Since Dean Barrow announced the recession in April 2009, Belizeans have been surprised almost weekly as businesses once fixtures on the Belize’s business scene have been quietly closing their doors and pulling down the shutters.

Last week the local business universe shifted on its axis when it was reported that two businesses within the Mena Group of Companies, Fresh Catch Belize Limited and The Wood Depot had been forced into receivership by First Caribbean Bank, and that the Belize Bank had appointed accountant Stanley Ermeav as their receiver for Belize Aggregates Limited.

Fresh Catch Belize has been exporting thousands of pounds of their product to Guatemala, Mexico and the United States since 2002. It is a multi-million dollar investment that employed 90 Belizeans. It is a pioneer and mainstay in the farm fish business, and other jobs will be lost in the ancillary and support industries such as transportation, and so on.

The bank has already reduced operations, drastically cut back on the work force, and is expected to try and maintain minimal operations while it seeks a buyer.

The Wood Depot and Belize Aggregates are both victims of the massive slowdown in the construction industry. The simple fact is that construction in Belize has been simply grinding to a halt. Equipment and construction suppliers have been going out of business “hand over fist” the past two years. They join the likes of Maestre’s windows business, and will probably be joined by Fabro’s Glass Shop.

Figures from the Statistical Institute of Belize show that importations into the Corozal Free Zone have fallen by nearly a half over the past two years, and that reflects the closure of many operations there, and the consequential loss of hundreds of job.

The ripple effect of those closures are being felt throughout the local district economy and analyses are concluding that unemployment in our northernmost district, as the sugar crop grinds to a halt, could be as high as 60%.

Reports are that this year’s sugar crop will be one of the worst ever. Severe processing problems at the start and the early onset of the rainy season coupled with a high TCTS (Tons Cane to Tons Sugar) ratio have all but doomed any chance of reaching earlier production targets. Cane farmers will be further outraged when they receive second payments next month that will be a third of the prices they received last year.

The Belize Tourism Board will soon report a huge downturn in overnight arrivals of a promising start that showed signs of recovery. This year’s tourism slow season has all but ground to a halt.

There are persistent reports that several large and veteran businesses are also teetering on the edge of receivership or outright foreclosure. The list is said to include to of Belize’s largest retailers and a standout restaurant, marina, tourism center.

Even bus lines owned and operated by politically connected cronies of the Barrow administration and who were brought in to take the place of what were thriving lines are now threatening to throw in the towel.

Not even the heretofore fast growing call center services industry has been affected by what will soon be Belize’s deepest and longest recession. Pinnacle became the first of these companies to shut up shop in Belize and that is now going to be joined by a recently opened telemarketing centre, Clear Call Center, who just this week suspended their operations indefinitely in Belize. The business located on Pickstock Street on the second floor of the old DFC building, is an outbound calling center specializing in telemarketing sales to mostly clients in the United States.  It is believed that the firm was forced to suspend its operations after unresolved issues with its partners in the United States. The shut down means that 40 more Belizeans are out of a job.

The Barrow administration seems neither to have a clue as to what is happening nor what to do about it. Barrow’s famed “stimulus package” was announced well over a year ago, and instead of perking up economic activity is nose-diving. Economists, entrepreneurs and investors meanwhile are all mystified as the Government of Belize continues to pursue an aggressive tax collection policy to go with the recent 25% increase in the General Sales Tax.

If only they were as aggressive in trying to attract new investments to Belize one observer opined. If only they were as determined to support local businesses and help them find away to survive what is fast becoming an economic meltdown.

The first public challenge directed to the minister came from the Belizeans for Justice Organization “challenging him to replace Commissioner Crispin Jefferies”.  The most vocal players from the organization, the ladies who hold executive positions in BFJ were encouraged for two reasons: one, that the minister has publicly criticize the management style of the commissioner, and two, had promised to meet with the executive of the organization. But all of that now seems to have come to a crashing halt because the minister has made public attacks on members of the organization on separate morning talk shows.  Remember that these ladies received death threats purportedly from police.

