Apparently, these posts are seen as just four-year term political jobs that abound in the government sector. This causes constant turmoil and internal instability to the point where many judges have been fired and replaced, which shows the inside conflicts and personal interests in the judicial system.

A soap opera could be written out of any given case that is heard at the Supreme Court, beginning with the judge's background, where we at first believe that there could be something amiss. Then, we find out that everything is missing, from a good education to a good work orientation that is conducive to firm character and decency. Then, we would go on to find that when the judges feel threatened by delinquents, the justice system has to be protected instead of it protecting us.

The constant runaround of judges in the Supreme Court is not only bothersome but symptomatic of deeper maladies of a cultural dimension. For example, why would a judge magistrate be involved directly with a lowly employee in such and such a case? What could motivate such interest? Why doesn't the judge resolve it him or herself? Besides, we ask ourselves, why is a judge fired in the middle of a trial?

Maybe there really are technical reasons for all this apparent mess. But we cannot imagine what they could be. There is more going on in the Court than meets the eye.

As an American medical doctor I fell in love with Honduras during the time I have spent working to provide relief along the North Coast and to the Mosquitia. I have worked with many wonderful, caring people in the military and the private sector (particularly Helen Murphy and Peter Wilson at Standard Fruit). The reporters at Honduras This Week -- Fito Velasquez and Maria Fiallos -- have accompanied Corazon workers on missions to areas we have been working and know we are sincere.

Unlike large government agencies such as U.S. Agency for International Development, we have no paid staff. We depend on volunteers and our financial resources come from my bank accounts.

We have had our share of dealing with the customs officials whose rules change with their mood and one's willingness to provide the mordida. I have been stopped at roadblocks and had to pay small on site fines in order to get on with my business and while it is not fair, it is the price of working for a larger purpose in Honduras.

I view these things as a very small price to pay on our road to President Flores' New Agenda. When I read his speech about working for a New Honduras I thought this man is much like President John Kennedy was. Nations have usually very few visionary leaders. Too often those with the sharpest minds are victimized by their enemies. His speech served to inspire me to work on in Honduras and I would one day like to tell him so. What he is asking of his people is but little compared to the wonderful changes in store for Honduras as a nation if even one person in ten commits to share his vision for the nation.

I am an American, but I recognize outstanding leaders. Your newspaper needs to champion this man -- he has made great changes already in the midst of the worst hurricane of the last century, if not the last millennium. As one who has suffered a great deal of name calling and false accusations, I sympathize with all he must deal with.

As an American, I have committed to President Flores New Agenda as much as I can to any leader's plan for his nation. His words are not empty, but the job of building a great nation is huge -- I pray that all who read this will commit to helping make Honduras a great nation, one deed at a time, one day at a time, as our God directs and rewards our efforts with successes almost too incredible to imagine at this moment in time.

Steve Foster, MD
El Corazon de Corazon A Corazon
via Internet

I am fascinated by the lurching, from left to right, exhibited in R. Kerkman's "...new millennium" article. Mr. Kerkman seems to want the government of Honduras to, simultaneously, enforce redistributionist policies and move the economic sector to high productivity. It is possible to muddle along in a well established DC while engaged in this dichotomy. It is, however, impossible in an LDC, particularly one with, to be kind, woefully inefficient bloated government agencies.

If Honduras is to emerge as a more viable player on the economic stage it must provide: a stable currency; an impartial, incorruptible judicial system; vastly improved crime prevention (investors will not move in if personal/property security cannot be reasonably assured); ejection of those in government who illegally make a living from Honduras' byzantine rules and regulations; correction of antiquated or self-serving regulations; and a public education system that enables the poorest child in Honduras the opportunity to make a contribution, both to himself and the nation.

Canada, Germany, and other countries are limping along economically, dragged down by persistent unemployment and other "benefits" of the social safety net. As long as productivity is overtaxed or over regulated (discouraged) and failure, either personal or corporate, is rewarded, there they will remain.

Government has a clear responsibility to insure that people are not hungry or dying in the streets from lack of medical care. Beyond that, the disadvantages begin to outweigh the advantages. It will be difficult to achieve any of these objectives, given the temporary dislocation and grief that would accompany any change. Just stabilizing (dollarizing?) the currency would be painful in the extreme -- but the long-term benefits would be enormous.

Letting go of power is even more difficult now due to Mitch. The government had to take enormous power to handle that disaster and there is no doubt that this was appropriate. My hat is off to President Flores et. al. for "doing the impossible" and holding Honduras together during, and subsequent to, Mitch. Now is time for the government back off, level the playing field, but not pick winners in the economy. Roads, dams, schools, crime, etc. are the responsibility of government, not micro-managing business.

Give everyone a reasonable opportunity to participate and the country will prosper...and the income gap will miraculously begin to shrink.

