The Prime Minister's Independence day address doesn't usually discuss the location of cranes but he had to make a point of it on Saturday because everyone's been waiting so long for the disused and long condemned city center to be demolished. Well, work started on Monday and we went to find out more today. But, to our surprise the dismantling of sport's biggest eyesore was not the news - the story was the kind of labour being employed to do it! Jules Vasquez reports:..

Jules Vasquez reporting
Finally work has started on the dismantling of the decrepit City center.

The building was condemned years ago - but still the City Center endured mostly as a testament to government's inability to tear it down.

Francis Woods, CISCO Construction
"We have several operations happening; we have the cleaning out of the under floor, we have the taking off of the wall - that's the most skilled one and that one has to be done carefully because of safety reasons. We don't want those zinc dropping. We don't want those guys falling off the baskets. That one has to be very carefully done."

"There are 3 teams that will come in and do that. There will be cleaning out of the bleachers; all those bleachers has to be dismantled, packed up and taken to the Marion Jones stadium and we start dismantling of the main beams with the cranes. After that is taken down then we start breaking up all the floor work. All of that will be done manually."

The contractor is CISCO Woods and he says it should continue for 5 months. That's the time it will take for a dismantling, not a demolition because he says 90% of the material - even these rubbished shards of cement will be re-used.

But, it may go faster because CISCO is using manual labor for almost every aspect of this job. The only machine we saw was a crane - but inside there were no jackhammers, just hard labor.

Francis Woods, CISCO Construction
"What I've seen just in a day and a half is unbelievable. These guys are working way faster than we estimated."

He says they are trying to create as much employment as possible:

Francis Woods, CISCO Construction
"We thought the best way was to bring in as much labour as we can and work out a square yards/square meter price per breaking down the concrete walls, concrete floors, taking down the bleachers and that kind of stuff."

As is their practice, CISCO has again employed persons principally from gang or crime infested areas - young men whom no contractor would want to employ:

Francis Woods, CISCO Construction
"So far we have had very success with these guys. We found out that they are not lazy at all. They work hard. In fact this team that's behind me right scare me. When I came yesterday they started at 7am and I was worried, by 3pm when I came out I was scared to see how much work they had gotten done already."

"Our company certainly believes that there is no such thing as a lazy person - just unmotivated. Our team really knows how to motivate these guys and get things to work."

"We have absolutely next to nil trouble with these guys. They work and they work hard. They are glad for the chance to work. Maybe that's why they work because most people won't give them a chance. But we find that they out do a regular guy off the street by one and a half time."

And the man making sure they do that is their supervisor Mark Conorquie:

Mark Conorquie, Supervisor - work crew of 30
"Jules, I must say that they say Belizeans are lazy and those boys don't want to work, but Jules those boys work and they broke down this thing faster than a machine could break down this thing. They have so much energy. Right now I am happy to see and happy to be here to see that these young boys are using their energy on something positive and constructive."

"These boys are not bad boys, but everyone looks at them like they are bad. It is just frustration that they are facing. If you go an hang out with these boys - they are cool and peaceful, work hard and relax and just do their thing."

"I know that they look at us and say that we are lazy and just want to rob, but it's not that. We actually want to work. As someone opens a little game for us - I don't know how long this will stay for, you know what I am saying."

Fitzharris Howard got the subcontract to disassemble the bleachers - which are welded together:

Fitzharris Howard, Howard's Affordable Home Improvement - subcontractor
"Generally what we did was gone ahead and pull some of the youths from off the streets - the young man that would be on the street corner or just hanging out. We pull those kinds of guys and put them together and show them that they don't really have to be out there dealing with those things when there is a whole business machine going on here - you can be a part of this. Come and put your labour in and you will get your money out. That way you don't have to be out there hustling. You can make an honest wage." "Jules, if you look over there the man is trying to pull down the bleachers all by himself - but safety first, so they are working together. These are youths from different part of the neighborhood, even different parts of the country. Youths from way down in Seine Bight are coming and working for us trying to get things together."

"Guys, it's time to wake up and start to get around and stop watching the little Spanish man - trying to "jack" the Spanish man when he goes to work for a whole week because that man have 10-15 children waiting for that money that you are trying to take away from him. Go out and get your own money because it can happen and we just have to show the youths how to gap the bridge from a thug style gang banger to being somebody productive who wants to saddle up his belt and be a part of his society because this is we."

Woods says it's important also to give them buy into a project that will affect their neighborhood, their turf:

Francis Woods, CISCO Construction
"Because you are making a positive difference in the area the guys feel empowered. They like to see that difference. But when you use folks from the actual area it certainly makes them feel part of the project, so it gives them ownership."

