Belize~ Paying its own way to Hell

The views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not necessarily those of Breaking Belize News.

This article was written by Richard Harrison, Belizean investor in production and services businesses in Belize. He holds a Master’s in Business Administration degree from Lancaster University.

By Richard Harrison: Whenever a person offers up his own resources to finance initiatives that are against his own best interest…he can be said to be paying his own way to hell.

There are countless examples of where the various Belize governments, since Independence in 1981, have forced Belizean’s to pay for their own demise…instead of to lift up themselves and their nation.

The space here does not allow for a detailed account of all the examples of proof of this theory, so a couple examples will be used to outline the theory. Upon public demand, other articles can be published to expand and reinforce this theory.

BOLEDO/LOTTERY

The boledo/lottery gambling game of chance is a big business that sucks many millions of hard cash out of the hands of poor people of Belize daily….it is owned by the Government of Belize, so any risk is on the tax payers of Belize. However, the lucrative business is “administered” by Chinese businessmen allies to the political party in power…some observers believe that a Quinto was involved with the PUP governments, and that a Brads has been associated with the past 10 years of UDP governments. The company set up to administer this cookie jar is only required to pay government $2 million a year…all the rest is free cash for the administrators to do as they please. This business is estimated to earn over $20 million in profits annually…after paying the license, the sales commissions, prize winnings and administrative overheads. The only logical reason that one can reasonably conclude is that the chief politicians, those in charge of the public finances, are getting a kick back from this bonanza…and that the free cash flow he shares with the “administrator”. If they go 50/50, then each side should be harvesting around $10 million annually. On the politicians side, the money now washed clean in his bank accounts, can be used for personal purposes, which may include the financing of political campaigns, including the buying of votes…even the “fixing” of immigrants nationality status so that they can vote…diluting the vote of every Belizean. On the “administrators” side, the money now laundered to appear in bank accounts as clean, can now be used to buy up Belizean land for cheap on fire sale of Belizean’s hard earned properties by the commercial banks, whom have colluded with the politician controlled Central Bank of Belize, to “clean up the books” of the high default rates experienced after the government did nothing in response to the World Financial Crisis of 2008…selling off Belizean life worth for 50-60 cents on the dollar…destroying Belizean wealth and ability to invest by an estimated $400 million. $10 million a year is a lot of money which would soon raise eye brows in the financial system if allowed to pile up, so it is better that they hide it in loans to finance their Chinese friends to build big stores, and now gas stations, bars and hotels all across Belize…at 3% annual rate of interest…allowing them to be a lot more competitive than Belizean competitors who must pay no less than 10% per annum interest for financing. Thus Belizean’s have been wiped out of the retail distribution sector….large portion of the restaurant service sector…and are now under attack in the bar/club and hotel/motel sectors. These are very strategic sectors that can serve as anchors for rapidly taking over any other sector of the economy…by virtue of the facts that they will control the point of sale of every product-market chain.

SUGAR INDUSTRY

The sugar industry is a commodity industry that needed restructuring in the face of the World Financial Crisis, the vagaries of the world sugar price fluctuations, the elimination of preferential markets in Europe as a direct result of the de-colonialization process underway since the Second World War in 1945. Instead of facilitating this restructuring, the Government of Belize facilitated the fire sale of the Belize Sugar Industries (BSI) to American Sugar Refinery/Tate & Lyle…their long-time monopoly customer….so now BSI sells to its parent company…and Belize has no anti-trust nor competition laws…so they can declare low FOB Belize Port prices and accumulate the profits in offshore intermediaries between Belize and anywhere ASR/Tate & Lyle pays taxes….so the farmers of Belize are turned to almost indentured servants. If ASR was paying for this take over of our industry it would not be bad…but instead our own government has facilitated an increase of white plantation sugar on the local Belize market from $0.50/lb to $0.75/lb…a whopping 50% highjacking of Belizean consumers…taking around $7 million per year extra…which is exactly the amount ASR needs annually to pay for the financing they needed to take over BSI. In other words, Belizean’s are paying for ASR to own their sugar industry BSI…and turning their own Belizean sugarcane farmers into slaves (a handful of the larger cane farmers are happy and joined the slave masters…history repeating itself). If that was not enough, the GOB even induced some of their UDP cane farmers to break up the once powerful Belize Sugarcane Farmers Association into three separate associations…basically union busting the industry so that divided they are weak and cannot defend themselves. At the same time the GOB policy of 45% tax on fuel, which is the principal driver of cost-of-production of sugarcane…rendering sugarcane production uncompetitive, under-productive and near to unprofitable…increasingly turning our once-rich CAÑERO’S into paupers.

I.C.J. RESOLUTION OF ANGLO-GUATEMALAN DISPUTE

The GOB has said that over $2 million of taxpayers money is being used to join with the $8 million international money that is pushing the “yes to ICJ” vote down the throats of Belizean’s.

Going to the ICJ to resolve the bastard child of the Anglo-Guatemalan dispute, under the existing Special Agreement…and worse…under the existing corrupt, pillaging, ready-to-bend-over crowd of the Alibaba/Pedrito Escobar-type UDP Barrow government…at a time in Belize’s history when it is the weakest it has ever been…poverty over 40%….relations with principal allies strained to near-breaking-point…debt-to-GDP ratio over 100%…a record 3 bail-outs by bondholders within a period of only 10 years…a national security system grossly under-financed and in shambles…escalating violent crimes and general sense of growing citizen insecurity…piled high like faeces on top of so many losses under this incompetent, thieving bunch in international courts such as the Caribbean Court of Justice, The London Court of International Arbitration and various US District Courts…places Belize and Belizean’s at a very high level of undue risk. It is thus that Belizean tax payers are contributing to the erosion of their independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity…a poker game that is being played by big international interests that are financing the bulk of this “yes to ICJ” campaign…which would put half or all of Belize into the hands of those hungry to get at Belize’s rich land, marine and underground resources…which, in large part due to the Crown, has a high barrier to entry…and which is largely under conservation and protected areas.

In the light of 74% of Guatemalan’s showing no interest in supporting their military/elite governments claim over Belize…by refusing to participate in their April referendum this year…the urgency in which these traitors are promoting the interest of the would-be exploitation tyrants…when most Belizean’s (78% polled) feel unprepared and very doubtful of making such a life-or-death decision without having all the tools…breeds suspicion, misunderstanding, distrust and division among Belizean’s…making them weaker and more vulnerable to exploitation.

It is thus, that Belizean’s are paying their own way to hell…contributing to their own demise…shooting themselves in the legs…being their own worse enemy…chopping off their own hands…cutting off their own nose to spite their face…plucking out their own eyes…spitting in the air so it can fall on their face.

If there is public demand, I will give many more examples of how the Governments of Belize have and continue to screw its own people…to expand and develop on this theory…a sad state of affairs that needs urgent reversal…lest GOB sells, negotiates, litigates, or gives away Belize right from under the feet of Belizean’s

 

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