Bruce Karlson
Navarre, Florida

I read with interest Kurt Green's commentary on his bad experience with moving to Honduras. My commentary is relevant to his desire to 'live a simple life.' I have also included a couple of notes from my own life because I don't want to hurt this unfortunate situation more than it has been hurt already.

There was clearly a disjunction of life styles involved in this situation. It is too bad that there apparently was not a clear communication between him and his wife about certain things, such as what items are needed in Honduras vs. Canada, possibility of theft, etc.

There are some things that people in wealthy countries maybe take for granted as 'necessary' but that are practically unheard of in Latin America, and probably not even needed. I'm thinking about things like lawn tractors (even old ones), extensive collections of things such as glass or porcelain (I have such a collection, but if I were to move to Latin America, only a few pieces would come), power tools (unless one is a tradesman), etc.

I guess if one were to contemplate moving to Latin America, the lesson here is to start very simply -- to buy the property first (using proper precautions of course), move clothing, basic necessities like stove and refrigerator, small items that you can't be without, and personal things first, and put the rest of one's household goods in storage.

Live for a while in Latin America and adjust to life, get to know people, and then fly back to the U.S. or Canada for the rest of the move. You will know better what you need and what you don't need. Certain things can be sold, while others such as heirlooms and furniture can be moved. Certain items might have to remain in the United States or Canada. These would probably be limited to items such as legal documents and small valuables.

This might hopefully make the moving process less fraught with disaster.

R.C. Sponsler
via Internet

By Erling Duus Christensen

The Prairie Populist

The mayor of Tegucigalpa is the latest person holding that office to be pressured by business owners to enforce the law and clean the sidewalk vendors off the Peatonal. Ever since Hurricane Mitch, the number of people selling products on the pedestrian mall has grown until a simple stroll from the Parque Central to the post office, normally a distance that can be easily covered in five minutes, often began to require 15. Now the vendors are protesting, claiming their rights are being violated. It reminds me once again that many Hondurans have a strange conception of rights, not to mention of law enforcement.

The Peatonal was established to be a walking street, and conceived as a boon to downtown business owners, providing ready access of customers to their shops. It was not established to be an out-door market, and the existence of such not only impedes walking, it also deprives legitimate downtown businesses of customers. Nevertheless, the practice is normally tolerated until things become totally out of hand. Then the crack-down comes, the street is cleared, and for a time the law is enforced. However, wait a few months, and the vendors will begin to gradually reappear. A few more will set up their tables or blankets each week, and pretty soon the situation will be as bad, if not worse than before.

There are at least three reasons for this. The first is that many people rather like the casual shopping. At least they won't have any clerks following them around and demanding "what do you want." Que desea? The second is that Hondurans have soft hearts and don't want anybody prevented from making a living. But the third and most critical reason is that consistent and principled law enforcement does not appeal to Hondurans. Being laid-back, casual, tolerant and inconsistent does. It is simply too much trouble to keep turning the vendors back.

Then there is the issue of rights. The same people who are claiming that their rights are being violated, while they in fact inhibit the rights of others, are the same people who would never think to claim their legitimate human rights in countless other situations, living as they do in a culture where violation of rights is routine. I once asked a group of adult language students whether they felt that they had the right to have parties in their house or apartment, while blasting loud music throughout the neighborhood into the early hours of the morning. Most felt that they did have the right, providing they did it only on weekends, which was I thought an interesting distinction. Judging from what we hear and observe, there are few if any restrictions in the common culture upon the right of individuals and businesses to inflict unwelcome noise upon as many people as their ambition and audio equipment allows.

The notion that "my freedom ends where your freedom begins" is simply lost on many Hondurans. Instead, they envision a fundamentally public space, in which each individuals energetic is more or less absorbed into a common friendly chaos. That can be stimulating and fun, but the problem with it is that in the last analysis nobody has any rights, because rights are predicated upon the concept of a private space in which an individual is protected.

An extension of this idea is the concomitant notion that there is no activity that can be performed by an individual or small group valuable enough to be protected from interruption or disturbance, buffered against the intrusive, leveling, and essentially mindless activity of the crowd. Honduras is a democratic society in only one way, which is in its powerful tendency to demolish individuals who do not move comfortably in the public space, and in its commitment to exacting a conformity to public goals and values. Genuine rebels are rare, for rebellion demands that one claim a space that the public culture will not admit into existence.

One right that nobody in Tegucigalpa appears to claim is the right to live in a city whose central historic river is not a flowing putrid sewer, a pestilential disgrace meandering through the center of the city. Another mayoral campaign is presently at full pitch, but not a word about cleaning up the Rio Choluteca. It is as if this situation is one that must be tolerated forever, as if cleaning up the river and taking steps to make the center and heart of the city a place of beauty were an ideal irrelevant to the main life and purpose of the city which is, as everybody knows, making money. Let it be said with total clarity. The people of Tegucigalpa and indeed of the entire country have a right to something much better. They have a right to live in a less polluted, unhealthy environment.

