OPINIONS & EDITORIAL

Monday, December 28, 1998 Online Edition 138

The politics and philosophy of sex

by Erling Duus Christensen

The United States is now deeply divided over the fate of President Clinton. If the senate does not quickly move to a resolution which is perceived to be bi-partisan and equitable by a majority of the people, the fabric of American life will be torn apart in a manner which has the potential to exceed what took place during the Viet-Nam war.

After the impeachment vote in the House, one poll reported that 72% of Americans support the president, and if the Republican party does not figure out some way to respond to that, it will destroy itself, and very possibly constitutional government in the country along with it.

But this issue far transcends President Clinton and members of the congress. What is in fact going on is an intense and complex cultural warfare. It is important that we take a step back from the imbroglio, and try to achieve some perspective.

The great Anglo-American philosopher Whitehead once said that all of Western Civilization could in some sense be understood as a foot-note to Plato. Part of what is involved in this is the vastly influential idea that mind and its auxillaries, soul and spirit, were the higher and ennobling aspects of human beings, closer to the source and center of being than body, the flesh with its distracting passions, and humiliating weaknesses.

600 years later the Christian Platonist Augustine formulated the idea that the essence of the Fall of humanity into a tragic and sinful condition( originating mythologically with Adam and Eve) was based in sexuality. Plato would have been astounded by this very un-Greek conception, this tortured notion of Original Sin, but it was nevertheless the power and tone of his ideas which most influenced Augustine in his appropriation of the Christian faith. From this compendium of thoughts came a profound suspicion, and indeed denigration of sexuality which lies at the heart of Western Christian civilization.

The ultimate revolt against this began with the great English poet William Blake in the last years of the 18th Century. Blake sought a liberation from the restraints and oppressions of excessive rationalism as well as traditional Christian pietism, and sought to celebrate both the body and human passion and energy as holy. He was one of the founders of the great Romantic movement, which was nevertheless more Platonic than Blakean.

But what Blake began continued, and became a subterranean but powerful movement all throughout the 19th Century, closely aligned with the revolutionary impulses which struggled incessently against the monarchist establishments of Europe. Such revolutionary and transitional figures as Freud, Marx, and Nietzsche are the intellectual progeny of this movement.

The 20th Century has witnessed the increasing diminishment of the Platonic-Augustinian tradition, with all which it involves, and finally in the l960's there came a near complete rejection of it, with the advent of the Counter-Culture, rock music, and the Sexual Revolution. Attached to these, but breaking somewhat different ground was the Woman's Liberation movement, spurred by the powerful impact of "the pill." The cultural war taking place in the United States and elsewhere has many dimensions, but more than anything else it involves a battle between those who continue in primary allegiance to those traditions and attitudes which are Platonic-Augustinian in nature, and those captured by the modern with its various 19th Century roots. The majority, however, like Bill Clinton, do not march in either army, but exist rather pathetically in a in between condition, trying to reconcile two conflicting world-views and value systems, and not being successful.

There is, however, another dimension to this struggle. The sexual revolution has not really liberated the culture into a new freedom and sense of the divine immanence as Blake would have hoped. Tragically, it has taken place against a background in which human culture has undergone a profound degeneration into commercialization and mechanization. Vaclav Havel, the President of the Czech Republic, states the issue clearly.

We are going through a great departure from God which has no parallel in history. As far as I know, we are living in the middle of the first atheistic civilization...I feel that this arrogant anthropocentrism of modern man, who is convinced that he can know everything and bring everything under his control, is somewhere in the background of the present crises. Man must in some way come to his senses. He must extricate himself from this terrible involvement in both the obvious and the hidden mechanisms of totalitarianism, from consumption to repression, from advertising to manipulation through television. He must rebel against his role as a helpless cog in the gigantic machinery hurtling God knows where.

Instead of a new transcendence in which the human image is glorified in art and imagination, an obsessional mindlessness has been spawned, in which the body and its sexuality is simply degraded far more than anything Augustine could have imagined. Romantic love which so ennobled life in previous eras has virtually disappeared, replaced by a humiliating pre-occupation with orgasms. Consider the example of a particular lady who totally despised her husband, but reported "we have great sex." One may believe that Blake was a liberating influence, that his exaltation of the body, its passion and energy, was a much needed revolution, and still deplore the conditions now defining modernity. Previously, the body and its life was ignored and repressed. Now, the body has become a soul-less tyrant.

