brad brace contemporary culture scrapbook

It was big news on the police report today that a team of officers on patrol had acted quickly to recover a stolen bike. Generally, that’s not big news, but it was bigged-up by police as a sure sign of what the partnership between police and community can produce. But what you get isn’t always what you see, and there’s another side to that story. The man involved is known on the streets as Papi Poti and here’s what he had to do to recover his bike.

Papi Poti,
“I saw this young man just walk up to my bike. For a minute I thought he was moving the bike out of the way so that a vehicle can park because I put in the way because I wanted it where I could see. I was watching him just walk up to my bike, take it off the stand, and walking slow with it. That is when I realized this is a play. He didn’t ask anything, he just looked back into my face as to say, ‘well your bike, hell no,’ and he took off. I did the same thing and took off behind because that is my bike, this is my car. This is how I mind my family. I need my bike for my job. So I ran behind him but he kept riding and I saw that he stood up on the pedal to make more speed and as he hit the curve my chain fell off the bike. Then I saw well this is a chance to catch up with him. I started closing the gap, running. He didn’t leave the bike. He continued running with the bike without pedaling condition. He is running with my bike.

The police vehicle came up and asked me what happened. I told the police there goes the guy with my bike, he just stole my bike from in front of Brodies and he is going with it running. I could say this much, they did a good job. They flew past me and went behind the guy and I was behind them. The officer immediately came to me and told me don’t do him anything, go in the vehicle and sit down. I sat down and asked if they could take me back quickly to the drug store so I could get my medicine for my child.”

Alfonso Noble,
Were you going to beat the guy?

Papi Poti,
“If the police weren’t there it would have been a disaster. I think God was watching the scene because my intention, honestly speaking from my heart, was that I have lost five bikes and reported everyone to the authority, to the law enforcement and to the Magistrate-I think I would have tried my best to kill him. The bike means a whole lot to me, this is my car. This is what I go to work with everyday and I have to have a bike to go to work and to do my job. So this is a part of me, a part of maintaining my family. I am very happy that I got back my bike but I am going to be more happier to know that he committed that crime and he must do the time. He must go to jail and spend time for what he has done or it could make people decide to take law and matters into their own hands because if nothing is done to him, if he does not spend time for that then we will have to look at things like this. This is the time, you do what has been done to you..”

The Birds Without Borders – Aves Sin Fronteras? (BWB-ASF) project has been doing bird research, education and conservation in Belize since 1997.

The group is sponsored by the Zoological Society of Milwaukee and the Foundation for Wildlife Conservation, Inc. both of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA.

We are proud to have worked closely with the Belize Zoo and Tropical Education Center on many aspects of the BWB-ASF project.

To learn more about birds found in forests along the rivers of central Belize, BWB-ASF studied birds in a forest on the Sibun River.

The study took place on the Runaway Creek Nature Preserve, which is located on the Coastal Road near the Belize Zoo and is owned and managed by the FWC.

Over a four-year period, BWB-ASF found 196 bird species in a small area of riverine forest (49 acres).

Amazingly, that’s 34% of the total bird species found in Belize! Most of the birds we found (77%) were familiar residents that live in Belize year-round, like the Plain chachalaca, Spot-breasted wren, and Yellow-tailed oriole.

But 19% of the birds that BWB-ASF found were migrants that travel 1,500 miles (or more!) to spend northern winters in Belize, like the Gray catbird, Wood thrush and Magnolia warbler.

The group found that 19 species of conservation concern (birds that need special protection), such as the Red-lored parrot and Worm-eating warbler, used this forest.

Another exciting discovery was that the Sibun riverine forest was home to five restricted-range endemics (birds found only in a certain area), such as the Gray-throated chat.

The Jabiru stork, one of Belize’s largest and most beautiful birds and also a species of special conservation concern, nested in the study area every year. Preserving the forests along the Sibun River will help all of these birds.

Even more birds will benefit if the forests found along Belize’s other rivers are preserved. (A paper summarizing this research will be published in the journal Ornitolog?a Neotropical later this year.

The government has enacted laws, empowered a task force, performed raids, charged traffickers…all that, but the U.S. State Department says this country is still not doing enough to curb human trafficking. A release issued yesterday by the U.S. State Department singles out three countries in the Americas, and its bad news for Belize that it now gets groups with the tow fiercest opponents of the United States, Venezuela and Cuba.