The Prairie Populist

By Erling Duus Christensen

It is difficult to know what might be the larger significance of entering a new millennium. People attempt to invest the event with apocalyptic dimensions, but this all comes to nothing and life goes on without any important differences. In long retrospect, despite all of the euphoric commentary that greeted the coming of the late departed 20th century (the anticipations of a technological paradise) what was to become characteristic of the century was not to be revealed until Sarajevo, l914, and the outbreak of the Great War.

A century later, it does not seem that we have learned very much. Despite the devastations wrought by much 20th century technology, there still exists an unutterable mindless euphoria about our technological possibilities. But what will really come to be characteristic of the 21st century? That has yet to be revealed. Only one thing can be safely predicted, and that is that despite occasional valuable developments here and there, technological innovation will continue its assault on human community, its traditions and values.

One hopes there were people who enjoyed really exciting, buoyant millennium celebrations. But it is a little difficult to celebrate an event whose meaning is so obscure. What is peculiarly interesting, however, is all the people who were disappointed that the count-down to the new century was not more dramatic, the people who were hopefully awaiting catastrophe. At the head of this list, of course, is the media, which had spent so much time and energy trumpeting the possibility of a Y2K technological collapse. But alas, nothing happened. Countless numbers of people spent much money trying to prepare for emergency. At least one man bought a house in the country, and was planning to plant vegetables. Now he is angry, feeling he has been played for a fool. Perhaps he will grow to like fresh country air, and the taste of fresh spinach and turnips.

Lacking technological holocaust, the media turned to fanning paranoia about possible terrorist activity. The city of Seattle, still nervous from WTO demonstrations, canceled a big party at the space park. People from Peoria to Podunk canceled party plans and hunkered down at home. But again, nothing happened, and the media had nothing in the end to report.

The most disappointed, however, were surely the legions of Christian fundamentalists who were gathered to happily await the Second Coming, when Jesus would come to separate the sheep from the goats, gathering the righteous up into glory, while visiting destruction upon those who stubbornly refuse to become born again, Bible-believing Christians. Now, as their predecessors have done in every age, they must re-group and develop some other fanciful and misguided interpretation of the book of Revelations. But they see some signs of hope. There is a volcanic eruption in Guatemala, possibly a sign and portent.

What can be sensed in all this craving for apocalypse is more than a simple taste for a little excitement. Instead, there is an unarticulated, half-formed feeling that something ought to happen to put a stop to what is happening in the world, or at least slow things down, sentiments expressed a few years ago in a play titled "Stop the World, I Want to Get Off." For some traditional religious believers, there is a sense that God must be really angry about the growth of secularism, that God is ready to put his foot down, reward the faithful (fundamentalist Christians) while crushing the non-believers. But perhaps many of us share something of this longing for a decisive interaction from above. There is something terrifying about contemplating the future with a silent (or impotent) God, while a rapacious humanity uncurbed by any heavenly hand, remains free to expand its obsessions, greed, and megalomania into the future.

We are however inevitably obligated to live within the freedom and terror of history. Human individuals and their communities will either evolve into a greater wisdom and maturity, or suffer the increasingly dire consequences. But in this condition of nakedness, we are nonetheless not alone. The mysterious universe is shaped around profound and deeply rooted ethical and spiritual foundations, and while these operate in more muted and subtle ways than the religiously naive might like, they are powerful and ultimately unassailable. Human beings, human cultures, and finally the entire human enterprise are brought to judgement. Robert Penn Warren in his great novel "All the King's Men," closes his story with these brooding words. "And so they passed, out of history into history, and into the awesome responsibility of time."

If there is anything particularly valuable in recording the advent of a new millennium, it falls in a place far from the parties and the hype, in silent rooms where sober human beings contemplate "the awesome responsibility of time."

My wife and I were planning a week vacation in Honduras this June as we have for the past two years. We love the country, its culture and its people. In browsing American Airlines website for fares the other day, we were astonished by the cost of a round-trip fare to San Pedro Sula. So we began searching around for something a little more reasonable. These are some of the fares we came up (lowest round-trip midweek fares). Dig this:

From Newark, New Jersey June 10 to:

Montego Bay, Jamaica $475
Santo Domingo, Dom. Rep. $494
Caracas, Venezuela $518
San Juan, Puerto Rico $234
Acapulco, Mexico $607
London, England $654
Frankfurt, Germany $828
Mexico City, Mexico $536
Panama City, Panama $509
San Jose, Costa Rica $636
SAN PEDRO SULA, HONDURAS $781

Now, not being wealthy people we, like most Americans, must try to find the best bargain for our hard earned, once a year, vacation dollars. As anyone can see, San Pedro Sula could hardly be considered a bargain. (Plus to add insult to injury, the $25 per passenger departure tax.) So, my wife says, Why pay all that money for a little culture, sand, sun and sea? After all, don't many of the other places we are interested in have the same thing? Not being one to argue (especially with the truth), we ended up booking Santo Domingo (at a savings of about $300 per ticket and their departure tax is only $10 bucks). Sorry Honduras!

