This opinion is in response to truebelize's position as stated under the topic "relocating" concerning the goverment financed housing project on Ambergris Cay.
This to me is a good example of "more is not better" and how "greed" will change and possibly destroy what so many of us love about Ambergris Cay. AC is part of a marine eco-sytem. This eco-system, like all others, will only take so much abuse before it becomes irrevocalby altered. There is a limit on how much development AC can handle and I am worried that those who promote this development are not giving sufficient thought and planing to this. The houses built were built because of the need for additional housing on the island. That need was created due to the explosive number of workers living here now to work on construction and servicing the tourist industry. Most all of those workers are not from San Pedro and not even from Belize. Most come from other parts of Central America. The land for the building the houses was created by dredging and filling low lying areas. In effect what we have done to the eco-system is take away from the marine part to create more land. And the only thing we will be giving back to the marine part is sewage. When the Belize Tourist Board creates the demand for more tourists, they are in effect creating the demand for more toilets. aka the Belize Toilet Board. Goverment has created a housing project. In many other cities and towns it is refered to as slums. Am I the only one that when I fly into San Pedro and see that, I look down and see a very unatractive sight. We sometimes like to live in the past and appreciate how thing used to be. I fondly remember San Pedro when I stayed at locally owned hotels and dove and fished with San Pedranos who grew up on the island. I do not like seeing what I consider over development and the need to provide housing where nature never intended housing to be. This is done only for greed. I guess you could say I am selfish about AC. I want to live here and enjoy it more the way it used to be. I just wish those who want more development would be a little more selfish and a little less greedy. There can be development and growth. But, those must be within what the inviornment can handle. I have addressed why I feel there should not even be a need for the "slum project". The raping of the Belize Social Security Fund for the building of the slums and the attempt to sell the houses at prices far above their value due to this corruption is subject for another topic. This is where we once again differ truebelize. I do not think the goverment is doing the people of Belize and specifically San Pedro any favors in providing slums and futhering over development.