World Cup venues will be ready, Brazil tells FIFA

Posted by admin on May 11, 2012 in World | 0 comments

FIFA, football’s world governing body, has no reason to worry about preparations for the 2014 World Cup, Brazilian Sports Minister Aldo Rebelo has said.

Mr Rebelo was speaking ahead of a meeting at FIFA headquarters in Zurich.

FIFA officials are concerned that some venues in Brazil will not be ready in time for the Confederations Cup in 2013.

That event is seen as a key rehearsal for hosting the World Cup.

Brazil has spent billions refurbishing old stadiums and building new venues for the biggest sporting event in the country’s history.

It is also investing in airports and roads.

But analysts say the work is running behind schedule.

Brazil’s biggest and best-known stadium, Maracana, may not be finished in time to host the closing match of the Confederations Cup on 30 June 2013.

Sports Minister Aldo Rebelo insists there are no delays in the building schedule

The two-week tournament gathers eight of the top teams in world football. Brazil, who qualify as hosts, will face the champions of FIFA’s regional confederations, including Spain, Uruguay, Mexico and Japan.

FIFA regulations say all venues must be ready by February 2013, four months before the tournament takes place,Ahead of the meeting in Zurich with FIFA president Sepp Blatter and other officials, Mr Rebelo told BBC Brasil: “There is no delay and the building schedule is going ahead according to plan.”

Former world champions Ronaldo and Bebeto, now in the Brazilian organizing committee of the World Cup, were also due to be at the talks.

Work at the Maracana stadium was delayed last year by a strike. Builders complained they were being poorly paid and stopped work for weeks.

Now, a major corruption scandal involving some of Brazil’s top politicians, may also get in the way.

A building company contracted to do one third of the work, Delta, is facing a congressional investigation after being caught up in the bribery allegations.

As a result, Delta is no longer involved in the Maracana project.

Ronaldo is in the Brazilian organizing committee

Mr Rebelo said FIFA’s concern is natural, “but we will show them all venues will be ready in time”.

Relations between the Brazilian government and FIFA were strained earlier this year after controversial comments made by FIFA’s secretary-general, Jerome Valcke.

Mr Valcke said that Brazil needed a “kick up the backside” and appeared more concerned with winning the World Cup than organizing it.

He later apologized in a letter to Mr Rebelo.

Mr Rebelo later said that relations had “neither improved nor deteriorated” since he took office as sports minister last October.

The Brazilian government has always said it is determined to deliver a successful World Cup as well as a lasting legacy.

The 2014 World Cup will be the first in South America since Argentina hosted the tournament in 1978. It is the first in Brazil since 1950.

Puerto Rico aims to become fully bilingual by 2022

Posted by admin on May 11, 2012 in World | 0 comments

The governor of Puerto Rico is trying to do what more than a century of American citizenship has failed to accomplish: make Puerto Ricans fluent in English.

Gov. Luis Fortuno, who has been mentioned as a possible Republican vice-presidential candidate, has proposed an ambitious, and what critics call far-fetched, plan to require all public schools to teach all courses in English instead of Spanish.

The U.S. territory has had a long and contentious relationship with the English language, and many Puerto Ricans are skeptical about embracing it, fearing they will lose a key part of their identity and find themselves a step closer to statehood, a status that only about half of islanders support.

The governor wants Puerto Rico to become the 51st U.S. state. But says his plan is about economic necessity, not politics.

Only 12 of the island’s 1,472 schools offer an all-English curriculum of the sort envisioned by Fortuno, while 35 other schools offer some courses in English, such as math and physical education, said Education Secretary Edwin Moreno.

“The main idea is to have a Puerto Rican who can communicate in Spanish as well as English,” said Moreno, who acknowledged that he himself has an imperfect command of English.

Moreno is overseeing a $15 million project to install a bilingual curriculum in 31 schools starting in August and to reinforce the English-Spanish curriculum already in place in the 35 other schools. Future plans are still hazy, but the governor says he wants all public school students to be bilingual within 10 years.

Under the governor’s plan, schools would continue to offer Spanish grammar and literature classes.

All public schools are currently required to teach English from kindergarten through high school, and 9,000 teachers are devoted to that. But about 96 percent of the island’s 3.9 million people speak Spanish at home, and some 2.8 million Puerto Ricans do not consider themselves fluent in English.

That puts Puerto Rican children — and fellow U.S. citizens on the American mainland, as well — behind many Europeans in second-language skills.

English actually dominated Puerto Rican public education during the first half of the 20th century. From 1900 to 1948, all high school subjects were taught in English, until the island’s first democratically elected governor, Luis Munoz Marin, ended the practice.

In 1991, Gov. Rafael Hernandez Colon went further by declaring Spanish the island’s sole official language. The law was repealed a couple of years later by Gov. Pedro Rosello, whose first official act was to make both English and Spanish the official languages, a law that stands to this day, even if only a few places have street signs in English.

Puerto Ricans, however, remain reluctant to learn English, said Jaime Morales, a public school teacher, who is fluent in English.

“They are not interested,” he said. “Because honestly, it’s hard to learn the language.”

Morales said he supports the idea of a bilingual curriculum but doubts it will become a reality unless teachers are properly trained, parents get involved and the education system improves.

MSME Policy & Strategy for Belize!

Posted by admin on May 11, 2012 in Business | 0 comments

Through technical assistance from the CARICOM  Development Fund (CDF) and after a series of productive consultations with stakeholders, Belize now holds a final draft for the MSME Policy and Strategy.