The minister appeared on Love FM’s morning talk show yesterday Wednesday, July 28^th and accused the family of the innocent 8 year old gunshot victim, Marquis Mahler, of being involved in illicit drug activities for many many years at that #40 Fabers Road address. He also inferred that it is the family that is responsible for his death.

He also went on to suggest that another member of the BFJ and the mother of a notorious gang leader were also suspected of being involved in illicit drug activity in the past.  These accusations prompted a family member of young Marquis and a member of the BFJ to call the WUB Morning Vibes the Friday morning.

Minister Singh responded with a call to the WUB where the host Sharon Marin and Mose Hyde challenged him, asking him why he was calling the names of people suspected and or alleged to be involved with illicit drugs particularly in this case, both persons being members of the BFJ.

Mose asked Minister Singh if he was willing to name big business people and officials who are suspected of being involved in the trafficking of illicit drugs.  This resulted in a public back and forth live on national radio between the show’s hosts and the minister.

The minister compromisingly “lapped his tail” and said, “If I offended anybody, I apologize.”

With all the incidents involving this police minister so far in such a short space of time, and coming on the heels of that section of Dr. Herbert Gayle’s report where it states that the Belize Police Department is corrupt, have we exchanged “monkey fi black dog?”  Or have we gone from “grace to grass to —“?

Or just perhaps the bigger question is, “Since Hon. Doug Singh became Minister of Police is our police department any better?”

Yesterday after a tropical weather system had passed over the country on Monday the causeway at Kendal went under 7 to 8 feet of water from about 5 in the morning. Traffic was forced to a complete standstill for hours.

One tour guide who works out in San Pedro and goes home to Punta Gorda regularly to do some work on his farm said the situation has delayed him with his work.

He told a reporter: “I work out pan the Island but my home dah PG. We mi know that it mi di rain but we neva mi di expect dis fi be like dis. I mi think se dey have wah solution already but when we reach ya we jus have to wait. We just reach from di James Bus and they tell we they had boat the pass people from this side to the next side soh we decide fi jus continue but when we reach ya the boat deh pull up.

“The officials sey it di go down quick soh we di hope it go down quick because we wan reach home. We have work fi go do down deh. I own a farm down deh and it need some attention. Right now  time sweet, time precious. The more time I deh yah the less work get done down deh. A whole day waste an’ now I have to wait til tomorrow to continue.”

We also spoke to a family who was heading back home after attending a funeral in Cayo. They said they needed to get back home to open their shop and bar for business.

“We have wah shop and wah lee bar and we need fi get back an open up fi we lee place soh we could mek wah lee living and dis di hampa we rite now. We deh out from Sunday and todeh da Tuesday and we di try reach back home. We deh out yaw wan couple hours di wait and wi still have some moe hoass fi wait. I think di Govament need fi do something about dis. All I want is fu dem to fix di bridge.”

Belizeans are wondering when this situation is going to be fixed and if there is anyone in charge. There were no announcements and it is obvious that no one in authority cares enough anymore to at least alert travelers of the bridge’s closure.

Former Area Representative Rodwell Ferguson said: “This situation has been like this for 2 years and Stann Creek District is the breadbasket of this country. The government in place should have placed emphasis to restore back this bridge. As we look today, look how many vehicles are held up here. So many dollars are not going into the economy because of this situation.

“I believe the government should have made this a priority to be able to get this bridge back in order as quickly as possible. Now it’s over 2 years … What can be done?

“Every time they go to the National Assembly … they will say, oh the money is here for the Kendal Bridge but when will construction begin? That is the question. The tender needs to go out, I don’t know if it has gone out already but we need to get this bridge going.

“The major port is the Big Creek Port where the oil passes through so as we speak the oil trucks aren’t coming through. We have the banana and shrimp industries and a major industry which is the tourism industry. So this is really affecting the entire south the breadbasket of this country.”

The causeway was re-opened sometime around 4 Tuesday afternoon.

