WAR LOOMS IN HONDURAS SOON !

Map of Honduras, South of Belize.
ZELAYA, the puppet who would be KING of Honduras under Chavez.
Emperor Chavez the new IMPERIALISTA


WAR LOOMS IN HONDURAS?

Looks like the ACTION should start this Friday, over the weekend and into next week, if any of the THREATS and INTIMIDATION factor into reality, of ZELAYA, the ex-President of Honduras and his owner, megalomaniac Emperor Hugo Chavez with his Empire Building plans for the American continent. Hugo Chavez, President for Life of Venezuela has turned IMPERIALIST.
So far, the noise has been only verbal bluster, but if IMPERIALIST Emperor Chavez is to build his EMPIRE, the threats have to be turned into reality at some point. One suspects that this is not ROCKET SCIENCE and therefore if there is anything real behind Emperor Chavez of Venezuela, then a military outfit is being prepared within Venezuela and will probably be airlifted to Nicaragua as a staging point fairly rapidly. Nicaragua is an ALBA member and the President ORTEGA is fellow comintern fellow traveler of the SANDANISTAS and the ALBA group, President for Life CABAL of Nicaragua and the continent, with plenty of practice in subversion, revolution and covert action.
One would suppose covert hit teams and assassination squads are already inside Honduras, probably composed of Venezuelans, Cubans and perhaps even Nicaraguans? If there is any meat in the bun, so to speak, things should start taking shape from FRIDAY, through the weekend and into next week.
First moves would probably be to assassinate Michelli the current President of Honduras? I would suspect that the families of Michelli, the Supreme Court people and elected Congressional people would be in danger. Kidnap at the least, murder at the worst by assassination teams can be expected. Certainly the current crop of Honduran GENERALS in the army are for the AXE if Emperor Chavez wins for ZELAYA. One should not judge the Honduran Military Intelligence apparatus to lightly either. They have their own covert hit teams and are quite practiced in the subterfuges of covert action. Do not know what they call them these days. I’m decades out of touch with those guys.
ZELAYA and EMPEROR CHAVEZ are running out of time, as new elections are scheduled to be started campaigning for very soon, if not NEXT WEEK, for the scheduled Presidential elections of Honduras in November. After which, all of the maneuverings will become moot. Emperor CHAVEZ has to get his puppet ZELAYA hands, on the strings of Presidential power and semi-legitimacy, before the end of AUGUST. Only then can ZELAYA fire all the Generals and put in his own bought and loyal GENERALS. With control of the ARMY, then he can remove Michelli and all those opposing him in the Supreme Court and the elected CONGRESS. To do that so swiftly he is going to need back up military backing, in the shape of an intervention force, probably composed of Venezuelans, Sandanistas and Cubans. If this is following the STALINIST coups of Eastern European take overs, which I suspect is the most probable scenario due to shortage of TIME.
All we have for information at the moment is the INTERNET NEWS that President Arias of Costa Rica and ZELAYA and Michelli representatives are due to have a next meeting very quickly. I think it is this week? Costa Rican President Arias ( Noble Peace Prize winner ) is pleading with ZELAYA and his team for more TIME. Which ZELAYA as puppet for Emperor Chavez of Venezuela does not have, to waste away. Consolidation gains must be swift, if the revolutionary takeover of the Honduras government is to be accomplished, thwarting any normal schedule of Presidential elections. If ZELAYA can get his hands on the strings of Presidential power for even a few days, the elections can be postponed until next year, meaning INDEFINITELY. That’s what revolutions are all about. While ZELAYA cleans the Honduran Army top brass and then appoints army leaders bought and paid for with OIL money from Venezuela. What would you do if you were a lieutenant in the Honduras military and you got offered $2 million USA dollars and a passport, to be an obedient GENERAL for a year?
In the meantime, Emperor Hugo Chavez and his puppet President for Life candidate ZELAYA are saying publicly, that this next peaceful negotiating meeting with President Arias in Costa Rica is the LAST before they take ACTION. The outcome is known, for Michelli and the government of Honduras are all DEAD, if they lose to ZELAYA and CHAVEZ. The thing that Emperor Chavez lacks though are TANKS, to block all roads and arteries in Honduras. So how all this will play out and what are the counter moves by the ARMY under Michelli and the legal elected government of Honduras remains to be seen. Certainly high alert would be necessary for the next two months, by the legal government of Honduras, until they can get the campaigning for the next Presidential election started. There must be one heck of a FIFTH COLUMN of different types of covert action people from the ALBA group in Honduras right now with their assignments, for either a revolutionary coup, or figuring a way to dominate the election process for the next President. The only thing, who will be the next puppet to replace ZELAYA for Emperor Chavez in the election campaign if it goes that way? Can Michelli run for President and be bought and paid for? The OAS has already been taken over by covert ALBA Ambassadors under INSULZA the chairman, so nothing can be expected fairly from the OAS. The OAS is today CHAVEZ’s IMPERIALIST machine, not that of the USA State Department.
CARICOM LEADERS need to be paying attention and learning from this. Certainly the four provincial island leaders of the new ALBA associates, or member countries, that left CARICOM? It would be much easier to do this in their small island places. As GRENEDA has shown in the past. Certainly, they must expect such events in the next couple of years, once they become attached to the socialist give-aways, that Veneuzelan oil money is promising in food and oil. The carrot and the stick approach.

Victoria Peak beauty in Belize

* Oh to be young again!


VICTORIA PEAK of BELIZE, Central America

If you look very carefully you can see Victoria Peak of the Belize Alps, Maya Mountains in the background from the sandy beach of Hopkins village.

CARICOM at war on three FRONTS!

CARICOM which includes Belize, IS AT WAR ON THREE FRONTS!

Caricom which includes our country of Belize is at WAR on THREE fronts. Unfortunately the leaders of CARICOM countries, what is left of them, as the size of CARICOM membership shrinks, are at heart, country folks, provincial in outlook and nature. For the most part, country Prime Minister’s are not even aware that they are at WAR on three fronts. They have vague conceptions of something going awry with their desires and ambitions, but haven’t really put it into some sort of focus. CARICOM countries for the most part are always on the edge of the struggle for SURVIVAL. That SURVIVAL is intrinsically wound up with the three FRONT WAR, they only vaguely are uneasy about, but can only see by the individual guerrilla actions and small scale battles. Most of which we are losing.

The FIRST WAR FRONT is being waged by the G 7 countries, against CARICOM, through the G 20 group. This is the stripping away of the right to be sovereign in financial matters and compete on a fair level playing field with the G 7 countries for a market share in the financial services industry. The TAX HAVEN status of most of the Caricom countries is pretty much stripped away now and the advantages of offering competitive financial services will ultimately DESTROY the financial services TAX HAVEN status of CARICOM countries. We are losing an industry and revenue income stream. This WAR is commercial in nature, in the cutthroat competitive world of business. G 7 governments are running this war over market share. It is not even that the allegations are true, that they make and their treaties and obligations have any modicum of fairness. There is no fairness in WAR. Only winning and destroying your enemy who is competing with you for commercial business. The fact that all the things they slur and claim CARICOM TAX HAVENS of doing, they themselves do in their own countries, but just under different names and jargon does not matter. The problem for CARICOM is that the weapons in this particular war are the banking system, the need for us to go through their clearing centers, use their financial exchanges, use their wire transfer systems and so on. The answer is to use some other financial center system. Bigger and more richer countries than the small CARICOM countries are struggling with this world wide war.

It is probably time that CARICOM put up their own telecommunications satellite. The Chinese built and put up one for Venezuela. Even Central America should put up their own satellite.



