Belize Times December 18, 2011

Sunday, December 18, 2011

SUNDAY December 18, 2011

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THE BELIZE TIMES

www.facebook/Belize Times

Issue No. 4776

Hook or Crook UDP will try to steal elections

Belize City, December 14, 2011 As the rumour mill continues to grind faster of early general elections, perhaps as early as February, you have to pull back and ask yourself this question: Why is it that a government, which is so bitterly unpopular as this worthless UDP bunch, can feel so confident about an early election?

We at the BELIZE TIMES have unearthed the reason: it is the UDP’s control and manipulation of the Elections and Boundaries Commission and Department.

At the helm of the Election and Boundaries Commission as its Chairman is a demented and fanatical UDP and former SIS operative, Alberto August. Anyone who knows August knows that he is not the Chairman of the Commission because of smarts or leadership qualities.

But he is ruthless and dogged at pushing the UDP’s agenda. And so he has been for the past almost four years as Chairman of this distinguished constitutional body.

In democratic countries the world over, analogous bodies like the Elections and Boundaries Commission play a most vital role. Their mandate is to safeguard the democratic process by ensuring the electoral process is fair and transparent. What’s the purpose in having an election that is not fair and which result is already predetermined?

As it is undeniable an office of great importance, its members therefore are required to be persons of

Continued on page 4

Will Barrow announce Early Elections Friday?

As Chairman of the Elections and Boundaries Commission, Alberto August should be impartial, but he is a UDP fanatic. Here, he is caught distributing UDP flags outside a House Sitting this year. August is key part of the UDP’s plot to steal the upcoming elections.

SSB scraps Math BEL just can’t keep the lights on!

Olympiad Belize City, December 14, 2011 Very few things have been able to survive this cold and confused UDP Administration and one of the only

extra-curricular initiatives which promoted fun with Mathematics, the Belize Math Olympiad, is on the brink of becoming a thing

Continued on page 6

Wednesday, December 14, 2011 Residents are yet to hear a reasonable explanation from Governmentowned Belize Electricity

Limited for subjecting the entire country to unannounced “blackouts” not once, but twice on Sunday.

Continued on page 6

PUP Leader Francis Fonseca on the go!

PUP Leader Hon. Francis Fonseca holds business meeting with members of San Pedro’s private sector. Rescuing the depressed economy is a priority for the PUP!

Belize City, December 12, 2011 Hon. Francis Fonseca has been on the go since becoming Leader in October of this year.

The Party Leader’s most recent visits were to the Belize Rural South, Corozal Southwest and Corozal North divisions.

Hon. Francis spent

Continued on page 6

Belize City, December 14 2011 A sitting of the House of Representatives will take place on Friday, December 16, 2011, and there is increasing suspense as to whether or not Prime Minister Dean Barrow will use the opportunity to set the date for early elections.

While not impossible, it’s not likely. Sources indicate that

Continued on page 31

How to lose a murder trial

By Dickie Bradley See page 10

13 yr. old victim of carnal

knowledge

in Toledo See page 30

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THE BELIZE TIMES

Sunday, December 18, 2011

From the ghetto streets

Remember

Dear Editor, It seems as if every time we go into the month of December, Belizeans have this flash back of

Deadly grenade off the streets…but what’s next?!!

Dear Editor, I don’t like revealing anything much about myself, so I’ll only say I’m a young person who constantly watches the news and keeps up-to-date with the happenings of my country. Needless to say, unlike those who have their souls ‘glued’ to Facebook and so on, I love my country, and desperately want to know why it continues to fall apart at the seams.

So when one of the news stations reported on an ‘anonymous’ find of weapons by the CYDP (specifically bullets and a fragment grenade), it didn’t make me feel better at all….it was just the opposite. Now, maybe there’s been a ‘slow-up’ in gang crimes because of the ‘semi-truce’ halfheartedly hammered out by Prime Minister Dean Barrow and his ilk, but we know that, kind of like a well-rested vampire, the gang warfare will eventually rise again to wreak havoc, whether after the Christmas break or before elections are called (I’ll be personally praying for neither to occur).

But I move to the heart of my letter to you, good sir, and that’s two things: 1) Who had these weapons, and 2) (and most important of all) how did they get here to Belize? Again, needless to say, we could speculate all we wanted, but it’d get us nowhere fast.

But my chief point is that, like a certain newspaper pundit (now deceased) liked to say: ‘We no mek dehn; we no kno how dehn get ya….’ And he’s right; these are foreign (sic) weapons that we’ve never seen before now, much

The Party is nothing but the vanguard of the people, the active organ of the people, working at all times in the service of the people.”

less know what they’re frightfully capable of.

And that’s the heart of the problem right there. I’m in no position to speak for anyone other than myself, but we haven’t even begun to see the surface, the staggering amount of weaponry that exists illegally in this young nation.

And that’s after the bumbling incompetence of being unable to track down weapons stolen from armories at the BATSUB and BDF camps (By the way Minister Perdomo truly ought to have been fired for such gross irresponsibility, but I painfully digress).

This will be the sort of track record this UDP Government will be judged on, not so much for the painfully meager good they attempted, but for the staggering morass they never bothered to clean-up. It rightfully makes you wonder, ‘what’s next?!!!’

Until next time, I am, and remain….

Sincerely, The ‘Young Citizen’

Paul Rodriguez responds to “Think About It” Dear Sir: I refer to a segment in your article “Think About It” of Sunday December 11, 2011, subtitled “Church Will Heal Cancer.” Please allow comment on it.

I attended the Mass referred to by your anonymous writer – something I would never have done, if there were in Father Ian Taylor the slightest emission of the charlatan or the hustler. I have known him for sometime and can tell you with complete confidence that he is 100% the genuine, real mckoy, Christian Charismatic.

Charismatic faith-healers merely do what Jesus Christ commanded His followers to do. Allow me to refresh your memory.

Matthew 17:14-21 recounts the incident when Jesus Christ cured a boy with a demon. His father had asked the disciples to perform an exorcism. They tried but failed.

After Jesus had cured the boy his disciples asked Him why they could not. He answered “Because of your little faith. Amen I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to the mountain Continued on page 30

No, Caleb!

No, David!

No, Obama!

TRY A REFERENDUM Editor Sir: In a television program done

by Miss Janelle Chanona, the question was asked: “Can the State impose morality on its citizens?” The topic being discussed was the homosexual issue on a segment of the news of Friday, 9- 12-2011.

As in the case of countless philosophical questions, the answer is yes and no, the choice of either being firmly imbedded in the understanding that in a democracy citizens freely give their government the authority to govern them properly. Proper governance may sometimes entail that the state suspend the exercise of a freedom for the sake of the Common Good. This happens, for instance, in emergency situations. When looting and rioting may result in the complete breakdown of law and order, freedom of movement is suspended.

However, freedom of movement is not strictly speaking, a moral issue. But, stealing is! So is the violation of a child!

Go through the Criminal Code and you will discover that at the heart of many prohibitions there is a moral imperative.

In certain cases the law shows respect for the moral dimension of a particular prohibition by conceding justification for an act that would otherwise be punishable by the courts. For instance, if a man finds his wife in the act with another man the homicide may be regarded as legally justifiable. The state does not enjoin us “Thou shall not commit adultery,” but shows how reprehensible it is by not treating the husband before the bench like a murderer.

The taking of life to protect an innocent, defenseless victim is viewed in the same light by the state. In this case there is no injunction urging “Thou shall love thy neighbor,” but there is an encouragement to charity by absolving the accused of criminal wrongdoing.

In the minds of the few who support the homosexual agenda there is confusion regarding the authority of the state and their socalled right to sexual expression.

There are two important Continued on page 30

the U.D.P. massacre. How can any one forget about that year? February 11th, 1996 was when the U.D.P. was in power under the leadership of the Vat Man, Manuel Esquivel.

This was a man that had no mercy, no even the poor people of this country. How in the world can you fire eight hundred public officers right around the Christmas time holiday? Mr. Esquivel, either you were going crazy or you were brain dead when you did that.

You see Belizeans, the record is there. What happened back then is no different than what’s happening right now with Dean Barrow and his so called government. It seems between both of them only have a one track mind and that is to punish the poor people of Belize.

Now after the remembrance of four long painful years of the UDP the clock is ticking for Mr. Barrow and his government of corruption.

This Prime Minister has proven to the people that he is a person that cares less about what happened to us and the country through his hard times. Belizeans, remember when this government was taking away our land right, remember this government took away our jobs, remember the senseless killings under this U.D.P. Government. Remember they have us living in poverty and remember they fooled us once, but they cannot fool us twice.

Belizeans wake up, the change is now. Till next week.

Roberto Peyrefitte

THE BELIZE TIMES EDITOR

Alberto Vellos OFFICE MANAGER

Fay Castillo McKay PRINTING/PERSONNEL SUPERVISOR

Doreth Bevans

LAYOUT/GRAPHIC ARTIST

Chris Williams

MARKETING/ADVERTISING

Rafael Sosa

STAFF REPORTER

Alton Humes TYPIST

Rachel Arana OFFICE ASSISTANT

Roberto Peyrefitte Printed & Published By The Belize Times Ltd.

#3 Queen Street P.O. BOX 506 Belize City, Belize Tel: 671-8385 Email: belizetimesad@yahoo.com editortimes@yahoo.com

Sunday, December 18, 2011

THE BELIZE TIMES

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THE BELIZE TIMES

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Hook or Crook

Continued from page 1

integrity and high national standing.

Such was the former Chairman of the Commission, Mr. Karl H. Menzies.

In other countries in the region, the Chairmen of their Electoral Commission are similarly persons of integrity and high national standing. In Jamaica for instance, which go to general elections on the 29th December, the Chairman of their Electoral Commission is a well-respected Professional, Errol Miller.

Similarly, the Chairman and members of the Commission are not to be under the direction or control of any politician or political party. In addition to August, two of the remaining four members of the Commission are UDP fanatics and executive members: Dean Lindo and Phillipa Bailey. Their loyalty and allegiance is first and foremost to the UDP; not to Belize.

How in the world then could an Alberto August be the Chairman of this body and persons like Phillipa Bailey and Dean Lindo, all UDP fanatics, serve as members of this important constitutional commission? And why should this be important to Belizeans?

Throughout history and the world over, unpopular leaders try to steal elections by rigging and controlling the electoral process. And the script being played out by Alberto August and the UDP is classic. Find a not too bright, ruthless party fanatic and place him in charge of the electoral process.

Since being placed in charge of the electoral process as the Chairman of the Commission, Alberto August has abused his position by interfering with the daily operations of the Elections and Boundaries Department.

With August as Chairman of the Commission too, an idiotic and unsafe amendment to the law regarding the counting of ballots is being proposed.

As the law now stands, after the close of voting in an election all ballot boxes in a division are taken to a pre-agreed upon polling station where the votes are counted. This provides an effective safeguard in an election. Now August and the UDP are hell bent on changing this and have counting be done all over the place in all polling stations where voting took place. The problems that this can create in rural constituencies such a Belize Rural North, Toledo West, Stann Creek West, Toledo East, or Corozal South-West, which the PUP are projected to win, are readily apparent. Can you imagine counting taking place in a village like Crique Sarco in the Toledo East constituency where there is no reliable electricity supply and the lights were to go out? The ballot boxes under the present law would have been transferred from the village of Crique Sarco to St. Peter Claver in Punta Gorda under police guard where counting would then take place along with the ballot boxes from the other villages and polling stations. Now the UDP and August want to replace this with an unsafe and dangerous system. This is clearly an attempt to steal the elections.

As Chairman of the Commission, August has also presided over the most obscene cases of gerrymander-

ing in the history of electoral politics that is presently being carried out by the UDP incumbent representatives such as Dean Barrow in Queen’s Square, Boots Martinez in Port Loyola, Michael Finnegan in Mesopotamia and John Salvidar in Belmopan. It is no coincidence that Saldivar, who is the Minister responsible for Elections and Boundaries and to whom August is indebted to, has had the largest mass voter influx in his constituency since 2008.

PUP Standard Bearer Gilroy Usher Sr. had brought this fact to the nation’s attention in September of this year when he objected to over 140 voters who did not live in the constituency, yet Boots Martinez was trying to transfer in the division.

Additionally, although he had

neither power or authority to do so, August in the 2009 municipal elections created ID cards for himself and the other UDP fanatics on the Commission to enter polling stations and give orders to the registering officers and clerks. By law, the Chief Elections Officer, who is a public officer, is the only person with such authority.

The integrity of our electoral process has been called into question and tarnished with Alberto August as the Chairman of the Commission and Phillipa Bailey and Dean Lindo as members. The three will out vote the other two members of the Commission when any decisions such as the UDP’s idiotic proposal are brought to the Commission.

The Commission under the con-

trol of August and aided by Phillipa Bailey and Dean Lindo cannot be trusted to ensure that there will be a fair and free next general elections.

Things the Commission should be at work at, such as ensuring the Chief Elections Officer complies with the law and have the petitions Oceana submitted be verified in time to have a referendum in March, 2012, or have the Elections and Boundaries Department begin to prepare for the implementation of the re-registering of voters in 2012, Alberto August, Phillipa Bailey and Dean Lindo are not interested in. They will help to derail such things.

Their sole interest on the Commission is ensuring the UDP is reelected at any cost, clearly, even by stealing the election.

Sunday, December 18, 2011

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THE BELIZE TIMES

HARD HITTING

Friday’s

House Meeting

W

hile it is not unusual for the House of Representatives to hold a sitting in late December, this Friday’s House Sitting, some ten weeks before the Municipal elections and in heightened anticipation of an early election, will be watched with interest as the kitchen cabinet and arm-chair UDP politicians’ place their bets on what could be the reason why Barrow is going to the National Assembly.

Those in the know have seen it coming for a while. The UDP Caribbean Shores convention was one of the first signals, even though Barrow’s least-favored candidate won.

Barrow has enough reasons to keep the new entrant at armslength, but he knows the PUP’s Anthony Mahler will do the job of wiping him off the electoral map in Caribbean Shores.

Next, the UDP has stepped up their political gimmicks such as Finnegan’s grand standing about how much people he has been dishing political gifts to, using tax-payers’ money.

And then there is the fact that all 31 UDP constituency members have been given more than a little extra for the Christmas season.

But still none of it could be real indications of an early election. What is, however, is the UDP’s increasing fear that the PUP is becoming better organized and ready. Barrow’s real purpose for calling an early election is preventing PUP Leader Francis Fonseca from gaining more momentum which his new leadership has built for the People’s United Party. Barrow is already unsuccessful. Not only is the PUP better organized, but also more united and ready!

The second reason Barrow is willing to call an election only three full years into Government, is that not only has he recognized that he has failed our nation miserably, but he also knows that nothing will change economically within the next two years. The World Bank, IDB and CDB have given Barrow a rude awakening. The IMF is calling on the UDP administration to increase taxes, and Barrow intends to do so after the election.

We bet Barrow will be all glitter on Friday. He will beat his chest and sing the nationalist song over BTL and BEL. He will broadcast that his Government is working and caring for the poor. He will blame the PUP for everything wrong. But we bet you he won’t utter a single word about unemployment, the crime rate, cost of living, or the poverty levels which all increased under his watch over the last three years.

Are you better off under the UDP, and has life gotten any easier under Barrow?

Barrow won’t say a single thing about his promised national oil company, the millions collected by BNE in oil revenue and what has been Belize’s fair share. Barrow won’t tell us what the secret deal is with the Perrenco group, which has seen the UDP Government switch allegiance from the Irish company to the Guatemalan company. Will Perrenco fund the UDP’s election campaign?

Come Friday, the radios will be on. Ears will be listening closely, hoping to hear the words Mr. Speaker, I have asked the Governor General to dissolve the House and set both general and municipal elections for March 2012. But it won’t happen, and Belizeans now know why.

The Belizean People are ready Mr. Barrow. The PUP is ready too.

BEL’s lower electricity

rates whap

There are some things in life that as you hear it, you simply have to blurt out: “Hmmmmmm!”

Such is the case with the announcement by BEL that it would be lowering electricity rates by almost 4% just six months after Dean Barrow took over that utility company. It doesn’t make sense and just doesn’t seem to add up.

In fact, even the clown and joker over at the UDP cesspool they call a talk show, “Wus ting dah mawning”, could not contain their disbelief and suspicion last week when they were discussing the planned electricity reduction.

