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The July 15th, 2012 issue of The STAR (Cayo) is online HERE

This Week's Stories:

  • More Western Weed For Eastern Streets
  • Two Cayo Students Honored
  • The Passing Of Mr. George "Bibi" Waight
  • Fostering Literacy To Sustain National Development
  • Death of Marco Tulio Polanco
  • Jordanian MP Pulls Gun During Live TV Debate
  • Did You See The Ghosts in the Market?
  • Stop Selling Alcohol To Minors
  • STAR Humor
  • Editorial: Will This One Be Likewise Swept Under The Rug?
  • Your Weekly Horoscope and Lucky Numbers
  • Letters to the Editor
  • Public Notices

The San Pedro Sun

Editorial: A Simple Answer to Complicated Problem
There were two things I noticed at the 4th of July gathering that were key to keeping an orderly crowd. The first was a lack of alcohol. Don't get me wrong, I was darn thirsty and with the temperature well over 100 degrees I was seriously looking for a Belikin tent. There were tons of refreshment vendors, but all alcohol sales were limited to bars and restaurants in the area, there was absolutely no public drinking. Needless to say a sober crowd tends to be better behaved. The other obvious factor was the presence of police officers on bicycles. Wearing comfortable uniforms in short pants these law officers easily maneuvered through the people and were able to maintain crowd control without disrupting the area with motor vehicles. I really love this idea, especially when transportation seems to be so difficult to obtain for our police in San Pedro. Couldn't you just see a team of police patrolling our neighborhoods on bikes? Why not??? We don't have to reinvent the wheel when it comes to figuring out law enforcement in Belize. There are many countries we can learn from who have suffered the same problems we are currently facing and have found positive ways to solve them. Sometimes the easiest solutions are the hardest to see. How many unclaimed bikes are just piled at the Police Station? Why can't they be used for transportation for our officers at times? Bicycles are certainly an acceptable means of transportation for many island residents and in many cases you can even reach a place faster on bike than by vehicle. Bike riding also offers physical health benefits to our officers, which is always a plus. I think if we could fashion a sporty biking uniform for our officers on the island and fancied up some of those abandoned bikes we could see more policemen on the streets with a minimal expense to the Police Department.

Misc Belizean Sources

Jasmine Alert
Belize is so behind on the technology time line it is not funny. With all the crime going on in Belize, the police and medical sectors need to get much financing to become what the nation needs them to be. There is so much that can be done, the Governments and people simply need to want it to happen and push as hard as needs be to get it. To start with there needs to be a system of networks bound together that will span country-wide. Ala Amber Alert here in the US. It would be a bit expensive but if a they sell off a couple of those $100,000 plus rides they can make it a reality. A farm of databases linking data from police stations and hospitals all over the nation. A website that would show pedophiles, thieves, murderers, abusers and other criminals and where they reside. Implement a proper DNA testing /forensic facility if there isn't one yet or drastically improve what's there. A fingerprint and eye scanner at each police station with a record in the database of each known criminal. They can even setup a dial in Emergency Hotline that people can dial into to get the latest emergency info. Like dial 3030 from your phone to get the latest emergency reports or 3031 to report something. That's just to start.

The Case for a Belizean Pan-Africanism
This essay is an analysis of Pan-Africanism in the Central American country of Belize. One of the many significant products of W.E.B. DuBois's now famous utterance that "The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line" has been the unending commitment todocument the reality of the color line throughout the various regions of the African Diaspora.Thus, nearly a century after his speech at the First Pan-African Congress, this effort has produced a corpus of works on Pan-Africanism that capture the global dimensions of the Pan-African Movement. However, the literature on Pan-Africanism since has been and remains fixedon the Caribbean Islands, North America and most certainly Africa. This tendency is justifiablegiven the famous contributions of the many Pan-African freedom fighters and the formationshailing from these regions. But this has been at a cost. There remains significant portions of theAfrican Diaspora whose place in and contributions to the advancement of Pan-Africanism has been glossed over or fully neglected. The subject of this paper is to introduce Belize as one of the neglected yet prolific fronts in the Pan-African phenomenon. Thus this essay utilizes a Pan-African nationalist theoretical framework that captures the place of Belize in the AfricanDiaspora, with an emphasis on 1) identifying elements of Pan-Africanism based on a redefinitionof the concept and 2) applying them in a way that illustrates the Pan-African tradition in Belize.

Soursop Ice Cream & Coconut Drops
Here in the Caribbean, we have a delicious fruit that's flavorful with an intoxicating aroma that we call soursop, in Spanish guanabana and other South American countries, graviola. Click here for other names and places where it can be found. Soursop is used to make a variety of desserts, such as a flan as created by my Brazilian friend, Valentina of Trem Bom and beverages like punches, drinks and milk shakes. I also have friends who just like to eat the de-seeded pulp with condensed milk. One of my favourite ways to have it is in a homemade ice cream. And that is exactly what I made for my entry to Meeta's Monthly Mingle, the theme being, Scream for Ice Cream.