In these matters, as in so many others, we look to Honduras as well as other Latin countries for some relief. Somehow, these cultures living out of something indigenous and non-Western do not submit readily to divisions between mind and body. Octavio Paz, the great Mexican writer puts it this way. "We are not afraid or ashamed of our bodies; we accept them as completely natural and we live physically with considerable gusto...it is not a suit of clothes we are in the habit of wearing, not something apart from us: we are our bodies."

ENJOYABLE WEB SITE

Dear Editor:

We enjoy your web site very much. It's really nice to be able to get the latest information on Honduras. We would appreciate hearing how things are in Danlí. Specifically, we're interested in finding out if the cigar production was affected by the hurricane.

Al De La Cerda
Angelvly@pacbell.net

The People of Honduras Need Your Help.
Click here for a list of organizations accepting donations. There is one in your area.

Back to Tourism
Last week the Honduran Tourism Institute announced that only 8% of the Honduran tourist infrastructure suffered damages due to Hurricane Mitch. We are dubious about this figure since it doesn't take into account road damages, the fact that the airport in San Pedro Sula was flooded and sea ports are at this time overloaded with an unusual amount of cargo. In other words, we estimate a figure closer to 20%.

However tourism has picked up and international visitors are returning. The strong initiative shown by hotel owners has been an enormous help in getting the tourism sector back on its feet. The Ministry of Tourism has also contracted a marketing company with the objective of promoting Honduras internationally.

The tourist sector now finds itself in a period of transition. On one side, the country is now in need of international aid to overcome the effects of Hurricane Mitch and on the other side, the country has excellent tourist resources to share with the international community.

To ask friendly tourists to have confidence in our country once more and to tell them that we are ready to attend them as always, or if possible a little better, and enable them to understand that their return is an excellent way to help, which also motivates us to overcome our recent disaster.

To attract international tourism first, we must take the initiative to reactivate all tourist routes and destinations. As this is done, we are confident that our tourist friends from around the world will be returning, attracted by our natural charm.

Children's charities accused of mishandling funds

By W. E. GUTMAN

An umbrella group for 162 agencies that solicit donations for impoverished and homeless children worldwide has announced it will hire independent consultants to verify that the funds they raise are disbursed as pledged and reach those for whom they were meant.

Officials of the Washington-based group, InterAction, say evaluators will scrutinize financial records and conduct regular inspections of these organizations international field operations.

The agencies have agreed to comply with 14 new standards. They will also be required to attest and demonstrate that monies allocated for children in sponsored families actually receive those benefits.

InterAction President Jim Moody said the standards, which take effect on Jan. 1, represent the first attempt by international relief and development organizations to adopt comprehensive regulations. These "non-profit" organizations raise about $500 million a year in the United States alone.

The umbrella group's announcement comes on the heels of a lengthy investigation by the Chicago Tribune of four leading sponsorship agencies, including Save the Children and the Christian Children's Fund, both of which operate in Honduras and other parts of Central America.

Embroiled in a number of scandals, the former has since been the subject of intense scrutiny by the media. The investigation by the Chicago Tribune has found that children sponsored by a number of its reporters and editors received few or no funds.

Other independent studies corroborate the Tribune's findings and conclude that little if any of the monies collected by sponsorship charities and earmarked for children around the world ever reach them.

In related news, the Minnesota Attorney General has accused the American Red Cross of mishandling disaster relief assistance in the floods that ravaged the Red River Valley in Minnesota and North Dakota in early 1997. The American Red Cross is specifically charged with "withholding millions of dollars in donations."

The American Red Cross continues to accept donations "for Hurricane Mitch victims" even though it does not operate outside the United States.

Monday, December 21, 1998 Online Edition 137

Get junkers off the road
Honduras has quickly become a city of old cars. Used car dealers in our country have made a fast profit when they discovered that in other countries junk yards and insurance companies will sell to unscrupulous Central American and other Third World buyers vehicles that do not meet environmental standards.

Due to the fact that said vehicles require costly repairs, car sellers prefer to sell them "as is" to Central American buyers. These buyers in turn bring them to Honduras and sell them to people who know nothing about mechanics, who usually find themselves with serious maintenance problems, aside from polluting the environment.