This surprising announcement provoked confusion which was replaced by surprise when Chief Magistrate Margaret Mckenzie informed the court that the conspiracy charges against Jermaine Palacio had been quietly dropped two weeks ago on July 16th.  Apparently none of the defendants, their attorneys or the media had been made aware of this development.

Magistrate Mckenzie agreed to the adjournment and the case is to return to court on August 26th.

The only conclusion that can be drawn from this revelation is that Palacio has copped a deal and will now testify on behalf of the prosecution. Speculation is that his no-show performance today means that he is reluctant to do so.

Raymond was arrested in Ladyville and a car which he was allegedly driving was taken into the Police Station. The car did not belong to Mr. Raymond. In the car trunk was a bag containing documents belonging to the owner and in the glove compartment a firearm belonging to a Police officer.

Mr. Raymond was charged for the firearm and ammunition. Under a law which has imprisoned many innocent citizens, he was remanded to prison for three months before getting a trial. His lawyer succeeded in getting bail from the Supreme Court. The gun charge was pursued even though the police officer provided proof of his ownership and license. Mr. Raymond was subjected to imprisonment, the negative publicity to himself and his family and the anxiety of going through a trial for which the penalty was a mandatory imprisonment of two years. Mr. Raymond won his trial and was exonerated.

Then the Director of the FIU launched another attack. She instructed that Mr. Raymond be charged for money laundering for the documents in the car. Mr. Raymond was re-arrested, detained and subjected to more bad publicity. The FIU requested the Court not to give Mr. Raymond bail and to keep him in prison. The court disagreed and offered bail in a huge amount of seventy thousand dollars.

When the trial date approached, the FIU withdrew the charge of money laundering. That was not the end of Mr. Raymond’s ordeal and humiliation. On the internet shows that in July 2009, the FIU charged Mr. Raymond for concealing money laundering documents and cheques which were found in the car when Mr. Raymond was arrested in January 2009.

The bitter hostility between the representatives of Orange Walk East and Orange Walk North is no secret and started visibly as far back as the last UDP National Convention in 2006 when Cardona sided with Carlos Perdomo against Vega in the contest for Deputy Leader of the UDP. With that move the die was cast, and public allegations Cardona made against Vega with respect to his questionable character certainly did not help.

It is believed that Cardona’s meteoric fall from grace was in fact orchestrated by the very powerful Deputy Prime Minister. Cardona was first removed as a Senator of the UDP and then kicked out of Cabinet to reside on the backbench. Though it cannot be said that he has not tried every which way (up to and including nauseating verbal massages of his leader) to slide his way back into the graces of his Prime Minister and thus the Cabinet, speculation is that DPM Vega has placed a political sanction on the unlucky fellow which will not anytime soon be lifted.

It is also known that DPM Vega will back UDP financier and aspiring Orange Walk East Standard Bearer Landy Burns against Cardona whenever the UDP standard bearer conventions are held. A win for Burns would be the seal on the political death warrant of Cardona.

Protesters the Belize Times spoke to claim that the move by Vega to wrest control of funds to be disbursed to constituents for educational needs is just another stage of the plan to weaken Cardona. It is expected that control of the funds would then be gifts to Burns for him to gain political capital and influence over voters who need the assistance.

Cardona was not available for comment today.

While Minister Singh has been in the news often this past week, it has had nothing to do with crime, or perhaps more accurately, the fight against crime. Just this week, bullets claimed four victims and reports today are than another man has been shot in the head and is clinging to life. Minister Singh has said nothing at all about that. This week Belizeans for Justice held a press conference in which they cried out for the Police to play a more active role in the war against crime. Minister Singh was nowhere around and had no official response.

In fact, while violent crime has continued to claim victims with shocking regularity, Minister Singh’s media appearances have focused on fat-bellied policemen and the need for a gym at the Police Station. The one challenge the Police Minister has thrown out has not been issued to the criminals who make our streets unsafe and our homes prisons. No, Minister Singh is challenging big-bellied Policemen to a running race and a contest of strength and stamina. There has been no perceptible good done since Singh’s appointment, only a very perceptible increase in the anger and frustration within the Police Department. Violent crimes continue unchecked.