Belize Snapshot: Parrot Through The Window
San Miguel Village - Toledo, Belize Earlier this week I visited Maria Ack at her house in the Maya Village of San Miguel to learn how to weave baskets like the Maya women do and to have a traditional Maya lunch. While I was there, I was able to take this shot of a green parrot that randomly flew and stood patiently there next to the kitchen window. I found this to be really curious and couldn't help but take the shot. The village of San Miguel is made up of about 380 residents, most of them being Kekchi Mayas (the minority being Mopan). The village is actually split by the Rio Blanco, where you can see many kids splashing water, women doing their laundry, and fishermen going up and down the river in their canoes. Also, as you can see in the picture, Mayas are well-known to have dozens of pots and pans lids stacked on their wooden walls, as well as dozens of bowl. They must be good at cooking, right? Oh, and it goes without saying that the Maya lunch, stew chicken and white rice, was duh-licious!

My Growing Appreciation of Spanish Lookout
Growing up in Belize City I was exposed to a melting pot of cultures. I had friends who were Creole, Mestizo, Maya, Garifuna, and visited some of their culture's settlements. But it was not until 2008 when I was accepted to study at Galen University which is located in the Cayo District that I made acquaintances with people of the Mennonite Culture and visited their settlement of Spanish Lookout for the first time. Prior to moving to Cayo, my only encounter with Mennonites came when I purchased ice cream from Western Dairies or purchasing furniture on North Front Street in Belize City. I knew of their settlement in Spanish Lookout but had never really given much thought to actually visit the place. After all, I had all the Western Dairies ice cream I needed right across the street from my grandmother's house. Little did I know, Spanish Lookout would play a huge role in building my family's business-literally!

San Ignacio's New One Way Streets
Here's a handy map showing the new routes of downtown Cayo. "Burns Avenue: Will be closed to vehicular traffic from its junction with Bullet Tree Road to its junction with Rectory Lane."

$10,000 Cash Raffle for Bottles
Bowen & Bowen will be giving away 20 cash prizes of $500 on July 18th and August 1st. You can get raffle tickets by returning bottles. You get 1 raffle ticket if you return them to the trucks, and 2 if you return them at the bottling centers. Good luck! "REFUND your crates of clean, empty 12oz Coca-Cola, Fanta, Sprite and 10oz Belikin glass bottles for a CASH or credit refund and automatically get tickets to enter our CASH Raffles. You can win one of 20 CASH PRIZES of $500!"

OAS Belize & Guatemala Cultural Exchange
The Benque House of Culture has uploaded pictures from the OAS Bi-national Presentations Belize & Guatemala Cultural Exchange.

NICH Cultural Policy Announcement
NICH will be presenting their National Cultural Policy around Belize over the next 3 weeks. They'll be here in Cayo at the Cahal Pech Village Resort on July the 24th at 5:00pm. Here's the promo. "The National Institute of Culture and History (NICH) hereby inform the general public that countrywide consultations will be carried out during July and August 2012 to develop a National Cultural Policy. A message from the President of NICH, Ms. Diane C. Haylock"

LOVE TV

Belizean beauty heads to Miss World Pageant
Anthony Richards sings it best with his rendition of the song, "Sweet Belizean Girl" and on Saturday, one lovely queen will travel thousands of miles to try to put Belize on the international beauty pageants map. Twenty year old Chantae Guy, a Belizean beauty from Belmopan and a University of Belize student, will take part in the upcoming Ms World Pageant scheduled for China, Taiwan on August eighteenth. Before leaving the country, Guy told Love News that she has what it takes mentally, physically, and charismatically to carry the torch. Public Relations Officer for the Ms World Pageant, Giselle Lauriano, says that finding the funds for this level of competition is not easy, but you can still help to make Chantae Guy's dream become a reality by helping with overhead expenses. If you would like to contribute towards the cause, the number to call again is: 600 8932. Chantae Guy will arrive in China on Wednesday and will have one month of rehearsals and tours leading up to the pageant on August eighteenth. She returns home on August twenty-sixth.

Trade Union Congress members undergo training
The National Trade Union Congress of Belize held a one day training for the membership of its affiliate at the Biltmore Plaza Hotel in Belize City. Education Director Catherine Flowers told Love News about the objective of the training. About twenty persons attended today's training.

Blogs

An Exquisite Evening
From the moment that I saw the quirky trailer for The Exquisite Corpse Project, a film directed by Ben Popik, I couldn't wait to see the entire movie. Ben and his wife Joanna, who produced the film, live here in San Pedro not far down the beach from us, and we frequently see them walking their dogs, Sharkbait and Parker, or having a meal at Ak'Bol. Joanna is often in yoga practice with me as well. They are, in short, just normal young folks -- well, if you can call anyone in San Pedro "normal"! In actuality, this is a really talented, clever, and funny pair that I am proud to know. The film had already won several awards in the US before premiering in Belize at the Belize International Film Festival 2012. Last night, it premiered here in San Pedro at our one and only movie theater. We decided to walk to the theater since we didn't want to leave our bikes outside where we couldn't keep an eye on them. We were lucky enough to get a ride in our neighbor Ens' cart for the last part of the walk as he was on his way to the theater as well. We were a bit early, but there was already a crowd gathering outside, and a long row of parked golf carts...

