national perspective april 10, 2011

Edition 137 Vol.3 week 32 Sunday,April 10th, 2011

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

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

BARROW PUNKS SUPERMANDeh Nuh Wah Zenaida and Nuh Wah Phillip Naida!

UDP Executive: Superman has no Mayoral ability

Wednesday, April 06, 2011BELIZE CITY – A call by UDP Leader Dean Barrow to the WAVE Radio morning show “bigging up” attorney Darrel Bradley yesterday morning confi rmed what had been the grist of the political gossip mills for the past several weeks – Darrel Bradley will be endorsed as the next UDP mayoral candi-date in the upcoming Belize City Council elections scheduled for March 2012.Reports to the National Perspec-tive are that several weeks ago, at a meeting on January 22nd, 2012, the UDP executive decided that none of the current crop of serv-ing City Councilors or the Mayor would be allowed to seek re-elec-tion on a UDP slate, including Phillip “Philloughby” Willough-by, who on assuming the post of Deputy Mayor last year February, had started fl oating trial balloons in regards to him running for the mayoralty. It was concluded at that meeting, that he: “is no May-

oral Material”. In Willoughby’s own words, the UDP executive decided that: “You must put bis-cuit with biscuit and crackers with crackers.”

Things had reached a head when on January 13th, 2011, the UDP sympathetic Channel Seven News ran a story in effect confi rming Philloughby’s ambition. The sto-

ry broadcast: “The man we call Philloughby wants to be mayor. That’s right, the Deputy wants to be sheriff, or, put differently, the self-titled “Superman” wants to be the Super-Mayor.“That’s the vibe we got from Wil-loughby’s camp where the camp-ers are saying, that whether Ze-naiada Moya runs or not - for the UDP or not, Willoughby will offer himself for the post.“Now that’s assuming he gets the nod at a UDP convention - the date for which hasn’t even been announced yet. The next munici-pal election won’t be until 2012 - but there are talks that Mayor Moya - assuming she is accepted back into the UDP - may be look-ing out for a division and a move up to central government.“We’ll keep watching it, with per-verse fascination….”Reliable reports are that UDP Chairman Patrick Faber met with Philloughby just last week and

Continued on page 5

Crispin Jeffries is toast!Thursday, April 07, 2011BELIZE CITY – There are rum-blings of disgruntlement through-out the ranks of the Belize Police Department today, following yes-terday’s bombshell announcement by the Minister of Police Doug Singh that Cabinet had approved his recommendation that the post of Commissioner of Police be ad-vertized throughout the Common-wealth, and that a foreigner be sought to replace out-going Com-pol Crispin Jeffries. Jeffries, a 30 year career vet-eran, is completing the second of two one-year contracts, and it was widely expected that his replace-ment would be Acting Deputy Commissioner of Police James Magdaleno, 53. Magdaleno is said to have been stunned by the announcement.

Speculation was also rife that Magdaleno would only be warm-ing the seat until he reached 55 in

a year or so, and that the admin-istration’s “blue-eyed boy” ACP Elodio Aragon would be promot-

ed to top cop. Several weeks ago Singh had been thwarted when he had sug-gested to Cabinet that Social Security Board CEO Merlyn Bailey-Martinez be appointed Commissioner. Our sources say Singh is convinced that the De-partment is riddled with corrup-tion from top to bottom, and that no one in the high command is “fi t to lead.” He has also privately railed at what has been termed the endem-ic culture of corruption and the wanton disregard for rules and regulations among the ranks. He is convinced that there has to be a weeding out of the most gratu-itous offenders, and new blood has to be brought in to restore some semblance of esprit d corp.

Continued on page 4

Read story on page 6

Sunday,April 10th, 2011

NATIONAL PERSPECTIVETHE

Published & Edited byOMAR SILVARegistered Address

1 1/2 Mls Northern Hwy, Belize CityAssistant Editor : Saida Silva

E-mail [email protected]

[email protected]

Web: www.nationalperspectivebz.org

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

All Rights Reserved 2011®

# 3 Piccini Site, Third Floor

The last two weeks the streets of Belize City have been extremely bloody. In the last two weekends alone there have been nine mur-ders. The Government of the Unit-ed Democratic Party has exhibited that they need a Viagra shot when it comes to diminishing the occur-rence of bloody crimes in Belize. The murder rate when compared with 2010 this same time is far more. Presently, the murder count is at 36 while this time last year the count was 29. Belize is on record pace to beat its own record and the UDP Government is on that same pace.

UDP NEEDS CRIME FIGHTING VIAGRA

The “poor” police officersare the whipping boys of this crime situation, even though the police has been on record requesting more resources and more training to deal with sophisticated levels that to-day’s criminal is operating at. Since 2008 the Police Department was headed by an air head, Carlos Per-domo, for who bar rooms are mag-nets. Believe it or not this gentleman is still a Minister of Government. In 2010 this air head Minis-ter was demoted and an unelected civilian, Douglas “Dougie” Singh, was paid top dollars to turn around the Police Department and reduce major crime. Douglas Singh’s claim to fame is that he is a carnival junk-ie that has no reservation frolicking with males the same way he does with females. Today this civilian has not made any positive differ-ence in crime. To be blunt the crimi-nal landscape in Belize has shifted for the worse. Murders are at an all time high and no signs of it being lowered. Living in Belize is frustrat-ing for every citizen except those thatget on aplane andfly to theirexotic destinations. Don’t forget that the Prime Minister of Belize decided that he scorns Belizeans so much that he chose not to have his wedding in the country of both his wife and himself but instead went to the United States to do the nuptials. We mentioned the example with Dean Barrow’s wedding because other Belizeans have no choice but to brave the hostile conditions in Belize, which has been created primarily by Dean Barrow. He has single handedly wrecked a booming economy in less than three years. The frustration against the incompetence of the UDP Govern-

ment reached a boiling point on Monday when the Chinese/Beliz-eans took to the streets in a demon-stration following the indiscrimi-nate shooting death of two Chinese female on Saturday. Their central message to the UDP Government is that “you are all failures”. Notable missing is the UDP Freetown aspi-rant Lee Mark Chang of Chon Saan Palace. However, Lee Mark was highflyinginMiamiashewenttowitness the birth of his child born to a Belizean woman. Imagine the Chinesepeopleareflocking toBe-lize, but Lee Mark, a born Belizean, is off to the United States to ensure

The Chinese demonstration was the first of such magnitude, and they have to be commended. They took an economic hit for the days (Monday and Tuesday) when all their businesses remained closed. However, they have had enough of the Dean Barrow Government and did not stutter in their demands for the Government to tighten up.

that his child is not born a Belizean but is born an American. How patri-otic is that? The Chinese demonstration wasthefirstofsuchmagnitude,andthey have to be commended. They took an economic hit for the days (Monday and Tuesday) when all their businesses remained closed. However, they have had enough of the Dean Barrow Government and did not stutter in their demands for the Government to tighten up. Some sections of the me-dia attempted to play mischief with Chinese’s demonstration by intro-ducing the “race card” in the discus-sion claiming that the Chinese peo-ple do not mix with the local born Belizeans. There is no reason why anyone needs to be shot down like a dog because they do not mingle with you. As a matter of fact, we stand in agreement that mingling with certain Belizeans will get one in trouble (lie and story) because some Belizeans love gossips and begging, and before you know they have the Chinese people in quarrels. Some Belizeans make poor friends, simple put, they have no loyalty. So don’t bash the Chinese people by selecting a stupid argu-ment, the real reason is that many Belizeans are jealous and downright lazy. Which Belizean presently will open a store, restaurant, shop in the most crime infested area, live at that spot, sleep at that spot and provide the service of their business 24 hours a day. We ask, which born Belizean will do that. The answer is simple, none. If they were willing to do it the Chinese could not have invaded the country with their commerce. Another ridiculous discus-sion topic that permeated the air-waves this week was the Prime

Minister begging for the Opposition to assist him in solving the escala-tion of crime and then blaming the Opposition for not supporting his “fool” fool” idea called Restore Be-lize. Politics is the art of perception. When the UDP was campaigning to be the next Government and while singing for their supper the bever-age Minister came up with a plan for crime infamously called “360 Degrees on Crime”. 360 degrees in that context mean being back where one begins. One suggested after the presentation that they should hurry changed it to “180 degrees” but the

bright minds of the UDP left it as is. However, they attacked the then Government of being ineffective on crime and the people believed them and felt that “360 degrees” would work. Today, Belizeans are paying the price twice. First they are paying all 25 numbskulls high salaries, and then they are paying with their lives and their love one’s life because of their incompetence. The Opposition should nev-er join in with Dean Barrow and the UDP on any issue that was not born of a coming together of a bi-partisan initiative. If Barrow brings a sug-gestion such as Restore Belize, say no, because all he wants is to use the Opposition as a window dress-ing. We say again Dean Barrow is the problem, and we applaud the Chinese for their stand, but we are not prepared to hold our breath for a born Belizean uprising. OPEN YOUR EYES THE PEAOPLE ARE AWAKE!!!

Belize City Construction Worker Murdered

By Rhenae NunezSun. Apr. 3 2011BELIZE CITY – The murder of a Belize City construction work-er in the wee hours of Sunday morning has police and family members puzzled. Abner Rodriguez left his Thread

Street home around 6:30pm on Saturday evening to socialize with his workers. That is what he told his wife Nerba Rodriguez before he left. A few hours later around 12:30am he was found dead on 7th Street in the Kings Park Area. Rodriguez’ body was found lying face up in a pool of blood with several injuries to the head and a large cut wound to his forehead. Police say that Rodriguez was seen walking on 7th Street around midnight. A red tinted car was seen following him after which he was discovered apparently dead. He was transported to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival. Police have no suspects or a mo-tive for the killing.


Tension has been growing between the Coye and Mahler campaigns as they hurtle towards this Sunday’s PUP Caribbean Shores Standard Bearer convention at the Trinity Methodist School across from the Lopez Mateos Park in Kings Park, Belize City. Former two-time area representa-tive Jose “Joe” Coye is perceived to be well in the lead having been campaigning from last year, while his former political protégé An-thony Mahler only ratcheted up his canvassing machinery the past two months or so. For the third candi-date, Austin Waight, this is his sec-ond shot at the nomination having been handily defeated in 2001 by Coye, and then immigrating to run for Mesopotamia in 2008. There is some acrimony be-tween all three campaigns but it is mostly the Mahler campaign who’s bad-mouthing of his rivals that is stirring the stew. An incident this week in which Joe Coye’s vehi-cle front tire was punctured by a “borer” while he was attending a meeting of his campaigners have raised the temperature more than a few notches, since one of Mahler’s main campaigners was seen asking questions about the meeting in the neighbourhood shortly before the vandalism was discovered. The Mahler campaign was out-raged at a letter appearing in last week’s edition of the newspaper which they blame on the Coye campaign. The Coye campaign

The Convention CorralThings getting contentious in

Caribbean Shorescomplains that Mahler is behind a series of attack ads being published in another weekly. With only some 350 or so of the voters from the official list barred from voting in Sunday’s election, there is speculation that the UDP could influence the outcome. Cer-tainly there is much talk that one of the candidates has amassed a substantial war chest, courtesy of a special interest, for expenditure on Sunday. Meanwhile the UDP Albert Stan-dard Bearer convention is also scheduled for this Sunday at the Anglican Cathedral College. Al-though one candidate is waging a fairly vigorously campaign, it has hardly drawn any attention at all with both the incumbent Morrison and Herman Longsworth sticking to the script. Despite a fairly visible newspa-per, radio and television ad cam-paign, most observers don’t seem to think that Longsworth, who is best known in political circles for his ties to Dean Barrow, had much of a chance of unseating the entrenched Morrison. Most ob-servers also don’t believe either have much of a chance of unseat-ing the PUP incumbent Mark Es-pat in the next general elections. Last weekend three political neophytes squared off for the PUP in Orange Walk North and Jorge “George” Briceno, the younger brother of PUP Leader John Bri-ceno emerged over Rafael “Rafi”

Avila and Jaime Castillo. The win surprised quite a few people since Rafael had been vis-ibly working with the constituency committee for over a year, and seemed to be their choice. Brice-no, on the other hand, had waged a stealthy outsider campaign that proved effective. In Cayo South incumbent area representative Ramon Witz staved off a spirited challenge from Hil-bert Lopez to hold on to the can-didacy. Lopez was forced to wage a general elections level campaign as Lopez came on strong. Witz was forced to rely on endorsements and visits from his Cabinet colleagues, especially the Party Leader who inaugurated a village water system just days before the election pre-maturely it would now seem. Meanwhile few people noticed that Michael Finnegan had been

quietly endorsed for a fifth run in Mesopotamia yesterday evening at his office on Amara Avenue in Belize City. Considering his spir-ited past performances last night’s affair was positively staid and low-key. Notably prominent in at-tendance was Belize City Mayor Zenaida Moya-Flowers to whom Finnegan has made it no secret that he wishes to hand over the reins. Moya-Flowers is still serving a one year suspension from the party for saying back in October 2009 that Party Leader Dean Barrow lacked “balls.” Barrow did not at-tend the gathering of worthies. Next weekend four candidates will fight for the UDP Lake In-dependence Standard Bearer at a convention at Sadie Vernon High School in Belize City; while the PUP will endorse Anthony Sylves-ter Jr., in Queens Square.

The price of fuel is consistently go-ing up in price. Motorist are frus-trated with the instability whis is ust about ev-ery week and last week Thursday’s changes were not the last. Sunday night the prices

Fuel goes up, again!

changed once again. While diesel remains the same at a whopping ten dollars and forty two cents a gallon, premium and regular are far from being acceptable. Premium was eleven dollars and forty cents and now goes up nine cents to eleven dollars and forty nine cents. Regular was at eleven dollars and thirteen cents and now goes up by four cents to eleven dollars and seventeen cents.


Thursday, April 07, 2011BELIZE CITY - Many Belizean tour-ism stakeholders are scratching their heads today and wondering how in heaven’s name their already belea-guered industry is going to recover from the latest display of sheer incom-petence by the people charged with the good stewardship of the industry. Few outside of the industry and the media noticed when last Friday Natu-ralight Productions, one of Belize’s premier internet marketing companies sent out a press release announcing that it’s 15-year run (1996 – 2011) as the online communications agency for the Belize Tourism Board had ended because their contract had expired on March 31st, 2011. The company said in part that it was “proud of the interactive, mod-ern, comprehensive and highly visited online presence established on your behalf and with your participation be-tween 1996-2011, through 4 succes-sive governments.” It also claimed among its many ac-complishments that it had developed and maintained an accurate, interac-tive and modern network of websites, and had initiated “online advertis-ing and social media practices before these were mainstream.” This in turn had led to “establishing and maintain-ing the highest search engine rankings possible for most terms which include ‘Belize’”. It also listed that it had ensured “that all licensed Belize stakeholders had an internet presence including online di-rectories for hotels, tour operators, va-cation specials and the budget-based Toucan Trail website”; sustained “growth in the number of unique on-line visitors even through the dives in the world economy”; and had built and maintained “mailing lists of over 20,000 double opt in users” The company release ends with a cheery “We look forward to hearing from you and to working with you in the coming months.” By yesterday one stakeholder was posting on a popular list serve: “There are MAJOR problems with the BTB’s network of sites, they are doing an “upgrade” that may kill 15 years of hard work for search engine place-ment, and many many Belizean web-sites. “I fear they are incompetent, and do not know what they destroy.