Said the joker to the clown-“Joe, have you ever heard of such a thing!”

It was of course, a Freudian slip by the joker, but in the process he sent alarm bells ringing.

In its press release BEL claims that in less than six months after being run by the government, it has sorted out its financial problems and wants to treat the Belizean public to lower electricity rates because it wants to “pass on to customers the benefit of reductions in cost of power accrued over the past three years.”

Now only two conclusions can be drawn from all of this: either the previous owners of BEL were thieving and chancing the Belizean public, or Dean Barrow and his now controlled BEL is trying to put a whap on all of us as an early election gimmick. It is noteworthy that Barrow had used this same argument as his pretext to strong BEL from its previous owners; that is, that the previous owners of BEL were misrepresenting the company’s operating cost and that electricity could go down.

And this is the crux of this BEL 3.4% decrease in electricity ploy- somebody is trying to put a whap on the Belizean people.

The UDP controlled PUC appeared on Love FM last week in an attempt to explain the process involved before a rate increase or reduction is approved by the PUC. It featured Leroy Almendarez, Victor Lewis and PUC attorney Justin Barrow (yes another Barrow and this yah one is the son of imported Solicitor General Krusen).

Victor Lewis, a known Barrow junky, having been a counting agent for Barrow in Queen Square in past election, had a moment of truth telling. He admitted that before PUC could approve a rate increase or decrease, BEL would have to show that there has been a change in the company’s operating costs which would justify the increase or decrease.

And this is where we go now.

Since the February 2008 – THREE YEARS AGO – after the change of government, the Chairman of the Board of BEL has been no other than Rodwell Williams, pre-eminent attorney and law partner of Dean Barrow. The same Dean Barrow who in May propped up amongst the reason for taking over BEL, that BEL’s was being mismanaged thus causing their operating cost to be so high. Now you see… it just doesn’t make sense.

As Chairman of BEL’s Board for the past three years, Rodwell Williams, has been signing on BEL’s Annual Reports that are submitted to shareholders, which at that time included the Government and People of Belize as well.

It is these annual reports in which BEL explains its operating costs and revenue base. And it is from information/data provided in these annual reports that the Board makes decision for things such as rate increase or whether dividends (proportional shares in the profits of the company) will be issued to shareholders.

Now Rodwell Williams, eminent attorney and all, knows better than anyone who was on BEL’s Board that the Board had what lawyers call a “fiduciary duty” to the shareholders. That is to say, as Chairman of the Board, he had a duty to act reasonably and prudently as a man running his own business would.

So when he signed off on BEL’s annual reports for the past three years (including the 2010 Annual Report which was presented to the shareholders at the Biltmore Hotel in May of this year), being a prudent and diligent person he is, Rodwell Williams was vouching that the information in those reports were accurate and true.

Here again, only two conclusions can be drawn: either Barrow was telling us a barefaced lie with respect to BEL’s finances and operation, or Rodwell Williams was not being a prudent Chairman when he signed off on those annual reports which recorded losses for BEL. Either way, the Belizean public was taken for a ride. If not, how come Williams is still good enough to remain as Chairman?

It is to be seen then that Barrow’s takeover of BEL on the pretext it did and now BEL’s sudden announcement to reduce electricity rates is all a political whap; a naked attempt by Barrow to try and sway the voters in the upcoming elections.

But it is already backfiring, as political games like this surely do. Having given the impression to the world that a now government-controlled BEL in only a short time has been able to improve its cash flow, the BEL workers are now clamouring for overdue benefits. Barrow’s games will soon catch up with him.

Dean Barrow, you will soon realize that there comes a time when the games you play, MUST come to an end. The time is near. CALL THE ELECTIONS NOW.

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THE BELIZE TIMES

PUP Leader Francis Fonseca on the go!

Continued from page 1

last Thursday and Friday in Belize Rural South meeting with residents, the business community, and Party officials in San Pedro and Caye Caulker. In San Pedro, he was joined by Standard Bearer Patty Arceo, and PUP Mayoral candidate Conchita Flota, Belize Rural South Executive Chairman Milo Paz and other members of the Executive and PUP team for the upcoming municipal elections.

The team visited residents in San Pedrito layout, DFC layout, and San Mateo to see first-hand the neglect and abandonment of this UDP government. Manuel Heredia and the UDP have completely forgotten about these good people. The PUP Leader pledged to area residents that a PUP Government would give priority attention to the development of these areas to ensure that the residents have access to water, electricity, good roads and titles to their land.

A business luncheon was held at the Blue Water grill where members of the business community braved the vindictive UDP and came out to hear from the Party Leader’s vision for moving Belize forward. The exchange between Hon. Francis and the business community was lively, engaging and informative. He was invited to return to hold future consultations.

Later that evening, a PUP yard meeting was held which attracted some 400 residents and again the energy and interest were high with all present committing themselves to fight for a PUP victory for both the municipal team and for a caring, competent and compassionate representative, Patty Arceo.

On Friday morning the team appeared on an early morning TV program on REEF TV hosted by Eiden Salazar and David Marin. Residents got to hear from the Party Leader as well as from Patty, Ms. Conchita and some of the councilor candidates.

After this the team boarded a boat for Caye Caulker where a community meeting was held. It was wellattended and again a lively discussion took place. Belize Rural South is on the move!!

On Saturday the PL headed to Corozal where he was met by Hon. Florencio Marin Jr., Valdemar Castillo, and Ramiro Ramirez as well as members of their executives. The visit started in Buena Vista where the group visited with some 10 families at their homes before moving on to San Narciso for an afternoon rally which was attended by some 500 area residents. In San Narciso the team was joined by Orange Walk standard bearers Jorge Briceno and Dr. Marco Tulio

SSB scraps Math Olympiad Continued from page 1

of the past.

Since it was established by the Social Security Board, with full support of the PUP Government in 2007, the Belize Math Olympiad has gone from a scholastic contest to a rite of passage for most high school math lovers. The competition has gained such prominence that math enthusiasts begin preparing many months early for the highly-competitive and interactive games.

But the 2012 Olympiad, set to kick off in early February next year, has been scrapped by the Social Security Board, following a disagreement with the Belize Association of Principals of Secondary School over proposed changes to the competition rules.

The dispute is over an SSB-proposed amendment to the rules that would reduce student participation to “only once in the junior level, and once in the senior level”.The Principals were not properly consulted, and when they learnt about it, they vehemently opposed.

“If SSB’s sponsorship of the event is contingent on the SSB limiting the number of times a student can represent his/her school, then we believe the SSB has a problem that the SSB needs to rectify,” declared the Principals in a December 5th letter sent by the Association Chairperson, Maria Johnston, to the SSB. SSB suggested that it could suspend the rule for the 2012 Math Olympiad, but the Principals said that meant that the rule would be deferred for 2013. “…if the rule was not dropped, we would not participate,” stated the Principals.

SSB has also denied the Principals’ accusation that SSB has been reconsidering the Math Olympiad because of funding issues.

The Principals’ letter did not hold back further criticism and in their letter they flogged the SSB. “If the SSB cannot finance the BMO [Belize Math Olympiad], you need to let us know and we will understand. After all the fanfare brought about through the Math Olympiad benefits more the image of the SSB…”, lashed out the letter.

The Math Olympiad had helped to revitalise interest in Mathematics and schools noticed that students’ interest and participation was likely to improve CSEC Mathematics results. It was a program designed by the former SSB Board, with funding from Social Security Development Account. The initiative cost between $150,000 and $180,000 per year, which is only a fraction of the Account $1.1m annual allocation.

But now, just like that, another good thing bites the dust under the UDP Government.

It’s shocking how the SSB fights off the Math Olympiad, which is money well invested, while it easily gives in to nonsensical spending such as the $50m used to pay for Government’s shares into BTL. The political manipulation of taxpayer’s money has become very obvious. And it’s about to get worse. The BELIZE TIMES has learnt that the SSB is now requiring any request for assistance through Social Security Development Account to be accompanied by a recommendation from one of the UDP Ministers. This will further politicise the role of the SSB which was never meant for politicians to dabble into.

Mendez as well as by the Corozal town mayoral candidate Anwar Charaf.

After the rally the team moved on to Paraiso Village in the Corozal North Division and Hon. Francis was honored to open the Paraiso Cultural Fiesta in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The fi-

Sunday, December 18, 2011 esta was crowded and full of energy and those present pledged their full support for Valdemar Castillo and the PUP. Corozal is on the move and going blue all the way!

SEE PHOTOS IN CENTERFOLD

BEL just can’t keep the lights on!

Continued from page 1

A press release blamed everything under the sun but itself for the lengthy inconveniences. Consumers are going to be concerned this Christmas because these sudden and unannounced power outages can cause major damage to their equipment and home appliances, or where surges occur, even fires that can destroy homes. Yet with all this, BEL is quick to pass blame and slow to recompense people when it can’t escape the blame.

The sad joke about it is that the power interruptions occurred a week after Government announced it wants to lower electricity rates by 3.4%.

Shouldn’t the Government focus on actually keeping the lights on, or is this how they warn us that if rates are decreased Belize must return to the 80s when electricity service was unreliable.

If the Government were serious about reduced rates, it could remove the 12.5% GST it charges, or compensate electricity customers the $30m it owes in rebates.

To add to the recent embarrassment with power failures, disgruntled employees continue to work in an environment of frustration. Employees are still awaiting benefits long overdue them, and the

Union is about to say enough is enough.

They are saying that if Government can afford to reduce rates, then they should also be able to pay up on the outstanding benefits.

BEL, which was forcibly acquired by Government in July of this year, seems to be taking advantage of their workers and customers, and at this rate, they don’t have too many fans on their side, and the little they have is being lost rather quickly.

As if mocking courtesy, BEL has already announced two more blackouts later this week.

Sunday, December 18, 2011

THE BELIZE TIMES

If Da Noh soh Signs…

There’s a song by a group called Tesla which has always been a favourite of mine…the chorus goes – “signs, signs, everywhere there’s signs f@$#in’ up the scenery, breakin’ my mind…”

Ain’t no doubt in my mind…friends – Belize’s own home grown little baldheaded mocha-complexioned Hitler is getting set to throw the switch, pull the plug, haul up his drawers and circle the wagons. That’s right folks…all indications are that general elections will be called early…very early next year… have I ever lied to you…If Da Noh Soh! ……………………..

Happy Hour…

Was heading home the other night when I saw a neon sign flashing like a beacon in the night…so I slowed the vehicle a little and saw all these scantily clad girls hanging around outside of this establishment. I got scared and was getting set to speed off when I realized I hadn’t eaten anything all day, so I pulled up to see if I could get some food. True story…but that was all for background anyway…the thing is I met this fellow inside that I knew from government service way back in the day, and good political agent that I am, I sat down to try and get some juice from him, all the while ignoring the women dancing on the pole behind me J. But yeah, to make a long story short…after a drink or two or ten (who the hell’s counting?) here’s what came out… ………………………

CEOs Summoned to UDP HQ… A memo has gone out to all Chief Executive Officers in the Public Service summoning them to a meeting at the headquarters of the United Democratic Party on Monday afternoon. That’s right…Monday, December 12, 2011.

First and foremost on the agenda, according to my slightly inebriated but very highly placed source, would be the announcement of the date of general elections. That date has been the focus of much speculation, with popular belief leaning towards March 7… which would mean that general elections and municipal elections would be held on the same day. Makes sense, if you think about it…cause this administration done broke the government coffers, and its not like any of the red marauders are gonna go in their pockets to give back some of what stuck to their fingers during this short lived but nasty term in office…If Da Noh Soh! ………………………

Pay cut anyone…?

This one I find a lil harder to believe, considering this rapacious, ravenous, gluttonous bunch of UDP political appointees we’re dealing with.

Hold up before I go on…let me clarify this just a little…there are at least two Chief Executive Officers that I have maximum respect for, so you two are exempted from the rapacious, ravenous, gluttonous thing…OK? Anyway, as I was saying…also on the agenda at this meeting will be a request to all Chief Executive Officers, political appointees (of which there are many - like Ambrose Tillett who is an Energy Advisor in the Ministry of Natural Resourc-

es making $70,000 a year plus perks (what the hell is an Energy Advisor anyway?) Okay I got sidetracked. Let me start over again…CEOs, political appointees, ambassadors and all the other sundry high level high paid political lackeys are going to be asked to take a pay cut for the next three months to free up some money which will then be diverted into the campaign….there you have it…If Da Noh Soh! …………………….

Increased subventions…

So somewhere between the 6th and 8th drink…right around the point where the girl on the stage took off her top (not that I was looking, of course) my friend nudged me and revealed that the Ministry of Finance will be releasing an additional $12,000 monthly to all municipalities effective immediately. Well hell, I almost spilled my drink cause I was so happy. Damn, I said, that means that maybe your friends, the wutless UDPs, will start fixing some potholes and picking up garbage. The fellow looked me dead in the eye and said NOPE…that $12,000 (taxpayer dollars, I might add at this juncture) is to be used to hire additional UDP campaign workers to beef up the run to municipal elections. What a dutty, wutless bunch…I tell you…If Da Noh Soh! …………………….

More signs…

And there’s a lot more going on if you can just interpret the signs…like for example, you all know how those damn UDP ministers love to travel on our taxpayer bucks and profile on nada.

Well, effective immediately those trips have all been cancelled. That’s right… the word has come down from on high that all Ministers need to get their fat asses (it’s a word, isn’t it) in gear for an early general election. And speaking of fat asses, anybody calling to the Ministry of the Public Service these days is told that Minister Hog has left the building and won’t be back anytime soon. That beefy boy (getting my metaphors mixed but who cares?) is hitting the campaign trail in the Garden City. If anybody needs exercise, he does anyway…If Da Noh Soh! …………………….

Mariposa Traicionera…

Hmmm…what can I say about this ALLEGED home invasion/weird ransom demand thing at the Honey Camp mansion of some Sugar City millionaires? I know I’m supposed to

commiserate or at least shed a lil tear for Chendo cause those sorts of things can be scary as hell. I’m searching for some emotion here even as I write and I’m coming up empty buddy. All I

Continued on page 8

7

8

THE BELIZE TIMES

Sunday, December 18, 2011

2 murders in 1 weekend, no arrests Tuesday, December 13, 2011 As the murder rate escalates, police are still clueless as to who are the ones responsible for the nation’s latest homicides in less than two days. The first one was reported last Friday when Abayomi Olatunji, 40, a Nigerian security guard employed with JB’s Security, was discovered viciously stabbed numerous times to his face, neck, right eye and chest. His corpse was dumped among some refuse on a narrow dirt road off the Western Highway at mile 3.

The Police investigators believe that Olatunji was murdered elsewhere and then dumped at the location. There was no suspected murder weapon near the body and Olatunji was only later identified by friends after police described how the victim was dressed.

Other reports indicate that Olatunji, who came to Belize only five months ago, may have been robbed of a substantial amount of money that he had

George Rochester, Jr. on him. The money, the reports say, was to purchase a vehicle, a transaction which he had been finalizing on Thursday.

The second murder occurred in Ladville, Belize District, on Saturday night. George Rochester, Jr., stepped off a passenger bus from Belize City and went to Honey Supermarket at the junction with Egbert Quilter Street.

After making a purchase, Rochester proceeded along the street but about 100 yards from the highway his fate was sealed by five gunshots at close range. Some say his killer had actually followed him on the bus and come off at the same spot then lurked in an overgrown open lot across from the Supermarket.

Rochester was heading to a house party that his cousin invited him to at his house on Myrtle Wade Crescent, about two blocks away from where he was gunned down. His killer stole his cellular phone and a small knapsack that he carried. Police say eyewitnesses have reported seeing someone, presumably the killer, fleeing the scene. The fisherman by trade and father of six children had just gone to visit his father about an hour before he was killed. His father, George Rochester, Sr., had been vacationing in Belize and was to return to the US the following day. He now plans to cremate his son’s remains and take it back to

19 yr. old sentenced to 3 months for stolen gold chain

Elwin Vaccaro

BELIZE CITY, Wed. Dec. 14, 2011

By Roy Davis Elwin Vaccaro, 19, an unemployed charged with theft of a gold chain with a value of $500, was sentenced to 3 months today by Chief Magistrate Ann Marie Smith after he changed his plea from not guilty to guilty.

Chief Magistrate Smith imposed the custodial sentence even after Vaccaro apologized for committing the theft.

