BELIZE UDP GOVERNMENT LOSES 2 POINTS ON REPORT CARD AGAIN

* Dean Barrow Prime Minister of Belize loses 2 points for corruption report card on government performance.


BELIZE VOTERS, STUDY OUR PRIME MINISTER AND OUR FOREIGN AFFAIRS OFFICE ACTIONS, OVER HONDURAS AND ZELAYA

UDP REPORT CARD LOSES 2 POINTS AND RETURNS TO A SCORE OF 48

Things are not looking good for our Prime Minister Dean Barrow in the public opinion of Belizeans, regarding his actions with Honduras and Caricom and OAS voting on the Honduras affair.
Latest news being reported out of Honduras being published by La Prensa are saying that 2 or 3 days ( this is second hand news ) before the government, including his own political party sent ZELAYA packing to Costa Rica and EXILE, that a henchman very close to ZELAYA the ex-President of Honduras went to the TREASURY and took out $40 million dollars. Apparently alarm bells went off, but it took some time for the bureaucracy to move. The funny thing about the missing $40 million dollars taken from the treasury of tax revenue collections of Honduras, was that there was no PUBLIC PURPOSE. Nor was the money wire transferred, or issued in a bank draft. The guy a close buddy of ZELAYA and in his personal CABAL, who allegedly serves on ZELAYA’s negotiation team in Costa Rica, for a return to Honduras with no conditions, and is currently attempting to forment a civil war inside Honduras, insisted on the $40 million in CASH. Not in paper instruments, but CASH MONEY that can fit in suitcases, or cardboard boxes. He got the money and left, with the authority of ZELAYA while he was still President.
The Honduran government bureaucracy finally acted and sent the POLICE in Tegucigalpa to the ZELAYA’s henchman’s house to search for the STOLEN MONEY. What they found instead turned out to be a surprise. It was an office loaded with referendum voting computers with all the voting records in Honduras and summed up the VOTING results, giving the win on the so-called REFERENDUM to ZELAYA to change the constitution of Honduras. Since the referendum was thwarted and never done, how then could ZELAYA and his henchman accused of stealing $40 million dollars from tax revenues in Honduras have WON a referendum that never happened? Talk about criminal minds at work in political Presidential circles.
What concern is it of ours? Well our Prime Minister, Dean Barrow of Belize in the weekend newspapers, is also the Minister of Finance in our government. Dean Barrow recently has been getting propaganda sound bites, bragging about taking back $20 million in a GRANT from Venezuela given to former Prime Minister of Belize, Said Musa to Belize BANK, to pay off a GOVERNMENT GUARANTEED LOAN, Musa had taken when he was in office. The Belize Bank in the meantime, is saying; the interest charges are running again now and if this works out true to form, the tax payer, probably through the GST tax will have to pay the Belize Bank if ever it can be done with the huge National DEBT we currently have, over many decades and will probably make ASHCROFT the owner of Belize Bank even richer, as it will undoubtedly mushroom to a BELIZE BANK debt of $75 million before the saga is done. The fault will be that of Prime Minister Dean Barrow. Musa maybe didn’t do right, but he did the best thing at the time for the public interest. Now we owe more than ever before, legally to the Belize Bank because of the actions of our Prime Minister Dean Barrow.
