BELIZE and World fishery species going extinct rapidly.

GLOBAL FISH STOCKS ARE EITHER EXTINCT, OR ALMOST EXTINCT, PAST THE POINT OF RECOVERY IN SEVERAL HUMAN LIFE TIMES !
by Ray Auxillou, Nov. 2011.

The most favorite profitable fish stocks around the world have collapsed. Since 1952, when the beginning of massive modern technological search and find, fish methods have improved, to meet the growing demand for sea food for a rising world population, now 7 BILLION people and still rising. The value of sea food has risen so high that more and more modern technological fishing methods have been invented. In the short term, multi-millionaires have been made, by fishing declining fish stocks to extinction. By the same token, what was once self sustainable fisheries using simpler means have gone extinct. The Blue Fin fishery of the Mediterranean is one, the COD Fishery off New Foundland is another. Fisheries that lasted for centuries, using artisanal methods of fishing for over 600 years that we know of, have gone extinct. When I say extinct, I mean GONE! Gone forever, with recovery now impossible, in the lifetimes of several generations of humans to yet be born, that we know of. The fishing has been so technologically intense that fish stocks of most commercial species have been brought below the level needed to rebuild the fisheries. The gene pool has been decimated.
The most visible examples within Belize are the Spanish Mackeral fisherey of the Northern half of Belize, migratory silk snapper, mullet, conchs and also the Grouper stocks. Quite a few other migratory types of fisheries are also now GONE in Belize, FOREVER, for more than an expected two hundred years, if ever there could be any slight possibility for them to come back and restore the narrow migratory, or narrow, environmental ecological stocks that were once common in tropical Belize during colonial times? There is some question about that too?
World wide, when the scientists recommended minimum quotas for endangered declining fisheries, the politicians in support of votes and jobs, quadrupled and quintupled the amounts of the quotas in order to solicit votes for the short term election cycles. Fisheries regulations, again world wide were made, not necessarily strong enough to restore declining fisheries, but even so, the regulations were for the most part a placebo to satisfy NGO´s and public opinion. Political needs for jobs and short term pressure, resulted in non-enforcement, not only in Belize, but around the globe.
Today, 90% of global commercial fish stocks once so common, harvested by a smaller world population, around 3 billion, when Belize was still a colony called British Honduras, have gone beyond HOPE of any recovery. Human population and pressure has risen also in the last 50 years, from 3 billion people to 7 billion people.
We better invent a futuristic food replicator machine that can make articial food, because the oceans and seas of the world are no longer viable producers of sea food.

THE CURRENT GOVERNMENT APPROVAL RATING IN BELIZE IS 8%

THE CURRENT RATING OF APPROVAL FOR THE UDP GOVERNMENT OF BELIZE IS A DISMAL 8%

OR HOW THE PRIME MINISTER OF BELIZE PUT A SPIN ON DISASTEROUS MANAGEMENT AND TURNED A SOWS EAR INTO A SILK PURSE!

It is only partly because of TWO INCOMPETENT NATIONALIZATIONS OF THE BELIZE TELECOMMUNICATIONS COMPANY. A FARCE THAT WAS SOAP OPERA IN ENTERTAINMENT BY THE LOCAL MEDIA. IT WAS LIKE THE UDP GOVERNMENT WAS RUN BY LAWYERS WHO WERE ACTING LIKE KEYSTONE COPS, A BLACK AND WHITE COMEDY SERIES AT THE BEGINNING OF THE 1920´S. Slapstick comedy of errors.
If the best laid plans of the Lawyer controlling the government, as a MAFIA DON of a gang called a political party of fools could go astray, and his ex- lawyer -wife on the government payroll in charge of things. Then they went astray! The two of them would not listen to the other lawyers in their CABINET apparently? Talk about a headstrong couple. A simple thing like a NATIONALIZATION? The company being nationalized was stripped of everything valuable that could be moved by the private owners, before the nationalizations took place. A not too bad outcome, considering the INDEPENDENT ARBITRATION OF VALUATION, puts the company at nationalization at $71 million, versus the $300 or $500 million claimed by the previous private owner. If the HEAD LAWYER couple, running our legal government affairs had planned this, it would be to their credit. Unfortunately it seems to be a side effect and luck of the draw? TWO attempts of THEM at nationalization and then they didn´t do it right. They just could not get it legal and had to resort to GOVERNMENT FORCE AT THE POINT OF A GUN. The third time around, was a Consultation Process intending to change the CONSTITUTION OF BELIZE to make it retroactive that the TWO nationalizations that were not legal, being prevented from being challenged on the basis of it is now retroactive LAW that you cannot question the NATIONALIZATION acts. The Consultation process led into a political show and parade around the nation, of a mockery of a consultation, and was nothing more than a political party BOMBAST and RHETORIC display.
Amazing to see the brass balls on our lawyer PRIME MINISTER, but he was trumpeting in the Parliament how his actions were the best thing to happen to the CONSTITUTION of BELIZE, since Johnny Cakes, egg, a fillet of fried fish, and a slice of Dutch cheese was adopted by the campesinos of Belize as breakfast fare. I believe he echoed Winston Churchill, with this is "Belize´s Finest Hour." That´s astute politics of course, turning his most disastrous mistakes into seemingly something good. Of course memories are short anyway, and knowing that, if you tell a lie long enough and often enough and loud enough, history will probably record it as so. Joseph Goebbels proved that in Nazi Germany a long time ago.
IN THE MEANTIME DURING THESE MONTHS AND MONTHS OF HOORRAH, NO WORK HAS BEEN DONE BY THE UDP GOVERNMENT ON DEVELOPING THE COUNTRY OF BELIZE AND IMPROVING OUR DEMOCRACY BY NEW LAWS, OR CHANGES TO THE LAWS TO MAKE OUR ELECTIONS MORE EQUITABLE, CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM, ELECTORAL ROLL REFORM WITH REPRESENTATION, NO PASSING OF BY-LAWS FOR PLACENTIA AND OTHER LOCAL GOVERNMENTS TRYING TO GET ON WITH THE BUILDING OF OUR NATION, BLOCKED BY A BUNCH OF OBSTINATE BLOCKHEADS IN OUR CABINET. Most of who are blindly following their party leader, like LEMMINGS jumping off a cliff in Alaska someplace to their deaths. Why OUR Minister of LOCAL GOVERNMENT ( NAME UNKNOWN ) has not yet acted on the Placentia Council´s request for reading of their BY-LAWS as required by law to make them legal, in one of our Friday House sittings, is a mystery untold by our media. Investigative reporting by our media, PAAAH!
Instead of building our democracy, all we get in our FRIDAY PARLIAMENT house sitting is braggadocio speechs, about how great he is, and how wonderful his leadership, while the urgent legislation needed to improve our working democracy is ignored, in the interests of his BOMBASTIC oratory, trying to convince people his actions are supreme in intellect and action. WHAT A JOKE! WHAT A COMIC FARCE! It wouldn´t be so bad, if he and his party would tend to REAL BUSINESS. In the meantime, in another week, his party government APPROVAL RATING will be cut 5 points from the current 8% for FAILURE TO PASS THE BY-LAWS requested by the PLACENTIA TOWN COUNCIL. Pretty soon, the UDP will be in negative territory as to public approval. LUCK beats all intellect and since the OPPOSITION ARE STILL DISORGANIZED, it even looks like these KEYSTONE COPS comedy routine will even win another 5 years running our government. C´est la vie! Can you take Belize government seriously at all?

ASIAN SEEDS FROM THAILAND GIVE THE BEST GROWING RESULTS IN TROPICAL BELIZE

Best seeds for organic plant growing in Belize are ASIAN varities. Thailand vegetable seeds are awesome. You can make heirloom seeds in Belize, it takes about three years. Since this is new to growers in Belize, people are still experimenting and there is not much cross talk on results. But native heirloom seeds seem the best results so far and not GMO like some people want to do.




"you can bring in garden seeds no problem if they are not a big amount. i'll actually bring them for you. If you want to ask Baha for a permit, they will issue you one as long as the species are not on the CITES list. The permit is usually about 50 bz. I have had my corn seed taken once at the airport. They were Not GMO. Belizebamboo.com, 2000 acre farm that i founded. I grew just about anything you can think of organically. Asian heirloom varieties do best in belize. Thai varieties are awesome. think outside the box and dont just plant brocolli and carrots. baker creek heirloom and native seed search are 2 of my favorite seed companies. hope this helps.

BELIZE HISTORY OF OIL GEOLOGY EXPLORATION

** Producing oil in Belize ***


HISTORY OF OIL GEOLOGY EXPLORATION IN BELIZE

Taken from the Belize culture listserve debates.

The laws governing licenses for exploration of oil and gas are some of the most liberal in the world. Total footage of nearly 250,000 ft were, drilled and about 6,000 line miles of seismic surveys were conducted. Besides this, aeromagnetic, gravity, and geological mapping were done. Photogeomorphological interpretation, morphological studies from toposheets, and landsat imagery studies also were carried out. Shallow seismic surveys for the sea bottom were carried out in parts of southern Belize offshore. Forty exploratory wells and eight shallow stratigraphic holes were drilled. The depths of the exploratory wells ranged from 3,500 ft to 16,000 ft. A number of wells never reached the target depth (see Table 1), and in most of the wells production casing was not lowered and conventional testing not done. The depths of the shallow wells, which were for structural information, ranged from 1,990 ft to 2,843 ft in an area covering a few square miles. In the northern Belize, where 24 wells were drilled there are live oil shows in many of the wells. One of the wells in the DST gave a 60 ft oil column of 32 degrees API.

