OPINIONS & EDITORIALS

Education and family

A proposed plan to help poor families cover the cost of educating their children--currently a topic of hot debate among private sector and government leaders--would send a message to the Honduran people. Under the program, families that have children and earn less that two times the minimum wage would receive an annual bond of Lps. 500, to help them pay for school supplies, uniforms and tuition. The message is that Honduran workers should have no excuse for not sending their children to school.

The bonds would be financed by employers. Larger companies would, obviously, bear a larger portion of the load of making sure the nation's children receive an education. And it's not such a bad idea. The rewards of education reach far beyond individuals and family. An educated Honduran is better equipped to advance not only himself and his family, but is better equipped to help advance the nation. The private sector benefits directly from educated people, therefore it is not unusual to expect the private sector to help cover the costs of producing them.

The new plan would also put an end to demagogic government solutions like the Bolson Escolar and the school lunch programs. Although it is indeed charitable to provide needy kids with free school supplies and free lunches, these programs treat Honduran workers as if they were beggars rather than individuals that are ready, willing and by all means able to work. The government is not Santa Claus.

The best inheritance that a parent can leave to a child is education. The proposed program values not only education, but taking care of one's own as well. The primary element of the program is the Honduran family. The Honduran family is also the pillar of the nation. We would do well to emphasize both education and family -- more specifically, responsible parenting -- through the new program.

It would be unwise to promise parents Lps. 500 per family without also teaching the methods and importance of family planning and discouraging the ever-growing problem of irresponsible paternity. In Honduras, while several churches preach the importance of family without supporting planning, there's a popular saying that goes donde comen dos tambien comen tres, or where there's food for two, there's food for three. Raising a family of twelve is not the same as raising a family of four -- especially when those families are poor.

So, in addition to placing a high value on education, we must also place a high value on the family and family planning. Just as the private sector would be expected to help its own, its workers, families would be expected to help their own -- to be responsible, to value education, to look forward to a brighter future.

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Online Readers' Forum

HTW ONLINE RECOMMENDED BY ADVERTISER

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Jim Nantell
Overseas Retirement Network
MNant10621@aol.com

SPS HOSPITALITY GREAT

Dear Editor:
I visited San Pedro Sula Feb. 8-11, 1997. It was a most pleasant trip. I stayed at the Hotel Copantl and was pleasantly surprised at the hospitality I was shown. As a first time traveller to your lush country, I was taken by the growth that is taking place. Not even New York City can boast of the availability of taxis that you have in San Pedro Sula. The new mall that was across the street was a good place to shop. The only thing that I couldn't find there was something from San Pedro Sula. The T-Shirt Shop should add a colorful shirt marketing San Pedro Sula.

As a destination, there are many wonderful things that I will always remember. The hospitality of the Pineda family and the time they took to make me feel welcome. The local fruits and the talapia fish were wonderful, as they were grown in the shop owner's backyard and tasted great. I plan on making this a repeat stop during my business travels. My family is looking forward to the day we can return and vacation.

Lawrence S. Bullard Jr.
Memphis, Tennessee

A faltering health sector

The employees of Honduras' public hospitals -- health centers where no patient is required to pay for treatment or surgery -- have announced that they will launch a nationwide strike unless their salaries are increased. There are some 13,000 public health workers in Honduras, including doctors, specialists, nurses, administrative personnel, maintenance employees and medical students (who, by the way, pay no more than $15 a year to attend medical school). If the strike goes forward, none of them will be working to meet the health needs of poor Hondurans.

Meanwhile, the chief of surgery at Tegucigalpa's Hospital Escuela publicly criticized a group of U.S. physicians who had come to Honduras on a humanitarian mission to treat children with cleft palates. Instead of thanking the doctors for their charity, they were criticized as unprofessional and more students than doctors.

The avarice and lack of control with which the public health sector is run in Honduras has reached unimaginable proportions. The government and the nation's poor are at the mercy of the powerful medical unions. It seems that being a doctor in Honduras these days has less to do with caring for the sick and more to do with being a member of a sort of monopolistic mafia, bent on financial gain rather than the Hippocratic Oath.

And the outlook remains bleak when you look at today's medical student, who enjoys a cheap education and numerous other benefits regardless of the quality and performance of the student while the best professors are losing their posts, further promoting a spirit of mediocrity.

Of course there are highly skilled and responsible students and doctors in Honduras. Unfortunately, they are not enough to give the health sector the facelift it requires. What the medical sector needs is a veritable resolution. President Reina would do well to take advantage of this moment to fully refurbish the medical sector.

The situation may improve once several private initiatives open their doors to offer Hondurans high-quality medical care alternatives. But these new hospitals will no doubt be as expensive as they are technologically advanced. The rich can already afford medical care and new private clinics are no answer for Honduras' poor. Nor are work stoppages the answer for Honduran doctors.

Let us all remember that health care is a gift, not a cash register.

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Honduras This Week welcomes letters to the editor. To submit a letter, email the editor at: hontweek@hondutel.hn with your name. Honduras This Week will NOT publish anonymous letters.

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A shiny new airport

Modernized, expanded and remodeled, San Pedro Sula's international airport is a welcome sight to behold for international travellers. It is also the envy of Tegucigalpa. While passengers enjoy smooth landings and streamlined customs in San Pedro Sula, their counterparts in Tegucigalpa will continue to pray as they white-knuckle their way onto Toncontin International's short stub of a runway.

