GREAT GRANDDAUGHTER Gemma Auxillou

** Gemma Auxillou. GREAT, GRANDDAUGHTER of Ray Auxillou up in Canada. Her mother is Tamara Auxillou, daughter of my son, Mark Auxillou.

LAND SURVEYING PROBLEM IN BELIZE GETS 2% INCREASE IN REPORT CARD. Now up to 17%.

LOTS FOR PEOPLE IN LAND PROGRAM

Forget the number quoted, but over 3000 lots to be mass surveyed by different surveyors to do it QUICK before the next General Election, or in time for it anyway.
Election gimmick or not, it is needed and about time. Worth 2 % points of UDP government report card. New score 17%. Government is on the move successfully too.

PM BARROW POLICIES BEAR FRUIT AND HE GETS ANOTHER 5% POINTS ON HIS REPORT CARD. New Score 15%.

** El Caudillo, Prime Minister of Belize appointed by the Queen´s Commonwealth representative, the Governor General. In the Belize Constitution, voters do not get the opportunity to elect a Prime Minister by popular vote. We need to become a REPUBLIC, or go to PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION TO MAKE BELIZE BETTER GOVERNED,MORE EQUITABLY.


PRIME MINISTER, DEAN BARROW OF BELIZE GAINS 5 POINTS ON REPORT CARD WITH 3 RD QUARTER SPEECH. New score 15% and rising.

I caught snippets on cable tv of Dean Barrow our Caudillo, Prime Minister, apparently giving a news announcement to do with the 3 rd quarter economic performance of Belize in sort of general terms.
Both the NEWS he gave and feeling engendered was UPBEAT. FEELY GOOD! His speaking style more laid back, as he seemed more comfortable. He got a bit testy when Jules Vasquez media person got on his case a bit. Generally speaking I was impressed. He didn´t get into any specifics on economics, but just said, that GENERAL REVENUE collections were better than average and doing well. There were other positive news and one expects a political leader in office to talk positively.

With the recent news that our DEBT to GDP ratio has dropped to 58% from 76%, I´m inclined to be less critical. Barrow´s policies have worked out well enough over the past three years. The DEBT RATIO success is more to do with the growth of GDP than any reduction in DEBT LOAD. At a declared 2.5% GDP we need 3.2% GDP and above, to be a success story of government management. Still the debt load ratio is lowering. That is a measure on how well government policies are working in the real world. My guess the OIL revenues are what are pushing us over the success edge? The rest of the economy has recovered and stable since the past two years of his term in world RECESSION. He got through the difficult years, and now we have to build on the 2.5% GDP and get the GDP over into the 3.5% or 3.6% level. That in my opinion can only be done by a concerted effort, emphasizing all manner and ways to create a divesified export manufacturing economy. New oil field will help of course, but such a thing is not long term useful. We need a diversified export base for niche markets.

SMART NEW INTERNET SERVICE A RIP OFF?

SMART NEW INTERNET SERVICE VERSUS BTL

To my mind, BTL internet service is better.

I went down to BTL and SMART today, to try and figure out, what it is that SMART were offering with a promotion in the mail. What had happened, was that I have not used my SMART at all for about 3 months. In fact, I had my bookkeeper go down each month and take my modem and cancel the SMART SERVICE. They refused her and since I pay her considerably to run these sort of errands, I was irrate and annoyed. I finally figured out what they are doing at SMART. They were planning on introducing a new service and were billing me for months that I didn´t want. Apparently I conclude, they have been eating up my DEPOSIT so they can keep the cash. I was forced to go in myself to listen to the sales pitch and spiel and then cancel.
I got a notice in the mail yesterday that they had a new 3 G service or something. Among the package offered was $30 a month, $50 a month for 2 Giga and something else and the high end was 10 Giga a month for $90. I thought WOW! If this is bandwidth I´m all for it. Turned out to be one of those sucker deals they offer people when selling cars. They offer a bare frills car for a low price, but when you go to the dealer, you cannot for the life of you, actually buy such a car. Doesn´t exist. Sold out or some story, and they have other models with lots of add ons. Bait and switch is the term used for such SCAMS. Well SMART are selling internet the same way is my understanding of what is going on? They cut off the old modems as of the 24th of last month. They have been refusing to cash in and cancel my SMART service anyway, for three months and now have an invoice saying I owe them for two months. Which they are going to apply to my DEPOSIT and STEAL my money, in my opinion.
The new scheme is NOT BANDWIDTH. It is a pay as you go, like a pre-paid phone card. The OLD system, you paid a flat rate, for 24 / 7 internet service. Slow at 125 kbps theoretically. The new system you are paying for what you use. Now, I want FLAT RATE. I use BTL wireless and was using SMART wireless. I have an office with three computers permanently connected to my BTL modem. I would like to connect 4 computers, as my office has 4 computers. I have at least one computer online 18 hours a day. 24 / 7 is what internet is about, especially in the financial field like I am. Data feeds are running constantly with market news. The new SMART system, as well as the old wireless modem only allowed you to connect ONE COMPUTER to the internet at a time. An inconvenience in business, as you are sometimes, when things are hectic, watching two monitors with data feeds at the same time. Under the new SMART system, you buy a PRE-PAID number of Giga bytes of download, or upload I believe? Just like a cell phone. When you have used up your card, you then get BILLED by the megabyte for what you use for the rest of the month, is as I understood how the girl at the SMART office explained it to me. Soon as I heard that, I told her CANCEL me please. I was annoyed that they had kept billing me for non-usuage anyway, to basically steal my deposit cash, as I interepret it. Three photos would take a megabyte. Anyway, the NEW DEAL with SMART is, they are going to treat internet users like a cell phone card. You pay for what you expect to use and then pay for anything over that amount in one month.
Totally impractical for business. The other thing, you can only use one computer per card. PURE RIPOFF and cannot build the development of Belize.
BTL on the other hand, have a modem with two antennas and 3 plug in connections for 3 computers. The FLAT FEE is 24/7 per month and you know where you are financially.
There is no way, my business could stay in business on a pay as you use system, that maximizes cash returns to the telecommunications company like SMART have switched to. Couple of instructional videos run, to learn how to do something, like cook a meal, or sew a dress, or make a weaving shawl, or weave a hammock, smoke some fish, or anything at all, and you would be out of TIME for internet usage and your pre-paid fee for the month would be expired and you would get cut off. I guess ASHCROFT wants to become a BILLIONAIRE again, by fleecing people in Belize.

