Monday, May 31, 2010

GOVERNMENT OF BELIZE REPORT CARD RAISED 5 POINTS TO 65%

BELIZE UDP GOVERNMENT REPORT CARD RAISED 5 POINTS TO 65%

Minister Melvin Hulse is a great talker. Could convince an Eskimo to buy a refrigerator. He did a masterful job in instilling confidence in the public mind about the ability of NEMO to be ready for the one or two hurricanes we expect to hit Belize this year. He was so convincing the government and NEMO was ready, we are awarding the UDP 5 points on their report card, to 65%.
There is an 82 % chance that Belize will get hit by one hurricane and a 61% chance Belize will be hit by two hurricanes this season.
The problem bottleneck is Ambergris Caye and Caye Caulker. With 40,000 residents in the two islands, it would take a month with existing transportation services to evacuate people. Most will leave it until the last day, or two days. Then it will be impossible for them to flee the islands. Any good hurricane hitting just 12 miles South of either island will see a massive death toll.
Over 15,000 of the population on the two islands have homes, or families back in the Western part of the country. Our family have seven such small homes for this purpose in Western Belize.
Well Melvin Hulse takes credit for the 5 points on LOVE FM and we shall see what we shall see about NEMO performance after the event whenever it happens.

Cabinet member Melvin Hulse is the transportation minister who could not re-route bus permits to the Western Border immigration crossing. Within 3 months, the Guatemalan asphalt paved highway will reach this immigration crossing and the new Guatemalan Bridge across the Mopan River is nearly finished, also at the border crossing. Visitors and tourists alike have to hike with luggage 2 1/2 miles to the border post from the park in Benque Viejo Town. Before the end of the year we are going to be connected in Western Belize to the Central American International paved highway system. The Yucatan, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras are inextricably bound to Belize in a developing economic partnership trading system, which is going to make our local Belize economy boom as fast as new entrepreneurs can take advantage of the opportunities.

Sunday, May 30, 2010

BELIZE - OLD HABITS OF ONE PARTY RULED STATES DIE HARD.

THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF POSTPONEMENT OF SELL BTL SHARES TO LOCALS
This weekend newspapers had a bit on the postponement of the promised selling of BTL shares to the Belizean public, due in May, last month, until after September. They say they are working on a PROSPECTUS.
What I'm interested in is; the Price Earnings ratio, the Book Value, the gross revenues and expenses, etc.
The government who nationalized the Belize Telecommunications Company did not say they are going to sell the shares, by acceptable world standard trading methods. With a BID and ASK auction, as in a stock market. We have no stock market in Belize yet. BTL would be a good company to start with. I'd be happy to act as Market Maker. Creating the SPREAD as in BID and ASK prices. Sales and the bid and ask can be quoted in the weekly REPORTER newspaper.
BTL is a company that has been sold and exchanged often with many court battles over control of the company and run by various majority owners to loot and plunder the company. Small local shareholders have traditionally got the short end of the stick, they say?
I think I would like to see BTL used as a PUBLIC COMPANY that is no longer new, no longer a monopoly, treated like any other share public company on a stock exchange in Belize. Even if it is a one company stock exchange.
Assuming you wish to give preference to Belizeans as shareholders, I would assume one would give three months or so, for them to buy at auction, bidding on shares. At the moment BTL from the outside looking in, is looking like a PENNY STOCK? Only an auction, as in a stock exchange would clear up true values of the company. By the same token the sound bites coming out of the FINANCE MINISTER/PRIME MINISTER, sound more like colonial dictatorship, with a one party state. I betcha they are going to dictate share value and price the company shares are going to be sold at? If so, I'm staying out of that outrageous scam. BTL is NOT an IPO, (initial public offering ) BTL is a known old company been around and the football of both political parties for their own advantage for a couple of decades. It is time in my opinion we go modern in Belize and start a STOCK EXCHANGE of one company and that company should be BTL.
We shall see what we shall see, but old habits of one party ruled states die hard.

Friday, May 28, 2010

Belize Number #1, Central American retirement haven

BELIZE THE NUMBER #1, RETIREMENT HAVEN OF THE SIX CENTRAL AMERICAN COUNTRIES
by Ray Auxillou

RATING THE SIX CENTRAL AMERICAN COUNTRIES AS RETIREMENT HAVENS.

Belize No. 1
Guatemala No. 2
Panama No. 3
Costa Rica No. 4
Honduras No. 5
Nicaragua No. 6
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There are those that wish to turn Ambergris Caye into a BARBADOS

Can AMBERGRIS CAYE BECOME ANOTHER BARBADOS? - NO!-

by Mike Campbell, San Pedro

With the encouragement of various other townsfolk I have delved a bit deeper into this critical issue. For the most part the Master Plan prepared by the UN for the Government of Belize in 1988 and Revised by Belize in 1992 has been used by the Authority and is currently being used by the Authority to establish setbacks and densities and general zoning in San Pedro. Many other provisions of the plan have been made into law including our present traffic plan of one way streets. The Plan was respected and used to judge the merits of permit applicants and was treated as Law by the Authority for many years through both Red and Blue governments. This continued until in recent years various large projects requested permits contrary to the Master Plan. In all cases these projects were in environmentally sensitive areas and were objected to strongly by the people of San Pedro. The projects in consideration are Reef Village, Sugar Caye and South Beach. Blue Reef was built in a designated Conservation Zone (4) requiring Low Low Density. Sugar Caye is built on seabed with mangrove described as Non Development Land. South Beach is to be built upon the 500' designated Hol Chan Buffer Zone as well as Non Development Land as designated by our existing Master Plan revised 20 Aug 1992.

Why the Authority chose to ignore the existing Master Plan for some and treat is as law for others is the subject of much speculation. The proposed master plan refers repeatedly to ecological issues and the needed to deal with them. It also rightfully declares San Pedro as overcrowded. However at the same time the proposed master plan contains maps that would indicated the intention to convert all conservation areas as well as the entire coast to R-3 and R-4 zoning and advocate more density in San Pedro Town itself. The text and the maps present diametrically opposed positions.

There is no calculation as to what increase in population those zoning changes represent nor guidance as to public services required or recommendations as to how to meet those needs. For example, zoning the coast of North Ambergris Caye R-3 and R-4 as represented would equal a population of around 30,000 on the coast of North Ambergris Caye with no provisions for public services or basic infrastructure such as roads, water, solid waste pick up or sewage treatment. The premature opening of areas for development is a recipe for environmental disaster. We must remember than most of these development related actions are irreversible. Our mistakes will be forever.

Of further interest is that the new zoning maps would change the zoning of the above mentioned properties so that these questionable developments will now be permissible where before they were prohibited by the Master Plan. Given the overall lack of detail, errors of fact, and other inadequacies, it would seem that the primary purpose of this new document is to legalize the decisions that were made concerning Reef Village, Sugar Caye and South Beach projects. I certainly hope that is not the case.

It must be said that the proposed master plan speaks out strongly against these projects but the zoning recommendations that are included paint a different picture. The land of Sugar Caye and South Beach was designated as Non Development Land. Under the new plan it is designated as Undeveloped Land which is exactly the opposite.

San Pedro is at a crossroads. We must decide whether we are going to develop in an environmentally sensitive fashion doing our utmost to conserve the reef and natural environment that supports us all or develop as Cancun and Play Del Carmen did promoting high density and accepting environmental degradation offset by massive infrastructure projects. Of course we cannot provide the infrastructure required for that type of development programme.

The old Master Plan represents an environmentally sensitive development programme and the proposed new master plan zoning plan represents the Cancun type development programme but with no infrastructure. The existing plan projected only to 2005 and needs to be updated but not in a way that leads to environmental degradation and more density. The negative effects of development are incremental. What may be ok once is not ok if repeated over and over. The effects accumulate. The speed of development cannot be faster than the speed with which we can provide more municipal services.

In order to avoid some of the problems of the past a master plan must be mandatory under the law. The past problems arise from the Authority not following the Master Plan which actually has guidelines for sustainable growth allowing only a certain amount of development each year as opposed to unfettered development. Unfettered development as practiced in the last several years has lead to deterioration of our critical construction and condo industries and degradation of our environment. Values are falling due to overbuilding and few are brave enough to start new projects in this overbuilt situation. It could take years to clear our inventory of new condos.

To quote the existing Master Plan (1992) “If we look at Ambergris Caye today we see a clear sea; wildlife in abundance; a part of the Maya past, unequalled even in our region; and a barrier reef second to none in our hemisphere. Carefully husbanded, such extraordinary wonders can be kept perfectly intact and at the same time significantly contribute to the welfare of all our people. Ecotourism and its development is the only way to achieve this.” ‘Nuff said.

We are blessed to be living in one of the most extraordinary places on the planet and have an obligation to fiercely protect it. I believe future generations and the Lord above will judge us based how well we take care of His Island.

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Ambergris Caye on which the town of San Pedro lies is a limestone shelf about 3 feet above the sea and very narrow with a lagoon behind it. In places the sand on top of this shelf brings the land height up as much as 8 feet above sea level. Any Hurricane hitting South of Ambergris Caye a mile or two, will submerge the WHOLE PENINSULAR and destroy the town by ocean waves and tidal rise of over 20 feet. Caye Caulker was an example, Goff's Caye village another example, Calabash Caye village another example. Nobody survived the latter two places. If you think you can build with hurricane proof foundations into the hollow cavern riddled limestone shelf that underlies this narrow peninsular, I invite you to see Mauger Caye lighthouse, Northern Caye Lighthouse, Half Moon Caye Lighthouse and so on. The new ZONING PLAN is designed by irresponsible idiots in my opinion. You are NOT going to be able to turn AMBERGRIS CAYE PENINSULAR into another Barbados. Just not going to happen successfully. For economic development we need to be promoting light industry on the mainland.
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BELIZE ENTREPRENEURIAL IDEA! RAFAEL SKYLITE UAV DRONE

BELIZE ENTREPRENEURIAL IDEA!