Somehow a formula should be found so that some international organization imposes laws forcing drivers to make necessary repairs to vehicles that pollute the environment.

We know the ethics of car dealerships and we don't doubt that their cars are guaranteed. Car dealership associations are governed by laws that require them to protect their clients and they sell vehicles that do not damage the environment. They make sure the laws are followed, because otherwise they would be fined.

Little by little, our country has witnessed an increase in the number of used motor vehicles. These are usually 10 or more years old and have very high maintenance costs.

Industrialized countries have no problem recycling cars. Our country, however, does not produce vehicles and has in effect become a car garbage dump.

It is mistakenly thought that the sale of old cars in poor condition in the country gives low income people the chance to own a car. This is a mistake because these cars need a lot of maintenance and with the increase in the costs of spare parts, as well as rising prices for gas and oil makes it an expensive proposition to keep these junkers on the road. Many of the spare parts are also used, creating a vicious circle where the inexpensive becomes expensive.

Today the vehicle population of Honduras is out of control because there are too many cars and too little vigilance. Our buses are still 20-year-old U.S. school buses. It's been a long time since we've seen a new taxi, and the same old yellow airport taxis are in business from 15 years ago at Toncontin Airport.

Isn't there a way to change anything in this country?

This email concerns the article by W.E. Gutman in the Nov. 30 issue entitled "Donor Beware."

In early December, our travel agency partnered with a local tour company, and sent notices to 1,000 of our clients, stating that for all tour bookings made with this company during the month of December -- our agency would donate a percentage of our commission to the Red Cross International Response Fund for Central America. The tour company will match our donation. We are hoping to be able to each contribute $1,000.

Just after sending this mailing and sending press releases to the various media, I read this article with alarm. Has the Red Cross provided more money or supplies since that article? Have they come through with the donations collected?

I was further alarmed when our local papers carried a story just yesterday, that the American Red Cross held back about 4 million of 16 million donated to assist the flood victims of last summer's terrible floods in Grand Forks, ND and northern MN. Our attorney general, Skip Humphrey, has asked congress to investigate the working of the Red Cross and enact new legislation to monitor this agency more closely.

I would like to know where to send a donation, where it will reach those most in need. I would appreciate hearing from W. E. Gutman on this subject.

Dorothy Plaster
Maplewood, MN
hilcrest@ix.netcom.com

I would like to correct the inaccurate information contained in an article published in your newspaper by W.E. Gutman called "Donar beware."

First, the American Red Cross has raised $11.3 million for relief to Central America. This is joined by contributions from the Spanish Red Cross, the German Red Cross, the British Red Cross, the Danish Red Cross and many others throughout the International Red Cross Movement. This money is being used to support the relief efforts of the Red Cross national societies in Central America for the victims of Hurricane Mitch.

Second, the Disaster Relief Fund and the International Response Fund are two separate accounts. The former is for domestic operations and the latter is for international programs and operations. Money given to the International Response Fund and earmarked for the victims of Hurricane Mitch, Honduras or Nicaragua, can be used for no other purpose.

Third, during the initial phase, the American Red Cross is providing immediate assistance valued at $2.4 million in cash, personnel and in-kind support to the Red Cross in Central America. Relief flights are continuing weekly and the organization is committed to assisting in more long-term recovery projects. This is crucial because the need will continue for a long time.

And finally, the American Red Cross through a grant from the U.S. government is conducting a $7.8 million feeding program for the Dominican Republic.

I encourage readers to visit the American Red Cross web site at <http://www.usa.redcross.org> for more information or to contact the American Red Cross delegation in Tegucigalpa at 220-6240.

Ann Stingle
American Red Cross
International Services
Washington, D.C.

The People of Honduras Need Your Help.
Click here for a list of organizations accepting donations. There is one in your area.

Failure of two party politics threatens stability

By Erling Duus Christensen

Elias Asfura, a Nacional Party aspirant for the presidency of the country, made the Monday El Heraldo by publicly warning the two major political parties that if they do not practice more openness and become in fact more democratic, they will open the way for an independent politician popular with the people to emerge as a major political force. Asfura pointed out that many Hondurans abstain from voting because of disaffection from the traditional political traditions, and that this could open a crack through which a populist hero could find his way.