The thing is; despite public protestations about our foreign policy on the Honduras issue and I personally support the actions of the current Honduran government, because I feel in my heart that wanna be PRESIDENT FOR LIFE, Mr. ZELAYA is nothing but a crook and would be tyrant. ZELAYA wants to get his hands on all the government treasury in Honduras is my opinion. Sort of like Mugabwe of Zimbabwe did over decades. Our own Prime Minister in Belize has taken the foreign policy issue of condemning what he says is something not legal happening in Honduras. He is condemning by his actions and speeches, the actions of the lawful government of Honduras. Now I question not only our Prime Minister’s, ethics and logic in foreign policy, because coming back to the $20 million GRANT from Venezuela to Belize, for poverty housing and the reason that the current Prime Minister strong armed Belize Bank to get it refunded, the weekend newspapers and investigative reporters are saying; that $2 million of this money was spent properly on hurricane and flood victims, while the other $$18 million has gone, NOT TO poverty people to build them houses, the purposes of the VENEZUELAN GRANT and give them land, but to UDP connected upper middle class, cronies, party hacks and connected people in his UDP party as IMPROVEMENT LOAN GRANTS, which monies was intended to go to housing for the poor. A sort of payoff for campaigning for him and his party to get into office, during the last election. There is no confirmation accounting being done for these monies, that we know of, so our local investigative media say?
The thing is, if you are ethical and looking at conspiracy theories, there is a co-incidence in the Foreign Policy coming out of Belize, coming from the Prime Minister’s office that does not gell with the FACTS. ( if you believe in co-incidences? ) What it looks like; to us in the public cheap seats, is one alleged Criminal ( voting to protect the prerogatives of ZELAYA as former President), like he would like his own prerogatives here in Belize, to be protected, when mis-using poverty house building GRANT FUNDS to reward his campaign workers instead.
There is nothing we can do; other than take 2 points off the corruption poll, or UDP government report card and announce it to the International media, for a problem in what we view as ethics, misuse of government poverty GRANT funds for political purposes, and what seems to be on the surface, misuse of the Foreign Policy voting rights of Belize, to protect a CROOK who once was President of Honduras, like our Prime Minister would like to be protected by his neighbors when caught with his ETHICS in tatters, his judgment either flawed, or of criminal intent. There are those who have debated with me, saying I’m reading too much in our FOREIGN POLICY issues done by our Belize Prime Minister and that it is nothing more than the stupidness of a lawyer so steeped in British Pirate Parliamentary Law, extrapolated to a REPUBLIC style government in Honduras, that Dean Barrow gets lost in minutia and cannot see the big picture, to make wise FOREIGN POLICY decisions. Either way you intrepret our Prime Minister, Dean Barrow actions, it costs the Prime Minister and the UDP two points off their governing report card. Which goes from a score of 50 to 48 in the opinion poll in Western Belize.
There are of course wheels within wheels and as a retired fisherman, we are more pragmatic and usage of common sense is high on our judgment scale. We cannot understand either the ethics, or the Foreign Policy judgment of our Prime Minister. What seems so simple to me, is obviously buried somewhere in the convolutions of lawyer type political thinking and reasoning.

