CAYE CAULKER, BELIZE, beach reclamation project. 2012.

Rental beach condos on Caye Caulker
Caye Caulker the SPLIT.
Caye Caulker tourist island, one of the TEN BEST in the world.
Caye Caulker beach 2012
Caye Caulker laid back beach bar.
GOVERNMENT BEACH RECLAMATION REFURBISHING PROJECT ON TOURIST ISLANDS OF CAYE CAULKER AND SAN PEDRO.

I don´t know if Dean Barrow leader of the incumbent UDP was serious when the word got out late last year, that the government would refurbish the tourist infra-structure beach product on San Pedro and Caye Caulker. Let us assume it just was not a pre-election gimmick and rhetoric to win votes, without actually doing it.

Certainly these two major government tourist taxes revenue centers are in need of doing work. It is the role of the government to do the infra-structure that is too big for individuals to do.

If, and it is a big IF, the dredging does start filling up the beaches this year, I have been looking over the situation on Caye Caulker, since I am here for the dry season four months, for my health. Being intimately familiar with TOURISM, I can say my opinion is valuable to the government, even if I am a FREE CONSULTANT.

Presuming on Caye Caulker the plans are REAL and not phoney pre-election promise tricks, I expect the government will do the least possible. That is re-fill the beach between the SPLIT and the AIRSTRIP. That would take care of our current tourist package. However, I think that would be a mistake.

Caye Caulker is no longer a village. It is in fact a small TOWN as big as a lot of the towns in Belize. Bigger than Punta Gorda or Dangriga. That said, we should look at the interest of any government next taking office in March, 2012. The interest of the Government is in TAX REVENUES and they get theirs from hotel taxes and GST. At the moment, tourism nationwide is providing 25%, as a rough estimate of all government revenues. The biggest revenue earners being Ambergris Caye and Caye Caulker for tourism. If you look at the development on Caye Caulker it is now overflowing past the airstrip to the south point of the island. There are new subdivisions and streets surveyed back there by private developers. The same is true on the North part of the island over the strip. There are undeveloped subdivisions over there.
A Caribbean island is selling sandy beaches, emerald green clear warm water and coconut trees. These are the main tourist ingredient attractions. To fill the beach between the airstrip and the Split would be good and beneficial. But if you look at the town growth that is occuring, you can forecast quite easily, that the town of Caye Caulker will double in size, within 6 to 15 years. Especially if the USA economy picks up and I have no doubt that the next three years will be a basing, foundation in the USA economy and the world in general. After that we will be in another BULL MARKET economy. The time when income flows for investment will roll into Belize on many fronts, but particularly in tourism.
The question is; what kind of tourism investment do you want for the island of Caye Caulker? If you are the GOVERNMENT OF BELIZE, you want jobs, construction, and hotels and big money earners. What is going to happen, in a country, where you only get beach reclamation once every ten or fifteen years; what is done this year, if it actually gets done, will decide the future tax revenues the GOVERNMENT OF BELIZE will make off CAYE CAULKER over the next 15 years.
That southern end of the island is already privately owned and being subdivided and streets laid out, lots sold and houses being built. BUUUUT! There is no sandy beach. Without a beach, that huge Southern end of the island south of the airstrip will develop automatically into small residential vacation homes. People will take their golf carts and drive up to the beaches and entertainment on the existing sea front in front of the old village/town. If the government is going to do it right, they want investment money to go commercial on that Southern part of the island south of the airstrip. Hotels, stores, boutiques, restaurants, etc.
I´m coming back again to the politically promised beach reclamation on Caye Caulker for 2012. For the bureaucrats to confine their work between the SPLIT and the airstrip, you are going to maintain the STATUS QUO. Whatever tax revenues, jobs and construction you get money from, will be limited as the town expands. The percentage of 25% of general revenues from tourism, will not grow annually, as a source of revenues for the government. It will stagnate. That portion, will become smaller percentage wise, as the population grows, the need for jobs grows over the next six to fifteen years. What you need to do, is if you are going to do the beach reclamation project, it should plan on running down a half mile south of the AIRSTRIP and a half a mile on the Northern island where there is currently no beach. But there are streets platted and lots subdivided by private developers in there.
If you want investment money, the role of the government is to provide the beach on the island. Easily done, at relatively low cost right now. Now if you start reconsidering what you will do in fifteen years, when you have to do it again, then eventually thirty years out, the WHOLE ISLAND from the south point to the north point will have a good dredged beach, like in front of the current village and like they do in TEXAS and South Florida.
Incoming tourist development will follow, only if you have a beach to sell to tourists. That is the job of the Government.
So this year, I think starting a half mile North of the SPLIT on the north island, all along the current town and then a half mile south of the airstrip is what should be dredged and filled this year. THINK ABOUT IT! Show some foresight and planning instead of knee jerk reactions at a minimal scale. Plan for future growth over the next 15 years. Caye Caulker town could and probably will double in size and if it has the beaches will TRIPLE in size. All in the next fifteen years. Will it develop tourism commercial, or tourism vacation residential? That is the question.

