Last week, 7News told you about the motion which the PUP's Julius Espat wants to table at the next House Meeting, scheduled for Wednesday.
As we've told you, he wants to remove majority control of the committee from the ruling party in Government, which hold 4 seats, while the Opposition holds 2. He wants to restructure it so that Government gets 2 seats, Opposition gets 2 and 3 come from the Senate.
Prime Minister Dean Barrow has told us that he will make procedural objections if Espat attempts to bring it to the House Meeting, but the Belize Chamber of Commerce and Industry is hoping that the PM will change his mind.
In release today, the Chamber agrees with Julius Espat in principle saying quote, "The current structure of the PAC undermines its purpose as control of the PAC ultimately rests in the hands of the majority of the House of Representatives – the very body responsible for approving the country's budget."
The BCCI continues, "In effect, the Government's spending of public funds is therefore being scrutinized by a Government-controlled PAC. This is particularly disconcerting since Ministers who are in the Cabinet are bound by the principle of collective responsibility and so cannot go against any decision of Cabinet."
As a result, the BCCI is hoping that both sides adopt the proposed restructuring of the Committee, saying that this is a good step in the right direction.
What Is Happening With School Counseling?
Today over a hundred counselors were in attendance at a counseling conference held at the ITVET. The 2 day conference is being hosted by the University of Belize in partnership with the Ministry of Education teacher education Development Services. According to one of the organizers, the main objective of the event is to critically look at counseling services within the educational setting.
Fermin Olivera - Social Work Lecturer, UB
"Well we are having a conference for stakeholders that are involved in counseling services in the school setting. First of all we have the counselors, the administrators, social workers and mental health professionals and everybody that in one way or another practices counseling or/and is involved with students at the school level."
Monica Bodden
"Tell us the objective of this initiative?"
Fermin Olivera
"One was definitely to create a forum to bring these stakeholders together and to really discuss what is salient in Belize right now. We'll be sharing the results from a survey that we did and we'll be sharing a little bit of the perspective of counseling in Belize. But more importantly we want to be able to forge initiatives that will improve what we have. Understanding that we have made many strides but that this needs to be strengthened, believing that it is one strategy that can go a long way in helping children do better in the school system. The data assures - contrary to what is believed - that boys are doing far worse in the place setting, but that's not necessarily true. Generally, both boys and girls are not performing satisfactorily at the Primary School level - then we see this transcend into the High School level. What we are supporting is that - perhaps with the serious integration of counseling services of the school level to help these students with career counseling and also clinical counseling - it will be a good start into meaningfully helping students do better in school."
Out of today's hundred and 10 participants, over 40 of them are school counselors.
The Orchestra Played Magic In Belize
Last week, 7News told you about Youth Orchestra of the Americas, and its first performance in the Belize.
It was a culmination of a 15 stop Central American tour, which also featured Belizean violinist COURTNEY GILLETT.
Due to the weather, their concert, which was supposed to be held at the Memorial Park, was moved to the Bliss Center for the Performing Arts.
Channel 7 brought it live to you, and after the performance, we spoke to Courtney about what the experience was like to play with musicians of this caliber.
Here's how she described it, and the warm welcome of the Belizean people:
Courtney Gillett - Violinist/ Toured with YOA
"Absolutely amazing - the first few weeks, you got to push - it's a lot of work but they keep you going - always this enthusiasm and motivation, constant drive. When you think you've had a bad day - there's no time to have a bad day, just keep playing the music and at the finish here in Belize - I just hope it inspires many people, whoever that was in this audience and whoever saw it - I hope it sends a message that we can do something with music."
Marco Gillespie - General Manager, YOA
"We've been working for many years towards bringing this orchestra, young musicians from 25 different countries in the America here in Belize - to share with Belize the power of classical music and the power of youth and it's happening right behind me now. We just finished an incredible concert here at the Bliss Center - our musicians don't want to leave. We inaugurated with this concert and also the National Youth Orchestra of Belize - what an honor to have helped to start a project here that will transform the lives of hundreds and hundreds of kids. I can't describe to you what we're all feeling right now."
Jean Philippe Tremblay - Conductor, YOA
"The young musicians from the Youth Orchestra - they did fantastic, they played a very hard piece and they played with a lot of attention, a lot of energy. Belize is extremely lucky to have such a good youth orchestra and they are a fantastic choir as well, so build on it and take very good care of them because it's music for the right reason. I think Belize could become a country where the Youth Orchestra are a very top notch and top level artistic activity."
Cindy Burgos - Violinist/First Chair Belize Youth Orchestra
"It was months and months of hard work - we were practicing since February for this so we had to prepare for a long time to actually play up to par with this orchestra because this is a high level orchestra with people playing since they were three years old. We had to work up to their level and the hard work really paid off and I'm glad we were able to pull it off with them."
Because this was their last stop, the night ended with an impromptu jam session on stage which continued for almost an hour after the concert ended.
The YOA is made up of 100 musicians between the ages of 18 – 30 from all across the Americas.
Dara's Ride A Major Success
On Saturday, the 2nd annual Ride for Hunger was staged under the leadership of Grassrooots philanthropist Dara Robinson.
Our camera man, Codie Norales, accompanied the riders and provided footage of the ride, which was very well supported by the public.
Today, we caught up with Robinson, who expressed gratitude for the support:
Dara Robinson
"I guess the blessing and the way how I did it, the people loved it. Yesterday we had grassroots people here, middle class, top class people, babies, kids and everybody was a part of it. We brought people together, we rode for a good cause and the support was there. I asked for $5 registration fee and people gave more than what I asked for. Some people gave checks of $100 and some gave $150 and some people couldn't even give $5 but they still gave something. Whatever support I get it benefits because it makes you much more comfortable and I won't have to be killing and harassing myself much to keep up with the program. The more support you get the better for what you're doing - it encourages you. A lot of people don't know that I was under a lot of stress because I know the importance of what I'm doing and I know the benefit, so when you get the support it gives you that boost and that push of at least they are hearing me and I know that I am doing something."
Robinson told us that he will have a final sum at a later date, when all the financial pledges arrive.
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