Black Immigrant Daily News

Les Abymes

La pièce d’Eliane Arnell-Kancel, Gerty Archimède, l’amie du peuple, a reçu une standing ovation de la part du public, tant à Sonis qu’à Basse-Terre. L’occasion d’en apprendre un peu plus sur cette Guadeloupéenne exceptionnelle.

France-Antilles Guadeloupe

1013 mots – 20.07.2022

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Black Immigrant Daily News

Morne-à-l’Eau

Mardi dernier s’est tenue une cérémonie de récompense au lycée Gerty-Archimède avec le Kiwanis Kaladja, en présence de Jocelyne Nestar la proviseure, de nombreuses personnalités de l’Éducation nationale et des représentants de la municipalité de la ville et du conseil général.

France-Antilles Guadeloupe

604 mots – 20.07.2022

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Black Immigrant Daily News

Several persons were detained in connection with the death of 20-year-old Randy Adomay Xol of Bella Vista, Toledo District.

by Charles Gladden

BELLA VISTA, Toledo District, Mon. July 18, 2022Police are investigating the mysterious death of 20-year-old Randy Adomay Xol of Bella Vista, Toledo District, whose body was found with several stab wounds in the neck area at a location between Miles 43 and 44 on an unnamed street near a junction with the Southern Highway. A knife that police suspect could be the murder weapon was seen lying nearby.

According to initial police reports, Xol, who had a bruise on the right eye when his body was found, had been socializing in front of a popular Chinese establishment in the area sometime before midnight on Saturday, July 16, when he got into a disagreement with some patrons who are believed to be responsible for Xol’s death.

Lying in some grass about 75 feet away from Xol’s motionless body when he was found was a pocket knife with an orange handle and a blade that measured 3 1/2 inches in length. What appeared to be drops of blood could be seen on the blade of the knife.

It has been confirmed that a number of threats had been made to Xol’s life over the past month — the most recent being on Wednesday, July 13, three days before his untimely death. His mother, Elena Choko, told local reporters, “This is not the first time that they are doing this! Any time my kids travel the road, they stopped them, they curse them, but as a mother, I take everything [and] I don’t rush to pick problems. I take everything easy, and I leave it in God’s hands. My son told me, ‘when he attacked me the second time, I hit him on his nose and he fell on the floor and when he fell, he fainted and when he fainted his sister ran to us and she hurried told me. ‘Boy, you don’t know who that person is! That person just came out of Hattieville, you know that person already killed someone and he will soon kill you’’”.

Choko went on to express lack of confidence in the police, despite her hopes that justice could be served for her son. She went on to claim that a number of the officers in the area are often intoxicated.

“… We have the most criminals in this area that police can’t control. They can’t control — why? Because police, when you give a report, the police are right there drunk in those bars; they are drunk! Even though if they get some calls, they reach the people drunk, what can the police do like that? And when things happen like that, they can’t bring back life. They can’t give me what I lost,” she lamented.She further remarked, “What they have done to me and my family, and what they have done my son, it is a great sorrow from the bottom of my heart. Losing my son, and he doesn’t owe [anybody] and he doesn’t give any trouble. They walked down the street for 12 years, living [on] this farmland. I always advise my kids [to don’t] rob anyone, don’t hurt anyone, don’t go attack anybody, and don’t steal anything from adults [and] young children, walk straight. I advise them every day.”

Currently, police are following several leads and have detained several persons for questioning. However, no arrests have yet been made.

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PM Briceño stated at a House of Representatives meeting on Friday that Waterloo Investment Holdings Limited has not submitted critical pieces of information, without which there can be no issuance of environmental approval by the NEAC.

BELIZE CITY, Mon. July 18, 2022A question posed by the Leader of the Opposition, Hon. Moses “Shyne” Barrow, during Friday’s sitting of the House of Representatives that seemed aimed at pushing the government to expedite approval of the Waterloo Investment Holdings’ cruise terminal project—despite considerable environmental and community concerns surrounding the project— has been referred to by Prime Minister Hon. John Briceño as an effort by Hon. Barrow to sing “for his supper”. Barrow seized an opportunity at the House meeting to ask what the government was doing to “find solutions to the problems stalling the Waterloo port proposal project”—a question that, Prime Minister Briceno pointed out, could easily have been presented to the Minister of Sustainable Development rather than in the House, where the most critical national issues are addressed. The expansion of the Port of Belize proposed by Waterloo Investment Holdings – reportedly a Lord Michael Ashcroft-owned company — to create a cruise and cargo docking facility, was rejected by the National Environmental Appraisal Committee (NEAC) in December of 2021.

