BELIZE CHEESE EXPORTS KILLED BY LACK OF MILK PRODUCTION

We can make this export cheese in Belize if we could get the milk.
This is a new popular cheese from a Mennonite at the market in Western Belize
small cheeses for export


BELIZEAN CHEESE EXPORTERS COME UP AGAINST SHORTAGE OF MILK AND DAIRY FARMS

It seems that the milk shortage and that of dairy farms in Belize is not even providing enough cheese for our limited population. In fact, the 5000 graduates of higher education this month, if they wanted to start a CHEESE SPECIALITY EXPORT ENTERPRISE COMPANY would not be able to do so for short of fresh milk in the country of Belize.

EMPEROR CHAVEZ OF VENEZUELA NOW HAS TEN COUNTRIES OUT OF THIRTY FOUR, IN ALBA EMPIRE

Emperor Hugo Chavez outdid Fidel Castro, in that he now controls four countries in the Americas and Caribbean and has strong controls and influence over six others.
Emperor Chavez visiting his soul mate Fidel Castro.


CHAVEZ BUILDING IMPERIALISTIC EMPIRE OF THE AMERICAS

CARICOM LOSES, HONDURAS GAINS, CHAVEZ LOSES,

Reporting from Belize, Central America, June 30,2009.

The hard core Imperialist Empire building of Chavez of Venezuela met a stumbling block in Honduras this past week, when the Supreme Court and courageous Honduran Congress, shipped out the traitor President Zalaya, the wanna be, President for Life and planned TYRANT of Honduras to Costa Rica; after he broke Constitutional Law in Honduras by defying Congressional denial to hold a referendum on changing the Honduran Constitution, so that he could run for office again.
To limit dictators and tyrants, Honduras has a Constitution prohibiting a President in the Republican system they use of government, from running again for a second term. Honduras has had a lot of experience with dictators. Zelaya was short of time, only having half a year left in his Presidential term and over reached himself in his hurry to be able to run again for the Presidency.
Known as the ALBA block of leftist countries, the democratic systems of the American continent have been subverted by young Comintern students turned so-called democratic political party leaders and entering into the hurly burly fray of standard democratic party politics, during their middle aged, maturing years. Taking over the leadership of countries from within, by using the same democratic electoral process and popular vote to gain power and then consolidate the win, by removing the Supreme Court and replacing them with hand picked puppets and firing and changing the military leaders and Generals, replacing them with hand picked successors who will obey a tyrant. Violence, murder, blackmail and fraud are some of the standard tools in this type of government takeover. The lessons learned are straight out of the handbook of STALIN during his lifetime, who ran the Russian Empire. Emperor Chavez has been the financier in this planned Empire building.
The current methodology in the American Continent reminds me of the purges of STALIN in RUSSIA prior to World War 11, and the totalitarian state control of Cuba has been defacto in Cuba for the past 50 years under the Castro brothers, tyrants of Cuba, who gained power through revolution similar to the Bolsheviks back in 1917 – 1918 Russia. The Bolsheviks and all their leaders lost their revolution to STALIN, who was the only one to survive his murderous rampage and double dealing, in the change from Communism to a totalitarian state under Stalin around 1921. He purged and killed all the original and famous Bolsheviks in the 1930’s during purges and show trials. He murdered the rank and file as well in the millions.
In Honduras last week, the Stalinist method of consolidating power was thwarted when the then President Zelaya, the wanna-be President for Life; was blocked when the Honduran Congress and the Supreme Court, pre-empted Zelaya’s, move to hold an illegal constitutional amendment change vote, allowing him to run for office a second time and tried changing the military generals opposing his illegality. Presumably the military high command and the executive branches knew they were going to be sacrificial victims if Zelaya succeeded before his term ends later this year.
The action by the Honduras Congress and the Supreme Court of Honduras was superb in timing! Given the vote and given the firing, or purge of the Honduras military Generals, the Supreme Court and Congress would have been victims of the purge of Zelaya, if he had gotten a favorable showing in his illegal vote to change the Honduran Constitution. Stalin’s history shows the methodology being used by Chavez of Venezuela. Secret files now made public for researchers, from the old communist era that collapsed, show how it was organized, copied now by Emperor Chavez of Venezuela. Arguably Zelaya the ex-president should have first changed the Generals and the Supreme Court, before he attempted to change the Honduran Constitution to be successful in his coup d’etat, in taking over tyrannical control of the Honduran government. The attempt might still have succeeded if the vote had gone his way, had he been allowed to make it against the Constitutional laws of the land of Honduras. Both Chavez of Venezuela and Correa of Ecuador have successfully used Stalin’s method to clean the military of opponents and higher seats in the now charade of democratic institutions, once supposed in a democracy to be checks and balances theoretically. These are charades now, a mockery of democracy both in Ecuador and Venezuela.
Currently the EMPIRE building of Emperor CHAVEZ of Venezuela who is financing the subversion, has four solid countries controlled by him in the Caribbean, Central America and South America. These four of use to him right now are Cuba, Venezuela, Ecuador and Nicaragua. There are 34 countries in the Americas and undoubtedly Canada and the USA would be too difficult to take over in Emperor Chavez’s Imperialistic ambitions of expansion. That still leaves 32 countries, target for Venezuelan Chavez, Imperialistic Empire building plans, for a totalitarian Empire on the model of that built by STALIN of Russia in the last century. Some of these countries are already compromised, such as Bolivia, Brazil and Argentina and in the slower process of incremental process of usurpation. There are now three new small island states that once belonged to CARICOM, now in the ALBA empire, in return for promises of food and oil for their small populations. Presumably these former CARICOM Prime Ministers will eventually be forced into exile, or sent to jail, or meet fatal accidents, as the price of Empire building, using the historical model of STALINIST fear and terror and one can see in the future, a repeat of the Grenada invasion in the Caribbean, of what was once free CARICOM small states, as they become slave states and stepping stones for ALBA surreptious covert activities. The COLD WAR has got hot again, but it is not in middle ASIA anymore, but in the 34 countries of the American continent and Caribbean. Ten countries now in Alba, represent 30% of the countries targeted by Emperor Chavez in this new war. The USA State Department were very slow in waking up.
Amusing to see last night on USA cable television were shots of OBAMA of the USA, often accused by radical websites on the internet of being a fellow traveler, or leftist himself, looking very disgruntled in the WHITEHOUSE, along with President Uribe of Colombia, a neighbor of Venezuela and Ecuador. The past Bush administration of the USA had rescued Colombia, from the clutches of the FARC bandit army hiding in jungles and using drugs, extortion, kidnapping and violence and allegedly tools of torture and murderous, mafia style repression, on allegations of assignment for both the President of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez and of the President of Ecucador, Correa, in pursuit of removing free thinkers, those of independent mind and those opponents perceived of a threat to the ambitions of building of this new Empire, sought principally by new Emperor Chavez of Venezuela, backed by the oil wealth of that country. The FARC are being used to do repression, fear and terror and do wet jobs of what in STALIN Russia Empire days were carried out by the NKVD, the GRU and other organs of that time and place.
Even though this current move by the Supreme Court of Honduras is checkmate now, for consolidating the totalitarian gains of Honduras, as another member of the ALBA block, in the new Empire of Emperor Chavez of Venezuela, of our American continent, our new STALIN wanna be.
The OAS ( Organization of American States ) has convened to talk and talk and talk. Made up of disgruntled politicians and over half in the view of the public are appointed crooked, troublesome politicians from their own countries. The OAS is viewed by the public, to be a dumping ground for political opponents, to get them out of their home countries and give them prestige and a salary with handsome perks and travel allowances, which removes them from local politics.
The visual message on USA cable television news was unmistakable, with Uribe present in the Whitehouse and while OBAMA said he was against the events in Honduras, siding with Chavez and Ortega, the presence of President Uribe in the Whitehouse sent the message to all and sundry in the Americas, that past USA President Bush had built up an effective military power in Colombia, well capable of handling military matters with both Ecuador and Colombia in conventional war. Colombia has done well in the guerrilla wars with the surrogate FARC bandit army, numbering over ten thousand combatants, but not as well as could be possible in this jungle and suburban based guerrilla war. The FARC since their leadership losses of a year or so ago, have consolidated and kidnapped a lot of new youngsters to fill out their private bandit army. Their restructuring is now complete the internet reports say.
However, a military confrontation over Honduras, promised by Emperor Chavez in his blustering over the OAS and the loss of his puppet proxy Zelaya in Honduras, was met quite handily, when the message of President Uribe’s presence sitting in the Whitehouse, with a disgruntled OBAMA, clearly out of control of events on the ground, delivered the silent message of nearby military might and friendship in Colombia for democracy, to the four current IMPERIALIST EMPIRE BUILDERS from Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua and Ecuador. There is unlikely to be any open military conflict, despite Venezuelan blustering of ALBA BLOCK intentions, the name of the new expanding Chavez run Empire in the Americas. In the meantime, this COLD WAR in the Americas will continue, while Chavez persues his dream of being another STALIN, CASTRO, or MAO style tyrant, with absolute power in a totalitarian empire of subordinate Kings, of the Americas. Many will die in this conflict. That is the lesson of history.
Chavez the President for Life who plays the fool, buffoon and clown can no longer be treated lightly. This new wanna be EMPEROR OF THE AMERICAS must be taken very seriously.

