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Specials and Events

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


The San Pedro Sun

Wolfe's Woofer: Under Pressure
"Hey, Mike," I said. "Are you flying the plane today?" "I sure am." "I thought you weren't piloting any more. Didn't you get promoted to doing office work?" "Yes, but the flu is going around and it took out two of our pilots so I'm filling in." At about that time, the desk clerk at [�]

Doctor Love: Growing Up
Readers, please send your letters. They can be emails, formal letters or handwritten notes. They are edited solely for grammar and spelling. Also, they are sometimes edited for length. Dear Doctor Love, My Mom is way too strict on me. I am sixteen years old and it seems like she does not trust me for [�]

San Pedro Roman Catholic School students get hands on experience on entrepreneurship
Mr. Nery Cortez, Standard V teacher of San Pedro Roman Catholic School organized a small business activity for his students after having completed their lessons on consumer arithmetic. Mr. Cortez divided his class into four groups that would each create their own business venture. The groups sold everything from pizza and doughnuts to lemonade and marshmallow pops, and they're fellow students were buying! From this activity students got to put into practice the theory of the different lessons such as profit and loss, simple interest, percentages and discounts. Mr Cortez explained that he wanted to give the students hands on practice to the concepts learned in the classroom.

Misc Belizean Sources

An evening of Artisan Cheeses by Caves Branch
OMG! OMG! OMG! Important announcement. On Thursday the 12th there will be a Food & Wine Extravaganza at Banyan Bay Club House. This is so exciting! Ian Anderson will be hosting a fabulous evening of tastings, which will include his famous selection of amazing artisan cheeses, imported wines, shrimp dishes and sausages and steaks from Running W Ranch. And guess what? Entrance is free!!!!! It's from 6-9pm. If you're not there, you are a very, very silly person!!!! an evening of Artisan Cheeses by Caves Branch.. Great Imported wines presented by Mala Vasquez, wine representative from Karl Menzies in Belize City Karl Menzies, Escandar Bedram of San Ignacio will showcase his locally produced sausages, ham, pastrami, salami and aged Angus beef which will be available for tasting and purchase. and succulent shrimp from Shrimply Belize. Please bring your check book as there will be much to take home .. This is your opportunity to sample many of the offerings and stock up with purchases for the Christmas season upon us. We all look forward to seeing many of you on the 12th. My birthday is the 13th so it will be a fun night having all of you with us

Financial literacy!
By Abdulmajeed K. Nunez We can either be dragged down by our circumstances Or look under the layers and transcend, making advances We have to be like the wise serpent in the bible And be flexible We should not throw away the baby with the bath water Father Gainney and thirty-two others decided they wanted To address the economic conditions Facing the Garinagu and Mayan populations So they came up with an ingenious plan To set up two credit unions In both Barranco and the southernmost district in the nation The Catholics and dedicated priests Working with the people to bring relief, however brief It wasn't call an organization but a movement Because of the time, investment that needed to be spent Championing the cause of financial independence A movement is something in motion from my observation engraining self and family Into the financial culture of the nation Has yielded great success in the Holy Redeemer Credit Union

Toledo Project
A new initiative has been launched in Toledo to assist young people who are out of school. Youth from the Toledo district now have an opportunity to lean skills and valuable insights in becoming productive citizens.

Help for Henry Benefit Concert
Help support a worthy cause at the Help for Henry Benefit Concert today at the George Price Centre. The benefit is to help raise funds for Henry Griffin, who is battling leukemia. It's only $5 per person, and all proceeds go to the Griffin family. David Smith, Bethany Ann, and many others will be performing. There is also a gofundme site set up here.

Emmeth Young at Belize Soul Project
Emmeth Young and the Talla Walla Vibrations drummed the night away at the Soul Project last night. It's was a phenomenal show, and they even let some of the crowd play along. D Russell Photography scored some wicked pictures of the concert. In related news, they'll be coming back to play on Boxing day at the Chaya Garden Ashram in Cristo Rey. Contact them for more information on the event.