The incident occurred around 9 p.m. on March 11, 2011.

The police reported that they were

If Da Noh soh Continued from page 7 gotta say to you, my arrogant, wutless amigo Chendo…is that if you run with the big dogs, then you gotta expect to catch their fleas. Ain’t nobody feeling too sorry for those fellows, to tell the truth. People in Sugar City been looking at Chendo long time…a small town boy turned multi-millionaire overnight…A&Rs popping up all over the country…did I mention the HUGE, lifestyles of the rich and famous mansion and compound at Honey Camp?

From nowhere Chendo was suddenly rolling in the dough and everybody was watching. Trust me there’s more to this story than meets the eyes.

Chendo got in over his head somewhere, somehow down the line and now the time has come to pay the price…I gotta lot more to say about this but I’ll leave that for another time…nuff said for now…If Da Noh Soh! ……………………….

Those damned arches…

I mean, serious…the arches are

cute as hell and I get all warm and wet inside looking at the big balls and lights hanging from them… but REALLY! It’s like the next Mayor of the City Karen Bodden said the other day…are we supposed to be so distracted by the arches that we don’t realize that our vehicles are banging into potholes right under those arches? I know a big contract has been given to a company owned by the Speaker of the House’s family to put up the arches and decorate them, but hell mein…couldn’t that money have been used to patch some of the million potholes in Belize City?

Get it through your thick skulls, you UDP idiots – the people of Belize City want service. We want our streets fixed and our drains cleaned and our garbage picked up and our parks and playgrounds maintained. That’s it…not rocket science. Lights and balls are pretty, but we need just a little more than that. Is anybody listening…?

If Da Noh Soh!

informed of a disturbance on West Collet Canal Street near to the Michael Finnegan market and when they arrived at the scene they were approached

by Ernestine Pou who told then Vaccaro had just ripped off a gold chain from around her neck.

Vaccaro was apprehended by the police shortly afterwards and Pou’s gold chain was recovered.

Vaccaro has another charge of theft for which trial is pending.

BELIZE CITY, Wed. Dec. 14, 2011

By Roy Davis Orlando Reyes, 24, a plumber who was one of 7 persons charged with kept firearm and ammunition without a gun license, was sentenced to 5 years for each count after he pleaded guilty to the charges in the #2 Magistrate’s Court on Monday, December 12.

Senior Magistrate Sharon Fraser, who imposed the sentences, stipulated that they are to run concurrently. This means that Reyes will only serve 5 years, the minimum sentence for firearm and ammunition offences.

Although Reyes pleaded guilty, the prosecution did not withdraw the charges from the others. They are Earl Gill, 23, a security guard residing in Sandhill; Jamie Young, 28, an office assistant employed by the Public Utilities Commission; Kevin Vaccaro, 26, a boat captain residing in Sandhill; Janine Henry, 22, a resident of Perez Road, Ladyville; Natalie Middleton, 19, a resident of Kraal Road; and a 17 year old boy.

They were remanded into custody until January 3, 2012.

The incident occurred around 3:25 a.m. on Saturday, December

the US for burial.

According to Rochester, Sr., his son had mentioned to him that he was afraid that someone would harm him. The BELIZE TIMES understands that Rochester had been fingered in a transaction gone sour and had become the target of one of the parties of that transaction. His killer it appeared tried first to incapacitate him because two of the bullets shattered his legs. The remaining 9 mm bullets penetrated his chest and face.

Police have no clues about the suspects of these two murders and while they have detained a few persons, no concrete charges are forthcoming.

These latest murders just weeks before the Christmas season, coupled with the rising number of home invasions and armed robberies have sent Belizeans in a state of hopelessness with no chance for any improvements under this regime and it’s appointed Minister, Doug Singh.

Plumber gets jail time for Firearm & Ammo

Orlando Reyes

10.

The police reported that they received information that there was a firearm in a vehicle travelling on the Northern Highway toward Sandhill, and they intercepted the vehicle, a silver Infiniti car, at the junction of Burrell Boom Road and the Northern Highway.

When the police searched the car they found one black 9 millimetre pistol Luger brand in the glove compartment. The firearm had a magazine that contained 8 live rounds of 9 millimetre caliber ammunition. None of the occupants of the car were able to produce a license for the firearm and ammunition so they were all taken into custody and charged.

Gill was the driver of the car.

Reyes and Henry were in the front seat while the others were seated in the back seat of the car.

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Largest Rice Producer Shuts Down Blue Creek, Orange Walk District, December 2, 2011

By Carmelita Perez For the past 20 years Hill Bank Agricultural Company Limited, located in the community of Blue Creek, has been producing the famous Uncle Johns Rice. But this year, instead of Cypress rice planted in the fields, the company’s 2000 acres of land is dried up, covered with dry weeds or in this particular case adorned with beautiful Blue Wing Teals.

Hill Bank Agricultural Company Limited is the country’s single largest rice producer, producing 40% of the rice consumed by Belizeans on an annual basis.

Over the last six years the company has been producing 5 to 7 thousand pounds of paddy rice per acre of land, adding to a total of 14 million pounds of rice. But things have changed and according to the company’s Managing Director Peter Dyck, they have decided to discontinue producing Uncle Johns Rice.

“This year those fields will not be producing rice and most of those fields will be doing some experimentation with some other crops and if we can come with another way to make use of our investment that we have built up for the last twenty years.

We have come up to a point where we just cannot compete against government funded subsidies rice being grown by ourselves any longer,” informed Peter Dyck- Managing Director Hill Bank Agricultural Company Limited.

Presently the company has 9 million pounds of paddy rice in storage which was planted in December of last year and harvested in May of this year.

With sales down, it will take the compa-

9

THE BELIZE TIMES

A company chart shows that in 2009 the company sold 4,920,210 pounds of rice. In 2010 the company sold 4,945,240 pounds of rice and so far in 2011 the company has only sold 2,542,620 pounds of rice. But sales have not fallen drastically because Belizeans have stopped consuming rice. Rice producers believe it is because somehow rice is being imported into the country

Peter Dyck ny up until 2013 to sell all that rice which is presently stored in the silos. Who’s to blame for the vast reduction in sales?

The growers are pointing fingers at the Government of Belize.

“Belize Marketing and Development Corporation which is a statutory body is selling rice to the general public at sixty cents per pound wholesale meanwhile we are selling at eighty five cents a pound and we just cannot reduce our prices any further because we have to pay full taxes in our inputs that we grow and we have to pay full taxes in the products that we sell and BMDC all these taxes are avoided by them and we just have road conditions that are absolutely terrible and taking our products to town is a fight at many time when we are on rainy season we have to go and fix the road ourselves and we have other criminal issues that affect our production over the last year and so and that make things really distressful for us,” explained Dyck.

Rice producers believe that the BMDC is not only guilty of hurting the industry by subsidizing rice from the Toledo District. According to Dyck, in order for the Government agency to be able to sell a pound of rice for 60 cents something must be terribly wrong. They believe BMDC has been facilitating the sale of imported in Belize, possibly Uruguayan rice.

“BMDC is out there selling lots of rice and we question where is all that rice coming from? It is very easy to figure out that something is very wrong because if you go back to news cast over the last year or so the BMDC stock has never declined and yet they are selling a substantial amount of rice because our sales have dropped 50% from exactly a year ago,” remarked Dyck.

With sales down and with no one

able to assist right about now, the future of rice producers in the north looks quite grim.

“It’s taken Belize from 1970’s to about three or four year ago to become self-sufficient rice, what government has done right now I would say we would wait another thirty or forty years before we our self-sufficient in rice again because there is no reason to make an investment in rice production at this point in time, fuel costs are so high, labor is high, taxes are not helping us a lot we don’t get incentives for rice production in this country and so I don’t think there is any future in rice I honestly believe that.”

Dyck closed by pointing out they are tired of fighting against a government that just won’t listen and it is with a heavy heart that they have decided to shut down the business.

Michael Finnegan the law breaker!

Belize City, December 12, 2011 City residents have compared the scene to that of a crazed man escaping the law in a speeding vehicle.

A white Toyota Hilux with blue government plates was seen racing down Vernon Street. For those who didn’t see the blue and white plates, they probably took it for just another one of the recent spate of gun violence. Those who saw the government license were stunned, for this was a Sunday when all vehicles bought and serviced with taxpayer’s monies ought to be parked according to a three-year old Government memo discussing austerity measures.

But the shocker was who was in front of the wheels – none other than senior Minister in the UDP Government, Michael Finnegan. Finnegan holds seniority in the UDP, not the least for his smarts or ability to govern, but more for his cunning style of politics and ability to double deal just about anyone.

Finnegan raced down Vernon Street, and then parked in the middle of the road for a while, as he “eyed” some young ladies walking through the

stroller, followed by four children remained frozen on the street side as she wondered what would have happened if she had crossed three seconds earlier.

Perhaps he had an emergency, everyone thought. But no, they were wrong. After speeding past the lights at the junction with Mahogany Street, Finnegan drove over BelCan Bridge and parked outside Brads Store where UDP Ministers and their cronies gather every Michael Finnegan Bailar area. Realising he had created a bottleneck he then sped towards Central American Boulevard.

As the Minister neared the junction, the traffic lights turned red. He slowed down behind the vehicle ahead of him, and then suddenly swerved left and sped past traffic and the red traffic lights, almost causing an incoming vehicle on the left lane to crash.

Pedestrians and commuters were shocked. A woman pushing a baby

evening to drink, smoke and play cards.

Ever since the UDP took office, Finnegan and other senior UDP officials have turned mad with power. They have become so frantic many have admitted to rely on drugs to keep them calm. Finnegan said he takes the drug Effexor to remain mellow. That same drug causes nervousness, mania or hypomania, extreme confusion, constipation, confusion, agitation, and tremors, according to research.

10

THE BELIZE TIMES

How to lose a murder trial

By Dickie Bradley It is one of Belize’s most important murder trials. It gives an insight into how and why our young men are killing each other.

It featured five young, strong, intelligent and handsome Creoles. And you should have seen their beautiful women and family members who came to testify and support their loved ones. Each of these five young men is a natural leader.

Something is going on inside our creole community and we don’t know why or what it is.

All five have been in jail since 2009 on a murder charge.

There was a sixth accused murderer, but he was never charged. He became a witness for the Prosecution, actually the sole witness for the prosecution.

The charge arose out of the murder of Randy Coye, a young man just 20 years of age. He was supposedly abducted in the “Jerusalem” area of Collet in Belize City one night. He was driven up the Western Highway and returned back to the City. He was taken into the Lord Ridge cemetery, beaten and then shotgunned from a close distance in his back. A stick was shoved up his rectum according to the witness for the prosecution.

The witness was given immunity and was not charged. He had agreed to “rat” on the three others who he claimed were with him during the murder in the cemetery.

Two others were also charged because they allegedly helped to plan and abet the murder. There is sensational information in this trial about the name of the gangs and what was going down with the rash of shootings and killings.

The witness told the jury of twelve headed by a Forelady, that a gang had tried to murder one of the leaders of another gang. That leader was shot but did not die. After recovering from hospitalization that leader ordered retaliation.

The city was circled in search of members from the other gang. This is how and why four men are said to have murdered Randy in the cemetery.

The trial lasted four weeks in the Supreme Court.

Two of Belize’s most formidable defence attorneys represented the accused. The prosecution was led by a former “friend”, the DPP. (The government has turned her against me, but such is life).

There is a contrast between the defence attorneys Arthur Saldivar and Anthony Sylvestre Jr. Arthur is in the words of the word-smith, William Shakespeare, “bloody, bold and resolute.” He is drama.

Complete with the hand gestures, or should I say gesticulations, for added effect. He is very articulate. I watched the jury watching him. It would be very interesting to hear what they think.

Arthur will be a formidable politician.

He has nothing else “to prick the sides

of his intent, but that vaulting ambition which over leaps itself…”

Anthony Sylvestre is cut from another tapestry. I worry about his “nature; it is too full of the milk of human kindness.” He is reserved and humble. He is no Icarius, putting on wings and flying into the searing heat of the sun. He too is articulate, but methodical and meticulous.

Point after legal point, queuing with each other towards logical, legal conclusion. He is grounded in research.

His mind is tactics and strategy. He is cool under fire.

Anthony is one of the most decent human beings. Along with Norman Neal and Charles B. Hyde there is not a centimeter of arrogance in his earthly form.

DPP Mrs. Cheryl Lyn Vidal is the best Prosecutor in the country. She was more than ample match. Hers was the hardest task. The law placed on her the burden of proving the case. The investigation gave her nothing: an empty file with a decomposed body and a witness with suspect credibility who gave her stress.

For four weeks in the court of the stern Justice Adolph Lucas, Belize’s best criminal Judge, the battle raged with all the courtesies and ethics of the legal profession. “Much obliged”, “Guided My Lord”, “Objection Your Honour”, “My Lord with your permission we wish to raise a legal issue in the absence of the jury”. Etc. etc A no case submission by the defence was punctured and deflated by the DPP who had assistance from trained prosecutor Shamiza Duncan.

Shakespeare has written that an eagle towering in its pride of place was, by a mousing owl, hawked at and killed. Arthur loves this phrase and plans to quote it so I refrain from elaborating.

But this I say. The witness for the prosecution had doomed the case from before it began.

First, a rewind. In beautiful San Pedro, the tourist capital of Belize, occurred a horrible murder on 2 November 2002.

Mr. Justo Jaris Perez was bludgeoned to death with a crow bar.

Frank Vasquez was apprehended under the steps of the house, the scene of the crime, by Dimas Guerrero who had a licensed gun.

Police were told by Vasquez that he could take them to the murderers. On Tarpon Street, four men were pointed out

by Vasquez.

At the trial only three persons faced the jury. They were convicted on the sole evidence of Vasquez, the only witness for the prosecution. At the Court of Appeal the convictions were upheld.

In November 2009, the Privy Council quashed the convictions and after seven years in jail the men were released.

Vasquez, who had blood on his clothes and tennis when captured, was given immunity from prosecution for the murder in return for him to testify against the other three. The Privy Council stated at paragraph 49 of their judgment:- “a judge enjoys a discretion to exclude evidence if the circumstances in which it has been obtained are such as to render its admission contrary to the interests of justice. One circumstance where it may be appropriate to do so is where the witness has received an inducement to give evidence for the prosecution that will render the evidence suspect…The discretion is

Sunday, December 18, 2011

one that should be used sparingly.

“Such promises when made to an accomplice to a crime have been described as Distasteful…They are nonetheless capable of being justified in the public interest.”

The DPP’s burden of proof rested on a sole witness who had cut a deal to squeal. But that witness had a huge credibility problem in the case of the five young men. First, his testimony in court was shown to be lacking. Second, the defence attorneys through cross-examination got him to admit he was previously charged for the murder of an innocent young child in the Collet area. The child had been sodomized and strangled then stuffed in an old refridge. Thirdly, even while free on the immunity agreement the witness had been accused of committed another murder and was now in prison awaiting trial. Fourthly, at the start of this trial he reportedly told the accused he had to talk against them because the government would give him plane ticket and money to go to the USA. Fifthly, this witness can neither read nor write and his demeanor in the witness stand – a

bushy head of hair and beady eyes that never looked at the jury, must have sent the wrong impression.

If the five accused were the vicious killers they were alleged to be why didn’t they arrange to kill the witness while he was in prison? Instead, he had guaranteed them he would tell the court that the police forced or tricked him into signing a statement against them.

So the murder trial hinged on highly suspect testimony. It is asking too much of a jury to swallow a sensational tale told by a snitch, full of inconsistencies and contradictions, too risky to send men to jail for the rest of their lives.

Belize has no investigative journalism so the inside peak into the gang world and the gang warfare that was an undercurrent of this murder received no attention.

Both the Kevin “Cowboy” Alvarez hit/ assassination murder trial and this “gang” war case are two of the most important trials to emerge for some time. None got the kind of in-depth reporting that could have been instructive to our society. That is the real loss.

UDP FAILURE in Corozal Town

Neglected palapas near sea-side

Broken streets

Neglected drainage systems

Abandoned recreational facilities

Sunday, December 18, 2011

11

THE BELIZE TIMES

BELIZE'S #1 SPORTS PAGE

Millennium girls topple Island Stars in finals Game 1 Caye Caulker, Sunday, December 11, 2011 The Millennium Girls of Belize City are one game away from becoming the Belize District female football champions after they won game one on Sunday afternoon.

