belize times june 15, 2014

The Belize TimesThe Truth Shall Make You Free

Established 1957

15 JUNE 2014 | ISSUE NO: 4899 www.belizetimes.bz | $1.00

SCAN HERE

Pg. 4

Penner Stole the FileS!

Here comes MORE STRESS!!Barrow Lashed

by the Rod of Correction

Pg. 6

Pg. 2

The Auditor General’s report has revealed why the Barrow administration has refused

to prosecute Elvin Penner

COLA says Barrow & Hulse COver up stinks to high heaven

Pg. 23

Pg. 6

9 SHOOTINGS IN 3 DAYS

Anthony Scott Rafael Cruz Windell Neal Kirk Smith Sigmond Trapp

Belize City, June 9th, 2014Darrel Bradley has brought nothing

but a pile of stress to Belize City. The con-ference or media dance held on Wednes-day afternoon by the UDP to announce that he would run again for Mayor was like warning of the resurgence of a dead-ly plague.

THE BELIZE TIMES 15 JUN2014 202

Continued on page 6

serving Belize since 1957 as the longest continuous newspaper.

Founder: Rt. Hon. George Cadle Price, People’s United Party Leader Emeritus

EDITOR

Alberto Vellos

LAYOUT/GRAPHIC ARTIST

Chris Williams

OFFICE ASSISTANT

Roberto Peyrefitte

Printed and Published ByThE BElIzE TImEs PREss lTD.

Tel: 671-8385#3 Queen StreetP.O. BOX 506

Belize City, BelizeEmail: [email protected]

[email protected]

The Belize TimesThe Truth Shall Make You Free

Established 1957

14 APR 2013 | ISSUE NO: 4840 www.belizetimes.bz | $1.00

SCAN HERE

CANADIAN DOLLAR (CAD): $ 0.56

Guatemala Quetzal (GTQ): $ 3.94

Sterling Pound (GBP): $ 0.30

Euro (EUR) : $ 0.37

Eastern Caribbean (XCD):$ 1.36

Barbados (BBD): $ 1.01

United States (USD): $ 0.50

CHINESE YUAN (CNY): $ 3.04

Trinidadian (TTD) : $ 3.22

INDIAN RUPEE (INR): $ 31.14Exchange rate

of One Belize Dollar

6 Feb

LOCAL wEAthER26 Mar 27 Mar17 Jun 18 Jun16 Jun15 Jun14 Jun13 Jun

Gino Peck

OPINIONOUT OUT

! !

A Sad State of Affairs

Time for true Servants of the PeopleDEAR EDItOR,

Allow me space to express some se-rious concerns.

If we adopt the theory of Minister of State Mark King that offices, contracts and employment are to be given as rewards for services and mem-bership in the U.D.P. we will see that these rewards will become the prey and spoil of frustration which will be the booty of victo-ry of factions in the U.D.P. It will become like a virus in the flesh of the UDP Government, if it is not already.

Our nation is already show-ing signs of fast becoming a mass of corruption. It is like a living carcass rotting with cancer under the UDP. King’s unsound theory represents the body pol-itic of the UDP Government. This habit of electioneering and begging for political sweets has ended in bribery and corruption in offices of Government. Kindly note that offices of all kinds are now cooked up to give rewards to party hacks. The offices then become less practical. Seven-teen tyrants are seventeen times worse than one tyrant. Note that the food pantry system of the UDP prepares and makes many recipients to be slaves of their whims and fancy, a sad state for our sisters and brothers.

Our Government is full of in-competent and dishonest people which results in despair, causing calamity and agony.

We ask the Belizean people to have faith and to struggle on against this UDP evil and discour-agement. Faith will be our re-

The Editor Belize Times

Editor Sir,I write to advocate for

unity in Belize and an end to the politics of victimization, division and hate.

When Minister of State Mark King said publicly that as a member of the government he serves UDPs first, Be-lizeans second and PUPs last that was totally wrong and distasteful. King’s re-marks however reflect the view of the entire administration. That is exactly why they have been assisting only a select-ed few for the past six years. Can you imagine that not a single Minister has publicly condemned King’s outrageous remarks?

This administration needs to re-member two very important things. First they need to realize that the huge bucks they are spending include mil-lions of dollars in taxes that are paid by all Belizeans: UDPs, PUPs, and inde-pendent voters (no Ps) to the national treasury. All the citizens of this country

deemer and savior. Continue to protest in the name of the right things to do. The word of God will destroy evil like a sword. We must continue to write to the area representatives, to the news-papers, for the television and radio. The nation like the individual man must make constant efforts to stay in the paths of virtue and manliness.

Fraud, falsehood, trickery and de-ceit in our Government are signs of a Government falling apart. Notice how they bully our citizens that try to offer them advice. Our executive has be-

come the dispenser of patronage chief-ly to the most unworthy men who are bribed with offices and positions to the greater ruin of our nation.

The notion of divineness in Govern-ment has disappeared and self-interest, greed and selfishness are taking over. This is happening because we cannot serve God and the devil at the same time. We are to the point where the needs and services for even the infants of our nation are being taken away. Such is our sad undeniable state in Belize.

Thanks,Concerned citizen

therefore have a right to benefit from the use of such funds. Second, this ad-ministration needs to realize that they were elected to office with the support of thousands of independent thinking Belizeans or swing voters and not only with the vote of their hard core party supporters. The government therefore has a duty to serve all the citizens of this country.

Failure to recognize those realities is the reason why the administration continues to use the resources of the country to provide few jobs, contracts, half a ham at Christmas, Mothers’ Day

money, food pantry, and other little social assistance only for UDP sup-porters at the exclusion of all other Belizeans including the young and the old.

To paraphrase Abraham Lincoln ‘to build a better Belize, our leaders must work with charity towards all and malice towards none’.

Sincerely yours, Gilroy Usher, Sr. 629-6560

Here comes MORE STRESS!!

Bradley has turned the city upside down with his chaotic street works, turning the city into dustville and causing many people to get sick.

Bradley has made life hard-er with increased taxes. He in-troduced an inspection fee and hiked the cost of driver’s license to $60.00. He increased trade license fees and threatened to impose a garbage tax. He has denied basic services to city residents if they cannot afford to pay up.

He has been the most stub-born and “haad ayes” Mayor who listens to no one else but himself and always seems to know the answers.

He fired workers including security personnel and then en-

Continued from page 1 gaged in a battle with their attor-ney Audrey Matura-Shepherd over proper compensation. While ne-gotiating a settlement, he turned into a diva and began complaining that Audrey was frustrating him. He even barged out of the middle of a meeting and later said he had to go home to babysit.

The Mayor is a diva, borrowing the words of Krem WUB’s Mose Hyde. He has admitted that the job of Mayor is painful and frus-trating. He had the media and his own party confused about wheth-er he would run again. Not us at the BELIZE TIMES. We knew Bradley wouldn’t resist Barrow’s carrot. You see, the UDP is on the throes of a leadership crisis. Barrow is on his way out. Brad-ley, who believes he is the UDP’s

THE BELIZE TIMES15 JUN 2014 3 03

Francis Fonseca

Despite “millions and millions”…UDP Convention flops elvin Penner still

protected in Cayo north east

San Ignacio town, June 9, 2014The United Democratic Party has

sealed their demise in the Cayo North East constituency with their antics leading up to the weekend’s failed con-vention.

The UDP demonstrated that they will continue to protect disgraced and corrupt UDP area representative El-vin Penner when they rejected all the persons who had signed the 2013 an-ti-Penner Recall petition. The petition attracted 2002 signatures, endorsed by nationalist Belizeans and who are PUP and UDP supporters, but the UDP con-sidered them traitors and disallowed their participation in Sunday’s conven-tion.

Many die-hard UDPs were turned back. They left the convention area cursing out the UDP and promising to vote for Landy Habet who is by far the better man to represent Cayo North East.

Convention flopsRejecting 2,000 votes in a constit-

uency with over 6,200 was political suicide. The UDP’s new standard bear-er, town mouse John August, was only able to attract 14% of the total votes.

The other candidates did even more miserably. Eduardo Juan barely got 6% of the total votes, with 390 votes. Tony McNab who was outspent and outdone got 1% of the total votes with 72 votes.

