brad brace contemporary culture scrapbook

He had made quite a name for himself as the proprietor of the popular fast food establishment known as “Belizean Fry Chicken” on Black Orchid Street in the Lake Independence area. But according to U.S. law enforcement, 36-year-old Fred Hornby had quite a name even before he became the biggest Belizean name in fried chicken.

They say he was a drug dealer in the state of Florida, and issued a warrant for his arrest. Belize’s Crimes Intelligence Unit acted on that on Saturday morning when they picked him up at his father’s home on Richard Sidewalk in Belize City.

And even though his family is Belizean, Hornby is an American, so the CIU had no problems in putting him on the next flight out to Florida where he will face trial for charges relating to possession and sales of cocaine, and absconding in violation of bail.

Hornby had been in Belize since 2002.

MONTREAL, SAN PEDRO, BELIZE — Former adman Jean Lafleur enjoyed truffles, imported foie gras, champagne and $100 (U.S.) bottles of wine when living the high life in his Central American tropical idyll.

But Mr. Lafleur will be adjusting to prison food for a while. Yesterday, the executive who grew rich during the federal sponsorship program learned he would be spending at least a week behind bars.

A bail hearing for Mr. Lafleur was delayed to allow his lawyer time to pore over the voluminous evidence against his client. That means Mr. Lafleur, who once boasted friends in high places in Ottawa, will spend Easter and several days after in jail.

Mr. Lafleur, 66, has been in custody since flying in from Belize on Thursday to face 35 counts of fraud involving federal contracts. He sat expressionless in a business shirt and dark sweater draped over his shoulders in a Montreal courtroom yesterday as his lawyer, Jean-Claude Hébert, asked to have the case delayed until next Thursday.At that time, a new date will be set for a bail hearing for Mr. Lafleur, who is charged with defrauding the Canadian government in relation to $1.58-million worth of contracts.

Mr. Lafleur’s harsh conditions and regimented schedule in coming days stand to be in stark contrast to his lifestyle in Belize.

There, during his one-year stay on the island of Ambergris Caye, he enjoyed his foie gras sprinkled with Laurent Perrier champagne from Wine de Vine, a local delicatessen that caters to many Canadian retirees and tourists.

Once a week, the former adman drove a golf cart from his secluded house to the nearby town of San Pedro to peruse the selections, the store’s co-owner, Flor Bradley, told The Globe and Mail.

Each week, Mr. Lafleur loaded his golf cart with two cases filled with about 15 bottles of wine and champagne, sometimes charging $500 in U.S. funds to his credit card, Ms. Bradley said. Most of the wines were French, his favourite being Hermitage Guigal 2002, a red priced at the store at $105. He also enjoyed Chardonnays and Burgundy and Côtes du Rhône wines.

He was a man of “good taste,” Ms. Bradley said.

“He said he came here [to Belize] because it was a place where he could forget all his troubles with his business,” Ms. Bradley said. “He just wanted to relax, to be free of all that.”

He shied away from questions about his business, his travels or his future plans. On the few occasions when he left the island, he told Ms. Bradley he was going back home.

Polite and courteous to townspeople, Mr. Lafleur was rarely seen away from his home, about three kilometres northwest of San Pedro, the only town on the island. Apart from driving to Ms. Bradley’s store, he also frequented some of the upscale restaurants on the island, Ms. Flor said.

Clad in a T-shirt, shorts and sandals, he blended in with the crowds of North American tourists, she said.

But Mr. Lafleur rarely spent time in the sun, although his two-bedroom house was only metres from a secluded beach on the island’s north end. He preferred to drink wine and champagne on the veranda, Ms. Bradley said.

He shared the house with Larry Umana, a Costa Rican in his early 30s, according to Keith Newton, the owner of the house and a neighbour.

Over the past few years Mr. Umana and Mr. Lafleur were seen together at some of the upscale restaurants in San Pedro, as well as shopping at Wine de Vine. During the evenings, they would feast on champagne and foie gras together, Ms. Bradley said.

Mr. Lafleur’s favourite bottle of Laurent Perrier champagne costs $64 at Wine de Vine. Each week, Mr. Lafleur also bought about half a pound of foie gras and a half-pound of truffle mousse. He also purchased about 1½ pounds of Genova salami cut in half-inch-thick slices that he grilled on his barbecue, Ms. Bradley said.

Other Belizeans were surprised to hear that the affable man they knew is accused of defrauding the Canadian government.

“It’s hard to believe,” said Maria Munuz, a waiter at Mickey’s Place, a restaurant where Canadians tourists can enjoy waffles with maple syrup for breakfast.