Another tourism debacle!UDP-BTB wipes out 15 years of Belize

‘Net marketing development’!

put the sites into sub fodlers on their site and in the root of each domain added a .htacces fi le with a 301 redi-rect which is a permanent redirect of the domain. Google transfers partial page rank to that new domain from the forwards so a no-name developer can get a top ranking on Google by what they have done. Just to let u know there is no backway from this, once it’s crawled and accepted the only way for the original sites to achieve their original page ranks to get back on top is to start the linking process all over again.” Anxious stakeholders are wondering what the BTB will do to get them back to where they were before. The same poster suggested, perhaps as a way of illustrating the extent of the problem: “I will be the fi rst to admit that un-der any government my company was never given the chance to do any of the development even though we are far more advanced than naturalight,

Here is just a small list of problems one can check yourself:“1. All major Belize websites are no longer functioning. Go to anyone and see. This includes: http://www.toucan-trail.com; http://www.toucantrailbe-lize.com; http://www.belizemediacen-ter.org; http://www.belizetraveltrade.org; http://www.belizetourism.org; http://www.tasteofbelize.com; http://www.belizeemergency.net; http://www.septembercelebrations.com; http://www.belizemaya2012.com.“2. The main BTB website, Travelbe-lize.org is severely degraded - check out the marina in the Cockscomb (http://travelbelize.org/attractions/rainforest-inland/cockscomb-basin-wildlife-sanctuary-2.html) and pic-tures of our wonderful barrier reef.“3. Toucan Trail used to have top ranking in Google for “budget hotels in Belize”. Check for it now. There are over 100 properties that only pres-ence online is the Toucan Trail, and the BTB is ignoring the fact that their web presence is gone. Do a search on “Ruthies Cabanas Dangriga” and see what happens. “This is just the tip of the iceberg. For the life of me, I can’t understand how no one has seen this, it has been a full week since it happened and the BTB sends out a message about how excited they are about upgrading their web presence. They may be upgrad-ing it, but they are letting 15 years of search engine placement go in a week. They are letting a network that has been built on lots and lots of money and time invested, go to waste, but no one else seems to understand what they are destroying. There is no way anyone competent would allow sites to go dark while upgrading.” On a social networking site today one poster wrote: “No one ever tears down a new site until they are ready to upload the new site. This is unprec-edented. 15 years of placement history have gone down the drain. Belize’s placement on the internet has been decimated.” He went to explain the problem: “One of the main and major criteria of Google to be on the front page is to achieve good page rank - an algorithm developed by Larry Page of Google, hence the name. Most of these sites were pushing page ranks of 6 or more which is almost an impossibility to re-coup. Whoever is BelizeDev.com has

and only … lately is using the tech-nology that we use. “However, they had done an excel-lent job over the years on the market-ing side of things and it’s just sad to see it all erased, by people who don’t have the slightest clue at what they were doing. “If BTB wanted to really market Belize, offer Manolo, US$10M for Belize.com. I know (this) seems like a lot but it really is not. More than 1,000,000 people search for Belize every month on the Google search index alone, and fi nd Belize.com in the #1 spot. That’s 12,000,000 people who are already looking into Belize. See, conventional marketing teaches us to target a broad area and catch a few, web marketing teaches us to mar-ket to a few and get a higher conver-sion rate, which will increase the base ROI (Return on Investment).” The question is – is anyone listening at the BTB?

Crispin Jeffries is toast!

Continued from page 1 But whosoever is brought in will have a tough row to hoe. Many are predicting that there will be a closing of the ranks against an outsider as the Department fi ghts to maintain the status quo until the next general elections makes it possible that there will be a new minister of police. And there some who are ques-tioning the timing of the announce-ment, which is now being paraded as part and parcel of a new crime fi ghting package announced on Monday by Prime Minister Dean Barrow. At the conference Barrow was fl anked by his ministers of po-lice and defence and their CEO’s, as well as the commandants of the BDF and Coast Guard and the Commissioner of Police. Barrow agreed that the matter of escalating crime was a “crisis” and intimated that the previous murderous weekend that had seen four murders in Belize within a 19 hour span had prompted him to ac-tion. His minister of police denied that the shooting deaths of two de-fenceless Chinese female grocers were retaliatory and retributive on the part of the so-called gangs an-gered by the rough tactics of the

paramilitary Gang Suppression Unit (GSU). The latest Barrow package calls for stepped up imposition of leg-islation already in place which imposes limitations on bail and under which certain know offend-ers could have their movements’ restricted while on bail. He also said, and his Cabi-net subsequently agreed, that he would re-introduce the so-called controversial preventative deten-tion which would allow the police to hold suspects in custody for as long as a month without bail or charge. This would require consti-tutional amendment. The new Barrow proposals would also seek legislative and constitutional amendments that would allow for trial by judge in certain capital cases, and for wit-nesses to testify anonymously. He could not offer details. He also announced that he was committed to fi nding more fund-ing of the police, mentioning for the purchasing of bulletproof vests, fi rearms, and radios, and almost casually said that some of those funds could come from fro-zen Central Bank accounts. He also said that there would be

Continues on page 6


KREMANDALA $ELLOUT

“X” CAN’T CRITICIZE BARROW & THE UDP

Wilfully ignores the Corrupt Practices of Barrow and the UDP

A PAID AD

Can’t be TRUSTED!!!

Bought and paid for...Silent on issues affecting black South-side Belizeans while pretending to be their guardian

Who Killed Joe Hamilton and Why?

Fri. Apr. 1, 2011By Rhenae NunezBELIZE CITY – Authorities at-tribute the ongoing gun war in the streets of Belize City to gang warfare. By the close of last week-end four more persons were add-ed to the growing murder statis-tics a� er three – a man and two Chinese women were shot dead in separate incidents and one man was hacked to death in Be-lize City. On Saturday morning around 5:15 police were called out to the corner of South and Plues Streets

where they saw the lifeless body of Joe Hamilton, a cook of a Wag-ner’s Lane Address. Hamilton had been shot seven times with bullet wounds in the right and le� sides of his head, his le� cheek, le� side of his neck, the right shoulder the right arm and the le� ear.All police know is that Hamilton was riding his bike on South Street a� er dropping o� his wife on Am-ara Avenue when he came under attack. Police have no motive or suspects for the heinous killing of Joe Hamilton who is known for his outgoing personality. Speculation is that Hamilton’s life was taken as collateral damage in retaliation for the death of Shamir Medina who was killed the week prior. According to street sources, there would be a series of killings until Medina’s death was avenged by his alleged gang. Police were unable to con� rm this in their press conference at the Raccoon Street Police Station on Monday a� ernoon.

Amin Hegars bid as PUP Standard Bearer for BelmopanTune in to Plus-TV next � ursday April 14th 2011 where he will share his vision for Belmopan on a one-on-one interview with Plus Tv’s Louis Wade. Hegar will roll-out many of his ideas that could move Belmopan forward into a progressive more prosper-ous capital, also bringing the share of wealth to Belmopanese.

BARROW PUNKS SUPERMAN

Continues from page 1

delivered the bad news in person – the party doesn’t only want him to stand down from the mayoralty nomination, but he is not to seek re-election as a councilor on a UDP slate either.Late word this evening is that the party’s executive has relented, and has given the nod to council-ors Dion Leslie and Eric Chang that they can seek re-election if they so choose but none of the other councilors are being given the green light to seek re-election on the party’s slate. Some observ-ers, though, believe that the party might hedge its bets where An-drew Faber and Laura Esquivel are concerned, but neither seems to have any desire to return to the electorate and seek a new man-date.In the cases of Leslie and Chang neither can be a candidate for

national offi ce since both are be-lieved to be dual citizens.As for Mayor Zenaida Moya-Flowers, she remains suspended from the party until the end of May of this year – too late for her to seek the nomination if she so desired since the deadline for nominations was April 1st, 2011.Moya, we have been reliably in-formed, is much more interested in national offi ce and continues to work towards replacing Michael Finnegan as the candidate in Mes-opotamia. Finnegan had informed the Cabinet on Tuesday, January 11th, that he wanted to step down and had recommended Moya as his heir apparent – a recommen-dation that was outrightly and roundly rejected. Finnegan has indicated that he would run again but some observers believe that he will still give way to Moya.She certainly remain hopeful that that will be the scenario and sev-eral long time political observers opine that Finnegan is already in semi-retirement.Darrel Bradley is the son of WAVE talk show host Joe Brad-ley, and has taken over as the host of the UDP’s mid-week Channel Seven talk show “Lik Road” from Michael Finnegan. He is consid-ered an “Esquivel UDP”.

Deh Nuh Wah Zenaida and Nuh Wah Phillip Naida!


Continued on page 14

Crispin Jeffries is toast!Continues from page 4more funding for Special Branch and the GSU, and for intelligence gathering, in particular for the continued development of a state network of informants. On Tuesday Cabinet announced that it had approved the latest Bar-row package, and on Wednesday Singh dropped his announcement. Last night the UDP friendly Channel Seven News began air-ing a series designed to glorify the GSU, and no doubt intended to make a frightened populace more amenable to the continued milita-rization of the security forces, and more accepting of the continued

erosion of constitutional rights. Viewed in this context, the bring-ing in of a foreigner loyal only to the Barrow administration to com-mand one sector of the security forces makes sense. Singh said that the advertise-ments were already being placed and he expected to have someone in place within 90 days. Can any-one say done deal? Crispin Jef-fries, who reputedly lobbied long and hard to retain the position, is toast and it is now the end of an era in the police department, an era spanning back to 1968 when Bernard Adolphus was appointed the first Belizean top cop.

Chinese Community Protest Against Barrow’s Impotence on Crime

Belize Chinese take to the streets in protest over killings of two female Chi-nese grocers. Yan Ying Chen (King Street) and Fei Lan Wu (Faber’s Road).by Rhenae NunezMon. April 4, 2011

BELIZE CITY – The murders of two female Chinese grocers at their places of business sparked passionate protest by Chinese Belizeans in the streets of the old Capital on Monday. Chinese from all over the country congregated in front of the Supreme Court building to send a strong message to the government that they want justice for the lives that were lost over the weekend. They also want a cessation to the violent crimes that target Chinese and other Be-lizeans and they called on the gov-ernment to re-institute the death penalty. Yan Ying Chen, 32 was shot in-side her store, Rose Grocery at 78 King Street around 1:00 on Sat-urday afternoon. Police say that a black man approached the bur-glar barred store and fired several shots at Chen and a male Chinese person who were inside the store. The male person escaped un-harmed however Chen sustained bullet wounds to her left shoul-der, left breast and the left side of her back. She was rushed to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital where she died while undergoing surgery around 1:20pm. Quick and alert response by the Gang Suppression Unit led to the interception of four male persons which led to the discovery of a black Smith & Wesson 9mm pis-tol, bearing S/N SAE0745 loaded with one black magazine contain-ing (10) 9mm live rounds of am-munition. The second victim, Fei Lan Wu, 36 met her fate around 2:50 pm on Saturday. Wu was in her store on Faber’s Road when in similar manner as the previous shooting - a lone gunman pulled up and fired a shot at Wu. She two was rushed to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital where she died around 5:00pm that day. The media was barred from en-tering the courtroom to cover the arraignments and also prevented from getting pictures of the ac-cused when they left court. Seven News reported that the Gang Suppression Unit (GSU) were in the area and their quick response led to four men who were in a yard in Rowland’s Alley which is a short distance east of where the shooting occurred. The men were searched - police did not find anything incriminating on them but they did find a 9mm pistol near a fence.

Jordan Cayetano 18 was stand-ing near the weapon. According to 7News, Cayetano’s black cap, black t-shirt and brown pants also matched the description provided by witnesses. The four men were taken to court on Monday after-noon and arraigned before Chief Magistrate Margaret Mackenzie.Jordan Cayetano was charged for the firearm found in Rowland’s Alley while Kareem Francis, it is believed was charged for killing Fei Lan Wu on Faber’s Road. Before reading charges to the two accused on Tuesday, Chief Mag-istrate Margaret Mackenzie gave reason for her decision to conduct Monday’s proceedings in another courtroom and to bar coverage of it. The protest and unruly be-havior by relatives of the accused prompted her decision to move to another court room where there could be more control and secu-rity and not to bar out the media she explained.The two accused, Jordan Cayetano and Kareem Francis were taken to court again on Tuesday where

Cayetano of an Antelope Street Extension address was read a charge for keeping an unlicensed firearm and one count of keep-ing unlicensed ammunition. The charges were in relation to a 9mm Smith and Wesson pistol with ten live rounds. Cayetano was also

read one count of murder for the death of Yan Yin Chen of King Street. No plea was taken from him and he was remanded to the Hattieville Prison until June 7, 2011. Kareem Francis of 3323 Central American Boulevard address was read one count of murder in con-nection with the death of Fei Lan Wu of Faber’s Road. The charge read that Francis and another al-legedly committed the murder. No plea was taken and Francis was also remanded to the Hattieville Prison until June 7, 2011. The Chinese community prompt-ly mobilized and by Monday morning at eight – they assem-bled all wearing white in front of the Court area on Regent Street with placards which called for the killings to stop and for the death penalty to be re-instituted. Later that morning two caskets were brought in and placed in the middle of Regent Street. Pictures of the two deceased women were laid on them. After shouting at the courts for justice and a press brief-ing by Edmond Quan, President of the Belize Chinese Association amidst the uproar - and even an attack on the prison bus which the crowd believed contained the suspects, the crowd then marched through principal streets of north-side Belize City stopping at the Queen Street police station with caskets in tow to register their dis-pleasure. The march went over the Swing Bridge on to Queen Street with a stop in front of the Queen Street Police Station and then mean-dered into New Road all the way to Douglas Jones Street. “We want peace. We want justice. Give me


CARIBBEAN NEWS

Dominican troops linked to Canada-bound drugsSANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic – A dozen soldiers in the Dominican Republic have been ar-rested in an alleged plot to ship co-caine to Canada in a child’s suitcase.Prosecutor Elvis Garcia says the 12 soldiers include a lieutenant colo-nel. Eight work with the national anti-drug agency at the airport in Puerto Plata and four with the air-port security agency. Two civilians have also been arrested.

