The Belize Elementary School girls and the Our Lady of the Way RC School boys from Ladyville won the Belize District primary schools volleyball championship held by the National Sports Council at the Belize City Center last Friday.

In Game 1, the Belize rural c h a m p i o n s , t h e C r o o k e d Tr e e Government School girls advanced to the finals by eliminating the Belize City sub-champions, the Holy Redeemer RC School girls 22-25, 25-21 and 15-12.

In Game 2, the Belize City champions the BES girls advanced to the finals by eliminating the Belize

rural sub-champions, the Burrell Boom Methodist School girls: 25-18 and 25-12.

In Game 3, the Ladyville boys advanced to the finals, eliminating the Belize City champions the Holy Redeemer RC School boys 25-21, 24-26 and 15-10.

In Game 4, over the Belize City sub-champions, the Queen Square Anglican School boys advanced to the finals by eliminating the Belize Rural champs, the Burrell Boom Methodist School boys: 25-22, 2125 and 15-12.

In Game 5, the BES won 25-13 and 25-8 over the Crooked Tree

Government School girls in the championship finals.

In Game 6, the Ladyville boys won 25-18 and 25-12 against the Queen Square Anglican boys in the championship finals.

On Thursday the BES girls had won the Belize City championship against the Holy Redeemer School girls: 25-9 and 25-8, and both schools had advanced to the district finals.

The Holy Redeemer boys had won the Belize City championship against the Queen Square Anglican boys: 25-19, 21-25 and 16-14.

O n We d n e s d a y, t h e H o l y

Redeemer girls had advanced to the Belize City finals by eliminating the Hummingbird Elementary School girls: 25-21 and 25-23 in Wednesday’s semifinals The BES girls also advanced to the city finals by eliminating the St. John’s Anglican Primary School girls: 25-2 and 25-11.

The Holy Redeemer boys had entered the city finals by eliminating the Central Christian School boys: 25-23 and 25-15; and the Queen Square boys entered the city finals by eliminating the St. John Vianney RC School boys 28-30, 25-22 and 15-9.

Team Aces wins 2nd Annual Bros. Habet team table tennis champs - Team Garage wins 2nd Division The Ace team won the 1st Division championship of the 2nd annual Brothers Habet team table tennis league while Team Garage won the 2nd division championship in the tournament organized by the Belize Table Tennis Association at the Belize Elementary School auditorium on Sunday, November 13.

The competition which began Sunday September 26 ran for7 weeks and came to an exciting end this past Sunday with 4 playoffs in both the 1st & 2nd divisions.

In the 1st Division, the teams that advanced to the final 4 faced off in a knock out competition to determine the champions of this division.

In the morning Semi-finals competition, Team ACE won over Racqueteers 5 to 2, and Bombers defeated Rivero’s Welders 5 to 3.

These results were the determining factor for the position that each team would take in the finals.

Playing for 1st and 2nd positions were the undefeated Bombers and ACE. With ACE coming in as the "defending champions", the stage was set for an exciting match. In the end, ACE maintained their composure and defeated Bombers 5 to 3 for the championship, and repeating as "back-to-back" champions.

Playing for the 3rd and 4th positions, team Rivero’s Welders

defeated Racqueteers: 5 to 1, taking home the 3rd position.

The final results of the 1st Division ended as follows: ACE – champs; 2nd – Bombers; 3rd – Rivero’s Welders and 4th – Racqueteers. In the 2nd Division the morning’s semi-finals saw team Garage winning over Hurricanes 5 to 2, and team Phoenix defeating Assassins 5 to 1.

In the afternoon finals, team Garage clinched the 2nd Division championship when they defeated Phoenix 5 to 3, and team Hurricanes defeated the Assassins 5 to 4 in a closely contested match to take the 3rd position.

The final results of the 2nd DIVISION ended as follows: Garage

– champs, 2nd – Phoenix; 3rd – Hurricanes and 4th – Assassins.

Present at the closing ceremonies was Mr. Tony Habet, representing the sponsors, brothers HABET. Mr. Habet commented on their opportunity to get involved with the competition, and promised to continue as sponsor of this event next year. The association thanks the sponsor for their support and for their commitment to continue supporting the sport of table tennis in Belize.

Trophies were awarded to all 4 positions in both divisions, with a total of 32 trophies presented to the winners by Mr. Habet.

With the supporting spectators and the players on hand throughout

the entire competition, the success of this year ’s Team League can easily be categorized as a major improvement over last year’s event.

The level of play, as well as the increase in teams competing this year shows the increased interest in the sport of table tennis in Belize.

T h e B e l i z e Ta b l e Te n n i s Association thanks everyone who made this event possible, and looks forward to next year’s event.

The next event on the BTTA calendar will be the national championships on November 2728. Competitions will be held in men’s open, female, doubles, mixed doubles and the under-15 cadet division.

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The Belize Times

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Libertadores drills Mavericks 2-0 in FFB interdistrict football semifinals

Libertadores of Corozal upset the Mavericks of Toledo 2-0 in the first game of the semifinals of the national Interdistrict football competition held under the auspices of the Football Federation of Belize at the Santiago Ricalde Stadium i n C o r o z a l To w n o n S u n d a y, November 14, while Club Atletico of Belmopan and World FC of San Ignacio struggled to a 1-1 draw at the Isidoro Beaton Stadium in Belmopan.

Clifton West and Philip Guy led the Libertadores’ offensive

supported by Ezibel King and Noel Guy, while Aaron Budna, Alden Fuentes and Everall Bodden broke up the visitors’ attacks at midfield and returned the ball forward.

The pressure of the Corozal e l e v e n ’s a t t a c k s c a u s e d t h e Mavericks defence to blunder into giving up a penalty, which Clifton West converted with aplomb to seize a 1-0 lead after 29 minutes of play.

Down at the other end Jamie Mangar and Everette Genus were pressing their attacks with the help

of Eugene Jacobs, Zebechan Moore, Lance Jacobs and Evan Mangar, but they made little impression on the Libertadores defenders Keron Swaso, Filadelfo Perez and Jony Henry and goalkeeper Alexander Chi handled all other challenges.

T h e L i b e r t a d o r e s ’ o ff e n s i v e caused the visitors to make a second costly error when defender Theodore Lopez inadvertently deflected the ball into his own goal for that dreaded autogoal some seven minutes before intermission at which the home team led 2-0.

Neither side scored in the second half, and the long whistle sounded to a 2-0 victory for the Libertadores who will try for an encore performance when they visit the Mavericks at the Toledo Union Field on Sunday, November 21.

In Belmopan, Carlos Vasquez scored for World F.C. while David Madrid equalized for Club Atletico to settle for a 1-1 draw at the long whistle, the return match will be played at a time and venue to be announced.

Lady Jaguars win 2010 BVA national women’s volleyball champs

The Lady Jaguars won the 2010 national volleyball championship when the Belize Volleyball Association hosted its 2010 national tournament at the Belize City Center over the weekend.

The tournament was organized in a round robin format with 5 female teams in the competition. In Game 1 on Saturday morning, the Lady Jaguars won over the E-3 Light girls from Cayo. The Jaguars won the first set 25-17, but E-3 Light’s Kaina Martinez, Cynthia Salazar and Evelyn Kuylen rallied with the help of Nadine Flowers, Lucy Contreras and Ina Guzman and won the 2nd set 25-22. The Jaguars dominated the 3rd

set: 15-2.

In Game 2, the Moen Stars won the first set over the Belmopan girls 25-13, with Shelmadine Cacho and Tahera Ahmad leading the Stars’ attacks with Rebecca Rath and Emma Hoare hammering kills on balls set by libero Vivanni Avila and Sherlene Johnson. Belmopan’s Shereen Reyes, Kimberly Spence and Ebony Leal counterattacked with Thara Blanco and Angelica Reyes receiving and setting the ball, and Kaylani Reid serving and blocking at the net, while libero Yvette Price came into the game to force the Stars to go to extra points to win the 2nd set 27-25.

In Game 3, the Lady Jaguars

dominated the Dangriga girls 25-5 and 25-7 and in Game 4, the Moen Stars won over Cayo’s E-3 Light in two sets: 25-11 and 25-19.

In Game 5, the Belmopan girls enjoyed their first of 2 wins when they prevailed over the Dangriga girls 25-18 and 25-21.