The SECOND FRONT WAR for CARICOM is with the European Union. This war on the part of the European Union does not involve armies, tanks and soldiers. The war uses as weapons, treaties, contracts, memorandum of understandings. The weapons and battles are fought with paper. Essentially the European Union wishes to keep small ex-colonial countries as MARKETS for their finished products. They also wish to keep small countries of CARICOM as suppliers of bulk commodities. The raw materials they need to process for value added products THEY can export to us. Ultimately the WAR is about tax revenues and jobs for growing populations. The war is fought with carrot and stick approach. We get some GRANTS for needed improvements in our struggle for SURVIVAL as populations, which will be taken away if we do not sign on the dotted line by the EU.

We must diversify our marketing and make more export products in competition with the EU, to win this war on our small one country scale for ourselves.



The THIRD FRONT WAR for CARICOM is ALBA, the socialist promised paradise of the CUBAN system of the totalitarian state. This is more the traditional war, more reminiscent of the COLD WAR of recent history. Here we have an egomaniac who lusts for ABSOLUTE POWER in the leader of Venezuela . In the countries currently belonging to ALBA, are subsidiary KINGS who are in charge of their own little fiefdom. Their small kingdoms of which they in turn, lust for ABSOLUTE POWER in their small kingdoms. On the surface, the battle is with WORDS, and CONCEPTS. The jargon keeps changing. We do not call it communism any more, it is now called SOCIALISM and NEO-LIBERALISM. The fight against POVERTY. If one studies history, serving the POOR and DOWNTRODDEN has always been the battle cry of olden Feudal Kings who enjoyed ABSOLUTE POWER. It doesn’t matter whether the title EMPEROR, or senior KING, or an absolute ruler had the title of PASHA, AMIR, AYATOLLAH, Prime Minister for Life, or President for Life. Absolute Power is about absolute power. Certain people are born TYRANTS. This war is being waged by EMPEROR Hugo Chavez of Venezuela with the oil billions available to him. He is also winning this war in the Americas . STALIN, MAO, the CASTRO brothers all killed massive amounts of their opponents and sacrificed the poverty stricken in the domination requirements of ABSOLUTE POWER. We are talking HUNDREDS of millions of people murdered and sacrificed over the fight on poverty allegedly. Again right now, the WAR is like that being waged by the EU and is using the CARROT and the STICK approach. In a time of this new century in which energy sources are changing. The world oil production peaked scientists say in 2008. The USA transportation trucking fleet will be mostly NATURAL GAS driven in fifteen years, substituting for oil imports due to a new BILL now in the USA SENATE. For example Belize is in dire straits and many of the other CARICOM smaller island countries worse off. The price of gasoline in Belize is almost the same as a year ago when oil was $120 a barrel, but right now is in the mid $70 a barrel range. ENERGY is the big weapon in this war. Replacing a nucleur arsenal and aircraft carriers to fight idealogical battles over supremacy. While this WAR on this front with ALBA is using the poverty fighting jargon, of the past, no one should ever mistake the SOCIALIST TOTALITARIAN STATE for freedom. It is SLAVERY in a new disguise. This WAR will ultimately involve secret police, torture, killings, jailing perceived opposition, exile and the real cruelties of WAR, which we can understand and see and feel. Even as I write; the internet chatter says the EMPEROR IN HIS STRONGHOLD OF VENEZEULA is building up his army and acquiring military planes and new weapons to enforce control in his new dominion of the AMERICAS .

Already ALBA now counts 11 controlled votes for the United Nations, the OAS and other conferences and meetings, versus the shrinking CARICOM number of votes which at last count was only 10. This is alarming because most CARICOM countries are mismanaged and many are simply supplying labor and brain drain workers for the G 7 countries. This is a form of island country population control. Nearly all CARICOM countries have perpetual DEBT. Even our own Belizean Prime Minister of Belize believes in perpetual DEBT as an operating system. DEBT of course is lost revenues for development and self sufficiency requirements. You also lose the freedom to make choices and choose the courses you wish are best for Belize . This latter sentence is more profound in performance and implication, than all the various philosophical arguments about whether government debt is good or bad.

To my personal view, Belize at least inside CARICOM has to get rid of the debt to be truly FREE and INDEPENDENT without obligations to anyone outside. Leaving our choices open to choose. We have to also provide ourselves with everything possible we can need. This is easier in Belize and Guyana than other countries of CARICOM. Commercially our future is more with Central America , Mexico and the USA in Belize . Though putting all your eggs in one basket is wrong. We do need more economic diversification. The world right now is our market, not just traditional places. We must be able to shift markets with changing times, to remain fluid in our small niche, brand name way. We need to slide under the G 7 world radar in our small scale, like Marie Sharpe Products, or Grace Kennedy Ltd.

I could probably go on writing for a long time, but you get the essence of this article. Which is that CARICOM leaders and our Belizean Prime Ministers of the present and future, need to think differently, less selfishly and be more self sufficient in attitudes and policies. The system or one political party wins the government attitude has to change and adapt to think more about being a sovereign independent, self sufficient state. That is our REAL CHALLENGE for Belize . We need Prime Ministers with a wider vision, less bureaucratic minds, less regulation and more innovation and experimentation. This is a tough balancing act, when revenues are shrinking currently, oil prices rising and we wait for the next world BULL MARKET. When things get tough, the tough get going should be our attitude in Belize .

Brazil offers agriculture assistance to Belize

Favorite breakfast food for rural people. Re-fried red kidney beans, fried egg, and fry jacks.
Toledo Mayan Quiche farmers grow corn and beans as staples.


BELIZE FISHES FOR FOREIGN TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE FROM BRAZIL

Belize like many small countries below the ability of being able to support a government properly, because of populations being too small, received this week, a technical assistance visit from BRAZIL. You can no longer rely in the third world, on older countries like the USA, Canada and the United Kingdom for technical assistance, training programs, and other foreign assistance. So countries like Belize are fishing all over the world for good minded people and nations who can help us, with expertise beyond our own capabilities. Sort of assistance to give us and new generations of youngsters, a chance to lift themselves up by their bootstraps.
This visit was by technical experts from Brazil. The Brazilian experts did a field visitation and consultations trip around the small country we have, then signed a Memorandum of Understanding for a Technical Cooperation Program ( TCP ), with the Ministry of Agriculture. Some assistance was initiated by the USA on papaya and habenero pepper exporting programs in the last decade and the Taiwanese Vegetable mission along with some other small assistance programs have been going on for over a decade with vegetable variety research. Without such assistance, we would truly be in worse shape than we are. The Brazilians checked us out on grain production like rice, beans, and corn and also citrus. We haven’t been able to successfully grow LENTIL beans yet in Belize, in experiments conducted by my own NGO ( Belize Development Trust ), or by the Taiwanese Vegetable mission. We still import LENTILS as an example and like them better than the old locally mainstay or red kidney beans grown here. We think it is a soil problem?

OAS in shambles over Honduras! Insulza a dictator.

Insulza, incompetent diplomat turned dictator heads faulty OAS idiots.