Take a look at the portable Rafael SKYLITE DRONE ( UAV ) aerial reconnaisance flying vehicle.
You could buy this, or build it in Belize. The market would be the government different departments. Mostly the Coast Guard, and the Fisheries Department.
The range of this UAV is only 10 kilometers and the duration of flight on batteries is 1 hour. Bit short for local conditions.
However, if you built a slightly larger body and wing span, out of carbon fiber like we build Ruta Maya canoes and fitted it with a fuel tank and small gasoline engine, you could probably extend the range and time in the air quite a bit. The difficulty would more be to do with line of sight radio controlled operation. Perhaps putting up a tethered balloon relay? The skills are in country to build and operate this already as planes are built locally.
To make it work, the government departments concerned, would have to deposit money in your small business account as a credit balance and then you draw on that, as they book operating hours. For search purposes, a lot of money could be saved from fuel budgets and boat engine maintainance currently incurred by Fisheries and Coast Guard.
I'd expect you would first buy one, and then import the camera, gimbals and radio apparatus for installation in something slightly bigger. Most of these things could be launched from any road.
SKYLITE have a video demo on U Tube.

BELIZE SHOULD COPY THE BAHAMAS IN DEALING WITH THE NATIONAL DEBT CRISIS!

THE NEWS JUST OUTLINED THE BAHAMIAN SOLUTION TO THEIR DEBT CRISIS - Belize probably should copy them?

The NEWS programs has just announced that the BAHAMAS will take a cut of 15% of salaries on all government employees. There will be a HIRING FREEZE! ( some emergency exceptions) The CABINET and all POLITICIANS will take a 50% cut in salaries.

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

BELIZE BUSINESS PERSPECTIVES TV PROGRAM MAY-2010

BELIZE BUSINESS PERSPECTIVES REVIEW OF WEDNESDAY May 26, 2010
By Ray Auxillou/ Cayo District

This Chamber of Commerce of the Port of Belize City television programme was going into the CROOKS POLICE REPORT and the implementation of things, from a business perspective.
The impetus for the discussion was the terrible events of civil war between entrenched gangs over in a neighboring country of CARICOM, in Kingston, Jamaica. The port city is being seen as going down the same path.
The idea is that we must do something, but what? Violence is plaguing many countries around the world. Not just the port city of Belize, a town of 80,000 people and the largest town in the agrarian nation of Belize.
One panelist said something that hit the nail on the head from my viewpoint. The whole problem is ‘social and cultural’ and is in effect a community problem. Dealing with budgeting problems of the National political police organization is not going to resolve the issues, in my opinion.
I’m reminded of the interview in the National Geographic early this year done in SINGAPORE. The interviewer asked a Singaporean, a metropolis of 4.5 million people in an island city/country/state how they could have such law and order, with such few police. The answer was that, the police were between the ears of citizens. Street police were not needed.
Which comes back to another remark from a panelist on the Belize Business Perspectives tv program. The problem is SOCIAL & CULTURAL. The problem as the Chamber discussion pointed out, was that the LAWS of BELIZE were not being enforced strictly and impartially. Blame was put on the two party political – WINNER TAKE ALL – political system of government. Another panelist said; we need to change the political system and perhaps it is time for PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION ?
First off, I’m not sure the rest of the country has the same problems as the port of Belize City. If we could change the social, community and cultural dynamics of the port town, the largest and most criminal and violent in the whole country, the ripple effect would probably change any trouble hotspots in village communities and small towns elsewhere.
Lets get to specifics! Who is in charge of the port town? Is it the Belize City Council, or is it the NATIONAL GOVERNMENT? I believe the responsibility is that of the Belize City Council. You cannot have too many chiefs, the Indians get confused. If they, the Belize City Council are short of money, perhaps they could get subsidies, or specific GRANTS from the NATIONAL GOVERNMENT. The panelists on the Business Perspectives said it rightly, the problem directly is social and cultural and they need DISCIPLINE and CIVILIZING in the port town of Belize City.
We look to SINGAPORE for that lesson, as they have had decades to develop social responsibility and now need very few police. They must be doing something right?
Start with some small steps. The port city has no police of it’s own. Police are expensive anyway. They do have City traffic wardens though. Hire more of them and start seizing, and ticketing bicycles that go the wrong way on ONE WAY streets and are without a lamp, fenders, or other necessary equipment. Sell the bicycles at auction and offset the salary costs of the traffic wardens. You start learning discipline this way. In the small things. Organize a special unit with radios to call the police to arrest and ticket anybody who litters? $200 fine is the first cost in Singapore. More offenses are given with supervised community service picking up litter. The fines can pay for the Litter wardens. Discipline again is a civilizing influence. You could rotate a 15 person unit around the port city as a group, in surprise positioning.
There was a case on television the same night, that showed the influence of politics on liquor licensing. Even the PRIME MINISTER blamed a store who retailed liquor, for the behavior of citizens with liquor when they left the store onto the public street. The retail owner explained, once they go out the door, he cannot do anything, as it is a public street. The Cabinet Minister of the POLICE lives across from the store and is totally wrong and so is the Prime Minister when he supports the taking away of the liquor license. Pure criminal exploitation of political power. Perdomo the Minister should be using his police, or the CITY COUNCIL should be calling the police to arrest such persons, who are peeing on his fence and drinking publicly. This is a City law enforcement problem. Start developing a CHAIN OF COMMAND and RESPONSIBILITY. My own feeling is the responsibility is that of the Belize City Council.
The panelists on the Business Perspectives program said it right. Enforce ALL THE LAWS equitably and always. Political preference, by bribery, influence and so forth has to change. Probably PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION in national elections is part of the answer? Creating a culture, or social discipline, is about the same thing you do when children go to school, or young teenagers go through basic training in the Belize Defense Force, or Police Academy. You provide STRUCTURE, RULES OR LAWS and enforce them strictly, and outline the clear parameters of behavior and consequences. The civilian population of the port of Belize City is not a military, or school unit, but it worked the same way in SINGAPORE over the decades. It can be done cheaply in the port of Belize City, but you need STRUCTURE and DISCIPLINE. Right now the City Council is a divided fragmented bunch of quarreling competition, each with ego problems. They need a strong leader to pull the various city employees and departments together. Right now, the port Belize City Council is part of the problem and not part of the solution.
Marijuana dealers are fined and caned with a bamboo. Traffickers of more serious drugs are sentenced to death. DISCIPLINE and CIVILIZING influences. Perhaps we too in Belize can become civilized?
If 4.5 million people in the city/state of SINGAPORE can establish a culture of discipline and policing between the ears of each citizen as a social responsibility, then so can Belizeans. Most of the young people in crime in the port town of Belize City, have had no family life, or discipline in their lives. They know not what is right or wrong as they find themselves passing into adulthood.
There are answers and they are not expensive as government institutions would have you believe. It is ATTITUDE AND BEHAVIOR!

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

BELIZE retirement real estate - FORMER HOSTEL FOR SALE IN CAYO DISTRICT

guests communal kitchen,dining area

Three story hostel annex.




The former HOSTEL known as FALCONVIEW BACKPACKERS ADVENTURE HOSTEL closed down in Fall of 2009. Ray, his wife Silvia and brother-in-law Gustavo are getting too old to run it. We are building a duplex a block away, designed suitably for old folks. There are many web sites on the internet describing this popular HOSTEL.

A good site for photos of the two rental apartments in the ANNEX is: http://stellapinzon.tripod.com/apartmentwesternbelize/

A good website with information on real estate sales can be found at:
http://www.belizefirst.com There is another story called "retirementinbelize" can be found on BELIZE NORTH website using GOOGLE.

The former HOSTEL has an inner small 400 sq.ft. house, with two bedrooms, bath and kitchen for the owners. The HOSTEL in the lower story has a living room with hammocks and currently used as a private living room for television, reading books and Silvia's weaving projects. There is also in this building an 8 bed double bunk dormitory with a shared bathroom, with three toilets, three showers and two sinks. Quite a large bathroom designed originally for the HOSTEL lower dormitory. The other side of this lower building has a large common kitchen and dining area. Now as a private home, currently used for warping weaving projects and reading books on the futon, hammock, and the weekly housekeeper also makes her own lunch in the kitchen. In the second annex building, a three story affair, is a lower floor warehouse, used for a tool room and furniture making as needed. The two pickup trucks are parked also in this downstairs lower section. This floor also has a seperate tool room and a storage room under the stairs. The second floor contains a furnished one bedroom apartment with bath, kitchen and verandah. Nice view here too. The other side of the hallway is a 4 bed dormitory and bathroom for guests. The third floor has a vegetable nursery in the photo below and an apartment of which the bedroom has been converted into a trading room with two computer desks. It has a lovely verandah with beautiful views over two valleys.
Belize is very much outdoor living. There are usually numerous papaya trees growing, a breadfruit tree, an orange tree, couple of coconut trees around the central courtyard. Around the perimeter of the buildings are dwarf coconut trees and also a cashew tree. All this on a corner 75 ft x 100 ft lot in Hillview on the slope of Green Parrot Valley. We are ten minutes from shopping. Though there is a local village grocery shop with most things urgently needed.




