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Specials and Events

Last night's TV news on Channel 7, Channel 5 and CTV 3
Also with the most recent Open Your Eyes, and the Dickie Bradley Specials


The San Pedro Sun

Police Report
*On Friday, March 6th, a joint Belize City Police and San Pedro Police operation was conducted at the residence of 51-year-old Peter Moses "Campos" Hernandez in the San Juan Area. Also present during the time of the search were 26-year-old Marciana Susana Campus 26 years, 23-year-old Teresita Jessely Cordova, 48-year-old Guadalupe Gonzalez, 42-year-old Victor Vasquez, 52-year-old John Arana, 30-year-old Michael "Zetaz" Edwards, 27-year-old Juan Gomez, 44-year-old Laura Trapp and 25-year-old Pedro Campus. *On Saturday, March 7th, at about 1:30PM while joint Belize City and San Pedro Police were on Motorcycle patrol on Seagrape Street, they stopped and searched 35-year-old Rudy Rodriguez which led to the discovery of 4.0 grams of suspected Cannabis. He was formally arrested and charged for "Possession of Controlled Drugs".

Wolfe's Woofer: Get Rich Quick
Dennis-Wolfe-Wolfes-Woofers"Look at this" I said to Charlie, handing him a broken piece of Mayan pottery. "What is it?" "It's one of those little three legged Mayan dishes. I thought was a copy and I carried it around with the musical equipment for Sherry to use as an ashtray. Last week we were playing at Fido's and a tourist offered me $600 U.S. for it." "It's real?" "Sure enough. I didn't sell it because I thought I might get more for it from another tourist. When we were packing up the equipment that night it slipped out or my hand and cracked right down the middle. Now, it's worthless."

San Pedro Lions Make Plans for Annual Pancake Breakfast with the Easter Bunny
On the Saturday before Easter the San Pedro Lions International Club hosts a Pancake Breakfast with the Easter Bunny. The annual family event is enjoyed by locals and tourists alike, who partake in the fun filed morning of food, games, activities and of course the Easter Bunny. The brunch includes pancakes, sausage, a slice of orange and juice. Children especially enjoy the topping table where they can pile their pancakes high with the likes of chocolate syrup, Nuttela, sprinkles, butter, strawberry jam, shredded coconut, cheese and maple syrup. Some kids pick them all! The Easter Bunny is there to entertain and pose for photos. Activities include coloring, bobbing for Easter Eggs, face painting, Egg in Spoon races and a special craft making table. This year the family event will be held on Saturday, April 4th from 9AM until noon at the Lions Den. Admission is $10 for adults, $5 for children 12 and under, and children under the age of 2 are free.

Doctor Love: Stepmother
Dear Doctor Love, My husband has three grown children by his first wife. Since we married ten years ago his children treated me like some kind of fool. I did not like it but I put up with it out of respect for my husband and because they were still young. Now they are in their twenties and they treat me even worse. They invite themselves and their families over for dinner through their father. I never know until the last minute but I am expected to cook for as many as twelve people when they all show up with their children. They never bother to help clean up. They also expect me and their father to baby sit without giving us any notice.

Misc Belizean Sourcesmzz

Passing of Don Gush
oday's event scheduled on Four Mile Lagoon regarding the Northern Territorial Volunteers has been postponed due to the passing away of "Don Gush" as he was affectionately called. We extend our deepest and sincere condolences to Mrs. Emy Gilharry Ramirez and her family in their moment of grief.

AMBASSADOR ADALBERT 'BERT' TUCKER: BELIZE'S MADEBA, PATRIOT & INTERNATIONAL STATESMAN!
It is only a few Belizeans, or may be none at all, that has held the international stature of Belizean revolutionary Adalbert 'Bert' Tucker. His incredible body of work as an economist with a progressive philosophy for development is hardly shared, not even by the government for which he worked for, in the last days of his life. As a matter of fact, the United Democratic Party (UDP) government Prime Minister, Dean Barrow, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Wlifred 'Sedi' Elrington for which he became their loyal Ambassador of Trade, the Caribbean and Africa, did not even attend his funeral. But the international recognition of which this man has received, from the shores of the Caribbean and Latin America, to the continent of Africa, because of his work with the United Nations in the 1980's in sustainable development, has brought a deep respect for Belize and Belizeans. This feature highlights a ceremony honoring a street in his name, in Belize's capital city, Belmopan, by the embassy of the Bolivian Republic of Venezuela to Belize of which Tucker worked tirelessly with, to secure Venezuelan medical, financial, and oil aid to the struggling economy of Belize, and of which he was a personal friend of the late Venezuelan President, Hugo Chavez.

