Conversations in Belize: By Joshua Newman
-Interviews with people in Hopkins, Belize over the span of a few days.
-Interviews with people in Hopkins, Belize over the span of a few days.
Thurs 4-1
A New Jersey Businessman who is in Belize for real estate speculation(Names have been changed to preserve identities)
The conversation started off as many conversations do, with a very simple and basic, “Hello, How are you?” He is a 61-year-old businessman from New Jersey born originally in Little Falls, NY, exit 27 on the NYS Thruway, a point he mentioned at least a few times. He owns 3 properties in Hopkins Town, Belize and considers this area to be ripe for the taking. His career is owning 5 businesses back stateside and considers his project here, orange groves, his “hobby”. He said he first came to the area about 15 years ago and had thought of the idea of buying property because it just seemed like a good idea and the land was cheap.
Over time he bought two more pieces of land and started his orange grove with local workers as the backbone of his hobby. With out a doubt the biggest change for Rodger in the environment of the region is the increased speculation from international investors, which he considers an outstanding thing, because it means the value of his properties, can only go up, implying that his business decisions are smart investments. Along with Rodger was his daughter and son-in-law who had been visiting for only their 3rd times. The biggest change for his daughter was the availability of newer restaurants that foreign investors had created along the waterfront, the son-in-law, who is Irish, was relatively indifferent to the whole thing, just liked the fact that the closest airport was only 30 mins away, making it very convenient to move into and out of the area.
Rodger soon moved into other conversations with people around the tables, as it seemed that he was just a very friendly, life loving person, or, someone who has severe A.D.H.D. and can only maintain interest in something for extremely brief periods of time. Either way, what was interesting about Rodger is that even with people that he seemed to have known for prolonged periods of time, he would repeat the same information and stories with them as he did with me. But while overhearing his conversations he would expand his thoughts and life experiences a little bit, such as: having a picture of capturing a 700 lb marlin folded up in his wallet and casually mentioning that he caught it off of his boat on his property in the Bahamas, and a new investment property he has in Dubai. But what was even more interesting is that when he was talking to the other foreign investors who were there while he thought I was not paying attention mentioned that,
“What is great about this place is the people want to work, but don’t have the best education. So what I do is give them the work to do, but do not teach them any more than what they need to get the work done. This way they can never do it for themselves and they must always be depended on someone else to allow them to move forward.”
German and Russian Business Proprietors and Speculators
After my conversation with Rodger I began talking with the owner of the bar where we were drinking for a few hours. He was German and had left Germany in 1979 to speculate and build properties, and had done so all over the world, Australia, the South Pacific, Southeast Asia, all over central America and the Caribbean, and the manner in which he would do it would be in buying a property, making it run for a few years, and then selling it for usually 20x more that the original buying price. His intentions in Hopkins are to remain there for just a couple more years and sell the property for newer property in the South Pacific or Australia. He had been there for 6 months already and has other property a few miles down the island. What makes his restaurant there unique is the sign for the wireless internet that is available for his customers and had said that in one day that sign would net him nearly $300 more in business, which in Hopkins, is a big deal. He had even began implementing a new system for his business that would allow for a service where customers could charge their laptops with a power center at a circular designed table, allowing customers to stay longer, but also getting customers with laptops out of the way of the main restaurant area, allowing to fill more space, serve more food, and make more money.
He said that there is a definite difference in the type of tourist that comes through the town these days, instead of searching for the escape, they are constantly trying to stay connected to the modern world through laptops, iPhones, Blackberrys, and other devices that allow people to check emails, Facebook statuses, Google, and Skype with those that are far away. “These days it’s all about showing off what you are wherever you are”, he said, “and that means even if you are in the middle of nowhere its important to show that you have that power to connect to the modern world, it shows a certain new status.”
