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 families of the ten lives lost in Belize's largest mass casualty event are spending this week getting autopsy results and making funeral arrangements. And if you've had to bury a loved one before, you will know that the process isn't cheap, and the financial weight bears down on top of the grief.
That has moved the San Ignacio community to start raising funds for these families to assist them in their darkest moments. One establishment - The Gully Grill - has announced that they've raised more than $18,000. However, there were some concerns since some of the families have said that they haven't been contacted as yet. Meanwhile, they're currently paying out of pocket to lay their relatives to rest.
But one family - that of Genesis Parham - the driver of the Toyota Corolla - told us today that while they haven't received any calls they did see a Facebook post indicating that the funds will be disbursed soon, and they're grateful for any assistance.
Virna Manzanero, Aunt of Genesis Roduel Parham "We appreciate all help that was rendered for all the affected families. Thank you everyone. God bless you all. Well, we haven't received any call as yet for the funds that they raised. They said there is $18,000 plus."
"We are very grateful. But today, this afternoon, we saw a post that says that tomorrow they are ready to contribute to all the affected families and they need to contact the person that raised the funds doesn't have all information of all the affected families."
"But we're here waiting and we give thanks once more for all the help rendered and we appreciate it very much. We will be using that money, as you all know, for all the expenses that are coming, coming to my sister and we appreciate it very much."
"Once again, God bless you all and thank you very much."
Today, we spoke to one fundraiser who posted that he has raised over 18 thousand dollars, but the families haven't seen the monies yet. Passy Haylock said he will distribute all he's raised equitably:
Andrew Haylock aka "Passy", Fundraiser "So many people are reaching out to me. People are reaching out to me from the Belize City, different parts of the country, stating that they're not giving assistance. I did this not knowing and not expecting that it will get to this point."
"Now I did create a post today that mentioned that I will start distributing the money equally. But I have contact information from the families. I really don't know them, but I will start giving them money tomorrow."
"And it's a very tricky thing because then you have to make sure that you give the money to the right individual. Tomorrow again, once again, it's all about transparency. Tomorrow I'm gonna count the money that I received in the account, the money that I have set aside. And then that money, I will have a total, and then I will distribute it equally."
And while Haylock has committed to post photos of the funds he distributes - he says there are many other fundraising efforts that he has no control over:
Andrew Haylock aka "Passy", Fundraiser "Bear in mind that we have these collecting places in Belmopan, we have in Ladyville and these are people that just reached out to me and I did it on my own and I'm very grateful and thankful for that. And we have in Corozal, regional hospital in Dangriga."
"I mention this because I have no idea how many they collected. One of my friends just created a GOFUNDME page in the U.S. I have another friend who is receiving money through Zelle from abroad. So all these monies are not accounted for. I don't have a clue, I don't have an idea how much money they collected."
And while the community is coming together to support the families, there has still been no clearly articulated strategy from central government.
We asked for something to denote an inflection point in how road safety is managed in this country, and today we got…a press release full of the usual platitudes.
The release from the Ministry of Youth, Sports, and Transport says, quote, "We urge all road users to exercise extreme caution: stay within speed limits, always use seat belts, remain mindful of road conditions, avoid drinking and driving, and overtake only when it is safe and legal." End quote.
It's not much more than the usual platitudes which have been mouthed all through this year - which is sure to be the deadliest on record when it comes to traffic fatalities.
Jules Vasquez has more:
In a country where this can still happen - yes that's three passengers crowded into a trunk heading into Belize City between miles 3 and 5 - the chief Transport officer stresses that road safety is often about personal choices:
Leon Gentle, Chief Transport Officer "We as a public have to take the initiative, one, to encourage our people who have these types of vehicles or motorcycles to be on the right side of the law, we have to also ask them to take ownership for the decisions that they make."
"Because some of these things can be avoided by just making the right decision. So at some point, we, the community, the culture, ourselves internally need to accept it and make a change for ourselves."
But, for those not so encouraged, the Ministry says that
"In collaboration with the police department and municipal traffic authorities, we will increase patrols and vehicle checkpoints, particularly at night, to enhance enforcement of traffic regulations."
We wouldn't quite call that a detailed action plan, which in the aftermath of the worst traffic tragedy ever - is what is so sorely needed.
The release adds, "Violators of traffic regulations will be dealt with to the fullest extent of the law." End quote.
