Dear Editor,

The Honorable Mr. Castro has displayed a troubling pattern of serious deficiency as a minister of government. Not only has he shown to be incapable of making judicious economic, environmental, and priority decisions but when faced with evidence of his wrongdoing he played the blame game. More seriously, Mr. Castro appears not to have his mathematics right. How could he have spent $4.5 million on just 2,000 feet of road?

This is one area that is very troubling. The Area Rep has spent four and a half million dollars since Easter reportedly on 2,000 feet of road in Crooked Tree for which he didn’t even bother to follow proper procedure or get clearance from authorities.

4.5 million dollars is a lot of money for only 2,000 feet of road. Castro said that he was yet to spend on building culverts and a road top. How much more would he need, another $4.5m?

Mr. Castro didn’t even consult his constituents about the best way to invest the money to address the needs of the area. A survey of the top five concerns of Crooked Tree residents found that the priorities are:

1. The access road from northern highway needs to be sealed (paved)

2. A water system

3. Roads in village need drainage

4. Increased tourism marketing, branding within the Belize River Valley

5. More street lights

A causeway through Western Lagoon was not mentioned at all.

If its Tourism Mr. Castro is targeting then his decision doesn’t make sense either. The Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary had 1,876 visitors for all of 2007 at 8 dollars per visitor. Altun Ha had 79,367 visitors by comparison and Altun Ha does not have a completed visitor’s center to enhance and educate the visitors. This would have only taken a couple thousand dollars. Mr. Castro has reportedly been unable to deal with this because he has no money.

While some work has been done on the Old Northern Highway the improvements are only temporary and sections of the road need to be properly fixed like the two-lane sections completed last year. It makes no sense to fill the holes with maul, Mr. Castro. Every time that is done it just washes out.

Shortly after the elections the Ministry of Works’ equipment working on the Old Northern Highway was diverted to Crooked Tree, right after it made it to Rancho Creek. The road to Bomba was not even touched. This road carries more tourists and agricultural products than Crooked Tree. Why couldn’t Mr. Castro provide two days of graded and roller work to repair this road.

In Mr. Castro words the new $4.5m stretch of road through the Western Lagoon was done to “increase productivity for our people”. If increasing productivity was the goal, the Mr. Castro would have done the research and see that Altun Ha produces much more Tourism dollars and Bomba produces even more agriculture products.

Plus, is Mr. Castro really helping “his” people? If he had done his due diligence he would have realized that the western lagoon is the border between the Belize and Orange Walk districts, so the land in that area is the responsibility of the Orange Walk south Area Rep, who appears to have gone on vacation since the elections. If Mr. Castro would think first instead of being bullheaded, he would have followed proper procedure in getting an environmental impact assessment and he would have realized that the other side of the lagoon is not even the area he was elected to represent.

My intention is not to knock Crooked Tree because I like the place but for tourism it isn’t consistent. Sometimes the water is either too high and you don’t see much birds or the water is too low like now and you can’t do the boat tour. The Old Northern Highway area brings in the tourism numbers consistently, so it is not that you are favoring the area you come from, but that by attending to priority needs you would be working and investing “to bring the greater scheme of goods for the majority of people”.

Respect,

Bushman (Sub Umbra Floreo)