Norris Wright
New Jersey

Thank you for your publication of the recent letter "An Olanchana Replies." Although I have worked on and off in Olancho since 1986, I have not visited all of Olancho's eco-tourism attractions. Now tourists will have a more complete list.

Regarding the attack where 11 people reportedly died, the Trujillo business owner who told me the story said that only one newspaper reporter went to investigate the story. He said the owners of the bus company paid the reporter to not publish the story so it would not hurt business on this route, now closed. Honduran newspapers do not do a good job of reporting outside the capital, San Pedro, and La Ceiba.

My views of Olancho as a place where many illegal activities go on are not based on stereotypes. I have worked in Olancho. My friends and colleagues work in Olancho. The Pech, Tawahkas and my university students live in Olancho and these are the people who tell me of bandits, gun runners, marijuana growers, gold ambushers with AK-47s, endangered animal exporters, archaeological ruin looters, mahogany smugglers, and people who murder for liquidambar, steal cattle, threaten and wound Pech and Tawahka leaders.

Honduran newspapers did report that the judge in Culmi said 100 percent of the "ordenes de captura" were not carried out by police there. They also carried the explanation why carjacking has returned to the La Union and San Esteban highways. The Tawahkas, who are starting their own eco-tourism company, have decided not to use the Culmi-Rio Guampu-Rio Patuca route because of its danger, but rather take people to the Tawahka reserve via the upper Patuca river.

Part of the problem is that not only is Olancho larger than El Salvador, but the municipios are huge. Catacamas is larger than the whole department of La Paz. Culmi is of similar size, and it takes more than 24 hours to get from one end to the other, whether you go by mule, ox, on foot, or by motorcycle. There are many isolated areas for bandits to hide, and police have to get around by bus. It will take serious work to make the roads safe for travellers. I hope it happens.

In the meantime, Honduras This Week has been asked to address where there are serious crime problems and where it is safe. At night in Santa Rosa de Copan, the people seem to feel very safe in the poorly lit streets. Santa Barbara feels relaxed, Juticalpa does not. In North Coast towns, in Tegucigalpa, and San Pedro, there is gang graffiti, particularly of the Mara Salvatrucha (MS).

I was surprised to see it in Juticalpa, a town better known for mariachis and bull fights at its fair, and as the transportation hub for hard working Olanchano campesinos.

I do not know what it means that there are maras in rural Olancho, while in the rest of Olancho these gangs are an urban problem. But it is not good news for travellers. I continue to travel from the coast to El Carbon, though not without fear, and from Tegucigalpa to Catacamas and Juticalpa with more confidence. Each traveller has to evaluate their comfort level, and to do that they need the up-to-date information that Honduras This Week tries to provide.

Since the 1860s -- the era of Gen. Cabanas, there has been talk in our country of building a chemin de fer, an inter-oceanic railroad that unites the Honduran Atlantic and Pacific coasts.

Honduras, cramped in by its neighbors in the Gulf of Fonseca, has understood since its independence from Spain that there is a need for an open way to connect both coasts, even when Nicaragua and El Salvador make it hard for us to build such a port in this area where there is no will to share oceanic space.

Since the mid-1800s, plans were made with English stockholders for financing this railroad or what is now called a "dry channel," which would greatly benefit our economy.

Many were the efforts toward this end, but these were filled with intrigue and pretenses by many of the key players, which in the end resulted in nothing. It was not until the 1940s that Honduras finished paying the debt owed to these stockholders.

Today, the idea of a north-south railroad has been renewed. The need for speed is imperative. Commerce is fundamental for our country, as is the possibility to sell to the world a good, efficient service from the Gulf of Fonseca in the south to Puerto Cortes in the north, the best port in the region.

But is has been 150 years and the initiative is still only an initiative. Since that time, we have calculated that a crew of ten men with shovels and pickaxes would have finished the massive undertaking twice, without spending much.

We again suggest the idea be put on the table and that it is done as soon as possible with Honduran labor. In other countries, prison convicts are used in such endeavors. In our country where there is such a high level of unemployment, there would be people to spare for such a job.

Honduras would greatly benefit by having a railroad, which would enhance the attractiveness of investing here.

One of the most important sectors that the modern world supports unconditionally is the social security institution. It is the symbol of the independence and security of all employees in any given country.