CONTRIBUTED POST ARTICLE COPY



Where is the OAS going?
By Julio Alvear Téllez (free translation from Spanish)


Where is the Organization of American States going?
There is a question that Mr. Jose Miguel Insulza has been leaving without answering in his latest performances as General Secretary of the OAS and which is starting to motivate uncertainty among diverse analysts at the international level. Does a democratic election protect any type of abuse of presidential functions? What is democracy for the OAS?
These are not trivial questions. The present directorate of the OAS has persistently ignored all accusations of democratic “deficit” of the political, social and economic process that is imposed by Presidents (some of them military) to their countries of the so called Bolivarian Alternative of the Americas (Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Venezuela). It seems like whatever they do in regard to concentration of power those who subscribe to this anomalous populist alternative –including Zelaya—have a lucky immunity. There is no other way, in my view, to interpret Chavez’s threat to attack Honduras militarily, and received by the OAS with such beatific silence if not scandalous.
International press analysts of different tendencies have started to notice Insulza’s, till now so reasonable, lack of equanimity. “El Universal” a newspaper from Caracas has published a very strong article entitled “On hypocrisy and other coups that the OAS doesn’t see” (5-7-09). The newspaper “El Pais” from Spain, of a known leftist tendency, publishes “idiots against hypocrites” and says: “the Hondurans clumsiness is only exceeded by the explosion of hypocrisy that has been unleashed.” It says hypocrisy because the ALBA presidents, admirers of the Cuban dictatorship, and some of them “golpistas” (in favor of a coup), who before despised the OAS, now are asking for its help: “they treat their general secretary, the Chilean Jose Miguel Insulza, as their maximum warrantor of the Latin-American democracies (…) Therefore it’s comforting to see that Honduras has made Chavez think twice and that now he works in association with Insulza to protect democracy (!)” (5-7-09).
Madrid’s “ABC” (6-7-09) shows how the OAS with its intervention is sending to the world the following message: “there is only one power, the President’s (Zelaya), which can do and undo as it pleases, without taking into account in any way the other State powers.” But democracy belongs to the Hondurans as well as its judicial-political constitutionality, not to Chavez and his minions. “If the OAS, which by the way just invited Cuba to join it, wants to really help resolve the Honduras crisis, the first thing it needs to do is not to take sides beforehand in the dispute. Then, to insist that the Hondurans are the ones who have to arrive at a compromise without external interference. And lastly, remember that, although a bit old but still valid, democratic legitimacy is based on three state powers, not on street mobs.”
Such lack of independence in the OAS General Secretary is extremely strange. That’s why it’s not excessive to ask: where is the OAS going?
(Translator’s Note: When Mr. Insulza was asked about the Honduras’ claim that Zelaya had violated the Constitution, he answered: “that is not important.” The interview was broadcasted by CNN in Spanish).

Belize Government approval rating jumps from 38% to 44%

* Dean Barrow, Prime Minister of Belize and lawyer leader of the UDP Cabinet, got lost in the nit picking legal details instead of the BIG PICTURE.


* Foreign Minister Elrington of the UDP Cabinet, a lawyer lost in nit picking legal details, instead of the BIG PICTURE.


BELIZE UDP GOVERNMENT APPROVAL RATING JUMPS FROM
38% TO 44%

Prime Minister Barrow’s UDP government approval rating took a jump this week from 38% to 44%. The jump was attributed in Western Belize opinions to the handling of the dispute with the biggest government hospital in Belize, Doctors Union go slow dispute. While not resolved yet, the different sides and mediations have been well publicized and the handling of the dispute met with general approval.
The other issue was the handling of the SWINE FLU in Belize. This week, five cases were confirmed by tests to be the first in the country, imported over the border into Belize from Mexico. Many Belizeans go to Chetumal, Mexico, to shop on weekends for every day items. Mexicans also flock into the Northern Corozal Free Zone looking for bargains and gambling at the three Casinos there. The H1N1 flu virus, seems to have evolved into a mild case of ordinary flu and the fatality rate percentages has dropped remarkably world wide and this flu is no longer considered overly dangerous. There will be a Pandemic, the WHO organization have declared this winter, but is expected to be just an ordinary winter flu in effect with standard fatality percentages occuring. Even so, the government has received stocks and distributed same, such as TAMIFLU around the nation of Belize government hospitals and this preparation has been judged as efficient as can be accomplished, within the sparse circumstances of life in Belize.
On the negative side of government policies, the action of the GOB in joining CARICOM and the OAS in a knee jerk condemnation of the Honduras government, over the ouster of ex-President Zelaya on criminal charges in Honduras, was more attributed to amateurish attitudes of young university students, rather than mature National Interest of Belize considerations, of the medium and longer term outlook for building the economy of Belize, perpetrated as a lawyerly nit picking opinion of a foreign policy, without any basis in facts. It was felt that the BELIZE NATIONAL INTEREST, as in ‘economic considerations’ should have been of paramount concern. What we got was viewed to be a bunch of political SHEEP in Belize following other SHEEP in CARICOM and the OAS, and a bunch of leftists in the OAS pushing their own agenda and leanings. Insulza the President of the OAS was believed to be incompetent and pushing his own political viewpoints. He is currently under requests from some other members to have him removed from his office in the OAS, as unfit to lead fairly.
If ZELAYA had succeeded in consolidating his hold over the military of Honduras and emasculating the Congress as he desired, to be come a virtual dictator, tyrant, or President for Life, as he was trying to do, under the advice and leadership of Chavez of Venezuela and Correa of Ecucador and other leftist Presidents of the Americas, who have succeeded in doing this in their own countries, then not only democracy in the Americas would become a PAPER CHARADE, but the situation in Belize economically could have and would have become atrocious. We have experience of past floods of refugees in Belize, from Honduras under dictators. Events were being controlled within Honduras by the Honduras government elected representatives, and even though the actions of Belize Foreign Policy were contrary to the NATIONAL INTEREST of Belize, the external events on the ground resolved this dispute to the advantage of the BELIZE NATIONAL ECONOMIC INTEREST anyway. This Foreign Policy action therefore got a zero rating and neutral grade in grading the UDP Government of Belize. Basically they did wrong acting as SHEEP is the opinion over here, in Western Belize, but events outside the Belize Government, made the political actions of the UDP knee jerk amateur reactions useless anyway. Belize did get BROWNIE points in currying and groveling for favor with other Caricom Leaders and the OAS countries, but we don’t really need this. Belize must show dynamic strong leadership and stand up for what is best for Belize at all times.

FALCONVIEW BACKPACKERS ADVENTURE HOSTEL

* adventurous Swiss couple going all the way to Brazil by motorcyle with side car from San Francisco.
* Yacht owner guests coming from Rio Dulce in Guatemala to renew their 90 day visas.
* upper apartment, third floor next to hydoponic nursery
Pickup transportation system with casita and seats
hammock room
* guests camping with tent
* eating area in hostel
annex building of Hostel



FALCONVIEW BACKPACKERS ADVENTURE HOSTEL

Falconview moves into it's third year in Western Belize, providing overnight accommodations for University age travelers, usually in their 20's and 30's. Set in a rural suburb of Santa Elena Town, one side of the TWIN TOWNS of Western Belize, the three story hostel is located on the slope of Green Parrot Valley, and also overlooks the Belize River Valley to the Yalbac Hills ranging along, about 8 miles away.
Falconview Hostel, accommodates 18 persons, using two dormitories. One dormitory has eight beds ( bunk beds ) and the annex second floor dormitory has 4 beds. The Hostel also has two furnished apartments, with bathroom, hot water, micro wave kitchen and verandahs overlooking the two valleys. Rates run $11 usa plus accomodations tax for single bunk beds and $45 usa per night, plus tax, for the furnished apartments. The HOSTEL enjoys a steady trickle of clientele, either going further Westward into Guatemala, or coming from Guatemala and going to the Barrier Reef Island of Caye Caulker, where the Auxillou Family ( owners ) have another hostel on the beach out there. ( Tina's Backpackers Hostel ) There is a hammock room and television, a kitchen area and dining area. Plenty of bathrooms. Designed from the beginning as an ADVENTURE Hostel to fit the lot in this Hillview suburb of a hundred houses running up and down and across the hillside, it is sort of very rural. With dogs barking at night, kids riding horses on the street and kids playing by the local grocery shop, either football, or racing their bicycles.
The Hostel is run by Ray and Silvia, a retired couple, who do this more for the fun of it and a little small income to offset their retirement years living expenses. They know all the local tour guides and will arrange you an adventure real quick. The tour guide situation changes frequently, so they stay on top of prices and which one has a workable vehicle that is not broken down.

