So First Caribbean Bank pulled the plug on BEL’s operating line of credit and The Bank of Nova Scotia is also reviewing the credit arrangements it has with BEL. The problem with deciphering what goes on with these companies is complicated by the veil of secrecy that foreign-owned companies have been allowed to operate under in Belize, particularly during the previous 1998-2008 administration. The entire principle has been wrong from the beginning; if anything, companies owned by foreign entities should be subject to additional transparency and reporting requirements so that we can be sure Belizean interests come first.
One of the things I learned in UBAD was to be careful of the words I used in public. Sometimes you can get excited by your audience and speak out of turn. Then you may become a captive of your own words. In other words, you can feel pressured to act in fulfillment of what you have said, or written.
On Saturday, November 8, 2008, at approximately 9:00 a.m. the “Club of Cuban Friends of Corozal” had gathered along with the 10 doctors who make up the Cuban Doctors Brigade “Ernesto Che Guevara” in Corozal to welcome Mr. Leopoldo Valle Alvarez, Cuban Functionary of the “Cuban Institute of Friends with The People” (Instituto Cubano de Amistad con los Pueblos - ICAP); Mr. Manuel J. Rubido, Ambassador of Cuba in Belize; Dr. Vilma Torres, from the National Direction of Cuban Medical Collaboration in Belize. (De la Dirección Nacional de la Colaboración Médica de Cuba en Belice.)
Amandala reporters, Aaron Humes and Rowland Parks, shared with the students some of their experiences and challenges as journalists. KREM DJ, Steve Anthony, allowed the enthusiastic students a brief on-air chit chat. The students were hosted and escorted by Amandala Assistant Editor, Adele Ramos.
Carl Gentle, a taxi driver, made the call within the prescribed 96.5 seconds from the time his name was announced until he called the KREM announcer. There other names were announced for the big prize, but they were slow in making the call; as a consequence, they were automatically eliminated from the chance of winning.
Well, the aforesaid banana only cost a little over a dime, but you’re a thief, anyway. So why the hell, when other people steal millions, nothing happens to them? I wonder if it’s because the banana thief stole directly from someone, that is, a living, breathing person, while the person who steals millions is thought of differently, because he or she stole from “nobody,” which is to say, the public purse, or some “statutory board” or entity which is not seen to be a “living, breathing person?”
Police watch contrabander put smuggled liquor into vehicle of police brass - he says he “doesn’t know anything about it.” On Saturday, November 15, Customs officers who were in a private vehicle and dressed in civilian clothing, spotted a Corozal man they suspect is involved in the contraband smuggling business. The man, Israel Rancharan, was driving a white 1992 Jeep Cherokee in the vicinity of Coney Drive and Princess Margaret Drive in Belize City when the Customs officers decided to that they would keep him under surveillance.
The Yurumein, or the re-enactment of the arrival of the Garinagu, signals the onset of Garifuna Settlement Day festivities, celebrated in Stann Creek since 1941, but observed nationally as a public and bank holiday across Belize since 1977. All across the country, and even among Garinagu living abroad, the arrival of the Garinagu to Belize’s shores almost two centuries ago was celebrated on Wednesday with as much fanfare as it ever was.
Former assistant to retired Ombudsman Paul Rodriguez, Lionel Castillo, 33, today walked from a charge of agreement for influencing a public officer before Justice Herbert Lord in the Supreme Court. Director of Public Prosecutions Cheryl-Lynn Branker Taitt was forced to enter a nolle prosequi, indicating that she could not proceed with the trial before Justice Lord because her key witness, now-released prison inmate Kelvin Reneau, was reportedly unwilling to testify.
“Audit G.O.B.” These are familiar words that rang out during the times of protest against the Government of Belize in 2005. There had been no complete audit of the Government of Belize for several years. Finally, Auditor-General Edmund Zuniga has presented his report for 2007-2008 to the Prime Minister, Dean Barrow. The Prime Minister laid it on the table of the House of Representatives last Friday, along with the Auditor General’s financial reports for 2003/2004 to the end of the last financial year, March 2008.
For a while now, there has been a conflict over the official date of Garifuna Settlement Day. Some have reported it as 1823, and others have reported it as 1832. Last week I got a call from a tour guide who told me that the 1823 date I referenced in a KREM FM Settlement Day message was wrong, as his books say 1832. Also, I was reading an article on the Internet that erroneously recorded both 1823 and 1832 as the settlement date.
BTL (Telemedia) is the most profitable company in Belize, and has the largest advertising budget. The revenues generated by BTL are mostly derived from the masses of the Belizean people, the same people who, nationwide, have made known their preference for Amandala, and in Belize City, their support for KREM Radio.
There has been much debate over the fact that, even past his retirement, Supreme Court Judge, John Troadio Gonzalez, 66, had been sitting on the bench – more so controversial because he has been chosen to preside over the high profile case of the Brannon brothers’ murder, for which Taedron Bennett, 27, and Joseph Kee, 29, are facing trial.
There is something that has been on my mind for quite some time, but there is always a right time for everything. The first thing that triggered me to write this was the article on the 2nd of November issue entitled “Guatemala First” by Colin. I must agree, to an extent that Guatemalan stations should have some sort of limit, as personally speaking, the most I would watch from the said stations are the football games (Guate League) with the occasional Belizean playing. Other than that, I’m cool, get KREM and Channel 7 and any other Belize City channel.
