Monday, December 31, 2012

Pickup in Belize for sale.

Red Nissan, 4 cylinder pickup for sale at my home. 
Will start putting it out on the street FOR SALE at $5800  OBO.  Wife wants an upgrade to a 2006 thereabouts.  Toyota or IZZUZU.

 Got two pickups, both good.  Will keep the TOYOTA for work horse. Sell the Nissan to get an upgrade.

Red Nissan, 4 cylinder pickup for sale at my home. Nissan 1997,   95,176 miles
Will start putting it out on the street FOR SALE at $5800  OBO.  Wife wants an upgrade to a 2006 thereabouts.  Toyota or IZZUZU.

 Got two pickups, both good.  Will keep the TOYOTA for work horse. Sell the Nissan to get an upgrade. Recently put a $1000 worth of new tires on my Toyota, have to get some of that investment back before selling that.

From: "bzekcbc@aol.com"
To: hillviewhacienda@yahoo.com
Sent: Wednesday, January 2, 2013 5:00 PM
Subject: Re: Bz-Culture: pickup for sale. Time to go 4 wheel drive.

Ray can you give me some more info on the truck, year, two door mileage and that is Belize dollars?  Do you have a pix.
Karen

-----Original Message-----
From: Ray Auxillou
To: bz-culture <bz-culture@psg.com>
Sent: Mon, Dec 31, 2012 7:38 am
Subject: Bz-Culture: pickup for sale. Time to go 4 wheel drive.

Nissan 4 cylinder pickup for sale.  $5800   OBO.  Will start putting it out on the streetside in Hillview.  We looking for 2006  Izzu, or Toyota.

Saturday, December 29, 2012

BELIZE NEEDS RADIATION CLINIC FOR CANCER PATIENTS

25 PEOPLE OR MORE are undergoing chemo therapy treatment in Belize out of 330,000 population.  Covering all ages per month

  The next step is a radiation clinic.  Only we need one with a PET SCAN and few other things, to locate a cancer spewing cell source, then to guide a needle by sight, carrying a radiation pellet directly to the cancer source.  About ten years old in the USA this procedure is now favored to KILL cancer cells as they form, without the usual side effects of ordinary shotgun approach of current radiation treatment.

 
Cancer treatments that work are still primitive.  The trouble is, you have to KILL the cancer cells, which are MUTATED CELLS and do not fit any body part.

INDIA looks to be able to help Belize more than TAIWAN?

China is now the next world power.  India is also flexing their economic muscles with a world wide attempt to lock in trade partners and material resources.  About the 1970's The USA was supreme.  Then Japan copied and improved by innovation on US products to turn out quality stuff.  Since then China has surpassed Japan and South Korea also rose as a manufacturing giant.  China leads even the USA and Europe.  Little noticed is INDIA which was locked into a massive bureaucracy that created inertia.  India seems to be working it's way out of those problems now and is expanding out into the world in competition for markets and resources.

  The Indian Ambassador visited Belize from his station in Mexico City.  He says India is willing to lend money to Belize up to $10 million for infra-structure projects.  There are also available to Belize small GRANT FUNDS up to $1 million.

11 scholarships are offered to Belize.  Restricted mostly to government trainees.

Indian companies have $25 billion to invest and are interested in agro processing.

There are other opportunities in vocational fields.  India is willing to take students to India, to study things like assembling solar panels, making 5 and 10 hp steam engines to run generators.  How to make generators.  Casting and foundry and CNC lathe teaching work. TRAINERS can also come to Belize to train Belizeans in groups for technical small light industry fields.

Picking and choosing training sounds like a tricky subject for our civil service who themselves lack skills, or even basic vocational, small entrepreneurial ideas and abilities to create exports. Still, India sounds like a better partner than the Chinese.  Similar language and customs,  They are also more primitive in many fields whch suits the Belizean start up entrepreneur.  Most Chinese stuff is too advanced technology wise and we need a foundation of basic practical, applied physics and tools to work with yet, before we can match Chijnese technical help.
 

strawberries by hydroponics in South Miami Dec, 2012



  Ray and Silvia Auxillou visit strawberry U PICK hydroponics farm in South Miami, redlands.  We also visited a home tilapia project working fine in tanks.  Dec. 2012.




