national perspective july 31, 2011

Edition 153 Vol.3 week 48 Sunday, July 31st , 2011

BIAS TOWARDS NONE !!

The true voice of the silent majority

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NOT SO FAST P.M. BARROW!Ninth Constitutional Amendment Bill Sparks Pandemonium!!!

Thursday, July 28th 2011BELIZE CITY - With the Belize (Constitution) Eighth Amendment Bill now kaput, there is even greater concern over the Belize (Constitu-tion) Ninth Amendment Bill. Con-sultations are set to begin as part of the process leading to what many already feel is the inevitable – the Barrow administration will amend the Constitution to bar Belizeans from challenging their constitution-al amendments in court – no matter what. Reactions to the proposal have been teeming in from various sections of the society; the Bar Association of Belize, the Opposition People’s United Party and private citizens across the land, even some members of the media have begun to weigh in on the proposed amendment. First tabled in the House of Repre-sentatives on Friday July 22, 2011 by Prime Minister Dean Barrow, who said the proposed amendment seeks to “place the nationalization of BEL and BTL beyond dispute.” “Once this bill is passed, from now on and forever the government and people must own 51% of the public utilities that have been listed. But we go further, just as important Mr. Speaker the new section 145 that clause 4 of this bill also introduces, is designed - and again we make no apology for this - to place the nation-

alization of BEL and BTL beyond dispute,” the Prime Minister said. But reaction to the expressed reason for amendment has been a firestorm of skepticism about the govern-ment’s or rather the Prime Minister’s real intention. The PUP has said that despite what the PM purports as the reason for the amendment – the pro-posal has far-reaching implications that will affect every Belizean and could be used to resurrect the twice interred Preventative Detention pro-posal. The Belize Bar Association also quickly weighed in saying in a state-ment emanating from a meeting that it did not support the proposed amendment to section 69 of the Be-lize Constitution because the pro-posed clause would have the effect of removing constitutional suprema-cy which is the bedrock of our con-stitutional democracy and replacing it with parliamentary supremacy, and called on the Government to with-draw the proposed amendment in its entirety. The Bar argues that the proposed amendment is “in direct contraven-tion of the intention of our found-ing fathers as stated in Section 2 and of the fundamental principles upon which the Nation of Belize was founded as set forth in the preamble to the Belize Constitution.”

P.M. Dean Barrow

UDP J.P. ...Alleged Child Predator!

... Gets Whoop-ass in Succotz

Roy Cumberbatch before and after Succotz Villagers descended on him. See Story on page 3

Banco Atlantida offer almost good to go

Thursday, July 28th, 2011BELIZE CITY – It is almost surreal but the news that Belize’s mainstay agro-export sugar cane industry is in crisis again seems like so much old news that it does not even seem

like news anymore. In fact news of the demise of the sugar cane indus-try here, as it has in several other Caribbean countries, have been announced almost every year for the past ten years and for most Be-

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Delta Flight Bomb thret scareSearched in Belize

Sunday, July 31st , 2011

How can a nation be built on democ-racy and the rule of law if the Gov-ernment of the day is not prepared to listen to the people that elected them? In Belize today there is a super ma-jority in the House of Representatives which means that the ruling politi-cal party has enough members in the House of Representatives to make changes to the Constitution of Belize. In essence, the United Democratic Party has a dictatorship Government. The latest evidence of how this super majority work is the attempt by the UDP Government to amend the Constitution of Belize to disallow any Court challenges to Constitutional amendments. In short, the Prime Min-ister and the UDP Members of Parlia-ment will be the supreme lords over the rights of the Belizean citizens. For clarity, we put forward this example: if the Government desire that free-dom of speech is no longer allowed and vote with the super majority in the House to strike it from the Consti-tution of Belize, which results in all talk shows being banned and consid-ered illegal and will only be allowed if the shows are designed to praise the UDP Government. The striking out of the freedom of speech portion of the Constitution of Belize is clearly the fundamental principles of any democracy but that can/will be taken away in a one House of Representa-tives sitting and there will be nothing that can be legally done about it once the 9th amendment to the Constitution passes which will prohibit recourse to the Court of Belize to challenge any further amendments. The UDP Government has at minimum ninety days to consult with the people of Belize and to get feedback in reference to the constitu-

WHAT CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS?tional change (9th Amendment). The Bar Association has been adamant that portion of amendment is unac-ceptable and should not be allowed to pass. The Bar Association of Belize consists of attorneys that are affiliated

on both sides of the political divide. However, even the known UDP affili-ated attorneys are against the passing of the 9th amendment as being pre-sented. The Government’s argument is that they are the highest authority in the country and any amendments to the Constitution of Belize, good or bad, should not be unchallenged in the Courts of Belize. Clearly, that can never be the spirit of the Constitution nor can anyone be comfortable leav-ing the making of all laws without re-course to at least the Courts of Belize when the Government is well stocked up with “dodo birds.” The Govern-ment, other than the Prime Minister

who has some smarts it will be hard to find any other UDP MP that comes halfway close. Our statement is not to degrade the elected MPs but to state a fact. The word “dodo bird” is not an original terminology of this publica-

In our survey here at the National Perspec-tive we found that everyone interviewed was against the removal of the Courts of Belize as a last recourse if and when citizens of Belize felt that their Constitutional rights were being deprived by Constitutional amendments.

tion but that of Evan, X Hyde, who is the publisher of the Amandala news-paper, who uses it to describe all the UDP MPs. In our survey here at the Na-tional Perspective we found that ev-eryone interviewed was against the removal of the Courts of Belize as a last recourse if and when citizens of Belize felt that their Constitutional rights were being deprived by Consti-tutional amendments. However, there are always going to be cheerleaders of stupidity and wrong doings for the Government and one such example are Plus TV. Pastor Louis Wade and his UDP co- hosts are elated that the Courts of Belize cannot be an Av-

enue of recourse, whether or not the amendments violate basic human rights. They claim since the MPs are elected, they have supreme power and that’s it. One hopes that Pastor Wade get the true revelation that one day Plus TV will stomp on Hon. Dean Barrow’s toe, and all television talk shows will be banned forever from the airwaves unless one is a brown-noser of the dictatorial government. We at the National Perspective are confi-dent that Pastor Wade and his UDP cheerleaders on the show will find their lost ways and understand that no Government can be given exclusive power because power corrupts. What is important to note is that Plus TV has taken over from Krem TV as the main cheerleader of the Government of Belize. Recently, Krem TV hosts distanced themselves from the Prime Minister on the Preventative Deten-tion Bill, and now they are against re-moval of the Courts as a last recourse of satisfaction. In the same breath that the Prime Minister high jacked BTL and BEL he is entered into a negotiation to sell out the workers of Belize Sugar Industry by agreeing to the privatiza-tion of BSI. This is the same govern-ment that claimed they took BTL and BEL in order that these companies re-main in the hands of Belizeans while they are giving away the shares of the BSI Belizean workers. This is the hardest thing to understand because why would the Government betray its own people and why would a private investor want to invest in a company that the Government is promoting as being bankrupt and has no future. Something is not right, this smells like an Accommodation Agreement in the works. OPEN YOUR EYES THE PEOPLE ARE AWAKE!!!


Published & Edited by: OMAR SILVA

Registered Address:

21/2 Mls Northern Hwy ( In front of SOL ), Belize CityPhone: 501- 635-3506 & 501- 632-6520

# 3 Piccini Site, Third Floor Assistant Editor: Saida Xiomara Silva

Web Site: www.nationalperspectivebz.orgemail address : [email protected]@gmail.com

NOT SO FAST P.M. BARROW!Ninth Constitutional Amendment Bill Sparks Pandemonium!!!

It is clearly the intent of the Barrow administration’s proposed amend-ments to limit or even deter judicial challenge to its amendments to the constitution, and this becomes even clearly when the proposed amend-ment to section 69 is followed by a proposed amendment to section 2, which the Bar also does not support stating in part that: “Any amendment to the Constitution should, in a con-stitutional democracy, be subject to judicial review, and if such amend-ment is found to be unconstitutional, to be declared so by the Courts. Any attempt to oust the jurisdiction of the Courts in this manner undermines the Rule of Law, lays bare from con-stitutional and judicial protection of our fundamental rights and freedoms and the way we are governed and violates the doctrine of Separation of Powers, which are essential elements in our Constitution.” The Bar also called for this amend-ment to be withdrawn “in its entire-ty”. The Barrow administration also seems to be seeking to deny to for-mer shareholders in Belize Teleme-dia Limited and Belize Electricity Limited the right to seek redress in the Courts by proposing yet another amendment that would declare that their acquisition by the Government “was duly carried out for a public purpose in accordance with the laws authorizing the acquisition of such property, and no court shall enquire into the constitutionality, legality or validity of the said acquisitions not-withstanding anything contained in section 17, section 20 or any other provision of this Constitution or any other law or rule of practice.” The proposed amendment goes on to remove all doubt of the Barrow administration’s intention by further proposing: “The bar on the jurisdic-tion of the court contained in sub-section (1) above is absolute and no court shall assume jurisdiction on any ground whatsoever including, with-out limitation, any alleged ground of lack of jurisdiction in the persons making the said Acquisition Orders, or any ground alleging breach of the rules of natural justice.” The Bar Association has now gone on record as opposing this proposed amendment as well “to the extent that it seeks to deny rights of prop-

erty owners to access the courts to challenge nationalizations”, and calls on the Government to “withdraw this proposed amendment in its entirety or otherwise to make such amend-ments as may be necessary and suf-ficient to ensure the protection of the rights of property owners of access to the courts in accordance with sec-tion 17 of the Constitution.” At press time today there is a gath-ering coalition of social, political and economic sectors opposed to the Belize (Constitution) Ninth Amend-ment Bill. On Tuesday the Barrow administra-tion met in Cabinet and announced that they had decided to “formally withdraw the Belize Constitution 8th Amendment Bill and its preven-tive detention proposals. That Bill is therefore dead.” The Cabinet decision came after the bill had been introduced in the House almost two months ago, no consultations had been scheduled, and obvious widespread opposi-tion spearheaded not only by human rights, social and political activist or-ganizations, but the revelation by a Cabinet minister that he did not sup-port the bill. The administration is hoping that by de-linking the two bills the Ninth Amendment Bill won’t face the same gathering of opposition. It also announced that the House Foreign Affairs and Constitution Committee will hold its first consul-tation on Wednesday, August 10th in Belize City, at a time and location to be announced. No less a supporter of the Barrow administration than Senator Henry Gordon has already made public his opposition to the bill. Gordon said that he is cautioning opponents to give the process of consultation a chance, to wait and see if the Barrow administration will respond to wide-spread opposition and withdraw the bill, but he intends to oppose the pro-posed amendments. Former UDP appointed Senator Audrey Matura-Shepherd is also on record as opposing the amendments. No civic, social, business or politi-cal organization has come out in sup-port of the amendments. The Barrow administration began a public relations press this week with two ministers appearing on the

morning talk shows to be grilled by a clearly skeptical public, arguing that the amendments were constitu-tional, and that it did not amount to replacing constitutional supremacy with parliamentary supremacy. They point out that a subsequent adminis-tration, if it could garner the votes in the House, could repeal the amend-ments.

The Belizean public has grown in-creasingly skeptical of the intentions of the Barrow administration with four amendments in three years, all of which seem to abridge or limit rights and privileges. Each new piece of legislation is promised as the “end to litigation” but each seems to have had the opposite effect.

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UDP J.P. ...Alleged Child Predator!

... Gets Whoop-ass in SuccotzBy Rhenae NunezMonday, July 22, 2011SUCCOTZ – Amidst public debate over whether or not homosexuals should enjoy certain liberties under the Constitution of Belize, that is to decriminalize or strike out section 53 of the Belize Criminal Code which criminalizes carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any person, a Belize City man went to Succotz Village in Cayo District and got into a heap of trouble. Roy Cumberbatch of a Plues Street address in Belize City was beaten al-most to a pulp by Succotz Villagers after he allegedly attempted to have sex with a fourteen year old boy of that village. Cumberbatch, said to be some sort of paper processor frequents Suc-cotz Village where he earns a living from processing birth certificates for villagers there. Whether the service that Cumberbatch sells is legitimate is unknown, the Vital Statistics De-partment which registers births and deaths has not released any statement in that regard. On Thursday July 21, 2011 Cumber-batch visited the De La Fuentehome to collect for a birth certificate. Dark had set in by the time Cumberbatch was ready to leave therefore he asked Clarita De La Fuente if her fourteen year old son could accompany him to the front of the village since the area had no electricity. De La Feunte agreed and let her son accompany Cumberbatch. She said that she be-came worried when about fifteen minutes had elapsed and her son had not returned therefore she and her two younger sons went looking for the fourteen year old.De La Fuente had already begun to

fear the worst as she set out to find her son. In the distance she saw her son and Cumberbatch - both were pulling up their pants. Startled, she called out to him (Cumberbatch) “What are you doing to my son!” He responded saying “nada” mean-ing “nothing”. The minor dashed to his mother and they proceeded toward home running with Cumberbatchin their pursuit. According to the minor, as soon as they were a little distance away from their home, Cumberbatch asked him what college he attends to which he answered “Mount Carmel”. Cumber-batch then told him that he makes pants and shirts and began to meas-ure the child from waist down.Cumberbatch then told the child that he had a secret to tell him and then offered to take him to PuertaNegra and give him a laptop if he went with him to PuertaNegra. He also offered the minor a scholarship for $250.00 monthly.Cumberbatch allegedly came bearing gifts. He allegedly further offered to get the minor a passport. He agreed to the passport but refused the trip to PuertaNegra because he said that he had nothing to do there. They con-tinued walking when Cumberbatch allegedly touched the minor inap-propriately. The minor said that he resisted by shoving Cumberbatch’s hand away. He wanted to run but was paralyzed by fear, he couldn’t. Cumberbatch pulled the minor’s pants down and when he resisted, he forcefully held on to the minor. His mother showed up in the nick of time to rescue her son. She demanded her money back from Cumberbatch and told him that she would report the matter to the police.