Asfura's remarks were occasioned by the recent triumph of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. The "golpista," as the Honduran papers like to call him, swept to power from a power base that lay outside the established political parties, but was founded instead in the aspirations of the poor people of the country who substantially outnumber the affluent.

The truth is that Chavez is a wild-card, and nobody knows quite what to expect from him. It is well remembered that he attempted to lead a coup against the democratically-elected government in l990, and many expect him to be a dictator. The wealthy people of Venezuela are busy transferring their money to banks in Miami. But if Chavez is unpredictable, what is certain are the political and economic realities that brought him to power.

Despite the oil wealth of Venzuela, the majority of the population has followed the by now well-traveled path toward becoming poorer, while the privileged have followed along the equally common route towards increased corruption and ostentatious luxuries. Both of the major political parties had become little more than tools for conflicting elites. As has become increasingly common in the two-party political systems in this hemisphere, politics becomes a game that effectively excludes the majority. Democracy is more than having elections.

Similar winds are blowing in the United States. The only thing that has held the Reform Party back has been the crack-pot leadership of Ross Perot. Its potential was recently demonstrated in Minnesota, when Jesse "the Body" Ventura, a former professional wrestler, was elected governor of Minnesota on the Reform Party ticket.

Now his friend wrestler Hulk Hogan, impressed with Ventura's victory, is considering a run for the presidency. Early polling has him running behind Al Gore and George W. Bush, but coming in about even with former Vice President Dan Quayle.

This may be perceived as bizarre, but it is nonetheless serious. It tells us how badly the Democratic and Republican parties in the States have failed to do what Elias Asfura tells the Honduran parties they must do. The current politics in Washington, where the Republicans insist on impeaching the president despite the obvious opposition of the people of the country, will only deepen the disenchantment.

The simple fact that has emerged clearly for everyone to see is that when money is allowed to rule politics, the two party system becomes undemocratic, representing far too narrow a range of interests, or political philosophies. This may work for awhile in a affluent country, but in a society where the majority are poor it has a very short lease. Once the impoverished majority discover that they have the power to elect candidates who will represent their interests, a politics of populism is born. And then the traditional parties will either reform themselves, or be swept away.

The 80 percent of Hondurans who are poor will not forever be ruled by the 20 percent who are rich. President Flores's Reconstruction Cabinet is made up of all the usual suspects. The poor and those who represent the poor will have little or no voice. So the stage is being set. The concerns of Asfura seem very well-founded. If the political parties do not change and become genuine parties of the people, expect a Honduran Chavez to arise from the rubble. Since Honduras has no wrestlers, it is likely that as in Venzuela, the popular hero will come from the military.

As Asfura certainly knows, the chance of serious democracy emerging out of the major parties is roughly equivalent to the hopes of Hondurans for a white Christmas.

Monday, December 14, 1998 Online Edition 136

Teguz long past due for sewer system
Strange is it not that there is very little complaint in this city about the astounding fact that into its 420th year of existence, Tegucigalpa still does not have anything like a modern hygienic sewage system. Mayoral or presidential campaigns never breathe a mumbling word about the issue. Not a word. The apparent presumption is that there really is no problem, that it is quite alright to be dumping tons of raw, untreated sewage into one of the most abused streams in the world, the formerly beautiful Rio Choluteca, and its various tributaries.

No, life goes on here as if these matters are non-existent. Since sewage systems are underground matters, they do not lend themselves readily to highly visible kinds of projects, of the kind that will make politicians popular. And what after all did God create rivers for if not for use as a sewage disposal? There is of course a little problem, or shall we say a few problems. One relates to the fact that what the eye cannot see, the nose can smell. Tegucigalpa has become one of the truly foul-smelling cities in the world, especially during the dry season. And then there is the little matter of disease in a city rendered pestilential by the stinking sewer that makes its fetid way through the city.

A sewage system for Tegucigalpa must rate very low on the list of urban priorities, so low as to disappear from the list. Around about us immense multi-million dollar bank buildings are springing up, and new five star hotels are being built, so as to better accommodate who? Well, not the people of Honduras obviously. But all this high rise splendor, these plush interiors, these men in thousand dollar suits are not going to be immune from the fragrance of Tegucigalpa air, and the little flying things that breed in its stagnant and odiferous pools. There are fantasies of a booming tourist industry being nurtured, but it is hard to go very far with that when the capital city of the nation reeks. Hondurans like to complain about their image abroad, but a million people living without a sewer system tends not to enhance image.

