BELIZE IS FLU FREE AND WELCOMES TOURISTS

SWINE FLU OUTLOOK IN BELIZE (BELIZE IS FREE OF THE FLU AND WELCOMES TOURISTS THAT HAVE NO COLDS, FEVER, OR SICKNESS ) OUR SALT SEA INSIDE THE BARRIER REEF IS 4 TIMES SALTIER THAN FLORIDA WATER AND CURES ALL AILMENTS. JUST GARGLE AND SWALLOW A BIT IF YOU HAVE A COLD.

The radio talk shows had callers from Corozal this morning, worried about Mexicans entering Belize . Since there are reports of outbreaks in the Yucatan , this concern is not without reason.

In Mexico City the death toll is about 7%, which means 1 person in 14 that comes down with Swine Flu would die. A virus mutates fairly rapidly, so it may get weaker, or even stronger. This at the moment we don’t know? Mexico City has a population of 20 million, so the death toll if nothing is done in a preventative manner could be 1.5 million people. The virus has already got outbreaks in various parts of the USA and even in New York City . Mexico City is being shut down in order to isolate clusters of infected persons and starve the virus of victims.

Gauze masks are the method of prevention most common. It is possible to make virus vaccines, but these are slow to make and since the virus mutates is of questionable performance.

During the SARS virus outbreak some years ago, isolation or quarantine was the method of making the virus die off, from lack of victims. The EBOLA virus for instance was starved for victims more easily, as the method of transmission was by bodily fluids. Quarantine resolved that problem. We do have anti-virals, but these are more for HIV and not for flu virus strains.

One caller this morning to the radio shows in Belize was recommending a strong immune system by eating hot peppers, such as our Jabanero pepper. I myself believe in this therapy and haven’t had any problems with colds or flu for years and I’m 72 years old this year. The medical doctors in the government though, remind us this is not scientifically proved. The reports also from Mexico City are saying that the ones who die are healthy people in their prime, not the little children and old people that normally die from the flu and subsequent pneumonia complications.

The Belize Health Department are meeting with emergency responders today this Monday, to decide on the course of action for what is currently a SWINE FLU FREE country. Flu that is airborne in almost impossible to contain though. Also to be considered are the economic activities and impact, versus the dangers. The SARS virus had a 50% death rate and the 7% death rate of this Swine Flu is not nearly so bad. Little else is known about this swine flu yet. As the world population keeps multiplying exponentially, the war on humans by virus attacks are expected to become more frequent.

China advises that they learned their lessons six years ago. Speed and isolation is of the essence, which slows spread and gives the medical establishment time to identify the virus and come up with solutions. Hong Kong is taking the temperature of EVERY arriving plane passenger, with an ear thermometer. If you have any fever they whisk you to isolation. They have a 1000 bed dormitory for quarantine. It is hermetically sealed, with lower pressure maintained in the dormitory. They say that the General Hospitals were the worst incubators of the flu virus during the last epidemic. The best attack is isolation until the virus runs it's course of two weeks. Followed by washing of hands all day regularly and wearing a mask.

USA President Obama to go scuba diving in Belize

Barrow and Kim
Michelle and Obama


USA PRESIDENT OBAMA TO VISIT BELIZE AS A TOURIST!

In a local television news interview in Belize , Prime Minister Barrow hinted that USA President OBAMA will probably visit Belize as a tourist. Speculation has it that December, February and March are the best choices for when it is cold and dreary in Washington , D.C. January in Belize and Mexico can be a rainy month with cold spells due to Alaska Northers sweeping through as far as Nicaragua . These bring rain fronts of several days followed by cold brisk clear skies. This is a time when Belizeans bundle up in three sweaters and jackets.

