National Perspective February 6, 2011

Edition 128 Vol.3 week 23 6th of February , 2011

BIAS TOWARDS NONE !!!BIAS TOWARDS NONE !!!BIAS TOWARDS NONE !!!Continued on page 4

NATIONALNATIONALNATIONALNATIONALNATIONALNATIONALPERSPECTIVEPERSPECTIVEPERSPECTIVEPERSPECTIVEPERSPECTIVEPERSPECTIVETHETHETHETHETHETHE

www.nationalperspectivebz.orgwww.nationalperspectivebz.orgwww.nationalperspectivebz.orgwww.nationalperspectivebz.orgwww.nationalperspectivebz.orgwww.nationalperspectivebz.orgwww.nationalperspectivebz.orgwww.nationalperspectivebz.orgwww.nationalperspectivebz.orgwww.nationalperspectivebz.orgwww.nationalperspectivebz.orgwww.nationalperspectivebz.org

� e true voice of the silent majority� e true voice of the silent majority� e true voice of the silent majority� e true voice of the silent majority� e true voice of the silent majority� e true voice of the silent majority� e true voice of the silent majority� e true voice of the silent majority� e true voice of the silent majority

Barrow Blinks!Barrow Blinks!Barrow

Continued on page 4

COLA, Belizeans for Justice, FECTAB and BIGYEA Scores 1ST RoundBelize City, Thurs. Feb. 3 The Barrow administration blinked for the fi rst time this week in its standoff with a coalition of groups and individuals opposed to oil exploration activities in Be-lize’s maritime and protected ar-eas, and acceded to a demand that a recently relinquished oil explo-ration lease not be renewed. The decision, purportedly a Cab-inet decision, follows a 24-hour protest/demonstration in front of the prime minister’s Belmopan of-fi ce, the revelation late last week that the Prime Minister’s nephew was the owner of a company that had been secretly given the largest oil exploration lease a year ago, and the resignation of the Prime Minister’s brother from the bench of the Belize Court of Appeal un-der a cloud of controversy and swirling speculation. Shortly before 3:00 p.m. yes-

Weary Prime Minister Dean Barrowterday afternoon and more than 24 hours after the Cabinet had concluded its weekly session, the

Government’s information service sent out the following release: Bel-mopan, 2nd February, 2011. In

October, 2010, OPIC, an offshore oil exploration and development company, relinquished the area it held under its Oil Exploration and Production Contract, also referred to as a Production and Sharing Agreement (PSA). The area held under contract represents almost 25% of Belize’s offshore area and totals approximately 1.14 mil-lion acres, spanning from east of Belize City to eastern Placencia offshore. Cabinet at its meeting on Tuesday, 1st February, 2011, decided not to give cede-back out, at this time, any of the area relin-quished by OPIC. It also followed just hours after the group Citizens Organized for Liberty through Action (COLA) supported by some of the mem-bers of the Coalition to save our Belize Heritage had just complet-ed a “sleep-out” in front of the Ed-ney Cain Building, the adminis-

Tender Operators pushed to the brinkTender Operators pushed to the brinkBelize City, Thurs. Feb. 3

Belize’s security forces remain on alert, ready to act at the fi rst sign that the mounting frustration in several sectors could break out into violent protest. The National Security Council has already been briefed and the Prime Minister has already given tentative directives in the event any of the two small demonstrations on display this week had mushroomed ala the mass demonstrations seen on the nightly news in other coun-tries. Suppression techniques now call for an immediate shut down of the internet via the government controlled Belize Telemedia Limit-

ed, and forces to immediately safe-guard key institutions and utilities’ equipment and operation centers. Today a brief demonstration mounted by the FECTAB, the Fed-

eration of Cruise Tourism Associa-tions of Belize, along the Marine Parade was quickly shut down by police and tourism offi cials. FECT-AB Treasurer Jhonni Rosado who

had strewn banners on two buses to protest the cruise giant Carinval’s hard ball tactics with local tender operators was threatened with arrest and the loss of his tour guide license and forced to discontinue the dem-onstration. He single-handedly took a very bold patriotic stand to expose the arm twisting tactic that has been acting like a parasite eating away at whats left of the tourism pie in Belize, uninterrupted and without concern by this callous UDP gov-ernment. A group of taxi drivers who felt they are being marginalized by the Belize Tourism Board implementa-tion of a zoning and dispatch policy

Plane jacked from PGIASee page 5

6th of February , 2011Page 2

NATIONAL PERSPECTIVETHE

Published & Edited byOMAR SILVARegistered Address

25 Nanche Street, BELMOPAN Assistant Editor :Saida Silva

E-mail [email protected]

[email protected]

Web: www.nationalperspectivebz.org

Phone: 501-628-3215OBJECTIVE AND HARD-HITTING!

All Rights Reserved 2011®

Education is the key to the future!

ALL IN THE FAMILY

The practice of nepotism continues to be the hall-mark of the Dean Barrow administration. Never have the corruption and lack of transparency been so high. If one wants to be sarcastic, not even the People’s United Party worse days in government can compare to carnage and deceits that gushes from the UDP. The UDP stole an entire telephone company, so they can plunder it and use it as a cash cow for their friends and families.

Belizeans were shocked to hear that the Prime Minister of Be-lize granted his nephew an oil ex-ploration concession (license) for the Maya Mountain Range. This nepotism knows no bounds and is as scandalous as when the Prime Minister appointed his brother to be a judge on the Court of Ap-peal’s bench. This situation with Mr. Barrow’s nephew is signifi cant, especially because the large por-tion of the area to be explored involves several restricted nature reserves which are protected areas under the law. This has now sent all the environmentalists up to the proverbial wall. They cannot be-lieve that in spite of all the contro-versy and mistrust surrounding the oil industry that the Prime Minis-ter is too blatantly nepotistic. Presently, signatures are being gathered by COLA, Beliz-eans for a Justice, OCEANA, etc. to force the Prime Minister to call a referendum on off-shore drilling. That debate has been raging in the streets and the air waves as the supporters of off-shore drilling be-lieve that economic benefi t will be derived from the proceeds of the oil fi nd, if and when found. The opposition to off-shore drilling be-lieves that the drilling alone will damage the surroundings pristine areas beyond repair. They fear that an incident can occur such as an oil spill. This spill they claim has the potential to destroy the natural resources and the wildlife habitat. We don’t know enough to weigh in knee deep on the mat-ter. However, our philosophy is that anything that will bring some positive economic benefi ts to Be-lize should be nurtured and not condemned. Our major issue is the handling of the oil industry by the Dean Barrow administration. Their track record leaves little to be desired. Firstly, he negotiated a windfall tax that has yielded noth-ing to the Belizean economy. The threshold of US$90.00 was too high and has not been achieving since. He increased the tax on fuel at the pump and promised a reduction in the event the pump price exceeded $7.00 per gallon. Fuel is at $10.50 per gallon as we write and there is no relief in sight, yet the Prime Minister has not lived up to his promise of tax reduction on fuel, instead he con-tinues to tax the citizens more. Sometime in 2010 the sto-ry broke that the Prime Minister Law partner was involved with one of the companies that was

granted an oil concession. The Prime Minister tried his hardest to dance and defl ect the signifi cance of the scandal, but he was not convincing. On a point of note, shortly after that fi asco broke in the media the Prime Minister Law partner was shot leaving his offi ce one evening. Luckily, he got to the hospital in time where the staff of

the Belize Healthcare Partners, formerly Universal Health Ser-vices, was able to stabilize him, which allowed him to be fl own out to Florida; U.S.A. Technically the local medical practitioners saved his life. He has since recovered and is back at work. Now, as mentioned at the start of this essay, the big bomb-shell has fallen. A member of the Barrow clan is getting in on the oil bonanza courtesy of Uncle Dean. It is bad enough that the Prime Minister has his son on the BTL Board of Director, and his son’s mother gobbles up all the govern-ment legal cases at premium rates. It is believed that the gov-ernment’s strategy is to create enough controversy with citizens and corporations that will eventu-ally lead to litigation that will keep the fl ow to the ex. Last week, the Prime Minister’s brother resigned as a judge of the Belize Court of Appeal. His reason was that he needs more money because the St. Lucian pension stash he had planned on was not forth coming. However, there is a great concern when such a learned jurist believes something as trivial as whether you will get a pension or not, be-cause the government of St. Lucia was crystal clear in their release that Barrow did not qualify for any pension compensation from his time when he served as a Court of Appeal judge for the Eastern Ca-ribbean Courts. The resignation of Barrow from his well paid jurist job in Belize should be a signal to the ex-wife that the government litigation pie must now be shared

with the ex-brother-in-law also. The practice of nepotism continues to be the hallmark of the Dean Barrow administration. Nev-er have the corruption and lack of transparency been so high. If one wants to be sarcastic, not even the People’s United Party worse days in government can compare to carnage and deceits that gushes

from the UDP. The UDP stole an entire telephone company, so they can plunder it and use it as a cash cow for their friends and families. The oil is the next big bo-nanza for the Barrow’s clan. In secret they issued the concession to the Prime Minister’s nephew and all those yes men in Cabinet sat around the table and agreed

without a whimper. These castrat-ed individuals were the ones that broke the news via gossip. They started to whisper about what was approved. They did the disclosure due to greed, not love of country. The Non Governmental Organization, Council of Church-es, Civil Society and all right thinking Belizeans should rebuke the Prime Minister for giving this concession to his nephew without disclosing it to the nation. There should be a call to revoke the con-cession in the name of transpar-ency and good governance. However, what we know of Dean Barrow, he will act as a bully to the end in like fashion as Hosni Mubarak, President of Egypt. Dean Barrow will see the city burn fi rst before he does the right thing. Please Mr. Prime Minister revoke your nephew license and commit that your unemployed brother will not be given a cent more of the tax payers money for cases that are clearly of your mak-ing. The Bar Association should pay close attention to this high level nepotism that is occurring unabated. The need to call on all these other organizations has be-come necessary because the Op-position is M.I.A. on every issue. OPEN YOUR EYES THE PEO-

6th of February , 2011 Page 3

St Lucia government responds to Justice Barrow lawsuit

It says it isn’t the one responsible for paying the pension the judge is asking forCASTRIES, St Lucia, Wednesday Febru-ary 2, 2011- The St Lucia govern-ment has responded to reports that a former Eastern Carib-bean Supreme Court of Appeal judge is suing it for not paying pension benefi ts after his retire-ment from the court, contend-ing that it was not his employer. It said that St Lucia serves as a jurisdiction only for the pur-pose of assessing pension due to judges and it was the Judicial and Legal Services Commis-sion (JLSC) of the Organisa-tion of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) that employed Justice Denys Barrow, the brother of Be-

lize Prime Minister Dean Barrow. Justice Barrow announced his law suit last week. He said that he had fi led a claim on January 14 against the St Lucia govern-ment and that the Stephenson King administration had “been simply ignoring the claim, lat-terly refusing to even acknowl-edge receipt of letters of inquiry.” But the government has sought to set the record straight. It said in a statement that Jus-tice Barrow submitted a claim for pension benefi ts sometime in 2010 after his resignation from the Eastern Caribbean Court of Appeal. That submission was

made three years after sitting on the bench of the Court of Appeal. “The Government of St Lucia...requested opinions from the Ju-dicial and Legal Services Com-mission. The JLSC was of the opinion that Justice Barrow was not entitled to pension as he had resigned before fulfi ll-ing the minimum criteria for the grant of a pension,” it said. The government said it sought the opinion of the Eastern Caribbean Court of Appeal on the question of Justice Barrow’s pension spe-cifi cally and to clarify the law on pension for judges sitting on the courts in St Lucia and the OECS

generally. The Court of Appeal, it said, agreed with the JLSC. “Their Lordships opined that Jus-tice Denys Barrow did not qualify for pension benefi ts as he did not meet the benchmark requirements under the Pensions Act of St Lu-cia and Rates of Pension Judges Act, No: 12 of 1989. It should be noted that Justice Denys Bar-row had the benefi t of legal rep-resentation during the sitting in question,” the government said.“The Government of St Lucia is therefore guided by the opinion of the OECS Supreme Court on this matter. However, the Gov-ernment wishes to reiterate its position that it is not our inten-tion to withhold any benefi ts due to Justice Denys Barrow. The Government stands prepared to pay any benefi ts it is required to pay in accordance with the law.” Justice Barrow had blamed the lack of a pension for his de-cision to tender his resigna-tion, effective February 28, from his current job as a Court of Appeal judge in Belize. He said that “having returned at the end of 2008 to Belize and to private practice, I later decided I could afford to leave private practice and become a judge in Belize because I treated the expected pension benefi ts as part of my fi nancial resources. That expectation having been removed, I must now adjust.”Justice Barrow said he would be returning to private practice.


Barrow Blinks!Barrow Blinks!Barrow

Continued from page 1tration nerve center of the Barrow administration which also houses the Prime Minister’s offi ce. On Friday of last week it had been revealed that Paradise En-ergy Limited, a company owned by Kimano Barrow and Alfredo Acosta, had been given a petro-leum concession to conduct oil exploration on almost 1.2 mil-lion acres of Belizean land than encompassed several of Belize’s major protected areas such as the Columbia River Forest Reserve, the Bladen Nature Reserve and the Chiquibul National Park, as well as much of the Stann Creek Valley, where the citrus industry is located. On Monday of last week Kima-no’s father, Justice Denys Barrow has tendered his resignation from the Belize bench claiming that he needed to go back into private practice because the Government of St. Lucia was denying his com-pensation claim for pension mon-ies that he was relying on to tide him over during his tenure as a justice. This week the Government of St. Lucia released a statement say-ing that Justice Barrow was not an employee of the St Lucia gov-ernment, but rather the Judicial and Legal Services Commission (JLSC) of the OECS, and that St Lucia serves as a jurisdiction only for the purpose of assessing pen-sions due to judges. The statement added that the JLSC was of the opinion that Barrow was not entitled to pen-sion as he had resigned before fulfi lling the minimum crite-ria for the grant of a pension. It further stated that the St Lucia government approached the East-ern Caribbean Court of Appeal for its advisory opinion and a special sitting of three English legal lumi-naries was convened in Antigua as far back as September 20th to 22nd,

2010 at which time they consid-ered the matter of Justice Barrow’s submission for pension benefi ts. The appellate court shared the opinion of the JLSC that Barrow did not qualify for pension benefi ts as “he did not meet the benchmark requirements under the Pensions Act of St Lucia and Rates of Pen-sion Judges Act, No. 12 of 1989.” It also stated that “It should be noted that Justice Denys Barrow had the benefi t of legal represen-tation during the sitting in ques-tion.” Its concluding paragraph is es-pecially telling. “Justice Barrow subsequently wrote to the Gov-ernment of Saint Lucia seeking the payment of gratuity. Mr. Bar-row’s request was not directed to his employer, which is the Judicial and Legal Services Commission. The Government of Saint Lucia is therefore guided by the opinion of the OECS Supreme Court on this matter.” In his publicly released state-ment Justice Barrow had said that his decision stemmed “... from the refusal of the Government of St Lucia to pay pension benefi ts due to me upon my retirement, two years ago, as a Court of Appeal judge in the Eastern Caribbean. Matters reached the point where I was forced to fi le a claim on 14th

January 2011 against the Govern-ment of St Lucia which has been simply ignoring the claim, latterly refusing to even acknowledge re-ceipt of letters of inquiry.” The Government of St. Lucia has publicly refuted Justice Bar-row’s claim. It is speculated that Attorney Denys Barrow’s very fi rst case will be the Government of Belize’s appeal of the $48 mil-lion arbitration award. His colleagues speculate that he knew the revelation of his son’s oil prospecting concession was coming and decided to demit of-fi ce before the dam broke.

