“Monsters” Movie shot in Belize

Monsters!

Fangoria – Word of mouth is already building on writer-director Gareth Edwards’ MONSTERS, which had a great audience reception at Cannes and SXSW this year. The low-budget (supposedly $15,000) film was shot with a five-person crew and two lead actors across Guatemala, Belize and Mexico, with the FX work done by Edwards on his computer.

While there are some colossal extraterrestrials in MONSTERS, don’t be fooled by the title: It’s more of a character piece than a creature feature. The film takes place in a world where half of Mexico has been quarantined as an infected zone after a crashed NASA probe introduced alien life forms to Earth six years ago, and follows a photojournalist who must bring his boss’ daughter through the dangerous area to the safety of the U.S. border. Monsters will be released in October of this year.

Johnston International staff owed “$2.5m” told “pack up and go home”

Johnston International

T&C Weekly – DISTRAUGHT Johnston International employees – left high and dry by the contractors’ collapse – say they are owed a colossal $2.5m in unpaid wages and perks. To add insult to injury, the predominantly-expatriate workforce say they’ve been told they have no choice but to pack up and go home – at their own expense.

Staff who worked their fingers to the bone to get the new hospitals finished ahead of schedule have also been left without their promised bonuses – some as high as $35,000. Speaking exclusively to the Weekly News, workers blasted the company for keeping them in the dark – and seemingly abandoning them. Many of the 35 salaried workers have young families to support. Several hail from as far as Australia where flights top $2,300 per person.

They say they have still been given no official information – a month after being locked out of their Providenciales headquarters by British Caribbean Bank (BCB) and eight days since the firm went into receivership. Responsible for some of the country’s largest and most prestigious developments, Johnston flew the flag for the TCI amid the development boom. Today it’s its latest recession casualty. Shona McKenna, a senior engineer with the firm for the last four and a half years, said staff had been shocked by the news.

“No one was prepared for this, we didn’t have any warning and had no idea Johnston were in financial difficulty,” she said. “The construction sector had slowed down but we knew nothing about the company itself being in a bad financial state.” Ms McKenna, from Ireland, said with no formal statement forthcoming from the firm’s owners, employees had been left in “limbo”. (more…)

Cameron braced for attack as Ashcroft sharpens his pen

Lord Michael Ashcroft

The Independent UK – At Prime Minister’s Questions, David Cameron had fun gloating over the problems that memoirs like those of Lord Mandelson are causing the Labour Party. But he may not be laughing for long, because there is a book in preparation by a very senior Conservative which is expected to lay bare some of the simmering tension inside the Conservative Party.

Lord Ashcroft, the billionaire who bankrolled the Tories when their political fortunes were at their lowest, is still Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party, although he has fallen out with David Cameron and no one in the higher ranks of the party seems to know what his long term plans are.

He has also been working on a book, which other Tories refer to as “Smell the Coffee Two”. Though that is not its official title, Lord Ashcroft will be hoping that it could have an impact similar to the book Smell the Coffee, which he published after the 2005 election.

That book was based on the findings of tracker polls that Lord Ashcroft commissioned during the election, testing the attitudes of 10,000 voters, which delved into how the Tory party lost touch with the people whose support it needed. The book brought Lord Ashcroft back to the centre of Conservative politics. He wielded huge influence during 1997-2001, when William Hague was party leader, for the simple reason that it was Ashcroft’s wealth keeping the party together, but he was less influential after 2001 though he still gave generously. Between February 2003 and December 2009, he is known to have donated £5.1m to the party.

Impressed by Ashcroft’s analysis of why the Tories lost, Mr Cameron appointed him Deputy Chairman, with an office at party headquarters, and put him in charge of Tory strategy in the marginal constituencies.

But their relations nose dived in March this year, when the peer finally disclosed that he was a non-dom, which meant he paid no UK taxes on his overseas earnings. This revelation sat uneasily with the promise that he had made when William Hague recommended him for a peerage 10 years earlier, that he would become fully resident in the UK before he took his seat. (more…)

OAS Assistant General Secretary says progress in Haiti is slow

LoveFM – Six months to the day since a magnitude-7.0 earthquake devastated up to sixty per cent of Haiti’s city buildings and killed 230,000 people; there are some visible signs of improvement but progress is slow. Right after the earthquake, hopes were high to rebuild a new Haiti, one better than before with a better-functioning government; a Haiti that has up-to-date infrastructure and technology and strengthened industries that can provide better jobs for its people. Today, Assistant Secretary General for the Organization of American States, Albert Ramden gave us an update on the relief efforts.

Albert Ramden; Asst. Secretary General for the Organization of American States

“Yesterday commemorated six months after the earthquake hit Haiti and since then many efforts have been made towards Haiti both within the country as the International community. Today the Organization of American States is making every effort to support the holding of elections in November of this year so that we have a solid democratic and constitutional foundation for social and economic development in the coming years. But at the same time, we of course have to continue to assisting the Haitians in terms of the humanitarian needs, in terms of short term job creation and other efforts to alleviate the impact of the disaster on the Haitians. We are still very much concerned about the many Haitians living in very poor conditions in temporary shelters especially with the hurricane season coming up; we are also concerned as an organization about the level of commitment demonstrated in terms of delivery of pledges made in the conference end of march in New York where almost 10 billion over a period of five years was pledged and so far a little has materialized in concrete donations to Haiti.”

Ramden says that the suffering of the Haitian people continues and stressed that stronger leadership is needed to show more commitment and delivery on promises made. Ramden explained the greatest challenges they are facing. (more…)

Contractor Johnston International has fallen into receivership.