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Banco Atlantida offer almost good to go


lizeans this time seems an awful lot like last year, and the year before, and the year before. The stakeholders in the industry, how-ever, all seem to agree that this time it’s for real. Without a near miracle the in-dustry could go under, and that an of-fer from the Honduras based Banco At-lantida group of companies represents a lifeline for an industry besieged by years of bad weather, bad markets, pes-tilence, corruption and rampant political interference. The offer sounds simple enough - for a 51% stake in the processor, Belize Sug-ar Industries Limited, the right to grow their own sugar cane on some 10,000 acres, and a better legislative frame-work that should reduce the number of small cane farmers, Banco Atlantida will invest US$90 million in paying off debts, upgrade the factory and generally provide the type of stability, investment

know-how and management that should see the industry double its output within the next 10 years. For the Barrow administration the first large hurdle was crossed following a sit down yesterday with the Belize Work-ers Union whose President Horris Pat-ten sounded upbeat about the offer af-terwards. Patten told the media that “It was a very positive meeting. The whole discussion was based on the fact of the selling out of, well, I wouldn’t call it or want to use the term ‘selling out’ but the introduc-tion of new monies into BSI. The work-ers’ role, the workers will play, after all this has been accomplished, what the workers were deserving of before and what they are now.” The members of the Belize Workers Union hold 81% of BSI’s shareholding and though they haven’t seen any divi-dends since 1999 when the company

was divested to them, Patten seemed optimistic that this could mean a payoff was in the offing. The rival sugar cane farmers associa-tions have been uncharacteristically reti-cent about the proposed deal, and if there is to be opposition it will come from that quarter. The Belize Cane Farmers Asso-ciation have indicated that it is trying to put together the wherewithal to invest in BSI but so far have not been able to put a proposal on the table. The dissident United Cane Farmers Association at this point only wants a seat at the table and to be included in the discussion. Neither will be as quiescent as more details of the proposed deal emerges, es-pecially the insistence of the new “stra-tegic investor” that they be allowed to grow a significant amount of their own sugar cane, thereby “depriving” the farmers of substantial traditional lever-age in dealing with the processor. BSI is indebted to the tune of almost $120 million and its creditors have in-dicated that they will call in their loans by September. They have wearied of the years of fighting, disagreements and un-certainty that have come to characterize an industry that has arguably been the engine of the Belizean economy for dec-ades. The tragedy may yet be that the ac-ceptance of Banco Atlantida’s offer will mean to many that Belizeans can’t man-age their own industry and someone else has to come own/operate/manage it for them and make a lot of money from it while they go back to reaping the leav-ings. Politically the Barrow administration boasted that he had rescued the industry from oblivion just last year, but yet he is now championing a gift/Trojan horse as a necessity, and the re-colonization of an industry that has been the pride of Belizean nationalism.

UDP Poster Boy for Belize City

Mayor

Belize City: In 2006 the UDP Poster Girl Zenaida Moya was the Mayoral Candidate and won the Belize City Council municipal elections. She promised to transform Belize City into a metropolis that would become the envy of other niegbouring cities around us. Even Dean Barrow then Leader of the Opposition told the nation that the Belize City Council is a model of what a UDP Central Government would become and in-deed it became identical, no vision, incompetents and corrupt.Over the last two terms of the Belize City Council under Mayor Zenaida Moya Flowers we have seen how Belize City have gone back in time. We just have to walk the streets of the City to see the deterioration and maintenance of the streets, drains and garbae collection. We have heard about financial abuse by the

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KREMANDALA $ELLOUT

“X” CAN’T CRITICIZE BARROW & THE UDP

Wilfully ignores the Corrupt Practices of Barrow and the UDP

A PAID AD

Can’t be TRUSTED!!!

He has been bought and paid for...Silent on issues affecting black South-side Belizeans while pretending to be their guardian

July 28, 2011

Belize City :The Kolbe Foundation has announced the introduction of new visiting hours for families of inmates who normally visit them on Sundays. The Chief Executive Officer of the Correctional facility, Earl Jones, said that they have in-stituted a rotation system that will alleviate the congestion and over-crowding that causes have on Sun-days. Jones said that the new arrange-ments that will be enforced begin-ning July 31st will facilitate the inmate depending on which section and classification they have within the prison system and accordingly, will be entitled to visits on alternat-ed weekends (Sundays). Starting this Sunday only those inmates on ‘REMAND’, assigned to Tango 8, 9, 10, and 11 will be allowed visits by relatives and friends. The following Sunday August 7th.,

HATTIEVILLE PRISON CHANGES VISITING HOURS

inmates under other classification assigned to Tango 1, through 7 along with WYF section and Females will be allowed visits by their relatives.Jones explained that the new chang-es have become necessary to ac-commodate the inflow of visitors which exceeds 350 every Sunday and also to afford and facilitate each inmate with the equal opportunity to receive a visitor. He noted that with the previous system in place many inmates got cheated out of their vis-its mainly because of the congestion and lack of proper security to con-trol the crowd, once it was to a peak capacity other visitors were turned away.He concluded that with the new ro-tation system every inmate will be able to receive their visitors with-out any restrictions and without any congestion. He also mentioned that for those relatives who missed their Sunday that they will be accommo-dated during the transition phase.


Cumberbatch refused and instead started to follow De La Fuente and her boys as they ran toward home. The matter was reported to police, however,by the time police visited the scene it was to rescue a badly beaten Roy Cumberbatch from being beaten to death by a village mob who got to him before the police did.Cumberbatch was spotted walking in the village by the mob that was armed with guns, machetes and other weapons. Cumberbatch was sur-rounded and pounded by the villag-ers to near death, reports say. He was then hog-tied for police to cart away. Villagers continued to pummel him as he lay helpless on the ground.Cumberbatch was taken into custody and charged for aggravated assault after a doctor examined the minor and determined that there was evi-dence to charge Cumberbatch for as-

sault. No charges were filed against the villagers who attacked Cumber-batch. Villagers say that they are a peaceful people and helpful and friendly to all who come but they will not tolerate nonsense from anyone. The incident has raised contention by opponents of the United Belize Advocacy Movement (UNIBAM), a gay rights group that has filed a mo-tion in the Supreme Court of Belize against the Attorney General and the people of Belize which challenges section 53 of the Belize Criminal Code which outlaws sodomy. Oppo-nents contend that minors are vulner-able to homosexuals who prey upon them. Others contend that actions such as that by Cumberbatch in this case, areperpetrated by pedophiles and not just homosexuals. Other cas-es have given credence to the conten-tion and reservation by opponents of the UNIBAM matter.

UDP J.P. ...Alleged Child Predator!... Gets Whoop-ass in Succotz

UDP City Council time and time again. Now that municipal elections are getting close, the UDP strategy has been to deceive Belize City res-idents once again. They are now pa-rading Darrel Bradley, a young nov-ice attorney who happens to be the son of Wave’s old Crow and apoli-gist Joe Bradley who host UDP talk show ‘Worse thing Da Mauning’. This young chap has no elelectoral experience and certainly no experi-ence in City planning or adminis-tration. Darrel is just another face of UDP DECEPTION. He boast of having been a UDP fanatic for years

who has been at the head of the YPF (Youth Popular Front) but I could bet that if he is asked, he cannot say what was the primary objective of the YPF. Belize City residents must not allow themselves to be hood-winked this time around. We have all seen that the UDP has proven to be total FAILURE both at municipal and at Central Govern-ment level. The lives of Belizeans have been downgraded to sacrifices and misery.We cannot afford to have a grand-stander and pretender like Darrel Bradley to fool us this time around.


I mpartialViewBy: Marshal Nunez Sr.

The Constitution of Belize took effect at midnight September 20th 1981. The document gained life at the birth of the nation state ‘Belize’ as it attained its po-litical independence from England. The constitution protects our identity and our sovereignty as a nation state by the name Belize. This sacred document is the care-taker of our democracy as it protects the three branches of our government, that being the legislative, the executive and the judiciary. Since Independence, thirty one years

Barrow’s Fork Tongue !… talking out of two sides of its mouth at once

Over the past month the buzzword for Prime Minister Barrow, his government and the sec-tion of the media that supports his foolishness, is nationalization. And they claim that they have to nationalize utilities in the national interest and that they have the support of the people, then turn right around and want to sell the sugar industry. This is a case in a situation where the sugar cane farmers own 81 percent of the industry. Apparently for the Prime Min-ister it is ok to nationalize those utilities that are not owned by the Belizean people, but in their interest. Then on the other hand it is al-right to cut a deal with a foreign bank to sell off a local industry that is 81 percent owned by Belizean farmers. Perhaps his justification is to prove to the chamber and to maybe the PUP that the nationalization does not affect foreign investment.

ago, this constitution has been amended only nine times, with the most recent proposed amendment being the ninth amendment being introduced to the Na-tional Assembly on July 22nd. This Bar-row/UDP administration since February of 2008 until last Friday has amended our constitution four times, in just over three and a half years. Last week Impartial View went at length to try to explain to ordinary people how dangerous it is for this government to be treating our constitution with such disre-gard, pretending as if this sacred docu-ment is something that is so fluid and that you can touch it and play with it to satisfy your ego. With the absence of the details of the proposed amendments last Friday, Impartial View felt that this Bar-row Administration is trying it’s best to dilute our constitution in order to create a more dictatorship kind of government. Last week the Prime Minister claimed to put the proposed preventative deten-tion bill in the freezer because it is of greater importance to enshrine in the constitution the right for the government to own controlling shares in our public utilities. Before the proposed constitu-tional amendments were presented there were concerns from many legal practi-tioners that the Government intends to interfere with that section of the consti-tution that provides for our fundamental

rights and freedoms. When the Prime Minister presented the ninth amendment it seemed to just con-firm what the legal minds were suggest-ing. Section 68 and 69 of our constitu-tion spells out how you can amend the constitution. The amendment to Section 69 has opened a new can of worms, and this particular amendment to this section will dominate the political and legal dis-cussion for the next few weeks. While all the bureaucracy and the technicalities will have to be explained by the legal

experts, there is one serious concern that resonates around ordinary grass roots people. The general feeling that we have found as we have discussed this matter with the people on the street is that they have ex-pressed the very same sentiment. They all believe that if Prime Minister Barrow and his administration continue to op-erate the way they are, and continue to tamper with the constitution it’s only a matter of time before Mr. Barrow and his administration amends the constitution to do away with free and fair elections. This might seem pie in the sky or far-fetched but you’ll have to appreciate that this government is intent at winning the election at any cost, and it is obvious that this sentiment is spilling over into the street with the ordinary man. So let me refresh your mind on certain indicators. Remember the incident at the elections office in Corozal when that particular electoral office was opened late at night without permission, and without notifica-tion? Remember it was one of the UDP who was supporting one of the candi-dates that was aggrieved by the injustices of the office that blew the whistle? Does not that seem like a scheme to tamper with free and fair elections? Remember in Cayo and in Port Loyola when the UDP brought out their thugs to intimidate voters who were going to

participate in a PUP party convention? Finally, remember the UDP exporting known gang members into the districts purportedly to go and do work, but un-derstandably to become an intimidating force in those districts. These were just some of the indicators that this govern-ment is intent on winning the elections at any cost. Of course we can belabor the point about the UDP and the abuse of power, especially as it relates to tampering with the constitution because of the super majority they enjoy and, of course, their conviction to try and thief the election. But we would be remiss not to touch the Cane Farmers/Banco Atlantida situation. It is humorous that even in the same hour in the same national assembly, when the Prime Minister found it of national im-portance to amend the Belizean consti-tution to make provision for the govern-ment to own majority shares in the public utilities, that the same Prime Minister just out of the other side of his mouth turns around and wants the national assembly to support his government negotiations with Banco Atlantida to buy majority shares in the country’s sugar processor. Over the past month the buzzword for Prime Minister Barrow, his government and the section of the media that sup-ports his foolishness, is nationalization. And they claim that they have to nation-

alize utilities in the national interest and that they have the support of the people, then turn right around and want to sell the sugar industry. This is a case in a situ-ation where the sugar cane farmers own 81 percent of the industry. Apparently for the Prime Minister it is ok to national-ize those utilities that are not owned by the Belizean people, but in their interest. Then on the other hand it is alright to cut a deal with a foreign bank to sell off a local industry that is 81 percent owned by Belizean farmers. Perhaps his justifi-cation is to prove to the chamber and to maybe the PUP that the nationalization does not affect foreign investment. But if you really believe that the influx of that foreign investment will help the nation state of Belize, then why not ne-gotiate with Banco Atlantida to invest in 49% of the sugar industry? That would seem to be within the theme of your gov-ernment to do things in the best interest of the Belizean people. Or is it ok for the cane farmers and all sixty thousand fam-ily members to believe that it is ok for the government and people to own majority shares in utilities, but when it comes to our industries, sugar, banana citrus, rice, investors can come and buy out the ma-jority shares. Mr. Prime Minister that is the possi-bility you want the Belizean farmers to imagine? Just my impartial view.

For SaleBy Order of the Mortgagee

Scotiabank (Belize) Ltd., a company duly registered under 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 8th day of September, 2008, between DWAYNE STAINE of the one part, and Scotiabank (Belize) Ltd., of the other part, and recorded at the Land Titles Unit in the Deeds Book Vol. 33 of 2008 at Folios 959 - 986, the said Scotiabank (Belize) Ltd. will at the expiration of two months from the date of the first publication of this notice sell the property described in the schedules hereto.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

ALL THAT piece or parcel of land comprising of 761.498 square metres situate in Hattieville Village, Belize District, bounded and described as shown by Plan No. 1355 of 2006 attached to Minister’s Fiat Grant No. 1355 of 2006 TOGETHER with all buildings and erections standing and being thereon.

DATED this 1st day of July, 2011.

MUSA & BALDERAMOS91 North Front Street

Belize CityAttorney-at-Law for Scotiabank (Belize) Ltd.

