| High Praises for Belize Maritime Policies |  |
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| Written by Shane D. Williams |
| Thursday, 26 January 2012 00:00 |
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Herald backs away from Miami River relocation
January 18, 2012 04:30PM
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January 27, 2012
January 26, 2012
January 23, 2012
Panama Canal ponzi scheme will cost more as builders agree to pay 13% raises for striking workers
Panama Canal expansion strike called off
The canal is a vital artery of world tradeContinue reading the main story
Strike hits Panama Canal project
Panama Canal reopens for traffic
In pictures: Panama Canal expansion
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Thousands of workers on a project to expand the Panama Canal have agreed to end a strike that had paralysed construction for a week.
The stoppage was called off after the consortium in charge of the works agreed to increase the minimum wage.
The $5.25bn (£3.4bn) project to widen the Panama Canal and double its capacity is due to be complete in 2014.
The waterway linking the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans already handles around 5% of world trade.
The multinational consortium Grupos Unidos por el Canal (GUPC) said workers had accepted a 13% increase to the minimum wage and would go back to work on Monday.
Union leaders said their members had accepted the deal, which increases the minimum hourly wage from $2.90 to $3.34.
The company had already agreed to give back pay for overtime and Sundays.
Centenary
The Panama Canal expansion project involves building a third set of locks and the widening of navigation channels so that some of the world's biggest ships can pass through.
The project is due for completion in 2014 - a century after the canal was first opened by the US.
Panama has been running the 82km (51 mile) waterway since 1999, when the US handed over control.
The canal is Panama's main source of revenue, and the government says its expansion will give a major boost to economic growth.
January 20, 2012
January 19, 2012
Workers halt Panama Canal expansion until they get back pay -- But Miami will be ready for those big ships!
18 January 2012 Last updated at 04:50 ET 54
Panama Canal expansion workers strike over pay
The stoppage began on Monday to press for a series of demandsContinue reading the main story
Panama Canal reopens for traffic
In pictures: Panama Canal expansion
Panama plans huge canal expansion
Related Stories
Several thousand workers at a major project to widen the Panama Canal are on indefinite strike over pay.
The strikers are demanding higher wages, as well as back pay.
The consortium behind the $5.25bn (£3.4bn) project says its salaries are above average but acknowledged there had been payroll problems.
The Panama Canal, which connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, handles some 5% of world trade with about 14,000 ships passing through each year.
Workers at the site downed tools on Monday.
They are demanding an increase in the basic pay from $2.90 to $4.90 an hour, with skilled workers getting a rise from $3.52 to $7.10.
They also say they are due overtime payments and are calling for an improvement in safety.
Expansion work began in 2007 and is due to be finished in 2014The United Group (GUPC), the multinational consortium in charge of the project, said it was working to correct some mistakes with its payroll.
It also said it abided by Panamanian regulations.
The GUPC said it was ready for talks but noted that its wages were above the minimum paid in the rest of Panama.
The Panama expansion project involves building a third set of locks to enable some of the world's biggest ships to pass through.
The project is due for completion in 2014.
Miami Herald second thoughts about Bertram property on Miami River
After selling its headquarters to Genting, the Miami Herald has been in talks to relocate to the former headquarters of Bertram Yachts. But the South Florida Business Journal reported those negotiations have stalled and probably won’t be restored.
The Journal speculated that the talks broke down because of the underwriting challenges facing a speculative building for a tenant in the diminishing print media industry. The property in question, Miami International Centre, is 21 acres and includes more than 400,000 square feet of manufacturing and marina facilities.
Now, the Herald will renew its search with broker Tere Blanca of Blanca Commercial Real Estate. The Journal said it may look to the U.S. Souther Command in Doral. [SFBJ]
Tags: Bertram Yachts, miami herald
January 17, 2012
Costa Captain took ship off cruise control so waiter could wave to girlfriend! That sinking feeling.
Eyerdam opinion
Costa Captain discovers unknown rock in Mediterranean Sea
He took the ship off of cruise control! You mean they don’t pilot them?
I had to laugh at the lame Miami Herald defense of the safety of the cruise industry in the wake of the ridiculous sinking of the Costa Concordia and the deaths onboard.
