The hotel situation in Tegucigalpa has completely changed its course. For example, in the past, when a dignitary or foreign head of state came to visit our capital city, the stay would almost always be limited to a few hours. The visitors would then head back to San Pedro Sula, their country or other cities in Central America.

Today, there are no excuses for not staying in Tegucigalpa. The city now has at least six hotels ranked higher than three stars. These have more than 500 first class rooms, all located in the nicest areas of town, making our cosmopolitan landscape decidedly more elegant.

All of this has been more than welcome by Honduran society but undoubtedly, the city's authorities must intensify their efforts to maintain it. There is a new commitment by the private sector towards tourism which must be equaled by the public sector. It would be a shame if the city is not up to standard.

Tegucigalpa is a very interesting city. It has history, nature, culture, vivacious commerce and now, a new collection of excellent hotels to choose from, all of which make it a much better destination than it used to be.

Tegucigalpa is famous for its great restaurants which have the best service and prices in Central America, according to a recent poll. It also has, within a short distance, exuberant vegetation in incredible national parks, museums, among many other attractions.

Hotel owners know their business well and have made an excellent move towards Tegucigalpa. Investments, according to forecasts, will not stop there. There will be much more in the near future.

For this holiday season, especially for New Millennium Eve, the competition is to see who will throw the best party. We recommend you do not stay at home, but go to one of these hotels or all of them. You decide which one has the most stars.

I was asked by our chief of police to reply to the ridiculous letter to the editor that was written by Dr. Michael Evans and Dr. Sheila Reilly.

When I first read their article, I was quite upset with Maris Zelaya for treating his guests in such an abusive way. However, as we all know, there are usually three parts to a story: mine, yours and the truth.

First, I strongly resent the idea of dragging Honduras or even Utila into this situation. In my many years of living on Utila, I have never heard of anything such as this occurring, and hopefully it will not happen again. No one can put down a country based on such an incident. Because the "victims" were doctors, I expected a common sense approach to their letter. The generalizations made make about as much sense as saying that England is no good because it produced Jack the Ripper or because Scotland or Ireland are no good because of cannibalistic clans that lived there. So, please let's not condemn Honduras or Utila. Instead, let's take a closer look at this case and the second reason I found it so upsetting.

After talking to the authorities, the hotel owners, locals and tourists (including the gentleman who stayed in the same house with the couple), I came to the conclusion that Maris Zelaya alone was definitely not to blame. As it turns out, the careless damage to the refrigerator by Dr. Evans was in fact true (as Mr. Zelaya had said). A refrigerator is still considered a luxury item in Honduras, and is subject to outrageous import duties plus 12 percent sales tax, which might be charged two to three times before it reaches the consumer. A new fridge does not cost Lps. 2,000, but rather Lps. 7,000 - Lps. 10,000. Though a minor expense in the U.S., in Honduras a new fridge means a major expense with minor income. Hotel Loma Vista (where the incident occurred) has very reasonable rates and cannot afford a new fridge easily. A patch job, which Dr. Evans suggested, is but a temporary solution.

To add insult to injury, Dr. Evans was very insolent about the whole situation, if not insulting. What he never mentioned was that Mr. Zelaya asked him three times to leave the premises, but he refused each time. When things reached the breaking point, Dr. Evans even produced a little machete, which left Mr. Zelaya no other alternative than to defend himself. This is where Dr. Sheila Reilly stepped in. I think she should have used more common sense and stayed out of the brawl unless she has a black belt in karate. Nevertheless, I was sorry to hear about her injury and furthermore would like to apologize to her in the name of Utila.

Thirdly, the hands of the chief of police and the justice of the peace are tied since the charges were never pressed. The accusation the doctors made saying that the local authorities actually laughed at them is very difficult, if not impossible, to believe. The authorities have always tried their best to correct problems arising between people in the community and even penalizes locals who mistreat tourists with extra heavy fines and punishments. Dr. Evans, on the other hand, was not well liked on the island due to his rather belligerent behavior.

There are people of all nationalities who just happen to get into trouble wherever they go. I've lived on Utila for 28 years and have never been in a fight. Moreover, I find the people here in general very friendly and easy-going. Visit us and find out for yourselves.

Gunter Kordovsky
Utila, Bay Islands 

By DON PEARLY

A truly busy man knows not what he weighs. I guess I have been a little busy because it was just pointed out to me that someone addressed me in a letter to the editor a while ago. It was a kind and polite correction and embellishment on some of my whale shark facts. Thank you, and your version does make a lot of sense, as I personally thought I saw them munching and chomping on fish.

*

Next might be an open letter to the U. S. Embassy travel visa department. The reform is in place and working well. Now anyone can go to any Banco Atlántida and pay their filing fee and receive a bonfire appointment for an interview in Tegucigalpa. This is a great improvement and I understand it is working well.

The next thought might be establishing a mechanism for special situations. We all know one rule cannot satisfy all conditions so how about a refinement. Say a death in the immediate family in the United States, a real need to attend a funeral within a few days of the passing, a seriously ill relative with just a few days to live. A lot of readers, myself included, think maybe there could be a way to jump the line electronically via the same reservation system. I know some would take advantage of it and it would require a bulletin to all the Atlántida Tellers who issue the appointments, but maybe it would be worth it to provide that little extra touch.