Tender Operators pushed to the brink

Continued from page 1were quickly surrounded by secu-rity forces and intimidated into si-lence. Meanwhile Belize’s tender opera-tors continue to be low-balled by the giant cruise line who is insisting on a change in the payment formula that they simply cannot accept since it would ultimately mean losing their business anyway. Information obtained by the news-paper show that the insulting offers to the tender operators as well as several other events point to a high level conspiracy to remove the local tendering group completely from the business. (See editorial on page 2 of this issue.) As we go to press tonight, the ten-der operators have made yet anoth-er proposal to the cruise giant that most believe will be rebuffed yet again. They can’t go any lower and the cruise line won’t go any higher and the Barrow administration can’t bridge the gap. And the question may be an-swered next week: what happens if the tender operators say that no one else can off load the ships if Car-nival persists on calling on Belize? Reliable reports are that the Belize

Coast Guard scrambled to protect the ships’ Belize port anchorage when it was reported that the tender operators intended to demonstrate their displeasure by blocking same. At what should be the height of the Belize cruise tourism season, the industry is hemorrhaging buckets of red ink, and the local operators all across the industry are feeling the pain. Just this week it was report-ed that Chukka/Bak-A-Bush, the Belizean tour outfi t that had been taken over by the Miami-Jamaican owners, had oushed their Belizean co-owners in preparation for lower-ing their operating costs by layoff workers and lowering wages. It is rumored that their Belizean owners could not fi nd the fi nancing to support more equity investment in a business that is losing money due to Carnival ships bypassing Be-lize. They, like Belize’s tender op-erators, are about to become “col-lateral damage” and causalities of Carnival’s winning the war to mo-nopolize the Belize cruise tourism industry, with the help of Belizean collaborators. The question to be answered is whose side will the Barrow admin-istration come down on.

Belize City, Thurs. Feb. 3 Since the start of the year the Be-lize Fire Department reports that there have been 11 house fi res, 6 in Belize City, 2 in Corozal, and 1 in Santa Elena, Orange Walk and Punta Gorda. Our unoffi cial count, however, is 14 fi res or at-tempted fi res of which 8 are sus-pected to have been deliberately set or arsons. The following is a partial list of the police reports of some of those fi res.• SLYVESTER POP, 33yrs, la-

borer of Bladden Village, To-ledo District reported that he arrived home on 09/01/11 and was informed by his moth-er that on 08/01/11 she was awakened by a cracking sound and the smell of board burning and upon opening the door she noticed that the kitchen in the yard was completely engulfed in fl ames. The building and

Record number of � res on � rst month of 2011

its content were estimated at a total value of $2,500.00bcy. Police are investigating.

• On 23.01.11, Police visited #130 Gaulin Street, Ladyville Village where they saw a ply-wood house measuring 14ft. by 16ft. totally engulfed in fl ames. James Copious, la-borer and owner of the house reported that upon arriving home on 23.01.11, he saw his house engulfed in fl ames. No one was at home at the time and the house was complete-ly destroyed by the fi re. The cause of the fi re has not yet been ascertained and the house was not insured. The value of the house is estimated at $2,000.00bcy. Police investi-gation continues.

• On 25.01.11, responded to a scene on College Road, Coro-zal Town where they saw a

Continued on page 12

6th of February , 2011

KREMANDALA $ELLOUT

“X” CAN’T CRITICIZE BARROW & THE UDP

Page 5

Wilfully ignores the Corrupt Practices of Barrow and the UDP

A PAID AD

Can’t be TRUSTED!!!

Bought and paid for...Silent on issues a� ecting black South-side Belizeans while pretending to be theirguardian

Belize City, Thurs. Feb. 3The fi rst offi cial mass release of information regarding what authorities now say they sus-pect is the fi rst recorded case of plane theft in Belize, fi nally came out this afternoon. The Director of the Depart-ment of Civil Aviation, Mr. J. A. Contreras, said in the re-lease that: “In relation to the aircraft with Mexican nation-ality and registration marks, XB-LRP, Beechcraft 65, it ar-rived in the country on the 12th April, 2010. Most of the time this aircraft was parked at a pri-vate maintenance hangar at the P.S.W.Goldson Airport.

Beechcra� b-65 jacked from Belize’s PGIA...more questions arises with no answers

Similar to this Beechcra� B65 aircra� “The aircraft did a test fl ight in August of 2010 and another in October, 2010. These fl ights were approved after fl ight safe-ty inspectors from the Depart-ment of Civil Aviation perused the aircraft and fl ight crew documents to ensure that all are in order. These fl ight safety inspectors consist of pilots and aircraft maintenance engineers working for the Department of Civil Aviation. “On Monday, 25th January, 2011, permission was sought and there was no objection from the Department of Civil Avia-tion for another test fl ight since the documents were found in

order (by) a fl ight safety inspec-tor. The fl ight test was carried out on Saturday, 29th January, 2011. This fl ight test was to be carried out in the area of Dan-griga. After the fl ight departed, the Tower Air traffi c Control Offi cer informed the pilot to contact the Radar Air Traf-fi c Control Unit. Even though a Transponder Code was as-signed, it was never activated by the pilot nor was there any radio contact made with this unit. This fl ight was considered as a local fl ight since at no time were the Air Traffi c Services notifi ed that this aircraft would leave the country. “After many attempts to contact the aircraft failed, and there was no indication of the aircraft having crashed, it was believed that the pilot’s action was that of not returning to its point of departure. The matter was then handed over to the law enforcement agencies at the P.S.W.G. International Air-port for further investigation.” The explanation is still far short on a lot of information and may raise even more ques-tions than those it purports to answer. The authorities must

know whom the plane belonged to, who fl ew it to Belize and from where, who piloted it and who else was on board when it took off, and why wasn’t an alarm raised when it appeared to have disappeared. The story broke on Chan-nel Five Tuesday night, and in that newscast they reported: “The last fl ight record showed it came directly from Jamaica. It is alleged that the plane was confi scated at the airport and grounded at the hangar.” At that point no alarm had been raised, and it seems no one in authority seemed to be able to even say that a plane had gone missing. The authori-ties have also failed to say why they believe “that the pilot’s action was that of not returning to its point of departure.” The entire incident adds even more ill-repute to Be-lize’s scandal scarred Philip W. S. Goldson International Air-port, and the authorities lack of forthrightness only deepens the speculation that traffi ckers have corrupted so corrupted the offi cials charged with our very security, in the highest of offi ces.


Burning Issues

The issue of the stalemate regarding the local tender operators and their vessels is nothing short of politics involving this conniving UDP gov-ernment and their deception. This malicious and reckless weaving started day-one with their arrival in Belmopan three years ago when they closed down all government ministries, most notoriously, the Lands’ Ministry in order to witch-hunt and undo just about all the good that the previous PUP govern-ment had achieved in their double-term in government. During this period Prime Minister Dean Barrow has single-handedly succeeded in dismantling what could be remembered as a once buoyant economy while undermining the further development of all the eco-nomic sectors that once contributed to Belize’s economic growth and the prosperity it brought to the Belizean people. Today’s economic woes within the tourism industry is just one such area that has been abused by this callous UDP government and their cronies for their own corrupt economic gain and enrichment, allowing the little that once used to trickled-down and was reserved for Belizeans to be taken away by foreigners thereby pushing Belizeans into bankruptcy and into poverty. This is the same deceptive bunch of liars who promised you a better way of life - that you could make that hope for a better life a reality by voting for them. Well now we are all seeing the naked reality. We are no longer required to imagine the possibilities; we are living in a mis-erable reality that has stricken Be-lizeans to their knees. When we had it so good we took it for granted be-cause we were made to believe that “life would be betta”, but it just got worse under these masters of decep-tion and doom. Even when we can all see that these foreigners are taking the bread out of our mouths the UDP government continues to deceive us. Today’s re-sult with Carnival was a plot from the start. When it was convenient to suit their malice, this government through their crony that was ap-pointed as a CEO at the Ministry of Tourism, and a delegation, travelled to Miami to talk to Carnival out of agreements with a prominent Be-lizean investor who had an arrange-ment to construct the Belize City Cruise Terminal Facility in the Port Loyola area. In hindsight it is evident now that at that time Carnival was a co-con-spirator in the malicious plot but not before getting assurances and an “accommodation agreement” that a way would be created for Carnival’s activities to fl ow without interrup-

� e Politics, plot and hypocrisy behind the local ‘Tender Operations Crisis’By: Omar Silva tion as a way of auto-compensation

for leaving the Cruise Terminal project to die.Well, how about the cutting your nose to spite your face situation? They thought they were undermin-ing Luke Espat’s Cruise Terminal project but at what cost??!! Isn’t the present tender operators’ crisis the consequence of the UDP gov-ernment’s own doing? Remember, these consequences started way back in December of 2008 when the UDP was certain that they had Carnival’s blessing and Barrow announced a “Stop Order” on the Cruise Terminal in Belize City. The cost then? 400 hundred truckers and another hundred construction work-ers were laid off as a consequence. That was only the beginning, how-ever, of a chain reaction of losses for Belizeans and an open opportunity for Carnival to start its consistent usurpation of what is supposed to be the Belizean birth-right share of the cruise tourism industry. While the cruise lines have been allowed to have their way with Be-lizeans, the lies and hypocrisy from the UDP government continue to re-verberate, and Belizeans remain de-fenceless and clueless about the plot and conspiracy. On the one hand we have the systemic marginalization of Belizeans, including grassroots workers from the Fort Street Tour-ism Village, always pushing them away from an opportunity to earn a living off tourism, with the assis-tance from and the approval of the Belize Tourism Board. On the other hand, Carnival Cruise, likewise, pushed tour operators from their fair share and right to control the tour aspect of the cruise tourism indus-try, setting up the Jamaican-owned Chukka/Bak-A-Bush with the ex-clusive rights to their passengers and tours in Belize. That again, as far as could be seen, has the blessing of this government with NICH giv-ing those concessions regarding one or more of our nature reserves. All who that remain in the background are on the take, and are deep down, in the pockets of these cruise lines. Today, we have the stalemate with the local tender operators and the plot again, to squeeze them out. Carnival Cruise tried to install their own front man in the tender opera-tions involving their passengers. They even had prior permission by the government to bring in two cata-marans via the Big Creek Port and to top it off, they gave an under the value declaration of BZ$700,000 each. It was consigned to a com-pany owned by one of the persons believed to be involved as one of the architects of the plot when he held the position as CEO in the Ministry of Tourism until the ending of De-cember 2010.

Carnival also wanted it to appear that Rick O’Shea was a separate entity from them and wanted him to head a bogus tender association. When the local tender operators fi nally opened their eyes and confronted the real-ity with determination and refused O’Shea, they then fi gured a way of trying to hoodwink the locals by set-ting up Stanley Longsworth to rep-resent the locals. But soon after the local tenders saw and smelled some-thing fi shy and a confl ict of interest with Longsworth. Longsworth also sensed the lack of trust and resigned before he was openly pushed out. The local tender operators saw the double play with Longsworth. He already fronts four catamarans for the Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines and behind the scenes, RCCL was plotting with Carnival Cruise Lines to have their four catamarans, pur-portedly belonging to Stanley Long-sworth, undertake the ferrying of CCL passengers from ship to shore. However, that would be a clear vio-lation of the concession granted in 2001 known as Statutory Instrument (SI 173 of 2001) and the Statutory Instrument that superseded the 2001 SI known as (SI No 63 of 2004). In fact, the original concession of 2001 was violated because indeed it only provided permission for three cata-marans but there is a fourth. RCCL cannot under any circumstances put those four catamarans out for hire or lease to ferry any other passengers

other than those of RCCL. Even if the concessions may have expired, the restrictions are in place unless the appropriate duties are paid on those catamarans. Any attempt by Longworth/RCCL to tender CCL passengers from ship to shore be-fore fi rst paying the appropriate duties will clearly violate the con-ditions stipulated under the terms of the concession and if the govern-ment overlooks those stipulations then they too are complicit in break-ing the law.To top it off, it is also being dis-cussed for RCCL to take over the management and operation of the other two catamarans that came in via the Big Creek Port, which would bring the amount of catamarans un-der RCCL/Stanley Longsworth to six. If the plot that involves RCCL, CCL and this wicked UDP govern-ment is allowed to play out, that would surely wipe out any hope of the smaller local tender operators that they could retain their share of tender operations and the tourism industry in our local waters. We un-derstand that the tendering opera-tions of Stanley Longsworth/ RCCL have an implant within the Ministry of Tourism in the person of Betty Longsworth who is the voice within the Ministry that actually exchange emails for the Ministry on the mat-ter between the Cruise Lines and Stanley Longsworth under [email protected].

Funeral Services were held on Monday at the University of Belize in Belmopan for Ir-vin Penner, 29 year old broth-er of Minister Elvin Penner. Penner’s dead body was dis-covered around 9:20 last Sat-urday morning at a farm near Camalote Village in the Cayo District. Even though police has ruled out foul-play they have not been able to explain the circumstances surround-ing his untimely death. All that was revealed was that Penner was suffering for bipolar de-cease. Police did mention that

Irvin Penner found dead in Camalote, buried on Monday

they discovered a syringe and a dark substance on Penners inner left elbow. When inves-tigators arrived they saw him in a slump position next to his jeep that was parked near-by. Penner leaves behind his wife, Bernadine that he mar-ried on April ninth, 2010. He is also survived by his parents, Edward and Lena, brothers, John, Peter, Eddy and Glad-win, and sister, Annie. Nota-ble at the funeral service was Prime Minister Dean Barrow and other Ministers of Gov-ernment.