In the last election, the PUP’s Or-lando Habet garnered 2,034 votes.

The convention turned to be a huge flop for the UDP who has been campaigning day and night to protect Penner, and who has been spending millions and millions to appease resi-dents not to rile up against the corrup-tion in the UDP.

Allegations of bribery, vote buy-ing

As has become the norm with UDP conventions, the division be-tween the candidates is ugly.

Hours after the convention, Mc-Nab’s son “DiJon McNab” turned to Facebook to apologise to supporters for what he called “corruption in the party”.

“The bribing was obvious,” wrote young DiJon, “if you can’t get

Elvin Penner John August

one sincere vote then you aren’t the person the country needs”.

Recognising that the UDP had pushed itself of the proverbi-al cliff, he added, “I would like to be the first to wish Mr. Ha-bet congratulations on winning the elec-tion”.

The UDP can-didate son then ac-cused his party of be-ing undemocratic and of disenfranchising many persons.

VacancyAmin Super Market16 Queen Street, Belize City

We are seeking a cashier, aged be-tween 20-40 years

Must be a male per-son. Contact us at the Supermarket if interested.


Officer Down!

04

PUP at 60% of threshold

A Message to the Voters of Cayo Northeast

on the

By Francis w. FonsecaThis past Sunday, the

UDP held a convention in the electoral division of Cayo North East (CNE) to elect a new Standard Bearer to represent their Party in the next general Elections.

Three persons stood for election and Mr. John August, the current May-or of San Ignacio Town, emerged victorious.

The UDP want the voters of CNE to view this as a new beginning for their Party and are desperately seeking to

put as much space and time between them-selves and the current UDP Representative El-vin Penner.

The voters of CNE must therefore be re-minded that it is this same UDP Government and Party that contin-ues to protect and cov-er-up the wrongdoings of Elvin Penner and oth-ers who are allegedly deeply involved in the passport and visa “hus-tle” which continues to cheapen and bastardize our Belizean nationality.

It is this UDP which gave us Penner and which allowed him to act unchecked leading to this nation-al and international embarrassment.

It is this UDP which has refused to inves-tigate the immigration crimes and which has sent its Solicitor Gen-eral and Commission-er of Police to the Su-preme Court of Belize to defend that refusal.

It is this very same UDP that will now

come to you the voters of CNE and ask for your sup-port.

A vote for the UDP in CNE is a vote for the contin-ued cover-up and protection of Penner.

A vote for John August is a vote of support for Penner and for his actions.

The UDP has changed its face in CNE but it is the same old, dirty, rotten UDP bogged down in corruption and hustling.

The entire nation has its eyes on CNE.

The people of CNE must send a very clear and re-sounding message.

Reject corruption! Stand up for our Belizean identity and nationality.

Reject the UDP! Reject Elvin Penner! Reject John August!

Embrace real change and give your support to Landy Habet and the PUP!

THE BELIZE TIMES15 JUN 2014 5

POWER AND WEALTH

05

EDITORIAL

The concentration of wealth in a society’s elite has been the legacy of slavery and colonialism throughout history.

When the nationalist movement led by the People’s United Party began in 1950, 90% of the land in Belize was owned by less than 5% of the population. It was British companies like the Belize Estate& Produce Com-pany that was given title by the colonial government to thousands of acres of forest and agricultural land.

One of the many accomplishments of successive PUP administrations was to vest ownership and control of land in the hands of thousands of Belizean farmers, homesteaders, villagers and town dwellers. In the late 1960s after hurricane Hattie had devastated Belize City and coastal communities in the south, all the land around what is now the nation’s capital Belmopan was owned by one family – the Melhado’s.

It was through the ingenuity and savvy negotiating skills of Premier George Price that this land was transferred to the government. And today we not only have the seat of government in the “new” capital but burgeoning communities of small farmers around Belmopan.

Fast forward to 2014. There is a kind of dissonance coming out of that area of Cotton Tree and a budding new community that is called Harmonyville.

The residents of Cotton Tree Village cannot get house lots for their growing families. The Minister of Natural Resources Gaspar Vega and his colleague in Cabinet Boots Martinez are dividing up the land into lots to distribute to their political cronies.

In the case of Harmonyville, the land has been distributed in small parcels to over a thousand persons. But here is the catch, the UDP government is telling these people you are on your own. You have to build your own streets, get your own electricity and water supply and you are not to plant corn in the buffer zone – an area on the side of the highway which is reserved to the government. You have to keep it clean and you may plant flowers but no corn or any other crops!

The dissonance, the weird feeling one gets is compounded when you travel to other parts of the country. Up north the sugar cane grows in abundance right up to the side of the highway. Down south, the citrus, bananas, the corn, the beans – all can be seen on the side of the highways and roads all down to Jalacte.

This is déjà vu! The Colonial government discouraged our people from planting. We were only supposed to cut the mahogany and bleed the chicle from the sapodilla tree. Now this neo-colonial elitist Barrow gov-ernment is telling the people you can’t plant corn.

The brother of Minister Vega can get the exclusive contract to export the valuable Rosewood at a huge profit for himself with a minimal royalty to the government. But BGYEA members cannot plant corn in the buffer.

The son of the Prime Minister, a moneylender by trade, can be made head of one of the largest government owned companies in Belize (for which hundreds of millions of dollars are owed to the previous owners) but the sons and daughters of poor Belizean workers are dragged into Court by this arrogant government and prevented from planting corn.

The daughter of another Minister straight out of school with no experience can be foisted to the top of the Pharmacy supervisory department but the qualified long-serving public officers are pushed aside.

The concentration of power and wealth in Belize is now in the hands of the political elite and their business partners and cronies. The economy of Belize is in a slump. Growth is at 0.4% less than 1%. But whatever the resources, caye land and remaining agricultural land, these assets of the nation, the people’s property, are being exploited to further enrich this same group of the political elite.

Minister of State Mark King almost got it right when he said that for them (this Barrow government) it is UDP first and Belizeans second. We say “almost” because in the greed and rampant corruption of this government many of the poor UDPs are also abandoned and left to scrounge for survival.


Penner Stole the FileS!

Belize City, June 12, 2014Prime Minister Dean Barrow and Godwin

Hulse’s cover up of the Elvin Penner immigration scandal has evolved into an absolute national dis-grace. COLA revealed today that the immigration files that supposedly went “missing” from the Im-migration Department in Belmopan were actually stolen by the man at the center of the scandal: El-vin Penner.

COLA, who has obtained a leaked copy of the Auditor General Dorothy Bradley’s investigation into the immigration scandal, held a press conference this morning to disclose some of the shocking find-ings. The most scandalous of these findings is that the very same files which Godwin Hulse repeatedly claimed to have gone missing and which have sup-posedly created “difficulty” for the Commissioner of Police’s investigations to continue were taken out of the Immigration Department without authori-sation by Elvin Penner.

Additionally, the Auditor General’s report re-veals that Hulse was made aware of the files being in Penner’s possession through a letter reportedly written to him by Immigration Supervisor Ady Pa-checo. In that letter, according to COLA, Pacheco claimed that around the same time the scandal broke, in September 2013, Penner strode into Im-migration Department, demanded and collected a bunch of immigration files including the Won Hong Kim file, and left.

This revelation is shocking. Hulse has repeat-edly claimed “we still don’t have the Won Hong Kim file”. He has said that it is “missing”, that it “disappeared”, but has never reported to the na-tion that he is aware that Penner took the important files. This points to the existence of a well-orches-trated cover up by Godwin Hulse as the Minister of Immigration and Prime Minister Dean Barrow. Both of them have been sitting on the Auditor Gener-al’s report since March of this year, concealing the growing evidence of rampant criminal behaviour discovered by the Auditor General.

There is much more.COLA revealed that the illegal Won Hong Kim

nationality and passport are not the only ones that Penner should be criminally investigated for. The Auditor General’s report found at least four other cases of fraudulently issued passports also facilitat-ed by Penner. All for Asian nationals who, like Kim Won Hong, never set foot in Belize. These were issued to Yiu-Pang Chen, Peter Pang, Quoh Vinh Truong, Yaqup Sut and Mark Chin aka Jack Jie Qin.

COLA’s attorney Kareem Musa said that the findings in the report are explosive. He indicated that it has boosted COLA’s private prosecution of Penner, which returns to the Magistrate’s Court on June 26th.