In Game 6, the Dangriga girls picked up their only win, when the Cayo girls forfeited their third game on Saturday night. In Game 7, the Lady Jaguars won against the Belmopan girls in 2 sets taking the first set 25-14. Belmopan’s Shereen Reyes, Kimberly Spence and Ebony Leal counterattacked with the help of Thara Blanco, Angelica Reyes, Kaylani Reid and libero Yvette Price, but the Jaguars won the 2nd set 25-16.

In Game 8, the Moen Stars defeated the Dangriga girls in 2 sets.

Aretha, Jacqueline and Nandy Sabal led the Dangriga offensive with the help of Jakeiva Moreira, Donna Neal and Jennifer Mangar, but the Stars won both sets 25-14 and 25-6.

In Game 9 on Sunday afternoon, the Belmopan girls won 3rd place with 2 wins and 2 losses by defeating the Cayo e-3 Light girls. Kaina Martinez and Nadine Flowers spiked home kills for the Cayo girls to win the first set 25-23, but Kimberly Spence, Ebony Leal and Kaylani

Reid rallied the Belmopan girls’ counterattack to win the next 2 sets: 25-17 and 17-15.

In Game 10, the Lady Jaguars clinched the championship with their 4th win over their arch rivals, the 16-time champs – the Moen Stars.

Shantell Arnold, Barbara Cadle and Tichelle Solis led the Jaguars’ offensive, hammering kills on balls set by Tanisha Encalada and Bobby Dee Usher while Jasmine Anderson and libero Esther Middleton received and kept the ball in play to win the first set 25-17.

Stars’ Marika Zuniga rotated into the game but the Stars’ felt the loss of attacker and blocker Precelia Hoare, who had twisted her ankle in the first match on Saturday.

Kelsey Balderamos and Lupita Quan refreshed the attack line in the second set, but the Jaguars took the 2nd set 25-17.

In the award ceremony after the championship finals, BVA President Allan Sharp presented the team trophies and individual trophies to the champions and the 2nd place winners. In other volleyball news, the national women’s team is preparing to represent Belize in the Central American championships in Panama from the 28 November through the first week in December.

Sunday, November 21, 2010

The Belize Times

23

Scorpions Reloaded win 2010 BVA national men’s volleyball champs

The Scorpions Reloaded won the 2010 national volleyball championship when the Belize Volleyball Association hosted its 2010 national tournament at the Belize City Center over the weekend.

The tournament was organized in a round robin format with 8 teams in the competition. In Game 1 Saturday morning, the Belize City champions, the Rebels won the opening game of the tournament over the Orange Walk Broncos in 3 sets 25-14, 23-25 and 21-19.

In Game 2, the Scorpions triumphed over the Belmopan men in three sets 25-16, 22-25 and 15-13.

In Game 3, the PG Bombers dominated the Caye Caulker men: 25-18, 25-27 and 15-12.

In Game 4, the Dangriga men won their first game, winning 25-22 and 25-2 over the Corozal men in the fourth game on Friday morning.

In Game 5, the Rebels won against the Caye Caulker men 25-22, 24-26 and 15-9.

In Game 6, the Scorpions also dominated the Corozal men 25-18, 20-25 and 15-10.

In Game 7, the PG Bombers triumphed over the Orange Walk Broncos also in three sets: 25-22, 2225 and 15-11.

In Game 8, the Dangriga men also triumphed 25-20 and 25-20 over the Belmopan men.

In Game 9, the Orange Walk Broncos bounced back from losses to the Rebels and the Bombers to hand the Caye Caulker men their third loss: 28-26 and 26-24.

In Game 10, the PG Bombers upset the city champions Rebels; 25-21 and 25-21.

In Game 11, the Scorpions won their third victory 25-16 and 26-24 over the Dangriga men.

In Game 12, the Belmopan men picked up their only win when the Corozal men forfeited their third match.

In Game 13 in Saturday’s semifinals, the PG bombers had also advanced to the finals by eliminating the Dangriga men in the semifinals, taking the first set 25-19. Keith Castillo, Francis Flores, Gary Francisco and John Chimilio led the Dangriga men’s counter attacks with the help of Don Neal and Alexander Romero receiving and setting the ball for their hitter to hammer home kills, but the bombers’ blocking held off their attacks to win the second set 25-22.

In Game 14, the Scorpions eliminated the Rebels from the final.

The Scorpions won the 1st set 25-19

and Tariq Campbell, Orel Leslie, Karym Coleman and Shane Gentle led the Rebels’ counterattack with the help of Elton Anderson and Kleon Coleman receiving and spiking at the net. Libero Martin Gongora, Gillian Smith and Robbie Gongora refreshed the defensive line in the second set, and the Scorpions had to go to extra points to win 31-29.

In Game 15, the championship final, the Scorpions won against Punta Gorda Bombers; with Arvid Arnold, Shane Armstrong and Eian Galvez leading the Scorpions’ attacks while Nolan Michael and Jamal Galvez received, blocked at the net, and spiked home kills. Libero Raul Arnold and Oscar Arnold received and set the ball to take the first set 25-19.

PG’s team captain Elton Moore, Arnie Augustine, Jaryl Mariano and Dinsdale Cayetano led the PG offensive with the help of Amir Pacquil and libero Keegan Avila receiving and setting the ball while Jaleel Lino and Denver Lino refreshed the attack line in the 2nd set, but the Scorpions took the 2nd set: 25-21.

In the award ceremony after the championship finals, BVA President Allan Sharp presented the team trophies and individual trophies to the champions and the 2nd place winners.

Pallotti & SCA girls win 2 each in CSSSA basketball

The Pallotti High School and St. Catherine Academy girls both have posted 2 wins in the Central Secondary School Sports Association (CSSSA) basketball competition at the Belize City Center this past week, while the Wesley College and Gwen Lizarraga High School girls also enjoyed wins.

The Pallotti High School girls romped to a 27-7 win over the Canaan 7th Day Adventist High School girls on Monday. Khadejah Wilson led the attack with 11pts, Shinelle Lord added 8pts, Anna Ma was good for 6 pts and Sharney Chen tossed in one bucket. Jehaud Broaster scored all 7pts for Canaan High.

The Pallotti girls also won 31-13

over the Anglican Cathedral College on Tuesday evening. Shinelle Lord and Asha Castillo led Pallotti with 7 pts each. Shinelle sank a long trey in the 3rd quarter. Sharony Chen scored 2 buckets as they led 6-1 in the 1st quarter and when Asha Castillo drained in a long trey in the 2nd quarter and Jinelle Pott added another bucket, they were up 12-3 at the half.

Anna Ma added 6 pts in the 2nd half and Khadejah Wilson tossed in one more bucket to lead 21-7 in the third quarter and Asha Castillo added 2 buckets in the 4th quarter.

ACC’s Shantell Lambey drained in 2 long treys in money time but it was too little too late. Keylie Lambey had only scored 2 buckets, Giselly Rosalez tossed in one basket

and Sheranne James scored one free throw.

The SCA girls posted their 2nd win: 35-9 over the ACC girls last Friday evening. Gilda Estrada led the SCA attack with 8pts in the 1st quarter and Kursha Pollard and Christi Noralez added a bucket each as they led 12-0 in the 1st quarter ACC’s Keylie Bailey scored 5pts and Shantell Lambey added a bucket, but Kursha Pollard added 2 bucket to give SCA a 16-7 lead at the half. Kursha added 2 more buckets and Gilda Estrada and Kafira Gill added a bucket each to lead 24-7 in the 3rd quarter.

Gilda Estrada scored 6pts in the 4th quarter to finish with 16 pts and Kursha had 12 as Keylie Bailey scored a final bucket for ACC.

The SCA girls lost to four time national champs the Gwen Lizarraga High School girls 20-35 last Wednesday. Glenda Torres led the Gwen Liz girls with 21 pts, and Adreanna Meighan added another 13pts. Kursha Pollard scored 13pts for SCA. The Wesley College girls enjoyed a 30-12 win against the Canaan 7th Day Adventist high school girls last Thursday. Anna Pinto led the Wesley girls with 2 buckets in the 1st quarter and hit a long trey as she added 9pts in the 2nd quarter to lead 19-7 at the half. Sutherland and Samuels added 2 buckets each to lead 24-9 in the 3rd quarter. Jehaud Broaster led the Canaan girls with 6 pts, Rochelle Garcia tossed in 2 buckets and Raven Young added 2 free throws.

Science

24

The Belize Times

Sunday, November 21, 2010

TIMES

of the The Art and Science of Corned Fish

U until a few years ago, all ethnicities in Belize had the pungent “corn fish” as a part of their everyday diet. Corn fish was fried with onion and garlic and served with flour tortillas for breakfast from Xaibe in Corozal to Punta Gorda Town.

