Community and Society

On Friday, August 6th, the mobile lands clinic in San Pedro Town hosted by the Department of Lands and Surveys concluded. Held at the Angel Nuñez Auditorium, the two-day event headed by Minister of Natural Resources Hon. Cordel Hyde and Area Representative Hon. Andre Perez assisted hundreds of residents, who had tried for years to sort out their land issues with no success. The initiative managed to purge a lot of irregularities. Although many walked out with a sense of accomplishment after clarifying their doubts, permission to purchase their property, and validation of their land titles, the job is far from over. Another mobile clinic will be needed in the future to continue addressing the remaining land problems in San Pedro. Still, before that takes place, the upcoming clinic will head to the sister island of Caye Caulker.

The commandant of the Belize Coast Guard (BCG), Captain Elton Bennett, returned to his office after successfully undertaking a year of study at the Royal College of Defence Studies in England. Bennett left Belize in July 2020, and during his absence commander Gregory Soberani, along with San Pedro’s Almita Pinelo, took the reins of the BCG.

August 4, 2021, was a bright and beautiful sunny day in San Pedro Town, Ambergris Caye. A completely different scenario from five years ago, when Category 1 Hurricane Earl devastated the island. The hurricane forced the cancellation of one of Belize’s most famous summer events, the international ‘Costa Maya Festival.’ It resulted in more than $10 million in losses for both San Pedro and Caye Caulker.

From Wednesday, August 5th to the 6th, the Department of Lands and Surveys are hosting a two-day mobile land clinic in San Pedro Town at the Angel Nuñez Auditorium to provide administrative assistance to residents experiencing problems with their land documents. The land clinic is the first-ever on the island and will be tending to concerned residents from 9AM to 5PM each day.

A report on the increased price of flour has raised eyebrows among the many Belizeans who enjoy flour tortillas, fry jacks, and of course, pack bread every day. The increase reportedly reflected the popular ‘La Gitana’ and ‘Bebe Agua’ flour brands. With the rise in this staple, the same was expected with bread, buns, and pastries. While in San Pedro Town, the local bakery did not confirm an increase in their prices, the government’s Supplies Control Unit (SCU) of the Belize Bureau of Standards issued an official note on Wednesday, August 4th pointing out that there has been NO CHANGE to the controlled price for Bebe Agua and La Gitana flour in the marketplace.

Ambergris Caye and Belize will be featured in Asia and the United States of America via a travel report by Sanlih E-Television (SETTV), one of the leading broadcasting companies in Taiwan. A crew from SETTV visited the country from July 30th to August 4th and covered topics such Belize-Taiwan relationships, biodiversity, Belize’s COVID-19 strategy, environmental protection, and traditional Maya culture for its top awarding-winning program, ‘The Borderless World.’

The recent announcement of the upcoming monthly bridge fees to access the Sir Barry Bowen Bridge had many islanders up in arms and confused, pointing out that the proposed prices were too high given the island is still trying to recover from the economic effects of the pandemic. In view of these concerns, the San Pedro Town Council (SPTC) revised the fees and on Wednesday, August 4th presented the updated fees to use the bridge. The new adjusted monthly prices according to the SPTC are, taxi/hotel transport vans/small cargo trucks is $150, while golf cart rentals will be charged $250 covering a total of 15 carts and $50 for an additional ten carts. In regards to the private motor vehicles/goods trucks the monthly fee will be $75. The only rate that did not change was the one for large vehicles such as dump trucks, which will remain at $500.

On Tuesday evening, August 3rd, 42,000 doses of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine donated by the United Kingdom (UK) arrived in Belize. The vaccines will be used to continue helping the country’s effort to fight the COVID-19 virus.