This nursery is on the third floor of the annex, opposite to the third floor former apartment, which bedroom has been turned into a trading room, with two computer desks.
This nursery is downstairs in the backyard. Both nurseries were part of a 3 year NGO RESEARCH PROJECT to do a book on vegetable growing in tropical Belize - the project is now finished and both nurseries when time permits will be taken down to make way for additions of some sort.
Ray on one cold morning in January when the temperature dropped into the high 60's F. Using the two computer option trading room, which was made out of the bedroom of the furnished apartment on the third floor of the annex. The beds from this room were put downstairs in storage.

Monday, May 24, 2010

Problems with the BELIZE CENSUS !

The CENSUS TAKER was at my house. ( Problems with the Belize Census )

Cute young girl with her booklets and questions. She asked what relationship I was to Wendy Auxillou and I said I was her father. She explained she had met Wendy at a Coastal Zone conference sometime. Small world Belize. Nowadays, I am not known as Cap'n Ray, the man who took some tourists, who get the daylights scared out of them by the BLUE HOLE MONSTER. I'm known by my children, or my grandchildren. Strange feeling to be a nobody, when once I was a somebody? ( grin! ) ( big fish in a little pond )
Couple of things bothered me on the CENSUS. One was religion. She asked my wife her religion ( Catholic rabid) my brother-in-law Gustavo his religion ( Catholic ), me my religion and I said MAYAN. She wanted to know what that meant and I said, I believe in the GREAT SPIRIT - Itzam Na - who created this UNIVERSE. She promptly fired back that was not a religion though. She got me there, and I was impressed by her response and repartee ( grin! ) In my spiritual views, ALL RELIGIONS are FALSE PROPHETS, as the Great Spirit I communicate with, has no religion, or church. All others who profess so, are con artists, liars, cheats and bunco artists, seeking power, money, control of some kind. To make a long story short, I was entered as having no religion. True enough I guess?
The next item was EDUCATION. I thought that query was very biased. It only supported formal ACADEMIC EDUCATION. Perhaps this education thing, should be more on how much money you have in savings, or assets you own? How do you value a life?
Let me see; I've held at one time or another. 1) A pilots license, 2) A 2000 ton Ocean going Masters license, 3) A scuba diving Instructors certification 4) Pool Operators License ( usa), 5) A HAM Amateur Radio License ( Canadian ) 6) Been qualified to fix radios and televisions back in TV black and white TV days 7 ) A MARINE ARCHITECTS certification 8) A qualified shipwright 9) A mason, 10) an electrician 11) Good small marine diesel mechanic, 12) An ocean navigator, 13) You don't get a certificate or license for knowing how to trade financial derivatives, but I've watched dozens of Ph'ds crash and burn and believe me it is a hard qualification to earn and I've done it 14) Author of couple of dozen books 15) Real Estate developer 16) Contractor for building houses and hotels 17) Primary school teacher ( Belize Teachers College of the 60's )

Anyway, to make a long story short, she persued her CENSUS booklet and it turned out I'm an uneducated moron according to the census. My wife had a Masters Degree, my brother-in-law has a Bachelors Degree in Civil Engineering, but ME - I'm just an uneducated moron. That's a CENSUS??????
I seriously think there should be a different way of valuing an education, and comparing the value - perhaps in savings accounts, or real estate assets, or number of businesses you own, or something?

At any rate, this is the first CENSUS that I have ever been counted and that was impressive!

BELIZEANS HAVE EVERY RIGHT TO BE PROUD!

BELIZEANS HAVE EVERY RIGHT TO BE PROUD!

One of the most notable things coming out of more education in Belize, is the NEW generation of Belizean people, who are very articulate, great vocabularies and means of expressing themselves. They also understand the outside world much better. You see it in primary school students being interviewed on television, certainly High School students and of course even most taxi drivers, or farmers, have a good grasp of what is happening in the world.
Some of these kids are using vocabularies which include big fancy words, dropping out of their mouths, that I can read and understand, but would in my generation never use myself, not being comfortable with such complicated words. I am constantly amazed on the television news shows in Belize how well educated these new generation of kids are. What amazes me is not only their understanding of the world around them, but the words they use, highly technical and sophisticated language, you would only expect from some Rhodes Scholar, or OXFORD graduate or something. All this in Belize.
As I grow older, I feel very PROUD and comfortable with this new generation tackling the problems of today. They are certainly more fit to do so, than my generation that tackled our problems of 50 years ago. ( I'm going on 73 years )

One of the changes that has occurred, which our old 'Belize Development Trust' project tackled, was the opening up of a restricted society to more consensus. I remember vividly the torturous years of the George Price tyranny. When to oppose, or offer an opinion contrary to his PUP, would get you brutally beaten by his police force, or persecuted, using the permit and licensing system, or other bureaucratic apparatus I watched many Belizeans flee the country into exile.
Yet today, the talk shows, television shows and the way ordinary citizens of the new generations say and explain their piece, opinion, without a second thought, to fear, terror and consequences from the political machines in Belize, just makes me feel very PROUD to have been a part of that opening up of our society and politics to contrary views, seeking consensus, instead of dictatorship. In Honduras, you can still get killed doing what we do in Belize, or in the Dominican Republic, certainly in Cuba, or Venezuela, or Ecuador.
We have achieved in my lifetime, a real democracy in Belize, without FEAR. I'm more fearful in the USA of persecution than I am in Belize and that should tell you something about democratic values. With such openness and seeking of consensus, our country for all it's small size is making great strides in working with the limitations we have in money, population, and other difficulties. The BELIZE of today is a DREAM come true, for my generation of old folk, who lived through the tyrannical years of the GEORGE PRICE PUP GOVERNMENTS. It is hard to listen to young children, or students, even ordinary folk, whose parents once lived in fear, express themselves in disagreement with bureaucratic and political party policies without comparing things with the 1960's, 70's and 80's. BELIZE is not the same place and it is in my humble opinion a BETTER PLACE than it has ever been. I think my generation can die knowing we have left a country for our children and grandchildren, which is far better than the one we had at their age. It is their duty now to fight monopolies in Belize. A job well started by my generation, but is still unfinished. The new generation also have to grasp the opportunities for world trade, which I fear many still do not understand in Belize. That was and continues to be a problem of education, attitude and a small population with which to do many things. We are making progress though. Slowly, slowly, in increments the changes are occurring. It is probably that a change to proportional representation would help make the economic commercial changes also. Consensus being better than the dictates of one single political party.
Looking back on 50 years of history, I have to say I'm feeling very proud of BELIZE these days. We are not inferior to any other country. We might be relatively poor, due to being yet an agrarian society, but with what we have, we are doing damned good.

Saturday, May 22, 2010

Obama guilty on 17 counts? USA the Banana Republic?

DEMOCRATIC PARTY OF THE USA TURN THE USA INTO A BANANA REPUBLIC?

From the outside looking into the USA, it is really wierd. I understand third hand from the gossip mill and street conversation that the court case with Columbia University in the State of New York, in a legal trial they say; found OBAMA guilty on 17 counts with the President of Columbia University. Included were fraud, racketeering, treason, and a few other things I cannot remember being told?
There is an explanation video on the internet, but I didn't see it and only getting stuff third hand.
Apparently OBAMA has used over 30 social security numbers, with dead names, fake addresses on some of them and so forth? I think I was told the court case was not so much about OBAMA, but the President of Columbia University SELLING diplomas under the table in a black market type deal? Never got that understanding quite right as I'm not that interested.
Still everything about the history of OBAMA seems to be phoney? That's the impression I get from the gossip mill. An ordinary citizen would end up in the Federal Penitentiary? In this case, the DEMOCRATIC PARTY run the country of the USA and they control the JUSTICE SYSTEM, so apparently there will be no jail sentencing? OBAMA is but the PUPPET and public voice, for a political industrial machine of rulers is the opinion I'm forming? Maybe it has always been so? Certainly a powerful country like the USA that cannot supply preventive clinics medicine to the majority of it's citizens is backward by modern standards. Don't much care, but it makes HONDURAS last year look like a birthday party.
Story I got is that Columbia University is going to search all their DIPLOMA's going back 29 years and there is talk of pulling the University accredition in New York state.
The mystery for us in Central America outside of the USA is why the cable TV main news shows have boycotted the whole trial? Not a word, not a peep! Makes one of a suspicious mind believe that the JEWISH LOBBY and voting control machine of the SENATE and CONGRESS also control all the television news stations, as has been said many times by others. So there is definitely a racketeering thing going on here, the uninformed would immediately suspect?
So, if there is no JUSTICE in the USA, no RULE OF LAW, what about the rest of us in Central America and the Caribbean, how should we act in our own countries, if the so called shining example of alleged democracy turns out to be nothing more than a typical Latin American political mafia?

Friday, May 21, 2010

Ten months work pay off in OPTIONS TRADING methodology.

TEN MONTHS WORK PAY OFF IN OPTIONS TRADING METHODOLOGY! May 21st, 2010 (Report #32)


It has taken 10 months of experimentation, research and work, to reach this successful month of May of trading. The goal now is to do the same in June options. June options start on the 24th of May and run through to the THIRD EXPIRATION FRIDAY of June, 18th.
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Report #32
JUNE OPTION MONTH STARTING 21ST OF MAY TO JUNE 19 TH ( Third Monday of May, to third Friday of June month )

TRADES: Goal is to duplicate the success of May with 16 trades entered and won. It has taken 10 months to get to this point in the evolving trading methodology. This is the June Trading Month as we go along.

Number of trades to date: 8 --- June 15th.