Ray at strawberry hydroponics in South Miami.


2012 BOOM NEWS AS BAKTUN MAYAN CALENDAR, FORECASTS CHANGES FOR BETTER IN BELIZE.

BOOM ECONOMY FOR BELIZE IN 2012

  With no hurricanes in 2012, the economy of Belize took an upswing.  Prime Minister New Years speech says ALL ECONOMIC INDICATORS SETTING NEW HIGHS for production.

SHRIMP   UP
TILAPIA UP
SUGAR TONNAGE UP
CITRUS TONNAGE AND PRICES UP
BANANAS DESPITE DAMAGE FROM USA TREASURY, STILL UP
TOURISM UP
EXPORTS INCREASING


SUPER BOND HAS BEEN SETTLED ON SATISFACTORY TERMS.

ASHCROFT OFFERED $50 MILLION DOWNPAYMENT ON SETTLEMENT OF BTL CLAIM.  ASHCROFT HAS PLAYED HARD BALL UNTIL NOW WITH EXAGGERATED VALUE CLAIMS FOR NATIONALIZATION.

NEW DEAL WITH VENEZUELA SUPPOSED TO HELP ECONOMY, BUT NOT SURE IN WHAT FORM?

INDIA RIDES TO RESCUE OF BELIZE INDUSTRIALIZATION DIVERSIFICATION EFFORTS, WITH OFFER FROM EMBASSADOR H.E. SUJAN CHINOY, RESIDING REGIONALLY IN MEXICO CITY.

TROPIC AIR SERVES NEW GRASS AIRSTRIP FOR SAN IGNACIO TOWN

TROPIC AIR NOW SERVING SAN IGNACIO TOWN AIRSTRIP, ON BLACK ROCK ROAD WITH 2500 FT GRASS AIRSTRIP.  ALSO HOME TO TWO ULTRA LIGHT HANGERS.

Belize rated one of top six retirement havens in the world.

BELIZE RATED AS ONE OF SIX TOP RETIRMENT DESTINATIONS IN THE WORLD.

Friday, December 28, 2012

BELIZE IMMIGRATION TECHNOLOGY UPGRADED TO INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS WITH PHOTO AND BIOMETRIC FINGER PRINT SCANNER.

IMMIGRATION DEPARTMENT NEW TECHNOLOGY APPLICATION ON PHOTOS AND FINGERPRINTS.

  Got my photo AND finger prints done at BELIZE IMMIGRATION DEPT. today;  For passport renewal. Reason for change in system, they have now, a new computer scanner, biometric machine, that records photo and fingerprints of right and left forefingers at one time.  Supposed to be INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS FOR BIG BROTHER SOCIETY.  NO FEE yet for it though.

Thursday, December 27, 2012

IMIGRATION PUTS PRIVATE SECTOR SMALL BUSINESS PEOPLE, out of business nationwide.

Nationwide, the BELIZE IMMIGRATION DEPARTMENT has put out of business about 40 private sector passport photo photographer shops NATIONWIDE  in the last month with a new photo MONOPOLY.

   Wife went last week for the fourth trip to put in my application for renewal of expired passport. 
All the way to Belmopan.  New rule, the photographs were invalid as the IMMIGRATION DEPARTMENT NOW REQUIRE YOU TO TAKE YOUR PASSPORT PHOTO in their Belmopan office, by their monopoly!  Trip before that, a month earlier they rejected my renewal application on the grounds that the it had to be witnessed by a JP in my community, who knew me.  Could not use Belmopan JP's.  Don't know any J.P.s personally.  But got it witnessed here in San Ignacio.

  Wife came back from Belmopan Immigration frustrated.  4 photos wasted money.  Old expired passport has my photo, I'm the same person.  Not good enough. Comparing old passport photo with new 10 year aged photo is beyond their ability????

  Somebody needs to give the unelected head of Immigration a KICK IN THE ASS.  Think thats a friend of mine, Senator Hulse.  He's whacko!  In my opinion.

  I' m bedridden with CANCER, wife told them.  They said they don't care.  Got to go in person.  Need to rent an ambulance tomorrow and try it again, on my guerney with two attendants.  Need renewed passport to go to Guatemala City for radiation treatments.  Not available in Belize.