I feel it personally because I was asked by a perfectly qualified Honduran citizen with an expired American travel visa to get him to the States within four days for the funeral of his sister's Husband. She was taking it quite badly and asked for his support in person. Although I gave him a letter and sent him to Tegucigalpa, and although a very nice and kind person at the Embassy tried to help, it seems there is nothing in place to

go around the new bank provided appointment system. My Honduran gentleman could not attend the funeral because his appointment date was not for several weeks in the future and there was no way around it. Food for thought.

*

The no fumar club. With not only the New Year approaching but a new decade and a new century just ahead, shouldn't we all be planning some resolutions? This is a big one folks, and a great time to make yourself some self-improvement policies. At Bayman I have gathered thus far a half a dozen employees who really and truly want to give up smoking. I am one of the charter members and it works like this: Because we are only human and because there will be a grand fiesta at Bayman with live music and fireworks and food and drink, we don't dare put upon ourselves the added

pressure of giving up smoking at the stroke of the year 2000. However, at the stroke of noon on New Year's Day, we are all going to quit. To help each other quit, there is a signed agreement stating if any of us are caught smoking in the next century we have to buy a round of drinks for everyone in the club who kept their pledge. It doesn't stop with one round either, it goes on and on and on forever. Wish us all luck and why not put something together for yourselves and your friends and your families.

*

In closing, I'd like all you cyber-readers of Honduras This Week planning a visit to the enchanting Isla de la Bahía also known as Guanaja to know that we have plenty of fine hotels just waiting to entertain you in the year 2000. Look us up on the Web. That's Guanaja with a G. I know Bayman is there as well as some of the others, and if you cannot find anything to suit you, there are still live travel agents around. Call one and insist on Guanaja, with a G.

But what is the pulse of the nation today as measured by the firecracker factor? Is one year enough to forget the storm or are its effects only starting to be felt? Does the economy allow for the burning of money in a ritual without explanation or is the supposed psychological release worth the expense? Is the uncomfortable situation with Nicaragua draining the nervous energy to withstand the loud fireworks as a game? Is the accumulated effect of years of political turmoil, social discontent and delinquency, chaotic governments and individual struggle taking any toll on the Honduran family's psyche? And, if so, how can this really be measured?

Whatever the case may be, one thing is clear: the December nights are quieter this year, even more so than after the hurricane. This could also be attributed to new laws that prohibit the indiscriminate sales of the big "morteros" and other artifacts that cause so many accidents. Also, the prices have gone up, but this has never been a big deterrent. Or is it that for us, the world is going to end with the millennium and we are all waiting quietly for it?

We Hondurans are looking now for other signs of true celebration and ways to rejoice, especially through Christmas lights and decorations. Trees, houses and buildings are being lit up like never before. And this is all very nice. We need a change, not so much in the loud material sense, which most hail as salvation, but in the quiet spiritual sense.

We are a poor nation. We admit it openly even in the face of laughter from those who think we are too bold to repeat what is so absolutely obvious. But we say it in a Honduran sense, from our perspective. Maybe we do not need more money to buy more firecrackers which, apparently are one of our delights. Maybe we, as Hondurans, do not need so much more education to progress and become industrialized because, as it is also obvious, that is not the guarantee for true happiness and joy, is it?

It is clear that what we, as a nation of people, are now looking for is light. The bright light that decorates the spirit. So, pity us not for being from this country. Criticize us not for not being like other countries with other names in other latitudes. Judge us not for having faults and making our own mistakes. We are not like others, we are not within other borders but within ours. We do appreciate the much needed help in the time of need and are most grateful, but then do not point your finger to pass rash judgment and exact a moral fee.

We are changing. Maybe one of the signs is that we do not light up firecrackers as much as we did, but instead we light up the night with more glee and appreciation, probably because we feel the meaning of true darkness more than others. This quiet brightness might just be one sign of a people, a nation of its own design, changing from within to its own will and natural pace to an unworldly status yet unknown to the world. Who among men is absolutely certain this could not be the case?

By ALEJANDRA FLORES BERMUDEZ

Fourteen years ago, Gordon Skolaski, a businessman from Chicago, met Father Michael Rochford, then pastor of uptown Chicago's St. Thomas of Canterbury Parish, in Rome during a canonization. Together, they started working in a number of organizations in uptown Chicago -– an area home to many transplanted Hondurans.

"From 1975 till 1984, I received many invitations from my Honduran friends living in Chicago to visit their country," writes Skolaski in a letter to Honduras this Week. "After those nine years, I went in 1984 and stayed with Rene Nunez, Olga, his wife, and family. I enjoyed it so much I took Father Rochford there in 1985. He spoke Spanish and also fell in love with Honduras."

In 1987, Skolaski was taken to La Mica with Chavito Paz, a member of the Nunez family. There he visited with Paz's 16 brothers and sisters and people from eight different villages. He was impacted by the one room farm-house with a dirt floor that served as school, "and knew something had to be done." The teacher had 52 students from first to sixth grades. He taught 26 little ones in the morning and 26 older ones in the afternoon. "Our teachers here in the States complain about teaching 26 in one grade."

