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Specials and Events

Last night's TV news on Channel 7, Channel 5, LOVETV, PGTV, West Vision (Cayo) and CTV 3. Also with the most recent Open Your Eyes, Rise and Shine Morning Show, and the Dickie Bradley Specials


The San Pedro Sun

Wolfe's Woofer: Tornado
The tornado touched down while I was in a little town called Enid, Oklahoma. It didn't do a lot of damage but it did take out both bridges leading in and out of town. The Oklahoma State Highway Patrol sent me to a storm shelter for the night and assured me I could leave first thing in the morning. At the storm shelter there was nourishing food and I got into line with everyone else. Right in front of me an old farmer wearing overalls and a straw hat waited with his wife. Like a lot of the other people she was crying softly. "That was a hell of a storm," the old man said to me. "It dang near killed me and Bessie." Bessie sniffled a little. "Were you out in the field?" I asked.

Tropic Air announces service to Chetumal, Mexico
Tropic Air announced that on January 16, 2017, and subject to final Governmental approval, it will inaugurate non-stop service between Belize City International Airport (BZE) and Chetumal, Quintana Roo, Mexico (CTM). Chetumal becomes Tropic's third destination in Mexico and its 6th international route, and it will be the only airline to operate non-stop scheduled flights between these two historically close cities.

Doctor Love: To Stay or not Stay
Dear Doctor Love, My boyfriend and I met in our first year of college. We moved in together and planned to finish our education and get married. Then we would work in our chosen fields for five years before starting a family. He decided to switch schools for his third and fourth years. We agreed that I would move with him, work while he went to school, then we would move back for me to finish my degree when he graduated. He graduated this spring and I suggested we get ready to move back. He flatly refused. He said he loves where he is, and has a greater possibility for career advancement if he remains for another few years. When I suggested that I go back, finish my education and we take turns commuting to each other for long weekends and holidays, he said he could not promise to be faithful in a long distance relationship, and that if I moved back without him, he would not financially support me nor could he see having the time to take weekends away from his work to visit. He also said marriage is out of the question as he has to concentrate on his career. I do not know what to do. If I leave, I will certainly lose him. If I stay, I will lose my dream. /s/ To Stay or not Stay

Misc Belizean Sourcesmzz

Galen Wins ATLIB Basketball Regionals
The Galen Eagles won the ATLIB regionals on Friday. They defeated the SHJC Scorpions, and now advance to the finals, which will be next Saturday at the UB Gym. Go, Eagles! "Our Galen Eagles went head to head on Friday Nov. 18 at the SHC Auditorium against the SHJC Scorpions where the match ended in a 64-44 point game. The Regional ATLIB Tournament has concluded and now we're off to the National Championships to defend our title on Saturday, Nov. 26 at the UB Gymnasium. See you there! Let's gooooooooooooooo Eagles!"

Paranda Blues band
To celebrate Garifuna Settlement Day, the Embassy welcomed the Paranda Blues band. Clayton Williams, Philip Frazua, and Kennrick Lewis of the band performed traditional music and invited the Embassy staff to join in and try out their drumming and voice skills!

What ideas do you have for ICT innovation and entrepreneurs in Belize?
The Embassy is a proud sponsor of Belize's Entrepreneurship Convention (EntreCon) 2016, "Unlocking ICT Innovation in Belize." EntreCon is the capstone event of Belize's Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW). GEW activities promote entrepreneurship in Belize and globally. A record 250 entrepreneurs participated in EntreCon this year. Ms. Adrienne Galanek, the Deputy Chief of Mission was a guest speaker at the 2nd Entrepreneurship Convention (EntreCon) 2016, which was held at the Best Western Biltmore Plaza on November 18, 2016. We are happy to partner with the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) and the Belize Trade and Investment Development Services (BELTRAIDE) for this event.