And while the Transport Department spoke in generalities, the police Department, commendably, has come with the hard statistics.
They reported this evening that a total of 215 arrests were made so far this year for driving under the influence across Belize. A breakdown shows that Orange Walk had the greatest number with a total of 54 arrests, followed by Benque Viejo Del Carmen with a total of 30 arrests and San Pedro with 26. The four precincts of Belize City had 24 while at the lower end, Placencia only had 2and Caye Caulker, Zero. The release ends with a statement as follows
"The department continues to work in collaboration with the Transport Department to reduce traffic incidents. We implore upon road users, particularly drivers of motor vehicles and riders of motorcycles, to exercise due care and caution when using our highways" end quote. While encouraging, it does not denote a clear plan of action.
On Friday, 39 year old Isaac Jeremy Flores was driving a golf cart with his fiance 40 year old Jennifer Hernandez, as his Passenger on the secret beach road in San Pedro town on Friday December 6th when Flores allegedly flew over a bump causing Hernandez to fall out of the golf cart and sustain fatal injuries.
Flores was detained in San Pedro and was read four charges of, causing death by careless conduct, reckless driving, and drove without due care and attention and failing to provide a specimen analysis. The magistrate in San Pedro granted him bail of $10,000, plus one surety of $5,000 which he was able to meet.
Flores, who is a finance officer, was represented in court by attorney Dickie Bradley. Flores says that he has yet to get in contact with his fiance's family to begin making funeral preparations for her.
Jeremy Flores, On Bail for Driving Offences "I've been incarcerated with no access to communicate to anybody in the States. And that's what hurts the most, too, is I've got to go back home. It was God's will and God's choosing that it's going to be really hard to accept."
"And I have to live with the fact that I didn't keep her safe."
Conditions to his bail are that he is to attend the Preliminary Inquiry, and High Court Arraignment and trial when set.
Flores and Hernandez were part of a group of 24 persons visiting Belize.
He may be serving life in prison for a gruesome murder, but William Danny Mason's attorney is asking for his client to get special treatment behind bars.
His new Trinidadian attorney Peter Taylor wrote to the CEO of the Prison 10 days ago saying that for the past 8 years Mason, quote, "has been incarcerated for 23 hours per day with only one hour permitted for recreation...Our client laments that he has for the past eight years, been kept in solitary confinement and in a cell devoid or either natural or electric lighting...he is not allowed to engage in any sporting activities, neither is he allowed any interaction with other inmates nor is he allowed visitors. The perennial darkness of his cell renders reading and writing extremely difficult..."
The attorney concludes that this amounts to "cruel, degrading and inhuman treatment…contrary to the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners."
In a follow up letter 4 days ago, Taylor asks for an increase in Mason's recreation time from one hour to three hours.
Well, the Attorney General's ministry has written back saying it's not gonna happen.
A letter sent yesterday calls the allegations wholly baseless and also questions whether Taylor has even been properly called to the bar in Belize. It notes that Mason is housed at Tango 10, designated for high risk and high-profile prisoners and that, quote, "The cell that is occupied by Mr. Mason is more than adequate for a single person...Due to Mr. Mason's classification, he does not share his cell with any other prisoner. Additionally, his room is equipped with an electric bulb that provides additional and adequate lighting. Mr. Mason cell has its own toilet, and its own shower, with running water...Furthermore, Mr. Mason has his own standing fan, a writing table, a bed, and a DVD player with audio to watch movies. He is regularly provided with movies and reading material….Prisoners, such as Mr. Mason who do not work, are given one hour's recreation time in the open air...as per the Prison Rules. Consequently, your request for extending your client's recreational hours from one hour to three hours per day is unreasonable and cannot be considered as it does not comply with the Prison Rules..." End quote.
It's the tourism high season - both for overnight and cruise sectors. But the movement of tourists in the cruise sector has been impeded for the last year at least by the buildup of silt in the Belize harbor. It's a perpetual problem - and up until a few years ago - dredging was done at regular intervals.
But that stopped after COVID and the silt buildup has been slowing down the large catamaran sanders by filling their engines with silt, causing them to overheat.
This slows the flow and affects the number of cruise visitors that can be moved in a day.
But, recently dredging has commenced - our reports say it's funded by the BTB - even though the state of the harbor is the Port Authority's responsibility.