Skolaski was struck, not only by the one-room school on a farm, but by the lack of electricity, the absence of a doctor, of running water and the high mortality rate. So, he stayed true to himself and did something. He began raising funds for the school in La Mica united with Father Rochford and some Honduran friends. It wasn't the first time Father Rochford had helped the needy. He had a long history in Chicago serving the poor, supporting a number of social service projects at churches there.

So the new school was built with the help of Skolaski's relatives and friends, parishioners from Father Rochford's church. The money was enough for materials and the boys and men of La Mica provided the labor, while the government of Honduras provided the roof.

It took two years to finish the school. But the dream finally came true in 1989. A friend donated desks, a Honduran couple procured classroom supplies. Dr. Luis Castaneda, Olga Nunez's brother from San Pedro Sula, said he would make two trips per month to La Mica to help the people with medicine Skolaski brought from the United States. Dr. Laura Nunez, Ambassador to the Organization of the American States, provided operations for a father and son with different eye problems.

Despite the efforts of Skolaski and Father Rochford, electricity is still needed and the $15,000 required is currently being raised. And there's more than some money being missed now. Father Rochford passed away in August of this year. "Father Mike, from above, has something to do with this project," writes Skolaski, and certainly, after a life of service to others, I think he will be missed.

The battle continues but a recognition of the merit of foreigners like Skolaski and Father Michael Rochford who help Honduras and love the country is necessary. If you, too, would like to help, contact: St. Jerome's Honduran Fund, 1709 W. Lunt Ave., Chicago, IL 60626, U.S.A. Surely, Father Mike will send blessings from above.

By DON PEARLY

At some point in my life, I read a short story that really touched me. Since then I have lost the paper but I recall vividly the concept. I would love to give the author credit, but I cannot, so call it wisdom from anonymous.

Once there was a family consisting of a Father, a Mother and a five-year-old Son. They were a happy group and shared everything together. Then one day, it was agreed that the Father's Father (the little boy's Grandfather) was getting too old and feeble to live alone, so he was brought into the family circle to live out his last remaining years. So far so good.

Soon the wife noticed the old man was dropping food particles on her table and chair and even on the floor because his hands were so shaky. He spilled his beverages on himself and on the surrounding areas. She soon tired of cleaning up his mess after each meal, so she set up a little card table facing the wall and put him there to eat his meals alone, and away from the rest of his family. This made cleaning up a little easier, and so it was.

Then he accidentally knocked his plate on the floor and it shattered. Once, twice and the third time it happened the wife bought a sturdy wooden bowl actually designed to hold dog food but brand new. Now, the old gentleman sat alone and ate out of a wooden bowl and life was even easier for the wife and husband. And so it was.

Then one day the Father and Mother found the little boy working in the garage with some old wood and some toy tools. He was very busy, but actually not doing anything because his tools were not real tools. He was at it for hours and they finally casually asked him what he was making. He said he was making them each a wooden bowl and then a small table so when they got old like Grandpa they would have a place to eat.

That night Grandpa re-united with his family and they all lived happily ever after.

I wish all of you faithful readers as well as the staff Honduras This Week a very Merry Christmas, a Happy Holiday season and a wonderful new century. And please be sure all of your family is included in your celebrations and festivities.

Dear Editor:

Your article about Comedor El Ocotal was great. About 14 years ago when I first came to Honduras to work, my then 10-year-old son Myles and I lived in Sabanagrande. We bought a parrot in Tegucigalpa, a few weeks later it became sick, we brought it to Dona Paquita for some first-aid. Dona Paquita quietly took the parrot and placed it in a box near her large kitchen stove. Unfortunately, it died. While we were eating lunch she gave Myles another parrot. Neither Myles nor I ever forgot that act of kindness.

Over the years my family and I have been frequent visitors to Comedor Ocotal and are good friends with the Benavides family. There's no better restaurant in Honduras for a typical meal served on the veranda overlooking the many birds and animals living in the garden.

John Chater
via Internet

Headlines such as "Hondurans no better off after 10 years of neo-liberal policies" (HTW, Dec. 4) always grab my attention. I like to collect articles which I can reference during heated debates with my Honduran friends and relatives who stubbornly insist that there is progress in my native country and that things aren't as bad as they appear. My general view is that we have been taking one step forward and two steps back for a long time, longer perhaps than 10 years.

So, while we maybe winning battles in some areas of our culture, economy, and politics, overall I am concerned that we are not winning the war. It's as if we do not have a vision for what we want our country to be in the future, nor a grand strategy for how to get there. I believe there should be a national dialogue by Hondurans and Honduran-Americans everywhere in the world about where Honduras is in the scheme of things and where we are going.

People in positions of leadership and wealth down to the poorest of the poor must engage in some serious soul-searching and brainstorming to determine what they can do to make Honduras a better place to live for everyone. This should be the hottest topic of conversation in all circles and locations.

This national dialogue must be brutally honest and apolitical. It should not be filled with claims and accusations, as usually occurs when engaging in a debate, but rather creative ideas. And it should focus on the present and the future, not the past. The past is history (kiss it goodbye please), and no one should be too quick to bask in the glory of what they've done for Honduras, when the country is like it is.

Thanks, Wendy Griffin, for your article.

Marco Caceres
Washington, D.C.