According to the U.S., “Belize, Cuba, and Venezuela…are not meeting minimum standards to fight trafficking in persons, a criminal practice which Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says is “more than a human rights objective; it is a matter of global security.” Belize is now placed on what is called a tier 3 list, meaning that their governments are not fully complying with the minimum standards against trafficking in persons, and are not “making significant efforts to do so.” According to the release, the placement is based more on the extent of the government’s action (or inaction) to combat trafficking, rather than the size of the problem.

The report concludes that women and girls are trafficked to Belize and exploited in prostitution, while children are trafficked there for labor exploitation. It states that Belize failed to “show evidence of significant law enforcement or victim protection efforts” in 2005, and that the country’s laws against trafficking remained “weak and largely un-enforced.”

One partner in Belize Natural Energy has said that 75 million barrels could be under a single 1,618-hectare parcel of land.

How sweet it is, some say. But the Beverly Hillbillies-style courting of big oil companies worries others.

SPANISH LOOKOUT, BELIZE (Apr 10, 2006)

This tiny country struck oil in much the same way TV’s Jed Clampett did in the Ozarks. A few years ago, a Mennonite farmer dug a shallow well in this bucolic hamlet and up bubbled crude.

“It was just like the Beverly Hillbillies,” said government petroleum inspector Andre Cho.

Belize joined the ranks of the world’s oil exporters in January when its first shipload of crude hit the market. Production is only 3,000 barrels a day, but people in this Central American nation of 280,000 are getting a glimpse of the opportunities — and opportunists — that accompany $60-a-barrel oil.

“When you see Texans coming down here, you know that something is up,” said Belize City bartender Robert Williams at a restaurant called the Smoky Mermaid. Cho said wildcatters have been tantalized by the speed with which Belize Natural Energy– a small private firm backed by American and Irish investors — last year found the first significant deposits of oil. In contrast to the heavy, sulphur-laden stuff found in neighbouring Guatemala and Mexico, Belizean crude is so sweet and light that some local farmers are putting it raw into tractors.

The strike couldn’t have come at a better time for Belize’s debt-strapped government, which hopes to use oil wealth to reduce taxes and bolster social spending. Minister of Natural Resources John Briceno calculates that at current prices, the government’s take from even modest oil production of around 60,000 barrels a day would cover the entire national budget of Belize.

BNE officials say they don’t know the true size of the find, but one partner told a local newspaper that 75 million barrels could be under a single 1,618-hectare parcel. “If we could produce even 20,000 barrels a day, you can imagine what we could do with that. It could make a huge difference for our little country.”

For half a century, oil drillers came to Belize hoping to hit the big one. Denver billionaire Philip Anschutz spent millions of dollars chasing black gold in this Massachusetts-size nation located southeast of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. So did Texaco, Chevron and others. Studies hinted at petroleum deposits lurking beneath the jungle floor, but drilling yielded 50 dry holes in as many years.

Thus BNE made history when it struck oil on its first attempt, 25 kilometres from the spot where the Mennonite farmer first found petroleum.

Two BNE partners were key to the effort — Northern Ireland-born Susan Morrice, the company’s president and a veteran geologist with two decades of experience in Belize, and the late Mike Usher, an engineer and member of a prominent Belizean family who never gave up the dream that his nation could be an oil producer.

Usher’s 89-year-old mother, Jane, recalls her son bringing rocks to Sunday dinner, evidence that Belize was rich in petroleum. He didn’t live to see his dream fulfilled, dying in 2004 of a liver-related ailment, but she never doubted him. “Every Sunday, it was always the same. The oil thing. The oil thing,” said the mother of 10, known as Miss Jane.

With financing from Morrice’s husband, Colorado oil executive Alex Cranberg and more than 80 Irish investors, the firm used seismic technology to map unexplored territory around Spanish Lookout. They found what they believed to be a sizable oilfield under Mennonite pastureland.

The company’s roughnecks hit oil three times in as many tries, naming the wells Mike Usher No. 1, Mike Usher No. 2 and Mike Usher No. 3.

Some Belizeans fear that coaxing the long hidden oil to the surface is equivalent to opening Pandora’s box.