BTB's Director of Tourism Evan Tillet says that Central government is the one overseeing the process. He gave us more details today.
Evan Tillet, Director of Tourism "Well if you can see the dredging is ongoing as we speak there were some challenges but I think those have been worked out and it is being done as we speak."
JO- "And it's being paid from out of BTB?"
Evan Tillet, Director of Tourism "The dredging is done via the central government I think there is an agreement there and they are the ones that are paying for the dredging. We were involved in the process in terms of it affects an entire cruise industry and so we have to ensure that it is done properly to ensure that the industry can work seamlessly and efficiently."
JO- "So if it's not BTB's job to pay should that be something that the Belize port authority should?"
Evan Tillet, Director of Tourism "Well as far as I know the Belize Port authority has the responsibility for that area but I think that the government sees the need and the importance of it being done in order to facilitate an entire cruise tourism sector and I think that's important."
Tillett said he doesn't know the cost of the dredging - while our reports suggest it's close to a million dollars.
In other cruise news, Mexico last week announced that is is imposing a 42 dollar per head immigration fee on cruise passengers. That's in addition to any existing head tax.
It's not been welcomed by cost conscious cruise lines but Mexican authorities aren't moved by that.
So will Belize follow their lead, or capitalize on what is now a marginal distinction advantage?
Tillet suggested the latter when he said there's nothing wrong with a bit of healthy competition.
Evan Tillet, Director of Tourism "Well I think that Mexico is an independent country and they are able to do why they choose to do Belize I think we are looking at how we can best manage our industry. We are guided by a cruise tourism policy that was just updated and that policy just basically ensures that we grow our industry sustainably and I don't think that there is going to be an immediate reaction I think we can look at the possibilities in terms of the fee structures but I think right now we are competitive and we want to be a competitive destination."
And while cruise could see a Mexico bump, what about overnight tourism?
2024 has been a bumper year so far as Belize has already surpassed 2019's record numbers.
But, there are reports of a shaky start to this year's high season in the overnight sector. We asked him whether the US elections had any impact on this and he says that the numbers don't lie.
Evan Tillet, Director of Tourism "I don't know where you guys are getting your numbers from but as of November we are close to surpassing 2019 in fact as of today we are beyond 2019 numbers and so 2024 will be the new benchmark here in terms of tourism arrivals overnight tourism arrivals. Currently I think we are 12.2 % above 2019 and we hope to finish at even a better position than that."
"I think the numbers are up because 1 we did a lot of strategic marketing when we came in and I think post Covid we did the right things we calibrated we started and we re engineered and we definitely looked at the marketing campaign and we went and took a deep dive and ensured that we do the marketing in such a manner that it is strategic from the perspective that we look at all the places we have direct flights from and we market all the areas that lead up to those source market areas."
It's been over 19 months since the government signed a loan agreement with the Saudi Fund for Development to finance a hospital in Belmopan. It will be the second tertiary care facility in the country and will also serve as a teaching hospital. And with UB's new medical school, it seemed ideal that the hospital would be built on their campus. The location was later changed, which led to controversy, but the government didn't change their minds.
And today they held a closed contract signing with a Saudi firm that applied to offer their consultancy services. Courtney Menzies has this story.
Belmopan's promised tertiary care teaching hospital has endured weeks of controversy and scrutiny after the government shifted its proposed location from the UB Campus to 15 acres near the highway.
And though headlines have faded, government today quietly signed a contract with Dar Al Omran International Engineering Consulting Company for 1.6 million US dollars. DAO will be expected to provide complete design and construction supervision services as the hospital - which will have a capacity of 150 beds - is constructed.
At the signing, both parties expressed their eagerness for the construction of the hospital.
Yacoub Shubeilat, Managing Director, DAO "We are glad that we're the present Saudi firm to lead the design and the supervision for the Belmopan hospital and we look forward for a fruitful coordination and work relationship with all the stakeholders here in Belmopan so that we can deliver this hospital as per the client's expectations and hopefully we can meet again and we open this hospital within the forecasted period for the design and construction."
Kevin Bernard, Minister of Health "As you know Belize's only tertiary facility that exists is at the Karl Heusner and this will add to the services that we now offer and bring benefits in providing quality access to healthcare and so on behalf of the Ministry of Health and Wellness and the wider government I want to thank you all and look forward to the work and the commencement of this very important project."