Hash corn fish with stew beans and rice down South or with “pin pin wa” handmade corn tortillas was lunch for the extended family from the rainforest regions of Toledo, all across Belize and Cayo and out in San Pedro.

The Garinagu fishermen dominated the national corn fish market as they were the more adventuresome seafarers of the times. Corned barracuda, known locally as “corned -barrow” was the speciality of the Garifuna fishermen who had stalls and sold wholesale to the vendors at Court House Wharf and the picturesque Old Belize City Market that was located where the Commercial Centre is in downtown Belize City.

The superior navigational skills of the Garinagu is what made them the kings of the sea and in the era before “seafood” and triple outboard engines, these fearless seafarers often paddled the thirty-six miles from the southern shores to Belize City, over-nighting on small cayes during their journey of over ten days. Without ice and engines, they salted or corned their abundant catch, soaking the fish overnight in barrels they left on the cayes then rinsing off and salting again and drying in the hot sun on piers on planks for no less than three days, before paddling into the city for Market Day, which was Saturday, to sell.

The expertise in dry corning fish was passed on from generation to generation of fishermen, and this method of food preservation had its precise methodology. The fish had to be scaled and perfectly cleaned, gutted and cored or cut all over to allow for the salt to get into the flesh. In the case of the “corned-barrow” which has almost ritualistic reverence in its preparation, the wrong way of catching and cleaning and even the wrong time of year could make the “barrow” dangerous to eat. The safety of the food was further guaranteed when the fish was thoroughly sun-dried out on the deserted islands; no “concas” or houseflies were out there and therefore the corned fish could “dry in peace” without the flies laying eggs in the flesh and causing it to get maggots and spoil. So the sacrifice of these fishermen of old, staying out on the small cayes for

days to let the corned fish dry safely, totally ensured the food

safety for the city residents.

In this modern life with more

people going on restricted salt diets because of hypertension and diabetes type II, the lure of the corned fish in our diets has almost been lost. The next generation has little tolerance for its smell and with the smog and dirt and dust clogging our environs, we can’t keep corned fish around in its newspaper wrapping drying on the veranda line.

But this weekend, as we celebrate the Garifuna culture and its unifying influence on our unique Belizean heritage, let us remember the corn fish recipes we grew up on. Let us roast a piece, drop some coconut oil in the plate, slice a tomato and have a Happy Garifuna Day.

25

The Belize Times

Sober

Reflections Glitter vs. Substance…

By: Mike Rudon Jr. On Friday morning I stood by the side of the road just outside of Fresh Pond in Burrell Boom and waited for a ride to the House of Representatives meeting in Belmopan. I kicked idly at an old dried up piece of cow dung and as I’ve done quite a bit lately, thought about leadership and what passes for leadership these days in Belize. I guess I’m getting cynical and downright miserable in my old age, but this bullshit masquerading as politics is just pissing me off lately. See, ‘politics’ isn’t a bad thing in and of itself – it’s just the “art or science of government or governing,” that’s all. So when did the mere uttering of the word ‘politics’ cause the most steadfast of bowels to loosen and the bravest hearts to be stricken by fear? Well to demonstrate let me fast-forward just a bit to events a little later that Friday…

The man who is supposed to be running things at the ministry of immigration (hereinafter referred to as the Minister of Crying) was lambasted in the House for his incompetence and negligence and for his collusion in the provision of illegal visas in the latest smuggling scandal. So up jumps Perdomo blurting out that the Leader of the Opposition shouldn’t talk, since his family benefitted greatly from the sale of visas during the last administration.

Anyway, after the meeting the Leader of the Opposition approached the Minister of Crying and asked him just WTF he was talking about since none of his family members had ever been involved in visas in any form or fashion. So Perdomo simpers, saying “Man I just said that. You know how this game is played.” The rules of the House dictate that no member can be sued for anything said during the sitting, so Perdomo just threw that out there. A man’s family was unjustly accused just out of the blue on the national stage for absolutely no reason, because that is ‘how this game is played.’ See what I mean. That is just nasty.

Dean Oliver’s presentation on BTL in the House was superb. He paused in all the right places, stuttered artistically where appropriate; was eloquent, sarcastic, serious, somber, loud and scathing when the script called for it; his gestures were right on; his patrician nose flared on demand; he trod the emotional spectrum from dumbfounded outrage to righteous indignation with sure-footed precision. Bravo, Dean O, it was a stellar performance right up

there with some of your best. But with all due disrespect…rose-scented shit with lilies arranged artistically around it served on the finest crystal by bikiniclad babies is still shit.

Break it down for yourself. Dean Oliver expended mucho political capital on this whole BTL/SSB mess and that’s a fact. He rammed this deal through when everybody was saying hold up buddy, what’s the rush? He used all the pawns at his disposal including his ex-wife Lois and his stooge Net Vasquez who engaged in an incestuous conflict of interest to ensure that SSB would buy shares in BTL. Dean Oliver dismissed every protest

by the unions and the business sector which refused to sign on to the deal.

He ignored every cry of indecent haste, every request for more information, every demand to hold off until the results of pending litigation, every indication that the investment at this point was risky. Why? I think there are several minor reasons including that matter of Dean Oliver’s monumental ego, but I’d have to say that it was all about the MONEY. Sure, Mr. Barrow could have waited until all litigation was over and done with and the investment was rendered much more secure (if GOB wins that is). Sure Mr. Barrow could have taken his time and provided all information requested and he would probably have gotten the deal approved from all sectors including the unions and business sector. Sure he could have done this thing the proper way and above board and there wouldn’t have been much of a public outcry at all.

But if he had done all that, he wouldn’t have gotten his greedy little hands on the MONEY being offered for shares.

Of course, Dean Oliver says that he won’t touch a cent of the money they receive for shares. And of course we believe him (yeah bloody right)! He claims that it will all go into an account where it will be safe and untouched.

Yeah, and I was born fat, balding and

Sunday, November 21, 2010 drunk just yesterday.

So yeah, to get back to this politics thing and this issue of leadership which I seem to be pondering more and more these days. I like Johnny Briceño, and not just because he stopped to give me a ride to the House meeting on Friday as I stood reflecting on life by the roadside!

I like him because he is everything that Dean Barrow is not. Can Dean Barrow talk purtier than he can? Yup, that’s right! Does Dean Barrow know bigger words than he does? Hell yeah! Will Dean Barrow piss on your back and tell you its raining? For damned sure he will. If your liking is chocolate covered bullshit-balls, then Dean Oliver is your man.

As for me, I kinda like knowing that there’s somebody out there who talks in sentences that I actually understand.

I like knowing that there’s somebody out there who would actually choose to stand beside me in the trenches than behind a podium talking down to me with stupid-looking glasses perched at the tip of his nose. In the end I guess it’ll all come down to whether you prefer glitter or substance…and that’s all I’ve got to say about that.

Our Telephone Number is:

671-8385

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Mada Point

The Belize Times

One of us is beni.

He is another skill of his fathers Inherits, le art-painting.

Garifuna-indeed! But PAINT-does not dance.

Beni drew dancers, culture: His pictures talk!

They sacrifice, they follow; Some heal and pray Others live from day to day Washing their cares away in the river.

Hundred and sixty years See Beni Yet painting that river!

What it sees and hears What it gives How it feels and thinks, Reflecting the sky Beholding there-Roots.

Drumming, singing dancingconfirmed with water fresh and cooldan griga!+ Beni, his paint rebuke!

The modesty on its part draw Inetia, a challenge to his heart the weakness of his voice-to preach industry, the object of his art.

He pause. He command paint!

Erupts euphoria- a blare!

Root music and dance Air borne to sea and sky le PUNTA! The rhythem of the beat The beat of the rhythem Blending of song and rhythems Feet moving hands swaying Chest heaving hip dancing This way! This way!Beni he died.

Punta san?

They close their eyes dancing Dance their eyes closing They beat their eyes closing Close their eyes beating-drums Punta ma!++ Da gusta the sounds Though alas! The echoI speak not od celbration Nor , a consecrationChugu, Mali, Dugu But of industry, That spirit of Beni eroding Air borne to the sea and sky.

Orinigu, Yurumai Garifuna Arts Belcast!

Your “Ancestral” Beni ORDAIN Those skills, yours gift, recastTo grow From roots ensemble-NOW! Or else, like drums remain.

So- balala Punta Yes, ballet le Punta A new theme-gobana!