LASTING IMPRESSION

Dear Editor:

In May of this year, we had the privilege of working with a medical mission team in the rural areas outside of Tela. We were blessed with a group of singers for our crusade from Tegucigalpa. The group "Together to Exalt Him" not only provided music for our souls but volunteered to be our translators and workers along with us during those 18-hour work days.

We could never have seen the number of patients that we did if these young people had not been so willing and helpful. The friendships that were formed during that week have been so strong that in November the group landed in New Orleans, LA to minister to some of our local Baptist churches with praise and worship. The blessings that this group brought to us will leave a lasting impression on our hearts and the hearts of many people who have never been to Honduras.

God and Honduras have produced an exceptional group of young people and we will forever be grateful.

By ERLING DUUS

One of my favorite things in Honduras is the singing of elementary school children, and in the Christmas season there is a lot of that. They sing with much enthusiasm and energy. While I am powerless to describe the unique quality of their singing, I am certain that I could recognize it anywhere on earth, just as I can recognize the singing of the Danes, the Irish, or black Americans from, for example, Alabama or Mississippi. It is something in the intonation and the tone, a quality in which the soul and spirit of the people is, through some mysterious process, revealed. It is the essence of that elusive thing we call culture.

This same quality can be identified in other places and ways. When I was in Los Angeles, I lived in an area with many Mexicans and Salvadorans. But every now and then I would meet a Latin American who would have a quality that was familiar. "Where are you from," I would ask, and almost invariably they would respond "Honduras." "I thought so," I would say with pleasure.

Returning to the topic of Honduran singing, however, it must be observed that this open-hearted singing of school children is pretty well lost among secondary students, who often sing with reluctance and self-consciousness. And in general, Hondurans do not seem to be a singing people. The only exceptions to this that I have noted is found among evangelical religious groups. Why, I wonder, is a singing tradition begun so admirably with children not brought to fruition in a singing people.

There are no doubt a variety of reasons for this, all of them unfortunate. Part of the answer lies in the fact that the dominant Catholic Church has never placed much emphasis on congregational singing. But more importantly is the fact that Honduras simply does not have a rich tradition of songs, songs that have emerged out of the depths of a national folk experience.

Hondurans love music, but most of the songs they know and the music they love is Caribbean, Mexican, or from the United States, and culturally they are inundated by the powerful popular music industry, which in addition to being foreign is most emphatically not oriented toward songs that people can sing, nor to lyrics they can understand.

More disheartening is the apparent addiction of many Hondurans to loud rap music, a product of the ghettos of the United States, canned and marketed for mass consumption, so that now we have the phenomenon of the rich, semi-criminal rappers become media stars, and in the mind of some fawning commentators, minor prophets.

Is there a solution to this. Yes, but it is not easily come by. There needs to be a specific and highly conscious project to create songs that are highly singable and memorably Honduran, which celebrate Honduran landscapes and confront Honduran realities. The ministry of culture should promote this as a high priority. At the same time, an effort should be made to find and renew those songs that lie half hidden and neglected in the national heritage. The transforming power of a dozen or so good songs cannot be over-estimated. If the reader does not believe this, let him think for a moment of the history of songs like "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" or "We Shall Overcome."

The United States is also not a singing nation. It used to be, but the popular music industry, the decline of the historic protestant churches and increasing urbanization and suburbanization have pretty well destroyed that culture. The folk music revival of the 60s and 70s which at that time looked promising, now looks to have been a last gasp. But that was also the last time that there existed in the country any sense of the power of the people, a sense of not being controlled by powerful economic conglomerates.

There can be no mistaking the fact that community singing is an expression of people claiming an identity, giving voice to the memory, defiance, and hope which they live by as a people. When the people's spirit is exploited and its energy distracted, singing traditions soon die.

Last week in this column I enunciated the hope that the great demonstration in Seattle was the beginning of a world-wide revolution against an oppressive economic order. If that is so, then people will begin to sing again. Who knows what songs they will sing. We anticipate that there will not be a resuscitation of that old song which for me always embodied the end-game futility of the counter-culture, the sense of having a revolution without anywhere to go. "Michael, row your boat ashore." That is where we left off, with poor Michael endlessly rowing his damn boat, without any known reason for going ashore, or even for rowing his boat.

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By RAFAEL LEIVA VIVAS

Honduras, through measures announced by President Carlos Flores and by Foreign Minister Roberto Flores Bermudez, is applying a foreign policy that is coherent with the facts. The crisis provoked by Nicaragua, which is overreacting to Honduras' legitimate right to ratify a maritime demarcation treaty with Colombia, has exposed the fragility of the Central American integration process. Both, the Nicaraguan president's language and gestures, which are out of line, and the militarist spirit that is growing in that country, envelop a situation that could become explosive and a chain of events that could annul the work done toward building peace in this region.

The world has veered from confrontation policies and the theories that define international relations through the use of force. In that sense, most of the world's states have abandoned the method of resolving conflicts through the use of superior strength. But those states that do use such methods create anarchy and use one dimension of their national interest as the main criteria for the decision making process, putting aside all moral and legal commitments with the international community. From there, conflict as a normal part of international relations and the use of military force as the last resort for a solution is derived.