The contract is 55 months long. The development and approval of the design will occur within 9 months, the period of construction is 34 months, and the defects liabilities period is for another 12 months.
DAO was ranked at the top of the 5 Saudi firms that applied for the position and is a multi-disciplinary architecture and engineering consultancy firm with over 43 years of experience. They have developed projects in more than 20 countries.
Today the second anti-corruption conference was held, hosted by the Ministry of Public Service, International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Unit at the US Embassy and the Good Governance Unit. At the first conference, the participants made certain resolutions that they want to accomplish and today they took stock of the progress they made. According to the director of the GGU, moving the Whistleblowers Act along in the House was one of those resolutions.
Cesar Ross, Director, Good Governance Unit "One of them, and we're working with the National Assembly on it, was the Protected Disclosure, the Whistleblowers, that was read a couple years ago and no action has resulted. How can we speed it up? So we have met with the National Assembly, we're meeting with the Attorney General to see what is it that has slowed it down in committee. and so we are working on it. We also talked about making sure the procurement, the gold standards to procurement and to open contracting is something that should be embedded in our system. So that was talked about in the first conference and so the contractor general who has been a partner with us for the past two years has looked at that and between her and the procurement officer in the Ministry of Finance have worked to develop a policy that maximizes those standards."
"One of the capacity building programs we have that is going to be launched in January is all FO's and all the line ministries but we're not limiting it to the ministries, we're also bringing in statutory bodies because they also deal with taxpayers' money. And so all of the FO's will be brought in and will be, their capacity in identifying corruption, their capacity in streamlining and in being transparent is going to be built up."
Rolando Zetina, CEO, Ministry of Public Service "How do we benefit, we benefit because what our GGU is doing, they are working with different partners within Belize and they are coming up with how to establish systems that will assist, maybe not in the immediate or right now but sometime in the future because as you may know if systems are not in place then nothing can be implemented so we're working on that, that is where the benefit will come, when we have the system in place, when we work with the Integrity Commission, when we work with the Central Bank, when we work with the BTS, the tax department and things like that."
Nicole Heydari, INL Coordinator, US Embassy "I think there are several areas where we have strengthen collaboration, some of them were mentioned by Ambassador Kwan in her speech, we've been working closely with the Financial Intelligence Unit with very good results, the National Forensic Science Service has also seen a lot of results with accreditation. In fact, Belize is the first country in the Caribbean and Central America that has achieved accreditation according to international standards for its forensic experts, so this is actually a big accomplishment, the certification process that they're undergoing and it's promising as we continue to work together and the political will that we're seeing accompany this efforts for 2025."
We note that not a single minister of government or elected official was in attendance - a striking omission from a government elected on an anti-corruption platform.
It is widely expected that this coming Saturday will be the largest shopping day of this year because it is the first of the GST sales days. Combine that with Christmas discounts which are already in effect - and it should be a shopping bonanza. But is it enough to make shoppers keep their money here in Belize? We went to two major retailers to find out. Jomarie Lanza reports.
Michael Theus, GM - V Department Store "At the V here, we are extending our Black Friday to a Black two weeks."
Here at "V Department Store" - they welcome the four GST discount days.
Michael Theus, GM - V Department Store "For us, I think it's a very good thing that was done for the Christmas season that came up here."
"It gives more buying power to customers who come into the store. For us, we look at it as being something that was well needed in helping customers to go to, I'm going to say stretch your dollars, take it a bit further."
"We are embracing it. I think it's going to be something that basically will boost sales for us and also offer to our customers then that extra discount."
The manager says that the GST discount, coupled with ongoing Christmas sales could translate into saving of more than 25% off:
Michael Theus, GM - V Department Store "Our one-year anniversary was actually yesterday and we have decided to give some sticker discounts throughout the store from yesterday up until the 24th. So what we are saying now is that you're receiving at a 5, 10, or 15% off the product and then we remove the GST where it basically compounds and gives a greater buy back power to persons who are actually purchasing from the store."
At Mikado, they also see it dovetailing with ongoing seasonal sales:
Umesh Mahitani, Mikado, Partner "We already had a sale planned for the 13th, 14th and 15th so that will just compound the savings for the customer and to break it down for you and the customer is if they are going to get 10% or 20% depending on what they are buying they are going to get an additional 12 and half percent off that item for example if an item is a dollar then if were to give 20% off for that they would pay 80 cents then if you take off another 12 ½ % off that that is another 12 and a half percent so they will end up paying somewhere around 67 cents there about."
