Their behaviour as model legislators was exemplary. And while today’s youth parliament may have lacked the theatrical fireworks of the real thing, the serious mood only underlined the importance of the debate. Patrick Jones reports from Belmopan. Patrick Jones, Reporting They are not the usual faces we see in the House of Representatives, but the […]
By any account, it’s about as close to a rock and a hard place as you can get. Tonight the Public Utilities Commission is charged with finding common ground between the monopoly telecommunications provider: Belize Telecommunications Limited and the Belizean consumer. B.T.L. is insisting that as part of its ongoing preparation for the onset of […]
It’s the subject of what seems like a never-ending debate. But while the public tries to figure out the role of Creole in our society, the language’s proponents are busy putting pen to paper. Patrick Jones reports. Patrick Jones, Reporting They’re not your usual spy or fiction novels; but the excitement over the latest books […]
This evening, the Women’s Issues Network unveiled the publication: Definition of Gender in the Belizean Context. It is a guide that will assist organizations on how to better integrate and serve their male and female employees. WIN says it recognizes that both sexes have different needs, perspectives and interests and therefore every policy, project or […]
Just before three this morning much of the country was plunged into darkness after electrical storms in Mexico tripped Belize’s power supply from the Comission Federal de Electricidad (C.F.E.). But, as you might recall, after the last series of blackouts, Belize Electricity Limited had promised that its new gas turbine at Mile Eight would have […]
There are four days left for anyone in possession of illegal guns and ammunition to freely hand in your weapons without penalty. Collection centres were opened all over the country in early August, but to date less than a dozen firearms have been turned in. According to the National Coordinator for the Gun Amnesty and […]
With the kick-off of the Carnival Season, the National Committee for Families and Children, N.C.F.C., has issued a statement saying they are “deeply concerned” about what they characterise as the increasingly provocative costumes and dancing. The agency says that although it is the right of all children to participate in the national celebrations and other […]
Since 1997, Marla’s House of Hope for abused children has been operating from a rent-free building, made possible through Help for Progress. But today opening ceremonies were held in Belmopan for the organisation’s move into its own new and improved building. Land for the structure was donated by the Belmopan City Council, while funding came […]
He lived alone and appears to have died alone. This sad fact was discovered by neighbours this morning, and although they called the police, and one relative stopped by, the already decaying body was still there several hours later. So neighbours called the media to try and get some action. News 5 visited the scene […]
Summer vacation is almost over, but if you think that children are getting tired of running around outdoors or playing sports, think again. News 5 was invited to a track and field competition that proved Belizean children still have plenty of energy left. Jacqueline Woods, Reporting It is not the first time that Curlin King […]
The Inter-American Convention against Corruption and its implementation in Belize were the focus of a one-day conference today. Belize signed on to the convention in June 2001 and ratified it in September of last year, becoming the twenty-ninth country to do so. Representatives of the public and private sectors, government, and civil society today sat […]
If you got your copy of the Tuesday Amandala, you may have seen an advisory by Belize Telecommunications Limited informing customers that it intends to adjust rates yet again, effective September twelfth. However, users will notice that what appear to be “new” rates are awfully similar to the ones B.T.L. is already charging and was […]
Those of you who depend on email for business, or to stay in touch with friends and family, probably noticed that over the past several days your messages were slow in arriving at their destinations…in some cases, they didn’t go through at all. While the problem is exclusively with B.T.L. email addresses, for once the […]
There are daily reports of young men and women finding themselves on the wrong side of the law. And while a community frustrated with the crime situation might be tempted to pack these youths up and send them on a one-way trip to Hattieville, human rights advocates are campaigning for a different approach. It’s called […]
And in an update to a story we reported on earlier this week relating to the passport scandal, this afternoon attorney Michel Chebat informed us that his client, businessman Gabby Affif, is on vacation and does not consider himself to be a fugitive from the law. While Chebat declined to indicate Affif’s whereabouts or projected […]
Traffic: the seriousness of the problem is exceeded only by the number of times authorities announce measures to solve it. Here we go again. Jacqueline Woods, Reporting It is not the first time that the police traffic branch and the Departments of Traffic and Transport have coordinated their efforts, but it will be the first […]
They are a familiar fixture of the Belizean legal system, and although there are currently over fifteen hundred Justices of the Peace in the country, at times it still seems that you can’t find one when you need one. But the Association of JPs and Commissioners of the Supreme Court is looking to change all […]
Prolonged strikes by workers, or lockouts by management are not everyday occurrences in Belize, but when they do take place they have the power to wreak havoc on our tiny economy. That’s why efforts are being made to find new ways to deal with the problems between employees and employers. News 5’s Patrick Jones reports. […]
He was a low-profile official with a top-level position in the Belize office of the Inter American Development Bank. And tonight Carl Henri Dupui is dead. Dupui, a forty-nine year old Haitian national, has been serving in the post of Financial Specialist with the I.D.B. country office in Belize since 1998. When he did not […]
The Kid-O-Rama Show is Belize’s first radio programme to be produced by children. Today, the National Committee for Families and Children announced that the show has won the international One World/UNICEF Award for Outstanding Children’s Radio. According to the N.C.F.C.’s Executive Director, Judith Alpuche, late last year they decided to submit the entry because they […]
With less than two weeks of vacation left for most Belizean school children, families are beginning to make the transition from holiday mode to the discipline of formal education. Today, in one last burst of fun, one of the city’s best known summer programmes graduated its latest squadron of swimmers. Jacqueline Woods, Reporting The elementary […]
When Astrid Perera, thirty-eight year old co-owner of the technology store U.S. COM, went missing in the middle of last month and her employee, twenty-two year old Luis Valdez, disappeared a week later, most people concluded that the two lovers had run off together. But nearly a month later, with no word from either, Perera’s […]
To the countries of Central America, the phenomenon of human trafficking is something that the region is still trying to fully understand. And ministers who make up the region’s Social Integration Council spent the last two days discussing the issue with a view to tackling it head on. After fully ventilating a Belize sponsored motion, […]
Every summer seems to bring increased opportunities for kids in the old capital to trade the squalor of the city for the fresh vistas of the Belizean countryside. But what about the children who live in rural areas? This morning News 5’s Jacqueline Woods found out. Jacqueline Woods, Reporting It was the first time that […]
Lock them up and throw away the key. That statement pretty much summarizes the majority view in Belize on what to do with criminals. But somewhere between conviction and eventual release there is the painful necessity of dealing with those whose deeds have landed them in prison. How inmates are treated during their incarceration may […]