One other interesting aspect of this project is the project manager, Reina Gonzalez from San Narciso. The 25 year old is a trained engineer - and now she's on a site managing and supervising the work of 80 men.

The petite 25 year old may cut a small trail - but her no nonsense approach gets much respect:

Jules Vasquez
"Is there any problems that you have with the men perhaps not respecting her or being offensive in any way?"

Francis Woods, CISCO Construction
"Not yet, but I've seen Reina in action and she is nobody you would want to mess with. That's for sure."

Fitzharris Howard
"I found Ms. Reina to be a lady - you stick to the books - it's not a male/female issue. As long as you stick to the books and take things accordingly like if certain thing are not set right and you say Mr. Howard this is the situation and if this is not working out or if this is working out or I can foresee this through or I cannot foresee this through."

"As far as the female/male gender issue - to me it's a welcoming thing."

She told us how she handles being the only female, and being the boss:

Jules Vasquez
"As the project manager, you are in charge of 90 men and you are a quite petite woman. How do you exert your authority over these 90 men?"

Reina Gonzalez, Project Manager
"I guess I've been taught that to get respect, you need to give respect right, so I address the guys with respect, approach them, explain to them. I just don't tell them to do this and that. I explain to them how to do and why they need to do it, so that they understand they whole concept on why I know they should do it in that way."

Jules Vasquez
"What made you decide to be an engineer knowing that you are entering a male dominated field?"

Reina Gonzalez, Project Manager
"I think that my motivation was that, precisely that. That it's a male dominated career, male dominated area and I wanted to show that females can excel in that area."

"My brothers and my dad have always encouraged me to be the best I can and what I see here - male dominated areas. The males are always at the top thinking that they can do it and females are weak. I decided to come back and show them that things are not like that. It's not always everything with strength. You always have to be a bit smarter for you to overcome those things."

Jules Vasquez
"You ever encounter any of these unfortunate situations where there are inappropriate remarks being thrown or not the adequate amount of respect because you are perhaps not as physically imposing or because you aren't a man? You encounter those and how do you deal with them?"

Reina Gonzalez, Project Manager
"Actually when I started you do get that. The guys behind your back making comments - a bit sexual sometimes but sometimes you just let it go. I ignore it, I come back to them and I talk to them with respect giving instructions on what to do and when they realize this woman doesn't go down with the comments they say well alright she deserves respect and that's how you show them. You don't give in to their comments. You show them that, alright, it's your comments, you are a male. It doesn't affect me."

And that kind of attitude also prevails at CISCO's other major work site - the Lake Independence Boulevard - where 200 men - many from rival gangs are working on one stretch of road.

Make sure to tune in tomorrow where we'll take you unto Lake I Boulevard, formerly Chetumal Street South where 200 men - most from different gang areas are spreading well over a hundred loads of clay every day using only shovels and pick axes.

Channel 7

Grt story; love the Woods family for all they do

The Other Way Of Peace-Making: 200+ Men Working On Lake I Blvd

Last night we told you all about the project to dismantle the City Center in Belize City. It will take months to complete, because it is not a demolition, and almost everything has to be re-used somewhere.

But while the long delayed removal of this eyesore is news, the social dimension of the story was the real interesting part: contractor CISCO construction has designed the project to be manual labour intensive and they're hiring males form gang affiliated areas to do it. And while that is providing employment for a few dozen men from the Back-A-Town area, we were blown away to find over 200 men form all different areas working on the Lake I Boulevard! That's the Boulevard that will connect the Western Highway to a new Bridge that will span the river across to Chetumal Boulevard in the Belama Area. Phase one of the project is all about landfill: 12 thousand loads of clay will be spread across the area over five months.

That's a lot of loads, and to provide employment; they're doing it all by hand! And many of the hands are those idle ones that used to be "you-know-who's workshop" – but now those hands are holding shovels and pick axes. We found out more:

Jules Vasquez Reporting

It's two thousand eight hundred feet of road, about half a mile, and there are 200 men working here. The men are from different areas in the city, many of them gang affiliated, names that you hear in the news like Southside, Supal, PIV, Ghost Town - with those names, you might think it's a war zone. Well, not even close try a work zone.

The men are divided into four different teams, Alpha, Bravo, Charlie and Delta teams - and indeed the gang turf dynamic does factor in: the larger gangs like PIV and Ghost Town have their own teams - the others are mixed.