  Bet you they say they don't take applications on a Friday now?  6 trips to Belmopan to get my passport renewed and no further ahead after 6 or 7 weeks..  I pity Belizeans out of the country.

Sunday, December 23, 2012

Mayan Calendar a work in progress - see images

http://i.imgur.com/PVAt7.jpg

LATEST IN COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY GOING INTO 2013

I have about 5 of them here at my place - they've replaced my networked media players which were old and had noisy fans. I have one running my file server for the media players - 4 x USB hard drives connected to it. One I am configuring up to be an Allstarlink/Echolink amateur radio network node using the Asterisk VoIP server, and another connected to a Thunderbolt GPS Disciplined Oscillator for some super accurate NTP time source. About to order some more to be data loggers and sensor nodes around the place (eg water management, weather station, power usage). To have a fully functional Linux PC for $35 just can't be beat.
Some issues I found with it are:
- OpenELEC with XBMC is a bit more stable than RaspBMC for use as a media player.
- need to have at least a 5V 1A power supply - some phone charger supplies just don't cut it and will cause brownout hangs when the ethernet starts up.
- the ethernet is provided over the USB2 bus so performance isn't great (although it is enough to stream 3 video streams at once with XviD codec
- the need to have a powered USB hub for some peripherals (eg wifi and bluetooth dongles) as the R-Pi can't source enough current to drive the devices
- It's only USB2 not USB3... bit of a 1st world problem.

I've been asked to give a talk on the R-Pi at the local Tasmanian Linux User's Group meeting in January. I'll post my talk slides when I've finished it, some of the links on it could be of interest.

Don't bother buying from RS Components (RatSh%t)... much quicker to order from Farnell/Element14.

Cheers,

Saturday, December 22, 2012

ICE AGE FORECASTING FROM MAYAN BAKTUNS, LONG CALENDAR. IN BELIZE


by Ray Auxillou, UHK, MC, BS

MAYAN CALENDAR PREDICTS NEXT ICE AGE BETWEEN 200 AND 2000 YEARS FROM NOW.

  THE LONG COUNT MAYAN CALENDAR TERMINATED ON DEC. 21, 2012.  a NEW BAKTUN STARTS now.

 A Baktun is 5125 years.  Fundamental Christians insist their man made religion marked the creation of the world, a baktun ago from the beginning..  The religious engineering by either Emperor Justin or Constantine who fabricated the Christian religion, to unite his Empire under a one God concept. Who are you going to believe Mayan or Christian?

Dec 21, 2012 marked the nearest point the solar system and planet Earth will be to the high concentrated radiation of the center of our galaxy.in a long Mayan count calendar of 52000 years.  There are 13 baktuns in a long count calendar.  This is the warm period between the ice ages, which are our normal condition on planet earth.

  The long count 52,000 years represents a great circle, between beginning and ending.  The solar system crosses the plane of the galaxy, then proceeds into space away from that plane.  13,000 years from now, the solar system will continue a returning circle to cross, the plane of the galaxy again in from now, 26,000 years.  Unfortunately, the solar system will then go out into space again away from the plane of the galaxy.  In  between hot periods there is 52,000 years..We divide the long count into quarters.  Or a circle into four pie pieces.  One 13,000 year piece is our warm period, such as now.  The other three pie pieces are ICE AGE.  There is a horizontal circle as well for our planet and solar system.  Our planet crosses the plane of the galaxy twice in 52,000 years.  The second time, the solar system is far away from the center of the galaxy, so we stay in an ice age.  Our ice age is three quarters of the long count circle.

  From now on, our planet and solar system will be moving further and further away from the concentrated radiation of the center of the galaxy.

  What we know from geological data and ice cores is that the next ICE AGE will happen dramatically and take less than 3 days to come to full force.  That time is approaching.  230 years from now is the earliest estimate and 2000 years the maximum.

  The USA needs to move Washington D.C. to Phoenix, Arizona. 
CANADA WILL BE UNINHABITAL AND SO WILL THE NORTHERN HALF OF THE USA.

