Important Note: This Internet version of 7 News is a verbatum
transcript of our evening television news script. Many interviews on our newscast
are conducted in Creole. In the interest of clarity for our foreign readers,
we attempt to paraphrase the Creole quotes in English
The Southside community surrounding Supal and Plues Street was left shattered last night after the body of a 6-year-old boy was found at the bottom of the canal. King Shakel Wade reportedly fell into the canal at around 3 and stayed there for the next three and a half hours.
It's a tragedy that has left the community distraught and full of questions about the circumstances that led to his drowning. Who was watching him? Why was he left alone? How did it take so long to realize he'd fallen in?
Courtney Menzies attempted to find the answers to these questions. Here's her story.
It was around 5:30 yesterday evening that dozens of residents near Supal Street were searching frantically for a missing 6-year-old. King Shakel Wade had been in the backyard of his babysitter's house when he fell into the canal.
As night set in, the already near-black water became darker and while some members of the community had dived in, others were using long poles to feel around for the child.
About twenty minutes past 6, Wade's little body was pulled up from under the water. But he'd been lying at the bottom of the canal for about 3 hours, and CPR efforts were futile.
For the past twenty four hours, Wade's family has been trying to piece together how it happened. His aunt told us she was at work when she heard a child fell into a canal, not knowing it was her own nephew.
Courtney Menzies: "What was running through your head when you found out it was King?"
Sharon Wade, Aunt of Deceased "What happened? I still have more questions than answers. What happened? Who was there? How was that possible?"
"From what I know, my nephew, who is a 5 year old, he went inside and he alerted an adult and told that adult that King Shakel fell in the canal, I guess because they're children, they probably didn't believe, they thought that they were playing, so it wasn't something that they took as an alert, jump and say, oh let me go see what happened, no."
It wasn't until Wade's 12 year old sister arrived at the babysitter's house around 3:30, inquiring about her brother, that 56 year old Jennifer Fitzgibbon realized something was wrong. But she says they began searching the neighborhood instead of the canal.
Voice of: Jennifer Fitzgibbon, Babysitter "When she came back here, and my grandson told her King is in the canal. So she laughed and I told her don't laugh because that could be serious. So we went looking around, we went all around to where we think he could've been, and we came back. And when we came back I told her, go check in that canal one more time to see if you see his slippers. And that's when I heard her bawl out. When I came, I saw the two slippers in the canal and from then they started to search."
At that time, Wade had been under for at least an hour. It wasn't until after 5, though, that police and coast guard were called onto the scene. Their presence alerted the rest of the neighborhood, who ran out to help. By the time Wade had been found, four men had braved the canal's.murky shoals to search for him with the entire neighborhood pressing unto the edge of the canal.
Arenel Smith, Rescuer "I don't really know what happened but that just hurt me when I heard King was in the water. First thing that came to my head was to go home, take off the clothes you have on, no hesitation, and jump in the water. Don't worry about what's down there or what's in there, just jump in the water and try to save the little boy. First time I was circling and circling, I'm not finding anything but I still didn't give up hope to say come out and roll out. I stayed right there and we searched and searched. Coast Guard and so came. They were supposed to be in the water, but we're from around here. I don't know if they're afraid because they heard about crocodiles and those things, we don't worry about those things."
Egbert Myers, Rescuer "When we went there, we met police over there looking for the baby but they couldn't find him, until the night when I saw everybody starting to jump in the water then I said just let me go. As I jumped in the water, when I went to the bottom, I felt his foot."
"It was rough. I didn't even want to go pick him up but I had to because he was my little cousin."
Steve White, Rescuer "I knew that he already drowned, we couldn't save him, but we wanted to find his body before the next day, we didn't want to have to go back and look for him the next day but down there is very dangerous, very deep, a lot of zinc, all kinds of things can cut you down there."
"When they were handing the little boy up, nobody wanted to receive him so I just ran across the canal and grabbed the little boy and put him in my arms and run with him and my tears just started to come."
It was a tragedy that befell the entire community. And like the family, they have also been questioning the events leading up to it.
Fitzgibbon explained that Wade enjoyed running across the canal when horses are passing, led by their owners to go and feed. But how did no one notice that Wade was missing before his sister came home?
The babysitter claims she was at home taking care of the other children at the time it happened, and that she instructed Wade to sit in the front of the yard. But Wade's family says that they have heard rumors to suggest otherwise.
Sharon Wade, Aunt of Deceased "There's a lot that is going around. People are saying that she was not there at the time. I don't know, I wasn't there. I know her as a person that, yes, she looks after my nieces and nephews, that's what I know her for. She's not the only adult in the yard so even if she went out, I'm not sure if she alerted another adult of told them that, okay I'm going to do something, just keep an eye on the kids. We don't know but it's something that us the family are leaving in the hands of the police."
And in the meantime, this tragedy has broken the hearts of everyone who played a part in Wade's short life.
Voice of: Jennifer Fitzgibbon, Babysitter "I can't even explain it. I'm telling you. It hurts. I don't want to watch anymore kids."
