WEATHER

A special meeting of the Belize Hotel Association (BHA) was held in San Pedro last week, February 1st, in an effort to explain the current status of the General Sales Tax and its impact on the Hotel Industry if the Legislation is implemented in its current form.    Members of the BHA Board told the interested hotel and resort owners, managers and employees that they must lobby government to place the accommodations sector in the zero-rated category. More

Belize Natural Energy continues oil exploration activities at Spanish Lookout. But even as exploration continues, the company has already sold its first shipment of crude, which was shipped out of the Big Creek Port two weeks ago. That move alone generated a great deal of interest because if they're selling oil commercially, it would seem to indicate that there is oil in commercial quantities. But not so fast. More

"The process of election and the politicians tend to want to buy the people's votes, whether it is by cash or special favors. What we're making aware to the people is that at the end of the day, whether you need to accept these gifts or special favors, you're not obligated to vote in any direction other than your mind. It depends on the issues and what you want to be addressed, you stick to those. We have four slogans: no yuh sell yuh vote, yuh vote is priceless, they don't know, and vote your mind. The underlying message is the final one, vote your mind." More

Two UC Davis researchers are cracking both the hieroglyphic code and cultural and mathematical understandings behind a 5,000-year calendar that is still used today in Mexico and Central America. Native American studies professor Martha Macri and graduate student Michael Grofe say their study of the Mesoamerican calendar is revealing how Native Americans were able to calculate with computer-like accuracy the movements of the sun, planets and the moon through time. Macri, a linguistic anthropologist who studies ancient and contemporary languages, used her expertise to match the hieroglyphs -- pictorial characters used in Mayan writing -- to the 260-day ritual calendar. More

In October 1996 the government of Mexico’s then-President Ernesto Zedillo (1994-2000) and the Zapatista Liberation Army (EZLN) were nose to nose in the Lacandon jungle of Chiapas. Indigenous leaders from all over Mexico had invited the EZLN to Mexico City for the founding of a National Indigenous Congress, and the Zapatistas, who had never been allowed outside of the conflict zone, eagerly accepted. More

More than 10,000 people were killed in Central America last year, more than double the 4,346 registered in 2004, according to a study by the United Nations Development Program. El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras were most severely affected, where maras, or gangs, operate. According to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, last year Guatemala had the highest number of homicides in Latin America with seven per 100,000 residents. More

Juan Leal Jimenez, 64, has accomplished the feat of turning an unproductive piece of land in his family's backyard into a fertile oasis. Over the past year, Leal harvested 8.7 tons of green vegetables and spices in a small plot of merely 0.11-hectare (under a third of an acre), and he expects that this year's yield will amount to 12 tons. This farmer, who lives in the municipality of Colombia in eastern Las Tunas province, has been awarded a diploma by Defense Minister Raul Castro in recognition of his hard work as part of an initiative known in Cuba as urban agriculture. More

Calendar Girl Project:

Please help us make this dream happen Give the gift of a calendar ($20 BZ)  or call 226-3498 or 622-4110 and give some of your time to help our children... they are our future. It can can be done if we all work together. Thanks to all for your support.

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