  After the ICE AGE STARTS IN A MATTER OF MONTHS, MOST OF THE HUMAN POPULATION WILL BE DEAD.  ICE AGE population figures run between  300,000 and 500,000 for planet EARTH.  Hunter gatherer living will be the norm.  Which is actually a superior way to live than industrialized society.

 
The place to be to survive is the AMAZON basin.  Kashmir, Northern Pakistan, Afghanistan, a valley in the Northern Pyrenees where the Basque tribe survived the last ice age,

  The Mahabharatta or SANSKRIT written VEDAS, indicate some technology survived in  N.W India, around Kashmir, from the last ICE AGE.





Friday, December 14, 2012

CENTRAL FARM BUDGET GONE, - LAYS OFF WORKERS.

Central Farm owes discarded worker 4.5 months back pay.

 Listening to the sad tale of a couple of hardworking Belizeans, now down on their luck.  The man worked for the Chinese Agriculture Research Mission at Central Farm for 10 or 11 years and the family are hardworking campesino types.  The wife does house cleaning around the twin towns, but the man had  a full time job at Central Farm. They and their kids have PERMANENT RESIDENCY  and he has paid all his social security up.  But now he is out of a job and the family are in dire straits.

  Don't know the full story from the viewpoint of Central Farm, but the Taiwanese phased out of agriculture vegetable research and handed everything over to the Central Farm staff.  Since then the man has not been paid his salary for over 4 months.  They keep putting him off , UNTIL NEXT MONTH.  I presume the Central Farm are trying to deal with a budget that was fully committed and do not have the funds to pay up?  Or somebody in administration is getting set to steal the guy's job for a relative, as these sort of deals go with government workers? Anyway his job is gone for him.  He was lied to and told he didn't qualify as he was not a Belizean.  Lacks the knowledge to argue the point.  Certainly as PERMANENT RESIDENTS, they are full Belizeans.
  I've known them for most of the ten years and respect them greatly.  They came up from a small wooden one room shack in which they lived with their kids and rented.  We used to trade flowers we were potting together.  Eventually they got an empty lot in Hillview and have built their own house. Even bought a car.  The wife works one day a week for us, doing house cleaning. Has done so for at least 8 years.

  The thing is being illiterate, they are at a disadvantage in trying to deal with the Central Farm bureaucracy.  I was impressed by the man, he started as just a cheap vegetable farm worker and became FOREMAN.  What he knows about growing vegetables now is equal to all the Taiwanese mission expert workers that have been here doing experimental research.  Seems a waste of valuable talent?  The kids are going to need school fees, and books and all that, but now they are destitute living off charity, here in Hillview.

  Anybody around twin towns need a farm worker, will vouch for the guy.   Too bad I have cancer, or I would set up an ACQUAPONICS OPERATION and train him for that.

Around Belize in the northern winter times.




Thursday, December 13, 2012

The effect of sunshine and cloud cover on tropical Belize vegetable growing.

GROWING VEGETABLES FOR PROFIT IN BELIZE

   I had an interesting query the other day.  About what vegetables you could grow in 1 acre backyard, to make a living in Belize.  The questions had to do with water, cloud cover and sunshine.

  My three year research in hydroponic vegetable growing, showed that irregardless of whether you tried to stagger your vegetable crops, to take advantage of temporary market shortages and thus get a better price.

  It didn't work out that way.  While hydroponics allows you to space crops, so you do not in theory have a glut.  What happened was that the dictating factors for ripening and picking, are the amount of cloud cover and sunshine.  All the vegetables more or less hit the local markets at the same time, irregardless if you were planting in soil, or via hydroponics.  There may be a few days difference, but essentially, when the sun shines, everything ripens at the same time.

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

DANGRIGA COMMERCIAL INVESTMENT IS UP ! - WHY?

DANGRIGA AROUSES DEVELOPMENT OPPTIMISM.

( I have no idea why?)