The Millennium team beat the Caye Caulker Island Stars at the Caye Caulker field 6-0, making it quite clear they are Josefa Enriquez takes on Melony serious about busiTasher ness.

Kursha Pollard and Sheryann “Baby” Tracy led the Mil- then won a free kick and from lennium girls’ offensive. The pressure 30 yards outside the goal, and of their attack proved too much for the Sarah Arzu unleashed a longIsland Girls’ defense, who gave up a range cruise missile which had corner kick and Kursha Pollard made the game 3-0 at the half-time them pay the maximum penalty for an break. early 1-0 lead in the 1st half.

In the 2nd half, a long lob Lillian Joseph and Stephanie Du- from Arzu found Tracy, who arte led the Island girls’ counterattack, razzle-dazzled the ball around 3 but the tenacious Millennium defense defenders and Maribel Dominled by veteran Adelma Broaster and guez to score the 4th goal.

Sarah Arzu, sweeper Melony Tasher When the Island Stars rebuffed and Latanya Gamboa shut them out Sheryann’s next try, Arzu colthe entire game. Millennium’s goalie lected the rebound and sent it Carlicia Petillo took care of all other back through the crowd of playchallenges. ers milling around in front of the Pollard scored a 2nd goal with goal. Dominguez did not see a cannonball shot when Millennium the ball until it was too late: 5-0. won another corner kick. The visitors Island Stars’ coach John

Sadie Vernon boys are 3-Time basketball champs Belize City, Friday, December 9, 2011 The Sadie Vernon Technical High School boys will represent the Central Division at the National Secondary Schools basketball championship hosted by San Pedro High School at their auditorium this weekend.

Sadie Vernon won their 3rd basketball championship by running over the St John’s College boys in both games of the finals series at the Belize City Center last Thursday and Friday.

In Game 1 on Thursday night, Kachief Thomas led Sadie Vernon with a monster 52 points in their 85-70 win over SJC. Game 2 began positive for SJC, but their rebounding and defense lacked composure and formation, allowing Sadie Vernon to kill them with second-chance points, drive-ins and 3-point shooting.

Kachief Thomas led his team with 36 points to a 94-79 win over SJC. SJC’s MVP Devin Daly played a magnificent game, at times like a one-man army. Daly scored 35 points. Point guard Tarrique Middleton was also excellent, with 13 points.

Finals schedule (San Pedro High School auditorium)

Millennium girls team

Island Stars

Trejo pulled out all the stops as he made further changes, but the visitors’ came with a tough game plan. Pollard iced the victory cake with a bullet of a shot that

completed her hat trick for a 6-0 win.

Game of the series is scheduled for Wednesday night at the MCC grounds, depending on the weather.

Chelato resigns as National Team Head Coach

Friday morning: San Pedro High School (Northern) vs. Belmopan Comprehensive (Western) Friday evening: Sadie Vernon (Central) vs. Ecumenical College (Southern) Saturday morning: 3rd place game Saturday afternoon: Championship game

Chelato Ucles

Kachief Thomas scored 52 points in game 1

Belmopan, December 13, 2011 Renowned football coach, José de la Paz Herrera, better known as “Chelato” Uclés, has announced his resignation as Head Coach of Belize’s National Team. No official announcement was done by the Football Federation of Belize (FFB), but Chelato’s announcement was reported by La Tribuna, an Honduran newspaper.

According to Chelato, the challenges for football development in Belize are great. He said the lack of a professional league

that would help the advancement of local talent is a huge disappointment.

Chelato was hired by the FFB in early 2010 to head the National Team as it prepared for the 2014 World Cup qualifier matches. Under his wings, Belize advanced to the second round of the qualifiers for the first time.

“It was a great experience,” said Chelato, “I leave very satisfied and after all I have gained the respect of Belizeans who lived a dream by watching its national team win historic matches.”

Chelato also said a reason he was Continued on page 12

12

THE BELIZE TIMES

Sunday, December 18, 2011

SCA beats Wesley 27-23, BELIZE'S #1 SPORTS PAGE

advances to basketball nationals Belize City, Friday, December 9, 2011 The St. Catherine’s Academy girls will represent the Central Division at the National Secondary School basketball championship hosted by San Pedro High School this coming weekend.

SCA won the Central Secondary Schools basketball championship over the Wesley college girls, at the Belize City Center after back to back games played last Thursday and Friday.

The SCA girls dominated the Wesley College girls in both games of the finals, winning Game 1: 24-18 over Wesley on Thursday. Gilda Estrada led SCA with 14 points, while Kursha Pollard added 6 points, Chelsi Noralez had 4 points, and Sahar Vasquez added one bucket.

In Game 2 on Friday night, the Wesley girls sought to take the series to a Game 3, as Genae Samuels scored 12 points and Wesley took over the lead 11-10 at the half.

The Wesley girls opened up a 18-14 point spread in the 3rd quarter. But the SCA girls made a comeback led by Kursha Pollard, who drained in a long trey to lead SCA with 13 points for the 27-23 win over the Wesley girls.

Finals Games (San Pedro High School auditorium)

Shantel Castillo & Chelsi Noralez rebounds

Friday: SCA (Centra) vs. Delille Academy (Southern) Friday: Muffles College (Nothern) vs. Sacred Heart College (Western) Saturday morning: 3rd place game Saturday afternoon: Championship game

Scorpions are national champs

Team Belize beats Nicaragua 3-2 at U-18 female volleyball championships Tegucigalpa, Honduras, December 7, 2011 The U-18 national female volleyball team won against Nicaragua at the Central American Female Youth Volleyball Championship last Wednesday, December 7.

Chelato resigns as National Team Head Coach Continued from page 11 departing is that he was not sure if Bertie Chimilio will remain as FFB President.

Belize finished 2nd in the qualifier round, falling behind Guatemala which remained undefeated throughout the competition.

Belize Belize defeated Montserrat 5-2 and 3-1; beat Grenada 3-0 but lost in the return match 1-4, lost both matches against Guatemala, and tied in the first game against St. Vincent and the Grenadines before winning 2-0.

Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA) acknowledged Deon McCaulay as the top goal scorer in the world in the 2014 World Cup qualifiers.

Dion McCauley scored 10 goals in the qualifiers, and so far has 13 international goals.

BZE U-16 girls

The Belize girls won over Nicaragua: 25-19, 19-25, 25-22, 22-25, 15-12.

The U-18 national female volleyball team started competition in the Central American Female Youth Volleyball Championship on Tuesday, 6th December against host, Honduras. The girls started out nervous and lost the match 25-15, 25-14, 25-17.

Krystal Bevans, captain of the Belize team, commented at the post-game press conference, “The service and attacks affected us. We committed many mistakes which cost us the game.”

Lupita Quan, the Belize coach, remarked, “Despite the ups and downs of the match, we gave a good showing. I expect my team to be more comfortable on the court in the future.”

The Female Youth girls played their

first match today against the host Honduras. They played well but lost 3-0: 25-15, 2514, 25-17.

On Wednesday, Belize played the favorites, Costa Rica. Our girls did very well but lost 3 sets to 1.

The members of the team are: Krystal Bevans (Captain), Kaitlyn Woods (Libero), Sherika Burton, Emily Evans, Kadijah Broaster, Hanna Diskin, Nayala Tun, Leandra Betson, Xiomara Quan, Karina Bernard, Alexandra Smith, and Jahshema Saunders. Lupita Quan accompanied the team as Head Coach with Sherlene Johnson as Assistant Coach. Nelita Bradley was Head of Delegation.

Bze takes on Costa Rica

BELIZE'S #1 SPORTS PAGE

Sunday, December 18, 2011

13

THE BELIZE TIMES

Kenneth Brackett, Charnelle Enriquez, Gloria Serano, Justin Awe, Mark Anderson & Kaina Martinez win medals at track & field meet Belize City, Saturday, December 10, 2011 Belize’s top track and field athletes: Kenneth Brackett, Charnelle Enriquez Gloria Serano, Justin Awe, Mark Anderson and Kaina Martinez each won 2 gold medals when the Belize Amateur Athletic Association held the 2011 national track and field championships in collaboration with the Health & Fitness Gym (formerly Body 2000) at the MCC grounds on Saturday.

Results: 5K Run (Open) 1st place- Denroy Nembhard 2nd place – Albert Davis 100m run (Female) 1st place – Kaina Martinez 2nd place – Charnelle Enriquez 3rd place – Tiffarah Welch 100m run (Male) 1st place – Mark Anderson 2nd place – Brandon Flores 3rd place – Jervis Myvette 200m run (Female) 1st place – Charnelle Enriquez 2nd place – Kaina Martinez 3rd place – Diedrelexcy Grinage 200m run (Male) 1st place – Mark Anderson 2nd place – Jervis Myvette 3rd place – Jorge Jimenez 400m run (Female) 1st place – Ashanti Carr 2nd place – Ashonti Carr

2nd place – Jorge Jimenez 3rd place – Jermaine Madrill Discus (Female) 1st place – Gloria Serano 2nd place – Megan Longsworth 3rd place – Charnelle Enriquez Discus (Male) 1st place – Justin Awe 2nd place – Martin Flowers 3rd place – Rasheed Carballo Javelin (Female) 1st place – Gorlee Marin 2nd place – Gloria Serano Javelin (Male) 1st place – Arlen Pou 2nd place – Martin Flowers 3rd place – Justin Awe Shot put (Female) 1st place – Gloria Serano 2nd place – Megan Longsworth 3rd place – Gorlee Marin

Triple Jump (Female) 1st place – Charnelle Enriquez 2nd place – Shanika Augustine

800m run (Female) 1st place – Ashonti Carr 2nd place – Ashanti Carr 3rd place – Kristen Fuentes

Triple Jump (Male) 1st place – Kenneth Brackett 2nd place – Jorge Jimenez 3rd place – Martini Flowers

1500m race (Female) 1st place – Nancy Castillo 1500m race (Male) 1st place – Wilhelm Leslie 2nd place – Darren Leal 3rd place – Alexander Alvarado Long Jump (Female) 1st place – Tricia Flores 2nd place – Charnelle Enriquez 3rd place – Shanika Augustine Long Jump (Male) 1st place – Kenneth Brackett

Gloria Serano won 2nd in javelin

Shot put (Male) 1st place – Justin Awe 2nd place – Arlen Pou

400m run (Male) 1st place – Chavis Lopez 2nd place – Linus Tingling 3rd place – Christopher Enriquez

800m run (Male) 1st place – Michael Perrera 2nd place – Darren Leal 3rd place – Wilhelm Leslie

Tricia Flores wins Long jump

Mark Anderson won 100m

New Executive elected for Belize Volleyball Association December 5th, 2011 The Belize Volleyball Association (BVA) held its General Congress last Saturday, December 3rd at the Radisson Fort George Hotel. After all the reports had been approved by the assembly, they elected the following persons to the Board of Administration to

serve for the next two years: President - Allan Sharp, Vice President (National Teams) - Albert Humes, Vice President (District Associations) – Yvette Price, Vice President (Female volleyball) - Jack Reyes, General Secretary - Sherylee YoungThurton, Finance Commis-

sioner - Leni Jo Usher, Beach Volleyball Commissioner - Oscar Arnold, Technical Commissioner - Gillian Smith, Referee Commissioner - Khalid Encalada, Tournament Director - Joseph Enriquez, Press Officer - Jasmine Anderson, Member - Arvid Arnold.

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Sunday, December 18, 2011

Sunday, December 18, 2011

THE BELIZE TIMES

PEOPLE The International Teacher Belize City, December 12, 2011 Abraham Aurelio Evans Daley has dedicated more than 40 years to his career in teaching. He is an international teacher, having taught Drawing, Art and Crafts, and English Language in Belize, Guatemala and Mexico.

He is currently a teacher and Director/Coordinator of the English Language Competition held in neighboring Mexico.

Evans is the Great-grandson of a Mexican artist: Don Camilo Gonzalez Mendez Castellanos from Alto Tonga, Veracruz, Mexico and Doña Petrona Castellanos Requeña of San Benito, Peten, Guatemala. They are the parents of 3 daughters who were Camila, Soledad and Maria De Las Nieves.

Miss Soledad had 3 daughters, namely Noemi Daley, Soledad Daley and Cristina Moratalla. Miss Soledad Daley married David Evans of Commerce Bight Village, Stann Creek District. His mother’s father was Mr. James Daley, a Creole man of Belize City. His greatgrandfather, through his father’s lineage is originally from Wales, England.

Evans was born at Commerce Bight, Stann Creek District, on the 16th of March, 1952. He was the third child. The eldest was a girl named Teresita and the second was a boy whose name was Philip. Their mother died when Evans was only a year old.

As a child, he grew up on La Esperanza Farm that was situated near Mile 16 along the Stann Creek Valley Road. This area is presently known as Steadfast. He was raised by his grandmother, Miss Soledad Gonzalez along with his grandpa, Benjamin Alexander Hemans, a.k.a. Mr. Ben or Mr. Ben Tamales, a name he got because he used to sell the best tamales in the Stann Creek Valley in those days.

During 1958 he attended Holy Angels Primary School. In 1967, he attended the once prestigious Lynam Agricultural College for the 1970-71 school year, then he attended Austin High School. The Late Right Honorable George Cadle Price, the Permier of Belize at that time, financed his high school tuition.

When Evans was attending high school, his grandparents could not afford sending him to school, so he decided to go to the then Premier at his office in Belmopan. He was well attended to by the Right Honorable George Cadle Price, who gave him some money for school material and for bus fare back to Dangriga Town.

“He told me not to worry any more about school fees, to go back to school and study hard,” recalled Evans.

When Abraham was about 12 years of age, he had painted some masterpiece paintings on the walls of his house at La Esperanza Farm. The Premier, Hon. George Price, visited his home and greeted everyone. When he saw the paintings on the walls, he admired and marveled at the painting but greater was his surprise when

Abraham Aurelio Evans started teaching in 1972 grandma Soledad told him that it was painted by ‘that lee boy Abraham of 12 years of age’.

Abraham said that the Premier Price’s generosity changed his life.

In addition to paying the school fees, Hon. Price also funded his sitting of the GCE exams. Abraham took 5 GCE subjects: History, Spanish, English Literature, Chemistry and Mathematics.

Belize has changed like night and day; from Hon. Price’s days of generosity to the cruelty shown in society today. Recently, Evans fell seriously ill. He was residing for a while in Cocoyol, Mexico when he suddenly felt really dizzy and vomiting. His next door neighbor, Nahum Contreras Lopez, visited him and when he noticed that Evans couldn’t get up to walk, Nahum called a taxi and rushed him to the clinic in Cacao. The doctor said he made it there just in time because he was at the point of suffering ‘Un Derame Celebral’ which could eventually affect the heart to stop beating.

He was given medication and after about 3 days of rest he was accompanied by his friend Nahum to Belize City at No. 1 West Collet Canal, where he recovered slowly. When news of the passing of Rt. Hon. George Price, Evans knew he had to be at the final farewell. He was in Orange Walk Town at the residence of Ernesto Burke in Trial Farm, and had walked downtown to see if there was transportation to Belmopan. He was in front of the Town Hall when a bus arrived. Evans said he boarded the bus, but was literally kicked out.

“Students and teachers were inside, but the man in charge of the bus, who said that the bus was from some educational department in Corozal, insisted that I couldn’t ride the bus because I was unknown to him. He ordered the bus to stop and ordered me to get off. I was put out like a dog or drunkard,” Evans remembered.

Evans is a self-accomplished artist, craftsman and painter. He plays instruments such as the guitar, violin, piano, organ, banjo, auto-harp, recorder and harmonica. He is also a poet, composer, writer, calligrapher and teacher.

In Mexico he is known as a humble, noble and versatile person. He taught

in various primary schools throughout Belize, including English Language and Social Studies teacher at Lynam Natural Resources Institute, and English Literature at Excelsior High School.

He is currently writing his autobiography which will include original poems. This will be published in the near future. He urges all Belizeans that can make it to visit the Mexican Town, Javier Rojo Gomez, where the Sugar Factory is, for a cultural exchange on April 29 when he will be celebrating his 40th year of teaching. He started to teach at St. Ignatius Primary School in 1972 and

15 continues to teach English in Mexico.

His advice to Belizeans is that more jobs should be created for more Belizeans especially in Belize City where the crime level is so high. He believes Belizeans should unite more to help each other regardless of religion, or political party. All Belizeans are equal and should be treated with love and justice.