BELIZE- HUBERT ELRINGTON STARS IN COMPETITIVE DEBATE ON BELIZE ECONOMY PRE-ELECTION DEBATE.

HUBERT ELRINGTON, STAR OF A TV DEBATE FOR PRE-ELECTION ISSUES, ON ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CAPABILITIES.


by Wendy Auxillou


I watched my first ever Dickie Bradley special last night, being very skeptical as I tuned into it. Dickie Bradley was a huge part of the PUP during their term in office, so of course, I expected to see a one-sided political show. Not so. One thing is for sure and that is that Dickie Bradley is a very charismatic talk show host. He is flawless at it...

The guests on the show were Audrey Matura Shephard, a young man (lawyer?) by the name of Patrick Menzies, Lisa Shoman, and Hubert Elrington. What a treat! The panelists appeared on the show two at a time. First up were the first two, and secondly the other two.

There is no question that Miss Audrey Matura-Shephard is a superstar. She, too, is flawless in her delivery, and very charismatic. Of course, her topic was the referendum issue. Even though her referendum was quashed, she emerged from the show looking like the moral winner. Kudos to her. She has an easygoing way of making her point.

The other young man that appeared as co-panelist with her, Patrick Menzies, appeared to be a lawyer. His topic was the Nationality Act. He came across as an eloquent, committed, fervent nationalist. What a treat to watch the young warriors in action. Definitely a superstar as well. I don't think the two are linked professionally, they just happen to be on the panel at the same time. But it was definitely incredible to watch relevant national issues being debated by learned, eloquent individuals.

The second half of the show found Lisa Shoman and Hubert Elrington side by side. Ms. Lisa was there as a representative of the PUP (Communications director), and Hubert was there as .... well ... out spoken Hubert.

As Dickie Bradley pressed the issue of the state of the economy, it was clear that Lisa was out of her league. Many times, Dickie has to stop her to say "but that is pure political rhetoric" I want to hear substantive suggestions on what will be done to fix the economy come March 8th.

The real star of the show, however, was Hubert Elrington. Mincing no works, Hubert gave a star performance. While Lisa was repeating her talking points about exporting beans and yam to Mexico, Hubert reiterated that if she was working in his Ministry of Economic Development, she would be fired by the end of her first sentence. The problem with Belize, he stated (and I am ad libbing here), is that we are still in the era of taking our beans and yams on the donkey to market, that is the mentality of our leaders. They cannot think above the glass ceiling which is quite low. He said that the problem is not one of human capital, because we have that. Look how Arlie Petters, Marion Jones, Frankie Reneau and a host of other Belizeans have gone abroad and excelled, as have many other Belizeans. The problem is that we have stupid, incapable Francesco Shettinos (the captain of the Costa Concordia) instead of Captain Sulleys (of the airplane that landed in the Hudson) captaining our economic ship. There is nothing wrong with the Costa Concordia, he said. It's a great ship. The problem is the stupid captain, which goes to show that all it takes is one wrong person in a position of influence to crash a ship on a reef.

In his opinion, no government, beginning with the government of George Price, has given adequate if any attention to the Ministry of Economic Development. It is a backwater, non-elite ministry relegated to a minor minister. He said that although GP didn't pay much attention to economic development, he didn't do harm, and neither did Manuel Esquivel. He went on to say, though, that under Said Musa irreparable harm was caused to the reputation of the country, a situation which we are still trying to recover from. To add to that, he said, Dean Barrow began his "nationalization" campaign which sent the nation's reputation even further into disrepute, sending direct foreign investment tanking from a high of $200M+ in 2008 to a measly $12M or so in 2011. We have incapable captains, he said. We need a captain and leaders that can think in the 4th dimension like the Petters, Reneaus, etc.

Asked about March 8 (the day after election), he said one of two things will happen: there will be a devaluation, or a massive retrenchment. Things will get really bad and people will die. We have to deal with it, he said. It is our reality.

He said neither Francis Fonseca nor Dean Barrow possesses the know-how to get us out of this mess because they are not critical thinkers. We need bigger thinkers than that, he said, people with the know-how to take our economy into the technological age, into research and development, etc.

(Please remember that I am ad-libbing here.)

I can't remember what all else was said, but Lisa spent a lot of her time on the show cutting her eye at Hubert.

Honestly, I find Hubert to have an excellent grasp of the situation in Belize. Of all the people making the talk show rounds, he would be my first choice for Prime Minister. He has his head well placed on his shoulders. Pity we do not go to the polls to vote for a prime minister. He would be my choice.

I was trying to find a link for the show, but don't think it has been uploaded onto the Channel 5 website yet. Anyway, watch it. It is a great show. And kudos to Dickie Bradley. He is a very charismatic and engaging talk show host.

ORGANIZE YOUR OWN TOUR TO BELIZE!