Shell was the first company to obtain an exploratory license as far back as 1938 and carried out geological surveys on the ground and photogeological studies with the help of aerial photographs obtained from a contract with Fairchild Aerial Surveys Inc. The outbreak of World War Il in 1939 saw the end of exploration by Shell Gulf was awarded a license obtained through one of its subsidiaries in 1949. The license covered the entire country and its territorial waters comprising 12,600 sq miles. Six years later in 1955 Gulf drilled the first wildcat at Yalbac on an "anticline" which is exposed and defined by photogeological studies.

In 1956 and 1957 Gulf, which entered into a partnership with Shell in 1957, drilled four more wells in northern Belize. In 1958 Gulf transferred its ownership to Bandini Petroleum Co., which in turn assigned its rights to Phillips. In the same year, Gulf drilled four more wells, and Phillips began its exploration activity in southern Belize by drilling two wells on land in 1959.

In 1961, Phillips drilled the deepest well in Belize, in the southern offshore, named 1 Palmetto Caye 1. The fourth well, also in the offshore, was drilled in the same year. In the next year, Phillips drilled three more wildcat wells, which turned out to be wells drilled for stratigraphic-structural information. Phillips drilled its eighth test well in southern Belize on land in 1963.

In 1967, Shell now called Belize Shell Development Co., in agreement with Phillips, drilled two wells in the offshore on two islands. Gulf, Phillips, and Shell carried out surface geological, photogeological, aeromagnetic, gravity, and seismic reflection work. other notable companies which contributed significantly are Anschutz, Exxon, Chevron, and Placid.

Anschutz drilled its first exploratory well in northern Belize in 1972. Six more wells were drilled in nothern Belize in 1972 and 1973 by Anschutz, whereas Chevron commenced drilling an offshore well in 1974. In 1977 Exxon drilled two wells in southern Belize, one offshore and another on land. Exxon drilled one more well on land in southern Belize, and Anschutz drilled two offshore wells. Placid drilled four wells on land in northern Belize during 1981-82. The present position is that most of the offshore area up to the territorial waters is helcl by Central American, Pan American, Anschutz, and Petromar.

There are two areas covering about 840 sq miles vacant in the offshore, the northern one formng part of the advertised areas of northern Belize. The advertisement appeared in Oil & Gas Journal in four of the issues of March and April 1982. All the advertised areas have been awarded to some oil companies (see Fig. 1). Very soon a few areas are likely to fall vacant, and these would be open for bidding.
Regional geology. Belize, which forms a part of the Yucatan platforrn, fits into the North American plate.

The Polochic fault which separates the Caribbean plate from the North American plate bisects the Gulf of Honduras near the southern boundary of Belize. Belize comprises broadly three geological provinces: the Maya uplift, the Belize basin in the south, and the Corozal basin in the north (Fig. 1).

The Belize basin is the eastern extension of the Central Guatemalan basin referred to by different authors as the "South Plateau basin" and "Chapayal basin." The Belize basin extends further east into the Bartlett trough. The Corozal basin is the eastern continuation of the North Peten basin. The Corozal basin also is believed to be the western continuation of the Yucatan basin in the Caribbean. According to one view, the May Uplift and the Cayman Ridge are structurally related. The reflection seismic work suggests the presence of a northnortheast trending arch, apparently the continuation of the Maya uplift which appears to separate the Belize basin from the Corozal basin.
Stratigraphy. Southern Belize : The stratigraphy of the Belize basin indicates that Jurassic clastics overlie the "basement" comprising the Paleozoic rocks. The Cretaceous is predominantly a carbonate section with dolomites and limestones and very little evaporites. Clastics are also present in the Cretaceous. The Tertiary includes a lower clastic section and an upper carbonate section.

Northern Belize: The Corozal basin comprises a carbonate section with anhydrites in its lower part. The lower carbonate section is essentially a dolomite, whereas the upper secton consists of dolomite and limestone. There is a thin clastic section overlying the "basement." Both paleontology and palynology indicates a Maastrichtian age for rocks a thousand feet from the surface. There appears to be very little Tertiary and Quaternary.
Structure. The Maya Mountains are described by earlier workers as a "horst."

The total sedimentary section is more in the Belize basin, and the Teritary is quite thick compared to the Corozal basin. There are clastics in both Mesozoic and Tertiary. There are practically no evaporites, but thin salt is present. Basic lava flows of probable Late Cretaceous age are present in the section. There appears to be a deep trough filled with sediments bordering the coast in the offshore. Seismic sections show structures to be gentle, but drilling of wells showed a surprisingly different picture. There is undoubtedly repetition of the section in some wells and an enormous thickening of the section over a short distance indicating the presence of faults with large throw. According to one view the laramide folded belt of Guatemala extends into southern Belize. So far, however, no folding and thrusting is reported from the outcrops in the southern flanks of the Maya Mountains.

Compared with the Belize basin the structure of Corozal basin is simple. There seems to be a high separating the basin into two -- the western and the eastern parts. The western part of the basin dips gently northwards and northwestwards into the Peten basin. The eastern part dips very gently eastwards. The entire basin is sliced by easterly heading north-northeast to south-southwest trending faults, which according to the photogeomorphological and landsat imagery interpretation, have left lateral strike slip movements.

One view is that the strike slip movements are post-Laramide. Folds in this basin are either associated with the strike slip faults or are drag effects of the normal faults. This basin appears to have experienced only epei rogenic movements after the element of granites which were Late Palaeozoic and Early Mesozoic. The structures are thus likely to be Late Tertiary in age and naturally are younger than those of the Belize basin.
Petroleum geology. The oil shows in the Belize basin are in the dolomite section below the Tertiary clastics.

This dolomite is believed to be the equivalent of the Coban formation. The fact that this basin is the eastern continuation of the Southern Peten ' basin of Guatemala where commercial oil is found, the oil shows on the surface and subsurface, and the presence of favorable reservoir facies and cap rock and anticlinal structures strongly suggest that once exploration activity picks up discovery of oil would not be a far cry away.

Most of the wells drilled in the Corozal basin have live oil shows in the anhydite-dolomite section. Very few dead oil stains are found in wells above this section, suggesting that there is no escape of oil and that anhydrite has been an effective cap rock. Wells drilled in this basin are largely based on either gravity anomalies or geomorphological features, or at best on the poor seismic data. So it is possible that wells were not located on the highest part of the structures.

In one case, at least, it was agreed that the well was drilled just at the oilwater contact. In another well there were oil shows for about 1,100 ft below the first anhydrite, which appears to be a regional cap rock. Another well drilled east of this across a fault had about 600 ft of live oil shows but in a lower stratigraphic horizon.

The main problem in Corozal basin is that seismic data are very poor. Any serious exploration in this basin cannot be undertaken without first getting good seismic data. The poor quality of seismic data is due to the near surface conditions like the Karst, presence of marshes, jungles, numerous streams and creeks, and to some extent subsuface conditions. The sonic velocities show good contrasts, and, so once suitable parameters are chosen, it should not be difficult to obtain good records. The stratigraphy shows a quite good number of breaks-basement-basal clastics, alternations of anhydrite and dolomites and dolomitelimestone. These interfaces should be good reflectors.

Once structures are delineated by good seismic there is no doubt that oil would be discovered in commercial quantities in this basin. Incidentally, this basin is the Eastern continuation of the North Peten basin of Guatema where oil is reportedly found.
Conclusion. Belize has one of the most liberal petroleum laws. It has a stable and democratic government, and the people are law abiding citizens. External threats do not exist any more. Belize thus has one of the most congenial investment climates. All geological conditions required for accumulation of oil are present. The country is very near the United States, which happens to be (1) the biggest consumer of oil in the world, (2) the largest importer of oil from the Middle East which is so far away, and (3) technologically the most highly advanced nation in the world of petroleum. It is in the interests of both the United States and Belize that U.S. companies should find oil in this country where already a large investment of the U.S. citizens
Belize activity
NORTHERN BELIZE

Well Company Spud date Completion date Total depth
1. Belmopan-1 Anschutz 2/23/72 3/30/72 2,760 ft.
2. Belmopan-2 Anschutz 5/14/73 6/12/73 2,717 ft.
3. Belmopan-3 Anschutz 3/5/75 3/27/75 2,085 ft.
4. Blue Creek-1 B.H. Gulf 4/4/58 8/12/58 10,515 ft.
5. Hil Bank-1 B.H. Gulf 8/20/56 10/2/56 6,550 ft.
6. Lemonal-1 Anschutz 5/26/72 6/28/72 5,775 ft.
7. London-1 Anschutz 8/4/72 9/19/72 2,222 ft.
8. London-2 Anschutz 6/28/73 10/10/73 4,490 ft.
9. London-3 Anschutz 10/28/73 1/5/74 6,657 ft.
10. Orange Walk-1 Anschutz 10/18/72 12/28/72 7,970 ft.
11. Orange Walk-2 Anschutz 11/23/74 2/3/75 4,600 ft.
12. Pachagan-1 Placid 5/12/81 7/20/81 8,620 ft.
13. Rancho Creek Placid 7/29/81 9/6/81 6,544 ft.
14. Rancho Dolores Anschutz 4/13/72 5/18/82 5,180 ft.
15. Remate Placid 2/25/81 5/6/81 7,704 ft.
16. Retaliation B.H. Gulf 12/2/57 2/18/58 3,800 ft.
17. Roaring Creek B.H. Gulf 10/4/57 11/4/57 2,683 ft.
18. Sandhill B.H. Gulf 3/5/58 5/9/58 5,042 ft.
19. San Pablo Anschutz 4/18/75 6/13/75 3,455 ft.
20. Shipstern Placid 11/24/81 2/8/82 6,246 ft.
21. Tower Hill-1 B.H. Gulf 10/23/57 3/8/58 7,298 ft.
22. Tower Hill-2 B.H. Gulf 5/28/58 8/18/58 7,102 ft.
23. Yalbac B.H. Gulf 1/10/55 6/20/55 9,005 ft.
SOUTHERN BELIZE
1. Machaca Phillips 7/20/59 11/5/59 7,872 ft.
2. Monkey River Esso 1/25/79 2/16/79 3,507 ft.
3. Punta Gorda Phillips 2/1/59 6/14/59 10,750 ft.
4. San Jose Phillips 7/6/63 7/30/63 3,453 ft.
5. Temash Esso 8/3/77 11/14/77 9,274 ft.
OFFSHORE
1. Basil Jones B.H. Gulf 9/7/58 10/31/58 7,322 ft.
2. Coco Plum Phillips 10/12/61 4/5/62 9,860 ft.
3. Garbutt Caye Phillips 4/10/62 5/10/62 5,834 ft.
4. Glover Shell 1/6/67 2/2/67 3,147 ft.
5. N. Coco Plum Phillips 6/1/62 6/23/62 5,712 ft.
6. Palmetto Caye Phillips 2/24/61 10/6/61 16,005 ft.
7. Seal Caye Esso 3/16/77 5/24/77 10,322 ft.
8. S. Garbutt Caye Phillips 5/12/62 5/30/62 5,520 ft.
9. Spanish Lookout Anschutz 2/28/79 6/21/79 13,023 ft.
10. Stann Creek Chevron 12/31/74 2/23/75 6,081 ft.
11. Dangriga Anschutz 3/6/82 4/15/82 6,520 ft.
12. Turneffe Shell 11/9/66 1/13/67 7,004 ft.
NORTHERN BELIZE