Prime Minister Barrow of Belize went on to explain that in a head to head talk in Trinidad in private, President Obama of the USA has told him he was appointing an old College Days student friend of his as Ambassador to Belize for the duration of his term. Subject to approval by the US Congress. PM Barrow then went on to laugh and remind listeners that he also remembered his wild times of those youthful halcyon College days. I cannot for the life of me, ever remembering anybody in the world, in my 72 years of life ever using ‘halcyon’ as a real word, in a real sentence. I had to look it up in the dictionary. My huge thick American Random House, library discard dictionary doesn’t even show the word. How about that? I’ve read the word before though. The hint in that laugh by PM Barrow, was that two old USA college student buddies would be reminiscing about their youth while holidaying in Belize . He did qualify the announcement though, that our new USA Ambassador would have the ear of the USA President. P.M. Barrow went on to explain that USA President Obama was curious about where Belize was and what it was like and asked many questions? US President Obama has no experience in most of the Americas and knows little of the American continent, though he is an otherwise world traveler; which is obvious when you listen to him being interviewed on American television. All his Americas knowledge is from intelligence briefs and written reports.

The motto of the P. M. Barrow’s UDP party in government is: “IMAGINE THE POSSIBILITIES! “ So letting my imagination run wild, perhaps we might be able to brag in our advertising at Falconview Backpackers Adventure Hostel for adventurers and explorers in their 20’s and 30’s, that one day next year, we can say “OBAMA SLEPT HERE at Falconview Backpackers Adventure Hostel!” Obama is not Lincoln or George Washington, but he is unique in the USA as the first black president. A Prime Minister of Canada has stayed at Lamont’s Long Caye, Caye Glory Atoll scuba resort in a simple beach hut, made of wild cane and thatch, with a bucket toilet. That wild Canadian Prime Minister also buzzed Caye Caulker and Caye Chapel at coconut tree top height in a Canadian Airforce four engine jet. I was teaching Primary School on Caye Caulker at the time, and remember the building shaking for 5 minutes afterward. Other than that, Belize has seen the Shah of Iran, Prince Charles, Queen Elizabeth and movies stars and movie directors by the score. Most people are famous, but we don’t know about them down here in Belize and couldn’t care less. So long as they are nice people, friendly and tip well ( grin ). We also get a lot of billionaires and in recent years we even had some famous trillionare software guy who owns Microsoft. Forget his name though! Millionaires are so common in Belize on the local scene and as visiting tourists, we don’t even consider them as anything other than ordinary people. When the new foreign tourist millionaires start bragging on, about their assets through some ego trip. Belizeans just listen with politeness. Just because we are barefoot, wearing a bathing suit, or straw hat and denim coveralls, or in my case K Mart canvas loafers with my toes sticking out, dressed in baggy thrift shop pants and shirt is deceptive. Lots of our Belize citizens are millionaires too. It just doesn’t mean much. You can only spend so much and enjoy life so much. Personal relationships here in Belize are more important than money and assets. We value our social life in Belize . But I’m straying here, going off on an old man’s reminisces. Lets see if we can post a sign out front next year, that says PRESIDENT OBAMA SLEPT HERE, either in Tina’s Backpackers Hostel on Caye Caulker Beach , or here at Falconview Backpackers Adventure Hostel in Western Belize recreational area. Or some of the AUXILLOU beach front condos on Caye Caulker.

For personal photos and news about Belize . Read the CAYE CAULKER CHRONICLES, or LIFE IN A BANANA REPUBLIC, or WESTERN BELIZE HAPPENINGS for real life stories of Belize people on the internet.