XUNUNTANICH MAYAN TEMPLE RUINS IN BELIZE

Main temple
View from temple top.
Archeological parking entrance to Xununtanich Mayan temple ruins in Belize

OUTSIDE WORLD DISASTERS IN FINANCIAL CRISIS AND FLU PANDEMIC ARE REDUCING TOURIST OPERATIONS

TOURIST BUSINESSES SELLING OUT AND CLOSING DOWN!

This is not a factual observation, but a number of people have told me lately and quoted me names and places and are saying a lot of TOURIST BUSINESSES are closing down, due to the drop off in tourism this past year, due to the world financial crisis and the Flu Pandemic. I don’t know the places being mentioned, but certainly if you borrowed money, it will be difficult to pay the bank. The coming year is not going to be much better it looks like. This tourism shortfall is likely to continue through 2010 for sure and may, or may not extend into 2011, depending a lot on this winter’s flu pandemic scare.

Rio Frio Cave in Belize

Rio Frio Cave, a stop on the lower Belize Alps, Mountain Pine Ridge Day Tour by tour operators.

NEW BUILDING ACT THREATENS ECONOMY OF BELIZE

BUILDING ACT THREATENS ECONOMY OF BELIZE

The Reporter newspaper of Sunday, June, 28th, 2009 has a comprehensive article explaining the new Building Act and the new Building Authority established in the port town of Belize City, with powers to be centralized and control all construction in the future around the many districts of rural Belize.
The Building Act itself was an idea of the previous PUP Administration and being implemented by the current UDP Administration.
The Building Act and the implementation as explained down in the port of Belize City administration offices of the new bureaucracy, seems as explained in the workshop for contractors and engineers, to be an import from the more industrialized, heavily populated, congested metropolitan areas of the United States of America.
There are always problems when Belize intellectuals try to import a system of government bureaucracy from some other part of the world and many mistakes have been made over the last forty five years in Belize by doing so. The local conditions and environment are not at all similar to other countries, and from the article on the workshop by the Building Authority, it would seem a repeat of old errors. Usually such mistakes are made by a port town elite, with experience of living in more than one country and the ideas and desires to bring in industrialized modes of other places, to make the government more income revenue, from various taxes, licenses and fees. In this case there is the use of the usual language of regulation, better construction standards and the usual hoopla of justifications; which in the environment of Belize and importation limitations for a country that does not manufacture or produce the materials required in construction, make the usual platitudes and rhetoric seem ridiculous. The Building Act is all about REVENUE and taxation of one sort or another.
Thinking the whole idea nonsense myself, and that I might be prejudiced, I resorted to doing a poll of opinion around our Western Belize area and found the consensus to be unanimous. It is not that these type of regulations and way of doing things do not work somewhat, in industrialized and heavily populated countries of the FIRST WORLD, but the attempt to apply them in a country like Belize with a very small population, most of which are scattered in remote communities and hamlets around the rural areas covering over 6000 square miles, make the whole idea presposterous.
Despite the rhetoric and justifications it is obvious the idea of the Building Act in the present USA form is not about improving building construction, but about other goals. Mainly to find ways to find revenue for a cash strapped government. This is hardly reason and logical to saddle the populace a system that does not fit what Belize is.
Most of the population of Belize, live in the rural areas of the country of Belize. Overall the population is very small, about 300,000, of which 85% are reputed to be youngsters, or children. Of this population, 70% do not get any more education than Standard 4, elementary, or primary school ( grade 6 by USA standards of education ). Incomes are usually in the range of $125 Bz per week, per family for those with some sort of salaried jobs. At least 84% of the population have no steady cash flow at all. They live off catch and kill day work occasionally, and by growing their own food, and hunting, or performing small tasks for others, in cottage industry style. Even in the district towns, the middle class workers, usually working for the government in most cases, like teachers and policemen, get a middle class salary which runs about $1200 Bz per month. A higher income flow than the majority of people. I can look out of my verandah on an evening and indeed did so yesterday and count the number of smoke trails, billowing up from the backyard trees in my town suburb of Santa Elena Town. There are about a hundred houses in this suburb of Santa Elena Town in a Development Finance project which was started by the UDP government the last time they were in office 15 years ago and never actually finished off. The septics for the houses are not septics, but soakaways, they have no drain field or partitioned septic tank and run off, like any USA regulation housing project. A violation of any foreign building code. The streets do not have culverts for the rainy seasons, the streets are not asphalt paved. These were government built suburbs, built by government architects and engineers. Those smoke trails rising above tree top and house level, represent the number of families so poor, they cannot afford to cook using butane gas, but must collect firewood and cook over an outdoor backyard fire heart. In this district town suburb this is mostly done under a tree, not like the Cayes that have separate fire heart wood kitchens for cooking. Most of these families are so poor that are cooking over wood fires to feed their families, but are considered rich, by local community standards and are middle class teachers and policemen, in the $1200 Bz cash flow per month salaried level. By the standards of most people in rural areas, this minimal middle class, cash flow is a bonanza and put such government salaried workers solidly in the rich middle class. The majority of the population live on a lot less money, when they can get it.

The founders of the idea of bringing in the USA building regulations into Belize, have a real problem dealing with the reality of Belize and the majority of the cash flow levels of the most of the population. Not everything should be judged from the viewpoint of the educated professional contractor, engineer, civil servant and other educated elite of the port town of Belize City. These port city and Belmopan town people, the privileged elite few they are, have a lot more money than 84% of the population.
The fees being suggested and revenue enhancing regulations being imposed under the Building ACT; that ALL the people polled thought the idea preposterous and ridiculous. Ordinary people simply do not build that way in Belize. They are scattered so far and wide and imported materials are so expensive, that construction is usually done over a number of years during the life time of a family, as they can afford it. Buildings are done as affordable and usually to suit local environmental living conditions, which vary from area to area in the nation of Belize. This is the tropics and outdoor living is very practical.
The major thing is the export economy of Belize and this Building Act being implemented cannot but HURT the country of Belize. The revenue gathering fees and permits and licenses projected will push the majority of the population into worse poverty. It will freeze construction projects currently underway and absolutely freeze foreign investment. Uncontrolled shanty towns will be the result. The idea that the red tape of an industrialized, heavily populated country can be applied to a very small population, scattered through a large rural country in comparison, living in primitive pioneering conditions of muddy roads and country life, producing almost nothing that the industrialized world produces, is so far out of touch with reality of life in Belize, one has to wonder where the intellectuals went wrong? This is an idiotic disaster that is being imposed on Belize life was the Western Cayo District POLL consensus. This is no way to build a nation. We haven’t reached the population levels yet to warrant such ideas, though no doubt that will come some day in the future. When we break the million population mark possibly?

BIG ROCK FALLS, A GREAT PLACE TO SWIM IN THE MOUNTAIN PINE RIDGE OF BELIZE

Big Rock Falls of Belize

Big Rock Falls is one of the delightful FALLS seen in a lower foothills Mountain Pine Ridge trip in the lower elevations of the Belize Alps. Usually a local tour takes in caves and water falls in the local area and Big Rock Falls is a great photogenic place to swim for a day trip tour.

HONDURAS PRESIDENT RESIGNS !

Ex-President Zalaya of Honduras now in Costa Rica in exile. He was kicked out of the country by order of the Supreme Court and Congress of Honduras for trying to change the Constitution of Honduras to permit himself to become President for Life ( a Tyrant ).