Belize boasts lush rainforests, delicate coral reefs, piercing blue skies and what it claims is the world’s only jaguar preserve.

Because the nation lacks a refinery, pipelines or basic petroleum infrastructure, the oil must be moved by tanker trucks along narrow roads to the docks in the southern city of Big Creek for export. “We simply aren’t prepared,” said Godsman Ellis, president of the Belize Institute of Environmental Law and Policy, who says spills and other disasters are inevitable.

Mennonite farmers on whose land the oil was discovered are also wary.

Concerns about outsiders meddling in their affairs led the conservative Christian group to flee Mexico 45 years ago for Belize. The federal government, which owns all mineral rights in Belize, has the power to force landowners to accept oil drilling on their property for a small share of the oil revenue. Other Belizeans suspect they, too, will be shortchanged.

A block from Belize’s petroleum department in the capital of Belmopan, on the campus of United Evergreen Primary School, principal Pamela Neal hasn’t a single computer for 765 students.

Neal said she would like to believe poor students would benefit from oil riches. But the experience of developing nations such as Nigeria, where multinationals and corrupt officials pocketed most of wealth, have her fearing the worst.

“We are between the devil and the deep blue sea.”

It may be one of the most recognizable shapes on the planet… and whether or not you’re a fan of Coca-Cola or the triumph of global capitalism, there’s no denying that Belize’s artistic rendering of the ubiquitous coke bottle is a masterpiece. Today I was in Orange Walk for its homecoming.

Janelle Chanona, Reporting:
Standing four feet tall, the solid mahogany Coca Cola bottle is estimated to weigh more than five hundred pounds. In 1996, four Belizean artisans laboured more than eight weeks to create this unusual work of art. Robert Westby sculpted the national symbols and the jaguar, Federico Reyes carved the map of Belize, and Ramon Espat was responsible for the painting. But it was Carmelo Teck who was charged with shaping the giant coke out of single block of hardwood.

Carmelo Teck, Bottle Carver:
“Inna wah way it’s not the biggest, but it was the most complicated one because we needed to shape it the way they want it. I couldn’t find any way how fu do it so I try invent this calliper to get the measurements and sizes because it had to be accurate.”

Robert Westby, Animal Carver:
“It wasn’t difficult for me because I had a lot of training in wood carving. I was also a student of George Gabb and I’ve been doing it for years, almost thirty years now… The team that, me Mr. Espat, Mr. Teck, and Mr. Reyes–he’s not here—but it was a very confident and sure that it would work out right.”

The Coca Cola Company commissioned the piece nine years ago for the exhibition “Salute to Folk Art” displayed during the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta Georgia.

David Craig, Merchandizing Mgr., Bowen & Bowen:
“They wanted to highlight the folk art of all the countries of the world and to create an exhibition so that the many people and athletes coming to Atlanta would be able to see it.”

“Folk art is a very special art. It’s art that really you don’t get any formal training for…it just springs forth from the creative mind and you use indigenous materials. Our artists have been doing it for many, many, years probably without recognition. We are just selling off these pieces.”

Fifty-three countries submitted entries but only a select few were chosen to participate in a two year European tour. Of course, the Belizean piece made the cut and local officials thought their contribution had been lost to the art world.

David Craig:
“We signed off on the bottle a long time ago. We didn’t believe that we would get it back, but we kept asking, asking and we finally have it back here because we want to show it to Belizeans. We want people to enjoy what the many people from all over the world that visited Atlanta and Europe enjoyed.”

Having returned to its roots in Orange Walk, the bottle will be hosted at the Banquitas House of Culture. But a national tour is already in the planning stages.

Joe Loskot, Coke Bottle Project Manager:
“Belize has a considerable amount of talent and we are now putting our talents to use and to show the world that we do have good craftsmen in Belize… It shows that we can have diverse talents all in one. We can amalgamate them and we can put out something that Belize can be proud of.”

Coca-Cola originally paid Loskot’s company twenty-five thousand dollars for the piece. According to Bowen and Bowen, the exhibition is in collaboration with the Image Factory and the National Institute of Culture and History.

Pelican Properties Logo.

