San Pedro Delivers Materials and Fund for Hurricane Victims

A group of local Island residents traveled to Belize City, on Monday, November1 to Belize City and represented the community of San Pedro, Ambergris Caye as they made a donation to the Government of Belize towards Hurricane Richard victims.
Elito Arceo, Osmin Rodriguez, Councilor Pablo Ico and Jan Brown, organizing members of the San Pedro Hurricane Relief Fund, visited the studios of Love FM in Belize City where a radiothon was being carried out for the hurricane victims. On hand to receive the donation on behalf of the Government of Belize was personnel from the Belize City Red Cross.

The delegation from San Pedro handed over a purchase receipt of $21,383.00 from Benny’s Home Center which included materials of plywood and zinc and a check to the amount of $5,000.00 to be used for the purchase of food and water. Benny’s Home Center was very kind to offer a great discount for the materials purchased and San Pedro extends a big “Thank You” for all their help.

A Belize Bank account is still open for the collection of donations as the fund collecting group in San Pedro is still expecting some more donations to come in. Donations can be made at the Belize Bank under the “San Pedro Hurricane Relief Fund”. Thanks to everybody who made donations.

Belizean Shores wins 2010 11-A-Side Championship!!!!!!!!

San Pedro’s 11-A-Side competition came to an end on Saturday October 9th at the Ambergris Stadium. Saturday night saw two teams going up for the championship; Belizean Shores and Sugar Boys Juventus went head to head in a 90 minute match. The game originally scheduled to commence at 7:00pm was delayed due to electrical difficulties at the stadium and started at 9:30pm instead. At the end of the first half, both teams were tie at zero. At around 11:00pm the first and only goal of the night was scored by Jesse Guerrero of Belizean Shores. At the end of the night, Defending Champions Belizean Shores were named Champions once again. A 1st place Trophie was awarded to the captain of Belizean Shores and medals were given to all the players as well as a cash prize of $1000.00. Second place, Sugar Boys Juventus received the 2nd place Trophie as well as a cash prize of $500.00. Congratulations to all the teams that competed.







                                    Captain of Belizean Shores receives 1st place Trophie

September 21st Independence Day Parade

San Pedro went all out on Independence Day Parade, producing one of the most spectacular parades to date. The rain came pouring down but that did not dampen the spirits as the parade revelers kept on jumping and dancing. Everybody had a fantastic time!

Miss San Pedro

Ambergris Caye Elementary

San Pedro Junior College

The Island Academy

Belize celebrating its 29th Birthday and many more fun, exciting hot days to come!!!!!!

Costa Maya Festival presents: Miss Belize and Miss Guatemala

Costa Maya 2010 is right around the corner, and over the past few weeks we have been presenting to you a bevy of beauties who will represent eight countries in the International Reina de la Costa Maya Pageant. This week, we have the honor of presenting two lovely ladies representing Guatemala and Belize.

Guatemala,  25-year-old Gabriela Asturias is a Social Communicator who stands at 5' 5", measures 34-24-35, has dark brown-eyes and hair. Gabriela enjoys dancing and reading, and is looking forward to representing her beautiful country at this year's Reina de la Costa Maya Pageant.

Belize, 23-year-old Liliana Mia Nuñez is a Gym Administrator who enjoys exercising and is looking forward to acquiring a degree in personal training. She stands at 5'4", has brown hair and eyes, and measures 33-26-36.

Both beauties will be joined on the Costa Maya stage in San Pedro by delegates from Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Mexico and Panama. At the end of the night, only one will be crowned by outgoing Reina de la Costa Maya Maritza Rivas, of Nicaragua. Who will be our new beauty representative? You just have to be there for the grand moment when hostess Sandra Hoyos announces the winner!

In other entertainment news, the Costa Maya committee has confirmed the appearance of Belize's own Berne Velasquez. Berne is a Belizean musician, model and entertainer who will be bringing his hype and melodies to the festival. Berne's music combines rap and reggae; a collaboration that has captured the attention of Hip-Hop as well as pop music aficionados worldwide. Musically influenced by pop icons Bob Marley, Tupac, and Stevie Wonder, Berne has had the fortune of performing on stage with Reggae and Dancehall greats, including Beenie Man, Sean Paul, and Shaggy.

Clowns Ozzy and Chispin will be on hand to keep the kiddies entertained at the festival grounds during the festival, and will be onstage on Sunday's family day. The committee is working hard to confirm the main Comedy Act for Sunday night, and while details are being finalized, what we can say to the public is that they will be in stitches from start to finish. A fabulous act is being lined up, with side-splitting laughter for the audience who will be in attendance. Look for details in next week's issue of The San Pedro Sun!!