The Reporter

BCSP to host third annual Services Week
This week, the Belize Coalition of Service Providers (BCSP) will celebrate its third Annual Services Week, and will host several activities in commemoration of the anniversary. The BCSP is celebrating the week under the theme, "Standardization Focus, Export Driven, Opportunities for Diverse Services!" Apart from appearances on several local media talk shows, the BCSP, in collaboration with the Belize Spa & Wellness Association, will host a three-day Spa Product Development Workshop from November 21-23 at the BCSP conference room. The first two days will be on Quality Assurance (QA) Training and the final day will be a Spa Forum conducted by visiting Consultant, Cheryl Bowles from Trinidad. The BCSP also invited two guests speakers for one from BELIPO to speak on Intellectual Property (IP) Rights as well as one representative from Belize Bureau of Standards (BBS) to speak about standards required for spa products.

Sanitation will play a huge role in the fight against Zika
A new Zika research says that the virus is able to infect people even if it has been outside of a host for several hours, making effective cleanup an important part of the fight to stop the outbreak. A joint research team from RMC Pharmaceutical Solutions, a consultancy for drug developers, and Microbac Laboratories, a provider of laboratory analytics, presented the research findings at the annual meeting of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists in Denver, Colorado. "Zika can survive on hard, nonporous surfaces for as long as eight hours, possibly longer when the environment contains blood, which is more likely to occur in the real world," Steve Zhou, one of the study's authors and director of virology and molecular biology for MicroBioTest Laboratories (a Microbac unit), said. The researchers also looked at the best cleaning chemicals to remove the virus from a hard surface. They determined that the best solutions for killing the virus are isopropyl alcohol and quaternary ammonium/alcohol. Other solutions such as pH 4 or pH 10 solutions were the least effective. Diluted bleach and peracetic acid could kill the virus, but not when it was suspended in blood.

Breaking Belize NewsPJ

House burning in Libertad
A house is currently burning to the ground in the village of Libertad in the Corozal district. The house, owned by a man who is known at this time only as Mr. Cyril was allegedly set ablaze almost 30 minutes ago. Libertad village is [�]

Stabbing in Santa Elena Town last night
Reports reaching our newsroom is that last night a young man was socializing along with his girlfriend at a park in the Bradley's Bank area of Santa Elena town when a man approached from behind him and stabbed him several times. The victim has [�]

Blogs

Beautiful Garifuna Settlement Day in Southern Belize: Hopkins and Dangriga
On Friday, I headed out EARLY from San Pedro to Hopkins in Southern Belize to celebrate Garifuna Settlement Day. A holiday to honor the Garifuna culture - one special culture out of many in this tiny country. The Garifuna, people that are a mix of African, Island Carib and Arawak, were deported by the British to Roatan, Honduras on November 19, 1802. Many left the small island for the Caribbean coast of Guatemala, Nicaragua and Belize - landing in 1832. The culture is most well known world wide for the music and dance which is more African based than Central American. Drums, drums, drums, singing and lots of dance. Dance that is so beautiful to watch. The Garifuna also have their own language - and you hear it spoken, especially among the older folk, in Southern Belize. The food - which is coconut, seafood, cassava and plantain rich - is absolutely delicious. On November 18th and 19th (the official national holiday), the culture is celebrated throughout Belize - the biggest parties and ceremonies are in Dangriga and Punta Gorda.

Leisure Pro, an online scuba diving magazine features Belize as a diving haven
In its November edition, Leisure Pro magazine printed an article promoting the "Caribbean Paradise" of Belize as an excellent diving haven. Leisure Pro highlighted the fact that Belize is home to the second-largest barrier reef in the world, an ideal location that every diver should have on their to-do list. The Belize Barrier Reef is a thriving ecosystem home to dozens of species of coral that provide shelter and feeding grounds for a cornucopia of marine life, including hundreds of species of fish, three species of saltwater turtles, dolphins, rays, seahorses, manatees, whale sharks, and jellyfish. Large stands of seagrasses, anemones, and starfish make reef diving in Belize an exploration of an underwater world exploding with color. The Leisure Pro article also made special mention of the Turneffe Islands. Located beyond the Belize Barrier Reef, these islands measure 30 miles by 10 miles. Although the islands are home to thick stands of mangrove trees that attract anglers for their abundant fishing opportunities, Leisure Pro magazine recommended that divers explore the waters off of the southern tip of the islands. Another popular diving destination recommended by Leisure Pro magazine include Glover's Reef and Lighthouse Reef. Although Lighthouse Reef is one of the smallest islands offshore of Belize, it is home to the Belize Blue Hole, a nearly perfectly circular body of deep azure water that was rated by famed marine biologist Jacques Cousteau as one of the top 10 diving spots on the planet. Divers can descend more than 400 feet as they explore a series of underwater canyons created at the end of the last Ice Age more than 10,000 years ago.