Nature

Well "Basement" depth of "basement" Status
1. Belmopan-1 2,700 ft. Black shale Live oil shows
2. Belmopan-2 2,650 ft. Black shale Live oil shows
3. Belmopan-3

Live oil shows
4. Blue Creek-1 10,006 ft. Black shale Dead 8, live oil shows
5. Hil Bank-1 6,102 ft. Black shale Dry hole
6. Lemonal-1 5,490 ft. Black shale Live oil shows
7. London-1

Dry hole
8. London-2

Dead 8, live oil shows
9. London-3 6,550 ft. Granite Dead 8, live oil shows
10. Orange Walk-1 7,927 ft. Granite Dead 8, live oil shows
11. Orange Walk-2

Dead 8, live oil shows
12. Pachacan-1 8,070 ft. Granite Live oil shows
13. Rancho Creek 6,194 ft. Granite Live oil shows
14. Rancho Dolores

Dead 8, live oil shows
15. Remate 7,600 ft Granite Live oil shows
16. Retaliation

Dry hole
17. Roaring Creek 2,667 ft. Black shale Live oil shows
18. Sandhill 4,757 ft. Black shale Dead 8, live oil shows
19. San Pablo

Abandoned due to H[2]S
20. Shipstern 5,990 ft. Granite Dead 8, live oil shows
21. Tower Hill-1 7,267 ft. Granite Dead 8, live oil shows
22. Tower Hill-2 7,040 ft. Granite Dead 8, live oil shows
23. Yalbac 4,481 ft. Black shale Live oil shows
SOUTHERN BELIZE
1. Machaca 2,258 ft. Macal shale Dry hole
2. Monkey River

Dead 8, live oil shows
3. Punta Gorda

Live oil shows
4. San Jose

Dry hole
5. Temash

Dead 8, live oil shows
OFFSHORE
1. Basil Jones 7,270 ft. Granite Dry hole
2. Coco Plum

Dead oil
3. Garbutt Caye

Not drilled to carbonate


section
4. Glover 2,660 ft. Granite Carbonate section cut off
5. N. Coco Plum

Not drilled to carbonate

section
6. Palmetto Caye

Live oil shows
7. Seal Caye 9,680 ft. Macal shale Dead 8, live oil shows
8. S. Garbutt Caye

Not drilled to carbonate

section
9. Spanish Lookout

Live oil shows
10. Stann Creek

Dead oil
11. Dangriga

Dead oil
12. Turneffe

Drilling stopped in basic lava flow. Sedimentary section likely to be below.

BELIZE DEBT RATIO DEBATE AND THE ECONOMY GOING FORWARD

BELIZE DEBT RATIO DEBATE AND THE ECONOMY


If the World Bank is right. Then the DEBT to GDP ratio by now is around 90%.


It took Said Musa, a whole 5 year term of austerity to drop the Belize Debt to Gdp ratio from 120% to 76% and among other things cost him the election. Even presuming current figure is 90% for debt to GDP, The next government coming in, is faced with a choice. Continue the way we are, with a rising Debt to GDP ratio and the current level, if 90%, is already past sustainability point. Or go into another 5 year austerity package? Or say screw it, just take the hit. Make all the lenders take the hit, like the EU has decided to do with GREECE and will presumably eventually do with Spain and Italy?

Look at it this way. The lending banks internationally have few places to put money. They are awash with it. Many are investing in African farm land. For corporate farming for their countries. That is high risk too. Zimbabwe has a debt to Gdp ratio near 300%. Argentina has proven that institutional lending memory is either short ( about 3 years ), or the pressures of having to put money to work, overcomes any memories of taking a loss, or hit among countries that are bankrupt, in which they contributed anyway. Since a political term is a 5 year term in Belize, we have been unable to reduce it to 4 years against the wishes of the pirate political parties so far. So if you have a 5 year term for politics. Do like Argentina, and DEFAULT, let the lending banks take their hit, properly as they should. BELIZE is self sufficient right now economically, without any debts to pay. What would it matter, BELIZE would boom just like Argentina did, with all that loan money forgiven and written off and available to put back into the economy. After three years of being unable to borrow abroad, you would be back with the lending institutions sending salesmen again, to lend you new money, anxious to enslave the economy of Belize again.


From: innovate belize
To: Wendy Auxillou
Cc: Ray Auxillou ; "bz-culture@psg.com"
Sent: Friday, October 28, 2011 10:38 PM
Subject: Re: Bz-Culture: Questions for the Belize economy.

If go with the data from the World Bank in 2010 it was
$1,431,500,000.USD

http://data.worldbank.org/country/belize



On Fri, Oct 28, 2011 at 4:34 PM, Wendy Auxillou wrote:

Really? Belize's GDP is more than 2 BILLION BZ$? Sounds incredible to me.

--- On Fri, 10/28/11, innovate belize wrote:

As of March 2011, Belize’s total national debt (both external and domestic) was U.S. $1.0156 billion, an amount equivalent to approximately 75.3% of GDP.


On Fri, Oct 28, 2011 at 1:16 PM, Ray Auxillou wrote:

1) What happened to the drug tablet business that was in Boom? There was some legal trouble with the USA by the owner, but otherwise it seemed a winner?

2) What does a Board member of BTL get paid?

3) What is the current Debt to GDP ratio for Belize?

Rambling thoughts on the 171% DEBT RATIO OF BELIZE

Until somebody factually corrects me, I´m going to assume our DEBT to GDP ratio is 174%?

That said, with the GREECE DEBT ratio being 187% or something and the EU government have decided that all BANKS owning GREEK BONDS, will have to do a BOND SWAP taking a 50% cut in value. They say that will reduce the Greek debt to 120%, though they also say that in two years the GREEK DEBT will still grow to 142% if nothing else is done. The 50% cut in the BOND SWAP recommendation is insufficient in my amateurs position. They can´t make it on that.

Argentina led the way, by doing a 100% DEFAULT on their debt, and ever since, by relying on their own resources they have been BOOMING along with the economy growing by leaps and bounds.

Anything over 35% of GDP as a debt ratio is basically unsustainable. The foolish people and bankers who lend money to bankrupt countries are responsible for their own HIGH RISK taking. They should lose their investments and gamble in my opinion. The trouble for bankers in the international realm, is the world is awash with trillions of trillions of dollars that is losing value, unless it gains some interest. The amount of interest to stay even varies from country to country. But still you can´t bury your money in the ground, or a vault, without it losing value.

The IMF are no solution at all. They are nothing more than muscle men for the bankers, who come in and break kneecaps and put governments and countries in the hospital to collect, or continue to try and collect bad debts. They are enforcers. Under the IMF the government employees would be cut by 2/3´s.

Unless DEAN BARROW is smarter than I think he is, then I assume he has been borrowing money from all and sundry and plans to DEFAULT after he gets re-elected. I see no other solution to his actions. Ashcroft has also said it. Belize will default! If our DEBT TO GDP ratio is indeed 171%, then of course it is unsustainable and we will be best to DEFAULT in total. Without borrowing outside money, we can survive like Argentina did and probably BOOM as well.

As a civil service employee, it behooves such educated people to start a small export manufacturing business as a back up plan. If worse comes to worse, you will definitely need it.

BELIZE DEBT TO GDP RATIO AROUND 74% - BEST 7 MONTH OLD GUESS? or IS IT 171%.?

Old economic figures for the Belize Debt to GDP ratio, back in March 2011, about 7 or 8 months ago, was 74% thereabouts.