On April 24th 2012, a symposium was held at the Best Western Belize Biltmore Plaza to unveil and validate the policies, strategies and recommendations by project consultant Dr. Michael Seepersaud.

The Policy and Strategy addresses the following strategic issues: definitional framework, legislative policy, market access and competitiveness, education, training and support services.

The objectives of the policy are to:

a. Increase the flow of capital to MSMEs

b. Enhance the business and entrepreneurial skills of MSME owners/managers;

c. Promote market access and competitiveness of MSMEs and;

d. Enable MSMEs to access the resources needed to respond to economic opportunities.

Upon approval by Government, MSMEs will be defined based on specific characteristics which are: employment, annual sales, investment in plant and equipment and manufacturing space which ensures that the policies are targeted to defined sectors.

Under the legal framework the main strategic approach includes the enactment of an MSME Development Act through which a policy implementation organ called the Belize Agency for the Development of Enterprise (Belize ADE) will be created.   This act will outline monetary, fiscal and other incentives to support and sustain the sector.

In order to increase the flow of capital to the sector, some of the key strategies are: to provide low interest capital, to establish loan guarantee schemes and equity financing schemes, provide incentives for investing in the sector, establish export and pre-credit export credit schemes, finance and promote ICT and Quality Management.

The proposed strategies for market access will reduce the cost of doing business, developing ICT products specific to the sector, encourage the use of product standards, offer training in marketing, and provide assistance in market intelligence and market development.

The main strategies to address education and training issues will coordinate and rationalize training opportunities, promote programs that teach business skills/discipline and entrepreneurship, promote mentorship and networking, establish a business incubator, facilitate the development of an MSME Association, promote ICT solutions and provide the appropriate financing and technical support.

Beltraide would like to thank stakeholders for their valuable input in the development of Belize’s MSME Policy and Strategy for Belize.  For further information please contact Beltraide.

Elvis Bevans convicted for gun and ammo that police had arranged to pick up

Posted by admin on May 11, 2012 in Crime | 0 comments

Elvis “Hooligan” Bevans, 39, a barber  of Belize City, will spend 5 years in prison, because he was found guilty of firearm and ammunition possession in the court of Chief Magistrate Ann Marie Smith on Monday, May, 7.

Smith sentenced Bevans to five years in prison for each of three charges: illegal possession of a prohibited extended 9 mm magazine, possession of an unlicensed 9 mm handgun, and unlicensed possession of 19 rounds of 9 mm ammunition. His sentences will run concurrently.

A Gang Suppression Unit (GSU) patrol  found the weapon and ammunition on Bevans when they searched him  on May 22, 2011.

According to the evidence presented during the trial, Jermaine “Horse” Garnett asked Bevans to help him take  the gun and ammunition   to a place where the police had agreed to go and pick ithemup.

Garnett had apparently arranged to hand in a gun to the GSU, in exchange for the GSU not press ing any charge against him for some marijuana that was allegedly found in his car.

The Magistrate told Bevans she believed his friend, Mr. Garnett, had set him up, but disagreed with Bevans’ attorney, Phillip Palacio, who argued that what happened with his client was a case of entrapment.

“Entrapment does not apply.  The deal, if any existed, was between the police and Garnett,” Smith ruled.

She underscored the fact that the police found Bevans in possession of the items.

The testimony of two police officers:  Constable Sam Gladden, and Cpl. Jian Young, helped the prosecution prove its case against Bevans.

Gladden said they were on mobile patrol on Central American Boulevard, when they spotted Bevans driving a van. They intercepted the van at the corner of Neal’s Pen Road and Kraal Road, and when Bevans got out of  the vehicle, the  gunwas visible in the waist of his pants

Young said he searched Bevans, who told him that he was just going to put the gun “through the alley.”

Bevans called Garnett and Allison Williams to testify on his behalf. Garnett said he was at his mother’s home when the police came for him on May 22, 2011, and showed him some marijuana they said belonged to him.

Garnett said the police had planted the drugs on him, and in an effort to escape the drug charges, he offered to hand over two guns to the police. He said the police agreed and he called Bevans to go get the first gun. He said but the police reneged on its promise.

The second gun, a rifle, was placed at the prearranged spot. The police recovered it and reported it as found property.

One man freed of firearm and ammunition charges, five others still behind bars

Posted by admin on May 11, 2012 in Crime | 0 comments

Five out of six persons who were remanded last month on firearm offences are still behind bars, even though Kent Lynch, 19, has already been sentenced to 13 and half years in prison after he pled guilty to all the charges.

Lynch took sole responsibility on Thursday, April 19, for possession of prohibited firearm, possession of an unlicensed firearm and ammunition and two counts of handling stolen goods.

Five others were charged with Lynch, but Chief Magistrate Ann Marie Smith only withdrew the charges against Woodrow Reyes, 27, a mechanic, on Monday, May 31, upon instructions from the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Reyes said he had gone to repair a vehicle engine at a home on Peter Seco Street in the Lake Independence area.

While he was there, the police came and searched the yard and found a double-barrelled shotgun,  hidden under some boards in the yard; a 16-gauge shotgun, and two shotgun cartridges.

The police returned and a second search revealed a lawn mower.

The double barrel shotgun and lawn mower had been stolen from a trailer parked at Baker’s Ranch, which Armead Logan used as a warehouse.

Leroy Gomez, 25; Errol Lynch, 23; Virgina Alverez, 21;  and Yvette Lynch, 52, were jointly charged with Kent Lynch.

Allison Major of Kelly Street was not initially charged with the others, but was subsequently charged when he handed himself in to police, after he heard his name in the news.