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Editor Sir,

Allow me a space in the National Perspective Newspaper to express my views regarding the manipula-tion of our Constitution by Prime Minister Dean Barrow and his UDP Government. As you mentioned in your Headline story of last week’s issue you predicted that the the re-introduction of the ‘Preventative Detention’ proposal was ‘DOA’ (Dead on Arrival) again. If we remember well, Prime Minis-ter Dean Barrow was pressured to withdraw the proposal by popular public outcry when he first tabled the proposal of ‘Preventative De-tention’ on April 25th, 2008 but not convinced of the people’s determi-nation, in May of this year, he tried to impose his will once again and believed he will just ram it down the people’s throat for a second time.On May 13th of this year after the reintroduction of the 8th Amend-ment Bill on Preventative Deten-tion for a second time in the House of Representatives, Barrow told the media that it was “his unshake-able, unsinkable conviction that the majority of citizens is behind these measures and will not be deterred by however vocal the Opposition”.The open public outcry against such a draconian measure once again prevailed and forced Prime Minis-ter Dean Barrow again to ‘Freeze’ the measure. The determination and will of the people was firm and in one week Barrow felt mounting pressure on all fronts that has forced him to retreat. At his weekly Cabi-net meeting this past Tuesday, Bar-row was reminded by some of his own Ministers that they were drift-ing against the tide and municipal election was just around the corner. As a result Barrow decided to dis-carded the 8th Amendment Propos-al, period! He is now hell-bent on striking back with his nineth (9th.) Amendment Bill which if passed is key to revisit and amend any sec-tion of the Constitution in the fu-ture and that makes his latest move even more dangerous because it is clearly his way of manipulating the Constitution, once and for all!We must not forget that as a politi-cian, Dean Barrow is all glitter and no substance but most noteworthy Barrow has earned his name as the ‘Master of Deception’ and a wolf in Sheep’s clothing. No doubt he wants to hold on to power, indefi-nitely!Let’s not forget that this is the same Dean Barrow that came to you prior to 2008 general election and made several promises to make the lives of the Belizean people better even though during the last three years under his administration as a gov-ernment has proven to be the worst failure Belize have ever seen. This economic times are dread under the RED for the Belizean people.

During the last three years, Prime Minister Dean Barrow has dedicat-ed his time to undermine the evolu-tion of the Belizean economic de-velopment.He has spent more years trying to amend the Belize Constitution ei-ther to disenfranchise Belizeans of their natural human rights and civil liberties or to usurp private sector utilities without appropriate and timely compensation. This latest Constitutional Amend-ment that Barrow is trying to ma-nipulate is Section 69-(9) of the Belize Constitution and it is scary because that section is really the key-hole to the heart of the Belize Constitution.We must now rise to put a stop to all this madness. We must not al-low Prime Minister Dean Barrow to continue making fools of us Be-lizeans. He has pulled the wool over our eyes for so long and we have been passive for so long.Suffering and making personal sac-rifices in our personal and the lives of our children while Dean Barrow, his ex wife and close family and friends continue to enrich them-selves. Living lavishly and building large buildings and really his salary as a Prime Minister cannot afford.Dean Barrow is moving one step closer to making a mockery of our Constitution and pretty soon his crazy proposals will soon become Supreme Laws if we allow him to get the 9th Amendment Bill to pass and become law.He was elected by the people of Belize to serve the people of Belize and he nor no other person, political party or government should be al-lowed to be supreme to manipulate the Belize Constitution. He must not forget that Manuel Zelaya was overthrown because he attempted to tamper with the Constitution. We have been asleep for too long and we must stand up and make our point! Upon their victory at the polls in the 2008 General Election and sworn in by the Governor General, they all individually swore to respect and uphold the Belize Constitution, not to dismantle or make a mockery of it’s integrity nor to amend it so that they could manipulate it for their convenience or selfish purpose.It is time for Belizeans to rise and take to the streets so that those UDP’s in Belmopan get the sense.We can start this week-end and join in the DEMONSTRATION that will send a clear difinitive message to Prime Minister Dean Barrow and his group of incompetents that the will no longer take us for a ride.They must straithen up and stop the madness. There are many issues af-fecting our livelyhood, its not just the amendments.WE need for him to come clean on the many promises he made and we need jobs so we can all care for our love ones. We don’t want hand-outs!

Delta Flight 4345 searched in Belize ‘bomb threat scare’French student pulls a ‘practical joke’!

Monday, July 27th. 2011BELIZE CITY — A Delta Airlines flight from Atlanta, Georgia, to Be-lize was searched by a police bomb squad at Belize’s Philip Goldson In-ternational Airport Monday after the pilot reported suspicious activity by a passenger and “the possibility of a bomb threat.”Delta Airlines said in a statement that a passenger was removed from the flight and questioned by local law enforcement authorities after a flight attendant saw him writing the word “Help!!!” on an ‘Immigration Form’ and drawing what appeared a plume of atomic smoke depicting an explosion. The paranoid attendant quickly reported the matter to the plane’s captain of Flight # 4345 who in response alerted the Belize Airport Authority.The plane was met upon arrival by police and soldiers, and the police bomb squad went through the plane with sniffer dogs, who did not find anything suspicious.The other passengers aboard Delta Flight 4345 were taken to an air-port lounge after the plane landed as scheduled at the airport is located

just outside Belize City, the Carib-bean country’s largest city.“A passenger exhibited suspicious behavior that led the captain to report a potential security threat that turned out to be a non-issue,” according to the Delta statement, which did not specify what the passenger did or said. “The flight landed safely, pas-sengers exited the plane, and local law enforcement removed and ques-tioned a passenger.” Belize’s Civil Aviation Authority said the plane’s pilot reported “sus-picious behavior of (a) passenger aboard the aircraft” to controllers about six minutes before the plane landed, including the “possibility of a bomb threat.”The sixteen year old French student of Rodier, Paris and his mother were taken into custody by Belize’s Au-thorities for questioning but were released on Tuesday as Police inter-preted the student’s illustration on the ‘Immigration Form’ as nothing more than a practical joke.Belize, which border Guatemala and Mexico, is a popular vacation spot know for its clear waters, low-lying islands and pristine jungles.

NEW CHIEF JUSTICE APPOINTED TO THE SUPREME COURT

Belize City, July 26, 2011The Government of Belize has ap-pointed a new Chief Justice to the Su-preme Court of Belize. He is fifty -six year old Kenneth Benjamin, a learned Judicial Officer who holds Guyanese and Antiguan citizenships who has ju-dicial experience spanning some sev-enteen years. A press release from the Government’s Press Office states that Chief Justice designate, Benjamin has highly developed research skills and is

very versed with the laws of Common-wealth Caribbean States and territo-ries. The new Chief Justice designate graduated from Hugh Wooding Law School in 1977, and since he graduated from the University of the West Indies, he has practiced law in Guyana, been a magistrate and was the Chief Mag-istrate in Antigua and Barbuda from 1991 to 1993. He has held positions as High Court Judge of the Eastern Car-ibbean Supreme Court and has acted as a Justice of Appeal of the Court of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court. His last undertaking before assuming his role as Chief Justice of Belize was as practicing judge of the Criminals Judge of the Criminal Division of the High Court of Saint Lucia, which is a position he has held since September of 2007. The new Chief Justice des-ignate takes over from acting Chief Justice, Samuel Lungole Awich, on September fifteenth 2011. He replaces former Chief Justice, Dr Abdulai Con-teh, who served in that capacity for ten years. Benjamin, if everything works out well, have approximately nine years before reaching retirement age.


Caribbean newsDominican is new

CARICOM Secretary General

GEORGETOWN, Guyana, Friday July 22, 2011 – Seven months after Trinidadian Sir Edwin Carrington stepped down as the region’s top civil servant, Dominican Irwin La-Rocque has been chosen to fill his shoes, becoming the seventh Sec-retary-General of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).Ambassador LaRocque, 56, is the current Assistant Secretary-General for Trade and Economic Integration at the CARICOM Sec-retariat, having served in that post since September 2005. In announcing LaRocque’s ap-pointment to the top post yester-day, CARICOM Chairman Dr Denzil Douglas, Prime Minister of St. Kitts and Nevis, said that he and his colleague Heads of Gov-ernment believe that Ambassador LaRocque “possesses the requi-site skills of visionary leadership, courage and commitment required to guide the Community at this time of change and uncertainty.” The Secretary-General-designate has expressed his deep apprecia-tion for the confidence reposed in him by the Heads of Government. “I am humbled and privileged for this opportunity to continue my service to the Governments and people of the Caribbean Com-munity,” LaRocque said. “As we strive towards the goal of a Com-munity For All, the confidence of the Heads of Government, the sup-port of the people of the Commu-nity and the committed staff of the CARICOM Secretariat are vital in achieving that objective.”Prior to his appointment as Assis-tant Secretary-General, LaRocque served as Permanent Secretary in various Ministries in Dominica for more than fourteen years, includ-ing in the Ministries of Trade, In-dustry, Enterprise Development, Tourism, and Foreign Affairs, where he headed the diplomatic service. He also served as the prin-cipal advisor to the Government of Dominica on all matters pertaining to economic integration and re-gional and international trade. He has a wealth of experience in management, public adminis-tration, economic development, trade, foreign affairs and diplo-macy.

Irwin La Rocque

LaRocque was Dominica’s senior policy adviser on the revision of the original Treaty of Chaguara-mas and served on the CARICOM Inter-Governmental Task Force which drafted the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas. During the period when Dominica underwent a structural adjustment programme, he was a member of the Cabinet-appointed Public Sec-tor Reform Task Force, which in-cluded the private sector, trade unions and non-governmental or-ganisations, with responsibility for the overall management, plan-ning and performance review of the public sector reform process. He also served as the Chairman of the Consultative Working Group, a public/private sector consultative and advisory committee appointed by the Dominica Cabinet, with fo-cus on the enabling environment for private sector development and growth. He has also served on several Boards, including those of the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre, Caribbean Export, the Dominica Agricultural, Indus-trial and Development Bank, and the Dominica National Develop-ment Corporation. As Assistant Secretary-General, LaRocque has provided strategic leadership for the continuing im-plementation and further devel-opment of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME), as well as the Sectoral Programmes of the Community including agri-culture, services, industry and en-ergy. He has managed diplomatic nego-tiations with third countries and in-ternational development partners which required political acumen for successful completion. He has testified, on behalf of the Commu-nity, before the US International Trade Commission on trade rela-tions between the Caribbean and the US with emphasis on extend-ing and expanding the Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI). He is currently the Co-Chair of the US-CARICOM Trade and Invest-ment Council and is leading the negotiations with the United States Trade Representative Office for a new Trade and Investment Frame-work Agreement. Ambassador LaRocque has gained considerable experience with the European arrangements through his involvement in developing and negotiating with the Commission of the European Union, develop-ment assistance under the Euro-pean Development Fund.A statement from the CARICOM Secretariat said that LaRocque’s experience in national public sec-tor reform will be critical in the re-form and restructuring process of the CARICOM Secretariat, which is in progress.

CDB to establish ca-tastrophe risk fund

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Thurs-day July 21, 2011 – The Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) is to es-tablish a multi-donor trust fund to support the establishment of a mi-cro-insurance catastrophe risk facil-ity, which aims to provide paramet-ric insurance to protect micro-credit borrowers in Haiti against losses re-sulting from natural disasters. CDB will act as trustee and admin-istrator of the fund, Micro Insurance Catastrophe Risk Organisation Fund (MiCRO).

The Government of the United King-dom will make an initial contribution of £955,000 (US$1.6 million) to the fund, and it is anticipated that other donors will contribute over the short to medium term. In Haiti, microfinance institutions have flourished by providing small loans mainly to self-employed per-sons. The January 2010 earthquake has had a devastating impact on mi-cro entrepreneurs, who experienced loss of assets, suppliers and markets. The microfinance sector, which provides micro loans to sustain and stimulate many of these businesses, also suffered extensive losses. MiCRO is expected to contribute to a more robust and sustainable private sector in Haiti, through improved ac-cess to financial services after a dis-aster, and to increasing the viability and sustainability of Haiti’s microfi-nance sector.It will be reinsured by Swiss Re, one of the world’s largest and most diver-sified reinsurers.

EU issues alert over cholera outbreaks in

Caribbean

BRUSSELS, Belgium, July 25, 2011 - European Union (EU) health officials have issued a warning to travellers about the risk of contracting cholera in the Dominican Republic, a magnet for tourists, and Haiti.The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said in a report that cholera is becoming endemic in the Dominican Republic. The country shares the island of His-paniola with Haiti, which has been battling a large cholera epidemic since October 2010. Cholera first spread from Haiti to the Dominican Republic last November, and the latter had had 5,367 suspected cases with 46 deaths by mid-June, the ECDC reported. It said 1,727 cases were confirmed. “Despite intense efforts by the Min-istries of Health in Haiti and the Do-minican Republic and by humanitar-ian workers involved in the response to the epidemic, cholera is becoming

Cholera first spread from Haiti to the Dominican Republic last November, and the latter had had 5,367 suspect-ed cases with 46 deaths by mid-June, the ECDC reported

endemic in both coun-tries,” the report says. “It is anticipated that further epidemic peaks will oc-cur, particularly during the rainy season.” Two European tourists, a 69-year-old English wom-an and a 60-year-old Ger-man woman, contracted cholera while staying at resorts in Punta Cana, Do-minican Republic, in May, the report states. Theirs

were the first Dominican-linked cases reported by EU member states since the epidemic began. The sources of their infections were not pinpointed and could have been either water or food. More than a million European tourists visit the Dominican Republic annual-ly, according to the report. It said Haiti receives far fewer European visitors, with just 23,000 in 2007. Because of the size of the Dominican epidemic, occasional travel-related cases can be expected and may in-crease during the country’s rainy sea-sons, the ECDC says. Overall, though, the risk of cholera in visitors to the country should be considered low.The ECDC says visitors to cholera-endemic countries should drink only bottled or chlorinated water, carefully wash all fruits and vegetables with potable water, regularly wash their hands, and eat seafood only if it is thoroughly cooked. In the EU, chol-era vaccination is not routinely rec-ommended for travelers, but it might be considered for people who work in refugee camps and certain other groups.


www.nationalperspectivebz.org

Mexican army finds 148-acre marijuana plantation

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexi-can soldiers have found a series of marijuana fields covering 148 acres (60 hectares) in the northern state of Durango, the army said Monday.The army patrol also found 40 met-ric tons (44 U.S. tons) of harvest-ed marijuana at the plantation in Mexico’s “golden triangle” region, an area known for drug cultivation and trafficking.The Defense Department said in a statement that the plantation found Saturday included a processing

lab and five camps, apparently for workers or guards at the fields.The planted and harvested plants together could have amounted to 100 tons of marijuana, which the Defense Department said was worth $1.55 billion pesos ($133 million).The discovery comes almost two weeks after soldiers found what the army describes as the biggest pot plantation ever detected in Mexico, a 300-acre (120 hectare) field in the state of Baja California.