It would be reprehensible and impudent that the Nicaraguan president would go against international law. After years in which Central America has made efforts to create a model of regional security based, among other things, on institutional and legal order and founded on mutual respect among countries, the implementation of a style of diplomacy that only exhibits the concepts of bitterness and violence cannot be conceived. The coexistence of nations can only be explained by the absence of conflicts and by the use of peaceful negotiation and solution methods. The change of diplomatic style only brings to memory the beginnings of this century when the leaders of our countries managed conflict only through the use of force and arbitrary decisions. What is irrational about today's behavior is the failure to comprehend that confrontation-style politics has ended and that new relationships between neighbor countries are based on trust and cooperation.

Honduras' attitude is conciliatory. After it was insulted by the offensive expressions and reactions of the Nicaraguan president, President Flores adopted a conduct of prudence, and the country, adhering to peaceful solutions and to harmonious coexistence measures, did not respond with retaliatory actions as is established for the defense of the State, and in so doing, avoided aggravating a crisis that Honduras did not start. For this policy to be coherent with the facts, Honduras asked for the presence of international observers from the United Nations and the Organization of American States to verify that our country is not seeking to endanger the peace of its neighbor. The summoning of a Central American presidents summit has been another Honduran initiative that shows a spirit of fraternity and an understanding that there is no conflict that cannot be resolved with dialogue.

The immoderate policies that the Nicaraguan president has applied to Honduras as an exercise of its sovereignty can be catalogued as a desire to rouse the nationalist sentiments of a people in order to shield weaknesses, lack of popularity or errors in the government. But these internal policies can transcend externally, affecting third countries for which the ties between internal and external policies are related to the lack of credibility of governments for unreasonable acts that damage other states. To ignore provocations so that defensive zealousness does not set off a chain reaction would be the best answer to this dare; when perceiving threats it is convenient to rely on international law, on the security that there are no permanent threats or confrontation dilemmas.

Dear Editor:

The great democracy which we know as America was built on four freedoms, one of which is Freedom of The Press. A free press is one of the foundations of a free society.

When you have an editor who solely selects articles based on his political persuasions, you erode the foundation, on which freedom was built. Discussion and rightful debate is good for the soul. Diverse opinions strengthens the foundation.

Your editor has crossed the line from journalism to advocacy. To have something printed in HTW you must be "politically correct." In the U.S.A., political correctness has caused the public to distrust the media, as is indicated in consecutive polls. Your editor has adapted a "liberal creed," where conservatives have no voice.

He is not alone, since 80 percent of the editors in the U.S.A. are "liberal biased," However, HTW is unique since it is one of a kind in the country. One doubts seriously that HTW and its editor will have the virile fortitude to print this letter.

J. Mickey McCarthy
leprechaun@hondumall.com

EDITOR'S NOTE: Honduras This Week welcomes articulate and thoughtful discussion from any perspective.

Dear Editor:

I just want to say that I am grateful that you are there to bring us the news from our beautiful Honduras. May god bless all of you always and feliz navidad y próspero año nuevo!

You are doing a great job! If it wasn't for you, I would have never known about all the damage Mitch caused.

Mil gracias otra vez!

Norma Windle
via Internet
<nwindle@cswnet.com>

Dear Editor:

I'd like to compliment you on what I believe is an excellent on-line publication. I've learned a great deal about Honduras from HTW, after working in the country this February. I believe that the general tone of the publication is one of hope and enlightenment and that it works to further democratic institutions. In fact, it's so democratic, it almost smacks of the CIA (the philosophic side, not the side with the torture devices, etc. -- the nice CIA, the one you would invite home to meet your mother, if you wanted to see her interrogated).

Anyway, being something of a cynic, I get a measure of hope out of your publication. Keep up the good work.

Joel Preston Smith
blindog44@hotmail.com

Dear Editor:

Since my husband and I have received our subscription to Honduras This Week, the day it arrives everything stops till I have read it front to back. My heart broke when Hurricane Mitch did so much devastation.

We support three different missions in Honduras: His Love in Action school for the deaf children in Tegucigalpa; Nueva Esperanza, a day care center for children of poor parents who can't pay; and Children of the Light, which works with children who live on the streets in La Ceiba.

Our hearts are heavy for the people of Honduras. In all our trips there, we have found the people very loving and it is sad to hear so much negative talk about crime and what the people are like since Mitch.

I personally would like to say in all the times we were in Honduras we found the people helpful. I could go on and on, but crime, we have crime here in Florida!

I ask people who are writing to the editor with bad crime reports: if you were hungry with family or no place to lay your head, what would you be like? "Don't cast your stone," you really don't know. If you want crime to stop, help the poor. Help this beautiful country get back on its feet again.

The only thing we have to correct is the high air fare. If we could only give more to the poor and less for air fare, things would go much faster.

When we are there, we're so happy doing things for other people but when we get on the plane heading for home and look out the window and see children standing there, saying "I love you in sign language," that alone is all the thanks anyone would ever want. Tears really flow, I'm leaving part of my heart.

People wake up! Everyone is not bad, only a few, but those are who you hear about.

Naomi Cox
Palmetto, FL.

Dear Editor:

In the editorial "Who says we're corrupt" the writer disagrees with Transparency International's latest corruption perceptions index (CPI) and invites Transparency International "to come forward and publish in our pages the reasons for such a harsh judgement." The writer obviously didn't know what he was writing about.