Martelly is Haiti election winner, o� cial says

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) – Singer Michel Martelly is the winner of Haiti’s presidential election, beat-ing former � rst lady Mirlande Mani-gat, according to o� cial preliminary results, a senior electoral council of-� cial said on Monday.“Martelly won,” the o� cial at the Provisional Electoral Council, who asked not to be named, told Reu-ters. He spoke ahead of a public an-nouncement due later on Monday to give the eagerly awaited � rst results from the March 20 run-o� vote in the poor, volatile Caribbean state.Martelly, who has no previous gov-ernment experience, had preached a forceful message of change, pledging to break with decades of past corrup-tion and misrule in Haiti.Anxious anticipation tinged with fears of violence had gripped the country since the preliminary results announcement was delayed from last week because of reported high levels of fraud.� e initial results are preliminary pending de� nitive con� rmation later in April,� e presidential contest had been an intriguing contrast of styles and personalities between extroverted entertainer Michel “Sweet Micky” Martelly, 50, a political newcomer, and experienced law professor and former senator Manigat, who is 70.Polls before the run-o� had shown

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) – Martelly as favorite.Blue-helmeted U.N. peacekeepers were out patrolling the capital Port-au-Prince and other potential � ash-points around the country, one of the world’s poorest which is struggling to rebuild a� er a crippling 2010 earth-quake.Some stores and businesses boarded up windows in anticipation of trou-ble and said they would send em-ployees home early before the results.“Steps have been taken with re-gard to security,” Ambassador Colin Granderson, head of the Organiza-tion of American States/Caribbean Community observer mission to the Haitian elections, told Reuters.He said Haiti’s Provisional Electoral Council, the electoral body charged with announcing the preliminary results, earlier received the enve-lope containing them from the vote tabulation center in Port-au-Prince, where � nal counting had taken place.� e United Nations and donor gov-ernments including the United States which have pledged billions of dol-lars of reconstruction funds to Haiti want the election to produce a stable, legitimate leadership to take charge of the recovery.� ey want to avoid the rioting and fraud allegations that marred a � rst round of voting held on November 28 in the elections to choose a presi-dent and some fresh members of par-liament.

� e arrests stem from the discovery last month 33 kilograms of cocaine in the suitcase of a Canadian child at the airport. � e girl was traveling with her parents to Toronto. � e parents were not detained. But Gar-cia said investigators believe they may have been working with the smugglers.Garcia said Monday a judge has or-dered the suspects detained pend-ing an investigation.

CLICO and BAICO policyholders agree

on legal action

Some of the over 250 policyholders who met to discuss strategies to en-sure that the appropriate authorities know that they’re serious about get-ting their money back.BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Friday April 1, 2011 – Concerned inves-tors and policyholders in CLICO and British American Insurance Company have agreed to form a non-pro� t organisation in order to pursue joint legal action to protect their investment in the two compa-nies.� ey will also pressing for CLICO to be placed under judicial man-agement without further delay.� e group, which would be known as the Barbados Investors and Poli-cyholders Alliance (BIPA), will be making an application for non-pro� t status to the Minister of Fi-nance.More than 250 policyholders, in-cluding attorneys, former bankers, pensioners, accountants and just regular citizens who have invested in the companies, met this week to discuss strategies to ensure that the

appropriate authorities know that they’re serious about getting their money back. � e investors and policyholders have agreed to retain attorney-at-law, Tariq Khan, to represent their interests. During the meeting this week, the group was introduced to the interim management committee, which has been mobilising e� orts to organ-ise the investors and policyholders since the initial exploratory meet-ing on February 11. Committee members updated their audience on recent developments relating to the companies, and the group’s plans for achieving its objective.Chair of the interim management committee, June Fowler, said the turnout was extremely heartening, and was a source of encouragement to redouble the e� ort to see that the investors and policyholders get their money back.

Authorities looking at Digicel/Claro dealKINGSTON, Jamaica, Monday April 4, 2011 – � e O� ce of Utilities Regula-tion (OUR) and the Fair Trading Com-mission (FTC) are consulting on the proposed merger of telecommunica-tions � rms, Digicel and Claro, before the two get the green light to � nalise their deal.Minister with responsibility for In-formation, Telecommunications and Special Projects, Daryl Vaz, said the utilities and consumer watchdog agen-cies will be seeking to get details of the deal from both companies. Digicel an-nounced last month that it will acquire Claro in Jamaica and sell its own busi-nesses in El Salvador and Honduras to Claro’s parent company, América Móvil. � e details of the transaction have still not yet been disclosed.Vaz said he has instructed the OUR to

meet with Digicel and Claro to get a better understanding of the deal, “be-cause up until now, we don’t know”.“It’s a commercial arrangement, and therefore we would never want for the Government to drag its feet…I am hoping that in short order we can get to the stage where a decision can be made,” he explained.A week a� er Digicel announced the Claro deal, its rival LIME requested that authorities take a close look at the transaction.LIME’s Managing Director Garry Sin-ckler issued a statement in which he said that considering the signi� cance of the merger to the Jamaican telecom-munications industry, the government, the OUR and FTC should carefully as-sess the deal, before approval is given by the relevant minister.


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

Guatemala court holds � rst lady’s divorce

Guatemalan media say a judge has temporarily blocked divorce pro-ceedings by the wife of President Alvaro Colom.� ere have been complaints from some Guatemalans about the split

Some Honduran teach-ers return to work a� er

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – A union leader in Honduras says more than 40,000 teachers have returned to classes since the gov-ernment declared their monthlong strike illegal last week.Lorenzo Sanchez of the Union of Professional Teachers says the re-maining 32,000 teachers may be back in schools by Tuesday.Sanchez says teachers decided to begin a dialogue with the govern-

ment over their claim that 6,000 teachers are owed unpaid salaries. � e government insists salary pay-ments are up to date.Honduran President Por� rio Lobo said Monday that he has suspended 5,000 teachers for three months for not showing up to work and could suspend or � re more if they are not back in classes by Tuesday.Lobo declared the strike illegal last week.

because it would al-low Colom’s wife to get around a constitutional ban on a president’s ex-tending family from run-ning for the presidency.First lady Sandra Tor-res de Colom � led for divorce March 21 so she can be the govern-ing party’s candidate in September’s election to choose a successor for her husband.A group of university students � led an appeal against the divorce. Gua-

Sandra Torres de Colom

Ecuador expels US ambassador in WikiLeaks � ap

QUITO, Ecuador – Ecuador said Tuesday it is expelling the U.S. ambassador over a diplomatic ca-ble divulged by WikiLeaks that ac-cuses a newly retired police chief of a long history of corruption and speculates that President Rafael Correa was aware of it.Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino announced Ambassador Heather Hodges’ expulsion at a news con-ference.Patino said the ambassador, called to his o� ce the previous a� ernoon, had not explained what led her to suggest in the 2009 cable that Cor-rea knew of “supposed acts of cor-ruption by members of the police leadership and more speci� cally the former commander of the in-stitution, Jaime Hurtado Vaca.”“We have asked that she leaves the country as soon as possible,” Pa-tino said.� e State Department said the ex-pulsion was “unjusti� ed” and de-scribed Hodges as “one of one of our most experienced and talent-ed diplomats.”Department spokesman Mark Toner said that while the U.S. typi-cally responds to such cases by ex-pelling the country’s ambassador, it would be premature to say how it would respond. O� cials said it could jeopardize consulates that Ecuador has recently reopened or announced plans to open in New Orleans and Phoenix.Patino stressed that the expul-sion was not directed against the Obama administration: “We hope this will not a� ect the cordial re-lations between our two govern-ments.”“It is unfortunate that the pub-lished documents on WikiLeaks have made it impossible to con-tinue collaborating with the cur-

rent ambassador to Quito, but we hope to work with a new am-bassador,” Ecua-dor’s Washing-ton embassy said in a statement.Hodges is the second U.S. a m b a s s a d o r to fall victim to WikiLeaks, which has re-leased more than 6,300 State De-partment cables since November through interna-tional news me-dia.

Last month, Carlos Pascual re-signed as chief envoy to Mexico a� er disparaging comments he made in cables divulged by the ac-tivist group angered President Fe-lipe Calderon.She is the third U.S. diplomat to be expelled by Correa since he took o� ce in 2007.Correa is a close ally of le� ist Pres-idents Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Evo Morales of Bolivia. Her expulsion will leave all three of those nations without U.S. ambas-sadors.Bolivia expelled the U.S. ambas-sador in late 2008, accusing him of inciting the opposition, while Venezuela has been without a U.S. ambassador since July a� er ob-jecting to the candidate named by Washington.Hodges was called to the Foreign Ministry by Patino on Monday af-ternoon and issued a diplomatic note complaining about the cable, but she was not given a chance to respond before her expulsion was announced, said a U.S. o� cial who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the o� cial was not authorized to divulge the information.In the WikiLeaks cable, dated July 10, 2009 and published by the Madrid newspaper El Pais on Monday, Hodges recommends that Hurtado, police commander from April 2008 to June 2009, be stripped of his U.S. visa.� e cable says he used the position “to extort cash and property, mis-appropriate public funds, facilitate human tra� cking, and obstruct the investigation and prosecution of corrupt colleagues.”It says “Hurtado’s corrupt activi-ties were so well known” in the up-per ranks of the police that “some

Embassy o� cials believe that President Correa must have been aware of them when he made the appointment. � ese observers be-lieve that Correa may have wanted to have a (national police) Chief whom he could easily manipulate.”Separately, Hodges comments in the cable that “corruption among Ecuadorean National Police o� c-ers is widespread and well-known,” with “minimal risk of exposure or punishment” for those engaging in corrupt acts.“As with corrupt politicians and judges, this situation is more pro-nounced at higher levels of power,” Hodges added.� e cable says internal Ecuado-rean police investigations had sug-gested Hurtado was engaged in “corrupt activities within the ENP since the early 1990s.”It also alleges that Hurtado re-ceived “gi� s and cash payments” from a police colonel in Guayaquil who was earning from $1,000-

$2,000 for each Chinese migrant he assisted in obtaining transit to Central America en route to the United States.Notably, both of the U.S. diplomats previously expelled by Correa’s government had been accused of meddling in police-related mat-ters.One had questioned, in early 2009, Hurtado’s decision to transfer the head of the Special Investigations Unit, threatening to cut o� U.S. aid to the group. � e other allegedly suspended $340,000 in annual aid because Ecuador would not allow the U.S. to veto appointments to the anti-smuggling police.Ecuador is a smuggling conduit for cocaine produced in Colom-bia and Peru and while U.S. and Colombian o� cials have publicly praised its counter-drug coopera-tion they have privately expressed concerns about high-level corrup-tion impeding e� orts to combat drug smuggling.

temalan newspapers say the judge agreed Friday to hear the case and put the divorce on hold while the appeal is studied.Guatemalan o� cials have not been available to comment.


www.nationalperspectivebz.org

Government bombardment pushes back Libyan rebels

BREGA, Libya – Libyan govern-ment forces on Tuesday unleashed a withering bombardment of the rebels outside a key oil town, push-ing them back despite NATO re-ports that nearly a third of Moam-mar Gadha� ’s heavy weapons have been destroyed.� e rebels managed to take part of the oil town of Brega the day be-fore, aided by an international air campaign, but the rocket and artil-lery salvos unleashed on the rebels indicates the government’s o� en-sive capabilities remain very much intact.“When you see this, the situation is very bad. We cannot match their weapons,” said Kamal Mughrabi, 64, a retired soldier who joined the rebel army. “If the planes don’t come back and hit them we’ll have to keep pulling back.”Rebel attempts to � re rockets and mortars against the government forces were met with aggressive counter bombardments that sent many of the rebel forces scrambling back all the way to the town of Ajd-abiya, dozens of miles (kilometers) away. � ere did not appear to be any immediate response from the international aircra� patrolling the skies that have aided the rebels in the past.Early on Tuesday, however, there was an airstrike against a convoy of eight government vehicles advanc-ing toward rebel positions, rebel of-� cer Abdel-Basset Abibi said, citing surveillance teams.Brig. Gen. Mark Van Uhm of NATO said Tuesday its aerial onslaught has so far destroyed 30 percent of the Gadha� ’s weapons. On Monday alone, the alliance carried out 14 at-tacks on ground targets across the country, destroying radars, muni-tions dumps, armored vehicles and a rocket launcherRebel forces have been helped by the arrival on the front of more trained soldiers and heavier weapons, but they are still struggling to match

the more experienced and better equipped government troops, even with the aid of airstrikes.� e government has so� ened its public stance against any compro-mise that would end the � ghting, but government spokesman Mous-sa Ibrahim said late Monday that any changes must be led by Gadha� , who has ruled the country for more than four decades. ”We could have any political system, any changes: constitution, election, anything, but the leader has to lead this forward,” he said in Tripoli.“Don’t decide our future from abroad, give us a proposal for change from within,” Ibrahim said, chastising Western powers who have a “personal problem with the leader” and economic interests they believe would be better served if Gadha� ’s government collapsed.� e comments were unlikely to ap-pease the rebels � ghting to oust the Libyan leader who has a legacy of brutality. Any long-term settlement poses tough questions about the fate of Gadha� ’s family and the new leader of a post-Gadha� nation, and the opposition has rejected any solution that would involved one of his sons taking power.� e head of the African Union, meanwhile, voiced his support for Gadha� , calling for the end to foreign interference into what he called an internal Libyan problem.Teodoro Obiang Nguema 69-year-old president of Equatorial Guinea described Western military e� orts to enforce a no-� y zone over Libya as a “so-called humanitarian inter-vention.”But elsewhere in the world, the re-bels saw success in their e� orts to establish an internationally recog-nized government in eastern Libya, forging tighter links with Britain and Italy, both potentially major markets for Libyan oil. Italy o� ered diplomatic recognition to the Liby-an opposition council on Monday, becoming the third country to do

so a� er France and Qatar.Shipping data provider Lloyd’s In-telligence, meanwhile, con� rmed that a Greek-owned tanker is on its way to Libya pick up an oil shipment, the � rst in almost three weeks.� e delivery would be only a tiny fraction of Libya’s pre-crisis exports of around 1.6 million barrels a day, but is viewed by analysts as a sym-bolic step forward.� e tanker, capable of carrying around 1 million barrels of crude oil, is currently o� Port Said in Egypt and expected to arrive at the Libyan port of Marsa al-Hariga, near the eastern city of Tobruk, lat-er in the day.� e con� ict in Libya caused crude exports from the country, 17th among the world oil producers, to dwindle to a trickle, sparking a

surge in global oil prices. Bench-mark crude was trading at around $108 a barrel on Tuesday.Gadha� ’s British-educated son Seif al-Islam, on Tuesday, dismissed re-ports that his father’s inner circle of advisers was crumbling following the defection of Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa.He said “of course” there would be defections among senior members of the regime because some of them are old and tired and “not young like us.”He also dismissed the idea that Koussa might have new informa-tion to o� er British authorities about the Lockerbie bombing in which he was a key negotiator.“� e British and the Americans ... they know everything about Lock-erbie so there are no secrets” Kous-sa can reveal, Seif said.