Its coverage is variable but it is an umbrella for the most important things in life: health, old age pension and death insurance.

Many are the reasons for which the Honduran Social Security Institute, (IHSS) is a complete failure, but two are outstanding: the IHSS is politicized and the Honduran worker just earns too little.

The first factor, the politics of things and the corruption it entails, drains capital from the arks of the IHSS which translates into insecurity instead of security for the common man. The lack of medicine is endemic to the system, the doctors are forced to work for nearly minimum wage, the hospitals are dirty and receive no maintenance, the coverage is limited and on and on.

To top it all off, the pensions are so minuscule they are ridiculous. The average pension is around $50 a month which amounts to more or less to a death penalty. Living on welfare is no living at all.

Also, the informal economy of our country deprives many people of this basic right.

This contrasts with the private pension of the executive of any major corporation. An IHSS stipend is laughable when compared to private insurance and retirement pensions. The amount of the pension barely covers the cost of the gasoline to go and pick up the monthly check.

In its 40 years of existence, the IHSS has not been able to overcome continuing crises. For example, during the past Reina administration, the government paid off a 15 year debt it had with the institution, but it did not pay one cent in interests which the IHSS desperately needed.

Besides the constant looting of equipment and medicine, the IHSS also deals in sick leaves. If one needs a couple of days off, one can buy them for a reasonable price. All this adds up to the fact that the IHSS is not only economically but morally bankrupt.

Nepotism is also rampant, and the majority of the medical merchants (many doctors see their profession as the means of getting rich) and a host of medical auxiliaries are in the business of taking anything they can get their hands on out of the IHSS and not giving anything in return.

That is our social security. In any moment it can explode into even bigger chaos. The myth that the hospitals can only be run by doctors must be ended. There has to be an administrator capable of taking them out of the clutches of extinction.

In as much as low salaries are concerned, there is not much that can be said. We are at a very bad historical moment with poor perspectives on the horizon. The government is busier controlling prices in pulperias (which has to be done too), instead of reorienting the private sector towards contributing to their employees' social development and welfare as part of an attractive future for the country.

Social security is everybody's concern. Can these politicians keep their hands out of this institution and to reinforce it without seeking personal benefit?

Blessed is the man who arrives here with only a suitcase, for he can flee this corrupt rathole at will.

To give you a brief background: I was raised and educated in Europe and spent all of my adult years in Canada and the United States. I have worked all of my life, both as an employee and a business man.

Having been married to a lovely Honduran lady for more than 20 years, I met most of her family when they visited us in the U.S. from time to time. All of them gained my affections and deepest respect.

Upon retiring three years ago, I took the opportunity to visit Honduras for the first time. I was overwhelmed by the beauty of this country (not withstanding the ever present garbage).

I knew full well that retiring in Honduras would not have much resemblance to life in North America, however, we were both aspiring to live a simpler life. Also, I felt that since my wife had spent much of her adult life faithfully in my company; at times, residing in communities somewhat less than desirable, she had earned the right to live out her latter years in close vicinity to her loving and beloved family. So we jointly decided to apply for residency in Honduras. It took us three years to sell our modest parcel of real estate in Oregon and Honduras here we come!

Big mistake. As our 2 trailers with our household goods and tools arrived in Puerto Cortes, we took our lives into our hands and traveled to Puerto Cortes to receive our belongings. With truck driver standing by and having been exposed to a multitude of anecdotes describing the shortcomings of the Honduran bureaucracy we were not too disappointed when we realized that our first day at the customs office was a total loss although we had engaged a private agent delegated to us by the custom people, even though we understood that we were to pay him for representing us, we could not shake the impression that he has determined to work in favor of the government and tried to shake us down for as much money as the traffic would bear. We fired him the following morning and engaged an agent recommended to us. He seemed to be willing and qualified to take care of our interests. So we decided to leave him to it and we returned home. It still took most of the week to get our household goods out of hawk at customs.

The agent informed us by phone that customs people had started to unload and had indeed unloaded about half of a trailer while transferring some items from one trailer to the other. All the time insisting they were looking for "new stuff" I ask you: Do these morons believe that one would spend approximately US$8,000.00 to bring worthless junk? Even then there was not one piece of newly purchased anything we had brought. They finally stopped the search when our agent paid L.300.00 to the supervisor on the job. Of course, we also paid the appropriate matriculation fees or taxes, one of the two trailers contained our well used 25 to 30 years old garden tractor. Customs arbitrarily raised the appraised value so as to be able to assess higher duties. We produced the bill of sale to no avail.

All of the aforementioned we would have been willing to accept, being fully aware as to whom we were dealing with.

