belize times august 12, 2012

Sunday, August 12, 2012 THE BELIZE TIMES 1

Issue No. 4808SUNDAY August 12, 2012

Continued on page 6 Continued on page 4

www.facebook/Belize Times

Not All Clear yet…Tropical

Storm Gordon forms

SCAN HERE

See page 3 See page 18

Deputy PM admits to “giving away” land to family members

TOP

MOD

EL

Continued on page 4

Continued on page 6

ReCAll GApi!

James Swan Jr. executed in

Corozal Town See p

age 1

1

Superbond renegotiation getS

negative review

Mayor bradley would abandon city reSidentS

in diSaSter tiMe

ForMer boxer Fighting to

revive boxing

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

0313

19

Zabaneh calls US allegations

“false”

Nurse Joyce Pollard laid to rest

Belize City, August 8th, 2012Deputy Prime Minister and Minis-

ter of Natural Resources Gaspar Vega is probably glad that Belizeans got dis-tracted with the scare of Hurricane Er-nesto. The scare came as Vega faced heavy public backlash and political up-heaval after he admitted to giving away public land to his family because, ac-cording to him, they are not “normal Belizeans”.

But the distraction was momen-tarily and Belizeans cannot overlook nor forget the gravity and seriousness of Vega’s admitted words.

It all began with the BELIZE TIMES exposing land documents which showed the family and relatives of the

Deputy PM being awarded a multi-tude of lands. The pressure was then brought on by the Opposition Peo-ple’s United Party at a press confer-ence last week where party officials exposed the details of the massive land grab. When the media caught up to Vega, at a cow farm, he was cornered and when questioned, he shoved his “not normal” foot right into his mouth.

When asked about Diana Vega-Rosado, his daughter, Gaspar Vega said unashamedly, “Yes she is my daughter. I gave her a piece in Mountain Pine Ridge, 10 acres of land. I gave her a house lot in Corozal and one in Belmopan. And

I don’t see anything wrong with that”.

Then came his brother, Zamir Vega. Gapi once more showed no re-gret for arbitrarily sharing the public’s resources. “That’s a house lot. Yes I gave him a house lot in San Pedro. All house lots we selling in San Pe-dro is between $2,000 and $2,500. All caye land, once it’s a house lot. So that is the going price.”

But our checks don’t correspond

Belize City, August 9, 2012One of three Belizean busi-

nessmen, who are facing very serious accusations by the United States Government of having ties with Mexico’s deadly Sinaloa drug cartel, has responded, claiming the allegations are “false” and “highly defamatory”.

In a press release sent on Wednesday, 58 year old John Za-

Thursday, August 9, 2012

James Swan, Jr., 30, the son of UDP stalwart and no strang-er to the law, James “Raindrops” Swan, Sr., was reportedly pursued by a gunman and targeted while he stood outside Deng’s Taiwanese Supermar-ket on 7th Avenue in

BELIZE CITY, Thurs. Aug. 9, 2012By Roy Davis

Mrs. Joyce Gwen-neth Pollard, nee Dobson, 65, a.k.a. “Ma J”, Mrs. P” and “Nurse Dobson”, was laid to rest at Lord Ridge Cemetery today after fu-neral services were held at St. John’s Cathedral. The officiant was Canon Leroy Flowers.

Gapi Vega

John Zabaneh

Mrs. Joyce Pollard

2 THE BELIZE TIMES Sunday, August 12, 2012

THE BELIZE TIMES

EDITOR

Alberto Vellos

OFFICE MANAGER

Fay Castillo McKay

PRINTING/PERSONNEL SUPERVISOR

Doreth Bevans

LAYOUT/GRAPHIC ARTIST

Chris Williams

STAFF REPORTER

Alton Humes

TYPIST

Rachel Arana

OFFICE ASSISTANT

Roberto Peyrefitte

Printed & Published ByTHE BElIzE TIMEs lTD.

#3 Queen StreetP.O. BOX 506

Belize City, BelizeTel: 671-8385

Email: [email protected]@yahoo.com

“Growing the Future” Summer Camp passes out

over 200 students

We demand from Guatemala...

Dear Editor,Kindly publish this letter on a mat-

ter which I believe is of national im-portance.

What is the single most impor-tant change Independence brings to a small nation like Belize? Under colo-nialism, as British subjects, we were obligated to them. As Belizeans, we are now responsible for ourselves.

This I.C.J. proposal, in its intent and purpose, should be as important as the very soul of our independence because that is what is being ques-tioned. Yes sir, Belize is an indepen-dent nation, and has been for almost 31 years. This is no time for misinfor-

mation, half-truths, or deception. The smallest mistakes can and will change what the past 31 years have been.

To those of you were against the Heads of Agreement but embrace this compromise what concessions are we asking for? Or is that yet to be deter-mined because we don’t know of any. There is no difference between this and its predecessor in its intention to remove us from our homes. When will somebody who goes abroad as a rep-resentative of this nation not return like a puppet, who parrots what has been said, what they were told, and what they are to say to us? Do any of you even know what we deserve?

As an independent nation that has been subjected again and again to the continuous rape of our natural resources, invasions, incursions, and relentless assaults on the local and in-ternational front, I say, we deserve a lot more than you all obviously think we do.

I think maybe before we go to the I.C.J. we should go to a National Ref-erendum on the legitimacy of those of you who embrace this proposal, whether or not you all should contin-ue to represent us on the world stage. This is not a puppet show, so let’s put that to the vote of Belizeans.

Our two nations, I do believe, want and deserve for this matter to come to a head. The Republic wants, needs and deserves access to the Ca-ribbean Sea. Our nation needs to be free of this matter once and for all!

Both nations in this contention will be proven to be right, but wrong in how she refuses to settle this matter. Now like children to be carried about with every doctrine of men with cun-ning craftiness where they wait to de-ceive, we will be told to sit and listen.

The mature thing to have done immediately after independence was to engage our neighbor in dialogue on how best to move forward with the development of our nation. What was

simple and easy then, is now complex and dangerous now. This is real Belize.

Let’s look at the opposing view taken and maybe from these mistakes men of distinction will now step into the fray.

The Republic claims territory she knows she will not get and denies the independence of this state only be-cause of that claim. She can encour-age her citizens in all the illegal activi-ties because of the advantage of her size, playing the bully. Belize, being over powered on all fronts, recoiled as an act of defiance where we stand to this day. The mantra “we don’t want no Guatemala” was good politics for the moment, but bad for diplomacy as time has proven it to have been.

The best option this nation had was to build a deep water port ac-cessible to our neighbor for the de-velopment of our nations. Who can deny the need of such infrastructure development for this nation and our region? It is said hind sight is 2020. What did not happen 31 years ago because of dogma can happen now. Maybe it’s best it did not happen then, if they feel they can take advantage of us now what would they have done to us then.

“Reparations” is our demand for 31 years of antagonism and it can only be in $$$ that ranges from $1USD per year to $1b US for each and every one of those 31 years of raping our resource, invasions, incursions, and assault after assault on the national and international front. I do believe I need to be asked which of the two numbers I would recommend to de-mand, and that’s because I believe it’s still not what we deserve.

When all is said and done, we in this nation state Belize will be here ready willing and able to live and work in peace for the development of our nation and the region.

SignedM.L.G.

BELIZE CITY, Thursday, August 2nd, 2012By Alton Humes

There could be no greater feeling, after a grueling and intense summer camp, to be a part of a ‘passing-out’ ceremony, which not only gives praise and recogni-tion to the individ-ual achievements of the participants, but also the collec-tive group of par-ticipants involved as well as their par-ents and other sup-port. And almost a decade now, the Growing the Future Foundation, found-ed by the husband-and-wife team of educators/community activists Peter and Andrea Lacey in 2004, has been hosting their annual summer camp for young kids (from Infant 1 to Stan-dard 6) who desperately need some brushing-up in Reading, Math and other academic disciplines in order to advance not only to higher class-es, but to have an edge over their lesser-working classmates.

2012 marks the 9th year of the program and this year’s program was split between the Holy Re-deemer Parish Hall in Belize City and the ‘Suga City’ program, held at the St. Peter’s Anglican School in Orange Walk Town. The Belize City

ceremony was held at the Radisson Fort George Hotel’s Caracol Room. And the stars of the program were most definitely the kids – some of them trying not to embrace the spot-light, while others were all too eager to get their certificate. The teachers who mentored them in 5 weeks of training – Ms. Garcia, Ms. Sherlette Myers and Mr. Devon Reynolds - handed out their certificates to them.

The event was capped off by a brief speech by the editor of the BE-LIZE TIMES and community leader, Alberto Vellos, who admitted without haste to the gathering he’s not fond of speech-making, and started off his remarks by ‘polling’ the kids on

whether they enjoyed this year’s camp and encouraging them to return next year. In a more se-rious tone, he made sure to hammer the point to the young children and their parents that when it comes to education and ambition towards better things for themselves and their com-munity, “It all depends on you to make it or break it.”

Certainly making or breaking it in education is up to the indi-vidual child, but with programs like this, failure, as poet and activist Micah Goodin ‘rapped’ to the crowd, ‘will be your en-emy’.

Summer program participants receive their certificates


Superbond re-negotiation gets negative review

Another Barrow/Ashcroft Meeting?

Belize City, August 9, 2012By Friday afternoon, Tropical De-

pression #7 is forecast to strengthen and become Tropical Storm Gordon just west of the Eastern Caribbean. While it is many miles away, and pos-es no immediate threat to Belize, the storm bears watching as it is predicted to strengthen and follow the same path as Hurricane Ernesto which im-pacted Mexico’s Yucatan and northern Belize on Tuesday night.

Forecasters say most computer models agree that Tropical Storm Gor-don will move west over the weekend, similar to Ernesto, but it is difficult to say whether it will strengthen into a dangerous hurricane or just fizzle. Wind shear is forecast to become fairly high in the Caribbean which might impact Gordon and weaken its potency.

A day is like eternity for storms as conditions change by the minute. Its

Not All Clear yet…Tropical Storm Gordon forms

prediction is also based on estimates and is at best just that, a prediction.

Belizeans are advised to keep a close watch as Gordon moves west over the next few days. It is expected to be South of Jamaica by Tuesday.

Weather experts have also up-dated their predictions for the 2012 Atlantic Season today from “typical” to “above-average”. The initial predic-tion was for 9-15 named storms and 4-8 hurricanes. With the 7th storm due tomorrow, experts have update the data to 12-17 named storms, 5-8 Hur-ricanes, and 2-3 major hurricanes.