Enact the new theme on Gobana. Gobana!

The lofty mahogany tree The stately national tree Gobana ma!

Graft le Punta on Gobana Gobana! Gobana!

Gobana ma, ma!

Open your eyes beating Asi--halala Punta!

Gobana! Gobana!

Punta ma, Ma! Feet dancing hands swaying Chest having hip dancing Itara, den itara** Liko so, den so Asi! Asa! Spirit of Beni dancing So leading, fellow The sound, the echoLofty, costly Costly, stately Gobana!

The lofty mahogany tree The stately national tree V. J. Nicholas

It is Beni. We are Belize and this Friday we realize another instance of that historic occasion witnessed by Alejo Beni on our blessed shores.

The passage of the Garifuna begins in the Eastern Caribbean where the Caribe Amerindians and West Africans (escaping from slave ships) met and began to live together in the 1600’s. We recall and celebrate with reverence that blessed day, the blessed November 19th, 1823 when Alejo Beni brought a large group of Garifuna to the settlement which in part resulted in our present Belize.

26

Drugs Worth Millions Intercepted

Just a couple of months after the present Minister of Police rambled on non-stop over the airwaves about his new vision for an improved state with fewer crimes, one of the biggest trans-shipments of drugs ever to be intercepted in Belizean territory was seized. The interception was made onboard a twin engine Beechcraft Super King Air 200 plane which bore registration numbers N786B. The brazen pilot and partners in crime used one of the nation's main arteries, the Southern Highway at mile 57 near Bladen community, to land the plane and unload their illicit cargo sometime around 2:30 on Saturday morning. The landing would later lead police to 80 bales of cocaine bearing the scorpion insignia of drugs that originate in Colombia, and weighing 2.6 tons - a stash worth around $140 M dollars when it is sold retail. A white van was also intercepted at the San Juan Bus Stop near the Bladen Community, a few miles away and a cargo truck with its tires flattened was found another few miles away. That truck was what Police believe was used to refuel the plane because in the vicinity were a number of gallon containers. Paraphernalia used in the drug trade, such as fuel tanks, fuel pumps, satellite phones, hand held radios,

flashlights, a semi-automatic rifle and camouflage jackets were also found in the vehicle.

What's worse than the proof that brazen drug dealers could think they can use one of the country's highways to conduct their illegal activity and go undetected, especially on a Saturday morning, is that the on-the-ground people who were linked to the cargo are all public officers, four police officers, two of whom are sergeants and a customs officer.

Villagers recall hearing the plane engine right over their rooftops in the wee hours of Saturday. It wasn't until dawn broke and the Belize Defense Force personnel began to comb the area for clues that it was discovered just how sophisticated a plan had transpired. Lights were used to improvise as a runway, preventing the plane from crashing into a curve a few hundred yards away at the Bladen Bridge. Luck was not on the side of the bunch, however, because as the plane landed, its right wing brushed past a tree that caused damage severe enough to prevent it from flying again.

That is why skeptics are apprehensive about Doug Singh's sarcastic comment that the interception of the plane is proof that the anti-drug fighting system is effectively working.

Happy Garifuna Settlement Day

from Mike Espat & the PUP Southern Caucus

Sunday, November 21, 2010

The Belize Times

WHICH IS TO BE MASTER?

words contain untruths, are unwise, or unfortunately affect the people. This is a responsibility. Ordinary citizens, however, no matter how exalted or strong cannot generally afford to do so.

Last Friday, in the House of Representatives, the Honorable Francis Fonseca, Member for Freetown, spoke on the state of the judiciary in Belize and expressed the growing concern of many, including the Barr Association of Belize that there is executive interference in the judiciary in Belize. by: Lisa Shoman Predictably, rather than respond ra"When I use a word," Humpty tionally and evenly to a valid and pressDumpty said, in a rather scornful tone, ing issue, the PM verbally lashed out at "it means just what I choose it to mean the Bar Association. His vituperation - neither more nor less." was epic. He fulminated - “Let us be "The question is," said Alice, honest, the Bar Association is PUP. The "whether you can make words mean so vast majority of the members of the bar many different things." are partisan, that association is PUP. "The question is," said Humpty When you were doing things like stealDumpty, "which is to be master - that's ing the money to pay the private debt all." of Universal Hospital, when you signed Through the Looking Glass; guarantees that were secret and illegal Lewis Carroll which you witnessed, Mr. Member for There is nothing that PM Barrow Freetown, and when these things evenloves quite so much as words. His taste tually came to light and the entire sociin palaver runs from the esoteric to ex- ety revolted against it, did you hear The otica and the more delightful his turn Bar Association make one statement of phrase, the more visibly delighted he with respect to what was happening? becomes.

Because it is an association controlled Many followers of his glittering by the People's United Party, the opposibon mots (an especially juicy turn of tion!" phrase) have noted(Belize) that the PM stores As if that accusatory outburst Scotiabank Ltd., a company duly registered un- were his rarest treats in his back pockets, not enough, the matter proceeded to a der them the Companies Act,toChapter 250promise, of the Laws Be- “You doling out for the public feast veiled the PMofsaying, lize,His Revised having its registered of- done upon. gems areEdition, bestowed,2000, alwaysand know what other countries have while spotlights are on him and particuthis Belize sort of thing happened? fice at Cor. Albert and Bishop when Streets, City,has Belize, larly when he is comfortably ensconced Pass a Law to have more than one Bar hereby givesnational noticespace of its to exercise its power in his privileged in intention the Association.

I don’t go that route. I deal of sale as MortgageeHe under ofBar Mortgage made House of Representatives. is nota Deed with the Association on thethe basis of too31st choosy about his witticisms either, my ability DAVID to respondCORREA to whatever they day of December, 2007, between borrowing at whim from sundry sourc- say.” Implicit in his words, of course, is of San Pedro Town, Ambergris Caye, Belize District of the es in order to score a quick comeback. the sentiment that “el Jurista Maximo” one part, Scotiabank (Belize) Ltd., oftothe otherthe part, What’s in aand word?

Most of us were can respond anything Bar says, taught as children to recite the “Sticks the ability do so, even and recorded at the Land Titlesbecause Unit he in has Deeds Bookto Vol. and2Stones” rhyme; but once if he to pass a law, which (Behe will not of 2008 at folios 45the–golden 74, and thehassaid Scotiabank light of childhood dies, we realize that do, YET. You may infer that he knows lize) at the expiration of he three months from the words doLtd. have will meaning.

Words have what can do, if he chooses.

Be aware. power.

The famous words, “Will no date of the first publication of Beware. this notice sell the property onedescribed rid me of this priest?” inmeddlesome the schedule hereto.Of course, in his rant about how uttered by a frustrated Henry II, Eng- many PUPs the PUP had sent to study lishNotice monarch, led to the murder andthelaw during thenamed looong years of power, is hereby given that company All offers to purchase property be made in that martyrdom of Thomas Becket. the saidMr. Barrow must neglected to mention Words are Amandla.

Words utof the cream of UDP writing and full particulars andmuch conditions of sale may attorneys be tered by a Prime Minister not only have had undergone legal training at that obtained thepower. said Scotiabank (Belize) Ltd. meaning, they from have vast When same time, along with such Judges as this verbose Prime Minister speaks, the Sir George Brown, Madam Justice Mipeople better listen. We have learned, chelle Arana, Mr. Justice Lucas and Mr. sometimes painfully, that such words, Justice Lord, and countless more magiswhether policy or legislature, not only trates and a Supreme Court Registrar or Has been dissolved and struck of the International Busideliver new laws or tax increases, but two. Methinks he protested too much.

ALL THAT piece or parcel ofHis land Lot No. 15 Price ness Companies Register with effect from the 4th of era. ‘quitar’ land also contain promises to ownbeing training was in day the andNovember, jobs with no regret for any collatcomprising 2010.

(496.56 square metres) in Got the carried AmberMaybe situate he forgot? away by eralgris damage caused. his flow of indignant palabras?

Bay Subdivision, approximately 3.5 miles North of Few Belizeans can afford to “anCome Monday, the Bar Association San Pedro Town, District The Belize Bank swer back” the words of Ambergris aLimited Prime Min- Caye chose in to the fightBelize back, and issued a swift ister.

Opposition Parliamentarians of Belize and bounded andnotdescribed as shown Plan Registered Agent and stinging reply. It by started by stating only can, but often do answer, when the “respects the )right that the BarFiat No. 870 of 2003 attached to Minister’s (Grant No.of each

FOR SALE

By Order of the Mortgagee

NOTICE

“KEYNES PROPERTIES LIMITED” SCHEDULE

and every one of its members, including its executive members, to hold opinions without interference and to belong to any political party or other political association of their choosing.

