Hon. Manuel Heredia announces his UDP Slate for the 2012 municipal elections

In an interview with the Hon. Manuel Heredia Jr. on Tuesday June 21^st, he announced the United Democratic Party’s (UDP) slate for the upcoming municipal elections.

Up for the Mayoral post is Mr. Daniel (Danny) Guerrero. Running for councilors are Gabriel (Gaby) Nuñez, Carlos Barrientos, Kenrick Bracket, Yolanda Parham, Mr. Guillermo Mito Paz and Dr. Severito Guerrero. Read the full story in this week's San Pedro Sun.

Belize Mayors make a splash in the UK visit generates business interest in Belize

Press Release – British High Commission – April 8, 2011 – 8 Mayors from Belize visited the UK at the end of March sponsored by the British High Commission. Those in the delegation were: Mayor Simeon Lopez, Belmopan; Mayor John August, San Ignacio and Santa Elena;

Mayor Hilberto Campos, Corozal; Mayor Nicholas Ruiz, Benque Viejo Del Carmen; Mayor Aaron Gongora, Dangriga; Mayor Floyd Lino, Punta Gorda; Mayor Elsa Paz, San Pedro; Mayor Zenaida Moya-Flowers, Belize City.

The team were in the UK for the Commonwealth Local Government Conference in Cardiff, but went on to a major programme of high-level visits in London. Also attending the conference was a team from the Ministry of Labour, Local Government and Rural Development made up of Minister Hon Gabriel Martinez, CEO Mrs Marion McNab and Mr Celso Carcamo (Local Government Officer).

The Local Government Conference was held at the City Hall in Cardiff, Wales from 15 to 18 March 2011. Hosted in the city for the first time, the theme of the Conference was “Energising Local Economies; Partnerships for Prosperous Communities”. It presented Cardiff Council with the opportunity to share international knowledge with delegates from 54 Commonwealth countries. More than 500 delegates attended, with Belize providing one of the larger delegations, including Ministers, Chief Executives and Senior Local Government staff. The Conference provided a platform for discussion on the role of local government in local economic development and explored ways to maximise opportunities for encouraging prosperous communities. The main areas of focus were youth unemployment, regeneration and education, securing investment, promoting enterprise and funding business support initiatives.

This was the first visit to the UK for most of the Mayors. The High Commission was therefore keen to show them the UK’s wealth of private sector experience in delivering services to and for the public sector. In partnership with the Caribbean Council they arranged a full programme of meetings during the team’s second week, which provided a way of identifying opportunities for working with UK companies to address local issues in Belize. It also served to alert UK companies to opportunities in Belize and to build business relationships.

The intense three day programme started with a tour of the recently completed massive construction project at the site of the 2012 Olympic Games. The first of their meetings was with Eversheds LLP, an innovative international law firm with legal specialists that operate around the world in sectors including financial institutions, energy, natural resources, food and transport. The discussions focussed on waste management, sanitation, recycling and tourism. A meeting with the Deputy Mayor of London, Richard Barnes, provided an opportunity to share experiences on the difficulties faced at local government level by both countries in areas such as crime, health, education and tax recovery. The meeting with the All Party Parliamentary Group for Belize was well represented by members of both the House of Commons and the House of Lords including Chairman, Lord Foulkes. The Belize High Commissioner, HE Kamela Palma also attended and spoke at this meeting.

The second day started with a tour of the Tate and Lyle Sugar Factory who have sourced cane sugar from Belize for over 35 years. Meetings followed with Mott MacDonald, an employee-owned management, engineering and development consultancy serving the public and private sector around the world, and Crown Agents who are an international development company committed to global development and growth gave a presentation on the work they had done on tax reforms in the Caribbean. The Mayors also met with Living Earth Foundation, an established NGO specialising in working with people to resolve their environmental and social concerns, and the South London Waste Partnership - made up of four local councils who are working together to provide improved and more cost-effective waste management services to their residents.

The High Commissioner for Belize also joined the Mayors at a meeting with senior officials at the Foreign Office, and hosted a high-level reception for them at London’s Canning House at which she made a short speech welcoming the Mayors to the UK.

The visit has been seen as a huge success, and generated a great deal of interest from the UK companies, who were extremely impressed by the level of engagement by the Mayors on key issues relating to Belize.

Marcel Cardona no longer considered a member of UDP...

