“Reading I understand is not part of the culture here.  I mean you don’t see a lot of people sitting on a bench reading a book or it’s just not part of the culture but for me reading is important because you can travel anywhere in the world.  I was in Orange Walk during the weekend and I talked to a little boy who he wanted to go to Germany and his mother said to him when are you going to Germany?  And I said you can go today, go to the library check out a book on Germany and you can go to Germany.  And that is the most important thing about reading is that you can travel anywhere in the world without leaving your town or village.”

“Is it only tourists that you are going to be asking to leave their books here in Belize?”

“Mostly tourists but also Belizeans if Belizeans have books that they are just sitting on their shelves in their houses and they would like to donate them in the library certainly they are welcomed to do that.  We are targeting tourists because tourists bring very expensive books that Belizeans are not able to get here.”

Before unveiling today’s program, Spinner conducted a research concerning reading in Belize.  The results were not positive.

“I know that the literacy rate is at the 70’s here which is pretty low and that is countrywide but in some of the rural districts like in Toledo the literacy rate is in the 50’s only half the people read, and in fact I think it might even be in the 40’s there and because the literacy rate is so low this is a good place to encourage people to read.  It is also an easy place to start an organization like this because English is the official language and the library the books here in the library are mostly in English and the tourists are bringing English Language books so they actually can be read.”

“What would you say this means for our country since the literacy rate is so low?”

“Well I think that is not part of the culture for people to read and reading it the essential thing.  Reading fuels the imagination and helps people to become more open minded and makes you more knowledgeable about the world we live in and we can’t read the news paper if you don’t know how to read.  I mean you can certainly watch television to get your news but reading is the way that people learn more about the world.”

And does a lack of reading have anything to do with the high percentage of crime rate in Belize?  According to Spinner it does.

“I think there is definitely a link in crime and literacy and you see this in many developing countries.  Because people need to read so that they have economic opportunities, you can’t own a business unless you know how to read or do mathematics, you can’t go to college unless you know how to read.  This is just a fact that if people are not educated then they cannot make the same contributions to society.”