Number of winning trades: 5

Number of trades closed at breakeven - no win - no loss: 2

Number of losing trades: 0

Open trades pending working: 1

Percentage of total annual wins to losing trades: 100%
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Return on GROSS ACCOUNT CAPITAL is running between 3% and a little over 5% per month. Individual trade returns vary slightly.
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June trades 1) A long CALL taken at a cost of $2630 and sold at $2760 before commissions were deducted. Ran a week and was a wrong decision for timing.breakeven trade 0
trade 2) A long CALL taken at a cost of $2670 and sold at $2680 before commissions were deducted. Ran a week and was a wrong decision on timing. ( No gain - no loss -breakeven trade breakeven trade 0

Trades: An IRON CONDOR consisting of two opposing Vertical Credit Spreads. Expired end of Friday, June 4th.
a) 10 contract Weekly 510/515 CALLS @ + .50 cents June 1st - closed at Friday expiration WIN net +$460.05
b) 10 contracts Weekly 480/475 @ + .65 cents June 1st - closed at Friday expiration
(Bracketing iron condor) WIN + net $ 610 before brokerage commission costs.WIN
( $10,000 needed to take this trade ) For the two weeks trading, $15,300 used, including the two Long Calls of the week before, for a return of 6 1/2 %, or +$1000 net.
__________________________

10 monthly Option House 510/515 CALLS @30 cents limit working WIN + net $277.50

10 monthly Thinkorswim 510/515 CALLS @.45 cents limitworking WIN + net $410

10 weekly Thinkorswim 510/515 CALLS @.50 cents limitworking WIN + net $460.05

4 Sept/500 PUTS $29.70 OEX at 495 June 15th. -Option House- continue holding into next week -WORKING-
++++++++++++++++++++
JUNE OPTION MONTH ¨spreads¨ win total: + net $2217.60
2 Long CALLS lost at breakeven cost
4 long PUTS carried over into JULY option month - still working -

=============================



REPORT #31 TRADES STATUS UPDATE

MAY 21st., 2010 May Expiration Friday for options.

Number of trades to date: 16

Number of winning trades: 16

Number of losing trades: 0

Open trades pending working: 0

Percentage of wins to losing trades: 100%
_________________________________________

TAIWAN TO MAKE BELIZE RICE PRODUCING CENTER IN REGION

President Ma of Taiwan says Belize will become a regional dynamo in rice production using industrial equipment with their help. He is very satisfied with the pilot project reports.



Ma hopes to boost Belize agriculture, education
2010/05/20 17:00:37
Taipei, May 20 (CNA) President Ma Ying-jeou said Thursday that Taiwan hopes to make Belize into a rice production hub in Central America and is considering opening a large vocational training center there.

"The quality of rice cultivated by Taiwan's agricultural technicians in Belize is equal to that of homegrown rice, " Ma told Gaspar Vega, deputy prime minister and minister of natural resources and the environment of Belize, during a meeting at the Presidential Office.

"We have strong confidence that Belize can become a rice cultivation center in the region, supplying its own demand and other countries," Ma said.

Recounting his state visit to Belize last year, Ma said he tasted a Taiwanese dish prepared with rice planted there. "It was as good as in Taiwan," he said.

Ma told reporters he met Vega during his 2009 visit to Belize and that they had discussed agriculture and education.

"Currently, some 80 students from Belize are studying in Taiwan on scholarships provided by the Taiwan government, " the president said.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Government of Belize closes down backyard crude oil diesel refining through tax.

UDP GOVERNMENT OF BELIZE ELIMINATING BACKYARD SMALL INDUSTRY GASOLINE AND DIESEL TOPPING COLUMN PLANTS?

Belize produces raw crude oil. Some of the more enterprising Mennonites have started to refine a crude version of diesel and kerosene through settling columns, for use in tractors.
The Government of Belize, the word has spread, is putting them rapidly out of business, with a new tax intended to close them down.

First GREAT grandchild to Ray Auxillou





NOW GOT MY FIRST GREAT GRANDCHILD !

Gemma Natalie Caisse - AUXILLOU
Born May 11th, 2010

to: my grandchild TAMARA AUXILLOU, daughter of my son MARK AUXILLOU

Monday, May 17, 2010

BELIZE HAS UNEXPLOITED GOLD AREAS?

THREE GOLD PRODUCING HOT SPOTS IN BELIZE

Recent report by Adele Ramos on Gold Production in Belize, in the Amandala newspaper.

Belize gold potential “intriguing,” says Geologist Cornec
Rating: 5 / 5 (5 votes) Printable version Email to a friend Discuss this article
Posted: 10/05/2010 - 11:58 PM
Author: Adele Ramos - adelescribe@gmail.com
___________________________________

Geologist Jean H. Cornec, a founding director of Belize Natural Energy, which struck commercial oil in Belize in 2005, and who has done extensive work in Belize with the Geology Department (through the UN), has just released a report in which he cites specific areas of Belize – and particularly the Maya Mountains and a network of rivers and tributaries in the region – as having “intriguing gold potential.”

Craig Moore, the current Inspector of Mines, in the Department of Geology and Petroleum, told Amandala this evening, that the Cornec report, to which the department has contributed, is credible. Cornec, who is evidently trying to spark international interest in Belize’s gold reserves with his press release titled, Gold Potential of the Maya Mountains, Belize’s Best Kept Secret?, has always expressed interest in Belize, Moore added.

Dated May, 2010, Cornec’s five-page report says, “Belize holds intriguing gold potential in an under-explored region that is politically secure while offering attractive mining deal terms. Alluvial gold was first described more than 60 years ago, and fine gold flakes can be panned in numerous drainages of the Maya Mountains.”

Cornec goes on to say, “Very large portions of the Maya Mountains remain unexplored or under-explored for the bedrock sources of the gold using modern prospecting techniques. This is in part due to challenging surface conditions such as thick vegetation, rugged terrain and limited road access, as well as the lack of knowledge in the mining industry of the gold potential.”

According to the report, a number of drainages in Belize have been reported to have alluvial gold: Mopan River/Chiquibul Branch, Rio Ceibo Chico and Rio Ceibo Grande (& all tributaries), an unnamed tributary to the west of Ceibo Chico, Smokey Branch, Esperanza area, Waha Leaf Creek, Macal River (up to the mouth of Raspaculo Branch), Sittee Branch of South Stann Creek, Sittee River/Cocoa Branch, Silk Grass Creek, Macaroni Creek, South Branch of South Stann Creek and Upper Mullins River.

As our newspaper has previously reported, Erin Ventures, in a joint venture with Boiton Minerals of San Ignacio, Cayo, has been producing and exporting Belize gold since 1999. Cornec’s report claims that between 1999 and 2008, 2,300 ounces were exported. At today’s prices that gold is valued just under $3 million. This exploration work for gold has been ongoing in the Ceibo Chico Creek area.

“In addition to the Ceibo Chico/Grande/Chiquibul watersheds, independent prospecting … also confirms the presence of gold flakes and flour gold in the Macal River at Guacamallo bridge, in Smokey Branch, in the Cocoa Branch of the Sittee River as well as in the Sittee Branch of South Stann Creek,” Cornec documented.

Moore said that currently, Erin Ventures and Boiton are the only team exploring for gold in Belize.

Cornec, however, documents the historical works citing C. Dixon in the early 1950’s, D. Derry Ltd. in the late 1960’s, Anschutz Co. in late 1970’s, F. Gegg in 1980’s, BHP Ltd. and Castle Exploration in the 1990’s, and G. Boiton Minerals and Erin Ventures currently.

Of the latest venture, Cornec writes: “It produces fine and coarse alluvial gold including nuggets weighing between 0.25 ounce and 1.1 ounces. Total production for the period 1999 to 2008 was approximately 2,300 ounces, with nearly three-quarters of this amount produced over the last two years.”

He recommends high-tech surveys via helicopter to guide future exploration works.

Three regions merit special consideration, according to Cornec: the Sittee-Raspaculo area, the Mountain Pine Ridge area, and Ceibo Chico.

Moore indicated that the state of the commodities market and the risk involved with such an investment are among the factors that have kept explorations at bay.

Cornec concludes saying, “It took more than 50 years of exploration by oil companies to find the first commercial fields in Belize, and perhaps with high gold prices, the time has come for the mining industry to step up to the plate and help the country realize its hard rock mineral potential.”

Today’s spot prices for gold are US$1,200 per ounce.
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The high spots in this report are: a) The Sittee Rapspaculo area, b) the Mountain Pine Ridge area and c) Ceibo Chico.
The only operation going on successfully is the one by Erin Ventures and Boiton doing placer gold using a 4 inch portable gold dredge in the Ceibo Chico/Grande/Chquibul watershed on the North slope of the Southern Belize Alps. You can watch them work by satellite, using GOOGLE EARTH on the internet. Of interest is that the report says in the last two years, the small group of men have taken out 1725 ounces of gold from the placer watershed. At current prices this is valued at: over $2 million US currency retail selling prices at market values. Not bad for two years work!
Back 50 years ago, when I was a young man, and still experienced from panning gold in British Columbia, Canada I did check out the then known gold workings here in then British Honduras. Most, like HELLSGATE had already been worked by Canadian Gold miners a 100 years ago. I never heard of these later locations though? Except the one these guys are working with an amateurs gold dredge in the Ceibo Chico. You should use the satellite and watch them. Francis Gegg worked this area also for several years, until the previous UDP administration took his permit away from him.

Sunday, May 16, 2010

BELIZE ENTREPRENEURS NEED TO THINK OUTSIDE THE LOCAL BOX!

