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Belize: Down to the Banana Republic...:
To be honest, I don't know why I'm posting this. Maybe I'm running behind on my fair share of abuse. I haven't been insulted or cussed at for a while, but I have a funny feeling that's about to change. That's what happens when you take on people who are emotionally or financially (or both) in a place like Belize.
I can't help but wonder if bobbyvee started out this way. But I digress,
This week's episode of The Expat Files podcast deals mostly with some recent developments in Belize. (In the interest of full disclosure, the listener named Steve mentioned in the podcast is indeed yours truly.)
The podcast is available here:
https://theexpatfiles.podbean.com/
The episode in question is dated February 3 2017. The part that deals with Belize begins at about the 7:25 mark.
To make a long story short, Belizean news reports (the newspaper Amadala and Channel 7 out of Belize City) indicate that the Belizean economy is doing laps around the bottom of the toilet bowl.
Meanwhile the Government of Belize (GOB) is involved in litigation arising from the purchase of BTL, the Belizean phone company. Basically, the GOB is just days away from defaulting on that debt and has lost a couple of rounds in the US courts that would have prevented their creditor (a Brit named Michael Ashcroft) from attaching Belizean assets in the US. If those assets are attached, the prospects for the Belizean economy are (to put it mildly) not looking good.
If you're interested, the GOB filed an appeal with the US Supreme Court and lost (the Supremes declined to hear the case and let stand previous court victories for Mr Ashcroft.
The GOB really doesn't have anywhere else to go. The Barrow administration swears it's not going to pay a dime, in which case it defaults on a major debt and will be lucky if it can finance a stick of gum for the foreseeable future. Worst case, I guess, is that the GOB defaults AND Ashcroft uses the US courts to attach Belizean assets held in US banks, In that scenario, the GOB is basically bankrupt. That's sure to do wonders for property values on the Cayes, isn't it?
Belizean mass media is pretty easy to find on the Internet, so there's no reason for you to take my word for any of this, Have a look here:
http://amandala.com.bz/news/ashcroft-belizes-jugular/
and here:
http://www.7newsbelize.com/printstory.php?func=print&nid=39153
and here
https://vimeo.com/201374275
Anyhow, if you're planning a move to Belize, you might want to think this over. At the very least, the near future might not be the best time to make that move. (If you ask me, the not-so-future doesn't look so hot, either, but your mileage may vary. SOMEBODY has to keep P.T Barnum looking like a genius, Better you than me.)
If you're feeling blind sided by this, you shouldn't. As I mentioned, Belizean media is pretty easy to find on the internet. Probably the least controversial suggestion I'm going to make for prospective Belizean expats is that you need to familiarize yourself with some, or all, of the following outlets:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvllzUvzVaXGBTiHNWHV9cg
http://www.7newsbelize.com/
http://edition.channel5belize.com/
http://amandala.com.bz/news/
There, I did it. Now I know how Donald Trump feels when he signs off of Twitter at the end of the day, :-)
Mexico: Learning Spanish:
Whoever told you that you're too old to learn another language is misinformed. You're actually at something of an advantage since you have a lifetime of experience learning your native language (English, I assume). The advantage that younger persons have is pronunciation. If you start learning a language after about puberty, you're probably going to be stuck speaking with an accent. (Written by the possessor of one of the finest cases of South in the Mouth that every drawled a y'all. ) At the end of the day, the accent is going to be the least of your worries.
One of the things that has come up in my TESOL classes is that different people have different learning styles. Something that works for someone else may not work for you. I've heard good things about the Warren Hardy Spanish school that others have mentioned. If that doesn't work for you for some reason (price/convenience/whatever), don't hesitate to try another method. I'm especially fond of the Michel Thomas CD courses. You can find those on Ebay for not too much money. If that doesn't work, the old Foreign Service Institute (FSI) courses are available for download free of charge from livelingua.com. You might also take a look at the Pimsleur courses on CD. They're also quite good but, like Rosetta Stone, can be a little pricey. I must be the only person on the planet who didn't get much out of Duolingo, so I'll second the suggestion that you add it to your list of possibilities even though I didn't make it very far myself.
To be honest, you'll likely find that you wind up using several sources of instruction. That's another reason to go ahead and get started now. You may discover right off the bat that a particular method doesn't work for you. You may also find that a given method works fine up to a point, but stops being effective for you. If you've allowed yourself plenty of time, that still gives you an opportunity to try some other school, course, or CD set. And if you find one that works fine for you right off the bat, you can use the added "free time" for practice. But don't let anybody try to tell you that you're too old to learn another language. It just ain't so.
Honduras: Cell phone:
You're probably going to need to pop for a new, unlocked phone. Verizon is a CDMA network, which means their service doesn't use a SIM card. That said, I'm told that some Verizon phones can function on both CDMA and GSM networks. (GSM networks, like ATT & T-Mobile, are the ones that use SIM cards. GSM is pretty much the standard outside of the US.) If your Verizon phone has a SIM card slot, I'd suggest talking to Verizon about how to make use of it while you're outside the country. If your phone doesn't have the ability to accept a SIM card, it's probably time to head over to Flea Bay and hunt down one that does AND that is unlocked, They can be had starting around $20 for a feature phone.