*REFERENCE NUMBER PI *

*/20 Room Hostel and House /*

*Great business opportunity with residence included *

*Asking $295,000.00US.*

“Pedro’s Inn” is Ambergris Caye’s only hostel-style lodging spot. With
20 simple, clean and comfortable rooms and room to expand all the tools
are there to make this a great business for a couple looking to live and
work in paradise.

The property consists of 2 lots. The main hostel sits on one lot and the
owner’s house is on the other.

The main building is the hostel. It has 20 rooms, 2 beds in each room.
Fans provide cooling for guests. Bathrooms are shared, hostel-style.
Backpackers really appeciated the opportunity to stay in budget lodgings
in Belize. Pedro’s Inn is the only hostel on the island and so since it
was built in 2003 it has received a steady stream of guests. But, for
the motivated couple, willing to market the hostel properly and interact
with guests there is much room for improved occupancy and profits.

The smaller building is the owner’s residence. It has one bedroom, one
bathroom, a kitchen, living and dining area along with a big veranda
which catches the cooling breezes. It’s perfect for a couple and there
is room for expansion underneath the house.

All furnishings, bedding, towels etc. are included. The hostel is
absolutely turn key read to operate with loads of opportunities for
expansion. For example, there is ample room for the addition of a bar
and eatery, a tour office and even a small gift shop. All of these
additions could be done for a small additional investment. The income
potential of Pedro’s Inn has not been tapped to anywhere near its potential.

We will be putting more photos and information of this great listing up
in the coming days. It’s a great buy and the owner is MOTIVATED TO SELL.
All reasonable and serious offers will be considered.

* 20 room hostel, turn key business
* Cute 1 bedroom owner’s house
* Hostel and house sit on 2 lots
* Fully furnished
* The only hostel on Ambergris Caye, fantastic business opportunity
* *Asking just $295,000.00US*

BELMOPAN, Belize, April 27 – Belize’s prime minister has vowed to survive a wave of anti-government strikes and riots but warned that the tiny Central American nation’s debt crisis poses a serious threat to its economic future.

A popular beach and scuba diving center, Belize has been thrown into turmoil over the last week by riots, strikes at the main telephone company and opposition calls for Prime Minister Said Musa to step down due to unpopular tax increases and corruption scandals.

Musa defiantly blamed opposition leaders for the worst political crisis since independence from Britain in 1981 but said he will survive it and that the real threat is debt.

“The political crisis will be easier to weather than the economic but I am convinced we will work our way through it,” he told Reuters in an interview late on Tuesday.

“I am convinced that if tomorrow we called an election we’d win again,” said the 61-year-old Musa, who was elected to a second five-year term in 2003.

Musa, of Palestinian descent, said he had no intention of resigning, although he might reconsider his position if there were serious violence.

“If the situation became so disordered that life and limb were at stake, I love my country I love my people, I would certainly have to consider that option,” he said, adding he thought further violence unlikely.

Belize’s residents are famously laid-back and Belize City, the biggest town in this country of just 270,000 people, was calm on Wednesday morning after the unrest of the past week.

Telephone service was sporadic and a teachers’ strike went into a second day but more schools were open and more teachers working than on Monday.

CORRUPTION AND DEBT

At the heart of the crisis lies nearly $1 billion of public debt and persistent allegations of government corruption.

Belize’s fiscal deficit amounted to a huge 8 percent of gross domestic product last year and the Standard & Poor’s rating agency said this month that the country’s finances were in “dire” shape.

“We have to reduce the debt and we have to get the fiscal deficit under control and bring it below three percent,” said Musa, who was first elected in 1998.

Heavy government spending and a tourism boom have fueled steady economic growth in recent years but the fiscal deficit now poses a serious threat to stability and the government has been forced to cut back on projects and impose tax increases.

Musa said those hikes and spending cuts would close the financing gap and reduce the fiscal deficit over the next 18 months. “We are not going to depend on people forgiving debt.”

Much of the criticism of Musa’s government stems from allegations that money from the social security fund, which pays pensions, was used to back a short lived telecommunications company owned by an ex-minister.

Musa accepted that investigations would likely uncover irregularities but he did not believe there was any criminal offense and he rejected suggestions that a corruption scandal was enough to warrant new elections.

“If every time any government faces allegations of corruption they were to resign and call elections, I think just about every government would be calling elections every year,” he said.