They indicate that conditions in the Atlantic, including above-average sea surface temperatures (SSTs) and an enhanced West-African monsoon, are favouring the above-normal season. Additionally, El Niño, which should sup-press Atlantic hurricane activity with increased vertical wind shear, is not expected until later in the season.

Belize City, August 9th, 2012Prime Minister Dean Barrow is to-

night on a personal four-day vacation, according to a press release issued by the PM’s office today.

But the PM isn’t at some world-class Belizean resort or in London at the Olympics watching our Caribbe-an-brothers and sisters’ stellar per-formances. The PM is at his favourite place in the world, in Miami, where several months ago he met Michael Ashcroft in secret to discuss Belize Telemedia Limited and other matters.

With so much obscurity surround-ing Ashcroft’s new dealings with the

Barrow Administration, one must wonder whether another “secret” meeting with Ashcroft will take place.

After having taken over BTL from Ash-croft companies three years ago, the Barrow Administration has sunk Belize’s deeper into litigation which has cost Belize millions in le-gal fees, and by prolonging the payment of compensation, it only increases the amount of interest to be paid to the previous owners.

Promises that a new buyer is ready to buy shares in BTL have never materialised, as a result of the numerous litigations and the Barrow Administration’s manipulation of BTL as a cash cow to finance political schemes.

Belize City, August 9, 2012Not even a full day passed since the

publication of the Barrow Administration’s Superbond re-negotiation terms and it has already gotten bad reviews.

The terms offer three scenarios for bondholders, who have been kept in the dark for a while now and have grown ap-prehensive. The first scenario extends the bond to 2062 at a flat 2% coupon rate with a 15 year grace period. The second scenario offers a principal payment of 45% and extends the bond to 2042 with

varying interest rates and no grace pe-riod. The third scenario offers a 45% prin-cipal payment reduction, with a five year grace period at 3.5% interest until 2042.

But not because the Government is making the offer does it mean bondhold-ers must accept. In fact, the first reaction is advising heavily against bondholders’ submitted to the terms.

Exotix economist Stuart Culverhouse said the proposal was even more nega-tive for bondholders than expected.

Meanwhile, Scotiabank International

Analyst, Joe Kogan, said that “this pro-posal (is) one of the worst restructur-ings for bondholders in recent Emerg-ing Markets history”.

Kogan added that “the govern-ment’s strategy is puzzling. On one hand, they are going through the motions in consulting with bond-holders and making their case for a

restructuring. On the other hand, to-day’s lowball offer will undoubtedly anger all bondholders, who would lose tremendously if they participat-ed in such an exchange”.

Kogan along with other bondhold-ers believe that if the Barrow Adminis-tration wants to re-negotiate there must be more equity in its negotiating terms.

Ashcroft & Barrow smile and shake hands at a Belize Bank private affair earlier this year

Busy Atlantic season. There are three areas of interest following Ernesto’s trail


Continued from page 1




US millionaire says Barrow is covering up GSU’s unjustified attack

UNpopUlAR UDp

Coye Family back in Court again

with Vega’s claim. Land in San Pedro is very expensive and going for no less than five times the rate for which the Minister sold the house lot to his brother.

Next is Omir Vega, and Lands Min-ister Vega said he was also given land. “In Burton Canal, I gave him a lot in Burton Canal and one in Mount Pleasant. He lives in Belmopan”.

There is also Leticia Vega, who got 30 acres of land in San Estevan.

And then there is the Deputy Prime Minister’s wealthy brother, Ger-man Ignacio Vega and wife Karen Vega.

“I’ll tell you what I gave Ger-man/Ignacio Vega. I gave 65 acres to Karen Vega, I still say German Vega because that’s his wife and I gave him 135 acres of land in the Carmel-ita area,” admitted the UDP politician.

And as if admitting to feeding his family with tons of land was not bad enough, Vega launched an attack on Belizeans who felt that they also de-served the same kind of treatment.

“My family doesn’t sit down and gossip around the corners. We work ever since. That’s why we are suc-cessful - we work hard you know. I am not a normal person in Belize. I work much harder than a lot of oth-er people. My family is as hard work-ing as me,” said Vega.

And as he sinfully made it known that he viewed other Belizeans as less important than he and his family, Vega also said he trusted the Lord, and that he knew he had done right.

This is much more than just a case of public embarrassment. It is evidence of a lack of conviction and care for or-dinary Belizeans, of which the major-ity has slipped into unemployment and poverty. It is worst when one realised it came from the Deputy Prime Minister and the UDP’s Deputy Leader who is next in line for Prime Minister and Lead-er of the ruling UDP. To think of having him at the helm of our country is much scarier than Hurricane Ernesto striking Belize.

More than just showing poor judg-ment, Vega admitted to possible abuse of office. He has admitted to arbitrarily giving away hundreds of acres of land to his family, which draws many ques-tions about the integrity of his office. This is the kind of thing that in other countries persons in public life end up being kicked out of office and even face criminal charges for.

While we shall wait, not with bated breath, for the Integrity Commission or the Prime Minister to deal with Vega and the possible misconduct at the Minis-try of Natural Resources, Belizeans can deal with the likes of Vega themselves by invoking the recall mechanism.

ReCAll GApi!

James Swan Jr. executed in

Corozal TownCorozal Town at around 7:30 on Sun-day night.

Police intelligence, responding to a tip that Swan would be targeted, tried to allay the hit, but their efforts to do so proved to fall short.

Swan was reportedly along with his common-law wife and their two children and was engaged in a con-versation with Bajay Ajay, 38, an In-dian businessman when a gunman emerged from a dark area beside the business and opened fire on them. Swan was riddled with five bullets, twice in the head and three times in the chest and ribcage, while Ajay was struck in the right hand and left foot. Police later recovered ten 9mm shell casings from the scene.

The gunman, according to police, was a dark-skinned youth, dressed in a t-shirt. That individual, however, is yet to be identified. While cops be-lieve that the killing was a hit, based on the looks of it, the motive is also uncertain.

What is not uncertain is that Swan was named in a number of murders and shootings in the decade that pre-ceded his own demise. In 2000 he was named in the shooting of Alfred Conorquie and then six years later he was one of five men inside a ve-hicle that was shot at multiple times

on Dean Street. While his “partners” were injured, Swan escaped unhurt. That same year, Swan was charged with the murder of Tyrone Felix, 24, who was shot in the back of the head as he passed by an abandoned lot at the corner of Gill Street and Faber’s Road early on Mother’s Day. He later walked out of court a free man after the prosecution withdrew the charg-es against him.

Then three months ago, Swan, Jr, was named in a double murder of San Pedro teens, Charlie Espat and Eduardo Alamilla, whose bod-ies were discovered in a shallow grave in Santa Marta Village, Orange Walk, about a week after they had gone missing. Reports are that the two had gone to pick up a vehicle in Cayo and while returning to Belize City, they just vanished.

This latest incident has not only added to the already marred image of Corozal Town lately, which has seen a spate of vicious murders over the past five weeks, including that of a mother and her teenaged daughter, but also raised the ire and concern of residents here who sud-denly are caught in a serious drug war in front of their eyes. While their fears increase, police are yet to bring closure to the majority of these slayings.


HARD HITTINGThe big question for Belizeans on the night of Tuesday, August 7th, 2012 was what if Hurricane Ernesto was Be-

lize’s modern day Hattie of 1961. What if Ernesto had by the course of nature swung into the vulnerable old capital? The real question is: was NEMO really ready? And did the Barrow administration fail us with Ernesto? We are not wishing a hurricane or disaster on the jewel but Ernesto was a wake-up call; a near miss that could have hit us amidst our own political, social and economic storm.

Ernesto reminded us easily that thirty years after Independence, we are still not ready to adequately deal with the ills of a low-impact storm, much less a category five Hurricane. It exposed that NEMO lacks capacity and resources, even though it is a highly important Ministry. This explains the missed calls by NEMO over Ernesto and their costly shut down of the entire Belizean economy on Tuesday afternoon when all expert advice predicted that Ernesto would go further north –yet NEMO was opening shelters as far South as Punta Gorda.

The Minister of NEMO, who was once the staunchest critic of Government’s mis-prioritizations, knows that un-less NEMO is properly funded with its own emergency funds, it won’t be able to properly coordinate and execute di-saster plans for Belize. Until then, NEMO will resort to calling radio stations and making costly, reactive decisions. The Minister of NEMO also knows that if he speaks about these things, he will expose himself and show that he is at the mercy of the Minister of Finance who often is into penny pinching. The Minister’s deafening silence suggests that the price he is paying for his Ministerial post was to shut him up.

But the thing about threats like Ernesto is that they are likely to come more than once a year, actually any time between June and November, and since they come with no steering wheel for our politicians to steer them away, and with the advent of changing weather patterns, Belize stands open to be hit. These storms could not have come at a worse time, when progress in our country is stalled and unemployment is rampant, the social fabric broken and the government too broke both in capacity and finances.

We are thankful, yes thankful but cautious as the hurricane season is just heating up. Thankfully Ernesto was no Hattie, or today we’d be walking in mud, lining up for ration, counting the losses, and viewing the destruction. That is the last thing we need, so please Mr. NEMO, it’s time to get it right.

“I tell you ANY UDP GOVERNMENT that I lead WILL NEVER BE ENGAGED IN CORRUPTION. As soon as it rears its ugly head, I personally will cut it off. And I will tell you I will sharpen a special machete with blades on two sides so that every time it springs up ‘right so’, I will chop it off. And IF IT MEANS THE GOVERNMENT HAS TO FALL, THEN SO BE IT!” – Dean Oliver Barrow, November 18, 2004

Two wrongs don’t make a right, but the UDP would want Belizeans to think that they can get away with anything because, according to them, the “PUP did it”.

At some point Belizeans will have to wise up and realise the games being played by the UDP Government and their agents. Belizeans will have to recognise that the PUP has paid the price for its past. It lost the elections. The Party has gone through significant changes. It has changed leaders, introduced new blood, renewed its core philosophy and it’s poised to taking on the nation’s leadership.

We say this in view of the reaction to the current UDP land scandals being exposed. Somehow UDP officials want Belizeans to ignore them by simply saying that the PUP did it. But this is wrong. Not only is the accusation wrong-ful, but it is outrageous to think of it as a valid excuse. We repeat: two wrongs don’t make a right. If the PUP faced the music, so should the UDP.

We say nuff respect to PUP Leader Hon. Francis Fonseca for facing the issues and dealing with the allegations against one of the PUP’s representatives head on. Hon. Francis has said the PUP, under his leadership, will not tolerate corruption or abuse of public office. His decision to openly answer any questions from the media, and have the PUP representative address matters is a sign that the PUP Leader is dead serious.

In contrast, the UDP leader protects and defends his Deputy Party Leader and other UDP officials despite the in-creasing evidence of possible abuse of public office. This is the very same UDP Leader who pledged to fight this kind of behaviour upon taking office. Now he protects it, and hides the truth in total shame.

Was NeMo ready?

Two Wrongs…



Armed duo terrify Columbia Village residents

Continued on page 8

BDF musician & gang member slain in separate shootings

Daniel MorenoDion Zabaneh

Zabaneh calls US allegations

“false”baneh, owner of the Maya King Limited banana farm operators in Belize, is refut-ing all the allegations made by the US De-partment of the Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control on Tuesday. Those allega-tions are that Zabaneh and his nephew, Dion Zabaneh, and Corozal businessman, Daniel Moreno, are partners who are linked to drug trafficking for the Sinaloa cartel run by Mexican drug lord, Joaquin Guzman Loera, also known as “El Chapo”. As a result, the US designated them as narco-traffickers through the Foreign Nar-cotics Kingpin Designation Act and has moved to freeze any assets within US jurisdiction.

In Zabaneh’s press release, he states that the accusations are “wild and un-substantiated” and that he has “never met nor heard of Daniel Moreno nor has he seen nor spoken to his neph-ew…for several years”.

The release further states, “Mr. Za-baneh and his companies are not en-gaged in drug trafficking, are not op-eratives of and have neither had nor currently have any affiliation or asso-ciation with Joaquin Guzman Loera, the Sinaloa carter or any other narco-trafficker whatsoever”.

But the US Government’s announce-ment has crippled at least one of Za-baneh’s businesses, which also includes Mid-South Investments Limited, Belize Chemicals and Crown Paradise Enter-prises.

Reports are that because of the an-nouncement, the Belize Bank is refusing to carry out financial transactions with Za-baneh and therefore company payments and the disbursement of salaries for his 200 plus employees have been stalled.

This is just the effect the US Depart-ment of the Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control wanted to achieve, as they explained in their statement that by blacklisting individuals and their compa-nies, they hoped to prevent them from engaging in further business. While this embargo was meant to prevent business with other US nationals and companies, it has had a ripple effect. Zabaneh’s Mayan King Ltd. trades mostly with the United Kingdom and that was expected to be a

silver lining, but not so.Even though the United States has

accused the Zabanehs and Moreno of drug ties, no evidence has been offered to support the allegations. Neither has the US Government requested the extra-dition of the individuals.

Our investigations reveal that in April of this year, US drug agents and Belize’s police officials carried out a search of Moreno’s business D’s Supermarket, lo-cated on College Road in Corozal Town. Found in the premises was a single shot-gun cartridge. This same supermarket is a supplier of goods for the Government of Belize through NEMO’s District Emer-gency Committee, which is heavily politi-cally manipulated.

Reports are that another business in the outskirts of Corozal Town, which is affiliated to Moreno’s family, was also raided during a search but nothing incrimi-nating was found.

The Party is nothing but

the vanguard of the people,

the active organ of the

people, work-ing at all

times in the service of the

people.”

D’s Supermarket in Corozal Town


Shootings leave suspected

triggerman deadHumor in UDP Politics!

The following matters were discussed in Cabi-net:

The Cabinet Secretary said that on Monday his office got a strange call. The man on the other line claimed to be the best UDP NEMO Minister, and asked if they were in need of his help. The CabSec said he was so puzzled he needed a drink to figure things out. Just then Finnegan interrupted saying “dat dah mussy di Flippin one he”. The CabSec answered, “how you mi Flippin know?”

……………………

Castro told Saldivar he was praying that the Hur-ricane turns to Belize. Saldivar asked, “why, one of your rivers di run dry?” Castro looked at him and said, “No rasta, disaster funds!”

……………………Gapi received a round of applause when he

walked into Cabinet meeting. When he asked what the applause was for, he was told by Boots “I noh bex with you at all… if Barrow could tek care of his family then Gapi can tek care of his family too.”

……………………Even after the applause had ended, Faber walked

to Gapi and shook his hands vigorously. “Keep on giving your family Gapi, it will make you Party Leader one day,” said Faber. Gapi replied foolishly, “I know, I deh close. I dah Deputy Party Leader already”.

……………………The Cabinet Secretary reported that the clean-

ing lady had found a stick of marijuana in the pocket of a jacket left in Cabinet last week. So far he re-ported to have talk to three suspected owners one who said it wasn’t his, the other who said he can’t smoke and the other who said the jacket looks just like that of his driver.

In other related Cabinet news:Vernon Cuthkelvin was seen up and down in

Belmopan trying to get the sole rights to distribute food for NEMO. He was then sent to Customs for clearance for “fertilizers”.

……………………The Mayor of Belize City was dressed up in his

black gown last week which caused a senior offi-cer to ask “is this about streets and drains?” The Mayor responded, “No, I am here to defend a cli-ent”. The staffer then commented, “It seems like the Mayor can’t make up his mind, he wants to be Mayor and still play attorney”.

……………………Willoughby has sent a letter to the University of

Belize asking him if he could be given a Bachelor’s Degree in Hurricanes. As his rationale he explained that he has been at city hall for as long as he was at UB, and he has experienced enough disaster man-agement to make him a Hurricane Expert.

By: Alton HumesBELIZE CITY, Mon-day, August 6th, 2012

In the modern annals of Belizean criminal history, after dissecting all of the heinous, insane meth-odologies and after-shocks of the spree of murders that plagued the City in this era, this latest one is bound to stump most criminal scientists. Po-lice are investigating the murder of 19-year-old Tevin ‘Biggs’ Fer-guson, which occurred last Wednesday, Au-gust 1st, 2012, and coinciden-tally, it happened just after he was alleged to have gone to the home of Mark Steven Godoy II, and shot him in an execution at-tempt.

The bizarre night of events started some hours earlier, when Godoy and most of his family, including his mother, were hanging out on the steps of their family home on Linda Vista Street in the Lake Inde-pendence Extension Area of Belize City. The 28-year-old was then greeted by the yelling of his younger brother saying that a gunman was heading their way. But it was by then too late, as an unmasked and armed Fer-guson entered the yard, and Go-doy, apparently startled by the younger man’s presence, fell off the verandah, just enough time for Ferguson to shoot him in the chest and legs. But unfortu-nately, Ferguson’s gun kept jam-ming, and even after retreating and then returning to ‘finish off’ Godoy, the gun proved to be un-cooperative, and Ferguson had to escape. But he never got that far, as another gunman, lying in wait nearby on the same street, finished Ferguson off, leaving him dead on the graveled street.

Police are investigating the mat-ter at this time, but one of the key questions for Police to determine will be – was Ferguson sent by some gangland/criminal party to ex-ecute Godoy, a man believed, and re-vealed, to be a distant cousin? And if so, who else knew that Ferguson was coming, and in turn, set him up to be killed? Godoy, in his interviews with the media, highly espoused his supposedly ‘clean’ lifestyle and min-imal dealings with criminal figures. But it certainly doesn’t explain why Ferguson would be recruited in the ‘dark’ to execute a ‘hit’ on his own family member.

But for his mother, Catherine Robinson and his girlfriend, Jerriann Campbell, the latter fact is, at least for them, partially explainable. They both told the media that Ferguson, who had lost his job recently, was involved with ‘the wrong crowd’. His mother had even begged him to discontinue with those pervasive elements, but as she put it, “he just didn’t want to listen to me….”, and hence, paying with the ultimate price – his life.

Godoy is currently recovering at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hos-pital, while Police are still seeking suspects in the murder of Tevin ‘Biggs’ Ferguson. Their investiga-tions remain open at this time.

Tevin “Biggs” Ferguson


3 injured in Caye Caulker shooting

leroy Gomez sentenced to 30 years for Rape

Murder Trial Aborted due to

Hurricane ernesto

THE WORLD IS READING THE BELIZE TIMES

www.belizetimes.bz


Leroy Gomez

Alwin Gabb


Leroy Gomez, 26, who was con-victed of rape and robbery last Tues-day, was sentenced to 15 years for each offence yesterday by Justice Adolph Lucas.

Justice Lucas stipulated that sen-tences are to run concurrently, so Go-mez will only serve 15.

Before he decided on the sen-tence, Justice Lucas heard the tes-

timony of one character witness, Rosendo Anderson, a barbeque ven-dor who is Gomez’s cousin. Anderson said Gomez is a family man and he is not a rapist.

Gomez, who was not represented by an attorney, said he is going to ap-peal the decision.

The incident occurred between 5:30 and 6:30 a.m. on August 23, 2011.

The victim, a 27 year old mother of two, testified that she was walking

on Administration Drive on her way to the house of her boyfriend, a police constable, when Gomez rode up be-side her on a bicycle and put a brown and black object to her side that re-sembled a firearm. She said Gomez robbed her of her fake diamond ear-rings and her cellular phone, and then he took her to a yard nearby where he raped her.

Crown Counsel Trienia Young rep-resented the prosecution.

Gomez had one conviction for rob-bery for which he was sentenced to 5 years in 2006. He also had faced four other charges for rape and robbery but he had beaten the rap for them.


The trial of Alwin Gabb, 41, charged with the murder of Nolan Arana, 30, a security guard at Karl Heusner Memo-rial Hospital, was aborted in the court of Justice Herbert Lord on Tuesday, Au-gust 7, due to the threat to Belize from Hurricane Ernesto.

Justice Lord discharged the jury of 7 men and 5 women after he heard submissions from Senior Crown Coun-sel Cecli Ramirez, who represented the prosecution and attorney Carlo Mason, who represented Gabb. He traversed the case until the next session which is scheduled to start on September 17.

Ramirez submitted that because of

the warnings issued by the National Emergency Management Organi-zation, NEMO, Justice Lord should exercise the authority conferred on him by section 35 and 36 of the Juries Act and discharge the jury. Mason concurred.

Justice Lord said the court is tasked with the job of doing justice and ensure that any trial is done prop-

erly and since he will not have any support staff within the next 90 min-utes he will discharge the jury from giving any verdict and ordered that a new jury be empanelled for the next session.

Arana was stabbed multiple times in his body on Sunday, July 1, 2007 while he was in Gladden Alley next to 11 Dolphin Street. He died 5

days later at Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital.

During the trial which started about 3 weeks ago, two witnesses testified for the prosecution. One of them, Michelle Lennon, a co-worker of Arana, testified that a christening was being held at her house and Arana, was at work, called and asked her for some food.

She said she prepared the food and when Arana came for it, at the fence of her residence, her ex-common law hus-band, Gabb, accused Arana of having an affair with her and attacked Arana.

She said Gabb punched Arana and he put his bicycle in front of him to de-fend himself then Gabb stabbed him.

The second witness who testified was Justino Arana, the father of the de-ceased who said that he identified the body of his son at post-mortem that was held at the morgue of KHMH.

The trial had already been delayed when one of the jurors became ill.

BELIZE CITY, Thursday, August 9th, 2012By Alton Humes

An utterly normal boating trip in Caye Caulker turned violent and danger-ous when they were confronted by an armed man.

According to Police reports, 29-year-old Lincoln Allen, a resident of Pinks Alley in Belize City, was along with 7 others – 23-year-old businessman Justin Alamina, 19-year-old waitress Silvia Joseph (both from Caye Caulker), Ron Nunez, Jevon McKenzie, Lyon Gordon, a man known only as ‘Gallo’ as well as their boat cap-tain, known only as ‘Most High’ – were returning to Caye Caulker from an un-known location on Saturday, August 4th morning. But unbeknownst to everyone on board, another boat, piloted by a man of Hispanic descent, was directly behind them, ready to set a trap for them.

The ‘mad man’ did just that. Just as the boat was about to arrive at a popu-

lar bathing site known as the ‘Split’ in a patch of mangroves near there, the boat with the Hispanic figure caught up to them and he jumped out, loaded gun in hand, and began to threaten them se-verely. Most of the group escaped from the gunman’s wrath, except for Allen, Joseph and Alamina, who were injured variedly after being in the sight of the gunman. Joseph, who fell to the ground after straggling behind, was hit with the gun butt, causing a cut wound near to her left ear; while Alamina, who tried to aid her, was hit too, but to his forehead. Allen was shot - once to his left palm hand and another to his left shoulder. The gunman then jumped back on his boat and escaped.

They were later treated at the Vil-lage Clinic before being transported to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital. It remains unknown who exactly was the target of his deadly attack and why they were targeted. Police investigations into this matter continue.


Continued on page 11

Corozal triumphs in 3x3 Men’s Open Basketball

Sprite Under-18 Men’s 3x3 Basketball Championship Finals

Belikin Beer 3x3 Open Men’s Basketball Championship

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Team Belize wins 3x3 basketball champs

Team Belize struggles at 2012 London Olympics

Belize City, August 5, 2012The Belize City team of Devin Daly,

Tariq Middleton, Brian White and Roderick Williams won the Sprite under-18 men’s 3x3 basketball championship finals held at Jamborees in Belize City on Saturday Au-gust 4.

The National team players defeated their opponents from Belmopan, Akeem Watters, Chris Enriquez, Jovani Budna and Kevin Brown, easily, to keep the undefeat-ed title for the day.

The format for this category was a round robin play in the first round where the top four teams advanced to the semi-final round. Belize City defeated Belmopan 14 to 4 in the final game. National team player Akeem Watters gave a valiant ef-fort but was just outmatched by the strong team from Belize City.

A National team will be selected to represent Belize in the FIBA U-18 World Championship in Spain on September 27th-29th 2012.

Devin Daly controls the ball

How they advanced:Game 1 – Belmopan defeats

Independence - 18-15Scorers: Jovani Budna & Watters

8pts; Kevin Brown & Enriquez 1 pt; Gordon Godoy 8pts; Leonel Cabral 3

pts, Kevin Brown & Singh 2 ptsGame 2 – Belize vs. Orange Walk - 17-5

Scorers: Daly 10pts; Middleton 4pts; White 3pts; Roman Alvarez 3pts;

Deshawn Bull 2ptsGame 3 – Belmopan vs. Corozal – 9-7

Scorers: Watters 6pts; Budna 3pts; James Neal 6pts; James Leslie 1pt

Game 4 - Belize vs. Independence – 17-9

Scorers: Daly 9pts; White 6pts; Middleton 2pts; Gordon Godoy 7pts;

Amir Singh 2ptsGame 5 - Belmopan vs.

Orange Walk - 17-10Scorers: Enriquez 8pts; Kevin Brown

5pts; Budna 3pts; Watters 2 pts; Michael Shaw 6pts; Alvarez & Homer

Peralta 2ptsGame 6 - Corozal vs. Independence - 10-3

Scorers: James Neal 5pts; Jessie Leslie 4pts; Shane Belizario 1pt; Singh

2pts; Godoy 1ptGame 7 - Belize vs. Corozal - 14-5 Scorers: Daly 6pts; Middleton 5pts;

White 3pts; Neal 4pts; Roy West 1ptGame 8 - Orange Walk vs. Indepen-

dence (eliminated) - 14-12Scorers: Michael Shaw 6pts; De-

shawn Bull 4pts; Alvarez 3pts; Peralta 2pts; Godoy & Leonel Cabral 5pts;

Wayne Chambers 2ptsGame 9 - Corozal vs.

Orange Walk - 9-5Scorers: Neal 4pts; West & Shane Be-lizario 2pts; Leslie 1pt; Homer Peralta

3pts; Alvarez 2ptsGame 10 - Belize vs. Belmopan - 8-6

Scorers: Daly 4pts; Middleton & White 2pts; Chris Enriquez 4pts; Wat-

ters 2ptsGame 11 (semi-finals) - Belize vs. Orange Walk (eliminated) - 16-2Scorers: Daly 6pts; White 5pts;

Middleton 3pts; Williams 2pts; Shaw & Alvarez 1pt

Game 12 (semifinals) - Belmopan vs. Corozal - 12-9

Scorers: Enriquez 7pts; Watters 4pts; Budna 1pt; Neal 6 pts; Leslie 1pt;

West 2pts

Belize City, August 5, 2012The Corozal Ambush team that consists of Benedict ‘Big

Ben’ Terry, Marcell Richards, Jason Grant and Alton Herrera won the Belikin Beer 3x3 Open Men’s Basketball Championship from among 6 teams from across the country who participated in the finals held at Jamborees on Saturday August 4.

In the Men’s category, teams were placed in two pools of three teams. In pool play, the team with the best record in each pool advanced to the semifinal rounds. The remaining four teams then played each other to advance to the semifinal round. Six teams representing each district had begun the day, with two groups of three each paying a round robin of three games, followed by two playoffs to decide the top four teams who would advance to the semifinals; and the winners ad-vanced to the championship finals.

When the final buzzer sounded, the Corozal team defeated the Orange walk team 15 to 10. Benedict was a force to reckon with the entire day. His post presence was superior and oppos-ing teams couldn’t match up with him. A quick history of Big Ben shows that he grew up in Libertad and played for the UB Black Jaguars earning a Bachelor’s degree in Business Admin-istration. He recently returned from the University of Alabama with a master’s degree in Accounting. He was also a member of the University of Alabama practice team.

The opposing team of Winston Pratt, Farron Louriano, Ryan Zuniga and Darren Bovell made a late run with 3 minutes in the second half to tie the game but their legs seem to give out in the remaining minutes. Jason Grant of Corozal played a big final game scoring 7 of the 15 points.

The Corozal men’s team will now make preparations to par-ticipate in the FIBA 3x3 World Tour in New York on August 18th and 19th.

How they advanced:Game 1 – Belmopan vs. Belize City’s Yabra - 11-7

Game 2 - UB Jaguar vs. Black Mambaz – 7-3Game 3 - Corozal Ambush vs. Dangriga’s Black Mam-

baz - 11-10Game 4 - Belmopan vs. Cayo’s Western Ballaz - 7-6

Game 5 - Western Ballaz vs. Yabra - 11-9Game 6 - UB Jaguars vs. Corozal - 12-7

Game 7 (playoffs) - Black Mambaz vs. Western Ballaz (eliminated ) - 11-6

Game 8 (playoffs) - Corozal vs. Yabra - 15-5Game 9 (semifinals) - Corozal vs. Belmopan - 12-11

Game 10 (semifinals) - UB Jaguars vs. Black Mambaz - 13-11

London, August 5, 2012Team Belize will have to go back to

the drawing board to prepare for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, as none of the three athletes the Belize National Olympics Committee sent to the London Olympics were able to advance beyond the 2nd round of competition in their event.

Nuff respect to Belize’s Kaina Martinez and Kenneth Medwood as just going to the Olympics was an accomplishment, and it was the very first time that Belizean ath-letes had made it to the 2nd round at the Olympics!

Women’s 100mIt was a marked improvement for Kai-

na Martinez of Seine Bight, who had been eliminated in her very first heat at the 2007 Panam Games in Rio. This time, in the wom-en’s 100m preliminaries, she ran 11.81 sec-onds, not her personal best: 11.64 seconds, but good enough to rank 3rd among the 8 women in that heat on Friday morning.

Kaina may be the fastest woman in Central America, but unfortunately she ran slower that Friday evening, clocking 11:89, failing to qualify to the semifinals. Beijing gold medalist Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce of Ja-maica repeated as Olympic champ by win-ning the gold in 10.75 secs on Sunday.

400m hurdles

“Big Ben” Terry goes up for a shot


BDF drills Westlake 6-1

Old Master Challenge Cup enters seMi-finals

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Alamilla’s/MOE forces Tuff e’Nuff to Game 5

2012 Belize City interoffice basketball championship finals

Champions Cup Football Final Game 1

Belizean 400m hurdler Ken-neth Medwood, who lives in Los Angeles, U.S.A., also made it past the 1st round clocking 49.78 sec-onds to finish 4th of 7 men in his first heat early Friday morning. But he was off the pace and finished 5th in the semi-finals on Saturday, clocking only 49.87 seconds. The Dominican Republic’s Felix Sanchez won the gold in 47.63 seconds on Sunday.

JudoNaturalized Cuban-Belizean

Edermys Sanchez had won a wild-card spot in the Judo competition, competing in the 60-66 kg division, but he lasted all of 19 seconds in his very first bout against Miklos Ungvari of Hungary, who went on to win the silver medal, losing only to Georgia’s Lasha Shavdatuashvili of Georgia in the gold medal match.

Team Belize struggles at

2012 London

Olympics Continued from page 10

Belize City, August 3, 2012Alamilla’s Furniture/MOE tied the City interoffice basketball

championship finals series to force a win-or-go-home Game 5 against Tuff E’Nuff at Bird’s Isle last Friday night.

Alamilla’s Furniture/MOE won 69-62 and hopes to play with as much vigour when Game 5 comes up on Friday night, August 10.

Despite Keith Acosta big game with long 3-pointers and 22 points, Alamilla’s Furniture/MOE was still victorious. Acosta was also active in the paint and grabbed six rebounds as he led Tuff e’Nuff with 22pts, 6 boards to lead 22 - 14 in the 1st quarter. Stephen “Muerte” Williams followed close with 9 points 5 and rebounds.

Tuff e’Nuff led 36-28 at the half, but Alamilla’s Furniture/MOE’s pushed for a comeback. They tied the score 44-44 early in the 3rd quarter and then took over the lead 53-46 by the end of the 3rd quarter.

Greg “Chippy” Rudon chipped in 9 points while Dave Alamilla drained in 2 long treys. Brandon Rogers had a big game with 23 points and 4 rebounds while Kurt Burgess’ added 12 points and 10 boards.

Tuff e’Nuff seemed prepared to try on the championship rings as they tied 55-55 in the fourth quarter, but Alamilla’s did not let their chance slip away so easily, and secured the 69-62 win.

Belize City, August 5, 2012The Belize Defence Force drilled

Westlake 6-1 in the first game of the championship finals of the Champi-ons’ Cup football at the MCC Grounds on Sunday, August 5.

Harrison Tasher and Marlon “El Matador” Meza led the BDF’s at-tacks with the help of the midfielders. Tasher eluded Westlake’s defenders to embarrass goalie Charlie Slusher with the BDF’s 1st goal in the 1st minute of action.

Westlake’s Evan Mariano and Jarret Davis coun-terattacked furiously with the help of midfielders Clin-ton Gill, Leon “Lem” Jones, Andres Makin and Floyd Jones, but the BDF defenders shut them down to hold them scoreless the entire 1st half.

Minutes later “El Matador” embarrassed Slusher with a 2nd goal in the 10th minute. Lisbey Castillo made it 3-0 when the BDF won a corner kick and Richard Jimenez centered the ball to Castillo, whose kick finished the play to lead 3-zip.

Byron Usher drove up the right side line and his rocket of a shot from 30 yards screamed in under the crossbar to give the BDF a 4-0 lead at the half time break.

The Westlake offensive finally consolidated as “Lem” advanced up the right side, crossed to Floyd Jones on the left flank who immediately unleashed a shot that got the better of BDF goalkeeper Frank Lopez to finally put Westlake on the scoreboard. Also it proved only a flash in the pan for Westlake, who soon found themselves playing one man short after John King came crashing down on Byron Usher in an over-enthusiastic tackle that had no justification, as Usher did not have the ball. Usher was uninjured, but the referee ejected King with a red card. Westlake’s player Geon Makin also earned the referee’s ire and he too was sent off, leaving Westlake with only nine men.

BDF’s Allan Ponce replaced Lisbey Castillo en-tered the game and Tasher’s pass to Shane Flores on the right flank was the key to penetrate the goal area for another goal shot that zipped past Slusher. A few minutes later Meza did the same thing to complete the 6-1 rout. The second game of the series comes up on Sunday, August 12.

Orange Walk, August 8, 2012The 2012 Old Master Challenge Cup is

preparing to move into Semi-Final round this coming Sunday. Here are the results of last week’s games and the schedule for the semi-finals.

ResultsSinbad FC vs. San Estevan FC – 3-1Goals by Rubiel Mendez, Shamir Duran,

Alcapone Audinette, Aldair ChanOtro Benque FC vs. Progresso FC – 1-4Goals by Tirso Duran, Dennis Charlie, Alex

Diaz, Edwani MuñozGuinea Grass United FC vs. Crystal FCGoals by Teodoro Chan, Nelson Perez,

Hugo Narvaez, Izra Zetina

Upcoming Games:Progresso FC vs. Sinbad FCGuinea Grass United FC vs. San Estevan

Brandon Rogers scored 23 points

Kurt Burges scored 12 points

BDF’s Richard Jimenez on the attack


This Week’sTOP MODEL

beliZetiMeS Sunday auguSt 12, 2012see full color at www.belizetimes.bz or Facebook/ Belize Times

Make-Up

tipsSuggested by Tania Tanesha (E-mail: [email protected], Cell: (501) 604-0736)

1. Not realizing you need to change. Sure, that haircut has always framed your face well. And your favorite dress? It got that title for a reason. But as you grow, your style choices need to expand with you.

2. Not accessorizing. The addition of a great necklace or earrings can spice up any outfit and can make a killer combo with an otherwise boring black shirt. Especially if you’re not sure what clothing is too young or too old. Go after jewelry to rejuvenate your look.

3. Wearing “Mom” jeans. We know you might feel like hiding your stomach and thighs after a kid or two but trust us, try-ing to cover them in high-waisted, baggy or elastic jeans will only make you look worse — and your age more obvious.

4. Being self-deprecating. Embrace your age and your look! If you go into a par-ty joking that you look old or never thought you’d “be caught dead in this,” you’re just drawing attention to flaws no one probably would have noticed otherwise.

5. Not spending enough on your clothes. Stylist after stylist has said it — and we’ll say it again: clothes that fit right make all the difference in how good you look and feel. If they cost more it means the design-ers have more spent time and effort making sure the piece will flatter its owner. Don’t want to buy a whole new wardrobe? Invest in a tailor and have your clothes fitted to per-sonal perfection.

6. Comparing yourself to you 20 years ago. You don’t look at pictures of yourself at 6 and wonder why you don’t have that body anymore, right? That’s because our bodies change as we grow older and there’s noth-ing we can do about it. Don’t waste time pining for your “glory” years. Be the woman who people say looks better now than she ever did 20 years ago.

7. Thinking there are hair rules. Throw out any preconceived notions about what hair length, color and style you must adhere to after hitting a certain age. Hair varies as much as body type, so the same rules don’t apply for everyone.

8. Using the wrong makeup. Just like with clothing — because you’ve always used a certain color on your eyes, cheeks, or lips doesn’t mean it still looks good. As your face ages, make sure that your make-up choices and application techniques adapt with it. Update the contents of your makeup bag every 6 months to a year so that your powders and foundations stay fresh.

9. Wearing the wrong bra. Did you know that over 80 percent of women wear the wrong bra size? And that statistic in-cludes young girls, who haven’t yet dealt with the effects of childbirth and aging. It’s unlikely you’ll stay the same bra size throughout your whole life, so why not spend 10 minutes and get properly mea-sured at a local department store? The right undergarment can have a huge effect on how the rest of your clothes fit, giving your figure — and your self-confidence — a boost.

CATWALK FASHIONSwhat’s hip...what’s hot...what’s now!

Phone: 203-2936 / 620-7481#148 Cor. Queen & North Front Streets

Belize City, Belize

Deborah

Top 9 Senior Fashion Mistakes


fuel priCes reMain extreMely high

during eMergenCy

No Mercy from the UDP

Hurricane Ernesto grazes Corozal District

Belize City, August 9, 2012The howling wind and heavy

rains shook up the Corozal District on Tuesday night with the approach of Hurricane Ernesto. The storm, packing winds of 85-miles per hour had been projected to hit northern Belize, but shifted west north-west last minute, making landfall some 50 miles north, near the tourist port of Mahahual.

While the northern district was spared, it did experience storm con-ditions that caused flooding and mi-

nor damages to homes.Several families had evacuated

their homes in low lying areas, seek-ing refuge at shelters. At around 7pm, reports went out that the sea shore along the Corozal Town bay had receded. This was followed by reports around 9:15pm, that the storm had made landfall as a Cat-egory 1 Hurricane. The heavy rains and gusty winds continued through-out the night, and didn’t reduce until the morning.

At day break scattered signs that a storm had passed were visible. Debris dotted the streets, several homes were partially in water, and some trees and branches had fallen. There were no reported injuries and no reports of major damages.

The most visible impact was that electricity was lost throughout the night after a tree was making contact with high tension electricity lines.

An all clear was announced coun-trywide around 10am, as Hurricane Ernesto barrelled through Mexico’s southern coast and into the Gulf of Mexico. It emerged as a weakened Tropical Storm and has made landfall for a second time in the early after-noon close to the oil port city of Coa-tzacoalcos in the state of Veracruz. This time it was deadly as it killed 3 persons.

Belize City, August 1, 2012The UDP Government has no mercy for Belizeans.

Even during the threat of a Tropical Storm and possible dangerous Hurricane, the Barrow Administration leaves Belizeans on their own.

From north to south, Belizeans had to rush to prepare emergency plans. One such plan is to secure homes and travel to a safe location. But many had to think twice before carrying through such plans. With fuel prices so high, wages low and economy so tough, families had to forcibly spend the little money they have to be safe.

Fuel prices increased last week, past the $12 mark.Premium gas increased by 44 cents to $12.11, Regu-

lar gas went up by 35 cents to $11.15 and Diesel gas jumped by 18 cents to $10.24.

One would have expected the Government to show some kind of mercy for Belizeans, especially during the threat of a storm, but apparently that is too much to ask for.


Taiwanese embassy

burglarized

Former Boxer fighting to revive boxing

BELIZE CITY, Mon. July 30, 2012By Roy Davis

Young aspiring boxers in Belize should take advantage of the opportu-nity to train with former boxer Henry Gill, 59, at the gym, located on the ground floor of the Community Centre in Lady-ville.

Gill has held a lot of experience as a professional boxer and trained at home and abroad.

He is focused right now on reviving boxing in Belize like it was in the 1970s when he used to box professionally in the lightweight division.

“I have a passion for the sport and I want to bring it back like the days when we had good exciting boxers such as Raymond “Sixteen” Thomp-son, David Dakers, Fitzroy Guiseppi and Rhamdas”, said Gill.

Gill’s first fight as a professional was against Chester Audinett. It was in the early 1970s and it was at the Bird’s Isle. Audinett knocked out Gill in the second round of a scheduled 10 round bout.

Gill chalked up his loss to inexperi-ence.

His next fight was with a Mexican, Rodolfo Rodriguez, who was the light-weight champion of Chetumal. The fight, a 10-round bout, went the distance and Gill won it by unanimous decision.

Gill then went on to fight Raul Mo-lina, the lightweight champion of Mexi-co. Molina proved too much for him and Molina knocked him out in the second round.

Gill’s next contender was another Mexican, Jorge Gonzalez. He knocked

not get up when he knocked me down in the second round”, he said.

Gill’ last fight in Belize was against Cleophas Lord. He beat Lord by techni-cal knockout in the second round. Lord decided not to con-tinue the fight after Gill knocked him down.

Gill then mi-grated to the United States and he went to live in Los Ange-les where he contin-ued his professional boxing career. His first two fights were losses and they were against Mexicans. One fight was held at the Sports Arena and the other was held at the Olympic Audito-rium. In the second fight Gill was cut over his right eye from a

he fought against a Mexican in Long Beach, California.

Gill then moved to Chicago in 1981 and at the age of 34 he beat Deral Curtis, an American Golden Gloves champion who had fought with Meldrick Taylor, the number one contender for the light-weight championship of the World.

Gill fought Curtis a second time, but in the second fight there was a dispute as to who was the winner and the fight was declared a draw.

Gill’s last fight, the one that made him decide to quit, was against Donald Collins. He said Collins gave him a rab-bit punch to the back of his head in the third round and he fell to the canvas un-conscious. He said he was out for a long while and when he fully regained con-sciousness he made a mental note to resign from boxing.

Gill then turned to training box-ers. The first boxer he trained was an American, Russel Furie who was ranked 49th out of 100.

Furie fought a Mexican, Avila and the fight ended in a draw.

Gill then quit training boxers and he went to work as a maintenance worker at the Holiday Inn.

He returned to Belize in August last year and since then he has shown an avid interest in trying to revive box-ing.

“Boxing will get back in Belize; all we need is patience; and I want it to be at a higher level than when I used to box”, said Gill

To achieve that goal, Gill has teamed up with trainer Clinton Tucker and he vows that when they reach the top of their game, Amateur boxers will look like professionals.

out Gonzalez in the third round of a scheduled 10-round bout.

Gill fought another Mexican, Jose Jones, who was the lightweight champi-on of Quintana Roo, Mexico. In the fight which was held in Chetumal, Gill won by unanimous decision.

Then in 1976 Gill fought his first title fight. His opponent was Alvaro Ro-

head butt and the referee stopped the fight.

Gill also lost his third fight, one that


Police in Belize City are desperately seek-ing the public’s help in finding out who burglar-ized the offices of the Embassy of the Republic of China-Taiwan this past weekend and no less than on the heels of a forthcoming and highly important state visit by the Vice President of Tai-wan, Mr. Wu Den-yih.

Police reports to the media are highly sketchy, but someone who likely had access to the building, located on North Park Street in Be-lize City, broke in and burglarized it sometime be-tween Saturday, August 4th and Sunday, August 5th, 2012 and made off with several thousands of dollars (unknown type or denominations) in cash from a private safe inside the building.

There are theories at work that it could be an inside job, despite the level of security pro-tection surrounding the embassy that includes a 24-hour security guard. But Police are investigat-ing all leads, and are presently interviewing staff and other people from the area.

The arrival of Mr. Wu for bilateral talks with the Government of Belize was to be the only news from the Embassy, but now staffers are definitely scrambling to be ready for their lead-er’s arrival on August 18th.

jas, the lightweight champion of Costa Rica. Gill said he lost the fight for the most part because he was not feeling well due to the fact that he changed his diet when he went to Costa Rica.

“I just stayed down and did


Continued on page 18

in my perspective…Belize: up for a gold Medal…in murders!

By Rayford YoungI was so proud to see Belize rep-

resented at the Olympics games in London. Both Kaina Martinez and Jermain Sanchez made Belize very proud and brought some hope and good news to a country that is stag-nant and crippled by corruption and crooked politicians. Sports is a big deal and that’s why countries work so hard and spend millions of dollars to host the Olympic games. It brings positive, world-wide recognition to a country and millions if not billions of dollars. It provides employment for many citizens and a wide range of business activities for local mer-chants. So why does Belize invest so little in sports? The Marion Jones Complex has been at a standstill for the last five years, bogged down by scandal and corruption. But this facil-ity has the potential to be a modern athletic center if the government had the vision and the will to proceed in this direction.

Many of the Caribbean and Cen-tral American nations - including Ja-maica, Trinidad and Tobago, Cuba, Barbados and many others - invest significantly in their country’s athlet-ics program and we see the results of their investment at the Olympics. Their athletes are proud to represent their country and likewise the coun-try and people are proud of their achievements. Many are considered heroes when they return home. Why doesn’t Belize invest more in their young people and sports? Because our leaders are ill equipped and lack the vision to make something like this happen. Too many of your min-isters are uneducated, undisciplined and in office for their own interest and not for the good of the country and its people.

I believe if we had a sports pro-gram of track and field, football, basketball, handball, volleyball, gym-nastics, cycling, boxing and all the other sports, our youth would flock to these sports activities in droves. It would keep many of them off the streets instead of getting involved in crime and gangs and other activi-ties that will only make life difficult for them in the years ahead. For this to happen, you would need modern equipment, a state of the art sports complex and professional coaches. All of the countries that participate in the Olympics hire professional coaches. If you are truly committed to this endeavor and if you want to be represented at the Olympics in a serious way you’ve got to invest

in professionalism. Most of our Ca-ribbean neighbors are committed to this and their government sponsors these sports programs financially and in many others ways.

The sport Belize seems to be in-volved in lately is crime and sense-less murders of innocent people. Gangs shoot other gang members. Thugs ride a bicycle up to a person, shoot them and then speed off. Let’s put those bicycles to better use. Belize is rapidly becoming the murder capital of the Caribbean and no one seems to have a solution. Our leaders seem to avoid the sub-ject because they don’t have a clue how to solve this huge problem. Once a friend or family member of one of the elected officials is mur-dered, then and only then will they get involved and try to come up with a solution. But for now it’s not their problem.

I’m convinced if these young men had something productive to do on a daily basis like training in some kind of sports activity their fo-cus would change. They would turn from this life of crime to something positive and challenging. The rea-son so many of our young people get involved in crime and murder is that the gang lifestyle seems like the only way out. They have power when carrying a gun. They are some-body now and they get the respect they so badly need. But if we had something more challenging and rewarding like training to become a professional athlete their whole at-titude would change.

I would hope our elected offi-cials after watching these athletics at the Olympics from London these past few days would consider start-ing up a sports athletic program in Belize. It pays for itself. You get worldwide attention and publicity no money can buy. Your youth are mo-tivated to achieve greatness instead of a street life and a dead end. Your country would be proud, you uplift the whole nation when we see these athletes strive for greatness; they do their very best to make their country proud even if it’s only for a moment.

Let’s stop the silliness and the corruption that goes on at our na-tion’s capital and invest in our youth. They are the future of Belize. Our country needs a big vision right now. Something unique and long lasting for our youth. It will take years before Belize can compete with our Carib-bean neighbors because we are so behind. But now is the time to start the planning and implementation of a serious sports program. Our young people deserve no less and I can as-sure you they will not let you down. They will work hard to be the best they just need a helping hand, not a hand out.

Rayford Young is a Belizean-American, who currently lives in Michigan, U.S.A. Send comments to [email protected]

international Youth Day,

what is there to celebrate?

By Alberto VellosThe thought of young people

often conjures negative reactions from some of our adults. Some will say we’re too reckless, rest-less, bad behaving and maybe even evil. This used to puzzle me, until I realised what was occur-ring. All those bad things actually represent how young people are being portrayed in society today. Like the colourful and attractive display of coca cola as the best drink in a hot summer day, the me-dia (television, radio, newspapers, music, movies) has consistently massaged a certain view of young people into society’s minds.

Look-up “youth” on any of the news internet archives and you’ll see what I mean. Scores and scores of negative news pops up… “Youth gunned down”, “Youth convicted”, “Youth arrested and charged”, etc. And so, like the deceptive coca cola commercial that replays over and over again, it becomes the order of the day.

This is the reason why our national leaders tend to look at young people as problems – as troublemakers, gangsters, etc. – instead of looking at our real po-tential and realising we are assets waiting to be nurtured. This is why we get the increased budgets for prisons and the stiffer laws against “anti-social behaviour” instead of the adequate youth-based devel-opment programmes. It is really a skewed understanding which prohibits dealing with issues prop-erly, and the inadequate response costs our country millions every year. It is also a reflection of the poor quality of thinkers who are in leadership position – they lack the capacity to properly analyse situ-ations and come up with better, long-lasting solutions.

As we near the observance of International Youth Day (IYD), on August 12, young people will con-tinue to make the headlines for violent murders and crime. That will not change, sadly, because in the minds of our leaders that’s all we are. We must understand that while young people want to strive for positive, we are totally depen-dent on the system and the deci-sions leaders undertake can make things easy, difficult or impossible for young people. So is there any-thing to celebrate? Well there is, because lost in all the sensation-alism of the negative news is the

multitude of positive stories of our young.

I could go on and on, but I’ll just name a few individuals and groups who deserve being ‘bigged up’ as we commemorate IYD, simply because in my mind, they would shine on the world stage any day.

Belize-born Kaina Martinez and Kenneth Medwood made it on the world stage just a few days ago. They didn’t get the gold at the Olympics, but they achieved something others have only dreamt of. The only obstacle for Kaina is the inadequate training back home. It is a shame that this is 2012 and successive Governments have denied young people a proper sports facility. A term in office is more than enough to get things right and in order. While it has denied Kaina the gold, the question is for how longer will Belize’s sports superstars be denied success?

Like our Olympic track and field stars, we have awesome basketball players. It was bittersweet to watch the finals of the 2012 high school basket-ball competition, as the best of Sadie Vernon High and St. John’s High went for the win. Sweet because I was en-joying the game; bitter because of the dilapidated conditions of the basketball arena the youngsters were forced to play in. There is no doubt in my mind that young players like Devin Daly and Kaschief Thomas will rise to the top when they enter the world stage. What saddens me is that our country did the bare minimum to feed their potential. If it were not for primary school and high school coaches who rely on a poorly or-ganised and financed annual basketball competition, Devin and Kaschief would likely not have developed their skills. As long as we continue like this, with leaders who can barely see the poten-tial of our youth, there will be many for whom the opportunity to shine will de-pend on mere luck.