CTV3

O/W East Area Rep. Offers Free Clinic To Flooded Residents
The hurricane season may be closed for this year but in certain areas across the north some residents are still facing the aftermath of floods. Residents in at least one area, the Louisiana Area in Orange Walk Town, are receiving much needed medical assistance courtesy of Area Representative, Dr. Marco Tulio Mendez. Dr. Mendez says that he saw the urgency for medical assistance, especially for children after having visited the area when the river was high and flooded many yards. Dr. Marco Tulio - East Area Representative, OW "I know that people are exposed to many, many types of infections especially respiratory infections; cough and cold and also problems with the skin; fungus and all sorts of disease that they could be pre-disposed and so when we did the visit or course I saw the problems that the children were going through and the entire family so I di told them that I was going to come and provide them a medical service free of charge, free for the people because I know the things are very difficult nowadays and I know this is going to be a relief. Different specialties are being covered, we have an internist how is an adult specialist, we have also a surgeon in case any problem with specially with pains that they would go, that have been going through kidney stones or whatever, we have also two gynecologists that are providing the service specially to pregnant woman that we know that with all the problems that they have sent through, I just want to make sure that everything is covered providing also with ultra sound free of cost to the pregnant mothers, those that have not been able to do it, I now that as I told you it is hard times so we are trying to see how best we could assist them."

Political Leaders Say Goodbye To Nelson Mandela
The Prime Minister oF Belize Dean Oliver Barrow has dispatched a note of condolence to the president, people and government of South African on the death of Nelson Mandela. As we mentioned last night Mandela passed away yesterday at the age of 95. According to an official statement from the Office of the Prime Minister, the Belize flag will be flown at half-mast from midday today, Friday, until midday on Saturday. The Belize flag will again be lowered at half-mast on the day or Mr. Mandela's funeral. In the official statement, Prime Minister Barrow described Nelson Mandela as "the last global hero history will ever see." Prime Minister Barrow says that Nelson Mandela "is not just an inspiration to black people everywhere, but to all people everywhere."

Getting To Zero, By Celebrating Worlds Aids Day
The Northern Regional Hospital in close collaboration with HECOPAB in the Ministry of Health are today commemorating World Aids day that was observed internationally on December 1st. The goal was to spread awareness and sensitize the public on information on HIV Infection and provide free testing to the general public. Medical Chief at the Northern Regional Hospital, Doctor Jairo Osorio shed some light on the day's health fair. Doctor Jairo Osorio- Medical Chief, NRH "Knowing your status HIV status is a lifesaving situation where if you know you are HIV positive then you know basically have the information what to do whether you require treatment or how to prevent it." Maria Nolveo - Reporter "What has been the response here, have they been taking it, are they taking advantage of the free testing?" Doctor Jairo Osorio- Medical Chief, NRH "Well, we have had a quite a crowd here this morning since we come here at 8:30 we started and we have had quite a number of people coming in, we are offering HIV testing as well as we are doing the rapid glucose test and offering blood pressure checks so people are interested and they are coming in, they are getting information on HIV and AIDS and as well they finding our whether they are positive or negative in regards to HIV infections."

Participants Bake Their Way To financial Stability
On Thursday we found women from the rural areas in the Corozal District and students of ITVET, busily working in their institute bakery as they received training on how to prepare pastries. The Ministry of Natural Resources and Agriculture in conjunction with Corozal Cooperatives hosted the one day training which was headed by Janet Castillo Parks. Janet Castillo Parks "Today we had this training in conjunction with the agriculture department and the cooperatives and as the Women Group for Corozal Progressive we invited other groups from San Antonio and Patchakan and ITVET students her to join us in this pastry preparation work shop today. Here today we prepared black fruit cake and white fruit cake because of the Christmas season. We had 34 participants all together which they combined the women group from all the way from Chunox, Louisville, Xaibe, Chan Chen, San Antonio, Patchakan and Corozal Town."

Workshop Is Held To Better-off The Sugar Industry
The Belize Sugar Cane Farmers Association has been officially certified under the Fairtrade standards but the work does not stop there. There must be continuity in the industry and by producers. For this reason, the association continues to strengthen its system. As part of that process, the association held a second training on how best farmers can meet standards to improve the industry. Dalila Ical reports. Dalila Ical - Reporting All eighteen branch chairmen, members of the finance and surveillance committees in the association and even the chief executive officer attended the training today conducted by facilitators from Guatemala. Alfredo Ortega - Vice Chairman, Committee of Management, BSCFA "En estos momentos como cada a�o que viene la auditoria estamos entrando en ano seis as� es de que ya tenemos de ya buscando el cumplimiento dentro de ese espacio del ano seis y este ano que no ha terminado cuando nos auditaron experimentamos de que el auditor se fue a nivel de los branches y all� nos encontr� none-compliance y ya sabemos que esto puede ir en otro desarrollo de que puede ir al campo para ver como es el trato de los trabajadores, los cortadores, el chofer y todo eso entonces en estos momentos se est� enfocando en eso como podemos trabajar para reducir cual quiera incidencia de incumplimiento y entonces es esa base ellos est�n en estos momentos dando este entrenamiento como tambi�n FLOW, los est�ndares de FLOW cada vez est� en revisi�n y los van modificando de una manera u otro entonces para tener un mayor entendimiento de la modificaci�n del est�ndares por eso ello vienen y ella est� encargada de esta regi�n, de Centro Am�rica y el Caribe, desde M�xico a Chile como mencionaron entonces ellos vienen a dar esta clase de entrenamiento para que las industrias que estamos certificados bajo el comercio justo tengamos esos conocimientos para que as� pues no estemos cayendo en incumplimiento por no tener conocimiento de los est�ndares."