Scattered Tuesday morning thoughts about Belize

Scarlet Macaw a famous nearly extinct bird of Belize


SCATTERED THOUGHTS THIS TUESDAY MORNING, MARCH 17TH

This old man wakes up early and laying in my hammock before daylight comes, one has the chance to ponder different things. Being an old man and garrulous, here they are. I’m wondering how that road is, to Jalacte, Toledo and to Santa Cruz, Guatemala? My old maps do not show it and I’m wondering if a two wheel drive can get into Santa Cruz that way? We’d like to go back to the Rio Dulce in a few months. Swimming in a fresh water lake ( Lago Isabel ) was so nice, compared to swimming in salt water off Caye Caulker. The trip through Melchor on the border via Flores is about 5 or 6 hours. The two legs of the triangle in the Peten add a good few hours to the trip. If we could travel the Southern Highway and get to the Rio Dulce that way, it would save at least three hours of driving.
Saying that, if there is a new development idea that is worth pursuing for our government of Belize, priority wise for our government, it is completing the road to Guatemala that way. 18 wheeler freight trucks doing trade and commerce, between Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala with Belize would save a good three hours of driving if they could go this way. That is a lot of time and fuel. I would then put a weigh station on the Southern Highway and charge trucks for using the highway, in order to pay for the maintenance. That said, you could even make it a TOLL ROAD for private traffic too. Is there any kind of boat traffic to Livingston from Punta Gorda I wonder these days? A mini van collectivo I know runs from Livingston up to Rio Dulce. It only takes a little longer to get to the Rio Dulce than it does to get to Caye Caulker, from here in Santa Elena Town. Anybody driven to Santa Cruz on the Guatemalan side?
I read in the weekend newspapers that the BDF hijacked some local villager, from Jalacte, of 5 cases of Gallo beer and five cases of soft drinks. What a stupid thing to do? When the government is ready to put in an immigration and customs post on the frontier here, THEN you charge duty. In the meantime, let local border villages get their supplies from across the frontier, rather than the very long trip to Punta Gorda town. It seemed the local area representative used common sense, but the event was distorted in the weekend newspapers out of all proportion and practicalities. Local villagers have to shop where it is convenient. One has to doubt that putting in a customs officer here would pay his salary on those cases the BDF hijacked. The area representative showed common sense by chastising the BDF. The port town BLACK controlled newspapers, blew the thing way up, into some sort of criminal activity. What a bunch of nonsense.
It does seem that during the remaining years of the UDP this term, they could almost reach the goal of putting the nation of Belize on a self sustainable footing for development WITHOUT foreign loan borrowing for the future. The potential seems there, during their last two years of this five year term. One could presume that if they took much of the infra-structure projects planned for this year and spread them over NEXT year as well, the mid term year, that might ease any pain in the economy for what seems to be a difficult year in 2010-11. That said, with careful management, one could see the last two years of the UDP term ALMOST reaching the goal of financial self sufficiency. With a little bit of help from LADY LUCK, the UDP would then get a second term and continuing strict financial management and the normal growth in the economy, around 10%, that would put the country over the hump so to speak. We are teetering on the edge of SELF SUFFICIENCY financially, as a nation right now. It all depends on the political management. This current budget just presented, has so many possibilities and gives HOPE. That finally somebody is trying to do the right thing by Belize. It is possible even by the 2012 last year for this UDP term, that we may have passed the threshold of financial self sustainability as a nation. It all depends on good management by the politicians. If we hadn’t had that trickle down economics three years national debt by Musa/Fonseca and the PUP, we would be there already. I really look forward to seeing some legislation, ruling how we spend money in this country. Setting limits on incoming politicians. Even with the $100 million a year of interest on Fonseca’s/Musa Super Bond, we could and should be able to absorb that in the following 5 year term, if it was the UDP re-elected based on sound fiscal management principals, instead of all this off the cuff, emotional, knee jerk reaction stuff, we have experienced since Independence.
We had expected by rule of thumb, that government total revenue would be $760 million, but the new budget projections are for $717 million. A good $40 million less than expectations. I personally feel as a gut reasoning projection, that the economy in it’s current down phase cycle, will start up again during 2011. This means if we can cut government costs down to more tighter austere conservative projections for this year and next year, we should come out of any economic difficulties, smelling like roses for 2011 and 2012, the last two years of the UDP term. Barrow has been quoted as hoping for an oil price surge, to increase government oil revenues. That is a double edged sword, as that would also increase inflation and cost of living. His current estimates are based on an average $50 a barrel. Probably fair enough as a guess, but I would have based