2 Americans killed at Tijuana border crossing

TIJUANA, Mexico – Two men killed by a gunman who opened � re while they waited at a Tijuana-area border crossing were U.S. citizens, a U.S. diplomat said Tuesday, and their San Diego employer described them as diligent workers who had moved to the border city so they could a� ord to live on the beach.U.S. Consulate spokesman Joseph L. Crook said U.S. authorities are in contact with Mexican o� cials in-vestigating the killings early Mon-day at one of the world’s busiest in-ternational ports of entry.He gave no further details.Prosecutors in Baja California state quoted witnesses as saying a gun-man approached the line of vehicles waiting at the San Ysidro border crossing and � red into the men’s pickup truck, hitting the victims in the head, arms and body.� e men’s employer, Matt Pelot of San Diego-based West Coast Bev-erage Maintenance, said Kevin

Romero, 28, and Sergio Salcido, 25, were good friends who had worked for him for more than a year.He said Romero’s sister called him Monday morning to tell him they had been killed.She just said I just wanted to let you know that Sergio and Kevin were shot and killed this morning at the border, and obviously I was taken back,” he said. “I was in shock, and I’m still in shock. � ese were good guys. Obviously no one deserves to die like this, but these were good guys.”Pelot said the men maintained dra� beer systems at restaurants and bars in the San Diego area and were al-ways eager to work overtime.Investigators said they found 9-mm shell casings at the scene. � at am-munition is used in weapons fa-vored by drug cartel gunmen in Mexico.Both victims were dead by the time authorities arrived.


Quit frigging at breeze and get on with it

“I always thought that you were a gifted fellow with words, but it seems it is a twisted gift because you are utterly misrepresenting what I said,” – Dean Barrow It is hardly my fault that the Prime Minister does not recognize sarcasm when he hears it but bully for him that he admits to his igno-rance, even if that is due more to arrogance than any recognition of his ignorance. I can’t help but keep thinking back to that April Fools’ Day press conference last year, when he swooped down to tell us he had solved the crime problem. Similar to this week, he had been awak-ened by his lieutenants and had been reliably informed that they had busted a ring of rogue cops who were responsible for the un-precedented tsunami of murders and armed robberies that was wreaking havoc on the Belizean society. We have never been the same since. Within a few short months Mr. Barrow was soberly, somberly and sorrowfully informing the na-tion that his long time friend and law partner had fallen victim to the urban terrorism that plagued the nation. His response then was an ambiguous project called Pro-gram Restore Belize, a new police minister, a new Attorney General, more money, more firearms, more equipment for the police, and more draconian legislation. Again he had solved the crime problem except for the fact that there is now even a worse, histori-cally worse, violent crime prob-lem. Even before last year’s now in-famous press conference, Mr. Bar-row had presented a “panoply” of legislated solutions couched in confident rhetoric which would solve the violent crime problem but … well you know, ‘cause we’ve all been living this night-mare. Let me applaud the Prime Minis-ter for finally acknowledging that the stratospheric heights to which the incidence of violent crime has reached, is a crisis. In my humble opinion, that simple acknowl-edgement will go further towards ameliorating and deterring violent crime in Belize, than everything he has done heretofore. I remain hopeful that he will take the next step. The next step is harder for him, but ultimately much more reward-ing for all of us. The prime minis-ter needs now to reach out to the Opposition, as well as the other

nascent political parties, and ask them to meet with him to agree on a national plan of action. At the very least he needs to form a parliamentary committee that in-cludes members of both Houses and give them whatever is Restore Belize to examine and analyze and then decide if it can be made to fit the bill. Remember he’s admitted that this was a crisis and that his government, despite the deploy-ment of a goodly proportion of the national budget, has failed on its own to solve the problem. By his own admission it had instead worsened. There also has to be some sort of post mortem of all that has been done to date, and a determina-tion has to be made on what has worked, what is working, what has not worked, and what is not working, and decisions made as to what to keep, what to maintain, what to discard and what to repeal. My first problem with the pro-posed legislative changes is that so far none of that seems to have worked, and you don’t have to be a cynic to think that it may actual-ly have made the problem worse. The fact is that the problem is worse. I am bothered that not only has the crimes commission hasn’t met since July 26th of last year, but that the Barrow administration, and even the Musa administration, has never given it any executive au-thority. I say give the crimes com-mission’s recommendations some teeth, even if it means also giving them an expiration date. In other words, whatever is implemented must show measurable results at a review at fixed future date for it to be continued, otherwise it is re-pealed or otherwise cut off. I heard out-going Commissioner of Police Crispin Jefferies say that they have promising programs in their infancy that need to be evalu-ated, and perhaps even bolstered. Put those on the table among the “panoply”, Mr. Prime Minister. The Barrow administration needs lessons in policy develop-ment. A contributory factor to their failing governance is their now endemic failure to properly plan. This week’s knee-jerk press con-ference aptly illustrates that. Their plans aren’t the result of thought-out, thought-through policies – they are hastily thrown together affairs, or so it seems, born more out of short term political expedi-ency than anything else. Yes, there is a fierce debate on-going between those who want a

Once again the Prime Minister, flanked by the High Command of the Security Forces, came before the nation in a high level press con-ference, this pass Monday, April 4, to announce yet another “urgent re-sponse to a crisis” to the crime situ-ation. This is the fourth such “crisis” in a three year period. We still re-member last year’s grand announce-ment, after grenade explosions in the city that Operation Jaguar and Restore Belize were going to fix this problem. We have seen a lot grand-standing on this issue of crime. The question is how many times do we have to do this before we get it right? It is said that one of the signs of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, expecting a dif-ferent result. The PM has once again come be-fore the nation in a crisis mode and announced a number of measures, which he refers to as “arsenals”, to attack the crime situation which continues to grow with frequency, and severity. The question is wheth-er the PM just wants to look like he is in charge or does he really believe that his initiatives this time are any different than those he presented the last time, and will he get any differ-ent result? This time Mr. Barrow says he is serious; which begs the question, “what was he before”? He now says he is even willing to lose “political capital” to push through some un-popular measures he thinks is criti-cal in confronting the crime situ-ation. He suggested a return to the preventive detention idea he floated in the first year of his administra-tion. He thinks that the society is now more prepared to accept such a measure to bring the crime situa-tion under control. He said that he consulted the High Command of the Security Forces and they all agreed that he should call for “preventative detention”; therefore he plans to push, once again, for the constitu-tional amendment to allow this form of detention. This was a debate that raged back in ’08, one which Mr. Bar-row conceded at the press confer-ence, that he lost, but he now feels empowered by events in the last few days to return to the debate. It’s not clear what makes Mr. Bar-row feel that the resistance to pre-ventative detention in 2008 won’t repeat itself, even double, in 2011? The provisions which defined that previous proposed legislation was bordering on a police state appara-tus in our justice system; our own Guantanamo Bay. How Mr. Barrow will define his current “preventative detention” is left to be seen But where will you put these detainees anyway? The present sys-tem is already overwhelmed with overcrowding. Where will you put this sudden increase of detainees?

Here we go again!By: Nuri Muhammad

We have memories of the preventa-tive detention camp at Militia Hall, in Belize City, in 1994. We still re-member dozens of youth encaged behind barbwire fence, like animals. So we need the Prime Minister to explain to us what he means when he says, “preventative detention”. He also suggested that there needs to be a rewriting of the legisla-tion in regards to evidence given by witnesses. He suggested that the law should permit the witness testimony be accepted by the court without the presence of the witness. He further added that the witness could remain anonymous without the defense having any access to cross exam-ining that witness. He said, despite going against accepted conventions in law, all these measures were nec-essary, because drastic situations demands drastic reactions. He even suggested that the state pay these anonymous witnesses to “sweeten the pot” to induce them to give their testimony. Mr. Barrow even suggested eliminating trial by jury for murder trials. All these are a radical depar-ture from the accepted norms of our justice system but such draconian assaults on the constitutional rights has a precedent and go back to the first Crime Control Act I and II, and over the last two decades govern-ment continue to introduce new ex-treme measures to bring crime un-der control. Mr. Barrow seems intent to go out on a limb politically and open himself up to a lot of criticism by suggesting these unorthodox mea-sures in the justice system. What Mr. Barrow is suggesting is that the accused will not have a right to see his accuser or to cross-examine him on the accuracy of his testimony. Like provisions in the Crime Con-trol Act I and II, these measures will be turning the justice system and the constitution upside down. The right to face your accuser is fundamental to our justice system. Anyway, these are arguments for the legal minds; however, Mr. Barrow intends to establish it as law that witnesses are hidden from the accused. This we believe will be a very difficult law to enforce. He also said he is for following the law in regards to hanging. Clear-ly, the PM is riding a popular wave of discontent and frustration with the justice system, when it comes to hanging. Despite the fact that the law is still on the books, the legal appeal process for those convicted can be stretched out for years, which even-tually transform their death sentence into life imprisonment. People feel that the dread of a sentence of death by hanging has loss its deterrence. The criminal has no fear of that sen-tence because he knows that in the present system he will never reach the gallows. People want hanging, and they don’t want to know that the very same legal system that

Continued on page 12 Continued on page 14


As the constituency conventions are occurring in both major political par-ties, I am seeing an emerging pattern that I fi nd very disturbing – that of opportunism by some who hope to contest the next general elections and hopefully gain a seat in the House of Representatives. I haven’t participated in a political convention as a voter for well over ten years. The last convention that I par-ticipated in was the messy Mesopota-mia PUP convention prior to the 2003 General Elections. I came out of that a lot wiser for having participated. I got a more intimate sense of our peo-ple where our politics is concerned. I also learned how mean-spirited some folks can be. Yes – eight years later I am just recalling some of the players in that disastrous exercise. It is behind me and I have long moved on, appre-ciative of the valuable lessons that I have learned. The PUP Caribbean Shores conven-tion will take place this weekend. I have stayed out of the campaigns leading up to the convention simply because my status with the PUP is am-biguous - at least to me it is. The fall out following the election of Honor-able John Briceno as Party Leader was and continues to be a contentious one. In fact, it seems recently that there is a brand new set of disgruntled PUPs who have taken to attacking the Party Leader and his executive. My relation-ship with John Briceno seems to be on the mend. My disappointment with him was not personal. It was because of some of the buffoons that attached themselves to him like leaches and targeted me. In hindsight I am thank-ful for the freedom I have gained from being ostracized. I now know who my perpetual friends are and will be. I enjoy a wonderful friendship with the Right Honorable Said Musa which I treasure because I have come to know him as a man who truly does not harbor malice toward anyone. I know Said Musa to be compassionate, a great thinker and an avid reader and that more than any other trait I admire and appreciate him for most. Having said that, it is the same ad-miration I have for Joe Coye. As I have said in previous essays, my rea-son for not voting for him in the last election was a personal one. If my decision had to do with the quality of Area Representative that he was then I would have voted for him. Like John Briceno, it was the some of the people that Joe surrounded himself with that cost him my vote. I am pleased that he is rid of the whole kit and caboodle. It is now water under the bridge and like my relationship with Honorable John Briceno, Joe and I have long patched up things and if I am allowed to vote on Sunday, I will vote for Joe Coye.My reasons for doing so are many, some of which I will share. First, there is his laudable service as mayor of Belize City where Joe was inno-vative in addressing the issues of the city and performed his duties with great effi ciency and professionalism. At the end of his term the Belize City Council was left in excellent fi nancial standing with a surplus in the bank. This was achieved without any of the circus that I have seen in this current city council. His term as mayor is sec-

Caribbean Shores Convention?“I Will Not Support Anthony

Mahler on Sunday”ond to none in recent history. As an area representative, Caribbean Shores enjoyed great leadership with signifi cant developments that trans-formed the Constituency. The famous Coney Drive was built under Joe Coye’s leadership. Durgeon Avenue was also built under Joe’s leadership. The famous Dolphin Park which has fallen into disrepair under the dis-ingenuous leadership of Carlos Per-domo and the hypocritical committee that clamored to “save the park and the waterfront in West Landivar” – Dol-phin Park was built under Joe Coye’s stewardship. Remember the dilapida-tion on Kelly street and the decrepit situation that some of the residents were living in? Joe Coye made his impact there also. He spearheaded the demolition of the dilapidated homes that were there and saw to the con-struction of a new apartment building for the residents. Caribbean Shores boasts the best rec-reational amenities thanks to Joe Coye who appreciates the value of parks to neighborhoods. They were not built out of his political agenda but out of his understanding and appreciation of the social impact of well built and aes-thetically appealing parks to a neigh-borhood. Sure Joe did some things that offended some of us in Caribbean Shores and we are each entitled to our feelings and opinions and reaction to whatever offense we have experienced. I know some will see this as a campaign for Joe Coye – please disavow yourselves of that notion. I think I have long es-tablished myself as one who calls it as I see it. You really do not have to agree. Whatever infraction Joe may have committed pales in comparison to the leadership that he has provided Caribbean Shores. As I look across our political land-scape I am not impressed by some of the offers I am seeing coming forward for future leadership. Across the PUP, UDP and VIP, I see a lot of opportun-ism and a potential new dose of exploi-tation of the people and our resources. I see another set of ignorant people who want to lead us. For me the issues are serious and complex and I cannot risk solution to the myopia that has so characterized our current leadership in government. We have elected a bunch of uninformed people to government and we are living the consequences of that detrimental decision. Now more than ever we need to ensure that we elect astute people with quali-fi cation and experience to address the issues. On the UDP side in Caribbe-an Shores, I hoped that young Roger Espejo would have been selected for standard bearer. I think he has more

potential than anything that Carlos Perdomo has ever achieved in Carib-bean Shores. Carlos Perdomo has also committed the same sin that Joe Coye was chastised for and he has done so in a more egregious manner in that he attempted to and took away land from Caribbean Shores residents to give to his circle of friends. Remember the ugly scandal that erupted after Carlos Perdomo took away a piece of land from Ms. Dawn Jourgenson in Oc-tober of 2009? Carlos is not only no saint, he is the lousiest and most inept and disingenuous area representative that this division has ever seen. This Sunday I may get the chance to vote in the PUP Caribbean Shores convention. If such an opportunity is afforded me, I will vote for Joe Coye. A few years ago I would have consid-ered Anthony Mahler because back them I saw him as a fresh face with what sounded like he had the acu-men to lead us in Caribbean Shores but things have happened that have changed my mind about that. Anthony Mahler like Narda Garcia are like chameleons and opportun-ists – two things I detest in aspiring politicians and have come to be very cautious about. I have been punked enough to know not to even entertain the thought. From my vantage point, Anthony was close with the former leadership of the PUP, particularly with Ralph Fonseca and was a part of the inner circle – he was where the money was at and had infl uence. He enjoyed a great career at the Belize Tourism Board for which he was well paid and he had great infl uence. When the leadership changed and Ralph and Said were made out to be pariahs, Anthony distanced himself for whatever reason and emerged as an infl uential fi gure in the new ex-ecutive of the PUP along with Narda Garcia. Their package also included positions at Smart telephone company for which I believe they are being well compensated. None of it I begrudge them – but I have a serious issue with when they use that infl uence for the exploitation of others. I found An-thony to be distant and aloof. What, if any participation, he had in what transpired where I am concerned is a mystery, and one I don’t care to know anymore, however, I lump him in the same bundle with Narda and the oth-ers who singled me out. The lesson that Anthony Mahler is yet to learn is that you do not inter-fere with the very people that you will have to approach for a vote. Joe has come to me and I have told him what I think and what I felt and we have patched things up. I do not trust Mahler because of his

