Southern Belize Needs Your Help!

[Mike]

The fact is that the government has to answer to the people.

I wish it was that cut and dry. The world wide attention the Malaysian government has received due to the missing airliner has only now truly exposed to the rest of the world that that government certainly doesn't answer to the people and has been doing whatever it wants for a long, long time.

Unfortunately, once elected many government officials fall prey to bribes, special interest money and influence, party line politics and measuring every vote they make as positive or negative in their record to get re-elected, all regardless of what the people might want.

 

[Ralph Capeling]

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Placencia Village Council Exasperates Hulse
posted (May 13, 2014)

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Last week, on May 8th, Placencia Village residents and the Village Council are reported to have held a night meeting where they unanimously re-affirmed their opposition to mass cruise ship tourism for southern Belize. That exasperates Godwin Hulse to no end. He's the minister in charge of the Cabinet Subcommittee for investment and he's been to Placencia to try and convince the village council more than once. Today he told us he thought he had convinced them:..Hon. Godwin Hulse

"I'm dismayed. I met with them the previous Wednesday, and in a meeting with the full council, we had, and this was in the presence of my C.E.O., the Director for Local Government, the Fire Chief, the Director for Rural Development - we had their one hundred percent unequivocal endorsement of the project when we explained how the project was being developed. This whole matter of mass tourism, we explained to them carefully…that when NCL was developing its project, because there was such a hue and cry against tourism in the south, they wanted to develop their exclusive island. They wanted to develop Harvest Caye, and people would only land there, come and go. The Government of Belize said well that's not going to help us, we need to have people visit the sites, we need to create jobs, tenders, tour guides, bus operators, etc. To balance the cry, Government said to NCL you must bring twenty-five percent of your tourists ashore to visit sites up to the maximum carrying capacity of the sites. I'm very surprised to hear that Placencia turned around. And I saw the mails saying that they do not endorse. We have to stop flip-flopping and be real. Come on man, we can't on the one hand say we want jobs, we want jobs for our people and then when investments come we don't want them. Let's make up our minds. What we don't want; we don't want ASR, we don't want Stake Bank, we don't want NCL…then what do we want…then we say no investment, so what do we want?"

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[flots am]

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[TD="colspan: 4"] Let's make up our minds. What we don't want; we don't want ASR, we don't want Stake Bank, we don't want NCL…then what do we want…then we say no investment, so what do we want?"
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That's a very good question.

 

[Ralph Capeling]

And the answer was very clearly spelled out in the community study conducted by a working group headed by BTIA a couple of years ago that issued a report in December 2011. The report articulates a consensual vision for the Peninsula’s development over the next decade. The working group included all the various organizations on the Placencia Peninsula as well as holding lots of public meetings in the communities on the Peninsula. The work was facilitated by two consultants hired by the working group. The report is 13 pages long so maybe a bit too long to cut and paste into this thread.

That's a very good question.

 

[flots am]

And the answer was very clearly spelled out in the community study conducted by a working group

Apparently, Mr. Hulse doesn't think that meshes with reality.

 

[AWMIII]

What part of politics in Belize are corrupt do you all not understand? It is corrupt at EVERY LEVEL. You will not find anyone who spends a lot of time there that does not take this fact for granted. Everyone in Belize knows that they cannot count on the government. This is actually good as it encourages people to take care of themselves. It is clearly not the US. A very wise friend who lives in Belize (a conservative Democrat from the Upper Eastside of New York) once told me that the main difference between Belize and the US was that in Belize everyone understood that the Politicians were crooked. In the US we live in denial.

 

[nimoh]

What part of politics in Belize are corrupt do you all not understand? It is corrupt at EVERY LEVEL. You will not find anyone who spends a lot of time there that does not take this fact for granted. Everyone in Belize knows that they cannot count on the government. This is actually good as it encourages people to take care of themselves. It is clearly not the US. A very wise friend who lives in Belize (a conservative Democrat from the Upper Eastside of New York) once told me that the main difference between Belize and the US was that in Belize everyone understood that the Politicians were crooked. In the US we live in denial.

I have a friend that is a politician. I am certain that he is not crooked. Well, anymore that the average "law-abiding" citizen. I have been in a car with him while going a little over the speed limit, and have seen him improve his lie on the golf course. Do you think he is the only one?

 

[AWMIII]

Let NCL offer some money and find out!

 

[koozemani]

"To balance the cry, Government said to NCL you must bring twenty-five percent of your tourists ashore to visit sites up to the maximum carrying capacity of the sites."

How can a cruise ship guarantee 25% of its passengers will opt to spend time on the mainland?

 

[Downing]

How can they guarantee those passengers will opt to spend any money on the mainland?

Besides a trinket or maybe a popsicle before they head back to Fantasy Island.