Belize: Best Destination to Visit Before 2016 is over
The only English-speaking country in the region, Belize is rapidly becoming one of the most popular travel destinations in the world. Measuring just 8,867 square miles in size, Belize is a pristine natural paradise that attracts honeymooners, families, couples looking to tie the knot, and adventure travelers because of all of the exciting festivals, activities, and things to do and see. Even though there's only a few weeks left in 2016, there's still plenty to do and see in Belize, including:

UNBELIZEABLE! 5 MUST DO ACTIVITIES IN BELIZE
Our visit to the Central American country of Belize was filled with amazing adventures. We participated in so many must do activities in Belize during our stay. The country is not that large so it is easy to fit in a lot of activities even during a short visit. We list our top 5 must do activities in Belize below. Caving is definitely one of our must do activities in Belize. The Actun Tunichil Muknal cave in Belize is one our favorite caving experiences. The cave is commonly referred to as ATM. It is in Western Belize and is actually a Mayan burial site. To access the cave you must sign up for a day tour. The tour starts with a hike through the Tapir Mountain Reserve and getting there involves crossing 3 streams. The depth of the streams can vary based on how much rainfall the area has seen. After 45-minutes, we reached the stunning entrance to ATM. It was marked by a tall narrow slot in the mountain, the surrounding rocks were covered in bright green foliage and featured an emerald green stream pouring from the crack. If getting down on your hand and knees and crawling through mud is not high on your list of must do activities in Belize, then perhaps cave tubing is a better choice for you. Cave tubing is one of our must do activities in Belize because it is a relaxing way to explore the cave system. When cave tubing, you sit on an inner tube that lazily carries you along the slow river current in and out of several caves. The tour operators will provide you with waterproof headlamps that will let you see all the amazing cave formations and underground waterfalls along the way.

International Sourcesizz

Gringo: The Dangerous Life of John McAfee review - proto-Trump figure chills the blood
Right now it is tempting to find parables and parallels everywhere for the current US situation. With this documentary from Nanette Burstein, the zeitgeist-paranoia is justified. Her film is about a man who, in political terms, was John the Baptist to the non-Jesus that is the president-elect. One of the candidates running for the US presidency in the early stages this year was a very rich, entitled and arrogant businessman with a huge social media presence, what this film suggests is a troubling attitude to women, a strong "eccentricity" (rather than the simple madness of lesser, poorer people) and a tendency to get riled by the media. This was John McAfee, the 1980s antivirus software tycoon who had retired in the noughties to run a yoga retreat on his vast Colorado estate. After apparently losing a bundle in the crash of 2008, he emigrated to Belize where he jokingly told reporters he was going to be like Kurtz in Conrad's Heart of Darkness. According to this documentary, he proceeded to pay off the cops, put dozens of local gangsters on the payroll as armed bodyguards, nurse crazy schemes to develop new-age medicines from indigenous plant life and cultivated psychopathic levels of paranoia about being kidnapped - he appeared to become a would-be king of the Central American jungle.

