Women appointed to top posts in Lands Dept.

They may be an endangered specie in the upper echelons of our political leadership … but within the ranks of the civil service Belizean women rule. Today new appointments were announced at the important Lands and Survey Department, with the two top positions going to females. Noreen Fairweather becomes the first woman Commissioner of Lands and Survey, succeeding veteran Armin Cansino, who is retiring after six years at the helm. Prior to her appointment, Fairweather headed the department’s Lands Information Centre. Fairweather’s deputy in the new line-up is Malikah Cardona. Cardona, who served as chief physical planner, succeeds Jaime Grajales, who has retired after serving in the Lands Department for thirty-four years. The ascendancy of women in the civil service contrasts starkly with their lack of opportunities in the political arena. Out of the nation’s thirty-one constituencies, there are only two woman major party candidates. They are the P.U.P.’s Mel Spain and Carolyn Trench-Sandiford, running in Belize Rural South and Collet respectively. In the U.D.P. line-up there is not a single female to be found on the entire 2008 general election ballot.