PADD Is Back On Track
Parents Against Drunk Drivers is a non- profit organization that formed several years ago to promote safe driving by dissuading motorists from drinking and driving. Three to four years ago, the group went dormant but today it has been fully reactivated as a result of the increase in accidents due to drunken driving. President of PADD in Orange Walk, Armando Valdez, says it is important for this message to reverberate once more after seeing so many people lose their lives in traffic accidents involving drunk drivers. "This week unfortunately with that accident that happened in Belize City when that baby child was killed and his little brother foot was broken many of the member asked that we do something about it so that Corozal Tow and Orange Walk Town group of PADD have come together today, we just had a meeting this afternoon and we deiced to reactivate the group and to bring it back and continue with the activities we used to do which is to go around and keep an eye on drunk drivers or if you see someone drinking and driving then we will call the respective authorities."

Fairtrade Certifies BSCFA
Earlier this year the Belize Sugar Cane Farmers Association fell into noncompliance with Fairtrade standards after FLO-CERT, an international company owned by Fairtrade International (FLO), conducted an audit of the association. FLO-CERT is responsible for the inspection and certification of producer organizations and traders against Fairtrade standards. Since then the association has taken several measures to correct the eight areas they were found in non compliance. A follow up audit in November of this year resulted in good news for the Association as they have been officially certified. Vice Chair of the BSCFA, Committee of Management, Alfredo Ortega, says it was all possible with teamwork. Screen_Shot_2013-12-06_at_8.21.41_PMAlfredo Ortega - Vice Chairman, Committee of Management, BSCFA "Eso es una o buen visto para organizaci�n y realmente demuestra el esfuerzo de que todos estamos poniendo de nuestra parte para as� mantener esta certificaci�n porque no es nada f�cil cada a�o se van aplicando m�s, mas, y m�s aplicaciones y cada vez m�s dif�ciles de cumplir sin embargo por eso estamos teniendo estos talleres para que as� podamos estar al tanto y a tiempo para poder irnos dirigiendo para esos cumplimiento dentro de los est�ndares." Among the eight non-compliances were that the branches were not holding their monthly meetings. In the same manner, the Association itself has not been holding meetings as stipulated in its bylaws.

Police Launch Intensive Man Hunt For Oscar Hernandez Also Known As Oscar Perez
Yesterday we told you about a chopping incident that left woman police officer, Marilyn Pate wounded. The incident occurred around two thirty on the street that extends off East San Martin Street in Trial Farm Village. Second in Command at the Orange Walk Police Station, Inspector Julius Cantun, gave us an update on the investigations. Inspector Julius Cantun- 2nd in Command, Orange Walk Police "The woman police who was injured in Trial Farm yesterday during the execution of her duties, we can inform that she has been released after being kept at the hospital for observation, certain tests were run on: X-rays which determine that there was no serious injury to the skull or to the brain, so far she has been released and she is recovering nevertheless, the medical officers have requested further examination to be conducted such as Cat scan and that will be done very shortly just to ensure that the woman police officer I clear and out of the woods and she be recovering, right now she is on sick leave until further notice and further information. He was being detained and brought to the police station, something happened during that course of that procedure where the suspect had told the police that he will go and put on some shirt and what on and that is when he was able to have access to a machete and that is when he returned and he attacked the police woman for no reason and then inflicted three chop wounds to the head, two to the left side and one to the right and two chop wounds to the left hand defensive injuries while the police woman was trying to defend herself.

International Sources

Taiwanese experts help fight coffee disease in Latin America
Taiwanese plant pathologists are sharing their expertise at an international conference in Honduras, which is being attended by representatives from Central American countries that are facing the problem of coffee disease, according to the organizers. Starting Monday, participants at the five-day international conference will discuss the issue and visit coffee farms to get a firsthand look at the effects of coffee rust disease, the International Cooperation and Development Fund (TaiwanICDF) said. Belize, Panama, Nicaragua, and Guatemala, Taiwan's diplomatic allies in the region, are among the affected countries, TaiwanICDF said.