THIS STORY IS NOT ABOUT APPLE COMPUTER! THIS STORY IS FOR BELIZEAN ENTREPRENEURS TO THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX. YOU CAN MANUFACTURE AND MARKET PRODUCTS DESPITE THE OBSTRUCTIONS OF A SMALL ECONOMY, SHORT SIGHTED BUREAUCRATS AND OTHER HINDERANCES FOUND IN BELIZE. THINK OF THE WORLD AS YOUR PLAYGROUND. QUALITY AND ORIGINALITY ALWAYS WINS!
-------------------------------------

This message sent to the Bz-Culture Mailing List from Lan Sluder :
* Under the visionary Steve Jobs, Apple has reinvented or transformed
at least four industries -- music (iTunes and iPod), computers,
telecommunications (iPhone) and retailing (especially music retailing)
* With only 3% world market share in cell phones, the iPhone is more
profitable than Nokia, with 10 times the global market share
* With only 8% world market share in computers, Apple is the most
profitable company in the Silicon Valley and one of the most
profitable in the world, with 20% of every dollar of revenue going
direct to the bottom line
* Apple's New York City retail store is the most profitable store in
the world on a per square foot basis, far more profitable than
Tiffany's
* Apple now has a larger market capitalization than Microsoft and on
the S&P 500 is second only to Exxon Mobil
* Three men started Apple in 1976 in a bedroom, Steve Jobs, Steve
Wozniak and Ron Wayne, and Ron Wayne sold his 10% share of the company
eight months later for $800 -- if he had kept it he would have been
worth at least $25 billion
* Uniquely among international technology companies, Apple's product
ethos combines the "heart of an engineer and the soul of an artist"
* Fortune Magazine has named Apple the most admired company in the
U.S. three times, in 2008, 2009 and 2010
* Apple in 1983 was the first company to introduce commercially a
computer with a Graphical User Interface (GUI), the Apple Lisa, but
priced at almost $20,000 (in today's dollars), it was a failure
* Apple bounced back with the Mac in 1984, and the Mac remains perhaps
the only major product introduced with a single TV commercial, Ridley
Scott's famous "1984" ad that ran only one time in Super Bowl XVIII
* Apple has reinvented itself several times since its founding,
overcoming serious management, technological and product failures
* Apple has led the way beyond the manufacturing economy and the
information economy to the creative economy -- it designs and markets
its products at its huge campuses in Silicon Valley, while jobbing out
manufacturing and assembly operations to more efficient lower-wage
countries in Asia, with some engineering operations in Paris and Tokyo
* Apple is considered one of the premier marketing companies in the
world, with its focus on stylish, highly designed and even beautiful
products that also offer differential operating advantages over
existing competition
* Apple's most successful products include the Apple IIe (the longest
running computer in computer history), the Mac, the Mac PowerBook,
iMac, iPod, iPad and iTunes, but it also has had a number of failures
including Lisa, Apple III, Newton, digital cameras, TV appliances
* Apple's computer products are highly successful and highly
profitable despite having only an 8% operating system market share
* Apple has successfully expanded from being a computer company to
being a consumer electronics company
* In the worst recession since the Great Depression, Apple grew
revenues to over $40 billion, increased profits by 39%, built a huge
new campus in Silicon Valley and went on a hiring binge, adding over
2,300 employees to its 34,000-employee base

Possible lessons for Belize businesses (and businesses everywhere)?
* You don't to be huge to be successful
* You don't have to be huge to be highly profitable
* A leader with vision can make all the difference
* Strong, even breakthrough marketing is vital
* Creativity and design make a huge difference
* You can't be "just as good as" the competition -- you have to offer
a real differential advantage
* If you fail, reinvent yourself
* Constantly innovate and introduce new products and services
* Don't limit yourself to just one field or industry
* New ideas can transform companies and entire industries
* Don't give up -- success may just around the corner

Saturday, May 15, 2010

SELLING SUGGESTIONS FOR ADVERTISING IN BELIZE

I received this photo in an email, from a friend in Germany, suggesting this would be a good way of selling things in Belize. This photo is of some green NIKE shoes advertised at the Masters Tournament in the USA.


How to sell advertisement

ELECTRICITY STATISTICS AND INVESTMENT IN BELIZE.

ELECTRICAL SUPPLY IN BELIZE NOW ADEQUATE FROM LOCAL PRODUCTION SOURCES!



TV news says Belize now producing 117 megawatts of electricity.
That the peak usage is only 76 megawatts. ( May, 2010. )
BEL says they are buying from the cheapest sources. Didn't say whether they are off the Mexican buying grid now ?

PUC says BEL still owes customers around $40 million for overcharging on fuel adjustment payments going back a few years.

Glad to see the PUC being proactive with the BEL and Fortis scams in bookkeeping.

Windpower studies at Hillview show it is impractical to use windmill generation of electricity in Belize. Most nights are without wind. Blows hard sometimes most afternoons this time of year, but the rest of the time, the wind is nothing, or light.

BELIZE HAS THE HIGHEST ELECTRICITY RATES IN IT'S CENTRAL AMERICAN REGION - 7 countries -

Thursday, May 13, 2010

BELIZE BUSINESS PERSPECTIVES DEALS WITH THE EPA for the European Union

Belize BUSINESS PERSPECTIVES TV PROGRAM


The week of May 12th, 2010, saw BUSINESS PERPESTIVES TV program, re-run an old program based on the EPA, or trade agreement with the European Union.

I learned some new things from the program this week.

1) First of all, I thought the EPA was almost exclusively to do with bananas and in that I was interested to find out, I was wrong.

2) It was interesting to note, that government bureaucrats on the program BUSINESS PERSPECTIVES were saying that Belize can sell anything they produce to Europe free of QUOTAS and FREE OF customs duties. Just like any other EU country. The fly in the ointment is; we opened our markets to EU products on a duty free basis, when our government needs any customs duties to increase government revenues. The other part is that Belize literally produces nothing of anything to export to Europe, other than bananas and sometimes raw sugar and molasses. We have no factories or manufacturing plants. This is an agrarian country. The EPA was a one sided deal in the favor of the EUROPEAN UNION, to open our market for their manufactured and food processed goods. Our country is too small and should we produce something like RUM, JAMS, JUICES, the one container load we are likely to be able to ship from our small population, would not even supply one single department store in the very smallest European Union country.

3) I did get some ideas though and the BIG TROUBLE is our FOREIGN AFFAIRS department bureaucrats and TRADE department individuals, while complaining on the program, that the PRIVATE SECTOR are not taking advantage of the EPA, have not fully explained, or disseminated ideas of trade with the EU; that entrepreneurs could take advantage of. In fact, the bureaucrats on the TV SHOW were adamant that their role is only to negotiate foreign trade deals like the EPA with Europe, but not to do any nitty gritty scut work in developing processes and ideas for the private sector.. What I would ask them is some specifics. Like; is there a market for packaged sugar cubes for HOTELS under a Belize BRAND? Can we import in BULK from nearby countries like Colombia, Guatemala and so forth, some product like different coffees and then ship them and sell them in EUROPE under Belize Packaging and BRAND names? There are lots of similar questions entrepreneurs could ask the Foreign Affairs and Trade people in Belmopan, but they did not seem to have any answers. Plus they are impossible to get a hold of.

4) Why not contact the Foreign Affairs bureaucrats for information in Belmopan? It is impossible. The telephone system in Belmopan does not work. You can NEVER telephone anybody in a government office in Belmopan our capital. Why not drive there and waste a day going to see these same bureaucrats. It doesn’t work! Been there, done that! They lie like hell in the Belmopan bureaucratic offices and secretaries constantly tell visitors that some big wig is in a meeting. Or same big wig is out of the country. The net result is nobody in Belmopan want to work is the impression anybody seeking assistance from the Belize government bureaucrats get. I’ve even caught them in their lies and found supposedly people in meetings, or supposedly out of the country, were in fact jollying and chatting with friends in other offices. The whole concept of work in Belmopan is a charade. This man for one, is not going to waste his time going to Belmopan, or telephoning offices in that central government.

5) There has to be a way for FOREIGN AFFAIRS and TRADE departments to have public seminars on doing business with the EU using this EPA, and coming up with ideas on how we might as entrepreneurial Belizeans go into the bulk importing and repackaging brand name business. There should be debates on the costs of importing and re-exporting, that one has to go through as well. The red tape bureaucratic costs of the Belize government is very high, making many business ideas impractical.

BELIZE DEBT RACKET BY FOREIGN LENDING INSTITUTIONS

FOREIGN LENDING INSTITUTIONS – BELIZE DEBT RACKET!

Foreign banks and other lending institutions that lend money to the Government of Belize are running a racket to keep the BELIZEAN GROWTH, or GDP foreign exchange earnings, enslaved to interest payments.

This is an old racket going back for fifty years that I know of. It is talked about in many books. Unfortunately, Belize is a small primitive country and do not know the games that foreign banks and lending institutions in the USA and Europe are playing with them

The secret of foreign banks and lending institutions, is that they want INTEREST to be paid on their loans to our Belize Government. They will lend more loans, to ensure that you can keep the interest payments coming. The PRINCIPAL is not wanted. Just the foreign exchange in interest payments.

The interest payments are intended to skim the foreign exchange that Belize earns through their government loans interest payment requirements. In other words, like many third world small countries, Belize is a slave state; a commodity crop ;producer of foreign exchange, reaped in interest payments..

This is practiced by Europeans and the USA on countries around the world. Latin American countries have huge debts this way. They can NEVER pay off. Only Dictator of CUBA, Fidel Castro beat them off at this game.