National Park rangers are sworn in
Eleven Chiquibul National Park rangers are successfully sworn in as special constables on the 14th of March by officers of the Belize Police Academy. PACT funds made this training possible.

The Reporter

Dale Cayetano is Belize's new Director of Family Court
Effective April 1, 2015, Magistrate Dale Cayetano will be the Director of the Belize Family Court, after the department has been out of a director for almost two years since the former Director, Margaret Nicholas left the post. The Judicial Legal Service Commission appointed Cayetano, 49, to the post. He is currently the magistrate for Court #4, working under the directives of Chief Magistrate Anne Marie Smith. Magistrate Dale Cayetano was first a messnger and worked his way up to become a Second Class Clerk, then a First Class Clerk, until he made it to the position of Clerk of Court at the Belize Family Court and most recently, a Magistrate at the Belize City Magistrate's Court.

Dr. Carla Barnett endorsed
Hundreds of United Democratic Party supporters occupied the Guava Park in Belama this afternoon for the endorsement convention of Dr. Carla Barnett. Barnett, who has been chosen as the party's standard bearer for the Freetown division of Belize City, was flanked by party leader Dean Barrow, area representative for Collet Patrick Faber, and Belize City Mayor Darrell Bradley. Area representative for Belmopan, John Saldivar also gave a brief speech of endorsement to Barnett. Barnett, who has no political ventures prior to her endorsement, will run against People's Unite Party leader and Freetown standard bearer, Francis Fonseca.

Teachers' pay going up again
Teachers and public officers can expect another pay increase in the upcoming financial year, Prime Minister Dean Barrow said during the presentation of the national budget. Barrow explained at the meeting of the House of Representatives that under the salary adjustment framework, government has allocated $20 million for pay raise for teachers and public officers; however the figure is subject to change. "And as a place-holder only, we have allocated the sum of $20 million in the Capital II Program to fund the raise of pay. This translates into at least a 4 percent jump for these GOB employees, and it is on top of last year's 6 percent. And although it may end up being a little more or a little less depending on the final recurrent figure," Barrow said.

Puerto Rico takes new approach to child obesity
To address the high prevalence of child obesity, Puerto Rican Senator Gilbert Rodriguez Valle introduced a bill which could have the parents of obesed children fined. The bill, which was introduced on Wednesday, would subject parents to a fine if their child's obesity could be determined as a form of parental neglect. The proposed bill outlined a system where once obesed children are identified and the education authority would educate parents on the consequences. Afterwards the the health department would work with the parents on a plan for the child to lose weight. If the child's condition does not improve within six months, child and family services would be contacted, and if the situation persists after their involvement, parents could face a US $800 fine.

Belize's Ambassador to Guatemala stands a good chance to be elected ASG to OAS
Belize's Ambassador to Guatemala, Nestor Mendez is likely to be elected as the next Assistant Secretary General to the Organization of American States (OAS) in a contest between himself and Guyana's Ambassador to that organization, Bayney Karran. Ambassador Mendez' bid for the high office comes with support from Belize's government and a number of his peers at the OAS, whose members will vote on Wednesday. In sharp contrast, Guatemala's former President and representative at the OAS, Eduardo Stein, had submitted his name to run for the post of Secretary General. The Reporter has learned however, that Stein's counterpart in the bid, Uruguayan Foreign Minister, Luis Almagro, will assume the position by acclamation after Stein's submission was withdrawn.

Blogs

Belize's River of Sand
Imagine lounging on your deck, a book on your lap and a cocktail in your hand. Just steps away, turquoise waters slip gently up onto the coral-grain sand. Overhead palms rustle and pelicans flap their long wings. There is a gentle breeze blowing and all of a sudden you notice a shadow in the water offshore, causing a distinct color difference between masses of water. At first you think it is a cloud over head that is causing the shadow. But you then observe that the sky is clear above you. I experienced this scenario and when I saw the shadow I had to find out what was going on in the waters off the beach. So I launched my 15 foot skiff and motored out to what appeared to be the color changes in the water, about 300 yards (3 football fields) offshore. What the shadow turned out to be was a stretch of surface seawater that was murky brown with muddy sediments in contrast to the surrounding seawater that was sky blue in color. This murky water spread up and down parallel with the coast and was about 100 yards across with blue water on the inner and outer surface waters surrounding the "plume". I could not tell how long the plume of sediment water was but it stretched parallel to the coast as far as I could see in both directions. I could only describe it as a "river of sand" in the waters off my beach in Belize.