In a letter leaked out of the United Democratic Party (UDP) office, Honorable Marcel Cardona is being chastised and effectively expelled from the UDP. Click on image below to view image larger.

Honorable Cardona declined comment, simply stating that he needed to review the letter with his legal advisor before commenting on the issue.

Guatemala first lady seeks divorce to succeed president

GUATEMALA CITY – A court official says Guatemala's first lady is ending her eight-year marriage so she can seek to succeed her husband as president.
Guatemala's constitution prohibits members of a president's extended family from running for the presidency.
Judiciary spokesman Edwin Escobar says divorce proceedings began Monday between Sandra Torres de Colom and President Alvaro Colom, who cannot run for re-election.

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When medicine and politics mix...

What do Medicine and Politics have in common? According to Patty Arceo and Dr. Giovanni Solorzano: a lot. Both were speakers at AGUSM (American Global University School of Medicine) on Friday, February 25th, 2011. Students have a variety of courses to take during the week, but on Fridays they get to listen to invited guests that, more often than not, can guide them and answer some burning questions.
Patty Arceo, former minister under the PUP administration, spoke at length of the many programs within the Ministry of Health that are geared towards the improvement of health care in Belize. According to Arceo, Belize’s health care is sub-standard, more on par with other Central American countries than within UN standards. Even with approximately 200 volunteer doctors and health care specialists who come from Cuba, the fact that they only have the basic equipment means that any help they render is limited.While for many in the modern world medicine is something that is natural to turn to, and education has taught us to go to our doctors for advice and help, Arceo stated that for much of the population, cultural taboos mean that not all will seek help. She used the example of the cultural differences of the Maya, especially in the southern region of Belize. While for many, having children at the age of 11 or 12 is unfathomable, due to differences in culture, that age is not too young for a Mayan girl to start a family. However, with education, that mindset has slowly been changing.
There is a lot that needs to happen for these changes to move forward at as fast a pace as our population seems to be growing. Legislations, creating a bill of rights for all three involved, patient, doctor and institution, is where politics comes into play. Arceo also mentioned the fact that the changing of administration sometimes means that programs get cut halfway, or do not receive the same kind of support as with previous administrations. Studies that take up to 10 years to complete are in jeopardy, and in the process, so is health, when the Ministry of Health’s key players change.
Dr. Giovanni Solorzano, Deputy Director at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital (KHMH), is also a quality assurance physician, and he also presented his views to the gathered students. Quality assurance, according to Solorzano, is relatively new to Belize – but has become very important as there is a definite need for accountability, especially with the number of physicians who immigrate to Belize. Having a cohesive plan of action provides standards that all doctors must adhere to.
Solorzano also stated that up to 1999, healthcare was free. Then National Health Insurance (NHI) came into effect, based on recommendations by the Inter-Development Bank (IDB) and World Health Organization (WHO). However, despite being in existence for over 10 years, NHI still only serves about 1/3 of the entire population of Belize – with most of the beneficiaries being from the Southern districts and Southside Belize.
NHI was originally scheduled to cover all Belizeans, having been implemented by the PUP administration. After the changing of government, NHI was stopped, due to lack of funds. The only way that NHI is running is through the usage of Belize’s National Social Security funds. Government only allocated around 4.5% of the national budget to healthcare, and the issue is finding money to provide proper healthcare to ALL Belizeans. Solorzano then laid out some suggestions for funding, maintaining that above all, government needs to work with the medical professionals to streamline the system, providing more of what the population needs, and less of what it doesn’t.
As director of the KHMH, Solorzano is well aware of the need for funding for national healthcare. In order to provide proper service via the national hospital, $23million is needed to run KHMH. Only $18million is provided by the government. Ultimately, those that suffer are the patients. While there is a lot to be desired in the Belize healthcare system, in particular when it comes to Maternal Health and Early Childcare, Diabetes, and Emergency healthcare, there is still a lot of progress. Education campaigns for cleanliness, HIV/AIDS education, as well as Mental Health awareness have brought many people and volunteer groups together to help provide a service.
For those who plan on becoming doctors, including those at AGUSM, there is a lot to be learned about medicine and politics, and educating oneself early on makes for a better transition.