Got News...Call us at: 501-628-3215


CARIBBEAN NEWS

JIMANI, Dominican Republic – The Dominican Republic has de-ported thousands of illegal immi-grants in recent weeks, sowing fear among Haitians living in the coun-try and prompting accusations its government is using a cholera out-break as a pretext for a crackdown. In the largest campaign in years to target Haitians living illegally in the Dominican Republic, soldiers and immigration agents have been set-ting up checkpoints and conduct-ing neighborhood sweeps, detaining anyone without papers and booting them from the country. Erickner Auguesten, a 36-year-old father of three who has been in the Domini-can Republic illegally since 1991, said agents stopped him as he exited a hospital where his pregnant wife was getting a checkup.Hundreds of thousands of Haitians live at least part-time in the Domini-can Republic, enduring frequent dis-crimination and the constant fear of being deported. A cholera epidemicin Haiti that has killed at least 4,000 people and sickened 200,000 has made matters worse. Dominican offi cials eased border controls and halted deportations for humanitar-ian reasons after the Jan. 12, 2010, earthquake near Port-au-Prince that killed an estimated 316,000 people and devastated the already impov-erished nation. But right at the one-year anniversary of the quake, the deportations resumed — with great-er enforcement than has been seen since 2005.More than 3,000 people have been handcuffed and sent across the bor-der in the past three weeks, includ-ing some legal residents who were simply caught without their docu-ments, according to migrants and advocates.The government denies that any le-gal residents have been deported. Dominican immigration chief Sig-frido Pared defended the deporta-tions, saying his country cannot be an escape valve for Haitians fl ee-ing extreme poverty and political

Dominican Rep crackdown on Haitian migrantsDominican Rep crackdown on Haitian migrants

instability. The United Nations es-timated before the earthquake that some 600,000 Haitians were living illegally in the Dominican Repub-lic, which has a total population of nearly 10 million. Dominican au-thorities say that number has since grown to 1 million, most of them there illegally. Dominican offi cialssay the immigration crackdown is necessary to prevent the spread of cholera from Haiti, which shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic. So far there have only been about 300 known cholera cases in the Dominican Re-public — with one fatality, a Haitian migrant believed to have contracted the disease back home. Even in Hai-ti, the disease has slowed in recent weeks amid a nationwide treatment and education campaign. However infectious disease specialists warn that cholera could still rebound in Haiti, and the Dominican Health Ministry says it can’t afford to take any chances. Many Dominicans support the de-portations, saying they are fearful of contracting the disease. Spread by waterborne bacteria, chol-era causes rapid dehydration but is treatable if caught soon enough. The key to controlling it is early treat-ment and making sure people have access to clean water and sanitation. Dr. Robert Tauxe, a cholera expert with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, praised the Dominican Republic for reporting its fi rst cases so quickly and launch-ing strong public education efforts. He declined to comment specifi cally on the deportations, but said there’s little evidence that border controls, in general, can effectively contain the spread. Dominican-Haitian Women Move-ment director Sonia Pierre noted that many road checkpoints are in areas that see only domestic traf-fi c, and thus are unlikely to catch immigrants bringing the disease in from Haiti. Many of the deportees have lived for many years in the

Dominican Republic, and sending them back to Haiti increases their risk of exposure to the disease, she added. And when they inevitably try to return to lives and jobs, migrants could bring cholera back with them. Pared, the immigration chief, denied that offi cials are repatriating mi-grants who have been in the coun-

try for a long time. The Foreign Ministry and Migration Offi ce said the operation is focused on Haitians who are coming into the country il-legally, but there are tens of thou-sands in the country with no papers so it’s often not possible to know who is a recent arrival and who has been there for years.

Clinton tries to break Haiti deadlock

PORT-AU-PRINCE (AFP) – US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has visited Haiti in a bid to smooth its course towards a fi nal vote af-ter disputed fi rst-round elections plunged the country into uncertain-ty as it struggles to recover from last year’s earthquake. Clinton met Sunday President Rene Preval and the three main candidates vying to succeed him in disputed November polls, including his protege, who has been under mounting US-led pres-sure to step down over fraud allega-tions.Haitians had hoped the presidential and parliamentary elections would bring in a new leadership that could rebuild the country following an earthquake in January 2010 that killed 220,000 people and left 1.3 million homeless.The top US diplomat told reporters that Washington backed the recom-mendations of international moni-tors, who have urged the ruling party presidential candidate, Jude Celes-tin, to exit the race. But she also ap-peared to leave the door open to oth-er solutions, saying there have been “legitimate concerns raised by vari-ous fi gures in Haiti, not just Presi-dent Preval, but others, about what is the best compromise.” A senior State Department offi cial told reporters on the plane heading back to Washing-ton late Sunday that Celestin’s exit-ing the race was not discussed.Clinton met with the three candi-dates to hear their ideas of how to ensure the second round is free, fair and transparent, the offi cial said on the condition of anonymity.

She heard proposals for putting par-ty members and foreign observers at each polling station as well as al-lowing Haitian voters to make a “dry run” a week before the polls to make sure their names are on the election lists, they said. Haiti’s election com-mission has said it will announce defi nitive results from the fi rst round on Wednesday and has scheduled a delayed second round for March 20, with those results to be announced April 16.Another State Department offi cial said Haitians, as long as they are as-sured the second round is fair, would likely accept Preval’s staying be-yond the end of his February 7 man-date to ensure a smooth transition to a new president. The announcement of preliminary fi rst round results last month set off days of unrest when Preval’s protege Celestin narrowly edged a popular singer out of the second round run-off.According to preliminary results from the November 28 poll, Celes-tin garnered 7,000 more votes than Michel Martelly, securing a place in the run-off against the frontrunner, former fi rst lady Mirlande Manigat.Within hours of the announcement, protests swept Haitian towns, leav-ing fi ve dead and the country in cri-sis as opposition candidates accused Preval and the electoral commission of rigging the poll. A team of inter-national monitors from the Organi-zation of American States (OAS) called in by Preval found wide-spread vote tampering and fraud in Celestin’s favor and recommended that he withdraw.


ACAPULCO, Mexico – A gu-bernatorial candidate who joined Mexico’s main leftist political party less than a year ago appeared headed for victory Monday in the drug-cartel battleground state of Guerrero. Angel Aguirre quickly distanced himself from the party, however, saying that he would form a government that transcends party lines. With 98.7 percent of the vote counted, Aguirre, of the Democratic Revolution Party, had received 56 percent of the vote, compared with 42.6 percent for rival Manuel Anorve of the Insti-tutional Revolutionary Party, ac-cording to the election board for Guerrero state, which is home to the Pacifi c coast resort city of Acapulco.Aguirre joined Democratic Revo-lution, or the PRD, only in late Au-gust after 30 years as a member of the Revolutionary Party, or PRI, which ruled Mexico for seven de-cades as the single dominant party until it lost the presidency in 2000. “No party will have any quota” of posts in his Cabinet, Aguirre told the Televisa television network. “We are going to choose people based on which women and men of Guerrero can make the great-est contribution.” Aguirre said he would focus on social programs and job creation, and made little mention of the drug-related vio-lence that plagues the state. An-

PRD heads to win in Mexican State election

orve also claimed victory, but was trailing by 13 percentage points.The PRD’s only gubernatorial vic-tories in Mexico’s 31 states over the past two years have come by backing alliance candidates with weak ties to the party, or former PRI members. Outgoing Guer-rero Gov. Zeferino Torreblanca won in 2005 on the PRD ticket but largely distanced himself from the party once in offi ce. Aguirre, who served as interim governor for the PRI in the 1990s, could do the same.George Grayson, a Mexico ex-pert at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, predicted that Aguirre could back Mexico state Gov. Enrique Pena

Nieto, a favorite for the PRI presi-dential nomination next year. “In his race to succeed (President Fe-lipe) Calderon, Pena Nieto faces a win-win situation in Guerrero,” Grayson wrote in an analysis. Still, Aguirre supporters celebrat-ed Monday, waving yellow ban-ners and chanting “Don’t fail us!”The vote followed an acrimonious campaign between the two former party allies and second-cousins. The fi rst of six gubernatorial elec-tions this year in Mexico, it sets the stage for the 2012 presidential election. The PRI had hoped that a win in Guerrero would give it mo-mentum as it seeks to regain the presidency, which it controlled for 71 years before losing it in 2000

to Calderon’s National Action Party. But the PRI’s hopes were damaged after National Action, trailing badly in the polls, threw its support behind Aguirre. Such uncomfortable alliances between the conservative PAN and the left-ist PRD helped defeat the PRI in three gubernatorial races last year.During the campaign, the PRD de-manded an investigation into An-orve’s fi nances after the newspa-per Reforma published allegations from a protected witness who said in court documents that the PRI candidate had received millions in cash from drug gangs. Anorve an-grily denied those allegations. The federal Attorney General’s Offi ce dismissed the signifi cance of the documents, saying in a statement that secret witness testimony has no value unless backed by concrete evidence. The statement stressed that there is no criminal investi-gation against Anorve. Guerrero, a state of 3.3 million people, is a hotspot of the soaring drug kill-ings that have marred Calderon’s presidency. Earlier this month, the bodies of 15 men, all but one of them headless, were found on a street outside a shopping center in Acapulco, a coveted drug-traffi ck-ing zone and the site of turf battles between the cartels. There were 1,137 drug-related homicides in Guerrero in 2010, surpassing the 879 in 2009.

“I brought democracy to Haiti,” Duvalier claims

MIAMI (Reuters) – Former Haitian dictator Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier laughed at the notion he was a tyrant and claimed in a tel-evision interview on Tuesday that he had introduced democracy to his troubled homeland. “I was the � rst person to start a process as such in Haiti, a democratic process, it was me who started it,” Duvalier said in an interview conducted by Alicia Ortega and broadcast by the Span-ish-language Univision network. Duvalier, 59, returned unexpectedly to Haiti last month a� er 25 years of

exile in France. He now faces charges of corruption and crimes against hu-manity for the killings and torture that occurred during his 15-year rule. He assumed power in 1971 upon the death of his widely feared father, Francois “Papa Doc” Duva-lier, who ruled Haiti with an iron � st and a secret police force known as the Tontons Macoutes.Duvalier � ed to France amid a pop-ular uprising in 1986. He o� ered a startlingly di� erent version of events during the interview, which was conducted in French. “When they

talk of me as a tyrant, they make me laugh, it gives me the impression that people su� er from amnesia, they’ve forgotten the way in which I le� Haiti, how I le� voluntarily,” Duvalier said. “� ere was no revo-lution at that time.” Duvalier said his father was “an excellent teacher” who had trained him well to become the world’s youngest head of state at age 19. “He taught me a lot, I learned a great deal from him and, on his death, he le� me excellent aides,” he said.Duvalier also said he returned to Haiti on January 16 to help his com-patriots rebuild from the January 2010 earthquake that killed more than 300,000 people. Asked whether he had since met with former Ton-tons Macoutes, whose name trans-lates loosely as “bogeymen,” he re-plied that it seemed normal to meet with his former supporters. In his � rst public statement on January 21, Duvalier o� ered sympathy for those who su� ered abuses under his rule, but stopped short of apologizing for the killings and torture that occurred during his 15 years in power.

In the TVs interview, he declined to get into speci� cs about the human rights charges against him. “Justice will do what it has to do to respond to those accusations. So I’ll leave that to justice,” he said.Duvalier’s homecoming added to the tension in Haiti, which was already roiled by a disputed presidential election, a deadly cholera outbreak and the catastrophic earthquake. Haitians and international observers have speculated he returned as part of a ploy to claim millions of dol-lars frozen in a Swiss bank account -- money he is suspected of looting from Haiti’s treasury. Duvalier said that money would be used for earth-quake rebuilding.In Geneva on Tuesday, the United Nations human rights o� ce o� ered assistance to help Haiti’s courts pros-ecute him.“Haiti has an obligation to investigate the well-documented serious hu-man rights violations that occurred during the rule of Mr. Duvalier and to prosecute those responsible for them,” said U.N. Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay.

www.natioalperspectivebz.org www.natioalperspectivebz.org www.natioalperspectivebz.org


Eygptian Popular Uprising EscalatesChaos intensifi es in Cairo square, violence spreads!

CAIRO – Protesters and regime sup-porters fought in a second day of rock-throwing battles at a central Cairo square while new lawlessness spread around the city. New looting and arson erupted, and gangs of thugs supporting President Hosni Mubarak attacked reporters, foreigners and rights workers while the army round-ed up foreign journalists.� e government increasingly spread an image that foreigners were fueling the turmoil and supporting the tens of thousands in the street who for more than 10 days have demanded the im-mediate ouster of Mubarak, this coun-try’s unquestioned ruler for nearly three decades.“When there are demonstrations of this size, there will be foreigners who come and take advantage and they have an agenda to raise the energy of the protesters,” Vice President Omar Suleiman said in an interview on state TV.In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley condemned what he called “a concerted campaign to intimidate international journalists in Cairo.”Pro-government mobs beat foreign journalists with sticks on the streets outside downtown Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the protests. Dozens of journalists, including ones from � e Washington Post and � e New York Times, were reported detained by security forces. One Greek print journalist was stabbed in the leg with a screwdriver, and a photographer was punched in the face by attackers who smashed some of his equipment. � e Arabic news network Al-Arabiya pleaded on an urgent news scroll for the army to protect its o� ces and journalists, and Al-Jazeera said two of

its correspondents were attacked.Human rights activists were also tar-geted. Military police stormed the of-� ces of an Egyptian rights groups as activists were meeting and arrested at least � ve, including one from the London-based Amnesty Internation-al and another from New York-based Human Rights Watch, the groups said.“We call for the immediate and safe release of our colleagues and oth-ers with them who should be able to monitor the human rights situation in Egypt at this crucial time without fear of harassment or detention,” said Salil Shetty, Secretary General of Amnesty International.Lawlessness that had largely eased since the weekend � ared anew. A � re raged in a major supermarket out-side Sheikh Zayed, a suburb of the capital, and looters were ransacking the building. A residential building neighboring a 5-star hotel on the Nile River corniche was also ablaze, blocks away from Tahrir. Other � res erupted in the Cairo district of Shubra, north of the center, security o� cials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.Under an onslaught of international condemnation for Wednesday’s as-sault on protesters by pro-Mubarak rioters that sparked the renewed wave of turmoil, the government o� ered a series of gestures trying to calm the fury.� e prime minister apologized for Wednesday’s assault and acknowl-edged it may have been organized. � e vice president promised that the 82-year-old Mubarak’s son Gamal would not run to succeed his father in presidential elections in Septem-

ber and o� ered to hold negotiations on the country’s future even with the regime’s biggest domestic enemy, the Muslim Brotherhood.But the gestures appeared likely to be drowned out by the chaos around Tahrir, or Liberation, Square, which for the past 10 days has been the cent-er of the unprecedented movement demanding Mubarak’s immediate ouster. Protesters accuse the regime of organizing a force of paid thugs and police in civilian clothes to attack them Wednesday a� ernoon, spark-ing the violence that still raged a� er nightfall � ursday.At least eight people have been killed and hundreds wounded in the � ght-ing in and around Tahrir.� ursday’s � ghting centered on and under a highway overpass about 500 yards (meters) north of the square’s center that pro-government attack-ers had used as a high ground to rain down stones and � rebombs. Anti-Mubarak protesters surged from the square in the a� ernoon in volleys of stones, bottles and metal rebar, chas-ing their foes around the � y-over.At one point, a police truck barreled wildly through the crowds under the bridge, mowing down several people in its path, according to footage aired on Al-Jazeera. Heavy barrages of gun-� re were heard from time to time, and at least one wounded person was car-ried away.In the morning, the military took its � rst muscular action to halt the � ght-ing a� er standing by without inter-fering since the � ghting began. � ey moved a� er heavy barrages of auto-matic gun� re over the course of two hours before dawn killed � ve protest-ers in a serious escalation.Four tanks cleared the highway over-

pass and several hundred soldiers on the streets below lined up between the two sides, pushing the pro-gov-ernment � ghters back and blocking the main battle lines in front of the famed Egyptian Museum and at other entrances to the square. For several hours a� er, more protesters streamed into the square to support those who had fought through the night.But when clashes resumed in the af-ternoon, soldiers disappeared from the streets, moving inside their tanks and armored vehicles without inter-vening again. Every once in a while, protesters would wrestle a Mubarak supporter to the ground, search him for an ID, then raise the card in the air to prove he was a police o� cer or ruling party member.� e anti-Mubarak movement has vowed to intensify protests to force the president out by Friday. In a speech Tuesday night, Mubarak re-fused to step down immediately, say-ing he would serve out the remaining seven months of his term — a halfway concession rejected by the protesters.A sense of victory ran through the protesters � ursday a� er they suc-ceeded in keeping their hold on the square and pushing back their attack-ers.“� ank God, we managed to protect the whole area,” said Abdul-Rahman, a taxi driver who was among thou-sands who stayed hunkered in the square through the night, hunkered down against the thousands besieg-ing the entrances. “We prevented the pro-Mubarak people from storming the streets leading to the square.” He refused to give his full name.Many dismissed the government con-cessions, which would have been stun-