LEFTIST COUP BY HONDURAN PRESIDENT THWARTED!

-PRESIDENT NOW EX-PRESIDENT SENDS LETTER OF RESIGNATION TO HONDURAN CONGRESS-

( Ray Auxillou , Belize Falconview News, June, 2009 )

It is strange to hear that the unilateral Coup d’etat in Honduras being created by ex-President Zelaya was thwarted by the judicial branch and the military, which acts as the Federal Police Force in that country. According to the stories on the news and interviews. President Zalaya was attempting a constitutional coup in Honduras , by circumventing the Congress, Executive and Legislative branches in regards to an on going program, allegedly devised and formented by Hugo Chavez in Venezuela .

A judge of the judicial branch was being interviewed on Honduras television and confirmed that President Zelaya was arrested and deported by the military, according to an arrest order issued by the Supreme Court, judicial branch. President Zelaya was deported by military aircraft to Costa Rica , which has accepted his entry into exile.

Zelaya was attempting a similar take over coup of the Honduras government, similar to what Chavez has done in Venezuela . The current step that roused the fury of the legislative and judicial branch in Honduras was that he unilaterally was holding a referendum to change the constitution of Honduras without approval of Congress. The referendum was thwarted by the military, on orders of the judiciary. The straw that broke the camels back, so to speak was that President Zalaya appointed a Coordinator Popular, or a popular coordinator in the middle of Friday night, after midnight, to circumvent the prerogatives of elected government, as in a democracy. This is in line with the current leftist Presidents in the Americas, forming totalitarian states, using the elected party political process to get into office and then subverting the government by steady political incremental changes in a slow coup d’etat to become lifetime TYRANTS.

There was no military coup d’etat said the Judge or female spokesperson this Sunday morning in a television interview, but only the rest of the pillars of government protecting Congress and the Constitution. President Zelaya wanted to change the Constitution so that he could run for more than one term of office. The Supreme Court acted to arrest Zelaya, since he committed the crimes of violating the Honduras Constitution in his ambition to become TYRANT( President for life ) of Honduras .

Zelaya led Honduras into strong ties with the leftist IRON CURTAIN of newly minted seven, PRESIDENTS FOR LIFE descending over Latin American , TYRANTS club, for totalitarian states in the Americas . The so called ALBA BLOCK of countries. Zelaya was attempting to consolidate rapidly his hold on the organs of government and the Judge of the judicial branch, or Vice President of Congress, Maria Villedi said; there were contingents of Nicaraguan, Venezuelan and Cuban agent provocateurs inside Honduras , trying to destabilize the democratic functioning of the government of Honduras .

The female Vice President of the Honduras Congress said: that the world should know, that in Honduras there was no Military Coup d’etat and even as we speak, the Honduras Congress has been recalled into session on this Sunday. Democracy is well in hand. She also said that the President of the Senate also becomes now the President of Honduras, by constitutional law. Zelaya had submitted a letter of resignation to the Congress signed in front of the media as witnesses. Congress and Zelaya had been at odds for a month in dialogues refusing him permission to take the unilateral actions he wanted to take, which his Honduras Congress told him were in violation of the Honduras Constitution. He refused to obey Congress and committed illegal acts. When the media interviewed his wife, Mrs. Zelaya admitted her husband wanted to be PRESIDENT FOR LIFE, or a TYRANT on the model of Fidel Castro, or Hugo Chavez.

This was a legal arrest and deportation and the military acted on the arrest order of the judicial branch ( Supreme Court ) of the Honduran government. Ex-President Zalaya was guilty of circumventing the lawful rights of the elected representatives in Congress, in his own ongoing coup attempt. In the REPUBLICAN system of governing, a sitting President has a lot of power, but in this case, the military and the legislative branch refused to obey his constitutionally illegal actions. They would not agree as a Congress in what he wanted to do, to change the Constitution of Honduras permitting him to be President for Life.

In Belize here, we do not have the Constitutional law that one political Prime Minister of one party, cannot be re-elected to continuous terms. This can prove disastrous as many African countries have shown, that once belonged to the British Commonwealth . Perhaps we should have it, that a political party cannot go more than one term in office in Belize , and that term reduced to three years and campaigning for office not be allowed for more than three months, instead of the full year currently in practice in Belize ? There is too much wastage in our own Belize political system.

Airlines inside CARICOM are biting the dust.

Maya Airways ATR 72 twin turbo prop, 68 passenger short haul regional carrier.



AIRLINES INSIDE CARICOM SEEM TO BE FALLING APART FOR LACK OF POLITICAL LEADERSHIP

By Ray Auxillou, June 26, 2009

Caricom itself is a basket case! High debts of the individual countries, more than they actually can pay back in most cases. The Airline systems within CARICOM, none of which serve the English speaking Caribbean countries in total, are falling apart. Air Jamaica is being sold off at auction. Run by the government of Jamaica at a loss for years as a prestige showpiece, the mounting losses finally could not compete with the other costs of maintaining Jamaica. The country has no foreign exchange reserves apparently? Belizeans cannot export to Jamaica, because you cannot get paid in foreign currency. The Jamaican government will take a big loss on the airline assets. Still, stopping the flow of losses to operate the losing carrier is a right step forward for Jamaica. Caribbean Airlines I know nothing about, other than it does not serve Belize, so is not an internal Caricom airline. LIAT does not serve Belize either. It does serve the Eastern Caribbean island chain and seems to be well run. Watching costs and adjusting fares accordingly. Big complaints about that from some of the smaller island countries they serve, about the surcharges and fuel charges and so on. At least LIAT is still operating and giving a service. There was supposed to be a new airline for Guyana joining the Eastern Caribbean countries, but have heard nothing since about it. One supposed it failed before it got even started?
The big problem with a CARICOM carrier serving the internal transportation needs of the Caribbean countries lies with the feudal kingdom aspects of individual pompous ego driven politicians. None wish to surrender there braggadocio rights to sovereignty and join, as in a Cooperative to start an internal Caribbean airline. Indeed, we found out over the past year, there isn’t even any venture investment capital in the Caribbean locally driven. Only humongous debts by most of the countries. We found this out when we tried to start CARICOM AIRLINES out of Belize.
Take the move by Barbados to deport Guyanese when CARICOM is forever bleating about integration and free movement of labor and you have a discontinuity, that does not gel with the bloated rhetoric from CARICOM politicians. One would not be remiss in believing the only darned good thing about CARICOM is the meetings for senior civil servants and politicians, as excuses to take an all expense paid holiday at the cost to their own taxpayers. You have to detour through North America to do even that. The travel perks for officials all paid, seem to be the only productive thing ever coming out of CARICOM. The whole CARICOM show is a scam to defraud individual country taxpayers in my opinion. No wonder most of the countries are heavily in debt. Then there is the loss of three of the countries of Caricom, to the Venezuela new ALBA trading bloc for food and oil supplies.
Belize is effectively and practically going it’s own way. The new UDP government, while black driven and Caribbean and British orientated, from our port town of Belize City, is quickly finding out, the future for trade and progress is elsewhere, outside of CARICOM. Oh sure, we will maintain CARICOM ties. Mostly the legal system, and similar laws and administrative bureaucratic systems. Lot of talk about CARICOM also, but nothing practical the private sector can use for markets, trade, transportation and development. Our education system has already diverged enough from other CARICOM countries, to be a totally different kind of superior type of animal. Outside of that, Belize would probably be better off as a REPUBLIC. So long as our citizens are not lied to and we treat CARICOM as a hobby, or a joke, there is probably no harm in that. For serious developing of Belize, we need to just ignore CARICOM and the Caribbean. Bunch of pompous sounding losers and officials - 'do nothings' is my opinion.
Our own country of Belize has just started a new venture, tying Mexico, Guatemala, Belize and Honduras together with a short haul regional carrier. Turbo prop driven, our local airline MAYA AIRWAYS is giving the venture a try with three leased aircraft from SWIFT airways. Each aircraft seats 68. This locally would be the equivalent of LIAT in the Eastern Caribbean. I was wondering if it would pay, and as all things with more expensive modern aircraft, it will depend on the seats to be sold and at what price? The price was announced on television today to be $200 usa. Off hand, I would think that is very steep. Certainly I would not pay it. I would pay $75 usa and I can take the bus for between $25 usa and $50 usa overnight. Don't forget all the airport taxes as well. At these rates projected I certainly will stick to the bus. It remains to see how long Maya Airways can stay afloat on this new Central and North American airline venture. Not long is my guess? Too fancy, and too expensive probably. I would love to be proved wrong though and wish Maya Airlines all the luck in the world. We do need such a service.