Chavez set on 2012 re-election bid despite cancer

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said he is certain he will pursue his re-election bid next year even as he struggles to overcome cancer.Chavez said in an interview pub-lished Monday in the government newspaper Correo del Orinoco that he hasn’t “for an instant thought about withdrawing from the presi-dency.”He said if there were physical rea-sons to step down he would do so but that he is pursuing his candidacy “with more strength than before.”“I’m resolved to reach 2031,” Chavez said.The leftist president has been in of-fice since 1999 and is seeking anoth-er six-year term. He has suggested in the past that he hopes to keep win-ning re-election to remain president for many years to come. He has vaguely mentioned various dates, ranging from 2021 to 2031.A poll released last week said Chavez’s public approval rating re-mains at 50 percent and hasn’t sig-nificantly varied since his cancer di-agnosis.Chavez completed his first phase of chemotherapy in Cuba last week. He said he is now waiting for additional phases of chemotherapy but did not say how soon the treatments would

resume or how long the process could last.Chavez underwent surgery in Cuba on June 20 to re-move a cancerous tumor, which he has said was the size of a baseball. He hasn’t said what type of can-cer he has been diagnosed with or specified where exactly it was lo-cated, saying only that it was in his pelvic region.Chavez, who turns

57 on Thursday, said he plans to cel-ebrate his birthday in Venezuela.In a telephone call aired Monday on state television, Chavez said he was under strict orders from his doctors to limit his agenda, saying “I’m un-der the effects of the first session of chemotherapy.”“It’s going well. But, well, I’m in rehabilitation and convalescence de-feating cancer,” Chavez said. “And to all those people who have cancer, nobody should give up, no one. Fight hard.”In the newspaper interview, Chavez dismissed what he called the “maca-bre, perverse, morbid wishes of some commentators like Roger Noriega,” a former U.S. assistant secretary of state under former President George W. Bush.A message on Noriega’s Twitter ac-count on Sunday said he believes Chavez’s “health is grave” and that the opposition “should fill vacuum/prepare for any scenario.”Chavez said after his return from Cuba to Venezuela on Saturday night that thorough tests found no signs that any cancer cells have reap-peared.Chavez gave a speech and sang at a public event on Sunday, appearing upbeat and energetic.

6 presumed cartel members killed in Mexico battle

GUADALAJARA, Mexico (AP) — Six suspected cartel gunmen were killed in an overnight clash with sol-diers in central Mexico, the military said Saturday.The gunbattle took place in Ayotlan, Jalisco. The town is about a 40-minute drive from Michoacan state where drug violence is rampant.The soldiers say they were alerted that heavily armed men were guard-ing a hotel called Los Arcos. When they arrived the men opened fire, they say.The army alleges that the men were members of the Zetas drug cartel, and say they found assault rifles, gre-nade launchers and ammunition at the scene. The bodies were taken to

a morgue.In nearby Guadalajara, a man was ar-rested trying to board a plane at the in-ternational airport carrying more than $290,000 in U.S. currency hidden in a suitcase with 12 pairs of women’s shoes, Mexico’s Defense Department said. He was headed for Panama.Civil protection officials in the resort city of Acapulco said Saturday that two human heads were found on a highway bridge, wrapped in colorful plastic. The body of a third, 20-year-old man was found nearby riddled with bullets.As police worked, dancers participat-ed in an anti-violence festival for lo-cals and tourists a few hundred yards away.

Ex-soldiers link troops to Guatemala massacreGUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Two former Guatemalan soldiers testified that fellow troops stand-ing trial Monday bludgeoned vil-lagers and threw them down a well in a 1982 massacre of more than 200 men, women and children.The two witnesses were testifying on the first day of the trial of three former soldiers and an officer ac-cused in the notorious Dos Erres massacre, in which soldiers alleg-edly killed at least 250 people in a village in northern Guatemala. The four men are accused of 201 of the killings.The men told the court they were innocent, claiming they were not in the village of Dos Erres on the day of the massacre. Three of the accused were members of an elite Guatemalan military force known as “kaibiles.”But witnesses testified that at least two of the four men being charged took part in the killings.Fabio Pinzon and Cesar Franco Ibanez — protected witnesses who testified from Mexico via tel-econference — acknowledged in Monday’s trial that they had been among “kaibiles” who stormed the village.Ibanez testified that he blindfolded villagers and brought them to a well. But both witnesses said other kaibiles did the actual killing.They said that one of the accused had raped a girl and another had killed a boy.“I saw how Manuel Pop Sun took a boy, they took him to a well. The boy was crying and then he threw him in,” said Pinzon in the trial, which was televised in Guatemala.Pinzon was referring to one of the men on trial, who along with Dan-iel Martinez, Reyes Collin Gualip and Carlos Antonio Carias are ac-cused of crimes against humanity, among other charges.The accused denied they were in-volved in the massacre.“That day, at 5 p.m., people ar-rived to tell me that there had been a problem (in Dos Erres), and since it was not my jurisdiction I couldn’t help them,” said Carias, who was second lieutenant at the

time in command of an area 10 kil-ometers (6 miles) from Dos Erres.“I directed them to other villages to seek help,” he added.This is Guatemala’s second mas-sacre trial related to its 1960-1996 civil war, when more than 200,000 people were killed or went miss-ing and entire villages were exter-minated, according to the United Nations.The first trial ended in a 2004 verdict against an officer and 13 soldiers, but the verdict was over-turned on appeal.In Dos Erres, court filings say sol-diers raped and killed women and girls, and banished hundreds of people from the community.Dozens of bodies were exhumed from the well in the 1990s and the remains from 171 victims were re-covered in all. At least 67 children under the age of 12 were among the dead.Prosecutors say soldiers entered the village in 1982 looking for missing weapons that guerrilla groups operating in the region had stolen from the soldiers days ear-lier.They did not find the weapons but accused the farmers of collaborat-ing with the rebels.Witnesses say villagers were tor-tured and robbed by the soldiers as part of a “scorched earth” effort to eliminate communities supporting insurgent groups at the height of Guatemala’s 36-year civil war.Ibanez, the witness, testified that one soldier sliced off a piece of flesh from a wounded villager’s rib after his superior had told the soldier he was hungry for meat.The trial had been delayed since 2000 through dozens of court in-junctions.Also Monday, a judge announced that a former National Police offi-cial has been accused of carrying out enforced disappearance during the civil war and was jailed Sun-day night.Former chief of the 6th Com-mando, Pedro Garcia Arredondo, is accused in the disappearance of Edgar Saenz, said Judge Veronica Galicia.


U.S. rejects Iran accusations in scientist’s death

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States rejected on Monday Iran’s accusation that Washington was behind the killing of an Iranian scientist and urged Tehran not to use the case to distract attention from its nuclear dispute.Darioush Rezaie, 35, a university lecturer, was killed by gunmen in eastern Tehran on Saturday. Some media reports said Rezaie was a nu-clear scientist but Deputy Interior Minister Safarali Baratlou said this

Darioush Rezaie

was not true.Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani, in a speech broadcast live on Iranian state television, blamed the United States and Israel for the killing.“We were not involved,” said State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland, expressing U.S. sympathy to Rezaie’s family and noting that Teh-ran frequently blames the West for such events.“We hope that Tehran is not planning to use this incident to distract atten-tion from what it needs to do, which is to come back into compliance with international obligations.”Several nuclear scientists have been assassinated in Iran in the last few years amid Tehran’s intensifying showdown with the international community over its suspected nucle-ar arms ambitions.Iran, a major oil producer, says its nuclear program is solely for civil-ian purposes and so far has refused to halt its sensitive uranium enrichment activities, as demanded by the U.N. Security Council.The refusal has led to the imposition of sanctions by the United Nations, the European Union and the United States.

Norway mass killer jeered on way to court hearing

Norwegian Anders Behring Breivik (L), the man accused …OSLO (Reuters) - At least 100,000 peo-ple rallied in Oslo and tens of thousands more marched in cities across Norway on Monday in a nationwide expression of grief and unity over the massacre of 76 people by Anders Behring Breivik.Breivik told a judge in a closed hearing on Monday his bombing and shooting rampage aimed to save Europe from a Muslim takeover, and said that “two more cells” existed in his group.Police said they could not rule out the possibility that others were involved in Friday’s attacks and they revised down the death toll to 76 from 93: eight dead in a bomb blast in Oslo and 68 at a La-bour Party youth camp on Utoeya is-land.Stoltenberg addressed the evening crowd, many of them holding up red and white roses for remembrance, his voice trembling with emotion: “By tak-ing part you are saying a resounding ‘yes’ to democracy.” He called the Rose March a “march for democracy, a march for tolerance, a march for unity.”“Evil can kill a person but never con-quer a people.”In a country of 4.8 million, where a sin-gle murder makes front-page news, the solidarity rally was probably the biggest since World War Two.“We are a small society and I think that makes everyone feel affected wheth-er directly involved or not,” said Jo-nas Waerstad, 26, who was one of the marchers.Earlier in the day, a handful of enraged protesters awaited Breivik at Oslo Dis-trict Court.“Get out, get out!” shouted one, bang-ing on a police car he wrongly believed contained the self-confessed mass killer. In fact police drove Breivik to the court in another vehicle.“Everyone here wants him dead,” he said, adding that he knew one of the dead and three survivors of the attacks.“We want to see him really hurt for what he did,” said Zezo Hasab, 32, among the

jeering protesters outside the court.Breivik had wanted to explain in public why he perpetrated modern-day Nor-way’s worst peacetime massacre. He was denied a public platform, but judge Kim Heger in his news conference, gave an account of what the accused 32-year-old had said.After the hearing, a police jeep drove away carrying an unshaven Breivik, with close-cropped blond hair and wear-ing a red jumper with a lighter red shirt underneath.QUESTIONS FOR POLICEPolice handling of the crisis may come under more scrutiny after the revision to the death toll, which a police spokesman attributed to difficulties in gathering in-formation at Utoeya.Daily Dagsavisen asked “Why didn’t you come earlier?” citing screams by youths as police arrived on the island -- an hour after they were notified of the shooting.Police efforts to reach the island stalled after one boat, overloaded with officers and equipment, was forced to stop when it began to take on water.Breivik’s name had appeared, via Inter-pol, on a list of 50-60 Norwegians after he paid 120 Norwegian crowns ($22.16) to a Polish company that was under sur-veillance because of its sale of chemi-cals, Norway’s NRK television said.Breivik leased a farm and bought ferti-lizers.“We get masses of information about very many people,” PST security po-lice chief Janne Kristiansen told NRK. She said PST checked names on the list against PST watch lists but that “we had absolutely nothing on Behring Breivik” and it was dropped.She said his Internet and Facebook pro-files looked moderate although he took part in some extremist chat rooms.It was not clear whether Breivik is in fact part of an organization, although he has written about a revival of the Knights Templar, a medieval order of

crusading monks.“MASS IMPORTS OF MUSLIMS”Judge Heger said Breivik had accused the ruling Labour Party of betraying Norway with “mass imports of Mus-lims.”He said his bombing of government buildings in Oslo and massacre at a summer camp for Labour’s youth wing was aimed at deterring future recruit-ment to the party.“The goal of the attack was to give a strong signal to the people,” the judge quoted Breivik as saying.Breivik’s custody can be extended be-fore a trial on terrorism charges. Police say the trial could be a year away. Heger said he had ordered Breivik detained in solitary confinement for eight weeks, with no letters, newspapers or visits, ex-cept from a lawyer.The detention, in line with a request from prosecutors, will allow them to in-vestigate the case against Breivik.In a rambling 1,500-page tract posted online just before the massacre, Breivik explained how violence was needed to rescue Europe from Islam, immigration and multi-culturalism.If he survived his assault and was arrest-ed, this would “mark the initiation of the propaganda phase,” he wrote.The judge’s decision to close the hear-ing to the public followed an outcry from Norwegians incensed at the pos-sibility that Breivik would be allowed a public platform for his views.A Facebook group called “Boycott An-ders Behring Breivik” carried the mes-

sage: “He has planned this stage, to get propaganda. Do NOT let him get that freedom ... Boycott all media describing the Norwegian terrorist and his beliefs.”The maximum jail term in Norway is 21 years, though that can be extended in-definitely if there is a risk of repeat of-fences.The attack was likely to tone down the immigration debate ahead of September local elections, analysts said, as parties try to distance themselves from Brei-vik’s beliefs and reinforce Norwegians’ self-image as an open, peaceful people.Party leaders have agreed to delay the start of campaigning for the polls until mid-August, Norwegian news agency NTB said.Norway’s immigrant numbers nearly tri-pled between 1995 and 2010 to almost half a million. Arguments that many were drawn by generous welfare hand-outs spurred the growth of the Progress Party which became Norway’s second biggest in parliament after the 2009 election on a largely anti-immigration platform.Breivik once belonged to the party, but left saying it was too politically correct. He then began scheming to “resist,” bur-ying ammunition, weight-lifting, storing credit cards and researching bomb-mak-ing while playing online war games.After three months of making explo-sives on a remote farm, Breivik drove a hire car packed with the device to Oslo, detonating it outside government offic-es. He then drove to Utoeya, 45 km (28 miles) away.