Now if this is true? Then at least to MARCH of 2011, the UDP party in control of the one party government in Belize, with no meaningful OPPOSITION PARTY has done very well in maintaining the level of debt that Belize has. Much of the debt, mainly the SUPER BONDS are not allowed to be cashed out. So Belize is burdened with around $65 million a year in interest rate pàyments, is as I understand it. With a working revenue budget of around $850 million in revenues. Would be available to update this data if we could get it out of the TOP SECRET CLASSIFICATION by the Government Minister of Finance. Alas, he will not do so. We have been complaining for the three years he has been in office. Frankly, nobody knows what to believe anymore. If this is true, it is unlike our PARTY LEADER controlling the government would classify this economic knowledge TOP SECRET CLASSIFICATION ( he is also Finance Minister! ). So, we would view this number as SUSPICIOUS! The reason being, if the number at 74% was true, he would be bragging all over the place of his achievements, since he is steadily borrowing. It would be indeed a positive, proud thing to brag about. Holding the TIDE back so to speak. He isn´t bragging, therefore I highly suspect he is lying and manipulating the economic data. After all, our Prime Minister, party mafia don, is no shrinking violet, when distorting and making seemingly bad things, seem like heroic deeds he is responsible for.
Maybe I mistakenly divided out the percentage of debt, by wrongly reversing the numbers? In which case the Debt to GDP ratio would 171% of GDP? Which makes more sense?
________________________________________________

One of the simplest things the Central Bank of Belize can do to have a positive impact on the GDP and to serve the unbanked is to
allow mobile money.

http://www.mobile-money-transfer.com/global

If Digicel-Scotiabank brings its SMS‐based money transfer system that allows individuals to deposit, send, and withdraw funds using their cell phone to Belize it could be good for the GDP . Similar systems with the permisssion of the central bank has worked wonders in places like Kenya.
http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/digicel-scotiabank-will-be-first-reach-10000-transactions-goal-set-haiti-mobile-money-1368954.htm

Jamaica is working on a mobile money policy framework. I think the Governor of the Central Bank should take a look at mobile money as it relates to Belize.
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20100919/business/business3.html

BELIZEANS SWEAR BY NONI AS A HOMEOPATHIC MEDICINE

*** NONI fruit ****
Noni fruit makes a homeopathic medicine.

The fruit is used in Belize as a homeopathic medicine. We got an old plastic yogurt container, half full of mashed up NONI fruit from our cleaning lady. Taking a spoonfull morning and evening. Anything that tastes so bad, just HAS TO BE GOOD FOR YOU? A neighbor grows it in her yard. We are going to plant a seed and see if we can grow it. Wife and brother-in-law, down with a heavy FLU, decided to try it. I chose to try it, as a preventative. So far, it is working for me anyway. To cover the flavor, I mix my standard glass of water with lime concentrate from the Citrus Valley and mix in a spoonful of the NONI goo.

Proponents claim the noni fruit and its juice can be used to treat cancer, diabetes, heart disease, cholesterol problems, high blood pressure, HIV, rheumatism, psoriasis, allergies, infection, and inflammation. Some believe that the fruit can relieve sinus infections, menstrual cramps, arthritis, ulcers, sprains, injuries, depression, senility, poor digestion, atherosclerosis, addiction, colds, flu, and headaches. It is further claimed that the juice can heal scratches on the cornea of the eye.

In India, proponents use noni as a remedy for asthma and dysentery, and folk healers in the Pacific islands use it for many types of illness. In the United States, some noni juice distributors promote it as a general tonic, stress reliever, facial and body cleanser, and dietary and nutritional supplement.

World Trade Organization review, professes not to understand BRIBERY in BELIZE?

USA questions the practise of Belize in arbitrary, tariff and import licensing system and non-transparent way of controlling trade with the outside world, using permits and licenses.

I wonder what they don´t understand? You pay a BRIBE to get what you want. Simple as that. It is covered in law, by Constitutional paragraphs, called MINISTER´S DISCRETION. This is considered by our two major political parties as a PERK, to steal a business, or get rich off semi-sophisticated BRIBES, using cutouts. There shouldn´t be any difficulty for a smart country like the USA, or the World Trade Organization, understanding that if you do BRIBERY with politicians as Cabinet Ministers, in a certain way, so it cannot be prosecuted in law, that this corruption is considered a RIGHT OF POLITICAL OFFICE ENRICHMENT PERKS. Whats to understand?
______________________________________
From the WTO BELIZE TRADE REVIEW.


"WTO Review of trade practices by Belize, would highlight, too, U.S. concerns about Belize's main border protection tools, in particular its tariffs and its non-automatic import licensing system which it applies mainly to agricultural products and processed foods. We are concerned not only as a matter of our own self-interest, but especially as a matter for Belize's trade and development objectives. We would urge Belize to consider that the significant binding overhang between applied and bound tariffs, as well as the apparently arbitrary and non-transparent nature of the licensing system, make Belize's trading regime, as the Secretariat states, "less predictable". These policies also have consequences for the domestic manufacturing industries that require access to available or affordable inputs for competitive production."

GASPAR VEGA ADMITS RESPONSIBILITY FOR ROSEWOOD DEBACLE.

** Gaspar Vega, Cabinet Minister of the UDP and deputy prime minister



DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER, CABINET MINISTER OF LANDS AND OTHER DEPARTMENTS (?) ADMITS HE AND HIS FELLOW CABINET MEMBERS ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DEBACLE OF ROSEWOODD HARVESTING/EXPORT SCAMS COMING OUT OF THE TOLEDO DISTRICT

In a talk show TV media morning show, the Forestry chief ( forget his name ) and the Minister of Forestry, GASPAR VEGA admitted that HE PERSONALLY with inducement from his fellow CABINET MINISTERS, was responsible for the DEBACLE in the raping of the TOLEDO FORESTS, particularly in ROSEWOOD being shipped to ASIA and other rare and expensive tree species.
He explained that even with a CLOSED forest harvesting season, he has been inundated with villagers claiming they were poor and needed money so bad, and other sob stories, they wanted out of season PERMITS, to cut and sell rare woods. He also said, that his fellow CABINET MINISTERS were also coming to him, asking for EXEMPTIONS to illegal PERMITS from their constituent voters. Gaspar Vega said he has been unable to resist supporting or not supporting, a paper management policy for the Forests of BELIZE, because the pressure from voters, put him in an untenable position as a politician and member of the ONE PARTY MEMBER GOVERNMENT.
ANY IDEA OF FORESTRY MANAGEMENT IS NULL AND VOID! IMPOSSIBLE TO ENFORCE

There was a lot more in the same vein in the TV interview. Crying about the sad tales people bring him, or outright lies, as they try to outwit government policy protections on Forest Reserves. The bottom line is; THERE ARE POLICIES and management controls, but nobody at CABINET and senior bureaucratic level can enforce them for self interest of their jobs.
The FORESTRY department have a staff of 42. They have not been able to put check points on the ONE road out of the TOLEDO DISTRICT, to investigate trucks carrying contraband lumber, and the Chief Forestry Officer has to stamp ILLEGAL CONTRABAND forest lumber loads of rare wood species sought by ASIANS for export as legal, because the CABINET MINISTER, GASPAR VEGA is issuing out of season and illegal permits to do so, to secure VOTES for his political party.

It was refreshing to hear a Cabinet Minister admit to responsibility for the chaos to do with our harvesting of rare lumber tree species.

Essentially we have policies and action papers, but nobody is enforcing them. The PATRIMONY of Belize is being rapaciously harvested and exported, at the behest of less than a 100 VOTERS and a weak government. The cynics claim Vega is taking BRIBES. But even if what he says is true and he is not taking BRIBES, there seems no way, that even with a new policy of requiring every tree harvested of a rare species and with Central Farm Agriculture Station producing seedlings and a law requiring a cutter of a very limited number of trees of exotic hardwoods, to replant 20 new seedlings in the forest in order to get a permit to cut one. We would not with the size of our government and the limited ability of our bureaucrats, be able to apply such a thing anyway? I remember the loss of our BELIZEAN PINE FORESTS, the loss of our MAHOGANY TREES, etc. At the time, I and others, cried out at the senseless policies as we exported resin rich pine trees abroad and nowadays we import pine lumber of an inferior species. The imported pine lumber lasts about 13 to 15 years, yet houses in Belize made of our own resin rich pine lumber we grew here ONCE UPON A TIME, still stand today, after over a hundred years, as good as ever, once you sand off the accumulated paint. It will be 50 years or more before anything like that will grow back. Jungle trees and exotic hardwood trees are solitary individuals, growing in a supportive enclave niches, seperate from each other and have a localized environment of support from other trees in order to grow successfully. The tree species that are rare are unique in their environmental niche. Mahogany and Cedar have gone the same way. Harvesting nowadays is of young trees, and even cut out of the proper moon time, by voracious loggers, so they are worthless as lumber anyway. They get eaten by wood lice, or decay and rotten.
We don´t have much of exotic wood species, but they are expremely valuable at the retail end market in ASIA. We are selling off our patrimony of the next four or five generations of Belizeans. We have the policies and plans to protect them, but are unable to do so, because Gaspar Vega says, of politics. The need for VOTES.

Economics and finances of Belize are hidden from voting public?

*** Minister of Finance is not doing his job, it is said. He is hiding the condition of government finances from the voting public?



BELIZE FINANCE MINISTER HAS SUCCEEDED IN HIDING ECONOMIC CONDITION OF BELIZE FOR THREE YEARS?

PORT TOWN RUN MEDIA IN THE SMALL COUNTRY OF BELIZE ARE FAILING AT THEIR JOB OF REPORTING ON GOVERNMENT POLICIES AND ACTIONS, PARTICULARLY IN ECONOMICS FROM THE FINANCE MINISTRY. IN A SMALL COUNTRY LIKE BELIZE, RUN BY A ONE PARTY GOVERNMENT, THE MEDIA IS THE ONLY OPPOSITION, OR FIREWALL TO PROTECT BELIZEAN VOTERS AGAINST CABINET ONE PARTY MISMANAGEMENT.

THE EU ONGOING CRISIS
At the 11th hour, the EU has agreed on a solution to the looming financial crisis effecting the financial situation in Europe. The banks that hold GREECE debt, will be forced to take a 50% cut, or HIT on their bonds and will be exchanging them for a lower denomination. In the meantime the EU itself, will increase the FUND, that shores up bank liquidity. Spain and Italy are not calculated in the latest solution. Greece is expected by getting a 50% cut on their outstanding Government Bonds ( it is a default ) to reduce their debt to GDP ratio in the next nine years, to 120% of GDP with austerity measures. Currently GREECE debt is over 180% to GDP. An impossible thing to pay.