“My fellow Belizeans pray to our Almighty Creator God every day.

Freely give always…help the needy help your falling brother and your blessings will be multiplied,” he advised.

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THE BELIZE TIMES

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Sunday, December 18, 2011

THE BELIZE TIMES

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THE BELIZE TIMES

Stigma, discrimination & violence against vulnerable groups “considerably high” in Belize, says PAHO Report Belize City, December 9, 2011 Belize is one of eleven countries in Central America and the Caribbean where the level of stigma, discrimination and violence against vulnerable groups such as women, children and gays is “considerably high”, according to a report published by the Pan American Health Organisation on Thursday, December 8th. “…there are still significant levels of stigma, discrimination, and violence against certain groups in situation of vulnerability (women, children, adolescents, and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual, Intersexual groups).

Nor are the views and human rights of these groups being effectively included in health laws, policies, and plans that affect their fundamental human right to health and well-being,” states PAHO’s Director Mirta Roses Periago in the report titled “The right of Young People to Health and Gender Identities”.

The report catalogues experiences shared and information gathered from 11 group sessions carried out between 2008 and 2011 in Belize, Barbados, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Panama and Trinidad and Tobago. Participants in those sessions represented Government departments, civil society, judiciary and human rights advocates.

The level of stigma, discrimination and violence affects the vulnerable groups’ access to health and other key services, such as legal protection, ad-

equate counselling, and health and reproductive aid.

Participants at the workshops described high levels of violence and discrimination against groups in situation of vulnerability. These included: high rates of violence and discrimination against women, including but not limited to domestic violence, sexual violence, harassment, and femicide; high rates of violence and discrimination against LGBTI persons because of their sexual orientation, gender identity, and/or gender expression; and high rates of violence and discrimination against children, including but not limited to domestic violence, sexual violence, corporal punishment, and extrajudicial killings of street children and those living in marginalized areas.

The report cites that in Belize, Continued on page 28

Referendum on offshore oil drilling moves forward, even with issues BELIZE CITY, Monday, December 12th, 2011

By Alton Humes The issues with regard to a potential and permanent ban on future oil drilling in offshore and protected areas of Belize have been simmering for months and years now, and thanks to a gutsy move spearheaded by the Belize Oceana’s VP Audrey Matura-Shepherd delivers Coalition to Save our 18,000 petitions to GG’s office Natural Heritage, is now in process to be put to a vote via Belize Vice-President Audrey Matua planned referendum. ra-Shepherd, Coalition Coordinator At a press conference held at the Tanya Williams-Thompson and ViceRadisson Fort George Hotel last week President of Citizens Organized for Thursday, December 8th, the Coalition Liberty through Action (COLA) Geovia their representatives [OCEANA in Continued on page 28

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Sunday, December 18, 2011

THE BELIZE TIMES

Drug Cartel targets UDP multi-millionaires in Orange Walk

Orange Walk, December 13, 2011 The story of the armed assault at a residence belonging to one of Belize’s most suspicious UDP politicians is too dubious for comfort.

Clearly, however, it is a very serious matter for it has forced the wellconnected and wealthy Urbina family to flee Belize, leaving behind a political career and a multi-million dollar conglomerate. We have heard what the Urbinas’ side of the story is from a secondary source. But that it was doctored and delivered by the Police Minister and one of his minions makes it even less credible. We know how easy they cook up stories, especially when it could involve the drug cartel.

This is what they reported. Around 6pm on Sunday, December 4th, Rosendo Urbina Jr, who is the son of UDP Orange Walk South Standard Bearer and Ambassador to Mexico Rosendo “Chendo” Urbina Sr., was about to exit his housing compound located in the Honeycamp Lagoon area, when 5 masked and armed men accosted his wife, who was the one opening the compound’s gate for Urbina to drive out their late-model vehicle.

The men held up the two Urbinas but after a while decided to search only the watchman’s premises, according to Police, before getting a phone number and taking one of the vehicles parked in the compound.

The Police imply that the assailants later contacted Urbina and demanded money by a certain time. Reportedly the demand was for a million dollars.

At the advice of the Police, the Urbina’s ignored the demand, and remained in Belize while the Police carried out their investigation. Fearing that the threat could be serious, the entire Urbina family left Belize seeking refuge in

UDP fires Belmopan Traffic Officers BELIZE CITY, Monday, December 5th, 2011

By Alton Humes A pair of Belmopan City-based traffic officers are now out of a job after being falsely and maliciously accused of mishandling public funds. Mr. Allen Brown and Mr. Richard Thomas visited the BELIZE TIMES today, and certainly showed no love lost for the people they believe set them up to take a major fall.

Both men, from Belize City, were not at the Department long (Brown for 2 years and 8 months, and Thomas for a year and 10 months approximately), nor were their jobs (Brown as a Security Officer and sometime supervisor and Thomas as an Assistant Supervisor) directly linked to finance. But don’t tell that to their collective supervisors, as they were supposedly linking to the loss and mismanagement of a hefty amount of fees collected from the usage of bathrooms in the Belmopan Bus Terminal. The fees in question totaled roughly BZ$150 a day, and more than

Continued on page 30

Rosendo Urbina Sr

Rosendo Urbina Jr

Houston, U.S. Now, one of the Police’s top investigators claims the assault fits the M.O. of past criminals, but unless those brazen attacks have been kept from the media, we can’t believe him. Most armed home invasions end in blood-

shed, as the attackers tend not to leave living witnesses behind.

Also, since when do armed attackers target a home and leave after demanding money, without ransacking the house? The Urbina’s are conspicuously very wealthy people. Their hous-

19 ing compound is like a mini-Disney world. Yet, the attackers preferred to only search the “watchman’s premises” before leaving. Something doesn’t sound right, here.

What the M.O. does appear to be is that of a high-risk operation carried out against the UDP family. Almost like a drug cartel operation. Whether it was, is unclear, but what is obvious is that the attackers’ goal was to incite fear. Were they sending a message?

Was it the doing of the drug cartel?

There is no evidence Chendo Urbina and his family are involved in drugs.

But there is enough to make one wonder. Chendo has gone from humble teacher/PUP supporter to multi-millionaire/UDP supporter. How can a man who struggled with a teacher’s salary just a few years ago become so wealthy and powerful so fast?

We do hope the Urbina’s return to shed light on the unanswered questions. We also hope those who carried out the attack are found and dealt with. But something tells us this case, like many more unsolved mysteries in Orange Walk will soon become a cold case.

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THE BELIZE TIMES

Helping the Needy

Salvation Army continues on its mission BELIZE CITY, Tuesday, December 13th, 2011

By Alton Humes There are few organizations in the world (Rotary, Kiwanis, etc.) that expertly and effectively combine faith and services to others well. But there’s only one organization that combines a martial, militaristic approach with all of the above, and that’s the Salvation Army.

Having been in existence for roughly 2 centuries and founded in the hills of England by William Booth and wife Catherine, the organization’s continued mission – to serve and help others in dire condition – continues unabated.

But in case the average Belizean are in the dark about this purely benevolent Protestant-Evangelical organization and how they help others, they’re here to remind you, through a

Frmr. Solicitor General Elson Kaseke laid to rest

Elson Kaseke

City of Belmopan, December 9, 2011 On Friday, December 9th, a funeral service was held for former Solicitor General Elson Kaseke in the City of Belmopan.

Kaseke passed away on Wednesday, December 7, while receiving treatment for an unspecified illness in Merida. He was 46 years of age.

The service was held in front of the Kaseke and Company law office on Pineapple Street, where friends, colleagues and close family said farewell to Kaseke.

Kaseke, a native of Zimbabwe, Africa came to Belize after obtaining a Master’s in Law (LLM) from the University of the West Indies at Cave Hill, Barbados. Among the most prestigious titles for which he served, Kaseke was the Commissioner of the last Law Review conducted, and Solicitor General from 2001 to 2006.

Kaseke was pre-deceased by his wife, Tsitsi, and son, Solomon, and today. His only surviving child, his daughter Jane, attended the service accompanied by her classmates.

Visit Us Online at: www.belizetimes.bz

Major Brenda Greenidge

series of ‘pre-Christmas’ events designed specifically for a ‘feelgood’ (or maybe a ‘help-good’) reaction.

At their National Headquarters on Regent Street, we spoke briefly with the ever-busy Major Brenda Greenidge, the chief administrator of the Salvation Army in Belize. Belize is at a fairly unique place in the organization’s history, and will celebrate 100 years of existence here in 2015. But until then, there’s the following list of events to keep tabs on.

There’s the usual pair of dinners for city kids in need. The first, catering to 20 schools, will be held on Thursday, December 15th at the Holy Redeemer Parish Hall on North Front Street,

Sunday, December 18, 2011

and the second for 200 kids will take place at their school campus on Cemetery Road on Friday, December 16th.

But it seems the ‘calendar of service’ will be jam-packed this coming Friday, as there will be two events. The first is their dinner for the homeless, dispossessed and mentally affected, which will cater as many as can possibly be handled. The second is, of course their semi-annual Food Hamper/Toy Distribution Drive, a lynchpin in this still-hard-bitten season, will kick off from three separate locations: the Regent Street office, their Cemetery Road campus and their church building on Castle Street. They will then expand to 4 equally needy villages in the districts on the 17th (Saturday). [And to think that it all started with distributing only 50 packages a month!]

But here’s where an interjection (in the form of a small opinion) comes from this reporter: Don’t be a Grinch this season, recession, oppression, or whatever’s ailing you. Give what you can (food, worn but good clothes, toys, etc.) and you’ll find the results will be pleasantly surprising.

Sunday, December 18, 2011

THE BELIZE TIMES

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PUP troops marching towards victory Belize City, December 14, 2011 Nobody does election machinery better than the Blue. Mindful of the tremendous task ahead, the Peoples United Party has mandated a Capacity Building Committee to put more muscle on the party structure and we are in serious fitness training for victory! The Committee has the job of leading and coordinating our national capabilities efforts, so as to improve the Blue machine’s operations. The work is to maximize the efficiency and performance of all Party organs (including the ODS UWG, BYM, and our Marshalls) and bulking up the energy and efforts of the most valuable resource of our Party – the soldiers of the revolution!

Under the theme “Positive Voter Perception—Enhancing the Value of PUP”, three national workshops were organized and conducted for three continuous weekends commencing on Saturday November 19, 2011 through to December 3, 2011. The first workshop held on Saturday November 19

was a one-day workshop which targeted the Municipal Candidates countrywide. On November 26 and 27 over 35 participants were selected from the constituencies countrywide to be trained as trainers. The trainers are tasked to conduct ongoing workshops in their constituencies; and these have been taking place countrywide.

A third workshop targeted our Standard Bearers on Saturday December 3. Past and present leaders, Rt. Hon. Said Musa, Hon. John Briceno, Hon. Francis Fonseca shared best practices from their own experiences. Several topical areas were presented and discussed at these workshops including, the rules and regulations for Voter Registration and Election processes, Municipal legislation, Campaign Planning and strategy. The Committee is presently monitoring the ongoing workshops countrywide with a view to improving the work of your PUP where necessary and to provide additional support as needed.

PUP Leader Hon. Francis Fonseca addresses training participants

Former PUP Leader Hon. John Briceño discusses electoral preparedness

Senator Lisa Shoman Heads OAS Elections Observer Mission in Jamaica Kingston, Jamaica, December 14, 2011 Senator Lisa Shoman has been appointed Chief of Electoral Mission of the Organization of American States (OAS/ EOM), to observe the general elections which will be held in Jamaica on December 29, 2011.

Senator Shoman describes the appointment as an honor, and a privilege to be chosen to serve in our sub-region in order to ensure that the democratic will of Jamaicans is expressed via a free and fair electoral process.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness, in a move that surprised few political pundits in the region, announced on December 4th that the country would go to early elections, in the 16th general election since universal adult suffrage was attained in 1944.

The election is expected to be hotly contested by the country’s two major political parties, the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and the Opposition People’s National Party (PNP); as well as the NDM/NNC’s National Coalition who are expected to field candidates in all 63 seats in the general elections.

The latest polls released on December 14th indicate that that the elections are too close to call, with a relatively high voter turnout anticipated. Poll figures

PUP Campaign Manager Julius Espat shares words of advice

Senator Lisa Shoman

also reveal a statistical dead heat for the opposition PNP and the incumbent JLP. Parties as well as the media have voluntarily agreed to a cessation to all media/social media campaign ads, as well as holding or releasing any public opinion polls as from a full day before the polls on December 29th. Dr Hopeton Dunn, chairman of the Broadcasting Commission, welcomed the agreement.

Senator Shoman is in Jamaica on the OAS/EOM’s preliminary visit,

Continued on page 30

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Reid ham there, probably a crate of Coco Cola or a Crate of Red Fanta.” Talk ‘bout Santa Claus!

Finnegan was then asked where the money came from to make his generosity possible. At least this time he was honest and did not fall on the “Shine money” explanation.

The minister explained that the money was given to his ministry by the Ministry of Finance. Which means then, that Dean Barrow as Minister s I watched Minister of of Finance is the real “Daddy SanHousing Michael Finnegan ta Claus.” Sista Claus, err, I mean explaining last week how Sista B herself was seen making he was feeding a multitude the rounds in the Bottom Dollar for Christmas, the old Chinese prov- parking lot. erb came to mind: “Give a man a fish The big question is, was this and you feed him for a day; teach a money specifically for handouts or man to fish and you feed him for a was it money to conduct the busilifetime”. ness of the Housing Ministry? If it This aphorism in the real world is the former, then where did the makes perfectly good sense but then money come from? If it is the latagain, good sense never doth reside ter, then is there no accountability much in the realm of politics. In poli- applied? There have been rumors tics, it is all about getting elected by floating around that because Genany means necessary eral Elections are not and possible. Giving far away, UDP stanaway ham and turkey dard bearers have and crates of soda at been lavished with Christmas time and dolThe minister copious funds to ing out dole throughout throw around and put explained the year makes much down as a down paybetter political sense that the mon- ment for votes. As than encouraging peoey was given Ernesto Vasquez was ple to become self sufheard to say, “if we to his ministry are foolish enough ficient. The handouts policy keeps people by the Minis- to let them get away dependent on the with that, then they one hand and grateful try of Finance. deserve to win.” On enough to vote for you Which means that, I agree! on the other.

For four years then, that It makes no differthe people of Belize ence to politicians that Dean Barrow have watched cost this type of “handout as Minister of of living rise, corrupgutter politics” does in tion run rampant and Finance is the criminals rule our no way help to move our nation forward. It prostreets.

Victimizareal “Daddy motes a beggar mentaltion, nepotism and Santa Claus.” arrogance have been ity and makes work-shy loafers out of otherwise the order of the day Sista Claus, potentially productive and now we are beerr, I mean citizens. While construcing given “a little turtive self-help programs Sista B herkey or a little ham” would much better fill self was seen to indemnify. Are we the needs of these alms really such pathetic making the seekers, they would not suckers? Would not serve to massage the rounds in the all that money be egos of politicians and better used to fix a Bottom Dollar few streets or maybe keep the people in perpetual subjugation. parking lot.” purchase a decent It is not clear whethvehicle for the Poer Finnegan called the lice? media to cover his “pile - up like There are those who have boil -up” or whether Jules stumbled suggested that it was the PUP upon it by chance; but our boy was who started this whole handout not about to miss the opportunity business and Wednesday Clinic for some camera time. Finny was phenomenon. That might be true in his element as he proudly pro- but the purpose was entirely difclaimed that while he normally only ferent from what we see today. sees a couple of hundred persons Government should have a social per week, on this given day, he had conscience and should provide a broken all standing records. On that safety net for the poor and indiday, almost nine hundred people had gent among us. It must be done received “a little turkey here, a little however, with an end toward help-

A

ing these people to eventually help themselves.

Wednesday Clinics were initially set up to allow voters’ access to their representatives and force these representatives to interact and to listen to their constituents.

Many people have legitimate concerns but those people are now being told to go to Belmopan. The Clinics have taken on a whole new meaning and exist primarily to keep the entitlement junkies happy.

And speaking about junkies, how about Finnegan’s admittance that he has been taking the very dangerous drug Effexor? According to Finnegan, “it’s a pill that mellows you. Keep you in calm and I’ve been on it for the last six months and that’s a pill that mellow me, keep

Sunday, December 18, 2011 me cool. I am happy every day I am overwhelmed with happiness and joy because of the pill.” Only in Belize folks, only in Belize!