Musa also said that Hulse has many questions to answer as the Auditor General’s report cites that she requested key information and files from Hulse, but he refused to comply with her requests.

Elvin PennerGodwin Hulse

Here comes MORE TRESS!!

Continued from page 29th wonder of the world, has fantastical leadership dreams and he set his eyes on Caribbe-an Shores. Barrow, who does not allow his UDP politicians’ egos to get larger than his, sees Bradley more as a pawn

in HIS game. With little political capital left and more scandals to come out, Barrow is hedging his bet that Bradley has a better chance of winning the city council elections than the UDP

winning central government for another term.

Bradley’s announcement that he will run again is Barrow’s way of tricking voters from Belize City– where the UDP won most of their seats. Bradley seeking another term and the promised millions for infrastructure works in the old capital has nothing to do with progress for Belizeans or improving the rest of the country. It’s about keeping Barrow and the UDP in power and in wealth while the rest of us struggle daily and scramble for crumbs.

THE BELIZE TIMES15 JUN 2014 7 07

Dan Silva

for Caribbean ShoresKAREEM MUSA

HAVE HOPE! The PUP will Serve The People


PUP

– Freetown’s Mr. Quitar?

WOMAN IN THE HOUSE

A Focus on ConductBy Dolores Balderamos Garcia

A few months ago the Prime Minister of our sister Caricom country, Trinidad and Tobago,

Kamla Persad Bissessar took swift and decisive action following reports of the mis-behavior of two of her Cabinet colleagues. She fired them from the Cabinet forthwith, not waiting for court action or the judicial pronouncement of innocence or guilt.

I think that Prime Minister Persad Bissessar acted cor-rectly in sending a strong sig-nal that bad conduct would not be tolerated from anyone in her Cabinet. After all, a higher standard of behavior should be adhered to by members of the Cabinet in any country.

As an aside I note that the women political leaders in Trin-idad and Tobago are making strides and asserting them-selves fully in the political life of their country. Carolyn Seep-ersad Bachan has made a bid for the leadership of her party, the Congress of the People, which holds six seats in the Trinidadian National Assembly. Penelope Beckles Robinson, an old classmate of mine, recent-ly launched a challenge for the leadership of the opposition People’s National Movement. She was not successful this time, but I strongly feel that she will one day be the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Toba-go.

Could it be that the emer-

gence of women leaders means that there will be less tolerance of wrongdoing by politicians and elected representatives? We re-call of course that Prime Minis-ter Persad Bissessar called on former Minister Jack Warner to resign after the scathing reve-lations of corruption in FIFA, of which he was a member.

Furthermore, she sacked Ministers Chandresh Sharma and Glen Ramadharsingh. If I remem-ber correctly, Mr. Ramadharsingh behaved unruly and disorderly on an airplane, and Mr. Sharma was accused of beating up his former girlfriend in a parking lot.

I do remember well what Prime Minister Persad Bisses-sar said at the time: “There is no privileged escape, no allowance for arrogance, no forgiveness for indiscretion.” (Emphasis mine.)

My, my, what if Prime Minis-ter Dean Barrow were to follow his Trinidadian colleague?? There has been the breaking up of a casino and assault of police of-ficers, sexual indiscretion in Tai-wan, the smashing of a wife’s vehicle and assault upon her, corruption and thievery of pub-lic monies, conflicts of interest,

and the sale of visas and pass-ports, even to the extent of selling a Belizean passport to a man in jail in Taiwan. I could go on and on. You get the pic-ture??

My feeling is that if PM Bar-row were to take a page from the position of Kamla Persad Bissessar, he would not have a Cabinet!! Instead we have had cover-ups, double speak and pretense that nothing is amiss. The Prime Minister pre-fers to make a public fool of himself, as noted by the Aman-dala, rather than deal with the misconduct. But something is certainly amiss if the Prime Minister cannot ensure good and upright conduct from the members of his Cabinet.

It is time for a sea change in this state of affairs. I repeat – a higher and better stan-dard of conduct is expected from our public officials at the highest level. Gross arrogance and crass misbehavior have to stop, with those in charge say-ing enough is enough, and the Belizean people being able to expect and insist on the prop-er behavior of those in high office.


Brand new Mahoga-ny heights Basketball

Court Christened!!

Continued from page 7

09

RELEasEs “BULLiE”

0909TOPMODELTHE BELIZE TIMES15 JUN 2014

visit us at www.belizetimes.bz or Facebook/ Belize Times

Loca

tion:

Bac

ab E

co P

ark,

Bel

ize D

istric

t

• Modeling Agency: Nouveau Model Management• Height: 5’ 6”• Career Plan: IT Technician/Software Developer • Sign: Sagittarius• Favourite Food: Pasta

• Likes: Listening to Music, Dancing, Socializing with friends and meeting new people

• Lives in: Belize City, Belize District • Fav. Quote: “Everything happens for a reason”

TOP MODEL Clothing and Accessories provided by

CATWALK FASHIONSCor. North Front Steet & Queen Street

Belize City

Follow us on facebook

Marlena

There is a reason why Tanya Carter has the undisputed title of “Be-lize’s sultry reggae song-stress” . She has been delivering A-class reggae tracks that have kept Be-lizean fans’ appetite for local entertainment more than satisfied.

Ex-Boyfriend and DJ Boy put Ms. Carter on a distinct level among Belizean female artists. “Crazy” gave her fans goose-bumps. Now her new release “Bullie” will entice her followers in a different way. The reggae song accompanies by vid-eo is everything we know Ms. Carter to be…indeed smooth and sultry.

The song produced by Birchill Records in Jamai-ca is accompanied by a video directed by Ms. Car-ter’s hubbie, Carlo Habet.

To check it out the vid-eo Ms. Carter’s Facebook page or youtube.com. The song is also available and can be downloaded on Soundcloud.

neWSENTERTaiNMENT

TANYACARTER


by KElSEy Hemsley

VeGAS CoMe UP AGAin!

Collet Strikers

10 SPORTS THE BELIZE TIMES 15 JUN2014

takes on tigersharks in finals

VIcTOr VAlENcIA

Andrew Ortiz blocks Farron louriano

lead SMARt Mundialito

lord’s Bank Sunrise

BES girls & Chan Pine Ridge boys win national volleyball champs

WeStern BAllAz

San Ignacio, June 6, 2014The Cayo Western Ballaz are

preparing for the rough seas as they take on the San Pedro Tiger-sharks in Game 1 of the National Elite Basketball League (NEBL) championship finals at the Angel Nunez Auditorium at 1:30pm Sun-day, June 15th.

The Western Ballaz advanced to the finals in grand fashion when they defeated the Smart No Lim-its team 75-57 in a heated match played at the Sacred Heart College auditorium last Friday night.

The Western Ballaz’ power-for-ward Farron Louriano had a blast jamming 4 alley-hoop dunks to emphatically punctuate the high-est individual score in an NEBL game, in double-double style, with 34 points and 12 rebounds.

Richard Troyer hit 3 treys from long range to add 17 points and 16 rebounds, while Travis Lennon put up 12 points and 4 rebounds.

The referee threw Cayo’s top rebounder, Kurt “Chengo” Bur-gess, out of the ball game some 3 seconds before the half time break, after a misunderstand-ing with SMART’s Andrew Ortiz, who also got an early ticket to the showers to cool off!

SMART attacks were shut out, limiting Greg “Chippy” Rudon, Els-worth Itza and Matthew Young to

8 points each. Brian White only had 7 points, and Lincey Lopez tossed in 6 points while Ervin “Poty” Orosco added 5 points.

Individual Awards:Most Points: Randy Usher (Orange Walk

Running Rebels) 274ptsMost Rebounds: Kurt Burgess (Western

Ballaz) 197 in 14 gamesMost Assists: Tyrone Edwards (San Pedro

Tigersharks) 4.6 per gameMost Steals: Ivan Flowers (Western Ballaz)

2.3 per gameMost Blocks: Michael Adams (Tigersharks)

2.8 per gameMost Treys: Ashton Edwards (Tigersharks)

SMART’s Greg Rudon scored 8pts

Belize City, June 7, 2014The Collet Strikers won 2-0 over Third

World with goals by Mickey Palacio and Jomel David, who now leads the tourna-ment with 4 goals.