SUMMER TOMATO PROBLEMS IN BELIZE

* Summer supply of tomatoes meeting problems of supply in Belize. Tomatoes are scarce as farmers try to figure out what is going wrong?




LETTER TO ANDY AND WIFE ON SMALL FARM NEAR PUNTA GORDA
From Ray Auxillou, July 23rd, 2009

Dear Andy ( re your query )

People are having a lot of trouble with tomatoes, due to night time heat, which they don’t like during the summers, and the need to find more suitable varieties for the environment of Belize. Experimental research is ongoing.
You can divide tomatoes into two groups. The varieties that will grow between late April through first half of September and the rest of the year.
I’ve tried many dozens of varieties of tomatoes with the assistance of foreign volunteers and donors mailing me seeds. The best Fall and Winter tomatoes have been the POLINA, which I bought from the local Agro Pro Store in the Twin Towns in Western Belize. The first batch were produced in Israel, the last batch I bought at the local Agro store were produced from Chile. The packs are very expensive, about $78 and the seeds cost about .10 cents each that way. I don’t know if you have feed and agro stores in Punta Gorda? Summer tomatoes that do reasonable are the cherry type tomatoes and plum type tomatoes. They are not really satisfactory though as a tomato crop in the tropics is tough to grow. I’ll stick to POLINA right now for next FALL and WINTER trials.
We get a lot of destruction from insects, nematodes, white fly, mosaic disease and a few other good stuff that like tomatoes. They are a difficult crop. What I’ve experienced is that you cannot plant tomatoes in the same ground again. Nor can you plant them in plots, or many rows. Just do one long single row, then switch to another location far away for next time. All vegetables like humus, or loam soil. You have to make it, if you don’t have it naturally. You get wiped out quickly. For the last two months there have been a scarcity of tomatoes in the Macal River market stalls of the TWIN TOWNS out West here and I suspect you will not be getting much in the way of tomatoes in Punta Gorda at all. At least not until you plant in late September and reap around January?
There is a book I wrote on research of vegetable growing. I sent a FREE COPY to the guy that mines and sells DOLOMITE LIME in Punta Gorda. Ask him to borrow the book, which was the state of the art in vegetable growing in Belize up to a year ago. You might ask your local National Library librarian in Punta Gorda, to order the book from Belize City, or Belmopan National Library service. I gave them some FREE BOOKS. They did not buy any, and the publishing effort cost me about $700 each time I published a small lot of two dozen. They are now out of print. Nor do I have the spare cash any more, to publish again. I don’t have the money to support the Government of Belize. We quit doing that vegetable research printing, since the government Ministry of Natural Resources received European Union GRANT money to do those sort of things. They are unlikely to do anything so useful for small farmers. That is my experience. The government is terrible about disseminating useful information, hence my BLOG. The book you want is the last edition, or the FOURTH EDITION of the Belizean Vegetable Farmers Bible, published September, 2007.
Your contact person is Teresita, who is the Central Farm Agriculture vegetable agronomist. Her e-mail is: gissy031@hotmail.com Government bureaucrats don’t respond to e-mails mostly, though they get a salary.
Central Farm has some vegetable research funds and they have extension officers all over the country. I’m not sure how that works, but there must be one near you and you should ask for a personal visit by them. Right now vegetable growing research is still in infancy and it is a bit like the blind leading the blind. Research we did, showed you could grow vegetables all year round, but you have to have the correct varieties. Also you have to fix your soil right. Something nobody knows how to do. I’m currently building my own worm farm to make my own humus. The story is on, or will be on, the BLOG eventually to make good soil.
For example we found Tropical Emperor leaf lettuce the best, but lately they have not been growing well in the summer warm months and so I’m experimenting with some MUSTARD SPINACH and MUSTARD LETTUCE varieties. It’s a bit soon, but on my BLOG ( http://westernbelizehappenings.blogspot.com ) will shortly take some photos, as both of these are growing well out here in Western Belize in Hillview. Whereas my other winter favorite Tropical Emperor lettuce is doing lousy this summer. I’ve got some mysterious critters, crows or birds or something stealing my young seedlings that I transplant though. So I’m trying to go to bigger seedlings, in bigger seed trays to overcome that problem. Plus I’ve shifted my seedlings into a more protected area for starting. Hot summer month varieties is where the most research needs to be concentrated, but it is still early years yet, to figuring it out.

HONDURAS ZELAYA CRIMINAL ACTIVITY EXPANDS

* ZELAYA the ex-ALBA 'President for Life' aspirant of Honduras.


THE ZELAYA PLOT THICKENS!

The story is that 3 days before ZELAYA was shipped off to EXILE in Costa Rica, his henchman, went to the TREASURY with approved demands for $40 million dollars the newspapers in Honduras are saying. Forget the guy's name, but he is on Zelaya's negotiating team in Costa Rica. At any rate, he went in demanding with proper authorizations from ZELAYA, $40 million of government tax revenues. He did not state for what PUBLIC PURPOSE? The kicker was that the money was not to be wire transfered, or by a bank draft, but as in money laundering in CASH to fit into suitcases and cardboard boxes. It took the bureaucracy a few days to go into gear, though the alarm bells were ringing. By the time they got to checking on this, Zelaya had been airlifted to Costa Rica.
So the newspapers in Honduras have photos on the web, where the police went raiding the side kick of ZELAYA's, house. What they found shocked them. It wasn't the stolen $40 million dollars, but an office of computers for voter reconciliation for the counting for the REFERENDUM vote on changing the Constitution of Honduras permiting ZELAYA to run for another term in office again. Most Latin countries have had such trouble with dictators they have in their constitutions a requirement there is only one term per President.
At any rate ZELAYA had won according to the voting computers, by voting districts with an 80% vote in favor. The thing is, there NEVER was the REFERENDUM as Zelaya was pre-empted and taken to Costa Rica. Talk about a bunch of criminal communists, socialists, PRESIDENTS FOR LIFE gang of swindlers, this bunch of ALBA Presidents are?
The $40 million is still missing in CASH. ZELAYA won the REFERENDUM vote to run again for the Presidency, without any need of an actual on the ground referendum by the voters.
Now how can Dean Barrow of Belize not smell a criminal? He's a politician, he should know one when he sees it.

