San
Pedro Daily  |
Friday, July 10,
2009 Belize's Only Daily |
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$50,000 reward for corrupt activity
conviction
The response we have had to information on
questionable land deals has
been overwhelming. Across the country, there are many persons who have
been affected and have provided information to News Five on shameless
acts of alleged corruption at the Lands Department. These files are
being readied for submission to the appropriate authorities. On May
twelfth, we took an unprecedented step and offered a reward of twenty
thousand dollars for information leading to the conviction of anyone
involved in these corrupt land deals. But there has also been
information in cases other than land. These allegations have been
increasing over the last few weeks. In fact there are signs that the
problems of corruption have been witnessed in all government
administrations. But it will be telling how Prime Minister Dean Barrow
will handle this subject. Will he turn a blind eye to the problems?
Will he have enquiries that have no real teeth in order to protect his
own supporters? Or will he tackle, as he promised the electorate, the
issues head on and wherever the chips may fall. Only time will tell.
Channel Five is now opening a reward fund of fifty thousand dollars,
that is, fifty thousand dollars, for any information received which
leads to the conviction of any person involved in a corrupt activity.
Get in touch with us, at 2270515. All information will be held in the
strictest of confidence.CH5
New Fisheries
Regulations
There are 13 marine protected areas in
Belize. Seems like
plenty, but they only cover 8% percent of Belize’s territorial waters.
And of that 8%, about two and a half percent are strictly restricted
for fishing activities. The fact is though, much of it insufficiently
regulated but now the Ministry Of Agriculture has taken the bull by the
horns and put in place various Pieces of legislation to strengthen
management and enable enforcement in marine reserves. The hope is that
the reserves can be properly managed for the purposes of extraction and
conservation management. Today the Ministry of Agriculture and
Fisheries held a press conference to outline the aims and objectives of
the new bundle of initiatives.
Hon. Rene Montero, Minister of Agriculture “These legislations aim to strengthen the management and effectiveness of the marine reserves and also the management regime governing the sustainable use of the commercial species currently exploited in Belize.” Beverly Wade, Fisheries Administrator “It really allows you to now have a management regime for these areas that now addresses all the activities that will happen in these areas from fishing all the way down to coastal development. So I will give you an example, in a marine reserve now if you want to carry out some sort of coastal development, it is now required by law to have some requirements. You have to carry out either a limited level environmental study or an EIA is must by law. So it now says we have designated these areas, not because they are pretty but we designated them because we think that they now carry out a very important function in the productive sector and also in our effort to preserve our great barrier reef and so what we re saying now is that in this particular area, we are going to have a more focused and rigid management regime and so if you want to do anything in a marine reserve, what a zone-ation scheme does is it gives you a blueprint of what you could do and how you could do it.” 
James Azueta, Fisheries Officer
“Marine reserves actually are multi-use where we have zonation zoning scheme where we have a general use area zone which is about 80% of the area. We have the conservation zone which boils down to 15% and then we have a conservation area which is about 5%. The deicisons have been made a long time ago to actually have the zones with pertinent regulations of what could be extracted, where you could extract those products. We needed the legislation to actually enforce the act. That has happened now, because why, basically it boils down that there is the political will to do it.” George Myvette, “For example in Caye Caulker, there are certain areas that we are trying to protect. Right up onto the reef there is a practice traps that is not necessarily consistent with good sustainable practices and this zone-ation scheme will allow us to now say and to now have the force of the law to basically say to the officials try and work with us. We are hopefully that you could basically place your traps where they need to be placed.” Beverly Wade, “Naturally when you are restricting your everyday livelihood and bread and butter issues, you will have some concerns and issues and I just want to say that one of the reasons why this has taken this long time is because it goes through a very very detailed and long process of consultation because we have to ensure that every fisherman, every stakeholder that is in that area, even the regulatory bodies are brought in to the conversation when we’re now looking at putting in these guidelines in place or regime in place.” James Azueta, “The fishermen, they know the areas already, which are the conservation zones and by practice they have been those areas. By and large they have been doing that. Now with this legislation, starting next month we are going to put the marker buoys so that they can see it, visually see it. They are working with us and they are all onboard.” Beverly Wade, “Only people who would want to do things irresponsibly would have an issue with this.” And while only 2.4% percent of Belizean waters are under restriction from fishing– ideally the hope would be to expand that to 20%.CH7 Changes in prices of fuel at the pump
Just when we were hoping that fuel prices
would not inch any higher,
the news broke today that they are. Late this evening, News Five
confirmed that diesel prices will be soaring by fifty-eight cents at
midnight tonight hiking the new price to seven dollars and fifteen
cents. But there is some comfort that the price of regular gas will
decrease by twenty-five cents, to eight dollars and thirty-six cents.
Meanwhile the price of premium gas will remain the same.CH5
Healthy Living looks at the need
for kids to be active 
One of the unfortunate realities of adults
is that once out of a
formal school system, summer no longer carries the same freedom it did
in childhood. Healthy living looks at why it is important to keep your
children active this summer.
