[caption id="attachment_13151" align="alignleft" width="288" caption="Ashcroft & Barrow greet & smile at Belize Bank’s 25th anniversary celebration"][/caption] Belize City, May 14, 2011 Prime Minister Dean Barrow has yet to inform the nation that he held secret meetings with billionaire Michael Ashcroft in Miami last week, prior to him appearing as the surprise keynote speaker at a special event on Friday for the Belize Bank, which is one of the Ashcroft-related companies in Belize. Neither did Barrow inform his UDP colleagues of his plans to speak at the event, which Ashcroft attended, ending a four-year long travel boycott to Belize. And, neither did he inform his Party or key advisors that he would be heard begging the Belize Bank for help to end an impasse he created. This has spun the UDP into confusion and disarray and has undone and falsified what they claimed they fought and stood for since 2008. Not even their best spin masters on Wave Radio, the Amandala or Channel 7 have been able to explain what is taking place. For four long years, the Barrow Administration painted Ashcroft as an enemy of the state. Barrow used nasty and scurrilous descriptions such as “puppet master” and “the ungodly”. The UDP called him the “white devil”, the “virus” and said he was the worst kind of investor for Belize. This is how the Prime Minister got away with roughing up the Belize Bank and taking Belize Telemedia Limited, while fattening his ex-wife Lois Young’s bank account with millions of tax payers’ money for legal presentation. The purpose of both was, according to Barrow, to get Ashcroft out of Belize. But now Barrow and “the devil” are dancing together. The BELIZE TIMES understands that the Miami meeting resulted in an alliance and an accord. Prime Minister Barrow has refused to comment on his relationship with Ashcroft. He has neither said what will happen to BTL, which the Government took without being able to pay. But the BELIZE TIMES has been busy at work to find out what Belizeans should expect. Our information indicates that BTL will soon be back in Ashcroft’s hands. Ashcroft intends to hold as much shares into the company, as well as compensation for the shares that must be held by the Government. To prove his commitment to the alliance, Barrow had to make a public declaration – a sort of repentance or public ...

Not funny… I’m generally a happy, jovial sort of guy, content to poke fun at others. Hell, when I get bored enough I even poke fun at myself, just to show you what a genuinely joyful person I am. But this week’s column won’t be hilarious or cute or even hilariously cute. This isn’t the time for that. The mocha monster otherwise known as Dean Oliver and a whole other mess of less complimentary names wants to call general elections sooner, rather than later. No worries, mini-Mugabe…we ain’t never scared. Belizeans know that Dean O only has one game plan and the fear is that his election strategy will be to try and steal this one. We gotta turn up the heat just a notch, don’t we? ……………………. You smelling it yet? The mocha dude kicked off his tour way up north in Corozal Southeast and to be nice to our beloved PM let’s just say it was a monumental, catastrophic, gargantuan flop! Of course this should be no surprise at all, since the smooth talking, pontificating PM ain’t never been liked up north. Hell, who can even understand half of the words coming out of his mouth? Check it out…the red brigade pulled out all the politicos from the north, all the paid generals and paid foot-soldiers and all the lackeys and still couldn’t assemble more than 200 people. I got a little worried when I watched Jules’ news story on Channel 7 and he made mention of buses streaming in – then I realized that the fellow must have been caught in traffic by the Corozal Bus Terminal and saw commuter buses heading to Chetumal and he got confused. No worries Jules, we understand. But yeah, I can’t imagine the mocha man being too pleased with the reception he got. But I figure by the time he visits a couple other destinations he’ll be used to it for sure… ………………………. You’ve gotta be kidding… I mean, seriously? The idiots in red have launched a series of pre-election campaign ads which have left me dumbfounded. Now my few friends will tell you that I am frequently dumb, but very rarely dumbfounded. Look at the one on health, for example. According to the UDP, they have made amazing strides in health since 2008. I have no doubt that came as a great surprise to Minister of Health Pablo Marin. Hell, it came as a surprise to Belizeans ...

The UDP Cabinet of political and intellectual dunces is not only considered a joke and a farce by many Belizeans, but this week will go down in the archives as this newspaper’s Hypocrites of the Week. Collectively, the Cabinet holds tremendous decision making power in the country, and with that power a tremendous responsibility to the people of this nation. That body of dim-bulbs has taken all our people for fools and is running Belize into the ground. While so many issues have been hitting Belizeans daily, the Cabinet has remained for the most part blind, deaf and mute. Our people have been faced with a crippling economic recession, rising cost of living, steadily rising fuel costs, education crises, the Kendall Bridge, crises in health and allegations of corruption in almost every department and level of government. Cabinet has said nothing. When our nation was dubbed the murder capital of the world by the Economist, Cabinet said nothing. As grenades exploded in our streets and Belizeans experienced a new era of urban terrorism, Cabinet said nothing. As our young men were gunned down daily and innocent victims lay paralyzed by stray bullets, our Cabinet said nothing. Despite week after week of the most stunning revelations of misappropriation of funds and corruption in the Belize City Council, Cabinet said nothing. Even now the City Council is embroiled in the latest round of scandal and missing money, and Cabinet has said nothing. So many issues, so much suffering by our people and Cabinet has said nothing. Instead, every week a sentence or two on a Cabinet release revealed that our Ministers had discussed the latest gala that would be attended by the Prime Minister abroad, or who would be acting in his absence, or World Food Day. Petty nonsense discussed by our Cabinet while our people are bombarded with critical issues. Now we understand that while our military has had to take to the streets to rein in crime, the discussion in Cabinet was about a liquor license issued to former UDP National Campaign Manager Karim Berges. We understand that while our streets are now filled with BDF soldiers wielding machine guns because our Police Department couldn’t handle the job, our Ministers were fully engaged in jostling over whether Mr. Berges should get a license or not. Our Cabinet of Hypocrites and fools should be ...