Reporter: "So now that you're going though this, you feel like you're not going to be babysitting anymore?"
Voice of: Jennifer Fitzgibbon, Babysitter "No."
Sharon Wade, Aunt of Deceased "We have to be strong for my nephew who saw what happened, he has a very strong relationship with King. He is five, King is six, so they grew up together and we just have to talk to him because he saw, he told them what happened but nobody was listening."
"I have two daughters, a 10 and a 7 year old, I can't even imagine the pain that my sister is going through right now, I can't tell you how she feels, I can't find the words to comfort her, I just have to be the strong one and remain by her side."
And his aunt told us that Wade was treated like a King in the Plues Street area where he lived - known and loved by everyone he met.
Sharon Wade, Aunt of Deceased "In the family, he is known as the sweet and sour child. The name is explanatory for itself because King would be doing something out of the way and his mom will beat him and right after that, King will go do something to sweet up his mom so everybody in the family call him sweet and sour. At the school, the kids they love him, the principal, she always says that she loves King's honesty because if King is to be in the office, he would hurry say what he had done just so he could get out of the way. He was a playful child, he loves to play, he would be on the street, this entire neighborhood knows King because King hails everybody, everybody loves King, he's very lovable."
"We as the family are very grateful for them, the men that jumped in and found him, we're grateful that we managed to get his body out of that canal before the night was out."
Wade leaves behind his three siblings.
Their father, Shakeem Humes, was murdered back in August 2020. Yesterday would have been his birthday.
Humes' brother, and Wade's uncle, was also killed in August 2018.
And just like the cops, the coast guard was called when it was already too late to do anything but recover the child's body. According to one of the officers, he knew he had to jump in and try to find the child. He explained what those moments of searching were like.
Noel Avila, Pedi Officer, Coast Guard "I did my own risk assessment and I went down the canal, came back up and my parent instincts kicked in because I am a father and I told the chief I am going in the water so I change my clothes knowing that debris would be in the water I went in with a tennis and I just grid off each section and I started to bob and use my feet as prongs to feel and the first area I thought the child would have went it wasn't because under the bridge was like 4ft of silt and 2 ft of water so I knew the child didn't go in that area so I went and started the next section and when I started that section. 3 to four brave civilians jumped in with me and I think the furthest to my right he jumped in and I think he landed on the child and brought up the child and I did all my best to hide the child from the media and from people taking pictures I tried my best and I handed him over to the medic and same thing my parent instincts kicked in and I tired not to make the media see the child and everyone that was videoing I tried my best to not let them image because no parent would have wanted that to happen."
"When we arrived we were informed that the child was in there from 3:00 and we got the information nearly 5:40 we received the call and I was in the area so I responded first. There is a big time gap as to how we just got the call it's not like it happened and we took long we just got the call."
"3 hours in the water is a long time I don't want to say I didn't think but we still have to try, our job is to still try so I handed it over to the medic and he did it he tried but it's not my call to but he did his best and we all did our best."
But those same civilians who jumped into the water and eventually found Wade's body complained that the Coast Guard and the cops were mostly standing around while they were doing most of the diving. Here's how the officers responded:
Lt Ruperto Pinelo, Navy Nurse, Coast Guard "It was very difficult for him to live because his body was already was stiff he already had rigor Mortis so it was quite challenging for me but the parents were there and they were hoping to get that light that the child would love but unfortunately he was more than three hours under water so it was kind of difficult for me to proceed with the CPR."
"It's no lack thereof we do have personnel that are experts for example the medic department. We have divers, we have experts, the coast guard is never alone so in any emergency that gets called we are right upon the scene so like yesterday they called up 1800 in less than 10-20 mins we were there so it's a lot. Those negative comments, well, they don't know the situation we were in when called upon at 18:00 hours so it's kind of difficult for people to understand how we work."
And shortly after Wade's body was found, we asked Mayor Bernard Wagner his thoughts on the safety of the canals - which, of course, are uncovered. While he didn't know much about the drowning at the time, he said that he believes it was from a lack of supervision.
Bernard Wagner, Mayor of Belize City "Again, it's unfortunate that young children most of the times are not supervised and it's a supervision issue. We have had canals from I was growing up. I think this may be one of the first incident I have heard of someone falling in a canal in my entire life. So again it's a one off type but we can't lose the fact that a child died, I believe, the child died. We as parents have to be held accountable, we have to be able to know every time where our children are and so I just, from the mayor's standpoint, that parents need to know where their children are at every given moment in time."
No lives were lost, but an arson caused three buildings to burn yesterday evening in Dangriga.
Area residents noticed a fire in one of the buildings on Commerce Street and alerted the fire department at about 6:00.
When they got to the scene, police saw three wooden structures engulfed in flames. The fire spread from there, causing damage to two other buildings. It was extinguished within an hour by fire fighters but all three structures were destroyed. Police say "the estimated damage to the buildings is unknown, and no one was injured."