An earlier article by Michael Coleman in HTW refers to the CPI and also references a website for Transparency International. The writer of the editorial would have been well served to have reviewed the Transparency International website before expressing his opinion on the report. A half hour of reading would not only have given him the reasons for such a harsh judgement, it would have also provided him with a lot of angles from which to attack the CPI and Honduras' ranking.

This is just one more example of the poor thought process and reporting that sometimes goes on at HTW. Just a little extra effort could make your publication so much better and more relevant. There is no question that Wendy Griffin, Melanie Wetzel, Blanca Morena and others put a lot of research in their contributions. I'm not writing to criticize them.

A couple of months ago I wrote to HTW with the same advice. Find out more about what you're writing about. Look it up. Read a book. Make a phone call. The Prairie Populist said that some works are not "readily available" in Honduras. Information isn't that hard to get. With a little extra effort, you could make a grand improvement to some parts of your publication.

By ERLING DUUS CHRISTENSEN

The Prairie Populist

Commentators will be busy assessing the significance of the demonstrations in Seattle against the World Trade Organization. As many as 50,000 people converged in Seattle and succeeded not only in disrupting, but splintering the meeting. The agenda of the free trade globalizers received a very real setback.

The event is difficult to evaluate because it is so unprecedented. While the scene and tactics may have reminded people over the age of 40 of the great anti-war demonstrations in the United States and Europe in the late 60s and early 70s, the resemblance is in fact superficial. Those demonstrations were focused on putting a stop to the war in Vietnam. When the war came to an end, so did the demonstrations.

The protests in Seattle, by contrast, have to be seen as an attack on the prevailing economic order in the world and on the manner in which the great powers in conjunction with multinationals have been organizing the world, especially since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Prior to the fall of the Soviet version of communism, much of the energy of the world was being consumed by the Cold War. Individuals and groups who opposed the tactics and ideology of exploitive capitalism were caricatured as being communists, while the so called free world demonstrated that there was nothing they would not do to protect and expand their investments. But with the fall of the Berlin Wall, there were no longer any barriers to the expansion of economic markets. Free trade and globalization were promoted as the economic component of democracy, which would have the effect of raising living standards and promoting freedom and equality around the world.

But for the most part, that has not happened. A classic example has been NAFTA, the free trade organization involving the United States, Mexico and Canada. It is now clear that NAFTA has benefitted only elites, impoverishing workers and farmers in all three countries, while doing much to trigger a revolution in the Mexican state of Chiapas. What is being seen and understood the world over is that governments and institutions controlled by powerful corporations cannot be trusted to protect the environment or the economic interests of the common people.

It is this perception, now grown to a powerful conviction, which has brought 50,000 people to Seattle. The power elite should not be surprised, though of course they are. The post-Cold War euphoria had led to the illusion that they would be able to pursue their own interests forever without arousing any serious opposition.

The protest in Seattle does not involve the appearance of a movement that can be ended simply by stopping an unpopular war. On the contrary, this is the first stage of what will be a protracted and bitter battle over the nature of the future. What is at stake is nothing less than the human outcome, the survival of civilization, and the battle will grow in intensity.

If policies continue to be followed which continually deepen the gap between the rich and the poor, within countries and between countries, and which make an ever greater strain on the environment, the outcome can only be a general collapse of all the humane traditions that the world values. In the coming battle, everybody will at last have to choose which side they are on.

Last week in Seattle, the real revolution began. The first decades of the 21st Century will witness the unfolding of the drama. The old divisions between capitalists and socialists is no longer relevant. The issue now is whether a genuine democratic vision founded on the old Jeffersonian vision of freedom, equality, and justice can prevail, and whether the compulsion to exploit can be seriously tempered by a deepening respect for the entire environment of man.

Ultimately, the politics of this century will be Green, or there will at last be no politics, except the war of the worlds.

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Time passed and delivery day arrived. When the owners inspected the piece of furniture, they noticed something was wrong. In some places, the wood's fiber was notably different and if it was scraped, the color was different.

When they complained, the old man immediately told them he had to buy wood and add it to the bar because there wasn't enough old wood to redo the whole thing. So he patched the bar with new pieces.

When asked why he had not told them this before, the man said that he needed the job and was afraid to lose it if he said anything.

"But how, if the bar was made of mahogany, and you added more mahogany, did we end up with different colors?" my friends asked.

"Very simple," the old man said. "The original mahogany used to build the thing was pink mahogany which only existed in the south of the country. It went extinct 20 years ago." The owners accepted without further ado. The work was really wonderful.

Later we recalled a T.V. commercial where the last wooden table from a tropical forest was being sold. The last piece of furniture was being auctioned to the world to the highest bidder for an astronomical price because there would be no more.

This commercial, which appeared on international television demonstrates, what could be another reality in Honduras. World-famous Hondurasn mahogany is disappearing fast. Its close relative, the pink mahogany from the south, will never be seen again.

My wife and I had the wonderful privilege of working with the beautiful people of Honduras. I am a self-employed carpenter and my wife is a homemaker and an L.P.N. As hurricane Mitch was roaring through your country, we were watching the TV coverage and were heartbroken with what we saw. We sensed a calling to do more than just sympathize with the people and their horrific loss.