A modern airport is the key to a city, a key that opens the door to many positive elements, such as tourism, investment and diplomatic and cultural interaction.

The new airport in San Pedro Sula has been designed to handle a half million passengers each year, all of whom will be heading to one of Latin America's most rapidly-growing cities, or one of the many attractive points beyond, such as the Bay Islands or the Mayan ruins of Copan.

With the support of the Spanish government, the San Pedro Sula airport Commission rebuilt the facility at a total cost of less than $25 million. Meanwhile, back in Tegucigalpa, planners have yet to even decide where a new airport would go and have done little more than examine every inch of a local map. It is only thanks to the finely skilled pilots of American, Continental, TACA and other airlines that Toncontin can remain an active airport in the first place, despite its location in a mountainous zone and lack of a comfortable runway landing length.

San Pedro Sula's new airport boasts computerized air traffic control systems, specialized fire fighting equipment, electronic security systems and internal and external communications networks. It also offers a simplified and more efficient customs system, doing away with the old one, in which even the most innocent-looking passengers carrying nothing more than portfolios were scrutinized as potential contrabandists.

It is a great pleasure to arrive in a country that has a good airport, an efficient customs system and attractive facilities. First impressions count and they count a great deal.

Congratulations to the team of experts that collaborated in the airport project. Let's hope the commission is put to further good use fixing others of the many problems that plague our country.

Honduras This Week welcomes letters to the editor. To submit a letter, email the editor at: hontweek@hondutel.hn with your name. Honduras This Week will NOT publish anonymous letters.

Honduras This Week reserves the right to publish any articles submitted.

CORRECTION

In the February 1 edition, Honduras This Week incorrectly reported the name of the president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The Mormon leader's correct name is Gordon Hinckley. HTW apologizes for the mistake.

Letters to the Editor

PRICE GOUGING

Dear Editor:

It is all well and good that the Honduran Tourism Institute is being aggressive in attracting tourists to Honduras. However, all of their work will be in vain if air fares are not equalized. For example, I made a price comparison this week in flights from Houston to Geneva, Switzerland and from Houston to Tegucigalpa. With 7-day advance booking and an over Saturday stay, the price

to Geneva was $508.00 round trip compared to round trip fare, with same restrictions, to Tegucigalpa of $528.00. Flying to Geneva is an 8-hour one way flight to Amsterdam, connecting with a 1.5 hour flight to Geneva. The flight to Tegucigalpa from Houston is 2.5 hours, non-stop.

Being in international transportation myself, I know that distance usually has little to do with the price of travel. These are market driven prices, and as long as people are willing to pay, then the price will remain or increase. I suggest to the Institute of Tourism that if they want to make Honduras more competitive to the foreign tourist, that they should solicit new airlines to this region. Only competition will bring down these prices.

The airlines are not the only price gougers. The practice of hotels, mostly in the big cities, using different pricing assessed to foreigners as opposed to locals only reinforces a traveller's fear of being ripped off in a strange land. This is a discriminatory practice, and only serves to offend the customer.

I applaud the hotels that do not give in to this practice. These are the type of businesses that tourists learn to trust, making their travel experience pleasurable.

It is only common sense to know that the way to get repeat business is to give customers a bargain. If the customer feels that he is being taken advantage of, he will not be back. I am a good example. Having been a regular traveller to Honduras for over 12 years, no longer do I stay in hotels that adopt this practice. If the hotels can give the foreign tourists a real value for their money, they should do it. It is only good business.

Mike Elliott

Houston, Texas

ROATAN ECO DISASTER

Dear Editor:

Roatan is an ecological disaster area and promises to become the focus for a public health disaster of hemispheric proportions. It's just a matter of time. And not much time, at that!

The current human population on Roatan is estimated (1996 government figures) at "more than thirty thousand (30,000)." In 1980, the island population was less than 10,000. This explosive growth had has two highly visible results:

1. The island's ground water supplies have become pervasively contaminated and virtually depleted. The only safe drinking water on Roatan now comes in plastic bottles.

2. This huge population increase has come without facilities for sewage treatment/disposal. All wastes, including kitchen garbage, shrimp plant offal, and human excrement, either goes into the sea or into holes in the ground.

For a more exhaustive treatment of Roatan's problems, see the Net postings:

http://goodfelloweb.com/honduras/hondu11g.html

http://goodfelloweb.com/lorenzo/index.html

You can also obtain additional confirmation of this impending public health disaster directly from the U.N. World Health Organization.

You are doing an outstanding job with information "mix" on your WebSite. It's excellent journalism. Highly informative!

Lorenzo Belveal

lbelveal@foreigner.class.udg.mx

LOVE HONDURAS, HTW

Dear Editor:

I just would like to say we love Honduras This Week. We travel to Santa Rosa de Copan often, love your country.

Jan Meinders

GMeinders@aol.com

DISENCHANTED WITH HOTEL'S FISHING METHODS

Dear Editor:

Pleased to read about a new hotel [Las Glorias] on Lake Yojoa, which I eagerly went to visit. The facilities were everything your article described them to be. However, I was disenchanted to learn that the hotel manager's catch of the day comes from an enormous net he puts right outside of his hotel. So much for my sport fishing plans. I thought this should be brought to the attention of Eco Lago and would appreciate it if you did so.

Elias Lizardo
elizardo@stdfuit.hn

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