It's been 4 months since the Senate Special Select Committee to investigate the genesis of the Portico Agreement successfully held a public hearing.
The 7th hearing was held today and it should have been must-see TV with the Cabinet Secretary and the Minister of State for Finance and Economic Development on the lineup. The two of them are critical because Coye is the Minister of State who is credited with taking the Portico Definitive Agreement into the Cabinet on May 15, 2023, along with a tacit endorsement to support accompanying legislation. And as Cab Sec, Leslie is the one who would have received the Cabinet paper.
And, they did appear, but not to answer questions. Jules Vasquez reports on a performance that left the social partner senators slack jawed:
Cabinet Secretary Stuart Leslie appeared with his attorney and cabinet colleague, Senator Eamon Courtenay today - and made it clear from the jump that even as the keeper of Cabinet minutes - he's got nothing to share.
Stuart Leslie, Cabinet Secretary "I am here at your invitation as the Cabinet Secretary, not in my personal capacity. As this committee is aware documents and deliberations of the cabinet are strictly confidential and exempt from disclosure. As Cabinet Secretary I took an oath to uphold the laws and the constitution of Belize and I intend to be faithful to that oath."
"I have been advised that I am not a liberty to disclose any cabinet documents or deliberations to this committee or otherwise. Respectfully, I am therefore not in a position to assist this committee with any evidence."
That means he can't discuss this Cabinet confidential document - which has been out in the public domain for 17 months.
But, unfazed by that opening statement, the business Senator opened with his questions:
Senator "Hi, good morning Cabinet Secretary, thanks for coming. I just have a few questions that perhaps you could help me understand...."
Eamon Courtenay, Attorney "Madam Chairman, I am sorry to interrupt Senator, but I have advised...."
Janelle Chanona, Chairlady "Sorry, again, morning Senator Courtenay, I know you are here as an attorney. But again, as per protocol established by the SSC, only the witness is to convey. So you can indicate that legal advice is advising you not to respond, but we would like to pose the questions for you."
Stuart Leslie, Cabinet Secretary "Sorry, I will not answer any questions."
Janelle Chanona, Chairlady "Thank you."
Senator "Cab. Sec. I note that you have said that you would not answer questions that are confidential. Could you assist us with questions of procedure?"
He was talking to an empty chair. The Cabinet Secretary had walked out, leaving the social partner sector senators hanging.
Janelle Chanona, Chairlady "Colleagues can we take a brief suspension and we will have the second witness."
The second witness was Senator Chris Coye, Minister of State for Finance - and the one who took the Portico Definitive Agreement into Cabinet. He too opened with a statement, a more in depth one - but he made cutting remarks and pointed a finger at his Senatorial colleagues:
Chris Coye, Senator, Minister of State for Finance "As I revisit my experience over the past couple years on this matter, it is unfortunate what has transpired."
"Since change of government, it became reasonably clear to me that there was serious investment interest from such parties as Boskalis and Royal Caribbean, to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars."
"With the barrage of propaganda on this project, and even this inquiry, it is unclear where that level of interest now stands. From a development perspective, as it relates to this project, Belize has lost."
"While Belize has lost, there have been beneficiaries. Those who sold lands to the Portico entity enjoy the proceeds of sale. Then, there are certain foreign-funded NGOs who in fact raise money on the backs of their purported achievements for conservation, while at the same time halting development opportunities to the detriment of our people."
"The scuttling of such a project of this nature could very well be seen as a victory for those certain special interests. There is no doubt that the Senate or any committee of the Senate has the powers to conduct inquiries and investigations on any matter of public interests or importance."
"At the same time, just as with any other authority that enjoys powers and discretions, those powers of the Senate can be abused. The Senate and any committee thereof must be resolutely sure not to abuse their powers or be manipulated into abusing their powers to serve third -party special interests, including foreign interests."
And with that - he didn't even wait for them to ask questions:
Chris Coye, Senator, Minister of State for Finance "I will be excusing myself. That's the extent of the statement I have to give today and the evidence that is being provided to this committee."
Senator "Minister, the people of Belize would like to ask you a few questions. The National Trade Union Congress of Belize is especially want to ask you a question, sir. Sir, the salaries you received from the people...."
His question fell to the floor as the senators and law partners walked out of the Chamber, the chair left again with little more than breeze:
Janelle Chanona, Chairlady "Colleagues I submit that we suspend our public hearing and adjourned to the committee room."
"The public hearing is suspended until we resume in the committee room."
And on that dejected note, they retreated to their chambers and later put out a press release - basically begging them to reconsider. It says, quote,
"The Committee was surprised at the witnesses' failure to participate in the Public Hearing. The SSSC is also disappointed with the suggestion made by the Hon. Coye in his opening statement, which attempts to cast aspersions on the work of the Committee; that is unacceptable.
The Committee hereby reaches out to Cabinet Secretary Stuart Leslie and Senator the Hon. Christopher Coye to reconsider their decision and meaningfully support the work of the SSSC in this important matter of public interest."