GROWING UNREST WITH PRIME MINISTER DEAN BARROW OF BELIZE AND HIS DEFENSE OF CORRUPT CABINET MINISTERS!

Prime Minister of Belize and leader of the UDP winning party, Dean Barrow
There is growing dissension in Belize over the growing corruption in the UDP government and defended by the Prime Minister of Belize, Dean Barrow. This excerpt was taken from the list serve discussions inside Belize. Instead of firing Cabinet Ministers involved in corruption, the Prime Minister is defending them like a lawyer. Some say his own behavior is suspect also, with an ex-wife getting rich off government court cases. There does not seem any relief from corrupt politicians in Belize?

* The following article taken from the listserve discussions.




From: G. Michael Reid
Subject: Bz-Culture: apologies to the lawyers on the list
To: "Belize Culture" , "Belize Culture"
Date: Saturday, June 27, 2009, 11:31 AM

“I have come to the conclusion that one useless man is called a disgrace, two men are called a law firm, and three or more become a Congress.” ~ John Adams

"Lawyers are people whose profession it is to disguise matters.” ~ Thomas More

“A man who never graduated from school might steal from a freight car, but a man who attends college and graduates as a lawyer might steal the whole railroad.” ~ Theodore Roosevelt

It is widely accepted that Belize’s Prime Minister, Dean Oliver Barrow is an above average lawyer; a skilled practitioner or rainmaker, if you will. He is quite capable of mounting formidable arguments to convince magistrates and judges of his clients’ innocence or the opposing lawyer’s weakness of point. Adequately trained in the fine art of sophistry, he is deft at taking the weakest of arguments and making they appear to be strong. Able to convince the toughest of juries that the evidence before them is not nearly as compelling as it appears to be. Yup, without a doubt, Dean Oliver Barrow is a pretty good attorney. The problem is that attorney Dean Barrow seems to be having trouble making the transition from lawyer to leader. He approaches the role of leadership with the same satanic cunning and shiftiness that has become the earmark of his legal profession. While such characteristics will normally produce desirable results in courtrooms, in the supposedly nobler realm of politics, they appear vile and downright indecorous.

Mr. Barrow continues to present a façade of sincerity and while he walks a crooked walk, at least he talks a pretty talk. There are many in his cabinet however, that has failed miserably even in this regard. Mr. Finnegan’s recent “like it or lump it” attitude when confronted with recent shenanigans in his ministry, Mr. Faber’s continued disrespect for teachers and school administrators, evidence of blatant corruption in the Ministries of Works and Health all suggest that these “in there simply to hustle” politicians could care less about public image or perception. Mr. Barrow now, instead of showing leadership skills and doing what is necessary to rope in his rogues, has instead taken the defense attorney stance. Instead of reproving and reprimanding where necessary, he has chosen instead to take the stand in defense of his brood. Mr. Barrow comes across not as leader and Prime Minister but as defense attorney for a group of very guilty clients.

In the House of Representatives on Friday, Mr. Barrow was in his full element. In the face of overwhelming evidence of corruption being presented by the Leader of the Opposition, instead of showing concern about the breech in his primary manifesto promise, Mr. Barrow chose instead to support his deputy’s “playing the dozens” game with Mr. Briceno. In a page straight from the Jerry Springer Show, the members of this so-called honorable House displayed character more appropriate to a kindergarten recess session. The biggest item of interest to these supposed-to-be intellectuals was the Leader of the Opposition’s stumble in the pronouncing of Dubotomine. Gentlemen, have you not heard? “A small mistake should not a big point spoil”! The Leader of the Opposition was making a very big point. With evidence in hand, (vouchers and receipts of payment), Mr. Briceno was exposing to the House a glaring example of the blatant corruption and misuse of authority that appears prevalent in not only the healthcare system but in seemingly every constituent of Mr. Barrow’s administration. What glaring hypocrisy! Many will remember Mr. Barrow pontificating to the media following his Feb 2008 victory at the polls. In Mr. Barrow’s own words on that fateful night, “I certainly am determined that above all we do things properly, that we operate a government of honesty, a government of dialogue, a government of accountability. Accountability, not just to the larger population but accountability even to our public officers”. Right! Like the NICH contract, like the Juliet Thimbrel loan, like Zenaida Moya’s contracts and salaries, like Boots Martinez’s deposits and withdrawals, like Gapi’s land deals, like Finnegan’s reciprocation to voters, like the current mess at the KHMH! Really Mr. Barrow, we are not all lawyers and certainly not all as bright as you are but ask Minister Finnegan, “even blind jonesy could see” that something is going very wrong here. Please Mr. Barrow, how about a little defense for the people instead of for those who are doing us wrong!

The media now, continues to try and convince us that while all this is obviously wrong, it might be okay because at least we know about it. In his editorial of last week, the publisher praised Dr. John Sosa for speaking out about the scandalous hustling going on at the KHMH. According to the editorial, because Dr. Sosa is from a UDP family, then the UDP must also be congratulated. What kind of crazy rationale is this cat pushing down our throats? “If he was a PUP in a PUP government”, states the editorial, “he would never have been able to speak so openly.” Really! So were the G-7 shot? Did not Cordell Hyde and Mark Espat speak out openly and were in the end, even allowed back into cabinet? Ernesto Vasquez has been pushing the same line every morning on Love FM. “Well at least it’s coming out”. As if this somehow is supposed to justify or extenuate these wrongs in any way. Corruption is corruption and never to be condoned. And did not this government get elected on an anti-corruption platform? Please Mr. Mass Media, “Fools dih taak but nuh fools dih listen!”

Prime Minister speaks at UN for Belize and Caricom

Dean Barrow leader of the UDP and Prime Minister of Belize.


Prime Minister Dean Barrow CARICOM / BELIZE speech at the United Nations.

I was sort of ashamed of his speech myself, but understand he was not there representing Belize, but representing and speaking for the ELEVEN remaining CARICOM countries. How long CARICOM sticks together depends a lot on the brouha with Barbados deporting Guyanese.
On the other hand, I got the impression from Barrow’s speech that he understood the financial problems looming over Belize for these latter six months of the year, when everything is going to get MUCH worse in the money realm. What I also got, was, he didn’t understand the things he has to do, to let Belize survive well and strong. I don’t have much faith that Barrow is strong enough to do the job for Belize over the next 18 months? The cry baby routine at the UN can be attributed to CARICOM requirements in his position as Chairman of Caricom, but if it was to do as representing Belize, I didn’t want to hear him crying and begging. I never taught my kids that way and I sure as heck don’t approve of our Prime Minister acting that way. There are three countries in Caricom that can and should stand on their own two feet. Tall and proud! They are Trinidad, Guyana and Belize. The smaller island countries have reasonable excuses. Belize has none, except poor leadership. An ability to make hard decisions and do the right things to survive. For instance Barrow has the OPTION of notifying all government departments, except Agriculture ( which promises future growth), that their monthly budget will be cut 10% starting July 1st, and on October 1st will be cut 10% again, January 1st will be cut 10% again. Let the department CEO’s handle it.
What to do? Easy! 1) First thing you better project what government functions can be cut down to size that we can financially manage, for the last half of the year projections. Then do it NOW! 2) The second thing is put a moratorium on foreign loan borrowing. We need to dig ourselves out of this debt hole, that the UDP and BARROW are digging. 3 ) Third thing, is do something NOW about the SUPER BOND debt. Do something! Anything at all! Anything is better than nothing. You’ve had suggestions and choices offered, so CHOOSE and ACT. That alone will release around 50% of government expected revenues over the next two years for development, in the expected projected reduction in government revenues. Government and the cost of government is our problem, not our economy, which is doing moderately well considering the world circumstances.
All Prime Ministers going back to Self Governing days have used the excuse of the outside world, for the problems of being unable to govern within the revenue stream available to them. I don’t want to hear that nonsense and set of cry baby excuses. I want to see SOLUTIONS! WE CAN do it ourselves, we have to do it ourselves and bellyaching to the outside world about our problems will not solve them. If you think these outside countries are going to help us, you are living in a fools paradise. Nuff said. It is time to for the UDP to step up to the plate and find workable solutions, without the outside world. You do what you got to do, like any private sector successful business person.