Continues on page 10


90210’s Annalynne McCord – who is ostensibly a mere 21-years-old,– has defied the very laws of nature. How? Well last time I checked, na-ture generally didn’t let you turn into a 54-year-old Upper East Side so-cialite overnight. But that’s exactly what McCord appears to be – and I can’t say it’s a flattering look for her. Removing Over Done Sunless Self TannerSelf tanners are one of the finest in-ventions because they let would-be sun bunnies go golden brown with-out ever having to expose yourself to the actual sun. With the ozone layer depleted, the risk of skin can-cer from sun exposure has greatly in-creased, but we all like the glow that says, “Yes, while you’ve been slav-ing away in your cubicle, I’ve been lazily tanning at the beach”. Sunless tanner is the way to be a golden girl without forsaking your job, your kids, your graduate education or your winter in the Chicago suburbs.Fake ‘n’ Bake in a Bottle: Getting the right suntan in a bottle takes a little work, and it’s better to pay for the more upscale self tanner if it’s go-ing to get you a smooth, even coat in a realistic color. This is no time to be cheap! But even the best sunless tanners can leave you a fake bake orange if you don’t apply them cor-rectly, with stealth, patience and con-tinuity. Most self tanning lotions or foams say to reapply every two or three days, because the effect wears off fast.Removing Splotches and Orange Color Caused By Self TannersAnd that fading effect is what’s go-ing to save you if you’re wondering how to remove an overdose of self tanner. If you’re lucky, it’s just your hands or hands and feet that have turned orange, maybe because you forgot to wear gloves when applying the lotion or because your feet got a few more coats than your legs. You can easily fix the sunless tanning or-ange by waiting a few days—as the outer layer of skin sheds off, the col-or will come with it. We’re all losing

Removing over-done sun-less self-tanner mistakes

skin cells by the thousands each day, so if you can wait, you need do noth-ing else to get rid of your fake tan. But if the color is an issue because of an important event, tips on removing sunless tanner tend to recommend the use of baking soda. Put a nice blob of baking soda on a washcloth and gen-tly rub it on damp skin. The baking soda exfoliates the skin, speeding up the loss of tanner, and it can be used on your body without the potential chemical complications that would come along with peroxide or bleach. Don’t rub yourself raw, even if you’re desperate to get the stuff off: give it a little rub, rinse off and wait a couple of hours before trying again.Home Remedy to Fix Over Applying Sunless TannerBaking soda is a home remedy for so many ailments that it’s surpris-ing they don’t sell it in five gallon containers. If you’ve used too much sunless tanner all over your body, you can dump several cups of bak-ing soda into your bathtub and crawl in with it. Add water and soak. Ba-sically, you’re softening the skin, making it easier for the outer layer to slough and using the whitening properties of baking soda to help provide a little gentle bleaching ac-tion. Take your loofah and gently scrub feet, ankles, elbows and other places where the tanning liquid may have collected and created splotches. For orange or too-brown finger-nails and hands or toenails and feet, you can apply a facial cream bleach for around ten minutes, but don’t try to use this stuff on other parts of your body: your skin will prob-ably react to it in unpleasant ways. To cover up sunless tanner on your face while it’s wearing off, try layer-ing mineral makeup over it, apply-ing to your neck as well. Use a tinted moisturizer in green or blue to try to counteract seriously orange skin, and add your makeup on top of that. Exfoliate gently at night with an oat-meal scrub and remind yourself that in a few days it will be like nothing happened at all.

Olivia Palermo

Eygptian Popular Uprising Escalates

ning only a month ago, and said they wanted nothing less than Mubarak to go now.“We have gone beyond these demands a long time ago,” said Waheed Hamad, a 40-year-old schoolteacher among the protesters. “What we need is some-thing bigger. And the road is still long.” He said the attacks on protests would only make them grow. “Blood is the fuel of the revolution.”Bands of Mubarak supporters moved through side streets around Tahrir, trading volleys of stone-throwing with the protesters and attacking cars to stop supplies from reaching the protest camp. One band stopped a car, ripped open the trunk and found boxes of juice, water and food, which they took before forcing the driver to flee.The Mubarak backers seethed with anger at a protest movement that state TV and media have depicted as caus-ing the chaos and paralyzing business-es and livelihoods. “You in Tahrir are the reason we can’t live a normal life,” one screamed as he threw stones in a side street.The anti-Mubarak youths posted sen-tries on the roofs and balconies of buildings around the square to raise the alert of any approaching attack-ers and rain stones on them. Other lookouts in the streets banged metal poles against pedestrian barriers alarm when they sighted incoming Mubarak backers.One sentry waved his arms in the air like an airport runway traffic control-ler, directing defenders carrying piles of stones as ammunition to a side street to fend off an assault. But then another sentry waved a hand across his chest horizontally in a new signal. The crowd understood: false alarm, and they melted back into the square.The men who led the defense Wednes-day and throughout the night were easily identified. Many of them had cotton padding and grubby bandages dangling from their faces, arms and legs. Many had chunks of rock stuck to their hair and clumps of dust in their beards. A large number had the trimmed beards of Muslim conserva-tives, a sign of how the Muslim Broth-erhood a major role in the fight.Mubarak, the country’s unquestioned ruler for nearly three decades, has

rejected demands he step down but said he would not run for re-election in September. His top ally the United States has pressed him to quickly tran-sition to a democratic government but has said his earlier gestures, including forming a new government, were in-sufficient.On Thursday, authorities offered new concessions, trying to defuse the cha-os. Prosecutors announced an assets freeze and travel ban against the for-mer interior minister, Habib el-Adly, whose police forces led a fierce crack-down against the protests when they initially broke out on Jan. 25. Similar measures were announced against the former housing and tourism ministers, who were among the unpopular mil-lionaire businessmen who dominated the ousted government.Vice President Omar Suleiman told journalists he had invited the Mus-lim Brotherhood to enter negotia-tions with the government. He said the Brotherhood remains “hesitant” but underlined that it was a “valuable opportunity” for the fundamentalist movement.The Brotherhood, which calls for an Islamic state in Egypt, is the top po-litical opponent of Mubarak’s regime, which has always rejected any contact with the group and has launched heavy campaigns of arrests against it over past year. The Brotherhood is among the many disparate anti-Mubarak groups organizing the protests, though secular activists have so far dominated the movement. All have rejected any dialogue with the government before Mubarak steps down.Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq ac-knowledged that the attack “seemed to have been organized” and said ele-ments had infiltrated what began as a demonstration against the protesters to turn it violent. But he said he did not know who, promising an investigation into who was behind it.“I offer my apology for everything that happened yesterday because it’s nei-ther logical nor rational,” Shafiq told state TV. “Everything that happened yesterday will be investigated so every-one knows who was behind it.”Shafiq, a former air force general ap-pointed by Mubarak over the weekend, defended Mubarak’s announcement Tuesday that he would serve out the rest of his term. “Would it be dignified for a nation for its president to leave immediately?” Shafiq said. “There are ethics that must be observed.”

Continued from page 9


Sometimes my co-host Vaughan Gill will say things on our morning talk show that I find fantastic and just unbelievable, and I would give him a look and try to search for words to say to him “Stap lie mien,” but in a nice way. Vaughan is an agent provoca-teur par excellence when it comes to politics, and his audacity often leaves me discombobulated, my mouth agape at his effrontery. Instinctually, (to use a word I learned from Jules Vasquez), my reflex is to believe that he is try-ing to push my buttons, pull my string, tug my coat, push me in a direction of thought I don’t want to go. I am first of all skeptical be-cause I think I know that Vaughan is almost totally 24/7 spinning for political effect, and I like to think I have always known that about him. When I say Vaughan will do or say almost anything for political advantage, it is not a moral judg-ment, and if it seems to carry an admiring undertone, well, he is who he is – someone who not only does what I won’t, can’t do, but does so because he believes sincerely that the end justifies the means. Vaughan, contradictorily, can claim a level of moral certi-tude about his insincerity. These days I have a problem with what I used to believe al-most off-handedly was his politi-cal gamesmanship. These days his fantastic statements and stories are more often than not are prov-ing to be true, or at least, are not proved wrong. For example, Vaughan told me this week that Prime Minister Dean Barrow slipped out the back door of the Edney Cain Building in Belmopan and boarded a tinted taxi to avoid being seen by the COLA demonstrators camped out front. My first reaction was to say to him that he was exaggerating but some of the protestors do be-lieve that Mr. Barrow did slip out unseen, or otherwise incognito, and the taxi explanation is as good as any. A few weeks ago Jules referred to the team headed by Mr. Barrow that departed with much fanfare from Belize to Miami to confront the Carnival colossus as “The Fantastic Four.” That their results were decidedly less than spectac-ular is one thing – that they (and he) ended up with “egg” on their faces is another thing. I could’ve hardly imagined the possibility. Since that fiasco the normally microphone loving, camera hog-ging, walking sound bite that is

In these fasntastic times...Dean Oliver Barrow, Prime Min-ister of Belize, has been uncharac-teristically missing in action. Ex-cept for “interviews” that Adele Ramos prints in the Amandala, presumably from her speed dial, and reports of interviews by Jules Vasquez on his hot line, we no lon-ger “see” and “hear” Mr. Barrow. There have been many hereto-fore incredulity straining things happening in Belize the past few years, but I certainly would’ve never believed that by the eve of his third anniversary in office Dean Oliver would be dodging demonstrators and the media. I was also told that despite what is stated in the following press re-lease issued late yesterday after-noon: “Belmopan, 2nd February, 2011. In October, 2010, OPIC, an offshore oil exploration and devel-opment company, relinquished the area it held under its Oil Explora-tion and Production Contract, also referred to as a Production and Sharing Agreement (PSA). The area held under contract represents almost 25% of Belize’s offshore area and totals approximately 1.14 million acres, spanning from east of Belize City to eastern Placencia offshore. Cabinet at its meeting on Tuesday, 1st February, 2011, de-cided not to give back out, at this time, any of the area relinquished by OPIC.” the issue was never ac-tually discussed and decided upon in Cabinet. I tend to think that if that was decided on after a discussion in Cabinet on Tuesday, the Dean Oliver I thought I knew would’ve been only too happy to run right outside and preen, prance, parade and pronounce before the cameras and microphones instead of skulk-ing away. Dean Oliver made that decision after advice and consultation with his kitchen cabinet. His official cabinet usually defers the man-agement and refers the handling of such matters to their hero because their input is hardly ever asked for and never welcome anyway. What I have been told was dis-cussed in Cabinet is the hiring of brother Denys to represent GOB along with Michael Young in the matter of the $48 million arbitra-tion case. Now Vaughan said this on the morning show a couple of week ago, and it was later printed in the Times, and at the time I put in my reservation file. I thought to my-self that that was simply too fan-tastic, that Dean Oliver wouldn’t be that brazen. As Vaughan would say, you heard (read) it here first.

Niether the Belize Police nor the Guatemalan authorities have shed any light into the circumstances surrounding the killing of Efrain Santiago who was a fugitive of Belizean justice who was shot to death near the Belize /Guatemalan border going into last weekend. The dead body of Santiago who was accused of two murders in Belize was discovered lying face down in an area south-western area of Arenal Village just about twelve feet between the Belize-Guatemala border. Santiago’s body was discovered last Friday, January 28, 2011, around 8:40 p.m. His body showed two gunshot wounds in his neck area at a point blank range seem-ingly execution style. According to police reports he was dressed in a pair of black short pants and a pair of black rubber boots, no mention was made if he wore any shirt at the time. Efrain Santiago is known to be original resident of Chile Street in Belmopan, was a fugitive of jus-tice who was arraigned on January 27, 2010, but who escaped from Belize police on June 24, 2010,

Fugitive shot to death in Arenal

Fugitive Efrain Santiago

while being escorted to the San Ignacio Town court. He craftily managed to remove his handcuffs and jumped out of the moving po-lice vehicle as it slowed down at a speed bump in Unitedville, and ever since he has been at large. Santiago was a suspect for the particularly savage murder of a young woman, Vilma Copo, in 2007. Copo had been stabbed 29 times and her throat had been slit. Family members say that they have not seen Efrain Santiago for almost four years when he was himself living in San Pedro Am-bergris Caye. A family source said that when he was suspected of murdering Vilma Copo, 23, he had just moved back to Belmopan for barely a month. He escaped as a fugitive and dur-ing that time he the family later heard that he was suspected of an-other murder. He was accused of killing Guatemalan labourer iden-tified as Felix Enrique Martinez, 34, on December 8, 2008. Martinez’s body was found about a quarter mile south of Benque Viejo. He had been shot in the face, and police say that Santiago was the last person to have seen him alive. Santiago went into hid-ing in 2008 and was later captured on January 22, 2010, in the San Martin area of Belmopan. Shortly after Santiagothen fled to Melchor. Santiago’s body was identified by his mother who travelled to Benque Viejo over the weekend. She made a positive identifica-tion on the body and confirmed to police that it was indeed her son, EfrainSantiago. Efrain Santiago’s body eventually transported to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital, where the post-mortem was con-ducted on Tuesday.

Software for sale!

Limited So� ware such as :Adobe Master collection CS5

Adobe Master collection CS4

Adobe Acrobat 9 .0

Microso� 2007, Expression web ,Visual studio 2008,Encarta 2009.