The UDP issued a press release this evening denouncing the actions of…Coye, and Cabinet Secretary…Leslie and Senator Eamon Courtenay for their, quote, "cavalier appearance before the Senate Special Select Committee this morning."
The release continues, "The public display of disrespect towards the committee by the bumptious and pompous three aristocrats encapsulates this PUP administration's attitude towards our democratic ideals of accountability and transparency." End quote.
Certainly, the walkout was unprecedented and left this newsroom stunned. We asked the Minister of Education and Foreign Affairs if he would have done the same. Here's what he said:
Jules Vasquez "I know you are a defender of democracy and you have been answerable to a fault, one might say. Do you support this?"
Francis Fonseca, Minister of Education and Foreign Affairs "Well, I didn't see anything that you're talking about today. So the first time I'm hearing about it, I've been busy all day today."
"You know, obviously with these hearings, I'm sure they were given legal advice."
Jules Vasquez "They appeared with their attorney."
Francis Fonseca, Minister of Education and Foreign Affairs "Okay, they did. So, you know, I am in no position to second guess what legal advice was given to them."
"Always with these, you know, hearings, inquiries, you know, I always support more information, providing as much information and data and, you know, whatever is asked of us, I'm always in support of that."
"And I know that's the sentiment of the cabinet in terms of this particular hearing and inquiry. But obviously, individuals have to be guided by their own legal advice."
Jules Vasquez "But if it were you? I can't see you walking out on senators. You know, it's not UDP senators. It's senators for the social partners, throwing questions. You would never walk out on that."
Francis Fonseca, Minister of Education and Foreign Affairs "Well, again, I did not see anything. I did not, you're characterizing it as walking out. I don't know if that's the case. I'm sure they provided statements."
Jules Vasquez "They did, but refused to take questions."
Francis Fonseca, Minister of Education and Foreign Affairs "Okay. Again, as I said, they're obviously acting on advice of counsel."
We expect that statements of condemnation will be following from the social partners.
Tracy Panton's Alliance For Democracy is building momentum for its Unity Convention on Sunday. But, Shyne Barrow's UDP is desperate to kill that momentum and deny the breakaway movement any chance at critical mass.
The party's deputy chairman put out a public notice yesterday dissuading standard bearers from attending. It says, quote, "Standard Bearers and delegates of the UDP are reminded that they are sworn to uphold the principles and ideals of the Party...We should…not allow a disgruntled breakaway faction of the Party to twist the Party's Constitution to accommodate their selfish agendas.
At the end of the October 20th event, the United Democracy Party structure will remain steadfast and strong while the N-A-P will emerge as a political entity on its own."
Well, Tracy Panton's group responded to that today with their own statement saying, quote, "We want to make it absolutely clear: the UDP Alliance for Democracy is not a political party, nor are we a breakaway faction. We are a group of longstanding UDP members, supporters, standard bearers and parliamentarians who are committed to saving the UDP by upholding its Constitution and core principles.
...We are committed to bringing real leadership, integrity, and unity back to the UDP. We urge all delegates and UDP supporters to attend the Unity National Convention on October 20th and be part of the movement to rebuild our great Party."
As we've been saying - it's an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object. Will either side give in? Not likely, but we'll have a better idea after Sunday's event.
If you're a pizza lover, you might have already set your sights on the newest pizza joint in Belize. Sbarro has its headquarters in Ohio, but it has hundreds of locations across the US, South and Central America, and Asia.
And as of today, it's officially been opened in Belize City. Our news team got an early taste of the items on their menu last night. Courtney Menzies has that story.
Sbarro is bringing their New York style pizza to Belize City. Their doors officially opened today after a small ribbon cutting and tasting ceremony held last night.
Currently, it's the only American fast food franchise in Belize, and Mayor Bernard Wagner says it shouldn't be the last.
Bernard Wagner, Mayor of Belize City "We need more, we need more franchises and I'm so excited and feel so fulfilled in respect to the franchise taking footing in Belize City. We are the commercial center and we have over 70,000 residents living in our city and in additional to that we have thousands and thousand of people coming into the city each and every day to work in our city and so I'm excited about it and I look forward to additional franchises."
"I tried it in New York so it's a very good brand and when I was told that Sbarro was coming to Belize City, I was like whoa. Now we need to see the Starbucks, we need to see - you're a coffee guy right? We need to see more of these franchises because people identify with branding."
And while there are plenty of other pizza parlors in the city, the CEO of Sbarro Belize told us why Belizeans should give their pie a try.
Jennifer Corzo, CEO, SBarro Belize "We are happy to be here, we are waiting and we open the doors tomorrow so we want all Belizean families to try our products because we don't just have pizza, we have Stromboli, breadsticks, and we are happy to be here and have more food options."
Reporter: "What makes Sbarro stand out?"
Jennifer Corzo, CEO, SBarro Belize "Of course the quality of our ingredients, the quality of the final products and our installations too."
