PCV: Paid Caribbean Vacation

I have always complained about things like Belikin Beer since arriving to Belize but until now, I only complained. It wasn't until now that it really truly effected me. Now the monopoly that is Belize is getting out of hand. Let's start with the big ones.

• Bowen & Bowen- These guys make every drink known to humankind in Belize. If you buy a Coke, a Fanta, a Beer, a bottled water... It came from Bowen & Bowen. They make a killing on everything and due to the high tariffs and taxes on all imports, they basically get to set their price on everything and no one has a chance to argue.
• Centaurus- This is the cable/internet company. With a country of only 300,000 people, I can understand how there is really only a need for one of these. But for the sake of competition, I think there should be at least be two. The problem with this company is they charge Belizeans $40 a month ($20usd) to receive about 120 channels. That's great! Until you realize they don't pay for it anyway. There are about 4 Belize channels that are made here and they pay for. All the other channels are stolen via satellite from Mexico, Guatemala, Taiwan, and the United States. This is why I can get ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNnews, ESPNdeportes, NBC, ABC, Fox, NFL network, NBA network, BigTen network. I'm not complaining about any of this, but to think of how much money they are making for pirating everything from other countries is a bit crazy.
• BTL (Belize Telemedia Limited)- This is the big drama doing on right now. BTL used to be the only phone company in Belize. It was owned by some guy named Mr. Ashcroft. Ashcroft is worth more money than the entire GDP of Belize. With that much money, you can see how he has some power. A few years ago, another phone company started up. SMART phones is now the company to be with. The tricky part is, Ashcroft owns this too. BTL just kept it under wraps for a bit. Most people couldn't figure out how SMART was operating and why BTL was letting them use all their towers. Now it all makes sense. The problem began when I arrived in Belize. The same week, the government of Belize took over BTL and made it government property. As you can imagine, this was big news. Good news for us because now there was huge competition. The now government run BTL was lowering prices trying to get customers and SMART just kept lowering their prices too giving free credit to anyone who bought some. I loved it. Then the news hit on Friday that BTL was now allowing SMART to use its lines anymore. The same lines that BTL (when owned by Ashcroft) paid for. This meant that all international phone calls are cut off. Being a SMART customer, this means that there will be no phone calls to family for Thanksgiving or no calls to my brother on his birthday.

Until a few years back, there only used to be 1 bus line for the entire country as well. There is only 1 nationally recognized newspaper. I guess this is to be expected from a third world country, but it doesn't have to be. The most depressing part is that it's not like people don't want to start their own businesses and compete. It is allowed, but the government has allowed through corrupt lawmaking only a few to survive and flourish. Starting a business to compete now would be harder than a Mom-n-Pop Shop to take over Walmart. The amount of resources is alarming. Then the situation like BTL happens that seems great because it will force competition, but instead of competing, it has turned into an all out war where no one may be allowed to benefit from the service.

All these monopolies really restrict the amount of money that the average Belizean can make. Not only that, but the amount of restrictions that are already in place in relation to commerce limit Belize enough. Everything is taxed. This is why even though I am about 4 miles from the Mexican border, its impossible to get tequila without paying an arm and a leg. Its a bit over the top. Belize is the arguably the most expensive country in all of Central America due to the monopolistic practices and the high taxes it places on all foreign goods. And they wonder why they have such a problem with people smuggling in everything from beer to tomatoes to even toilet paper from Mexico and Guatemala. I'd say when your citizens are smuggling things like toilet paper and not using it to sell, but to use, that you have a problem in your country in terms of how much money you are trying to make off your own people. So despite all the luxuries that I do benefit from, there are plenty of internal problems that exist that I cant even really understand.