Frank Palacio Spotlight

You never know where tweeting a link to someone will get you. In this case it ended up with a spotlight interview with Belizean writer Frank Palacio after he emailed to thank me for helping promote his book.

1. Three things/places you would recommend people see do or eat when they travel to Belize. People should take a guided tour of Belize city and look at the historic, British Colonial Buildings, The princess Casino/fort George area of Belize is beautiful.  People should go bird watching (check with the Belize Audubon Society for the best locations) and take the tour of the caves via inner tube. My fave Belizean cuisine include the Conch soup which comes with fries , seafood, and Garifuna cuisine.

2. My claim to fame is falling in love with Facebook and so I wrote a book, poem, prayer, and a joke all about Facebook and they are all available on Youtube. Here is an excerpt from my poem, “Ode to Facebook: Mad Facebook Love.”

Facebook, what does it do? Who needs it ?
Some use it a great deal, others only a bit
What’s the big deal? Well, It all depends
It’s like chatting with a neighbor over a fence
At first the users were few, only they had a clue
Now I know it’s better even than beef stew
I was much too busy and much too grounded
Now I know it makes your education more rounded
Myspace was replaced by those with taste
So we all joined Facebook with great haste
Hi Five went shall we say bye bye or Bye Five!
abuzz and a twitter Facebook made us feel alive

3. I collect jokes Here is one of my favorites: What did the skeleton order at the bar? Let me have a beer and a mop!

4. My hobbies are playing drums kit, Garifuna drums, singing, roller skating, reading, photography and Facebook, traveling, and corresponding with people from other countries.

5. If I could be anything right now, I would be Martin Luther King to bring hope and inspiration to people to fight for peace and justice so that we can celebrate our common humanity!

6. I love the movie “Forest Gump” because because it proves that anyone can succeed with hardwork or sometimes just by dumb luck.

7. In my refrigerator you will always find, bread, eggs, and fruit. Starch, protein, and fiber are important in one’s diet.

8. I was born in Punta Gorda Town, Belize. My family moved to Belize City when I was about five years old. My dad was a teacher and my mom was a home maker and I have six siblings.

9. Who was the biggest influence on my life? I would have to say, it was my dad who had a strong work ethic. He would wake up early at 5:00am and he would help me with my home work, especially math. My dad did the same for all of his kids, showing us that education was important and sacrificed his own time for what is important in life, namely his family.

10. The bravest thing I ever did. I was being bullied by a classmate in Elementary school. I was a new student and this kid was torturing me relentlessly whenever the teacher was not looking. I finally got tired of it and gave the kid a thrashing and we became best friends after that.

11. Charities that are close to my heart are those that are dedicated to the preservation of the Garifuna culture and The Garifuna Choir of Los Angeles. The Garifuna people are the descendants of the Caribs and Arawaks who were in the Caribbean long before Columbus came to the “new world.”

12. The idea to write my book, “Facebook Education from Middle School to Old School and From the USA to Belize” came about because of the usefulness of this technology. I was reluctant to join FB because I tend to be a private person and I had heard lots of negatives about Facebook. I joined it to market my first book , which I co-authored with my good friend , Mr. Paul Rallion. The name of the book is “Middle Schoolin -50 Stories About the Humor, Challenges, and Rewards of Teaching. “ Once I joined Facebook, I eventually got to love it. It is a place where people can comment about news, views and entertainment. I met old classmates from elementary school which was very emotional, fulfilling, and rewarding and I friended new people, who I would probably not have access to including two heads of state, several politicians, college professors, professional athletes, etc.

13. What else do you want us to know about you or your book? My views on life are shaped by my parents who taught me to love, God, Community, and to strive for excellence. I believe that we will be held accountable for our actions here on earth in the afterlife. I have often benefited from the kindness of others even strangers and so in turn I try to give back by helping others along the way. A perfect example of this is: I discovered that someone had posted the link of one of my interviews from my book launching in Belize on Twitter. This was a really thoughtful and generous thing to do and I was deeply appreciative and set out to find out who this kindhearted person was. This is how my communication and correspondence with you, Laurie, began and now you are interviewing me in depth to help me share my views with your audience.

My books are fun and easy to read, sort of like the “Chicken Soup” series and there is something in them for every age group from pre-teen to senior citizen. In my books, I show how important it is to be thoughtful, reflective, intellectually curious and to have a good sense of humor. My first book “Middle Schoolin” contains 50 stories about the challenges, humor and rewards that teachers often encounter in the classroom. Teaching is a tough job but really important one. It is also very rewarding to educate our young people who are society’s greatest treasure. Students need teachers who are excited about the subject that they teach and who are highly qualified and are willing to take risks to improve their instructional techniques.

Facebook Education is about how I learned to use Facebook by trial and error and the lessons that I learned in the process. As a result, Facebook has opened many doors for me to learn psychology, sociology, theology, politics, history, current events, etc. and the learning never stops. I did informal research about Facebook by interviewing some friends and students of mine to get their thoughts, views and reactions to Facebook so many different perspectives are included in the book. Social networking websites and texting are still fairly new to society and lots of studies need to be done to analyze the impact that they have.

Finally I am pleased that as a Belizean I have written a book that is one of the first and the best of it’s kind, “Facebook Education,” and every Belizean and anyone who loves Facebook can appreciate it. I am grateful to my life’s partner, Glendarice Palacio, my wife of 26 years who has been a constant source of strength, inspiration, and support for me along with my wonderful children, Victoria and Jeremy who have allowed me to be free to be creative and to pursue my
writing career.

Some of my work can be found on youtube by following these links.

Ode to Facebook: Mad Facebook Love.
Mark Zuckerberg Joke.

Thanks Laurie for this opportunity and for the work that you are doing to promote Belize and Belizeans to show the world what our country has to offer.

Frank Palacio