FL Studios 9 Producer editionNero suite 10

3D home architect

Chie� achitect and Auto CAD 2010

And Many more so� ware, OS , games and tune up for your PC Needs For Both Windows 7,XP, Vista Mac OSs systems

Latest Cuttingedge Computer

Collection of our software . For more information Call us at : 628-9961 632-6520

And Many more so� ware, OS , games

Chie� achitect and Auto CAD 2010


www.nationalperspectivebz.org

This past Tuesday I at-tended a 24 hour awareness cam-paign that was organized by Cola that was staged in front of the Offi ce of the Prime Minister in Belmopan. The group of about forty advocates representing vari-ous solidarity groups staged a 24 hr. sleep out that began Tuesday morning around 10:00 am and concluded around 10:00 Wednes-day morning. The event coin-cided with government’s regular Tuesday Cabinet meetings as the participants believed that the ac-tion would attract the attention necessary from the Prime Minis-ter and other members of Cabinet. The coordinated group included NGO’s and solidarity support from the Belizeans for Justice, Bigyea, F.E.C.T.A.B., common-ers and other supporters who weighed pledged their support. The objective of the action was to create awareness that would cata-pult a signature campaign to at-tract eighteen thousand signatures to sign a petition that is required for them to force a referendum on whether the government should allow oil drilling in our off shores or in our nature reserves. An of-fi cial of Cola indicated to me that the numbers were small because it only included delegates from the various affi liated members of the coordination. Although the com-mon purpose was gets the govern-ment’s attention with the objective of convincing government to put a moratorium on oil drilling in the offshore and protected reserves but there were other groups pres-ent that also had other issues but showed solidarity with this par-ticular issue. Belizeans for Justice continues to advocate for justice for the families of victims for family and crime. F.E.C.T.A.B. fi nds themselves in the middle of what seems to be and un-resolving controversy with Carnival Cruise Lines that is having, and can have

Nepotism a serious crippling effect on the cruise tourism industry in Belize. The commoners’ representatives are campaigning against police brutality and are taking up issue with the Police Department anti-gang unit. Bigyea fi nds itself in a growing controversy over the land issue in Harmonyville where the area representative Ramon Witz is encouraging constituency of the Cayo South division to engage in controversy over the land at Har-monyville. We are all aware that many wars have been started over land issue. While it appears that all these issues are independent and separate, they will all have one common effect, they will bring great economic divide. A few people will become rich and the expense of many. There are multiple national issues constantly developing with this government and it seems as if as though they just aren’t getting the sense. The issue of the con-troversy in the cruise tourism in-dustry is now having a signifi cant effect on families who depend on that industry to survive. I maintain that the entire country still is not aware of what the major industry with Carnival is. Obviously, there has been some under the table, back door deal with Carnival and we are not being told the truth. Mike Singh the former C.E.O. for the Ministry of Tourism defi nitely have to answer to the Belizean people. As long as he is protect-ed by this government and is not called out by the independent me-dia, the more he will continue to slap the Belizean people in their face. Mike Singh is the head of Civil Aviation under no other ad-ministration it was so brass face and blatant that planes could be landing all over this country, yet Mike Singh is not brought to task. Most recently air planes on test run are allowed to disappear in our air space, helicopter is allowed to change registration on the interna-tional airport run way and allowed to take off. Folks let us recognize that under Mike Singh Chukka Baka Bush arrogantly came in and try to monopolize tour opera-tions in Belize. Carnival for the fi rst time since tourism became a prominent industry in Belize we

are having problems with one of the lines. With Singh at head of aviation, planes have been land-ing, traffi cking human and drugs cargo, boats appear and disap-pear purportedly in drugs opera-tions and after all of those he have been ascended to ambassadorship, something is wrong.

of the other major con-cerns has to be the blatant nepo-tism surrounding the Barrow family. Prime Minister Barrow’s fi rst son Shine was appointed Be-lize’s musical ambassador mean-ing he holds diplomatic status. He is pursuing his Jewish origin and have gone to live in Jerusa-lem. What has he done for the Belizean music industry? I guess he deserves to be the music am-bassador because he is a Barrow. The way it is going now, he will soon be recalled. The Prime Min-ister brother recently resigned as a judge of the appeals court, this happens just days before it was re-vealed that his son and the Prime Minister nephew was granted mil-lions of acres of land and permis-sion to explore for oil in one of the country’s most valuable nature reserve. Then the news broke that one of the Prime Minister’s other son has resigned from the B.T.L. board in order to make room for members from the Social Securi-ty Board, but those replacements were not made. Why is there such a haste for that to be done? Then

of course, there is this major ma-jor concern abut the amount of money that the Prime Minister’s fi rst wife continue to make from the Government of Belize for le-gal representation. Have you all ever consider why it is that this Prime Minister appetite is so great for litigations, why so much issues end up in courts? Do you realize you is the government’s number one attorney? I guess you all can answer that. I really believe that the Prime Minister and this gov-ernment totally miscalculating the mandate that was given to them. You all need to be reminded that you were promised that life would have been better no matter what and the people overwhelmingly voted for better. You have asked the people to imagine the possi-bilities but the people are living in a different reality. People are past frustration, we are growing to a point of desperation. I want you to come back to the people so that they can reaffi rm the mandate that they have given to you or are you afraid. If you are so popular and such a good transparent govern-ment then call the election. Or are you afraid to imagine the possi-bilities? I am sure that the people have already made up their mind, all you have to do is the right thing. Call the election and you will get your mandate. For now this is just my Impartial View.

Record number of � res on � rst month of 2011

Continued from page 460ft. by 15ft. mobile home with the north side engulfed in fl ames. Virgilia Chable, 57yrs, domes-tic reported that at 11:50pm on 24.01.11, she was alerted by her grandson that one of the rooms was on fi re. The fi re was extin-guished by personnel from the fi re department. The cause of the fi re has not yet been ascertained and the house is not insured. Po-lice investigation continues.

• On 25.01.11, Police visited JC Street, Belize City where they saw a wooden bungalow house completely engulfed in fl ames. The fi re was later extinguished by personnel from the Fire De-partment. Police later discovered the burnt body of Olivia Supal, 81yrs, of the same address lying face down in the kitchen area. Initial investigation revealed that on 25.01.11, Supal was at home alone when the house was seen on fi re. Supal was unable to exit the house and as a result perished. The building did not have electricity and the house was completely destroyed by fi re. The cause of the fi re has not yet

been ascertained and the value of the building and its content is unknown. Police investigation continues.

• Police are investigating a house fi re that occurred on the 30th Jan-uary 2011. At about 8:20pm Po-lice responded to a scene at #69 Vernon Street, Belize City where upon arrival they saw a plywood house approximately 15ft x 25ft engulfed in fl ames. The fi re was extinguished by Fire Department personnel. The house was com-pletely destroyed. Initial inves-tigations revealed that the house owner Dishawn ROWLAND and his common-law wife Keisha BANNER were involved in a do-mestic dispute and shortly after the house was seen on fi re. Dis-hawn ROWLAND is wanted for questioning in connection with this report.

• Police visited the K.H.M.H. about 4:45am on the 2.2.11 where they saw Denfi eld Carr, 41yrs, laborer of a Belize City address suffering from two apparent gun-shot wounds to the lower part of his back. Initial investigations revealed that Carr was sleeping under an abandoned house..



By: Nuri Muhammad The UDP’s rejecti on of Mayor Ze-naida Moya Flowers’ bid to contest the Fort George or Albert Division as Standard Bearer, based on a techni-cality, did not go down very well with advocates of women in politi cs. There are already not enough wom-en at the nati onal level of politi cs in the country, they argue. There are currently no elected women in the Nati onal Assembly and while sev-eral women have served in the Sen-ate, including its current President, the fi eld of prospecti ve women can-didates for the House is scarce. Historically, only a small per-centage of women have actually entered politi cs in Belize. Deputy Leader of the Peoples United Par-ty, Carolyn Trench Sandiford noted recently that the PUP in its reform pledge is committ ed to see at least 30% of its leadership positi ons held by women. But should emphasis be on the number of women in politi cs or on the quality of informed politi -cians to enter the politi cal process? It would seem that starti ng from a premise of merely increasing the number of women in the process is to miss the signifi cance of enhanc-ing the quality of politi cians and fall into the delusion of the ‘numbers game’; and you know the numbers game; the one that says the number of women who sit in the House is the gauge of women’s politi cal pow-er. As if the presence of females is of some signifi cance beyond being just another member of the House. The numbers game is based on the premise that the strength of women is seen in numbers when in reality the real strength of women should be defi ned by much more. In a representati ve system where the fi nal power rest with the Prime Minister and his/her Cabinet, numbers don’t aff ect the fi nal out-come of Cabinet decisions. The vote of a parti cular consti tuency winner is immaterial to the real scheme of things, whether that representati ve is male or female. While strong pop-ular consti tuency support can con-ti nue to make a minister a favorite in the eyes of the public if that min-ister gets around the Cabinet table the dynamics is diff erent. Popularity becomes less a factor. For women to gauge their power by the number of politi cal representati ves they have is sti ll to miss the whole idea of a new holis-ti c system where the disti nct quali-ti es of womanhood are brought to bear in the discourse of the politi cal system. Those of us who yearn for a new kind of politi cal dispensati on in Belize don’t want to ‘feel’ women only in their numbers but also in that special, unique and disti nct na-ture that the Creator has endowed them with. This is the ‘woman pow-er’ that we want to see in politi cs, something that will inject a new-ness into the process and not the same ole same ole diatribe of male

Women in Politicsdominated politi cal discourse. I have said in previous columns that the woman’s movement in Belize tends to borrow from the Euro-American woman indiscrimi-nately in order to advance their movement. I think however, that while the goal of women empower-ment and advocati ng gender equity is universal it’s important that they use strategies that are relevant to the Belizean experience and will ad-vance their cause. In retrospect, one can opine that the American women’s movement started on the wrong foot because its idea of progress was advance-ment in a system, which at its root was not sympatheti c to the special qualiti es of women. It was a white male oriented system that judged things and people based on uti lity and used them accordingly. In the age of industry and war a woman could not be equal to a man in terms of uti lity; therefore the sys-tem automati cally undervalued women based on their producti ve capabiliti es. When the march for women rights started in the US in the early 20th century it started as a ‘numbers game’, based on gaining power and infl uence in the politi cal system. By the early sixti es the movement had made giant strides aft er the passage of the Civil Right legislati on in the US in 1964. This new law brought tremendous gains to women in terms of equal access to educati on, employment, politi cs and the mili-tary but despite these gains enough emphasis was not placed on the unique qualiti es of women, there-fore her unique and special nurtur-ing qualiti es were left underscored. What the white women’s move-ment basically said was give me an equal chance to be just like a man rather than give me the right to ex-press my unique qualiti es and bring those special qualiti es to the table. This push for equal access in the military, for example, has ended women in the foxhole with men in warzones like Iraq and Afghani-stan. As a result, the US Pentagon is currently dealing with an alarming amount of sexual assaults on these female soldiers by their male coun-terparts. Many Euro-American women have now realized that their so-called progress was up a ladder leaning against the wrong wall. There are numerous stories of women who have left their execu-ti ve positi ons in government and the private sector in the last decade to return to the home environment as the base of their professional operati on. Many came to realize that to advance in the white man’s world, according to his quanti tati ve paradigm, is to become another part of the same problem that is af-fecti ng the world and that the same system that oppressed women was turning women into parti cipants in the same oppressive process. From the very beginning the goal of the fi ght of women against

the system should have been for women to get a chance to make a diff erence; to put a female spin on what’s going on and not simply to get a piece of the acti on of the same-ole-same-ole. Women can be outstanding in any area of government. Their ana-lyti cal skills and management acu-men is noted throughout our social history in Belize, both in and outside of government. Women in their in-tellect are no diff erent than men both must stand before a monolith-ic truth based on facts that have no owner. In every principle that em-bodies our consti tuti on women are equal to men. But politi cs in Belize, by and large, is sti ll a male domi-nated game, and women, though diff erent, are more diff erent in style than in substance. Some female politi cians are just a female version of the same kind of politi cs we have come to accept from men? For example, what disti ncti ve qualiti es of womanhood did Z, as Mayor of Belize’s largest municipal-

ity bring to the politi cal landscape? It seems that she got involved in the same things men politi cians have been caught in for decades: self aggrandizement, nepoti sm and corrupti on. I can’t recollect where Z ever disti nguished herself as a new kind of politi cian; that is, “a woman” politi cian. Where was she diff erent? Despite the fact that males domi-nate the politi cal landscape the fact of the matt er is that men are just as defi cient as women in understand-ing the politi cal process and how to parti cipate meaningfully in it. The reality is that the ordinary Belizean man, like woman, sti ll doesn’t know how the system works and is there-fore just as much in need of being empowered in the politi cal process. Therefore, if women are to make a signifi cant diff erence in the politi cs of Belize they will have to begin to charter a new course, disti nct from what we have come to accept as politi cs as usual. (Comments wel-comed at [email protected])

Barrow’s Deception Continues...Editor Sir, It appears that Barrow continues to mislead the people and propagandize all his injustices as brilliant moves to a supine nation whose people are so frustated in just staying alive that he appears to avoid answering for his crass and gross ineptitude. It is use-less to say that the economy stinks, that the media is silent on all his bad laws, his bad judgment, his continu-ing aiding and abetting the� of per-sonal and government properties, and his sleight-of-hand in dealing with his brother, his nephew, et al in the recent scandalous oil exploration lease in the Maya mountains. But it is useless to complain inasmuch as the PUP has committed the same crime and then some in their stran-glehold they had on the economy. You see in Belize, the conventional wisdom is you have to stop some-one from progress and progressing for you to advance. Such thinking is

anathema to enlightened and critical thinking.. � e economy will never improve and progress and develop-ment will never amount to much if we dont change our thinking. We have to put party politics aside and start unifying our ideas to help each other � rst, to rid the country of the albatross of foreign intrusion in our economy through the � scal incen-tives provided by BELTRAIDE, the misguided leadership of the Cham-ber of Commerce, the salacious and obscene taxes, the silence of the CHURCH and MEDIA in calling out the criminalities committed by the government. We have a long way to go but we have to start some place and that is to create a pluralistic gov-ernment and ban both the UDP and PUP and reverse all their parasitic laws enriching themselves and im-poverishing the people.