Burning IssuesBy: Nuri Muhammad Police in Britain are now inves-tigating some 3,870 people whose names and telephone numbers were found in Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World newspaper files, who may have been hacking victims in the worst scandal to hit the UK in dec-ades. In a raucous emergency session last Wednesday in Parliament, Prime Minister Cameron admitted that both his ruling Conservatives and the op-position Labor Party had failed to pursue key developments that would had exposed the hacking case years ago and that failure has resulted in all politicians in Britain generally being tainted by the scandal. This is the case of private news corporations in the UK, and possibly in the US, using high tech to hack into telephones to listen to con-versations or voice mail or read the text of thousands of people in order to gather confidential information from private sources for their tabloid newspapers and television. But this

WHO’S LISTENING TO WHO?

source of confidential information made executives of the news corpo-rations very powerful and influential in Britain’s circle of power because they literally had a “private eye” on most of the country’s elite. But how does this relate to Be-lize? An observer commented to me that one of the reasons Barrow may be so intent on holding on to BTL is because of the technological access to keeping an eye on his political en-emies. Most of us are plugged into the BTL grid he said, and the technol-ogy is there to have 24/7 surveillance on any telephone or computer. And while there is a certain conspiratorial and paranoiac aspect to his comment the facts coming out of the hacking scandal in the UK, which included hacking into the phones of ordinary citizens, does bring serious concerns about a government controlled tel-ecommunication company. How much of that state control includes access to the use of surveillance of private citizens? The reality is, the technology to hack into select phones and comput-ers is alive and well in Belize. Dur-ing the ’08 election campaign Yasser Musa, at the time Communication Director of the PUP campaign had his email account hacked into and subse-quent release of his private confiden-tial mail exposed to the public, all in the name of politics. The enormity of this gross violation of privacy was never given enough public discus-sion because of the other issues that clouded the campaign season but this incident was an important indication that this kind of technology was be-ing used in Belize. It again surfaced in the House

when a member of Cabinet, John Saldivar, quoted from the notes of a speech of the Leader of the Opposi-tion, Johnny Briceno, which Saldi-var had gotten through electronic transfer. He even boasted that he had access to the private mail of the Op-position leader. Again, a serious dis-cussion about violation of privacy was lost in the cacophony that is our local politics. These were public examples of the use of this technology to eavesdrop and spy on “certain citizens”. The ca-pability of hacking is not a new tech-nology; people have been hacking into each other’s computer and cell phones for some time now. Knowing the extent of this technology it is safe to say that whatever you say, write

or text is accessible by more than those for whom it was intended. This is how large the question of privacy has become in today’s Belize, in fact, given the advance in technology, what is really private anymore? Barrow had gone to great lengths when introducing the legislation on eavesdropping last year to point out that private citizens have nothing to be concerned about because the law is directed at the criminal element. He said it is directed at international drug traffickers and their network here in Belize. The objective of the law was to target the known crimi-nals and was a useful tool in the fight against crime. But in an interesting part of the same House debate Barrow spoke of a sordid “black ops” which was centered in a “special room in the Raccoon Street Police station”. This room, according to the PM, was covered in a veil of secrecy and had telecommunication equipment en-closed and records indicate that this operation answered only to the High Command of the Security Forces and that the operation was also known to the DEA. While Barrow, in revealing this was rebuffing the PUP by telling them that under their watch there were such nefarious practices that in-vaded the privacy of citizens, he was, in fact, also revealing the existence of these “black ops”, covert opera-tions, some of which the government is complicit. But there are also covert ops that the government is not privy to because ministers and other offi-cials may themselves be the “marks” for these surveillance activities. It is important to remember that Belize as a member of Caricom has

The capability of hacking is not a new technol-ogy; people have been hacking into each oth-er’s computer and cell phones for some time now. Knowing the extent of this technology it is safe to say that whatever you say, write or text is accessible by more than those for whom it was intended. This is how large the question of privacy has become in today’s Belize, in fact, given the advance in technology, what is really private anymore?

committed to a regional strategy to combat drug trafficking and other criminal networks in the region. As part of a comprehensive plan, all countries had agreed to put in place measures like preventative deten-tion, trial without jury, increased technical surveillance, which includ-ed eavesdropping and other inter-diction measures into legislation as contained in the US Patriot Act and exemplified at the infamous Guanta-namo Bay. Like other parts of the Carib-bean, the US National Security Agency was/is active in Belize in monitoring the movement of drugs, arms and money laundering, through Belize. The NSA keeps an on-going monitoring program in place, part of which includes telecommunication. They have the capability of zeroing on “certain citizens” and knowing what they are saying, writing or tex-ting. In court documents in a US Fed-eral court in New York case against Belizean Robert Hertular, who was extradited from Belize in 2004 to face charges of drug trafficking, it was revealed in detail how the DEA in Belize was able to monitor suspects through electronic surveil-lance. What was also interesting in those documents was how Hertular also had connections within BTL and was able to access recorded tele-phone conversations from inside the US Embassy. Who can argue against the Amer-icans looking out for their own self interest and kudos to them for help-ing us in this necessary struggle against those drug lords who are us-ing Belize as a transshipment point but where is all this information they are gathering going? They say they

delete all the personal stuff because their interest is the movement of drugs/arms through Belize, nothing else, but what about their Belizean counterparts? These are persons who are being exposed to these sometimes salacious transmissions full with sex, conspiracies and political intrigue? They are listening to people express-ing their deepest thoughts in real time and in a small society like Belize, this is serious ammunition that puts one at a significant advantage against one’s enemies. And it was this point that my observant friend was call-ing my attention to in Barrow having complete control over a private tel-ecommunication company. Maybe this is much ado about nothing; after all we live in an age of conspiracies. The present law does say that before eavesdropping, that government must go before a judge in chambers and convince them that the electronic surveillance is justified before securing a warrant. There is an aspect of check and balance in the procedure but my friend’s concern is still relevant since governments are capable of describing their own po-sitions before a court to justify what they want to do or use extrajudicial measures to achieve their goal as in the aforementioned case of the inva-sion of Yasser Musa’s e-mail during the ‘08 political campaign. Noted Caribbean journalist Ricky Singh wrote some years ago, “The illegal bugging of phone conversa-tion (landlines and cellular) is known to have been a notorious and danger-ous practice in a number of Carib-bean states. It has made victims of governing and opposition parties…and at times involved collaboration between local and foreign intelli-gence agents”. The specter of spying on private citizens will continue to be an on-going conversation and the re-cent acquisition of BTL and the me-dia revelations in the hacking scandal in UK only resurfaces the suspicion held by many that ‘big brother is listening”.(Comments welcomed at [email protected])

Belize Makes Top 10 Sacred Caves List

Actun Tunichil Muknal, Belize - Be-lize makes it into another great Top 10 List this week. National Geo-graphic just placed Belize’s Actun Tunichil Muknal cave system on its Number 1 spot for the Top 10 Sacred Caves in the World.National Geographic says: “In myths, journeys to the underworld are never easy, and after visiting Ac-tun Tunichil Muknal (Cave of the Stone Sepulchre), you may feel that

you have been through your own epic test. Access to the Maya sacrificial site within the cave involves hiking, wading, and underwater swimming, but nearly a mile (1.6 kilometers) un-derground you will reach the resting place of the “crystal maiden,” a com-plete female skeleton that sparkles from eons of crystal calcification. The cave also contains Maya pottery shards, many showing the “kill hole” intended to allow spirits to escape.”



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“Imagine the possibilities” was the unoriginal slogan of the UDP going into the 2008 General Elections. It in-spired new hope in the Belizean peo-ple thereby garnering the UDP a term in office. But what were the possibili-ties that lay ahead? Surely it could not have been the debauchery that we are experiencing now. To me it meant that greater better things would hap-pen for the people of Belize once we elected the UDP to office.Many like myself who voted for the UDP did not anticipate that we would be treated with contempt by the very people we voted for – but as the fa-mous saying goes, “dah nuh only wan tyme monki want wife.” Very soon election season will be in high gear and electors will send a clear mes-sage! This is not the government we wanted, we did not get what we want so we will do something else. The utter chaos and stupidity dis-played in the House of Representa-tives by the UDP side has regressed to far below what should be tolerated in any civilized society in this day and age. The protocols that should be observed in parliament have been ignored leaving the important issues unventilated because our area repre-sentatives are busy making jackasses of themselves in the House. From the outset the Barrow adminis-tration has ignored the basic protocols and philosophy of good governance. Corruption and nepotism has become common place in government literal-ly from inception. The UDP has been able to get away with it because they have mastered the art of grandstand-ing and diverting attention away from their maladministration. Certain sec-tions of the media have encouraged the misbehaviors of the government by ignoring wrongdoings and patron-izing them as well. For another year in a row, Belize has not been assessed by Transparency International. It used to be under the former PUP government that mucha-do was made about the annual assess-ment. For another year in a row, the Auditor General of Belize has pub-lished scandalous information about how government has been mishan-dling taxpayer’s money. This year, however, the AG’s report has been ig-nored. Our last assessment by Trans-parency International was in 2008 and the rating then was unflattering of the former PUP administration. This year, as since 2009, the reason for Belize not being assessed is worse than our rating falling to 90th from amongst 180 countries. We have not been able to supply the necessary data for assessment – a shameful display of the sloppiness of the current UDP government. I was ignored last year when I tried to bring attention to the Housing and Population Census that took over a year to complete. Govern-ment has been very shoddy in posting basic information on the ministries’ and departments’ websites where we should be afforded access to peruse. After all that is what transparency and good governance should do – I think….Much as Barrow purports and pre-tends that he is doing a good job as Prime Minister it is becoming more and more evident that his government has failed and done so miserably. For many like myself who were not UDP supporters or fanatics but ration-ally thought Dean Barrow to be tal-ented and intelligent enough to lead us, and had the potential to be a good leader, Barrow has disappointed us – others worse than me because they

From delusion to disenchantment

The utter chaos and stupidity displayed in the House of Representatives by the UDP side has regressed to far below what should be toler-ated in any civilized society in this day and age. The protocols that should be observed in parliament have been ignored leaving the im-portant issues unventilated because our area representatives are busy making jackasses of themselves in the House. From the outset the Barrow administration has ignored the basic protocols and philosophy of good governance. Corruption and nepotism has become common place in government lit-erally from inception. The UDP has been able to get away with it because they have mastered the art of grandstanding and diverting atten-tion away from their maladministration. Cer-tain sections of the media have encouraged the misbehaviors of the government by ignoring wrongdoings and patronizing them as well.

are UDPs who say that they are done with the UDP. Barrow has presided over the splin-tering of our society into many fac-tions. We look at each other through

political, racial, ethnic and country of origin, have and have-not lenses. It has been tough-going to advance a debate in Belize simply because of how polarized we have become. There are some stations people like me cannot hold a decent conversa-tion with because of their partiality to the government or to certain fac-tions in our politics. I use to care but the realization that I really should not bother about talking to closed minds has been liberating. Extremism where one party is all right and the other is all wrong or one knows it all while the other doesn’t is the disorder of the day. I was heartened as I listened to Ernesto Vasquez and Ava Diaz on Wednesday morning. I credit Ava for sparking the discussion which spot checked what has been going on in government. It was like an epiphany – the problem with the proposals for constitutional amendments is that people no longer trust government! Ava was on target! Ernesto Vasquez chimed in with an-other observation that there is sig-nificant portion of the electorate who are not with the government – not his exact words. However he said that government should bear that in mind. Perhaps, just perhaps, we may be get-ting somewhere and Belizeans are waking up to who is really boss here.My hope to see a coalition govern-ment in office may not seem a pipe dream after all. No longer do I want to see that kind of power in the House as is right now with the UDP and was in the days of former PUP administra-tion. There are a few things that we as voters can do to ensure a dilution of power where the PUP and UDP are

concerned. I would like to see voters being af-forded the privilege to move their votes – just as one can run in a con-stituency where he/she does not re-

side, we should be allowed to vote for the people we want to see elected to serve in government. I have been bouncing the idea off a few folks who have shaken their head as if to give it thought. I feel it is time we move away from the confines of two months to transfer our votes and having to prove residence in the area we wish to vote. Technology has afforded us the capability to do a lot of things and if we want to – we can do this as well. In areas such as mine where the can-didates for both major parties have been decided and personally I am not impressed with either I believe I should be afforded the privilege to vote…say in Orange Walk East! I am Belizean after all – why should I be forced to choose from choices that I am not impressed with?The level to which the Barrow ad-ministration has brought down gov-ernment should impress upon each well-meaning Belizean to think and look more critically at how our gov-ernments perform and to seek means of improving things. The Barrow ad-ministration has been a huge let down because they were not elected by just UDPs alone (a reality that the UDP continues to dismiss) but by people like myself who rationally consider the issues and try as best we can to se-lect persons who we believe can best address our concerns. The way things have eroded in Be-lize leaves a bad taste in my mouth for both major political parties. I will always have friends on both sides and those I will forever cherish for their contribution but I know for sure I am done with being a “member” of either party. They have become too clannish and even cultish in their behavior and that has bred the kind of government like we have today – I am done! I have been deluded and now disenchanted.


APPLICATIONS FOR LIQUOR LICENSESNotice is hereby given that IRMA PEREZ is applying for a MALT & CIDER LIQUOR LICENSE to be operated at IRMA”S DINER, POMONA NEW SITE, Stann Creek District under the INTOXICATING LIQUOR LICENSING ORDINANCE, Revised Edition 1980.Notice is hereby given that CARLA RUBIO is applying for a PUBLICAN SPECIAL LIQUOR LICENSE to be operated atBarracuda Bar/My Brother’s Pizza, Hopkins Village, Stann Creek District under the INTOXICATING LIQUOR LICENS-ING ORDINANCE, Revised Edition 1980.Notice is hereby given that JUDY CENTENO is applying for a RETAURANT & BAR LIQUOR LICENSE to be operated atVIP ZONE, BELLA VISTA, Stann Creek District under the INTOXICATING LIQUOR LICENSING ORDINANCE, Re-vised Edition 1980.

Power to the people – call a referendum!

