It came as no surprise that today at the sitting of the House of Representatives, the Musa administration announced tax increases for locally produced beer, cigarettes, and rum, as well as rate hikes in Stamp Duties for certain land transactions. And with tensions running high over the state of the country’s finances, Belmopan had prepared […]
The first member of the House to rise and object to the B.T.L. motion was in fact, not the Leader of the Opposition, but rather P.U.P. backbencher and representative for the Albert constituency, Mark Espat. First, Espat complained that he had only been given a few hours to review the motion… but that time proved […]
In his presentation to the House, Leader of the Opposition Dean Barrow spoke of the about face the Musa administration appeared to be taking regarding Michael Ashcroft and his Ecom. Dean Barrow, Leader of the Opposition ?Can the Prime Minister, Madam Speaker, seriously think that it is okay to come to us today and without […]
The only member to speak on the amendments to the brewery act was the representative for Lake Independence, Cordel Hyde, who maintained that the taxes should be increased to a much higher level than the government proposed today. Cordel Hyde, Area Rep., Lake Independence ?Raise the excise tax on beer to twelve dollars, tax the […]
Another hot issue that has been bubbling on the streets of Belize City this week were allegations that the Government of Belize had done business transactions on the derivatives market. As we understand it, what G.O.B. did was to use millions of U.S. dollars it borrowed from Solomon Smith and Barney and convert it to […]
Viewers may recall that in September of 2004, Prime Minister Said Musa and Leader of the Opposition Dean Barrow both endorsed the National Plan of Action for Children and Adolescents 2004-2015. Today, the N.C.F.C. hosted a social sector coordination meeting to discuss how the N.P.A. will be put into effect over the next five years. […]
A man who was given twenty years for attacking his spouse with a machete in 2003 had part of his sentence lifted by the Court of Appeal today. Thirty-year-old Kenrick Nunez contended that the sentence handed down by Justice Troadio Gonzalez in October of last year was excessive. Nunez had been given ten years for […]
A former member of the B.D.F. who was convicted of raping a ten-year-old girl, escaping from prison and fleeing to the United States, has appealed his conviction. Jason Flores, who was sentenced to ten years in jail by Justice Simeon Sampson in 2004 appeared before the Court of Appeal today and argued he did not […]
The Prevention of HIV/AIDS among Youth in Especially Difficult Circumstances is an initiative that seeks to do just that, stop the spread of the disease among Belize’s most vulnerable population. These include commercial sex workers, adolescents, out of school young people, homosexuals, and prisoners. But how much progress has been made towards that goal? A […]
A new anthology of Belizean literature featuring fourteen women writers was launched today by Cubola Productions. “Memories, Dreams and Nightmares, Volume 2” is a collection of fourteen short stories and includes such established writers as Zee Edgell, Kathy Esquivel, Zoila Ellis, and Myrna Manzanares as well as introduces the work of up and coming new […]