BY: Johnny Walker


Belize City, February 1, 2011

The Gwen Lizarraga High School girls will challenge the defending champs, the St Catherine’s Acad-emy girls in the Central Secondary Schools Sports Association (CSS-SA) football championship fi nals which begin on Thursday, February 3, after both teams won thru to the fi nals by victories in the semifi nals at the MCC grounds on Monday and Tuesday.The Gwen Liz girls advanced to the fi nals, when they eliminated the Pallotti high school girls 1-0 in overtime on Tuesday. Deandra Coote and Jersha Estrada led the Gwen Liz attacks, support-ed by Kenya Brown, Audreanna Meighan and Jaslyn Cadle at mid-fi eld, but they could not get by the Pallotti defense anchored by Jinelly Pott with the help of Gorlee Marin and Vivian Noralez.Athnee Alford and Khadejah Wilson led the Pal-lotti attacks, but they met stiff resis-tance from the Gwen Liz defenders: Faith Mejia, Jasmine Joseph and Justine Westby. Even so Khadejah Wilson had a chance to put Pallotti into the fi nals, when she unleashed a long range missile of a shot that crashed into the left upright and would have defl ected into the goal, but for the lightning refl exes

sca & gwen liz girls win thru to csssa sca & gwen liz girls win thru to csssa sca & gwen liz girls win thru to csssa football finals

of Gwen Liz goalkeeper Olie-sha Myles.

R e g u l a t i o n time ended in a scoreless draw and the game went into over-time, and Jersha Es-trada suc-c e e d e d in blast-ing the b a l l p a s t t h e Pallotti goalie just before the end of the fi rst fi ve minutes of overtime. Jinelly Pott switched to playing forward as the Pallotti girls pulled out all the stops in an attempt to get the equalizer, but the fi nal whis-tle sounded to a Gwen Liz 1-0 win.

The St Catherine’s Academy girls also won through to the fi nals when they outgunned the Wesley College girls 3-2 in a penalty shootout Mon-day night. Tyra Moriera and Leera Carr led the SCA attacks supported by Tatiana Habet and Kyanna Gor-

don on the wings and Chris-tiane Rodriguez and Kursha Pol-lard at midfi eld. They made little impression on the tenacious de-fense of Wesley’s Kathleen Sabal, Erica Milligan, Chineyere Wade and Symone Foreman. Elisha Ber-mudez and Iman Mckenzie led the Wesley attacks supported by Anna Pinto, Dayan Aguilar and Ruby Jimenez, but were held to a score-

into a penalty s h o o t -

out, dur-ing which K u r -sha Pol-

l a r d , Chrisitane Rodriguez and A s h l e y Pelayo converted their penalties for SCA. Wesley’s Anna Pinto convert-ed her try, but the SCA goalie Ash-ley White came up with 3 saves to deny the Wesley girls. Even though Wesley goalie Latesha Hughes con-verted her try, it made no difference, as the SCA girls had already won.

Pallotti goalie just before the end of the fi rst fi ve minutes of overtime. Jinelly Pott switched to playing forward as the Pallotti girls pulled out all the stops in an attempt to get the equalizer, but the fi nal whis-tle sounded to a Gwen Liz 1-0 win.

don don on the on the wings and Chris-wings and Chris-tiane Rodriguez and Kursha Pol-tiane Rodriguez and Kursha Pol-lard at midfi eld. They made little lard at midfi eld. They made little impression on the tenacious de-impression on the tenacious de-

into a into a penalty s h o o t -

out, dur-ing which K u r -sha Pol-

l a r d , l a r d , Chrisitane Rodriguez and Rodriguez and A s h l e y

of Gwen Liz of Gwen Liz goalkeeper Olie-sha Myles.

R e g u l a t i o n time ended in a scoreless draw and the game went into over-time, and Jersha Es-trada suc-c e e d e d in blast-ing the b a l l

into a

less draw by the SCA defense of Ashley Pelayo, Deidra gill, Aaliyah Williams and Leanne Murray.The 10 minutes of overtime also failed

to produce a goal and the game went

Belize City, January 30, 2011The Rising Stars and Blazin Blaz-zaz both posted wins when the Be-lize Telemedia under-15 basketball competition organized by the Be-lize District Basketball Association (BDBA) began at the Belize City Center over the weekend.In Game 1, the Rising Stars bounced the De-cons of Anglican Cathedral College 55-48. The Decons had led 17-11 in the 1st quarter, with Led by Auburn Rivero scoring 21pts. The Stars’ Rodrick Williams scored 18pts, but Raheem Trumbach’s 6pts and Da-vid Bennett’s and Keyvon Griffi th’s 5pts each gave Decon a 25-23 lead at the half.Fredrick Williams and Zachary Usher scored 6pts each and Shaquille Crawford added 5pts to give the Stars a 42-38 lead by the 3rd quarter. Jared Marin, Trey Lumien, Jamal Dawson and Dmitri

Fabro each tossedin a bucket for the 55-48 win.In Game 2 on Sun-day, the Blazin Blaz-zaz burnt the SJC Wildcats 49-39. The Blazzaz’ led 14-13 at the end of the fi rst q u a r t e r , with Rod-ney Mor-ris’ 12pts. The Wild-cats’ Francis-co Malik also scored 12pts and K’lon Augustus add-ed 10pts. But the Blazzaz led 29-167 at the half with Mateo Gutierrez’s 7pts and Dedric Ram-clam and Justin Bailey’s 6pts each.

Kirk Brown and Asyel Lopez each scored 4pts for the

Wildcats, but the Blazzaz

maintened their lead as Dion L e w i s tossed in 4pts a n d G a l -vin Ca-

c e r e s , R e n e

M y v e t t e , Jarvis Smith

and Devon Arnold scored a bucket each for the 49-39 win.In Game 3 on Sunday , the Rising Stars posted their 2nd win 76-64 against Plaza. Sydney

Bradley led the Stars with 22pts ad Rodrick Williams’ 18pts gave the Stars a 23-16 in the 1st quarter Plaza’s Jovanni Broaster put the Plaza boys on the scoreboard with a scored a reverse lay-up, he fi n-ished with 12pts before he fouled out of the game.Shaquile Crawford scored 9pts and Fredrick Williams added 8pts as the Stars led 42-24 at the half. Plaza’s Mark Thompson scored 18 pts, but the Stars were up 59-45 by the end of the 2rd quarter. Plaza’s Gavin Murillo scored 10pts and Gildon Rowland and Wilson Cadle added 7pts each, while the Stars’ Keyvon Evans scored 5pts and Andrew Vasquez, Dmitri Fab-ro,. Zacchary Usher and Trey Len-non each scored a basket for the win.

ris’ 12pts. The Wild-cats’ Francis-co Malik also scored 12pts and K’lon Augustus add-ed 10pts. But the Blazzaz led 29-167 at the half with Mateo


Wildcats, but the Blazzaz

maintened their lead as Dion L e w i s tossed in 4pts a n d G a l -vin Ca-

c e r e s , R e n e

M y v e t t e , Jarvis Smith

and Devon Arnold scored a bucket each for the 49-39 win.In Game 3 on Sunday ,

Fabro each tossedin a bucket for the 55-48 win.In Game 2 on Sun-day, the Blazin Blaz-zaz burnt the SJC Wildcats 49-39. The Blazzaz’ led 14-13 at the end

Fabro each tossedin a bucket for the Kirk Brown and Asyel Lopez each Fabro each tossedin a bucket for the 55-48 win.In Game 2 on Sun-

Kirk Brown and Asyel Lopez each

and Devon Arnold scored a bucket each for the 49-

day, the Blazin Blaz-


Wildcats, but

as Dion L e w i s tossed in 4pts

zaz burnt the SJC Wildcats 49-39. The Blazzaz’ led 14-13 at the end

the Blazzaz maintened

their lead


Manatee Lookout, January 29, 2011

Discovery Expeditions’ Ziprider canoe paddled by Jerry Rhaburn, Efrain and Felix Cruz clocked 1:26:51 as they won the Belize Ca-noe Association’s 4th annual Boom to Manatee Lookout race on Satur-day. They won both the 1st prize overall and the 1st prize in the men’s categoryThe Belize Bank canoe, paddled by Ervin, Amado and Dan-iel Cruz clocked 1:26:47 when it crossed the fi nish line, but it had not passed the marker buoy as laid out in the ground rules for the race at the technical meeting before the race began, so they placed 2nd.Oscar Cordon, Jimmy Valdez and Ar-min Lopez clocked 1:26:59 as they paddled the N.I.C.H. canoe to a 3rd place fi nish.The defend-ing champs, the Citrus Products of Belize Limited team: Chris Guydis, Leon Gillett and Sheldon Seguro, clocked 1:27:41 as they paddled to a 4th place fi nish..Duke Marine’s “Lost and Found” canoe, paddled by Janice Leslie and Justin and Eldon Sanchez clocked 1;30:29 for their 5th place fi nish, but they won the 1st prize in the Mixed cat-egory.The St Ignatius High School canoe, paddled by Sergio Lopez,

Team Ziprider wins 4th Annual BCA Boom to Manatee Lookout canoe race

Byron Cruz and Alfred Lopez, pulled in 6th, but won 1st prize in the Intramural category. The Koop Sheet Met-al canoe, paddled by Andreas, Francisca Phaender and Eric Cano pulled in 7th to place 2nd in the Mixed category.The Belize Poul-try Associa-tion’s “Just Do It” canoe, pad-dled by Anthony Rodriguez, Orlan-do Habet and Fran-cis Coleman pulled in 8th overall and 5th in the Men’s category.

The Westrac Auto Parts canoe, paddled by Jerry Cante, Elmer and Homer Cruz cross the fi nish line in 9th place overall, clocking 1:33:20 to win 1st prize in the Pleasure ca-noe category.Team Print Belize: Jesus Cruz, Rudolph Gentle and Ja-vier Guardado usually dominate the Pleasure category, but this year they had to settle for 2nd as they clocked

1:33:42 to fi nish 10th overall.The Police Department’s Crimefi ght-

ers team: Evelio Flores, Jerome

Ingram and Neri Waight

paddled in to an 11th

p l a c e f i n i s h o v e r -a l l , w i n -n i n g

3 r d place in

the Plea-sure cat-

e g o r y . T h e “United Boys”,

Rupert Smith, George Benja-

min and Marvin Smith paddled to a 12th place fi nish overall and 6th in the Men’s Category.Team Grumpy Old Men: Francis Codd, Joe Fuzy and Jerry Wilkins clocked 1:39:45 as they pulled in to 13th place to win the Masters category, edging out the Sea Sports canoe “Watt a ting” paddled by the Searle broth-ers, Mike and Johnny “Watt”, and

Jim Scott, who had been playing catch-up for most of the way after they capsized at the start.The Police Department’s Peacemakers team: Jane Usher, Christine Jacobs and Delia Hyde, clocked 1:40:40 as they won the female category, fi n-ishing 15th overall.The Reimer’s Feed Mill “Family Boys” Keron Cabb, Efrain Quemell and Braulio Zetina clocked 1:43:25 as they pad-dled their dory to win the category, fi nishing 16th overall.BATSUB Sean Smithson, Shaun Paddlon and John Smith clocked 1:46:48 as they paddled their “There me That’s Mine” canoe to fi nish 17th overall. BATSUB’s Bow Thrusters, Dan Markwell, Lance Neilson and Al-lan Graham were 18th.BATSUB’s “Misfi ts”, Abi Horton, Stuart Frost and Julian Towers placed 19th over-all and 3rd in the Mixed team divi-sion.Vista Auto Rentals’ Luis Marin, Ezekiel Myvette and Allan Bainton, fi nished 20th overall and 4th in the pleasure category.The “Other Grumpies”, Otto Peterson, Denis Johnson and Jamil Segura fi nished 21st overall and 3rd in the Masters’ divisionThe “Jelly Babies” Stacey Smithson, Scot Maynard and Helen Golea of BATSUB fi nished 22nd and fourth in the mixed division.

the Intramural category. The Koop Sheet Met-al canoe, paddled by Andreas, Francisca

Cano pulled in 7th to place 2nd

category.The

ers team: Evelio Flores, Jerome

Ingram and Neri Waight

paddled in to an 11th

p l a c e

o v e r -a l l , w i n -

Belize City, January 29, 2011The San Pedro High School girls and the Corozal Community Col-lege boys will represent the North-ern Division at the upcoming na-tional football tournament to be hosted by the National Secondary Schools Sports Association (NSS-SA) at the Marshalleck Stadium in Benque Viejo del Carmen on Friday and Saturday, February 11-12. The both teams qualifi ed to the nationals by winning the northern regionals hosted by Orange Walk Technical High School at the People’s Sta-dium in Orange Walk Town on Satur-day, January 29.In Game 1, the San Pedro High School girls a d v a n c e d to the fi nals by a 1-0 win over the girls of King’s College, who had held them scoreless up to intermis-sion. Samantha Galeano scored the winning goal in the 2nd half. The Orange Walk Technical High School girls had also advanced to the fi nals by a 2-1 victory over the girls of Corozal Community College girls. Norelly Terry had scored fi rst for Orange Walk in the 16th minute of play, and the sugar city girls led 10-0 up to the half time break. Rocio Romero

San Pedro High girls and CCC boys win Northern football regionalsequalized for Corozal 8 minutes be-fore the end of the second half and Norelly Terry scored the winning goal in the 4th minute of overtime.The Corozal Community College boys had advanced to the fi nals by a 5-3 victory over Be-lize High School of Agri-culture in a penalty shoot-out, after regulation play ended in a 1-1 draw. Jose Rubi had scored fi rst for Coro-

zal some 15 minutes into the 2nd half, but Osmar Du-ran had equalized for BHSA in the fi nal minute of regulation time.Jesse James Smith had scored the winning goal in the 9th minute of overtime for the San Pedro High School boys to advance to the fi nals by a 1-0 victory over the Orange Walk Technical High School boys.