The Collet Strikers are now Unde-feated and No. 1 in the 2014 SMART Mundialito posting their 4th win in Week 5 of the competition which was forced to shift to the Yabra green because of unan-nounced works at the MCC Grounds on Saturday, June 7.

Other match results:Brown Bombers vs. Carlston United - 3-0Goals by Jovaun Ramos (2), Dion CachoRising Stars vs. London Strikers - 1-0Goal by Camryn LozanoLadyville Jaguars vs. Heights FC - 1-0Goals by Trivion BaintonCity Boys Jrs. vs. Hattieville United Youth

Sporting Club – 0-0

Upcoming matches (Saturday, June 14)

Hattieville United vs. Rising StarsHeights FC vs. Third WorldCity Boys vs. Brown BombersCarlston FC vs. Collet StrikersLondon Strikers vs. Ladyville Jaguars Mikey Palacio scored

Collet Strikers 1st goal

BES girls

Chan Pine Ridge team


Edmund Castro

Godwin Hulse

11SPORTSTHE BELIZE TIMES15 JUN 2014

Belmopan Tennis Club wins Billy Musa Shield

(l - R) Matthew Hulse, Norman Garcia, Dr. Whilhelm Casey, Mike Sosa, Billy Musa

Sr., Dr. Mitra Meeneveli & Glenn Gill

Belize City, June 7th 2014The inter-club tennis tournament

for the prestigious “Billy Musa Shield” took place over the weekends of May 31st and June 7th at the Pickwick Ten-nis court. Belize Pickwick Tennis Club went in as the defending champs hav-ing won the shield for 5 years straight from the inception of this tournament so they got a bye leaving St. Mary’s Tennis Club to take on Belmopan Tennis Club on May 31st.

Belmopan Tennis Club defeated the St. Mary’s Tennis Club by winning 6 of the 7 matches slated for this tourna-ment (in Men’s B doubles, Belmopan’s Mike Sosa & Robert Lee overcame St. Mary’s Peter Quan & Ellison Flowers 6-2, 6-2; in the women’s doubles Bel-mopan’s Lauren Mena Sosa and Jessie Clark defeated Judith Brooks and Judith Swift 6-1, 6-4; in the men’s A singles Belmopan’s Dr. Mitra Meenaveli defeat-ed Peter Quan 6-3, 6-3 and in the lady’s singles Belmopan’s Jessie Clark took out St. Mary’s Karen Pike 6-1, 6-0. St. Mary’s forfeited the men’s A doubles and men’s B singles and Belmopan for-feited the men’s C doubles.)

On June 7th, the finals between Belmopan and Pickwick took place with some excellent and competitive tennis! Belmopan took the championship for

the first time, by winning 4 matches out of 7. In the men’s B doubles Pickwick’s Cur-tis Musa and Ian McField defeated Bel-mopan’s Mike Sosa and Robert Lee in the best match of the entire tournament 5-7, 6-3, 6-4. Belmopan’s Lauren Mena Sosa and Jessie Clark took out Nelly Mendoza and Samira Pott in the women’s doubles 6-0, 6-2.

Dr. Mitra Meenaveli took out Pick-wick’s Stefan Musa 6-3, 6-3 in the men’s A singles. Belmopan won the men’s C dou-bles with Glenn Gill and Erickson Lamb defeating Eamon Courtenay and Martin Marshalleck in two sets. Pickwick won the women’s singles with Samira Pott defeating Jessie Clark 6-0, 6-3. Pickwick won the men’s A doubles with Billy Musa Jr. and Stefan Musa taking out Dr. Mitra Meenaveli and Dr. Wilhelm Casey in two straight sets; and in the Male’s B singles Belmopan’s Mike Sosa defeated Curtis Musa 6-3, 6-1. Mr. Edward “Billy” Musa Sr. presented the shield to Belmopan Ten-nis Club’s captain Dr. Mitra Meenaveli.

The Belmopan Tennis Club was spon-sored by Builders Hardware which “has everything for all your building needs”.

Congratulations to Belmopan’s Tennis Club for making history! All tennis players nationwide are encouraged to keep play-ing and to encourage the youth in their clubs to keep on playing!

BES & Holy Redeemer girls lead primary schools basketballBelize City, June 9, 2014

The Belize Elementary School and Holy Redeem-er RC School girls are lead-ing the Belize City primary schools basketball competi-tion.

Allyana Musa scored 10 points as she led the Belize Elementary girls to their 4th win, 13-4, over the St. John’s Anglican Primary School girls. Allyana scored 5 points and Ashleigh Card scored 4 for BES in their 3rd win over the Calvary Temple girls 13-1 last Wednesday, June 4, while Pauline Jex scored a free throw for Calvary Tem-ple.

In the BES girls’ 18-5 win over the St. Luke Method-ist girls last Monday Allyana scored 14 points. She also

scored 17 points as she led the BES girls to their 1st win, 19-7, over the St. Martin De Porres RC School girls on Friday May 30; while Faith Parks scored 5pts for Martin’s.

The Holy Redeemer girls posted their 3rd win: 12-6 over the Muslim Community girls on Monday, with Zaria Jenkins and Nicole Neal each scoring 4 points. Zaria and Katrina Aguilar each scored 10 points as they led Holy Redeemer to their 2nd win, 28-3, over the St. John Vi-anney RC girls last Wednesday, while Kelsie Moss added 6 points.

In the Holy Redeemer girls’ first win : 20-4 over the Button-wood Bay Nazarene girls, Zaria also scored 10 points while Daniella Sanchez scored 3 points for Buttonwood Bay.

Belize City, June 9, 2014Kristian Swasey scored 11 points, Edwin Quan had 8

points and Willie Chi had 5 points for Belize Elementary’s 3rd win over St. John’s Anglican boys on Monday. John Kelly scored 15 points for St. John’s while Malcolm Waight added 8pts.

BES also won over Calvary Temple boys 31-11 last Wednesday and 22-19 over the St. Luke’s Methodist School boys last Monday.

James Saunders scored 11 points while Luciano Novelo had 9 points and Shakur Swift 5 points in Holy Re-deemer’s 3rd win 31-4 over the Muslim Community boys on Monday.

Luciano Novelo scored 5 points, and James Saunders and Shamar Molina had 4pts each for Holy Redeemer in their 19-8 win last Wednesday over St. John Vianney RC School. James and Luciano top scored with 4 points each in their 17-8 win over Buttonwood Bay Nazarene on Mon-day, June 2.

BES & Holy redeemer boys lead basketball competition

Belize City, June 7, 2014The Ministry of Education/Belize Water Services

and the BEL Powersockets both posted big wins in Be-lize City interoffice softball at the Rogers Stadium over the weekend.

On Saturday, the Powersockets shocked Digicell 4G into silence with a score of 16-2 (mercy rule) in the 4th inning. BEL’s Reynaldo Duran scored 4 runs, Melissa Forman, Godsden Ferguson Sr. and Joseph “Sonny” Enriquez each scored 2 runs, while Miiam Dawson, Jomere Young, Jason Bennett and Khadine Gongora each scored once. Digicell’s Adrian Mahler and Caryl Meighan each came home in the 1st inning.

IN Game 2, the National Sports Council outlasted Belize Bank Bulldogs 10-9.

In Game 3, MOE/BWS outlasted the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital 11-6.

BWS/Moe & Bel Powersockets win

softball matches

Kaya Cattouse pitches


Chinese shakedown underway

Belizean receives award at US Medical School graduation

New PUP corozal Bay Executive Sworn In

Corozal town, June 9th, 2014On Friday June 6, 2014 a new

PUP Corozal Bay Executive Commit-tee was sworn in. The Party Chairman Henry Usher travelled to Corozal Town and conducted the swearing in cere-mony at the Corozal Bay PUP Office. Present at the ceremony was Depu-ty Party Leader Hon Florencio Marin, Past Party Leader Hon. John Briceno, Hon. Ramiro Ramirez, PUP Standard Bearer for Corozal Bay Gregorio Pa-pas Garcia and PUP Standard Bearer for Corozal North David Castillo.