By Richard Harrison I started Verena Foods in November 2002. We came along very well, expanding from VERENA’s brand of honey, to vinegar, to soybean oil, to olive oil, to tomato ketchup, BBQ sauce, Pizza Sauce, Spaghetti sauce, Salsa Dulce Catsup, Hot Habanero Sauce, coffee products (we packaged the oils and coffee and manufactured all the others) with several more shelf-stable manufactured food products already formulated and in the pipeline based on Cassava, eggs, rice, tamarind, herbal health products, citrus pulp, cohune oil, coconut oil, cucumber, plums, craboo and cocoa butter. In 2003 we were awarded a Development Concession which exempted the payment of import duty for inputs that we required from foreign sources. We stopped packaging honey since 2007 after being the first to package honey in hygienic, convenient, squeeze bottles with safety seal and flip cap with our brand selling in stores all over Belize because the Government, through its various agencies (Beltraide, PACT, Taiwan Cooperation, Ministry of Agriculture) spent over $300,000 “helping” honey-bee farmers with free bottles, labels, marketing courses and machinery. The result was that they no longer wanted to sell me their honey and they also raised their farm-gate price above where I could make a profit. The honey bee industry has decreased in production over these past years and the retail price has doubled. They should have helped the farmers to increase their production and quality as we were already doing a good job with marketing, sales and distribution. Rather the government officials with green-eyes came after my segment of the product-market chain. In 2007, I started Harrison Chemicals, expanding from DANAI brand of all-purpose cleaners: dish-washing liquid, fabric softener to glass cleaner with many more chemical cleaning products in the pipeline. My ambition is to reach cosmetics/beauty products and pharmaceutical production for which I am trained with a Bachelor’s degree level. We grew from our kitchen in San Ignacio to our factory and 36-acre property at Mile 46, Western Highway, near Belmopan. Our products are accepted in the best resorts, restaurants and supermarkets across Belize such as Radisson Fort George, Chaa Creek, Turtle Inn, Blancaneaux Lodge, Cahal Pech Village, Brodies, Save U, Publics, etc. We have tested our products in Guatemala, Mexico and Honduras and our products are well accepted in price and quality for those markets but we are not yet certified nor registered to trade in ...

Belize City, May 13, 2011 Team C-Ray’s Kaya Cattouse won the Belize Cycling Association’s 7th annual Women’s Cross country Cycling Classic on Sunday, out-sprinting Team Sagitun’s 3-time defending champ Shalini Zabaneh. Kaya played Sunday’s race the intelligent way, tailing Shalini and waiting to strike at the right times. She clocked 4:29:08 on her 71-mile ride from San Ignacio to Belize City. Her prizes included the $800 first prize, the champion’s trophy and the winner’s garland from Florasol, a $500 Digicell package, a gift basket from Grace Kennedy, a manicure set, and a Victoria’s Secret gift package from Steve Benedict Auto Sales and a plaque from the Women’s Department. Shalini won the $600 2nd prize and trophy from the Belize Cycling Association, a gift basket from Grace Kennedy and a manicure set from Dream nail & hair. Marinette Flowers won the $400 3rd prize, a gift basket from Grace Kennedy, a manicure set, as well as the $300 prize for Queen of the hills since she was the first rider at Go Slow at mile 62.5, at the Three Sisters behind Mount Hope at mile 60 and at the Old Man Hill in Teakettle village. Team Becol’s Patricia Chavarria won the $125 4th prize, while Team C-Ray’s Kirah Eiley took the $75.00 5th prize and a trophy.  Team Sagitun’s Iris Centeno clocked 4:42:00 as she pulled in 6th to win a medal.

1.      Considering that the Minister of Immigration has declared that there will be no more visas issued from Havana, would he be willing to disclose just how many visas have been issued so far by UDP Ambassador to Cuba Said ‘Badi’ Guerra and to whom? 2.      Would the Minister of National Security be able to confirm or deny reports that an employee of his Ministry who is married to the younger sister of another UDP Minister and also works in that Ministry handled the rental of the vans which carried the smuggled Chinese nationals to their border crossing up north? 3.      Would the Minister of Police be willing to provide details of his so-called investigation into the Civil Aviation Department which is managed by his brother? And would the Minister further be able to respond to allegations that he cleared the Civil Aviation Department before an actual investigation was even conducted? 4.      Would the Prime Minister be able to say when his handpicked Music Ambassador who is also his son and enjoys all diplomatic perks will produce the promised song about Belize, or in fact do anything at all which can classify as representation of our nation?