“The locals here really like us because even though we are foreign we employ local workers, support the local economy, and they know it too. They started slowly bringing more tourists here in taxi’s because they know we take care of the locals well, and it’s their way of rewarding us with the business and support allowing us to prosper. I’m not sure if they know that we will just sell the property in a few years for 5x the value, but for now we may not be accepted but we are respected. And here, it is all you can ask for as a foreigner because you will never be accepted but at least you can be respected.”
Fri 4-2
Kevin; local guy (Name has been changed to preserve Identity)
“You want to know the biggest change here in 15 years man? That’s easy, its power, the system came through and gave us power”, with his thick Belizean accent “the system came through and gave us electricity and then they gave us roads, but at the same time they took away the local power, the power from the people. They come through and take up my wife’s property that has been in her family for 4 generations and they say this is no longer yours, it is the governments, and we say you can have this tiny piece, her sister can have this one, and father can have this one, it needs to be this way. My sisters came and sold their property for a lot less money than its worth man, look around me now, you see these big fancy houses surrounding me and my wood shack on the beach. Its because my sisters took and sold their land to some real estate company for a lot less money and then they turn it around and sell it for a lot more man, its not right.”
“I also fish”, Kevin stated as he continued to make a bracelet with a power sander and a coconut shell, “ but the system come through and try to limit me with that too. These people from Belize City come through, I don’t know if they are environmentalists or not, but they make up these lies about the bone-fish, and say that it is going extinct. That fish is how I feed my family and make money man, they shouldn’t take that away from me, its not extinct, its seasonal, and moves to different waters in they year man. Those liars with the system came through here at the wrong time of year and made these claims that the government listened to, and now it’s hurtin me real bad man. Why didn’t they go and look at the orange farmers from the foreign guys, their chemicals they use in the trees gets into the seas and kills a lot more things than I do.”
“If you ask me that’s the things that’s changed here in Hopkins, but it all started with the power and the roads, after that the things started happening fast, real fast man, I don’t see it stopping neither, we are just going to keep losing our land and our history to some foreign peoples who use these places for one month in a year, maybe two”.
Sat 4-2
Man on the Beach
“Belize only got its independence in 1981, it is a very young country in this way, much younger than many other countries. We have only just begun to develop better roads than the dirt ones we have here. But all the time we seem to be struggling to maintain our little piece of land. We’re always fighting with Guatemala about maintaining or land and the government says that they will no cede one centimeter of land to Guatemala, which is good, but how do you define those boarders? How do you know where one country stops and another one begins? Unless you have a GPS or a fence it is very difficult, it is all jungle out there man, but it is our jungle and we must defend it, and we will defend it, by whatever means necessary.
“It is the same here to though man, we have had these lands for generations now, it was jungle before us, and now these other people want to come in and say you have this tiny piece and nothing more, and then they buy up all of the land and say its theirs. If you really want to know, this land is no ones, everyone moved somewhere, no one was just there. Thousands of years ago people came down from Alaska and just kept moving till they couldn’t move any more and they would stop in one place for a little bit and another for a little bit, but they were never from there, you know what I am saying?”
“Even though we aren’t from here man, we’ve been here for hundreds of years, and no one is going to take that away from us. When these people come in and try to buy they land they go and do illegal things man, they put up fences where they are not supposed to and put guards outside the fences stopping people from the beaches, we’re supposed to have 60’ of beach access that’s public in all places, but these people have they money so they stop it. What the community here needs to do man is stand together as one, if we do that then we can keep our lands, but the second one person gives in it is finished, and we must go back and rebuild again. These are our lands, and if the government does not want to listen to what we have to say we will make them listen, we will hit them where it hurts because we need things man, we need to government to be aware. You can’t just go and kill a government leader, because those are the guys you need to pay attention, but what you can do is hit them at home and make them pay attention to what you have to say.”
“Violence and attacks are not the first attempt, but they are the only attempt that really works and gets the attention of the people you want to listen. When you see violence or an attack on TV it is never the first attempt, but only the most effective attempt. And if that is what we need to do for people to listen, than it is what we will do to get people to listen, we must fight to keep what is ours.”