Part of the tragedy of all this is that Tegucigalpa could be one of the world`s beautiful capitals. It has a nice climate, nestles within beautiful mountain country, has a flavor from the graceful Colonial days, and is graced by mountain streams that converge within it in a grand meeting of waters. Additionally, and not inconsequentially, it has a gregarious and attractive people, which includes some of the world's most lovely women. But the leaders of this city, supported by the indifference and/or numbness of the people would rather indulge themselves in Estilo magazine escapist fantasies instead of uniting to create a city of which all Hondurans could be proud.

The rivers that flow through capital cities have a way of mirroring the soul of a city, and symbolizing its life. Think of the Seine, the Tiber, the Thames, the Nile, the Ganges, the Mississippi. For better or for worse, Tegucigalpa will be everlastingly reflected by the Choluteca, and one of its most enduring images will not be of fresh cool waters and the sweet flight and song of colorful birds. Instead, the city cannot but be associated with a dark stench of waters, and the grim scavengers that hover about its littered banks in quest of vermin-infested carrion, and the repulsive coagulations of excrement which bob in the tumbling waters. The poet Roberto Sosa has a poem where he sings of the sweet name of Tegucigalpa. "Tegucigalpa, Tegucigalpa, tu dulce nombre que suena amargo en los labios." "Your sweet name sounds bitter on the lips." Indeed.

In the past there have been offers from foreign governments to assist Tegucigalpa with urban renewal projects, offering grants and low interest loans. Included in these offers have been plans for creating a sewage system. Invariably, they have been turned down by the participating Honduran authorities, because (or so it is reported) it would be too expensive and was not really needed.

As it was said long ago, so it must be said again. "Without vision, the people perish."

Honduras resonates an indigenous spirit
By ERLING OTTO DUUS CHRISTENSEN

I don't even know her name. She is a sweet young girl in the school where I teach, probably 11 years old. I have spoken with her on a couple of occasions, and we always smile and greet each other when we pass. The other day I saw her on the Peatonal doing a little shopping with a friend. Of course, I stopped and chatted with her for a few moments. As we parted, a strange and marvelous thing happened. Suddenly, her eyes were transformed, and they became deep liquid pools reflecting a pure and radiant love. I walked away powerfully touched and thinking to myself, "This is why I live in Honduras."

It would be both stupid and wrong to maintain that this sort of thing can only happen in Honduras. It can and does happen almost anywhere (though probably not in Los Angeles). But it happens more frequently here than anywhere I have been. It is said, too often for my taste, that Hondurans are a friendly and happy people. This manages to suggest little more than a disposition, a reflexive condition, something passive and unintelligent. It is a superficial description, and does not by itself amount to much. It misses the important thing, which is that Hondurans have within themselves a spirituality, a cherished and profoundly serious dimension whose issue is love. From this springs those characteristics identified as friendliness and happiness.

I speculate continually about the sources of this Honduran spirituality, which clearly must dwell deeply within the culture, in places too hidden to be found via the probings of social scientists. It must be very close to the mysterious marrow of things of things to persist and triumph over the very many negative and often exceedingly nasty stuff that is common here. Honduran life is really not bucolic and peaceful for the most part, but is savage and piratical, a land heavily besieged with violence, fear, and distrust.

Hondurans are generally enormously inarticulate about their deepest sources. I do not suppose that they take them for granted; it is too much of a struggle to keep them alive in the midst of so much adversity, but they lack language and concept. No political or cultural movement has ever come along to name, lift up, and empower those dimensions of their soul. Organized religion exploits it much more than it gives it nurture. Catholicism, nevertheless, has had the good instinct to accommodate itself.

I like to ask my students "who is the greater national hero, Lempira or Francisco Morazán?" A surprisingly high number vote for Lempira. I believe that there is much significance in that, and that it provides part of the answer to the question being asked. By way of contrast, supposing school children in America were asked who was the greater hero, Crazy Horse or George Washington. Unless the location was the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, the answer would be "Crazy who?" Of course, these days it may be getting close to "George who?" as well.