MANSFIELD STOCK CHART WEEKLY USED BOOKS WANTED

MANSFIELD STOCK CHART WEEKLY BOOKS WANTED

I got out of the stock market at the top of the Bull market, about a month before it topped ( three years ago? ) and went into CD's. I kind of think the bottom is forming of this BEAR market and would like to open a new account and get back in for September start in trading again. Unfortunately, I retired to Belize, Central America and am in the boonies. What I need is about the last 40 issues or so of the OTC weekly Mansfield Stock Chart book, that people have stopped using. Old charts don't bother me, for my purposes. I have an old trading system that works with these charts. I need a stack of the old books to do it. I wonder if anybody has any in their trash pile and could either mail them to me here in Belize, or I can give you my daughter's address in Florida and she could remail them to me.
My mail address is: Box 276, San Ignacio, Belize, Central America.

If anybody can help with an old used trash pile of Mansfield Stock Chart Books, it would be appreciated. The last forty or so weeks is fine.

Ray

BELIZE VEGETABLE 18 MONTH EXPERIMENTS POINT TO NEED TO FIND EXPORT PRODUCTS!

* Organic greenhouse growing of vegetables in Belize.
* Chinese cabbage grown in Belize


TIMING VEGETABLE SALES AND GROWING TO MARKET PRICES IN WESTERN BELIZE , MACAL RIVER MARKET

By Ray Auxillou, June 26, 2009

As part of the Belize Development Research Project into growing vegetables on a year round market gardening basis in Western Belize, Cayo District, we ran an 18 month experiment based on data we got from the Statistical Unit in Belmopan , under the PUP administration. We are not able to get such statistics from the department under the new UDP government, so such research is no longer viable. I don’t know why they do not respond to email enquires for statistical data anymore?

The research was based on growing vegetables timed to the seasonal shortages of the import substitution market of importing cycle.

I will use two timing cycles of growing to expected price surges for locally grown vegetables that were being replaced by imports from other countries.

In the first example lettuce: we found that when we checked the Macal River Market for lettuce, there was none at all, neither locally grown, or imported. We had a crop doing well on a continuous basis and harvested same. Our profitable cost as a grower was calculated for Tropical Emperor leaf lettuce was calculated at .50 cents each. We found later at the market, that the stall holders were buying by the pound. A check on weight of leaf lettuce, showed it took three lettuce to make a pound. That meant we required a price of $1.50 per pound of leaf lettuce, to pass the break even point and make a small steady profit.

Alas, when we took our truck load of lettuce into the Macal River market two days later, the stalls were loaded with lettuce to overflowing and the offering price from the stall holder retailers were .25 cents a pound. The price of .25 cents a pound could not pay our gasoline and labor costs, so we dumped our lettuce load without selling. That would have been about .08 cents each leaf lettuce average. A loss of .42 cents per leaf lettuce. We also allowed our lettuce crop, which was being planted bi-monthly to rot and cut back on production, or growing, to only supply our needs at home. We had timed that particular trial to hit the time that lettuce prices and shortages were at the highest, according to the import statistics we had received from the past administrations data, we got by email from the statistical unit.

Another experiment was with tomatoes. Most of the time tomatoes are cheap, but a couple of times a year the prices go up to $4 a pound at the Macal River Market. Tomatoes are then imported because of local shortages. Even though we pre-planted to have tomatoes coming into harvest at the season when the statistical import data on tomatoes indicated we should get the seasonal high price, we failed again. The reason these times, was that the growing season, co-incided with either the rainy season and cloudy weather, or the northers sweeping across the country and bringing cloudy weather. The tomatoes just would not produce during those months of poor climatic conditions. Partly to do with clouds and partly to do with lack of temperature differentials between day and night time temperature, for flowering purposes.

We drew several conclusions from these 18 months of growing to Belize seasonal shortages or predicted seasonal shortages of vegetable market gardening. One was that the local markets are adequately served by local farmers. Belize has a very small widely scattered population. In the case of the Western Macal River market, this would be small farmer production of vegetables from San Antonio Town , Santa Familiar, Barton Creek and the Valley of Peace farmers. The other conclusion was that it is relatively easy to grow vegetables and the state of knowledge has progressed quite a bit over the past three years, since the Belize Development Trust ( NGO ) experimental project has been actively disseminating information for farmer planning purposes.

The main conclusion was that the vegetable growing business in Belize had to locate foreign markets to sell to, in order for the industry to grow and advance. For most of us that is not possible, as we lack both telephone and internet services where such things are grown in rural areas. Sometimes telecommunications services are available, sort of, but are spotty and unreliable and usual of a low quality, where available, that is below the requirements for international business trade communications.

The next step in agriculture, regarding vegetable growing we shall call PHASE TWO. This is the locating of foreign markets for vegetables, the identification of means of preserving, packaging, and processing, to suit different world markets for shipping purposes and longer shelf life. How the nation of Belize , goes about this is beyond the resources of this NGO, the Belize Development Trust, a group of volunteers, all over the world willing to help. We suspect that probably market populations in different countries will need to be identified, along with the type of processed vegetables favored by different cultural and national types. I would think personally, we need a variety of different nationals from different target market countries to assist us in researching these things, as technical assistance, as the local Belize government bureaucracies lack such capabilities and talents, as proved in past years. We do get lots of promises and reports on these issues that sound great locally, but in practical terms, nothing productive, timely, or useful. The next move belongs to our UDP Belize government, but it does look like we can produce vegetables sufficient for export, just like Marie Sharpe did with her habeneros and found the local consumption was too small and had to save her crop and capability to grow and supply, by experimenting with different food processing and marketing techniques, aimed at first at the local market and evolved into foreign target market niches. What progress has been made so far in this vegetable exporting field has been accidental over many years. For progress, we really cannot wait for such accidents and need to continue onward with pre-planned steady incremental steps. The ball is in the lap of our UDP government CABINET. The next step is theirs!


To follow up on more events in Western Belize we invite you to peruse our online newsletter of news of this area and developments.

http://westernbelizehappenings.blogspot.com

BELIZE TO BE CUT OFF FROM PETRO CARIBE OIL?

* PETRO CARIBE throws curve ball with a spin to CARICOM countries. Their economies are soon to get a whole lot worse! Dean Barrow is Prime Minister of Belize and also currently Head of Caricom.
King Chavez with King Castro, as TYRANTS called Presidents of Life movement.


VENEZUELAN PETRO CARIBE OIL SUPPLIES TO BE CUT OFF FROM BELIZE AND THE REST OF CARICOM ?

At the meeting of Petro Caribe , Venezuela announced that the arrangement to supply oil products to CARICOM countries is in danger of being cut off. The deal was to pay 40% in cash for imports from Venezuela and the rest would be carried in a 25 year loan at 1%.

Venezuela says that the oil debt of CARICOM countries is very high and projections for five more years will mean that none of the countries will EVER be able to pay for what they owe. In some cases the National Debt of some CARICOM countries is 182% of GDP, meaning most CARICOM countries are basically walking bankrupt cases. Belize is included!

Unless something drastic happens, Belize will fall bankrupt starting in 2010, next year, in fact, if not in declaration. The debt of Belize is around 83% of GDP in the latest guess estimate and continuing to rise under UDP borrowing policies. The debt ratio has risen under the UDP from 72% of GDP to 83% of GDP in the best guess estimate. We have no actual statistics recently available.

Should Venezuela be at all surprised that most CARICOM countries NEVER expected to pay VENEZUELA for their oil products? Probably not? Venezuela started the discounted Petro Caribe oil program for political purposes. Those were to seduce as many CARICOM countries as possible to join the ALBA TRADE GROUP and thus sell out and sign away their international forum voting rights as part of the requirements of the joining of ALBA. Venezuela got three countries from the fourteen CARICOM countries to join ALBA and sign away their votes to the LEFTIST seven member bloc. This is seven elected Presidents that espouse a PRESIDENT FOR LIFE ( become TYRANTS ) program, in which they will do away with fair democratic elections, jail opponents and frighten away any argumentive middle class into exile.

