San Pedro Daily
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Ambergris Caye, Belize Thursday July 12, 2007 Belize's only Daily- Seven Days a Week |
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Life Behind the
Prison Walls
in Hattieville  In 2002 the Hattieville
Prison became
the Belize Central Prison when its management was handed over to the
Kolbe Foundation. In 2002 there were just under one thousand inmates
and today there are just over one thousand three hundred inmates. But
the folks at the Kolbe Foundation say that those numbers tell nothing
of the transformation that's taken place in the culture of the
institution. Today we found out what a difference five years has made.
John Woods, Chairman - Kolbe Foundation "Before, somebody would mess up and they would pick them up, throw them in here and just ruin him." That was five years ago. Koble Foundation Chairman John Woods says that the Hattieville Prison you see today is a facility renovated and rebuilt, and that's from the ground up.  John
Woods,
"Before when you came in here it was a war zone and people were getting horribly abused. Now, it is not so much us. It is the prisoners themselves saying they will leave that on the outside. We live and work together in here. Our basis is we believe that all are created in the image and likeness of God and if we truly believe that, that means we are brothers and sisters and we have to learn to live and work together." And there are 1300 prisoners living at the central prison. So what has changed? Well Woods says the changes are obvious. At the outset there is a new user friendly visiting area. A major change is that there are more cells. Instead of 12 inmates to a cell - there is an average now of only 6. And in those cells - all 1,300 inmates have their own beds. That is in addition to the Supermax with 44 inmates and the Isolation Unit with 6 prisoners. John Woods, "In the max-medium I have seen as many as 12 people in one 8 by 10 cell. That means they all couldn't lay down at the same time. One of the things is that when we first took over, there were only three hundred beds in here and there were 900 prisoners so that meant that 600 people were sleeping on the floor. Now everybody has a bed or has access to a bed except in Supermax where they destroy everything; it is hard to keep beds in there." But most prisoners aren't locked in their cells all day. Most are out in the yard: playing basketball, exercising, or working. Fellowship is also now a major part of life at Kolbe. Woods says that Kolbe's focus hasn't been on incarceration - it has been on rehabilitation. Read More Government
Easing DFC
Payments for Housing & Student Loans
It's the bust after the
housing boom of
the first PUP term; hundreds of DFC loans called in for non payment;
the insolvent DFC crushed beneath its own weight, no longer able to
support its massive non-performing portfolio. So every week in the
papers, long lists of foreclosures are advertised, many of them the
property of Belizeans who became first time homeowners under the PUP's
housing programme and are now unable to service their mortgages.
The
basket of goods are
gasoline, local cigarettes, local beer at the best consumer prices: All
in BZ$ And while it's a domestic disaster for those folks, it's been a steady political hemorrhage for the Musa administration and now in the year of election, Cabinet has decided to stop the blood letting by reducing the monthly payments. Government will pay $100 a month to the DFC on behalf of 1,624 persons with loans of less than $35,000. So, assuming that your loan principal was less than $35,000, and if, for example, your monthly payment to the DFC was $250 dollars, it will now be $150. Pretty much the same thing will be done at Social Security which holds quite a large number of non performing or housing mortgages. The details of that plan have not been hammered out yet though. That's an interesting case because the SSB housing portfolio is between $40 million and $50 million, and more than half of those mortgages, about $29 million worth are referred to as imperfect. That means they lack proper documentation, where houses were built on properties for which the owner has no title. Because the title situation is unresolved, those houses cannot be foreclosed upon any way and so in any case, they would have to be subsidized. Of course, those mortgages, defective as they were, were still tossed into the mortgage bundles during the heady but heedless days of the Ralph Fonseca paper driven securitization frenzy. Read More PRICE
COMPARISON
GAS CIGS BEER Belize: BZ$10/gallon $6/pack $3/ bottle Guatemala: BZ$6/gal $2.5/pack $1/bottle Chet: BZ$4.40/gal $2/pack $.50/ Bottle Washington: BZ$6/gal $8/pack $2/bottle Venezuela: BZ$.50/gal $2/pack $.75/botle Green
Reef
announces training on Bacalar Chico
San Pedro
Town, July 10, 2007
Green Reef Environmental Institute announced today that it is seeking applicants for specialized tour guide training about Bacalar Chico National Park and Marine Reserve. The 8-day course will be provided free of charge. The training will be held in late 2007 or early 2008, but will be scheduled only after the selection of successful applicants. Space will be limited. “Bacalar Chico has many unique features,” said Mito Paz, Green Reef Executive Director. “The specialized training will cover its geology, flora, fauna, marine resources and cultural history. Our funding comes from a grant from COMPACT (the Community Management of Protected Areas Conservation Programme), an organization seeking to protect and enhance appreciation of the Belize Barrier Reef System – World Heritage Site.” Applicants must have completed the National Tour Guide Training. Additional information and applications can be obtained from the offices of the San Pedro Tour Guide Association, Caribeña Producers Cooperative Society or Green Reef Environmental Institute. NOTICES/LETTERS
TO THE EDITOR
Businesses here reporting difficulty
receiving long-distance calls and faxes...
#####
Church
services will be
held at Holy Cross Anglican School on
Sunday, July 16th at 11am. Guest preacher will be the Rev. Don
McNichol from Charlottesville, Virginia. The entire community is
cordially invited to attend! #####
Holy
Cross Anglican School
will hold Summer School for
entering
Standard III, IV, V students who received less than 75% in Math and/or
Language Arts for the previous school year and for ALL entering
Standard VI
students starting on Monday, July 16 at 8:45am. Classes will run
for
two weeks and are designed to provide a basic review in core
subjects. Cost is $40 per
student. For additional information, please call the School at
226-3456.THOUGHT
OF THE DAY
Always do right--this will gratify some and astonish the rest. Mark Twain |
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 www.grandcaribe.bz debbiewade@gmail.com
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