UNIBAM says newspaper columnist and TV talk show were not being totally truthful

By on July 23, 2013
UNIBAM statement

UNIBAM statement

The United Belize Advocacy Movement (UNIBAM) today issued a statement taking issue with a newspaper columnist’s describing grant funds for the organization as siphoned money.

The column in question was published last weekend and quoted extensively on the Rise and Shine television program on Monday morning. 

UNIBAM in its statement basically said that the columnist took a cheap shot at the organization as the grant funds that UNIBAM received was either a hidden fact or a cover up. 

The UNIBAM statement said: “the Oak Foundation made a small grant to UNIBAM through Oceana Belize with the full knowledge and co-operation of its Vice President in Belize. Such a practice is not unusual where the recipient group and funding amount is small and the cost of processing and transfer of funds too onerous.

We are assured that in the same re-granting process via Oceana, funds were also given to other organizations in Belize such as Haven House, a shelter for women, Alumni 90, a group supporting infrastructure upgrades at the Belmopan Comprehensive School and UBAD Foundation to support radio broadcast during Reef Week.”

UNIBAM says that both the newspaper columnist and the Rise and Shine television program made serious allegations and that “the innuendo is that the process by which grant monies given to UNIBAM by the Oak Foundation via a re-grant from Oceana was done in a clandestine and nefarious manner.” 

UNIBAM says that because of its valued partnership with the Oak Foundation and with Oceana, the organization chose to challenge the allegations made in the newspaper column and on the Rise and Shine program because “such suggestions are insulting and reprehensible.”

UNIBAM also explained that it was not the only organization that received money from the Oak Foundation through Oceana-Belize and that “it is ironic that the Vice President of Oceana in Belize did not see fit to mention that detail.”

The UNIBAM statement ends by saying “in the zeal to put forward another point of view on any issue, which is a democratic and fundamental right guaranteed under our Constitution, truth and fact must not fall prey to distortion and misrepresentation.”

10 Comments

  1. DJ

    July 23, 2013 at 4:15 pm

    And this affects me how?

    • Asa DeMatteo, Ph.D.

      July 23, 2013 at 4:38 pm

      DJ, the entire Belize Action cabal are the representatives of the Dominionist agenda in Belize. This agenda was formulated two fundamentalist evangelicals, one of whom was a co-founder of Youth With A Mission (YWAM) in the 1970s in the US and brought to Belize by a missionary. It seeks fundamentalist Christian control of the “seven mountains” or “seven pillars” of society: media, arts and entertainment, business, government, education, religion, and family life. They believe that Jesus will not return until Christian dominion over the nations is achieved world wide. So it concerns you because these people want to take control of Belizean society in toto and reshape it in their image. I know this sounds like fear-mongering, but all you have to do is do some online searching on Dominionism to see that the fear is appropriate.

  2. Alex

    July 23, 2013 at 4:17 pm

    Deliberately muddying the water. This also has the effect of riling up the anti-gay nutjobs. Incitement is a crime and the police should get involved.

  3. Asa DeMatteo, Ph.D.

    July 23, 2013 at 4:31 pm

    This is just one among many scurrilous slanders broadcast by PlusTV’s Rise and Shine in pursuing the foreign Dominionist agenda in Belize. The owners of PlusTV have shown themselves to be completely without honor or scruples. And apparently Audrey Matura-Shepherd has now joined their ranks as a “heavenly deceiver.”

  4. KRTD

    July 23, 2013 at 4:59 pm

    Matura at it again. Wade at us again. They are trying to cause the masses to be frightened and stupefied with their conspiracy theories and mistrusts. Matura is now on her lone bandwagon headed for possible political office but this sole issue does not a campaign make. If she hand proof other that what the release states, bring it out. Disprove the pundits. I think she is just blowing smoke up Wade’s ass trying to grandstand.

  5. Jill

    July 23, 2013 at 7:52 pm

    Isn’t the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgendered (LGBT) agenda a foreign agenda? Do the people of Belize understand what will happen in their society if such an agenda is adopted?

    In the United States in the State of Colorado, a school was forced to allow a six year old boy use the girls bathroom. Is that what will happen in Belize?

    • Asa DeMatteo, Ph.D.

      July 23, 2013 at 9:03 pm

      Do YOU think anyone in Belize would allow that, Jill? I sure don’t. And the LGBT agenda world-wide is full equality under the law. That agenda in Belize is full equality as guaranteed by the Constitution of Belize. This agenda, contrary to what Belize Action constantly bruits, is being pursued by LGBT citizens of Belize who want their constitutional rights recognized. Most of them are afraid to speak out publicly for fear of reprisal, but thousands are part of this struggle. They seek only justice and equality.

    • John

      July 24, 2013 at 1:44 am

      Jill, Belizean Men pee on the side of the road with their junk hanging out all over the place and we need to worry about a kid having to use the bathroom? hahaha The issue is the approach the “church leaders” not being truthful to us! They lie to use every day and they want use to follow them! They quoting the Bible in pieces and thinking we don’t know what they are doing? They get their funding from the states just like the people they are making out to be the big Bad Evil from America. They are PLAYING us. Straight Rass!

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