well displayed opportunistic behavior. For my part, I had nothing to do with the campaigns leading up to the con-vention that elected John Briceno. In fact I was disappointed by the behav-ior by some that supported Honorable Francis Fonseca. My only sin is that I am friends with Said and Ralph and I dared to say so publicly that I did not vote for Joe. Never once was I ever criticized or chastised by those two gentlemen for my choice. I always felt that my decision was respected as be-ing my constitutional right and noth-ing else. It is ironic that punishment came from those who betrayed Joe in the worst kind of way. They took what he had to offer and voted against him. I know this because one said so to me. Others have just decided to show him. I am not that kind of a two-face.I recall a shouting match between Joe Coye and I on the phone after some-one took wrong news to him about comments I made a meeting of the PUP. Joe called me and went off on me. Of course, I did not back down and responded in kind – that too I am beyond. I have more faith that Joe Coye has learned from his mistakes and will do even better for Caribbean Shores. My reason for supporting Joe Coye this time around is because he is a proven good leader and representa-tive for Caribbean Shores. I am disap-pointed by the mischief that has been introduced to this campaign because I always thought of Caribbean Shores to be way more sophisticated than that. I believe us to be above and beyond the traditional political fray and a division that is truly independent even though we do have our political preferences. I have fi rst and foremost found us to be a very objective division. A few days ago I met Anthony Mahler and his campaign team in front of his family’s property on 6th Street. I at-tempted to take a picture which I more likely would have used for a story or maybe would have posted on my face-book page - the latter may have been my ultimate choice. I desisted from doing so when I noticed the look on some of the faces of his campaign-ers – I wish not to make enemies out of this exercise because all I want is proper representation be it PUP or UDP. Whoever emerges as the winner on Sunday will contest the upcoming general elections and one will emerge as my area representative, so chill – please. I had a chance to have a few words with Anthony Mahler who told me that “of the two others (Joe Coye and Austin Waight) he is the better of the two. I was never offered a reason why. I was told that my name was on “the list” and that I will be allowed to vote. I am leery because of what I have experienced at the hands of some at-tached to this leadership – we shall see. The contention that ensued following Honorable John Briceno’s election as leader has not healed and people like Mahler and Narda made it worse – I can look past all that if I saw some effort to mend fences as I have seen done by Joe Coye, Said Musa and John Briceno. Telling me that one is the better man and your campaigners



can only bolster that by saying that it is time for a younger person is as shal-low as a teaspoon of water in a soup bowl. My concerns are too important and I need way more than that to make a decision on a choice that will affect me and my family in the future. By the same token, if Mahler is successful in Sunday’s convention, I expect some form of retribution for my choice – af-ter all that’s the standard right? The convention exercise is serious business thus why I wish all the po-litical parties would desist from this endorsement business and orchestrat-ing to get their preference elected, taking away the right of constituents to choose. I thought that was the hall-mark of our democracy. I really cannot risk another Carlos Perdomo for an area representative therefore my vote if I get to vote will go to Joe Coye. The smear campaign that is being conducted against him is for one purpose only – that is to give mileage to whoever is behind it. If that isn’t the case then why wasn’t he

given credit when he was vindicated in another case that he was successful in after this “quitar government” took away land that has been in his family – more so his wife’s family in Placen-cia for many years? Why didn’t the mischief makers behind the malicious ad say that the very matter from which they quoted is being appealed? From conversations with other media col-leagues – this is common knowledge. Liadness nuh wah get unu no way. Show me that you know what the is-sues are and that you are capable of discussing them in a responsible man-ner – prove to me that this is not about personal agenda and I will consider your application Mr. Mahler. That is what I expect from your campaign. In all fairness to Mr. Austin Waight, I have not heard or seen such mali-ciousness from his campaign and I ap-plaud his effort. I dun get whap one time – not about to get another serving. I’m just being frank – please do not take offense. I am being as open as I was prior to the 2008 general elections - just saying....

Caribbean Shores Convention?“I Will Not Support Anthony Mahler

on Sunday”Continued from page 12

more muscular law enforcement stance, and those who think that that type of “optic” is one of the reasons for the continued escala-tion, such as the targeting of the police offi cers over the past two years. I say it is time to resolve it one way or the other, and what-ever is agreed on so be it, as long as we are prepared for the possible consequences. Why are we leaving the prior ef-forts at rehabilitation within the prison system out of the discus-sion? Why isn’t there any discus-sion/debate regarding penal re-form? When will the ministers (current and former) going to report on the implementation of the police de-partment reforms stemming from the Crooks Report or is that now a moot issue? Have any of the CEO’s read and analyzed the Gayle Report? Is it a factor of any kind in the decision-making? Lastly, if the Barrow adminis-tration continues to make no effort to address the obvious rampant corruption that is endemic in the ministries of works, immigration, natural resources and yes, the law enforcement agencies, the prob-

lem of escalating crime and disre-spect for authority will only con-tinue to grow. Sure the inequities in terms of economic and other opportunities are a problem, but if there is no attempt to even start leveling the playing fi eld, everything else will just be posturing. The preliminary results from the much delayed 2010 Housing and Population Census show clearly that Southside Belize City is the most densely populated areas per square yard than any place in the nation. I am betting that it is also one of the poorest. At this week’s press conference Mr. Barrow boasted that the Southside Pov-erty Alleviation project is fi nally re-starting. The cruise port and that poverty alleviation projects would’ve saved lives but instead we are paying the price for DOB’s malice and vindictiveness in blood and treasure. We need more schools, more health clinics, more and better homes, streets, lights, parks and other amenities, and more gov-ernment services on Belize City Southside. That should have been a priority of the 20110-2012 bud-get. I say quit frigging at breeze and get on with it.

Quit frigging at breeze and get on with it

Continued from page 11

Caribbean Shores Convention?

enforcement agencies, the prob- and get on with it.

The Barrow Administration is nothing but a lame duck Government in desperation, unable neither to gov-ern because of incompetence on a wider scope nor to provide the basic assurance of public safety to its citizens. They are grasping at the last straw much faster than they could imagined and Musa’s warning to the foolish puppet master “noh watch me, watch yu self “is play-ing itself out. Political pundit and cynics alike are all of the opinion that Dean Barrow is in-capable of turning this desperate situ-ation around and stimulate any kind of economic recovery that would nor-malize the lives of Belizeans towards prosperity. They are almost certain now that this is certainly a one term Govern-ment. This is signifi cant considering that the lame-duck UDP government won the 2008 general election with an overwhelming mandate. Back then, most political analysts were of the be-lief that this was a new UDP era espe-cially because the came to power on the platform of providing the much talked about transparency, good governance and accountability and changing the lives of Belizeans by delivering all the 21 promises of their manifesto. Every one were runing high on expectations and no one believed that three years into their fi rst term, they would run out of vision, ideas and viable solutions. No one thought that they would look so helpless and desperate. Certain media houses gave them all the leverage and coverage since they believed that the UDP’s were in for the long term instead they were in for the fi nancial haul. The dragged-down state of affairs of this nation exposes the gross incompe-tence of Dean Barrow that is the Minis-ter of Finance and Prime Minister, and it did not just happen overnight; It started from day –one in Belmopan when the closed down the affairs of the various ministries to a witch hunt. The Barrow administration allowed our economic situation to go off track; they spent al-most a year doing nothing but staying drunk on power celebrating their witch hunt the media did nothing to create to create awareness that things were going downhill where the much needed gov-ernance of this nation is concerned. The media gave them all the coverage while they spent the better part of one year witch-hunting trying to jail their politi-cal rivals with trumped up charges. Now, the UDP fi nds themselves in ‘sh!t-creek’ like the proverbial ‘quick sand’.’, We can see that the more they wiggle, the more they are sinking! I’m making this point to create the emphasis that this UDP Government has turned out to be a total disappointment to the Belizean people. They have failed miserably, at governing and managing the resources of this nation because they lack the bold vision to attract wealth through foreign investment that traditionally has gener-ated the necessary amount of jobs for Belizeans for them to provide for their families. Therefore, instead of having a carefully

thought out national bipartisan crime strategy, this Barrow Administration fi nds itself reinventing the wheel chang-ing names of knee jerk strategies react-ing to the result as it relates to crime and in particular, murder and other vio-lent crimes. With more than three years gone in their fi rst term of offi ce, they still don’t have a clue for a way forward from the point it was in 2008, instead we continue to move backwards. Now back the matter of crime and violence. Last year it was the succes-sive weekends after the budget debate rapped up, that the murder increased at an alarming rate, with double digit mur-der in two weekends. This year, it was the same two weekends after the budget debate that they were several murders in those two weekends; almost identi-cal to what happened last year. Now to substantiate the gross incompetence of this Government, and to highlight their impotence on combating crime, there is no proper policy or mechanism in place to mitigate this type of crimes. The UDP had experimented with several operations, example ‘operation jaguar’, establishing ‘community safety zones,’ and even created a public relation song and dance known as RESTORE BE-LIZE. None have so far brought any kind of satisfactory environment when it comes to security and public safety. This past weekend we had four murders in 24 hours, including two Belizean- Chinese grocers behind their burglar bared facility. On April 4th 2011, again the Prime Minister this time fl anked by the minister of police and the minister of National Security, as well as the top brass of the Police department, as well as the minister of works and the min-ister of education held a reactionary press conference at the raccoon police station. The Prime Minister this time informed the Nation that he will go to his cabinet seeking the go ahead to 1) enact legislation to provide for preven-tative detention. 2) To legislate for a none- jury-trial for persons accused of murder, and 3) for a witness protection program. It is important that I remind you that when preventative detention was initially introduced as a bill to amend the constitution, it was popularly rejected by almost every sector of the Belizean society. Prime Minister Bar-row will conveniently reintroduce this draconian law despite the strong op-position it will no doubt face. The sentence of death by hanging is the still law. However; Barrow is very much avoiding reinstituting that particular so-lution that will no doubt is a deterrent to all the senseless killing in Belize. The Government is conceding that they do not have the wherewithal stop crimes. With so many ‘Nolle-prosequi’ or the failure to get a conviction because of evidence demonstrate that they also lack the ability to prosecute success-fully. The problem with ‘Preventative Detention’ a tool to address crime will impacts the lives of every single Be-lizean most particularly, the innocent.



Here we go again!Continued from page 11permits hanging is also preventing it. People want that loophole closed, and that known murderers are put to death. So when the PM gave atten-tion to this area of concern he knew he was touching a raw nerve among many Belizeans who favor capital punishment and was lifting the hope that the government will return to a pro-hanging policy. But Mr. Barrow knows, like his counterpart Prime Minister in Trini-dad, that increasing stringent mea-sures to curb crime will continue to have minimal results in reducing crime in the long run without a cor-responding community based po-licing program that will lessen the tensions between the community and the police. It is an accepted fact which the Commissioner of Police, Crispin Jefferies, can attest to, that the most successful long term “arse-nal” in the fi ght against crime is the expansion of service that comes out of community policing. Which bring us to the absence of any mention of intervention pro-grams at the high level press con-ference; no mention of anything to correspond with government’s “get tough” policy; no mention of CYDP or Youth for the Future or even Re-store Belize and their role in this new initiative? But in fact, this is where Mr. Barrow will have to re-turn to get a real grip on reducing the problem of youth, crime and violence that now grips the city. The road ahead requires a multi-pronged approach to dealing with youths, crime and violence, and clearly a major aspect of that ap-proach must continue to be the na-tional security perspective. But clearly these youths are only pawns in a more sophisticated organized criminal network and are in no way real players in the criminal equation, however, by their criminal activities, they have created a disequilibrium in the social order that threaten citizen security. It is therefore essential to break this sophisticated, organized crime network from the practice of using these youths to facilitate their

drug trade. Therefore decisive in-terdiction operations must continue to disrupt this network and to detain all those found to be a part of the operation of distributing drugs and weapons in and though Belize. What we face today is more problematic than the gang activities of a decade or more ago. Today’s crime is defi ned by increased ran-dom acts of violence by youths, pri-marily male against male, who have no defi ned gang affi liation. These acts of violence are motivated by an increase attitude of bravado and hostility among our youth and the availability of guns and the fast dol-lar made from drugs. While these youths may individually express gang affi liations their criminal pat-terns are not consistent with gang war between rival gangs. Today we are faced with a cad-re of youths whose propensity for violence has increased to alarming proportions. The climate of anar-chy against established authority at all levels, creates the prototype of a criminal that can best be described as a ‘sociopath’, i.e., “a person hav-ing no understanding or concern about established social order”. The fact is we are seeing a cyclical drama being played out; the same core problems remain and the current murder statistics are only symptoms of a deeper set of problems. But we continue to past this way, each time missing the opportunity to use the crisis as catalysis to tackle these problems once and for all? The greater challenge in ap-proaching this problem however will require greater vision and a deeper fi nancial commitment to pay for it. As said before, we know what is required to address this problem we have seen what works, but are we committed to bringing about real change? Do we have the politi-cal will? We will see if that political will comes from the recent state-ments of the Prime Minister. (Com-ments welcomed at [email protected])

According to PM Barrow, there are only a few people who are commit-ting these senseless killings but pre-fers to infringe on the rights and civil liberties of all Belizeans just because the United States has prescribed it for the region, why don’t the United States implement such a law in their own country? The Prime Minister and this Government must be allowed to characterize the entire Belizean popu-lation under a loop such as ‘Preventa-tive Detention’, for the convenience of an inept government that can’t even provide the most basic Security and

public safety to its citizens. Today, we have already counted 33 murders and with the proposal from the Prime Minister, there is a high possibility that the total amount of murders for this year could surpass that of last year’s 133 head count. Mr. Prime Minister, the peo-ple of Belize are far less safe now un-der your Administration. This is not a possibility that they wanted to imag-ine. The conclusion is that you are not able to govern this Nation; therefore, you must do the noble thing and re-sign now or call the elections now. Just my Impartial View.



