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Latest products for tourism industry
go green  Today the first annual
Hotel and Hospitality Expo was officially
launched at the Princess Hotel in Belize City. According to organiser
Robin McCutcheon, the one day event was designed to showcase service
and décor items now available to the tourism industry. And as we
found
out, one of the newest additions to the market is a line of
biodegradable food containers and eating utensils as well as
environmentally friendly cleaning products. Luis Garcia, General
Manager of Eco-Friendly Solutions explains.
Luis Garcia, General Manager, Eco-Friendly Solutions “Bags, cups and plates made out corn, they are fully bio-degradable in four months and also environmentally friendly cleaners which are Ph neutral cleaners.” Marion Ali “These are made in Belize, and how are they made?” Luis Garcia “These products we do the moldings and we have worked in the research, along with Nature Works in the P.L.A. line and we’ve worked with Eco Green in the corn line in starch and now we are doing the molding and the products are sent to production in China.” Marion Ali “Compare the prices of these products to regular products.” Luis Garcia “The P.L.A. which are the transparent cups are much higher in price, I would say probably double, the corn will probably be just a cent or two cents more expensive.” Marion Ali “So how do you market something like this, yes it’s safe but it’s costly.” Luis Garcia ”Well, what is the cost of saving the environment is the question. I think that people who are environmentally conscious and realize what Styrofoam and plastic are doing, not only to the environment but to the health of Belizeans, then I think change will come.” According to Garcia, the biodegradable line of products includes plates, cups, knives, forks and bags. All the containers are freezer and microwave safe. Read More PUBLIC OFFICERS RECEIVE
CUSTOMER SERVICE TRAINING
Senior public officers
are being trained in customer
services under
the auspices of the Office of Governance. Head of Modernization Unit at
the Office of Governance, Ruth Meighn, tells us more about the
training.
Ruth Meighn,Head of Modernization Unit at the Office of Governance: “This training is done in customer service.What happened is that the office of governance has undertaken the under the modernization initiative,and we have been training people differently.This is one of the areas we are looking on and what we have been concentrating on is to develop charters because you need to have some kind of contract with the public to let them know the type of services and as such,we’re training several officers.So for key agencies,front line services right now,these people work daily with the public and as such,we need to put our face out there.And so we are starting at this level and we will use it as a pilot and then we’ll continue from there.The public will look at the public service especially as it relates to service provision and so we’re trying to move that kind of stigma and having that respect to the public service.It’s really working to improving the service of the public and also to satisfy our customers.” The departments represented are the Immigration and Nationality Department, Customs and Excise, General Sales Tax, and Lands and Survey Departments. Meighn highlights what they hope to achieve at the end of the training. Ruth Meighn,Head of Modernization Unit at the Office of Governance: “What we’re hoping to achieve is the development of service charters,that is actually a contract or information for the public to let them know what type of services we provide.We let them know what are their expecting shares,we set out standards and we have a kind of feedback company mechanism where they can go back to if they are not getting the type of service that we say that we should be providing.Of course the public will have some sort of responsibilities depending on the type of services,because you know we list those things.If you want this or this done,this is what you need to provide and we will provide it with the services within those times.So it’s actually telling the public that we go to lands and surveys department,you apply for land lease certificate and you will get it within,let’s say three weeks depending on all of these criteria.But it will be set out in such a way that the public knows exactly what to expect from the department.” Read More UNESCO's
Director-General pays his first official visit to Belize
Koïchiro Matsuura,
the Director-General of UNESCO, has paid his first
official visit to Belize. It is the first official visit of a UNESCO
Director-General to the country.
The Director-General held fruitful talks with Rt. Hon. Said Musa, Prime Minister of Belize. Hon. Francis Fonseca, Attorney General and Minister of Labour, Education and Culture was also present at that meeting. Mr. Matsuura also met with Dr. Colville Young, Governor-General of Belize, and Hon. Lisa Shoman, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade of Belize. The Director-General thanked the Prime Minister for his invitation to visit Belize and expressed his satisfaction for the nomination in December 2005 on a full time basis of Senator Roy Cayetano as Secretary-General of the Belize National Commission to UNESCO. He paid tribute to the Prime Minister for the increasingly fruitful collaboration between UNESCO and Belize, particularly in the areas of education, science and culture. The Director-General congratulated Belize for the inclusion of the Belize Barrier Reef on the World Heritage site list and encouraged the Prime Minister to make additional proposals of sites for inclusion on the World Heritage list, making reference to the multiple Mayan ruins in Belize that could be considered as cultural World Heritage sites. The Director-General also congratulated Belize on the inclusion of the Garifuna language, dance and music on UNESCO\'s list of masterpieces of oral and intangible heritage of humanity. The Director-General underlined the importance for countries in the Caribbean region to ratify the various UNESCO Conventions related to cultural heritage, in particular the Convention on the Protection of Underwater Cultural heritage, in order to undertake a regional approach to these issues. The Prime Minister informed Mr. Matsuura that Belize was favourable to ratifying these conventions. While in Belize, the Director-General visited the Special Education Unit in the Ministry of Education of Belize, and was given a tour by its coordinator, Mrs. Eleanor Castillo. The unit was established in 1991 to ensure that all children with special education needs throughout the country have access to special education. It operates on the principle of inclusive education and provides training to teachers and parents, support to three schools and four special education centres in the country and facilitates the development of parent associations for children with special needs. The Director-General praised the work of the unit and reiterated UNESCO\'s support for inclusive education in Belize, and in particular for the centre. Mr. Matsuura also visited the University of Belize, where he met with the University\'s president, Mr. Santos Mahung, and members of its faculty. They discussed the important role the University was playing in developing quality tertiary-level education in Belize, in particular through its International Education for Development Programme and its Natural Resources Management Programme. The Director-General also had the opportunity to visit the Museum of Belize, and was given a tour by its director, Ms. Lita Khron. The Museum is located in a refurbished British colonial prison built in 1857, and houses a permanent museum collection on Maya Masterpieces that spans the ancient Maya civilization from 600 B.C. to A.D. 1500. During his stay in Belize, the Director-General also visited the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre, which coordinates the Caribbean region\'s response to climate change and is the key node for information on climate change issues and the region\'s response to managing and adapting to climate change in the Caribbean. Mr Matsuura congratulated the Centre for its work on climate change, and for its fruitful collaboration with UNESCO\'s International Hydrological Programme. The Director-General encouraged the centre to also collaborate with the Inter-governmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) and informed the Centre of IOC\'s many activities related to climate change. Read More NOTICES-
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR San Pedro Flea Market- Located at Pasta La Vista and open Thursday-Sunday, 10am-10pm Lost Journal- Light Green Book w/Palm Tree on front. REWARD for return. rebecaribe@hotmail.com There
will be a NACNW
meeting this Saturday
Sept 29th at noon at the Palapa Bar, followed by a 'Northerners' meeting immediately after. Hope
to see you there!
Natalie
THOUGHT OF THE DAY Education is when you read the fine print. Experience is what you get if you don't Pete Seeger |
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 www.grandcaribe.bz debbiewade@gmail.com
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