EU banks will be writing off losses on the GREECE bond debt.


I´ve not been able to find online, anything about the BELIZE debt to GDP ratio. Indeed most of what I find goes back several years. It looks like the Finance Ministry is not doing it´s job, or is hiding knowledge about the economy and government CABINET MANAGEMENT, from the Belizean public? The media in the port town though, has not found such financial situatiion economics interesting reporting, or even deigned to do the investigative research. Which is the media´s job in our political style organized society. Three year old financial reporting by government departments is an insult to EVERY BELIZEAN VOTER.

I do not know how you can get the Belize media to act as watch dogs of our economic progress, or lack thereof in Belize. But they are the bottom line, the firewall to protect our society from political one party mis-management. The media in Belize seem to be blase about it all and unwilling to rock the boat and let the economists suggest ideas for policies and changes that are necessary in our society. The financial economic reporting on government finances is DEADER than a tinned mackeral in Belize. It seems the port town media are ostriches and living with their heads buried in the sand, living on HOPE! Anybody who lives on HOPE is doomed to a big disastrous surprise sometime down the line.

Statistical Unit of Belize in distress?

*** DEAN BARROW, Minister of Finance, getting old. FAILING IN HIS JOB? Can´t seem to multi-task like he used to do when he was younger? Happens to all of us, I guess.



STATISTICAL UNIT OF BELIZE HAS PROBLEMS PERFORMING?

I have an enquiry into the Statistical Unit of Belize for figures on importation of string materials used for making hammocks. They have not answered yet. So I took time to peruse the internet on things Government of Belize. Couldn´t find anything there either. Startling was that the most recent figures posted on the Statistical Unit of Belize, was for 2009 and here we are going into 2012. In a time of computers and programs that give you updates daily, what is the problem?
They have problems performing at the Statistical Unit of Belize obviously? The Cabinet need to look at it. As this is a management issue. I think under the portfolio of Dean Barrow, Finance Minister? Dean Barrow is so immersed in his constitutional legal issues, he is not performing in his other areas, for which he wears the hat of responsibility and is collecting a salary.

TOLEDO RICE FARMERS NEED $2 Million in Belize NOW!

BELIZE MARKETING BOARD IN FINANCIAL TROUBLE

The Belize Marketing Board is in financial trouble THE REPORTER says in an article, this weekend. This is a quasi-government monopoly in some areas. Supposed to guarantee certain types of rural small farmer activity, by providing a market for the crops. They have been having trouble since I can ever remember, with finances and making payments for crops.
The startling news, or perhaps not so startling. Instead of being able to rely on the DEEP POCKETS of tax dollars to fund shortfalls, there has been an attempt to make the BMB a sort of commercial private sector type or profitable operation. Our own government being BROKE, or BANKRUPT doesn´t help. I don´t really see how you can make a quasi-private sector, for profit corporation, run by government appointees on salaries, a profitable one? There is no incentive to work properly and at personal sacrifice.
At any rate the BMB has a bank loan with the Belize Bank at 22% interest they say. Sort of almost credit card rates. The manager of BMB is Director Roque Mai.
The trouble came about from some sort of mismanagement in allocation of budgeted funds, to make second and third payments for small rice growers. They get three payments for their crop, staggered according to a time table. So Roque Mai of BMB unable to make small farmer payments and unable to get government funds from the general tax fund, or apparently Social Security Board, went to a commercial bank at some point and now finds himself and BMB so deep in the hole, he cannot dig his way out. I can imagine even on a 10% interest loan, the financial problems, a 22% interest loan boggles the mind. That is a hole so deep, they should dig their way to CHINA shortly.
This is a political issue and poor management. Obviously, they need a stronger manager, a better bookkeeper maybe and an auditor. The Toledo Rice Growers want the payments they were promised on schedule. They are noisy and quite vocal. The forgotten TOLEDO DISTRICT has become more political savvy the last ten years. They swing a lot of weight in political circles these days. If the port town run media were to spend more time on their issues, they would be a dominating force in national politics. Roque Mai was unable to meet the cash flow demands, and since all those VOTERS who are small rural rice farmers vote, he was cajoled and pressured, into getting money wherever he could by public and political pressure, to pay them.
The leader of the Toledo Rice farmers is Wilfred Denis Usher. Sounds like a smart cooky and he is definitely looking after the interests of his small rice farmers. The rice farmers are sort of like citrus and sugar cane farmers. The latter two have for decades been used to getting money out of the General Tax Funds when they need it, by parades, riots and such. Putting pressure on the politicians. Lot of votes there for the politicians. Now the RICE FARMERS have joined the band wagon. At issue is a need for $2 million. At 22% interest that will soon grow to $5 or $6 million. Obviously the Belize Bank loan needs to be cleared off the books somehow and fast.
TOLEDO DISTRICT is still the forgotten district for the most part. With a rapidly rising population due to new road access and various international development research programs. The population is probably one of the fastest growing population areas in the country. Everybody can smell success coming down the road, 10 or 15 years in the future, for this district. They have been getting more attention from the port town politicians and bureaucrats working in Belmopan the last few years. Not enough though, and TOLEDO does not get it´s fair share of National Revenue budget funds for infra-structure. The thing is; the rice farmers were promised certain prices for the crops ahead, and in the end the BMB a quasi-government private run institution has not managed the cash flow well enough to meet the promised payments. Since thousands of voters in the Southern Toledo District rely on those promised prices for their rice, they have learned to muster and organize the political will. They are also getting very good at using political pressure points, and are in fact outsmarting even the citrus and sugar cane farmers in manipulating the system of politics and government. Kudos to them for sure! The TOLEDO DISTRICT is certainly on the rise and one day will be a STAR, probably the ONLY STAR in the whole nation. They are literally lifting themselves up out of poverty by their bootstraps. Lots of government help of course and international GRANTS, and foreign aid in research and development. Now all they need is electricity service on a par with Belmopan and internet service and I see the time coming when the TOLEDO DISTRICT will be running the nation. In the meantime, how does a BANKRUPT government find $2 million to rescue and restructure how the Belize Marketing Board is run? The question of course is should they? Since Roque Mai is a government employee of some quasi sort, I guess that leaves us taxpayers responsible through our area reprentatives, in the management committee called our CABINET? The buck stops there!

TEACHING A NEW GENERATION OF BELIZEANS NATIONALISM.

THERE IS A LESSON TO BE LEARNED FROM THE USA FOR BELIZEANS, WHICH WE SHOULD NEVER FORGET.

The USA is our friend and trading partner. Sometimes though the NATIONAL INTEREST in the USA is intrepreted in such a way, that Belizeans should know, there are no guarantees to USA friendship.
I speak in reference to the recent speech by State Department, Hilary Clinton. Now the USA professes to support at least in theory ALL countries trying to achieve democracy from tyrants.
Yet as we watch through Al JAZEERA TV and the internet, the ARAB SPRING uprising for democracy systems of government, in places like SYRIA, BAHRAIN, YEMEN, which are ongoing. Being suppressed, by imprisonment, torture and outright murder by FAMILY RUN TYRANNIES.
Yet Hilary Clinton speaking for USA policy, announced that they will be selling $52 million worth of military arms for suppression of local democracy seekers. Though with forked tongue, she spoke of defense against outside threats, as the rational. Which on the internet, is said, to be already protected by the USA 6th FLEET, who I guess, has a major Persian Gulf base in BAHRAIN. Besides BAHRAIN has no outside threat.
There are problems other than democracy seeking masses in BAHRAIN. Besides being a family owned island country, the ruling family tyranny are major puppets for the USA SIXTH FLEET. I can see that would be in the interests of the USA to maintain the status quo, no matter the human rights abuses? Plus the claim is said, that the TYRANT owners of BAHRAIN are SUNNI religion and intermarried with Saudi Arabia and they have family relationships going back centuries as slave traders. On the other hand, the masses of BAHRAIN, the population with no rights, are majority SHIITE, a conflicting branch of their MUSLIM religion.
While I´m not going to get into real politik here. The thing is for Belizeans, to always beware, that in the USA national interest you can get stabbed in the back here in Belize, if it is ever warranted. Most of this older generation in Belize know this already. Perhaps future generations of Belizeans need this awareness. Belizeans are on their own! And need to act accordingly in the Belizean National Interest. I found Hilary Clinton especially hypocritical and demeaning, when she explained USA policy to the murderous family that rules there. It disturbed me greatly to hear this nonsense speech. She would have been better to say nothing at all.