These rights which are enshrined in the Belize Constitution are in fact the rights of every Belizean.”

The release went on to condemn “in the strongest possible terms the very public and unwarranted attacks upon the Association launched by the Honourable Prime Minister Dean Barrow in the House of Representatives on Friday, November 12, 2010”.

It pointed out that “The Honourable Prime Minister has obviously sought to put political labels on and personalize the reasoned position of the Association, with a view to inflame and incite his supporters and thereby avoid the manifest need to address in a sober and rational way the very serious allegation that the Honourable Prime Minister has sought to undermine the rule of law through unwarranted and unjustified interference with persons holding high judicial office.”

The meaning is clear. An answer is expected and needed on the throwdown of such a serious allegation. An attack was launched instead to play to his supporters. The old classic Bait and Switch was deployed, the best form of De(an)fence, being an offense.

The Bar Association release also said what so many others have said, reminding the PM that “he was elected to govern and serve all the people of Belize.” And that is the heart of the thing. Red and Yellow, Green and Blue, we are Citizens of the Jewel too. The duty of the Head of State is to serve us all, so citizens can live and even thrive without too much fear, even if we are not to expect much favor.

A word of caution to the Prime Minister - a surfeit of words can be almost as deadly as a surfeit of lampreys. You may one day be forced to consume your own. Bile and venom will, we fear, make for poor digestion.

The question is, Mr. Barrow, which is to be Master, the Belizean people, or your words?

FOR SALE

By ORdER OF thE MORtgAgEE Scotiabank (Belize) Ltd., a company duly registered under the Companies Act, Chapter 250 of the Laws of Belize, Revised Edition, 2000, and having its registered office at Cor. Albert and Bishop Streets, Belize City, Belize, hereby gives notice of its intention to exercise its power of sale as Mortgagee under a Deed of Assignment and Transfer of Mortgage made the 30th December, 2005, recorded in Deeds Book Vol. 3 of 2006 at Folios 601 – 632, between Belize Mortgage Company 2002-1 (the Assignor) and Scotiabank (Belize) Ltd., which said property was mortgaged

by FLOYD LYNDON NEAL and DORETTA DENESE NEAL to the said Development Finance Corporation on the 8th day of October, 2003, recorded in Deeds Book Vol. 37 of 2003 at Folios 1151 – 1196; and the said Scotiabank (Belize) Ltd. will at the expiration of two months from the date of the first publication of this notice sell the property described in the schedule hereto.

All offers to purchase the said property must be made in writing and full particulars and conditions of sale may be obtained from the said Scotiabank (Belize) Ltd.

SCHEDULE

s

870 of 2003 dated 21st June, 2004 TOGETHER with all buildings and erections standing and being thereon.

(Property now declared under trhe Registration Section of is San Pedro) Notice hereby given that the company named

ALL THAT lot piece or parcel of land being Lot No. 269 in the subdivision known as Los Lagos, situate in the Mile 13 Area, Northern Highway, Ladyville, Belize District,. As surveyed by Kenneth A. Gillett, Licensed Surveyor and recorded at the Office of the Commissioner of Lands and Surveys, Belmopan at register 16 Entry 4460 TOGETHER with all buildings and erections standing and being thereon.

e

“LERIE S.A.” DATED this 1st INVESTMENTS day of November, 2010.

DATED this 1st day of November, 2010.

e

NOTICE

Has been dissolved and struck of the International Business Companies Register effect from the 12th day of MUSAwith & BALDERAMOS November, 2010. 91 North Front Street

Belize City Attorney-at-Law for The Belize Bank Limited Scotiabank (Belize) Ltd.

27

MUSA & BALDERAMOS 91 North Front Street Belize City Attorney-at-Law for Scotiabank (Belize) Ltd.

c,

e

c,

e

28

The Belize Times

PUP Helping the People of Armenia

Armenia is a small village off the western highway in the Cayo district. It is politically located in the Cayo South constituency, where many hard working Belizeans live and work. Most residents of Armenia live off the land. On the 24th October 2010, Hurricane Richard hit Belize causing devastation in areas all over the country, including Armenia where many structures had all but collapsed. Homes were left without roofs, exposing families to the elements.

Countless trees obstructed the pathways that lead to and from the farms where the people of Armenia live and work. Many

families are suffering the effects, because their crops were destroyed and they depend entirely on them for income generation and for their survival.

On the 25th October 2010 the Cayo South team of the Peoples United Party led by Julius Espat, the aspiring standard bearer for the constituency went into Armenia village and after witnessing the great need for assistance in this village and realizing that the UDP and the area representative, Ramon Witz were doing nothing to help the people, went straight to work realigning structures, mending broken roofs, clearing roads, and

Grand San Andres Fiesta 2010 Saturday and Sunday 27th and 28th November 2010

Program

Venue: San Andres Village Football Field & Community Center Corozal District

Saturday 27th November 2010: • • • • • • • •

Under 13 years bicycle race (Xaibe to San Andres) Football Mundialito game Company Booth eg: Smart Promotion Food Stalls Contact #663-7230 Mechanical rides Beer drinking contest (Male) Official ceremonies and Cultural Presentation Massive Dance with the Gilharry 7 Band only $10 for couples.

Sunday 28th November, 2010: • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Adult Bicycle race (Patchakan to San Andres) Football Exhibition game Softball Exhibition game Volleyball Exhibition game Greasy Pole Water melon eating contest Tag & war Lime & spoon Sack race Mechanical rides Pepper eating contest Beer drinking contest (Female) Dalla Bash – Dance

Bring your family to have lots of fun! Fun! Fun!

removing hazards like a large tree on the verge of falling on the Hurricane shelter which also happened to be the school and Community center.

One resident of Armenia told the Belize Times - “Our daily lives and houses were affected by Hurricane Richard and we felt abandoned and helpless. We were not able to access our farm lands because the roads were blocked by big trees that had fallen during the storm; our crops were seriously damaged and we needed to access them, Mr. Julius Espat and his team were a big help in the effort of clearing the roads.

We are thankful because they

lent us a helping hand.”

The PUP Cayo South team worked tirelessly along with the villagers and little by little made progress, although there is still much more to do in the reconstruction process after the destruction caused by hurricane Richard.

CHECK OUT OUR NEW WEBSITE at www.belizetimes.bz ~ POST YOUR COMMENTS ~ VOTE ON ARTICLES ~ VIEW OUR PHOTO GALLERY We are the most visited newspaper website in Belize

Sunday, November 21, 2010

The Belize Times

Eulogy for Graciano Briceño

The outpouring of love and affection by so many people; the time you spent with all of us, the care you show and the support you have given will never be forgotten.

We carry on knowing that we have your love and our family wants you to know that we are grateful, thank you.

Last night our family was reminiscing and having a good laugh about the life of our Tio Charo.

Tio Dally was the youngest of the brothers and shared this story: As kids, Tio Charo used to steal my Grandfather’s cigarettes and all of them would go to the pasture by Louisiana Farm to feed the horses and of course light up the stolen cigarettes.

One day, Mr. Guzman, the farm manager suddenly appeared. All of the bigger boys put their hand with the cigarette in their pants pocket. Tio Dally, not knowing any better, just left the lighted cigarette in his pocket.

Within minutes his pants started to burn. When smoke started to come out of his pocket, Tio Dally started screaming that he was on fire. Tio Charro went to the rescue and saved the day. Of course they were in serious trouble when they got home.

Imagine them trying to explain how and why smoke was coming from Tio Dally’s pants pocket. Such was the life of these Briceño boys, always looking for the next adventure.

Today, we are here at La Inmaculada Church to celebrate the life of a man who was a father, brother, uncle and friend- Graciano Briceño, also known as Charro or Larro.

From the time that he was a child, Tio Charro, was carefree, fun, mischievous and an athlete. Anyone who knew him would tell you, he loved sports. He excelled in football, was just as good at volleyball and was one of the fastest sprinters in town.

Of course he also excelled at being mischievous as well. Everywhere he went, people know he would always up to some mischief.

If Tio Charo loves sports, his feelings about school was the total opposite, so when he finally graduated from Standard 6, that was it for him. So right after graduation the conversation with my abuela came. My grandmother told him that he was not going stay home so he best go find a job.