After checking with three agencies, we discovered one called Proyecto Mama in San Pedro Sula that works with volunteers to help in reconstruction of homes after such disasters, works with preschools, and has a medical and nutritional program. Their parent board is located here in Pennsylvania. We committed to serve for three months (January through March '99) as team leaders for groups going down from the States.

Having practically no skills with the Spanish language, we realized it would be a challenge but with the help of an interpreter, it would work. Yes, it was a huge culture shock and challenge for us at first, but we cannot say enough for the graciousness and kindness of the Honduran people. We went to serve them and help them but oh how they served us and taught us many things.

After reading Dave Mills article of his experiences with the special people of Honduras, I just wanted to thank you for printing it. So often, all we read in most papers, including HTW, is all the crime and bad things happening in the country. It is very refreshing to read good news and good deeds of the people.

We spent most of our time in the country near Santa Cruz de Yojoa, helping to build small houses for folks who lost everything in the floods and going on medical brigades, nutritional classes, distributing school supplies and food. We made many special friends who taught us lessons on gratitude and simple living. In February 2000, Lord willing, we will return with two more groups to help build a church in the same area. The relationships we built in the short three months we spent there were strong enough to draw us back again.

Again, thank you, people of Honduras, for receiving and treating us so kindly. Dios les bendiga!

John Souder
souder@sosbbs.com

Normally, I look to your editorial section to get the pulse of what's really happening in Honduras. I usually find reason for hope and am encouraged by the courageous viewpoints expressed there. However, one recent article there blew me away. I looked to see if you had allowed an "outsider," someone usually not on your staff, to write the incongruous piece. Not such hint was there, so I'm assuming that it was a general expression of the normal editorial staff at Honduras this Week, and for that reason, I have this to say:

Grow up! I'm referring to the article lamenting the revelation of Transparency International that Honduras is the third most corrupt country on the planet. Your viewpoint seemed to be that, yes, we may be corrupt but that now it wasn't fair to be pointing this out to the rest of the world. How juvenile! I do not claim to be an expert in the field but I have raised my family and am now in the process of raising my grandchildren. I would be a poor parent and grandparent if I assumed the same attitude about corruption in the parenting process as you do in the political arena. To facilitate the comparison of the separate disciplines you can easily interchange "corruption" for "behavior."

If, in the process of parenting, my child decided that the behavior I desired was to be disregarded, i.e. maintaining some order in his room, then he should be allowed to do so without impunity. Or, i.e. good/acceptable school grades determine the presence or absence of certain privileges. According to your editorial "logic"(?), I am somehow obligated to continue to maintain those rewards and privileges no matter what the behavior of my ward is.

What would be the outcome of that process? Would I produce a productive, responsible member of our society. Logic and history say that I probably would not. I would produce an adult who sees no advantage to obedient/civil behavior. He would continue to expect to be rewarded no matter what his behavior. Isn't this what we are seeing among our elected officials today, and not just in your country alone?

The business and organizations that want to help Honduras are not stupid or bad parents. How do you think they accumulated the excess they have to offer? They have the right to give or withhold rewards based upon their expected behavior. There will be no modification of present bad behavior in either arena if it continues to gain the same rewards that successful, productive behavior has earned in the past. They are being good parents/businessmen by withholding rewards until they can be assured of the desired outcome.

So I say to your editorial staff and to Honduras, grow up. Behave responsibly and then you can expect to be treated like adults and not immature, indulgent adolescents.

Milt and Edra Shalla
Miami, FL

Re your recent editorial titled "Who says we're corrupt": We say Honduras is the most corrupt country in Latin America. We and a host of others including the German Organization "Transparency International," many U.S. Senators and Congressmen, and the president of the Honduran Supreme Court, Oscar Avila Banegas, as evidenced by his comments in the ABC television documentary "Nightline" dated June 5, 1998 which reported the case of U.S. citizen Gus Valle and the "railroading" of this person into inhuman conditions in a Honduran prison over trumped up charges by corrupt individuals who wanted access to his hacienda so they could use it to their own gain by developing the area. Is that corruption or what?

We forked over $2,000 to Dr. Wilfredo Alvarado, head of the DGIC, to "aid" in the investigation of the murder of our brother George M. Wilson. We could have flushed this money down the drain for all the good it did us. It would be interesting to find out what happens to the hard earned tax dollars of U.S. citizens sent to Honduras as foreign aid. We are sure the results will be extremely enlightening. Many of our officials in our Congress are grumbling about the corruption that exists in Honduras.

We suggest you obtain the video tape of this program and study it carefully and we believe you will change your minds about "who is corrupt" and see the light. Honduran officials wanted Gus Valle's family to give them $350,000 in U.S. currency to see if they could arrange his release. It was only by threats of U.S. Congressman Sonny Callahan to cut off certain funds to Honduras that finally led to Valle's release.

Corruption demeans any country and drastic measures are needed to correct this so that "El Pueblo" receives the attention it deserves by giving them the aid they were intended to receive.

"Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely."

Andrew Wilson
Dr. Steve Wilson
via Internet

Dear Editor:

Erling Duus' article on Colombia (Nov. 13) made several forceful points. The division of that country into three conflicting groups is a difficult problem.

