On Thursday (Jan. 4), Donald Trump proposed allowing oil drilling in nearly all waters situated off of US shores. If the proposal passes, it will open up more than one billion square kilometers (about 390 million square miles) of area previously protected for environmental reasons.

The oil industry cheered the announcement, calling it “long overdue,” while environmental groups called it a “shameful giveaway” to the oil industry, as The New York Times summarized.

Among the hullabaloo, one piece of good news didn’t get the attention it deserves. On Dec. 29, the Belize government voted to implement an indefinite moratorium on all new oil exploration in its waters.

Belize produces some 3,000 barrels of oil per day, a minuscule amount compared to more than 1.5 million barrels per day that the US produces in the Gulf of Mexico alone. And, yet, Belize’s announcement is an important one.

Like most developing countries, Belize relies on its natural resources for its economy. Oil constitutes more than a quarter of its exports. And, yet, thanks to grassroots campaigns, Belizeans were convinced that protecting its coral reefs will be more important to the country, economically, in the long-term.

Environmental groups have been lobbying the Belize government for an off shore drilling ban since at least 2006, when the country’s only oil company hit new reserves. Belize is home to the longest barrier reef in the Western hemisphere, and oil drilling puts at risk all the diversity of life that the reef supports.

Tourism brings in more than $200 million to Belize, which is more than 10% of its gross domestic product, and the reefs are the country’s biggest tourist attraction. The barrier reefs support more than 190,000 livelihoods in a country with a population of 370,000.

“Belize is a small country making a mighty commitment to putting the environment first,” says Nadia Bood, a reef scientist with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), an organization that campaigned for the protection of the reefs. The fund got more than 450,000 people from across the world to email the Belize government about the issue.

“Ending oil activities will encourage other countries to follow suit and take the urgent action that is needed to protect our planet’s oceans,” says Chris Gee, a campaigner at WWF. “Like the Belize Barrier Reef, nearly half of natural World Heritage sites worldwide are threatened by industrial pressures.”

Belize’s decision to choose reefs over oil is something that the world needs to do a lot more if it is serious about saving its coral. A new study(paywall) published last week shows that coral reefs are bleaching four times as frequently as they did in the 1980s. The main reason is human-induced climate change which is causing oceans to become warmer and more acidic—both act as poison for highly sensitive corals.

The more fossil fuels we dig up and burn, the more carbon dioxide we add to the atmosphere and make climate change worse.

Source: Quartz

As Belize celebrates a phenomenal win for offshore oil exploration, we are being recognized the world over for our astonishing decision to ban oil exploration.

We stand in solidarity with Oceana, Belize in saying “NO!” to offshore oil. Read more about this landmark decision to protect the Belize Barrier Reef and strengthen marine conservation worldwide.

This is just a small snippet of what saying “NO!” to offshore oil drilling can do for protected areas.

Take action with Oceana!

Belize-based pilot sets positive example.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is recognizing Arthur John Hoy Jr with inclusion in the prestigious FAA Airmen Certification Database.

The database, which appears on the agency’s website at www.faa.gov, names Hoy Jr and other certified pilots who have met or exceeded the high educational, licensing and medical standards established by the FAA.

Pilot certification standards have evolved over time in an attempt to reduce pilot errors that lead to fatal crashes. FAA standards, which are set in consultation with the aviation industry and the public, are among the highest in the world.

Transportation safety experts strongly recommend against flying with an uncertified pilot. FAA pilot certification can be the difference between a safe flight and one that ends in tragedy.

The FAA recently announced that is it increasing the qualification requirements for co-pilots who fly for U.S. passenger and cargo airlines. These requirements mandate additional minimum flight time and training, as well as aircraft specific training.

“Safety will be my overriding priority as Secretary, so I am especially pleased to mark my first week by announcing a rule that will help us maintain our unparalleled safety record,” said Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx in a press release. “We owe it to the traveling public to have only the most qualified and best trained pilots.”

According to the FAA, the new regulations stem in part from the crash of Colgan Air 3407 in February 2009. An investigation of the crash revealed that pilot Renslow, had failed three “check rides” (the flying equivalent of driver proficiency tests) and may not have had adequate training to respond to the emergency leading up to the crash.

The FAA offers a variety of pilots licenses and certificates, each with a different set of privileges. These levels include Student, Recreational, Sport, Private, Commercial And Airline Transport Pilot.

Pilots with a student pilot certification are not permitted to fly solo and are barred from carrying passengers. Sport pilot certificate holders can not carry more than one passenger and are permitted to only fly light-sport aircraft during the daytime.

The highest level of certification is the Airline Transport Pilot Certificate (ATP), which is required to fly a commercial airliner.