However, as the trailers finally arrived here and we set out to open them I had a difficult time to decide as to whether to suffer a heart attack or go and murder someone. The customs people had used a very costly custom built head board in our possession for more than 30 years as a ladder and totally busted it, an $800.00 dish antenna carefully dismantled into 4 components and expertly packed and stowed by professionals: destroyed, dining room table tops, dressers ruined. A couch torn up, hand tools gone. But mind you only the expensive ones. A wallet with US$400.00 cash, social security cards, credit cards, a drivers license and other difficult to replace documents carelessly left in the zippered pocket of a pair of coveralls, gone.

This is only the beginning, we will not be able to unload our trailers and assess our full loss until our house is completed, probably 4 months from now.

Although we made a full customs declaration, supposedly "enjoying" special status as retirees (pensionarios) we would have been more than happy to have the trailers sealed and gladly paid for a customs officer from Tegucigalpa to be present while we were unloading when the time came.

Instead we were victimized by a bunch of malicious, vicious thieving hooligans causing us to suffer thousands of dollars worth of losses, not to mention incredible pain and aggravation. We feel totally devastated and defeated.

I hope enough people read the account of our experience so as to avoid some of the mistakes we seem to have made. Having a cursory knowledge of Latin American history I made it a habit never to use the denomination "banana republic" with reference to this part of the Americas. I still believe that Honduras does not deserve to be thusly denigrated except for some of its corrupt government officials and the lack of fortitude of those who know and are in position to bring forth change but are too timid to demand change and work for it. When these people open professionally wrapped, packed and stacked furniture and then knowingly and willingly destroy the very things we worked and cared for during the course of our working lives I find it hard to understand how at nights they return to their families and hold their heads high. And we thought that government sponsored terrorism was long passe! Anyone else with a similar experience?

Kurt Green
P.O.Box 4109
Tegucigalpa, MDC

Dear Editor:

After having recently come close to being highway robbed near San Esteban, I can testify to the veracity of the information Ms. Griffin presents in "Olancho fails to prosper as a tourist destination" (Vol, 13, Number 1). However, as a native resident of Olancho I feel that the English-speaking public, for whom this newspaper is an invaluable source of information, should hear a little bit more of the truth before, once again, they label Olancho as only a land of bandits, criminals, strong men, drug dealers, etc, etc. (a calumny that has been going on for several centuries).

1. How many tourists have been murdered in Olancho; as compared for example, to the North Coast? How many HTW reporters have been "slain" in Olancho? Larry Lee, it appears, dreamed of buying and "adobe shack" in our department. So what about Guatemala and Costa Rica, to where tourists continue to flock, despite the high crime rates? How many people are deterred from going to cities like Miami, New Orleans or New York because they know there is a decent chance of being mugged? Let's face it: we live in a violent world; Honduras is a violent country; Juticalpa is not the only town in Honduras with gang graffiti on the walls. Who walks the streets of Tegucigalpa or San Pedro Sula at night?

2. Griffin, like many others, seems to be a victim of a generalized Honduran negative attitude against Olanchanos, which has prevailed at least since the 1800s, when Olanchano guerrilla movements refused to submit to the murderous tyranny of governments such as that of "Medinon"," Jose Maria Medina. Despite the widespread violence in Honduras, it is easy to believe the Olanchanos are somehow "more violent," when the newspapers regularly make that point to their readers: "Olanchano vuela tres." How often do you read "Copaneco mata tres"? Sadistic Olanchanos, semi-mythically portrayed as "Wild West bandits", make good copy.

3. I fully concur on the sorry state of our highways. The two areas she mentions are indeed virtually intransitable, especially the route to La Union. If that weren't bad enough, paved Olancho highway is filled with craters, making it a very unpleasant drive. Nevertheless, if you want to reach the Pech village of Santa Maria del Carbon, instead of being jarred by a four hour bus ride from Juticalpa, why not zip up from the Coast? Avoid the bandits altogether? But it is true: we need continuous police operatives, not only to help tourism but to protect the flow of commerce--it is, after all, our businesses that suffer: they are ones most frequently attacked. By the way, no one here heard about an attack in which 11 people died. News travels fast; I suggest Griffin corroborate her hearsay reports with newspaper articles.

4. Griffin seems to be fully unaware of one our most important protected areas, the Monumento Natural El Boqueron. It is quite safe, and borders the main paved highway. There are quetzals here (I saw one last month) as well as over 200 other bird species; a spectacular gorge; a lost city; monkeys; caves.. Or if, you are thirsty for cloudforests, hike the Sierra de Agalta from Gualaco or Catacamas: many people have declared the Sierra de Agalta one of the most beautiful parks in Central America. There are several trekking routes that bear no more risk than places like Celaque or Pico Bonito.