Tio Charro proudly announced that he was planning to become a “milpero”. Abuela Felipa, being of Mayan origin was pleased with his decision and convinced my grandfather give Tio Charro a start, which he did.

My grandfather had men fall, burn, clean and plant three mecates of corn on the Chan Pine road. All his son was to do was to do some cleaning and look after the milpa. For a few Saturdays, Tio Charro took Tio Dally and Chino, our cousin, to help him cut the grass.

One day, Tio Dally told me that Tio Charro saw a snake; he let go his machete and ran all the way home. That was the end of his career as a milpero.

I think he was a bit more focused however when it came to the ladies.

Tio Charro was a ladies man. He was always falling in love and falling out of love, until he found true love in Margarita Zetina, who he married.

They were together until she passed away four years ago. They had two boys- Leopoldo, who is in Chicago, and Eulalio who died five years ago.

His other children are: Graciano, Melissa, Rene and Delia Felipa. He had as adopted children- Amparo, Vanessa,

Tola (who was living here with him for over 35 years) and Victor better known as Chaparo. He was a family man and he loved all his children.

After the whole career change from a milpero, Tio Polo bought a car and Tio Charo became the driver -- a taxi man. From that humble beginning, he and his brothers built a number of successful businesses all under the name of Briceño Brothers.

But through all the hard work and the successes and failures, Tio Charo was always this happy person who loved to party. My Dad told me that as a child, my sister Vanessa wanted to be like Tio Charo who loved to party. I think she is.

Tio loved to hang out with his friends, especially the late Tuch and Banner, Roma Dor, Suzu and David Leiva better known a Simon. When they were partying, he loved the songs of Lord Laro and would shout out “Laro di ya”. That's why he was stuck with the name “Laro”.

But he was also very protective of his family. He would tell Tio Dally, “you no know what di out ya in the streets”. During the political careers of my Dad and Tio Polo, he was very protective on them.

Of course he felt the same way about me. A few years ago, I went in to Cat’s bar where he was hanging out, having a few drinks. As soon as a guy, obviously drunk came around me, with seconds, Tio Charo was next to me telling the guy to move and wanted to get physical. I told Tio Charo that it was ok, to cool down. As he always pointed out, he was willing to die for his family.

Tio Charo was a chain smoker. Actually as kids, we loved to go buy his Camel cigarettes because he always used to allow us to keep the change.

And he smoked for a very long time. When he and my Tio Polo used to joke as to who will die first, Tio Polo used to tell him that he will take him for a check up and if the doctor were to say that nothing wrong with Tio Charo, well then the doctor is crazy.

After Tio Polo’s death, he decided to start taking care of himself and begun excising at the Peoples’ Stadium.

Tio Dally one day decided to join him.

When he got to the Stadium, there was Tio Charo, walking but with a cigarette in his mouth.

A few years ago, Tio Charo decided to quit smoking. Unfortunately, it was too late. He was already suffering from emphysema. Two years ago he started getting real sick and for the past year, he was in bed.

It was painful to see Tio Charo slowly withering in front of our very own eyes and despite all that was done; it was too late to reverse the cancer.

Tio Charo could have turned into a bitter man and questioned God, why is it that he is being punished. But he didn’t. He took the opportunity to ad-

vise every one that smoking is bad and look at how he is suffering!

My son Daniel went to visit Tio Charo before he went back to school.

His advise to Daniel was “If you are smoking, stop. If you don’t, don’t ever start”!

Tio Charo’s last days on this earth were very painful. Just a few days before he died, his good friend Esperanza was visiting him. He whispered to her to please sing his favorite song “Un Dolor”. She did and Tio Charo was happy.

On Friday, my father-in-law went to visit him and Tio Charo commented that he was at peace with himself and with God. He was ready for his eternal reward that God has promised each of us.

Sunday November 14, 2010 and 8:24 a.m. God decided to call his son Charo home. Chaparo was by his side.

By the time Tola, who was always by his side and Erlinda, got to the room Tio Charo was at peace. He was with

29

the Lord.

Our family is happy that Tio Charo is now at peace and we will never forget his advice: If you’re smoking, stop. If you don’t, don’t start.

Graciano Briceño was born on December 18, 1939 in Orange Walk Town to my grandparents, the late John Briceño and Felipa Briceño Chan. He had a loving childhood with his four bothers, the late Lalo and Polo, Elijo (Joe) and Eudaldo (Dally) and his five sisters, the late Clody and Dina, and Matilda, Anita and Nellie.

Our family is grateful to the many friends who visited him and helped take care of him.

Tio Charo, we will never stop loving you, we will always remember you.

You were a good brother, father, uncle and friend. We will miss you but we will celebrate your laughter.

Hasta la vista tio, until we shall meet again in that eternal life that our Lord has promised all of us.

FOR SALE

By Order of the Mortgagee Scotiabank (Belize) Ltd., a company duly registered under the Companies Act, Chapter 250 of the Laws of Belize, Revised Edition, 2000, and having its registered office at Cor. Albert and Bishop Streets, Belize City, Belize, hereby gives notice of its intention to exercise its power of sale as Mortgagee under a Deed of Mortgage made the 31st day of December, 2007, between DAVID CORREA of San Pedro Town, Ambergris Caye, Belize District of the one part, and Scotiabank (Belize) Ltd., of the other part, and recorded at the Land Titles Unit in Deeds Book Vol. 2 of 2008 at folios 45 – 74, and the said Scotiabank (Belize) Ltd. will at the expiration of three months from the date of the first publication of this notice sell the property described in the schedule hereto.

All offers to purchase the said property must be made in writing and full particulars and conditions of sale may be obtained from the said Scotiabank (Belize) Ltd.

SCHEDULE

Sco der Re Co giv as of De Be tia by NE the 37 (Be dat des

All wr obt

ALL THAT piece or parcel of land being Lot No. 15 comprising (496.56 square metres) situate in the Ambergris Bay Subdivision, approximately 3.5 miles North of San Pedro Town, Ambergris Caye in the Belize District of Belize and bounded and described as shown by Plan No. 870 of 2003 attached to Minister’s Fiat (Grant ) No. 870 of 2003 dated 21st June, 2004 TOGETHER with all buildings and erections standing and being thereon.

(Property now declared under trhe Registration Section of San Pedro)

AL the Ar vey ed Be bui

DATED this 1st day of November, 2010.

DA

MUSA & BALDERAMOS 91 North Front Street Belize City Attorney-at-Law for Scotiabank (Belize) Ltd.

30

The Belize Times

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Eulogy for Miss Hortence Robinson 1923 – 2010

By Rosita Arvigo Once or twice in a lifetime one meets a truly exceptional personalitiy who changes your life forever. In my lifetime, that exceptional person was Hortence Robinson, the greatest herbal midwife of our times.

I just can’t say enough good things about this woman. She had the qualities of all true traditional healers. She was a charming story-teller and a lot of fun to be with . She taught me to see the funny side of trouble and strife. She was a humble person, and would never big-up herself; in her own words, “you could never too humble”.

She believed that it was her faith in God that did the healing in her clinic and never took credit for herself. Like other natural healers, she cared more about the welfare of others than she did her own. She birthed nine children and adopted fourteen others.

The little blue house on__Dawn Lane in mother , a busy midwife, kept her daughLadyville was always full of people. Some ter out of school to do the washing and came to be healed, others to bask in her cooking. So , although, she never learned warmth and hospitality, children passed to read and write it was no impediment for right though her living room and kitchen she had an encyclopedic memory and the taking a shortcut on their way to school. sharp, retentive mind of a genius. Her Hortence’s door and her cooking pots were first teachers were her childhood playas open to humanity as was her heart and mates on Cozumel, the Maya children. her home.

She told me that they spent a good deal Hortence felt great love and abiding of their time collecting medicinal plants affection for her children. You, William, for their parents and were then allowed to Concha, Patricia, Emily, Steven, Orlando, play and run free. She had a spiritual relaDavid, Phillip and Patrick were always on tionship with plants. They were more than your mother’s mind and in her heart. Your leaves, flowers and chemicals. She taught troubles and strife were hers. Hortence that they, too, just like people, are spiritual was devastated and nearly broken in spirit beings in a physical body and deserve our when William died in the United States in a respect and, especially our care. She worhighway accident and then again when her ried about the destruction of the rainforest, grandson, steven velasquez____, died in a for she said that a “Healer without plants is motorcycle crash. Her love and concern for like a mechanic without tools.” you, her dedication to her duty as a healer Hortence was a dynamic public speakhelped her to find the strength to get back er . In her life time, she addressed profesup on her feet. In her own words, “Death sors, scientists, doctors and nurses sharing is a part of life and you just have to accept her wisdom and hard-earned knowledge it.”