The reason the boat hit the rock and sunk is that the Captain did not have a local pilot on board who knew the waters yet decided he could read unfamiliar charts and navigate close enough to Giglio so his favorite waiter could wave at his family, on shore.
You gotta get pretty close to shore to see a tiny Italian head water wave for the flybridge of a giant cruise ship. And you better know the waters or have someone on board that does.
But Carnival, which has created political action committees across the world to fight the rules requiring harbor pilots in unfamiliar waters, Carnival’s excuse is that the captain turned off the computer that had been programmed to drive the ship. He took control of his vessel, steered it into the rocks then cut and ran.
This incident reveals that at least some of the Carnival fleet travel not under the watchful eye of a helmsman and a pilot and a watchstander. They travel in treacherous waters following a computer program, installed by some geek in port
The Herald in its cloying editorial points out that big cruise ships do not sink and kill people anywhere near as frequently as crewmembers rob and rape passengers. And it concluded, without any inclination about the truth of its metaphor: “When it comes to safety, the industry always practices cruise control.”
And the reason why we stand firmly behind the laws requiring trained and experienced bar pilots and harbor pilots is that they bring big ships safely to their berths. Near shore is no place or time for safety by cruise control or captains who are out of their element.
January 15, 2012
Carnival's Costa cruise liner without pilot discovers new rock in Mediterranean Sea - sinks
Captain claims rock was not marked, a hundred yards from a lighthouse!
* Death toll rises to five, confusion about number of missing
* South Korean honeymooners and crewmember saved
* Captain arrested
* Passengers talk of panic and fighting for lifejackets
By Gavin Jones and Antonio Denti
GIGLIO, Italy, Jan 15 (Reuters) - Divers found the bodies of two elderly men inside a capsized cruiseliner on Sunday, bringing the known death toll from a spectacular accident off Italy's coast to five, with another 70 people injured.
Divers and other rescuers were painstakingly checking thousands of cabins on the Italian liner Costa Concordia for 15 people still unaccounted for after the huge vessel foundered and keeled over with more 4,229 passengers and crew on board.
A day after the disaster, rescuers plucked a South Korean honeymoon couple and an injured crewmember alive from the wreck, lying on its side close to the beautiful island of Giglio off Italy's west coast, after being holed by a rock on Friday night.
The captain of the luxury 114,500-tonne ship, Francesco Schettino, was arrested on charges of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning ship, Italian police said.
Searching the vast ship for survivors was like combing through a small town - but one tilted on its side, largely in darkness and partly submerged.
In the early afternoon, scuba divers looking for survivors instead found the bodies of two men at a gathering point in the submerged part of the ship, coastguard officials said.
The bodies of two French tourists and a Peruvian crew member were found on Saturday.
The discovery of the bodies on Sunday dampened earlier euphoria when a helicopter lifted off injured chief purser Manrico Gianpetroni, hours after rescuers made voice contact with him deep inside the stricken, multi-storey vessel.
Gianpetroni, who had a broken leg, was winched up from the ship on a stretcher and taken to hospital.
"I never lost hope of being saved. It was a 36-hour nightmare," he told reporters.
In the early hours of Sunday rescuers pulled out the two South Koreans from a cabin, after locating them from several decks above. They looked dazed but unharmed as they were brought ashore.
By Sunday afternoon, about a quarter of the part of the ship that is still above the waterline had been searched. "This is a floating city and it's very difficult," said Luca Cari, spokesman for firefighters on Giglio.
Passengers compared the disaster to the sinking of the Titanic, and described people leaping into the sea and fighting over lifejackets in panic when the ship hit a rock and ran aground as they sat down for dinner on Friday night.
The vast hulk of the 290-metre-long ship loomed over the little port of Giglio, a picturesque island in a maritime nature reserve off the Tuscan coast. A large gash was visible in its side.
Rescue workers including specialist diving teams faced a complex task as they worked their way through more than 2,000 cabins on the ship - a floating resort that boasted a huge spa, seven restaurants, bars, cinemas and discotheques.
Paolo Tronca, a local fire department official, said the search would go on "for 24 hours a day as long as we have to" and that rescue workers were using sniffer dogs in the section of the ship above water.