5. While I'm at it, I might as well add some other safe ecotourist attractions in Olancho. Cuevas de Susmay, Gualaco; Cuevas de Trojas, in Juticalpa; three hot spring sites near Guarizama and Manto (no highway robberies in this area); cycad forests, a vanishing flora and cultural patrimony, near Saguay, Gualaco (cycads are plants that have populated the earth since the age of dinosaurs). For those who, like those brave ecotourists visiting the North Coast, are not deterred by the threat of holdups, the Agalta Valley holds such treasures as the Chorros de Babilonia, ten falls that cascade a total of 1,500 feet; thorn forests that hold the only bird endemic to this country, the Honduran emerald (hummingbird); several access points to the Sierra de Agalta, one of the largest mountain rainforests left in Central America.

6. Our biodiversity issecond to none. In Olancho there are still giant anteaters, harpy eagles, great green macaws, white-lipped peccaries, tapirs. In the Agalta area alone, there are at least 475 bird species and counting-. We are still rich in tropical dry forest and old growth pine forest. And, of course, the future of the vast forest of the Rio Platano and Patuca areas is largely in the hands of Olancho. But judging by the failure of the central government and international projects to stem in-migration, or to install an adequate enforcement agency to combat deforestation, these forests may not thrive for long.

It is not fair to condemn an area larger than the country of El Salvador, without also condemning the entire country of Honduras: crime is a serious problem, and until the government takes it seriously, Honduras, whose reputation for violence is growing rapidly, will end up like Colombia, where only the braver tourists go.

At least, in Olancho, we are proud to lead the way in creating safer communities, with our plebiscites against alcohol. The municipio of Patuca, for example, is almost entirely alcohol-free now. There is a new hotel here, in Nueva Palestina, and it is quite easy to find a reputable pipantero to take one on a unforgettable excursion through the Portal del Infierno and toward the Moskitia. It is easier and quicker to get to Palestina by bus from Danli. Other towns and villages outlawing the sale of alcohol are: Concordia, Talgua, Salama, Jutiquile; Punuare. Thanks to the churches and municipal governments, and of course the will of the people, for these wonderful actions!

We also preserve more traditional cultural patrimony in Olancho than in many other places: we drink not only vino de coyol (palm wine), but vino de jute (snail wine) and vino de calgual (fern wine). We are fonder of pasteles de carne (meat pies) than of nacatamales during Christmas. Our tapados are justifiably famous. Our handicrafts in wood and leather are second to none, and we are developing and rescuing other traditional products as well. I personally invite Ms. Griffin to visit me in Olancho so I can show her our positive less publicized side.

A few minor points:

--Limones not Limonales. The road is from Limones to Mame, not Mamey to Saba, which is in the Aguan Valley.

--The Talgua Caves ecotourist project had most of its infrastructure destroyed by Hurricane Mitch, and since then there have been higher priorities in the Municipio de Catacamas.

--Juticalpa has several cheaper, but clean and safe hotels; it also has a new, "luxury" hotel (by Olancho standards), the Villa San Andres outside of town, with jacuzzi and all. Juticalp also has several good quality restaurants along the main highway: I especially like Donde Pablo and La Fonda. Our Catholic Church was begun in the 1830s and finished in 1847, so is by no means "colonial." Other attractive churches in Olancho, from the 1800s or late 1700s, are in: Gualaco; San Buenaventura (site of an ancient Franciscan mission); Santa Maria del Real; Manto.

Please give us another chance!

talzopilotal@hotmail.com

By RUDOLF KERKMAN

Special to Honduras This Week

Recently I lived in Canada for four months and in Germany for six weeks. I noticed that the difference in the standard of living has widened between Less Developed Countries (LDC) like Honduras and Developed Countries (DC). That is, the rich get richer while the poor get children.

Auto assembly workers in Canada now get about the equivalent of Lps.200.00 an hour in wages and benefits too numerous to mention. They will get a pension of Lps.23,000.00 a month after 30 years at the job. At sixty-five of age they will get another Lps. 9,500.00 of government pension. From this the government will take about 25% to 40% in personal income tax, depending on the size of the family, and total family income, etc.

This income tax together with other taxes is progressive and is a great net income equalizer and helps the government to make transfer payments between the very well off or high income earners and the ones who just make the minimum wage, are unemployed or on welfare and to establish a social safety net. It makes for a more equal income distribution. Families with low to moderate income get a baby bonus up to US$100.00 a month for each child to partly compensate for the expense of bringing up children. Education is free up to grade 13. The children of low income families can get interest free student loans for a higher education to be paid back later.

Free medical and hospitalization are available for all Canadians, equal to medical service provided by private hospitals in Honduras. However, more typical, is an hourly wage of Lps.100.00 to Lps.200.00 for semi-skilled workers. These relatively high wages are not inflationary because of the tremendous gains in productivity. Big money is spent on research and development and capital is available to replace labor with more sophisticated machinery and computers.