50 YEARS POLITICAL REVIEW OF BELIZE

Belize is a parliamentary democracy. The democracy part ends after the voting in National elections for five years. Justice is basically a flip of a coin, 50 - 50. If you can pay for justice, you get off.
The Supreme Court is considered entertainment like a Soap Opera in the port town.
Supreme Court Building in the port town. It is not located in the capital of the country.



50 year REVIEW OF POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT OF BELIZE

This is an opinion piece, delivered from living through the past 50 years. Belize has gone from a British Colony to an independent country, courtesy of the United Nations unanimous vote, with one abstentation by our neighbor Guatemala back at Independence in 1982.

How have we done? The masses of the population are learning how politics works. What has evolved so far, are two dominant parties with national ability to contest elections. There are a number of independent candidates, but so far none have won any seats in the parliament during national elections.

Since the UDP party has come back into power, the number of elected representatives believed to be criminals in the winning party is roughly 20%. During the last PUP two terms of office, the number of criminals that were elected representatives ran about 25%. The number of elected representatives have increased due to population growth and political skullduggery of unequal voting divisions of the port town people, ensuring the port town of Belize City retain control of the central government.

Some government departments are still not doing so good after fifty years, despite changes in political party control. Currently it takes One Year to qualify for permanent residency for an immigrant, but 2 ½ years for bureaucratic red tape processing, making Permanent Residency for foreign immigrant investors a very slow process of 3 ½ years. The citizenship process takes 5 years to qualify for citizenship of permanent living in Belize ( except if you are a billionaire and can pay a big bribe to the Cabinet Minister of Immigration for a more speedy processing ) After you qualify for citizenship, it takes 3 ½ years to do the red tape bureaucratic processing to get your citizenship, which means a total time of 8 ½ years to an applicant. Many things are not capable of being achieved in land development, without citizenship for immigrant developers.

These opinions are derived mostly from either first hand experience, or reading of the flow of investigative reporting from the weekly newspapers.

This past week, a NEW alarming trend has occurred in land title security. The land system has been one based on first acquiring a Lease Certificate, which in Colonial days was for 99 years, but sometime during Independence changed to 30 years. The process then required a survey and payment of money to apply for a change of a Lease Certificate to a CLEAR TITLE. In effect, between a Lease Certificate and a TITLE certificate, you paid for the land twice to the government. Last week articles in the newspapers were blaring the fact, that a local family with a LEASE CERTIFICATE , with home and possessions had her lease certificate CANCELED by the Cabinet Minister of Lands and was evicted and now homeless, after living on it and developing it for 13 years. The story was garbled, but essentially what we got was that a political switch went on, and the leased home was taken from the lease holder and sold to somebody else more politically correct and aligned, as a new lease certificate. This has rung alarm bells under this UDP government, both in the banks and among the populace, a lot of which hold a 30 year lease certificate type of possession. This has also created a storm in International investment circles as the stability of land tenure, sanctity of leases as security for bank loans and other usage change is no longer valid. In post colonial law of Belize, the Cabinet Minister of Lands has ‘discretion’. The translation means it is legal and there is factually no LAW in Belize to do with Land ownership security. Which is not only causing foreign investors to balk, but creating consternation and worry among the local populace, many of whom live on Lease Certificate type lands. Not being able to pay the purchase price twice in the current system of evaluation to go through to a clear TITLE.

Forestry department was budget emasculated back about three decades ago and has been an empty shell since then. Though the department exists and is used mostly for bribery revenues by elected representatives appointed by the incumbent party leader as Minister of Forestry, who controls the permit and license process for forest products and land usage, according to investigative reporting in the newspapers. The permit and license process is utilized in the Cabinet government system, to solicit self enrichment bribes, ( using a Cabinet Minister’s driver as a criminal cut out go between ) or to steal new viable businesses after the initial period of risk taking capital experimentation proves them successful.

The last PUP government experimented with debt financing and ran the national debt ratio up to 127 % of GDP. They were re-elected to a second term to settle due debts crippling the country and went on a five year austerity program which reduced the national debt to 72% of GDP. The new UDP Government has gone on a new BORROW and SPEND experiment and so far as is known, the debt ratio has risen from 72% of GDP, to 78% of GDP in the second year of their 5 year UDP term. The ideal is less than 3% of GDP for a well run government. The UDP government now in power has frozen financial monthly reporting and the public is left guessing, because of secrecy. There is no financial transparency, or accountability anymore. These are just election buzzwords, which are hot air and plain political party lies.

There were some scandals in the last PUP administration due to LOAN grants from both Taiwan and Venezuela to help Belize with problems. The new UDP government controlled by two lawyers in the Cabinet and some port city wild card area representatives, have spent a bit over a year with endless political vendettas and court cases. Nobody is sure why, instead of governing efficiently? The previous Prime Minister of the PUP used some of the grants to correct some of his borrowing mistakes by using foreign GRANTS, to clear the debts before the end of his term. The new UDP government is prosecuting him for malfeance and it is looking to be a political shell game. Unless they send the previous Prime Minister to jail for twenty years, the whole charade seems to be smoke and mirrors. Failure to send him to jail is going to increase the money, the arguments are about, to double or triple what was originally owed under the PUP. The actual extra debt cost being run up, will probably double the PUP original debt under this UDP. The whole legal exercise means NOTHING, unless they can put the previous Prime Minister in jail. The debts continue to increase exponentially. The whole political party legal show seems to be an orchestrated SOAP OPERA to hide the failures of administration. There seems no financial sense to what is going on.

In the meantime, the bank that was paid off with Foreign Grants for loaning money to the previous PUP government, is being forced to give back the money to this UDP government. Articles in the newspapers indicate that this money, or part of it, is being dished out under the disguise of poverty housing, but newspaper allegations are; that in reality it is being awarded to UDP area representatives, bureaucrats, middle class party hacks and supporters in $60,000 GRANTS each. And POOF, so will disappear $18 million dollars or so of foreign GRANT MONEY, into the greedy clutching hands of a new political party in power. The rhetoric is for poverty alleviation, but seems worthless propoganda? The previous debts in the situation are now being re-started by the bank and the interest cost is running. Expected to double the old PUP debt mistakes by the end of term, of this UDP government. The government following this one, will end up taxing the masses to pay for the alleged corruption, according to newspaper articles.

The PUP debt exacerbated by the new debts of the UDP, are expected to continue out for 20 more years. As time progresses and these interest payments are wasted and not available for development, the DEBT PRINCIPAL continues to remain and not be reduced. The National Debts are now projected out for 30 years under UDP management, instead of 20 years.