“Socially, politically I think that it is of course a great vic-tory for the Maya people but a victory to be welcomed by all the people of this country. I had already had, in my capac-ity as Leader of the Opposition a few weeks ago, a meeting with the Maya Leaders Alli-ance and we had talked about this much vexed issue of Maya land rights. And I had said to them that it was clear that cer-tainly in Santa Cruz, Conejo, and I believe Sundaywood, the inhabitants of the village were absolutely certain that they wanted to operate in those villages on the basis of com-munal traditional Maya rights and I had indicated to them in advance of the judgment that I would have absolutely no dif-ficulty with that.” - Dean Barrow, Leader of the Opposition, October 23rd, 2007 “Without a doubt that is going to be appealed, we’re going to appeal that. I completely disagree with the Chief Jus-tice. I don’t know how passing constitutional amendments in the form and fashion that the constitution decides can be unconstitutional. But we will wait on the Court of Appeal to make its finding. Let me just say that I am confident that the Chief Justice’s judgment will be overturned.” Dean Barrow, Prime Minister, February 16th, 2009“… today we asked PM Barrow about another matter in the high court – that of the Mayans of southern Belize versus the government over customary land rights. The Chief Justice began hearing arguments on Wednesday from the Mayans who want communal land rights declared for 32 villages. Government has said it will put up an energetic defence but today Prime Minister Dean Bar-row made it clear the case will not end here.Hon. Dean Barrow,“The government certainly is convinced that this issue must be ventilated at the highest level. It is a huge policy issue, it is a huge national issue, and I believe that no matter which way this decision at first in-stance goes, there will be ap-peals.” – Channel 7 News, June 12th, 2009 It would seem to me that the Bar-row administration last two proposed constitutional amendments have provoked a backlash from the body politic. I am tempted to say “finally provoked a backlash” but I am not so sure that that would be completely accurate if only because I could not prove it empirically. For sometime now Prime Minis-ter Barrow has been disdainful of the opinions of his colleagues in the Bar Association and lately those of the

business community on the parallel issues of the expropriation of the ma-jority shareholding in BTL and BEL, his interpretation of the nation’s highest court judgments, and his pro-posed constitutional amendments. He has, without offering even a shred of proof, declared that his declara-tions and actions has “widespread” and “overwhelming” support and that is all the authority he needs to plow full steam ahead with what are essentially authoritarian actions. A close friend of mine pointed out to me this week that our legislature does not have power, only we the people have power in our demo-cratic, Westminster Parliamentary system, and when we elect our repre-sentatives, we do not give them our “power”, we only give them author-ity. This is a profound insight, and one that we all should be mindful of, especially in the present case where Prime Minister Dean Barrow seems hell bent on arrogating our “power” – the power to decide our destiny. Let us go back to the spectacle of Dean Barrow standing on the veran-dah of the Supreme Court Building just two years ago, and denouncing in no uncertain terms that the Chief Justice was wrong in his judgment for the Belize Landowners Associa-tion Sixth Constitutional amendment case. If it were anyone else they would nearly almost have been de-clared in contempt of the court. At the heart of that case was the at-tempt by the Barrow administration to deny citizens access to the courts. It was clear after rulings by the courts in Belize and in the United Kingdom that this was if not unconstitutional, certainly then undemocratic. Dean Barrow, (and Lois Young for that matter), was at the forefront of those who roundly denounced the Musa Administration for trying to move the matter of the Macal River hydroelectric project beyond legal challenge, and for the record, at that time I agreed with those who op-posed it. It is to the credit of that ad-ministration that they withdrew the legislation. The argument by this administra-tion that the end, in this case the enshrinement of the majority own-ership in our utilities, justify this means, in this case the usurpation of the authority of the judiciary to inter-pret the application of our constitu-tional laws, is vexing to those of us who believe in democracy. It is readily apparent to me that the Barrow administration, despite his vain glorious boasts of being “the lawyer in chief,” is becoming in-creasingly frustrated with the litiga-tion sparked by his attempts to prom-ulgate their political agenda, and is now seeking to “short circuit” the process. Mr. Barrow and his cabi-net cohorts have clearly abandoned the politics of consensus and have moved closer to the politics of de-cree.

The fact is that as a society, we are a community of communities and if the majority finds your actions disagreeable, you will pay a political price. I find Mr. Barrow’s responses to the Bar Association and the Belize Chamber of Commerce arrogant and disrespectful. These are not politi-cally partisan organizations as he has charged. Neither are they such ho-mogeneous entities as to be wholly in the pay of some “puppet master.” The simple fact is that both have been in existence as the representa-tive organizations of important sec-tors of Belizean society even before there was such an “organization” as the United Democratic Party. Un-like Dean Barrow’s UDP, both are registered democratic organizations with rules, regulations, bye-laws and the like, and they obviously practice what they preach.

Their positions are reached through discussion, debate and by majority vote. In the face of weak political opposition, and largely compromised media and unions, they have stepped up, so to speak, to rally for simple democratic principle. As disgraceful as the continued con-stitutional gerrymandering has been, I personally regard the continued dis-respect for the Bar Association and the Belize Chamber of Commerce as being even more dangerous in the longer term. It is my opinion that it increases the violence in our society by perpetuating the culture of “dis”. If the Barrow administration is so sure that the Ninth Amendment is so popular, or if any of their consti-tutional amendments are so popular I say let them put it to the ultimate test – a referendum and let the people decide.

TAXI DRIVER PLEADS GUILTY TO DRUG

TRAFFICKINGWednesday: July 27, 2011Belize City: In Magistrates Court on Wednesday, Magistrate Albert Hoare imposed fine of $10,000 dollars on Clarence Lino, a 44-year-old taxi driver who pleaded guilty to drug trafficking. Lino is one of three persons who were charged jointly. A police report say they were on mobile patrol on Racoon Street around 4:30 pm on Tuesday when they observed three persons travelling in a silver color Dodge minivan and after the van tried to evade the mobile patrol it was pulled over and searched. As a result of the search, police found 161 grams of marijuana wrapped up in multiple little parcels inside a Her-sheys biscuit box under the driver’s seat. At the time Lino was the driver and the other two passengers who were also arrested were identified as twen-ty-six year old Brian ‘Bido’ Herrera and eighteen year old Albert Fuentes.All three men were taken to Eastern Division Police to be processed and charged jointly but at the arraignment in Court, Lino took the Rap and in-formed the Court that the other two co-deffendants were innocent and did not know anything about his stash in the Hersheys box.

The Charge against the other two de-fendants were withdrawn however, Fuentes had reneged payment on a previous fine by the Court and was hel in police custody until he could settle payment with the court. As for Lino, he was given until 20th Sep-tember to pay the fine in full but he too had outstanding un-paid fines at the court so he too is in police cus-tody until he pays up an approximate $400.00 dollars.If he defaults on the $10,000 dollar fine for the latest Drug Trafficking, he will spend three years in prison.

For Sale by OwnerLarge track of Residential / Commercial Land, off George Price Boulevard in Belmopan. Price fix to sell by owners. For serious Enquiries: Call: 601- 8100 or 650-5222


HEAlTHY LIVINGLupus erythematosus is a chronic, in-flammatory, multisystem disorder of the immune system. “Lupus” means wolf and Erythematosus means “red-ness.” Doctors coined this name for the disease because they thought the facial rash that frequently accompanies lupus looked like the bite of a wolf.In lupus, the body develops antibod-ies that react against the person’s own normal tissue. Lupus is thus an auto-immune disease.These antibodies are markers for lupus, and are one indicator of many immune system abnormalities that lead to clinical manifestations. The course is unpredictable and individual-ized; no two patients are alike. Lupus is not contagious, infectious, or malignant.There are four categories of lupus: sys-temic lupus erythematosus (SLE), cuta-neous lupus, drug-induced systemic lu-pus erythematosus, and neonatal lupus.SLE is the form of the disease that most people are referring to when they say “lupus.” The word “systemic” means the disease can affect many parts of the body. The symptoms of SLE may be mild or serious. Although SLE usually first affects people between the ages of 15 and 45 years, it can occur in child-hood or later in life as wellWhat are the symptoms of lupus?Lupus can affect many parts of the body, including the joints, skin, kidneys, heart, lungs, blood vessels, and brain. Although people with the disease may have many different symptoms, some of the most common ones include extreme fatigue, painful or swollen joints (arthri-tis), unexplained fever, skin rashes, and kidney problems.Lupus varies greatly in severity, from mild cases requiring minimal interven-tion to those in which significant and potentially fatal damage occurs to vital organs such as the lungs, heart, kidneys, and brain. For some patients, the dis-ease can be characterized by “flares” of activity interspersed with periods of im-provement or remission.A flare, or exacerbation, is increased activity of the disease process with an increase in physical manifestations and/or abnormal laboratory test values. Pe-riods of improvement may last weeks, months, or even years. Other patients have continuous, or chronic, activity. Although remissions are unusual, some patients never develop severe manifes-tations, and the outlook is improving for patients who do develop them.Who gets lupus? It usually develops in young women of childbearing years, but many men and children also develop lu-pus. SLE also appears in the first-degree relatives of people with lupus more of-ten than it does in the general popula-tion, which indicates a hereditary com-ponent. However, most cases of lupus occur sporadically, indicating that both genetic and environmental factors play a role in the development of the disease.What are the risk factors for lupus? Lu-pus is 9x more common in women than men. Lupus is three times more com-mon in African American women than in Caucasian women and is also more common in women of Hispanic, Asian, and Native American descent. In addi-tion, lupus can run in families, but the risk that a child or a brother or sister of a patient will also have lupus is still quite low. Lupus is most frequently di-

LUPUS

agnosed between the ages of 15 and 45.What causes lupus? The cause of lupus is unknown, but it has been associated with genetic, environmental, and infec-tious causes.What is the prognosis for lupus? 90% of lupus patients diagnosed live a normal life span with the appropriate treatments and care of their physicians along with their own compliance as self advocates in their medical care, medications and treatments involved with their systemic illnesses.What is Cutaneous Lupus? Cutane-ous Lupus affects primarily the skin, is common among patients with lupus erythematosus. The most prevalent and severe form of cutaneous lupus is called chronic cutaneous lupus. It is commonly known as discoid lupus, but it has other forms as well.Discoid lupus erythematosus is a chron-ic skin disorder in which a red, raised rash appears on the face, scalp, or else-where. The raised areas may become thick and scaly and may cause scarring. The rash may last for days or years and may recur. A small percentage of people with discoid lupus have or develop SLE later.What is Drug-induced Lupus Erythe-matosus? Drug induced lupus develops after the use of certain drugs or biolog-ics and has symptoms similar to those of SLE. The characteristics of this syn-drome are pleuropericardial inflamma-tion, pleuritic chest pain (inflammation of the lining of the lungs), pericarditis (swelling and irritation of the pericar-dium, the thin sac-like membrane that surrounds the heart), fever, rash, and arthritis. Serologic (Blood) changes can occur. The clinical and serologic signs usually subside gradually after the of-fending drug is discontinued. A wide va-riety of drugs is implicated in this form of lupus, including:Drugs Implicated as Activators of Drug-Induced LupusIsoniazidHydralazineProcainamideMinocyclineAnti-TNF biologicsMore recently, the newer TNF (tumor necrosis factor) inhibitors used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease, and ankylosing spondylitis have been associated with the development of lu-

pus symptoms. As with lupus triggered by other drugs, the symptoms resolve when the agent is stopped.What is Neonatal lupus? Neonatal lu-pus is a rare disease that can occur in newborn babies of women with SLE, Sjögren’s syndrome, or no disease at all. Scientists suspect that neonatal lu-pus is caused by autoantibodies in the mother’s blood called anti-Ro (SSA) and anti-La (SSB). Autoantibodies (“auto” means self) are blood proteins that act against the body’s own parts. At birth, the babies have a skin rash, liver problems, and low blood counts. These symptoms gradually go away over sev-eral months. In rare instances, babies with neonatal lupus may have a serious heart problem that slows down the natu-ral rhythm of the heart. Neonatal lupus is rare, and most infants of mothers with SLE are entirely healthy. All women who are pregnant and known to have an-ti-Ro (SSA) or anti-La (SSB) antibod-ies should be monitored by echocardio-grams (a test that monitors the heart and surrounding blood vessels) during the 16th and 30th weeks of pregnancy. It is important for women with SLE or other related autoimmune disorders to be un-der a doctor’s care during pregnancy. Physicians can now identify mothers at highest risk for complications, allowing for prompt treatment of the infant at or before birth. SLE can also flare during pregnancy, and prompt treatment can keep the mother healthier longer.The treatment of lupus (SLE) is as var-ied as its course. Although there is no cure for lupus and it is difficult to pre-dict which treatment will be most ef-fective for each patient, there have been significant gains in treating patients, and there is general consensus on several treatments.Medications for LupusSome patients never require medica-tions, and others take them only as needed or for short intervals, but many require constant therapy with vari-able doses. Despite their usefulness, no drugs are without risks. Medications frequently used to control the symp-toms are nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), antimalarials, corti-costeroids, immunosuppressives, and intravenous immunoglobulins.Other medications may be necessary to

control specific manifestations. Before prescribing a medication, your doc-tor will scrutinize your past response to treatments. A careful drug history should be taken; in particular, hyper-sensitivities or allergies to certain drugs should be noted. Patient and family edu-cation about medications and their side effects is essential.Other Treatment IssuesA conservative regimen of physical and emotional rest, protection from direct sunlight, a healthful diet, prompt treat-ment of infections, and avoidance of aggravating factors are the mainstays of lupus therapy. In addition, for female patients, pregnancy must be planned for times when the disease is under control, and the patient is on allowable medica-tions.Physical RestThis basic component of everyone’s good health is essential for the person with lupus. The fatigue of lupus is not sleepiness or tiredness from physical exertion, but rather a frequent, persistent complaint often described as a “bone-tired feeling” or a “paralyzing fatigue.” Normal rest often does not refresh the patient or eliminate the tiredness due to lupus, and fatigue may persist despite normal laboratory test results. The pa-tient and family need instruction on how to use this tiredness as a guide for sched-uling activity and rest. It must be rein-forced that this need for rest is not lazi-ness. Eight to 10 hours a night of restful sleep, naps, and “timeouts” during the day are basic guidelines. Physical activ-ity should be encouraged as the patient can tolerate it.However, in some patients, the fatigue is more related to fibromyalgia than to the activity of their lupus. An individu-alized exercise routine may promote wellbeing, especially in a patient with fibromyalgia. Some scientists believe that the incidence of fibromyalgia is increased in patients with lupus. They do not know why, but one hypothesis is that inflammation from lupus may lead to the rewiring of the pain pathways in the central nervous system.Emotional RestA patient’s emotional stressors should be carefully assessed, because they may play a role in triggering a flare. The patient should be instructed on how to avoid these stressful situations. How-ever, the physical manifestations of lupus must be treated as they present themselves while the emotional stresses are explored. Discussions with family members on this issue are essential for providing them with information and obtaining their support. Counseling for both the patient and the family may be an option.Protection from Direct SunlightAn abnormal reaction to the ultraviolet (UV) rays of the sun, photosensitivity re-sults in the development or exacerbation of a rash that is sometimes accompanied by systemic symptoms. Photosensitivity is common in Caucasian patients. All people with lupus should avoid direct, prolonged exposure to the sun. Sun-sensitive patients should frequently ap-ply a sunscreen. The best sunscreen is one that protects against both UVA and UVB rays.