It may seem strange that this highly Catholic, Mestizo, culturally inundated and confused people should carry within them an indigenous soul, that the Indians who were defeated by Spanish treachery in 1539, and after that nearly exterminated by disease and mistreatment should still be a presence here. But that nevertheless is, I do believe, the truth. No historian has ever written, nor can it be written, the long and hidden story of resistance over these 500 years to conquest of all kinds. But that does not mean that it does not exist, or that it is not in the way of hidden and silent things, mighty.

So what is being contended here; that there is somehow some vestigial memory that functions in the collective and elusive memory of the people, some remembrance of the primeval forest, of a seemless garden of life and of a divinity embodied in the splendor of the natural world? Yes!

By DENISE DUNNING

Special to Honduras This Week

One month has passed since Hurricane Mitch wrought widespread destruction in Honduras and the question remains: In what manner will the country recover from the devastation it has suffered? I believe that Hondurans now face a crucial choice.

The first option is to reconstruct the nation as it existed before the hurricane. Specifically, it would be dangerously easy to reestablish systems that only perpetuate the widespread poverty and ubiquitous socio-economic inequality that have plagued the country since its inception.

The superior alternative is to take advantage of this opportunity to construct a new reality for the future of all Hondurans. By creating policies and programs that promote the true development of the nation's wealth of human and natural resources, Honduras has the ability to emerge from this tragedy as a more democratic, egalitarian, and unified country than ever before.

As a Fulbright Scholar studying development in Honduras, I have been amazed by the country's cultural and ecological diversity, as well as its tremendous potential for human development. Honduras is not only blessed with a variety of natural resources but also with citizens who have the capacity to promote the development of their own country.

Despite the nation's positive attributes, however, daily life in Honduras has taught me that the country grapples with an enigmatic paradox. For although Honduras has all the necessary resources to enable it to become a nation of great wealth, it has historically been a country handicapped by rampant poverty. In order to overcome this fundamental defect and its many related inequalities, Honduras must invest in human development, including education, health, women's empowerment, and natural resource protection programs.

One of the most fundamental components of human development is education. In order for a nation to maximize its capabilities, it is necessary to empower its citizens with education. Therefore, Honduras must establish programs throughout the country that promote educational opportunities at the primary and secondary school levels for both girls and boys, as well as literacy programs for adults. Schools should provide students with the skills necessary to enable them to achieve their individual potential and thereby contribute to the development of Honduras.

Another factor that is integral to the full development of Honduras is the promotion of health services. Although diarrhea and malnutrition are entirely avoidable evils, they are currently the leading causes of death among children under five in Honduras.

Consequently, teaching families about sanitation and nutrition and vaccinating children would significantly ameliorate the critical state of public health in Honduras.

A crucial component of human development is the support of women's empowerment and the promotion of a national demographic transition. Gender inequalities significantly detracts from the overall welfare of both women and men in Honduras and must be eradicated in order for the nation to achieve its potential. Honduras' high rate of population growth unnecessarily exacerbates a host of the nation's problems by squandering both the country's financial assets as well as its natural resources. Consequently, Honduras must establish national programs to promote women's rights and a national demographic transition.

While investment in human capabilities is the primary key to human development, natural resource protection is another essential requirement for the promotion of Honduras' sustainable development. Honduras will not reach either its economic or social potential

without the establishment of laws to protect its natural environment and policies to promote sustainable usage of its resources. For example, the impacts of Hurricane Mitch were drastically exacerbated by long-term unsustainable misuse of the nation's natural resources, especially as a result of widespread deforestation. Therefore, programs supporting sustainable agricultural practices and the conservation of biodiversity are necessary to ameliorate environmental degradation and promote national development.

Honduras is now on the cusp of a new stage in its development. Consequently, Hondurans must collectively decide whether to simply reconstruct their country or instead to create a new Honduras that maximizes its full potential as never before. By investing in human development through education, health, women's empowerment, and natural resource protection, Honduras has the opportunity to realize its full potential and thereby enhance the welfare of all of its citizens.

Monday, December 7, 1998 Online Edition 135

HTW launches anti-firework campaign

A child recovers from burns caused by firecrackers in the burn ward of Tegucigalpa's Maternal Hospital.

By BLANCA MORENO

TEGUCIGALPA -- The burn ward of the Pediatric Unit of the Maternal Hospital holds 15 cribs. All are occupied by patients suffering from severe burns that cause pain to them, their families and medical personnel alike.