BELIZE TABLE TOP TEA BAG MAKING BUSINESS

one foot by foot and a half high. Fits your kitchen table and will do hundreds of tea bags faster than you can do it smaller scale.
http://www.sikripackaging.com/5b.html?gclid=CM2Wgqmz6psCFQY9xwodzlRh7w

For the Belizean entrepreneur looking to get into the tea bag making business, for herb teas, fever grass and medicinal type teas for exporting to gourmet markets. See website above.

Raul CASTRO PURGES brother FIDEL POLITIBORO IN CUBA

* Fear and terror in the CUBAN Politboro led by Raul Castro.


Shades of Stalin purge trials and those of Saddam Hussein in Iraq. MASSIVE PURGE OF SENIOR COMMUNISTS IN CUBA by RAUL.
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Cuba's Raúl conducts purge by video

By Marc Frank in Havana

Published: July 15 2009 03:00 | Last updated: July 15 2009 03:00

It is not the stuff of Khrushchev unmasking Stalin, nor the fall of China's Gang of Four, but a three-hour film being shown to thousands of the Cuban Communist party's 1m members this summer has emerged as a rare admission that all is not well at the pinnacle of power in Havana.

The video footage is drawn largely from a March meeting of the Communist party politburo and features Raúl Castro, the president, sacking most of the cabinet he inherited from his ailing brother, Fidel, including prominent political figures such as Carlos Lage, vice-president and Felipe Perez Roque, foreign minister.

The presentation's main message, according to people who have seen it, could not be clearer: the state is watching and Raúl will not tolerate even the slightest breach of party discipline, any cosying up to foreigners, or a hint of disloyalty as he attempts to put his brother's revolutionary house in order.

The montage of footage from the meeting, recorded telephone conversations, surveillance video, photographs and testimony narrated by a state security official provides a rare glimpse of Cuba under Raúl, who formally took over from Fidel in February 2008.

Party faithful who are invited to screenings are not allowed to bring in recording devices, or even a pen and paper. A trip to the lavatory is forbidden, as is attendance by the public or foreign journalists.

But in interviews with the Financial Times, people who have attended showings recounted details of the presentation and what appears to be a concerted effort by Raúl to portray a number of his brother's prominent aides, including Carlos Valenciaga, Fidel's personal aid for almost a decade, as either foreign lackeys or politically -disloyal.

Mr Lage was viewed by many inside and outside the country as a future president, and Mr Perez as perhaps the next in line. Both were personally groomed by Fidel and held up as apparent examples of loyal and austere communists. Their dramatic fall from grace has left many puzzled and wondering if a political purge was under way.

Those involved in the scandal are uncontactable and plainclothes security agents have been observed surrounding Mr Lage's residence, presumably to keep the foreign media at bay.

In the video montage, the president is seen waving Cuba's constitution, demanding that it be respected, and changed where needed. He criticises the Council of State, a 31-member executive stamp much used by Fidel to govern, as having little, if any, practical purpose.

"If it [the council] can't be reformed it should be eliminated," he says, according to people who have seen the presentation.

Sitting in his general's uniform behind a desk scattered with papers, Raúl speaks of the importance of institutions and of following rules and regulations. He tells his new cabinet they have 90 days to put their domains in order and to set priorities. He says that, after that, he does not want to see much of them, as he assumes they can perform their jobs.

Later, he looks around the politburo and states: "I am now going to talk of painful things."

The president announces the arrest of Conrado Hernández, the Cuban representative of the Basque regional government's business operations, and reads Mr Hernández's confession, in which he says he informed for Spain's National Intelligence Centre, using his lifelong friendships with Mr Lage and other protégés of Fidel.

Mr Hernández details the information and favours he received from each man and the role each played in a clique of the disgruntled officials who considered Cuba's ageing leadership unfit to govern, a clique that included Dr Raúl Castellanos Lage - a former party leader, cardiologist and Mr Lage's cousin, who first became the target of investigations after he declared that stent placements for elderly leaders should be botched for the good of the nation.

"Don't worry, we arrested Castellanos this morning," Raúl says in the video.