As the search continued, there were demands for explanations of why the vessel had come so close to the shore and bitter complaints about how long it took to evacuate the terrified passengers.
State prosecutor Francesco Verusio said investigations might go beyond the captain.
"We are investigating the possible responsibility of other people for such a dangerous manoeuvre," he told SkyTG24 television. "The command systems did not function as they should have."
He said the ship had come within 150 metres (yards) of the coast, which he called "incredibly close".
Agnese Stella, a 72-year-old housewife who has lived on Giglio for 50 years told Reuters: "It came much too close (to shore), it never comes this close normally."
"UNMARKED" ROCK
Magistrates said Schettino abandoned the vessel before all the passengers were taken off.
The vessel's operator, Costa Crociere, a unit of Carnival Corp & Plc, the world's largest cruise company, said the Costa Concordia had been sailing on its regular course when it struck a submerged rock.
In a television interview, Schettino said the rock was not marked on any maritime charts of the area.
After an intense rescue operation throughout the weekend, involving helicopters, ships and lifeboats, many passengers had already left the area. Many were taken to Rome airport for flights home.
The ship was involved in an accident on Nov. 22, 2008 when it hit a port wall and was damaged while docking.
Local officials expressed concern the ship's fuel, at full load as it had just begun the cruise, could spill into pristine waters off Giglio. So far there was no sign of pollution. Dutch maritime services company SMIT said it had been hired to pump fuel off the ship once the rescue was over.
The coast guard says the removal of the 2,380 tonnes of fuel cannot begin until the rescue is complete because the operation could cause the vessel to move or sink further into the water.
DINNER TIME DISASTER
Passengers had just sat down to dinner, a few hours after leaving the port of Civitavecchia near Rome on a week-long cruise to Barcelona and Majorca, when a loud bang interrupted the piano player and the ship began to list.
"We heard a loud rumble, the glasses and plates fell from the tables, the ship tilted and the lights went off," said passenger Luciano Castro.
"What followed was scenes of panic, people screaming, running around the place. Close to us a five-month pregnant young woman was crying and panicking."
The ship was carrying almost a thousand Italians, as well as passengers from Britain, Germany, France, Spain, the United States and other countries. Many were elderly and some were in wheelchairs. It became more and more difficult to lower the lifeboats the more the ship listed.
"It was complete panic. People were behaving like animals. We had to wait too long in the lifeboats," said Patrizia Perilli, 47.
Passengers said they had been given little or no information immediately after the ship ran aground.
"After approximately 20 minutes a voice told us there was a problem with the electricity that they were trying to fix," said Castro.
"The ship continued to tilt further, after 15 minutes they said again it was a problem with the electricity, but no one believed it," he said.
"Of course panic makes things worse and the crew members struggled to calm down the most active and worried passengers."
The ship was built in 2004-2005 at a cost of 450 million euros ($570.00 million) at Italy's Fincantieri Sestri shipyard.
January 13, 2012
Miami River carriers get ready, a new port opening at Trujillo in Honduras needs supplies and provisioning
Honduras' North Coast, A Jewel
Friday, 13 January 2012 07:10
The landscape with its jungles, rivers, and waterfalls is breathtaking; the beaches are endless and devoid of sun worshipping crowds; the history is fascinating; and the numerous Garifuna villages that dot the shoreline remain some of the most authentic and picturesque places in the country.
By Kimberley Player
"I’m leaving Roatán to explore the north coast of the mainland.” This statement caused a bit of a stir amongst my island acquaintances. “You’re leaving Roatán? Why? For the mainland? Don’t you know it’s not nearly as nice or safe over there?” Maybe this was true; maybe it wasn’t, but I needed a change of scenery. I needed to get away from the concentrated tourist environment of Roatán, from the hordes of cruise shippers and expat residents and the feeling that I’d been dropped into a Canadian province, albeit one that more resembled Margaritaville than my home country’s more stereotypical snowy vistas. The bottom line was that my current surroundings, while unquestionably gorgeous and fun, were nothing like the Honduras that I had originally come to Central America to see.
Truth be told, it was my background in economic and resort development that led to my interest in the north coast, specifically the stretch of land from Trujillo through La Ceiba to Tela. I had read about lofty plans to transform this region into a major tourist destination through massive public and private investment in infrastructure and of course, real estate. In my experience, such development too often changes untouched (or underutilized, depending on your viewpoint) places forever and I wanted to see the north coast before the inevitable occurred.