Don't forget, season ticket prices are as follows: Season Pass: Adult - $115, Children - $45. Those who want to attend specific nights should know that the prices are as follows: Thursday: $30 (A), $15 (Ch), Friday: $30 (A), $15 (Ch), Saturday: $70 (A), $40 (Ch) and Sunday: $40 (A), $10 (Ch). Layaway is also available. You can buy tickets at Island Magic, Milo's Center, Milo's Ice, Wally's Electrical (Leni Nuñez), Angel Valdez (Post Office), The Reef Radio, Emerita Muñoz, Oh Danny Boy Tours, La Divina Providencia, Caye Supplies and with Cruzita Salazar (behind Rocks).

For more information on how to become a sponsor for Belize's largest festival, contact Mr. Gach Guerrero via the festival website, and as always, check out your weekly copy of The San Pedro

Hurricane Season Is here

  

       Hurricane season is here       
 

Residents of the Caribbean and Central America have been advised to prepare early for this year's hurricane season, which experts say is expected to be one of the most turbulent ever.

Weather forecasters have predicted the formation of 23 named storms, with eight to 14 developing into hurricanes
Up to seven of those weather systems could strengthen into category three or higher, packing winds of over 111 to 130 miles per hour.

Given the grave predictions, residents in the region have been urged not to wait till a storm watch or warning has been issued to take action.
Executive Director of the Pan American Development Foundation, John Sanbrailo, says a few simple steps will make a difference and possibly even save lives, when a storm hits a community.
"While our region is no stranger to the damages caused by the wind, rain and flooding of a hurricane, we are surprised how few people plan for a disaster.
"Many times the tools they need to make a plan are in their homes and community," Mr Sanbrailo said.

Investors says" drill baby drill' but sanpedranos says NO to oil prospectors

The international news has been replete with the horrors of the massive oil spill off the Gulf of Mexico. Eighty-five thousand barrels have spilled so far since the well exploded on April twentieth.


Oil exploration is a relatively new industry for Belize and while the operations on land have so far experienced no major accidental disasters, offshore drilling is an entirely new experiment for us. But now there is word that a group of investors have been given a license to explore off the coast of San Pedro. That is why San Pedranos are concerned that an oil spill could spell disaster for the entire country.

While oil exploration will earn the country much-needed revenues, the repercussions of a disaster such as a spill like what happened in the Gulf of Mexico, could pose even greater long-term risks for a developing country like Belize, and concerned groups feel there needs to be a reactive solution in place.

Miguel Alamilla, Mgr., Hol Chan Marine Reserve: “Look at what’s happening in the Gulf, they haven’t been able to contain that spill for how long? I think it’s about two weeks or more. And the US has a lot of resources and money to do that and they haven’t been able to do it. What if that would happen here in Belize? It would be an even worse scenario because we have less resources and less finances to be able to contain a leak of that magnitude. Oil exploration can lead to damaging effects. If there is a leak, can we contain that leak? What are the possibilities? What are the possibilities? What are the damages that can result from that? We need to look into that and if something happened it could affect our livelihood, not only for us in San Pedro but for the country, all those that are dependent on tourism.”
Elito Arceo, President, Ambergris Caye Citizens for Sustainable Development: “Anytime you have an oil exploration offshore San Pedro, they call the document it says very near Ambergris Caye. If you have any oil spill, you’re creating a problem that I’m not even an expert at but my point is, how yoh wah even start to get some measures to actually clean it? What will we do here in Belize? This is our jewel. For any oil spill to happen here and it goes all in our beaches or in the rivers, in all that mangrove ecosystem. How we wah clean dat? With a sponge and squeezy?”




And because the project can have serious and irreversible environmental repercussions, Tourism Minister and Area Representative, Manuel Heredia says he thinks the project needs a second review.

Manuel Heredia, Minister of Tourism/San Pedro Area Representative: “We have to be very, very cautious, look at it particularly now go back and visit it and see exactly if that is the way we want to go. I usually base my concerns as to what the technical people have to say. Again, if there are concerns from the environmental people, let us sit down and look at it carefully and only and only then should we go ahead and move forward. It’s not late yet, exploration has not started so we need to sit down and address it, that would be my personal opinion.”

Marion Ali: “But they already have permits. They have already been given approval permits.”

Manuel Heredia: “Yes, I will agree that probably they have been given them but looking at the concerns that are happening right now not far away from us, let us look at it, get together with the people and a little more consultation.”

While the people of San Pedro agree that the fragile tourism industry needs to be enhanced if it is to keep up with a fiercely competitive region, they also believe that the sensitive natural environment needs to be protected; and they are calling on the local authorities to do just that – striking a balance between sustainable tourism development and safeguarding the natural resources for generations to come.

Plagued by Lawsuits, McAfee Founder hunts for jungle remedies in Belize

John McAfee, the antivirus-software pioneer, says he’s lost most of his fortune — but doesn’t care. To the contrary, he now hopes to give something back by deriving antibiotics from jungle plants in Belize. Really?