The president asks the accused if they have anything to say. The best they apparently offer is ignorance of their friend's intelligence ties.

By this point some older theatre goers were rising from their seats to shout that the accused should be imprisoned if not shot for treason, witnesses at three different Havana showings said.

The presentation later features the wedding party of Dr Castellanos at the Ambos Mundos Hotel in Havana. The luxurious fiesta took place on February 23 2008, the day the politburo met to approve a new president, first vice-president and other Council of State members for their "election" the following day by parliament.

The clique had viewed Mr Lage as a sure bet to win the position of first vice-president, the second most powerful post after the presidency.

In the video, Mr Lage arrives at the wedding from the politburo meeting to inform Mr Perez on a hotel balcony that Jose Ramon Machado Ventura was named first vice-president, violating an order by Raúl to keep the news secret until the parliament vote. An infuriated Mr Perez swears and states that Mr Machado will ruin the country. With the party mood evaporating, Mr Hernández leaves to inform Spain's intelligence service of the decision, according to his confession.

Mr Hernández is in prison on charges of treason, as is Dr Castellanos. The cabinet members and Fidel protégés remain free. Mr Perez is working at an electronics factory and Mr Valenciaga at the national library, while Mr Lage remains holed up at home.

The apparent indiscretions documented in the presentation have been registered by younger members of the Communist party. But whether the message has been received as intended remains unclear.

"All these people were promoted by the party, obviously it shares the blame," one younger party member told the Financial Times.

BELIZE LOOKS AGHAST AT EUROPEAN NEWS MEDIA DISINFORMATION CAMPAIGN TO START CIVIL WAR IN CENTRAL AMERICA

* Old Empire builder models at it still.


BELIZE LOOKS AGHAST AT EUROPEAN ATTEMPTS TO START A CIVIL WAR IN CENTRAL AMERICA.

BELIZE TRANQUILITY THREATENED BY EUROPEANS CONFRONTING THE USA OVER LATIN AMERICAN MARKETS AND RESOURCES AND FORMENT CIVIL WAR, ENDANGERING POOR BELIZE SOCIETY.