The lesson from this, for FOREIGN AID donors to Belize, is NOT TO GIVE ANY MONEY to our government directly. Funnel your donations and GRANTS through NGO’s, or establish your own AID programs in Belize. Neither the PUP, or the UDP governments are to be trusted with money coming as FREE GRANTS. Without outside supervision and control, the money will be filched. Corruption is rife in the system of government we use in Belize, which is the British colonial exploitation system of Empire. Some incoming GRANTS are working with the government, in the field of education and scholarships. The TAIWANESE agriculture program is an excellent method of seeing foreign GRANT money does the work it is intended for. The FAO GRANT funded habenero project went well it is reported, done through an individual buyer. The rice system run by CARDI seems a loser, as complaints from rice farmers in Toledo District say neither the quantity of rice they grow increases, despite being forced to change rice seed each year, nor does the rice price increase.

The only government department seemingly working well, is the Agriculture Department, which has seen a policy shift by this new UDP government and a lot of new jobs and expertise is being channeled into productive endeavors and export marketing. The Agriculture College has reopened and the UN FAO are giving GRANTS for education and experimentation, to increase local agriculture productivity. For the most part this is a mixed bag of Foreign GRANTS going more to individuals and NGO’s, not directly to the Government. It seems to be working?

There is a lot of activity in the legal system of courts. The public has come to the conclusion this is a CASH COW milking machine. Nothing is being accomplished, even though a lot of news, articles in newspapers and television coverage is given by lawyers who are getting RICH. There is a three tier court system and the legal milking machine, finds a case is judged at the lower levels one way, then for more money and time, going in an appeal to the second level of courts, the judgments are reversed, then in the final cycle of the money machine, another higher court then reverses sometimes, the decision again. You may find justice for a million dollars in costs, but unlikely for the general public, who cannot afford the system of lawyers and court processes. The public has given up with the court system, which seems over priced and totally corrupt. Justice is now being dealt in Belize, at the end of a gun, by hired assassins. Especially by the lower level population that cannot afford lawyers and to go through the LEGAL MILKING MONEY MACHINE. One attempt was reported to have been made to form MURDER INCORPORATED and formalize justice by force, using the police wilder element, but blew up in newspaper investigations, involving the Chinese community. There have been many successful assassinations privately done, reported in the newspapers for matters involving inheritance, vendettas and business problems. No one with any smarts and can afford it, is going to waste time on the lawyer/court three tier money making machine. As the population grows, this trend of seeking justice by gun, is expected to increase. Murder satisfaction costs are running a few thousand dollars or less, to settle what otherwise would be legal arguments.

Despite all these maturing growing pains, Belize continues to be an excellent place to live, if you live OUTSIDE the port of Belize City, in the other rural districts. The climate is great, the food easy, shelter easy and most people are nice to get along with. The population continues to be an incoming immigrant population, or people moving around the country seeking opportunity. There is a lot of population mobility. The middle class has grown in size, showing a successful result of governing, despite problems. Belize is an excellent place to RETIRE. The negative aspects of some government departments and political exploitation, effect the ordinary person, minimally. Most of the crime is to do with the money making aspects, of political elected representatives. Politics seems to be still the biggest employer and source of criminal activity in the country. Though the way it is arranged in the inherited Commonwealth British governing system, most of these activities are technically legal. This does not give much satisfaction to the victims of persecution, or when they are taken advantage of, using the political system. Most citizens of Belize try to stay small and insignificant, below the radar of government opportunism. Local investors stay small of necessity, otherwise you become a target. Belize is otherwise a pleasant rural place to live for the good family life.

The Belize National Debt size is the most worrisome thing affecting the country of Belize. This has been created by the amateurishness of our political party system. Of the many ideas to resolve the debt, holding back development of the country and government size, one idea I heard discussed the other day, was the consolidation of all foreign debts into a new set of BONDS, to be issued as replacement of bonds and current foreign debts, at an interest rate of USA Bank Prime rate, PLUS one percent. This to bring our foreign debts more in line with the industrialized world new financial system of low interest rates. We in the developing world can copy the more first world industrialized countries, in finding solutions. It is interesting to note that mortgage interest rates throughout the whole Caribbean region are now less than 10%. Signifying a readjustment of the New World Order in financial interest rate expectations. Interest rates in the G7 have shrunk remarkably. The third world though are stuck now, with what are now extra high interest rates carried over and need to re-finance, to re-adjust to the G7 norms in those countries that lead the world in financial manipulation. No third world country should be paying more than 3% on any debt these days, at a maximum. 3% interest rate today in this world financial climate is over paying actually.

EDEN HIGH SCHOOL produces winner in Department of the Environment Contest

RONESTA PINEDA from Eden High School in Hillview, Santa Elena Town, Western Belize came first as the winner of the Environmental Poster Competition offered by the Department of the Environment.

CEMENT BLOCK MAKING MACHINE COTTAGE INDUSTRY OF BELIZE

BELIZEAN CEMENT BLOCK MACHINE

This is a typical cement block making machine is Belize. Usually a three man operation. It has a steel mold. This one is a deluxe variety, with a hopper to feed cement. The smaller ones, usually are hand fed cement with a shovel. The wood pallets in the back ground carry three cement blocks and as the machine vibrates the cement to settle it, the block is then lowered onto the plywood piece, which can carry three blocks. Then two helpers who mix the cement by hand and also carry the plywood with three blocks over to the outside yard for drying and curing for three days. Production varies between 200 and 300 blocks per day. There are probably 2 dozen such cement block machines to be found in the seven districts of the country of Belize. This is the cottage level type of business which is typical of Belize, with a population of 315,000. Most of the workers are casual day labor in the construction trades and they tend to shift from job to job.

Private primary school of Santa Elena Town, Cayo District, Belize

Students at the United Christian School. This primary school in Santa Cruz, a suburb of Santa Elena Town, in Western Belize agriculture and recreational area is owned and financed by the Mennonite mission and has 56 children in attendance. The children do not have to be Mennonites and in fact include Salvadoraneans, Guatemalans, Belizeans, USA kids and even a Brazil child who has a father working as Director of the government San Ignacio Hospital. What sets this primary school apart from other church state schools within Belize, is they take no money from the government of Belize. Most church state primary schools in Belize, get 70% of their teachers salaries paid from the government, plus building and maintainance costs. You would call this a private primary school and the Curriculum used; is from the State of Michigan of the USA and is based on the American education system. This is the basic Christian education. The Belize government approves of it. Another unique feature is that the children to teacher ratio in the lower grades is limited to 9 students per teacher, while in the Junior High School grades, the limit is 12 students per teacher. The fee per child is $255 per year and includes books. Teaching is adjusted so that each child progresses at their own pace.

BELIZE AGRICULTURE COLLEGE RE-OPENS FOR 2008

AGRICULTURE COLLEGE OF BELIZE RE-OPENS !

After eight long years, the Agriculture College at Central Farm in Western Belize has re-opened. The Agriculture College originally closed because of budget cuts, due to the previous government, gambling amateurishly, with a BORROW and SPEND type of trickle down economics theory. The end result was the country became after three years of PUP spend thrift policies, mired in International Debt, that drove the nation to a DEFAULT in the money markets of the International arena. The tight fiscal policies continue and will be necessary for another five years at least, before any marked improvement in financial self sustainability caused by international debt service problems. Due to the growth of the population numbers and subsequent growth of government revenues along with it, the government revenues have been increasing year by year at a rate of about 10%. This is allowing this year, for the first time in eight years, a small budget surplus, if tight budget controls are followed; extra money for doing infra-structure repair will become available in increasing amounts, year by year.. Slated on the top of the priority lists have been road bridges and agriculture expansion development. Should the new government of UDP maintain strict budgetary spending and the size of government, by the end of their five year term, the country should be well on the way to fiscal recovery and financial self sustainability. Political money management skills are the problem Belize faces.

