The
Headlines for Wednesday, November 18, 2009 |
With your news I am Marleni Cuellar
| Viewers please note: This Internet newscast is a verbatim transcript of our evening television newscast. Where speakers use Kriol, we attempt to faithfully reproduce the quotes using a standard spelling system. |
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Musician says life was at risk at Southern Regional Hospital |
 There is one more allegation to add to a long and growing list of charges of negligence in the national health system. This latest claim comes from a popular local performer who finds himself recuperating at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital after his transfer from the Southern Regional Hospital. Twenty-seven year old Albert Tillett Junior, also known as ‘Continental Cat’, told News Five from his bed at the male surgical ward at the K.H.M.H. that if his family did not take heed to a nurse’s advice to seek help elsewhere, he would have been dead today. Continental Cat says that his ordeal began two weeks ago in Dangriga when he started feeling a pain to the right side of his abdomen and went to the Southern Regional Hospital. But he and his father, Albert Tillett Senior, believe that the doctor who performed the surgery to remove his appendix was careless.
Albert “Continental Cat” Tillett Jr., Alleges Hospital Negligence
“Afta di surgery ah mi still feel bad, mi belly di swell up, ah di vomit, ah can’t eat. Anything weh ah eat ah vomit out, ah feel bad. Dehn people noh di tek care ah me.”
Marion Ali
“What you mean by that?”
Albert “Continental Cat” Tillett Jr.
“Dehn noh di tek care ah mi to time. Sometimes ah ask fi di people dehn, dehn mek up dehn face. Den I decide I can’t stay dah dis place because dehn noh di treat me right. Dehn di clean mi wounds out ah sausage pan and dehn thing deh. My ma, my sista everybody deh right deh fi prove it and see it. Wah nurse weh deh dah di place tell my ma mek dehn get me out ah di place cause ah noh wah survive. Wah nurse weh work deh tell we fi mek dehn get me out ah dis place cause ah noh di get better.”
Albert Tillett Sr., Father of Continental Cat
“Saturday morning I received a call that someone from the hospital told my people to get my son from out of that hospital because they can’t do nothing for my son. It was a nurse, to get my son out of the hospital because definite they can’t do nothing for my son there and he’s getting worse. So we get together and flew my son out Saturday afternoon.”
The artist told us that the doctor who conducted the surgery in Dangriga left for Belize City and he did not get his name, but he figured that by his accent, he was not Belizean. He says his condition turned around after undergoing a second surgery at the K.H.M.H. in Belize City.
Albert “Continental Cat” Tillett Jr.
“When I come to this hospital I get much better and I feel much well and everything work out good for me. Thanks to Mr. Moguel; he save mi life.”
Albert Tillett Sr.
“They observe him for a day and a half or so and the swelling just keep going up and the doctor say that they have to give him a second surgery to see what is the situation. After they did an x-ray they saw his guts was twist.”
Albert “Continental Cat” Tillett Jr.
“I more believe dah negligence by di same person weh operate me because when I come yah dehn tell me my guts deh turn and all twist.”
Marion Ali
“Who told you this here?”
Albert “Continental Cat” Tillett Jr.
“Moguel, Mr. Moguel, Dr. Moguel, he told me that. I more believe dah di surgery, dehn neva give me wah good surgery and soh dat suppose to cause dat. Dehn lef my guts wah kinda way. Dehn neva like set it back di proper way.”
Albert Tillett Sr.
“My next move is to inform the Director of Health to check the Dangriga Hospital because there’s a lot of negligence going on down there. It was the second surgery that make him better in Belize City. And that sausage pan thing that totally out ah the question.”
Albert “Continental Cat” Tillett Jr.
“I noh want sing or nothing right now, I just want get back fully, fully, fully, if ih have to tek mi wah three, four months, well dah dat. I just noh wah perform, nothing.”
Continental Cat says although he’s happy to be alive, the experience has slowed down his career for several months and his plans to perform at the November nineteenth celebrations are now replaced by hopes for an early discharge. News Five attempted to contact the Southern Regional Hospital but we were told the authorities were in meetings.
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B.T.L. gives one week notice before pulling plug on Smart |
 In August the government nationalized Belize Telemedia Limited and since then it has made public statements against its competitor, Smart. The two have embarked on aggressive marketing campaigns, but Telemedia has gone one step further and is literally pulling the plug on Smart and it looks like the days of the monopoly are not too farfetched. Chief Marketing Officer of Smart, Anthony Mahler, says government gave them a deadline to make changes on one of its systems. Mahler says the transition can be made, but completing it in one week is an impossible feat since it requires the importation of the necessary satellite and other equipment. He says Smart has asked B.T.L. to provide them with a temporary link in the interim, but the silence has been deafening.