As for Mr. Barrow, since presenting the beautifully packaged Operation Restore Belize, he has been absolutely silent. Nobody is sure if the operation actually launched, or launched and fizzled out or is still in full effect. The only thing anybody is sure of is that things on the streets continue to get worse. The shootings continue without pause. The murders have escalated. The robberies and burglaries and assaults are never-ending. Operation Restore Belize has made nobody’s life better with the exception of the new Minister of Police and the new Attorney-General who have been granted new lofty positions with all the financial remunerations and perks.

This government has been unable to do anything right as regards the strengthening of Belize’s justice system. The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions is in complete shambles. The so-called Special Prosecutor has up and left the scene. There have been accusations of Executive tampering in the Judiciary and the Police Department is in chaos with no apparent light at the end of the tunnel.

Until this Government can get its act straight, Belizeans can expect nothing more than an escalation of crime on the street and a proliferation of criminals walking free due to inadequate prosecution. That is all that is written on the all of this UDP administration while Belizeans pay the price.

“The land that you spoke about, that you showed by way of the television images, he told you that what the group wants to do with that land is to a number of projects including the setting up of a kind of sewing factory, something that particularly ease the conditions of single mothers. It seems to be that all these are wonderful things.”

“This land belongs to the NGO group of fourteen years, Port Loyola Housing for the Poor, and what we do here is to culminate our work, here is our warehouse. It is a land for the economic purpose for the people of Port Loyola. Shortly we will be putting up a building to host the residents of Port Loyola in regards to computer training and sewing etc. – Hon. Boots Martinez

More than a year ago, in April of 2009, Belizeans raised a stink when it was revealed that an NGO calling itself the Port Loyola Housing for the Poor had been given 12 acres of prime land on the Western Highway between mile 4 and mile 4.5. The problem was that nobody seemed to know anything about the NGO, including what exactly its role was and how it was benefitting the people for whom it was named. The only thing visible on the prime clearing was a warehouse, heavy equipment always parked in front and the Minister of Works’ government vehicle usually parked for a couple hours each morning.

The public outcry raised a notch when it was revealed that this particular NGO formed for the benefit of the people of Port Loyola (or so their area representative Boots claimed) was actually a for profit organization and was raking in the money off government contracts. This thing is that nobody outside of Boots’ inner circle could say how much money was coming in or where that money was going. In fact, nobody outside of Boots’ circle, and certainly not the poor people of Port Loyola could even say exactly what the NGO did.

When the media hounded him about his NGO/for profit organization, Boots was very abstract about the purpose of the NGO, but he was very clear about the fact that it was raking in the dough. The Area Rep didn’t give any concrete stats or profit figures but claimed that all of the money goes to the people of Port Loyola, news which was surely news to those supposed to be benefitting from the bounty.

The Prime Minister was similarly hounded and went to the line to defend his colleague Boots on the issue of the 12 acres of prime land which was gifted to the obscure NGO. According to the PM, the land would be used for all sorts of ‘wonderful things.’

But the reality is that ‘wonderful’ is a relative term and means different things to different people. After receiving copies of several land documents last week, the Belize Times has launched an investigation into the sale of lots to privileged UDP cronies and Barrow family members at mile 4.5. When our news team visited mile 4.5, we found no evidence of any parcels fitting the description of those handed out to said cronies and family members for a pittance. In fact, the only area in that vicinity which seems set to be parceled out is, you got it, the 12 acres of prime property at mile 4.

If it is discovered that the land gifted to the ‘people of Port Loyola’ for these ‘wonderful things’ which would raise the quality of their lives is the land which is being gifted to UDP cronies for a pittance, it would mean that the Prime Minister of Belize is a liar and a charlatan who cares nothing for the poor people of Belize City.