Being the younger brother of an up-and-coming bodybuilder has shown me how frustrating it can be for fit-ness buffs. If it was not for their ambi-tion and drive that discipline would be non-existent, as it takes a herculean effort to meet the financial demands of staying in top shape all year round. Last year, even the organisers lacked support to hold the annual Mr. Belize competition. The bodybuilders suffered greatly as it is one of the very few in-centives to remain in the sport.

We also have young stars in other disciplines including women’s football, softball, mixed martial arts, chess, volleyball, swimming, cricket, ten-nis, sailing, and canoeing. I hope we break what seems to have become a tradition of sending more officials than athletes to the Olympics, and the next one slated for 2016 in Brazil should be about our Belizean youth!

We can also find young stars in non-athletic sectors. We have skilled dancers and choreographers and very artistic poets such as the members of the young group, Youth Voices. A recent video animation competition brought out the best in our young pro-


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ball base bat batter

dugout field home run inning

pitcher strike umpire

Q L V I N W C S F S X N R M R

V B D T B A L L S Y H Z P M Y

O W A M D S F J Z V H Z C F J

M U W T M L T U O G U D K S S

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Seaside crossword answers:Across2. boat3. bucket5. crab6. fish7. shells10. sun

Down1. bag2. book3. beach4. towel8. hat9. sand

Seaside Word Merge Answers:1. book and towel2. bucket and spade3. sun and shade4. drinks and ice cream


What Are You Buying?

What is the most expensive thing you have ever bought for yourself? For some it is a car, while for others it may be a computer, for a child it might be an arcade game that they saved up for the whole summer to purchase. Many would say their house, while some may say a boat or a business.

I would then ask what is the most expensive thing anyone has ever bought you? It could be a diamond ring or other jew-elry, some type of clothing or foot wear, and the list would be endless! The truth is that everything around you has a price or a value and whether or not you are aware of that does not change this fact. Even if you received something for free it still has a price as it might not have cost you anything but rather the person who acquired it to give it to you.

Sitting in a meeting a couple days ago I was impressed as you could literally hear a pin drop as both youth and adults were captured by a candid speaker. The topic was that every-thing has a price tag!

Many times in this life we go after things using only our emotions and do not stop to count the cost. We do not stop to find out ‘what will this cost me?’ There are many things in this life that would not be done if people would ask themselves ‘how much does this cost?’ How long will I have to pay?

For example, say I’m mad. I go down the street and shoot this person dead center through the head. I feel good inside because now I took revenge on his family. Yes, it is now fin-ished and every one is happy! Well, not so fast my good chap! You may be happy, but you just bought something that you didn’t stop and question, ‘what will this really cost me?’ Now the other side is after your head. They won’t come for you right away. They may go after your family. The revenge may cost you your brother or your sister or your mother and then eventually the enemy comes for you! So, now your decision has cost you precious people in your life and or your very own life!

In the manual (Genesis 3) it tells us of Adam and Eve buying an apple. They both ate this apple without asking themselves ‘what will this cost me?’! Instead they went according to their emotion or senses. It looked good, smelt good, felt good, and it even looked like something that would taste good!

They ate it and now we are in the condition we are as the human race due to their disobedience. Personally, I blame Adam for the whole thing but I’ll tell you my opinion next week as that is not the topic at hand today!

The important point is that the snake sold them an idea and they bought it without first asking ‘what is the cost?’!

So I’m sitting in this embassy listening to the speech and what I walked away with is a warning: “whatever decision or choice you make in every situation, one of the most important things to ask is “what will this cost me?”

I will leave you with this statement made by the lady am-bassador giving the speech: Everything in life has a price tag. If you don’t see one walk away from it, it is not good.

In other words if you are about to buy something and the person selling the product refuses to give you a proper as-sessment of what it will cost you, don’t follow through on the purchase. If they say go curse out your teacher, or go punch him in the mouth, or go steal that bike, let them give you a clear price before you proceed on to buy their idea. It might cost you more than you can or want to pay!

Until next week God bless!


THINK ABOUT IT1st AUGUST SHAMEThe 1st day of August this year

came and went, like any other ordi-nary day of the month.

But 1st August is no ordinary day.It is the anniversary of the aboli-

tion of slavery in 1834/1838.It was a huge event when slav-

ery came to an end in Belize and across the Caribbean. Our cousins in Jamaica, Trinidad, Barbados, Guyana and elsewhere set aside this day as Emancipation Day every year. There are ceremonies and speeches to commemorate a historic occasion.

But not Belize. Not the Ministry of Education; not the Ministry of Cul-ture, not the National Institute of Cul-ture and History.

Not even the University of Belize.And saddest of all, the Creoles

in the country disgraced themselves and their ancestors.

It is an indictment of us as a peo-ple, that the ending of slavery has no meaning, no significance for us in Belize.

It was slaves who built the mag-nificent St. John’s Cathedral on Albert Street two hundred years ago. It was slaves who caused Belize to become a territory and then a nation. Were it not for the sheer strength, sacrifice of those at the jungle, there would have been no reason for a handful of British/Baymen to remain.

Creoles need to remember the words of Marcus Garvey who visited Belize on three occasions – A people without their history is like a tree without roots.

The leaders of the Creoles in Belize should hang their heads in shame.

WE CANNOT PROTECT OUR BORDERS

If it was not before, it must be ev-ident by now that we cannot protect our Western border from Guatemala incursions.

Once we had strong bonds of support among the governments and peoples of the Caribbean and the Commonwealth. They stood by us in our long quest to be independent with all our territory intact.

Over the years we have disen-gaged from them and placed all our eggs in one basket – the O.A.S. The Organization of American States which is controlled by the USA.

Now we listen with fear and an-ger as Guatemalans enter our coun-try illegally to harvest Xatae leaves to export to Europe. They rape the for-est of logs and other valuables. They are harvesting our gold from our pro-tected reserves.

We have said nothing to the world. We have complained to no one.

We have not bothered to inform Belizeans living abroad or engaged the population living here at home.

Dark clouds are on our horizon.MEAN NEW YORK TIMESThe New York Times newspaper

is a paper of record. They have es-tablished a reputation for being ac-curate.

The New York Times reflect the views of the United States of Amer-ica. They see things from that per-spective.

Nevertheless it is a good and in-

formative read.The online edition is being se-

verely restricted to readers. Only ten articles per month is allowed and thereafter access is blocked monthly. It is an attempt to get online read-ers to subscribe. Don’t know if it will work.

Ten articles a month is a bit mean to us in the struggling third world – especially students and artists.

COYES CONVICTEDTwo members of the Coye family

have been convicted and sentenced for money laundering.

Two employees of the Coyes were also convicted although their part in the offence is minor.

The Financial Intelligence Unit brought the charges in December 2008 when one and a half million dol-lars were found in the family home of Mr. Coye. Back then the whole Coye family of parents and children and others were charged and tried but most were freed by the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal.

In the retrial before Chief Justice Kenneth Benjamin, thirty-four wit-nesses were presented. It was the same case that had fallen through before Justice Lucas in 2010, except that according to attorney Arthur Saldivar, the FIU played dirty when it produced a final witness claiming to be from Costa Rica. This witness told the court she worked for a com-pany that was sending large sums of monies to Money Gram as part of a scheme.

A jury of seven voted for convic-tion and two against.

The government had already grabbed half of the money two years ago.

ALLIGATORWe Belizeans call this magnifi-

cent predator halligators, but those who know say they are crocodiles. They are plentiful in Belize and they are protected by law.

There are fresh water crocodiles and there are salt water crocodiles.

The salt water ones appear to be much bigger than their fresh water cousins.

They are magnificent creatures and they don’t trouble humans.

Recently, a Belizean in Crooked Tree Village was grabbed and dragged into the lagoon. He is lucky to be alive. He must have gone into a murky area where the gator had young ones.

We need to do some public edu-cation as there are persons who are encroaching into gator territory and taking things for granted.

We can all live safely with our pre-historic creatures who, like our-selves only want to be left alone.

HE NEEDS HELPA man in Orange Walk asked his

wife an unfair question. He got an un-fair answer.

He asked about her lover’s sexual ability. And couldn’t handle the an-swer.

He hit her and then turned on the gas stove and lit it in an attempt to injure himself. He got burned, literally and figuratively.

Now, check this. The Police charged this poor distraught creature for arson and asked the court to deny him bail, which was done.

The man spent three months in prison, for trying to kill himself.

How, in this enlightened age, can suicide or attempted suicide be a crime?

The dude needs therapy and counseling, not incarceration.

Could somebody with common sense please intervene?

NOW IT’S COAST GUARDA fisherman and his family and

workers have told the media a dis-turbing tale.

They left Belize and boat and on reaching Alligator Caye, nine miles to the east, they ran into Belize Coast Guard. To their dismay and con-sternation the Coast Guard officers behaved like Israeli or Guatemalan troops – harsh, rude, disrespectful and abusive.

The party of five adults, one fe-male and two minors were forced to remain standing in the sun for hours while the Coast Guard searched the small house and surroundings. The mother was forbidden from feeding the two minors during the search.

All were brought back to Belize City. Rather than towing the fisher-man’s boat, they drove it to City burn-ing out his petrol and of course not replacing it or paying for it.

The Coast Guard turned over the whole party to the Queen Street Po-lice Station where except for the mi-nors they were kept locked up for fifty four hours without a bath or change of clothes.

They were never questioned or charged.

On borrowing money and return-ing to his fishing camp, the fisherman found his fishing camp ransacked and everything of value stolen, including his fishing trap from which he makes his honest living.

SEXUAL PREFERENCEAn impressive commercial is be-

ing aired on Plus TV.It appears to be a response to

UNIBAM – the so called homosexual agenda.

A young lady with the correct voice and emphasis is asking how can sexual preference be human rights.

It is an info-mercial that should be aired on the other radio and tv sta-tions.

THERE’S GOLD IN THEM PLAC-ES

A foreign company has applied to the government for a license to prospect for gold in Belize.

The government will, of course, grant that company the license they seek, and then some.

A nationalist government would have encouraged its business com-munity to form a company, apply for a license to the area that has gold and let the prospectus deal with them to search and extract our pre-cious gold. All in open transparency and no cronyism and corruption.