The Isla Bonita girls triumphed 3-2 over the Orange Walk Technical High School

girls in a penalty shootout in the girls’ fi nals after regulation play and two fi ve minutes pe-riods of overtime ended in a scoreless draw. Norelia Terry converted fi rst for Orange Walk, while the fi rst kicker for San Pedro missed the goal completely. San Pe-dro’s goalie Emelie Cerpa

succeeded in stopping the Sugar City girls’ next 2 tries, while Xio-mara Valdez converted her try to equalize for San Pedro, but Orange Walk’s goalkeeper Bianca Sabido stopped Samantha Galeano’s try. Juliette Sabido gave the Sugar City girls a 2-1 lead when she drilled the ball past Cerpa, but Damariz Caliz equalized for San Pedro with a shot that defl ected of Bianca Sabido’s

leg. Cerpa stopped Or- a n g e

Walk’s 5th try, and the island girls celebrated their 3-2 win when Bianca Leslie Maclean blasted in a shot that Sabido had no chance of stopping.The Coro-zal Community College boys also won 1-0 over the San Pedro High School boys in the fi nal. Wilfredo Lopez scored the winning goal early in the 1st half, when he con-nected with a header to fi nish a corner kick. Jesse James Smith led the San Pedro’s counterattack ably supported by Samuel Figueroa at midfi eld, but the island boys suf-fered a huge setback when a blatant foul caused Figueroa to be ejected from the ball game with a red card before the half time break. The Isla Bonita boys still dominated play for much of the 2nd half, but the Coro-zal boys’ defense kept them off the scoreboard until the long whistle.

equalized for Corozal 8 minutes be-fore the end of the second half and Norelly Terry scored the winning

lize High School of Agri-culture in a penalty shoot-out, after regulation play ended in a 1-1 draw. Jose

The Isla Bonita girls triumphed 3-2 over the Orange Walk Technical High School

girls


Walk’s 5th try, and the island girls celebrated their 3-2

High School

leg. Cerpa stopped Or-

High School


High School

leg. Cerpa stopped Or-

by winning the northern regionals hosted by Orange Walk Technical High School at the People’s Sta-dium in Orange

ended in a 1-1 draw. Jose Rubi had scored fi rst for Coro-

zal some 15 minutes

in a penalty shootout in the girls’ fi nals after regulation play and two fi ve minutes pe-riods of overtime ended in a scoreless draw. Norelia Terry converted fi rst for Orange Walk, while the fi rst kicker for San Pedro missed the goal completely. San Pe-dro’s goalie Emelie Cerpa

succeeded in stopping the Sugar City girls’ next 2 tries, while Xio-

ended in a 1-1 draw. Jose Rubi had scored fi rst for

day, January 29.In Game 1, the San Pedro High School girls a d v a n c e d to the fi nals by a 1-0 win over the girls of King’s College, who had held them scoreless up to intermis-sion. Samantha Galeano scored the winning goal

dium in Orange High School at the People’s Sta-dium in Orange

Coro-

in a penalty shootout in the

play and two fi ve minutes pe-riods of overtime ended in a scoreless draw. Norelia Terry converted fi rst for Orange Walk, while the fi rst kicker for San Pedro missed the goal completely. San Pe-dro’s goalie Emelie Cerpa


In the coming week Belizeans will mark three anniversaries in the life of the UDP adminis-tration. February 7th will be the three-year-anniversary of the UDP administration in offi ce and February 10th will be the one-year-anniversary of the launching of the 2010 Housing and Popula-tion Census. I fi gure when those two dates roll around many will mark it in disenchantment with the way things have turned out. Although there wasn’t much faith in Prime Minister Barrow’s abil-ity to lead or his leadership style, there was great hope by the mass-es that a Barrow/UDP administra-tion will bring about “change” for the better - that by now those pos-sibilities that we were encouraged to imagine would have come to fruition. This year when the Prime Min-ister addressed the nation for the New Year, he continued to harp on the effects of the global economic crisis as being the main reason for Belize’s once again poor eco-nomic performance. He also con-tinued on his old song about the signs of improvement in Ameri-can economy which would mean growth for the Belizean economy. While Barrow may believe this and wants us to believe this – the reality is that his government has failed to deliver. The PM’s tenure so far has been marked by what has become signature Barrow, family and friends hegemonic be-havior. We have seen the arduous effort made at amending a number of ar-eas in the Constitution of Belize. The series of consultations play over and over in my head since I am yet to come up with a plausi-ble explanation why Barrow and his government wanted so badly to change certain parts of the Con-stitution. We have watched again as the relatives and friends of the Prime Minister were appointed to high paying offi ces and as some became rich in a few short years. The Barrow nepotism knows no bound. And if it were not enough that the Prime Minister’s fi rst wife is the lead attorney for the Government of Belize and that the Prime Min-ister’s brother is a justice on the Court of Appeal bench and the Prime Minister’s son is a member of the board of directors at BTL and the Prime Minister’s daugh-ter has also represented the Gov-ernment of Belize alongside her mother the fi rst wife of the Prime Minister – this week we learn of the Prime Minister’s nephew hav-

As if injury was not enough ...the Barrows’ add insult!

ing 50% shareholding in Paradise Energy, a company that has been granted concession to explore for oil in the Maya Mountain Massif - a protected area of the country. That nephew might I add, has had a seat on the Public Utilities Com-mission. The Amandala newspaper which was obviously chagrined by the turn of events with the Barrow administration commented on the condescending and aloof attitude shown them when they inquired of nephew Barrow’s latest achieve-ment. According to the Amandala, neph-ew Barrow dismissed their inquiry saying that he only returned their call because he thought that it was about something important. The audacity of this….! Amandala like many who voted for the UDP (including me) have been eating crow having wit-nessed the rapacious behavior of the Barrow regime – even though the Prime Minister promised to re-act to the slightest whiff of corrup-tion he seemed have instead gotten high off the stench that it has no effect on him. Barrow played the fool when asked about his neph-ew’s new enterprise and is typical, he defended it. Which brings me to my other is-sue – that of the Prime Minister’s penchant to delude. Flip back to Barrow’s fi rst statements after be-coming Prime Minister of Belize and one will fi nd a litany of empty promises and outright lies that he has told to the people of Belize. He certainly has not kept the one to stamp out corruption. He has not ensured that Belize lives up to its obligations as a signatory to anti-corruption charters. Bar-row continues to stubbornly defy the people by keeping his family and friends on those parasitic con-tracts. Never mind that his brother has announced his departure from the Court of Appeal bench and his son is said to be leaving the board of directors of BTL – the damage has been done.As we mark the one year anniver-sary of the launching of the 2010 Housing and Population Census – we will also mark yet another failure by the Barrow administra-tion. The census which was said to have infused an 11% boost in eco-nomic activity in third quarter and which was classifi ed as “the single most extensive, complicated and expensive statistical operation that is undertaken by a national statis-tics offi ce,” has for all intents and purpose been aborted. Not even

counting how many people are in Belize at a particular time this government has been able to do successfully. My inquiries into why the census has not been completed have fall-en on deaf ears and I guess with the fl ippant answer of nephew Barrow to the Amandala, I now know why – it is not important.At the launching at the Fort George Hotel last year February, the cen-sus was billed as exercise to give a “snapshot and portrait of a coun-try’s population at a particular point in time.” Well we know not exactly how many people live in Belize and just what government expenditure should be to meet the needs of the people and all the good things that can be derived from the once every ten years ex-ercise. The attitude is one of in-difference yet the Prime Minister can quote us information suppos-edly produced by the Statistical Institute of Belize. Yet the Prime Minister can tell us BS that the economy has shown some sign of growth based on SIB information. We know however that poverty and unemployment continue to wreak havoc on the Belizean pop-ulation and economy. Barrow and his government are yet to address

those two major issues with poli-cies meant to create jobs for our people and alleviate the excruciat-ing pain of poverty. The declara-tion two years ago that 43% of our population are said to be living in poverty still stuns me. Even more stunning is that there has not been any meaningful effort to address this. We are talking about almost half the country’s population here!Unemployment which also ex-ploded under Barrow’s watch is also another disturbing issue for me because of the Barrow govern-ment’s nonchalance toward this. It begs the question – how can the PM be claiming any growth or improvement in our situation in the face of these two stubborn is-sues that will not go away unless there is dedicated effort to address them? The token little job pro-grams to sweep and clean drains and census are nowhere near ad-equate to meet demands. Barrow seems to think that we are stupid and he can come to us with his usual poetry and that will fi ll the bellies of many a hungry man, woman and child…I’d like to think the jig is up for this chancy set but who will tell them? We trod on…..

Subscribe to Belize’s Fastest growing Newspaper

Publisher/ Editor: Omar Silva Email : [email protected]@gmail.com Web: nationalperspectivebz.org

Mail: National Perspective Weekly Newspaper # 25 Nanche Street Belmopan, Cayo 501-628-3215

Subscriber’s Name:________________________________Address: ________________________________________City: __________________State:_____________________Zip:_______Country:______________________________

E-mail: _______________________________________Telephone______________________________________

Receive Belize’s “National Perspective” Weekly in your mailbox: Yearly subscription: 52 ISSUES (12 months).Domestic subscription: $100.00 BZ. 52 ISSUES (one year)Yearly subscription: 52 ISSUES (12 months).Caribbean , Central América ,US, Canadá and México Price: $US 100.00

Domestic subscription: Half year subscription: 26 ISSUES (6 months). $60.00 BZ.

The Caribbean , Central América ,US, Canadá and México Half year subscription: 26 ISSUES (6 months). $US50.00

ADVERTISE WITH US AND SUPPORT A TRULY FREE PRESS

Call us at Tel: 00-501-628-3215




Notice is hereby given that OSCAR GUTIERREZ is applying for a PUBLICAN SPECIAL LIQUOR LICENSE to be operated at MCG’S Bar, Independence, Stann Creek District under the INTOXICATING LI-QUOR LICENSING ORDINANCE, Revised Edition 1980.Notice is hereby given that ZULMA ZERON is applying for a CIDER LIQUOR LICENSE to be operated at ZULMA’S SHOP, BELLA VISTA Village, Stann Creek District under the INTOXICATING LI-QUOR LICENSING ORDINANCE, Revised Edition 1980.Notice is hereby given that SEAN SABAL is applying for a MALT & CIDER LIQUOR LICENSE to be operated at SABELIZE SHED, Dangriga, Stann Creek District under the INTOXICATING LIQUOR LICENSING ORDINANCE, Revised Edition 1980.

By: G. Michael ReidIn February 2008, following months of demonstrations and a sustained civil unrest called for and sanctioned by the current Prime Minister, the United Democratic Party (UDP) was swept into offi ce with a huge mandate. They assumed offi ce with an impres-sive manifesto of lofty promises and a pledge for transparency, accountabil-ity and good governance. A full three years later, the UDP have proven to be one big disappointment and as cor-rupt, dishonest and distasteful a pos-sibility as ever could be imagined.This past Tuesday in Belmopan, a small group of protestors gathered to voice their displeasure with the Prime Minister over the latest in a long series of missteps on the part of his government. At the forefront are their concerns about the contin-ued parceling of national land for the purpose of oil exploration but the list included a long number of other seri-ous concerns. The citizens of Belize have long expressed their dissatisfac-tion with this government over the distribution of licenses and permits to drill for oil near our barrier reef and in protected areas. Yet, the policy con-tinues and has become more blatant and outrageous. News broke last week of yet another parcel of national land, this one en-compassing the sacred Maya Moun-tains which includes large areas of protected reserves, being parceled out and granted for exploration. This time, no less than the nephew of the Prime Minister himself was the re-cipient of hundreds of thousands of acres. This was a decision made in Cabinet, yet when queried, Mr. Bar-row claimed to know nothing about the deal. Some have compared Mr. Barrow to Obama but none would compare him to George Washington, who according to legend would not tell a lie. Meanwhile, in Belize City, street vendors have been protesting their exclusion from the Fort Street Tour-ism Village and threatened to launch their own protest at that site. Fruit and vegetable vendors have been constantly at odds with the Belize City Council over unfair conditions and unreasonable costs of operating at the newly built MFM. (Michael Finnegan Market). The arrogant at-titude of the UDP and their insistence on doing things their way, in spite of the people’s objections, is creating a powder keg and making conditions ripe for some very tumultuous times ahead.Many believe that our Prime Minister should be paying keen attention to the situation that is developing in North Africa and the Middle East. For a certainty, the very conditions that are proving the driving force behind the deepening violence over there are the very same conditions that are being faced by our people here at home; those conditions have been slowly stirring our people to protest. Ironi-cally, what has proven the propellant for the most eruptive upheaval in recent times, even for that perpetu-

From Egypt to Mesop...ally troubled area of the world, was a humble market vendor who felt that he had been pushed to the point of ul-timate desperation.Mohamed Bouazizi was a 26-year-

old university graduate who after failing to fi nd employment, turned to selling fruits and vegetables for a living. He constructed a wooden cart in which he would push his products to the local town market to sell in an effort to provide for his family. His relatives claim that he was constantly harassed by municipal offi cials who demanded unreasonable fees which he apparently could not afford. (How closely does that resemble cur-rent situations at the MFM!) When Bouazizi could not pay the prescribed fees, town authorities broke up his cart and stopped him from selling his wares. In desperation, Bouazizi stood on his vegetable cart, doused himself with gasoline and lit a fi re that contin-ues to burn out of control and shows no sign of smothering anytime soon.That one incident sparked a ground-swell of protest which spread from province to province resulting in the total collapse of the Tunisian govern-ment and which is currently threaten-ing the stability of the entire region. The government of Egypt is on the verge of collapse and unrest in neigh-boring Yemen, Jordan and Saudi Ara-bia has prompted those governments to hurriedly put in place some very drastic political reforms.Here in Belize, politicians have long paid lip-service to the demands for re-form and despite promising the peo-ple a share of the country’s resources, Dean Barrow has done nothing but favor his immediate family and cro-nies. In the last week, we have seen the resignation of Mr. Barrow’s broth-er from the court of appeals and the removal of his son from the board of directors of BTL. One wonders if it might not maybe, be just too little, too very late. A close look at the make-up of just about every ministry in this Dean Barrow Cabinet shows them top heavy with members of the respective minister’s close family. Key among the issues being protested by the populace of those countries in the Middle East is corruption, in-cluding nepotism, high cost of living, increased taxation, extreme poverty and high unemployment. Those very issues are prominent here in Belize and have been the impetus behind the current disgruntlement of our people. Take heed Mr. Barrow, just as one relatively small incident like a street vendor setting himself ablaze can result in widespread unrest and the collapse of governments elsewhere; it might take just one small issue to ignite the smoldering level of dis-content besetting our people here at home. Belizeans are not asleep. We see how high and comfortable our elect-ed offi cials are living. While we must settle for second-hand clothing and a transportation system in shambles, they fl aunt their Armani’s, Rolexes and Guccis and breeze past us in their custom fi tted SUV’s. While they fl y fi rst class to Savannah, London and

Miami, we can only make irregular pilgrimages to visit our relatives in Hattieville. While they drink their champagne and laugh, we must sip our “red top” and grimace. While they feast on steak and caviar we must settle for potted meat and noodles. There are some people making a lot of money in Belize. Mostly raping and exploiting our national patrimony. At the same time, poverty has grown to

almost fi fty percent and unemploy-ment among young people has tripled. The disparity between rich and poor has never been more pronounced and tens of thousands of young people are going without education. So far, the media has been successful in shield-ing this government from exposure but oh what a day, what a day when the pendulum swings!

Reliable reports coming out of San Pedro reveals that for four weeks now Caribeña Fuels gas station of San Pedro has suspended vehicu-lar fuel supply to the San Pedro Police Department patrol vehicles because there is presently an out-standing well over-due unpaid bill to pay. It’s been confi rmed that the police gas- bill with Caribeña Fuels, runs in the thousands of dollars and as a result the fuel supplier was forced to cut supply to the island police. According to the representatives of the fuel company, the situation has been a traditional problem especially with the police where they have not been able to main-tain their accounts current with the company. In the past, Caribeña Fu-els allowed ample time for the ac-count to be cleared, but because of the economic conditions, the fuel company says that they are unable to allow anyone with longstand-ing bill, which includes the San Pedro Police Department, to oper-ate on a delinquent fuel account. Caribeña Fuels insists that they have attempted various avenues, including dialoguing with repre-

Hard-pay Police DepartmentVehicular fuel cut-oof in San Pedro

sentatives of the San Pedro Police Department but without results. The situation out on the island is terrible because business sources reveal the the police commander ASP Dennis Arnold has had no oth-er recourse but to solicit help from the business community out there. However, Arnold refused to comment on the suspension of fuel supply by the supplier. Caribeña Fuels representatives say that “we are well aware that the suspension of the account may cause serious inconvenience to the general public,” and added “however, we don’t understand why is it that it does not bother the Police Department to attempt to work out a payment plan with Ca-ribeña to alleviate this situation.” While the Police assured us that the services of the Police Depart-ment remain uninterrupted, it is a public concern. For its part, Caribeña Fuels says that as soon as the bill is cleared, the com-pany will reopen the Police’s ac-count because they realize and understand the importance of the service to the community.