She prayed for all of you everyday with them for the benefit of people from and wanted you to love and care for each all nations of the world. Invitations to other. She was proud of you. As adults, speak came from the University of Masyou are now fine contributors to Belizean sachusetts, Carnegie-Mellon University, society and a living tribute to Hortence’s The National Cancer Institute, the Womlove. Concha , you made her very proud en’s Herbal Conference, the International when you decided to follow in her foot- Herbal Conference and The New York Bosteps to work as a midwife in the south of tanical Garden. As a major contributor to the country. Concha, Emily and Patricia you the Belize Ethnobotany Project we relied cared for your mother during her sickness on her to tell us where the team would and finally Emily, you, sat faithfully at her collect plants for research. She identified side until she died. Hortence is survived by more than three hundred medicinal plants nineteen grandchildren, fifteen great grand- which were scientifically recorded at the children and – 2 great-great grandchildren. New York Botanical Garden in Bronx, NY Her dog Fancy, a little brown daschund, and the Belize Forestry Department. There was her playmate and faithful companion we have recorded for the future generafor many years. tions of Belize their names and uses . She Miss Hortence was known in the was given the National Treasure Award healers community as “Mil Secretos” or by the Traditional Healers Foundation in A Thousand Secrets. El Secreto that spe- 1990. cial ingredient, that special preparation that Hortence was a person who from a makes a herbal remedy dramatically effec- very early age knew what her path and tive . El secreto might be that you use the purpose in life would be. Plants and trees bark of the root only to make a tea, or that were her passion and healing was her path. you must burn a red candle, not any other In fulfilling that calling, she found great color. She was a living library of knowledge internal peace and I know an eternal home about medicinal plants, home remedies and in heaven with her Creator. spiritual healing. She delivered thousands Hortence’s daughter, Patty Forman of babies, many of them on her own bed. and I felt that it would be a most fitting She cared for tens of thousands of sick peo- eulogy to share Hortence’s charm and ple in her lifetime using only simple herbal humor by telling stories of the precious remedies, prayers and massage. She was a times we spent together. We were friends specialist in gynecology, obstetrics and pe- and companions for more than ten years diatrics but also worked as a family physi- while we traveled around the world . Our cian . Much of her knowledge was gained first adventure together was in 1990. At by observation and experience of the natu- that time, we spoke at several different ral world. She told of many dream visions venues and she met hundreds of Ameriin which she was shown which herb to use cans on this, her first visit to the United Jaslyn to“IMarco Antonio Brenda Nudemia Serrano and how toJoselyn prepare it, put it all ina my and States.

On the plane returning to Belize, I neeand Velasquez head kept it there.”, she said. said to her, “Well, Miss Hortence, this was This magnificient born in your trip to Fiona the Untied States at the Andreya Faith towoman Andrewas (Deceased) andfirst Taralee Sanchez 1923 on Cozumel Island during the days of age of seventy-two. What did you think nee Lammey chicle camps. Her mother and both grand- of the United States and its people?” She Jamari Jaden Hasanie to Marlon andsideways, Sakenah Isanie mothers were midwives there while her fa- Leopold looked at me sighed deeply and ther worked theReneau chicle trees. By fascinating said in her pure and simple way, “POOR Lopez nee co-incidence, Cozumel is the ancient home lostnee and Pop troubled !”

Isaac Daren to Agosto Erasmo andPEOPLE, Felicitaso Cal of the Maya Goddess of Medicine, Ix Chel We were invited to give a presentation Lanae to their Lansden Marie Blease held at and where Laneesha the Maya had schoolVictor for atand the Therese Art of Birthing Conference nee Diego midwives. Hortence’s ancestry was a true the New York Academy of Medicine. The Belizean She to had a grandfather conference was attended

by Menover 700 proUlises Boil-Up. Alexander Ranulfo Benjamin and Ana Carolina from Scotland, another grandparent was fessionals.

They were medical doctors, doza nee Jordan an ex-slave from the United States. There PhD’s in public health, nurse-midwives Christopher Antonio Wlater Antonio Lisien Waleska were Maya, Creoles and East to Indians on her and layand persons as well.

It was arranged Aguilar nee Moncada family tree as well.

In childhood, She was that she would present the Key Note the only girltoinDavid a houseand of seven boys.

Her speech, but she she would not stand Cornie Rosita Adriana Klassen neesaid Rodriguez

Births

Brianna Rashel to Douglas Jose and Concepcion Rodriguez nee Diaz

up on that stage by herself for an hour, so I would have to stand there with her. During that hour, I asked her questions about her life and her healing practice which she answered elegantly. Then, we took questions from the audience. The first was, “Miss Hortence, do you do episiotomies?” She answered with a simple, “No, I do not”.

The crowd broke into whispers and I could hear, “What? How good could she be if she doesn’t do that?” The next obvious question was, “Well what do you do if a woman tears during delivery?” With courage and outrageous self-confidence , she puffed up her chest, looked right out into the waiting audience and declared , “WELL, I NEVER DID HAVE A LADY WHO TORE!” The audience roared, applauded and gave her a standing ovation. Then, finally, she went about explaining how she would avoid tears during delivery. The crowd was delighted by the depth of her knowledge and experience.

Hortence grew up with midwives and started assisting her mother and grandmother at the age of nine. . As a child she suffered with life-threatening bouts of asthma.

Once, in the early 1940’s, she had nearly died from an asthma attack and had to be air-lifted from a chicle-camp to the Belize City Hospital. She loved to tell of that time because it was a near-death experience in which she got right up to the Pearly Gates and was turned back by an old, bearded man with a stone tablet who said her name was not yet in his book and she had to turn back the way she came. She described heaven as a beautiful place with lakes, ponds, orchards and a thousand colorful gardens.

When she was well enough to walk around the hospital wards she was coming out of a bathroom one day in time to see two men carry a stretcher into the hospital and place it in the corridor where she stood. Hortence was thirtten years old. On the stretcher was a woman in final stages of labor. She looked over at Hortence and pleaded, “Come here child and catch this baby.” Hortence knew just what to do. She delivered the infant on her own, waited for the placenta to pass then wrapped the baby and placenta in her own hospital night gown and went to find the nurse. She was thirteen years old. It was on that occasion that one of the nurses gave little Hortence her first cigarette to calm her down. Smoking was Her only vice until the last years of her life.

Wherever Hortence was, animals and birds appeared. During a two-month long winter visit with us in Cayo, we marveled at the increase of sightings of wild animals.

We hadn’t seen that many since we cleared the land twenty-five years before. Howler monkeys got so close it was scary. Birds built nests on our front porch. Hortence slept in the downstairs guest room that had a screen door which let out onto a side verandah. One morning, I heard a strange sound and went to the porch to look out and saw a very large black spotted jaguar cross the front of our house and jump into the bush. I ran downstairs to find Hortence and told her what I saw.

She got right up in my face, poked her finger in my chest and said, “You don’t say a word about it, you hear me? That cat is

injured and has been sleeping at my doorstep now for more than a week. He’s here to get healed and to rest because he can’t run.

He’s limping. No one can know about this.

He needs time to heal where he can feel safe.” That night I slept in the same room with her and sure enough around midnight that jaguar came loping up to the verandah with a limp. With a great sigh, he laid his tired bulk of a body down right in front of her door. Through the bars and the screen you could see the slope of his back rising and falling as he breathed heavily. Before dawn, he rose up and loped away into the bush. He slept right there next to Hortence for a full month and just as she said, it was from new moon to new moon.

A few weeks later she was sitting outside in the early morning as she always did smoking and drinking coffee. When I came to sit with her, she said, “The rains will start in three days” “How do you know that,”I asked. “Because Bouncey, the little bird in the garden turned over a leaf today.”she answered. Like clockwork, in exactly three days the winter rains came. Hortence was that in tune with nature.