VACANCY FOR OMBUSDMANA vacancy exists for an Ombuds-

man. The Ombudsman is supposed to be an independent investigator into wrong doing and abuse of au-thority by politicians, public officials, police, and others in authority. He or she reports directly to the National Assembly and reports are debated by the elected officials of the nation.

The government has changed the role of the Ombudsman.

The vacancy which exists calls for the applicant to be a well-known

UDP and family member of any of the Ministers in government.

The applicant for the vacancy need not have any particular qualifi-cations but must be skillful in pre-tending to investigate wrong doing and never reaching any conclusion or never taking any action.

Citizens cannot take any action except to full out endless forms and reports and must visit the Ombuds-man office at least eight times be-fore they get an audience.

Persons wishing to do a good job of being an independent Ombuds-man are not to apply. Any such ap-plication will be torn-up and thrown in the waste paper basket.

FANTASTIC 5As poverty and hard times con-

tinue to grip the land, more and more gambling and hustling are tak-ing place.

Unable to provide jobs or attract foreign investments the government has been giving licenses to anyone willing to open pawn shops, gam-bling houses, lotteries of all sorts, prostitution and trading in stolen goods. Not to mention selling prime lands to family members for a pit-tance.

A lottery by the name of Fantasy 5 has come in for public scrutiny. No-body seems able to win this lottery. How come?

Since its inception there has been only ONE winner and none seems sure if that winner is a family member or friend.

But how come no one can win this lottery?

TWELVE HOURSThere is an energy drink called

5 hours and another called 6 hours.But none of these can be much

help if you are a Police officer forced to do a 12 hours shift.

Twelve hours is a long, hard, bru-tal shift for anyone to work, much less Police Officers on the constant go, is dangerous circumstance.

Now comes the leak that Prison Officers at the country’s only prison have been forced onto this illegal practice.

With no Unions to stand up for workers’ rights, these are some of the outcomes.

COLACOLA, the Citizens Organized

for Liberty thru Action needs to stay alive.

As the only citizens group in Belize City willing to challenge the system COLA needs to increase its membership, spread out to the dis-tricts and start to function like a so-cial activist organization.

Their exposure of the O.A.S. and the liturgy of the Foreign Ministry made a healthy impression on Beliz-eans.

In the immortal words of Phillip Goldson – the time to fight for your country is before you lose it.

THE BIBLE“The sleep of a laboring man is

sweet, whether he eat little or much: but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep.”

“He that diggeth a pit shall fall into it.”

“Surely the serpent will bite without enchantment; and a babble is no letter.”

“The words of a wise man’s mouth are gracious; but the lips of a fool will swallow up himself.” - From Ecclesiastes.


Robberies and violent chopping in Independence Village

Continued from page 14ducers and showed us that we can catch up with the world easily. We also have world-class singers: Mel-onie Gillett, Tanya Carter, Denise, Jackie Castillo, Ras Indio, Positive Vibes, Nello Player are just some. During a familiarization visit in an area of Lake Independence, I met Jamie and his wife and he was will-ing to give us a sample of his sing-ing. If he were in a country where talent was appreciated, he’d be a music idol.

I’ll end with an area that can no longer afford to go undeveloped. This is in science and technology. It is not impossible and Dr. Arlie Pet-ters has proven that we have young scientists in our midst. Once we find them, we just have to nurture their creative thinking. Don’t know

international Youth Day,

what is there to celebrate?where to start? Check out the sci-ence fairs held by the various high schools throughout the year. You are bound to find some good tal-ent.

To me International Youth Day is about our young people’s local potential to create waves globally. Young people can be in a better place in our country, if our leaders would give youth appropriate atten-tion. While my faith in our elected leaders fades, the opposite hap-pens to my confidence that our young people have the potential to take our country to the top. Maybe we should just come together and take over.

Alberto Vellos is the Editor of the Belize Times. He is a former Commonwealth Regional Youth Caucus Representative of Belize.

Nurse Joyce Pollard laid to rest

Mrs. Pollard was buried in the same grave as her husband, Caufield Clifford Pollard Sr., a.k.a. “Johnny Peg-ga”, who passed away about 4 years ago.

She died from a heart problem on July 27, at the home of her sister, Elaine Dobson Rowley, who resides in Los Angeles, California. She suffered a heart attack in May and in June she went to L.A. to seek medical help.

Mrs. Pollard was a nurse for 31 years. She worked mostly at Cleopatra White Health Clinic before she retired at the age of 55. She then went to work at Belmopan Hospital on a con-tract for 2 years, before quitting.

Mrs. Pollard was born on March 10, 1947, and she was the eldest of 7 chil-dren. She was the matriarch of her fam-ily and she was an extra ordinary woman who made what seemed like impossible goals possible. She was a woman with a great sense of humor, who loved life, her family and friends.

Mrs. Pollard was predeceased not only by her husband, but also by her mother Elswith Dobson, her father Mala-chi Dobson, her brothers Kenneth, Oliver and Malachi Dobson Jr. She is survived by her daughters and special daughters, Mrs. Lenna Williams and Mrs. Allison Young, Ms. Darlina Martin, Mrs. Shar-lene Dobson, Mrs. Karima Adderly and Ms. Cherry Uter. She is also survived by her sons and special sons, Clifford Jr. a.k.a “Ta Dog”, Elwin, Elson, Bernard and Glen Bellard, Dane and Esmond Bodden. She is survived by her sisters Mrs. Leo-lin Humes, Mrs. Elaine “Beebs” Rowley, Mrs. Geraldine Brown, MRs. Eleanor Smith and Mrs. Claudette Waldman. The brothers she is survived by are Ambrose and Desmond Dobson.

She is also survived by her aunt and

uncle M.s Ilene Jeffords and Christo-pher Jeffords. The daughter-in-laws she is survived by are Mrs. Stepha-nie Pollard, Mr. Pauline Bradley, Ms. Esteliana Bul and Mrs. Keisha Smith.

She is survived by her son-in-laws Michael Williams and Evan Young.

She has 35 grandchildren, 3 great grandchildren, several nieces and nephews and a host of relatives and friends.



Police are currently investigating a pair of highly bizarre incidents in Inde-pendence Village in the Stann Creek Dis-trict.

In the first, which occurred on Mon-day, August 6th and was later reported to Independence Village Police, 47-year-old Aurelio Menjivar was attempting to settle a private dispute with one Jorge Humberto Hernandez which started ear-lier on Saturday, August 4th. But unfor-

tunately for Menjivar, Hernandez didn’t seem to like the way things were going, and confronted him that Monday, which then led to Menjivar being slashed up with a machete. He was injured with 2 cut wounds on the right hand, 3 cut wounds on the left hand, a cut wound on right cheek and a cut wound to back of the head, and was eventually taken to the Southern Region Hospital. Hernan-dez also reportedly stole Menjivar’s Mit-subishi L200 double-cab pick-up truck, which bears License Plate Indepen-dence C-0039, and is the property of Big

Creek Port Group, of which Menjivar is a manager. The vehicle was later recov-ered on Wednesday, August 8th just off the Southern Highway in some bushes. Hernandez is still being sought by Police at this time.

Then some hours later on the same day, Independence Police were again called out, this time to Leon’s Garage on Big Creek Road, where they saw 73-year-old watchman and resident of the Garage, Rayman Frazer, stumbling out to their mobile, bleeding profusely from the mouth and having a large cut

wound to the left ear. Frazer, making his rounds and protecting the residence, which is the property of one Miss Flor-ence Lozano, was mysteriously attacked and robbed by several individuals, one of whom hit him with a blunt object to his left shoulder while others inflicted injuries to his face and upper body. He was also robbed of his wallet, containing BZC$500 in different denominations.

Police are seeking one Ivan Godoy for questioning in connection with this incident, and their investigations into the above matters continue at this time.


Mayor Bradley would abandon city residents

in disaster time

Indian medical student dies in accident

Belize City, August 7, 2012Belize City residents are in for a

rough ride under the City Council’s new leadership. During the campaign, the Mayor said he could handle the job, not most of it. Now residents are finding out what all Mayor Bradley can do. He can forgive Moya’s under-deposit schemes, he can break his promise of not taxing city residents and businesses, he can continue to hire his father who comes to work late every morning, he can continue to bear with lazy Councillors, and he

can do a better job of begging Central Government than Moya did.

But what we have found out Brad-ley did not sign up for is coping well with disaster management. As Tropi-cal Storm Ernesto threatened Belize, Bradley told city residents bluntly that if things got too risky in the old capi-tal, he would bail out, even if it meant leaving city residents behind.

“In the event of a category two, we have taken a decision that we will evacuate Belize City. So we don’t know if residents want to

stay, but we will not be here,” Brad-ley told news report-ers on Monday as he explained the City Council’s emergency plans.

It appears the City Council’s plans are really Darrel Bradley and the UDP Councillors’ plans, as the Mayor of-fered no intention to stay behind to save lives and ensure evacuation. He

simply said he would skip out and who stays behind, well, it’s just too bad for them.


Police have arrested and charged an Indian-born medical student with manslaughter by negligence and other charges af-ter he and 2 of his fellow medical students were involved in a fatal accident.

The incident, which occurred on Saturday, August 4th just out-

side of San Narciso Village in Corozal District on the Northern Highway, involved 3 Indian-born medical students who reside in the Los Lagos subdivision of La-dyville in the Belize District. The driver was 19-year-old Prandeep Kumar Saikai; the front-seat pas-senger, 21-year-old Jayandra Jah-har and 18-year-old Sagar Sharma.

Saikai, it is believed, was sus-pected of being under the influ-

ence of alcohol and behind the wheel of his personal Isuzu Ro-deo vehicle, when he lost control of the vehicle, causing it to flip over, running off the road before finally ‘landing’ in a cane field. Jahhar, who wasn’t protected by a seatbelt, was flung out of the vehicle in the chaos, suffering se-vere head and body injuries and dying where he lay in a nearby cane field, while driver Saikai and

fellow passenger Sharma only had minor injuries.

Saikai was hit with these charges, namely: 1) Manslaughter by Negligence, (2) Causing death by careless conduct; (3) Driving motor vehicle with alcohol con-centration above the prescribed limit, and (4) Driving motor vehicle without due care and attention. He is expected by to be arraigned before the courts soon.

belize times august 12, 2012

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