Moments in San Pedro, Belize Over This Past Week
The weather this week has been pretty gorgeous on Ambergris Caye. The municipal elections are over (phew!), the sargasso algae/seaweed is at an all-time high level and, as usual, there is plenty going on to keep me busy in San Pedro. Here are some pictures from around the island. If you run into me anywhere and I am not taking pictures, something might be wrong. The weather on Wednesday afternoon from the Rojo Beach Bar dock. No filter. The sky and sea at its bluest. My friend Bubba who lives on the sidewalk near my home. A wish willy (not an iguana), he'll eat just about anything. But he enjoy some bananas if I remember to bring one home.

International Sourcesizz

Giant stingray caught in Thailand
Jeff Corwin, nature conservationist and host of ABC's Ocean Mysteries, caught a 14- by 8-foot pregnant stingray in Thailand recently. "It was an incredible moment of adventure and science," Corwin told USA TODAY Network. "Multiple people were on the rod and reel trying to pull this monster in," he said, adding that it took two hours to secure the fish. The stingray, caught on March 6, weighed between 600 to 800 pounds and may set a world record, he said. Corwin was on location filming an upcoming episode of Ocean Mysteries along with veterinarian Nantarika Chansue, an expert on stingrays who has been studying them in the region.

Car-Size Stingray May Be World's Largest Freshwater Fish
Scientists working in Thailand's Mae Klong River made a big find last week: an enormous stingray that they think is a contender for the largest freshwater fish ever documented by researchers. The ray was caught and released in about 65 feet (20 meters) of water in the Amphawa District, about an hour outside Bangkok. Nantarika Chansue, a veterinarian and professor at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, helped catch and measure what she calls the "big one." The ray (Himantura polylepis or H. chaophraya) was 7.9 feet (2.4 meters) across and 14 feet (4.3 meters) long and weighed an estimated 700 to 800 pounds (318 to 363 kilograms), she said via e-mail. The team was unable to get an exact weight because "it's really hard to weigh these things without hurting them, because they are such big, awkward animals," says Zeb Hogan, a National Geographic fellow and a professor of biology at the University of Nevada, Reno.

FASTEST GROWING CARIBBEAN DESTINATION? TURKS AND CAICOS
Out of all the Caribbean countries Turks & Caicos was, by far, the most prolific of them in terms of visitor arrivals in 2014. The Turks and Caicos Tourist Board (TCTB) reported a growth in arrivals of 31.6 percent compared to the year 2013. Precise data shows that 971,838 tourists arrived by way of cruise-ship at the Grand Turk Cruise Center while 435,475 visitors landed at the Providenciales International Airport. The two figures put together make for a total of 1,407,313 travelers hosted by the Turks & Caicos in 2014. In regards to arrivals by way of cruise ship, Turks & Caicos ranked fourth out of 28 Caribbean destinations in 2014 with an increase of 24.8 percent. It trails after Trinidad & Tobago, with a 30.1 percent growth, Belize with 42.6 percent and Martinique with the largest increase of them all, 71.3 percent.

Four Of The Best Caribbean Islands In Central America
Turquoise blue water, white sand, palms swaying in the breeze, and a cold drink in hand�it's the setting for a new life on one of Central America's picture perfect Caribbean islands. In a place like this, the cares of the world melt away and you are very much on island time. And while they might be vacation destinations for most, those seeking a laidback retreat for long-term living, especially those into boating, scuba diving, fishing, and other watersports can find their haven as well. Modern conveniences are available even as you enjoy a simpler life. Ambergris Caye has been Belize's top tourism destination for decades, with the first visitors, like in Roat�n, drawn to the quick boat ride to the Mesoamerican Reef it offered. Expats soon followed. The main population center, San Pedro, has the small airport for flights from the mainland, water taxi landings, and a plethora of hotels, resorts, restaurants, shops, boutiques and more. It's buzzing with activity. There's nothing better than listening to an acoustic guitar virtuoso in the evening at one of the many beach bars that sit at the waterfront�or to sit on the water at the end of a dock and watch the boats go by. To the south and north of San Pedro you find mostly residential development, including beachfront homes and condos. Expats are drawn here because Belize is English-speaking (thanks to its past as a British colony) and there are plenty of modern amenities, although prices, like with many islands, can be higher due to the cost of bringing over items by barge.