The Executive Committee that was sworn in consists of the follow-ing: Thea Garcia, Chairperson; Cor-

nelio Acosta, Deputy Chairman; Roy Smith, Secretary; Alberto Dominguez, Logistics; Vildo Marin, Campaign Man-ager; Jose Chan, Deputy Campaign Manager; Santiago Vasquez, Treasurer; George Escalante, Deputy Treasurer; Nikita Riverol, U.W.G. Representa-tive; Josue Perez, B.Y.M. Representa-tive; Mark Cuellar, Marshall; Canaima Dominguez , Fundraisor and Special Events; Angie Villanueva, P.R./Commu-nications and members Kenny Glad-den, Miguel Cawich, Shamir Alpuche, Eddie Palma, Fernando Montero, Eliz-ardo Vasquez, Eder Riveroll, Ivor Nich-olson, Alex Ewens, Carmela Hadad and Froila Tzul.

Belize City, June 10, 2014The BELIZE TIMES has been reliably informed that

a secret meeting between high officials of the Police Department and members of a so called Chinese mafia was held over the weekend.

The purpose of the meeting was to organise a campaign to squeeze Chinese businessmen who are not willing to support UDP politicians financially. The Chinese mafia who has very close ties and interests in the UDP have ordered their Police allies to get tough on any business that does not cooperate with them. The scheme is blatant UDP extortion.

Chinese businessmen who resist will be persecut-ed by City Council special constables, GST harassment and even special GSU visits if necessary.

Among those who attended Saturday’s clandestine meeting at an undisclosed location on St. Thomas Street were two nefarious UDPs – one from a “Palace” and the other who is front and center of the Penner immigration scandal.

Belize City, June 8, 2014Belizean Giselle Habet Basdeo was awarded the Dr.

Charles H. Pegellow Award for Compassion, Dedication and Excellence in recognition for her commitment to the care of children at a graduation at the University of Miami.

Mrs. Habet Basdeo has completed her studies at the Jackson Memorial Childrens Hospital where she studied specialization in Pediatrics.

Four years ago Mrs. Habet Basdeo graduated from the UWI medical school in Trinidad where she was the Valedictorian.

Belize is very proud.


PRESS RELEASEGREEN TROPICS LTD (the Company)

BACKGROUND

The Company is in the process of construction of a Sugar Factory & Mill in western Belize. Supplemental to that facility will be electricity genera-tion via bagasse and solar sources and intends to sell up to 21 MW phased to the national grid of Belize resulting in decreased reliance on Mexican supply and pricing. Application has been made to the PUC for consideration. If approved, the Company will be in a position to supply reliable Belizean-generated electricity to meet approximately 25% of Belize’s electrical needs. This will be a large contributor to the export earnings of Be-lize while providing 300 permanent jobs and creating a new industry from ground up for the West. It will also create an immediate and unlimited market for any farmer in the area who wishes to take advantage of the opportunity. LEGAL CERTAINTY & SQUATTERS

For an investment of this size, the Company has had to convince (and must continue to demonstrate to) international financiers of the viability of the project together with the legal certainty in its reliance on the laws of Belize. From its inception, the principals have met with the trespassers on its property to notify and advise them that they trespass on lands that are the property of the Company as shown on the plan below. It has discussed the issue with the Government of Belize to curtail and relocate the ever-growing squatter community in order for them to respect the ownership and rights of others. It has reiterated the statements contained in the Ministry of Natural Resources “Enforcement Notice” served un-der Section 41 of the National Lands Act where they were ordered to “Cease the Illegal Occupation of Lands”. This has been to no avail with their general response being that they would never leave to put it mildly. The Company has even offered “without prejudice” and without acceptance of liability, to pay for all expenses to relocate and provide equally suitable farmland together with water access elsewhere. This has been rejected by the Trespassers.

Needless to say, this has been an obstacle to continued development of the project and can jeopardize ongoing financing.

As the below map shows, the area of occupation falls squarely within lands owned by the company. It is nowhere near the Valley of Peace though some of the trespassers are indeed from the Valley of Peace. Therefore the Company denies any suggestion that vegetable prices for the country have increased due to damage to farms in the Valley of Peace.

LAWSUIT

As a responsible company committed to the long term in Belize, it has held discussions with relevant parties involved to ascertain causation in relation to the acts complained of with regard to the crop spraying. Both sides have sent samples for testing. The company has taken aerial pictures and flown reporters over the area to show the buffer zone remaining intact. The Company denies the claim that 100% of the crops were destroyed and also with the assertion of quantum of damages.

CONCLUSION

The company is of the position that it will not pay any alleged compensation for purported damage done by a third party subcontractor following GPS coordinates since all crop spraying occurred over its own lands. The company is prepared to abide by any Belize Court order if such Court so finds otherwise than as set out above and has in fact, instructed its own attorneys to commence eviction proceedings for trespass against all squatters to get the project off the ground.


Mayor Gilbert Swaso, Councilors and Staff of the Dangriga Town

Council would like to wish all fathers of Belize and in particular all fathers of Dangriga Town,

Who Is A DAD?

A dad is someone whoWants to catch you before you fall

but instead picks you up,brushes you off,

and lets you try again.

A dad is someone whowants to keep you from making mistakesbut instead lets you find your own way,even though his heart breaks in silence

when you get hurt.

A dad is someone whoholds you when you cry,

scolds you when you break the rules,shines with pride when you succeed,

and has faith in you even when you fail...

A

For SaleBy Order of the

Scotiabank (Belize) ltd., a company duly registered un-der the Companies Act, Chapter 250 of the Laws of Belize, Revised Edition, 2000, and having its registered office at Cor. Albert and Bishop Streets, Belize City, Belize, hereby gives notice of its intention to exercise its power of sale as Mortgagee under a Deed of Mortgage made the 29th day of September, 2008, between Scotiabank (Belize) ltd., and Edwin Quiroz, recorded at the Land Titles Unit in Deeds Book Volume 35 of 2008 at Folios 1063 to 1130, will at the expiration of three months from the date hereof sell the property described in the schedule.

All offers to purchase the said property must be made in writing and full particulars and conditions of sale may be obtained from the said Scotiabank (Belize) Ltd.

SCHEDUlE

REGISTRATION SECTION BlOCK PARCEl

San Ignacio North 23 1828

DATED this 4th day of June, 2014.

MUSA & BALDERAMOS LLP91 North Front Street

Belize CityAttorneys-at-Law for

Scotiabank (Belize) Ltd.

For SaleBy Order of the

Scotiabank (Belize) ltd., a company duly registered un-der the Companies Act, Chapter 250 of the Laws of Belize, Revised Edition, 2000, and having its registered office at Cor. Albert and Bishop Streets, Belize City, Belize, hereby gives notice of its intention to exercise its power of sale as Mortgagee under a Transfer of Charge made the 21st day of November, 2007, between Development Finance Cor-poration, of the one part, and Scotiabank (Belize) ltd., of the other part, which said property was mortgaged by Matias Celestino Duran to the said Development Finance Corporation on the 3rd October, 2006, and the said Scotia-bank (Belize) Ltd. will at the expiration of three months from the date hereof sell the property described in the schedule.All offers to purchase the said property must be made in writing and full particulars and conditions of sale may be obtained from the said Scotiabank (Belize) Ltd.

SCHEDUlE

REGISTRATION SECTION BlOCK PARCEl

ANN GABOUREl 4 1843Area: - 555.56 S.Y.

DATED this 4th day of June, 2014.

MUSA & BALDERAMOS LLP91 North Front Street

Belize CityAttorneys-at-Law for

Scotiabank (Belize) Ltd.


PUBLIC AUCTION SALE

BY ORDER OF THE CHARGEE HOLY REDEEMER CREDIT UNION LIMITED, a Licensed Public Auctioneer will sell on site the following property at the time as listed.

At No. 15 Mount Mossey Street, East Picinni, Bel-mopan, Cayo District on Tuesday, 17th June 2014 at 10:00a.m.

ALL THAT piece or parcel of land comprising 501.722 square metres being Parcel 5237, Block 20 in the Belmopan Registration Section situate at No. 15 Mount Mossey Street, East Picinni, Belmopan, Cayo District, TOGETHER with a concrete house with a total floor area of 600 square feet contain-ing three bedrooms, one bathroom, living, dining and kitchen and small front verandah, the freehold property of ISMAY ADELINE SWASO, surety for ALDEN COURTNEY.