With BTL I get a wireless modem with 3 connections for 3 computers. The bandwidth is 2 gigabyte. The drawback is the bandwidth is SHARED with everybody else in the TWIN TOWNS our West here. This means during peak periods when everybody is using BTL, the internet speed slows down tremendously. Unfortunate, but now BTL is in Government control, I´m sure for building the nation and development needs put first as a priority, they will eventually expand the available bandwidth and probably speed too. ANYWAY, I no longer have SMART and wouldn´t touch such a pay by the megabyte system with a ten foot pole. I´d go back to satellite service first, or move to a neighboring country where they have normal internet service.

That is my understanding of how things stand between SMART and BTL internet service.

Whooooeeee! Belize Debt to GDP ratio is 58% says WIKIPEDIA calculation.

*** This is OUR FINANCE MINISTER. Dean Barrow is his name, a mediocre lawyer, but astute successful politician. He is our EL CAUDILLO in what is essentially a STRONG ONE MAN GOVERNMENT, supported by a cast of characters called a CABINET, made of ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES supposedly representing 4000 voters each. He is also NOT ELECTED by the majority vote of the population of Belize. He gets to be Prime Minister solely because he is head leader of his gang the UDP group. Thus the Queen´s representative locally in the Commonwealth organization, the Governor General rubber stamps him under our Constitutional setup, as PRIME MINISTER. We should by rights move to a REPUBLIC type constitution, in which we the citizens and voters of Belize get to popularly ELECT our own PRIME MINISTER? The political gangs will not allow this though, as it would throw a check and balance against being able to plunder the tax flows of the treasury.


HOW TO CALCULATE THE DEBT TO GDP RATIO FOR BELIZE FROM WIKIPEDIA


In economics, the debt-to-GDP ratio is one of the indicators of the health of an economy. It is the amount of national debt of a country as a percentage of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP). A low debt-to-GDP ratio indicates an economy that produces a large number of goods and services and probably profits that are high enough to pay back debts. Governments aim for low debt-to-GDP ratios and can stand-up to the risks involved by increasing debt as their economies have a higher GDP and profit margin. According to the CIA World Factbook, the 2010 public debt-to-GDP ratio in the US was 62.3% with a gross debt-to-GDP ratio of about 92.3%. [1] The level of public debt in Japan in 2010 was 225.8% of GDP. [2] The level of public debt in Germany in the same year was 78.8% of GDP. [3]

Particularly in macroeconomics, various debt-to-GDP ratios can be calculated. The most commonly used ratio is the Government debt divided by the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which reflects the government's finances, while another common ratio is the total debt to GDP, which reflects the finances of the nation as a whole.

________________________________________

So in Belize, our DEBT TO GDP RATIO is 58% according to World Bank figures.

Woooooeeeee! Hmmmmmnnnnn! What do you the Belize TAXPAYER think of that? I have a very hard time myself in believing this is true! I would sure like some economists to double check the figures. If the 58% figure is true, then Mr. Dean Barrow, Finance Minister has been doing well with our government. If this is a true figure, it is worth + 10% points on the government report card. Somebody double check for me please! Back three years ago, he started with an inheritence of 76% of GDP as the debt ratio. If true, why is he not BRAGGING ABOUT IT? Unlike him not to brag? That´s what politicians do, to garner votes and public support. If true, and I am a cynic, I am IMPRESSED.

BELIZE ECONOMIC STATUS. COULD BE SELF SUFFICIENT, WITHOUT OUR GOVERNMENT DEBTS.

WITHOUT OUR DEBT, BELIZE WOULD BE ECONOMICALLY SELF SUFFICIENT. ( self sustainable ) WITH THE DEBT WE ARE SLAVES.