If the PRINCIPAL part OF LOANS is NEVER paid off, the loans can be continued in perpetuity. The Balance Sheet SCAM is about burying the non-paying loans as performing assets on a foreign bank, or lending institution. It is not a liability of the foreign lending institution. So long as a country like Belize pays the interest, even if the bank or institution has to lend you the money to pay the interest, there is NO LOSS needed to show on the annual reports of these foreign lending institutions. These BAD LOANS can be shown as ASSETS on the balance sheets. What happens to FOREIGN BANKS and LENDING INSTITUTIONS, if you were to default, is that their game would come crashing down on them and cause them big trouble. Most such foreign lending institutions and foreign banks do not have the CAPITAL RESERVES to cover such BAD LOAN write offs. Belize itself is small potatoes, but if Belize were to default, perhaps there would be a DOMINOE EFFECT throughout the Caribbean and Latin America and then the BAD LOANS would become trillions and break any foreign institution, and at the least require them to reduce available capital as they put aside RESERVES to cover bad loans.

Let me use an analogy. If you have a $1000 to invest in stocks, from your savings, you would be allowed to buy $1000 of stock in a company as an investment ( GAMBLE ) plus another 50% on MARGIN. MARGIN is a hidden loan. If the price of the stock goes up, you make money on your original $1000 savings, plus the MARGIN 50% which you borrowed at a small interest rate. Good deal right? If though, the stock goes down in price, you get a margin call. This means you have to cancel the investment with borrowed Margin money and also subtract the value of losses from the $1000 cash you originally invested. You could end up with only $200 back from your savings of $1000 that you invested.
The foreign banks and lending institutions work like that also. The PRINCIPAL part of any bad loan you owe them, in a country such as Belize, can be shown as an asset and improves the balance sheet of the lending institution. Giving them on the books a net worth far in access of the hidden loss of a bad loan. If they can just keep meeting the margin calls, by loaning you more money to pay the interest on the bad debt. Should you default as a country, the edifice comes crashing down. Because the foreign lending institution, or bank will have to write off the interest, plus the debt, but worse from their viewpoint is that their balance sheet will lose value, their shares will go down, the stockholders will complain and there will be a run on the bank. Should more countries follow suit then loans in Latin America and the Caribbean could conceivably cost the value of lending institutions and banks to drop en masse by the TRILLIONS. Liquidity is the problem. That was just experienced in the recent housing bubble special US mortgage packages. If one bank goes, many will go bust. That will mean a big hit on the economy in the USA, Great Britain, or other EU countries. The more successful lending institutions, will have RESERVES to cover such bad loans, like Belize loans has outstanding, with them. Most don't! They have a liquidity problem because they are using the additional interest to pay interest loans to governments, to hide and bury non-performing assets. This allows them to inflate their value on the balance sheet and speculate with more money, which in of itself is MARGIN money costing interest.
I didn't explain this very well, but you get the idea that there would be a general collapse of any country banking system, that had outstanding loans in Latin America and the Caribbean, if countries started to DEFAULT. No government either in the EU, or the USA will allow this to happen if they can help it. Threats, invasion by military forces, coup d'etat's, blockades and other strategms would be made by governments to protect their inadequately capitalized banking, or lending systems. As a general bank failure, or series of them, would threaten their economic stability. In the USA the FDIC guarantees an account holder up to $100,000 but they do not guarantee more than that, and even small countries like Belize have FOREIGN NATIONAL DEBTS in the billions of dollars to banks and lending institutions in the USA. Some of these banks and lending institutions during the recent similar crisis just past, were considered too big, to allow to collapse, as the effect on the economy of the USA would have been horrendous.

In the specific case of Belize what is needed is some BANKRUPTCY LEGISLATION covering FOREIGN LOANS that the Belize government has borrowed. In the USA and Europe they have many types of BANKRUPTICY avenues to explore. I’ve heard of Chapter 7 and Chapter 11, type situations, but am not familiar with them. As a last resort the US government covers such cash shortages in that country, of institutions they support, like the IMF and the WORLD BANK. BELIZE NEEDS legislation to allow government bankruptcy under different conditions, regarding any government foreign loan borrowing it cannot pay, because the lenders have continued to lend to the government, even when they know they cannot pay, or the loans exceed the whole annual GNP.

It is the PRINCIPAL of the LOAN that foreign banks and institutions do not want to see endangered. They will go to great lengths to keep Belize and other countries paying the interest. Even if it means continuing the indebtedness through further loans to pay the interest. The bad loans in countries like BELIZE need writing off and the lending foreign institutions need to be forced by this to raise up their RESERVES to cover write offs.
Bankruptcy laws are intended to put the onus also on the lending institutions. We have no legislation in Belize that so safeguards our own government from these rapacious sharks and their BALANCE SHEET swindles. We are still VICTIMS!

BELIZE SHORT OF SCHOOLS FOR 11,000 CHILDREN

11,000 PRIMARY SCHOOL AGE CHILDREN IN BELIZE HAVE NO SCHOOLS TO GO TO !

A recent statistical study ( May, 2010 ) revealed that 11,000 primary aged children have no schools in which to attend. There is a huge shortage of schools and the population growth is increasing faster than the Government of Belize can meet the need.

For those outside the country, one has to understand that Belize has one of the highest Foreign Debt to GDP ratios in the world ( 110% to GDP ) and a full quarter of government tax revenues go only to pay interest on foreign loans. Over the next few years the foreign debts are expected to increase to half of government tax revenue. Taxes are always rising and new taxes are being created constantly. It is never enough. Belize is a rural agrarian country.

The school system inherited from Colonial times of Great Britain rule, was a CHURCH STATE system. By this we mean, all kinds of religions were invited and are still invited into Belize, to buy a piece of land, build a school and after 3 years performance, the owners of any whacky religion, or private investor group, can get 80% of their teacher salaries paid for by the Ministry of Education. The Government of Belize itself, has very few actual government owned schools. The demand for school seats is always larger than the supply.

The government has no money to build schools. Indeed, it is only recently that some preventable diseases like cholera and malaria are being brought under control. There are many demands on the limited financial resources of the small country of Belize.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

COMIC BOOK DONATIONS WANTED FOR BELIZE ENGLISH COMPREHENSION PROJECT.

donations of USED COMIC BOOKS WANTED in Belize!

We would like to get oodles of used comic books donated to our village in Western Belize. These would be installed in the local library and used to teach primary school students English. We are a multi-cultural and multi-language country. The comic book, which does not exist in our country, is a great leveler and teacher of English and vocabulary and English comprehension. If we can just get some?

If you can help contact me!

hillviewhacienda@yahoo.com attention: Ray

We want them sent to the local public library. Santa Elena Public Library, Western Cayo, Belize, Central America

THE TRADING CASH FLOW MACHINE! ( 4% return per month )

THE TRADING CASH FLOW MACHINE!


May 10, 2010

CASH FLOW TRADING MACHINE RESULTS!

MAY 10TH., 2010

Number of trades to date: 13

Number of winning trades: 9

Number of losing trades: 0

Open trades pending working: 4

Percentage of wins to losing trades: 100%
_________________________________________

THE LOWEST RISK, EVOLVING TRADING SYSTEM ( Results are average 4% per month returns so far.)

I was looking for the lowest risk trading system possible. In ten months, we have tried numerous things and discarded anything that had regular losing trades as part of the methodology.
What is evolving is a LOW RISK, TRADING MONEY MAKING MACHINE!
What is the actual risk I am not yet sure? We haven’t lost anything yet.
Some statistics can be extrapolated from trading so far:

1) The trading method is earning an average of 4% on invested capital / per month.
2) That means $10,000 will earn $ 400 gross profit return per month on average.
3) Dependent on the size of your account, you can judge whether you will have enough money on a monthly basis to use as an income flow.
4) This is gross income, and I have not yet found an accurate figure for USA income tax payments. But these seem to be between 28% and 30% per year off the gross income.
5) Annual income would be on average, 48% per year of capital invested. Income tax would reduce this to a gross income of 48% per year, to a net income FLOW OF 33.6% of capital invested, return on capital.
6) There are several things involved in RISK MANAGEMENT. To get the lowest RISK PROFILE, the available account capital to trade on a per month basis is divided into 8 trades. This is called diversification. The individual return on capital per each trade varies, dependent on the part of the month the trade is implemented. More diversification of trades can lower the 4% gross return on capital invested somewhat. Concentration of trades into fewer choices increases the profit profile but increases RISK. Some months; the opportunities only allow 6 trades, leaving some account money unused for that month with which to trade. This lowers the return slightly. This is your typical HEDGE FUND on a small scale, system.
7) INCREASING THE PROFIT monthly profile, requires changing the risk profile and increasing RISK.
8) There are two ways to increase the PROFIT PROFILE. The first is to consolidate the 8 diversification trades into only 3 trades per month and place these at the early part of the monthly trading strategy, when the premium gap is largest. You can get increased profit return, over 5% per trade this way. This of course increases your risk of loss from concentration.
9) The other way is to increase your number of contracts traded on a per trade basis. Or more selectively throughout the month. We are working on this study.
10) It would seem that $250,000 would be a comfortable trading account to work with? The particular market I am trading, which is the OEX CASH INDEX is very liquid and can absorb this amount and the gross return would be $10,000 per month. Or $120,000 per year, GROSS.
11) For larger amounts of money, you would have to go into parallel cash indexes, or stock screening and run a number of parallel trading operations at the same time.
12) This cash machine utilizes ALL your capital each month. It is a monthly / weekly trading system.
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Money Management business ideas? ( Just thinking out loud with the typing fingers! )
It would not pay to manage less than $100,000 of somebody else's money and I'm not sure at this stage of the game, I would like to handle more than $300,000? At the moment, I can scrape up around about $140,000 of our own family money, possibly some more if I want. This money is intended to fund THE SAINT RAYMOND BENEFICIAL CHARITABLE TRUST, a family trust intended to supply EDUCATIONAL GRANTS for Belizeans into the future. What this endeavor is seeking, is a way to establish a very LOW RISK way of supplying a CASH FLOW SUPPLY to the Charitable TRUST management team, to issue out in EDUCATIONAL GRANTS on the local scene.
The other things is: With an expected annual return of 33.6% NET PROFIT per annum, ON CAPITAL INVESTED as a money management business, I would not want to offer more than up to a 20% return to a private client, and have him, or they, assume any risk in a contract for any possible losses. I keep anything over the net of 20% net profit, or rather, the Charitable Trust would. It's still not much money, for the trouble? Also have hopes of training some Belizean traders in the methodology to eventually work for the SAINT RAYMOND CHARITABLE TRUST, as a funding method for the CHARITABLE TRUST.