Dear Editor,

My attention was recently drawn to a letter appearing in your news-paper of Sunday, April 3, 2011 written by a “Dwayne James, Ca-ribbean Shores Voter”.Firstly, there is no registered voter in the Caribbean Shores area by the name of Dwayne James nor is there anyone by such name in the Kelly Street area, as stated in the letter.Secondly, the letter accuses me of placing a half-page ad in the Amandala newspaper of the weekend before, which “attacked and vilifi ed” Mr. Joe Coye. I wish to categorically state that I did not place any ad in the Amandala or any other newspaper against Mr. Coye or any of my opponents. Interestingly, Mr. Coye himself places an ad in your newspaper of the same date, Sunday, April 3, 2011, (and in the Amandala news-paper of the same week) accusing Mr. Carlos Perdomo of placing the very same ad against him. The letter by the supposed Mr. James hurls a lot of negative state-ments and personal accusations at me while glorifying Mr. Joe Coye and his supposed work in the area. The letter even places the blame on my father and I for Joe Coye’s defeat in the 2008 elections. I wish to state that my record shows my achievements and ac-complishments as a worker and leader. The record will also show the failures of the present and past area representatives to address the social, infrastructure, education,

Mahler responds to ‘Dwayne James’and economic needs of the area. The letter by “Dwayne James” is an amusing yet very desperate at-tempt to distract the voters from Mr. Coye’s failures and shortcom-ings as area representative. If Mr. Coye doesn’t recognize the many reasons for his defeat in the 2008 elections and doesn’t accept blame for his own defeat, then he clearly is undeserving of re-election in our area. I would also like to make one thing clear! Mr. Coye has never been and will never be a mentor for me. He is a man that has lost his moral standings and is fl oun-dering through life like a vessel without power, sails or a rudder. Simply put, he is a shallow man who means nothing good for the people!!!I have decided to run for the Ca-ribbean Shores division because I believe that I can make a dif-ference. I believe that I have the skills and necessary abilities to ef-fect real change for the residents of the area. All the negative state-ments will not detract from the positive work that I have done and will continue to do in Carib-bean Shores. I ask the residents and voters of Caribbean Shores on Sunday, April 10, 2011 to look beyond the personal attacks and accusations and to focus on the real issues at hand. I ask them to give me the chance to serve them to ensure a better community and a better Belize.Sincerely,

Anthony Mahler

Chinese Community Protest Against Barrow’s Impotence on Crime

back a life,” they chanted through the streets. � ey turned right into Douglas Jones Street on to Freetown Road and then le� into Mapp Street on to North Front Street on to Bel-China Bridge and then in to John-son Street and then Cemetery Road where a brief scu� e broke out a� er someone threw an object into the crowd of anguished pro-testors. Calm was restored by po-lice and the march continued up Orange Street on to Albert Street,

Treasury Lane and back in front of the Supreme Court. � ey dispersed for a meeting at the Princess which councilor Eric Chang told the National Perspec-tive was to calm his people down. When the accused were brought to court that a� ernoon all signs of the vehement protest from the morning had dissipated. Authori-ties did not let their guard down on Tuesday as the court area was fully surrounded by armed o� c-ers prior to the arrival of the two young accused. � eir arraign-ment went without event.



Oceana’s Reef Party - Easter Sunday on the Beach at San Pedro “La Isla Bonita”. All proceeds are for Mama

Vilma’s Family Home.

It’s a family event at the Central Park – there will be Kayak Race, Sack Race, Easter Egg Toss, Beach Bowling, Tug of War, Ballon Toss, Hula

Hu and Punta Dance Contest.

Live Music by the Island Music Ambassadors - Super Latinos Band from Coyote Ugly and the hottest DJ in the Sun, DJ Loggie.

Come and enjoy a family day and to top it off, the Easter Bunny Beach Queen Contest, Beach Fashion Show by Swim Wave, Top

Notch & Yvonne Fashions. Art Expositions by Sophie, Emmanuel, Roxie, Melodie Papos and Sylvin.

Come and enjoy Conch Fritters, Conch Soup, Ceviche, Bar-B-ques, Coconut Rice & Beans, Chicken Ceviche, and cold Coca Co-

las, Belikin Beer, Coco Loco›s and, Sangria›s.. Its Easter Sunday – Oceana and Mama Vilma›s Home on the beach. Its the Oceana Reef Party on La Isla Bonita...Vamonos a gozar con

la familia!


Got News...share your views or advertise with us Call us at: 501-628-3215

Featured Recipes

For Sale by OwnerLarge track of Residential / Commercial Land, off George

For Sale by OwnerLarge track of Residential / Commercial Land, off George

For Sale by OwnerPrice Boulevard in Belmopan. Size equivalent to approx 6 lots. Price fi x to sell by owners For serious Enquiries: Call: 601- 8100 or 650-5222www.nationalperspectivebz.org

BirthsLewis Austin to Leon Stephen and Leticia Lorena Humes nee Cas-sanovaJessica to Dong Pan and Huiji Li nee ChangAmira Shanice Lillian to Charles and Federita Consuela Teul nee CocJamal Ernie to Macario and Florentina Salam nee CalCordelah Jahirah to Cordell Gregory and Delilah Mae Duran nee AranaAmia Lorleen to Andre Anthony and Jenna Marie Young nee BradleyNolan Caleb to Charlie and Lorna Plett nee PennerShylah Aylin to Carlos Alberto and Anita Lizet Guevara nee GuerraZyrah Marie Louise to Covington Alaston and Karen Andrea McKen-zie nee BlancoOluwadayomi Joseph to Oluwafumi Babatunde and Abiodun Oluwa-tosi Ojo nee Oyefego

MarriagesJose Carlos Novelo of Trial Farm, orange Walk to Zuri Shelomi Cob of Chan Pine Ridge, Orange WalkRoger Dean Castillo to Marleni Elizabeth Santos both of Belize CityAlberto Martinez to Alba Dora Aquino both of Pomona, Stann CreekMelvin Marin of San Narciso, Orange Walk to Solangel Olivarez of Concepcion, CorozalDouglas Sutherland to Sarita Bustamente both of Camalote, CayoStephen Anthony Mott of New York, USA to Maria Elizabeth Gomez of Ladyville, BelizePatrick Ryan Waight to Romangie Yasohara Gomez both of Corozal Town, CorozalEmil Norman Bradley to Bryony Langan Fleming both of Chaa Creek, CayoWilmer Antonio Cisneros Castellanos to Lenix Danson Gomez En-amorado both of Belize CityAbel Aguilar Bueno to Victoria Teresita Zetina both of Corozal Town, CorozalPedro Montoya to Janice Reimer both of Spansh Lookout, CayoJohan Wieler to Helene Wall both of Shipyard, Orange WalkWilhelm Peters of Indian Creek, Orange Walk to Sara Klassen of Shipyard, Orange WalkElio Juan Pulido to Ysenia Yasmin Valdez both of San Ignacio, CayoCarlos Antonio Cocom Velasquez to pastora Isabel Castillo both of San Ignacio, CayoJuan Herrera to Roberta Che both of Silver Creek, ToledoPablo Che to Caterina Mucu both of Silver Creek, ToledoJames Oliver Stephen to Noemi Jean Everett both of Belize CityVenancio Cal to Dolores Sho both of Maya Mopan, Stann CreekAnthony Alexander Castillo to Ann Catherine Bernardez both of Be-lize CityAaron Frank Holdeman of Spanish Lookout, Cayo to Drusilla Bol of San Antonio, Toledo

DeathsArcadia Eleanora Halliday, 79Ivy Louise Messam, 83Elena Guillermina Wong, 69Andrew Eddington Nathaniel Moses, 28Errol Vincent Smith, 63Selvyn Morgidge, 103Bing Chang Zhao, 53Sheila Elaine Willoughby, 57Amos Alexander Rhaburn, 65Leo Francis Vasquez, 73

Servings:4

Cooking Time:Prep: 5-10 minutes; Cook: 21-29 minutes depending on doneness

Ingredients:4 T-bone steaks1 large resealable plastic bag½ cup honey½ cup lime juice½ cup chopped cilantro¼ cup Dijon mustard2 tbsp minced canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce2 tbsp adobo sauce from canned chipotle peppers6 cloves garlic, minced1 tsp cumin1 tsp salt½ tsp ground allspice½ tsp black pepperInstructions:Place steak in bag (or whatever container you like to use for marinade).Combine ingredients in a small bowl and pour over the steak.Refrigerate for at least 1 hour, best to do it overnight.Remove steak from bag/container and pour marinade into a small saucepan.Preheat the grill.Bring to a boil over low heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Reserve half.Grill steaks using the remaining half of the marinade to baste.Grill steaks 8-10 minutes per side, or until done.Pour reserved marinade over the steaks before serving.The original recipe calls for using a plastic bag to marinate the steaks, but it isn’t necessary. This technique works well as you can turn the bag as needed and really coat the steaks

Firewalker T-Bone Steak



Aries- Your life may be full of days spent speeding down the highway toward sweet destiny, but be careful! You’re moving in the direction of destiny, sure, but the pace would be more accurately described as that of an infant on all fours. The crawl intensifi es to something more like a healthy jog, but it’s diffi cult to keep your legs pumping, since you spend much of your time holding a cell phone to your ear. The weekend will be of clarity and catharsis and possibly family time. Taurus- The intensity is remarkable. You had a sense that something was developing between you two, it’s undeniable. Whether this is someone you just met or someone you’ve known for a while, a new leaf is turning, and you’re talking about it. You’re running around like crazy. There’s no particular hurry, but you’re in a hurry -- it’s com-pletely out of character for you. Try to explain it all to a friend, maybe over dinner. Convey your excitement. Gemini- Put on your high-caliber goggles and take a very close look at what’s going on. Clarity is a prevailing theme, and the main ob-stacle in achieving it is the presence of busybodies. Like so many bumblebees, they create a commotion about things that can only be described as irrelevant. False information abounds. Break out of your zone a bit to interact with others, but know that the most useful con-versations you’re going to have will be with strangers. Cancer- Your thinking about romance is uniquely your own early this week. You might have to take a while to get it across to the right per-son, but it will totally be worth it to do so. Try to make sure the details of your dates or activities are as clear as possible because any confu-sion could easily lead to recriminations and even big fi ghts! Avoid them. Things clear up completely over the weekend, though, and you may even fi nd that you get extraordinarily fl attering new attention.

Leo- If it were a black-or-white question, a matter of right or wrong, you wouldn’t be facing the dilemma you have. Putting off a decision is not a bad move. Focus instead on fi nishing up some projects you’ve already started. Air your quandary among friends, at least to hear a range of responses. You may fi nd yourself agreeing with someone, and therefore coming closer to a conclusion yourself. This weekend get everything you need for growth. Virgo- Your emotions are running especially deep early this week, and it’s not a bad time to communicate them to the person who’s most important to you. Whether you’re making a move or settling in or just testing the waters, you fi nd the timing right. You should see an easy answer to some odd problem in a fl ash of insight -make sure you’re ready to jump into action! Anything you organize over the weekend, from a date to a romantic road trip, ought to go perfectly. Take the time to enjoy it. Libra- You’re climbing fi re escapes this week, trying to get a bet-ter perspective on how the world fi ts together. If only you could be in a helicopter! Toward the middle of the week, you’re in a crowd situation, and you feel both empowered and overwhelmed by other people’s combined energy. Go with the fl ow. Try not to overanalyze. See what you learn. The weekend is entirely bereft of dreams of he-licopters or the anxiety of crowds. It’s gratifying to get things done. Scorpio- A rare feeling dominates your heart and mind at the begin-ning of the week. It’s a thrilling feeling. It has something to do with a relationship, possibly a romantic one, and it may inspire you to bold-ness. Friction, force and sports also fi gure. It’s a charged beginning to a happy, productive week, although it would be a stretch to defi ne as particularly happy. There are a million small tasks you break your back to get done on those days. Sagittarius- Things might seem hopeless to a lesser mortal, but you can see exactly what you need to do to make the situation work for you early this week. Take your time, because patience is your best friend. Spend time talking but don’t worry if the conversations don’t seem to go anywhere. You need to get to know each other better, that’s all. If you feel out of sorts this weekend, try a little time alone. You may fi nd that once your batteries are recharged, you get along a lot better. Capricorn- Spread out a blanket under a tree and have a delicious picnic. Fruit, bread, cheese -- really live it up. If you have other things to do, try to squeeze in some time for luxuriating especially with a loved one. Expect a staggering quantity of emails in your inbox. Then, on Friday and Saturday, aim your efforts toward your home life. May-be buy some buckets of paint and start that redecorating project in earnest. Sunday is a good day to be at home, too. Aquarius- A family member -- most likely someone from an older generation -- has good some advice for you. You really ought to fol-low up on it. This could come in an unexpected fashion, so be ready for anything. Your romantic energy is totally primed in the middle of the week, and things should really sizzle whether you’re on a date or fl irting online. If a message comes through in a way you don’t like this weekend, try to get all the information you can before letting your reactions fl y. Pisces- Make sure you speak your mind early this week -- any delay could make a big difference! You ought to be able to fi nd just the right words to express your heart’s feelings, and you should get a re-ally good response, no matter what you request. Though unexpected tasks and activities pop up, you still should fi nd time to hang out with the right person. The weekend is the perfect romantic time for you, so make sure you’ve got at least one date or session of quiet time scheduled.

Eulogy“Joy drenched me when

You, God: said‘Come inside my house.’

Now my feet stand within yourgates planted upon your wholeness.:

On Saturday night, April 2, 2011 at 11:00 p.m. Dotsy Chanona heard God’s words “Come inside my house” and Dotsy very quietly, died. Surely at this very moment her feet stand planted on God’s wholeness. We imagine her freedom as she is now released from the wheel chair to which she had been confi ned for the last phase of her earthly journey. This beautiful woman known as Mummy to her eight children, Carolee, Al, Mau-reen, Tommy, Anthony, Margaret, Elizabeth and Robert was born in Belize City on February 6, 1922, to her parents, Bertha and Alvan Woods. She lived her life in the countries of Belize, Guatemala, Honduras and Canada. On her return to Belize from Canada, she and her husband, Ernest, went to live on Blue Mountain Ranch on the Hummingbird Highway. It was at this ranch that Ernest and Dotsy gathered the family for celebrations and quiet times. After her husband’s death, the ranch continued to be Dotsy’s home and the place that drew family and friends around her. When her health began to fail, Dotsy found a home with her daughter, Carolee. Here she was faithfully and lovingly cared for by her children. She continued to be the elegant and gracious woman she had always been. Her loving children, realizing that her life was shortening, gathered around her more frequently and Dotsy liked nothing better than this. She and Ernest had nurtured a close-knit family, which not only celebrated with one another but also met to discuss their common challenges and to work toward solutions. Spouses were an important part of these gatherings. As grand chil-dren grew into adults, they too became an important part of this family. This says much about Dotsy and her capacity to create a loving community. The circle of love grew wider around her including her caregivers as well. Even as her physical health diminished and this became more evident, Dotsy re-mained alert and interested in the life around her. She did not miss the nightly news, and continued to enjoy attending public and social events. Dotsy’s spirit was constantly nurtured by daily scripture readings, the rosa-ry, Mass and the prayers and spiritual books that family members shared with her. Recently I visited a small restaurant in Placencia where the owner spoke gratefully of her days in Mrs. Chanona’s Home Economics classes at St. Catherine Academy. These were her favourite classes, the woman said, and it was there she learned to enjoy what she now does – creating a pleasant atmosphere and providing good food for customers. Dotsy was a great cook who infl uenced many family members to try out new dish-es, and those who did, always waited expectantly for Mummy/Granma’s approval. She was the matriarch, around whom the family in its many generations gathered. There is a wonderful photograph taken last year of a smiling Dotsy sitting up in bed surrounded by her eight children. Her legacy is Jesus’ own legacy – “Care for one another”. Her children hold many memories of their mother. Here are a few they wish to share: an incredible witness of a “woman for others” – her needs and desires were al-ways second. - a mother who insisted that fi rst things come fi rst, such as one’s relationship with one’s spouse, and the right of children to be raised in a Christian home. _ a person of great fl exibility, adapting to the many changes that her life brought. as one who possessed a unique respect and appreciation for others. a mother who became a friend sharing with her children the love of beautiful gar-dens, books, recipes, and all of God’s creation. a mother who took pride in her children’s achievements, loved and spoiled her grand children, and who was always there for them.a compassionate and sensitive woman who had a very special gift of making each and every one of her children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren feel very special. In her children’s words: “ What a gift our mother was! What a huge heart that knew no bounds. Even in dying Mummy continued to show us her profound love, gave us the strength to say goodbye and to know that our ever loving God was waiting for her with open arms.”What more can children ask for than to have been known and cared for, and to be-long. The ability to live life well and to contribute to the well-being of this planet is usually the harvest of a healthy and loving home-life, and that home does not just happen. It is created and brought forth by much labour and pain and by much love and laughter. As we pause today to remember this gracious and elegant lady, we look to the fruits of her life – her children, grown into responsible, caring adults. This we can see. There is much in a life that is not visible to the eye. It is in her children and her children’s children that Dotsy’s goodness lives on. So we say Good bye to this woman whose 89 years of life brought goodness to many. As I read once in an e-mail, it is the dash between the years that really mat-ters. 1922 – 2011 Those 89 years that the dash signifi es have created many memories for many peo-ple. Those 89 years now bring Dotsy to her God and God’s fi nal invitation: “Come inside my house.” And Dotsie’s response: “Now my feet stand within your gates planted upon your wholeness .” We will miss you. Rest in God, Dotsy.