Anthony Mahler, Chief Marketing Officer, Smart
“Last week Friday we got a letter from Belize Telemedia Limited advising us that they will cut the circuits that provide service for international voice and international roaming to our customers. Our issue with this is that they are not giving us ample time to find an alternative solution. They’re giving us a time frame of this coming Friday to address the issue. We’ve gone through all the channels that we have to try and address the situation and we haven’t gotten a favorable response. And if it goes through this Friday ninety thousand customers will be without international service and all our roaming customers won’t be able to travel abroad with their phones. We’ve put our positions forward, we’ve stated to them that if we can’t have access to the E-1 links again—that’s what we call the circuits—then we want access to Arcos. They haven’t responded to that. Arcos is the link between the United States, Central and South America. We’ve escalated this thing to the P.U.C. and we’ve asked them to intervene and try to mediate this process going forward. We’re a member of Chamber and we’ve also raised the concern to the Chamber that hear what, a lotta people, a lotta businesses will be affected if this thing goes through. We consider it an act of hostility to be honest. To give us one week to find a solution or a fix to this issue is unreasonable from our standpoint.”
Marion Ali
“What do your customers do now? What’s your message to them?”
Anthony Mahler
“Well we’re trying to rectify the situation and we can only hope that we can continue to give the best possible service within the coming days. When the government nationalized B.T.L. they’re talking about true competition but if they continue to act in this way then what about true competition right?”
Mahler says Smart is installing a toll-free number so that its customers can call the PUC’s lines and state their opinion on the matter at no cost to them.
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Flores Bus owner and 4 supporters protest U.D.P. headquarters |
 The Flores Bus Line that runs the Ladyville/Lords Bank route already has a legal matter with the Transport Department before the courts. The injunction came after the Department suspended Flores Bus Line from operating for a month, during which his permit would have expired. So Flores, through Attorney Hubert Elrington, sought the court’s intercession on the matter. But that didn’t stop owner of Flores Bus Line, Alton Flores, from picketing the headquarters of the United Democratic Party near the Bel-China Bridge today. Flores says the department is playing politics with him and has wrongly blamed him for past incidents which have involved his bus company and others who run along the same Lord’s Bank/Belize City route. Today he said enough is enough and he was taking a stand.
Alton Flores, Owner, Flores Bus Line
“If any wrong was done, yes the Transport Board has a responsibility but if they find wrongdoing then lets all be punished, don’t jus punish one party all the time.”
Jules Vasquez, Channel Seven
“But hasn’t Ramos been sanctioned as well?”
Alton Flores
“Ramos’ permit has been revoked but he’s back on the road. Three companies was a problem. They put an additional company so we have four companies now. So they feel like that’s the solution. Three is a problem; four is the solution.”
Marion Ali
“Are you using the system or the loopholes within the system to gain sympathy or support?”
Alton Flores
“No, I’m using the law which everyone in this country supposed to abide by, the laws of the land.”
Marion Ali
“I need to ask you this, you feel that it’s all political but yet it is with your fellow bus operators that you have conflict with; not the government.”
Alton Flores
“I don’t have conflict with…”
Marion Ali
“It’s always each others buses and each others employees that you keep attacking.”
Alton Flores
“There’s a structural problem. There's a structural problem, which I have been explaining that to Mrs. Morter for the past six months and she refused to adhere to our problems. If a bus leaves from Belize City, it must get to Ladyville within forty-five minutes time and start returning from Ladyville within forty-five minutes time. If there is a traffic jam from Vernon Street all the way to Pallotti the time you will take from Pound Yard to Pallotti could be twenty to thirty minutes. How will you get to Lord’s Bank within fifteen minutes?”
Carlos Lopez, Owner, Lopez Shuttle Service
“Mr. Flores is being treated not correctly. Mr. Flores is one of the persons that actually started to operate through Lord’s Bank. When there was no other buses running though Lord’s Bank, as early as five a.m. Mr. Flores was out there operating busses and Mr. Flores has been a very hard working man working from five until nine p.m. at night time. I am in solidarity with him because—not only because of the fact that they are trying to pressure him right now, but because of the fact that I have been under the same pressure, political pressures and I believe it is unfair. I think the solution to the problem, the present scheduling that they have right now is totally out of order. What they should do is to have the busses running alternately because the fifteen minutes interval does not work.”
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Transport Minister says bus owners keep breaking regulations |
 But this afternoon, Minister of Transport, Melvin Hulse, said the problem lies with the same ring of bus owners who keep breaking the regulations and the schedules.