It looks like Venezuela’s PETRO CARIBE have done a study of the progress of the success of this political progress with Petro Caribe and ALBA GROUPING PROGRAM and they have reached apparently a point of diminishing political returns. So it is time to put the best face forward as is possible and cut off the FREE OIL via loans that will never be paid back deal, and take what they could get. Which is three of the CARICOM countries transferring their international vote to the ALBA GROUP.

In the meantime, CARICOM countries now have a debt to Venezuela , they probably cannot pay and never intended to pay anyway. Interesting world we live in hey?

WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOU GRADUATE IN BELIZE?

Graduating from the University of Belize in 2009


GRADUATES OF UNIVERSITIES AND HIGH SCHOOLS IN BELIZE FOR 2009

THEIR FUTURE IN GETTING RICH AND COMFORTABLE!

By Ray Auxillou, June 2009

The big question with the new influx of graduates from both Universities, with Bachelor Degrees and Associate Degrees, Colleges and of High School graduates is; what do they do next? The port town mind set asks this stupid question, you read it all the time in the newspapers.

You should travel and explore the world and stay single for a few more years, while you learn who you are and what you are capable of. Take odd jobs to pay your way. Travel is part of your graduate education.

From a country I remember, when nobody ever had a Bachelors Degree, not even for government civil service jobs and messengers worked their way up the ranks to clerks, and from there to senior administrators in government, Belize has come a very long way in academically educated citizens.

Like all generalisms this rule of thumb observation is not entirely true, but nearly true. The biggest employer in the country is our government. The government is dangerously in debt at a huge scale, ( 82% of GDP, when 3% of GDP for national debt is considered the upper limit allowable for a properly administered government ) far outweighing any possibility under this UDP of ever paying it off. In fact, the UDP government is borrowing money at a steady clip to keep operating, and hoping that the economy will turn around. With declining GDP and a rising national debt, there is speculation that a repeat of the UDP mistakes of last time they were in office will occur again, with a firing of over 400 salaried government employees next Christmas. Why Christmas? That is because the FALL months are traditional, for the fall off, of government tax revenues, and pre-planning supposes that reserves have been built up between January and August to carry the government through the starvation tax revenue months from September to January. So far, this new government has not given any public announcements showing they know how to budget and pre-plan. We suspect therefore the worst. The year 2010 is expected to be either worse, or more of the same. By 2012 things are expected to change around economically speaking. Then most of our politicians do not have educations that teach them logic and reason either, like this student graduation bonanza we are experiencing. For my own four daughters, I taught them anything after an Associate Degree was wasted time and money and I’m happy to say they all turned out pretty good, comfortable middle class business people, with homes in different countries. They have managed to see much of the world in traveling during their 20’s, which is what young people should do and holding off marriage for girls until they are 28 or so, is best in my opinion, while marriage over 32 is best for males. A person doesn’t really mature, which is an education of itself and learn what you can and want to do, until after some worldly exposure to travel and different ways of doing things.

It is nice to get all these graduates in Belize with an education, particularly in mathematics and science, enabling them to be logical and think and reason out problems going to face them after graduation. The fact is; our government the biggest salaried employer in the country is NOT going to be able to offer them salaried jobs. Nor do we wish to hear you graduates crying for jobs in a country that has so many thousands of opportunities for people that can think and reason. We expect you to create businesses and thus supply jobs for people who did not go to high school.

What the nation of Belize needs is; a bunch of graduates taught to turn entrepreneurs. Are this bunch of graduates at all mid levels capable of starting their own businesses? There are no shortage of opportunities in Belize to start businesses, but this presupposes they have had some leadership training and mentoring, while in education, teaching them how to go about this experimental, hands on learning process. Indeed the entrepreneurial opportunities are so huge in Belize , it is contemplated to import 5000 Chinese immigrant people with a business orientation from Taiwan , to boot strap our needed light manufacturing next step, or PHASE TWO of national economic development. Mennonites are self taught people and they are our life blood of agricultural and industrial development in the heartland of Belize . The government is prepared for this Phase Two, as many types of business, new loan departments and financial services are being organized as we speak, to assist these graduates to go into business. On a personal level I don’t approve of loans to start a risky business venture and much prefer company registration and the taking in of shareholders and raising the capital that way. Loans can be used to expand a successful business, but not as a start up risk venture. It takes all types though and you can borrow, or go the risk venture share capital route. The question remains; are this bunch of Belizean graduates capable of starting businesses? It is a fact of life that too much education creates specialties in trades, like lawyers, architects, engineers and so on. Nothing wrong with that at all, but an entrepreneurial business speculator needs to be a generalist and again as a generalism, needs somewhere between the first half of high school and an associate degree in education. If you want a specialist, you do not learn that trade, but learn how to hire them on a short term consultant contract, to accomplish whatever your business goals are. After that, the specialization process of higher tertiary education somehow cheats higher educated graduates of the willpower and capabilitiy of becoming entrepreneurs. Don’t ask my why, because this is a lifetime of observation. Like all generalisms, it is not always true, but in the majority of cases pretty much, most higher tertiary education defeats the requirements of developing Belize and is producing educated people, seeking salaried job security. Usually at a poverty level government salary.

Belize needs entrepreneurs and if this graduating group are not capable of starting businesses, then we are going to have to import our immigrant technical talent. That is simply a fact of life and our educational establishment will have to adjust curriculums to suit our national development needs.

The University of Belize is graduating 588, most of them with Bachelor Degrees. Unfortunately one could suppose they are overeducated for Belizean national development? Undoubtedly they will be looking for salaried jobs at poverty level. You can always go into a law degree and become a white collar criminal. Get your law degree and go into politics and that has proven a fairly safe and secure way of becoming a white collar criminal millionaire in Belize . Like all business, that route is likely to become overcrowded in the next few years from competition. What Belize needs are producers that export products.

The statistics say over 5000 students will graduate from some form of education this month. Remember you only need between mid High school level and an Associate Degree to become a successful entrepreneur business person. Can you build an electric producing windmill? The world is crying for windmills. Can you grow cobia, or jacks in fish net ponds? Belize can export all the fish fillet we can produce. With a world population at 7 billion and in 15 years projected to be 9 ½ billion, food is always a good product to export. Can you make bricks from our red clay? The construction business is booming and needs construction materials. Right now Guatemalan truckers come into Belize picking up all our scrap automobiles and take them back to Guatemala to squash and melt and re-fabricate to make construction re-bar rods to sell back to us in Belize. Think you could do that? The Long EZE experimental two place aircraft has a big world market. Nobody is producing them anymore as the original designers died, can you do that? Three or four aircraft have already been built in Belize .

Probably the question to be asking, have our educators prepared you to think in entrepreneurial business terms? For every ten businesses you select to try, nine will fail during your beginning attempts and you never know which one will click, no matter how much you plan. You get better with practice. Any new business is a gamble even though you plan. The unexpected glitches always occur. An entrepreneur keeps trying business ideas, which is why it is a bad thing to start a new venture on loan capital, in my experience. Loans knock you out of the business world, if your idea fails. If you borrowed and failed, how do you pay back? Risk capital in the form of shares in the business does not burden you with paying back, if the venture fails. You can try again with something else. Always reserve 50% of voting stock shares for yourself, to keep control of the Board of Directors. There are a lot of venture investors who want to vote you out of your own business and take it over, if you are successful. You have to watch that part of share issues. It costs $25 to register a company in Belmopan , to start off with and issue shares to your family and friends. If you are successful, then you go to the next step and register a Limited Liability company for $250 at the registry in Belize . Limited liability protects owners as shareholders from loan and debt claims if you go bust. If you borrow money from a bank, or from the DFC or anybody, you want to borrow when you have a limited liability company. The debt is dead if the venture fails and you put the limited liability company through bankruptcy. Then you can start and try a new venture. Remember at the beginning, 9 out of 10 ventures will fail, until you learn the lessons every new generation has to learn. You get better as you go along, like with most things. You cannot get this experience from school, only by experimenting and doing this learning process in the real world, like riding a bike, or flying a plane. Renting business premises are another way businesses fail. Nearly all successful business started out as home businesses. Renting premises usually cause start ups to fail. The financial burden of rent is too big at the start up stage. Many small businesses are viable as home business with no rent, but become failures if you rent premises. I taught my girls you need seven small businesses in Belize to ensure a seasonal flow of cash to live on. You are not going to let all your eggs be placed in one basket. Diversification is key. Did they teach you that in Standard 5, 6, or High School? The thing about learning to ride a bicycle and starting successful businesses is practice. You get better at it, as you get older and learn the lessons by osmosis. Repetition is the key of the successful business lessons learned, and what things got you to make failures, so you don’t repeat those again. When you have one successful business venture, it becomes easier and easier to make more successful businesses. Just like learning to land an airplane with an instructor and then landing it when you are flying solo as the only person on board. Practice gets you better.