With the passing of Belizean traditional healers like Hortence Robinson, Elijio Panti, Thomas Green, Percival Reynolds, Andrew Ramcharan, and Beatrice Waight we are reminded how precarious is a nation’s intellectual heritage. They were members of the Tradtional Healers Foundation and unselfishly shared their knowledge with the world. Their knowledge was deemed so valuable that the New York Botanical Garden established and maintained a decade long project, the Belize Ethnobotany Project under the direction of Dr. Michael Balick. Yes, plant names, uses, stories, myths, preparations and contraindications were recorded , but traditional healing is a science of the living. It is for the sick, the crippled and the maimed. It is for the troubled in mind and spirit. It is for those who seek help when medicine has no answers for them. Sadly, there are too few willing students. Belizeans, your precious cultural heritage is at a crucial stage. The sun is setting over your jewel. Your healers are dying out. They carried their torches bravely and selflessly for your benefit. What will you do now to preserve their plants, the medicine trees and how will you contribute to the preservation of their life’s work? It is never too late to start, for in the words of Confucious, “The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The second best time to plant a tree is right now.”

Hortence taught me that when a person dies, their loved ones should pray for them, light candles for them for a full thirty days because that is how long it takes for the soul to cross The Great Divide. She said that the deceased feel the prayers -- that our prayers light the path like little flames to the spirit world. Lighting a candle and saying prayers for the departed makes their passage warmer and safer . Let us all send up a thousand prayers on the wind for the safe and joyful passage of a wonderful human being, a Wise Woman and one of God’s angels. May she travel with the angels to the spirit realms, her path lit by the prayers and love of all those who knew her .

NOTICE Notice is hereby given that the company named

“KEYNES PROPERTIES LIMITED” Has been dissolved and struck of the International Business Companies Register with effect from the 4th day of November, 2010.

The Belize Bank Limited Registered Agent

Sunday, November 21, 2010

The Belize Times

31

Births FOR RENT

Oración a la Virgen de Guadalupe

2 bedroom house, fully furnished located in Vista Del Mar Area, Ladyville Area, Belize District.

Call 623-2205 for more information.

Rooms with cable, water and electricity unfurnished. For more information contact 6232205.

LIQUOR LICENSE NOTICES Notice is hereby given that Fred McLaughlin is applying for a Beer Liquor License to be operated at “Red Grabow”, Sandhill Village, Belize District under the Intoxicating Liquor Licensing Ordinance Revised Edition 1980.

Notice is hereby given that Shi Feng Huang is applying for a Shop Liquor License to be operated at “Lucky Star Supermarket”, #2805 Corner Central American Boulevard and Pelican Street, Belize City under the Intoxicating Liquor Licensing Ordinance Revised Edition 1980.

Notice is hereby given that Jun Li Chen is applying for a Conveninece Store Liquor License to be operated at “Tee Mix Ice Cream Parlour ”, #17 Albert Street, belize City under the Intoxicating Liquor Licensing Ordinance Revised Edition 1980.

Notice is hereby given that He Xian Ying is applying for a Restaurant Liquor License to be operated at “Pirates Restaurant”, 1 1/2 Miles Northern Highway, Belize City under the Intoxicating Liquor Licensing Ordinance Revised Edition 1980.

Notice is hereby given that Hui Feng Zhen and Zhi Bin Liu are applying for a Shop Liquor License to be operated at “Fai Cheng Shop”, (Grocery Store) #2 Farmer’s Market, Belize City under the Intoxicating Liquor Licensing Ordinance Revised Edition 1980.

Notice is hereby given that Xian Ke Li is applying for a Shop Liquor License to be operated at “Chung Loong Shop”, #89 Vernon Street, Belize City under the Intoxicating Liquor Licensing Ordinance Revised Edition 1980.

Rezar 9 Aves Marías durante 9 días con una vela encendida.

Pedir tres favores, uno economic, dos imposibles. Al octavo día publicar, al novena día dejar que se consuma la vela.

Aún sin tener fe se cumple.

A.K.S.

Oración a la Virgen de Guadalupe

Jaslyn Joselyn to Marco Antonio and Brenda Nudemia Serrano nee Velasquez Andreya Faithand to Andre (Deceased) and28th Taralee Fiona Sanchez Saturday Sunday 27th and November 2010 nee Lammey Jamari Jaden Hasanie to Marlon Leopold and Sakenah Isanie Program Lopez nee Reneau Venue: San Andres Village Football Field & Community Center Isaac Daren to Agosto Erasmo and Felicita Cal nee Pop Corozal District Lanae Laneesha to Lansden Victor and Therese Marie Blease nee Diego Saturday 27th November 2010: Ulises Alexander to Ranulfo Benjamin and Ana Carolina Mendoza nee Jordan • Under 13 years bicycle race (Xaibe to San Andres) Antonio to Wlater •Christopher Football Mundialito gameAntonio and Lisien Waleska Aguilar nee Moncada • Company Booth eg: Smart Promotion to David Rosita#663-7230 Adriana Klassen nee Rodriguez •CornieFood Stallsand Contact Rashel torides Douglas Jose and Concepcion Rodriguez nee •Brianna Mechanical •Diaz Beer drinking contest (Male) Biniwati to Cesarand Edson and Francisca Regina Lacayo •Idewesel Official ceremonies Cultural Presentation nee Nunez • Massive Dance with the Gilharry 7 Band only $10 for Eurise couples.

Elizabeth to Eugene Elroy and Charise Marcella Flowers nee Kelly Yun Lu to28th Yue Meng and Yanna Liu nee Xiao Sunday November, 2010: Rebeca Juliet to Edilberto Miguel and Mildred Yadira Torres nee •Perez Adult Bicycle race (Patchakan to San Andres) Vicente Exhibition to Juan andgame Rosarita Rempel nee Cano •ZaeemFootball JanaeExhibition to Erwin and •Makayla Softball gameMathilda Thiessen nee Friesen •Bradford Volleyball Exhibition Lewin to Jose andgame Luana Sosa nee Moguel •Giovanni Greasy Pole Martin to Marcos Matias and Justa Justina Marin nee •Ketz Water melon eating contest • Tag & war • Lime & spoon • Sack race • Mechanical rides • Pepper eating contest Michael Anthony Jones to Ellen Josephine August both of Or• Beer drinking contest (Female) ange Walk Town, Orange Walk • Dalla Bash – Dance Mauri Gomez to Yociery Mayeli Chuc both of Sarteneja, Corozal Admir Arturo Cantun of San Palmar, ManuBring your family toJose have lots Orange of fun!Walk Fun!to Fun! ela Luisa Ayuso of Orange Walk Town, orange Walk Santiago Didier Gilharry of Corozal Town, Corozal to Delvorine Elizabeth Torres of Libertad, Corozal Alex David Griffith to Kimberly Dianne Staine both of Belize City Dean Martin Halliday to Sandra Aleyra Mazariegos both of Belize City Joel Romain Moguel to Dawn Elizabeth Griffith both of Belize City Jevon Shawn McKoy to Nicole Ruby Archer both of Belize City Oswald Patt to Mindy Lisette Pratt both of Belize City Elton Rodel Edwards to Mariela Martha Cardenas both of Western Paradise, Belize Daniel Gongora to Daisy Wilhelmina Watson both of Unitedville, Cayo Ernest Gillett to Rose Marie Coleman both of Unitedville, Cayo Carlos Lopez to Njinshi Kisani Mantock both of Belize City Edwin Alexander Miligan to Cherry Rosita Davis both of Sandhill, Belize Datao Zhen to Jia Hui Lu both of Benque Viejo, Cayo Stephen Mark Kent to Marianelie Del Socorro Wicking both of Darlington County, Durham, UK Michael David Krick to Meghan Estell Hill both of Blancaneaux Lodge, Cayo Xavier Antonio Landaverde to Malenie Evet Mendez both of Belmopan, Cayo

Grand San Andres Fiesta 2010

Marriages

Rezar 9 Aves Marías durante 9 días con una vela encendida.

Pedir tres favores, uno economic, dos imposibles. Al octavo día publicar, al novena día dejar que se consuma la vela.

Aún sin tener fe se cumple.

D.Y.B.

Prayer To The Holy Spirit O Holy spirit, you who are the fountainhead of all knowledge, who illuminate the pathway which enables me to reach my goal. You who share your divine gift permitting me to forgive and forget past insults and injustices, and who are always at my side within reaching distance. I desire in this short supplication to thank you for all that you have done for me, and to assure you once more that I never want to be separated from you under any circumstances, no matter what the incentive. I want to be with you, I along with my loved ones, cradled in your unending love. Thank you for your never failing kindness towards me and those I call my own.

(Prayer to be offered for three consecutive days; faith in the Holy Spirit will cause him to respond to your request no matter how difficult the problem might be.)

Publish prayer as soon as request has been granted.

S.H.M.

Death Anilia Bardalez, 78

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Ha ne No

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Ha ne No

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32

The Belize Times

Sunday, November 21, 2010