In the time honored tradition of European exploitation of Africa, the Europeans are now trying to do the same in Latin America. Recent NEWS from the LATIN Spanish speaking television` channels reveal that the Europeans are trying to forment wide spread war in the American continent, starting first with Honduras. Ex – President Zelaya of Honduras is trumpeting on the airwaves for his supporters to rebel against the lawfully elected government of Honduras. He wants his supporters to blockade highways and destroy the economy of Honduran society, so he can make a return. The next NATIONAL ELECTION is only three months away and campaigning for a new President in Honduras should start soon anyway. In Honduras the Constitution forbids a President to run for more than one term. They have had a lot of experience with dictatorship. ZELAYA has lost about 5 months off the end of his ONE permitted Presidential four year term, through trying to take over as a President for Life tyrant in Honduras. ( see police find vote counts and fraud in supporters house for ZELAYA )
The Europeans see opportunity with the ALBA SOCIALIST/COMMUNIST ideological EMPIRE group of Latin America, ruled by PRESIDENTS FOR LIFE, tyrants or dictators. The ALBA methodology is to change the Constitution in countries after obtaining power democratically, change all the ARMY GENERALS and POLICE and then, change the constitution to perpetuate PRESIDENT FOR LIFE tyranny and persecute the voices of reason and debate. Most media outlets are seized by military force and confiscated, while the OPPOSITION are brutalized, or jailed, or forced into EXILE. The trappings of democracy are retained institutionally, but become a FAÇADE, or CHARADE, as done by Joseph Stalin of RUSSIA in Eastern Europe, as a sop to the International news media. The SPANISH speaking news channels are saying the Europeans are going to compete for the Latin American markets and resources, the same as they have done in AFRICAN countries. At the moment the starting point is Honduras and Central America, as the Europeans are instigating the taking of SIDES in Central America. The conflict is expected to widen dramatically in the American continent, with the interference of the Europeans in their war for markets and resources with the USA. South American analysts are warning of the DIVIDE and CONQUER tactics of the EUROPEANS, which they have used successfully for a couple of centuries throughout AFRICA. The Europeans are intent on making a mole hill into a mountain, inflaming passions.
In BELIZE we worry, because there are a lot of FALSE lies and disinformation propaganda coming out of Europe. Whenever HONDURAS has had civil wars, or DICTATORS, Belize gets flooded with refugees and this is a strain on our social services, education system and limited financial abilities. Belize is more POOR than Honduras by comparison, as a country and an economy. We can ill afford a Honduran refugee exodus seeking refuge here, like in decades past.
In the meantime, the OAS has been taken over by the ALBA group country FIFTH COLUMN appointees and Chairperson INSULZA ( a Chilean communist ) who stormed into Honduras recently, demanding a change of government, in the name of the Organization of American States, and was questioned recently by a Latin news reporter. What happened is that there are still a few democratically elected state governors and city Mayors in Venezuela, that do not belong to the Hugo Chavez totalitarian style of government. Chavez is choking them to death, by denying them their revenues, taxation, and other means to tend to their responsibilities. Chavez has already seized all the FREE television stations and media outlets in opposition to him in Venezuela. These governors and mayors in Venezuela went to the OAS and asked INSULZA to help them do their democratically elected jobs. INSULZA it was reported told them, he could not interfere with the internal affairs of a country in his position as HEAD of the OAS. Yet the same INSULZA has interfered in HONDURAS in an internal government matter, when ex-President ZELAYA was rejected by his own political party and government on grounds of Constitutional illegalities. Talk about a lying, double crossing scoundrel in the OAS, this INSULZA character is; but this is typical of the ALBA program of political subversion and EMPIRE BUILDING, for would be EMPEROR of Latin America, by President for Life aspirant Hugo Chavez minions. The EUROPEAN left is adding to this cacophony of lies and false propaganda to confuse the outside world and trying to use the HONDURAN focal point to stir up Central America to begin with, into a civil war, as countries will be forced to take sides. So say the Foreign Affairs ANALYSTS from the Latin American countries on television in Central and South America. What they say is BEWARE OF THE INTERFERENCE OF THE EUROPEANS in their war over economic resources with the USA. European DISINFORMATION IS BECOMING A TORRENT on the international scene.
In the meantime, ZELAYA is encouraging his supporters to die, or get maimed for him in Honduras, while he stays safely in another ALBA EMPIRE capital of Managua, Nicaragua. So he treats the POOR. They are just cannon fodder to him. In the meantime, ORTEGA President of Nicaragua also prepares his fraudulent REFERENDUM to change the Constitution to allow him to run for President repeatedly, like CASTRO in Cuba and Chavez in Venezuela. The so called PRESIDENTS FOR LIFE CLUB, group called ALBA.

GOLD RUSH JUST STARTING IN BELIZE

* From Pirates to Penny Gold Mine stocks in Belize. The opportunities are endless limited only to your imagination.



THE BELIZE GOLD RUSH IS JUST GETTING STARTED!