To obtain Airline Transport Pilot Certificate, pilots must possess a commercial pilot license, have more than 1500 hours of experience in aircraft and be at least 21 years old. However, pilots with an aviation degree can qualify for the certificate with just 1,000 hours.

Pilots obtaining an Airline Transport Pilot Certificate must also pass an exam covering air law, general aircraft knowledge, flight planning, meteorology, navigation, instrumentation and other important topics.

Pilots are required to pass a physical examination administered by a FAA-authorized medical examiner.

There are a number of medical conditions that the FAA considers disqualifying, such as Bipolar disease, cardiac valve replacement, coronary heart disease, diabetes mellitus requiring hypoglycemic medications, disturbance of consciousness without satisfactory explanation of cause, epilepsy, heart replacement, Myocardial infarction, permanent cardiac pacemaker, personality disorder that is severe enough to have repeatedly manifested itself by overt acts, psychosis, substance abuse, substance dependence, transient loss of control of nervous system function(s) without satisfactory explanation of cause.

Pilots are required to report to the FAA’s Security and Investigations Division any alcohol-related vehicle actions, such as an arrest, administrative action, driver license suspension.

The FAA has reason to be concerned in general about alcohol use by pilots. Recently, a 48 year-old American Eagle pilot was forced from the aircraft cockpit after airline employees smells alcohol on him. The pilot, Kolbjorn Jarle Kristiansen , subsequently failed a breathalyzer test and was arrested.

The Federal Aviation Administration’s Airmen Certification Database contains the following listing:

UniqueID: A4251292
FirstName: Arthur John
LastName: Hoy Jr
Street1: 37 Gibnut
Street2:
City: Belize
State:
Zip:
Country: BELIZE
Region: SO
MedClass: 1
MedDate: 022011
MedExpDate: 022012

Source: Aviation Business Gazette

“Pink eye” is a term that may sound scary, but this common eye problem typically is easily treated and, with a few simple precautions, can often be avoided.

Anyone can get pink eye, but preschoolers, schoolchildren, college students, teachers and daycare workers are particularly at risk for the contagious types of pink eye because they work closely with others in the classroom.

Here are the essential facts about pink eye (conjunctivitis) that you should know:

What Is Pink Eye?

Pink eye — also called conjunctivitis — is inflammation of the thin, clear covering of the white of the eyeand the inside of the eyelids (conjunctiva).

Although the conjunctiva is transparent, it contains blood vessels that overlay the sclera of the eye.

Anything that triggers inflammation will cause these conjunctival blood vessels to dilate. This is what causes red, bloodshot eyes.

Conjunctivitis can have several causes (see below), but many eye doctors use the term “pink eye” to refer only to viral conjunctivitis, a highly contagious infection caused by a variety of viruses.

What Causes Pink Eye?

The primary types of conjunctivitis, based on cause, are:

• Viral conjunctivitis. Caused by a virus, like the common cold. This type of pink eye is very contagious, but usually will clear up on its own within several days without medical treatment.
• Bacterial conjunctivitis. Caused by bacteria, this type of conjunctivitis can cause serious damage to the eye if left untreated.
• Allergic conjunctivitis. Caused by eye irritants such as pollen, dust and animal dander among susceptible individuals. Allergic conjunctivitis may be seasonal (pollen) or flare up year-round (dust; pet dander).

Read more about types of conjunctivitis.

Pink Eye Symptoms

No surprise: the primary symptom of pink eye is an eye that has a pink appearance. Other symptoms of pink eye depend on the type of conjunctivitis you have:

• Viral conjunctivitis. Watery, itchy eyes; sensitivity to light. One or both eyes can be affected. Highly contagious; can be spread by coughing and sneezing.
• Bacterial conjunctivitis. A sticky, yellow or greenish-yellow eye discharge in the corner of the eye. In some cases, this discharge can be severe enough to cause the eyelids to be stuck together when you wake up. One or both eyes can be affected. Contagious (usually by direct contact with infected hands or items that have touched the eye).
• Allergic conjunctivitis. Watery, burning, itchy eyes; often accompanied by stuffiness and a runny nose, and light sensitivity. Both eyes are affected. Not contagious.

Treatment Of Pink Eye

As you would expect, the treatment of pink eye depends on the type of conjunctivitis you have:

• Viral conjunctivitis. In most cases, viral conjunctivitis will run its course over a period of several days and no medical treatment is required or indicated. A home remedy of applying a cold, wet washcloth to the eyes several times a day can relieve symptoms. (Due to the highly contagious nature of this type of pink eye, be sure not to share this washcloth with others!)
• Bacterial conjunctivitis. Your eye doctor typically will prescribe antibiotic eye drops or ointments for the treatment of bacterial conjunctivitis.
• Allergic conjunctivitis. Allergy medications often can help prevent or shorten bouts of allergic conjunctivitis. Sometimes these medications must be started before allergy season or allergy flare-ups begin. Ask your doctor for details.