This means a re-orientation to economic diversity and productive goals, particularly in our ability to feed our growing population, with excess crop products for export. The recent crisis early this year of 2008, worldwide, proved we were capable already, in the ability to feed ourselves, no matter what kind of outside disasters occurred. The short sharp lesson in shutdown of world food supplies during a very rapid oil supply cost spike in costs, early in 2008, made our new batch of politicians sit up and take notice. It so happened it co-incided with the Tropical Vegetable Research done by the NGO, the BELIZE DEVELOPMENT TRUST, in Hillview, Santa Elena Town, who had just prior to the world oil crisis and food crisis, published a series of experimental research books, as they were trying different methods of producing vegetables on a year round sustainable, continuous cropping basis in the tropical climate of Belize. The experiments worked and news was soon spread through the CABINET politicians, the agriculture community and government Natural Resources Department. Subsequently, a series of articles by the NGO research, on local list serves, emails to concerned government and education individuals, caused a meeting of minds at the political level and soon as some surplus money became available, the CABINET decided to put Agriculture year round production, on the front burner. The recipient of those GRANT FUNDS and increased agriculture budgets were shared with the University of Belize and Central Farm Research Station of the Ministry of Agriculture, earmarked for training of a new generation of farmers, in what had been discovered and proven in the market place, of new techniques in modern agriculture. The previously closed Central Farm campus of the Agriculture College , now part of the greater University of Belize small unit campus system around the tiny nation, has been re-opened in September, 2008 with a new lecture staff and curriculum and 28 students. The college is expected to expand rapidly as the private sector, mostly Mennonite farmers, and new immigrant investors from the USA , are already reaping good financial earnings from the newer agriculture technologies, proved by the research experiments of the previous three years. Oversight is being provided to the Agriculture College , administered by the University of Belize , as a two year Associate Degree program, in practical money making agriculture, overseen by the research staff and extension department of the Central Farm Research Station across the road, a few hundred yards away in the Western Cayo District. Which is also the largest Recreational Area in the country. Also nearby, is the Taiwanese Agriculture vegetable research plot, which is used to test new Chinese varieties of seeds and crops, for the major two different night time, temperature seasons found in Belize . Research has shown, February through August require different types of seeds not susceptible to 24 hour constant warm temperatures, during day and night. The rest of the year, temperate zone vegetable seeds can be planted. Just add water and fertilizer food. Soil preparation is a must, and small spaced plots to combat the tropical lowland increases of diseases and pests in a growing situation that has no seasons.. Inter-cropping will be taught. The Taiwanese overseas assistance program is also active in food preservation and packaging technology, to build not only a local market, for products on grocery store shelves, but also to fill niche gourmet markets for the export markets abroad. Belize already has a strong trade with Mexico and Guatemala in agriculture and also has expanded in recent years to supplying El Salvador with corn.

The Vegetable BIBLE of the new crop growing technology is the FOURTH EDITION of the “BELIZE VEGETABLE FARMERS BIBLE - FOURTH EDITION”. Written and produced by Ray Auxillou of the Belize Development Trust NGO, agriculture research project. A new standardized book is in the works, being got ready for publication on continuous YEAR ROUND vegetable growing. Several experimenters have succeeded in growing vegetables by adjusting varieties and planting weekly.

The new agriculture college course will be in mixed farming. Food preservation, processing and packaging also. Though the new techniques in continuous vegetable cropping on an all year round basis, point to the strong possibilities of fast money making export opportunities. We already have a growing trade with Mexico , Guatemala , Honduras , El Salvador and new roads along the Eastern side of Central America are making trade easier each year. This opens huge, new close by, trade markets. We are talking over 54 million people to supply. The nation of Belize is also short of milk production cows and dairy farms. The demand is greater than the supply, for value added products made from milk, like different cheese types. These should eventually include exports. Chocolates for export are another field of opportunity in the more traditional cacao tree production. A $100,000 a year income is not impossible today for these first 28 young farmer students on just ten acres, now studying at the newly re-opened Agriculture College in market gardening alone. Mixed farming would give them more diversified revenue stability and rising living standards. Processing, packaging and marketing are the larger problems to be faced as the population grows.

http://westernbelizehappenings.blogspot.com ( local news in Western Belize )
http://tropicalhydroponics.tripod.com
http://belizehydroponics.tripod.com

Papaya growing in my backyard in Western Belize Recreational Area.

Myself, Ray Auxillou, the author picking a papaya outside my kitchen door, by the washing machine. My cousin Gustavo Pinzon sharing the photo, with a coconut tree in the background. We now have an orange tree bearing and a breadfruit tree loaded with breadfruit also. Lots of flowers and a nursery in the yard for growing lettuce and herbs.
It's a tough life retired living in Belize, but somebody has to do it.

Immigrants prosper in Western Belize after hard times.

Young Linnette Figueroa of Hillview, on the slope of narrow Green Parrot Valley has just got her new, two young brown and white rabbits to raise. She is a neighbor of mine, a corner away in our small suburban rural community, part of Santa Elena Town, supposedly. Around 1986, her grandparents and children came to Belize under the auspices of the United Nations Refugee program from El Salvador at the end of the Reagan sponsored CIVIL WAR in Salvador. Her grandfather had some terrible tales to tell of the human slaughter during this war. At any rate, Linnette is now third generation born in Belize, Belizean. Her mother was this age when she arrived with her parents, Linnettes now grandparents. They all live in one house. Her mother Betty, got married young and had two children and then her young husband died in a car accident. Betty, then a widow and her parents and the grandchildren were having a hard time of it. They lived off food they grew themselves. Ground food we call it locally. In order to provide Betty and her children with a job, the old man built a wooden shack to work as a village grocery. This later got expanded to a cement building and doing very well indeed, due to Linnette's mother's hard work and very long hours. The family prospered and her mother and brothers, all have their own piece of land now and small family businesses. They are entrepreneurs and pretty much have to be in the economic climate of Belize. The grandparents speak no English. Betty the mother learned English from taking private lessons and struggling, as she never went to school. They couldn't afford it. She learned to run her store, learned to add and subtract and even now does the bookkeeping for our Falconview Backpackers Hostel, paying contractors as a sideline. Extremely honest and conscientious she is worth her weight in gold to us at the Hostel, as we are very old folks. Linnette though, is the real hope for both the nation of Belize and her family. She goes to school, is bilingual and learning farming, grocery business and other business entrepreneurial skills first hand. Her mother bought a car and learned to drive, has learned to read by herself, learned English the hard way by herself, bookkeeping and other life skills without schooling. A cousin of the grandfather sold out in El Salvador and moved to Belize where he bought a DFC government house across the street, converting it to a cheese making factory and now is clearing 300 acres of jungle in the hinterland, and bringing in dairy cows, as milk which is needed to make cheese is insufficient in the country of Belize. These are the immigrant families to Belize that are the salt of the Earth and are building our new nation of Belize.

Weekend newsroundup in WESTERN BELIZE

WEEKEND NEWS ROUNDUP ( Sept. 21, 2008 )

HAND GRENADE CASE

Police have not solved the thrown hand grenade mystery, that was thrown into the 10th Parade last week down in the coastal port town. The grenade did not go off. Oh sure, they have a confession, beaten out of a young boy, who may, or may not be guilty. The police failed to establish a chain of evidence, as required for a court of law. No magistrate worth their salt, could convict a boy on the basis of a confession coerced into signing by any method of brutality, without the presence of a lawyer. Our police department, and seemingly Belmopan Police Headquarters are as stupid as ever, working with methods used back in the time of King Henry the VIII. Unless they have fingerprints on the grenade by Richard Flores, witnesses, that saw him throw it, or a witness willing to say they saw him with it in his possession, or something legitimate, there is no case. The police department have RUINED the case against Richard Flores otherwise, guilty or not. The court case must be thrown out. Coerced confessions claimed to have been made under torture are not valid. Do they have any other chain of evidence? That is the the question, or they must let Richard Flores go. The USA attempt to teach the Belize Police a method of forensic evidence seems to have been a failure? They still use British monarchists torture methods of ancient times.