  No road runs the length of Ambergris Caye, a 25-mile-long island off the Belizean coast, so to get to John McAfee’s house, I climb aboard a boat in the resort town of San Pedro, on the island’s southern tip, and motor north for half an hour, along a coast of white beaches set with resorts and private villas. At last, his pier comes into sight, and I step off and walk down the weathered boards, the blue-green water shimmering through the cracks, to find him emerging from the shrubbery beside the swimming pool, his smile blinding against the reddish brown of a fresh tan.

Twenty-three years after he essentially invented the antivirus-software industry, McAfee, now 64, radiates the vitality of a rich man who thinks about more than money. As he steps forward to meet me at the edge of his yard, he’s wearing sandals, shorts, and a muscle shirt that reveals a wiry physique and a tiger-stripe tattoo on each shoulder. He grips my hand with sinewy vigor. For decades, McAfee was a hard-partying ne’er-do-well playboy entrepreneur, a self-described trickster and bullshit artist who’d spent the majority of his adult life gadding about and having fun. That’s all in the past now, or so he would have me believe.

He leads me into the cool semidarkness of his compound’s central living room. It has been nearly three years since I last saw him, in the scrubby desert of southern New Mexico, and while the environment couldn’t be more different, McAfee himself looks unchanged. He has spent the intervening years building a new life for himself on the coast of Central America. He has just auctioned off the last of his sprawling properties back in the United States and sold or given away many of his possessions. He has taken a huge financial hit, he says, but that’s okay. He has enough to fund his latest passion, his gift to the future: developing new kinds of antibiotics from herbs found deep in the rain forests of Belize.



In a radio-ready baritone, McAfee unfurls his story, digressing over centuries and across continents. He describes the economic injustice of the developing world, the imbalances of education and capital, and how tapping the biodiversity of the rain forest for natural cures will help address those problems. “The product is something the world desperately needs, or will need, within a few years,” he says, “as our last lines of antibiotic defense are breached by the ever-growing ranks of drug-resistant bacteria.”

As he talks, he flicks at the fabric of his pants, unable to contain his relentless energy. He pauses, suddenly serious: “But maybe I should ask what kind of story you came here to write? An exposé?”

John McAfee’s rise to fame and wealth began with what at the time seemed a minor annoyance. In the mid-1980s, he was working for Lockheed Martin as a software designer when he came across one of the first computer viruses, the Pakistani Brain. Seeing an opportunity, he picked the virus apart and figured out how to defeat it. Then he built a program, called VirusScan, that could detect and disarm multiple virus threats automatically. The program — the first commercial antivirus software — was an impressive achievement, but it’s what he did next that was true genius. Instead of selling it, as every other software maker was doing, he gave it away for free via online bulletin boards. In no time, he had a base of 30 million users; revenue followed in the form of upgrade charges and licenses for corporate customers. By 1994, McAfee’s antivirus company was worth half a billion dollars.

Though his name was on the product, McAfee wanted nothing to do with it anymore. He sold his entire stake, worth, he says, “$50-to-$100 million. I wanted to move on. Who wants to be tied to the past?”
His next project was software company Tribal Voice, which made an instant-messaging platform that allowed Skype-like telephony. It quickly attracted a quarter-million-strong following despite the era’s slow dial-up connections. In 1999, McAfee sold the company for $17 million. “When John was at Tribal Voice, the growth rate was incredible,” says former employee Jim Zoromski. “But when it got to be too popular, it started to feel too much like work, and John wasn’t interested.”

McAfee had already found financial security. Now he wanted to leverage his success into something greater: a sense of never-ending possibility. He turned his attention to yoga, racing ATVs and motorcycles, and long-distance Jet Ski journeys. “Life is free; life is limitless. You can do whatever you want,” he told me in New Mexico in 2007. “Success for me is, Can you wake up in the morning and feel like a 12-year-old?”

Read more at FASTCOMPANY.com

More POWER OUTAGES in effect for San Pedro Town

**Revised** Scheduled Outages for San Pedro, Ambergris Caye

• Thursday, April 22nd from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 Noon. Areas to be affected: All that area including Angel Coral Street, Coconut Drive, Sea Grape Drive, San Marcos Area, DFC Area, Escalante Subdivision, Holiday Lands and Boca Ciega Area.
• Thursday, April 22nd from 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Areas to be affected: All of Barrier Reef Drive, Angel Coral Drive, San Marcos Area, DFC Area and a portion of Sea Grape Drive.
• Friday, April 23rd from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 Noon. Areas to be affected: All that area from Laguna Drive to Boca del Rio including North San Pedro and Pescador Drive.

BEL apologizes for any inconvenience caused by these outages and assures customers that the Company continues to work diligently at minimizing interruptions. These outages are necessary for the company to carry out maintenance works on the distribution system in the area.