Tropical Depression Sixteen Forms in the Caribbean Sea; May Become Rare Thanksgiving Hurricane
Tropical Depression Sixteen has formed in the southwest Caribbean Sea and may become a rare Thanksgiving hurricane before dousing parts of Central America with flooding rainfall in the coming days. The center of Tropical Depression Sixteen was located about 300 miles east of the Nicaraguan Caribbean coast. Tropical Depression Sixteen will move very little the next several days. Late this week, high pressure will build to its north, and the clockwise steering flow around that high will send this system westward towards the coast of Nicaragua or Costa Rica. Currently, wind shear is keeping somewhat of a lid on intensification. However, later this week, wind shear is expected to relax, and the tropical cyclone is expected to become a rare, late-season hurricane before making landfall in Nicaragua or Costa Rica.

Norwegian Dawn opens Harvest Caye in Belize
Norwegian Cruise Line's Norwegian Dawn was the first ship to call at Norwegian Cruise Lines Holdings' (NCLH) new Harvest Caye cruise destination in Southern Belize on 17 November. NCLH's senior vice president of destination and strategic development Colin Murphy led a ribbon cutting ceremony and official grand opening. He was joined by the Honourable Manuel Heredia, Minister of Tourism and Civil Aviation for Belize, Honourable Edmond Castro, Minister of State for National Emergency Management for Belize, and Kim Simplis Barrow, wife of Belize's Prime Minister Dean Barrow. "Today is the product of the government's continued pledge to entrench tourism as a top national priority and to promote tourism as a main engine for overall economic growth of the country," said Manuel Heredia, Minister of Tourism and Civil Aviation for Belize. ". This investment alone is projected to generate 500 direct jobs and over 1,500 indirect jobs by the year 2020. We have embarked on an unprecedented and incomparable journey. The growth in cruise tourism over the past 20 years proves that Belize is a destination of choice for those seeking adventure, a host of natural wonders, and most importantly friendly and hospitable people."

Leonardo DiCaprio's Caribbean eco-resort: What we know so far
Leonardo DiCaprio's latest project, an eco-resort in the Caribbean, is well and truly underway, with computer generated images released showing the ins and outs of the Oscar winner-approved resort. Named Blackadore Caye Resort, the hotel is located off the coast of Belize, in the Caribbean sea, and although it won't actually open until 2018, fans of DiCaprio and travel buffs alike are already getting excited. Making the most of the lush green landscape, the resort looks like it'll integrate the best of indoor outdoor living, with plenty of natural materials and finishings. A central pool with surrounding lounge area looks like the perfect spot to relax, and beach-facing, open-plan bungalows surrounded by palm trees give an idea of what to luxury resort will offer.

UK govt arranging meeting of Trump & Queen at Windsor as 'secret weapon' to cement ties
An invitation to Donald Trump to stay at Windsor Castle and meet with the Queen is reportedly seen by Whitehall as a "secret weapon" to boost London and Washington's 'special relationship', as well as disrupt UKIP's ties with the new president. Preparations are underway to give the US President-elect the red-carpet treatment during his visit to London in summer of next year, the Sunday Times reported, citing ministerial and cabinet sources. In arranging the much-anticipated visit, much focus has been put on utilizing Donald Trump's sympathies towards the British monarchy, the newspaper said. During his first official phone conversation with Theresa May, Trump told Britain's prime minister that his mother had been a big fan of Elizabeth II and asked her to pass his "best wishes" on to the Queen.

Caribbean Tourism And Those Statistics
According to Hugh Riley, the Secretary General and CEO of the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO), visitor numbers, so far in 2016, are ahead of annual projections which had suggested that the region will see arrivals grow by four to five per cent. Mr. Riley also said in a recent message to mark Caribbean Tourism Month that the numbers build on visitor growth of around 7 percent last year at 28.7m arrivals and a visitor spend of over US$1 bn more than in 2014, contributing approximately US$30 bn to Caribbean economies. This is of course all very good news for the region as a whole, and a clear demonstration of the industry's long term resilience to challenges and its importance to regional economic growth. However, a detailed review of the country variations using national reporting suggests that beyond the headline numbers, much closer attention needs to be paid by the media to issues ranging from the strength of the economies of feeder markets, product and marketing, pricing, exchange rates, and the amount retained by individual nations through taxes and the provision of input and services. According to the CTO's statistics, in the first six months of this year, when compared to the same period in 2015, four destinations recorded significant increases in US arrivals (Grenada up by 26.2 percent; Belize 25.5 percent; Antigua 20.3 percent; and Barbados 13.1 percent) while for example Cura�ao recorded a decrease. However, in contrast many Caribbean destinations struggled to achieve growth in the Canadian market with only Cura�ao (6.7 percent) and Guyana (4.7 percent) recording significant increases, while sixteen of CTO's 24 members reported decreases.