A FAVORITE WAY TO ORGANIZE AN ADVENTURE, MAKE A BIT OF MONEY IS ORGANIZING A WINTER TOUR TO BELIZE FOR SOME PURPOSE. OFTEN TAX DEDUCTIBLE, OR AT LEAST FARE AND COST FREE FOR THE ORGANIZER. USUALLY SOME YOUNG COLLEGE PROFESSOR.


San Ignacio, Belize, February 05, 2012 --(PR.com (http://www.pr.com/))-- During the "winter" break for colleges and universities in North America, the Institute of Sustainable International Studies hosted a group of students from Belize, Canada, Saudi Arabia, Syria and the United States. The students took one of three courses: The Business of Eco-tourism, Bones and Stones: The Peoples and Archaeology of Belize or Wildlife of Belize: Biology and Conservation.



This diverse group of students came from Ohio State University, Mississippi State, University of Minnesota Duluth, University of Florida, University of Illinois, Penn State University, Christopher Newport University, Memphis State University, Columbia and Shenandoah University.

Their activities included visits to the Belize Zoo, the Community Baboon Sanctuary, Belize Bird Rescue, Cahal Pech, Caracol and Xuanantunich Maya archaeological sites, and government agencies such as Beltraide, the Belize Tourism Board and the Protected Areas Conservation Trust.

One of the results of their study abroad was a SWOT analysis for the Village of San Jose Succotz, which outlined issues, related to the development of eco-tourism projects for the village. The students' analysis was presented to Village Council and other leaders from Succotz, and sparked a lively debate of how to move forward. An intern working with Friends of Conservation and Development (FCD) on solid waste management issues also made a presentation to the village leaders.

The work of students and interns who visit Belize, benefit Belizean organizations and communities in several ways: through the generation of new ideas, by providing time and effort to carry out locally defined projects and by the donation from ISIS of part of their tuition to support the organizations they visited and worked with.

This cultural exchange of perspectives on wildlife, biology, conservation and history allows for both the students and the residents of Belize to collaborate and provide solutions to issues in such a way where both parties come away with answers that might not have been found otherwise. This goes to show that solutions to social issues are best found through multicultural teamwork, which is the ethos of the Institute of Sustainable International Studies in Belize.

Sailboats built by Ray Auxillou in Belize in the early 1980´s.

Buccaneer, a 24 ft Belizean sloop, built by Ray Auxillou in the early 1980´s in Belize. One of three identical sloops built out of fiberglass, from a mold I made, that introduced fiberglass boatbuilding to Belize, in the early 1980´s. This boat was used for fishing and tourism and worked for many years as a snorkeling tourist reef dive boat. Also ran tourists down the Great Barrier Reef of Belize with it, island hopping, ending in a cross ocean trip to Puerto Cortez in Honduras a number of times, while taking my tourists to the Gold Mining grounds in Rosario, a mountain of gold in OLANCHO state of Honduras. We went overland by bus in those days from the coastal port of Cortez. You can actually drive there by road nowadays in your own car, via Guatemala to Honduras. Not back then.
The wooden shack was my home then, having split with my then wife Ilna on the island. Tina my daughter tore down the shack some 20 years ago and built her second Tina´s HOSTEL on that property. Later I put the beach lot into the AUXILLOU TRUST and it is forbidden for my four daughters to sell, or borrow against the land. They share it in common, as TRUSTEES, and have built condos, hostel and guest houses here.

DOZEN PELICANS SIGHTED ON CAYE CAULKER, BELIZE THIS SEASON

Pelican at Caye Caulker, Great Barrier Reef, Belize.










CAYE CAULKER, BARRIER REEF ISLAND OF BELIZE ENVIRONMENTAL BALANCE IS BEING RESTORED


The environmental balance seems to be restoring after a half a dozen years of no pelican reports for the island of Caye Caulker. Did a count at the split today, while a fisherman was cleaning fish and a dozen young pelicans were floating around waiting for fish scraps. Also a couple of dozen, mano´war frigate birds flying overhead in the standing wave of air caused by the sea breeze hitting the warmer sand beach.

Whatever the cause of a die off of pelicans seems to be rectified and the bird population is coming back again.

-Frigate bird on Caye Caulker-

150 Million market for USA homeless people with minimum wage jobs.

Two person camper Piaggio, three wheeler
Piaggio 50 Camper

150 million market in the USA for HOMELESS PEOPLE, who work minimum paid jobs by Piaggio. I did something like this for 9 years in my VW camper. This looks depending on the price, a good substitute.

It would make a good camper for Belize for roaming around.

ATM NETWORKS IN GUATEMALA being hacked and bank accounts stolen via ATM electronic traffic.

ATM ELECTRONIC DATA STREAMS ARE BEING TAPPED FROM CITY TO CITY IN GUATEMALA. MOST HURT IS THE BAC bank in ANTIGUA.

Accounts are being drained, stolen by unknown thieves. Slow internet data streams are apparently to blame. As with a bit of technological expertise somebody, presumably in Bogota is siphoning off account balances.