MINISTER CARDONA

If the story of Minister Cardona in the Belize Times newspaper is true, then the Minister should resign his cabinet position and be consigned to the back benches. The story claims the Minister was in a traffic accident which he caused and fled the scene in Chetumal, Mexico. In Belize that would be a jailable offense. The Minister is required to give up his position in the CABINET. Not even referring to the SHAME and EMBARRASSMENT claimed in the TIMES story, for the people of Belize. This is not behavior needed in a CABINET MINISTER.

ECONOMIC STATISTICS ARE PUBLISHED

The Belize Times printed a flurry of statistics on the economy for this year, from the Statistical Unit of Belize. While the Belize Times is an Opposition party rag taking the negative view of some statistics. The information is useful. There were no surprises! Remittances from abroad continue to fuel the economy and imports of goods; far in excess of our nation to afford otherwise. Inflation is 7% in round numbers, which is dangerous and worrisome, but for the most part out of control of our local government. We could not find statistics on borrowing effects by the new UDP government this year, but the National Debt is expected to have grown by about 5%. This in turn is inflationary, but more importantly leads to a potential DEVALUATION. Between inflation and devaluation, things get very hairy for the economy of Belize. The slide either way in the overall debt ratio will point to either good, or bad money management by the UDP. I fully expect the news to be bad to a certain extent, and because of the loan borrowing incurred this year, for political party propaganda purposes, the debt ratio is supposed to have gotten larger. We did not see the debt ratio in the published statistics yet though. The UDP seem to have caught on, and the last two months has seen a switch from foreign loan borrowing talk, to GRANT methods of development. Which is a very good sign from the new UDP government. The borrowing this year is expected to set back UDP economic management schemes by about 18 months for prudent self sufficiency goals. The Belize Times the Opposition newspaper, took great glee in proving that the UDP Election promises were lies and pure hot air. None have been fulfilled, nor expected to be, as the election was a rebound vote against a perceived criminal corrupt PUP.

MICHAEL REID

A very good article in the Belize Times by Michael Reid. He was formerly a politically appointed police press officer and very abrasive. Before that, he was supposed to have been a bad fellow in the USA, or someplace? In recent months his writings and vocabulary have been getting better. He could probably write better stories now than once infamous UDP writer, political party hack,Yasmin Andrews who has gone squirrely in her writings in the Guardian Newspaper since the election.

BAINBRIDGE COLLEGE

The study abroad program of Bainbridge College is expanding in Belize. Mentioned were Dr. Betty La Face and Ben White speaking at a Bainbridge Rotary club meeting. Dr. Le Face, is an Assistant Professor of English and also Assistant Director of Training Abroad. Library Director Bainbridge, Susan Ralph has a library project in Belize she is working on. These courses give credits for study abroad in Belize. We had Berea College of Kentucky ourselves at Falconview Hostel last Xmas and January, out in Western Belize Agriculture and Recreational Area for six weeks. More Colleges in the USA are using Belize as a STUDY ABROAD component for their students in a different culture. Colleges from New Hampshire and the University of Corpus Christi have used Belize for 45 years.
http://stellapinzon.tripod.com/bereacollegetravel/
http://stellapinzon.tripod.com/apartmentwesternbelize/
http://folkmusicfl.tripod.com/adventuresinbelize/

SALVADORANEAN COMMUNITY IN BELIZE OUTNUMBERS CHINESE IMMIGRANTS

There are about 30,000 Salvadoraneans registered living in Belize. They have formed a Community on San Pedro Island. In Western Belize agricultural area, most of them came originally back in 1986 during USA President Reagan’s Civil War in Salvador as United Nations refugees. They have turned into a valuable asset to Belize as we grow. They are into milk production, cheese manufacturing, cattle and milk cows and vegetables of many kinds. Their children have businesses in Belmopan and the Twin Towns of Santa Elena and San Ignacio and the grandchildren are now bi-lingual young people of the third generation who will build our nation of Belize, when they get out of school.


TOURISM DOWN 5% FOR THIS YEAR IN BELIZE

May was a DEAD month for us at Falconview Backpackers Adventure Hostel. The Belize Tourist Board reported it was bad all around the country that month. Otherwise our gross revenue stream tripled for the 8 month tourist season year. We are still in the red, after the first two pioneer years in Cayo Western Belize. Our own philosophy has been to expand more upscale accommodations and we are increasing our number of furnished apartments, from one to three; while maintaining our bunk bed dormitory for the low budget backpacker explorer.. The low budget traveler trend did not materialize from our AUXILLOU FAMILY GROUP tourist facilities on Caye Caulker island. We did not get the backpackers we expected from Caye Caulker and Tina’s Backpackers Hostel on the beach there. Which does very, very good as a HOT spot for University age, partying student travelers. The tourist season past, was not bad by any means. It just fluctuated, but as the biggest earner for our government revenues, a 5% fluctuation has the government worried. The Western Belize Recreational Area adventure tours offered locally, are improving in quality, variety and services and this is reflected in increasing numbers of tourist visitors overall. Western Belize is now getting referrals from all over the spectrum of Belize national tourist resorts. We also now have a direct Cessna 172, three passenger charter service from Caye Caulker and San Pedro tourist islands arriving at the Twin Towns municipal Central Farm airstrip to order.

MAYAN, SAN ANTONIO TOWN IN CAYO DISTRICT GETS A PRESCHOOL

Nestled in a small beautiful valley, what forty years ago was a small thatch roofed, palmetto walled typical housing style, Mayan village; at which I once did magic tricks for the children, when traversing with tourist groups; has grown into a widely dispersed community of vegetable farmers, supplying both the Twin Towns and the nation, and now have posh cement houses, drive cars, trucks and trail bikes. Television and washing machines are not uncommon. Well the little village now a TOWN of sorts, still small in population, but uncommonly wealthy, now has it’s first pre-school. Built by the Village Council and inaugurated by Rene Montero the local AREA REPRESENTATIVE ( elected government official ), the new preschool has a student body of 45 young children.

GALEN UNIVERSITY OF THE, WESTERN BELIZE RECREATIONAL AREA

Galen University located just past Central Farm agriculture research station for the Belize government and next door to the University of Belize Agriculture College now has an official five years in existence. This year they have 300 students. They even get foreign students and also have arrangements to give USA recognized degrees in certain subjects with associated Universities in the USA, with which they have agreements and distance learning programs. The major partner in the USA for GALEN UNIVERSITY in Belize is the University of Indianapolis. Undergraduate programs in Belize are recognized by the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools in the USA. Foreign students are coming from the USA, Canada, England, France and Sweden. We had thought once, we would be a mecca for Central American students, but this never materialized. Chinese students once made up a big group to learn English, but this program has declined in recent years. Native Belizeans make up 90% of the student body. In my own lifetime, I have seen Belize go from a country, which had no people with even a Bachelors Degree, to two Universities now giving PH’ds, recognized abroad.