Often it can be difficult to tell the type of conjunctivitis you have by symptoms alone (or if some other eye problems or underlying health conditions are causing your symptoms).

Conditions associated with conjunctivitis include other eye infections, dry eyes and blepharitis. Also, bacterial conjunctivitis sometimes can lead to very serious eye problems such as a corneal ulcer, potentially causing permanent vision loss.

For these reasons, anytime you develop red, irritated eyes, you should call your optometrist or ophthalmologist immediately and schedule an eye exam.

If you wear contact lenses, remove your lenses and wear only your glasses until your eye doctor has had a chance to examine your eyes.

And if you choose to wear eyeglasses more frequently to reduce your risk of pink eye, consider high-index lenses and anti-reflective coating to make your glasses thinner, lighter and more attractive, and to eliminate distracting reflections in the lenses. Also, photochromic lenses can reduce light sensitivity associated with pink eye and protect your eyes from harmful UV radiation and high-energy visible blue light both indoors and outside. Ask your optician for details.

Read more about pink eye treatment.

Pink Eye Prevention

Now that you know the basics about viral pink eye and other forms of conjunctivitis, what can you do to protect yourself and your kids from it?

Here are 10 simple precautions you can take to significantly reduce your risk of getting pink eye:

1. Never share personal items such as washcloths, hand towels or tissues.
2. Cover your nose and mouth when coughing or sneezing, and avoid rubbing or touching your eyes.
3. Never (EVER) share your color contact lenses or special effect contacts with friends.
4. Wash your hands frequently, especially when spending time at school or in other public places.
5. Keep a hand disinfectant (e.g., Purell) handy and use it frequently.
6. Frequently clean surfaces such as countertops, bathroom vanities, faucet handles and shared phones with an appropriate antiseptic cleaner.
7. 

   If you know you suffer from seasonal allergies, ask your doctor what can be done to minimize your symptoms before they begin.

8. If you wear contacts, be sure to follow your eye doctor’s instructions for lens care and replacement, and use contact lens solutions properly or consider switching to daily disposable contacts.
9. When swimming, wear swim goggles to protect yourself from bacteria and other microorganisms in the water that can cause conjunctivitis.
10. Before showering, using a hot tub or being in water of any kind, remove your contact lenses to avoid trapping bacteria between your eyes and the lenses.

Despite these precautions, you or your child still may develop pink eye. If the problem is contagious pink eye, be considerate of others and do your part to keep the infection from spreading.

If your child is affected, tell his or her teacher about the infection so extra steps can be taken to sanitize the classroom or day care center. Also, keep your child home until the contagious stage has passed.

Your eye doctor can let you know when you or your child can again mingle with others without risk of spreading contagious pink eye — usually about three to five days after the diagnosis.

And remember: Because a red or pink eye can be a symptom of many different types of eye problems — some that can be quite serious — make sure you consult with your eye doctor.

Source: All About Vision

Earlier this month, the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue revealed the finalists of their open-casting model search: Allie Ayers, Olivia Jordan, Iyonna Fairbanks, Camille Kostek, Haley Kalil and Tabria Majors.

More than 5,000 bikini babes applied, and these finalists will be shooting beachside in Belize this month for the mag’s 2018 Swimsuit Issue.

But, even though only one lovely lady will win her own spread in the 2019 issue, there was no cattiness at their Post photo shoot because they bonded over one career woe: Agents have told them all that they weren’t thin enough to make it big.

“We have become a little sisterhood,” Camille Kostek tells The Post. “We all have the same mission — to showcase women of all colors and sizes.”

Haley Kalil, 25
Brian Zak | Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for SWIMMIAMI

This gorgeous redhead has a few different titles to her name. Kalil was crowned Miss Minnesota in 2014, graduated with honors in biomedical sciences from St. Cloud State University that same year, and went on to work as a lab tech.

“I love encouraging women to pursue careers in science,” Kalil, who’s from Excelsior, Minn., tells The Post. Though she eventually wants to return to school to become a physician’s assistant, she says she felt “boxed in” working in a lab. In 2016, she decided to harness her fashion chops and now works as a bridal consultant in Charlotte, NC.

She used to be most famous for marrying Carolina Panthers offensive tackle Matt Kalil in 2015, but now he’s the one playing the supportive spouse for his rising-star wife. “He’s been there with me every step of the way,” Kalil says. “He even helped me put together outfits for this press tour — he says he’s my stylist.”

Olivia Jordan, 29
Brian Zak | Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for SWIMMIAMI

In a parallel universe, Jordan envisions finding her Zen. “My aspirational self would be a yoga teacher that teaches on the beach, and that’s all I’d need in the world,” Jordan, who’s based in LA, tells The Post. “But I’m not calm enough for that.”