History of the Caribs - Garifuna -Black Caribs
Compared to other tribes the Taino were a relatively peacefull Arawak population. At the time of European they were the principal inhabitants in the Caribbean region. They spoke the Ta�no language, one of several Arawakan languages. The history of the Garifuna (or Garifune) begins in the year 1635. Before that the island of Saint Vincent in the eastern Caribbean was inhabited by the Arawak Amerindians. Their existence drastically changed when two slaveships stranded on the cliffs. The combined cultures resulted in the Black Caribs. Garifuna are mixed-race descendants of West African, Central African, Island Carib, and Arawak people The British colonial administration used the term Black Carib and Garifuna, to distinguish them from Yellow and Red Carib The word "Garifuna", which means "cassava eating people", is probably descended from "Kalipuna". The Spanish called these people "Caribes" (Caribs) which means cannibals, the word from which "Caribbean" is descended.

24 Best Things to Do in Belize
The country of Belize sits in Central America to the south of Mexico and is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the east. Beautiful beaches, a variety of ecosystems and wildlife, culture, and friendly people have made Belize a top tourist destination. Visitors to this English-speaking country will find many adventures in the jungle and both on and under the ocean waters. From Mayan ruins, jungle tours, scuba diving, and cave tubing, there is no shortage of adventures to be had in Belize.

10 Reasons to Scuba Dive Belize
When you're not marveling at the plunging walls and vibrant marine life around Belize's atolls, there are jaguars to spot and Maya ruins to explore on land Jaguar preserve Belize is home to the world's first jaguar preserve - the Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary - where 128,000 acres of pristine jungle are prowled by some 80 resident cats. barefootservicesbelize.com Long Caye Wall This sheer drop-off dive gives you the sensation of falling into the abyss as you leave a whitesand area dotted with garden eels and dive over the reef downward. Elephant ear sponges, and healthy elkhorn and fire corals are among the interesting soft corals and sponges to be seen. And manta rays, barracuda, schooling bar jacks and turtles are frequent arrivals. splashbelize.com Half Moon Caye Wall Before a dive here, most operators stop on the spectacular island of Half Moon Caye, where you can view a red-footed booby colony from an observation deck. After, gear up to dive a plunging wall waving with sea fans and covered with giant barrel sponges. seasportsbelize.com Fine Cheesemaking A Caribbean country might be the last one you'd associate with cheesemaking. But Ian Anderson, owner of Cave's Branch Jungle Lodge, went to Vermont to study the art form and brought it back to Belize. cavesbranch.com

Videos

  • North border Sunday PACKED with traffic, 1min. Holy hell! Chetumal border...

  • Belize 2016, 9min.

  • Belize Dive Trip 2016, 4min. Footage from 2 days of diving, one at the local reef off Caye Caulker Belize and the other from Turneffe North.

  • Snorkling in Belize-The Reef, 10min.

  • Ants Cutting a Path Across the Lawn in Belize, C.A., 1/2min. Cutter/wee wee ants, will cut anything in their way, down to the ground!

  • Michelle & Kyle's Belize Adventure, 9min.

  • Dolphins jumping in Belize, 10sec.

  • Dolphins showing off for the boat in Belize, 1/2min.

  • ELJAI RISING: BELIZEAN REGGAE SUPERSTAR!, 27min. The long awaited exclusive interview with the soulful Belizean stylist of reggae music, Lloyd Carlton McFarlane, aka Eljai is here.