Bernard Wagner, Mayor of Belize City "What it does, it gives people options and employees, I understand the close to 800 people work right next door to Sbarro. It's a brand and so people obviously will have appeal to it. The economic benefits are that when tourists visit your country they're always looking to identify with certain brands and this is just a starting point in my view. It shows that Belize City is getting that footing that is needed in terms of economic development, in terms of diversifying our entire economy and having a franchise putting a footprint now in Belize City, what can I say?"
And those who had got a taste last night say it's worth trying:
Courtney Menzies: "How's the pizza that you're trying right now?"
Customer "Very good. It's delicious."
Courtney Menzies: "Are you excited about this chain here in Belize?"
Customer "Yes, very excited."
Courtney Menzies: "Have you ever had it before?"
Customer "No, actually it's the first time."
Staff, Transparent BPO "It's wonderful."
Courtney Menzies: "How do you feel that it's right next door to you guys?"
Staff, Transparent BPO "It's been a real plus for our employees that they offer so much right here. Our employees have found it real nice, the pizza, the groceries everything, it's been a real bonus that they can get everything right next door and they can take it home with them."
Staff, Transparent BPO "I think the pizza is really different, even the breadsticks that we had is different, it has a different flavor, different seasoning, the cheese, everything on it is good. Everyone has to come over and try it at some point."
But is it good enough to last? Two franchises have tried to open shop in Belize, and have had to close their doors. The mayor said that they should be "given a run" on importation costs.
Bernard Wagner, Mayor of Belize City "People evolve, economies evolve and I believe maybe it was that time was not the right time. I was around when KFC used to be right downstairs, right in front of City Hall, where City Hall is and I remember Subway as well. But we have to make the incentives competitive for these franchises in terms of cost of production, it has to be a situation where the importation for the products that will make the end product, it has to be, you have to give people some rum in terms of what you charge, importation and that sort of thing. That is important is we want to see more franchises in Belize City."
Courtney Menzies: "That same "give them a run," you know the other pizza companies will have an issue with that especially because many of them import some of their products as well."
Bernard Wagner, Mayor of Belize City "Well again, it's about finding the right mix and I am certain that our government looks from a wide perspective in always ensuring that our Belizean businesses have the right environment. From my standpoint in the city, we have been the biggest supporter of local economy, local investors, local businesses, we have supported them fully."
And Sbarro also uses local vegetables and flour to make their pizzas. A slice goes for $10 to $13, and a whole pie ranges between $50 and $60.
The iconic and historic Swing Bridge in downtown Belize City opened in 1923 and spans the Haulover Creek.
It is one of the oldest bridges in the country, constructed in Liverpool, England and then brought to Belize City to be installed.
Up until the early 2000's, the bridge would swing twice a day, once in the morning and again in the evenings, but as the years went by and the structure began to deteriorate, its swinging function was disabled.
And now the historical landmark will be getting a facelift thanks to a collaboration between JICA and the government of Belize.
This afternoon at a press conference in Belmopan, they told us more about the preliminary stages, a survey period which will take place before they begin to work on the bridge:
Evondale Moody, Chief Engineer, MIDH "In terms of the technical aspects of the ministry of infrastructure we have already done some of the ground work so the team that is here now will be executing the survey works and some more detailed designs and analytics with respect to the bridge structure. We have already given them the general concept of what the government would prefer we have also looked at the technical specs in respect to its cross section and the type of construction that we believe would be more conducive to our environment and to the location of where it is so we will also be supporting them in the gathering of additional information they will also need additional hydraulic information that we will have to gather form the met department and there is also some transportation data that will need to be assembled as well in terms of traffic counts and traffic studies and so the ministry of infrastructure will have a full role in the implementation that they will be executing at this point in time."
"Based on our discussions with Jica the idea is not to have the bridge swing anymore because we don't have sufficient vessels going along the haul over creek that requires swinging movement of that structure. We also have taken into consideration the fact that the BEL China bridge does not swing and the new bridge that we will be building at Belcan will also be a fixed structure so there will be no need for the swing bridge to have that swinging motion anymore."
Hiroyuki Morimoto, Team Leader, Road and Transport Planning "The objective of our survey is that basically this project was requested by the government of Belize by the government of Japan for the project implementation under Japan's grant aid project so what we need to do is to collect all the necessary information to verify that this project implementation is under Japan's grant aid project. And also we need to do a technical study the engineering design. And also the cost estimate which is all included so this is the objective that's all."
The survey Period is expected to last a year. Approval must be given first for the grant by the Japanese Government. We'l keep following it.
We've been reporting on the vacancy that government has put out for a contract officer to fill the post of Auditor General. Well, the Public Service Union has raised a strong objection to it.