Earlier this year at the Prime Minister’s Forum, Dean Barrow revealed that he was also inclined to the popping of pills. Then there is Boots Martinez. Well, his problem is legendary and many a fortune has been lost trying to keep his type of “monkey” fed. Is our government then being run by a bunch of drug addicts? Does that maybe explain some of the hare-brain schemes and ridiculous moves that have been made by these dodo birds marauding around Belmopan? Will someone please pass on to these guys the phone number for Remar! Comments to gmikereid@hotmail.com

Sunday, December 18, 2011

UDP offers

Dangriga a Mirage

Time for Compassionate

Leadership in Port Loyola

The UDP has neglected the market for too long. It’s time to kick them out of office

The Culture Capital, December 14, 2011 The UDP are again on their usual fishing expedition here in Dangriga.

This time the bait on the old poisonous hook is for us Dangrigans to “Imagine the possibilities” of the promise of an extension to our present market.

The price tag of this mirage is a whopping $1.2 million. The six years that the UDPs are in Municipal Government all that Dangriga has received are broken promises, the worst level of unemployment and poverty, the worst streets and drains and an increase of the victimization of our people including their very own UDPs. Prior to the UDPs getting this opportunity to destroy Dangriga, the PUP had Dangriga on the right track; empowering our people. The then Mayor, His Lordship Mr. Cassian Nuñez demonstrated his vision for a prosperous future by constructing the foundation of what was to be a market for our Southside residents, amongst others.

This idea of a Southside Market was welcomed by Dangriga, in particular our Southside Residence. However, instead of completing the Southside market with a view to get some level of relief to our residents, the UDPs carried out a systemic demoralization and destruction of our people and beloved town.

Now they want to hoodwink us with poisonous bait: an extension of our new market. One has to ask the

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question: who stands to benefit from this market extension (the Mirage)? The answer my friend is very obvious. Just take a stroll into that market and you will see. I am very sure that you will not see the face of Dangrigans in that market! To add insult to injury and to continue to carry out their plan of hate and sorrow, the UDPs provide no Empowerment Programme for the Dangrigans.

In so doing, Dangrigans will not be productive and they won’t be able to farm or fish and bring no products to the market.

If the UDPs truly wanted to alleviate the hopelessness that they have created, the same $1.2 million they are promising because of the elections could be better spent to bring real relief Dangriga. They could at the very least pave Dr. Aranda Crescent, complete the Southside market; and maintain our sporting infrastructure and drains. The abovemention projects could provide needed jobs to Dangriga especially during these hard economic times. Once again it is ALL VERY CLEAR THAT THE UDP WAY IS NO SOLUTION TO PROBLEMS, EMPTY PROMISES AND CONTINUED DISRESPECT FOR DANGRIGANS. Dangrigans, your vibrant PUP Town Council will provide hope because they come with a sincere promise to SERVE.

THE WORLD IS READING

THE BELIZE TIMES www.belizetimes.bz

By Gilroy Usher Sr., PUP Standard Bearer for Port Loyola The tremendous hardship which residents of Port Loyola have to endure to see their Area Representative Anthony “Boots” Martinez is a shame.

Only a few months after Martinez was appointed as a Minister, he moved his residence and office several miles away out of the division, first on Euphrates Avenue in one of his overnight mansions and later in the upscale, rented property on St. Thomas Street, forcing the very people who voted him into office to travel miles to see him.

As has been the case since Martinez was elected to office almost 4 ½ years ago, people have to get out of their beds and wait at the office of the Area Representative from 3 o’clock on Wednesday morning to try and see him. But it gets worse. After waiting in the cold from early, around 9:00am residents of Port Loyola are told that the Area Representative will not be in on that day. Due to their pressing situation, some residents of Port Loyola even travel all the way to Belmopan fruitlessly to try and see their Area Representative.

The Area Representative for Port Loyola only pushes around the poor

people. Residents of the division find it painful, like pulling a sore tooth, to see their Area Representative. Most of the time when residents of the division succeed in seeing him, they leave his office disappointed because most of the time Martinez tells them that he can’t do anything to address their situation. That of course begs the question “What is ‘Boots’ Martinez doing with the thousands of dollars of monthly subvention from the government to assist the residents of Port Loyola?”

For the privilege few with political connections, it is a different story. They secure appointments to see Martinez countless times every day regardless of whether he is in Belize City or Belmopan, and Martinez ensures that all of their concerns are addressed immediately.

It’s time for this nonsense to stop in Port Loyola!

As the next Area Representative for the division, I Gilroy Usher, Sr. will put an immediate end to the heartless practice. First I will ensure that every penny of the monthly subvention for Port Loyola is used to address the concerns of the residents of the area. Second, as the next Area Representative for Port Loyola I will schedule a specific day out of each week for residents of the division to visit the divisional office during normal working hours with their concerns. Once circumstances prevent me from being at the divisional office on that particular day, residents will be notified beforehand, and every effort will be made to meet the residents of the division at the office the following day.

As the next Area Representative for Port Loyola, I will walk around on weekends in the constituency to meet the people and learn firsthand about their concerns.

Forward with the People’s United Party and Gilroy Usher, Sr. in Port Loyola.

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THE BELIZE TIMES

In my perspective…

The Biggest Christmas Story Lie Ever Told…

By Rayford Young Growing up in Libertad Village in the Corozal District for the Young family was a fun time for me, my brothers and sisters. We were very fortunate to have a decent home to live in and my dad was a successful engineer at the sugar factory.

So life was good. Christmas was always an exciting time for us. My parents still reminisce on those Christmas mornings when we would all get up and rush to the Christmas tree to see what Santa Clause had left for us. To this day, they talk about the joy it brought to see us all excited and joyous for the gifts Santa brought.

For me Christmas Eve was an anxious time. Falling asleep was hard because my mind was on those toys and what Santa got me this year. So I would lie in bed, tossing and turning and I would think about the story we were told about Santa Clause. It just didn’t seem practical to me that one fat man knew if I was good or bad throughout the year. How would he know that? But what was even more alarming is that this fat man would visit every home all over the world, break into people’s homes and no one would see or hear him and leave gifts for kids and grownups everywhere. This just did not make a lot of sense.

So as I lay there unable to sleep I would play mind games. Stuff like I wonder where Santa is right now. Maybe he is in Africa delivering the gifts, or perhaps in Russia but man those places are so far away. I wonder if he will make it on time to Libertad and drop off our gifts.

Then, how would he get from Africa to Libertad in a couple hours? Man, this guy is good. FedEx could not compete with this guy.

There are some innovative people I respect a lot - people like the late Steve Jobs who changed the world with his ingenuity and his creative mind in the area of computer technology. Henry Ford is another great man that changed the world with advancements in the automobile industry. But this guy that came up with the Santa story takes it all. This story has staying power. We’ve been celebrating Christmas and this Santa story for ages. Generations after generations are told the same story and we believe and go along with it. Whoever concocted this story is a genius. And the big department stores, knowing a good story when they see one, jumped on the band wagon and keep the lie going, making big bucks from this big lie.

Well I kinda knew this made no sense but the outcome was good so I went along with this incredible Santa story because at the end of the day you got something and made your parents feel good so all was well. This is the time of year, and for many the only time, kids will hug and kiss their parents especially

if they got what they wanted. I noticed that as I got older the gifts were not as great as when I was just a kid. I remember one year I got a book for Christmas.

Santa must’ve thought I was getting older and should be thinking differently, should be more mature not hauling toy trucks around anymore. Well, needless to say Santa was wrong and my parents did not get a hug and kiss that year.

As we all know, Jesus was born in a manger and came to die for all of our sins. No one knows the exact time or date of his birth, nor the date of His return which is fine with me. We don’t need to know everything. Some things He keeps from us for our own good. If Pepsi can keep their formula a secret why can’t the Lord keep some secrets to Himself? The good Book says if you believe in Him and live a good and decent life you will spend eternity with him in Heaven. Jesus died for all of us so we can have eternal life. This is what we should be celebrating. Not standing in line at a department store at 3am in the morning to buy stuff for yourself and your kids. When Jesus was on this earth He lived a simple life. He mingled with the poor. He healed the sick, He did good deeds. So I wondered if Jesus just happened to touch down in Belize City on Christmas day what would He do for that day. Would He go hang out at a shopping mall at 3am waiting for deals? I know one thing - He would not walk on those streets in Belize City. Those potholes are too huge he would break his leg. Would he be visiting friends and drinking liquor all day?

Or would he be sitting in front of the TV watching the football games? Knowing the life this Man lived on this earth, this is what I think he would do on Christmas day.

I think He would start the day at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital visiting with the sick and comforting them and perhaps healing a few. Secondly, I think he would set up a food line and feed the poor and the children. Later that day I think he would have a big healing service at the BTL Park in Belize City and pray and heal the sick. I think he would take some time from His busy schedule to go visit the poor in their homes and pray with them. He would have a special place in His heart for single mothers and our youth. I think He would gather up all those men sleeping on the hard cement pavement infront of the bank and many businesses in downtown Belize City and take them to Brodies and get them some new clean underwear and clothes.

I can see Jesus picking up a few tooth brushes and shaving blades so he can shave those guys and brush their teeth for them. So yes He would go shopping on Christmas day but to get the necessities His children need - not to shower himself with stuff He doesn’t need.

This is how Jesus conducted himself when He was on this earth. He mingled with the least of these. He cleans up His children, makes them knew again.

That’s who He is, that’s how He operates. So the next time you pass by one of those men sleeping on the pavement, remember that the Savior was born in a stinky stable among the animals, a situation much like those men sleeping on the pavement. But despite His humble

and poor beginning, He came to die so we could have eternal life. And to show our gratitude, we go get stuff we can’t afford and don’t really need. Too often we ignore the needs of others for our own greed. We love the Santa Clause lie because it gives license to gorge on ourselves, for some it’s to show off to friends and family how successful you are. And that makes a lot of folk feel good about themselves.

This year, why don’t we all try and be more like Jesus and do something meaningful and help the less fortunate instead of ourselves. Buy a few

Sunday, December 18, 2011 shirts or pants for one of those men sleeping on the cement. Or better yet some have big homes in Belize City.

Why not put up one of those men in one of the rooms you’re not using and make sure he gets the medical help he needs. That’s what our Savior would do. Let’s make this Christmas real with good deeds instead of self indulgence. He will take note of it, Oh yes He will.

Rayford Young is a Belizean-American, who currently lives in Michigan, U.S.A. Send comments to rayfordyoung@comcast.net

Sunday, December 18, 2011

25

THE BELIZE TIMES

Launching of George Price:

A life revealed December 1st 2011 Remarks by Anthony Chanona Let me begin by first saying that I thoroughly enjoyed reading the Godfrey Smith’s book...

George Price: A life revealed.

Smith’s pen takes the reader on a very insightful journey into the humble, but intense life of a man who guarded his privacy and disciplined his choices. Choices that helped shape the political landscape of Belize and choices which made an indelible mark on friends and foes and upon a nation and a people.

Thank you Godfrey for your work and the effort to finish what you started. The life of Mr. Price is more than a topic-this book, his authorized biography, is more of an occasion than a task. That you allow each page to speak for itself is a fascinating accomplishment indeed. And while there can be no other authorized biography of George Price, this book will no doubt, spark new life and discussion.

And perhaps too, new opportunities to study and learn from this fallen giant so many Belizeans, like myself, fondly call “Father of the Nation”.

My comment on the book itself is premised on the well known mantra of Mr. Price himself who often remind speakers of “the economy of words and brevity of language”.

The book properly explains the genesis of Mr. Price’s fierce defense and cavalier reward for loyalty that he expected from trusted friends and colleagues. His mantra too of “rewarding friends and punishing enemies” is not lost in explanation. Nor the reason why he placed such supreme importance on party unity. Executed with a zeal that caused him on occasions to overlook the obvious and defer the necessary. The book narrates his relentless pursuit for self-determination of a people from under British rule which nurtured a Machiavellian response to any circumstances or characters that could potentially prevent or delay that.

Any error of judgment in doing so , in my opinion, pales in significance when compared to what this man accomplished. This authorized biography of George Price establishes the fact and history records the truth that George Price never sought fame or fortune. The singular objective of this man was to hone his political skills and use the tool of a mass movement (The People’s United Party) to give a people an identity and a country a name. His pursuit remained the greater good of the common people-a better Belize for Belizeans. It was his ordained work and he knew it to be so. He did not fail!

Launching of Dentistry in Belize History will judge him kindly for his compassion and for never losing focus on any detail of service to a people he loved and a country he cherished; be it the need for a public latrine or bending over to pick up litter from the environment or rising to the occasion to deliver a speech at the United nations.

His work was always about serving people-the Belizean people.

I close on the note that the book reveals the importance Mr. Price placed on his ritual for prayer and worship.

It became the hallmark of his life. No doubt a sinner like the rest of us, Mr. Price understood prayer to be s source of serenity and peace. It clothed his humanity. God the omniscient and omnipotent knows of the prayers of George Price.

We are left only to speculate that perhaps many of those prayers were for Belize and for the hopes and aspirations of her people and government.

Prayers that perhaps sounded like the one uttered by Moses in the Book of Numbers Chapter 11 verse 12 when he said to God.....” I alone am not able to carry all this people, because it is too burdensome for me”. Mr. Price had learned first-hand that it was much easier to criticize a government than to govern.

The book leaves me to conclude that it was through the discipline of prayer and worship that Mr. Price received the blessing of fortitude. In return, as his friend Graham Greene observed, he was able to bless us as he waved from his land rover as he traveling the length and breadth of this country-touching the lives of a nation and a people.

Belize today is a blessed but troubled nation-one fraught with controversy and discord.

The authorized biography of George Price reveals the pragmatic wisdom of this man to all who aspire to lead us to take that effort, first, to the Lord God in prayer.

THE WORLD IS READING

THE BELIZE TIMES www.belizetimes.bz

Review by Penny Casasola “My Reflections of Dentistry in Belize” written by Dr. Chris. Bennett is a big picture approach to Dentistry in his homeland of Belize. Dr. Bennett cleverly takes one back in time to the Central American Country of Belize, to how life used to be for a young man growing up in Belize City, the book relates Dr. Bennett’s drive to fulfill his career ambitions and to make life meaningful for himself , his nation and the world.

The book documents a proactive approach to oral health, and the struggles and achievement of a man of vision in the area of oral health. “The book is about the History, Attitudes and Culture of Dentistry and Dental Treatment in Belize” it describes the profound impact and transformation which can be achieved in our Belizean people, when a more positive attitude is created towards Dentistry.

The period of time spans the 1960’s to the new millennium. In the book Dr. Bennett takes one on a journey through his formative years in Belize to England and back to Belize. The book proves that Southside Belize young men who possess ambition, drive and perseverance can reach their highest career potential.

He continuously displays these qualities throughout the book. As the Krem. TV slogan states “Show weself, see weself, be weself” “My Reflections on Dentistry in Belize” by Dr. Chris Bennett describes how a stewardship approach

of service before self interest allows Dr. Bennett to boldly step out with faith in God, his country, and his devotion to serve mankind universally. The book is about a community approach to Dental Health, it discusses the importance of nutrition and dental hygiene from the earliest stage of life to dental care of the elderly.

The book should be of interest not only to Dentists and Historians, but to everybody. Besides having some practical aspects of Dental Health Education and Dental Disease Prevention, a variety of topics are dealt with, which include Dental Tourism, Dental Folklores in Belize, the Mennonites in Belize, and Dental Treatment, Dental Diseases in Belize due to Ethnic Differences, Some Eating Habits in Belize which affect Good Dental Health etc.

In the book entitled “My Reflections of Dentistry in Belize” written by Dr. Chris. Bennett, the writer discusses how dental health evolved into a public health priority in the country of Belize and he gives credit to and acknowledges all who pioneered Dental Health in Belize. Of great interest to me is his diligence in the research and his systematic documentation on the School Dental Programs he collaborated in. This book makes an excellent gift. The book has a number of interesting historical photographs, is full of humor, it is enlightening, and easy to read and should be a required reading in schools. “My Reflections of Dentistry in Belize” is a must read for all who desire a beautiful smile and good health. After reading the Book, “You will extract the truth and not the tooth”.