Melvin Hulse, Minister of Transport
“Anytime yoh hear people noh get something yoh hear all kinda mada rugu bout it. We need to go beyond dis. People need to tek responsibility for their actions okay. And I heard somebody just tell me as I get eena office dat he seh dat how Bert complain to me and I give ah one. Man stop dehn stupidness. That’s ridiculous man. If he have wah problem go and talk to the Transport Board, the seven members who view every application eena dis flippin country and let them show what was their assessment of it. I am saying that nothing is secret. The board meet on three hundred applications. Man go and see why the board did not renew—renew yoh know, not cancel; renew! Nobody have the God given right to get renewed. You have the responsibility to provide a good service and you have what sixty ticket violations? Man I mean please man. Ih easy for anybody these days now—freedom is good noh but I mean anybody could get up and seh bwai yoh know it’s victimization and dehn di try spite mi and den dehn want dis back and forth. And if he have a problem with a board decision you go to the board and ask them to rationalize their decision. I supposed to sit down on the board and view everybody whether I know or noh know them and seh who should get and who noh fi get. Marion, the public has been crying for twenty years please mek wi tek ministerial thing out ah thing. Please mek wi have dis thing done unbiasedly. When ih get done, big flipping thing now.”
Marion Ali
“His position is that he was one of the pioneers to start the business in that area and people have come after him and have gotten, in his terms, preferential treatment.”
Melvin Hulse
“He was a pioneer? Novelo was a pioneer, the old man Felipe was a pioneer, Zorro was a pioneer, James was a pioneer, Eugene was a pioneer, Gilharry was a pioneer; everybody dah flipping pioneer but they don’t have a monopoly on anything and they have an obligation to do things properly. When they can’t cherry pick and they can’t get their own way and this is a fact of life—when I can’t get the route I want oh injunction. Everything dah injunction. Dehn learn bout injunction and everything dah dat. Okay, I will not deprive anybody, I will not attempt to say that nobody have a right to go to the court.”
While Flores and about four of his supporters picketed the U.D.P. Headquarters, they still had buses running shuttles to and from Lord’s Bank and Belize City.
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Graphic designer turns out to be scammer |
 He faces a string of charges for Obtaining Property by Deception but he has never been convicted. Thirty-four year old graphic designer, Artemio Acosta, of Neal Pen Road was this morning arraigned on five different counts of the charge. At around ten a.m. Acosta appeared before Magistrate Aretha Ford and heard the first charge against him, which was brought by Daisy Mejia who accused him of stealing one hundred and fifty dollars on September third. He pleaded not guilty and was offered bail of two thousand dollars. But before Acosta could meet that bail, four additional charges were levied on him. The second victim, Feliciana Morris, a teacher at Guadalupe R.C. School in Maskall Village, said that last Wednesday, Acosta obtained four hundred dollars from her. Morris told police that Acosta, who claimed to be a graphic Designer, visited her at school and convinced her to order the t-shirts. She gave Acosta an installment of four hundred dollars towards the job and that was the last time she saw or heard from him until today. His two other victims—Linda Lopez and John Geroin—both of Lucky Strike Village, say they were approached in a similar fashion and Acosta managed to swindle money from them. Lopez told police that on October twenty-third, Acosta received two hundred and one dollars from her and on November second he got another two hundred and sixty dollars for t-shirts. And nine days later, on November eleventh, Gerion alleges that Acosta got ninety dollars from him. Acosta also pleaded not guilty to these four additional charges and was again granted bail. Magistrate Ford then increased his original two thousand dollars bail to three thousand dollars and all five charges will be heard as one on December twenty-third.
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Former Barbados PM on the recession in the Caribbean... |
 Owen Arthur; he is the former prime minister of Barbados who has bragging rights to record economic growth in his country during his fourteen year tenure. While he is not involved in electoral politics he is still a voice in the region. His current visit to Belize has to do with the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME). Arthur is here to analyze where we stand with its implementation. When he took the couch on this morning’s Open Your Eyes, Arthur was candid about the anemic public education on the subject. He also addressed another hard hitting issue… the global economic recession, which is now taking a toll on Belize.
Owen Arthurs, Former Prime Minister of Barbados
“I believe that the Caribbean, with very few exceptions, is facing perhaps the most imposing economic crisis in history. Most Caribbean countries now have problems that predated the global recession, that have been made worse by the global recession and that will persist I think after the global recession has lifted. Most Caribbean countries, including Belize, are facing a very fearsome adjustment to losing preferences and it is not easy to replace one form of activity with another in a short period of time. That adjustment started and will continue but is a very difficult adjustment. Most Caribbean countries also have very serious public financial problems and there is a sense of which the long run has arrived for most Caribbean countries. The cost of independence, for example, imposes a tremendous financial strain on most governments. You have to have the same foreign services of other developed societies. Nation building is expensive but Caribbean countries are now experiencing very serious public financial problems. You also have very severe balance of payments problems because the global recession has affected them but there’s an underlying tendency towards balance of payments problems in these countries. They’ve had those in the past. What makes this situation very difficult is that you have those problems now with most Caribbean countries having perhaps some of the worst debt profiles of any countries in the world.”