The investigation continues.

The centerfold of this issue of the Belize Times reveals just the tip of the iceberg in the colossal abuse of power which is benefitting only members of the apparent royal family in Orange Walk. In just one instance, nephew of the Minister of Lands Cosme Hernandez was given 3.19 acres in San Estevan for the sum of $622.05. Apparently the Minister was not satisfied with that gift to his nephew, because on January 7, 2010, Hernandez was given another 2.69 acres in San Estevan for the grand sum of $349.70. And the sweets kept coming, because on that same day, Hernandez was given another 7.24 acres of land in San Estevan for the grand total of $941.20. More than 15 acres of land in San Estevan gifted to the Minister’s nephew for little or nothing. And like we said, that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

The Belize Times has also received documents which show the Deputy Prime Minister’s brother and his wife partaking of the favours from the party bag. Permission to survey well over 200 acres of land was recently granted to Ignacio Vega (German Ignacio Vega?) and Karen Vega, his wife. That land is located in Carmelita in the Orange Walk District. As the map shows, 119.74 acres of roadside land was surveyed in the name of Ignacio, while a further 113.11 acres was surveyed in the name of Karen Vega.

The revelations of the bursting of the Vega land piñata comes at a time when many Belizeans are struggling to hold on to even one small parcel of land in the jewel. But from these documents, it is apparent that common Belizeans need not apply, because the sweets are being distributed only to the family and friends of the Minister. It is interesting to note that Minister of Lands Gaspar Vega has stood up in the House of Representatives time and time again and has called on God to be the witness of his honesty and integrity. His day of reckoning draws near.

Today many Belizeans have been diagnosed with dengue fever and we now know that a child has died at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital as a result of dengue, yet it seems as if Minister Pablo Marin seems to be taking the rise in cases of dengue fever as just an outbreak of the common cold.

According to the US Center for Disease Control (CDC), the term “outbreak” can be used interchangeably with the term “epidemic,” meaning that once you have an outbreak of dengue fever for example, then you have a dengue fever epidemic.  In fact some leaders will argue that they prefer when you refer to something as an outbreak because it is a less frightening term than when you hear of an epidemic.

When do you know you have an outbreak of a disease?  You know this when the cases of a disease exceed what is expected during a given time within a specific community. How do we know what is expected? What is expected is based on statistical reports of cases per year for the previous years.  The current problem in Belize is that credible statistics is extremely rare.

Last week the chief epidemiologist reported 28 cases of Dengue for this year and the following day the Director of Vector Control Program reported 348 cases.  The difference between what these two agencies reported is obviously huge.  So where does the truth lie? Do we have a Dengue epidemic currently? We hear of dengue cases on the news and we hear of friends and relatives being stricken with this illness but Pablo Marin and the Ministry of Health are once again silent on this issue.

What the Belizean public deserves to know however is whether the Ministry of Health has considered what needs to be done to get rid of the mosquitoes that cause dengue.  Have they paid any attention or done any studies to find out if mosquitoes have developed a resistance to malathion? We have been spraying with this substance for the past 20 years, and there are now increasing reports worldwide of mosquitoes resistant to malathion which is an organophosphate, and therefore one of the easier substances for insects to develop a resistance to.

In cases of severe or hemorrhagic dengue there is risk of dying due to internal bleeding. The platelets, cells in the blood responsible for clot formation, are consumed rapidly and this causes the bleeding. Has our National Blood Bank acquired the equipment and the human resources to separate platelets from blood transfusions? This equipment is vital for treating severe dengue cases.

Whether Minister Pablo Marin will admit to it or not, all indications are that we are deep in the grips of a dengue epidemic.  What is equally clear is that the Ministry of Health is clueless and not prepared to deal with the cases that are appearing at our hospitals and clinics.

It is no longer enough for the Ministry of Health to drag out those old television commercials about keeping our yards clean; they had better find the necessary expertise to address this matter before other children start to die in the hospital because they are not taking this matter serious enough.