"We are trying to promote fabrics most of all. All the other items may have a lesser discount but in general everything is on sale."
And while some businesses have told us it will be an administrative nightmare not charging the GST - at the V Store - they said, no problem:
Michael Theus, GM - V Department Store "No, I don't see firstly no problem. Jules, what I'm prepared to do right now is that I will actually run into a sale with you to show exactly how easy it is. Our system has really been set for us. And we can do handle our discount that we have a sticker discount and the GST portion off of it and give the customer the price that they're supposed to be receiving. I think it's relatively simple."
"Some stores, yes, might actually have a way where they have to have an override person that has to override. At the end of the day, I can go and reconcile my full cash sale. We have to do it anyway. I can full reconcile and see exactly what is my discount portion, what's my GST portion. At the end of the day, if there's abuse, I can do it because then it has a name attached to it who's a cashier person."
"What I have here is one of our Kalorik Air Fryer. This is actually priced at $190. Okay. Great. We don't scan it for you. The price is $190. after discount it's $168.89."
With deals like that added to ongoing sales, businesses are hoping that it gives shoppers a reason not to go to Chetumal.
Michael Theus, GM - V Department Store "So customers will have no reason to actually be traveling spending gas, paying to get their vehicle sprayed, they go across the border and then come back and might get charged at the border."
"So now they can actually stay here, save and spend more time with the family."
Umesh Mahitani, Mikado, Partner "We have always been busy because I think people recognize that we always have better value and people come here and they get great service."
Reporter "You have people coming from out district as well just to come and buy here."
Umesh Mahitani, Mikado, Partner "Yes of course many of them just come here and then go back."
And while the folks at V Store showed us how the discount will be calculated in their system with a few key strokes - we've spoken to a cross section of large business owners - and some have expressed profound bewilderment and concern, while others embrace the chance for added sales.
One told us, quote, "I cannot start to explain how complicated it will be and the chaos it will create for businesses." end quote. One wholesaler told us, quote, "Some of our Chinese Customers in Cayo have told us they will simply close those 4 days since it will be a nightmare for them."
We'll believe that when we see it…but to hear the tax boss tell it - the paperwork and calculations for businesses will be very straightforward:
Michelle Longsworth, Director General - BTS "So all we're saying to taxpayers is that all you need to do is to go through, add up all your sales, just like regular, but at the end of that sale, you give your 12.5% as a discount. So you minus it out, you subtract it if you're using a cash register."
"If you're using a POS system, you just apply it as a discount. And it's not difficult because let's use like a store like James Brodies who on weekends offers a discount. What they will do, they will just add on the 12.5% as an additional discount separated from the normal 10% discount that they give."
"So taxpayers that we've spoken to and explain this to can see that it's simple. And what is important here is that taxpayers still have to report or still have to file come January. Why? Because taxpayers have already purchased these goods, they've already paid their input tax, we will be giving them back their input tax because remember, GST is an offsetting."
"So normally the input tax they pay, they offset it against what they collect for government. So now they will still file on their GST return at line 1-10. They will still file and they will still claim back their input tax."
But, there's no GST incentive needed once Santa and children make up the equation!
The BTB and the Florida Caribbean Cruise Association brought out Santa Today for dozens of children at the House of Culture. The FCCA and friends arrived bearing gifts. Jomarie Lanza was there and here's what she reported.
Attorney OJ Elrington has had a setback in court regarding his challenge to the rape charges against him. Elrington appealed against the Magistrate's decision to commit him to stand trial. He also put forward that she erred in not ruling on his abuse of process application and in not stating a case to the High Court regarding the breach of his right to protection of the law.
The abuse of process and the breach of his right to protection of the law stemmed from his allegation that the DPP acted improperly in speaking to a complainant during the course of a police investigation. The Court ruled that it had no jurisdiction to entertain an appeal of the Magistrate's committal, and that there was no evidence presented to support the allegation of abuse of process. The court also found that there was no application for a case to be stated nor was there any evidence upon which she could have determined that she should state it herself.
With that, his appeal was dismissed, and the matter will proceed to the high court for trial.