At the time of the rejection of the proposal, a reason for the denial was not released to the public, although there had been numerous expressions of concern about the potential impact of the project from environmentalists, community members and even the Belize Water Services Ltd. It was later reported that the NEAC received an amended proposal from Waterloo which is still being reviewed. But during Friday’s sitting of the House of Representatives, Prime Minister Briceño, in response to the question posed by the Leader of the Opposition, said, “In the most recent update to Cabinet, (the NEAC), indicated that some critical information from the applicant remain pending and with absence to that information, approval or disapproval could not be given.”There has been speculation by the Prime Minister that the government’s lack of intervention in the process in order to guarantee approval of the project—despite the efforts by two other developers to construct cruise facilities within a small geographical area—has prompted acts of spite by the owner of Waterloo, who is said to be Lord Michael Ashcroft. In reference to rumors that Lord Achcroft might be supporting the churches in a referendum process that could derail government’s attempt to create a cannabis industry, Prime Minister Briceño said, “He is a Belizean citizen and he has a lot of money, and if he wants to support the church to spite us because we have not given him clearance on the NEAC, I mean, that’s his right. The point that I made is that there is a process under the NEAC that a company has to go through. The Port of Belize, Waterloo, when they were doing their presentation to NEAC, there was some extra information that was being asked of them, and they refuse to provide it, and it is because of that refusal then the NEAC decided that at that time they would not.”

At the time of the rejection, Waterloo principals made an allegation that NEAC members had approached them in an attempt to seek bribes and that their rejection of the overtures is what led to the ultimate denial of their project. Those allegations were never substantiated. Waterloo ultimately opted to resubmit an application for review in an attempt to move forward from what it described as a “chaotic” three-year process.

Now, according to the PM, the process is once again stalled because of what he said is key information that has not been provided by the company as a part of this most recent addendum. At the time of the initial rejection of Waterloo’s proposal, the company had said that they had spent more than $5 million, and, in fact, as much as $10 million, in developing its plans for the project. The company, which carried out a second consultation exercise after environmental concerns were raised by environmental groups and the Belize Water Services Ltd., due to the proposed offshore dumping of dredged material that would be generated by the project, later proposed on and near-shore solutions instead.

The company has suggested that the disposal of such dredged material was the only pending matter to be addressed, but during an interview in late December, Minister of Sustainable Development Hon. Orlando Habet said, “…some of that information is missing, as to where all that material will be placed. If there are ten, for example, and you [are] showing me eight, where is the other two cubic meters? So, I think some of that. As I said, I don’t know all the details, but it doesn’t sound like they have provided all the information asked for.”

So, the parties are once again at this juncture, and there is no indication if Waterloo Investment Holdings has submitted the additional information being sought by the NEAC. The PM said that until that information is handed down, a decision cannot be made by the NEAC on the Port of Belize expansion and cruise terminal project.

“Once again, the government’s position is simple: the law requires a NEAC approval for a project of this nature, and magnitude. No less than the health of the Belize Barrier Reef is at stake. The approval process is therefore squarely a matter between the applicant and the NEAC. Government will not prejudice this process one way or the other,” Prime Minister Briceño told Hon. Barrow.

“If they get their clearance, of course, they’re going to get the support of the government, because we need to modernize the port for cargo, and also there is a need for a cruise terminal, so it’s not that we are against the project. It’s simply that we can’t do anything by law until it passes the NEAC,” PM Briceño further said.

Interestingly, an editorial featured in last Tuesday’s edition of the Amandala, stated, “… It is no secret that Ashcroft’s Belize Bank has been the receiver, for almost a decade, for the Port of Belize, and that he has publicly joined all plans for undertaking necessary repairs and modernizing of the port facilities with his desire to also turn it into a modern cruise tourism facility – Waterloo. And the history of Ashcroft in Belize has been: what Ashcroft wants, Ashcroft gets…. There are major environmental concerns, especially with respect to our Barrier Reef, involved with realizing the planned Waterloo Cruise Port facility; but the tried and proven Ashcroft formula seems to be: money can solve every problem. So, Belize’s “Blue Bond” recently made us an international star at the UN Oceans Conference (See Amandala page 13 of Friday, July 8, 2022.) So what? … He hired the best he could find in Belize and secured top flight E.I.A. consultants from abroad… So, there is a Barrier Reef concern? …. So what if the Port Coral (Stake Bank) guys think that Waterloo’s approval will spell a death knell to the viability of their project?…”

The editorial also noted that Ashcroft could also “choose to throw his ‘weight’ behind the Opposition.”

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