August 18, 2012
Dear Editor,

Kindly publish in your prestigious and widely read newspaper this letter. On Channel 5 TV news I saw pictures of the dilapidated condition of most of the streets and roads of Independence Village. Some people are quick to judge the government of Belize for the eyesore the Village Council has become.

I beg to differ; the present village council can barely pay for garbage collection. The irony of it is that there is a lot of wealth, but it is in the hands of a few. There is extreme poverty in our village and the few good paying jobs are held by aliens from Guatemala and Honduras.

The “Big Creek Group of Companies,” banana farms and shrimp farms are based around the village, yet they can’t come together and lift up our village and help out our government.

The companies could donate towards the grading of our streets and roads, cleaning of the high grass on our street-sides and proper garbage collection. The guys picking up garbage do not even bother to take and pick up the dirt the dogs throw out of the garbage cans. The Village Council should ensure that the garbage collection is properly done.

Ten years ago I came back home from the U.S.A to retire, but the way things are going in my village, I feel like going back.

This village’s crime rate is out of control; this is ridiculous for a small village like ours with its own police formation. A few days ago I heard over the news of an alien chopping another alien at Big Creek port, and a second incident of a local being chopped in a robbery.

It is the local heads of department that are incompetent. The local chief of police has to be transferred. We need new blood and a competent police chief for Independence Village who will take the time to really fight crime. We need the Public Health Inspector or other medical authorities to exterminate stray dogs so that they do not scatter the garbage all over the village, making the village look filthy.

The West Nile virus is attacking the U.S.A. I hope the health authorities are monitoring this very closely, because it is for sure if there is an outbreak in Belize, it would start in Independence, with all the over-grown bush, waterholes, garbage and the once-in-a-while spraying for mosquitoes by the Health Department.

Please, Village Council, do not be ashamed to beg these companies, if not for money, then for trucks, disposable gloves, disposable masks and garbage bags to do a general clean-up campaign for the village.

The people of Mango Creek cannot be burdened anymore financially. We are already paying $5.00 every month, which is automatically added to our water bill for garbage collection.

Let us bring down the crime rate in our community; let us see our policemen pounding the beat on the streets instead of hugging the bars and clubs.

Yours truly,
(Signed) Alfred Murphy