DATED this 3rd day of June 2014

All sales are strictly cash and deemed final. For more information contact:

HOLY REDEEMER CREDIT UNION LIMITED1 HYDE’S LANE, BELIZE CITY, BELIZE

Phone: (501) 224-5644Fax: (501) 223-0738


To all the fathers of

Belmopan City

from TEAM

FLORES

Happy Father’s

Day


Illegal Guatemalans caught panning for gold inside the Chiquibul forest


HABET AND HABET ad

Featuring: Wesley College, Belize Adventist College, Corozal Community College, Orange Walk Technical High, Muffles College, Belmopan Comprehensive School and Delille Academy

High School Graduation Season 2014celebrating Our Bright Minds!

By: Alton F. humes (Freelance Reporter)BELIZE CItY, tuesday, June 11th, 2014

The final article in our series on the 2014 High School Graduation Season will be an up-and-down, cross-country journey through our beautiful country. We kick things off with Wes-ley College on Yarborough Road. The venerable Methodist high school has weathered through a transition in leadership – long-time Principal Mrs. Brenda Armstrong was recently succeed-ed by her long-time second-in-command, Mrs. Joan Tillett. But it hasn’t stopped the school from cultivating and producing premium grad-uate material.

The school marched up 111 graduates of 130 students on Wednesday, June 11th, 2014 at the Ramada Princess Hotel in Belize City. According to Vice-Principal Edgar Pacheco, the top students are Class 4Green’s Keeron R. Young (Valedictorian, studying Science, with a GPA of 3.57), Shenelle A. Williams (Salutatori-an, studying Business, with a GPA of 3.07) and Chyanne Whylie (3rd Place, studying Science, with a GPA of 3.01).

The BELIZE TIMES interviewed the top two in the middle of their graduation practice at the Ramada Princess on Monday evening. Keeron, the 16-year-old well-mannered res-ident of Sandhill Village in the Belize District, balances his passion for sport (volleyball and football amongst others) as easily as his love of learning. Keeron has now switched his focus to college study at St. John’s Junior College, planning to major (as he did while at Wesley) in Biology and Chemistry in hopes to become

Bradon Jackson and Jorge Rodriquez

a forensic scientist, because as he put it to us, “Belize jus’ noh have none-a dat”.

The Valedictorian credited his parents, especially his teacher mom, because “they were always pushing me when I wanted to goof off…” His advice to his fellow grads and youth is that “There’ll be a lot of haters; just stay fo-cused on what you’re doing and keep going”.

By contrast, 15-year-old Shenelle is bubbly. But don’t be too fooled – the Belize City girl hasn’t had it easy. In fact, the graduate with a love for writing and poetry found out the hard way in her sophomore year that new friendships could lead to bad decisions and almost cost her an education, as she ended up having to serve a sus-pension. But she refused to let it bring her down and took it as a learning curve to stand as the Salutatori-an she is today. And more than that, she now has a chance to make her goals a reality with her plans to join fellow graduates at SJJC, where she will study History and Sociol-ogy in hopes to become a lawyer, with a focus on ei-

We move North to Belize Ad-ventist College in Corozal. Accord-ing to the Principal, Mrs. Celia Clarke, the school graduated all 68 of its students, at a ceremony held on Sunday, June 8th at the school’s Auditorium. The Valedicto-rian was Ervin Lucas, the Salutato-rian was Neydi Clarke and the Vote of Thanks was done by Ireni Tun.

Corozal Community College also had its Graduation Ceremony on Sunday, June 8th at its school Auditorium. According to school officials, 118 students – 64 females and 54 males – marched up, with Angela Sun (Valedictorian) and Alexandria Grinage (Salutatorian) leading the way.

Orange Walk Technical High School had its ceremony on Sat-urday, June 7th, 2014 at the Town Multi-Purpose Complex. 132 of 150 students took the March, with Suleimay Roberts as the Valedicto-rian and Allison Donis as the Salu-tatorian.

Muffles College in Orange Walk Town will have their ceremo-ny on Sunday, June 15th, 2014. According to Vice-Principal of Aca-demic Affairs, Mrs. Maria Urbina, 114 of 124 students – 63 females and 51 males – will take that faith-ful march up the aisles of the Muf-fles Junior College Gymnasium. Leading them will be Valedictorian Alexia Esquiliano and Salutatorian Tanairi Baizar.

Moving to the West, Belmopan Comprehensive School held its ceremony last Thursday, June 5th, 2014 at the University of Belize Gymnasium. The school graduated 173 out of 180 students, 81 males and 92 females. The Valedictorian was Susana Tetkau and the Saluta-torian was Elsbeth Guerra.

Finally, from the South, Del-ille Academy from Dangriga held its ceremony on Friday, June 6th at the Sacred Heart Church in Dangriga. According to the Acting Vice-Principal of the school, Ms. Gwen Garcia-Gentle, who spoke with us on Monday, the Valedicto-rian was Sherrie Perriott and the

Keeron young, Shenelle Williams & Chyanne Whylie

Alexia Esquiliano Tanairi Baeza

Jeysie CrispinGina Castillolorraine CastilloSherrie Perriott

Ervin lucas Irene Tun Nydi Nayeli Clarke

Salutatorian was Lor-raine Castillo.

And with that, we bring our look into the High School Graduation Season to a close. It was a fascinating and of-ten arduous journey, but bringing to focus these stories of in-spiration, perspiration and dedication was and is worth every bit

ther Business or Criminal Law. She credited her parents for keeping her focused, with mom being “emo-tional support” and Dad “always pushing me”.

Her advice to fellow grads and youth is: “Never give up… no mat-ter how many times you fall, you get back up and try again.”

of ink and paper possible. We thank the schools who were patient with our line of ques-tioning and willing to highlight the brightest young minds in our midst today. We look for-ward to 2015 and a new crop of High School graduates – and a season dedicated to them.


Happy Holidays!

BRAIN TEASER

See answers NEXT WEEK

SUDOKU PUZZLE

SUDOKU PUZZlE SOlUTIONAnswers for last week’s puzzleAnswers for last week’s puzzle

See answers NEXT WEEK

LIVESTER MANAGEMENT LIMITED # 74,960(“the Company”)

Pursuant to Section 102(4) of the International Business Companies Act, Chapter 270 of the Laws of Belize, Revised Edition 2000, notice is hereby given that LI-VESTER MANAGEMENT LIMITED:

a) is in dissolution b) commenced dissolution on the 10th day of June,

2014; andc) Mr. Suler Mihai whose address is at Dorobanti, 2,

Bldg. A4 Flat5, Buzau Romania is the Liquidator of the Company

Cititrust International LimitedRegistered Agent

Lanthier Group Limited(“the Company”)

Notice is hereby given that Lanthier Group Limited (“the Company”)

- is in dissolution- commenced dissolution on May 19th, 2014 and; - Stephen C. Read, of Rosasgasse 15/2/6, 1120

Vienna, Austria is the Liquidator of the Company

Stephen C. Read(Liquidator)

QUEEN OF THE BAY PAGEANTHer Graciousness, the Reigning Queen of the Bay Jarine Avila invites all Belizean young women between the ages of 18 and 23 to participate in this year’s Pageant to be held on Saturday, 30th August to be held at the Bliss.

Interested young women can call 602-2307.


Who Sold Prized land in San ignacio?

San Ignacio town, May 25, 2014It is rumoured that a well-

known UDP individual in San Igna-cio sold this historic, prime piece of Downtown land in San Ignacio to a Chinese businessman. The land is situated just beside the San Igna-cio/Santa Elena market on Savan-nah Street. The land was filled up by the PUP town council in 2001 along with the land where the mar-ket now sits. This parcel of land was designated for a public parking facility. The village buses used it for parking since the year 2000.

The people of San Ignacio are concerned that this prime parcel of land has been sold and that there was no consideration for the village bus owners or taxi operators who badly need a public parking facility.

This land is immediately above the famous Boat Wharf, an area which was long ago used for the docking of boats that ferried peo-ple to and from Belize City and San Ignacio/Santa Elena. It was the famous ‘Cayo Port’ and one of extreme importance for Trade between Belize and Guatemala

and also one reason for the der-ivation of the name of “El Cayo”.