HAMMOCK MAKING BUSINESS IN WESTERN BELIZE FOR EXPORTS

THE HAMMOCK MAKING BUSINESS IN THE BELIZE ALPS

I was solicited by a young man from Benque Viejo who was interested in starting a small business. He had read on this BLOG WesternBelizeHappenings, about making hammocks for export in Belize. The young man was persistant, emailing me several times. Last Saturday we had a face to face meet at my place. He brought a sample hammock from Chetumal to show me. It is exactly what I want to make here in Belize. Big, over 110 double strings, going from the body of the hammock, to the loop. Most local hammocks are 45 double strings. They are too short and narrow for the export gringo market in Europe and North America. Danish people are like 7 ft in height or just a few inches shorter and weigh over 220 pounds. You can´t fit a gringo into a Mayan hammock, made for people who average only 5 ft 4 inches in height.
The whole business with making hammocks in Belize is for me anyway, a development project for my community. Being piecework, there is no hourly wage. You get paid when you finish a hammock. The idea to provide jobs and income flow to poor people. It being a hand labor skill easily learned. I located a buyer in the USA and currently am trying to fit price of finished product to that of the competition on the internet.
The thing is; we need to import synthetic strings in balls, or spools of different colors, to make hammocks in Belize. There are import duties and in the never ending struggle to be competitive on the world market. the struggle is to keep your costs low. Currently I have one new hammock to ship off in the mail as a FREE SAMPLE.
At any rate, I thought of getting imported string to make hammocks duty free. My young partner has already talked to all and sundry in government departments in Belmopan. However he is a young naive young man. I told him it doesn´t work that way.
To please him, I contacted BELTRAIDE to see what they would say. Guess what? No surprise. The only thing they could suggest was a FISCAL INCENTIVE PROGRAM. Now we are looking to start making a dozen hammocks and build up from there. This could be nothing more than a cottage industry, thatch roofed shaded, outdoor part time activity for some destitute single mother, scattered around Western Belize. Dealing with a government FISCAL INCENTIVE PROGRAM is like waving a red flag at a BULL. The bureaucratic run-a-round would be more expensive than even one hammock, or 200 hammocks. The paper work horrendous. The travel costs prohibitive in time, and money which my would be entrepreneur doesn´t have. Already my correspondence with BELTRAIDE is about me, or my young entrepreneur traveling to Belmopan to talk with them and fill out some forms. GET REAL people! I get where they are coming from. They want stuff on paper that they can claim in monthly evaluations as works in progress. HAH! I´m an old salt, been there and done that! Bureaucracy is the same in every darned country in the world.
Now, since we do not qualify ( can´t find the money or justify it )to do things the bureaucratic way, I sent off one of those "out the box" ideas to the STATISTICS UNIT asking for import dollar figures for string, less than 3/8 ths inch in diameter, made of cotton, manila, dacron, nylon, twine, parachute cord, synthetics and so forth for a year. Doubt there is that much in dollar value? But wanted to put that figure against the benefits of a Belizean micro financed, cottage industry entrepreneurial effort, and submit a REPORT and request to CABINET, to have such strings listed at CUSTOMS STATIONS as duty free imports. The job of the government, or CABINET of course is to weigh the taxes earned from customs duties, versus the economic effect and job work created by making string materials duty free at the border, so we could shave off the costs on finished product to become competitive. As a made in Belize product for export. At the moment, I can buy from either Guatemala, or Mexico finished hammocks at the same price you can buy the cheapest hammocks in the USA. Which is our market. So we are not competitive by buying finished product as hammocks and re-exporting them. I´m still waiting for the Statistics Unit to reply. In the meantime, I went across to Melchor in Guatemala and bought a couple of hammocks to mail off as FREE SAMPLES to the would be distributor in the USA.
It is looking like we have to make the hammocks here, which was the original idea anyway. We were looking for the cash flow economic benefits for providing work in Belize. Next thing is to figure out how we can get strings mentioned above as a duty free product at customs entry points, on some sort of list. There she stands for the moment. Progress sometimes is in inches.

A WiMax internet relay on every 200 th light pole in Belize?

*** A Wi Max broadband internet relay for covering large geographical areas.


INNOVATE BELIZE SUGGESTIONS TO OUR GOVERNMENT.

PLACE A WIMAX STATION ON EVERY 200TH BEL LIGHT POLE.

A WiMax unit will give coverage over one mile for internet. A CHEAP way to place internet around ALL THE NATION.

Get to it guys and girls, of BEL and BTL and the CABINET. Lets get this bloody country moving.
________________________________________

From Wikipedia

WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) is a communication technology for wirelessly delivering high-speed Internet service to large geographical areas. The 2005 WiMAX revision provided bit rates up to 40 Mbit/s[1][2] with the 2011 update up to 1 Gbit/s for fixed stations.[3] It is a part of a “fourth generation,” or 4G, of wireless-communication technology, WiMax far surpasses the 30-metre (100-foot) wireless range of a conventional Wi-Fi local area network (LAN), offering a metropolitan area network with a signal radius of about 50 km (30 miles). Ultimately, WiMax proponents hope to establish a global area network in which signals could reach. The name "WiMAX" was created by the WiMAX Forum, which was formed in June 2001 to promote conformity and interoperability of the standard. The forum describes WiMAX as "a standards-based technology enabling the delivery of last mile wireless broadband access as an alternative to cable and DSL".[4] WiMax offers data-transfer rates of up to 75 Mbit/s, which is superior to conventional cable-modem and DSL connections. However, the bandwidth must be split among multiple users and thus yields lower speeds in practice.[5]
Contents
[hide]

* 1 Terminology
* 2 Uses
o 2.1 Internet access
o 2.2 Backhaul
o 2.3 Triple-play
o 2.4 Deployment
* 3 Connecting
o 3.1 Gateways
o 3.2 External modems
o 3.3 Mobile phones
* 4 Technical information
o 4.1 The IEEE 802.16 Standard
o 4.2 Physical layer
o 4.3 MEDIA ACCESS CONTROL, MAC (data link) layer
o 4.4 Deployment
o 4.5 Integration with an IP-based network
o 4.6 Spectrum allocation
o 4.7 Spectral efficiency
o 4.8 Inherent Limitations
o 4.9 Silicon implementations
o 4.10 Comparison
* 5 Conformance testing
* 6 Associations
o 6.1 WiMAX Forum
o 6.2 WiMAX Spectrum Owners Alliance
* 7 Competing technologies
o 7.1 Harmonization
o 7.2 Comparison with Wi-Fi
* 8 Development
* 9 Interference
* 10 Deployments
* 11 See also
* 12 Notes
* 13 References
* 14 External links

[edit] Terminology

WiMAX refers to interoperable implementations of the IEEE 802.16 family of wireless-networks standards ratified by the WiMAX Forum. Similarly, Wi-Fi, refers to interoperable implementations of the IEEE 802.11 Wireless LAN standards certified by the Wi-Fi Alliance. WiMAX Forum certification allows vendors to sell fixed or mobile products as WiMAX certified, thus ensuring a level of interoperability with other certified products, as long as they fit the same profile.

The original IEEE 802.16 standard (now called "Fixed WiMAX") was published in 2001. WiMAX adopted some of its technology from WiBro, a service marketed in Korea.[6]

Mobile WiMAX (originally based on 802.16e-2005) is the revision that was deployed in many countries, and basis of future revisions such as 802.16m-2011.

WiMAX is sometimes referred to as "Wi-Fi on steroids"[7] and can be used for a number of applications including broadband connections, cellular backhaul, hotspots, etc. It is similar to Wi-Fi but it can also permit usage at much greater distances.[8]
[edit] Uses

The bandwidth and range of WiMAX make it suitable for the following potential applications:

* Providing portable mobile broadband connectivity across cities and countries through a variety of devices.
* Providing a wireless alternative to cable and digital subscriber line (DSL) for "last mile" broadband access.
* Providing data, telecommunications (VoIP) and IPTV services (triple play).
* Providing a source of Internet connectivity as part of a business continuity plan.

[edit] Internet access

WiMAX can provide at-home or mobile Internet access across whole cities or countries. In many cases this has resulted in competition in markets which typically only had access through an existing incumbent DSL (or similar) operator.

Additionally, given the relatively low costs associated with the deployment of a WiMAX network (in comparison with 3G, HSDPA, xDSL, HFC or FTTx), it is now economically viable to provide last-mile broadband Internet access in remote locations.

Beautiful women of Belize - Eat your heart out gringos!

*** Jani Salazar

Environmental Research Institute (University of Belize)
ERI's new addition to its full time staff.......
Jani Salazar is the ERI's new Marine Field Technician - Environmental Research Institute
eriub.org
The Environmental Research Institute (ERI) was created primarily for research and monitoring and producing results that are directly relevant and applicable to the sustainable management of Belize.

Belize parliament a SOAP OPERA instead of tending to business and development.

WEEKLY HOUSE PARLIAMENT SITTING WAS USELESS FROM A NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT VIEWPOINT Oct. 21, 2011.

Well last Friday´s HOUSE sitting of the parliament was a completion for the Prime Minister in amending through a BILL that was passed, to legalize constitutionally, the EXPROPRIATION OF BTL, the telecommunications company. Which the courts rejected as to legality was my understanding, and he had to resort to FORCE and the POINT OF A GUN. While the new BILL and Amendment, covers the PRIME MINISTER´S illegal acts and satisfies him, the rest of us nationwide in the rural parts, are wondering when this UDP government are going to tend to the business of building our economy and nation?
I was looking for the reading of the approval of the by-laws for the Placentia town council, sitting in limbo by lazy politicians, which by-laws are reported to have been gathering dust on the limbo shelves, since 2003. Heaven only knows how many other local governments are waiting for the political cabinet and bureaucracy teams to do their jobs, for which they collect salaries. At any rate, nothing happened once again in the Friday, weekly sitting of Parliament.

Said Musa and Francis Fonseca did their jobs in OPPOSITION well and spoke out against the expropriation amendment, called Nationalization by the Prime Minister. I suppose there are legal reasons, this amateur does not understand, and consequences between labeling something Nationalization versus EXPROPRIATION? I was disappointed that neither Opposition member asked the Prime Minister; WHAT PROGRESS IS BEING MADE ON PASSING THE TOWN COUNCIL OF PLACENTIA BYLAWS? Or even asking how many other such communities are stagnating the same way, due to lack of work by our politicians and bureaucracy. Shameful thing this!

That said; there are two weeks left and two more Friday parliament meetings when the matter can be raised, at the end of which if nothing is done. We will deduct a monthly 5 points from their approval rating report card, for failure to earn their salaries.

