SMALL COUNTRY OF BELIZE BEING SWAMPED BY INTERNATIONAL CORPORATE LITIGATION WARFARE?

The SMALL IDEALIC LIFE STYLE OF PLACENTIA IS BEING THREATENED BY CRUISE SHIPS!

( copied from the Belize Culture List Serve debating forum )

As a lawyer, straight up - not as a citizen of Belize (which I am), not as a resident of Placencia Village, not any of that.

As a lawyer. If I have a client who is worth 40 times what your entire country is worth, I really don't care if what kind of contract you "negotiate."

My client will read and interpret that contract any way it wants to.

Because what are you going to do about it.

I can drag you through the courts for 50 years - appeal after appeal after appeal, I can delay, add new causes of action, object to everything thing you say on thousands of grounds.

By the time we get through, the tour guides of Placencai today will be great, great grandparents.

In the meantime, I'll do whatever the heck I want.

Don't believe me? Look at what's happened in Belize City.

The law said 3500 passengers a day. Cruise ships didn't like that.

So they brought as many people as they wanted. So,the Belize government changed the law to 8000.

So, what.

Now, there are 20,000 cruise ship passengers in Belize City any time they want to bring them.

Why? Because the government of Belize can't or won't stop them. And the Placencia Tour Guide Associate is going to? As if.

So, please. Before anyone agrees to any "terms" of a contract with a cruise ship company. Just remember. What are you going to do if they don't hold up their end of the bargain?

You're going to just sit there and take it - just as they know you will. Because they know you can't afford hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees.

Especially since PM Barrow seems bound and determined to do away with an independent judiciary. Basically, what the national government and what the cruise lines want is what you'll get if you decide to play with them.

As I said. Straight up. From a lawyer. Consult your own if you don't believe me.