While COLA is not particularly ecstatic about the cost of government’s latest rejuvenation project, the Belize National Teachers Union is itself taken aback by the seemingly exorbitant price tag of paving a one-mile stretch of road. According to Elena Smith, for eight million dollars, a lot more could have been done with that sum of […]
You heard Citizens Organized for Liberty through Action’s take on the Fabers’ Road contract for near eight million dollars issued through selective tendering to Imer Hernandez Development Company, to concrete the road and put in drainage between Central American Boulevard and George Price Highway. But it seemed to even flabbergast president Geovannie Brackett when we […]
The Belize Civic Center is nearing completion. It is projected, according to contractors International Environments Limited, to cost thirty-two million dollars under the Belize Infrastructure Limited, but widespread reports are that far more than that is being spent. That special-purpose vehicle of the Government of Belize has contracted to build multiple sports stadia across Belize […]
Prime Minister Dean Barrow has responded in writing today to the Belize National Teachers Union, following a stern letter written by President Elena Smith, dated October thirteenth. The B.N.T.U., in effect, gave PM Barrow until Friday to provide a progress report on eight demands made by the union last year during countrywide strike action. In […]
In speaking with the media on Monday, National President Elena Smith says that the B.N.T.U. is not attempting to call the tune on behalf of the prime minister; however, it remains firm in its position that they are demanding answers. Elena Smith, National President, B.N.T.U. “The prime minister has made it clear that there […]
The internal intrigue in the United Democratic Party continues. On Monday, we showed you the response of Dangriga area representative Frank “Papa” Mena to the results of the Dangriga convention, where he dared the senior leadership to kick him out. Today, former Lake Independence area representative and noted firebrand Mark King added his lengthy thoughts […]
On Wednesday, the Senate Special Select Committee intends to call the heads of the Labor Department and the Vital Statistics Unit. This is following revelations in recent weeks about the obtaining of birth certificates as the start to acquiring other documents confirming Belizean nationality, including nationality certificates. Immigration Director Diana Locke had contended that while […]
As the October session of the Court of Appeal opened today in Belize City, in Belmopan, attorney Franz Parke was sworn in as the new justice to the court. The ceremony was without fanfare and just as well because there has been strong opposition to the appointment on the grounds that Parke is not qualified […]
The Imer Hernandez Development Company Limited has already begun construction on the stretch of Fabers’ Road between Central American Boulevard and the George Price Highway. For that approximately one-mile stretch of road, they will be paid handsomely – almost eight million dollars to reinforce the road bed and put in sidewalks and drains to the […]
But before it gets to that, COLA has engaged Kareem Musa to write to the C.E.O. in the Ministry of Works, Errol Gentle, along with Minister Rene Montero and Contractor General Godwin Arzu, under the Freedom of Information Act. Musa seeks a look at the specific contract to Hernandez, the selective tendering process employed by […]
The People’s United Party issued a statement today condemning the award as containing no rational justification other than to, in the P.U.P.’s words, enrich select U.D.P. ministers and cronies and pad election coffers. They cite the similar works on the Philip Goldson Highway done by Cisco Construction for less than half the cited amount of […]
The National Executive of the People’s United Party met on Thursday and set a deadline of four p.m. on October twenty-seventh for Party Chairman Henry Charles Usher to receive both a list of delegates from constituency committee chairpersons, and nominations for party leader in writing. Tonight one of those potential challengers, current deputy leader Kareem […]
In other political news, the United Democratic Party held its municipal convention for Dangriga on Sunday at Holy Ghost Roman Catholic School near the sea. Incumbent Mayor Francis Humphreys is running for another term after defeating former councilor Herbert Nicasio by three to one. In terms of votes, Humphreys garnered nine hundred fourteen votes to […]
The Belize National Teachers Union is giving Prime Minister Dean Barrow an ultimatum after receiving a terse response when the executive requested an update on the progress of the eight-point agenda presented to government last October. In a letter to the P.M. dated October thirteenth, B.N.T.U. President Elena Smith insists that a comprehensive progress report […]
Smith says the inclusion of the other unions is simply another attempt by government to disrupt the harmony within the National Trade Union Congress of Belize. Elena Smith, National President, B.N.T.U. “We see it as a tactic to divide and conquer. We are aware of what happened last year when we were on strike, […]
The activist community is shaken by the Thursday night execution of seventy-two-year-old Albert Cattouse. The taxi operator was gunned down with a single shot to the head inside his Lincoln Town Car on Hicatee Street behind Rogers’ Stadium. His family is preparing for his funeral this coming Saturday and police have begun an extensive investigation […]
The Jane Usher Boulevard area has become well-known for its murderous rivalries. When the intervention and community policing program under former south side commander ACP Chester Williams was in full effect, the Boulevard was one of his frequent stops. Residents in the area have anonymously suggested that inside the mostly abandoned property immediately west of […]
If you have an elective surgery scheduled at the K.H.M.H. – they say it will not happen because all elective surgeries have been suspended due to the lack of blood products. In a release issued today the hospital advises the public that there’s an ongoing lack of blood products needed for elective and urgent surgeries. […]
The badly decomposed body of sixty-nine-year-old Christoffer Jan Roggema was found today in some high bushes in Saint Margaret Village. The Norwegian- Belizean businessman went missing on Monday while out scouting for a piece of property to build a business. According to close friend, Jaime Perez, who has known Roggema for more than fifteen years, […]
They had expected many more, but only fifteen family members and friends and a handful of concerned citizens joined the search for seventeen-year-old Erwin Rodriguez. Although all signs point to foul play, the family of the teenager is focused on finding his body and knowing definitively what happened to him. The inhospitable terrain of the […]
Attorney Kareem Musa has written the Ministry of Works and Contractor General Godwin Arzu under the Freedom of Information Act. On behalf of Citizens Organized for Liberty through Action, he is asking for reasonable inspection of several documents in connection with Thursday’s contract signing for the reconstruction of Fabers’ Road between the George Price Highway […]
The Belize National Teachers’ Union is joining in on the backlash against the proposed appointment of Franz Parke to the Court of Appeal. In a statement released today it questioned Parke’s qualifications. Citing Section 101 of the Constitution, it argues that Parke, from his widely publicized C.V., has neither served as a judge in the […]
The constant harassment of Paul ‘Chicken Dread’ Ferguson by the Belize City Council continued around noon today in front of E.P. York High School. This time a tractor was reportedly called in to haul off his vending truck and impound it at CitCo’s works department on the George Price Highway. Despite having obtained the requisite […]
With more than nine thousand cases of conjunctivitis reported in the last month, chances are you know someone suffering with ‘pinkeye.’ But what happens if that someone is working in the health industry – in this case, with Belize Emergency Response Team? No employer likes losing a worker for the better part of a week, […]
A press release from the organization issued on Thursday advises the general public to minimize non-emergency calls to BERT until the situation is stabilized, but notes that emergency services remain in place. But which is which? According to Andre Carrillo, those situations which do not necessarily require immediate medical intervention and free services such as […]