INTERNET AND ELECTRICITY TOP THE PRIORITY LISTS TODAY, NOV. 2011 FOR BELIZE

In my view, the two top priorities are ELECTRICTY and INTERNET service for Belize. BOTH ARE SUBSTANDARD NATIONWIDE.

Priorities for infra-structure shift and change. Right now at the beginning of November, 2011, I would list ELECTRICITY and INTERNET service as the two most important DEVELOPMENT priorities for our government and nation.

Internet is probably the most important from an economic development viewpoint. Internet should be 12 megabyts for $25 usa per month, like in Iceland. The percentage of homes with internet being 14% the Prime Minister announced recently, was an outstanding condemnation shortfall, for years of trying to get internet for development of Belize. 14% is ridiculous. So are the current pricing structure, bandwidth and speed.
There are always excuses and in this case, the excuse is we were captive as a nation to privatized utility monopolies by foreign private sector owners. Now the government owns majority ownership, the situation is changed. It is probable, though not necessarily going to happen, but is also possible with majority ownership by the government of both electricity and internet capability, that dividends from profits can in LARGE PART, be reinvested as rapidly as possible, to bringing up both electricity supply and national grid capability as soon as possible.

From an economic export development viewpoint, I can think of no two more important priorities. There are others of course, but these are Number 1 and 2. Strangely enough, while internet should be No. 1 priority, it is actually electricity that has taken that position.

The reason of course is; without RELIABLE ELECTRICITY, internet is not possible. The astounding recent news that everything to do with BEL national grid service SOUTH of the Hummingbird GAP of the Maya Mountains is substandard and in half the cases non-existance, leaves us bewildered with disbelief. Our media have not been keeping abreast with things, or are so accustomed to accepting substandard services as normal, they have failed to do their job as media reporting watchdogs. The recent reports from Placentia and Banana country, that they suffer from electricity brownouts, surging voltages, amperage spikes burning out appliances and tools for business, brings back memories of 20 years ago in Cayo. The amateur opinion is that BEL, now it is a government controlled utility, need to plow profits back into infra-structure at an accelerated pace. Our population growth is going to increase the pressure on requirements such as jobs and economic and GDP growth. Transformers and more breakers in the national grid system has been suggested. In the case of the Toledo district, all those 30 or so communities without electricity up, need to be brought up to modern standards, need to get it, as fast as possible. These utilities create development. Without it you stay stuck in a time warp. Within 6 years, even if BEL were to bring up to standard of modern needs immediately, the demands of the future, will make such work, insufficient again, and you will have to tackle the problems all over again. Watched it happen on Caye Caulker and San Pedro and it does not take an academic degree to figure out the practicalities from historical experience.
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CONTRIBUTION FROM INNOVATE BELIZE

Ray,
Just saw your post "INTERNET AND ELECTRICITY TOP THE PRIORITY LISTS TODAY" and that
the percentage of homes with internet access is only 14%.

I think that a VERY cheap way to solve this the problem is for the gov to use some of the
light poles as WiMAX stations this way 1 mile or so radius around that pole would be
wifi enabled and would prob cost about $1000 a pole a year. From a technical point i can't see why
Belize cannot become one of the few countries that is 100% wifi enabled.

If Belize city and Belmopan become wifi cities then it would be easy to provide voip cellphone service etc.....

USA ARMY donates construction training programs to Belize.

*** Prime Minister Dean Barrow on left and USA Ambassador Vinai Thummalapally on right.
**USA Ambassador Vinai Thummalapally to Belize in 2011.

US ARMY combines training programs and aid to Belize. Last year, in 2010. Belize was recipient of $350,000 USA worth of construction aid. This coming year, for 2012. The USA Army training sections are going to construct a variety of projects to help the tiny country of Belize. The amount involved is calculated at $500,000 USA. The first one of several small projects will be a FAMILY CARE building for the Dorothy Menzies Child CARE CENTER in the port town of Belize City. Other projects will be a library and an office for the Las Flores School in the Western Cayo District. Also listed as construction training projects are bathrooms for the Hattieville Government School and the Belize Rural school. The Julian Cho School in Toledo will also get a recreation facility and auditorium. This latter school is a remote jungle location.
I´m not sure what happened to C.A.R.E in the USA and also A.I.D. ? But 50 or more years ago, I used to get assistance through these organizations from the USA. CARE worked on a supposedly individual donor basis and a donor bought and sent us a small portable generator, which was the first electricity EVER in the village of Caye Caulker, on the island by the Great Barrier Reef. Agency for International Development, I vividly remember issued each primary school in the country of Belize, with a GOLDEN BOOK CHILDRENS ENCYLOPEDIA set. Marvelous gifts at the time. AID sent me steadily a stream of books, on how to smoke fish, to gutting deer and other basic knowledge type things. I filled two suitcases with the information. Nowadays you can get this from the internet, but back then it was a miraculous fountain of knowledge from the USA, AID program. I very much in my old age, look back with fondness to this government USA Embassy intervention at that time. I would like to see all the schools once again, get a new set of GOLDEN CHILDRENS BOOK ENCYCLOPEDIA SET. They were popular and very informative and educational at a time, when Belize had little or no books. Books are still scarce as the cost of a book, is equivalent locally to the ordinary persons WEEKS SALARY and thus unaffordable. I still solicit and collect for donation, from foreign volunteers, to our local library, used books, which are simply beyond the ability of the government, or individuals to buy. I´m selfish, as I get to read them first, so there is self interest at work here. ( grin ) Back 50 or more years ago, A pair of tennis shoes cost me $1.50 USA at Bata Shoe Store in the port town. It used to take me a 3 day trip there and back by sailboat. Money was scarce and we lived subsistance, by fishing and eventually I started a small tourist business. Even so, I had to SAVE and think carefully BEFORE I could afford the price of a post office STAMP, to put on an envelope, to send a request to some USA government institution like CARE, or AID, though they had offices locally, which made it easier in some cases. That STAMP was a big expense to me at the time. A difficult decision in money management and family budgeting. The ones I remember also with fondness was NOAA, and the Pascagoula FISHERIES Research Station in Mississippi, who answered me and sent me appropriate marine and sea creature pamplets. There was nothing available, or like it in the National Library Service of the port town in those days. I taught a lot of that sea marine creature stuff to the Standard primary school 5 and 6 classes in the island village back then. Much to the chagrin of the bureacrats. However, today, Caye Caulker my home village is still the richest village in Latin America.
Nowadays now, our friend the USA is bankrupt, it seems like all FOREIGN AID is funneled through justifying logistics and practical construction training, through military excercises? Shame that! They do what they can though, and it IS APPRECIATED. I remember the director of AID, he married a Belizean girl, who retired on Ambergris Caye and eventually died there. The CARE DIRECTOR married a Belizean gal also and was posted to AFRICA someplace and never heard any more about them. They were extremely NICE people and did their best in those jobs.
This new USA Ambassador, Vinai Thummalapally comes across in the news and by his actions as very nice man, in the same theme and character of those olden AID and CARE Directors I knew 50 or more years ago from the USA. One day, I´d like to meet him. I think I would like him very much.

BELIZE ZOO JAGUAR NOW SERVING US ZOO´S AS A STUD.

*** Pat the Cat, a Belize ZOO legal green card immigrant to the USA.


Pat the Cat, from the tiny BELIZE ZOO has successfully survived his trip to the USA and is now located in a US ZOO.

His job is to diversify the gene pool among ZOO JAGUARS in captivity in the USA.
This Jaguar who was captured in a trap in the wilds of Belize, was a problem Jaguar as he killed ranch cattle.

BELIZEANS BLACKLIST USA ON TWO COUNTS

BELIZEANS BLACKLIST USA, ON TWO COUNTS

1) Most importantly for bringing the plague of drug activity and addiction of many Belizeans to drugs that effect the quality of life. Belize between the South American drug growing countries and the USA, the major DEMAND based drug based culture, has caused local crime rates in Belize to spiral, due to the spillover effect of this USA illicit drug transportation importing activity. The USA needs to do more to get their illegal drug activity under control. The effects on Belize are very BAD. Compensation should be in the $1 billion a year range for the innocent, collateral damage to the small nation caused by USA illegal drug importation and consumption activities.

2) Item two for BLACKLISTING the USA: is the practice of deporting former Belizeans from the USA, who have been attending the CRIMINAL COLLEGES in the STATE and FEDERAL PRISON SYSTEMS IN THE USA. Particularly the importation into Belize the GANG EXPERIENCES and KNOWLEDGE of gang systems like the CRIPS & THE BLOODS. This has caused a distorted effect and destroyed the peace and quiet of sections of the small nation, with violence, robberies and murders, using criminal methods learned in the USA jail system. The USA should house ( cage them ) these violent individuals of Belizean immigrant status in the USA, or put them to death. But do not send them back to Belize. We do not want them! The lessons and culture they have learned is destroying our peaceful society.

CAMPAIGN FINANCING CONTROLS AND SYSTEMS IN BELIZE A SUBJECT OF INTENSIFED DEBATE.

*** PUP leader, Johnny Briceno resigns.
*** Mark Espat rejects PUP leadership, due to debts of the party.


PUP OPPOSITION PARTY IN BELIZE GOES THROUGH TURBALENT TIMES

Johnny Briceno has resigned as OPPOSITION party leader of the PUP. His replacement MARK ESPAT has also declined to take the position. The political party have $5 million in debts and Mark Espat PUP politician wants $8 million more to run the next two election campaigns for municipal elections coming up and also for NATIONAL ELECTIONS. Without which he declines to participate, other than as an AREA REPRESENTATIVE in his SAFE CONSTITUENCY.
In the meantime, Johnny Briceno hinted in a passionate speech that the previous PUP administration, leadership cabal, when in office had plundered and looted the PUP coffers and assets, sending the money to offshore SECRET personal bank accounts, leaving not only the country bankrupt, but also the PUP political party. ( Estimates range as high as $600 million USA. ) Much speculation and allegations being made in all the media, regarding the turn of events. As Johnny Briceno should know about those things, being a long term PUP insider. His public comments confirm the worst fears and suspicions of the voters of Belize.
In the meantime, MARK ESPAT is calling for CAMPAIGN REFORM LAWS. Which have been discussed on the Belize Culture debating listserve many times and just recently. It is envisaged that political campaigning should be ONLY done at the constituent level by those running for office and like Miami Dade County in Florida, that aspirants for political office be controlled strictly as to campaign financing laws and expenses.