We have 5000 graduates the newspapers announce, educated enough to be entrepreneurs, or business people and make yourself wealthy upper middle class. You need to know to be able to learn what you want from the internet. You need to be able to research and reason. You need to be able to acquire risk capital for a venture by selling shares in a company to friends and family, and plan and try out your ideas for a business. You can become filthy rich this way. You will of course have probably nine failed ventures for every ten you try. That is part of being a venture entrepreneur. You need seven successful operations to be well set in life in a place like Belize that is third world. That is our family experience in Belize . That means you will probably over your life time in the next 30 years, experiment with 70 business ventures. Do you have the mind set, to do this for yourselves and for building Belize our economy? Or do we have to go to Taiwan to import immigrant entrepreneurs able to start the needed export businesses we have opportunities for in Belize ? The opportunities for growth are in export businesses, not in local business.

One thing to remember, now you are educated. DON’T come crying for a salaried job. We don’t need you in Belize for that. This is a pioneer country we are building and we need builders of this nation, able to stand on their own. Have you got what it takes? I can tell you from experience, the fun in life is building something, facing and tackling challenges. Without the satisfaction of creativity and the challenges to overcome, life can otherwise be a very boring place. A salaried job is a very boring way to spend your life.

GOOD LUCK YOU 5000 BELIZEAN GRADUATES, ENJOY YOUR LIFE AND BECOME RICH!!

BELIZE BEEF INDUSTRY GRADUATES TO EXPORT VALUE ADDED MEATS!

Investing in Belize means you get to pioneer a lot. We have fun though! Overcoming challenges is the name of the game and rewarding.


BELIZE BEEF INDUSTRY MOVES TO PHASE TWO OF NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, WITH VALUE ADDED PROCESSING!
There is now a MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING between Mexico and Belize regarding processed beef exports. Up until now we have in Belize been only able to export live cattle on the hoof.

The growing resorts of Cancun, Playa del Carmen, Majahual and throughout the Yucatan peninsular need food products and beef is high on the list of priorities for them.

Mexico has sent technical personnel to Belize to teach what is necessary to export, processed, value added, beef products to Mexico and comply with their laws. The agreement was signed at the Bedran owned farm of Tiger Run Ltd., near mile 63 in the Western Belize District, the East West base line of the northward growing Heartland of Belize development, industrial and agriculture district. This processing meat facility and ranch is the southern part of the Heartland of Belize, abutting the Belize Alps northern range, in the foothills. The Southern half of the country has high potential for development but is currently out of bounds, being held in Reserves.

The two bureaucracies in charge of compliance are SAGARPA in Mexico , the health agency and in Belize the Belize Agriculture Health authority ( BAHA ). Regionally, this new trade deal between Mexico and Belize has been cleared by IICA, the American Institute for Co-operation in Agriculture and the International Regional Organization for Plant and Animal Health ( OIRSA ).

BELIZE POLITICAL SOAP OPERA RESULTS IN PARLIAMENTARY SHOUTING MATCH.

Gaspar Vega, Deputy Prime Minister as the pot in the quotation, "the pot calls the kettle black" ( from a smoky wood fire I presume? )
Deputy Prime Minister of Belize accuses Opposition leader, alleging scam deal in Parliament confrontation, when he last was in office? This photo is Johnny Briceno



BELIZE POLITICAL SOAP OPERA IN THE PARLIAMENT

Much to the amusement of we the public, was the brooha in the House sitting last Friday, June 19, 2009. We were entertained on television with an explosion of yelling and name calling and finger pointing, as two opposing elected representatives from Orange Walk, threw allegations of corruption and criminality against each other, and got into a shouting match across the aisle of parliament. The Speaker of the House let the brouha ride on and we the public got an earful. In Belize they say you should believe the alligator when he tells you what is happening on the river bottom. Normally politicians are careful not to accuse each other, in and out of government, because if it isn’t their turn this five years, it might be next five years, to get rich off the pickings of the treasury and control of the government by the party in power, through criminal minded scam swindles. We have no budgeted 6% expense for unavoidable corruption losses in our government, like some countries. I presume this is because Belize is bankrupt and heavily in debt at 82% of GDP.

Didn’t quite pick up on what Johnny Briceno, leader now of the PUP Opposition was accusing Gaspa Vega, the Deputy Prime Minister of the incumbent UDP of doing? I tuned in a bit too late. They are both from Orange Walk and because the town is small, they know all the dirty linen that each have, in get rich quick politics. Anyway it got out of hand and became a shouting match. Briceno the new Leader of the Opposition PUP was accusing Gaspar Vega of the PUP, over something and Vega came back with his own finger pointing and told Briceno the leader of the PUP Opposition, that nobody in his family had ever gone to jail for criminality. Which doesn’t mean a hill of beans when you are in politics in Belize . The accusation by Vega went on to say Briceno when his PUP party was in power, had bought a piece of land from the government for $10 ( WOW! ) and sold it a week later for a $1 million dollars. Since no defamation suits will be filed, or slander suits, we the public have to take that as true. On the other hand, around Cayo West, the public impression left, believes Vega has from the street rumor mill, a reputation of asking for bribes for permits and licenses using his ministerial discretion. True or not I don’t know? This is just the street talk. Dirty crooked politicians from both major parties usually keep each others secrets. This time things went BLAM in the House Sitting.

Vega also reminded the PUP leader and possible future Prime Minister, PUP Briceno as a default party choice, if dissatisfaction with the UDP should get hold; that his father went to jail in the USA for drug smuggling.

I remember that incident years ago. As I remember it from the newspaper articles, Briceno’s father was seduced by a smooth talking DEA Agent Provecateur into taking a parcel of cocaine on the plane to Miami in an Orange Walk bar, for money and then arrested on arrival in the states. He got 8 years the normal sentence, and came back after 4 years with 50% time off for good behavior, or something like that as I vaguely remember the newspaper articles of the time. All the well established politicians of both parties up in the northern Corozal and Orange Walk districts had reputations for enabling smuggling of intransit drugs, by street talk and newspaper hints in the news. The DEA agents in country of the time were trying to pad their work and expense statistical sheets it was believed, and so were creating criminals through temptation and being agent provecateurs, until Belizeans caught on to what the DEA agents were doing. We did get the point that Gaspar Vega, the Deputy Prime Minister was making though, when we watched the histronics on television. The point was, it is okay to be a criminal politician, so long as ‘ you do not get caught’, and particularly if you don’t go to jail. So far, no crooked politicians in either party have done that. In fact, there is a gentlemans agreement from observations, not to prosecute each other, when in political office and running corruption scams. That is the general public opinion.

Needless to say, I kind of thought that the downfall of Johnny Briceno, the Leader of the Opposition would be taken down by the UDP over a HUGE BRIBE for an oil lease, in which the American buyer was not at all happy over being screwed out of the correct oil lease parcel. Nobody has yet proved this one way, or the other, but the PUP leader last term in office switched the Oil Ministry when the man went complaining to the news media of being cheated by the OIL Minister. The PUP of that term quickly switched oil minister jobs and which of the two oil ministers actually took the bribe, we never did hear from the public viewpoint. I expected to hear the result of that during the next election campaign.

However, now that the past corrupt land deal has been put in the public arena in the Parliament House Sitting, the speculation pretty much finishes Johnny Briceno as party leader of the PUP I would think? He will have lost his chance to be Prime Minister. That past deal is public record. Unless he sues Gaspar Vega for defamation and slander of character. Briceno now is the worst person to be the leader of the PUP party. The public no longer wishes to tolerate open criminality among leading Cabinet politicians, though it is probably not going to stop. This destroys any lingering credibility about the PUP as a political force and paints them as just plain MAFIA crooks, as in criminal conspiracy, in public eyes. Not said, but implied was that it is notable that the UDP Cabinet have NEVER sued, or corrected Johnny Briceno’s land deal in a court case, though they are fooling around with Lord Ashcroft, a believed political manipulator for profit, in the historical British system of corruption. Wheels within wheels and this is what makes politics in Belize such a SOAP OPERA. All that is missing is music, singing and flashing sword fights on the stage.