A release says, quote, "It is…troubling to the PSU, that the present Government of Belize…would seek to diminish the role of this office by treating it like any other ordinary post in the Public Service. The Office of the Auditor General is a constitutionally enshrined position with guarantee to security of tenure and whose salary should be commensurate with that of a Supreme Court Judge...The proposal by the Briceno Administration to diminish the requirements for the holder of this office and offer a meager salary of fifty thousand dollars per annum to the post of Auditor General, represents the back tracking of yet another commitment made to the Belizean people in its Plan Belize manifesto and portrays the burial of this administrations still-born Good Governance Motions introduced on January 11th, 2021...Proper compensation and security of tenure for the Auditor General are essential to maintain independence and prevent undue influence." End quote.
The Prime Minister has said that - on the contrary - a contract gives a worker independence. He also said that they could not find someone within the public service to fill the post, and thus advertised for a contract officer.
A trio of Mayan artifacts unveiled today at the Museum of Belize are called Wind Jewels. They are jade objects of differing sizes which were used as pendants. One of them is the second largest jade object ever found in Belize - second only to the jade head. We asked the Director of Archaeology about it today at the launching of a major new show called "Maya Creating Civilization":
Melissa Badillo, Director, Institute of Archaeology "So these are the wind jewels that have been recovered here in Belize from various archaeological projects and the reason why we wanted to highlight these three pieces is that they have a part to play, a central part to play in agriculture and as we all know no civilization can be sustained without some kind of sustenance and so the wind jewels were highlighted because they played a critical role in ceremonies that the ancient Maya participated in at the start or end of their cycles."
Jules Vasquez "One from Nim li Punit is outstanding it looks like somebody took a sharpie yesterday and etched it out. It's so vivid explain that one and the counterpart Stella from Nim li Punit and how they correlate."
Melissa Badillo, Director, Institute of Archaeology "Sure, so the wind jewel was actually recovered from a burial crypt or a tomb at Nim li Punit in structure 7 which interestingly did not contain any remains of a human body in there. It was just all a variety of jade pieces ceramics and some lithic material, but interestingly we have evidence that the ruler from that site was actually wearing the wind jewel itself and you can see on the Stella the central image is wearing that similar shaped object on their chest and some of the hieroglyphs that we have on there has been translated to indicate that he specifically put this wind jewel on to carry out the ceremony for scattering and that is also related to you know some ritual ceremony for the start of their agricultural season."
We'll have the full report on the modern aspects of this exhibition in tomorrow's news.
The Ministry of Health and Wellness yesterday released a trove of statistics that give an interesting insight into certain social and societal trends. We'll be sharing them with you over the next few nights, but start with the most popular boy and girl baby names over the past 10 years.
Those deathless classics "Jose"and "Maria" are still in the top 5 - but did you know about the increasingly popular Genesis and Jayden? Jomarie Lanza has the breakdown:
Between 2014 and 2023 - the most popular baby names in Belize were - for girls - Mia, then Maria, Anna, Genesis and Emily, and for boys, it was David, followed by Jayden, then Jose, then Jacob and Aiden.
There were 6370 live births in 2023, the fewest since 1994, and just about 900 of those births were to teenage mothers. 1.4%were twins.
The district that had the highest birth rate in 2023 was Stann Creek at 19.4%,while the Belize District was the lowest at 13.2%.
The Belize district also had the highest death rate, followed closely by Corozal. The Cayo District had the lowest death rate.
2036 Belizeans died in 2023, with heart disease being the leading cause of death, followed by cancer, with unintentional injuries and diabetes thirdhand fourth. In total, four of the top five causes of death were from chronic diseases.
In 2023, Significantly more men died than women - almost 400 more.
But today the Mental Health Association was looking at mental health in youths.
Over 100 students from 13 different high schools in Belize City sat in today at an open discussion hosted by the Association and the Department of Youth Services. This year's "Mental Health Youth Symposium" funded by UNICEF took a look at a wide range of topics relating to mental health and suicide prevention, The president of the mental health association, Christa Courtenay gave more details today.
Christa Courtenay, President Mental Health Association "Typically the mental health association has hosted a speech competition each year for world mental health day in October but in the last couple of years with the changes of Covid and re-engaging with high schools we have not been able to. The event hasn't really come back the same way so this year we have decided to combine suicide prevention under the theme changing the narrative and our engagement with high school students in the form of a youth symposium related to the topic of suicide prevention. Changing the narrative kind of explains itself a little bit but we want to make sure that we are providing spaces for engaging conversations cause conversations are really powerful in preventing suicide people that feel open to talk about their feelings or the fact that they might be having suicidal ideas is a key element in being able to prevent them. Not the only one obviously but a very important one so the event is deigned to be a peer conversation so we have 6 panelists that are all high school students from six different high schools so they have their own representation for the panel and I think we have 13 different high school who sent a delegation of students to participate in the panel discussion from the audience. So it's really to promote the engagement, changing the narrative including young people in the conversation of suicide prevention. When you look at the statistics the age group of 15-19 you have the highest number of attempts and so a previous attempt is a high indicator of eventually succumbing to your illness or completing suicide later on so if we can target that particular audience I think we have an opportunity to bring those suicide numbers down. Reduce and end the stigma around having these types of conversations and really opening up for younger people especially here in Belize."