Why are white people expats when the rest of us are immigrants?
In the lexicon of human migration there are still hierarchical words, created with the purpose of putting white people above everyone else. One of those remnants is the word "expat". What is an expat? And who is an expat? According to Wikipedia, "an expatriate (often shortened to expat) is a person temporarily or permanently residing in a country other than that of the person's upbringing. The word comes from the Latin terms ex ('out of') and patria ('country, fatherland')". Defined that way, you should expect that any person going to work outside of his or her country for a period of time would be an expat, regardless of his skin colour or country. But that is not the case in reality; expat is a term reserved exclusively for western white people going to work abroad. Africans are immigrants. Arabs are immigrants. Asians are immigrants. However, Europeans are expats because they can't be at the same level as other ethnicities. They are superior. Immigrants is a term set aside for 'inferior races'.

Oh, what a night: Test-driving a cabana at Daydreamin' Bed & Breakfast
Having lived on Ambergris Caye for only a year, there are few building projects that we can say we were there at the birth. Building things here - even houses - takes a very long time - unless you are Ramon's Village and you want our fire-ravaged resort to reopen by Christmas. In which case, yes, miracles do happen. We can say with pride that we knew Daydreamin' Bed & Breakfast when it was just a little hole in the ground. Daydreamin' and its satellite coffeeshop Marbucks are the vision of a pair of Canadian ex-pats, Marlene Houghton and Rob Eykelbeysh. Their B&B consists of four lovingly and thoughtfully decorated cabanas, a central focal-point pool and an authentic coffeeshop with fresh-baked scones and muffins. The complex is one mile north of the Sir Barry Bowen Bridge; just around the corner is the iconic Palapa Bar & Grill. That's a short walk north from our own home.

Sunset cruising off Ambergris Caye with spring breakers and a boobie
The boobie came out of nowhere. First it landed on the stern of Ecologic Divers 50-foot catamaran Impromptu where it hung out briefly as if accessing the situation and finding it lacking in the proper handouts worthy of such an elegantly groomed and aloof bird. So the boobie flew off. Only to return after a brief review of the other catamarans out for a sunset cruise last night, and there were at least three. For what ever reasons or high standards, the boobie returned, only this time it landed on the bow (if bow is the proper terminology for a catamaran) and spread its wings out like a bronze hood ornament. The move was not lost on the dozen or so Texas A&M medical students aboard who spontaneously broke out into a couple of choruses of "I Believe I Can Fly." Then they christened the bird "Bob."

Videos

  • Bert Tucker International: The Legend, The Man & His Work for Belize!, 33min. It is only a few Belizeans, or may be none at all, that has held the international stature of Belizean revolutionary Adalbert 'Bert' Tucker. His incredible body of work as an economist with a progressive philosophy for development is hardly shared not even by the government for which he worked for in the last days of his life. As a matter of fact, the United Democratic Party (UDP) government Prime Minister, Dean Barrow, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs,

  • The Potter's House Belize 10 Year Anniversary Video, 33min.

  • The Butler's in Belize!, 6min. The Butler Belize trip January 2015.

  • Belize Snorkeling, 3min. Snorkeling in Belize.

  • DJTrav From Belize Live @ Paint Party, 8min. DJ Trav alongside Kenny G live inside Neon Painty Party @ Cayo inside Meluchis. NO FEAR PROMOTIONS NEON PAINT PARTY REFIX EDITION.

  • Belize, San Pedro Nurse Shark Diving, 7min. The Adventures of a girl with four first names ... Continues In San Pedro, Belize!!! Nurse Shark Diving, Snorkelling, Sailing, Golf Cart driving...

  • Incredible dives with sharks in Belize at Half Moon Caye, 2min. Awesome day of diving the Blue Hole, Half Moon Caye and Lighthouse Reef in Belize! Unfortunately no footage from the Blue Hole itself since visibility wasn't so good and I was completely narced out but it was still great :)

  • SPRING BREAK BELIZE 2015, 4min.

  • Belize, 15min. Spring Break aboard the Belize Aggressor III.

  • 360 Video Scuba Diving in Belize, 4min. We bring you the panoramic video of a beautiful space that the technology world by exploring cyberspace panorama. Discover the world through video Panorama

  • Belize Travel Video Guide, 4min.