What else is wrong? The construction has not followed National Building Code Regula-tions (perhaps these regulations only apply to our poor, struggling Belizeans). The building is too close to the main street. What happened to the minimum 7ft from the street regulation? The construction seen will not allow vehicles to park in front of the business and as one business-man pointed out, this could just be the very first Drive-thru super-market in Belize.

Additionally, it appears that this past week an additional por-tion/strip of land was sold that was the space where the large drain passes between the mar-ket and the building.

Mr. Mayor, there should be a reserve space between the drain and the land sold. Did the Town Council, Mayor/building code committee get some “remunera-tion” for this Infraction? The peo-ple of “El Cayp” want to know.

City resident accuses Lands official of sabotage

Belize City, June 9, 2014In October last year while in the

hot seat at a meeting with the Belize diaspora in Los Angeles, Prime Minis-ter Dean Barrow called Gaspar Vega’s Ministry of Natural Resources a “hot-bed of corruption”.

The PM’s serious indictment of his Deputy was followed by the em-barrassing words of Commissioner of Lands Wilbert Vallejos in March this year when he said that it was impossi-ble for corruption to be uprooted from the Ministry of Lands under the Bar-row Administration. He said “only God can” eliminate the corruption. Vallejos’ statement came as no surprise as there are thousands of cases of hus-tling, under the table land deals, po-litical land grabs, disappearing of files and manipulation of the national lands systems under the watch of Minister

of Natural Resources Gaspar Vega.We at the BELIZE TIMES have

shed light to hundreds of fishy land business but the new case of Ray-mond Williams, a resident of Belize City, and his frustrations with “Lands” is pretty unique, because Williams has identified the problem and made high officials at the Ministry aware of what’s going on, yet nothing has changed for him.

Williams visited the BELIZE

TIMES last week to share his situ-ation. His problems began in 2010 when a certain Ministry official learnt of his efforts to acquire a lease for Lot 46 located in the “American Site” of Hattieville. Williams had secured a land recommendation from the then area representative, followed by visits with Ministry of lands’ officials to in-spect and evaluate the land. Williams learnt later that the land was already

“Hotbed of corruption” continues unabated

Continued on page 23

Raymond Williams


THINK ABOUT ITthOUSAND GRADUAtE – NO JOBS

It’s that time of year again. Gradua-tion! Proud parents, proud teachers and proud students. Congratulations are in order. It is an achievement, to pass through four years of High School, or two years of Sixth Form, or three years of University.

Everyone has a right to be proud.Except the government. They have

nothing to offer the graduates of Belize. The economy is in shambles with zero growth, no investments, no new indus-tries, no jobs.

Bad business.

COLLEGE CRISES

The southside of Belize City can be considered the home of the creoles. The southside of Belize City is represented by six UDP area representatives who are all Ministers of Government. These include the Prime Minister and Minis-ter of Finance who has been in Queen’s Square for many years. Also the Minister of Housing who is in Mesopotamia for over three terms. The Minister of Edu-cation in Collet for three terms and new comer in Lake Independence for his first term, Minister of local work and Poverty in the Port Loyola area.

The southside Colleges are collaps-ing in front of the eyes of these selfish so-called representatives, who seem to be representing themselves, their fami-lies and their cronies to the detriment of the young people and the country.

Maud Williams High School, situated in Queen’s Square and Mesopotamia has seen its enrollment fall by a disturbing 23 percent. Excelsior High School in Port Loyola has seen its enrollment plummet by a huge 34 percent. Sadie Vernon in Lake I has gone to the ground with al-most a whopping fifty percent fall in en-rollment.

How did this happen?How long has this been going on?What has been causing students to

stay away from getting an education?Why was this problem not immedi-

ately tackled by the Minister of Educa-tion and his colleagues the Minister of Finance, Housing, Poverty and the re-spective area representatives.

It is bad enough that not a single basketball court or football field or park of playground has been put in place on the southside since the UDP became government. But it must be the worst thing to sit back and allow colleges to fail because parents are not sending their children.

Not a single southside represen-tative has said or done anything to find out from his constituents why they have given up on sending their children to col-lege.

Not a single one of these southside representatives can offer the nation an explanation of this most disturbing devel-opment – make that under development. They are presiding over the slow destruc-tion of the creoles on southside, Belize City. This has to be, along with rampant poverty, rising crime, and lack of oppor-tunities and employment, the ‘worstest’ curse visited on the people by incompe-tent and uncaring area representatives who are also Ministers of Government.

Imagine, this includes the Prime

Minister who after two terms and six years in the highest office has presided over three dying high schools.

Poverty and hopelessness has to be a factor and a most shameful lack of leadership.

thEY ARE FIRING tEAChERS

The Minister of Education, called a press conference to announce a half-baked plan on what is being done about the three colleges in crises. Admitting that enrollment has been falling at the three colleges for the past three years he had the gall to announce that he was firing teachers.

Of the 61 teachers at the three col-leges, some 12 to 14 will be sent home.

Fools! Fools! You need more teach-ers, not less. Southside Belize City needs more colleges, more classrooms, more teachers, more students. There are thousands of young people on southside who have never seen the inside of a col-lege. They have no future. Many will have to turn to crime. How else can they sur-vive?

We need more teachers, not less.While the failed Minister was rat-

tling off at the mouth, the camera at the press conference showed him flanked on each side by two retired teachers. He is rehiring cronies who have retired while threatening current working teachers with loss of employment.

None of the two retirees are from the troubled southside.

ROD OF CORRECtION

All across Belize, citizens and citi-zen groups have been getting the shaft from an arrogant and high handed gov-ernment.

These groups range from the Roman Catholic and Evangelical churches, art-ists, cane farmers, university students, the Pharmacists Association, Unions for teacher, nurses, public officers, Prison Wardens, the Police Association (for-merly alive), the Maya of Toledo, BGYEA, COLA and Territorial Volunteers.

In an extraordinary and historic move, all these groups have felt com-pelled to come together to fight tyranny.

They have named their new formed movement R.O.C. – Rod of Correction. On 30th May they released a joint bul-letin like a roadside bomb – “CABINEt SEEMS tO hAVE REAChED A NEw hEIGht OF ARROGANCE OR BELIEVED tO hAVE tAKEN ON SUPREME AND DEMONIC POwERS LIKE UNtO DEMA-GOGUES”

These organizations represent some fifteen thousand public officers, teachers, nurses, Mayas, and civil society groups and activists organizations.

Frightened by what has suddenly emerged as big potential problems for his arrogant and victimizing behavior to the cit-izens of Belize, the Prime Minister hastily called a press conference for Wednesday 11 June.

Of significance in the formation of R.O.C. was the attendance of Mose Hyde, host of Krem Radio/ TV morning call in show. Mose who previously supported PM Barrow and the UDP government, seems like most citizens to have seen through the rhetoric and posturing of a man who has brought Belize to its knees, with worse to

come.Nuff said, for now.

SAD StAtE OF AFFAIRS

Channel 7 News reported on 6th June that Greg Ch’oc, the Executive Director of SATIIM, the group fighting US capital oil company and its local puppet, the govern-ment of Belize, has concluded that in Be-lize might makes right.

Ch’oc is complaining that the Su-preme Court appears to be back-peddling in a judgement it gave which appeared to have assisted SATIIM but which in the writ-ten order now weakens SATIIM. The writ-ten order does not require the government to “obtain the free, prior and informed con-sent” of the Maya groups in allowing the oil company on their lands.

The written order now includes, ac-cording to Ch’oc, the words the govern-ment must “seek to obtain” free prior and inform consent now allows the govern-ment to say we tried to obtain but were unable so let’s move ahead and make the oil company rape their lands.

What is of concern is the news report that Ch’oc stated “The court going back on its original order is rather unfortunate and a travesty of justice in this country. It is nei-ther here nor there for us because we have concluded that there is absolutely no rule of law in this country. So we could have gotten a case or an order where US capital permit was quashed, I know that they still would be there (in our land) so it doesn’t really matter”.

Wow!

KAREEM

It is as if he came out of nowhere. This cool, humble and respectful young man brought a level of dynamism and energy to opposition supporters on Sunday evening when he was accepted as the Standard Bearer for the upcoming general elections as candidate in the Caribbean Shores con-stituency.