Belize: Hoping to move:
It's disingenuous to compare the number of murders in Belize to the number of murders in large US cities. The total population of Belize is about the same as the population of St. Louis, MO. A city 3-5 times that size, sadly, is likely to have a larger number of violent crimes, but that doesn't provide an accurate picture of the crime rate.
Simply put, Belize as a nation has the third highest murder rate in the world with 44.7 murders per 100,000 of population,
To put that in perspective, the murder rate for the city of Detroit is 43.5 per 100,000 while the rate for New Orleans is 38.7 per 100,000. Those are two of the most dangerous cities in the US and the murder rate for the nation of Belize (not just Belize City) is higher than both.
Source: http://www.caribbean360.com/news/belizes-safety-for-tourists-questioned-after-latest-visitor-killing
It's fashionable to pretend that violent crime is confined to the gang-infested areas of Belize City, but anyone who follows Channel 5 or Channel 7 news knows that's not the case.
Is Belize so violent as to merit avoiding the place entirely? Maybe. That's a question everyone who contemplates living there would have to answer for himself/herself.
I'm sure there are a lot of people living in New Orleans who could live somewhere else if they wanted to do so. Doubtless Belize presents a similar choice. But that choice probably needs to be made with both eyes open and the rose coloured glasses taken off.
Guatemala: wifi calling and Claro:
Since Claro also sells voice service, I wonder if they're blocking VOIP at the network level. Wouldn't be the first time somebody's pulled that stunt. If that's the case, there probably isn't much you can do.
Are you able to set up a Skype connection going across the same router? If you can, odds are Claro is in the clear and the problem is something else. If not, we may have isolated the issue.
Belize: Possible Move:
I can understand frustration with US politics easily enough. My first question, though, is what caused y'all to zero in on Belize? It might make it easier to offer good advice if we have a handle on what makes it attractive to you.
The other thing worth mentioning is that your US Medicare coverage won't pay for medical care in Belize. In order to take advantage of Medicare benefits, you'll need to return to the US. That may not be a deal breaker, since quality medical care can be found in many places for significantly less cost than would be the case NOB. But it needs be said that Belize assuredly is NOT one of those places. Belizean health care is, on the whole, mostly primitive even by typical developing nation standards.
The nearest thing to a saving grace is that quality health care can be had a few hours away in either Mexico or Guatemala. If you're comfortable with the idea of having to be medevaced for anything more serious than a sprained ankle--and some people are--then Belize may be worth a closer look. In that case you'll probably want to spring for an insurance policy that includes medical evacuation coverage.
I can't tell you whether or not Belize would be a good fit for y'all. If you haven't been there before, this might be a good time to fly down for a week and look at a couple of places. The summer is Belize's low season, so the place won't be as overrun with tourists as it will be during the North American winter. The cost of the trip could well be a drop in the bucket compared to the costs if y'all just pull up stakes and head south with little more than a hope and a prayer.
Belize: Retirement:
The Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital is the largest public hospital in Belize. This is where most of the locals are taken when they are need medical attention. If you have the time,the inclination, and a strong stomach (you'll definitely need all three), do a Google search for KHMH (that;s how the Belizean press usually refer to the place. It's not hard to find stories like these from Amandala (closest thing Belize has to a national newspaper:
'http://amandala.com.bz/news/tag/khmh/
There are smaller, regional hospitals that aren't up to the standards of the KHMH. And there are some private hospitals that likely are a good bit better (albeit more expensive). But, on the whole, potentially lethal probably describes the state of advanced medicine in Belize pretty well, There's a reason why the bus to the Mexican city of Merida is known in Belize as "The Hospital Bus".. Options do exist if you can hold on until you get to them.
Belize: SAN PEDRO FIRE:
Lead story on Channel 5 news tonight:
https://youtu.be/xw5dcObJSOw
As someone mentioned, still no cause known.
Belize: Moving with 13 year old teenager:
I think there's at least one international school in Belmopan, but I can't vouch for it. I'm not sure how many diplomatic delegations there are in Belmopan anyway. If this source is to be believed (it's on the Internet so it must be true, eh?), a huge chunk of the diplomatic representation in Belize is handled at the consulate level in Belize City:
http://embassy.goabroad.com/embassies-in/belize
If you (or your daughter) harbor any desire for her to attend university outside of Belize, you may want to verify that a given high school has the accreditation needed to facilitate that move when the time comes. I'm not sure all of them do (though that isn't something I'm an expert on.)
Belize: who and how?:
The QRP is administered by the Belize Tourism Board. You can pull contact information out of here:
http://www.belizeinvest.org.bz/download/Government%20Investment%20Incentives%20-%20General%20/Qualified%20Retired%20Persons%20(Incentives).pdf
Once upon a time I would have suggested contacting a woman named Roshel Godfrey, but she left BTB a while back, Not sure who her replacement was. That takes care of the easy part.
What made you decide to retire to Belize in the first place? Depending on where your property is, I'd imagine living in a travel trailer in Belize will be quite the adventure (to put it mildly).
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