But there's no beefing or gang rivalry on display here - it's just work:

Jules Vasquez
"Explain how you manage it; a lot of these people are from rival gangs."

Giovanni Heredia - Project Manager, CISCO Construction
"Actually, we've spoken to all of them, and they understand that we're all out here to work, to achieve something positive. We're all here to do the same thing, to feed our children. Everybody gets along well, and they keep busy, like what our guys say, they just want to know when the other truck of clay is coming so that they can keep busy."

Jules Vasquez
"Now, there are men out here from different areas, how do you guys 'hold it down' because I know, within those groups, you might have certain small 'beef' with other man."

Emmett "Dadda-D" Baptist - Bravo Team, 40 workers
"Everybody choose to put that aside, put away any grievances that you have against each other. Out here is not the place for that. Out here is to make your money, and make sure Friday, when the evening set, you have a cold one in your hand, and you got your big 'tubumbu' to blow. You'll be set."

Roger Anthony - Charlie Team, 57 workers
"We don't have have any 'beef', you understand. We just - everybody pass and greet each other like normal people. It's like nothing was ever really happening."

The focus is on work and for the contractor the focus was on creating unskilled, labour intensive work. It's an unconventional approach but one that pays an invaluable social dividend:

Jules Vasquez
"Any rational or scientific approach to this would say, how much bulldozer do we need, how many loaders? But, I don't see any of those equipment out here."

Francis Woods - CISCO Construction
"We just have one compactor out here, and the spreading is done manually. Basically, 1 man can spread a truck load per day. So, we have 200 men out here, which is what we have, we can spread 200 truck loads today."

Allan Garbutt - A and J Construction, Alpha Team, 80 workers
"What the machine can do like in a such a short time, it is faster, but 100 men, you're providing jobs for them. So, I think that's a good thing."

Jules Vasquez
"You're achieving the same work output with this large deployment of labor, as you would with heavy equipment?"

Francis Woods
"Absolutely, it's unbelievable; I've never seen anything like it. I didn't think that they would be able to put that much material down with shovels, picks, hoes - that kind of stuff, but they're doing it. And I could almost guarantee you, if 300 truck loads come, we have 300 men here, they'll push it down the same way."

Jules Vasquez
"In one day?"

Francis Woods
"In one day, by 3:30 - 4 o'clock."

One man one truck load per day - that's pretty amazing but on this day many of the men were sitting under makeshift tents waiting for their next load:

Francis Woods
"Our problem right now is not man-power; it's getting the truck to come here with the materials."

It is a neat, functional division of labour. The teams are divided into groups of five - and with PIV and Ghost Town, the Gang Leader is hired as the contractor. His team is divided into sub-groups of five, and they keep a strict record of how many loads of clay each group spreads.

Make no mistake, it is very hard work, backbreaking labour, in striking sunhot they do it in slippers, but many are shoeless - but it's on a production basis, meaning the more loads of clay they can spread every day the more they get paid, and they swarm every load:

Francis Woods
"It always works well; these guys do the math very quickly. Like I said before, they're very smart. They do the figures; if they get so much a load, they do the math that at the end of the day, how much loads can they do, which mean that they'll be going home with so much dollars in my pocket. That motivates them like nothing else."

Emmett "Dadda-D" Baptist
"In the same way that load is falling, money is coming into your pocket. If that load doesn't go, no money isn't coming. That's how it works, so if you can tackle 3 or 4 loads in an hour, you do that."

Jules Vasquez
"I see that when they bring the loads, those guys jump on it."

Roger Anthony
"Like ants, quick, It doesn't last long. This one is going to come right now, not even 15 minutes and it will be done."

Jules Vasquez
"Why are they so eager to work it so fast?"

Roger Anthony
"The more we do, the more money we make."

Jules Vasquez
"So far for today, you all have dealt with 15 loads, but you are telling Giovanni here that you would want about 25."

Roger Anthony
"I want 25; I want 54 for the day."

In fact there is more labour than clay available - every morning, workers come with their shovel and pick axes but have to be turned back:

Francis Woods
"It's really neat for us because we can't over-exceed the amount of people who need jobs. There are a lot of guys who need work, so if we can get 400 truck loads dropping off material, we can get 400 people to knock it down per day."

Allan Garbutt
"These guys they really want to work. If these guys can get 100 loads per day, they would spread it."

Jules Vasquez
"Even in this hot sun."

Allan Garbutt
"Even in this hot sun."