  My first overnight visit to Dangriga on the coast for decades, since my daughter and her kids were raised there.  My impression over 40 years, is that Dangriga is now DOUBLE the size it used to be in forty years.  That said, there is a tremendous amount of speculative investment going on.  The town is spreading Westward about a half a mile.  Lot of new merchandizing emporiums going up.  There is big investment by Chinese in super stores, restaurants and hotels. Two or three hostels, the prices seemed high to me, at $25 bz a night per person.  Hardware stores about three.  Caribbean Tire also.  A Cancer Clinic offering chemo therapy here and radiation in Guatemala City.  The population is still Carib dominated, but a growing variety of ethnic populations. Guatemalan, Chinese, Caucasian,   Smaller than the twin towns area where I live.  But a beautiful atmosphere with rural scents, activities and smells.
  I can only conclude they are investing for future expansion, but am at a loss to see where any industry is going to come from?  Fishing and citrus are the major contributors to the economy.  Minor tourism.  Nice place to settle on a retirement income.  I don't see any growth in any of those established industries.  More hotel choices; though I stayed in the, center at Riverside Hotel, where I last stayed maybe 50 years ago.  I finally found a Chinese restaurant open on a Sunday, everybody else was closed.  We had a delicious Vegetable Chow Mein.  For breakfast, nobody opened up early enough, seems like to serve breakfasts, but we passed a dingy hole in the wall Guatemala restaurant we first passed by and rejected. that was open, and desperate at 7 a.m. for an early breakfast.  Took a chance later and it worked out perfect. Across from First
Caribbean Bank.  Highly recommend it. Jueves Rancheros, with sour cream and cheese and beans, lots of thick flour tortillas, eggs, etc.  The lady said she was from the Peten, San Bernito.  We chatted and when she found out I was going for cancer treatment, she took 10 % off the bill and gave me change.  I was touched and we left her money and OUR tip when we left, on the table.  People were generally friendly.  You know the street drunks, and hustler types.  But most people were polite and anywhere we walked, we had to nod and smile, and say good morning to each person.  It was that kind of rural setting.
  The wife got interested in prices of houses.  For the sea breeze.  I'm not in the mood for that sort of thing right now.  Though my feelings after the first chemo treatment have raised my estimate of being alive in three months at 40% a month ago, to 50 % in five months now.  There was one point in the chemo, where the stuff they were giving me, hit the back of the mouth where a lot of pain has come from.  That went off like a bomb.  Have no idea what happened, it was inside the neck, but I sure felt it happen. Not having trouble swallowing today.  Got through the night with no pain pills, though the tumor seems as large as ever.

Sunday, December 9, 2012

FISH SWIRLS AND BOILS


DEVELOPMENT OF CANCER DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT TIME ELEMENTS IN THE BELIZE PUBLIC HEALTH SYSTEM NEEDED



  From: Rendezvous
To: Ray Auxillou
Sent: Saturday, December 8, 2012 9:09 PM
Subject: Re:


I have been told not to say this Ray but I will anyway.
 I believe Peter Singfield has some notions that do work at almost no cost.
I understand your relationship is tenious to say the the least.
However.!?
Never say never.
Best regards,Glenn Schwendinger
Rendezvous Restaurant & Winery
heaven@btl.net
Tel. 011-501-226-3426

Friend Glenn, I learned from TRADING financials, that HOPE is not a workable strategy. Peter is my friend, so is Francis Gegg, but talk and salesmanship is not scientific evidence.  When they post FACTS on their websites, or whatever; so we can look at them, and judge.  Until then, they are like the SELF PROMOTED CONTRACTORS, with no bicycle, or tools.
              __________________________________________________ 