Las Terrazas Belize, Built by Johnson International

Construction Enquirer – Contractor Johnston International, which provided a host of UK contracting managers with jobs in paradise over the years, has fallen into receivership.

The firm, which traces its origins back to the former UK civil engineering contractor Johnston, grew into one of the biggest contractors operating across the West Indies.

During the last decade, the firm employed many expat construction staff and achieved turnover around £180m specialising in building holiday resorts from the Cayman and Turks and Caicos islands to Belize.

The British Caribbean Bank called in the receivers last week after locking staff out of their offices in the bank’s own building two weeks ago.

Johnston chiefs continue to remain tight-lipped over the problems but at least two directors are thought to have resigned in recent weeks.

Small county’s officials gather for Isle of Man course

Delegates will gather at the International Business School

BBC – Ministers and finance officials from some of the world’s smallest countries are visiting the Isle of Man to learn how to boost their economies. They are attending a nine-day course developed by the Manx government, World Bank and Oxford University.

It promotes sustainable development of small economies and their effective integration into the global economy.

Delegates from countries including the Maldives, Belize and Swaziland are all taking part in the seminars. Academics from Oxford, Harvard and other leading universities are lecturing at the event, along with representatives of the World Bank and IMF.

As well as covering areas such negotiating skills, debt management and risk assessment, delegates will be invited to share problems they are currently working on. The Small Countries Financial Management Programme gets under way at the International Business School on Sunday evening.

After four days on the island, participants will then complete the second part of the course at Oxford University’s Said Business School.

Belize National Basketball Team says it’s ready for the do or die game against Puerto Rico

Belize at CentroBasket 2010

Channel 5 Belize – Equally important to Belize’s prowess on the court is its ability to study the enemy. Belize’s mental game off court has been as crucial as its command of the ball on court and today’s workout was less physical but similarly grueling. Following Thursday night’s stellar performance, the players took a day off from shooting and dribbling but mentally were in top form.

Kenton Paulino, Member of Belize National Team

“Well, today we just talked. We didn’t do much physically. We just did a lot of mental preparation, you know, how we gonna cover certain guys, how we gonna guard. We know that they’re real big in size. We just went over the game plan and how we’re gonna approach the game and what we gotta do mentally. You know, physically it’s gonna be a battle but more than anything we gotta be ready mentally for Puerto Rico.”

William Neal

“Now, you played big against big against Cuba yesterday. You had some good defensive plays and some big threes. How much of that do you hope to continue in tomorrow’s game?”

Kenton Paulino

“As a team we hope to build on that. We gotta come out have another great performance from Milt. You know solid performance from me and the other guys , contribute from top to bottom cause Puerto Rico is a very deep team, they play a lot of guys. We gotta keep our guys fresh. So we need everybody to contribute.” (more…)

Belize-Cuba Game Postponed at CentroBasket

CentroBasket 2010

LoveFM – After beating Trinidad & Tobago and losing to Mexico, the game scheduled between Belize and Cuba at the Centro Basket tournament in the Dominican Republic has been postponed. Love FM’s Terry Gordon shared the information earlier today.

Terry Gordon; Marketing Manager, RSV Media Centre

A decision has been made. The team will not be playing today’s game. Earlier we were taking about the fact that team Belize was scheduled to play Cuba today; there have been some problems on the court ever since the start of the competition. The designated spokes person for the Basketball Federation of Belize is Mr. Charles Ellis. Mr. Ellis you were in the meeting just now that involved the management of the different countries participating and the Technical Director of FIBA Americas.

Charles Ellis; Spokesperson, Belize Basketball Federation

“The Organizers have decided to cancel today’s game because of the slippery situation with the basketball court. A lot of players were risking injuries. It was terrible; it was like a skating ring out there Terry and the organizers have decided that once the AC isn’t fixed no games shall be played on the court. So they have decided to rest of today’s games and play tomorrow same time. The games that were to be played today will be played tomorrow.”

Terry Gordon

That’s British Virgin Island and Jamaica, Belize versus Cuba and Puerto Rico and Mexico. Two from our group be and the game that was just about to be played was from group A. The game that was concluded earlier where Panama lost to the US Virgin Islands that will be counted 82 to 74 the final score. (more…)

Johnston International’s Corporate Restructuring

Johnson International

7 News Belize – You may not know the construction company Johnston International offhand, but if you live anywhere in Belize you have surely come in contact with their work.

Johnston built the Marine Parade Boulevard in Belize City, the Orange Walk Bypass, The Los Lagos Community, the San Pedro Pier, The Radisson Fort George, Banyan Bay Resort on San Pedro, the ITVET buildings in Stann Creek and Cayo, and the Belize Bank headquarters, to name but a few.

Johnston International rose to prominence in Belize as a Michael Ashcroft company. According to its website, Johnston was sold in a management led buyout in 1999. The buyout was led by Allen Forrest, the Former Chairman of what was then the Ashcroft corporate mothership, Belize Holdings.

The company touts itself as the largest construction company throughout the Caribbean region with its head office in Turks and Caicos and branches scattered across the Caribbean including Belize which governs a local subsidiary Belize Aggregates. It’s a massive enterprise but it’s apparently in trouble. (more…)

Prime Minister Dean Barrow Attends Special Meeting of the Board of Governors of the IDB

LoveFM – Prime Minister Dean Barrow is traveling to Washington DC today. Prime Minister Barrow will attend a special meeting of the Board of Governors of the Inter-American Development where a bank President will be elected. The meeting will be held tomorrow at the Bank’s headquarters. The Prime Minister is scheduled to return on Friday. In his absence Deputy Prime Minister Gaspar Vega will act as Prime Minister.