APPLICATIONS FOR LIQUOR LICENSES



BirthsGriselda Ninel to Jose and Lesly Griselda Garcia nee RamirezHailey Adalyn to Estevan and Rufi na Tun nee GilharryAzizah Grace to Akinjide Zuberi and Tasneem Ansariyah Tewog-bola nee GraceAsquith Mandela to Reynaldo and Janeen Nicole St. Bernard nee ChaconLaila Alexia Karen to Ralph Enrique and Dawn Marie Nunez nee SampsonJulian to Rodimiro and Julia Damiana Franco nee JuarezKiersten Aaliyah to Raymond and Judith Barkman nee WiebeAdelease Sayleen to Lester Wayne and Kardy Petrona Gillett nee ReyesNikolai Michael to Richard Michael and Sviatlana Estephan nee TsitokHadassah Orecia to Ulpiano Reian and Georgia Orecia Leal nee Adolphus

MarriagesEdilberto Can to Sonia Ewlizabeth Molina Hernandez both of Val-ley of Peace, CayoFrancisco Bladimir Escobar to Sarai Lizeth Salazar both of Corozal Town, CorozalVito Antonjud Fonseca to Christine Lillian Paredez both of Belize CityChun Chin Liu to Ying Wu both of Belize CityJian Fei Huang to Xing Yi Zhu both of Belize CityLloyd Anthony Smith to Senaida Tomasita Antonia Flores both of Ladyville, BelizeMarlon Alexander Sutherland to Jannine Celeni Requena both of Belize CityNatividad Jesus Amor Obando to Rosella Ann Jacobs both of Stann CreekColin Micah Nelson to Megan Francis Dorner both of Oregon, USAGregory Ryasn Gibson to Leigh Anne Dwyer both of Mississippi, USAJesus Gonzalo Aguilar Paz to Rosa Isela Fonseca Guzman both of Veracruz, MexicoJustin Joseph Watson to Lori Ann Coers both of Washington, USABrandon Frederick Wright to Bridgette Anne Savorie both of Hous-ton, Texas, USABrett Percival Darrington to Andrea Lee Stratton both of California, USAGregory Ray Newton to Laura Jean Derry both of Alaska, USAAndre Albert Thouin III to Alanna Christine Ramirez Arnold both of Connecticut, USASecundino de Jesus Peralta to Deisy Carolina Valle Flores both of La Gracia, CayoJoaquin Salvador Flamenco to Reina Isabel Martinez both of La Gracia, CayoJeffrey David Pfaender of Oregon, USA to Francisca Cruz of Espe-ranza, CayoRodolfo Gutierrez to Norma Yesenia Gonzalez of Selena, CayoPedro Enrique Garay to Irma Lorena Figueroa both El Progresso, CayoDavid Heriberto Hernandez to Myra Elizabeth Alas both of Belmo-pan, CayoEder Ronaldo Cifuentes to Maria Marleni Gonzalez both of San Ignacio, Cayo

DeathsAlfred Elwin Dawson, 91Antolino Medina, 84Claudette Marie Neal, 40Lance Middleton, 44Reginald Narciso Rowley Sr. 72Sydney Barber, 61

Aries- You have your eye on the prize this week, but there’s more to life than this one particular goal, so, look around and consider the full spectrum of priorities. The give and take of life is richly rewarding, whether it’s at work, with friends or in a relationship so lend a hand, and get some support yourself -- it’ll feel great. Taking it easy isn’t always easy for you, but gives it a try this weekend, quiet time clears your head. Taurus-You’re starting the week off on the right foot, if the Uni-verse has its say. Get grounded with exercise, meditation, those who make you feel most wonderful -- and you can reach for the stars. The world may feel like it’s pushing you. Will you push back, or go with the fl ow and see where it takes you? Your person-al connections and community both fi gure prominently towards the weekend. Let your network work for you, and you may be able to give back, too. Gemini-A signifi cant friend or someone you’re partnering with at work may need handling with care this week. Listen carefully to what they’re saying, and urge them to verbalize the between-the-lines stuff. Are you being fi ckle or are you truly considering new ideas and points of view? Make sure things are legit before incorporating. Cre-ative activities and pursuits suit you and getting creative about com-munication helps, too, someone’s got some words of wisdom for you. Cancer-Retreating into your shell might not be a bad idea this week. Do check in with loved ones, though, and let your boss know ex-actly what you’re working on prior to clamping on the headphones. You may still be feeling sensitive, but exercise your emotional intel-ligence, too; you’ll see different aspects of situations around you. You’ve got a knack for connecting with others but you must inquire about their personal philosophies, and enjoy the discussion.

Leo-A random or not-so-random act of kindness gets the week to a positive start. You’ll want to take your outlook, turn it upside-down and shake well for best results. A terrifi c solution to a certain situation requires only a little stretch of the old noggin. Then let both intellect and instinct weigh in especially when it comes to others. Look and listen more than you talk, someone may throw you for a loop in the best possible way. Virgo-You’ve got your head on straight and a defi nite twinkle in your eye this week-- a stellar combination for both work and love. Kick a preconception, an expectation or a well-worn favourite way of doing something to the curb, and then try several ways of replacing it. Feels risky? Good. But acting im-patient won’t hurry things along. Go at your own pace, and let them do the same. You may be ready to take issue with some-one, but if it’s an older relative, choose your battle carefully. Libra- Expect some emotional ups and downs this week. Be ready to breathe, meditate or maybe run screaming through it, and have someone who understands ready on speed-dial. Around Wednesday, it’s the upside that’s emphasized, and the chance of romance is high! A new sweetie -- or renewed fun with a dear old one waits. Big agenda items and projects may be hard to cross off your list but smaller stuff can be surprisingly satisfying. Scorpio-Look at you, biding your time and making brilliant plans this week .You’ve got patience with a purpose and calm, cool and collected suits you. Things may be rockier around Wednesday; are you contributing to the drama or just in the audience? It’s easier to fi nd it amusing as an onlooker, so con-sider your role carefully. Let good times roll -- and let your love show. You’re much admired now, so enjoy the attentionSagittarius-It’s not like you to be less than generous, but tight-ening the purse strings and taking an overall conservative approach may be best this week. Around Wednesday, you’re making connections that completely crackle, both in your mind and with others. You’re electric, and you just might do some-thing shockingly brilliant. Do something to recharge. Sunday’s a fun day -- play a game, see family and friends, just enjoy. Capricorn-Your famous persistence pays off this week. Check up on a situation or connection you’ve been cultivating and you’ll likely see great results. Approaching a different idea (or the person who has it) with caution makes sense, but don’t dismiss it (or them) outright. Expanding your repertoire is a possibility now, and something outlandish could be the start-ing point. You’re awfully impressive with your rock-steady heart and open mind. Aquarius-Get a little help with managing your time and setting your priorities from a mentor or friend as the week begins. Around Wednesday, though, you’re on top of the world and reaching for the stars, if the Universe has its way. Big stuff at work, in romance, related to personal growth -- it’s all possible now. What will you do to stay motivated? When do you take the next steps? Take an objective look. Then, on Sunday, you may have a breakthrough.

Pisces-Do a little planning as the week begins -- for work, your social life, your personal projects. You’ll be that much more impressive as the days progress. Around Wednesday, an interesting vision may come your way. Surrounding yourself with what inspires you helps cue it, as does getting grounded and opening your heart and mind. Affection with friends, hot stuff with a certain someone and fun all over the place is fa-vored -- not to mention transformation.


HEAlTHY LIVINGIs this topic for you?Ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s dis-ease are the most common types of infl ammatory bowel disease. Ulcer-ative colitis affects only the colon and rectum. Crohn’s can affect any part of the digestive tract. To learn more about Crohn’s disease, see the topic Crohn’s Disease. What is ulcerative colitis?Ulcerative colitis is a disease that causes infl ammation and sores (ul-cers) in the lining of the large intes-tine, or colon. It usually affects the lower section (sigmoid colon) and the rectum. But it can affect the en-tire colon. In general, the more of the colon that’s affected, the worse the symptoms will be. Ulcerative colitis can affect people of any age, but most people who have it are diagnosed before the age of 30.What causes ulcerative colitis?Experts are not sure what causes ul-cerative colitis. They think it might be caused by the immune systemoverreacting to normal bacteria in the digestive tract. Or other kinds of bacteria and viruses may cause the disease. Ulcerative colitis is not caused by stress, as people thought in the past. But if you have ulcerative colitis, stress can make it worse. You are more likely to get ulcerative colitis if other people in your family have it.What are the symptoms?The main symptoms are: Belly pain or cramps.;Bloody diarrhea or an ur-gent need to have a bowel movement. ;Bleeding from the rectum.; Some people also may have a fever, may not feel hungry, and may lose weight. In severe cases, people may have di-arrhea 10 to 20 times a day.Ulcerative colitis can also cause oth-er problems, such as joint pain, eye problems, or liver disease. But these symptoms are more common in peo-ple who have Crohn’s disease.In most people, the symptoms come and go. Some people go for months or years without symptoms (remis-sion). Then they will have a fl are-up. About 5 to 10 out of 100 people with ulcerative colitis have symptoms all the time.1

Ulcerative colitis sometimes leads to more serious problems. It can cause scarring of the bile duct. This can lead to liver damage. In rare cases, severe disease causes the colon to swell to many times its normal size (toxic megacolon). This can be deadly and needs emergency treatment.People who have ulcerative colitis for 8 years or longer have a greater chance of getting colon cancer.2 Talk to your doctor about your need for cancer screening. Screening tests help fi nd cancer early, when it is eas-ier to treat.

What is Ulcerative Colitis ?

How is ulcerative colitis diag-nosed?To diagnose ulcerative colitis, doctors ask about the symptoms, do a physi-cal exam, and do a number of tests. Testing can help the doctor rule out other problems that can cause similar symptoms, such as Crohn’s disease, irritable bowel syndrome, or diver-ticulitis.Tests that may be done include: A colonoscopy. In this test, a doctor uses a thin, lighted tool to look at the inside of your entire colon. At the same time, the doctor may take a sample (biopsy) of the lining of the colon.; A barium enema X-ray or an X-ray of your belly to show pictures of the colon. And Blood tests, which are done to look for infection or in-fl ammation.; Stool sample testing to look for blood, infection, and white blood cells.How is it treated?Ulcerative colitis affects everyone differently. Your doctor will help you fi nd treatments that reduce your symptoms and help you avoid new fl are-ups. If your symptoms are mild, you may only need to use over-the-counter medicines for diarrhea (such as Imodium A-D). Talk to your doctor before you take these medicines. Doctors often prescribe medicines to reduce infl ammation, such as: Steroid medicines. These can help reduce or stop symptoms. They are only used for short periods because they can cause side effects, such as bone thin-ning (osteoporosis).; Aminosalicy-

lates. These can be used to reduce or stop symptoms (sometimes at the same time as steroid medicines). Af-ter your symptoms are under control, you may take these medicines to help prevent fl are-ups.; Medicines that control the immune system (immu-nomodulators). You may need these if your disease is severe and amino-salicylates don’t keep it from fl aring up.; Some people fi nd that certain foods make their symptoms worse. If this happens to you, it makes sense to not eat those foods. But be sure to eat a healthy, varied diet to keep your weight up and stay strong.; If you have severe symptoms and medicines don’t help, you may need surgery to remove part or all of your colon. Removing the entire colon cures ul-cerative colitis. It also prevents colon cancer. But it does have some serious risks. Still, most people who have surgery are glad they did.3, 4

How will ulcerative colitis af-fect your life?Ulcerative colitis can be hard to live with. During a fl are-up it may seem like you are always running to the bathroom. This can be embarrassing and can take a toll on how you feel about yourself. Not knowing when the disease will strike next can be stressful. Stress may actually make the problem worse.If you are having a hard time, seek support from family, friends, or a counselor. Or look for an ulcerative colitis support group. It can be a big help to talk to others who are coping with this disease. Ulcerative Colitis -

What Happens The course of ulcer-ative colitis varies greatly from one person to another. Some people may have only mild symptoms, and others may have severe symptoms or com-plications that, in unusual cases, may be life-threatening. Ulcerative colitis may be mild, moderate, or severe. It may be described as dependent on corticosteroids, unresponsive to ste-roids, or not active (in remission).Ulcerative colitis also may be defi ned by the part of the large intestine af-fected: the rectum (proctitis), the left side of the colon (left-sided colitis), or the entire colon (pancolitis). Most people with ulcerative colitis have periods of remission that may last up to several years. These periods are in-terrupted by occasional fl are-ups of moderate symptoms. About 5 to 10 out of 100 people who have ulcer-ative colitis have symptoms all the time.1 Children may have the same symptoms as adults. Also, children with ulcerative colitis may grow more slowly than normal and go through puberty later than expected.Complications and long-term effectsInfl ammation and scarring of the bile ducts (primary sclerosing cholangitis) may occur. A bile duct is a passage that carries fl uid produced in the liver to the small intestine.Severe infl ammation and ulceration sometimes irritate muscles in the co-lon, causing colon walls to stretch. The colon may swell to many times its normal size, a condition known as toxic megacolon. This is an emergen-cy that requires immediate treatment, but it is rare.Narrowed areas of the intestine (stric-tures) may occur in ulcerative colitis, causing diffi culty in passing stools. Abnormal connections or openings (fi stulas) between parts of the intes-tine or between the intestine and oth-er organs are rare because ulcerative colitis does not affect the deeper in-testinal tissues. Your risk of cancer of the colon and rectum is higher than average if you have had ulcerative colitis for 8 years or longer. With regular screening, some cancers can be detected early and treated success-fully.Ulcerative colitis can cause rare complications such as scarring of the pancreas and infl ammation of the membrane surrounding the heart (pericarditis). Some people who have ulcerative colitis also have irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), which is not as serious as ulcerative colitis. IBS causes abdominal pain along with di-arrhea or constipation.Most women who have ulcerative colitis are able to become pregnant and usually have healthy babies. Symptoms may become worse during the fi rst 3 months of pregnancy. Some medicines to treat the disease can be used during pregnancy.


$102,500.00

Sat. Feb. 5th, 2011 JACKPOT

National Perspective February 6, 2011

Documents

silent majority e true

silent majoritybarrow

offshore oil exploration

oil exploration activities

largest oil exploration

belizes offshore area

prime ministers brother

prime ministers nephew