Last week the Ministry of Education launched it's USPACE Initiative at the House of Culture in Orange walk Town. The Purpose of the project is to provide communities with upgraded technology, build their digital skills and learn more about Belize's culture and heritage with the help of these resources. Here are the highlights from the launch, and how you can access the USPACE.
Namrita Balani, Director, Science & Tech, MOECST "So USPACE was literally a phone call that we got from UNICEF on how they wanted to create child friendly spaces that was it that was all we were told. We took the idea and it was initially called UZONES but then we renamed it to USPACE and then we said that we wanted it to become a space for the community and then we said we were looking around at where we can do it if we partner up with a school or we partner up with someone else but then we said you know if we want like our ministry names says education, culture, science and Technology, if we want it to all meet we thought the perfect place was to partner with NICH and the houses of culture that's when we started to get in contact with them we told them we want to do this space and we didn't know what we were going to do how we are going to do it and what we were going to get you know we brain stormed and we have a lot of initiatives that we keep launching and some of them some schools are the ones that are pilot schools but other schools get left behind right so for example coding we have 62 primary schools doing code. Org some schools don't have internet connectivity that we can't pilot it you know we have schools that are doing robotics but every school can't get it because a kit costs almost 1500 dollars so we said we needed a space in the community where we can promote all these initiatives and we can equip it with all the technology the internet the kits the chrome books the desktop computers a lego wall for those that are artistic and we need to create that for the community by the community."
Cindy Rivero, Community Arts Coordinator "The USPACE Is created to have the entire community of Orange walk we are targeting both Youths adults Children everyone that is a part of our community because the platforms that you can find in the USPACE are platforms like access 501 the teachers and students can access that portal and get information from the different Belizean icons and a little bit about their bio that sort of information and really assist them in their education purpose then we also have others like the peoples archives the entire community has an opportunity to bring their images that they would want to share you know a story a unique story of you if you are traveling and you see the different Mayan temples and you want to share that those are the platforms that we have that you can have access to and so it is really for the entire community."
Email
Print
The families of the ten lives lost in Belize's largest mass casualty event are spending this week getting autopsy results and making funeral arrangements. And if you've had to bury a loved one before, you will know that the process isn't cheap, and the financial weight bears down on top of the grief.
"We appreciate all help that was rendered for all the affected families. Thank you everyone. God bless you all. Well, we haven't received any call as yet for the funds that they raised. They said there is $18,000 plus."
"So many people are reaching out to me. People are reaching out to me from the Belize City, different parts of the country, stating that they're not giving assistance. I did this not knowing and not expecting that it will get to this point."
And while the community is coming together to support the families, there has still been no clearly articulated strategy from central government.
"We as a public have to take the initiative, one, to encourage our people who have these types of vehicles or motorcycles to be on the right side of the law, we have to also ask them to take ownership for the decisions that they make."
And while the Transport Department spoke in generalities, the police Department, commendably, has come with the hard statistics.
And in another case of what may have been drunk driving causing a death….a man who came to Belize on vacation with his fiancé was lucky to escape going to jail on remand today.
"I've been incarcerated with no access to communicate to anybody in the States. And that's what hurts the most, too, is I've got to go back home. It was God's will and God's choosing that it's going to be really hard to accept."
He may be serving life in prison for a gruesome murder, but William Danny Mason's attorney is asking for his client to get special treatment behind bars.
It's the tourism high season - both for overnight and cruise sectors. But the movement of tourists in the cruise sector has been impeded for the last year at least by the buildup of silt in the Belize harbor. It's a perpetual problem - and up until a few years ago - dredging was done at regular intervals.
Evan Tillet, Director of Tourism 
It's been over 19 months since the government signed a loan agreement with the Saudi Fund for Development to finance a hospital in Belmopan. It will be the second tertiary care facility in the country and will also serve as a teaching hospital. And with UB's new medical school, it seemed ideal that the hospital would be built on their campus. The location was later changed, which led to controversy, but the government didn't change their minds.
Yacoub Shubeilat, Managing Director, DAO 
"As you know Belize's only tertiary facility that exists is at the Karl Heusner and this will add to the services that we now offer and bring benefits in providing quality access to healthcare and so on behalf of the Ministry of Health and Wellness and the wider government I want to thank you all and look forward to the work and the commencement of this very important project."
