The supermarket criminal, the super economy

We estimate that at least 50 percent of the national production is distributed among supermarkets, supply markets, grocery stores and other similar retail businesses. While Hondurans own 60 percent of these businesses, the rest belong to foreign capital. Foreign investors acquire at least half of their supplies in their countries of origin, and do not allow Honduran products to compete within their establishments.

The worse part is observing how several major, well-known supermarkets in Tegucigalpa openly reject national products in favor of foreign ones. They make their decision based on commissions rather than on quality.

We have to overcome these abhorrent supermarket practices and other similar tactics that have long been denounced. Just of few of these misdeeds include: late payments and the mistreatment of suppliers by making them wait for hours to deliver their products; product devolution not previously agreed upon; requiring product demonstrators to work on-site and obliging them to perform non-related tasks; and forcing personnel to work solely for tips. Some supermarkets even oblige traders to use their pyretic profits in publicity for them.

Marketing practices are so insane, that if you are seen writing down prices on a piece of paper, you are thrown out of the place. Moreover, we have discovered that certain supermarkets actually manipulate prices of products on sale with cash registers that charge the regular price.

Senior citizens are often denied their legal right to a discount, not to mention the fraud committed regularly in weighing products, a practice well mastered. No matter what the weight unit is, it can be milligrams, the customer always loses.

Despite all, entrepreneurs running these businesses are very much respected, but for us, it is intolerable to respect someone who is taking the bread away from our country. We can not take this anymore.

With regards to child labor, we are grateful to see that after a series of denunciations and some serious lobbying, it was finally understood that our youth should be in school, although the problem has not quite disappeared, ant there are many anecdotes about the “work” offered to youngsters in exchange for tips. Such immorality!
 

Education and technology:
Closing the knowledge gap between rich and poor: What’s to Stop Us?

By JORGE GALLARDO RIUS

Today, the key role of education in economic development is well established. It has been studied, analyzed, documented and supported by historical facts.

The theories that emphasize the contribution of human capital to economic growth received great support from the experience of the East Asian countries: Hong Kong, Taiwan, The Republic of Korea and Singapore. According to a United Nations report, these countries, which presented low growth and development in the sixties, were able to close, in a few decades, almost all gaps that separated them from developed countries.

The promise of technology is to make education available to all: rich or poor, urban or rural, without distinction of race, color, age, religion or gender. There are several reasons that make this promise reasonable:

First, technology is global; there are no distances, bad roads, deep valleys, or high mountains with which to struggle. Modern communication can conquer them all. Second, plummeting costs: The cost of making technology available to all is rapidly decreasing. The cost of creating, distributing and updating learning materials is also decreasing. Third, multimedia: Information and communication technology can be used to transmit knowledge in a wider spectrum of media – text, images, film and sound – which make the acquisition of knowledge more complete and entertaining. And last, but not least, a networked world: Experience and knowledge can be instantly exchanged with other parts of the world.

Experiences where technology and education have been put together have now gone way beyond an experimental stage and the results are conclusive and impressive. “Computer labs in developing countries require time and money, but they work” says a recent UN study. “Technology motivates students and energizes the classroom.”

The greatest danger that the experts point out is that millions of underprivileged children throughout the world are being left out. Bill Clinton called it “The Digital Divide”, but it’s more than that. The use of technology makes it possible to present complex lessons in simple ways using new media: short films, pictures, working models and simplified schematics.

Consider two 12 year olds destined to become doctors. “Johnny” writes compositions using access to all resources in his classroom: He can view pictures of an open heart surgery, see working models of the heart and respiratory system and print out explanatory schematics as part of investigating a simple composition. “Juancito”, on the other hand, studies in a Honduran public school and spends his classroom time writing down the lesson as dictated by his teacher, he has no other resources and can only try to memorize the lesson which he has difficulty understanding, in order to pass his written exam. 20 years from now, in whose hands would you place your life?

The new media made available by integrating technology in the classroom is changing the content of lessons, and school curricula are advancing at incredible speed. It’s not about a “digital divide”; it’s the resulting knowledge gap that should worry us.

Many people are going to say: “Jorge, you’re dreaming.” First, we don’t have the resources to make it possible, they say. Nevertheless, for the last 12 years, there has been a strong effort, led by the United Nations, to make it possible. In 2000, there was a second World Conference on Education for All in Dakar, sponsored by UNESCO, and in essence, this was the conclusion:

National governments agreed to dedicate themselves to securing the goals (of education for all), while international agencies pledged that no country thus committed would be prevented from achieving them by a lack of resources.

So the means to do it exist, the cost of technology is plummeting and the world has promised to help us. What’s to stop us? Sadly, there is but one answer: We are. Us. You and me. First, because we lack the faith that it can be done and second because we have to get out of our high chairs and do it.

