The Special Senate Select Committee appointed to inquire into the management and investment portfolio of the Social Security Board met this week to begin an initial review of documents the Committee requested from the SSB. Included among these were records of board meetings, audits and annual reports, board meeting procedures and regulations, a list of […]
The shrimp industry is one of the most lucrative export earners for Belize, with over one hundred million dollars in income last year. In an effort to keep the marine delicacy in healthy production, the Belize Shrimp Growers Association in collaboration with other agencies will be hosting an international shrimp culture symposium in Belize next […]
A couple of years ago, News 5 toured the site of a proposed children’s home in Flowers Bank. This week, we toured the new facility. As you will see, the home and the setting are welcoming indeed. Miller Tyler, Belizean Christian Efforts Children?s Home ?It?s finally over. I mean it?s finally at the end. I […]
They represent more than four hundred tour guides, tour operators, and hoteliers and today, the Belize Tourism Industry Association is not happy. After taking a good look at the contract signed between the Carnival Corporation and the Government of Belize, the BTIA is seeing red. According to the organization’s President, Steve Schulte, the clauses contained […]
Just two months after a price hike, the cost of butane has gone up again, by five dollars. According to the Ministry of Fisheries, Cooperatives, Commerce and Industry, the new charges for a one hundred pound cylinder are as follows: Belize City: eighty-three dollars Belmopan: eighty-five dollars San Ignacio: eighty-six dollars Benque Viejo: eighty-seven dollars […]
And if Belize Electricity Limited has its way, pretty soon, Belizean consumers will also be paying more for power. In a press release issued by the electricity company today, BEL says it has applied to the Public Utilities Commission for permission to raise its rates. BEL says the changes in their prices per kilowatt hour […]
Their motto is: “Helping People to Help Themselves” but in an effort to introduce the services being offered by the Ministry of Human Development, and make the process easier, the Ministry has embarked on an ambitious public education campaign. The initiative is in the form of an Educational Forum on Social Services. Human Resources Development […]
We opened this senior citizens week with a visit to the Sister Cecelia Home for the elderly, but we’ll end it with our most experienced citizens kicking up some dust on Albert Street. Patrick Jones reports. Patrick Jones, Reporting Their steps may be a bit slower, but it did not keep senior citizens from celebrating […]
He’s an outspoken businessman with a reputation for shooting from the hip. As the main shareholder of the privatised Belize City port he also has a huge stake in the outcome of the deal in which Carnival Corporation will build a new cruise terminal in Port Loyola. And today Luke Espat took aim at those […]
It wasn’t a hundred new Fords…but every little bit helps. And besides, these new police vehicles were free, courtesy of the Republic of China on Taiwan. During a brief ceremony at the Queen Street Station, Ambassador Charles Tsai this morning handed over an all terrain vehicle and two scooters to Minister of Home Affairs Ralph […]
And while mobility may be at an all time high, police behaviour on the job remains a sore point, with a number of officers around the country being accused of seriously abusing their authority. Fonseca says while he does not condone such behaviour, in most cases, the policemen are simply overreacting to the stress of […]
If yesterday’s presentations at the forum on the impact of cruise tourism were polite, today’s could only be described as blunt. Representatives of Belize’s traditional overnight tourism sector openly called for greater control of cruise tourism, the unbridled growth of which, they say, is destroying the nation’s environment and will in the end degrade Belize’s […]
The marine areas of Belize, including internal waters, territorial sea and exclusive economic zone, total thousands of square miles…and policing this vast space presents formidable challenges for law enforcement authorities. That’s why it’s especially important that the Fisheries Department, BDF, police and Port Authority, join forces to make the best use of scarce resources. Today, […]
In a time of intense financial pressures it’s the only real bright spot in the Belizean economy. Tourism–more specifically cruise tourism–is showing the kind of annual increases that even as recently as five years ago were unimaginable. But while those at the top and bottom of the cruise ship feeding frenzy seek to expand their […]
If ending the AIDS epidemic ranks high on the Nation’s "to-do" list, its biggest competitor for the nation’s attention is the problem of crime. Again, today it was Belize’s youth being asked to make some adjustments in attitude. Jacqueline Woods, Reporting These high school students may have felt safe seated among a large number of […]
Twenty-one year old Belizean Andujar Bradley, is not only a model for Ralph Lauren, but he is the founder and executive director of a New York based youth organization, Team Revolution. Because Bradley has worked so effectively, The Young Men’s Christian Association wasted no time in bringing him to their compound to meet with a […]
They say that what separates humans from animals is that humans are the only living creatures who know they will one day die. And while not all of us will leave this earth at a ripe old age, most of us hope to. Now you’d think these truths would ensure that our oldest citizens would […]
If the number of media reports are any indication, then there would be no doubt that Belize’s children are the most heavily studied and subsidized group in the country. And while that point is debatable, what isn’t is that under the prodding of UNICEF and the local agencies it funds, the nation’s young people are […]
There’s a sour taste in the mouths of sugar workers tonight as the country’s only processor, Belize Sugar Industries Limited, has confirmed that approximately ninety members of staff will be laid off. According to BSI’s Chief of Operations, Lennox Neal, effective October twenty-seventh, ninety employees, including factory workers, cultivation personnel and dockhands, will be made […]
It was to have had more fireworks than Independence eve, but the quarterly meeting of the Northern Fishermen Cooperative, scheduled for Friday in Belize City, has been postponed until mid-October. According to Chief Executive Officer in the Ministry of Fisheries, Michael Tewes, on Friday September seventeenth, the entire executive of the cooperative sent a letter […]
It’s been a busy couple of weeks for UNICEF as the UN agency is using the occasion of its mid-term review to highlight the status of children in Belize. Today, News 5’s Patrick Jones attended the launching of a new study at Bird’s Isle. Starla Bradley Acosta, Programme Officer, NCFC “This publication, “Children Should Be […]
They were only appointed on Thursday, but this morning the Senate select committee charged with investigating the Belize Social Security Board held its first meeting. The gathering, which convened at the National Assembly building in Belmopan, was called to form a census or the committee’s operational procedures and plan the way forward. Present were Chairman […]
With so many young people making the headlines these days for all the wrong reasons, the Ministry of Human Development and UNICEF decided to hold a forum in which teens can discuss violence and the juvenile justice system. News Five was at the Belize Institute of Management this morning. Patrick Jones, Reporting The room full […]
The Social Security saga began its next chapter today as this afternoon a Senate committee was officially appointed to investigate the alleged scandal at the SSB. The committee will be comprised of Senators Moises Chan, Rene Gomez, Arthur Roches, Dickie Bradley and Senator Godwin Hulse, who will act as Chairman. Their mandate is to investigate […]
It’s a subject often in the media and today the news on AIDS is both good and bad. Jacqueline Woods reports on the most recent statistics along with efforts toward reducing an alarming trend. Jacqueline Woods, Reporting The number of new HIV and Aids cases continues to rise in Belize. Dr. Paul Edwards, Epidemiologist, Ministry […]
