San Pedro Daily
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Ambergris Caye, Belize Friday August 3, 2007 Belize's only Daily- Seven Days a Week |
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October
is Designated
“Clean Up San Pedro” Month  A committee of town
council and community members has been formed to
spearhead a clean-up campaign on “La Isla Bonita.” Their first public
meeting was held on Friday, July 27th at Fido’s Courtyard where key
community members were invited to partake in planning and implementing
the campaign. Committee members, Mayor Elsa Paz, Councilor Nano
Guerrero, Mayor’s Assistant Felix Ayuso and Tammy Peterson lead the
meeting and introduced the concept behind making San Pedro “the
cleanest island in the Caribbean”campaign.
For more information about this campaign please contactTammy Peterson at tammyinbelize@yahoo.com or call 620-0009 or contact Felix Ayuso at sptb@btl.net or call 621-9843. Read More Belize
looking for a few big hotels
Hotels:
they are one of the pillars of Belize’s tourism industry,
but they don’t operate in a vacuum. Today at the bi-annual general
meeting of the Belize Hotel Association, Minister of Tourism Godfrey
Smith laid out his vision of where hotels fit into the bigger
hospitality picture. Afterwards he was asked specifically if Belize has
the capacity to accommodate the large number of visitors who are
envisioned to arrive on charter flights from Europe, once the new
runway extension is opened at the Philip Goldson International Airport.
Godfrey Smith “I absolutely believe in the concept of at least one if not more flagship hotels and it is a position I’ve stated on more than one occasions. I believe that we have boasted of tourism growth, which has been real, but somehow the growth to the next level seems to be sluggish. We can’t seem to move to the next level and I think having a major well-known brand, a Four Seasons, a Marriot, a Hilton, whatever the case may be, in Belize is fundamental to moving to that next level if you are to go. I believe that because a big hotel would bring value-added in three different ways. Obviously, the people they would need to construct the building is one thing, but once a one hundred and fifty, two hundred room hotel is created you need people to run it, so you need to train people. Those people won’t all stay, they’ll move and they’ll train more and basically at the end of the day what you will see is a qualitative rise in the quality of service of people involved, the service providers in this sector. Secondly, these big hotels do their own marketing. Local hotels in Belize do their own marketing, but a big Four Seasons, a big Marriot would spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on its own marketing as well. So those things taken together would bring value-added and you would experience, in my view, an overall growth in tourism.” According to Smith, Government has been meeting with a number of international flag hotel operators to induce them to locate in Belize. Read More Should Hugo Come?
Godfrey Smith The
Government of Hugo Chavez has so far given a US $5.6 million grant to
Belize, US $50 million loan to assist with the bond offering and a
further US $10 million grant is in the pipeline. Leaders of other
countries have received the Order of Belize for doing much less.
The hesitation in extending an invitation to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to make a state visit to Belize is, if nothing else, a clear sign of the hyper-dominance of the United States in the geopolitics of the region. But any visceral fear of US reprisals resulting from having invited Hugo to Belize is perhaps, more fundamentally, symptomatic of the party’s lack of a clearly stated and defended political ideology. If, for example, Mr. Chavez were to go on a state visit to Mexico tomorrow, there would be no serious questions about the leanings of the current Mexican Government. Admittedly, Mexico is bigger and substantially more important to the United States than Belize. But more to the point, the Americans know that President Calderón is a conservative; they know his political ideology. It would have been an entirely different matter if López Obrador, regarded as a populist, had won in Mexico last year; or, if Mr. Chavez visits Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega. Read More Belize
Will Get Sea Level
Monitoring Equipment Belize
is the headquarters for the Caribbean Climate Change Center and now
technicians have committed to install sea level monitoring equipment in
Belize. Climate change experts say that a rise in sea levels is one of
the greatest risks associated with climate change and its underscored
in countries like Belize that have vast coastlines. Keith Miller of the
University of the West Indies explains how the information gathered
will be useful to develop sound land use practices.
Keith Miller, UWI “It is important for a local economy to find means of adaptations if the sea is rising, if the sea is sinking relative to the land mass when it is going to affect people’s livelihoods, people’s homes, the way in which we grow produce, farm, agriculture. Water intrusion into agriculture lands is going to be the first signs of any sea level change, it is going to impact on the way of which we make use of the lands.” Miller says it will take about 10 years to gather a useful body of information. Read More National Health
Insurance
expands coverage  At
the end of this month, N.H.I. will roll out on Belize City’s
northside, San Pedro, and Caye Caulker, and by the end of the year will
go countrywide. Stewart Krohn
“You mentioned Social Security. Does N.H.I. have anything to do with Social Security or is this just a means to identify people?” Dr. Paul Edwards “Of course Social Security has to do with N.H.I. When we talk about somebody accessing services at the Cleopatra White Health Centre, there is a very small co-payment. Let’s say for example ten dollars, just for example that person requires imaging services, an ultrasound, which would cost eighty dollars. If that person pays ten dollars and we talk about in life there is no freebie, where then does the money come from for the seventy dollars? From three sources: Social Security Board, the primary care budget from the Ministry of Health, and the government of Belize general revenues. So we’re talking about a Ministry of Health system whereby services are being paid by N.H.I.” Read More NOTICES/LETTERS
TO THE EDITOR
Miss
Belize Wins Costa Maya Pageant!
Congratulations to Maria Jeffery!! Simon THOUGHT
OF THE DAY
The value of achievement HEALTH
AND BEAUTY
THE SAN PEDRO DAILY ARCHIVES |
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