Rich Man, Poor Man.... A Tale of Two Roads!
by Wendy Auxillou
May 27, 2002


Upon the invitation of Ms. Carmita Magana, I drove down the the West Side of the island where she resides, to view the street area in front of her home. It rained all night, and the street is flooded and muddy. A big, disgraceful, dirty, muddy mess! Plus, there is a dump site at the end of the road. It harbors flies! On hot days, the stench emanating from the dump site is unbearable! It is an area ripe for diseases. So says Ms. Carmita, the Josephs, and the Jimenezes - and all the neighbors!

The neighbors on this street number in the dozens. The condition of the road affects them all. There are the Josephs (about 80 strong), the Jimenez' (5 people) and the Maganas (5 people). All these people must travel down this disgusting road to get to the village from their homes.

The tale of the road is stranger still:

Before Hurricane Keith, there was a lovely little canal that ended with a lovely little lagoon and the end of the road where the Maganas' live. The Maganas', the Jimenezs and the Josephs used the canal and the lagoon to dock their boats. They loved their lagoon, and so did tourists. The tourists would come by in the evenings to watch the sunset lagoonside.

After Hurricane Keith, many things changed. The property across from the Josephs got filled in. The property on the other road down from the Josephs got filled in. But the Joseph / Jimenez / Magana road was not. It was cleared after Hurricane Keith, we were told by the neighbors, and the debris from the street was pushed into the once lovely and clean lagoon. According to Ms. Magana and Ms. Jimenez, Chairman Fermin Marin and the Hon. Patty Arceo promised to either remove the debris or cover it with sand, but as of today, two years later, nothing has been done.

The pile of rotting debris in the once clean lagoon remains up until today, creating unbearable stench for the neighbors on hot days. The road remains impassable on rainy days. Jason Joseph, who lives down the road, says that his grandmother, Ms. Petty, cannot even go to church on rainy days, as the mud ruins every pair of her shoes on the way out. The Joseph / Magana / Jimenez children must also walk through this muck and grime, and very often the muck causes the little children to slip and fall in the dirty and possibly contaminated water.

There have been numerous complaints to the Village Council Chairman and the Hon. Patty Arceo, say Ms. Carmita and Ms. Yoli, but to date, two years later, nothing has been done. The road remains filthy after every rain storm storm and their once beautiful canal remains littered with debris. Their complaints have fallen on deaf years. For two years!

Still, they point to another road down the way, newly created after the same Hurricane Keith which shows clearly the injustices that these people face. This road is nicely graded, excellent to walk or ride your golf cart on, and is lovely in all respects. There is only one problem, however, and it is that there is only one residence on this street. Only one couple lives down this road. It is also a dead-end road, created, they believe, to service the business interests of the couple that live at the end of the road.

Burning questions come to mind: Why is it that the Village Council has seen fit to grade a Class A road into an area where there is only one residence, that caters to only two people and a business, while a street where close to a hundred people live remains filthy, shoddy and untouched? Why hasn't the debris in this neighborhood been cleared? Is it that the Village Council does not care about its people? One cannot help but notice the glaring disparities between the "status" of the residents of both these roads. Could it be that the hurricane "donation" the residents of the graded road gave to the Village Chairman was used to purchase the influence to create this road at the expense of the other road?

Whatever the reasons, a neighborhood road trafficked daily by young children, families and elderly grandmothers remains in its forgotten and decaying state even today. And the state does not even notice. Forgotten folks! On a forgotten road! The people are too poor to pay for the "influence" to have it re-done.

Rich man.... poor man! A sad tale of two roads!

Why is it that everyone expects some golden angel to come and solve their respective problems?
Clean it up yourself!! It will probably take a whole day?

I have been "lurking" here for months, I have been travelling to Belize for 10 years.
I finally have to post, not about Belize, and ask WHY almost everyone that posts here does it annonymously (?).....
If you have something worthy of putting on this board (and the WWW) why can't you at least give a name/location?
Can you or anyone help me to understand this? This board is the ONLY one that people consistently choose to not be -- open and honest??

Well, Danny and Sandwitch, you both make valid points. Why not clean it up yourself? Well, it is a HUGE garbage dump with lots of pieces of fallen trees and debris which can only be removed with heavy equipment. Only the Village Council has the equipment to remove the dump it has created.

As to people posting anonymously, well, I have obviously signed my name up above. I don't know how anyone can refer to this posting as anonymous.

Have a nice day!

Cheers,
Wendy

Sandwitch, curious question for you: Why are YOU posting anonymously? Care to give name and location?

Cheers,
Wendy

Hi, I'm new to the board..just joined this very minute. I feel I am honest...haven't been lurking or anything...In my humble opinion...when u join and all you do is lurke and you read all the information and then offer nothing, and then all of a sudden you come out of lurkdom to critize how people post...well I say go back to lurking. These boards are very informative and great fun...and part of it is getting to use a fun name and you don't have to post your information if you don't want to...where is the dishonesty in that? what's the big deal? BTW..I belong to three belize boards...most everyone posts annonymously and no one cares...we just want to debate ...get information...and tell a few joke now and then.

Mosquitorose

[This message has been edited by Mosquitorose (edited 05-28-2002).]

[This message has been edited by Mosquitorose (edited 05-28-2002).]

[This message has been edited by Mosquitorose (edited 05-28-2002).]

Complaining anonymously and not in person is a Caye Caulker tradition from time. It keeps down the personal emnity which in the past has resulted in feuds lasting through generations. This is a small place.
Though the people can not clean up every stump on the back street they can take away 90% of it and make a big improvement in their lives in a short time.

I would suggest that the Village Council who created the mess in the first place be asked to humble themselves and clean it up. They are the ONLY ones responsible for the problem.

Cheers,
Wendy

Personally, I think that even if it is the fault of the council, if I was living there, I would take away as much of the crap as possible myself. Then continue to ask the council to take the largest parts of junk.

Stacking some of it in Patty's driveway might prove effective.......;-)

Wendy, Is there anyway to get Ms. Arceo involved in a reply to this thread? Maybe you can email her the page and see if she can tell us whe de go on.

Seems that if we organized a big clean up day, like we had volunteers for the painting projects we had last year. The site could be improved, and we could all help out as a village.
I thought that was a little lagoon back there B4 Keith but had forgotten until now. What a shame, the Caye Caulker Village Councill doesn't put more thought and planning into their decisions about developing land and roads here. The whole Caye's precious ecosystem relies on Best Practise and Environmentally aware persons.

The pollution dumps unceremoniously into the waters surrounding the Caye eventually will find itself on the Reef, possibly unbalancing the system and ultimately destroying it. What a scenario eh?

Sorry I didn't mean to get morose about it all. Anyways thanks Wendy for the enlightenment. Let me know when we will all get together and fill up a bag for the dump.
Nuff respect to all of you.
Allie

It would be nice to hear the other side of the story, and remember... its just a story. Just because its printed in the local rag, doesn't mean that the information is error-free and fact checked.