Women and Politics: Inclusion at the Highest Level

Press Release - Belize - March 2, 2011) Thirty years after independence, the majority of women in Belize continue to face significant challenges in moving towards parity with men at almost every level of political leadership and decision-making. There is no female participation in the House of Representatives and no female minister. This places Belize in joint last position (131st) on the Global Gender Gap Index in the area of political empowerment of women, along with Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Brunei (Ref. The Global Gender Gap Report 2010). With the proportion of seats held by women in national parliament being a critical indicator of Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 3, Belize is not on course to achieve this MDG.
The exclusion of women at the highest level of decision-making is attributable to a myriad of factors: socio-economic, cultural, and political, all of which coalesce to prevent the inclusion of women in politics. The participation of women in political leadership and decision-making is therefore a requirement as a matter of justice – women represent half of the world's population and are an essential component to any government, which claims to be legitimate, representative, responsive and democratic.
In an effort to support improvements in women's political participation in Belize, UNDP Belize and the National Women's Commission have launched a collaborative initiative to: analyze the political and policy context of Belize with special emphasis on developments and issues related to gender; update previous research on the situation of women in Belize; expand the analysis of socio-economic, cultural and political obstacles to political participation; and foster a national dialogue on the issue.
The initiative will be guided by an Advisory Committee comprised of representatives from national and international organizations including: the National Women’s Commission, UNDP, UNFPA, the Organization of American States, Embassies of the United States of America, Brazil, Costa Rica and Mexico, the British High Commission, United Democratic Party, People's United Party, Vision Inspired by the People, Women's Issues Network Belize, RSV Media, University of Belize, and the Women’s Department.
To launch this partnership officially, UNDP Belize Assistant Resident Representative Francisco Roquette and Ann-Marie Williams, Executive Director of the National Women's Commission will be publicly signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). The signing ceremony will take place at Chateau Caribbean on March 8, 2011 at 3 PM coinciding with the commemoration of International Women's Day.
For more information, please contact the National Women's Commission at 223-4284 or UNDP at 822-2688.

VIP Vision Inspired by the People - promoting Unity Initiative

Chairman of the Vision Inspired by the People (VIP) party, Mr. Robert “Bobby” Lopez is requesting that all Town Boards and City Councils make public their financial statements as well as their proposed budgets for the upcoming fiscal year 2011-2012. “Bobby Lopez” hand delivered the letter to the San Pedro Town Council’s office on Monday February 21st and met with The San Pedro Sun to enlighten us about his party.

The VIP party started in 2000 in Belmopan with two members and grew to four in 2003, graduating to a full slate in 2006 and in 2009 garnered more votes than the

People’s United Party (PUP) in that election, and as such is considered the second party in Belmopan. Bobby commented, “In 2012 we are now gearing up for full participation across the country in all the town boards and two city councils that will have elections in 2012”.

The party aims to contact voters that have realized that they are totally fed up and are at the point of absenting themselves from participating in the elections. The VIP hopes to provide a third option. Lopez stated, “San Pedro is the most receptive so far, San Pedro actually did this in 1984 when they became a township- a group got together and formed the San Pedro United Movement (SPUM).”

Mr. Lopez informed us that prior to Monday’s meeting, the VIP party’s executives met with a fairly large group of islanders known to be active supporters from both major political parties where the Unity Alliance (UA) initiative was introduced. The UA initiative is an initiative of the people and encompasses bringing individuals form the community onboard to run the affairs of the people and taking partisanship out of the communities. The VIP sees transformation starting at the community level. This movement hopes to organize a non-partisan slate to contest the Municipal Elections in 2012.

Mr. Lopez explained that in an effort to be better prepared for the upcoming elections; “We are requesting disclosure of their finances and also a copy of their proposed budget for the last fiscal year 2011 - 2012 which goes into effect April 1st. We feel it is important that any slate wanting to run in a Town or City election know what the finances would look like so that that slate can start planning their campaign around that budget, with an idea of what the income and expenses will look like. Furthermore, we feel that towns and cities run the business of the people. They are our servants. We put them there to serve us and as such in keeping with the commitment to transparency and accountability to the people, and also in keeping in accordance with the freedom of information act, this information should be public knowledge and readily available.”

VIP works with an attitude to “TEK POLITICS OUT AND PUT PEOPLE FIRST”. VIP sees this UA initiative as a precursor to eventually having proportional representation in place. Proportional representation simply means that if a party has achieved a certain threshold of voters’ support then those voters receive proper representation all City Council or Town Boards. VIP hopes to provide the Belizean Public with cross the board representation, committing to transparency and complete accountability to all Belizeans. For more information about the VIP party please contact Mr. Lopez at 602-5885, 226-2960 or vipbelize@gmail.com.