By Ray Auxillou, July 22, 2009

When we talk of the Belize Gold rush, we are not talking about the gold mine in the Southern Belize Alps. We are talking about something else. The smell in the air is of BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY. One can sense and feel the opportunities that are not yet being taken by residents and the new generation. As in all GOLD RUSHES, it will probably be IMMIGRANTS that will come to Belize to exploit our BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES.
Belize is small, but not too small to develop EXPORT industries. Earning FOREIGN EXCHANGE is the GOLD in this early pioneering GOLD RUSH atmosphere. We are not as small as say Cayman Islands. Nor as Nevis, or St. Kitts. We are big enough to develop and build industries that will EXPORT and like CHINA, it is in the exporting for foreign exchange, that the new rich of Belize will come from.
Belize has something that is unique, and that is a BRAND NAME quality. Something that is labeled, MADE IN BELIZE, or perhaps PRODUCED IN BELIZE, or PACKAGED IN BELIZE. We are unlikely to sell things by the millions, but surely small solid niche markets can be found. Whether you make it here in Belize, or import products and repackage, or combine things to make a new brand name; the thing is, the BRAND NAME of Belize, when attached to QUALITY and LOW PRICE will ALWAYS find a market someplace in the world.
We lack sometimes a pro-active leadership type of government. We need some infra-structure. Electricity reliability, water reliability and of course in today’s business world, we need wide spread nationwide internet and telephone service. ( which we haven’t got ) Some of the facets of business require either a DUTY FREE ZONE, or BONDED WAREHOUSE areas, to repackage, or reprocess, or add value added technology applications before exporting on our Western Border, or the Southern border. I am mindful for instance, of the time during the PUP administration when the politicians looking for braggadocious sound bites announced a DUTY FREE ZONE along the Benque Viejo WESTERN BORDER. Thinking of starting several small export businesses, a few years later, the wife and I went looking for this ZONE to buy a lot, to build a BONDED WAREHOUSE, in which to do some ideas we had for export. We thought we could import stuff from Guatemala and Salvador and repackage and then export. We still talk about it, but nowadays we discuss buying a couple of lots in Melchor de Menchos across the border and indeed have even gone looking at them earlier this year. A shining example was GUYANA, which are reputed to be importing RICE in bulk from Guatemala and repackaging and exporting to the world. Alas, we found the boulevard on the edge of Benque Viejo Town that looks like it was built and designed to be such a FREE ZONE, but wasn’t. At least not yet. Without the ability to avoid the nuisance of dealing with bureaucratic customs border, red tape, the scheme collapsed in our efforts to find a way to do the business we had in mind. If you are going to re-export you certainly do not want to be paying customs duties on raw materials that are being imported to be value added processed for EXPORT. You would lose the edge of a competitive LOW PRICE. That must be at least six or seven years ago and in all that time since; there has been no political leadership to create and fulfill the innovative promise announced by politicians back then. Then of course there is the lethargy in political circles of the CABINET in dealing with a simple thing that costs NO MONEY, to make available bus service to terminate at the Border Immigration point building, instead of the park , two miles or more away in the center of Benque Viejo Town. To date, nothing has been done by the Transportation Minister, or the CABINET on this issue. It is this laziness, this apathy, the lethargy, the lack of commitment in our political circles that is holding DEVELOPMENT of our GOLD RUSH back. Much of these things, do not even cost money, so that is not an excuse. Just vibrant progressive leadership, which seems to be sadly lacking. TIME PASSING of course for people on government salaries mean nothing to them. They get paid anyway. Weeks turn into months and months turn into years and still nothing progressive gets done by our politicians. Yet to the hungry business opportunist pioneering in the GOLD RUSH of Belize, a person must get RAPID and very fast returns, or STARVE, or go look elsewhere to another country. The pioneers of this GOLD RUSH are coming in right now in trickles. This could turn into a FLOOD given encouragement. New generations of business entrepreneurs are being FRUSTRATED by the LACK OF ACTION and leadership from our CABINET, who seem inordinately involved in get rich quick schemes of their own person.
CORPORAL PUNISHMENT is a subject being debated right now in our school system. In Saudi Arabia they have a dress code and volunteer RELIGIOUS POLICE, that carry a bamboo cane and go around whipping people on legs and arms that are not morally correct in their dress code on the streets of their society. I think what I would like to see in Belize is a BUSINESS POLICE, a person who can volunteer with a quarter inch, six foot long bamboo cane and would go around WHIPPING, legally by law, CABINET POLITICIANS that are not aggressive enough in developing our nation of Belize. Something to think about. ( hic! grin! )
In the meantime, a recent article by Trevor Vernon, explained the advantages of HONDURAS over Belize in a comparison study, in which the business atmosphere is progressive, the prices of living half of what they are in Belize, infra structural services like telecommunications and energy supplies, less than half the cost in Belize. The wife said after reading that; maybe we should go investigate HONDURAS. Indeed so we should, my nephew did and is succeeding. If we were not so old? I love the atmosphere of the GOLD RUSH in Central America, the myriad OPPORTUNITIES that are open to getting rich, or at least financially comfortable middle class. I guess I’m a pioneer entrepreneur at heart, one of the GOLD RUSH crowd. Just disappointed at the failures of leadership in CABINET circles of both our administrations, past and present. If a project does not seem to feed the self-enrichment appetites of the port of Belize City politicians, controlling our government, they seem not to care, or be interested in the rest of the development possibilities of the rest of the country? We take one step forward and slip back four steps it seems like?