Belize Politics Go International

Original Article
Rarely does political drama play out on an international stage, and it is usually relegated to
small, local elections that only the residents of some small town or city would be interested in.
Recently Las Vegas and one of it's residents has been thrust into the international spotlight
through the internet and social media outlets like Facebook, Twitter and various blogs. Lord Neil
B Gibson, the Las Vegas based businessman, developer and international finance figure has
rocketed into the fiery discussions that are taking place in the country of Belize, specifically
regarding an election for the position of Standard Bearer in the Cayo South Constituency Area.
Social media, news outlets and radio have been awash with discussion regarding the election of
businessman Ralph Huang to this position, and conspiracy theories abound as to the
connection he has to Lord Neil B Gibson. Accusations of corruption have already been made
only days after the election from the opposing party, and a large-scale smear campaign has
begun to play out on the global stage with regards to Mr. Huang, Mr. Gibson and the future of
Belizian governmental positions.
Interesting spins on the situation are being presented through such media outlets as Channel 5
Belize, 7 News Belize and the associated Youtube Channels of each station. Many local blogs
have also taken to the internet in an attempt to drum up the suspects of corruption with regards
to the relationships that Lord Neil B Gibson has with both Huang and other Belizian
governmental officials. The majority of the coverage centers around the fact that Mr. Huang has
admitted that Gibson both contributed to his campaign and also supported his election. The
coverage being presented is amaturish at best in it's attempts to stir up controversy, as the
press releases, posts and announcements that can be found both on the official business
websites of Neil Gibson as well as his business websites and social media have never
attempted to make even the slightest hiding of his contributions and support. Gibson went as far
as to create professional videos distributed on Youtube endorsing Huang and touching on the
reasons he believes Huang was right for the job. Gibson has also shown a long track record of
complete transparency with regard to his interest in Belizian development projects, going as far
as to publicly promote the ongoing developments attached to each potential project in Belize on
his network or websites and press.
The levels of transparency with regard to Lord Neil B Gibson's interests in Belize are far beyond
those typically put forth by any business entity. A quick perusal of the news sections of his
websites show postings regarding Belizian development interests, with postings on the subject
going back to October of 2013. Additionally, completely transparent postings on the subject of
endorsements and campaign contributions go back to early January as seen here: http://
www.lordneilgibson.com/lnbg-llc-endorses-huang/
All of the websites and Youtube videos across Gibson's network openly discuss the subject of
his endorsement of Huang, and never is their relationship attempted to be covered up in any
regard. So the question of corruption should be addressed, except possibly it should be directed
at other entities aside from Lord Neil Gibson and Ralph Huang. Possibly we should be looking
into why media outlets and bloggers in Belize are so aggressively attempting to make the
relationship between two businessmen into an issue, when the entire situation played out on the
world stage through the internet in a completely documented manner. If there were any issue
that should be covered up involving Lord Neil Gibson and Belizian governmental officials, then
why would they be posing for pictures together that are widely distributed on the internet? If
there were cover-ups happening, then why is the credited sources of all of the photographs that
are being distributed in association to the "scandal" stories of Gibson posing with Belizian
politicians being taken directly from Gibson's websites? If there was a cover-up happening,
wouldn't the transparency of the relationships actually be covered up by the parties involved?
Corruption happens in government all the time, and Belize is no stranger to it. Corruption is bad
for all people who are touched by it, and should be exposed at all costs. However, the definition
of corruption is not about a business man contributing to another business man's campaign to
run for office, and the fact that one business man lives in Las Vegas and the other in Belize is
also not part of the definition. Corruption is about a lack of transparency as to the source of
money or influence with regards to projects. Perhaps we should consider the sources of the
smear campaign against Gibson, and how they are attempting to twist facts to create doubts at
to his motivations. Perhaps it is not Gibson and Huang who should be mentioned with regard to
transparency as far as political funding sources....perhaps they should be used as a model for
the necessary change.