projections on $40 a barrel for oil. I like to underestimate incomes, not overestimate them. Building in a safety factor and surplus surprise cash flow, if you get it. Barrow as Finance Minister is going to have to fight for nickels and dimes over the next two years if his party is going to be successful. I’ve just about wrung out the numbers on the budget. He is saying they took their time, got consultations and technical expertise and the figures confirm what he says. That is gratifying. To make it work during his term in office, he is going to have to keep the screw on austerity though. He will have to get good value for the dollar spent. He also needs more GRANT aided projects, not loans. They’ve done well in the GRANT field anyway this past year, and congratulations are probably in order, but we need to increase the GRANT aided projects for the next two years at a minimum. This is just my personal opinion of course. Politicians have other criteria to ponder.
The battle between the Robber Barons and the PUC controls goes on. We have been getting a lot of electric outages the past few days. My electricity bill, I finally got it down from $138 a month last month, to $103 a month yesterday. I fail to understand why I am paying more for electricity? My bill used to be $78 per month and nothing has changed. Indeed, we go around turning off lights and have eliminated the burglar light in the back yard. Still my electricity bill keeps climbing. I just do not understand it?
I wish the PUC would nationalize the building and fiber optic entry into Belize and make it easier for competitive telecommunications to flower in our country. How many years has it been that BTL in one form or another has been promising us good cell phone service and internet service and we still cannot get either in Santa Elena Town. At least a decade and a half of bull manure propaganda.
The local San Ignacio internet café we use has dropped his monthly fee from $100 to $50, as new competition in Santa Elena Town is effecting the downtown internet café business. The new Santa Elena Town cafe this past week were offering a month for $55. I had to laugh at that. The wonders of competition! I offered our regular internet café we use, $40 a month each and would pay for the three of us in advance. He hemmed and hawed about that and is going to sleep on it. The only way we can cut our internet costs is to shorten our time in the internet café. We pay by the hour.
I don’t understand the visitor statistics on this blog newsletter. One version gives us about 1,210,000 hits since inception 6 months ago. I can’t believe those numbers and haven’t really been able to install a COUNTER on this blog. I think I can stick advertising logos on the left hand side of my page. I may have to sell some monthly adds between $50 to $100 each depending on size. Haven’t got that far yet. We were trying to model after the San Pedro Daily as a format. Really haven’t been able to get a setup, or pre-planned format pattern I can use, that is off the shelf for it though. Notice that the Rocky Mountain Newspaper has gone bankrupt with a whole bunch of USA newspapers. Even the Miami Herald is up for sale. Printed newspapers are going out of style in the USA. Dozens of big city newspapers are going bankrupt. The media world is changing.
Have a married couple coming down next month to research Belize with the intent of moving out of the USA to Belize. They want to rent for two weeks to a month while they look around. The USA is managed worse than Belize it looks like? If the UDP manage to convert our nation, to one of self sufficiency financially, Belize is going to have to become more restrictive on who they let migrate here.
On the local political scene, the Belmopan town council elections show the VIP coming into position to jockey for replacement of the PUP into the OPPOSITION party. I didn’t get to read what the program was for the Belmopan election for the UDP who actually won that Town Board election, but I did read in the newspapers someplace, the VIP program for Belmopan and thought it was an impressive platform. They showed well in the election. If they can morph into a National Party, they would be a credible opposition. I think the Toledo PNP should merge with the VIP and became one of them for the next National Elections. The VIP would then become the replacement of the PUP. Which the PUP would then become an independent minority third party spoiler in the elections.
The PUP actually has cost the nation of Belize about a lost fifteen years of development. This may turn out to be twenty years in the end, lost from where we as a country could be development wise. It was that darned Fonseca / Musa trickle down BORROWING program that did it, accompanied by the FREE FOR ALL outright blatent theft, corruption, sweetheart deals and scandals. If the VIP can replace the PUP at the National Elections level, or compete with them, the VIP should sometime during the next four years, should there be a bunch of graft, theft and corruption scandals within the UDP now in power, they stand a good chance as the VIP, of becoming the next government nationally on the rebound effect. Even if they only got some Opposition seats, the VIP would be in good position to capitalize on that, the following national election. Should the UDP have financial scandals then the VIP would be a default party to elect, if they could get their national aspirations and party machinery in order. It remains to be seen how the UDP perform the balance of this term and whether the VIP can organize their party on a national level. They need to absorb the other competition.