Mr. Lafleur and Mr. Umana left San Pedro in early January, Mr. Newton said. It is believed that Mr. Lafleur spent the next three months in mainland Belize before returning to Canada this week, six days after an arrest warrant was issued for the fraud charges.

During the time of the federal sponsorship program, Mr. Lafleur, then president of Lafleur Communications Marketing Inc., earned more than $65-million in federal contracts and enjoyed a wheeling-and-dealing lifestyle that involved rubbing shoulders with top federal Liberals.

After he returned on a commercial flight from Belize to surrender to police this week, Crown prosecutor Ann-Mary Beauchemin said she considered Mr. Lafleur a flight risk and ordered him detained because he “doesn’t have a lot of links tying him here to Montreal.”

Mr. Hébert, his defence lawyer, told the court yesterday that Mr. Lafleur had four children in the city.

Back in San Pedro, Ms. Bradley said she misses chatting about wine with Mr. Lafleur, whom she described as a connoisseur before recalling the last time she saw him.

“He told me, ‘Thank you, I have always enjoyed coming in here.’ Then he kissed my hand and left,” Ms. Bradley said with a sigh. “I have never seen him since.”

A historic action was filed in the Supreme Court this morning: the Mayan communities of Conejo and Santa Cruz in the Toledo District are asking the Supreme Court to force the government of Belize to recognize Maya customary land right. Those customary rights refer to lands for which the Mayans have no formal title, but claim as communal property that they have occupied from a time before land was administered by a title system.

It’s called indigenous ownership and it’s a thorny matter for any modern government, and even more so for one already at odds with Mayan communities over an oil concession granted within their national park.

So today, Greg Choq, the Mayan Leaders Alliance – known as the MLA – and hundreds of Mayans from Toledo descended with numbers on the country’s judicial center in Belize City to demonstrate that this time they are posing a serious challenge to government’s system of land administration. They came by the busload, six to be exact, into the heart of Belize City – blocking traffic in the crush of morning traffic. Most of these folks, families really, had been traveling since two or three on the morning from countless communities in the south namely Conejo and Santa Cruz, Pueblo Viejo, Santa Elena, San Jose, San Antonio, Midway, Sundaywod, Crique Carco, Aguacata, Blue Creek and Santa Ana.

They came here into Belize City into the Battlefield Park before the Supreme Court before the Tony Soberanis Bust to invoke the name of their own heroes like Julian Cho and their own slogans for their own struggle. They stood before the high court as their lawyers were inside, making a filing in their names.

And after taking that stand, they marched unto the streets, heading to the Radisson Fort George for a press conference. About 300 strong, they walked over the Swing Bridge carrying placards of protest, and Belizean flags; some with infants two at a time, some barefooted, and some carrying candles.

An unusual show in the middle of the morning in the heart of the city, but still,by-standers could be heard shouting support. At the front, an elder from Santa Cruz carried a Mayehak – a copal incense burner used for spiritual ceremonies, the smoke and the fire they believe invokes blessings from their Gods. When they reached the Radisson on Cork Street, the Mayehak was left to burn out.

And they crowded into the Radisson Villa Wing up the elevators and trooping up the stairs. They gathered in the Caracol Room – renting a space that carries a name freely appropriated from their own culture. In there it was standing room only.

And while they waited an hour for the press conference to start as lawyers were still filing the constitutional motion, they were entertained by marimba players from Pueblo Viejo. When the press conference did start – the leaders of the villages and the MLA made it clear what they are fighting for and who they are fighting against.

In 1975, Jesuit priests John Stochl published volumes 1, 2 and 3 of the dictionary of Central American Garifuna. It’s considered the definitive work on the Garifuna language and now just in time for Settlement Day, it is being released in an electronic format on a compact disc. It’s the combined effort of the Belizean Studies Resource Center and the National Garifuna Council. They hope this new effort leads to the preservation and grater use of the language. The new digital work will be formally presented to the National Garifuna Council at the official ceremonies on November 19th in Dangriga Town.

Belize City Police found a Tech 9 Uzi machine gun fitted with a magazine containing 23 explosive tips nine millimeter round in an area on Kraal Road. Police also found a double barrel 12 gauge home made shotgun fitted with two 12 gauge cartridge in Pink’s Alley. No one was in the area at the time of the discoveries.

CAYE CAULKER, Belize, Oct 30 – A rainbow-hued parrot fish nibbles on a veined purple sea fan in the tranquil waters of Belize’s barrier reef, the largest in the western hemisphere.

But the fish stays well away from a large patch of dying coral, a white skeleton amid the bright colors of spectacular ocean life along the coast.

Much of the 200 miles (320 km) of Belize’s coral reef has been “bleached” in the last decade and some scientists warn it is likely to die, a victim of global warming.