And I was not disappointed, although I suppose if I had been looking for a prepackaged 5-star experience complete with high end hotels and Americanized amenities, I would have been. But the north coast of Honduras truly is a jewel or, as the Honduras Ministry of Tourism puts it, an area of “natural resources and cultural assets that endow the coast with a tourism potential that is unique in the region”. The landscape with its jungles, rivers, and waterfalls is breathtaking; the beaches are endless and devoid of sun worshipping crowds; the history is fascinating; and the numerous Garifuna villages that dot the shoreline remain some of the most authentic and picturesque places in the country. On the other hand, it’s true that the roads are challenging by Western standards and that the infrastructure in general needs significant improvement. It’s also true that the region’s many varied attractions are poorly defined and not properly marketed, particularly to an international audience.
Trujillo itself is a sleepy little town with few tourists but a whole lot of character. It’s also slated to be the site of Honduras’ first mainland cruise ship port, currently under construction with completion of both the terminal and an oceanfront shopping center and transportation hub slated for the 2012-13 cruise season. Proponents of the development often point to Roatán as an example of the economic benefits associated with cruise ship business. However, they also tend to ignore the realities of the strain on the island’s environment, infrastructure, and people, as well as the fact that despite large traveler numbers, the aforementioned benefits typically remain limited to a few local tours, a meal here and there, and perhaps the purchase of a piece of local jewelry or a t-shirt.
The benefits of increases in real estate values are also touted. Unfortunately, the people that stand most to gain from this phenomenon are not the locals who, if history repeats itself, will end up selling off their properties to foreigners, but outside investors who have already been sold on cheap land and the prospect of living like kings in the "Richest Poorest Country in the World". Perhaps the most famous (or infamous) projects claiming to offer early investment opportunities in “the next Roatán” belong to a Canadian developer dubbed “the porn king” by some in reference to his past career in adult store chains. Hundreds of home sites, some of which are located on land claimed by local Garifuna communities, are being sold almost exclusively to Canadians. The majority have bought without ever setting foot in Honduras, with the end goal being appreciation of their new offshore assets.
Plans for Tela are even bigger, with one of Honduras’ largest ever tourism-related public-private partnerships focused on the creation of Tela Bay or as it’s also known, the Micos Beach and Golf Resort. This project is projected to eventually consist of 4- and 5-star hotels, an 18-hole golf course, golf and beach clubs, shopping areas, and 300-400 villas. Like some of the Trujillo developments, it has a controversial background, particularly on the Garifuna land claim front. It has also been suggested that planned wetland filling will significantly damage the environment. While the government and major lenders, most notably the Inter-American Development Bank have highlighted the need for a “policy framework for the strategic development and sustainable management of regional assets that will ensure a course of environmentally sustainable and socially equitable growth”, we can only hope that such ideals become accountable standards to which key stakeholders, particularly private sector developers, are held.
La Ceiba, it is worth noting, is pursuing a more sustainable and diverse tourism development strategy for which key players such as CANATURH, RECOTURH and the local Camara de Turismo de La Ceiba should be applauded. Granted the economic fundamentals of Honduras’ third largest city are significantly different from both Trujillo and Tela; however, lessons can be learned from La Ceiba’s focus on organic growth, historic preservation, and evolution of tourism product outside of traditional sun and beach options.
I love Roatán, but does Honduras need to create “the next Roatán” on its north coast? Please no. Please don’t copy the development path of a Caribbean island that has made its own mistakes in managing tourism and its impact on land use, the environment, and its people. Do showcase your beauty and natural resources to the world, but ensure that you have a system in place to retain them. Do create jobs and improve the quality of life for locals, but understand and mitigate the negative impacts of turning your backyard into a playground for extranjeros. I wish all the best for this beautiful and still relatively untouched part of Honduras and hope that it can truly be developed in a sustainable manner, one that benefits not just a wealthy few, but its people and land first and foremost. (1/13/12) (photo courtesy Internet)
Note: The author is an economic and real estate development consultant who is travelling in Central America while researching the impact of tourism on land use.
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