And while the availability of highly motivated manual labourers is one thing, what's more remarkable is the insight it provides onto a profound social problem which has been, apparently, largely misunderstood. It's simple; people just want an opportunity:

Jules Vasquez
"Anybody looking objectively at it would say, 'Why are dealing with those men? They don't want to work.' What has been your experience, your findings, working with them."

Giovanni Heredia
"My personal experience is that these guys do want to work; they just haven't gotten any opportunities."

Jules Vasquez
"These are many people who no contractor would hire because they would say, 'Those guys are lazy. They want to hang out all day.'"

Allan Garbutt
"That's not the case, Jules, a lot of these guys out here are talented. From what I see right now these guys out here, everybody has somebody to take care off, a kid, mother, a sister - bills, you know. They are very talented; I don't have any problem with these guys. It's just straightforward talking. They get the work done, no hassle, no problem."

Jules Vasquez
"A lot of people might see these guys and say, "Those men are from Ghost Town and Mayflower; they don't want to work. They want to hang out, rob, and smoke weed. Obviously, this is proving otherwise."

Roger Anthony
"Well, that's why we come out here to work and show society as well. We can work also; we want to work, but it's just because the job isn't available. Mr. Cisco got a contract, and he, right away, he came."

Jules Vasquez
"You think something like this could hold down the violence?"

Roger Anthony
"Of course, it will because men are out here working from 7:30 until 5, and when you go home, you're tired. You don't have time, so, I think it will hold it down."

Jules Vasquez
"Now, how society sees a lot of you guys, they would say, 'Those guys, they don't want to work. They want to rob, smoke weed and hang out.'"

Emmett "Dadda-D" Baptist
"Well, the way to answer those people is that Mr. Cisco has the cure. He's giving us jobs, so that we can earn, and show the people that the gang men want to work. The reason why men do what they do is because they want money. They have their families to feed. If you don't have money to feed your family, how will we eat? All of us will punish and suffer. So, Mr. Cisco has the cure for it, hire all the ghetto youth them, and show them, it's not all about killing and hate on each other. Its about coming together, getting things done, and have the jobs continuing to flow."

The ability to earn about $250 dollars a week is what's fuelling this intense effort:

Jules Vasquez
"Explain to me why some many people want to work this work."

Emmett "Dadda-D" Baptist
"Right now, you see how the thing is set up. No kind of money is flowing, so the ghetto youths they want to make a little money. So, it has to be unity, for us to work together then, and once the job involve us, we will work in unity because at the end of the day, we need to make a little money. If you have money in your pocket, you don't need to be out there to worry about who to rob, or who to do this or that to."

Roger Anthony
"It means a lot to them. They can buy things for your kids. You can buy food for your house. It means a lot. Everybody is happy."

Jules Vasquez
"How do they feel at the end of the week with that money in their pockets?"

Allan Garbutt
"Jules, well I'll tell you, those guys they make me feel happy. It's just like any politician who just won an election, it's the same way that these guys feel. I wish you can see it when they are being paid."

Emmett "Dadda-D" Baptist
"I like how Mr. Cisco do it, because he pulled us out of each area and show the people that it's about peace unity and love."

Phase two of the project is to build the bridge and the boulevard, and the final phase is to build a new sporting facility, drop in center and bus terminal.

Channel 7

Near fatal accident at the Belize City Center as wall section collapses on worker

The dismantlement of the Belize City Center commenced earlier this week with a workforce of almost a hundred able men tearing down what was once the premier venue for sports and entertainment in the Old Capital.  But tonight, one man remains in critical condition at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital, following an accident earlier today during which a section of a concrete wall collapsed upon him.  Twenty-three year old Egbert Jones was busy knocking down an inner partition on the ground floor of the building when the construction material gave way.  Jones was unable to avoid the falling wreckage which caused severe injuries to various parts of his body.  Chadwick Tingling, an employee at the site, recounts the incident; while project manager Reina Gonzalez speaks on occupational hazard and safety.

Chadwick Tingling, Construction Worker

“We were here tearing down these walls and stuff and pertaining to beating the wall with malls and stuff, some of the walls are week and unfortunately my friend, Egbert Jones, the wall caught him off guard. When he was hitting the wall, the wall just came down and it fell on him. And he was going unconscious and stuff so we just stood and took him from under the ditch that was there and we put him by this area. He got it bad and we just hope that he is okay.”

Reporter

“From what you saw, what were the extent of his injuries?”

Chadwick Tingling

“Well it looks as if his hands are broken; his face. I don’t know if his nose is broke or what. I don’t know how to explain it but inside here…I haven’t seen it but blood was pouring out of his shirt; his foot and so forth. It’s not a pretty sight mien; dah something weh we noh want ketch nobody else.”