His statements that the U.S. is involved in an unwinnable and absurd "war" against drugs and that the phony drug war should be called off will be shown to be a wise choice in the future. The more the "war" goes on, the higher the price for drugs and the profits are even higher. Liquor went the same way, so bootlegging was profitable and widespread. Who would grow drug plants if the price dropped? Would planes and boats ship tons of drugs from South America at say a $1 per pound or less?

Another fact is that the newspapers publish periodic reports on a 250 kilo arrest or a car with 25 kilos concealed. How many tons get through and how do they get through?

Growing drug plants is simple and cheap. The high price is caused by the costs of passing anti-drug enforcers.

What would happen if the war stopped? Perhaps the obvious eludes us.

John P. Buser
Siguatepeque

By ERLING DUUS CHRISTENSEN

The Prairie Populist

Many people seem to have trouble understanding how it is possible to despise and to love Honduras at the same time. They are not comfortable with paradox. It is more satisfying to them if they can put you down in their little book filled with simple things as either loving the country, or hating it. In fact, I think most countries can inspire contradictory passions. For me, Honduras certainly does.

Two recent experiences illustrate the phenomenon.

GRACE AMIDST GARBAGE

In a unique corner of downtown Tegucigalpa, there is a place reminiscent of better days, but now gone badly to seed. There is a dead-end street and then some disintegrating concrete steps leading down to the abandoned highway which before Mitch curved along the river, and now to the reeking river itself. The once picturesque steps today serve as a gathering place for glue-sniffers, drunks, and dissolute young people in search of a place so untended as to not attract the attention of any officials representing the semblance of law or order.

Below the steps there is a small weeded area that has become a garbage dump, a haven for scampering rats and, because it provides a minimal degree of visual shelter, a public toilet. It is a scene of arresting ugliness, presided over by the great black scavenger birds and the malodorous river.

A few days ago I came to the crest of the river bank and started to walk down the steps, a short-cut on my walk to the Comayaguela markets. I was stopped short by an unexpected and not altogether unpleasant sight. A few feet below me there was momentarily presented a bare bottom, unmistakably feminine. It took a second or two to adjust to this apparition. A brief consideration instructed me about what I was seeing. A very young girl, perhaps 6 or 7 years old, accompanied and protected by her father, had been brought to this place because she needed to relieve herself.

I waited, the soul of discretion, while she squatted, and while she stood up rearranging her clothes. Then I continued down the steps, pretending that I had seen nothing. I greeted the little girl and her father in a friendly and nonchalant manner.

I observed that they were decently dressed and clean. And as the child returned my greeting in a sweet and gracious way, I observed that she was radiantly beautiful, as lovely a young girl as I have ever seen. She was totally non-plussed about our meeting in this place and under these circumstances, as regal in her manner as if she were a princess and this were a castle.

I despise the fact that sweet and gentle people with open hearts have to be exposed in such a place, but I love with an unsuborned and deathless passion the beauty and grace that can rise up amidst piles of garbage and turn on the world a gentle smile.

The line in the bank was long and to Hondurans very familiar. Perhaps 30 people waited silently and sullenly, while only two of the four banks windows were being staffed, the others bore signs saying "this window closed." At the two operative windows, the business of the two clients seemed interminable. Many papers had to be processed with much poking at and peering into computers. For five, then 10 minutes the line did not move.

At last I began to do what I often do in such situations. I began to grumble, pointedly and audibly. "And look at all the Hondurans," I said to the man in front of me who was of course a Honduran, "standing around like a bunch of sheep, nobody complains, everybody acting as if this were perfectly normal and acceptable, and as if nobody had anything else to do."

My neighbor warmed quickly to the topic. "Ah yes, that is always the way with Hondurans, put up with anything, never complain. That is what is wrong with this country."

We then began to make a variety of commentary, insulting not only Hondurans, but banks, politicians, gringos, and anybody and anything else we could think of. In the United States, especially in Minnesota, other people in the line would have gotten angry and told us that "the United States is the best damn country in the world, so shut up," or some such empty patriotic drivel, but in this situation, as usually happens in Honduras, the people around us began to smile and to nod their heads.

Encouraged, I then said, "but when I complain, they just say that it is another crazy gringo talking." At this, there was much laughter and the approach of high spirits amongst my fellow sufferers.

"Well, here goes then," and I approached an obviously managerial type standing smugly behind the window surveying the scene. I complained loudly about the two unoccupied windows. He explained to me that some employees were late coming to work. The man in front of me fired up instantly. "Then why don't you fill-in, instead of standing there doing nothing." The man behind the window quickly indicated that this would be impossible, a form of work beneath him, which sentiment drew a few hisses, sighs, and mumbles.

Nothing changed after that, the line continued in its leisurely pace. The revolution did not begin. And yet there was a change. The mood amongst the people was lightened, a certain fellow feeling filled the air, and we felt that we had made a statement, however inconsequential.

I despise the fact that Hondurans are so badly treated in so many ways, and I despise equally the fact that they are so passive in the face of such treatment. And at the same time I love the good humor, gentleness, and tolerance that enables the Honduran to endure without giving way to much ranting and raving, and the camaraderie that is never far below the surface.

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