Falconview Hostel NEWS SERVICE

NEWS ITEMS OF WESTERN BELIZE RECREATIONAL AREA

• THE EPA, OR ECONOMIC PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT WITH THE EU
• JUNGLE SOUNDS OF HILLVIEW,
• UK CITIZENS INVITED TO IMMIGRATE TO THE CARIBBEAN
• BACKLOG IN BELIZE IMMIGRATION APPLICATIONS STILL THERE, AFTER 8 MONTHS OF UDP MANAGEMENT.
• WESTERN BELIZE RECREATIONAL AREA, GETS JAVIER FLYING SERVICE. FROM OFFSHORE BARRIER REEF TOURIST PLACES, TO LOCAL MUNICIPAL CENTRAL FARM AIRSTRIP!

Nothing much in the weekend news. PM Barrow disappeared on personal leave. The Cable Company dropped CARIBBEAN NEWS last Tuesday night after Channel 5 news. I waited for an hour or more to get the CARIBBEAN NEWS and hear about the EPA signing with the EU. But all we got was a substituted USA news TV program of no interest to us here in Belize, on their political convention up in North America. Something to do with Republicans. Will have to pay for some internet time today, to see what happened with the EPA and the position of Belize and CARICOM? None of our local media seem at all interested in the subject and are doing no reporting on the matter.

One item, was the Opposition party the PUP party newspaper rag, the BELIZE TIMES newspaper said something about victimization by the UDP who are in power and control the government. Claimed that Rene Montero our local UDP area representative fired about 15 employees from the BAHA agriculture unit. I wonder what that was about? They didn’t perform to my satisfaction either last year, when I dealt with them. Though I never thought they had that many employees.

Far as my experience has been, BELTRAIDE, BELIZE TOURIST BOARD and now BAHA an agriculture unit headquartered at Central Farm in the Western Belize Area are poor performing entities. At least the Tourist Board provides a useful government function in collecting accommodation taxes. I formed the opinion decades ago that Beltraide and the Belize Tourist Board were simply government institutions created to park PARTY HACKS and political relatives in government salaried jobs at tax payer expense. Surprised that BAHA fits the same mold according to this latest news item. Make work jobs, and no shows, I think the term is?

Neighbor here, supposedly a naturalized Guatemalan Belizean, still cannot get his papers for citizenship and also papers for the government house lot on which he built his house. Time elapsed is measured in years. Apparently a lot of people are complaining about it in Western Belize Cayo District. Obviously the new UDP government has failed to deal with the backlog found in Immigration applications. Down in the CREOLE port town, they are complaining about the shift in demographics from CREOLE to MESTIZO majority. Fact is; that the port town pays a lot of taxes, but it is a re-circulating type circle of government salaries and activity, that is non productive and basically they keep circulating the same tax revenue money. Each tax bite reduces the amount available until the rural districts foreign exchange earnings, trickle in more freshly earned money. The only NEW MONEY coming in; is from the Tourist Industry, oil taxes and the Agriculture Sector mostly. These foreign exchange sources are not in Belize City the port. In order to provide those monies being re-circulated in the port, you have to have the PRODUCTIVE SECTOR earning foreign exchange in the rural DISTRICTS. The new amateur UDP government hasn’t awoken to that nugget of truth yet, it seems? In favoring and pleasing their port town CREOLE dominance of the political process, they are spiting and hurting the economy, because the energy and foreign exchange is coming from out here mostly in the DISTRICTS. The port town media CREOLES argue they want the immigrants stopped from Central America, but heck the port Creoles won’t go out into the districts and start farming, ranching and light manufacturing? It is cheap land that is attracting immigrants and all the associated opportunities to grow with Belize. Thank God for immigrants, without them Belize would have nothing.

It is 1:30 a.m. in the early nighttime morning hours and I guess my noisy tapping away on the computer keyboard is aggravating the birds in their nests outside my windows. Lot of disturbance and jungle noises. Sounds like one of those meditation jungle sounds CD’s you buy to lower stress. All kinds of birds waking up complaining and talking. Sorry birds!

One of the interesting items in world news, is that the UK economy has hit a 60 year low. That is going back to the late 1948 period. That is post war, when the UK was demobilizing their army and pulling out of occupied Europe AFTER World War 2. The USA developed the MARSHAL plan to rebuild Germany and other European countries, funneling billions of dollars into those mainland Europeans, but the UK was saddled with the HUGE lend lease debt for war materials to pay off. England was worse off in that period than Germany and France. No MARSHAL plan for the UK. That has got to be some ECONOMIC LOW indeed for the UK? Think if I lived there, I’d sell everything and move to Belize, or the Caribbean countries. At least the weather is nice all year round, you can sleep in a tent and grow your own food. Lots of business opportunities too. Belize needs machinists that can make things, using applied engineering from off the shelf stuff, for export to Central America, plus food processing skills and modern packaging skills, Belize has a strong but small English expatriate numbers scattered around Belize, of immigrants over the decades. Bare bones living costs for retirees who rent, are about $650 usa per month. Some expatriats are in the offshore barrier reef cayes and some are out here in Cayo Western District living in the foothills. Lot of inter-marriage with Belizeans. The Americans outnumber the British as immigrants to Belize though.

Javier Flying Service offers charter flight now from the barrier reef islands of San Pedro and Caye Caulker tourist towns, to the Central Farm airstrip, five miles from the twin towns, agriculture and tourist shopping centers by local taxi.

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• Falconview Adventure Hostel telephone: 663 5580 Santa Elena Town, on the slope of Green Parrot Valley. Upscale and budget accomodations.
• Charter plane flight, to and from Cayes tel: 223 5360, or 610 0446 to Central Farm airstrip. ($375 or $415 usa plus 10% GST tax. (Cessna 172 ) 3 passengers.
• Local taxis are cars with green license plates in Western Belize, local fares are $8 bz, $4 usa, or 2 EU.

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WESTERN BELIZE HAPPENINGS!

WESTERN BELIZE RECREATIONAL AREA ( CAYO DISTRICT )
(WESTERN BELIZE HAPPENINGS! )

We have the 2009 tour and expedition rates posted now for the Western Cayo District of the country of Belize. Sept. 1st, 2008

2009 TOURIST VISITOR FAVORITES !

· Xununtanich, Clarissa Falls and Cahel Pech tour - $22 usa

· Caracol pyramids interior day trip -$75—$85 usa

· XIBALBA, the ATM Cave expedition to the Mayan

sacrifical underworld— all day trip- $75—$85 usa

· Horse back riding Mopan River, ferry and climb to Xununtanich hilltop temple ruins by horse. - $40—$75 usa

· Belize Alps foothills, Pine Ridge day trip— $40—$60—$75 usa depending on tour guide, or tour operator.

· Barton Creek Outpost cave canoeing—$60 usa, or use FREE swimming hole with swinging ropes from trees.

· TIKAL all day round trip $135 usa, ( all inclusive )

· Ultra Light Trike flying over Belize River Valley—$$75 -$100 usa

· Guanacaste National Park swimming hole—$2 usa by bus.

· Blue Hole Cenote National Park Swimming Hole

· Crystal Cave and Petroglyphs - $75 usa

· White water kayaking Mopan River -$60—$75 usa

· Canoeing pristine natural Macal River Gorge - $20 usa

· Canoeing and hiking $70 usa

· There are many more attractions from slate carving, music lessons, painting art lessons, archery, Mayan pottery making, wine making, zip lines, cave tubing, ETC.

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Courtesy of: Falconview Backpackers upscale Adventure Hostel

http://folkmusicfl.tripod.com/adventureinbelize/