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…And reasons to go the CCJ way |
Still on CARICOM, Prime Minister Dean Barrow announced on June nineteenth of this year that the Privy Council will be replaced with the Caribbean Court of Justice as the final court of appeal for Belize. That’s a decision Barbados made several years ago and one that Arthur says he does not regret. He explained why.
Owen Arthurs, Former Prime Minister of Barbados
“The Caribbean Court of Justice was an institution that Caribbean heads sought to create by using the most scrupulous and most carefully thought out processes. The court was given judicial and financial independence. Some of the Caribbean countries have to depend upon the state of the exchequer and state of the public finances in their respective countries. The Caribbean Court of Justice was given financial independence; we borrowed money, put it in a trust and they’re living off that. The heads also were careful not to create any process by which there can be political intrusion on the manner in which the court functions or judges are selected and the court is made of persons of the most incredible capabilities. Barbados, therefore, never had any fear about participating in the court and what we did not want to do was, as our former prime minister says, be found loitering on colonial property after closing time. We are now reaching a stage in the Caribbean where the British are saying we don’t want you to be in our court anymore because you are too expensive and you are a nuisance to us and you face the possible embarrassment, if nothing else is done, of being ejected by the British from participating in their Privy Council.”
When it comes to the CCJ Arthur says his philosophy is that “The basis of a society, no matter how simple, is the capacity of members of that society to provide justice for their own”.
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Garifuna Settlement Day activities in Belize City and Griga |
 It is the eve of Garifuna Day celebrations, and whether or not you are heading south to the cradle of the Garifuna community you can still enjoy the celebrations. Channel Five’s Open Your Eyes will bring you a special show from Dangriga beginning at six-thirty in the morning. The coverage includes the re-enactment of the arrival of the Garinagu to our shores and the traditional procession. A packed line-up has been planned and there will be performances by the legendary Paul Nabor and much more. So join us from the Cultural capital. Here in Belize City, the official ceremonies will be held at the Memorial Park. According to the Belize City Branch President of the Garifuna Council, Matthew Martinez, the activities kick off tonight a seven-thirty.
Matthew Martinez, President, Nat’l Garifuna Council, Belize City
“Tonight is the eighteenth night and we will be having all night drumming and dancing at the Memorial Park so we are encouraging everybody to come out. We start at seven-thirty p.m. and that will go until tomorrow evening six p.m. So we’re encouraging everybody from all over the country to come to Belize City because Belize City is the place for November celebrations. On the nineteenth morning at seven-fifteen we have the reenactment at the foot of the Belcan Bridge. From there we parade to the St. Martin’s De Porres Church for the thanksgiving mass at seven-thirty a.m. After the mass, we parade to Memorial Park for the official ceremonies which will start at ten a.m. This year, Belize City will be the host for the national official ceremony; we will host the National President of the National Garifuna council of Belize, Mister Ernest Castro, will be delivering his address along with the Prime Minister of Belize, the honorable Dean Barrow.”
Duane Moody
“Why not down in Dangriga, the culture capital?”
Matthew Martinez
“Yes, Dangriga is the culture capital of Belize; we know that, we are fully aware of that. But what happen with the National Garifuna Council, we rotate the official ceremonies from time to time.”
And this just in: word has been received that Paul Nabor has been hospitalized at the Southern Regional Hospital.
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Contemporary Paranda Artist, Nuru, launches CD |
 You will remember him as one of the big voices behind the Garifuna Kids, the Garifuna Legacy Band and the L.A. based Punta Band sensation, Ibayani. And tonight, thirty-four year old Dayaan Ellis, known as Nuru, is launching a fifth album entitled, “Afien” which translates to “Believe”. Nuru was born and raised in Dangriga and after sixteen years of singing Punta, Reggae, Paranda and other genres, he considers himself a Contemporary-Paranda artist… but diversified. The album is reflecting just that as it features several local artists—including Lloyd, Reckless, Supa G, Adrian “the Doc” Martinez and others—in eleven tracks. A bonus track features a live concert performed by Nuru and the Griga Boyz Band. He has been working on this album for three years and is presently the Music and Creative Arts Director at Delille Academy in his hometown. Meet Nuru...
