And in some other interviews from yesterday's house meeting, we asked the Prime Minister about the crushing cost of fuel. World prices stabilized last month, but the price in Belize remained the same. The PM says you shouldn't; hope for a decrease - it's already a balancing act keeping the price stable:
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"The issue of inflation, we are trying as best as we can to contain it. Most of these things are imported and most of the food items pay very little duty so there's not much we can do. We are trying to police as best as we possibly can to try to avoid the price gouging and secondly with the fuel, we continue to reduce the tax to try and hold on to diesel, I think diesel went down a few cents, it should have gone higher, but we managed to cut a little on the taxes so as we promised from the beginning, we're going to try as best as we possibly can, we have foregone millions of dollars in taxes for fuel but we have no other option, we want to do as best as we possibly can to help Belizean consumers and everybody in that sense."
Shyne's Solution For Fuel Prices
And while the PM says it's a balancing act - the Leader of the Opposition Shyne Barrow says he's already given the PM the playbook to reduce fuel prices and inflation:
Shyne Barrow, Leader of the Opposition
"Fuel has fallen a lot on the international market, tremendously, back to pre Ukraine/Russia numbers. And the prime minister, I keep giving him the advice, of the way to resolve the energy crisis, you have to start at the entity that is purchasing on the market and that entity that purchases on behalf of Belize, I think we should take control of that, why aren't we purchasing our own oil, why are we using an entity, and then that entity gives us an invoice and that invoice is not reflective of the world market, that invoice is whatever they say so prices have gone down tremendously and we're still paying the same as we've been paying at the height of the energy crisis while all the other nations are saying that they've resolved the matter, it doesn't make any sense."
"One last thing about the inflation, I would have appreciated monies to put together an enforcement unit that would go around to all of these supermarkets and all of these places to ensure that they're not price gouging and that people aren't suffering from normal costs of inflation and the criminal act of price gouging."
St John's Soup Kitchen
Today the St John's Soup Kitchen had its annual Closing of the Kitchen Christmas Dinner. While they provide meals to hundreds of residents on a weekly basis, on this day, they upped the amount of plates they give away, and every man, woman, and child that stops by can get a plate - as long as supplies last.
Today we visited the soup kitchen and saw them in action.
Cold Chain Donation
Tonight the National Vacine Storage facility in Belmopan can boast an array of brand-new cold chain equipment donated by the government of Japan.
That equipment includes 10 Ice Line freezers, 10 Main Powered Vaccine refrigerators and 30 remote temperature monitoring systems to be used to improve vaccine storage and management.
The donation is part of a partnership between UNICEF and the government of Japan to address the needs of Belize's ministry of health and to improve the national vaccination rates that have decreased since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The new equipment was delivered to Minister Kevin Bernard today in an official handing-over ceremony. Here's what he said on receipt.
Kevin Bernard, Minister of Health
"Belize received 1.8 million dollars as highlighted by Mrs Parker, Belize Dollars, to cover the project's cold chain equipment, including the capacity building of healthcare workers in the management of the cold chain equipment deployed to primary level healthcare facilities within the public health sector. Through this grant aid, one walk in cooler for the national vaccine storage facility was procured, along with ice line refrigerators and freezers, deployed to the districts and installed in 15 urban and rural health facilities. Ten generators were obtained and installed and will ensure that these health facilities will reduce the risk of loss of vaccines due to unforeseen power outages. All the procured cold chain equipment units will have a remote temperature monitoring device with a built in alarm system when the temperature is outside of the recommended range."
"With the grant, the ministry has strengthen the quality improvement of health services through the establishment of a quality improvement unit composed of one medical officer per hospital dedicated full time to oversee the implementation of quality improvement plans. The quality improvement officers along with the local quality improvement teams aim to improve material health and reduce child mortality. The number of staff trained in their respective technical areas has increased and the monitoring of processes of care is continuous."
The ministry will receive a walk-in cooler that will arrive in the country later this month.