Turning now to politics, the recent voter perception poll found that young voters, especially female voters are becoming increasingly disillusioned with the two party "PUDP" system.
On Thursday, the lead pollster for Viking Strategies discussed the shift in perspective he's observed in the past 14 years:
That same poll has shown that crime is the number one concern for voting age Belizeans in 2024. And that's why the Commissioner of Police's insistence that major crime is down by double digits percentage-wise strikes a dissonant chord in a society which seems to be very worried about the prevalence and reach of crime.
Yesterday we challenged him to produce all the data from the police Crime Information Management System - known as SIMS, which is different from the figures publicly presented on the Belize Crime Observatory website.
Here's that back and forth:
We also asked the commissioner about a recent circular sent out by the police command. It has to do with "Special Duties" - which are those hours police work at private businesses outside of their regular duties. It's basically a higher tier of security guard, with a badge and a weapon. Businesses that can afford it prefer having one of those around, and the cops earn good money on the side, supplementing their income.
But, like everything else where money and opportunity meet, there are various side hustles and mini mafia's in this "SD" business. And the commissioner's circular is to try and minimize that while also formalizing the structure and protecting the cops working SD.
He's not the first commissioner to try it - and he explained the rationale and mechanics behind his effort:
Turning now to Foreign Affairs, on last week's episode of Uncut, Ambassador Assad Shoman ruffled some feathers when he said that Belizeans shouldn't be alarmed at the recent incidents of aggression in the Sarstoon. The BTV yesterday wrote a letter to the Prime Minister condemning what they characterized as him dismissing these assaults.
The letter states, quote, "We cannot have an Ambassador to The Hague representing us when he refuses to acknowledge these assaults, downplaying the gravity of the situation. Before Belize's decision to proceed to the International Court of Justice, Ambassador Shoman assured the Belizean people that no further incidents would occur in the Sarstoon. Unfortunately, this assurance has not been met, and yet he continues to minimize the severity of these occurrences." End quote. They added that it was alarming and unacceptable that Shoman admitted to not knowing the timeline of the court case.
We asked the Foreign Minister about these comments today.
Francis Fonseca, Minister of Foreign Affairs "In terms of the ICJ, I mean it's clear that that is in the hands of the court. So like any court, I think what Assad was saying was he was being frank and honest, that it's up to the court. The court sets the timeline."
"We have not yet received a date for the oral hearings, so if we've not received a date for the oral hearings as yet, then we're in no position to say when there will be a final determination of this matter."
"We've always said, listen, once we receive a date for the hearings, that will take a few months, maybe as I have been advised, perhaps three to six months as much as that for the hearings, the oral hearings, and then after that the court, they will have an opportunity to review the matter, there may be an opportunity to respond, and then the court will make a determination, which again could take anywhere from six months to a year."
"So what I have said to people is that we're looking at a window of probably two years for some determination of this matter, but that's entirely up to the court, and that's the point Assad, I think, was making."
Jules Vasquez"Do you feel he was dismissive of the events on the Sarstoon, and they have accused you of the same?"
Francis Fonseca, Minister of Foreign Affairs "Yeah, I mean, we've responded to that, and absolutely we take a backseat to no one, including the territorial volunteers, in terms of our defence of the Sarstoon."
"We understand that it's a critically important issue. I have made it absolutely clear that every opportunity that has arisen, we have made this point directly to the Guatemalans, directly to the president of Guatemala."
"We sat across the table from him, the prime minister made that point, I made that point. We made it to the foreign minister of Guatemala, to the defence minister of Guatemala, who was there as well. So we are very clear and comfortable in terms of our position, in terms of the Sarstoon, and we're very confident about Belize's position as it relates to ownership of a part of the Sarstoon River."
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The Southside community surrounding Supal and Plues Street was left shattered last night after the body of a 6-year-old boy was found at the bottom of the canal. King Shakel Wade reportedly fell into the canal at around 3 and stayed there for the next three and a half hours.
Sharon Wade, Aunt of Deceased
Arenel Smith, Rescuer 
Egbert Myers, Rescuer 
It was a tragedy that befell the entire community. And like the family, they have also been questioning the events leading up to it.
And just like the cops, the coast guard was called when it was already too late to do anything but recover the child's body. According to one of the officers, he knew he had to jump in and try to find the child. He explained what those moments of searching were like.
"I did my own risk assessment and I went down the canal, came back up and my parent instincts kicked in because I am a father and I told the chief I am going in the water so I change my clothes knowing that debris would be in the water I went in with a tennis and I just grid off each section and I started to bob and use my feet as prongs to feel and the first area I thought the child would have went it wasn't because under the bridge was like 4ft of silt and 2 ft of water so I knew the child didn't go in that area so I went and started the next section and when I started that section. 3 to four brave civilians jumped in with me and I think the furthest to my right he jumped in and I think he landed on the child and brought up the child and I did all my best to hide the child from the media and from people taking pictures I tried my best and I handed him over to the medic and same thing my parent instincts kicked in and I tired not to make the media see the child and everyone that was videoing I tried my best to not let them image because no parent would have wanted that to happen."