26

THE BELIZE TIMES

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Write to us at: editortimes@yahoo.com

A Nation of Nations

D

By Lucia Moguel

eep in the heart of the new world lays an enchanted fairytale land rich in natural beauty and culture. This land once known as British Honduras has blossomed like a flower and become the great nation we know today as Belize. Thanks to its past, Belize’s population is vast and diverse; we are Mestizo, Creole, Garifuna, Mennonite, Asian, East Indian, Mayan and the list keeps growing. We are all Belizean; this is our land, our home, our world.

Different cultures blend to form perfect unison which defines our country as Belize. This is who we are, our identity.

We live in the land of the land of the free by the Carib Sea. We are free men and women with a will to decide over our lives, yet we live in a world full of oppression.

Our communities consist of a society in which everyone is together but not mixed. Do we have contrasts? Of course we do. Unfortunately, our socio-economic classes are very marked accompanied by a delicate touch of racism.

Most people might agree that indeed there is a difference between socio-economic classes; after all, it is the most evident. However, others will inevitably deny any traces of racism. Once again, we must remind the public that racism does not only refer to the discrimination of people with African descent. Racism is the discrimination of people due to their race as the name states it, and we have a lot of that here. I have heard many times people complaining about the “Chinese” entering our country just to take away the Belizean people’s employment. In far too countless instances I have heard people speak about the Mennonites as aliens coming from outer space. I have news for you all; these people are as Belizean as any of you. They were born here, they were raised here therefore this is their country. They are Belize.

Throughout history we have fought our way towards the great ultimate award of freedom. We endured a constant battle against the British and defended our country with honor against the Guatemalan claim. This is the greatest proof of things being possible; in both instances we have resulted victorious. Although we no longer fight against foreigners we still have wars occurring between our own selves. Every day has resulted in a constant combat. We fight against the increase in prices and the cost of living in this country. We fight against the injustices committed everyday inside Court. This is where the final verdict states that the innocent and pure are vicious muggers while slayers are white sheep. Justice is supposed to be righteous and transparent, but we have clearly seen that it only favors a few.

We should set aside minor differences and unite in order to have a better life. We should fight against crime, the economy and the terrible management of the country instead of fighting amongst each other. I am confident that if we all join our voices we can accomplish grandeur things. Together we can transform Belize into a prosperous nation comparable to the great cosmopolitan world.

(Email comments to luciamoguel@gmail.com)

POEM More tears in the City

By Erwin X

The City is Getting too bloody, what a pity.

Another murder in the City Another youth killed, without pity The streets are plague with rivalry Black youth dying over jealousy and vanity Taking di life of your brother is insanity Struggling in a system with no security Fighting for progress without stability Our system is corrupt with hypocrisy Our people deceived by false democracy More tears in the City Ghetto youth rise, organize, yo bless with ability To reject di corruption and wicked authority To overcome, defeat, destroy violence and iniquity Protect, defend, preserve yo community And stand with peace, sincerity, and agility To demonstrate yo love, yo joy for humanity Join as one in the eyes of the Almighty To rise as a star and accept responsibility More tears in the City Black man know yoself shape yo destiny Unite as one to rebuild yo broken community Put God Almighty over Babylon’s Philosophy Wake up Black man accept yo reality Stand up and fight for Freedom, Justice and Equality And Allah (God) will bless you with prosperity And there will be no tears in Belize City © Copyright – Ghetto Food

Sunday, December 18, 2011

27

THE BELIZE TIMES

Christmas Sale There are so many things associated with the Christmas season that it is quite easy to miss the main reason for the celebration. As we near the time of celebration this year there are so many things we can peer into. There are so many things we can even evaluate, for example here we are celebrating the birth of a king and what does this King have to say about things happening around the world? What is His desire as it relates to politics, laws, the poor, etc?

Well for today I would like to look into the area of sales!

There are many times in a year when sales are held. Not everything goes on sale but there are many that do. There are even times when crisis causes sales. Someone may lose their job, or have to leave the country, meet a sudden loan or bill. These times are great agitators of “sales”. Even joyous ‘events’, such as Christmas, causes the initiation of sales!

A sale is an abnormal opportunity where something of a certain value or price is sold at a discounted amount. A time when something you would not normally sell has to go because of some emergency or some greater need!

This reminds me of a historic event in the scriptures where a king had a dream and needed an interpretation. He received the interpretation from a young man named Joseph and it had to do with saving. The story is recorded in Genesis 41.

Regardless of your situation, saving should be a first priority in your life. You save not only for a rainy day but for the days where opportunity strikes! In Genesis 41, when there was a time of plenty, rather than spending out everything and enjoying the consummation of it Joseph encouraged the king to work harder. Build barns to store up corn, make means to preserve it for years! It made sense to the king and he ordered the men to listen to the advice or interpretation of his dream. If you continue to dig deeper into the story you will find that because of the saving of corn, the king had in abundance while other countries were starving. These countries travelled from far and began to do business with the king. They sold their slaves and even worse their land in an effort to survive the famine.

How many sales did you miss this year? The time to plan for a sale is not during the time of the sale but rather years before. Begin to sacrifice and set aside the little extra. Put it in barns or in the credit unions out of your reach where it is not easy to get. Put guard men around it. If you don’t have the little extra then sacrifice a little of what is currently there.

Yes I know this requires discipline, but I have found that one of the greatest rewards out there is discipline. A person who saves is a wise person building up ‘bartering’ power, investing in his future, and will enjoy the benefits of this virtue!

In closing let me share some of the times at least for Belize when sales are likely to be carried out. I’ll do this although there are those of us who study international market as we may purchase on our visa cards and enjoy the benefits of international sales.

Of course let’s begin with Christmas, and we have nineteenth of November, Agriculture Trade Show, Auto Shows, Easter, Expo and it goes on and on.

Remember even if it’s a triple or double up SAVE in the time of plenty for the time of shortage and even for the time of ‘Sales’!

Until Next Week God bless

Gone from us, but his life’s work continues “to promote the peaceful development of Belize and its people” – the mission of the George Price Centre for Peace and Development in Belmopan.

Available after November 29, for all to have – beautiful, personalized, memorial cups with the image of the Father of the Nation!

Own one for only $30. All proceeds from sales go to further the work of the George Price Centre.

His legacy must not die, but be engraved in the hearts of all true Belizeans as we forward to continue the peaceful, constructive Belizean revolution.

The special item can be obtained at the George Price Centre for Peace and Development in Belmopan

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THE BELIZE TIMES

Stigma, discrimination & violence against vulnerable groups “considerably high” in Belize, says PAHO Report Continued from page 18

women’s rights participants emphasized the need to make amendments to existing legislation to guarantee women’s routine exercise of several human rights and freedoms. Concerns included the widespread poverty among women (33.5% in 2010) which was viewed as the underlying cause behind the violation of women’s rights; the discrimination against women in labor force are not enforced; that women who are victims of violence are advised to return to their abusive partners by authority figures, including the police and magistrates; limited progress made in preventing and eliminating violence against women, reflected in a lack of prosecutions and convictions as well as a lack of access to justice for women, particularly in rural areas; and that despite the criminalization of marital rape, there are apparently no prosecutions for that crime.

In the human rights session, LGBTI persons expressed concern that discrimination against homosexuals abounds, particularly through the criminalization of consensual sexual acts between adults of the same sex. Participants also recognized that HIV/AIDS policies and programs lack a gender perspective.

Consequent to these session, a group representing LGBTI persons in

Belize, UNIBAM, launched a legal challenged to section 53 of the criminal code. That controversial challenge is currently before the Supreme Court.

Participants of the Children’s Rights workshop expressed the following concerns: an increase in the number of cases of murders, abductions, street violence, domestic violence, and sexual abuse of minors, especially girls; the use of corporal punishment within the family and in schools; and discrimination against girls, children with disabilities, migrant children, children living in poverty, children belonging to minorities, indigenous children, children infected with or affected by HIV/AIDS, children living in rural areas, and pregnant students and teenage mothers in schools.

The aim of the report is to promote and protect the right for the highest attainable standards of health and other related human rights and fundamental freedoms of young people and women and men in situation of vulnerability. It also includes a chapter recommending appropriate interventions for the reform of national policies, plans and programs to ensure respect for international human rights norms and standards.

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Referendum on offshore oil drilling moves forward, even with issues Continued from page 18

vanni Brackett] announced that, after delivering their petition of 18,000 signatures to the Governor-General of Belize, Sir Colville Young, a planned referendum on the sole issue of offshore oil drilling is scheduled for the Municipal Elections, March 7th , 2012.

A press release sent out by the Coalition yesterday informs that the signatures were delivered by the Governor-General to the Chief Elections Officer, who will then vet and inform him: a) whether or not all signatures are genuine and b) whether a ‘threshold’ of 10% of the voting populace has been met. Should that be the case, the Governor-General will issue a ‘writ’ declaring the date, time and place(s) where the referendum will occur.

The Coalition has offered that the question they plan to pose be ‘Do you agree to oil exploration and drilling offshore and in its protected areas?”

But underneath it all, new issues have come to the fore with regard to how much actual support, at least in the internal sense, the Coalition has.

The Ya’axche Conservation Trust, led by their Executive Director Lilsel Alamilla, resigned their membership in the Coalition after Alamilla dissent-

ed on the ‘strategic value’ of having a referendum, particularly in an election year such as this one. At the conference, Matura-Shepherd, accused Alamilla of working in tandem with the UDP Government to stop up the process, and described her organization as “Government’s attack-dog”.

There’s also a question of where exactly the Association of Protected Management Organizations (APAMO), an umbrella conservation group, presently stands as their leadership, represented by Edilberto Romero, wasn’t even at the front table of the conference. Romero, in an interview, clarified that the group does stand with the Coalition, but that there are some ‘issues’ (supposedly a pre-referendum poll the group wanted the Coalition to take) that have prevented them from supporting it 100%.

Add in their small ‘machinery’ to get out votes (particularly in the ‘grassroots’ communities that will likely be affected by this), and it doesn’t seem to look good for the Coalition as of now. But that doesn’t immediately matter to them, as they are placing all hopes that citizens, without cash bribes, will cast their votes and say ‘NO’ on this burdensome issue. The story is far from over, and the BELIZE TIMES will keep following this story.

Sunday, December 18, 2011

THE BELIZE TIMES

THINK ABOUT IT DID YOU KNOW DIS? Do you know that Belize has oil? In commercial quantities? And that our oil has been exported abroad for years?

Of course you know.

What you do not know is how many millions the oil company is getting from our oil.

Neither do you know how much your country is receiving out of the sale of Belize’s oil.

You do not know what the money is used for.

Neither do you know how much the oil company is “donating” to the UDP. But it gets worse.

Belize poverty is at 43 percent of the population and rising every month.

Yes, our country which has exported over a billion dollars worth of oil has half its population living in dreadful poverty. The poor in Belize have no jobs, no opportunities and no hope for a better life.

There has been no serious or concerted efforts by government to obtain more revenues from oil that belong to all of us.

There has been no effort by government to nationalize the one resource that can remove poverty and place Belize on the road to prosperity.

What a different life we could all have if the benefits of oil sales could be more equitably shared. Think about it? Education from Primary level to university level would be free for our deserving young people. Proper health care in all districts. Skills training for the current masses. Cheap internet services. A real housing scheme for the poor and the middle class. Adequate Police patrols and crime fighting. Effective border and marine patrols. Developmental projects. Loans and lending rates at minimal percent interests.

Drastic reduction in the cost of living.

Imagine the possibilities.

The government will not nationalize our oil resources. Neither will they pass legislation that any new oil company which finds oil will have to go half-half with the Belizean people in revenue sharing. After all, this is the government that took away the Belize Lottery from the people and gave it to a Chinese Belizean who donates money to UDP politicians.

The 43 percent poverty in the country will continue to rise. Home invasions, theft, burglaries and crime will continue to rise. Cost of living will continue to escalate. Life will be good for a few and miserable for the many.

WHAT A SHAME Let us say this again.

What an utter shame on all of us in Belize. Ten days away from the massive celebrations and materialism to mark the birth of Jesus, there remains dozens of hopeless unfortunate human beings begging in the streets and sleeping on the sidewalks.

And we have the audacity to call ourselves Christians and to be commemorating the birth of Jesus who was all about love.

SANTINO Santino Castillo, to the surprise of no one, won the UDP convention in

Caribbean Shores.

It is a general rule in the UDP that the candidate with the most money wins convention and elections. It is the result of poverty and political corruption. Persons who are offered groceries, sand, building materials and money vote a certain way cannot be blamed. In this case, coupons and cash vouchers.

Santino’s campaign was that he is man for sports, culture and a community activist. For sports Santino has given trophies, and in particular sponsors a cycling team. But this is not done from his money, instead from the advertising products budget from his Supermarket connections.

For culture, he mentions the Messengers music band. Let it be known that Messengers were in existence before Santino showed any interest in them. As a rich little kid with lots of idle time Santino dreamed of being Elvis Presley and Julio Iglesias. He bought out Messengers and of course they had to make him the lead singer.

The real story is that when Santino could not become Presley he lost his interest in singing and in the band. The Messengers collapsed and the story is that Santino even took away the musical instruments. So much for promoting culture.

As for community activist, we would need to be informed which community and active in what. If we were unkind we could say the Supermarket community and the sale of expired products and imports of items that could otherwise be produced locally. But let’s not go there.

Santino got nine hundred votes at the convention. The two candidates together got seven hundred. Despite his supermarket, millionaire status, media blitz and such, seven hundred UDP voters in Caribbean Shores did not want him. When the crowd from Kelly Street is deducted from Santino’s numbers a totally different picture emerges.

We leave the rest to the young and dynamic Anthony Mahler. Here is a genuine young, enterprising Belizean.

He offers no rhetoric and slogans but a deep desire to see betterment in Caribbean Shores and the country.

ANN, CHANDRA AND KAREN Ann Marie and Chandra are political. They feel that women have an important contribution to make in the politics of Belize. How it is that they support a party which has no women candidate for central government is a mystery.

Ann Marie in particular is at the forefront of Women In Politics.

Will Ann and Chandra and the Women In Politics be true to themselves and support Karen Bodden in her quest to be Mayor of Belize City?

Karen Bodden is a mature, responsible and intelligent woman. She won the nomination against another impressive woman, Sharole Saldivar, to become the PUP’s candidate for Mayor of Belize City.

Karen is eminently capable and qualified to be the mayor, and will certainly not be anything like the disaster

UDP Moya turned out to be.

HAVE YOU SEEN THE SIGN? “FOR SALE” These signs are all over Belize City. They are growing by the weeks and the months.

These signs are increasingly turning up in the districts.

For Sale. It usually means persons can no longer pay the banks and lending institutions and so their homes and businesses are being sold.

When persons are forced to sell their homes and businesses are closing at the rate they are in Belize, this spells disaster.

AL JAZEERA Moses Sulph says that a certain cable provider in Belize City has started showing Al Jazeera news channel.

Al Jazeera is a highly respected news organization which broadcasts in Arabic and in English. It is available on the internet at www.aljazeera/english.com. It provides balanced news as well as excellent commentaries by respected journalists.

CNN is a one-sided news organization. Its panelists and discussions are open propaganda for the USA version of events. It is an insult to the intelligence of Belizeans that some local cable stations reproduce CNN. They are contribution to the misinformation and miseducation of our people.

LOUSY BTL Telephone rates in Belize are high.

Internet service is expensive.

The internet service is slow.

An information in the New York Times states that broadband prices per megabyte have fallen to about FIVE CENTS per megabyte in the past 3 years.

Broadband speeds have increased more than TWENTY FOLD in the same period.

Why BTL doing this to us?

RUM DRINKING EPIDEMIC Alcohol consumption is becoming an epidemic in our country.

Men AND women are drinking as if alcohol is going out of style. In fact to be fashionable, more and more young women are drinking alcohol.

It is bad enough when men are drinking alcohol Thursday night, Friday evening to night, Saturday and Sunday too. But to see women going at it is to be witness to a decline in our society.

Rum and alcohol advertisements are everywhere. They are a part of our daily diet of commercial, increasingly in the course of news broadcasts.

What kind of society are we promoting?

OFFSHORE DRILLING WILL HAPPEN One has to admire the bravery.

Their cause is notable and it may be just.