In the meantime, Channel 5, supposedly owned by Lord Ashcroft, a Robber Baron who manipulated both party leaders during the last fifteen years or so, for huge tax breaks in the multi-millions, at the expense of the public treasury and citizens, has suddenly been announced on his owned Channel 5 TV ( so the newspapers have led us to believe ) that they are offering a $20,000 reward for any evidence of corruption that will go to court. This of course is a good thing and we support this alleged Ashcroft move, but apparently aimed at the UDP who are now in power of government. A fight we believe between Barrow our Prime Minister and Ashcroft companies over some sort of double cross? Dean Barrow leader of the UDP and now Prime Minister of Belize, became a multi-millionaire the newspapers hint, when his law firm was on retainer from Ashcroft for ten years, but when he won office a year and a half ago, has turned and bitten the hand that was feeding him, making him rich, so the newspapers imply. Nowadays Barrow and Ashcroft are arch enemies in outward appearance, more in court than out, on government questionable deals done by the past PUP government. You have to live here and know the characters to appreciate all this stuff. It is a SOAP OPERA that only needs to be put on stage like the Italians do, with fat singers singing soprano and all that melodrama. Nobody ever goes to jail though, as neither the court system, or the police can arrest and charge a sitting politician, as Minister in Cabinet under this crooked British governing system. The voter citizen taxpayer foots all the bills for the sham court cases, as in spending the treasury funds. Strangely enough, no politician has ever been assassinated YET! We can only suppose that time will come eventually.

In the meantime, one of the newspapers this past weekend is alleging ( I forget which one ) that one of the PUP political Royals that were in government for the past ten years, is bragging they made $500 million dollars during that time of public service in Belize. The public are speculating on who it is and if it is true? We kind of estimated about a $200 million hit during the PUP ten years of control of the government, so the $500 million report in the newspaper comes as a bit of a shock, but entirely believable.

Our politicians are learning from the USA politicians how to work the system in new scams.

BELIZE MEMORIES OF THE DC -3 AIRPLANE

7 passenger ANGEL aircraft
This plane is the converted rebuilt DC 3.


BELIZEAN MEMORIES OF THE DC 3 AIRPLANE

By Ray Auxillou, June, 2009

This probably doesn’t have much to do with Belize of today. I was watching the Band of Brothers movie on Saturday afternoon TV series. It was during the preparation in England for the Normandy invasion when they were showing paratrooper preparations for hundreds of DC 3 airplanes on the airfields. I remember that only hazily, but I do remember them. To me, I have a love affair with that airplane. I think it is the best airplane that was ever built and they are still flying all over the 34 countries of the American continent 65 years later.
The first time I flew in a DC 3 was as an 11 year old boy, with my mother and two baby sisters, fleeing England for Canada, as my parents immigrated there in 1949, as indentured labor. I think the plane went to either Iceland, or Greenland and then to Gander and from there to Toronto. I remember the flight, because I had to help look after my two baby twin sisters and I vividly remember to this day, the airport café in Gander, the first counter shelves of candy I had ever seen. My mother allowed me to pick any candy I wanted and finally after much agonizing I chose a roll of lifesavers, because it had more candies in a roll than a chocolate bar, or anything else. All children need sweets when growing up. They need the sugar as they are growing and are active. I was really in heaven, or paradise over that roll of lifesavers all the way to Toronto.
The DC 3 went by different names, depending on the country and the military using them, but they were built in the USA in mass production. It was in my opinion one of the finest airplanes ever built. They rebuild them today and strengthen the frames and sell them for about $4 million usa and equip them with turbo prop engines, instead of the piston engines of older times. The new conversions run much faster and have longer range. The DC 3 was popular because it would carry passengers, or freight. It traveled very far and was extremely cheap in fuel consumption. It was a slow airplane, with wide chord wings to carry a big load at a slow speed.
DC 3 war surplus airplanes were used to open up the American continent and even most of the world. I first flew in a DC 3 in our Belizean neighborhood in nearby Peten, Guatemala. There used to be a bunch of them in Guatemala City and they flew to the Peten, picking up jungle spices and products from remote Indian communities, landing on grass strips in the jungle. You could fly from Flores in the Peten, to Guatemala City in the 1960’s sitting on bales of chicle gum, or various bales of special spices. The airstrip at Flores was littered with crashed DC 3’s that had tried to land during the rainy season and with low clouds and muddy strips, they would cartwheel while landing and wreck. You could fly to Panama for about $150 usa in fuel at the time.
I hitched a ride in the 1970’s with a DC 3 freight plane outfit from Panama that had delivered goods to Belize City airport as freight. In those days, most people in Central America had to sew their own clothes and cloth yard goods were delivered up and down this area by DC 3 from Panama. In this case, I met the two pilots in the Bellevue Hotel bar of the port Belize City and asked for a ride with them. They agreed and I flew to Cozumel with them, delivered their load and from there we came down over Swan Island and down into Panama that same evening. I traveled back to Belize by the Pan American highway by bus. The DC 3 flew usually around 9000 feet altitude because of lack of oxygen and pressurization. We flew around some humongous piles of rain storm clouds with lightening and down drafts n the Gulf of Panama. It was an enjoyable trip for me riding in the cockpit.
The last time I had anything to do with the DC 3 was in Opa Locka Airport in Miami Dade County, Florida, about 5 years ago. There used to be two DC3’s there, that ran cargo to the Bahama islands out of Miami-Dade County. We had our Experimental Aircraft building club there, from which I was a member. One of those planes crashed in the Bahamas and killed the two pilots, due to overloading of the plane with Christmas trees. It crashed after take off as the cargo shifted. Far as I know, the other DC 3 is still flying cargo to the Bahamas out of Opa Locka Airport. They carry freight like refrigerators and construction pine lumber.
When we were considering CARICOM AIRLINES last year, we had opted to start with a small twin engine Angel 7 passenger aircraft, to open up freight and passenger possibilities. The choice for the third aircraft for cargo, or tourist passenger traffic, for the so called, economic trade bloc of CARICOM, we chose the modernized version of rebuilt DC 3’s. Using turbo prop engines.
Our decision was based on known reliability, fuel costs, long range and weight and cubic volume capacity. Pressurized jets are also available on the second hand market, but they cost lots more money in the millions of dollars and for business purposes in a for profit venture, it was paramount costs be kept low and amortization of capital invested, was reduced quickly. Speed was never a consideration. Profit and reliability were the only considerations. The only change in the DC 3 configuration over 65 years has been the turbo prop engine, which is much more reliable than the piston engines. Because of the increased horsepower available, the extra cost in fuel is offset by greater speeds available.
It is with note this week, that the news has local Maya Airlines opening up three new trips to Cancun, Guatemala City and San Pedro Sula. They are going to use a turbo prop aircraft of 68 seats. There is more profit in a turbo prop, short haul carrier and the whole secret to profitability is keeping the airplanes flying. Whether you fly or not, depreciation sets in like an ice cream cone that just melts away in the sun. The aircraft Maya Airways is using, is a LEASED aircraft from Swift Air. I wish them success, but find it hard to believe in these tourist hard times, that sufficient traffic can be generated to fill sufficient seats to make it pay. Of course I have not gone into the number of seats sold, or pricing to break even on these runs. I just don’t feel good about it as a hunch. My daughter Tina once worked for an aircraft leasing company in Miami, Florida. They had jets flying all over the world on lease. It is hard to make money on a leased aircraft, because you don’t own it and the costs keep mounting and there are a lot extras added on to a lease, to pay. I have my doubts, but certainly wish them luck at Maya Airways and they have chosen the right business in short haul traffic routes. Dealing with CARICOM is a different thing, because the fuel costs and hours involved of flight, are much more time consuming and expensive. Flying throughout the Caribbean is a much more expensive proposition and watching operating costs and margins is paramount to be profitable, because of the distances. Different criteria and different choices!
To me the DC 3 is a wonderful airplane, none better for the price and economy of operation. Maybe it is just my nostalgia as I get older?