Continues on page 15


To get adequate protection, patients should be advised to select either a “broad-spectrum protection” sunscreen with an SPF of at least 15, or one that contains micronized zinc oxide or tita-nium dioxide, both of which block UVA and UVB light. Sun-sensitive patients should also avoid unprotected expo-sure between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., and wear protective clothing, such as wide-brimmed hats and long sleeves.In severe cases, patients may wish to purchase special UV-blocking cloth-ing. People with lupus should be aware that UV rays are reflected off water and snow, and that glass, such as car win-dows, does not provide total protection from UV rays.People with lupus should also know that fluorescent and halogen lights may emit

UV rays and can aggravate lupus. This may be an issue for patients who work indoors, in places with these kinds of lights. Sunscreen and protective cloth-ing can help minimize exposure, and plastic devices are available that block UV emissions from fluorescent or halo-gen light bulbs.Diet and NutritionA well-balanced diet is essential in maintaining good health for all people, including people with lupus. A low-fat, low-cholesterol diet is recommended, given the increased risk of heart disease in SLE. When fluid retention, hyperten-sion, kidney disease, or other problems are present, a restricted diet plan may be prescribed. Also, food intolerances and allergies may occur. The health profes-sional should make a note of the pa-tient’s dietary history and suggest diet counseling if appropriate, especially if

the patient has a problem with weight gain, weight loss, gastrointestinal (GI) distress, or food intolerances.Treatment of InfectionPrompt recognition and treatment of in-fection is essential for those with lupus. However, cardinal signs of infection may be masked because of SLE treat-ments. For example, a fever may be sup-pressed because anti-inflammatory ther-apy is being given. When an infection is being treated, the health professional should be alert to medication reactions, especially to antibiotics. Sulfonamide antibiotics may increase the risk of a lu-pus flare.Pregnancy and ContraceptionSpontaneous abortion and premature delivery are more common for women with SLE than for healthy women. To minimize risks to both mother and baby, a pregnant woman with lupus should be

closely supervised by an obstetrician fa-miliar with lupus and high-risk pregnan-cies. As long as a woman is not hyper-coagulable, oral contraceptives may be considered for contraception, as they do not increase flares.SurgerySurgery may exacerbate the symptoms of SLE. Hospitalization may be re-quired for otherwise minor procedures, and postoperative discharge may be de-layed. If it is elective, the surgery should be postponed until lupus activity is un-der control.ImmunizationsImmunizations with killed vaccines have not been shown to exacerbate SLE. Influenza and pneumococcal vaccines are routinely recommended for SLE pa-tients. A patient with lupus should con-sult her or his doctor before receiving any immunizations, even routine ones.

HEALTH Continues on page 14


July 22, 2011The Kolbe Foundation has an-nounced the introduction of new visiting hours for families of in-mates who normally visit them on Sundays. The Chief Executive Of-ficer of the Correctional facility, Earl Jones, said that they have instituted a rotation system that will alleviate the congestion and over-crowding that causes have on Sundays. Jones said that the new arrange-ments that will be enforced begin-ning July 31st will facilitate the in-mate depending on which section and classification they have within the prison system and accordingly, will be entitled to visits on alternat-ed weekends (Sundays). Starting this Sunday only those inmates on ‘REMAND’, assigned to Tango 8, 9, 10, and 11 will be allowed visits by relatives and friends. The following Sunday August 7th., inmates under other classification

HATTIEVILLE PRISON CHANGES VISITING HOURS

assigned to Tango 1, through 7 along with WYF section and Females will be allowed visits by their relatives.Jones explained that the new chang-es have become necessary to ac-commodate the inflow of visitors which exceeds 350 every Sunday and also to afford and facilitate each inmate with the equal opportunity to receive a visitor. He noted that with the previous system in place many inmates got cheated out of their vis-its mainly because of the congestion and lack of proper security to con-trol the crowd, once it was to a peak capacity other visitors were turned away.He concluded that with the new ro-tation system every inmate will be able to receive their visitors with-out any restrictions and without any congestion. He also mentioned that for those relatives who missed their Sunday that they will be accommo-dated during the transition phase.

MURDER IN COTTON TREEThursday- July 28th , 2011 Belmopan police say they have detained eighteen year old Michael Coye and and another minor both from the village of Cotton Tree situated in the outskirts of Belmopan for questioning following a murder which took place in Cotton Tree village around 8:45 pm on Wednesday.Police report that they responded to a call shortly after the incident and as a result visited the Western Regional Hospital in Belmopan where ob-served the lifeless body of a Belize City driver identified as 21 year old Thaddeus Castillo of # 2520 Corner Mopan and Mahogany. Castillo dis-played a large cut-wound to the left-side of his head and face. Initial investigations reveal that Catillo was walking along an un-named Street in the said village when he was approached by the fifteen year old boy who suddenly and for no apparent reason, inflicted the injuries on him.Castillo was rushed to the Western Regional Hospital where he later suc-cumbed to his injuries while undergoing treatment. Castillo’s body is at the morgue awaiting a post-mortem examination.


APPLICATIONS FOR LIQUOR LICENSES

Page 16

Who is illegally logging and exporting Rosewood?

BELIZE CITY – There is a showdown looming in the Toledo District yet again between the Barrow administration and the Maya Leaders Alliance and south-ern conservation groups over the issue of illegal logging, particularly in the Chiquibul. Three weeks ago following loud and persistent complaints from conserva-tion groups and alcaldes, the Forestry Department intercepted and impounded a truck with seven thousand plus board feet of illegally cut Rosewood. At the time Chief Forest Officer Wilbur Sabido admitted that the wood had been illegally extracted but pooh-poohed the estimates of “millions of board feet” of Rosewood being extracted from the dis-trict’s forest. “Certainly we do understand - and we do know that there is a lot of rosewood coming out of the Toledo District. But from the reports that we have received, we’re talking about - possibly around the tune of 60,000 board feet of rosewood that has actually been extracted over the past 18 months. At the end of the day, the rosewood that is being bought is ex-ported out of the country to the Chinese markets.” Sabido told Channel 7 News on July 7th, 2011. According to Sabido most of the log-ging of Rosewood, one of the most exot-ic hardwoods in Belize, is being legally done. “The ones that are bought legally, there are several licenses that have been is-sued to date, however we do recognize that there is a high level of illegal log-ging that is take place,” He explained to Channel 7 News At the time, though, Sabido indicat-ed that the Forestry Department would be making the effort to deter the illegal logging. He told the nation: “But we do know that there is quite a bit of rosewood that has been cut illegally, unstamped, so the Forestry Department is taking the necessary steps to do a sweep of the Toledo District to confiscate this mate-rial. In ecologic speak, we’re basically looking at the excerptions or the local extinction of a local specie. And so, it is concern to the Forestry Department. One of the things that we’ve done is actually place moratorium on the exportation of any rosewood. As a consequence of - re-alizing that there is quite a bit of material that has been cut illegally, that people would want to pass off as material that is legitimate, and thereby, exporting it. What we are also doing - as I mentioned - is working with the local authorities, BDF, police, to do a sweep of the area to try and identify the areas that have rose-wood, that is, is already cut, confiscate those, and basically introduce those - le-gitimize them, and eventually got stock in for value-added.” Also at that time Sabido said that as far as they knew, the intercepted truck was driven by one Giovanni Vega whom he assured was not a relative of Minister of

Natural Resources Gasper “Gapi” Vega. Just this week it was learned via Chan-nel 7 News that although Giovanni Vega was charged with illegal possession of Forest Produce, namely seven thousand plus feet of illegally cut rosewood, rath-er than prosecute, the Forestry Depart-ment settled with him. Chief Forest Of-ficer Wilbur Sabido confirmed that Vega settled the matter by paying three times the royalty value, which is $12,398.00. Channel 7 News quotes Sabido as say-ing that his department “can charge to settle the matter,” and once payment is made, the material is quote “returned for entry into market” by Vega. What Sabido and Channel 7 did not reveal is that the fine is less than a third of the market value of the wood, and that Vega’s boss is Gasper Vega’s brother, German Vega, and that German Vega holds the only license to log and export Rosewood. Anyone wants to bet that “Giovanni Vega” is a relative of “German Vega” who is a brother of “Gasper Vega”? Today members of the Toledo Alcaldes Association and the Maya Leaders Alli-ance are furious that Sabido, the Forestry Department and the Ministry of Natural Resources blew off a meeting scheduled yesterday to discuss the continued illegal logging of Rosewood, without explana-tion or apology. And some Southern Conservation groups are saying that now they know why.According to the Chairman of the Maya Leaders Alliance Ligorio Coy, they know that they are being disrespected because they have been calling on the Department and Ministry to meet with them and this is the third time a meeting has been canceled. Coy told LOVE FM news: “We are very concerned about our forest; we need to address this illegal logging; for us it is not being taken the proper way. Many times we have seen people who are log-ging and we have done some investiga-tion on the issue and it seems there is no permit from the Forest Department when they are extracting these resources from Toledo. We have called the Chief For-estry Officer and he has set a date for us to meet with him to address these situa-tion but that meeting has not been avail-able for him to come down to Toledo and again we had another meeting that was to be today and again the meeting was cancelled an hour before the time set and we saw a Forest Officer that came down here and said the meeting was cancelled. For us that is bad faith, we need to work with the Forestry Department to address these matters.” Coy and the his fellow alcaldes plan to meet tomorrow morning Friday, July 29th, at the Father Ring Parish Hall in Punta Gorda town and unless something changes, that meeting will resolve to call for a complete and immediate halt to all logging in the district.

Thursday, July 21, 2011BELIZE CITY: Prime Minister Dean Barrow revealed at an im-promptu street side press confer-ence yesterday morning that he had not “saved” Belize’s mainstay agro-export sugar industry after all, and that he was busy readying it for sale to a foreign banking in-terest. Following his appearance on a morning talk show Barrow was met by a phalanx of press as he was attempting to leave and re-luctantly stopped to answer a few questions on several issues. The bombshell revelation was that the Belize Sugar Industries (BSI) was being readied for sale to Honduran investor Banco At-lantida, and it is being done in a hurry because its creditors, ING and First Caribbean have called in some US$30 million in loans. Only a few weeks ago as the sugar cane season grounded to a halt, the past harvest was being described as “successful,” even though the harvest was 250,000 tons short of cane delivered and just under 100,000 tons of sugar was produced when production had been projected at as much as 118,000 tons. Barrow revealed that he has al-ready had discussions with BSI’s management and the employee trust that owns 82% of the com-pany’s shares. He revealed that he will be meet-ing with cane farmers’ representa-tives tomorrow to go over Banco Atlantida’s demands, among them that they get some 10,000 acres for their own sugar cane produc-tion, and the fact that they do not wish to deal with no more than 40 Belizean sugar farmers in all. Banco Atlantida wants certain legislative changes that Barrow refused to specify but some insid-ers say that it will amount to a re-colonialization of the industry. Barrow has already threatened that the Government of Belize will not “bail-out” the industry and will frighten cane farmers into selling out. Late this evening the Belize Cane Farmers Association re-vealed that they were looking through an arrangement with Fairtrade to buy a $5 million stake in BSI and expressed almost com-plete ignorance as to the details of the Banco Atlantida offer, es-pecially their demands in regards to agronomic reform. Barrow had said that: “Banco Atlantida won’t put in their 90 million US, except they get certain legislative chang-es, and I have to be sure that the farmers are prepared to accept

Barrow re-colonializing Belize’s sugar industry

Re-printed in full from last weekthose legislative changes. We had a meeting - what was it - a week and a half ago, and we agreed that I should invite Banco Atlantido to come now, and to talk to the farm-ers directly in my presence.” Apparently the Prime Minister has not yet told the cane farm-ers what are the conditions of the Banco Atlantido offer, and it will be very interesting to see how they will react. It is clear that if Banco Atlandido have their way there will be thousands less cane farm-ers. According to the Prime Minister BSI needs $100 million in loan re-payments and working capital and the Government of Belize does not have that sum to bail them out. When asked about a Government bailout Barrow said: “But Govern-ment, lord man, we came up with 10 million dollars last year. To come up with not just 60 million more to pay off ING, 60 million plus another 30 that Banco Atlan-tida is talking about - or perhaps 40 - no we can’t find 100 million dollars. Much as we would like to, we don’t have it. And so, I think all of us must recognize what the re-ality of the situation is, and to deal with Banco Atlantida.” He argued that BSI and the in-dustry will have to accept the Banco Atlandtida offer: “I don’t see any other way, quite frankly, I don’t. I got to just leave it at that. We clearly need - BSI on its own - forget for a minute the 30 mil-lion dollars that’s owed - the 30 million US dollars that’s owed, that ING has called in. Even if you leave that aside, going forward, BSI needs capital injection by way of operating capital. They need to make certain repairs to the facto-ry. Let me just summarize it in that way. BSI needs operating capital. If you both have to repay a 30 mil-lion US dollar loan, and get ad-ditional funds to take you forward, clearly this - at Banco Atlantida, interest is something that, in my view, must be looked at in every seriousness. And if there is any way we can come to an agreement so that the 90 million US dollars can be invested in the sugar indus-try, we ought to come to that.” The dissident United Cane Farmers Association also said to-day that they had not been invited to tomorrow’s meeting and were contemplating some unspecified action to protest the “disrespect”. Its Chairman told the media that they controlled 30% of the har-vest. The situation has the potential to quickly become explosive if not handled with maturity and diplo-macy.


Page 16

APPLICATIONS FOR LIQUOR LICENSES

For Sale by Owner1990 Toyota Picup Truck ---Good working condition

Call: Kent McField at 223-0362 --$6,000 or OBO

Everyone has pores on their face, but some have larger pores than others. Thus, some women are more worried about the size of their facial pores than other wom-en. If you’d love to minimize the appearance of the pores on your face, there are definitely steps you can take to help accomplish this task. Before you call your der-matologist or pay for expensive skin care pore reducing products, wait. You may be able to help you complexion yourself with over the counter products. Using basic skin care tips and routines, you can minimize the appearance of large pores in only a short time. Choose the Right Skin Care Products to Prevent Pore Clogging If you’re not already diligently using a skin care regime for anti-aging or for the prevention of acne you should immediately start us-ing one. While you can choose skin care products from one of a multitude of beauty product lines, even less expensive brands like Neutrogena offer great products for cleansing the facial skin. But, remember when you do choose various products it is easier to stick with the same brand or line for all of the cleansing products. Be sure you choose products made specifically for your skin type. The importance of staying within the same brand is to ensure your skin is getting exactly what it needs. If you mix brands each product might contain something slight-ly different than another brand’s product of similar type. Cleanse & Exfoliate Your Face Regularly Start by using a good quality cleanser on your face. Choose one that’s gentle enough to use on a daily basis. You should also ensure the cleanser has glycolic acid and salicylic acid so you’ll automati-cally get gentle exfoliation to help with clogged pores. When you ex-

Top 5 Tips to Shrink & Minimize Large or Clogged Facial Pores

foliate gently (not scrub) you can start the technique and process needed to minimize the pores. Toner is Important for Cleansing and Shrinking Pores Next, be sure to use a toner. Toners can help to clean the deep pore areas of oily skin and shrink pimple, whitehead or blackhead problems. They temporarily will reduce the look of pores and are an essential part of the overall system of reducing the size of pores for extended periods of time. Toners should be applied to the face after cleansing with a cotton ball. Be-fore any other product is applied, they should be completely dried. Moisturizers with Skin Renew-ing Effects Can Help Reduce Pore Size Before applying foundation or other makeup, it’s important to use a moisturizer. Some cosmetic moisturizers (such as Neutroge-na’s Pore Refining Cream) contain Retinol and Alpha-Hydroxy Acid which can help to bring new lay-ers of skin growth to the skin’s surface quickly which will help unclog pores and minimize their size. Makeup Primers Can Help Re-duce the Appearance of Pores Even though your skin care routine is essential to help you get long term results and smaller pores, in the short term you can use other products to help you get the look you desire. Many cosmetic companies now sell makeup prim-ers. These primers are meant to be applied after the moisturizer but before any other makeup or foun-dation. They help fill in the pores and reduce the amount of makeup that might usually cake into the ar-eas, making the pores look larger. This type of product only masks the problem of large pores but it can be a great product to use while you’re waiting for your skin care cleansing efforts to kick in.

