I was sent a link to a video this morning put out by the “Jasmine Alert”, the Facebook page –  dedicated to finding justice for Jasmine Lowe, a 13 year old girl killed in Belize on June 3rd of this year.  This simple video has done a greater job of summing up the conditions of life in Belize than all of the 4 million words within this blog.  I am shamed.  Please, everyone view this:

CLICK FOR VIDEO

They asked for an end to my “Boycott Belize” campaign, and I have ended it in it’s current form.  I have asked the people who manage my blog to instead implement a “See the truth” page.

I am now urging potential visitors to Belize to abandon the usual “five star resort on San Pedro” package, where your dollars go into foreign bank accounts of the resort owners, and instead, take your cameras and your tourist dollars to the interior.  Stay at a local bed and breakfast for a few dollars.  See the intense poverty and oppression.  Talk to the people.  Spend your dollars where the money will stay in Belize and where the local people will benefit.  Come home.  Tell the world.

Poscript edit From Harold:

If you read what John suggests, it’s still a boycott, only it’s a boycott of the system of power, not of the people of Belize.  If tourists go directly to the countryside instead of to the heavily structured plastic toursist destinations, where your money leaves the country and goes to foreign bank accounts, then the money goes to the people who need it most.

SUPPORT JASMINE ALERT ON FACEBOOK

The world press certainly has not helped. Autonomous and self-serving, the press does what it does best – sensationalize. And my character and the recent events of my life have been sensationalized to the max.

Take Jeff Wise and his recent posts to Gizmodo as an example. Jeff has made a life work out of smearing my character. Beginning with Fast Company some two odd years ago and continuing non-stop through the present, he has gone beyond the call of journalistic duty to bring my dark side to the attention of the world. You might think that moral duty or a search for the truth has been driving him. But, sadly, this is not the case.

Jeff’s first article about me was a piece in National Geographic Explorer about my flying adventures in New Mexico. He stayed with us for a week or so and went flying/camping with my pilot friends and I as part of his stay. One of those friends was a beautiful young woman named Goldy Ivashkov. The first day he arrived he ended up spending the night with her. While camping, their intimacy was flaunted to the point that around the campfire, the lap-sitting, face kissing, fondling was so intense that I jokingly and loudly said “somebody get pictures of this to send to his wife in case we get a bad story from him”. It was a joke. I joke a lot. Unfortunately, many pictures were taken and, as I am told, his wife did receive some. I had nothing to do with it. I could care less about who sleeps with whom, or where, or how — as long as it’s not in my own bed while I’m trying to sleep. Well, to be honest, not even in the same room while I’m trying to sleep. Barring that, nothing could concern me less.

Jeff however, I truly believe, thinks that I sent the photos to his wife. If I had done so, then I would deserve whatever wrath he chose to mete out. But seriously, it’s not my style. And if his mistaken suspicion is not the reason for his bulldog approach to sniffing out my life then I can’t even guess at what twisted motives move this man.

The net result of his stories, however, has made my life appear much darker than the mere “eccentricity” that most people, including myself, ascribe to me.

Then there’s Wired Magazine. Josh Davis approached me about five months ago with the idea of doing an in-depth story. Seemed like a good idea at the time. I should have been suspicious when the photographer showed up near the end of the process two weeks ago and asked me to take off my shirt and hold a shotgun. This is not something I normally do – I mean, walk half naked around my property holding a shotgun – but then, creative artwork often uses strange compositions to make a point. Of the thousands of photos taken, the one with me half naked, wearing sunglasses and caressing a shotgun, made the headline. Why choose that one? Well, it sells.

I could go on, and will at later point, but I need to tell my story. I will have to tell it in short increments because I have limited and intermittent access to a computer and the Internet. I am on the run, remember. Consider this introduction the first chapter.

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Three of my friends are still being held in prison on trumped up charges.  They are:

Eddie Ancona

Cassian  Chavarria

William Mulligan

 They were charged and have been imprisoned because three legally licensed firearms were found in the incorrect rooms on my property (stretching the law to the extreme).  I would ask you to please email the following and demand their release: