BELIZE NEEDS TO GET CLOSER WITH VENEZUELA?

Map of Caribbean
President Chavez of Venezuela, revolutionary and socialist.
CHAVEZ AND HIS REFERENDUM - HE WON !

Well this now announced WORLD DEPRESSION sweeping around the globe, our little satellite EARTH, rushing around the sun in our solar system, on it’s elongated orbit, is in a turmoil like fire ants, stirred with a shoe, or stick. All the world television news is of DOOM and GLOOM. In the USA, fellow Democrat ex-PRESIDENT Clinton gave some suggestions to the new Democratic President OBAMA, to cut back on the DOOM and GLOOM rhetoric and sound more positive. Obama was fueling the fire of what does not have to be, making his excuses for poor performance early. Since CLINTON was successful during his office term, one can only hope OBAMA listens. As Churchill once said, there is nothing to FEAR but FEAR itself. ( at least I think it was him? )
On the local note effecting Belize. Our major FOREIGN AID assistance from TAIWAN seems to be in some jeopardy, as their manufacturing society on that small island is contracting like a house of playing cards that started toppling from a puff of wind. Taiwan economy has contracted some 12% the news say. The unemployed numbers are rapidly rising in the millions. PM BARROW has announced our foreign aid assistance in budgetary assistance from TAIWAN, has been cut back to $25 million Bz a year, for only four more years and then must come under review. I hope they keep the agriculture foreign aid assistance stuff going here in Belize?
On the other hand, our FOREIGN AID guy in socialist VENEZUELA, President Hugo
Chavez, has managed to pass a democratically run referendum correction, amendment, to change the Constitution of Venezuela, so he can run for the Presidency every term for the rest of his life. Chavez is on the way to being PRESIDENT FOR LIFE, like Fidel Castro did. That aside, a lot of the things that Hugo Chavez is doing, are now looking VERY GOOD, particularly now European and USA society is collapsing from GREED and extremist CAPITALISM. Last week, Chavez NATIONALIZED the STANFORD BANK in Venezuela, to protect Venezuelan savings from being transferred out of the country, by USA litigation and lawyers. The world wide STANFORD BANK has turned out to be some kind of pyramid scheme, with branches world wide. There is no Stanford Bank in Belize thank heavens. CANADA says they are having no problem with their economy, or fiscal world problems. Their bank regulatory system handled the USA, zero payment down mortgage debacle well and any bank purchases of what turned out to be a pyramid scheme of mortgage bundling from GREEDY capitalism run wild and uncontrolled did not effect CANADA. They are very strong.
All that said, it looks like we better start developing Venezuela as an economic trading partner and assistance in technical things. Even if right now it does not seem very practical. For all his socialist rhetoric over there, CHAVEZ is looking more like an angel and the USA is looking like some kind of declining dumbkopff? Obviously, we need to get some kind of direct shipping and airplane transportation to CARACAS as fast as possible. BOONE PICKENS oil and gas expert, is advising the USA big shots in the USA government, that the price of oil per barrel is probably going back up to $75 usa a barrel by the end of this year. Right now it is $35. He also said South America is way ahead of the USA in development of Natural Gas, 18 wheeler transportation trucks, which saves loads of money, foreign exchange and the use of natural gas driven heavy transportation systems. He says the USA needs to copy many of the South American countries conversion to natural gas, which is plentiful. Belize, Guatemala and Mexico all have abundant natural gas supplies. Though Belize seems to be burning off their energy in flares, from what I’ve heard and read here? Not sure what the problem is, here in Belize. There has been quite a bit of pickup truck conversions. Going to check it out and get more details as to operating and savings costs.
It also looks like we should turn to CANADA for foreign aid and economic and technical advice, more and more. They are doing well as a country and if you are going to learn anything from anybody, you obviously should be going with the winners, not the losers. So, the emphasis in our Belizean foreign office, should be on VENEZUELA and CANADA. Probably we should close the Washington Embassy and open it in Ottawa? The Persian Gulf and Oil countries seem to be holding their own economically. They’ve taken some financial losses, but apparently are well diversified to weather this world Depression storm, hitting planet EARTH.
The old cliché, or Chinese proverb “MAY YOU LIVE IN INTERESTING TIMES” seems to be effecting planet Earth as we spin, hurtling through space. All in all, Belize is not really in too bad a shape at all, compared to everybody else out there in the bigger world. Our foreign debt in Belize currency seems to be actually around $1, 300 million, or a billion and a third. That is a quarter or so less than estimates have been run on. We await official budget statistics from BARROW. We need more DEBATE in the UDP. Particularly the CABINET members. BARROW and ELRINGTON seem to have monumental EGOS and need to be confronted more by their less educated, but wiser rural practical political colleagues in debates. Our rural CABINET members need to get into the tussle of opinions more over there in Belmopan, or the RADISSON hotel, or wherever our UDP government is headquartered these days?
Robber BARON, Lord Ashcroft is diversifying out of Belize, the media are quoting him, and moving his interests over to oil based Trinidad or something. He wants a better set up, foreign exchange available locality. Be sure to give him his ball and bat, when next you see him, the game seems over? Seems like both BTL and Belize Bank are declining in effectiveness in the nation of Belize? In the Toledo District and along our Western frontier, Belizeans are getting better service out of Guatemala than here in Belize. I still think our Government of UDP should be asking for a GRANT from GUATEMALA and get them to build a road connecting Big FALLS in the Toledo District to the Peten highway system. Pronto! We need to cut that transportation distance in half, currently via Flores/Santa Elena, central Peten, from Benque/Melchor frontier through the Rio Dulce. That will BOOST our economy a whole lot, because of shorter legs and transport savings for our fledgling exports. Might as well bring in the Guatemalan telecommunications system as extensions, to serve us rural Southern and Western parts of Belize too, while you are at it. THREE FLAGS just opened a new big department store in Santa Elena town and it took one and a quarter years of building to do it. They now have THREE in Western Belize. Santa Elena Town needs a bus station, an ATLANTIC BANK building, new Town Hall, as development slips over the Macal river onto our side.
Well that is enough bilious talk and gratituous advice for this Monday morning. Have fun, life is short, as Mick Flemming of CHAA CREEK told me at the Central Farm airstrip AIRPLANE Fly-in, Sunday, when I admired his new TRIKE ultra light, 81 hp, Rotax 912. What a nice fun play toy. Wish I could justify one of those as a play toy. I’m envious. I’ve got too much SCOTCH genes in my blood though. I think I’m extravagant when I buy a $5 vegetable soup and steamed rice at the Hindu restaurant, instead of my usual lunch of $1.25 Somosa and $1.25 ginger flavored lime juice. Or $2 tostados for lunch and a $1 juice in the bank section of San Ignacio down town. Silvia and I are off to COBAN, Guatemala and Lenquin Tuesday, to see the condition of the road there and look at Hotel, or hostel building opportunities. Check out the Guatemalan bank CD interest rates. The Guatemalan economy is another strong country in this world of turmoil. Belizeans are moving into Guatemala for the opportunities to diversify and expand. Economic conditions seem very favorable. Belize is becoming very regulated and restrictive by comparison, by Belizean investors talk, who are now invested over there. Belizeans also invested over on that side are very encouraging with their experiences from the last few years. Most of the newspaper reporting from our port town of Belize City seems erroneous and totally wrong. They have some sort of fixation, or phobia about Guatemala.