Inside the heart and mind of every sensible person there is disgust and unease over the destruction of our planet. There is massive world-wide destruction of mother earth. Clearest example is the effects causing climate change.

But there are those who kill whales, elephants, sharks, tigers and a wide variety of living creatures, plants, animal, forests and reef. It’s done for money; for greed.

In Belize there are elements representing the greedy capitalists who will stop at nothing to get their claws into our oil.

29 Such persons represent the powerful oil companies. They usually work through corrupt governments which will bully-reg citizens into serving the foreign interest against the better interest of their country.

In Belize the government is working for the foreign oil companies. They will stop at nothing to get their greedy hands on our oil. If the oil is in protected, pristine forests or in the majestic, awesome beauty of our rare reef system and clean sea, they care not.

They will drill on the land, in lakes, in the reef itself and in the clear blue sea. They would drill their own mother’s heart.

The coalition has amassed EIGHTEEN THOUSAND signatures of citizens who wish for the drilling issue to be taken to a referendum. A Referendum is an important instrument of democracy.

What the coalition is overlooking are two or three key factors. A Referendum was held in February 2008 on the issue of whether the Senate should be an elected one. Despite the result, the government has pointedly ignored the views of some 45,057 citizens.

Some 21,000 persons supported in a call for a referendum on the recent 9th Amendment to the Constitution.

They were treated as pappy-show by the government.

It should be remembered that shortly after taking office, the UDP government quickly amended the then Referendum Act and replaced it with the watered-down toothless version now in existence.

Does anyone believe weakening the referendum law was just so-so-so?

It is somewhat naïve for the coalition to believe that EIGHTEEN THOUSAND signatures mean anything to such a government. We can say what we want. They will do what the oily men want then to do. Ask BNE. EARLY ELECTIONS There will be “early elections” meaning February or March 2012.

Meaning the General Elections will be held before or along with the Municipal Elections.

Tell you more after the Christmas season; cause right now nobody want to hear anything about politics and such like. The struggle by the masses to see a good Christmas is underway.

Right now it’s all about curtains, Marley, ham, turkey, Christmas lights, and presents. It’s about money the scarcest thing in town.

THE ROAD NOT TAKEN “I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence Two roads diverged in a wood, and I I took the one less travelled by, And that has made all the difference”

By Robert Frost.

JESUS SAID “Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven: give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bossom…

“And he spoke a parable unto them, Can the blind lead the blind?

Shall they not both fall into the ditch.”

Luke 7 Chapters 37 to 39.

30 13 yr. old victim of carnal knowledge in Toledo BELIZE CITY, Wednesday, December 14th, 2011

By Alton Humes In yet another gruesome, uncouth case of carnal knowledge, Police in the Toledo District are investigating a case coming out of their vicinity.

A young female student, aged 13 years, from the village of Crique Jute, accompanied by her mother, reported to Police that when she was at home on December 3rd, 2011, one Orlando Oh somehow entered their home, accosted her from behind, disrobed and had intercourse with her against her will.

To add to the already blistering indignity of the experience, she was threatened in the ‘usual’ manner when heinous crimes such as this occur: ‘if you tell, I’ll kill you…’

A Doctor has certified the child was ‘carnally known’ and Police continue, at this time, to seek Mr. Orlando Oh, for questioning and/or arrest.

UDP fires Belmopan

Traffic Officers

Continued from page 19

$700 to $800 per week.

Prior to that, in a meeting held about 1 ½ weeks ago, the Ministry of Transport’s CEO Candelaria Saldivar called a meeting at NEMO headquarters in Belmopan, attempting to decipher through the ‘reports’ she asked for through her ten staffers, including Brown and Thomas (even the lowly cleaners had to write up one) how the funds were handled as well as who took the money. But it seemed that she either chose to or deliberately ignored the culprit that was in front of her face.

Mr. Bernard Ramos, the General Manager of the Department, would later be terminated as he actually confessed to knowingly stealing the funds, never once depositing the funds into the government Treasury after he received them and mishandling their usage outright. But he ended up taking down these two men, who’ve insisted and protested that they never handled the money beyond delivering it to Ramos.

But the story, as it seemingly is with all stories in the Public Service, has a political side. Ramos, a former Belize Police Department constable and accused felon is related directly to no less than the Minister of the Public Service, Hon. John Saldivar and his sister Candelaria. Ironically, Ramos has no managerial experience whatsoever and essentially landing the job by connections only.

A fourth person, Bruce Thompson, a supervisor in the Department was also dragged into the controversy and terminated.

But this latest instance of corrupt behavior leaves these men without jobs, or a means to feed their families.

It would be of great interest to hear what Mr. Gareth Murrillo, former Immigration Department Director and soon to be former Chief Transport Officer, who barely survived a scandal at Immigration, has to say on this matter.

We will keep following this story.

THE BELIZE TIMES

No, Caleb!

No, David!

No, Obama!

TRY A REFERENDUM Continued from page 2 considerations to understand why this confusion exists. Firstly, there is an ignoring of the spiritual nature of man, whish places him in a moral dimension that is far important than his practical circumstances. Otherwise, how do you explain a soldier’s putting his own life at risk to save a comrade?

The other is that the expression of any right in an unnatural, abnormal, deviant way is no right. In other words, stealing, rape, forgery, incest, fishing without license…all legal prohibitions are in a sense moral impositions by the state for the Common Good!

The homosexual issue, if nothing else, will force us to understand properly what being a citizen of Belize really means. Through our Constitution we have accepted a vision of reality and of our life that is unmistakably founded upon Christian philosophy and culture.

The homosexual agenda does not fit into this structure. This is why we continue to insist that the only proper ruling to be made is to tell Mr. Orosco to place a petition for a referendum to the National Assembly. To go to Supreme Court is dishonest, deceitful, and following bad advice.

Only the will of the people of Belize can abrogate our Constitution. No other earthly power can. Not even Great Britain or the mighty United States.

I never thought I’d live to see the day when I feel like burning the American Flag.

I never thought I’d live to see the day when America the brave, America the free, would be trying to impose a culture of decadence and death on little countries.

It seems Belize needs to reach out to new friends.

Signed: Paul Rodriguez

Senator Lisa Shoman Heads OAS Elections

Observer Mission in Jamaica Continued from page 21 where she and her team will meet with political party representatives, civil society organizations, the social partners, as well as various election and security officials. A courtesy call on Prime Minister Holness was the first appointment for the EOM team, and Senator Shoman and the Deputy Chief of Mission were received at Vale Royal this evening by the PM. Although distinguished Belizeans Myrtle Palacio and Dolores Balderamos Garcia have participated in EOMs, this is the first time that a Belizean has been tapped to act as the Chief of Mission for such an undertaking, and this is definitely a first for the OAS.

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Paul Rodriguez responds to “Think About It” Continued from page 2

‘move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

We Christians still believe that faith in God and His son can move mountains!

If you doubt the above assertion, turn to Mark 16:17-20. This is the final commissioning of the disciples before He returns to Heaven.

He said, among these things – They (we Christians) will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.

Even as I write I believe, as does Fr. Taylor, that God can cure and may cure Mrs. Barrow of her cancer to show that He IS and cares for us.

At no time have I ever heard a Catholic Charismatic claim that a cure being sought would be anything but a miracle done by God. If your anonymous columnist refers to Acts, he or she will discover instances where the Apostles Peter and Paul cured the sick and, yes, raised the dead. For instance, when Peter and John cured the cripple at the Beautiful Gate “in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean”.

Look at Acts 3.

In Chapter 9 Peter restores Tabitha to life. In Acts 14 Paul and Barnabas cure a crippled man. In Acts 20, Paul raises Eutichus back to life.

Like Peter and Paul, Fr. Taylor speaks in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Perhaps your writer does not know or has forgotten that we Christians, especially Catholics, trusting in Christ’s departing words, still believe in miracles of healing.

Right now we are praying to God, to work another miracle of healing through the intercession of Blessed Pope John Paul to assure us that he is a saint in heaven. As you know, the Church prays for God’s special manifestation before we call a person saint.

We believe that in certain circumstances God has worked miracles witnessed by thousands of people as was the case at Fatima in 1917 when over 50 thousands witnessed the sun appear to be plunging to the earth.

The image of the Virgin of Guadalupe is still being researched by scientists seeking to verify its origin! Another miracle!

Finally, let me assure your columnist that Fr. Ian Taylor, a charismatic priest from Trinidad, could not work in the Diocese of Belize, if he did not have the permission of Bishop Dorick Wright.

On all the occasions that I have heard him preach, he has spoken solid Christian beliefs, never making any claim for self-aggrandisement.

From all sides the people of Belize are being assailed by the forces of evil and darkness. Perhaps God will manifest to us that HE cares by working a miracle of cure on Mrs. Barrow, the most powerful lady of our land. With Fr. Taylor I pray for this.

Signed: Paul Rodriguez `

B

Sunday, December 18, 2011

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THE BELIZE TIMES

UDP abuses tax-payers’ money Belize City, December 9, 2011 Under the instructions of Cabinet, the Ministry of Finance has allotted $60,000 for each UDP standard bearer as part of the UDP’s plans to distract voters from the harsh reality they have Belizeans living in.

The UDP is openly abusing tax payer’s money to gain political mileage –a ploy as they flirt with the idea of calling an early election. Last Thursday UDP Minister Michael Finnegan admitted that he had gotten his amount “from the Ministry of Finance” to spend.

Finnegan said he would use the money to buy Christmas turkey, ham and crates of soft drink for his voters.

It is amazing how UDP politicians choose to mock our people’s intelligence. Finnegan and the UDP prefer to give away lots of money

in the form of measly gifts, rather than assist the people of Mesopotamia meaningfully. As Minister of Housing over the last four years, Finnegan has been responsible for millions of dollars allotted to his Ministry. Yet, the people of Mesopotamia continue to live in squalor and in a crime-ridden environment.

We also wonder how the private sector feels about the rampant abuse of public funds during this financial meltdown. At $60,000 for each rep, the UDP is wasting $1,860,000. This is how desperate they are to cling to power.

One must also question where all of this money is coming from?

How can $1.8m of money that was never in the fiscal Budget suddenly appear as UDP spending spree funds? Is it existing money that has been diverted, or is it new money,

and if so, where is it from? As usual, this Government which once preached about transparency and accountability will not have a word to say.

Reports are that the use of monies has created division in the UDP. One man not too happy with the news is UDP Belize Rural Central’s Michael Hutchinson. Reports are that while he will be getting his portion, the spending will be babysitted by Edmond Castro (look who!).

Castro believes he stands a better chance in his division that Hutchinson and may very well decide to divert the amount.

Belizeans be alert! The UDP, which has broken the economy, raised taxes and made life harder, is financing its political campaign at your expense. Do not fall for their schemes, take their money, and soon, very soon, VOTE THEM OUT!

Dirty Cops Extorting Central American Immigrants Belize City, December 7, 2011 It’s no secret that there continues to be a steady influx of immigrants into Belize from our Central American neighbors. While many of these immigrants have obtained Permanent Residency or Nationality, there’s a large amount of them who remain undocumented and it appears that some “dirty cops” are taking advantage of this fact.

The BELIZE TIMES has received several reports of police officers attempting to extort money from undocumented immigrants. Those reports say that there are instances whereby “dirty cops” are randomly and routinely pulling over immigrants whom they “suspect” to be undocumented. Some reports even suggest that these “dirty cops” are visiting bars, apartments, and other places where immigrants occupy and harass them.

Though we find this corrupt and unlawful practice by members of the Belize Police Department to be most disturbing

and appalling, we can’t help but to think that perhaps, they did not receive the GOB “memo” informing that the UDP has embarked on a nationwide “Nationalization” of undocumented immigrants. As we understand it here at the BELIZE TIMES, the UDP intends to “nationalize” some ONE HUNDRED undocumented immigrants PER MONTH. Our readers would recall that before this recent “election ploy”, Barrow had announced that his Government was considering “amnesty” for approximately TWENTYTHOUSAND undocumented immigrants. That announcement didn’t sit well with most Belizeans hence, the monthly nationalization program.

E v i d e n t l y, there are some

Will Barrow announce Early Elections Friday?

Continued from page 1

the House Sitting was called for members of the House to do their usual end of year greetings to Belizeans.

Nothing of gravity has been tabled for reading, but the unexpected can be expected with this Government.

It’s almost as if it depends on what mood the Prime Minister wakes up in.

Hopefully, the Barrow Administration will at least answer the many questions they have dodged throughout the year. Minister of Agriculture Rene Montero has a lot of explanation to do, following the crises in the local onion and rice industries and the EU’s blacklisting of Belize’s shrimp. Minister of Natural Resources Gaspar Vega is yet to come clean and say what Government will do to protect the Chiquibul and other protected areas from serious exploitation. Minister of Economic Development Ewin Contreras should tell us what economic plan has been devised to rescue the economy from the shambles it is in. Minister of Elections and Boundaries John Saldivar can explain the shenanigans occurring inside the Elections and Boundaries Commission. Minister of Health Pablo Marin can come out of hiding and explain why the health sector is performing so poorly.

There are many unanswered questions for the UDP, but as usual Belizeans will be given the cold shoulder.

police officers who have decided that they will carry out a “program” of their own, an “extortion program” that is. This latest occurrence of “dirty cops” seeking to extort money from undocumented immigrants only serves to reinforce corruption in the Police Department. The welcomed departure of Crispin Jeffries does little or nothing to affect the public’s view of the Belize Police Department. Jeffries was but only one “bad tooth” and even with his removal, the Department is still terribly decayed.

Humor in UDP Politics! net

The following matters were discussed in Cabi-

That Flippin reports as Cabinet’s Santa Claus at Cabinet’s exclusive Christmas party to be held next week. The Christmas Committee, headed by Saldivar, objected. Saldivar said he wanted to be Santa Claus. When asked why, his response was that while Flipping may have the beard, he has the guts. ………………….

Cabinet members burst into laughter after they asked Finnegan if it was really true that he actually saw over 700 persons in one day. Finnegan smiled cunningly and blurted out…. “Dah di Effexor mi di talk mein”. ………………….

Cabinet has received a container load of hams and turkey along with rice all the way from Uruguay. In order to disguise where the ham came from, Dougy Singh stamped UNIBAM over the packages. ………………….

Faber was assigned to investigate how Lee Mark Chang’s Christmas Party this past Sunday had more fried chicken than children and balloons put together. A memo tabled in Cabinet discovered that when the children learnt that Barrow was visiting, they believed the Grinch was going to steal their Christmas. ………………….

Things are so bad under Barrow that more and more people have taken up residence in Battlefield Park Motel, so bad that the dog and cat and the rat the fight over the same piece of cheese. Things are so bad that you will look for a gift under the tree alright but you won’t find any, just the spot. ………………….

In other related Cabinet news, Santino has been trying unsuccessfully to attend a Cabinet meeting. So he sent Cabinet a bill for winning the Caribbean Shores. Barrow took out a pen and marked on it: “Expired Goods, Return to Sender”.

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THE BELIZE TIMES

Sunday, December 18, 2011

16 33

THE BELIZE TIMES

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Sunday, December 18, 2011

17

THE BELIZE TIMES

PUP Leader Hon. Francis Fonseca visits San Pedro, Caye Caulker, San Narciso Village, Paraiso Village

Hon. Francis arrives in San Pedro and gets on with business right away

PUP Leader acknowledges the hardwork of senior PUP supporter

Hon. Francis & PUP Belize Rural South Standard Bearer Patty Arceo embrace a Party stalwart

The next Prime Minister of Belize and Freetown Area Representative addresses members of the San Pedro business community

PUP leader greets Mr. Baldemar Graniel...

Hon. Francis shares a compassionate look with one of Belize’s future leaders

PUP Team 7 and PUP Leader Hon. Francis

PUP team visits San Mateo housing area

PUP Leader Hon. Francis addresses crowd of supporters

PUP Deputy Leader & Corozal South East Area Representative, Hon. Florencio Marin Jr.

PUP Northern Caucus Chairman, Valdemar Castillo

Former PUP area representative, Florencio Marin Sr.

...on house to house visit

Hon. Francis greets members of San Pedro’s private sector

PUP team appears on Reef Radio

L to R: Orange Walk East Standard Bearer, Dr. Marco Tulio Mendez; PUP Leader Hon. Francis; PUP Corozal South West Standard Bearer Ramiro Ramirez; Florencio Marin Sr. & Hon. Florencio Marin Jr.