Marleni Cuellar, Reporting With each generation, the favorite summer pastimes changes. We’ve reached a point now where children are left to be babysat by the television or video games. While it may be one way to keep the children engaged; it does not offer sufficient physical activity to meet the needs of the child. Karen Rosito, Nutritionist & Dietician “We honestly have to realize while you think of summer as time off cause I don’t have to get up early you need to work with the kids because it’s the time when the kids are the most unhealthy. When kids get bored they are going to eat anything, even if they are not hungry. They are going to eat.” And excessive food coupled with lack of physical activity provides for a dangerous equation. Karen Rosito “Every summer your kids gain ten pounds ten times five years especially when they are in school years is fifty pounds just like that. It’s sad because the disease that weren’t around in other words you never heard of kids having high cholesterol at ten and now it’s like a commonality. It’s common that kids have high cholesterol, high triglycerides at ten and eleven and tummies that are larger than thirty-four-forty inches. I would suggest that you have to let your kid’s exercise sixty minutes every day for seven days so it’s not a weekend break. When I say exercise its broken into three types; it aerobics as in walking, running, house work, picking in clothes, hanging clothes, bathing the dog; anything like that that is aerobic. Two muscle strengthening; basketball, lifting their own weight even if it’s just a one pound weight, doing abdominals, and last but not least bone strengthening: tug of war, basketball.” One of the daunting pressures for parents during the summer is finding time and opportunities to engage the children. Councilor, Myrna Manzanares, stresses that this is an important responsibility as a parent. Myrna works with young people at the Belize Family Life Association, an organization that provides positive activities for children and young people year round. Myrna Manzanares, Counselor, B.F.L.A. “Sometimes they say oh I don’t have the time; I noh have time fi do dis, I noh have time fi do dat. You have to make the time and you have to remember that you are the guiding principles in the child’s life. School is out. The second person who was dealing with that was teachers and the teachers are with their families and they have their own development to do. So parents it’s your responsibility now to take on the slack in the summer to ensure that your child keeps off the streets—when I say that, in any negative activity. Find out what is happening in the community. Get involved those are so critical. Parents can enroll their children but not only enroll them, but when the child get home talk to them discuss with them what did you learn? Maybe they might feel a little bit embarrassed about some of the things that the children learn but it is very important to know who was there, what did you do. What did you eat? Who were your facilitators? Encourage the child or your children to know who it is that they are dealing with so that later on if there are other things happening the parents can know.” Karen Rosito “I want to encourage parents to do something with time. Parents tend to be a little bit selfish when it comes to their time. When they come home in the evening, it’s my time but it can be our time as in family time. As you know eighty percent of people in Belize are obese so they can’t say they are not. Take the kid out and do something for an hour, the dog to walk, wash the car. Kids need to be active first they need to be healthy but that comes with activity and the need to be happy. So you can’t take a kid somewhere where they’re locked up and unhappy because he or she will start eating. You the parent are responsible for the child’s well being and his or her health.” In addition to becoming the family that exercises together, Karen points out the need in making the home - especially the refrigerator - conducive to a healthy lifestyle. Karen Rosito “You have to be careful what you leave at home for these kids are latch key. Kids they let themselves in, they let themselves out. And you leave the refrigerator full of junk snacks that is what they are going to eat. If you leave your own homemade popcorn; fresh fruit popsicle meaning you squeeze orange juice, mix it with grapefruit mix it with watermelon put it in ice cube trays that’s a lot of calories less than any of these energy drinks.” Myrna Manzanares “The big thing is I think it is we as parents we have to let go. We are so tightened and we don’t do anything. If we just say forget the house work, we no di cook today. We just going. We wa just maybe ker wi own lunch; make some sandwiches, make some kool-aid or whatever and we just gwein. We go, we sit down in a shaded park even if it’s outside in a shaded part of the house and just have fun, just let go. Go back into your childhood as a parent.” So, this year make it a summer of healthy living for both you and your child. CH5 NOTICES
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Planned Power
Outages
July 11, 2009 will be Feeder
3- this is all of Boca Del Rio (starting from Harmouch
Center) to North Ambergris (last resort that is energized by BEL)
It will commence at 6:00am until
2:00pm
July 12, 2009 will be Feeder
2 this is from Harmouch Center all of Pescador Dr and all area up to
Maya Island Air Terminal inclusive San Pedrito Subd. extends to Blake
St., San Pablo Subd., Escalante Subd., This will commence at 6:00am
until 12:00Noon
July 18, 2009 will be Feeder 1 which is all of Barrier Reef Dr. This will commence at 6:00am until 12:00Noon July 19, 2009 will be Feeder
4 which is all of Angel Coral Dr from Hol Chan Office, Coconut
Dr., to the end of the line @ Boca Ciega. This
will commence at 6:00am until 12:00Noon
THOUGHT
OF THE DAY
Man knows so much and does so little R. Buckminster Fuller
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© SAN PEDRO DAILY, PO Box 45, San Pedro Town, Belize. Inquiries to editor@sanpedrodaily.com |
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