Reporter

“What this brings to mind is what is called occupational safety; to be able to make sure that what you are doing on the job is within certain means that you protect yourself from either debris or anything else that would cause harm to you. Have you guys either been briefed by the site foreman as to how to go about taking the necessary precautions while doing this job?”

Chadwick Tingling

“Yes sir, every half an hour, the supervisor, the foreman of the site comes and tell us to be careful of what we are doing because it is a very dangerous job and anyone can get hurt at any time. So whenever we are hitting the walls, especially the walls that are on top that we cannot reach and that we are hitting to let them come down, we have to be extra careful. And unfortunately today, it just come down on my friend.”

Reina Gonzalez, Project Manager

“We are conscious that the guys aren’t that well educated when it comes to the severity of the job that we are performing here. It is a demolition; the structure is in somewhat of a bad condition so we have to take as much measures, safety measures, as possible for every single person. We have our safety guide that is Mister Logan; he takes runs up and down the entire site making sure that the guys perform the job the adequate way. But we did, from the beginning of the project we explained to the guys, especially the ones that are working here at the bottom at the demolition of the walls. We explain to them, during the demolition of the walls, we are not only affecting the walls, but we also need to look back and be careful if we have any effects on the actual steel structures. Yes the walls don’t have any structural purpose, but after a wall, they start working as a membrane especially when the steel starts to fail its purpose. So we told them during the demolition make sure that you check back—if you see any slight movement on the steel, any separation on the joints—stop immediately and inform me as the project manager or our consultant, Mister Gustavo Garcia. So they have been informed of all the measures that they should take. So in any event of an accident, well we are prepared on what to do and how to proceed with it.”

Since demolition of the city center began a few days ago, this is the first recorded incident involving workers on the site.

Bze City center Demolition Jobs AD#2 from Seifuddin Munoz on Vimeo.

Channel 5

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City Center demolition ahead of schedule

For years, the City Center stood abandoned and forlorn, awaiting a rehabilitation and renovation which never seemed to materialize. But now it is, and to make way for what is promised as a glorious new multi-million dollar complex, the old building is being dismantled. Because of the state of the condemned building, the work has been tedious, time-consuming and dangerous. Despite all that, engineer in charge of the project Reina Gonzalez says they are way ahead of schedule.

Reina Gonzalez, Engineer, Cisco Construction

“We have basically removed all the walls in the lower section; absolutely all the walls are down. We have cleared the entire bottom and right now what we are doing, we have some of our guys cutting down the steel that was reinforced on the wall. So they are cutting it down flushed all the way to the ground. For safety reasons too we don’t want anybody tripping and getting hurt so we dealing with that. As you can see, most of the zinc for this—I call it the west side—is almost removed, our vents are out and the facial for the main building—I call this the main building because that section is basically an extension hat was added on afterwards. So our entire facial is going down by Thursday; all of this will be removed. And then we will move in to the removal of the main entrance, the steps and the balconies. Once we remove that then we will be catering the main building by removing all the mainframes and continue with the job. But basically right now, we are way ahead of schedule the way we have seen it. And our guys are performing very efficiently. When it comes to safety, pushing them forward to safety and thank god that our guys are following as much as possible the safety rules and regulations that we have set for them.”

Reporter

“What time are you looking at for this project to be completed?”

Reina Gonzalez

“Well we had scheduled five months for the project because we are using manual labor—a hundred percent manual labor. The only machines that we have as you can see are our cranes when it comes to lifting our heavy steel elements. But we are definitely moving ahead of schedule. I would say by January this should be finished.”

Reporter

“By January this will be completely to the ground.”

Reina Gonzalez

“Yeah.”

Reporter

“I noticed that there is a lot of debris; a lot of equipment that you are taking out including zincs. What will be done with that debris?”

Reina Gonzalez

“The debris that we have here will be recycled; it is being donated to the recycling company, but the zinc that we have there, we have the guys cutting them down in specific lengths and that will be distributed and stored at the Marion Jones Stadium along will every single element that we are taking off from the building.”

Reporter

“So basically they are going to the Marion Jones just for storage; not for use on the facility there?”

Reina Gonzalez

“We have no knowledge if it is going to be reused there; where it is going to be reused, but our job is basically dismantling it, labeling it and storing it in Marion Jones. What will be done with those elements afterwards, we don’t know.”

We were unable to reach Minister of Sports Herman Longsworth this evening to ask why the old steel and zinc from the demolished City Center are being taken over to the Marion Jones Complex.   

Channel 7