Belize City, April 3, 2011

Team Indeco’s Joel Borland won the 2011 Junior Cross Country cycling classic held by the Belize Cycling Association on the West-ern Highway; clocking 3:56:21 on his 73-mile ride from the San Jose Succotz ferry to Belize City on Sunday,Borland won the fi -nal sprint to the tape against Team Cayo High Road’s Juan Umana and Kyle Gentle, and Twin Towns Cycling’s Austin Armstrong to win the $300 1st prize, the championship trophy from the Belize Cycling Asso-ciation, a $100 prize donated by the Butler family, the cham-pion’s garland from Florasol, a gift basket and a case of fruit juice from Grace Kennedy.Juan Umana won the $200 2nd prize and a trophy from Atlantic Insur-ance and a gift basket and a case of fruit juice from Grace Ken-nedy.Kyle Gentle won the $100 3rd prize from Plus TV and tro-phy from the B.C.A., a gift bas-ket and a case of fruit juice from Grace Kennedy.Austin Arm-strong received a medal from Jea

Team Indeco’s Joel Borland wins 2011 Junior Cross Country champBelize City, April 3, 2011

Team Indeco’s Joel Borland won the 2011 Junior Cross Country cycling classic held by the Belize Cycling Association on the West-ern Highway; clocking 3:56:21 on his 73-mile ride from the San Jose Succotz ferry to Belize City on Sunday,Borland won the fi -nal sprint to the tape against Team Cayo High Road’s Juan Umana and Kyle Gentle, and Twin Towns Cycling’s Austin Armstrong to win the $300 1st prize, the championship trophy from the Belize Cycling Asso-ciation, a $100 prize donated by the Butler family, the cham-pion’s garland from Florasol, a gift basket and a case of fruit juice from Grace Kennedy.Juan Umana won the $200 2nd prize and a trophy from Atlantic Insur-ance and a gift basket and a case of fruit juice from Grace Ken-nedy.Kyle Gentle won the $100 3rd prize from Plus TV and tro-phy from the B.C.A., a gift bas-ket and a case of fruit juice from Grace Kennedy.Austin Arm-strong received a medal from Jea

Team Indeco’s Joel Borland wins 2011 Junior Cross Country champTeam Indeco’s Joel Borland wins


Team Indeco’s Joel Borland won the 2011 Junior Cross Country cycling classic held by the Belize Cycling Association on the West-ern Highway; clocking 3:56:21 on his 73-mile ride from the San Jose Succotz ferry to Belize City on Sunday,Borland won the fi -nal sprint to the tape against

by the Butler family, the cham-pion’s garland from Florasol, a gift basket and a case of fruit juice from Grace Kennedy.Juan Umana won the $200 2nd prize and a trophy from Atlantic Insur-ance and a gift basket and a case of fruit juice from Grace Ken-nedy.Kyle Gentle won the $100 3rd prize from Plus TV and tro-phy from the B.C.A., a gift bas-ket and a case of fruit juice from Grace Kennedy.Austin Arm-strong received a medal from Jea

Team Indeco’s Joel Borland wins 2011 Junior Cross Country champ

McFadzean, and a case of juice.Team Indeco’s Giovan-ni Lovell won 1st in the Youth category, clocking 3:56:35 to win a $200 prize and a trophy donated by Elena Morgan, he fi nished 5th over-all. He had also won several station prizes as eh led the race a good part of the way up to mile 2, but he was overtaken in the fi nal sprintTeam Cayo Uprising’s Oscar Quiros was 6th, clocking 3:56:57 and as the 2nd Youth, he won a $100 prize and a

t r o p h y donated by

Emil Figuero-aTeam Cayo High

Road’s Aiden Juan was 11th overall, clocking 4:07:49,

but ass the 3rd Youth, he too took home a $50 prize and a trophy from Atlantic Insurance.Clear Di Land’s Wasani Castro was 7th in 4:02:; Team C-ray’s Riis Cattouse was 8th in 4:03:10; Cayo Uprising’s Gian Zetina was 9th in 4:03:54 seconds and Juan Cuellar Samos rounded out the top 10 clocking 4:07:49.Cayo Uprising’s Christopher Sandoval, Zahir Figueroa and Justin Wade

w e r e 12th, 13th and

1 4 t h places in that same sprint and Team M&M En-gineering’s Eldon Simmons clocked 4:08:06 to fi nish 15th.


The St. Martin De Porres School girls posted their 3rd win, while the undefeated Queen Square Anglican School boys posted their 4th win in the Belize City primary schools softball competition at the home of softball, the Roger’s Stadium in Be-lize City on Monday.Pitcher Glen-nisha Reid led the St. Martin’s girls to a 13-6win over the Queen Square School on Monday, pitcher Ashley Alarcon had the loss.Reid had also led the Martin’s girls to a 12-10 win over Calvary Temple last Wednes-day; pitcher Emily Gutierrez had the loss.Winning pitcher Asia Pitts led the Wesley Upper School girls to their 1st win: 21-3 over the But-tonwood Bay Nazarene School girls last Friday; pitcher D’Andra Mc-Fadzean had the loss.Pitcher Kelsy Peyrefi tte led the St. John Vianney RC Schoolgirls to an 8-5 win over

st martin’s girls & queen square boys win in primary schools softball the Holy Redeemer School girls last Tuesday; p i t c h e r Shan i ce N e a l h a d

t h e l o s s .W i n -ning pitcher Shanell Row-land led the Salvation Army School girls to their 3rd win: 11-2 over the

Queen Square Anglican girls last

Monday, pitcher Ashley Alarcon had the loss.Pitcher Devin Parham

led the undefeated Queen Square Anglican boys to their 4th win: 5-3 over the St. Martin De Porres School boys on Monday; pitcher Ashton Pitts had the loss.The Queen Square boys also won 8-4 over Sal-

vation Army School boys last Monday; pitcher Luis Acosta

had the loss.Pitcher Tray Bowden led the undefeated Wesley Upper School boys to their 4th win: 9-4 over the Buttonwood Bay Nazarene School boys; pitcher Bryan Pavon had the loss.Pitcher Ashton Pitts led the St. Mar-

tin’s boys to a 17-0 over the Calvary Temple School boys last

Wednesday; pitcher Randy Guti-errez had the lossPitcher Shawn Young led the St. Mary’s School boys to their 2nd win: 10-4 over the Holy Redeemer School boys last Tuesday; pitcher Stefan Cabral was credited with the loss


Dangriga, April 2, 2011

The undefeated Foreshore Spartans are the Dangriga Basketball Asso-ciation U17 champions in the BTL sponsored tournament, which con-cluded this weekend with the Fore-shore Spartans posting their 8th back to back win by winning Game 3 of the fi nals series 56-50 over Harlem.The fi rst time these teams met back on March 5th, both were unbeaten and the game was billed as the game of the season. After climbing to a 12 point lead in the third quarter, Harlem pressed their way back into the game, be-hind Egbert Martinez’s 24-point performance, only to lose by 2. This fi nal game followed a simi-lar pattern, with Foreshore being the aggressor early pushing a fi ve point half time lead to double fi g-ures by mid-third quarter. Harlem proved their resilience once again battling back to bring the lead down to three with under 2 min-utes to go in the game. This was after losing point guard Brandon Castillo late in the third quarter after he fouled out. Castillo had a miserable outing only netting 5 points, 2 assists to go with his 5 fouls that sidelined him for the rest of the game. Harlem’s best hope, Egbert Martinez, fi nished

Meet the Spartans - BTL U17 basketball champs

ciation U17 champions in the BTL

3 of the fi nals series 56-50 over

with 15 points to lead his team – 15pts, 2rebs, 3stls, but missed 11 free throws, after going 12-14 on the line in

the previous encounter. Dominique Nicholas – 10pts, 6rebs and Shai Peters – 9pts,

7rebs, 2stlsBoth teams struggled

from the l i n e

but

t h e differ-

ence was Foreshore struggled

early while H a r l e m struggled in

the fourth quarter

when i t

really mattered as the game was re-duced to a free throw shooting con-test late. For the Spartans, eventual tourney MVP, Trevon Mitchell had a big double-double with 15 points and 14 rebounds to lead his team in both categories. The Spartans main-tained balance as usual with 3 play-ers other than Mitchell also scor-ing in double fi gures. Darren Levy 4rebs, 3asts and Lucien Hasbun had 11 each while Hubert Usher fi nished with 10pts, 4rebsThe Spar-tans like their U15 counterparts, the Junior Spartans, now look forward to taking on the Punta Gorda teams on Saturday, April 9 in the South-ern Regional fi nals to earn a spot in the National fi nals to be held in Or-ange Walk in the up-coming weeks.The following awards were issued following the championship game; MVP – Trevon Mitchell, Foreshore Spartans, Top Scorer – Hubert Ush-er, Foreshore Spartans; Most Re-bounds – Jordan Walters, Foreshore Spartans and Most Assists – Trev-on Mitchell, Foreshore SpartansAmong the U-15, MVP – Lesley Williams, Junior Spartans; Top Scorer – Darnae Garcia, New

Site Young-gunners; Most Re-bounds – Darnae Garcia, New

Site Young-gunners; Most Assists – Lesley Wil-

liams, Junior Spartans


The undefeated City Boys are No. 1 in the Belize Bank Superleague, following their 3-1 thrashing of the Griga Knights in week 6 of the competition at the MCC garden on Sunday.Belize’s international striker Deon Macaulay made Griga goalie Elias Pelayo look helpless as he scored a hat trick with a 1st goal in the 41st minute, a penalty in the 50th minute when the Griga defense goofed into bringing down Jason Young in the 18, and a 3rd goal in the 73rd minute.The Griga Knights had brought all their big guns: Dar-win Castillo and Kenroy Arthurs, Adgar Adderley and Jeffery Apolo-nio, but they failed to impress City Boys’ goalie Stanley “Jordan” Reneau and the defenders: Eian Gaynair, Nigel Franklin, Shawn Thurton and Anthony Williams. It fell to Shane Gentle coming off the Griga bench in the 2nd half to pull one back for the visitors with a long lob from centerfi eld that somehow got the better of Reneau and fell into the back of the net, the visitors’ only consolation goal in the 52nd minute. The Griga knights are still No. 2 in the league with 13 pts from 4 wins and a draw in their fi rst 5 outings.The Paradise Freedom Fighters are

Raymond Gentle City Boys rule Belize Bank Superleague football

got the better of Reneau and fell into the back of the net, the visitors’ only


The undefeated City Boys are No. 1 in the Belize Bank Superleague, following their 3-1 thrashing of the Griga Knights in week 6 of the competition at the MCC garden on Sunday.Belize’s international striker Deon Macaulay made Griga goalie Elias Pelayo look helpless as he scored a hat trick with a 1st goal in the 41st minute, a penalty in the 50th minute when the Griga defense goofed into bringing down Jason Young in the 18, and a 3rd goal in the 73rd minute.The Griga Knights had brought all their big guns: Dar-win Castillo and Kenroy Arthurs, Adgar Adderley and Jeffery Apolo-nio, but they failed to impress City Boys’ goalie Stanley “Jordan” Reneau and the defenders: Eian Gaynair, Nigel Franklin, Shawn Thurton and Anthony Williams. It fell to Shane Gentle coming off the Griga bench in the 2nd half to pull one back for the visitors with a long lob from centerfi eld that somehow


The undefeated City Boys are No. 1 in the Belize Bank Superleague, following their 3-1 thrashing of the Griga Knights in week 6 of the competition at the MCC garden on Sunday.Belize’s international striker Deon Macaulay made Griga goalie Elias Pelayo look helpless as he scored a hat trick with a 1st goal in the 41st minute, a penalty in the 50th minute when the Griga defense goofed into bringing down Jason Young in the 18, and a 3rd goal in the 73rd minute.The Griga Knights had brought all their big guns: Dar-win Castillo and Kenroy Arthurs, Adgar Adderley and Jeffery Apolo-nio, but they failed to impress City Boys’ goalie Stanley “Jordan” Reneau and the defenders: Eian Gaynair, Nigel Franklin, Shawn Thurton and Anthony Williams. It fell to Shane Gentle coming off the Griga bench in the 2nd half to pull one back for the visitors with a long lob from centerfi eld that somehow

No. 3 in the standings with 12pts; after they picked up their 4th win in a 2-1 romp over the Hattieville Monarchs at the Toledo Union fi eld in Punta Gorda on Sun-day. PG’s Alexander Peters converted a penalty in the 45th minute to lead 1-0 at the half, and in the second half when Michael Roches added a 2nd goal in the 48th min-ute. Only 7 minutes of r e g u l a -tion time were left w h e n the ref award-ed the M o n -archs a penal-ty, and F l o y d J o n e s convert-ed for the 2-1 fi nal scoreOrange Walk United is now No. 4 in the league after their 3rd win: 3-2 over the Placen-cia Assassins 3-2 at the Placencia fi eld on Sunday. Christopher Hen-

dricks scored Orange Walk’s 1st goal in the 3rd minute,

but Mervin Les-lie equalized for the As-s a s s i n s in the 4 5 t h

min-ute

to draw 1-12 at the half. Placencia’s Leomar Leslie scored in the 64th minute, but Orlando Castillo de-livered the equalizer for visitor sin

the 77th minute, and Orrin Wade scored the winning goal in the 83rd minute.The other city team, Third World, picked up their fi rst win: 4-1 over Cayo South United at the

Camalote Football fi eld on Sunday. Deon “Pussy” Floers

scored in the 22nd min-ute, Dienmercy Pierre scored a 2nd goal in the 38th minute and Sanja Pitts scored a 3rd third

goal in the 42nd minute to lead 3-0 at the half. Wismy Pierre made

it 4-zip in the 88th minute, before Oli-ver Wiltshire scored a consolation goal for Cayo in the 89th minute.The competi-tion continues with Hattieville Monarchs hosting City boys at the Hattieville foot-ball fi eld on Sun-day, while Paradise Fredome Fighters visit Cayo south at

the Camalote fi eld, Orange Walk United hosts Griga knights a the People’s Stadium and Third World will wait the Placen-cia Assassins at the MCC grounds.


$67,500.

(Saturday April 9th.., 2011 Jackpot)

Sunday,April 10th, 2011 Inserts A

REID IT HERE FIRST !By: G. Michael Reid The patience of the local Chinese Community seems to have been pushed to a critical point following a weekend of bloody violence which included the apparent senseless kill-ing of two Chinese businesswomen. The Chinese Community responded by locking all shops for two days and taking to the streets in protest. While for the most part passive, docile and law-abiding, the Chinese seemed to show on Monday, an aspect that has been kept undercover. In a show of protest, some five hun-dred strong Chinese from across the nation converged in front of the Be-lize Magistrate’s Court on Monday morning. Word had been received that Police had apprehended two suspects and recovered a firearm be-lieved used in one of the murders. The men were expected to be taken to court on Monday and when the bus arrived from prison, the Chi-nese were waiting and began pelting the bus with whatever objects they could find. After learning that the two suspects were not on the bus, the congregation marched over to the Police Station and then proceed-ed on a march through the principal streets of the old capital. Not every-one was sympathetic and along the route insults were being hurled. One particular heckler narrowly escaped with his life as he was attacked by the marchers and had to be rescued by some brave Police Officers. The tragic occurrences and subse-quent response by the Chinese has spurred an interesting debate with comments ranging from sympathetic to straight out racist. There are some who have long resented the Chinese presence in Belize, some who are in-different and some who appreciate the service that they provide. Like it or not, many of these Chinese are now full Belizeans whether by birth or by naturalization. They are intri-cately woven into the fabric of our society and of late, have even plant-ed roots on the landscape of our poli-tics. Given the current state of our demography, whether Chinese, In-dian, Mennonites, or any number of other ethnic groups, including Kriol and Garinagu, it is impossible to pin-point any particular group and label them true-blooded Belizean. We must come to grips with our cultural diversity and address our problems from an encyclopedic instead of in-digenous approach. The reality is that Belize is besieged with a wave of crime that is intoler-able, incorrigible and if left unabat-ed will destroy every industry and source of livelihood for our people. Already, the economy is being stifled as few people dare venture out at night and even less will carry money, wear jewelry or venture into specific areas. Many folks from outer dis-tricts refuse to enter the city except out of a case of dire necessity. Even then, they will come in, hurriedly

conduct their business and hastily retreat to the safe confines of their habitat.The security forces seem inept and are many times themselves exposed as more a part of the problem than the solution. In a press conference of last April, the Prime Minister re-vealed to the nation that he had dis-covered a “ring of rogue cops” and promised Belizeans that many ar-rests would follow including that of senior officers of the Department. We were informed that these cops were involved in many of the serious crimes to date, including the SSB robbery and the robbery/murder of a Scotia Bank in Spanish Lookout. To date, one lowly constable has been indicted and even the charge against him has been proven rather flimsy to say the least. On Tuesday of this week, the Prime Minister hurriedly called another Press Conference but this time, la-beled the situation a crisis. The an-swer, asserted the Prime Minister, was to amend the constitution to al-low for more draconian laws, unlim-ited detention of any citizen and trials without a jury. Given the propensity of this administration in particular, for being vindictive, victimizing and intolerant of dissent, who is willing to trust this Prime Minister with that kind of unrestrained power? Tell us it is a joke, Prime Minister tell us it is a joke!The Prime Minister took the oppor-tunity to share with us a story he had read in a newspaper while traveling to Guatemala. According to Mr. Bar-row, he had read where forty people had been killed in Salvador that past week. According to the PM, when we compared ourselves to that and with Trinidad for example, we are, comparatively speaking, “well off”. Tell that to the Chinese Community, Mr. Barrow, or to the many families who grieve on too regular a basis. Tell that to the family of your own law partner, Mr. Barrow or tell that to the managers of the Heritage Bank in Orange Walk. Whenever the Prime Minister speaks, one is usually left wondering if he is indeed living in the same Belize that the rest of us are. The Prime Minister again reiterated his plan to send “high-energy gang members” to live in rural commu-nities. What a brilliant idea! Why confine crime to Belize City? And if our rural citizens won’t come to the city for fear of crime, then let us take the city and its crime to them. We are now told that a prime suspect in the Heritage Bank robbery is from Belize City. A large number of the crimes committed in rural areas are eventually found to be committed by people from the city. Way to go PM, if you can’t spread the wealth then certainly we can spread the misery!Another solution which the Prime Minister would love to consider is the mandatory enlistment of young citizens into the army. According to

the Prime Minister, and this one right in line with his agenda, we can af-ford that if we find more oil. What a shameful and opportunistic capital-izing of a bad situation to promote an equally bad agenda. The man is using crime to push through his preventative detention plan and will now use it to justify his granting of more concessions to drill for oil; is there no bound to his tyranny?The idea of militarizing delinquents is not as cut and dried as Mr. Bar-row and his good friend and advisor believes. Many of our neighboring republics are plagued by ex-military who use that self same training to prey upon ordinary untrained citi-zens. Miscreants who are commit-ted to a life of crime will not just magically transform to law-abiding citizens simply because they are put in uniform. They will come away well trained, sharp shots and well

informed as to the basic tactics of enforcement. Tread carefully on this one Mr. Barrow, please.The situation that Mr. Barrow finds himself in is not an enviable one. He was however, elected on a platform of transparency, accountability and good governance. He made many promises, none of which he has kept. He promised lower cost of living, a naturalization of our oil and a reduc-tion of crime; we have seen just the opposite in every case. Instead of pulling out a bigger stick, the Prime Minister should start leading by ex-ample. A good place would be in the House of Representatives. His bel-ligerence, arrogance and intimidat-ing tactics are directly reflected in the attitude of these young killers on the streets. To paraphrase the former Prime Minister when quoting the lyr-ics of a dancehall hit, “nuh watch we Mr. Barrow, watch yuself!.

Violent Crimes Stirs the Dragon

For Immediate Release March 31, 2011Contact: Tanya Usher 501-627-5235

Friends of Belize Launched in Belize City(Belize City, Belize) Friends of Belize (FOB) was formally launched today at an event at the Radisson Fort George Hotel and Marina in Be-lize City. The Friends of Belize Advisory Board including Ambassador Robert Dieter, Ambassador Philip Priestley, the Honorable Marcel Car-dona, Member of the House of Representatives, Lynn Young, CEO of the Belize Electricity Limited and Godfrey Smith hosted the event. In attendance were a number of prominent Belizeans including Governor General Sir Colville Young, Members of the House of Representatives and Members of the Diplomatic Corps.In opening the formal presentation to over one hundred guests, Ambas-sador Dieter said, “While I was in Belize as the US Ambassador, I was fortunate to have an opportunity to meet many, many Belizeans and de-veloped a deep appreciation for the country and their hospitality toward me. I am excited to have an opportunity to try to have a positive impact on Belize and its relationship with the US.” FOB is a non-governmental organization established in the US and with offices in Belize City and Washington, DC. FOB is a private entity that is not affiliated with any individual, political party or governmentAt the launch, FOB General Counsel, Andrew Asher, outlined the or-ganization’s mission. “In partnership with Belizeans, Friends of Belize will devote its efforts toward three core objectives – creating an envi-ronment for increased foreign direct investment; exploring and promot-ing policies that expand economic capacity; and coordinating economic and social policies for long term effect,” said Asher. As its first major effort FOB will host a forum for international and Belizean business and Belizean political leaders to discuss the business climate in the country and make recommendations for improvements. Asher said, “We hope this event will attract a lot of interest and spark thoughtful discussion from all corners of Belize.” FOB hopes to make this an annual event to focus attention on building a better economic climate in the country.During the official launch ceremony, Friends of Belize announced it would provide a $1000 donation to the Belize Council for the Visually Impaired in the name of Rowen Garel, one of their sight ambassadors , who recently climbed the highest mountain in Belize.At the closing, former British High Commissioner Philip Priestley said, “It is a great honor to work in partnership with so many leaders here in Belize to have a positive impact on a country I have grown to love. This is an exciting opportunity and a great platform for Belizeans to come together and have a positive impact on the economic future of the country.”More information about Friends of Belize and its future activities can be found at its website, www.friendsofbelize.com.

Sunday,April 10th, 2011Inserts B

HEAlTHY LIVINGHEAlTHY LIVINGHEAlTHY LIVINGMultiple Sclerosis (MS)What is multiple sclerosis?Multiple sclerosis, o� en called MS, is a disease that a� ects the central nervous system—the brain and spi-nal cord. It can cause problems with muscle control and strength, vision, balance, feeling, and thinking.Your nerve cells have a protective covering called myelin. Without my-elin, the brain and spinal cord can’t communicate with the nerves in the rest of the body. MS gradually de-stroys myelin in patches throughout the brain and spinal cord, causing muscle weakness and other symp-toms. � ese patches of damage are called lesions.MS is di� erent for each person. You may go through life with only mi-nor problems. Or you may become seriously disabled. Most people are somewhere in between. Generally, MS follows one of four courses:• Relapsing-remitting, where symptoms fade and then return o� and on for many years.• Secondary progressive, which at � rst follows a relapsing-remitting course and then becomes progressive. “Progressive” means it steadily gets worse.• Primary progressive, where the disease is progressive from the start.• Progressive relapsing, where the symptoms come and go but nerve damage steadily gets worse.Whatever your symptoms are, treat-ment and self-care can help you maintain your quality of life. � ere is no cure for MS, but it is not fatal except in rare cases.What causes MS?� e exact cause is unknown, but most experts believe MS is an auto-immune disease. In this kind of dis-ease, the body’s defenses, called the immune system, mistakenly attack normal tissues. In MS, the immune system attacks the central nervous system—the brain and spinal cord .Experts don’t know why MS hap-pens to some people but not others. � ere may be a genetic link, because the disease seems to run in families. Where you grew up may also play a role. MS is more common in those who grew up in colder regions that are farther away from the equator.What are the symptoms?Symptoms depend on which parts of the brain and spinal cord are dam-aged and how bad the damage is. Early symptoms may include:• Muscle problems. You may feel weak and sti� , and your limbs may feel heavy. You may drag your leg when you walk. You may drop things more than usual and be less coordinated.• Visual problems. Your vision may be blurred or hazy. You may have eyeball pain (especially when you move your eyes), blindness, or

Multiple Sclerosis (MS)

double vision. Optic neuritis—sud-den loss of vision that is o� en pain-ful—is a fairly common � rst symp-tom.• Sensory problems. You may feel tingling, a pins-and-needles sen-sation, or numbness. You may feel a band of tightness around your trunk or limbs or a feeling of electricity moving down your back and limbs.• Balance problems. You may feel lightheaded or dizzy or feel like you’re spinning.As MS gets worse, you may have tremors and pain and feel sti� when you move. You may have problems with controlling urination, swallow-ing, and thinking clearly. MS can lead to depression.Many people with MS are sensitive to heat. Hot weather, a fever, a hot shower, or too much exercise can make their symptoms worse until they cool down.MS is very unpredictable. Your symptoms may suddenly get worse with no warning, or you may go for years without any problems.How is MS diagnosed?Diagnosing MS is not always easy. � e � rst symptoms may be vague, and many of the symptoms can be caused by problems other than MS. Try not to be frustrated if months or even years go by before your illness is de� nitely identi� ed as MS.MS is not diagnosed unless a doctor

can be sure that you have had at least two attacks. � e doctor will examine you, ask you questions about your symptoms, and do some tests. An MRI is oft en used to confi rm the di-agnosis, because the patches of dam-age (lesions) caused by MS attacks can be seen with this test.How is it treated?� ree kinds of medicines are used to treat the disease. � ey are used:• During a relapse, to make the attack shorter and less severe.• Over a long period of time, to keep down the number of attacks and how severe they are (disease-modifying therapy). � is treatment may delay or at least reduce the dam-age MS does to the body.• To control specifi c symp-toms—like fatigue, depression, uri-nary problems, sexual di� culties, pain, or muscle sti� ness.You may � nd it hard to decide wheth-er to take any of the drugs that slow the progression of MS, especially if your symptoms have been mild. � e drugs do not work for everyone, and they o� en have strong side e� ects. But experts say it’s usually best to start taking medicine as soon as you are diagnosed, because damage may be going on even if you don’t have symptoms. You and your doctor will decide whether you should try any of these drugs.Physical therapy, occupational ther-

apy, and speech therapy can help you reduce some physical problems caused by MS. You can also help yourself at home by eating right, get-ting regular exercise and rest, and learning to use your energy wisely.Dealing with the physical and emo-tional demands of MS is not easy. If you feel overwhelmed, talk to your doctor. You may be depressed, which can be treated. And � nding a support group where you can talk to other people with MS can be very helpful.Who is a� ected by multiple sclerosis� e prevalence of MS varies with:1• Geographic location. Th e number of people who have MS increases with distance from the equator. � e incidence of MS in-creases from less than 1 in 100,000 in areas near the equator to 30 to 80 in 100,000 in northern Europe and northern North America. In the southern hemisphere, the increase when moving away from the equator is less dramatic.• Family history. About 15 out of 100 people who have MS have a relative with MS, most o� en a broth-er or sister.• Age and sex. MS occurs most o� en in women, although men also develop this condition. Symptoms rarely � rst appear at ages younger than 10 or older than 60; most peo-ple with MS notice their � rst symp-toms when they are between 20 and 30 years oldWhat HappensIn general, multiple sclerosis follows one of four courses:• Relapsing-remitting, where symptoms may fade and then recur at random for many years. � e dis-ease does not advance during the re-missions.• Secondary progressive, which initially follows a relapsing-remitting course. Later on, it be-comes steadily progressive.• Primary progressive, where the disease is progressive from the start.• Progressive relapsing, where steady deterioration of nerve func-tion begins when symptoms � rst appear. Symptoms appear and disap-pear, but nerve damage continues. Few people have this course of MS.Many people with MS do not fol-low one of these patterns exactly. � e course is o� en hard to predict. Not only does it vary from person to person, but the pattern may change in an individual over time. MS may be more severe in men than women, particularly in middle-aged men.MS usually progresses with a series of relapses that occur over many years (relapsing-remitting MS). In many people the � rst MS attack in-volves just a single symptom. It may be weeks, months, or years before you have a relapse.

national perspective april 10, 2011

Documents

silent majority e true

udp executive

udp slate

udp convention

udp sympathetic channel

udp mayoral candidate

udp leader dean barrow

udp chairman patrick