"It was very difficult for him to live because his body was already was stiff he already had rigor Mortis so it was quite challenging for me but the parents were there and they were hoping to get that light that the child would love but unfortunately he was more than three hours under water so it was kind of difficult for me to proceed with the CPR."
"Again, it's unfortunate that young children most of the times are not supervised and it's a supervision issue. We have had canals from I was growing up. I think this may be one of the first incident I have heard of someone falling in a canal in my entire life. So again it's a one off type but we can't lose the fact that a child died, I believe, the child died. We as parents have to be held accountable, we have to be able to know every time where our children are and so I just, from the mayor's standpoint, that parents need to know where their children are at every given moment in time."
It's been 4 months since the Senate Special Select Committee to investigate the genesis of the Portico Agreement successfully held a public hearing.
"I am here at your invitation as the Cabinet Secretary, not in my personal capacity. As this committee is aware documents and deliberations of the cabinet are strictly confidential and exempt from disclosure. As Cabinet Secretary I took an oath to uphold the laws and the constitution of Belize and I intend to be faithful to that oath."
Senator
Eamon Courtenay, Attorney
He was talking to an empty chair. The Cabinet Secretary had walked out, leaving the social partner sector senators hanging.
"With the barrage of propaganda on this project, and even this inquiry, it is unclear where that level of interest now stands. From a development perspective, as it relates to this project, Belize has lost."
Francis Fonseca, Minister of Education and Foreign Affairs 
Tracy Panton's Alliance For Democracy is building momentum for its Unity Convention on Sunday. But, Shyne Barrow's UDP is desperate to kill that momentum and deny the breakaway movement any chance at critical mass.
If you're a pizza lover, you might have already set your sights on the newest pizza joint in Belize. Sbarro has its headquarters in Ohio, but it has hundreds of locations across the US, South and Central America, and Asia.
"We are happy to be here, we are waiting and we open the doors tomorrow so we want all Belizean families to try our products because we don't just have pizza, we have Stromboli, breadsticks, and we are happy to be here and have more food options."
Courtney Menzies: 
Staff, Transparent BPO
What do you do with a 101 year old bridge?
Evondale Moody, Chief Engineer, MIDH
Hiroyuki Morimoto, Team Leader, Road and Transport Planning
We've been reporting on the vacancy that government has put out for a contract officer to fill the post of Auditor General. Well, the Public Service Union has raised a strong objection to it.
A trio of Mayan artifacts unveiled today at the Museum of Belize are called Wind Jewels. They are jade objects of differing sizes which were used as pendants. One of them is the second largest jade object ever found in Belize - second only to the jade head. We asked the Director of Archaeology about it today at the launching of a major new show called "Maya Creating Civilization":
"So these are the wind jewels that have been recovered here in Belize from various archaeological projects and the reason why we wanted to highlight these three pieces is that they have a part to play, a central part to play in agriculture and as we all know no civilization can be sustained without some kind of sustenance and so the wind jewels were highlighted because they played a critical role in ceremonies that the ancient Maya participated in at the start or end of their cycles."
The Ministry of Health and Wellness yesterday released a trove of statistics that give an interesting insight into certain social and societal trends. We'll be sharing them with you over the next few nights, but start with the most popular boy and girl baby names over the past 10 years.
But today the Mental Health Association was looking at mental health in youths.
"Typically the mental health association has hosted a speech competition each year for world mental health day in October but in the last couple of years with the changes of Covid and re-engaging with high schools we have not been able to. The event hasn't really come back the same way so this year we have decided to combine suicide prevention under the theme changing the narrative and our engagement with high school students in the form of a youth symposium related to the topic of suicide prevention. Changing the narrative kind of explains itself a little bit but we want to make sure that we are providing spaces for engaging conversations cause conversations are really powerful in preventing suicide people that feel open to talk about their feelings or the fact that they might be having suicidal ideas is a key element in being able to prevent them. Not the only one obviously but a very important one so the event is deigned to be a peer conversation so we have 6 panelists that are all high school students from six different high schools so they have their own representation for the panel and I think we have 13 different high school who sent a delegation of students to participate in the panel discussion from the audience. So it's really to promote the engagement, changing the narrative including young people in the conversation of suicide prevention. When you look at the statistics the age group of 15-19 you have the highest number of attempts and so a previous attempt is a high indicator of eventually succumbing to your illness or completing suicide later on so if we can target that particular audience I think we have an opportunity to bring those suicide numbers down. Reduce and end the stigma around having these types of conversations and really opening up for younger people especially here in Belize."
Turning now to Foreign Affairs, on last week's episode of Uncut, Ambassador Assad Shoman ruffled some feathers when he said that Belizeans shouldn't be alarmed at the recent incidents of aggression in the Sarstoon. The BTV yesterday wrote a letter to the Prime Minister condemning what they characterized as him dismissing these assaults.