Dayaan “Nuru” Ellis, Contemporary-Paranda Artist
“I was born in Dangriga and raised on Umagarugu. My grand parents were all musicians. Machete is one of the most famous drummers; he was my granduncle. With that, basically I think it’s in me. On top of that downstairs from where I grew up was Pen Cayetano and Turtle Shell Man so again it was like enforcing it more into the bone. And then it just became a passion as a little boy growing up. It became a passion where it just sunk it. I am a Bahai by nature. My dad was a Bahai so being a Bahai you tend to be musically inclined and there at that point I got a lot of singing skills.”
“Now basically, this is my fifth album and I don’t only record myself, I try to record other people as well because as a musician, we are the only ones who know how we want to sound. I mean an engineer outside, with respect to them, they cannot give you your flow you have to be able to give them. so me being a musician and an engineer as well as an artist and a producer, you package all that together and you’re supposed to have dynamic work all the time.”
“On the album, I believe, there are a lot of artists on it including Reckless, Supa G, Lloyd, Adrian Martinez, even the young guys like Sheldon. I try the best to bring them in because I think that everybody need a little bit of exposure, need a little bit of each other so we can make something great. So that’s what the experiment—I believe that’s how it came about because we have to have that joint unity in order for that to happen. So we all gotta believe that unity is strength. There is one track that especially touches my heart, it’s called Child Molester and the reason for that is because we, in the south, the north and the whole world, it has been a problem and so we have to try and see how we as artists can influence people to think on a different level and see what is wrong with it and how we gotta go about fixing it. so that’s one of my favourite tracks.”
“Afien” is available at music stores countrywide for twenty-dollars. Also available are t-shirts which are going at twenty-five dollars.
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TONIGHT'S NEWS WAS PRODUCED FOR BROADCAST BY AMALIA MAI AND PREPARED FOR THE INTERNET BY DELAHNIE BAIN.
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The Public Utilities Commission has reviewed a multi-million dollar business plan submitted by the Belize Water Services Limited and has approved a water rate increase of ten point six percent without changes to any current fee structure. Today the P.U.C. explained that it also made changes to B.W.S.L.’S business plan and proposed that operational expenditures be increased by twenty-five percent rather than the sixty percent sought by the water company. The P.U.C. also recommended that vehicle and mobile plant expenses be reduced from five million nine hundred and eighty eight million dollars to three million seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars. And according to P.U.C. Chairman John Avery, the P.U.C. also approved the implementation of a new rate setting methodology for B.W.S.L.
The long arms of the law also caught up today with a Belize City man, who lied to the court about his name and court record. Fifty-eight year old Frank Neal appeared before Magistrate Sharon Frazer this morning where he was charged with Attempted Theft. Allegations are that shortly after midnight on Tuesday, November seventeenth he attempted to steal a bag of clothes belonging to Desiree Hemsley, who caught him red-handed after her vicious dogs chased him up a tree. Neal pleaded guilty to the charge, but said that he was only helping Hemsley with removing items from her home. That was his story, but in a police report, Hemsley said that at about twelve a.m., she was sleeping when she heard her dogs barking. She got up and saw Neal on her golden plum tree with a bag of her clothes that she had left near her laundry room. After hearing the facts, Magistrate Frazer got annoyed and questioned Neal if this was his first time in court. Neal said yes, but after checks were made it showed that he has been before the court at least once before as Frank Blease. The records also show that he has several offenses before the court including a theft conviction in which he was imposed a fine of four hundred fifty dollars or one year in default. With that Magistrate Frazer imposed a jail term of six months and an additional six months for the old fine which he never paid the court.
The other former leader in Belize this week was Cesar Gaviria of Colombia. Gaviria is of prominence not only for his presidency but also for the work he did as the Secretary General for the Organization of American States. He is known as a keen negotiator in times of crisis who was involved in the Belize/Guatemala territorial dispute. Before he left earlier this week, Gaviria gave his views on a number of developments in Latin America, including the tension between Venezuela and neighboring Colombia.
The former OAS Secretary General also spoke about one of Belize’s close allies, Cuba. The Cuban Mission to Belize is involved in numerous technical and cooperation initiatives, including a large medical brigade. Though Cuba is the largest Caribbean island with a population of over eleven million, the country has been either removed or left out of major organizations and regional events. Cuba’s international lock-out is mostly a result of an antiquated United States lobby against the Castro Regime. Gaviria feels it’s time for that to change.
Closer to home, Gaviria also weighed in on the military coup d'état that ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya. He felt that the situation had reached the point that Zelaya would not be able to return to power since his term is quickly expiring.