Indeed, the Tulsa, Okla., native has no plans of slowing down soon. In 2015, she was crowned Miss USA and is currently pursuing an acting career, having already appeared in films such as “Hot Tub Time Machine 2,” as well as Lifetime’s TV show “Unreal.”

The blue-eyed beauty also says she’s done some foot-modeling gigs on the side. “My feet are my favorite part of my body,” Jordan says. “[They’re] also a source of good energy. When I tell my feet they look great, the rest of my body feels great, too.”

Trying these different career paths has taught her to love herself: “Confidence is a side effect of always putting yourself out there,” she says.

Tabria Majors, 27
Brian Zak | Tabria Majors

Majors had no desire to be a model until an agency scouted her on Instagram in 2014. When she left her nine-to-five job as a movie production assistant in LA to pursue modeling full-time in 2015, she took on a side gig as a maid to support her new career.

“Modeling is an expensive career when you first start — you have to invest in yourself and pay for photo shoots and maintain your appearance,” Majors, who’s from Nashville, Tenn., tells The Post.

“When I told people at modeling jobs that I was working as a maid they looked at me with disgust.”
But her hard work has paid off.

Majors cleaned her last home a year ago, and now she shoots for brands such as Forever 21 and is producing a podcast called “The Thick,” in which she talks about her experiences being a plus-size woman of color and interviews other women about body confidence.

Allie Ayers, 23
Brian Zak | Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for SWIMMIAMI

When Ayers was growing up, she saw modeling as a way to escape the small-town doldrums of Oklahoma City. “It’s stereotypical, but I wanted to see my name in lights,” Ayers tells The Post.

The pressure to be thin took a toll on the spunky Ayers, who says her waist and hip measurements turned agents off, and she quit modeling to enroll in college at Southwestern Oklahoma State University, where she earned her degree in health sciences.

Her father, a real estate investor, taught her how to flip houses to make money on the side, and also how to work with her hands.

“I learned how to purchase a house, and I stained my own floors — it was a really good learning experience,” she says.

Now that she’s back on the fashion scene, she’s hard at work developing her own size-inclusive swimsuit line set to launch early next year.

“I’ve just been sitting at a sewing machine for hours,” she says. “After modeling, this is my biggest priority.”

Camille Kostek, 25
Brian Zak

As a young girl, Kostek always wanted to be in front of the camera, but she thought that there wasn’t a place for her in the modeling world. “I idolized Victoria’s Secret models, but when I would walk the runway, my legs weren’t as tall or thin as those women,” Kostek, who’s from Killingworth, Conn., tells The Post.

Becoming a New England Patriots cheerleader in 2013 helped her appreciate her strong, toned legs.
“You perform for hours in front of 70,000 fans weekly in a two-piece uniform,” Kostek says. “Confidence is an essential quality of being a successful cheerleader.”

She also gives a shout-out to Ashley Graham, the first plus-sized model to appear on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue in 2016. “Seeing her made me realize there’s a place in the modeling industry for me, too,” she says.

Iyonna Fairbanks, 25
Brian Zak | Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for SWIMMIAMI

Even though Fairbanks is now a security guard at a chemical plant, she didn’t always know how to defend herself.

As a kid in Cincinnati, her classmates made fun of her because she had dreadlocks. “They’d say I had snakes in my head,” Fairbanks says.

And when she first got into modeling in her teens, an agent told her that she had to cut her hair short.

“It made me cry,” Fairbanks says. “But my mom has always been in my corner — she says hair can grow back, and to not beat myself up over it.”

But now, she says, she’s learned how to embrace her natural texture. And as a red belt in tae kwon do, she knows how to stand up for herself.

She hopes to use SI’s platform to inspire other women who look like her. “[Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue] is embracing diversity like no other, and I want to be a part of it,” she says.

Source: NewYork Post

The amendment to the misuse of drug bill was officially signed into law.

The bill was introduced in parliament in August by the government of Belize and is to “decriminalize the possession of cannabis in amounts not exceeding ten grams, to provide for the imposition of monetary and non-recordable penalties for the possession of cannabis in such amounts occurring on school premises, in specified circumstances, to decriminalize the smoking of cannabis on private premises.”

On October 25, 2017 , at the Senate, senators debated the pros and cons of marijuana usage in Belize.

NGO Senator Osmany Salas referred to the fact that countries decriminalized marijuana but provided counselors for their youths in cases of drug abuse. Salas elaborated that Belize does not have adequate rehab facilities to deal with the issues that decriminalization may have in our society.

Government Senator, Aldo Salazar supported the bill by explaining that the negative effects of marijuana stems from habitual abuse.

The bill was signed into law by the Governor General.

Source: BreakingBelizeNews.com