______________________________________

Previous article on the BLOG here.

Monday, October 10, 2011
NEW BELIZE CAMPAIGN ELECTIONEERING LAWS !
Johnny Briceno QUITS and resigns from LEADER OF THE PUP IN BELIZE!
His reasons were for his health. Both his mental health and financial health one presumes? He was using up too much of his personal cash reserves. ( A week later ( Oct. 12 ) it was being reported on the rumor mill, that he is suffering some kind of twitch, or paralysis on one side of his face and went to Mexico for a diagnosis. )
The PUP got themselves into a passel of financial worry through their own foolishness and also because “we have no laws in Belize covering Election campaign financing”.
I remember the time in Miami Dade County I myself, ran for City Council. I budgeted $400 and didn´t even spend it. I was literally educated by the COUNTY GOVERNMENT that they controlled ELECTIONS in the many cities of DADE COUNTY. I think there are about 24 cities with a total population of 4 million or so.
What I learned from that experience, is how little, or zero laws we have in Belize in comparison, for election campaigning. All candidates had to OPEN a bank account for campaign funds, in a BANK that the overall Supervising Authority in County Government dictated. You put your campaign funds in that BANK ACCOUNT. You had to make statements of net worth, income, etc. You had to keep strict bookkeeping records of money spent, how spent, and any money received as donations. You had to list the donors. If you spent money for vehicles, you had to list it, if you spent money for signs, you had to record it, if you paid temporary staff to go door to door, you had to record it. If you put posters up on telephone poles ( illegal ) you had to record it. You were expected to go DOOR TO DOOR to meet the voters who would vote for you. That is the way the elections were run, not like in Belize.
In Belize that are only 4000 voters per voting constituency, unless the Belize City CREOLE crowd cheat again, this coming NATIONAL CAMPAIGN in Belize? There were strict penalties, fines, and even jail sentences if the DADE County Government Election people took you to court for violations of the ELECTION REGULATIONS for campaigning. You had to submit your accounts to the CAMPAIGN AUTHORITY. Woe be too you, if you spent more money on something and an opposing candidate complained to the Authority. You would find yourself with the police at your door and going to court.
In Belize, DEAN BARROW is our Prime Minister. Yet Dean Barrow ONLY is voted into office as an area elected representative, by his constituency of 4000 voters in Belize. I do not get to vote him as Prime Minister and most everybody else in Belize are so denied that right. Because his mafia gang of opportunists and criminals anticipating wealth to be gained from our SPOILS SYSTEM, swear allegiance to him as MAFIA CHIEFTAN of their gang, vying for power to control the treasury of the country and all government institutions for their own benefit. Our PRIME MINISTER DEAN BARROW gets by default, as GANG CHIEFTAN to be PRIME MINISTER. He does not get elected as PRIME MINISTER by the nation as a whole, by majority vote. Only 4000 voters get to pick our PRIME MINISTER IN BELIZE. If you don´t think that is wrong, you are weird in my opinion. The QUEENS REPRESENTATIVE then appoints the winning mafia gang CHIEF, the Don of Don´s, of opportunists and criminals to be PRIME MINISTER. We the people, do not get to do that. It all depends on the number of seats among the ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES, which gang gets to control the country. Their gang chief becomes PRIME MINISTER automatically and usually controls the treasury and debts and revenues of the nation. Dean Barrow got to be Prime Minister by default. We the voters, the majority of which, DID NOT VOTE FOR HIM. Think about that for a bit. Dean Barrow does not represent YOU and ME out WEST here. We did not get to vote for him in a popular national election.
Adopting DADE COUNTY, FLORIDA regulations for campaign elections, Johnny Briceno would not have to worry about doing anything else, but financing his door to door campaign meeting the 4000 voters, about 500 houses of his constituency. Under the PUP system we inherited, he has to raise money to hire RENT A CROWDS, to cheer public meetings for all those running on his GANG ticket. He has to pay for chartered buses, bands and all that stuff. When if you ran the election like DADE COUNTY does, each man or woman on his or her own, has to finance and visit, the 500 houses in his electoral division to convince them to vote for him. Now if you want to pay for TV ads, or newspaper ads, which is not at all necessary, then your personal outlay of money goes up dramatically. The SPOILS SYSTEM means you plan to embezzle, take bribes and other nefarious things to pay for an expensive campaign in your electoral division. You can´t beat talking to people and shaking their hands. For 500 houses, that is not that much work in an electoral division, nor is it overly expensive. The way elections should be run in Belize.
As I say, I did not spend my $400 either, in my campaign run under campaign laws and regulations by a supervising election authority. We could make laws in Belize about campaigning and campaign financing. WHY NOT? Isn´t that building a democracy?
Posted by A Professional BEACH BUM retires! at 9:20 AM

HAMMOCK MAKING IN BELIZE ALPS MAYA MOUNTAINS

DEBATE IN WESTERN BELIZE ABOUT COTTAGE INDUSTRY POVERTY LEVEL ENTREPRENEURIAL BUSINESS START UP, PROBLEMS AND HOW THE GOVERNMENT REACTS TO ENCOURAGE, OR NOT ENCOURAGE SAME.


Why synthetic line? Because there are five factories in Guatemala City making synthetic type lines, in colors. ( Run by Koreans ) While there are no cotton line making factories. I really want nylon, but they don´t make nylon in Guatemala City either. Why Guatemala City, because it is the closest place with overnight shipping capabilities to Western Belize. I have and occasionally still do, get small amounts of stuff shipped to an agent in Melchor de Menchos. He receives and holds the stuff until I drive over and pick it up, and bring it through myself paying customs duties. For this I pay him a commission. What I want is to get my stuff delivered into Belize past the frontier - bypassing Melchor. Faster, more efficient and cheaper. I tried this already with latex paint. It failed.
I´m not sure if Glen missed the point, or I didn´t explain it enough? Hammock business is tight margins. It is also competitive. Since you plan to export the product, it becomes even more critical that you get the materials into Belize with minimum costs and problems at the Benque frontier. The government already does things like this. For instance duty free computers and there are other things. I´m not sure how such import lists work. I have an enquiry into Beltraide by email, and waiting on an answer. Right now hammocks made in Guatemala can be imported at $10 duties each. For export purposes and manufacturing in Belize as a cottage industry, that $10 is hopefully your margin for a profit. I´m to make a trip later this year to find out, the costs to do this, manufacturing in Belize, versus manufacturing by custom orders and exporting from either Guatemala, or Belize. It could be I can get them custom made for my market in the USA, done in Guatemala. Then it becomes a question of costs, for me to go and travel and pay hotels and meals to ship an order out of Guatemala, versus doing it out of Belize. Starting small scale, the margins become critical.
What should be the guiding role for customs and government, is the purpose. In this case the ability to boost the economy with jobs, even piece work jobs and cash flow, to raise poverty levels. There is an economic trickle effect. The import duty tax costs for materials to manufacture, for export, can make it impractical locally in Belize. The other solution is to simply do it in Guatemala and give them the jobs. You are always working against the margin costs.
We are working on it now. I have a meeting with this would be entrepreneur from Benque for Thursday and we will progress from there, or not. If it becomes more cost effective to do this in Guatemala, then it defeats the purpose or goal, of providing work for poverty level people here in Belize and transfers that economic impact to their society in Guatemala, rather than to Belize society. It is here the role of the Belize government becomes decisive.

From: Rendezvous
To: Lan Sluder
Cc: bz-culture@psg.com
Sent: Wednesday, October 19, 2011 1:19 AM
Subject: Re: Bz-Culture: hammock cottage industry out Western Belize - job making and material supply dilemmas.

I was going to write a piece exactly about what you expressed Lan.
The point is without a prouven committed entrepreneur mentor how can we reasonably expect the youth to succeed.?
Even,you are stuck in the supposed paperwork??
As an entrepreneur, when you identify a profitable idea/concept, that is but the start.
You're suggesting the leg work required isn't worth it.
Well then?

Best regards,Glenn Schwendinger
Rendezvous Restaurant & Winery
Conchpearls.net
Tel. 011-501-226-3426



----- Original Message -----
From: Lan Sluder
Cc: bz-culture@psg.com
Sent: Tuesday, October 18, 2011 8:19 AM
Subject: Re: Bz-Culture: hammock cottage industry out Western Belize - job making and material supply dilemmas.

Why synthetic? Why not natural materials like cotton? http://www.hammocks.com/cottonhammocks.cfm

On Tue, Oct 18, 2011 at 10:13 AM, Ray Auxillou wrote:

Got a young man in Benque has been contacting me several times about starting a hammock making cottage industry. Going to see if I can encourage him to be an entrepreneur. There are a number of business problems to solve. One is how to get synthetic string made in Guatemala City factories shipped across the border here by delivery trucks, and getting the material ( synthetic string ) in duty free. As the purpose is to make jobs for locals in a piece work cottage industry style. We are only talking 50 hammocks a month to start. So going through elaborate red tape government paperwork is out of the question. Too time consuming and labor expensive red tape is too much, for the size of the operation.

Anybody know how to resolve this dilemma? I presume you get your product material needed, on a customs list at the border, to let it come in duty free?