Quack cancer cures!  There may be something out there for cancer cures someplace? The trouble in Belize, it is ALL ancedotal.  There are no facts.  No scientific method.  No statistics on treatment, number of patients, length of treatment, progress reports, success or failure rates, versus the type of cancer.  There are dozens if not hundreds of types of cancers.  Some cancers from diagnosis beginning, to death only take six months.  In Belize, they badly need diagnostic medical seminars.  Even the suspicion something MIGHT be cancer should to be told to the patient in my opinion.  I've wasted 2 years with mine, enriching the local and Guatemalan medical community by running tests through their newly bought diagnostic machines and taking a lard pail full of antibiotics.  All a WASTE OF VALUABLE TIME.  I might have caught mine correctly if I had been definitely told, when it was the size of a pea.  As a back o' bush country bumpkin, what the heck do I know about cancer? I am posting my progess on my blog as I go along, with hopes DEVELOPMENT WISE, that the KMH public health system, will take note and budgets and priorities be re-set, to be more responsive in the TIME ELEMENT.  In my opinion, they need a local medical seminar for doctors, on cancers and diagnosis and how to deal with these suspicions promptly.  My damn thing got the size of a GUAVA before I was even told in a whisper by a doctor in a hospital in Miami, that I EVEN had cancer.  ( two years later after my search for a medical problem. )  I figure I'm a gone goose!  Doesn't matter, I'll run it out as long as I can and see if my publicizing the problems locally in Belize, will somehow enhance the medical methodology in Belize, by EMBARRASSMENT type development methods.  For sure, a biopsy and pathology procedure lab system at KMH need a major boost and overall.  At a very minimum.  Two months for a pathology report is totally ridiculous. Two weeks for a biopsy appointment is also ridiculous.  50 % of older people over 65 will die in Belize, from cancer related complications.  As primitive as our medical system is, I firmly believe we can do better than that. It is just mostly re-prioritizing.
  Who can tell about Peter or any other jungle cancer expert and their abilities and cures?  They keep no records or statistics.  Without the scientific method, there is absolutely no way to separate the real thing from a QUACK medical promotion.  At least the Belize Cancer Clinic is posting statistics, for failure and success rates on website. These are apparently I'm learning, more related to accidental types of cancers.  Some cure easy and some don't.  There is NOBODY else in the country doing that. Not even KMH. Or even required to do so, by law.  Listening to boasters selling their cures, is like hiring a CONTRACTOR to build your house, who assures you he is the best, and then find out he has to come to work on a bicycle and needs money for some tools to do the job.



Saturday, December 8, 2012

Ray with Belize breadfruit ! From his back yard. 2012


After a month long sojurn in Miami, Courtesy of my daughter Sharon and husband David, fighting to get Medicare B to do chemo therapy ( will get it, but in 7 months they say ) and Florida State supplementary ( under review for a month ) I returned home, to find my breadfruit tree was dropping fruit.  This is a breadfruit that fell from the tree.  It will sit on the kitchen table until it gets a bit soft, as it is hard right now.  With some brown spots on the green skin.  Then you slice it cross ways, into half inch thick  circular discs.  Cut those in half, to form two crescents and cut off the green hard skin.  The core is soft and cut that out and you are left with two half moon pieces of fruit.  This you fry in a small pan with coconut oil, until brown and crispy, flip it over and do the other side and you end up with excellent breadfruit for eating.  The hard part is like well done French Fries and the inner white soft part is like mashed potatoes.  A little salt, some avocado and voila you have a dish fit for a king.
  My breadfruit tree bears twice a year for about 3 months each time. Sits in the front corner of the yard by the street side.

  My cancer tumor you can see on the side of my face.  It has filled the right side of the neck and now protrudes the skin out, trying to find place to put dead cells, killed by the cancer. The tumor itself is entangled with the jugular vein, the pulmonary artery, the vein carrying blood and oxygen to the brain.  Mostly I get pain from the back side of the throat, where I guess a lymph node, one of a string in the neck must be encapsulated?  The most difficult pain is on the side of the face, and head, from the fan of nerves called the trigeminal nerve system.  Hurts like hell! Impossible to do surgery in the neck area, as it is a tiny space, jam packed with all kinds of essential nerves and veins.  I start Chemo therapy at the Belize Cancer Clinic here on the coast of Belize, run by a Belizean/USA  Dr. Grant from L.A. in the USA.  Come Monday in two days, I get my first session of four sessions over a two month period.  The plan after that, is to go to Guatemala City to an associate clinic for Dr. Grant to do radiation treatment for another six weeks to a month.  Very affordable by Belizean standards as Dr. Grant's clinic is a CHARITY CLINIC, one of many he apparently supports, here and in California. I've had some cash donations from my daughters, so that helps.
  I have hopes the chemo therapy will reduce the tumor, so the pressure will ease off the nerves and give me some peace and relief from pain.  But at this point this is all new and have no idea what to expect.  CANCER caught me by surprise.  I more thought I would get shot by a jealous husband, climbing out of a bedroom window, than this sneaky cancer invasion.  I kind of wonder if I will lose a lot of weight?  They say so.  I could stand it I suppose.  30 lbs would be good.

