It wasn’t an event I would normally attend because I really try to avoid Belize City at night, but a friend of mine made it as the November calendar girl so I wanted to help her celebrate. We got to the bar and all but two calendar girls were there to sign autographs on their corresponding months. As soon as we got our calendars we all thumbed through them to check out the pictures for this year. Belize only has one brewing company so this calendar is a pretty big deal – they are probably the most risqué pictures you will see from this country since pornography is still illegal here – and this year there was high controversy over two of the 12 months. Channel 7 News Belize reported the following;
Jaw dropping…. That is one way you can describe the Belikin calendar for the New Year, thanks to some very provocative photos of young Belizean women chosen for the 2010 publication. It’s racier than it’s been in previous years, so much so that we can’t show you some of the pictures. Of course, the publishers of the calendar are selling beer, not bibles, and the calendar enthusiasts are mostly men who aren’t likely to be put off by the revealing pictures. But still management declined to speak to us about the revealing spread.
The article went on to interview two of the girls in the less-revealing months who essentially told 7 News Belize that it was a personal decision for each girl how revealing they wanted to be for the calendar. Having seen the entire publication, the thought never crossed my mind that any of the pictures were too revealing, but that is most likely a result of being from the U.S. Miss June and Miss November are the two that caused the controversy.
Once I heard that there was a stir from these pictures my thoughts went back to an Economist Pocketbook fact that labeled Belize as the 2009 per capita murder capital of the world. The minimal news reaction to this elephant in the room as compared to the media uproar regarding the calendar seemed a bit comical.
When the news came across that Belize was pinned as the murder capital of the world Channel 5 Belize News ran a story interviewing the Director of Product Development about how this would affect tourism. There was no mention of what steps Belize should take to try and deal with this problem, there was only dialog concerning the need to find out what data the Economist had used to come to this conclusion and that Belize could still do well with tourism as has other countries, such as Jamaica, despite this dubious title. When the information actually came out I found it interesting that it was hard for me to find any facts about it at all.
Belize is not the only country that overreacts to societal issues that seem to be less ominous and impactful on a country. This seems to be especially true with issues tied to so-called moral values. Maybe as a general population we should focus on fixing the bad stuff and keep the condemnation of a little too much skin more in line with its relative importance. The media reaction somewhat taints the light-hearted spirit in which this calendar was created. The pictures simply show gorgeous women in a stunning country and it should be left at that.