Wed. April 14, 2010
Dear Editor,
I am an American travelling in Belize this month, and I have enjoyed reading your paper from time to time, as I have enjoyed meeting Belizeans from many areas of your beautiful country. I have appreciated your verve and passion on editorial topics.
Anyway, I’m writing to describe a disturbing conversation I overheard a few days ago here on Caye Caulker. It made me mad and angry, and I thought to assuage these feelings by writing to the paper.
So I was in a hotel reception here using their phone to contact an airline. So I was kind of a fly on the wall to the following interaction between a Belizean who worked as a salesman, and a large, fat, barechested American guy, the kind I see that makes me feel ashamed for the obnoxious attitudes of many of my fellow countrymen and women.
The guy was demanding information about property for sale, on the north side of the Split, which is currently undeveloped. What about electricity? What about these mangroves? Can they be cut down? I want to build a hotel, I need these mangroves gone, said the fattie.
The Belizean assured the American barracuda that sure, the mangroves could be removed, no problem, etc. etc. The conversation continued with a plan to meet the next morning to look at the property. It made me feel ill.
Belize! This is another round of rich people from away coming to take away what should be yours! I don’t know the laws re mangrove clearing, but I do know that when you cut them, the shoreline suffers, and more importantly, the reef, which supports both fishing and tourism, is degraded.
This type of guy couldn’t care less about the ecological destruction that his kind of development will cause – he just wants to make a quick buck.
Worse than a barracuda, he is like a lion fish – foreign, and destructive, and frankly, rapacious. The Belizean sales guy is fully culpable too, by encouraging this kind of thing.
I encourage the Belize people and government to protect your land from this kind of person. The reef is why many tourists come here, and the livelihood for many fisherman. Don’t let it be threatened by anyone, especially greedy foreigners.
Thanks for letting me get this off my chest. Now get the powers that be to do something.
Sincerely,
Susan Lincoln