AmbergrisCaye.com Home Forums The Cayes Environment Letters from Green Reef

placencia (area) used to be that peaceful, undeveloped destination sweetjane mentions.
unfortuntly, the GOB is allowing, sometimes encouraging, a change in that same direction.
each project is bigger, more gawdy, and outragous than the last!
and not one is ever disapproved!

Those of us who have invested in reef village and know that it is the same developer should email Jeff and let him know. He seems to be a smart business man and why would he want to shoot himself in the foot by bringing destruction to the economic base of the country he investing in. I am sure that Intervale the time share people will have a hand in some of this contact them. They are banking on AC being lucrative for them also.
Jeff Pierce

Nashville phone: 615 367 1411 in Belize cell 011 501 620 2741 office 011 501 226 4477

[email protected]

This is a global issue for sure, and nothing short of environmental rape. The World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization have been vigorously promoting economic policies for the past 20+ years. They have forced Third World countries to reduce tariffs and open up their economies to the global market. I read a book about 5 years ago called Kicking Away the Ladder. It is a historical analysis of how First World countries have improved their economies over the past 500 years, and in no small part due to not allowing developing countries to use the same route of development that First World countries used in the past.

The only reason someone would put an abomination like that in AC is money. It might appear that that area as it is is not generating any income. It is a peripheral item in the flavor of AC just as it is, but no money being generated. If it was developed in a different style, something that would spare the outlying area, it might generate a little income. By sticking in something like this, their hopes might be to generate a PILE of money, especially for the developers. The fact that it would be detrimental to the rest of the island flavor is irrelevant. I would imagine there are people who would invest in property or condos there (altho, the "why" totally escapes me), and in sad realty, their bucks look just like our bucks, and they probably have more of them.

This kind of thing makes it very hard not to look at other places such as Panama for vacations. I'm hoping that Corozal will escape this kind of disaster for the next 10 years or so. If not then I'll keep looking.

Sure wish I had come along 10 - 15 years ago....

It is what the masses want. Belize needs to decide if it wants the mass tourism available anywhere or wants to keep its unique status (that is rapidly diminishing). I have repeatedly brought this up to the various ministers and tourism boards but they basically just want all the $$ they can grab from whomever is willing to give it for whichever obnoxious development they want to build. It is sickening but I bet these places will bring in much more $$ than eco-tourism & unique sustainable tourism will. The almighty dollah rules.... until it collapses. By then the mangroves, birds, fish, reefs, etc will be long gone. Disgusting but reality. Just another example of our declining civilization.....

Is it just me, or does it seem that way too many of those incoming dollars just "disappear"?

$ - 'nuff said.

About a year ago I began looking around the world for a new place to visit. I checked out islands all over the Caribbean but many of them were typical tourist areas that didn't interest me. Then a friend of mine passed on a CD to me by Jerry Jeff Walker...I had never heard of Ambergris Caye but as soon as I checked it out, I knew that was the place to visit. There were no high end hotels, no giant casinos and no fast food places on every corner. It was the Caribbean of old, but modernized in a way that complimented both the natural environment and the heritage of the local people. This is what peaked my interest and why I will be visiting (for the first time) three weeks from now.

I know that there's no stopping progress and change. The monetary gain of "South Beach" could be huge. I just hope it's not at the expense of what makes AC so different than other tourist areas. As an outsider looking in, I can say with great conviction that we don't need another Fort Lauderdale or Miami. We don't need another Waikiki Beach. There are hundreds of places all over the world that already cater to tourists with that mindset. If this is to be built (which I'm sure it will be), I hope that they keep in mind that the true draw to AC is the peacefulness and seclusion of the area. As it looks on the "South Beach" website, both of those assets will be long gone. AC will just be another spring break location with cruise ships, a Hard Rock Casino and yet another Margaritaville Restaurant...a typical cookie cutter vacation destination...and Fort Lauderdale is a lot closer and cheaper for us east coast Americans to visit.

It seems there have been other wild fantasy projects that somehow just got abandoned. Perhaps?