Ratings: 4 Stars! Servings: 4Cooking Time:Prep: 5-10 minutes; Cook: 21-29 minutes depending on donenessIngredients: 4 T-bone steaks 1 large resealable plastic bag ½ cup honey ½ cup lime juice ½ cup chopped cilantro ¼ cup Dijon mustard 2 tbsp minced canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce 2 tbsp adobo sauce from canned chipotle peppers 6 cloves garlic, minced 1 tsp cumin 1 tsp salt ½ tsp ground allspice ½ tsp black pepperInstructions: Place steak in bag (or whatever container you like to use for marinade). Combine ingredients in a small bowl and pour over the steak. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour, best to do it overnight. Remove steak from bag/container and pour marinade into a small saucepan. Preheat the grill. Bring to a boil over low heat and simmer for 5 min-utes. Reserve half. Grill steaks using the remaining half of the marinade to baste. Grill steaks 8-10 minutes per side, or until done. Pour reserved marinade over the steaks before serv-ing.

The original recipe calls for using a plastic bag to mari-nate the steaks, but it isn’t necessary. This technique works well as you can turn the bag as needed and really coat the steaks.

Firewalker T-Bone Steak

Sunday,July 31th, 2011

pez, a n d 21-14, 21-18 against Belize’s “B” team of Tico Requena and Juan “Chico” Marin from Caye Caulker. Blanco and Garrido had reached the semifinals as the No. 2 seed from their group by a 21-12, 21-10 win over Re-quena and Marin in the opening game on Friday. They also won 21-19, 21-12 against El Salvador’s Leiva and Escobar 21-19, 21-12 Saturday morn-ing, and 21-16, 21-19 against Calde-ron and Arias on Saturday afternoon. Nicaragua’s Umana and Lopez reached the semifinals as the No.1 seed from their group bya 21-14, 21-10 win against Arnold and Broaster on Friday, and a 21-10 and 21-18 win against Medrano and Vargas on Satur-day, despite a loss 2-21, 0-21 loss to the Hondurans Sanchez and Miller. Medrano and Vargas reached the semifinals as the No. 2 seed from their group by a 21-16, 21-13 win against Calderon and Arias in the quarterfinals after a 21-16, 21-18 win over Sanchez and Miller on Friday. Costa Rican women win gold at XI Cen-tral American beach volleyball champs Belize City, July 24, 2011 Undefeated Natalia Alfaro Paniagua and Ingrid Morales Munoz of Costa Rica won the gold at the XI Central American beach volleyball champion-ships hosted jointly by the Belize Vol-leyball Association, National Sports

Coun-cil and

the Ministry of Sports at the Marion Jones Sports

Complex on Sunday afternoon. Alfaro and Morales outlasted Su-sana Alvarado Gomez and Anna Lourdes Ramirez Sarti of Guatema-la, who won the first set 23-21, be-fore Morales and Alfaro dominated the next 2 sets: 21-17 and 15-12. Ramirez’s former teammate from Guatemala’s 2006 gold medal win-ners: Maria Jose Orellana Aragon, was now partnered with Rut Gomez Guzman, and they won the 3rd place consolation match 21-9, 21-19 against Diana Romero De Leiva and Marcela Avalos Pineda of el Salvador, who had been the odds-on favourites to win 3rd, at th start of the tournament. Babsie Cadle and Jasmine Ander-son of Belize won the 5th place match 17-16 against El Salvador’s “B” team: Kathya Vasquez Menji-var and Ma Fernanda Vargas Claros, who forfeited for medical reasons. There were 7 women’s teams in the tournament, which was played in round robin format with each team playing all the others once. Alfaro and Morales posted 6 wins, 0 losses in this round, crushing Kathya Vasquez and ma Fernanda Vargas 21-12, 21-11 on Friday morning, and spanking Orellana and Gomez 21-11, 21-17 on Friday afternoon. They hammered

Emma Hoare and Re-becca Rath of Belize:

21-5, 21-2 on Saturday morn-ing, and took out Cadle and Ander-son 21-10, 21-7 Saturday afternoon, before blowing away El Salvador’s Diana Romero and Marcela Avalos 21-9, 21-10 on Saturday evening. Up to Saturday evening, Alvarado and Ramirez were 5-0, as they had swatted Hoare and Rath 21-3 and 21-5 on Fri-day afternoon, won 21-13, 21-8 over their paisanas: Orellana and Gomez. They despatched Kathya Vasquez and Ma Fernanda Vargas 21-16, 21-15 on Saturday morning, and spiked Salva-dor’s Romero and Avalos 21-17, 21-11 and clobbered Cadle and Anderson: 21-11, 21-6 on Saturday afternoon. Alfaro and Morales were 6-0 after they handed Alvarado and Ramirez their first loss 21-14, 21-14 on Sun-day morning, as both teams ad-vanced to the championship final. Cadle and Anderson had won 21-16, 21-17 against Hoare and Rath late Friday afternoon, but to Vasquez and Vargas 25-23, 19-21 and 9-15. After 2 more losses on Saturday, Cadle and Anderson upset Salvador’s Romero and Avalos: 11-21, 21-16 and 15-13m which put them in a 3-way tie with 2 other teams, each with two wins, and tournament officials had to game points to determine who would advance to challenge Orellana and Gomes in the 3rd place match. It was historical in that it was the first time that a Belize women’s team had won two matches at this regional level.

Belize City, July 24, 2011

Undefeated Esteban Escobar and Bryan Monge of Costa Rica won the gold at the XI Central American beach volleyball championships host-ed jointly by the Belize Volleyball Association, Nation- a l Sports Council and the Ministry of Sports at the Marion Jones Sports Complex on Sunday after-noon, July 24. Escobar and Monge won both sets: 21-16 and 21-11 of the final game over Guatema-la’s Andy L e o n -ardo Blanco and Erick Garrido Ruiz, who had to settle for the silver medal. The Costa Ricans qualified to the final by 21-13, 21-19 win against Jeovanny Medra-no Valle and David Vargas Coreas of El Salvador in the semifinals. Guatemala’s Blanco and Garrido also qualified to the final by a 21-19, 18-21, and 15-10 win over Gerald Uma-na Lopez and Danny Lopez Alvarado of Nicaragua in the other semifinal. Denied a place in the finals, Umana and Lopez won the 3rd place conso-lation match 27-29, 21 -17, and 15-12 over Jeovanny Medrano Valle and David Vargas Coreas of El Salvador. Arvid Arnold and Ernest Broaster of Belize won their first victory against the Hondurans: Walter Sanchez Montoya and Ruben Miller on Saturday morning, but they were out of the medal rounds, when they lost to 19-21, 16-21 to Me-drano and Vargas on Saturday evening. Arnold and Broaster also lost the 5th place match 19-21, 21-18, and 8-15 to Winston Calderon Urbina and Da-vid Arias Mayorga of Nicaragua. Carlos Leiva Mata and Carlos Escobar Talavera of El Salvador’s “B” team won the 7th place match 21-19 and 21-13against the Hondurans: Walter Sanchez Montoya and Ruben Miller. The Costa Ricans’ victory roll began on Friday with a 21-11, 21-17 win over Blanco and Garrido Ruiz, and another 21-18 and 21-15 win over Salvador’s Leiva and Escobar. They continued on Saturday, by winning 21-16, 21-10 against Nicaragua’s Umana and Lo-

Costa Rican men win gold at XI Central American beach volleyball champs

Sunday,July 31st, 2011

Belize City, July 24, 2011 The regular season of 2011 interof-fice basketball competition ended posting at the Belize City Center, with CYDP, Ports Belize Ltd, and Belize Bank Bulldogs posting wins on Friday night, and the Roe Group, War Paint Designs and KREM Hard Rock posted wins on Sunday. Ports Belize (5-2) handed Belize Telemedia their 5th loss: 64-52 last Friday night. Vince “The postman” Estrada led Port with 17pts to lead 17-11 in the 1st quarter. Ian “AC” Augustine had 14 pts, 11 rebounds to lead 31-26 at the half. Andrew Ro-bateau added 8 pts, 14 rebounds for a 49-40 lead in the 3rd quarter Ja-mal Kelly led BTL with 14 pts, 3 re-bounds, Lennox Cayetano added 13 pts, 12 rebounds, while Devon Lozano had 9pts and Lupito Acosta – 8pts. The Belize Bank Bulldogs (5-2) hand-ed KREM their 3rd loss: 55-62. Dar-win ‘Puppy” Leslie’s led the Bulldogs 19 pts 8 boards for a 18-14 lead in the 1st quarter. Rupert Brown’s 13 pts, seven boards put the Bulldogs ahead 31-30 at the half and Roy Cruz’ 10pts and Macaro Augustine’s 9 pts saw

CYDP, Belize Bank & Ports win in Interoffice basketballthe Bulldogs leading 47-42 at

the end of the 3rd quarter. Elvis Oli-vera led KREM with 13pts, Devon Smith added 13pts and Allyson Ma-jor – 9pts; Rivers chipped in 7pts. The undefeated CYDP finished 7-0 as they cuffed the Police to their 3rd loss: 72-57. Earl Johnson had 18 pts and An-drew “Head” Staine had 12 pts, 9 boards as for a 31-28 lead at the half. Jermaine Tillett added 6pts, 9 rebounds to lead 44-39 at the end of the 3rd quarter. Or-lando Bowen led the Police with 16 pts, 10 boards, while Andre Almendarez added 15 pts, 8 boards and Maurice Martinez added 10 pts, 5 rebounds. The Roe Group (4-3) handed Mirab their 5th loss: 53-60, with Kareem Elrginton leading with 12 pts, 6 re-bounds. Mirab’s Carlton Barrera had 17pts, 8 rebounds to give Mirab a 16-12 lead in the 1st quarter. Ryan Ben-nett’s 12 pts, 2 rebounds and Dave Apolonio’s 8 pts, 4 rebounds put the Roe Group up 37-25 at the half. Arthur Neal grabbed 11 boards and scored 2pts as to lead 48-36 at the end of the 3rd quarter. Derek Pitts had 15 pts, 10 rebounds for Mirab and Elton An-

derson added 9pts, 5 rebounds. San Pedro’s War Paint Designs (4-3)

handed Guardian their 4th loss: 59-62. Bernard Felix led the Guardian with 23 pts, 7 rebounds to lead 19-17 in the 1st quarter. Dwayne Davis added 13pts and Zachary Young added 11 pts, 7 boards to give Guardian a 31-30 lead at the half. David Rwoland’s 4pts, 11 rebounds kept Guardian 45-42 at the end of the third quarter. Franklin Aranda, Micahel Guan, Whit-man Williams, Steven Lopez and Jay Jex scored 8pts each as War Paint took over the lead in money time. Ronald Rivers led KREM hard rock with 31 pts in their 76-68 win over the Police on Sunday. The sore was tied at 16-16 in the 1st quarter and Or-lando Bowen’s 18pts put the Police up 36-27 at the half. Sheldon Williams added 16 pts and the cops led 54-43 at the end of the 3rd quarter. Muarice Martinez added 8pts while Kenard Clarke added 9 pts. KREM took it away in money time, with Glen Flow-ers’ 13 pts and Andre Bennett’s 10 pts.

Belize City, July 24, 2011

Team 313 stopped Dantos 4-2, while the Strikers walloped the Police 22-0, when the Belize City men’s softball competition continued at thehome fo softball at the Rog-er’s Stadium on Sunday, July 24. Team 313 took a 2-0 lead when Jason Belisle and Milton Flores came home in the top of the 1st inning. Anthony “Willie Beau” Bernard made it 3-0 when he came home in the 2nd in-ning, and Patrick Rowland extended the lead to 4-0 in the top of the 4th. Pitcher Jason Belisle struck out 9 bat-ters, giving up no runs in the first 3 in-nings, until Dantos’ pitcher Garth Go-doy scored in the bottom of the 4th. Godoy struck out 6 batters giving up no more runs, but only catcher Norman Martinez scored a 2nd run for the Dantos in the bottom of the 7th, as Team 313 posted 4-2 win. The Strikers led 15-0 in the top of the 1st inning when Dion Richards, Stephen “Muerte” Williams, pitcher Keith Madrill, Rayan Rowland, Floyd Flowers Jr and Steve Moody each came home twice, while Troy Wil-liams Brent Hamilton and Bryan Grant scored once, and the Police scored no runs in the bottom of the inning. Ryan Rivero replaced Hamilton to score another run in the 2nd inning, and the mercy rule was applied when Troy Williams, Richards, Stephen

Williams, Madrill, Grant and

Team 313 & Strik-ers & win in Belize City

men’s softball Rowland added 6 more runs in

the third inning for the 22-0 win. The Strikers had also won 13-2

against the Oceana Pro’s on Fri-

day night, pitcher Brandon Bood gave up only 2 runs. The

Strikers collected 14 hits of the pitch-ing of Oceana’s Herman Burke.


$ 805,054.0015,816573

national perspective july 31, 2011

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