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

San Ignacio Hotel in Western Belize, Cayo District

XUNUNANTICH MAYA PYRAMID IS HAVING HUGE - IN BEEG CONCERT FOR END OF MAYA CALENDAR

BEEEEEG  MUSICAL CONCERT THE NIGHT OF 21 ST DECEMBER, AT THE HILLTOP MAYAN PYRAMID XUNUNANTICH IN BELIZE

XUNANTUNICH: The Concert Event
Mon, December 3, 2012

On Friday, we told you about the plan to close Xunantunich until after Christmas. This is so that a giant stage and amenities can be built in the main plaza to accommodate a major international concert. And we're not talking a few acts flown in from Kingston,
according to UNOFFICIAL reports, organizers are hoping to book major American rock stars such as Neil Young and Sarah Mclachlan
The concert will be held on December 21st. to coincide with the end of the Mayan Calendar and will be transmitted to a global audience. It will also be shown on big screen at four venues in Belize - and there are also plans to stream it on YOUTUBE.
But the two week closure from December 12th to 26th doesn't sit well with the villagers form the nearby Succotz. Many of them make a living off selling their wares in Succotz and say they haven't been consulted.
Director of the Institute of Archaeology, Dr. JaIme Awe says he did hold a meeting in the village on Friday night - but only 20 villagers and no village leaders showed up.
He says the main purpose of the concert is to raise funds for Belize's Archaeological Parks - and the benefits will derive to the villagers, including the erection of a new craft center for the villagers.

Awe also noted that Tikal in Guatemala and Chichen Itza in Mexico are having their own December 21st concerts and those venues will also being closed for a few days to prepare.

BELIZEANS DON'T KNOW HOW GOOD THEY HAVE IT FOR MEDICAL COSTS.

BELIZEANS DON'T KNOW HOW GOOD THEY HAVE IT FOR MEDICAL COSTS !

    I am still running on some of my pills for pain and blood pressure left over from my week in the hospital up here in Miami.  I'm counting down the pills.  Got five days left supply in two bottles.  Had to get a new supply of the pain pills.,  Got a prescription from the specialist doctor in a hospital we visited the other day,. which cost basically $90 usa for the doctor and then the pills cost another $100,  Not sure how many they are?
   I tried to skip two of my pill bottles yesterday to stretch them out.  Had a helluva bad night for pain and this morning. ( Level 5 out of 10 )  Bad idea that..   The trouble was the doctor said; he could not give me prescriptions for two other pills I'm running low on.  It wasn't in his speciality.  He was not allowed to.
  I'm doing the rough financial math and four pills would cost be about $400 usa a week. Not including the extortion racket they run here with doctors writing prescriptions, or referring you to other doctors claiming specialities, that build up the money flow in the medical business around here. That is more money than my wife and I have as combined income on a monthly basis.  There is no way in HELL we can afford medicine in the USA.  We are officially below the poverty line for joint income, both in Belize and in the USA.
  Belize, like most Latin and Caribbean countries, imports GENERICS and most of the generics come from countries like Lithuiania, or Sri Lanka, Turkey and other odd ball places in the world.  Usually they also only contain the ACTIVE INGREDIENT only.  Compared to the USA this makes them modestly expensive to local wages and cost of living.  But nothing like the USA medicine costs.  It's amazing how many of the heavily touted advertised USA drugs are basically humbug, with doubtful statistics when you read up on them.  In the meantime.  I'm to do a STATE MEDICAID phone interview today.  See if I could acquire financial assistance for the future should it become necessary.,  Tomorrow we fly out of here back to Belize if possible.  To start CHEMO in Dangriga CANCER CLINIC, either end of week, or first day next week ? First thing on arrival is to go to drug store and renew the two bottles of pills I need replacements for. CAN'T TAKE THIS CONSTANT PAIN THINGY.
  If your old and sick, you need Medicare A,B and C in the USA.  Or you need MEDICAID which pays everything for older people, if you qualify. Which I don't.  Our below poverty level income flow is $70 usa a month over the level to qualify for Medicaid.
  Anyway just ruminating on the different costs for Belizeans and those with dual nationality that can access MEDICARE and or MEDICAID in old age. Or those who do not, and our SOCIALIST SYSTEM OF HEALTH CARE IN BELIZE., In my case for medical costs, BELIZE beats the USA hands down. NO CONTEST ! I wonder how the medical care costs are in Vienna where one of my daughter's has just moved to?
                          ___________________________________________________

An opposing view from my oldest daughter.