Kareem is highly respected as a de-cent young man. He is a brilliant attorney, a social activist and is never too busy to listen to the cries of the people.

His acceptance speech at the con-vention was uplifting and dynamic and manifested a passion to bring change and betterment to the country. Residents of Caribbean Shores will benefit from having such a quality representative for their area.

With Kareem joining the new PUP team under Francis Fonseca, the PUP has increased their very good chances of becoming the next government. As one speaker at the convention stated, Dan Silva is a next seat, Patrick Andrews is another, Cordel Hyde yet another, and now Kareem makes FOUR new additional seats on top of the FOURTEEN the PUP already has.

For sure, there will be a change of gov-ernment.

We are energized by Kareem’s candi-dacy and congratulate him and his family on this momentous decision.

Our congratulations also go to Mrs. Joan and Said and his siblings.

tALIBAN

Who are the Taliban? Who are they?It is the Taliban that caused the USA

to invade Afghanistan 14 years ago along with European forces. It turned out to be America’s longest war, costing billion of dollars.

As the USA winds down its military occupation with the intention to leave 10,000 soldiers “to train” the local army

and even as NATO (European) allies have 50,000 soldiers, the Taliban and other Ji-hadists have launched some stunning mil-itary attacks against the occupiers Afghan army. Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, was captured by a group being called “ISIS”. Also taken were Fallujha, Ramadi and other key towns.

This has sent shockwaves through the USA and Europe. Their illegal inva-sion and 14 year war/ occupation has been unraveled in the space of one week. The Iraqi government is in deep trouble. And death and destruction goes on. Thursday 12 June 2014 Iraq is under a state of emergency.

War is so stupid and accomplishes nothing except enriching the companies who sell arms and war material.

wORSE PRESS CONFERENCE

The Prime Minister Press Confer-ence on Wednesday is his worse to date.

The multitude of issues and scan-dals of all kinds raised by civil society groups, Union and the media were all brushed over and laughed at by the lead-er of the nation.

Misreading the small turn out at BG-YEA rally last Saturday in Belize City as a sign that he the P.M. was still well loved and doing a great job; the PM conceded not even an inch on issues for which he and his government are clearly wrong.

Whom the gods would destroy, they first infect with megalomania.

Laugh on Sir. Laugh on.

LOVE & hIP-hOP

The television series on VHI channel has huge fans in Belize among young viewers. A glimpse of the show last Mon-day explains some of its attractiveness.

All the women are George Gabb-type creations. Meaning they look like a mas-ter sculptor chiseled their figures from rosewood or mahogany. The dialogue and the plot is much but the awesome presence of the fantastic features of fe-males is compelling. Derogatory words describing the women in particular come out of everyone’s mouths.

As to Joseline Hernandes, there is no one on American television sexier than her, not even Kim Kardashian.

MAYA ANGELOU

“I know why the Cage Birds Sing” remain her considered best among a list of excellent books. She was also a poet of considerable talent.

Check “you may write me down in history with your bitter, twisted lies. You may trod me in the very dirt But still, like dust, I’ll rise”

She was invited to read at the inau-guration of new US President Bill Clin-ton. She had an awesome voice, like her awesome mind.

We will miss Maya Angelou we passed on 28 May 2014.

thERESE BELISLE

Therese Belisle, of Belize City and history teacher of St. Michael’s College met and married a visiting Magistrate Mr. Nweke and is living in Nigeria.

She wrote and important view on the struggle between so-called western civilization (US, Europe) and its intention to impose its will on other sections of the planet (Africa, India China). The latest issue now, LGBT.


Continued from page 21

CARTOON

Barrow Lashed by the Rod of CorrectionBelize City, June 11, 2014

Prime Minister Dean Barrow entered rough waters when he opt-ed to disrespect the newly formed Rod of Correction (ROC) at a press conference held on Wednesday in Belize City, in response to the fiery protest rally held against his admin-istration on Saturday.

When the Prime Minister brought up the topic of the ROC, the UDP officials in attendance were heard snickering and sneering in the background. Barrow then began en-tertaining his set of hyenas, dissing the new movement and calling the leaders all sorts of names. He said that the rally held on Saturday which was supported by over a dozen or-ganisations and saw the participa-tion of over 300 persons was not “tactually successful”. He accused the organisers of creating “a crisis that isn’t there” and that the organ-isations were merely seeking “op-portunism”.

He then began picking on each organisation, calling out its leader, and lambasting him/her for being misguided. Of the NTUCB, he said they had disrespected his adminis-tration in their suggestion that the sky is falling. He told BGYEA that his Government will “not counte-nance illegality” and they will not be allowed to plant corn in the buffer zone. He rejected the Pharmacists Association’s calls for Danini Con-treras, the daughter of Erwin Con-treras, to be removed as Director of Drug Inspectorate Unit, claiming that she is best qualified for the job although she has no experience in the sector. He then told COLA that his UDP colleague Elvin Penner will continue to roam free and collect taxpayer’s money as an elected UDP representative, despite the mounting evidence of his wrongdo-ing.

The Prime Minister did his best to show bravado in the face of the ROC’s fierceness and traction gain-ing, but his attempts were weak. He seems to be aware that his time is nearing the end.

The Rod of Correction’s protest rally was a success. While BGYEA’s “plant di corn” rally was the head-

line feature of the rally, the objec-tive was to bring organisations who felt that the Government is on the wrong course. Organisations such as SATIIM, the Maya Leaders Alliance, the Valley of Peace Farmers Associa-tion, the Pharmacists Association, the Public Service Union, the Belize Na-tional Teachers Union, the Association of Public Service Senior Managers

and COLA.The organisations that were repre-

sented and now stand in solidary with the ROC wanted to send a message to the UDP administration: you have failed the country. That message was clear as supporters came from various parts of the country to take a stand.

The Opposition PUP also support-ed the rally. PUP Leader Hon. Francis

Fonseca said on Monday that he re-spects the Unions and Social Partners and will not politicise and exploit their efforts as Dean Barrow did when he was in Opposition. Hon. Fonseca said that the PUP is preparing for its own mass protests and that there will come a time when everyone will have to join efforts to remove the tyrannical leaders of the UDP Government.

BGyEA’s Nigel Petillo

City resident accuses Lands official of sabotageleased to Sheila Garbutt. Because there was no development on the land, the area representative issued a recommen-dation letter for Garbutt’s lease to be cancelled on June 1st 2011. Williams said that almost a year later, while waiting for his lease application to be accepted, his hopes of acquiring the small lot were dashed when he was informed by Lands official Chaka Quilter that Garbutt paid up money towards her outstanding taxes.

Faced with the disappointing news, Williams returned to the place he called home for over four years – a small plywood structure erected on a small parcel in the Lake Independence area. The lot was nothing but swamp when Williams found it in 2007. He, like many other Belizeans, decided to make something out of it by clearing it. This is called squatting, a practice recognised by the laws of Belize.

Williams said that last year he learnt

of amnesty program which gave squat-ters an opportunity to own the land they were on. He began the process of applying for the land. But lo and behold, earlier this year Williams was informed by folks in the Ministry that the land was, all of a sudden, privately owned. To his shock, the land report-edly belonged to the same land official who had given him the “bad news” about the Hattieville land. This person is a well-connected UDP supporter, re-lated to a former UDP City Councillor.

Williams said the official has gone to great lengths to keep him away from the land, even meddling with the Ministry’s computerized system and inserting her name as the own-er. When he reported the situation to

Commissioner Vallejos, the Commis-sioner promised that the person had been blocked from accessing any in-formation. But it appears that Vallejos’ authority was undermined and over-ruled easily. Williams claimed that as of Tuesday June 3rd, the official’s name was back in the system as the land owner. He said that on one of his trips to the Ministry’s office in Belmopan, the official told him, “if yu know we good fi yuh, yuh betta lef da land”.

Williams told the BELIZE TIMES that he will not back down because he knows that it is corruption that is standing in his way. He found it in-credible that the Commissioner had not been able to deal with the prob-lem.

belize times june 15, 2014

Documents

belize dollar

udp government

editor belize times

published bythe belize

offices of government

comthe belize timesthe

udp evil

times worse