The arrival of holiday season saddens the nurses, since the number of children hospitalized increases at this time of the year due to accidents caused by firecracker burns while celebrating the birth of Jesus and the New Year.

Prior to Dec. 20, 1997, 245 infants and children from 1 month to 13 years old had received medical attention or died from burns caused by boiling water or candles (the latter especially in rural areas). But during December, the number increased and by the end of the year 289 had been treated, these for gun powder -- the main ingredient of firecrackers -- burns.

This year 270 patients have been treated for burns through Dec. 2. The hospital ward scenario is horrific. One child is paralyzed because his mother left him asleep next to a lit candle that fell on his blanket and caught fire. He was severely burned and had to have both legs amputated.

Today Honduras This Week is initiating a campaign to prevent children from suffering accidents, which will consist of mailing letters to members of Congress to ask for the suspension of the importation of gun powder during the month of December.

We don't want to see more burned faces and disfigured bodies, so please, Mr. Rafael Pineda Ponce (president of the National Congress), prohibit the use of gun powder during the holidays and at the same time implement a preventive educational program directed by the health or education ministry so that our children will not continue suffering from tragic accidents involving fireworks.

Ministry of education: thoughtful educators or incompetent bureaucrats

By ERLING DUUS

After listening to and mostly ignoring much student complaint I have heard while teaching in Honduran bilingual schools, and observing a good deal of student stress that I assumed was just the usual sort of student thing, I decided to do a little research of the sort I should have done before. Some startling information soon emerged.

It appears that on the average secondary students in Honduras are taking about 14 courses, only a very few of which are classes that require no homework. Normally, their course load includes math, biology, chemistry, and physics, which they take simultaneously.

The reason that I had not taken a serious look at this phenomenon earlier is simply that I had assumed the Ministry of Education, which supervises and controls education in this country, both public and private; was a rational bureaucracy staffed by intelligent and professional educators. It seems that this was a huge mistake.

The only conclusion, or the most positive conclusion that one can come to, is that this is a system created by well-intentioned people who don't understand education. Less positive conclusions are of course possible. In any event, the result is the same.

Somebody said to me, "but doesn't the Honduran educational system imitate that of the United States," to which the answer must be "unfortunately and to some extent, yes," but it is a very sure thing that no high school student anywhere in the United States is taking 14 courses, or anything approximating that number. My best recollection of my own high school days in Minnesota is that we normally took seven or eight classes, which included physical education and courses like industrial arts and home economics. Also, we had one or two study halls a day, which is a luxury that the over-loaded Honduran student obviously cannot be allowed. Where would they fit it in?

No, this is a quagmire for which the Ministry of Education must be held responsible. In the past, I have been critical of Honduran school administrators, what with their 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. schedules, 20-minute lunch breaks, and no time between classes, but it is now evident that they have little choice. If they are not going to hold the students until the sun goes down, if the requirements of the Ministry are to be met, if students are to have any family or personal life at all, there is little choice.

How can one account for such a grotesque and inhumane a situation? How indeed. It must be in the first place obvious that people who can conceive of such a system are themselves in some fundamental way uneducated, that they have no notion at all about what is involved in seriously focusing attention on a subject, and learning something about it. They must think of it, if they think of it at all, as something like a kaleidoscope, a little bit of this, a little bit of that, fleeting and shifting images of trivia played against a blank screen of vapidity, of necessity a bit of a charade.

But beyond that it is hard not to conclude that there is some conspiracy of silence within and without the Ministry, for there must be many people, and some of them in powerful positions, who are aware of how badly national education is lacking in any moorings in basic credibility. The Flores administration claims that it is implementing radical educational reform. Radical reform sounds good to me, but the place to begin must be in the Ministry of Education, and with its rules and regulations.

Reforming this system would be to say the least an ambitious undertaking. Part of that project should be to reduce greatly the power of this bloated and ineffective bureaucracy, while granting much more control to local communities as well as to private schools.

The government, having performed so poorly in this vital area, should no longer be allowed to dictate and tyrannize, and should be limited to a supervisory function, consisting mostly of monitoring and curtailing abuses of freedom, and neglect of responsibilities.

One of the battle-cries that needs to be heard in the making of the new Honduras is the demand for freedom in education. Free the students, the teachers, the schools, the communities, the people of the nation from the manacles of this misbegotten bureaucracy.