Belize Film Festival and The Exquisite Corpse Project
Last night I went to go see the Exquisite Corpse Project which was playing at the Paradise Theater for the Belize Film Festival. It does not come as a surprise that the film has one the following awards: Audience Choice Award - Dances With Films (2012), Best Documentary - LA New Wave Film Festival (2012), and Best Director - LA New Wave Film Festival (2012). I was riveted to the movie from start to finish which says a lot, having ADD tendencies sitting through a full length movie without getting restless is often a challenge for me. I would also say it is definitely worth watching again, which I am sure I will do with tacoboy at some point. He was feeling over socialized and needed to quietly chill out with aircon and remote control . I am not going to reinvent the wheel in explaining the premise of the movie and have used the text below from The Exquisite Corpse Project facebook page. I hope you will like their page even if you have not seen the movie and do so in support of wanting to do something cool like making a feature film and actually doing it . You can also check out the official Exquisite Corpse Project website...

Things I Saw Yesterday: A Beautiful Day
For all of you who like the bar and late night scene of San Pedro, I apologize. I hope that many of my posts over the next few weeks will be similar to this one. Good old fashioned walks on the beach. My best friend has arrived for the summer and we, AGAIN, have devoted ourselves to fitness and clean living. Well...at least for as long as it lasts. Some summers we do well and some we don't. Wish me luck. Until I'm back in my normal state, here is what I saw yesterday. This crab was not happy to see me. Does anyone know what is beneath her? Eggs? Or is that what a land crab usually looks like? Xanadu is doing some sort of construction with this gorgeous piece of timber. I would estimate that it is 4 feet in diamater. The construction guys insisted that it will be a bench...but a bench for 10 foot tall individuals? I'll have to wait and see. Down close to the Belize Yacht Club, a new spa is doing massages out on this long pier. Here are some pictures of my walk south in the morning. It really was a gorgeous day. Hot and sunny but with a nice cool breeze off the ocean. I'm guessing we only have a few more weeks until the breeze disappears. But, knock on wood, the hurricane season has been fairly kind to the Atlantic so far.

Chaa Creek: beautiful, accessible Belizean nature
Chaa Creek is a well-known commodity in Belizean tourism, due to their dedication to sustainable tourism. They've received recognition from Green Globe, Conde Nast Traveler, Forbes, Travel & Leisure, and many more respectable institutions. Last year, Chaa Creek was awarded the Hotel of the Year award from the Belize Tourism Board. Chaa Creek gets its name from a tributary of the Macal river. The property rests on 365 acres of land, with the main site of the cottages allowing for easy access to explore the different aspects either with the trained staff or at your leisure. Guests can get a free guided Rainforest Medicine Trail Tour to learn about the traditional uses of native plants. Other free amenities for guests include: canoeing, an early morning bird walk, and guided tours of the on-site Natural History Centre and Butterfly Farm. Many resorts in the region can boast about their proximity to nature, as the jungle surrounds so much of the Cayo District. Not all of them offer the standard of service and the options that Chaa Creek does. The food was exceptional, with the coconut bread being delicious enough that I was delighted to know the recipe is available online. My room also provided me with my first outdoor shower experience. Before I saw it, I was confused about the concept, but the rock wall outside of my room was easy to understand. Being able to shower outside allows for less separation from nature, rounding out the experience. I was impressed by all of my guides, especially Meschak, who I was with for the creatures of the night walk, the morning bird walk, and the medicinal trail experience. His passion and knowledge were far beyond the usual level found in an included tour. Despite not having been on a horse in 15 or so years, my guide on the ranch made sure my experience was comfortable and safe. I was also amused that he was such the standard image cowboy, even while 100% Belizean. When I was there last year, Wi-Fi access in my room was hard to come by, but it worked well in the business center and I was told that it was something that was going to be worked on. For such a limited amount of time, I was amazed at how much Chaa Creek was able to provide for me. I don't really consider myself a nature person, rather someone who likes varied new experiences. Chaa Creek provided that for me. And if they can make a believer out of a city lover like me, I can only imagine how much the true ecophile could gain from a stay.

International Sources

From the publisher
Vacationing in this former British colony, I was struck by a couple of unlikely characteristics shared with El Paso. For openers, there is language. Although surrounded by three Spanish-speaking countries, English is the official language and most everyone speaks it well. Still, many people know Spanish and shopkeepers switch easily between the two. Some also speak the Caribbean Creole, (Ya mon), and Garifuna, which has African roots. Mennonites still speak a German dialect. Another shared legacy left by the former colonizers is a demanding school system. Proper grammar and arithmetic are drilled into young heads in the British tradition. Another shared tradition is the rule of law. Their legal system, like ours, is based on English common law. There is a two-house legislature, including the 12-seat upper house with representatives appointed on recommendations from the ruling party, opposition parties, the council of churches, the chamber of commerce and industry, trade unions and the Belize Better Business Bureau.


Last edited by Marty; 11/17/12 10:01 AM.