USA CRUISE SHIP TOURIST DIES IN BELIZE

USA CRUISE SHIP TOURIST DIES IN BELIZE

A USA female cruise ship tourist riding the ZIP LINE canopy tour, had a heart attack in the excitement and died. It was reported the Cruise Ship tourist was from San Mateo, California.
The ZIP LINE canopy ride and the inner tube drift down through the caves of the Caves Branch river are hot items for visiting cruise ship tourists. Located off the Hummingbird Highway in the CAYO DISTRICT, Western Belize Recreational Area, of some 500 square miles of pristine, beautiful, natural and archeological attractions, about 16 miles from the tiny village of Belmopan the capital ( locals call it a town ), on a narrow two lane paved southern highway, that climbs slowly over the Maya Mountain divide, cruise ship tour bus contractors like these two money maker tours. Cruise ships have only five or six hours in port down on the coast and these two rides are about one hour and fifteen minutes away by fast tour bus from the cruise ship port terminal, on the rare paved highways of Belize.
The major center of attractions for overnight tourists are located more West another 45 minutes by bus, on the Western Highway in Santa Elena and San Ignacio twin towns. Most local tour operators in the twin towns, further West, catering to the many lodges, hotels, campgrounds, hostels and guest houses, throughout this natural beautiful area, which include the more remote unpopulated Belize Alps, try to avoid the ZIP LINE and CAVES BRANCH tours, as waiting in line for 700 cruise ship people to do their thing on a busy day with five cruise ships in port down on the coast, is not ordinarily in the ambience of the sort of pristine natural environment they sell. Catering to adventure seeking, overnight guests for some days at a time, the Cayo District, Western Belize Recreational Area is mostly agriculture supported anyway and tourism is still a side line business, part time, for most business people in the Cayo District.
At the least the lady went out enjoying herself to the max. Our condolences to the family back in California. You couldn’t find a better way to go!

Falconview Adventure Hostel “Western Belize News”
http://folkmusicfl.tripod.com/adventuresinbelize/

We started the upgrade now August is over and the tourist eight month season is officially finished. While we might get some straggler adventurous backpackers coming through during the FALL months, this is our OFF SEASON in the FALL months. Antonio the mason started fixing the cracks in the walls of the downstairs hostel area and 18 year old, Terrance is going to do the new fresh painting of the walls. After today Friday, Antonio will go back to work on the two new furnished apartments we are building in the annex for our more upscale guests. Rates in the three apartments will be $45 usa for the Mission Style apartment, with good views over two valleys out the windows and from the verhandah and the new efficiency by December will go for $35 usa a night. The third floor apartment ( $45 usa) also has an excellent rustic atmosphere overlooking Green Parrot Valley and the Belize River valley to the far off Yalbac Hills. We are kind of excited for next year bookings for tourism. We are now in the Le Routard guidebooks for Belgians, French and Swiss. The TROTTER guide book for travelers in Dutch has us this year. Hostelbookers.com has us highly recommended and FODORS BELIZE guidebook has us in there coming out in October. We decided not change our eight bed dormitory for budget travelers, with their own bathrooms, kitchen and living room using hammocks. Capacity is going to increase this year from 10 people to 16 people. The dorm will remain at $11 usa a night for 2009.