Tag Archives: Belize

Names That Travel: Belizean Grocery, the Nandwani Trade, and the Long Shadow of a Florida Brand

In a small, import-dependent economy, a name does work that a name in a large self-sufficient market never has to do. Belize manufactures little of what fills a grocery shelf; the country’s retail trade is, at its foundation, a logistics … Continue reading

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The Best Little Zoo in the World: A History of the Belize Zoo

Executive Summary The Belize Zoo and Tropical Education Center occupies an unusual place among the world’s conservation institutions: it was not planned, endowed, or designed, but improvised by one woman who refused to abandon a group of film animals left … Continue reading

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Counting the Cost of Dry Feet: The Engineering Economics of Defending Belize City Against the Rain

Abstract This paper is a companion to the preceding assessment of Belize City’s rainy-season flooding and long-term viability. Where that paper diagnosed the hazard, this one asks the harder question that follows from it: what does it actually cost to … Continue reading

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The Rainy Season in Belize City: Storm Regimes, Rainfall Loading, Street Flooding, and the Long-Term Viability of a Sea-Level Capital-of-Commerce

Abstract Belize City occupies one of the more difficult sites in the Caribbean basin: a former mangrove flat at or marginally below the level of the sea, exposed to a rainy season that delivers the majority of a high annual … Continue reading

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Lamanai: A White Paper on Its History and Its Place in the Maya World

Abstract Lamanai, on the western shore of the New River Lagoon in the Orange Walk District of northern Belize, is among the most consequential archaeological sites in the Maya lowlands, chiefly because of one extraordinary fact: it was occupied, with … Continue reading

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Streets So Lonely

When my mother and I were still on our way to Belize in Houston, we talked to someone who referred to Belize City as the armpit of Belize and commented on his preference for staying in a small town or … Continue reading

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Some Thoughts On The Art of Belize

Today my mother and I, while visiting Belize City, took a tour for a couple of hours or so. The first site was a place that we had planned to visit tomorrow afternoon before dinner, the area of the Belize … Continue reading

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Belize Is A Second World Country

Abstract This paper, the fourth in a series locating nations within the four-worlds model defined against the World Bank’s income tiers, argues that Belize is a second-world country. Under the operational definition adopted here — first world for high income, … Continue reading

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Decisive Battles Of The World: The Battle Of St. George’s Caye

Introduction The Battle of St. George’s Caye, fought from September 3 to September 10, 1798, was the defining military engagement that solidified British control over Belize (then known as British Honduras) against Spanish incursions. Though relatively small in scale, the … Continue reading

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Preserving Belize’s Independence

Belize already secured its independence from the United Kingdom in 1981, but it has faced ongoing territorial claims from Guatemala. To fully safeguard its sovereignty from Guatemalan threats, Belize would need a combination of diplomatic, military, economic, and international legal … Continue reading

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