Reefs around the world are in peril with people damaging the delicate ecosystems and endangering some 1 million species of animals and plants that call the coral home.

Scientists estimate over 27 percent of the world’s coral has been permanently lost and at current rates of destruction, another 30 percent will disappear over the next three decades.

Reefs across the Caribbean have been hit particularly hard, making them vulnerable to deadly diseases.

Greenhouse gas emissions raise the sea surface temperature and increase the acidity of the ocean, hurting the reef, said Melanie McField from the World Wildlife Fund in Belize City, and the damage is almost impossible to control.

“Other effects of development like pollution and over-fishing are caused by locals and can be mitigated. But with bleaching nothing is off limits,” she said.

Belize lost nearly half of its reef, a World Heritage Site, in 1998 when global warming and the “El Nino” weather phenomenon combined to cause the highest sea temperatures ever recorded worldwide.

Experts say 16 percent of the world’s coral was wiped out that year and the damage was made even worse off this Central American nation by Hurricane Mitch, which ravaged the reef with huge waves and covered it with silt and sand.

In July, environmental organizations petitioned the World Heritage Committee to sanction big polluters for harming reefs in Belize and Australia and speeding the melting of glacier parks in Nepal, Peru and the Rockies.

The United States fought the measure and the U.N. body put off labeling the sites as endangered, a title usually reserved for monuments threatened by wars.

The U.S. Coral Reef Task Force gathered in St. Thomas last week, focusing on management challenges for reefs in the eastern Caribbean.

STARVED TO DEATH

Reefs, often called the rainforests of the ocean, are home to over a quarter of all marine life in the world, even though they cover less than one percent of the ocean floor.

In Belize, a dip of a snorkel mask into the crystal clear water reveals black and yellow striped angel fish, spotted eagle rays, nurse sharks and sea turtles all bobbing along in the mild current.

Found in tropical and subtropical oceans, the reefs depend on algae called zooxanthellae to give them nutrients and brilliant color.

“Even a slight increase in water temperature disrupts the relationship between the coral animal and the algae,” said Richard Aronson a marine scientist at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab in Alabama.

“The coral actually pukes out 90 or 95 percent of the algae and those that are left are ill,” said Aronson, who studies the bleaching of coral reefs worldwide. With no algae to sustain them, the coral basically starves to death, he said.

The coral can recover by taking up new algae from the surrounding water but if temperatures stay high and the coral stays “stressed”, it can become vulnerable to disease and die.

“It’s like a boxing match,” say McField. “You can get hit by one big pow that knocks you out or you can be punched over and over again until you go down.”

SMALL ISLANDS SUFFER

Tiny islands, like the cayes of Belize, suffer the brunt of global climate change, said Kenrick Leslie the director of a regional climate monitoring center in Belize’s capital, Belmopan.

“The United States contributes more than 25 percent of the greenhouses gases in the world while Caribbean islands produced altogether less than 0.1 percent. But we are suffering the major impacts,” said Leslie.

Many islands like the idyllic Caye Caulker, a sliver of sand just four and a half miles (7.5 km) long and 40 minutes by boat taxi from Belize City through a floating mangrove forest, are completely dependent on tourism for survival.

On Caye Caulker, motorized golf carts circle its three sandy streets lined with clapboard guest houses and lobster restaurants.

Tor Bjuland, a brawny blonde medical student, traveled for almost two days from his home in Norway to snorkel here and see a school of electric blue hamlets swim by or a spotted moray eel peak its head out of a crevasse.

“In Norway, it used to snow all year round, which is good for skiing. Now the snow melts early and we have to find somewhere else to go on vacation,” he said, pointing out global warming’s perils for both arctic and tropical climates.

Close to a third of Belize’s 230,000 tourists last year visited the Hol Chan Marine reserve, a coral reef park near the cayes. Income from fishing and travelers is a lifeline for poor residents.

“If the coral disappears, we’ll have to see what else we can do,” said Carlos Ayala a 40-year-old guide with his own boat and tour company who has taught groups about the reef wildlife for 15 years. “It’s hard to imagine.”

Another Belize City man is hanging on to life this afternoon after he was the target of a shooting this morning. 26 year old Mark Gardner was reportedly riding a bicycle on Water Lane near the junction with West Canal when someone, also on another bike, rode up to him and shot him once to the back of the head.   Lindon Gill, who works for Marva’s Restaurant which is right at the junction, told reporters that he was cleaning up the back of the restaurant yard when he heard the gunshot around 9:40 this morning.

Lindon Gill

“I was taking my time walking because you know I had a lot papers and things, breeze blowing and I was going back to empty out the garbage that I have picked up. I hear one shot, hard one. I didn’t know where that came from. When I came to the front I saw a man lying on the ground. Someone said get him to the hospital quick. Two other men try to do him something but this man really needed help. This man couldn’t do anything for him self. We heard that the shooter stood over the guy.”  

