brad brace contemporary culture scrapbook

Thailand’s post-coup government has approved the 6.7 billion baht purchase of Israeli guns, Ukrainian armoured vehicles and Chinese missiles, a cabinet spokesman said.

The army would spend 960 million baht on 15,000 rifles and 259 million baht on 992 sub-machine guns from Israel, Nattawat Suthiyothin said after a cabinet meeting.

The cabinet also approved 3.9 billion baht for 96 Ukraine-built BTR-3E1 armoured personnel vehicles, produced by state-owned Kharkiv Morozov Machine Building Design Bureau, after heavy lobbying by Russia, China, and Canada failed.

The navy would pay 1.6 billion baht for ground-to-ground missiles from China, Nattawat said without giving further details.

The military, which ousted elected Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in a bloodless coup last year, has faced criticism for buying new equipment at a time when Thailand’s economic growth has slowed due to post-coup political uncertainties.

Defence Minister Boonrawd Somtas told Reuters last month the military needed new tanks, ships, fighter jets and helicopters after the 1997/98 Asian financial crisis had capped annual defence spending at 80 billion baht in the past decade.

Next year’s budget allocates 143 billion baht to defence spending.

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — This dessert may be a little too rich for you, but you’re probably not rich enough for it. A Sri Lankan resort is charging $14,500 for what it calls the world’s most expensive dessert, a fruit infused confection complete with a chocolate sculpture and a gigantic gemstone.

“The Fortress Stilt Fisherman Indulgence” was created to give visitors at The Fortress resort in the coastal city of Galle a one-of-a-kind experience, said the hotel’s public relations manager, Shalini Perera.

The dessert is a gold leaf Italian cassata flavored with Irish cream, served with a mango and pomegranate compote and a champagne sabayon enlighten. The dessert is decorated with a chocolate carving of a fisherman clinging to a stilt, an age old local fishing practice, and an 80 carat aquamarine stone.

The dessert has to be specially ordered, Perera said. Though the hotel has gotten calls about it from as far away as Japan, she said, no one has yet forked over the money to try it.

Friday was Independence Day and here in the city it seemed the celebration was bigger than ever. The night started with a fireworks display at 10 pm. And at midnight, the Belize flag went up for the 26th time. The following morning the same dignitaries, with a few notable exceptions – the opposition leader had an especially long handshake for national hero George Price and the guest of honor, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega. But the ceremony had to wait for this – a skydiver bringing down the Belizean flag, received by Chairman of the September Celebrations Committee Godfrey Smith. And from that amusing diversion, it was unto the Independence Day addresses by political leaders,

Hon. Dean Barrow, Leader of the Opposition
“Belzie fi all a wi? Not completely, not totally. Not as long as there are still huge pockets of unemployed poor, of alienated youths, of marginalized single mothers. Not as long as on the south side of Belize City and in too many district towns young men continue to drop like flies and murder most foul stalks the land. And that is why finally this particular independence celebration is so important. It is the last before the next occurrence of that five yearly event that is the fullest expression of our democracy. I am talking naturally of free and fair general elections. General elections that will come by March. General elections that I think will mark the end of an era, the lifting of the long nightfall, the beating back of the Gemini curse of incompetence and corruption.”

And while Barrow focused on the negatives of the Musa administration, Prime Minister Said Musa attacked what he called a spirit of cynicism.

Rt. Hon. Said Musa,
“Cynicism is a luxury we cannot afford. Negativity drains the human spirit, it paralyzes when as a people we need positive energy to keep on working, moving forward. No turning back. If George Price had yielded to the paroxysm of cynicism that rocked Belize in 1981, he would never have led us to independence. We must never be wary of daily sipping at the poisonous propaganda of cynicism and doubt. A people’s morale and self-confidence must be lifted, their potential enlarged not dampened and crushed. In 26 years we have proven that as a people we are capable of self-government, capable of making difficult choices and capable of adapting to changing times.”

From there it was unto the official parade, which featured political personalities from both sides; marching bands, scores of flags, thousands of students, and a big bad jump up behind Kenny Gladden.

San Pedro is a tourist mecca known for its night life along “Front Street” (not the official name, which the locals never use), water sports, and its long coral reef, popular with divers.

There’s a dark side, however. Belize is a very dangerous place, among the top ten countries worldwide for homicide. You can literally shoot someone in the street and the police will do nothing because they are so low paid that they’re unwilling to risk their lives chasing bad guys. They only act when there’s a mass killing, such as happens with great regularity between rival drug gangs.

San Pedro has long stretches of sparsely inhabited sand dunes. These contain private docks for “cigarette” speedboats laden with drugs making their way from South America to Miami. The dealers stop off for the night, and sell whatever they can locally. At least a third of the locals are crackheads, and tourists are continually panhandled and occasionally assaulted by crazed druggies looking for money. Another third of the locals are hookers who work the tourists; many of them under 16. AIDS is an epidemic in Belize, and it is rampant in San Pedro.

The local government — and the national government as well — is corrupt from the very top to the very bottom. It is no secret that in San Pedro you can get a driver’s license in ten minutes for a $100 bribe, but it takes months if you go through “channels”. The Traffic Department is not only corrupt, but inept as well. The only person who actually knows how to do something there is away from her full time job most of the time, working as a DJ at a local watering hole. If you are in San Pedro and get in trouble, the only honest government officials on the island are the people who work in Immigration; they are serious and very proud of their jobs. Go to them in an emergency, but if you listen to me, you shouldn’t be in Belize in the first place.

Another place to go if you get in trouble in San Pedro is any hardware store. All the hardware stores in San Pedro are owned by a tightly knit social group of Arabs — some of them related — who have been so oppressed in their native countires that they have deep sympathy for people on the run from corrupt governments or who find themselves down and out through no fault of their own. They will definitely help you whatever your needs are. They know how to deal with the local government if you need to get something done.

One of the main sources of jobs for people on the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua is the cruise line industry. Many families are dependent on the remittances sent back by family members on the ships. But a recent BBC Radio Four programme exposed the super-exploitation that goes on in one of the fastest growest global industries.

One cruise line worker, described as from Central America, but with a Bluefields or Corn Island accent, revealed the reality of working conditions. “I had to get up and work, maybe 18 hours sometime, maybe sometime no time to sleep because just time to make money. Ship is money. You go on ship to make money. They have a timesheet, they are giving you from such a hour to such a hour to complete, like, 8 hours, so we can say we only work 8 hours which, that’s a lie. For instance, I go like from 5am and I will stop like 10am, then I will go back again like 2pm, and then I will stop working like, sometime, midnight. We are just supposed to report 8 hours.”

The wages are so low that the workers depend on tips: “That’s our salary. Our salary from the company is $50 a month. That’s nothing my friend, so if we don’t get tip, we don’t have any salary.” The crews work every single day for months at a time.

The President of the Cruise Lines International Association, Terry Dale, thinks everything is hunkydory. “Creating and fostering a positive work culture is critical to our success. These are highly sought after jobs and our staff will spend years working with us in the cruise industry because they find these jobs very rewarding and lucrative.” Perhaps that’s why some workers can pay up to $2,000 to an intermeidary to get a job.