Sunday, May 9, 2010

BELIZE BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES ARE ENDLESS!

CHANNEL 5 LETS LOOSE WITH A BLOCKBUSTER OF AN ITEM FROM COSTA RICA PRESIDENTIAL INAUGURATION.

Turns out that Costa Rica SECOND BIGGEST TRADING PARTNER is CHINA, the mainland.
When you think about it, with a Pacific Coast port it makes sense. Helluva good development for such a small country.

The thing is, what can Belize do to copy them? I was thinking of all the new sausages and meat products coming out of BULL RUN MEATS FACTORY at 63 mile on the Western Highway. They are experimenting and doing a wonderful job. I love their chicken breasts, their breakfast sausage links and have tried their Polish sausage. This is TOP QUALITY STUFF. They have lots of stuff they are producing.

Sausages are a good way to preserve meat, by salting, and by smoking and so forth. It is also a good small home cottage industry, cooperative style industry for small farmers, or sausage producers. I suppose it wouldn't take too long to produce enough smoked, or preserved sausage to ship a CONTAINER to CHINA. Possibly from the Pacific port of Guatemala. We may be a small population and a small country, but the COSTA RICA experience indicates that MAINLAND CHINA will buy all the meat products we can produce. They should as they have billions of people.
Now all we need is a meat product that can take 90 days in shipping to CHINA. The business opportunities are endless.

BELIZE WESTERN AGRICULTURE NEWS!

WESTERN BELIZE AGRICULTURE NEWS

Thiessen Family at Spanish Lookout have branched out into tankers of liquid fertilizer. They are selling small amounts. They claim to have played with the fertilizer adjustments for local conditions for several years and are confident they offer a good product for sale now.

There is a Ko-ox Meat Shop, but haven't been able to find that yet in the TWIN TOWNS. Went looking on Saturday.

Playa del Carmen, Mexico tourist centers, importers of food products are now subscribing to Belize Ag Report, to get food prices for their clientele, to order from Belize.

Bissy nuts they report have a helluva lot more caffeine than coffee. Also called COLA nuts, guru nuts and such in Africa.

Recommendations are niche organic foods are the proper certification market for many small Belize producers. A 4 year process.

Early signs are that the DOW, or stock market in the USA and around the world will drop badly this Fall. Maybe down to the 8000 Dow level? In a double bottom. Too early yet to know for sure, but by August we should know. If so; TOURISM WILL HAVE A VERY BAD WINTER SEASON coming. Prepare for it and SAVE some money to carry you through. The following year and thereafter should be good though.

Somebody is recommending a cross between the Canadian potato and the tropical Yam.
It is called an AIR POTATO. Haven't seen or tried it yet. But highly recommended by Jenny Wildman, at spectarte@gmail.com

Interesting article on different vegetables. We have switched from leaf lettuce to Mustard Lettuce almost exclusively here in Hillview. Tastes like yellow mustard, but grows well all year round. Have two varieies so far. The leaves are not like Tropical Emperor leaf lettuce a local favorite in season, used for hamburgers, but bigger and thicker and some varieties a little hairy. Makes good healthy salads though. We eat it regularly as it grows year round well. Big leaves. The iron is needed for my vegetarian wife.

Goat herds are expanding and producing milk. Bought some pepper hot goat cheese yesterday. Very good from a Colorado origin Mennonite, back of Spanish Lookout. He had different varieties of cheese to sell. Claims his two motorbikes were stolen, by his workers he thinks, back on his remote farm. He was hitchhiking and I gave him a ride.

Citrus Juice Factory, the general public are hoping against hope, that the small growers CGA will not destroy, or bankrupt the factory, now they have majority control of the BOARD OF DIRECTORS and chase money and greed to their own advantage. History doesn't stand well on this though. The history of Belize is rife with busted Cooperatives that have been destroyed by groups like the CGA.

There are 300 acres of Jatropha Curcas grown in Belize. It is a high energy fuel substitute oil made from seeds. Produces in first year. I would like to see more AG Report news on how to produce the fuel for diesel engines small scale? The photo in the Ag report looks like my ornamental Elephant Ears???

Sugar Cane ethanol is a viable small scale farmer business in Belize. Some farmer making 25 gallons a day a few days a week, could supplement their income. The AG REPORT are talking nonsense with $150 million USA for a factory plant. You can do this cottage industry style, like a Mennonite for less than a $1000 usa investment.

Citrus Factory is producing citrus waste cattle feed pellets which will be mostly sold and shipped to the Dominican Republic.

CACAO FEST to be held in Toledo district by the jungle Maya April 30th, to May 2nd. You like chocolate, it is the place to go.

BELIZE RECEIVES SCHOLARSHIPS FROM JAPAN, RUSSIA, COLOMBIA, SPAIN AND THE OAS.

BELIZE TO RECEIVE EDUCATIONAL SCHOLARSHIPS FROM RUSSIA, JAPAN, SPAIN, OAS AND COLOMBIA.

Newspapers this week are full of government advertising scholarships to foreign countries. The Russian one is for post graduate work. The Japanese are offering Bachelors, Masters and Specialist scholarships. Spain and the OAS together are offering five Bachelor scholarships, Colombia is offering ten scholarships in Spanish.

The Russian and Japanese scholarships require you take learning courses in the appropriate language.

GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOODS ARE REDUCING WORLD POPULATION?

SCIENTISTS OF RUSSIA, FRANCE AND AUSTRIA say that GM Foods are population control.

Scientific studies are showing that genetically modified foods are going to reduce WORLD POPULATION this century by defects.
The science is showing in hamsters and guinea pigs, that GM FOODS are interfering with the reproductive capacity of animal organisms. Starting from the 3 rd generation, and by the 5th generation, the gene system goes awry. The reproductive capacity of animals eating genetically modified foods, reduces the capacity and even stops it, from reproducing.

An article in greater depth of these scientific studies can be found at http://www.salem-news.com April 26th, 2010.

The Russians are particularly adamant about foods being altered by Monsanto. Studies so far have been to do with Gene modified corn and soy beans. My wife says we will not eat anything to do with soybeans anymore. So far, in Belize we still have native corn, it is believed.

Monday, May 3, 2010

BELIZE INFLATION VERSUS TAX RAISES !

BELIZE INFLATION VERSUS RAISING TAXES!

by Ray Auxillou, May 2010.



Belize has this horrendous national debt. Ordinarily this results in hyper inflation. Because Belize is an agrarian country and the poorer class of population, either grow their own food, or can afford to buy local produced food. The hyper inflation has never been realized in Belize yet. Governments around the world, DREAD the idea of inflation. It can do more damage to a country like Belize, than a Guatemalan military invasion.

Still, when economists around the world keep saying any government can handle around 3% of GDP as a debt load, but 10% is really pushing it into the inflation danger zone, we in Belize with our 107% of GDP debt load should be paying attention to what the UDP government are doing.

All kinds of warning flags from Iceland, to Spain, Greece, Italy and Portugal are going up over in Europe because of increasing national debt loads. The European Union have a bad case of it, because while they print a common currency, the EU dollar; the individual countries control their own economic budget policies. Human nature will take the course of the small producers socking it to their big brothers. The same story is found in the Citrus Growers Association, of the Belize Citrus Industry. Sort of a mini-Europe. It got so bad that the big few citrus producers pulled out and refuse to pay the debts of the couple hundred small producers. The current crisis in the EU is over who will pay for those countries overspending? Should a sober well managed productive rich country like Germany, cover all the lesser badly managed countries debts? This may break up the European Union, or force a joining into one managed German economic Central Bank package for Europe?

In Belize, the debt versus raising taxes question has been answered. The UDP will raise taxes instead of reducing the debt through austerity and better management.. Indeed, you can predict quite well, the raise in the GST over the next dozen years incrementally, until it gets over 25% GST. You can see it coming, because our two political party system are delivering a SOCIALIST GOVERNMENT, bigger than we can afford. It is always the case in socialist governments, as nice as they are; with freebies and services for every group under the sun. Makes for a nice country in which to live. The debt continues to increase though, as all the revenues go to support a BIG SOCIALIST GOVERNMENT. This results ultimately in INFLATION, destroys savings, eventually destroying both the economy and the people making up the nation of Belize.

One answer is to increase GDP and in the past in Belize, this is mostly done by population growth, a lot of which comes from people immigrating into Belize for the nice life. There has been a floating number of new industries, but ultimately, GDP growth through export light manufacturing production will have to take a different course than at present. This is the only proven method of increasing growth. The Prime Minister recently established a THINK TANK of academic educated people, to give him options and ideas. Not a bad idea. Though he sounds a lot like a frantic flailing drowning man, clutching at straws to stay afloat.

There has been a lot of political rhetoric about some big financial institution buying off our troublesome bonds at a concessionary interest rate to us. I doubt our bond holders are going to give up such a lucrative interest bonanza? At least not without a serious shock. That shock being a DEFAULT of the SUPER BOND.

INFLATION is the big bogey in all of this. Ask Hugo Chavez? When inflation starts escalating, things will go down hill, very fast.