 The cost of pills & medical care for the average belizean on average salary is still extremely expensive same as the US.  It may be inexpensive for an expat living in Belize with income from outside of Belize but not so for a belizean person who does not have such an income. Moreover, the belize health system is good for minor cuts & bruises but not much else.  One example is that you could  never in 1 1/2 yrs get a biopsy & results done there, you can't get radiation done there, open heart surgery is not available or done on a consistent basis there etc.-they lack the training, equipment and medicines needed. Much as you malign the USA, it it still the best place to get advanced medical services such as your biopsy and ct & PET scans and the appropriate medicines needed. Even the Belize prime minister's wife receives her breast cancer treatment at Baptist Hospital -Miami same as you did and does not have faith in the Belize sysem for a cure. If you want to survive an advanced illness in Belize you need to leave the country and seek treatment elsewhere otherwise you most likely will die there from lack of services.  There are pros and cons to each system.  I would much rather take my chances at great expense to get the proper care in a US hospital than to have cheap/inexpensive bungled up care where due to lack of training and equipment and procedures they can't tell what you have and misdiagnose you until you die. Over the counter pain pill cheap access does not cure an illness either, it just masks the symptoms of  disease.  Pretty scary that anyone can get a hold of any drugs so easily. That may also be one of the reasons the country is blacklisted as a drug haven.
                           __________________________________________________

I recall when we brought a boat down to Bze, must have been around '95, we stayed longer than we had planned and one of the fellows ran out of his meds. He was on three meds(have no idea what they were), but he was able to fill them at the Brodies pharmacy(I think it was). He would get a 30 day supply here, there they gave him a 90 day supply(same pills, not a different brand), for about 1/2(in Bze dollars) of the monthly $$ here.
Bze Kobuh,
                           ___________________________________________________


That is very useful information Cindy.  I'm passing it on to my daughter Sharon.  I'm too damned sick myself to deal with a bureaucracy.


From: "cruzbelize@aol.com"
To: bzekobuh-list@yahoo.com; bz-culture@psg.com
Sent: Tuesday, December 4, 2012 6:23 PM
Subject: Re: Bz-Culture: from: Belize Western Hapopenings blogspot.com

Ray, do you qualify for a Medicaid deductible or "spend down" as it is called in some states?   You have a monthly deductible that is usually the same amount as the over income limit amount...in your case $70 per month.  Once you have $70 in out of pocket medical bills you turn them into your caseworker and they enter the medical payment you incurred into the computer system.  Medicaid covers most  anything over the $70 once the caseworker enters the verification in the computer, if the charges are Medicaid eligible.   Most of my clients fill their prescriptions on the first of every month, choosing the scrips that are closest to the deductible to fill first. 
 
Another option:  Check the websites for Walgreens, CVS, Target, Walmart and Sam's Club.  Most of them have free or low cost formularies.  See if any of your medications are available under their programs.  If not, take the lists to your physicians and ask if there is an appropriate substitute on that list.  In my area the medications that are on list are usually $4.00 for a one month supply.
 
Alternatively, most drug companies have a Patient Assistance Program that supplies medications.  You can google Patient Assistance program for (name of medication) to see what is out there.
 
If there is a Senior Center near you they sometimes have staff persons that can help you find resources and some of them even have DHS caseworkers assigned to them
 
I am posting this to the list, the info may help someone else. Feel free to contact me offlist if necessary.  Medicaid eligibility policy may vary from state to state.
 
Cindy
 

Sunday, December 2, 2012

22,000 views per month average for this WESTERN BELIZE HAPPENINGS BLOG

http://westernbelizehappenings.blogspot.com

Page views for November 2012  was 21,816.

  I seem to be stuck just around the 22,000 mark for viewers each month for my BLOG HERE.

The Dream job in Belize






Saturday, December 1, 2012

Typical Caye Caulker, Belize photo.






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