The IMF are reporting our Belize GDP is 2.5 billion. Our Debt is totalled at $1.47 billion in US currency. The Belize currency is pegged to the USA currency at an official ratio of $2 Bz to $1 USA. In the real world, you cannot buy USA currency from the Government, they need and use it all. However local banks will sell US currency to the private sector for $2.28 Bz for $1 usa. I´m not sure how to figure DEBT to GDP as a ratio, but it might be 170% of GDP? Some say around 90%? Either way it is unsustainable with an economy based on tourism and raw commodity product exports.

The IMF says we need bigger foreign reserves. Locals have been saying the same thing for DECADES. We just cannot do it, on a set of government policies based on borrowing money abroad from our childrens and grandchildrens futures, to pay for infra-structure needed to develop in the present. We probably need about $20 billion in foreign reserves at our current GDP and population size, which is 300,000.
Belize: Selected Economic Indicators

______________________________________


2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012



(Annual percentage change, unless otherwise indicated)

National income and prices


GDP at constant prices
1.2 3.8 0.0 2.7 2.5 2.8

Nominal GDP (US$ millions)
1,277 1,359 1,349 1,401 1,474 1,552

Gross domestic investment 1/ 2/
17 27 22 18 19 19

Gross national savings 1/
12.9 17.7 15.7 15.0 15.9 14.6

Consumer prices (end of period)
4.1 4.4 -0.4 0.0 4.2 2.5

Real effective exchange rate (July for 2011)
-4.9 -0.6 4.5 -3.1 -5.6 …


Money and credit


Credit to the private sector
13.9 11.6 4.8 -3.6 0.3 1.5

Money and quasi-money (M2)
15.0 14.0 5.8 -1.8 4.2 5.0


(In percent of GDP, unless otherwise indicated)

Central government 3/


Revenue and grants
28.2 28.7 27.0 27.4 28.6 27.4

Current expenditure
23.2 23.4 24.5 24.0 24.9 24.6

Capital expenditure and net lending
5.7 4.9 3.7 4.5 5.4 5.4

Primary balance
3.8 4.2 2.4 1.9 2.2 1.8

Overall balance
-0.7 0.4 -1.2 -1.5 -1.6 -2.5


External sector


External current account 4/
-4.1 -10.7 -6.2 -3.0 -3.1 -4.4

Overall balance of payments (US$ millions)
22.9 57.9 47.3 4.6 3.8 16.1

Public and publicly guaranteed debt
86.3 79.7 82.1 83.3 80.4 78.1

Domestic debt
8.2 7.4 7.1 11.9 12.1 11.5

External debt
78.1 72.3 75.0 71.4 68.3 66.6


Gross international reserves (US$ millions) 5/
108.5 166.4 213.7 218.0 221.8 235.2

In months of imports
1.6 2.1 3.3 3.2 2.9 2.9


Sources: Belize authorities; and IMF staff estimates and projections in 2011.
_______________________________________

The ONLY growth prospects for Belize are to EXPORT to earn foreign exchange, and the most easily quickly reached target is agro-processing and export processed food, to foreign countries to earn foreign exchange. There is also room for local light manufacturing niche products, like surveillance drones, light military hardware, certain types of hand made clothing requiring unique expertise, like sweater jackets for cold climates and many other ideas. The population is talking about it a lot, but any entrepreneurial leadership and mentoring is lacking as examples. The government and bureaucrats have started some entrepreneurial informative training workshops, but so far these have been inadequate, as a salaried bureaucrat teaching a would be entrepreneur, is like the BLIND teaching the BLIND.

NEW UDP APPROVAL RATING JUMPS 2% TO 10%.

UDP GAIN 2 POINTS ON THEIR REPORT CARD. JUMPING FROM 8% TO 10% APPROVAL RATING.

The Prime Minister, mafia don of his political party, the EL CAUDILLO probably gets credit for this 2 points under his hat as FINANCE MINISTER?

The notice last week, that an independent evaluator was contracted before , Ashcroft could get to him, to evaluate the WÖRTH in dollars and cents of NATIONALIZED BTL. ASHCROFT had been claiming something like $300 to $500 million. The EVALUATOR came up with a figure of $71 million. I presume this is Belizean Currency? The figure of $71 million sounds in the ball park, though probably still overrated. Nevertheless, we are ready the Belize government says, to pay off this NATIONALIZATION DEBT the usual way, by paying in LAND. Land we have in the bank, but money is not there. Over 90% of our GDP is in debts right now. Nearly all Belizeans owed debts for seizure of land for instance, or other things, must take land in payment, as we have no money in the treasury. Very long established practice.

The TWO PERCENTAGE POINTS was because the announcement came as a surprise to we of the public, but must have been initiated right after the NATIONALIZATION at that time, when ASHCROFT the previous owner had stripped the company of all cash and movable assets, the weekend before. This is as it should be, I am just surprised that BARROW acted so swiftly to do so and I heartily approve of this prompt action. Showing government can move fast when it needs to do so.
For doing something right QUICKLY, it is worth an extra two percentage points on his approval rating. NEW SCORE now 10% out of a 100%.