We have choices, but like GREECE, it doesn't look like our politicians can make them. Said Musa, the last Prime Minister chose austerity and it worked. Dean Barrow the new Prime Minister has chose increasing taxes as his methodology.

Sunday, May 2, 2010

BELIZE CITRUS INDUSTRY NEWS NOW GETS COMPLICATED!

Citrus Industry News


No! That is the answer to your question about achieving peace and harmony.

The CGA have a mountain of debts, ( tens of millions of dollars ) but control 51% of the Board of Directors of the new FACTORY. Built with Eastern Caribbean money. $60 million thereabouts. It remains to see if they wreck the factory or not? By themselves the CGA do not provide enough fruit either to operate less than 10% of the factory fruit requirements. Lots of wicked variations coming into play over the next couple of years with the FACTORY. Must have the investors from Barbados shitting in their pants. They the investors, get a finished product supply to sell and make a profit on and they also want the dividend. CGA members are not going to get either of those, as they do not produce enough and still have a mountain of debts in the tens of millions, they cannot pay, based on their membership production. Big producers have fled the CGA and formed their own association. My bet is the CGA will eventually be forced to sell their shares in the FACTORY. In the meantime, expect the CGA membership to use the BOARD OF DIRECTORS to bleed the FACTORY dry of all revenues, in an attempt to pay their debts.
The big former Belize Citrus producers have fled the CGA under current elected officers and have their own legal Association. They are the major suppliers of fruit to the FACTORY. They even have their own first step in establishing their own factory, for whole fruit cleaning and shipping, but not in added value processed juices. They also are active in seeking their own markets. The business has split! The BARBADOS investors will have to seek a way to get control of the CGA shares to get a majority vote and control of the Board of Directors, to stop their investment being ruined by a plague of small growers in the CGA, who supply less than 10% of the crop to the factory. Or the new Belize citrus Association can buy 10% of the CGA shares to vote in tandem with the FACTORY Barbados investors 49% and put the industry back on a profitable footing. You can expect the CGA now in control of the FACTORY BOARD of DIRECTORS to loot and plunder the FACTORY earnings, making the BARBADOS INVESTORS very unhappy.
The only asset the CGA have is their voting control shares of the FACTORY, versus a mountain of debts. The tussles ahead will be the debts of the CGA versus their share ownership control of the FACTORY. Somehow either the BARBADOS investors, or the new Belize Citrus Association will have to buy some of those CGA shares. You can expect CGA creditors to sue for ownership of those CGA shares, if the CGA cannot pay off their debts as in bankruptcy.
Lot of twists and turns to come in the development of the CITRUS INDUSTRY in BELIZE.

--- On Sun, 5/2/10, MEL wrote:


From: MEL
Subject: Bz-Culture: CGA Update
To: bz-culture@psg.com
Date: Sunday, May 2, 2010, 2:59 AM


This message sent to the Bz-Culture Mailing List from MEL :
I saw that the CGA held its AGM. So, is the in-fighting over? Everyone friends now and ready to move on with business?

MEL

From Amandala:
There is an extraordinary quiet in the Citrus Valley tonight, after the 2010 Annual General Meeting of the Citrus Products of Belize Limited (CPBL) was convened at 1:30 Thursday afternoon. The representatives of the Bajan minority shareholder, Banks Holdings, did not show up, as had been expected, and were instead represented by Derek Courtenay, SC, who voted via proxy for Banks’ 46% block of shares.

After a string of correspondence between the CGA directors and the attorney for CPBL demanding its new directors be registered, following a court ruling asserting their absolute right to replace and remove directors, CPBL CEO, Dr. Henry Canton, former chairman, Mike Duncker, and Frank Redmond, were replaced by Denzil Jenkins, Rosella Zabaneh, and Antonio Zabaneh, who CGA had been trying to get on the board since last July – months ago.

While the big story has been about the control of the industry, the weightier news tonight is that the audited financials of the country’s premier citrus exporter confirms that the company suffered an $11 million loss for the financial year ended September 31, 2009.

Consequently, no dividends were declared at today’s AGM, and the directors agreed to launch feasibility studies for all the lines of products the company produces, from its citrus concentrate line to the cogeneration facility. The call was made by the CGA, which has expressed concerns over the performance of the company. The report of that feasibility study should be tendered to shareholders within four months.

Why so swiftly did the CGA seek to have the resolution passed? In response to this query, Jenkins told Amandala that the CGA has been concerned that the company has been showing a trend of losses.

“It is very much in the interest of the growers’ investment company that they have the kind of feasibility study to be carried out, to be able to assess the performance and viability of the various lines of operation,” he explained.

In relation to the dispute over the directorships of the company, the three directors who had held their seats on the CPBL board - in the face of moves from the majority shareholder, Citrus Growers Association, through its Investment Company Limited - and refused to vacate their seats, did not resist.

According to newly inducted CPBL director, Denzil Jenkins, CPBL CEO, Dr. Henry Canton, was “very cordial” when he and two other new directors, Rosella Zabaneh and Eugene Zabaneh, paid a courtesy call on him Wednesday morning.

CGA has 51% ownership of CPBL and is entitled to appoint five of the nine directors. Banks is entitled to the other four. CEO of CGA, Henry Anderson, had today been appointed as a fourth new director for CGA on CPBL’s board, to join Charles Woods, who gets an additional tenure. Patrick Polack is out.

Even though they were not present, Banks is keeping its same four directors: Allan Fields, Richard Cozier, Dan Stoute, and Bob Ramchand.

Asked by our newspaper if there is any indication that Banks had staged a boycott, Jenkins said, “I would want to say it was.”

Jenkins said that they look forward to a future where, working along with the investor partners of Barbados, they can move the company ahead for the benefit of all the stakeholders, employees and growers, as well as Banks Holdings.

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Saturday, May 1, 2010

BELIZE CRIME NEWS AND NEW INTERNET SERVICES

THREE CRIMINAL AND POLITICAL CORRUPTION RINGS IN THE NEWS THIS WEEK.

Automobiles stolen in Guatemala are being brought across the border into Belize illegally and there is a ring in the Belize City Council run TRAFFIC DEPARTMENT that has false papers, rubber stamps and the whole works, run by a UDP campaigner tv news say. Traffic Department manager has gone public on TV, with 4 vehicles that have not paid duty, did not enter the country legally, has not paid licenses, insurance and customs duties, etc. Says the license plates are issued fraudulently, etc. Says he knows about it, but the criminal gang within the TRAFFIC DEPARTMENT are UDP politically protected and he has not been able to fire the criminals. He tries, but the politicians hire them back. Biggest one was a very expensive TOYOTA bullet proof 4 door, 4 wheeler. Says he doesn't care if he is fired over this or not, but he is supposed to be an HONEST MANAGER, but expected to keep his mouth shut. UDP will get a lot of corruption heat over this in general elections. If there are any other decent new choices in the next election, UDP will lose over this. Village Council elections went overwhelmingly to INDEPENDENT candidates. PUP are striking out.

Customs BONDED Container supposed to have gone to the COROZAL FREE ZONE, in a convey of two container trucks from the port of Belize City to Corozal. First truck with guard arrived in Corozal Free Zone but the second container, was emptied enroute, never went to the Corozal Free Zone, but delivered back empty to the Customs compound in Belize City. Government says it is ordinary CONTRABAND SMUGGLING merchandise. Container was inspected in the port before sending out in truck convoy. The driver is being questioned by police, but the criminal organization has to involve at least 5 to 7 people in the Customs Department compound in Belize City? Government ripped off about $18,000 in taxes.

Can't remember the third item, offhand. Getting old ( 73 ). When it comes to me will post it.


Assorted scams and con games being reported on TV, but usually individual crime in government offices of the bureaucracy, embezzlement mostly, not directly related to the politiboro MINISTERS.
____________________________________________

Stopped by CENTRAL CABLE TV office over in San Ignacio yesterday. Asked them the progress of their internet viable cable. They said they had reached San Ignacio Town side of the river from Bullet Tree village and were laying cable inside San Ignacio Town. Would get to my house in about two more months. They are offering 256 kbps for $190 a month and 512 Kpbs for $290 a month already. Think I will budget for the $190 a month one, and see if that will allow me to operate my brokerage software from Chicago, online? For my financial services enterprise. Otherwise I can live with SMART slow stuff. I have a target of two months anyway for moving from hypothetical trading to CASH business. Presuming everything continues to go alright. NO LOSS trading!

CENTRAL CABLE TV is the only new customer services via internet service in TWIN TOWNS and environs. Neither BTL or SMART are offering anything and are not taking any more customers for what they have, as their bandwidth is oversold. Expat friend told me yesterday she could not get SMART broadband, as they were not taking any new customers. BTL also in past week, are not offering any new broadband internet service, in our Santa Elena Town area, of any kind.
We need price competition apparently between BTL and CENTRAL CABLE TV for service? I would prefer BROADBAND as that from SMART works fine, EVEN when the electricity goes off and I use battery operated computer. Just inadequate speed and bandwidth. The only drawback with CENTRAL CABLE TV will be that it will go off, whenever BEL cuts electricity. At the moment SMART is the only game in town, slow as it is, in my section of Santa Elena Town ( Hillview ). They dropped their price to $55 per month, for a claimed 115 Kbps. I will probably have to have both CABLE TV internet and SMART broadband wireless dialup, to keep uninterrupted service, subject to electrical brownouts. Anxious for CENTRAL CABLE TV to arrive here at my house. Given up on BTL and think I will not buy any stock in the company if and when it is offered for sale. Does not seem like a winner to me? Non competitive company under government nationalization and Board of directors of party appointees. They are incompetent in my view?