Marion Ali: Love FM

“Did you see that?”  

Lindon Gill:

“No I was in the back yard cleaning up behind the restaurant.”  

We met Gardner’s father, Robert Griffith Gardner at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital this morning.   He told us that he left Gardner in bed at their Racecourse Street home and went to his security job at Augusto Quan Store.

Robert Griffith Gardner:

“I left him in his bed this morning. In bed I left him this morning when I went to work. That’s all I could tell you.”  

Marion Ali: Love FM

“Has he been in trouble with anyone recently?”  

Robert Griffith Gardner:

“Well he shot a boy. About four of them were beating him up. This thing came from way back.”

Marion Ali: Love FM

“That was the incident at MCC right?”  

Robert Griffith Gardner:

“Yeah from that incident, the boy’s name is Batty. When the ambulance pass I said they shot somebody. But I didn’t know who because I was in the store. Meanwhile I said they shot somebody, someone came there and said it’s the one that shot Batty. Then I asked; then they told me Batty is the boy that he shot. I said oh lord that’s my son. So I told my boss that I’m going to the hospital. This is the forth time they shot him.”  

Gardner expresses disgust at the system.

Robert Griffith Gardner:

“I have nothing to say to these people because if you say, they will just target you. They will not target me because the Police won’t give you a gun for you to carry around to protect your self. If you don’t have gun to protect your self, how will you protect your self? Anybody could come and shoot you.”

Doctors at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital have conducted a CAT scan examination to determine the severity of the injury. No details of what kind of medical treatment that will follow is available at this time.   Meanwhile, Love News understands that Police are looking for one suspect, whose name has not yet been released.

No matter how good you got it, 2,500 in free groceries goes a long, long way. And that’s what two Radio Krem listeners got a chance at this morning at Bottom Dalla Supermarket in downtown Belize City. Marla Hill and Rico Alvarado were the winners of the top prize in Krem’s 25th independence anniversary celebration. This morning our camera was in Bottom Dalla as they made their rush at the grocery bonanza, and here’s how that went.

Contestant Marla Hill got ready for the biggest shopping day of her life with some morning stretches outside the Bottom Dalla Supermarket. And she would need it.

A few minutes later she and competitor Rico Alvarado were off racing through the aisles. They had 10 minutes to fill as many carts as they could with any product they wished. The only rule: they had to keep the total under $2,500. Play by play man Orson Picart dashed after them as they kept a torrid pace through the aisles.

At the end of a 10 minute shelf-clearing binge, Alvarado was winded and you could see why, looking at the bumper to bumper procession of choc filled carts. And if it looked like too much, that’s also how it tallied when they added it up, he had gone one thousand dollars over the limit. Marla Hill came in at $2,200 which meant victory for her. Her family waited outside and she was exuberant about her win.

Marla Hill, Winner
“As you notice I have my sisters out there, my family, everybody just told me to try and get the most expensive things like Tide, Febreze and things like that. I have a list, Mike has my list and everything on that is for everybody but I made sure I got the Lighthouse for me. So it was the big things first and then some things to make up on the end.”

Jules Vasquez,
So while doing it did you calculate in your head, did you add up in your head? How did you know to keep it under the limit?

Marla Hill,
“Well I wasn’t really…I do a bit of shopping so I know the Tide kind of has a certain price and then Febreze; I already know more or less the price of what that cost. So I wasn’t doing any calculation. The main important thing was to keep away from breaking anything and getting what I wanted.”

Rico Alvarado, Contestant
“It looks like the items I picked were a little bit too expensive. I should have cut it down a little bit.”

Jules Vasquez,
Your eyes were too big.

Rico Alvarado,
“Noh man. I just wanted to fill the carts too quick and I filled too much. The time ended up being quite long. I thought time would have run up on me.”

Jules Vasquez,
Yeah because you had extra time. I know you as a precise man. What happened? You didn’t do your market analysis and research?

Rico Alvarado,
“Something went wrong but the young lady was better than me, that is all.”

Jules Vasquez,
Or it might have been that you weren’t factoring in GST.

Rico Alvarado,
“Well that knocked me off $200.”

And now this family woman says these groceries will go a long way.

Jules Vasquez,
How far will these groceries go?

Marla Hill,
“Ooh a long long way man. I told you see the family came down from Maxboro and all of that; ma, sister, niece, everybody. It will go a long way. We have to save up for Christmas. We have to save up for Christmas so the wines I get will be saved up for Christmas so you can come around Christmas, we will drink up.”

As a consolation Alvarado got to take home $250 in cash.