Today the second anti-corruption conference was held, hosted by the Ministry of Public Service, International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Unit at the US Embassy and the Good Governance Unit. At the first conference, the participants made certain resolutions that they want to accomplish and today they took stock of the progress they made. According to the director of the GGU, moving the Whistleblowers Act along in the House was one of those resolutions.
"One of them, and we're working with the National Assembly on it, was the Protected Disclosure, the Whistleblowers, that was read a couple years ago and no action has resulted. How can we speed it up? So we have met with the National Assembly, we're meeting with the Attorney General to see what is it that has slowed it down in committee. and so we are working on it. We also talked about making sure the procurement, the gold standards to procurement and to open contracting is something that should be embedded in our system. So that was talked about in the first conference and so the contractor general who has been a partner with us for the past two years has looked at that and between her and the procurement officer in the Ministry of Finance have worked to develop a policy that maximizes those standards."
Rolando Zetina, CEO, Ministry of Public Service 
"I think there are several areas where we have strengthen collaboration, some of them were mentioned by Ambassador Kwan in her speech, we've been working closely with the Financial Intelligence Unit with very good results, the National Forensic Science Service has also seen a lot of results with accreditation. In fact, Belize is the first country in the Caribbean and Central America that has achieved accreditation according to international standards for its forensic experts, so this is actually a big accomplishment, the certification process that they're undergoing and it's promising as we continue to work together and the political will that we're seeing accompany this efforts for 2025."
"At the V here, we are extending our Black Friday to a Black two weeks."
"We already had a sale planned for the 13th, 14th and 15th so that will just compound the savings for the customer and to break it down for you and the customer is if they are going to get 10% or 20% depending on what they are buying they are going to get an additional 12 and half percent off that item for example if an item is a dollar then if were to give 20% off for that they would pay 80 cents then if you take off another 12 ½ % off that that is another 12 and a half percent so they will end up paying somewhere around 67 cents there about."
"So all we're saying to taxpayers is that all you need to do is to go through, add up all your sales, just like regular, but at the end of that sale, you give your 12.5% as a discount. So you minus it out, you subtract it if you're using a cash register."
Attorney OJ Elrington has had a setback in court regarding his challenge to the rape charges against him. Elrington appealed against the Magistrate's decision to commit him to stand trial. He also put forward that she erred in not ruling on his abuse of process application and in not stating a case to the High Court regarding the breach of his right to protection of the law.
Last week the Ministry of Education launched it's USPACE Initiative at the House of Culture in Orange walk Town. The Purpose of the project is to provide communities with upgraded technology, build their digital skills and learn more about Belize's culture and heritage with the help of these resources. Here are the highlights from the launch, and how you can access the USPACE.
"So USPACE was literally a phone call that we got from UNICEF on how they wanted to create child friendly spaces that was it that was all we were told. We took the idea and it was initially called UZONES but then we renamed it to USPACE and then we said that we wanted it to become a space for the community and then we said we were looking around at where we can do it if we partner up with a school or we partner up with someone else but then we said you know if we want like our ministry names says education, culture, science and Technology, if we want it to all meet we thought the perfect place was to partner with NICH and the houses of culture that's when we started to get in contact with them we told them we want to do this space and we didn't know what we were going to do how we are going to do it and what we were going to get you know we brain stormed and we have a lot of initiatives that we keep launching and some of them some schools are the ones that are pilot schools but other schools get left behind right so for example coding we have 62 primary schools doing code. Org some schools don't have internet connectivity that we can't pilot it you know we have schools that are doing robotics but every school can't get it because a kit costs almost 1500 dollars so we said we needed a space in the community where we can promote all these initiatives and we can equip it with all the technology the internet the kits the chrome books the desktop computers a lego wall for those that are artistic and we need to create that for the community by the community."
"The USPACE Is created to have the entire community of Orange walk we are targeting both Youths adults Children everyone that is a part of our community because the platforms that you can find in the USPACE are platforms like access 501 the teachers and students can access that portal and get information from the different Belizean icons and a little bit about their bio that sort of information and really assist them in their education purpose then we also have others like the peoples archives the entire community has an opportunity to bring their images that they would want to share you know a story a unique story of you if you are traveling and you see the different Mayan temples and you want to share that those are the platforms that we have that you can have access to and so it is really for the entire community."