If you’re reading this article in English, you probably have your kids in a private school and probably think, “My kids are getting a good education. Why should I care?” Well, think about this:

A government official recently stated that textile manufacturing was the only form of industry that could settle down in Honduras because it requires the least educated workers. This, she stated, after receiving a group of investors who came, saw and left with their business elsewhere. More recently, a newspaper story reported the start-up of a new textile plant in East Asia that uses only hi-tech machinery.

So next time you see or hear in the news about the latest crime craze or you feel like complaining because of how much you spend in security, think about another 300,000 textile workers out on the streets without a job. And before you flip past the newspaper story about the continuing struggle between government and teachers, ask yourself this question: How many business opportunities must we lose before we realize that by not focusing our efforts on education we are loosing big time.

Because public education is no longer about a handful of boisterous teachers who want more money and stubborn government talk about quality. It’s the key to our success, personal and as a nation. However, we can only achieve it if we stand up, demand it and make our own contribution.

 

Dear HTW:

I have an inheritance from my mother’s estate and as I live in the U.S., I gave my sister my Power of Attorney to represent me in the proceedings. It happens that I think it would be best to terminate this arrangement but her son, who is a recent graduate from law school, tells me that I need to grant another person in Honduras a Power of Attorney before I can revoke the Power of Attorney to my sister. OR, my sister must expressly renounce it. She is a very busy person, does not respond to the e-mails I send her and is never home when I call. My question is: Am I locked into this position unless either of those two things happens?

We would also like to say that we appreciate the HTW on-line edition very much and “THE LAW SAYS—-” is an excellent addition.

Helen Cutler
Via Internet

Ms. Cutler:

Thanks for writing to “The Law says....” section. We also appreciate very much your congratulations to the Editor of Honduras This Week for this section

Now, in reference to your question here is what the Law says about your legal representation in the procedures to inherit your mother’s estate. You can revoke the Power given to any person at any time; all you have to do is to notify such representative in writing, certified mail in your case and at the same time appointing another Lawyer, registered with the Honduras Bar Association. The substitution of legal representative would be at all times required ONLY IF the procedures are still pending of resolution by the Judge, final ruling has being issued and the property already transferred to your name. Otherwise, you can revoke Power but your case will stagnate at Courts. If you choose to revoke it your lawyer is entitled to payment for whatever amount due as fees. Hope to have served you and please don’t hesitate to come to us again

RUBEN D. ZEPEDA
Former Judge and Attorney General, Honduras


 

Is democracy the future of Latin America?

Dear HTW:

It is a pity Howard Rosenzweig does not display the same intelligence and insight he normally shows when he writes about tourism and Copan Ruins when discussing Democracy and Cuba. (Letters, Oct/26/02).

Of course, Castro is no saint (show me a politician who is) nor is Cuba paradise on earth (again show me a country which is), but the achievements of the Cuban Revolution which he refers to so briefly almost in passing are considerable:

“Literacy is extremely high”

“Medical care is some of the best in Latin America” (one might say the World)

“The Aids problem is insignificant”

“Crime is negligible”

“The government provides free medical school education to thousands of talented, poor students from all over Latin America.”

I am sure millions of Latin Americans would be happy to surrender a very doubtful “Freedom of Press” for a decent education and proper health care (perhaps too even the 40 million North Americans without health insurance). Would not the vast majority of Hondurans, for instance, happily swap El Heraldo, La Prensa, La Tribuna and El Tiempo for health and educational systems as good as Cuba’s? The much-vaunted “freedom of the press” is a myth anyway being largely in the hands of the rich and powerful whose interests are those of the ruling elite they serve. (Read any analysis of American media by Noam Chomsky if you doubt this).

Castro once boasted the Cuban government was representative or more so as many so-called democracies. Naturally, such a claim was dismissed as the propagandist ravings of a dictator although there is in fact a good deal of truth in it. The U.S. and Hondurans are basically one party states with two factions (Democrat and Republicans in the first, Nationalist and Liberal in the second) which keep the power where it has always been, in the hands of those who show no interest in Health and Education of their less well-off countrymen and women preferring to enrich the few at the expense of the many. A vote once every four years offers the illusion of democratic participation but the powers-that-be offer no alternative and make sure that it is business as usual and nothing really ever changes.

Howard mentions the shortages of basic consumer goods and the pathetic salaries of doctors. These would not by any chance have anything to do with a 40-year blockade organized by the wealthiest, most powerful country in the world? Still, in spite of it, Cuba, for all its problems, seems to have done quite well. Its poorly paid doctors serve humanity rather than Mammon and are the first to offer their services when Cuba’s neighboring democracies are hit by flood, famine, earthquake and pestilence.

