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.

BELIZE ECONOMIC INTELLIGENCE SERVICE

BELIZE ECONOMIC INTELLIGENCE SERVICE ( private sector )

Western Belize News Service

OPEN SOURCE INTELLIGENCE – Channel 7 Honduras television-

- Internet sources

- Latin television stations on cable in Belize

Venezuelan President, Hugo Chavez just upped the ante. The President of Honduras has just refused to recognize and accept the new Ambassador to Honduras on the grounds that Honduras is a member of the ALBA group. This after the new USA Ambassador made a beautiful speech to Hondurans on television in perfect Spanish.

Venezuela this past week had kicked out the US Ambassador in Caracas. In retaliation, the USA in Washington, D.C. had kicked out the Venezuelan Ambassador to the USA and another Venezuelan diplomat. Also two high level Venezuelan Intelligence Agents had their bank accounts frozen for funding the Terrorist Bandit Army made up of kidnapped Colombian children, brainwashed and terrorized into serving as the bandit army of the FARC Terrorist Mafia Group working in Colombia against Colombian citizens. This MAFIA terrorist group is also legally recognized by the Italian government for international travel and support.

In HONDURAS today, the US Ambassador was refused to be recognized by the Honduran government, because Honduras is a signatory the new economic federation in the American Continent called ALBA. Everybody who signed up to ALBA perhaps knew, or didn’t dwell on the fine print, but the deal is not just getting FREE MONEY from President Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, or OIL on long term, low interest loans. There is no FREE LUNCH one commentator said on televison in Honduras. Those that signed on to ALBA are required to go to each others aid in times of war,or emergency, as well as preferential trade. What one does as a member of ALBA, all members must do. Sort of like the party politics of Belize, in which party politicians are expected to hide corruption by their fellow political party members.

The HONDURAS reporters debating the effects in retaliation by the USA, as over a million Hondurans have a limited term, special work permit visa system to the USA. The remittances from these Honduran workers are the biggest economic boost to the Honduran economy and amount to an estimated $2 BILLION usa per year.

BELIZE was represented by a mystery person in Nicaragua, when the ALBA group of countries was formed. We do not know who that person was, or if that person signed on behalf of our Belize Government, to make Belize an official member of ALBA? Or perhaps that person was an OBSERVER? We do know that the Belize government, both the last one and the new government in Belize, has been receiving FREE GRANTS from the ALBA BANK in Venezuela, as it has been announced in the port town media for propaganda purposes by Prime Minister, Dean Barrow and the UDP. The ALBA signing contract has NEVER been delivered to the Belizean people by any government of Belize. There have been two of the two different political parties.

In late breaking FRIDAY evening television news from Honduras, the President of that country is now declaring that the accepting of the new USA Ambassador has simply been temporarily postponed. Presumably the Honduran President must go back to Venezuela to get instructions from his master? The Honduran Presidential Palace is all lit up into the Friday night like it was Christmas.

In the meantime, the USA is Belize’s biggest trading partner. Hugo Chavez is threatening to invade BOLIVIA with an International Army, if President Evo Morales should be assassinated, or deposed, in the current turmoil in Bolivia. the United Nations are supposed to have gone into Bolivia. Bolivia is part of the ALBA group of countries. What will Belize do? A number of CARICOM countries are now in the same boat as being ALBA signatories. Are we really planning to go to war with the USA in any shape or form, particularly economic? We are having enough trouble in CARICOM and CARIFORM over signing the European Unions invasion into Caribbean markets through a forced EPA. ( Economic Partnership Agreement ) The EU is trying to steal USA Caribbean Markets, even as small as they are.

The Honduran Presidential palace is in turmoil, this Friday night, it is reported by television commentators on Noticias Channel 7 television. On Western Belize Bayman Cable, this is Channel 50. World War Three, over the World’s resources and markets is heating up. The European Union is trying to steal USA markets in the Caribbean from the USA through the EPA. Oil is becoming the BIG STICK in this war by Venezuela. Taiwan our biggest economic foreign aid source is buying our vote in the United Nations.

Where do we in Belize go from here? How do we survive when Belizean political parties continue to overspend their budgets and the capacity of the government revenues collected. Where is our self reliance and independence? Where is fiscal prudence and good judgement coming from in a policy of thrift and hard work for Belize?

Belize Economic Intelligence Service is a by-product of the Western Belize News Service and accepts anonymous donations by Postal Money order for assistance in doing economic research, benefiting Belize. Internet time and telephone time is very expensive in order to do a good job. Contributions to our communications expenses would be appreciated. We ran out of telephone time money today, in trying to investigate the details of the Banana and the Sugar industry and their effects on the EPA decisions by the Cabinet in Belmopan.

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