Even without a blockade, the Central American Democracies seem to have done rather worse, racked by an out-of-control crime wave, worsening AIDS statistics and crumbling-to-non-existent health and education systems, widespread poverty and malnutrition.

I once paid a brief visit to this grim dictatorship. Many people, especially the older ones who remember Batista, supported Castro. Many of the younger ones cheerfully criticized him, bemoaning the lack of blue jeans and walk-mans (taking their educational and health welfare for granted) but their moans reminded me more of the English revolutionary social tensions and discontent. I happily wandered round their towns and cities (Would I do the same in Tegucigalpa, San Pedro Sula, San Salvador, Managua and Guatemala City). The police carried pistols but there was an amazing lack of heavily armed vigilantes and security forces, which make our cities like armed camps.

But I fear Howard is right: looking at Central America, Columbia, Peru, Brazil, Argentina, and all the rest of the these sad, sorry countries, seems as if “Democracy IS the future of Latin America.”

Brian Hopper
Santa Marta
Siguatepeque, Comayagua

About taxes, religion and other topics

Dear HTW:

Hats off for Mr. Ralph Nelson, in his letter addressing complaints of Sandy Cheves about high taxes and other charges for gringos. He could have not made a better case. Regrettably, HTW has slowly but steadily become a media for dissatisfied US American citizens to vent their anger, frustration and ever hate feelings, with very little positive input. This has forced me to go from a frequent to a once-or-twice a year reader.

This Saturday I had little to do since we are expecting a snowstorm and having read the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, La Tribuna, La Prensa, and El Tiempo, I still had some time in my hands and decided to check HTW. That’s how I read Mr. Nelson’s letter.

I think is shameful that Mr. Cheves wrote about the trip to Talgua and their decision to not pay Lps. 85 to go inside the caves. That amount of money won’t even get you inside a movie theater in the US let alone a natural wonder like the Talgua caves. The practice of reduced admission for nationals is not uncommon; you will find it from Costa Rica, a country with a huge tourism tradition, all the way down to South America in countries such as Peru. I’d like to remind Sandy that the average income for a Honduran is less than $2.00 a DAY while the minimum HOURLY wage in the US would get you in that cave and help pay the salaries of the personnel working there.

About getting import tax exemptions on your materials, that is something that is possible depending on the nature of the donation. Maybe the reason why you do not get it is that your organization is going to run the hospital and that it would serve your purposes (maybe well intended) to add members to your church and save souls. Remember that the Honduran
Constitution establishes the separation of church and state.

It is hard not to think sometimes that people believe there should be different sets of rules for different people, differences being social, racial, or a perceived lower intelligence.

Dennis Villanueva
Boston, Massachusetts
Via Internet

People to avoid in Honduras

Dear HTW:

I am compelled to write to you about my experiences while visiting Honduras over the past two months (September & October). I mainly traveled around the Puerto Cortes and Omoa areas and really enjoyed the visit to a great degree, and I want to openly thank the majority of the “locals” I met, both Hondurans and ex-pats, for their kindness and great hospitality. I traveled by bus for a while just for the fun of it and then was loaned a car by a friend so I could explore. I have got to voice my opinion. I met many different people and had a great time, but there were two groups of people I encountered during my visit that I feel should be completely eliminated from Honduras and it certainly would be a much better place for everyone, not just tourists.

Group #1: The robbers and thieves. I encountered a group of robbers and thieves on five different occasions while traveling in Puerto Cortes during the day on 3rd Avenue and twice on the roadway between Puerto Cortes and Omoa in Cineguita during the evening. In Cortes I was robbed of L100.00 each time and on the roadway to Omoa I was robbed of L200.00 each time. I did not feel it wise to argue with the men because they all were carrying guns. The ones in Cortes also had blue uniforms on and wore badges. They were the same on the roadway to Omoa except they were backed-up by men in camouflage suits with M-16 Automatic Rifles. My choices were pay or go to jail for doing absolutely nothing except having a foreign driver’s license.

Group #2. The men who call themselves bus drivers. I have never experienced any one group of people who have the responsibility to transport passengers and conducted themselves behind the wheel with such disregard for persons or property. Their driving habits are unbelievable and their highway courtesy is deplorable. They should never have been issued a license to be allowed to walk on a highway, furthermore drive a vehicle. It is unimaginable that the police would allow them to drive in this manner, but then you have to reflect on how the police conduct themselves and it becomes vividly self-explanatory. I do plan to return next year and I do look forward to my visit, but I have learned with whom to associate and who to avoid.

Robert Kepley
Concord, North Carolina
Via Internet

Monday, November 18,  2002 Online Edition 44