Also there is up-start money available, either government or private, for anybody with a good idea to make a new product. For a DC, to keep on top it is absolutely necessary to constantly apply new technology, being innovative and have the right conditions for investments. Otherwise the living standards will droop in comparison to other DC.

The big question is, "Why is the standard of living in a LDC like Honduras so low?" Of course, there are many reasons, among others, limited markets, shortage of skills, insufficient infrastructure, isolation, at least until recently, from world markets by high tariffs, corruption, the political system, high dependency on foreign technology and an agriculture production often only on a subsistence level.

About 30% of the income of the government has to be used to service the interest on foreign debt. The tendency of the ruling elite is to depend on their prosperity from land ownership, mostly inherited, investment in real estate and trading activities rather than to build industrial enterprises, and the cultural, social, and economical development of Honduras in the past. A failure of the education and social system to give all students the opportunity to develop to their full potential. Economic and social forces both internal and external are also responsible for poverty, inequality and low productivity in a LDC. The many security personal to guard banks, stores and other establishments adds greatly to the cost of doing business. For this and other reasons very often it takes five to twenty workers in a LDC, to make something which takes only one worker in a DC, to do. It stands to reason that wages have to be correspondingly lower. Of course, there are many instances where the productivity and efficiency with which most things are done, drags down the wages of everybody.

The Honduran worker is as intelligent and diligent as any in the world. However, in many cases lacking in Honduras is good machinery, methods, training, education and good management among other things, also, it does not work to have a modern tool and have an ancient mind. Modern textile maquilas unfortunately compete with countries where wages are even lower than in Honduras. Factories and shops are, with few exceptions, small and have low productions runs.

Technological progress is now so fast, complicated and so costly that only big Multi-National Corporations (MNC) can invest in a LDC to develop enterprises which are able to compete in the global market. The financial and others powers of the MNC are so overwhelming that they can dictate the conditions under which they will cooperate with a LDC; a good example is that they are given tax free status.

The same dominant and dependant relationship also exist within the LDC between the majority of people and a relatively small but powerful elite. Unfortunately, many products of Honduras, like bananas for example has declined in price as compared with the things Honduras has to import, like oil products, cars, trucks, buses, transformers and other essential and many non-essential items. Many things are now produced so efficiently with high tech computerized machines in the DC, that it only takes probably a few hours more production time a week to supply all of Central America with their products. The overhead cost is then almost the same. In a DC usually 80 to 90% of the working population earn enough to pay income tax and can support the 10 to 20% of the population who for various reasons need to be supported by transfer payments, which pay for welfare, food stamps in the U.S., subsidized housing, healthcare, etc.

In Honduras, transfer payments are available for low electricity consumption, health care, subsidized bus transportation, higher education and perhaps there are some other subsidies.

In a poor country like Honduras the government does not have enough money to guarantee a reasonable level of living for everybody and it is not seen as an obligation of the government to do so. No society can be happy and many problems develop where the majority are poor and many people live in absolute poverty. Especially these days, when information by TV and radio is available to know how well the other half lives either in a DC or within their own country. Typical for a LDC is that 20% of the population receives 55% of the total income while the rest of the people have to fight for the leftovers. It is one of the main reasons for the high crime rate in Honduras.

In my opinion there is only one real solution in Honduras. It is to increase productivity of everything that is done. Almost everything depends on it. With increased productivity eventually there will be more money available for the masses of the people and for the government to spend on essential items, like infrastructure, education and health. Among other factors, the main incentive to boost productivity is to have competition within and from outside the country.

Unfortunately, the high interest rates at present are disincentive to invest in new production facilities. The gradual decrease of custom duties, as it is done now, is absolutely essential to weed out the inefficient enterprises. Money available from any source should mostly go to companies who have already proven that they can compete or export to compensate for the increased imports which will come to Honduras. After living in high organized countries and then living in a LDC one becomes aware immediately of the lack of efficiency, orderliness, unpunctuality, irrationality, lack of self-reliance and unwillingness to take the long view in a LDC. All the contributes to low productivity and thereby lowers the standard of living. Modern methods of thinking, producing and acting have to be substituted in place of old age practices.

The present neo-liberal policies of the government were supposed to have a trickle down effect to the workers in the form of higher real wages. To me, it seems that, at least up to now, there is only a trickle up effect taking place in Honduras, so it is essential, that Honduras, acquires industries which requires skills and professional workers.

Is there a moral obligation in a country like Honduras to invest profits or money saved, often gained at the expense of many uneducated, common and unskilled laborers, in local productive industries rather than imported luxury items, very expensive houses, foreign travel and foreign banking accounts. To not put money in a risky investment from the stand point of private advantage is a rational response to circumstances. Poor countries have to move from a mostly rural, agricultural based society to one of industry and service oriented one, and there has to be a process in which traditional low productivity, subsistence farming is transformed to high productivity commercial enterprises.

There is good progress in Honduras in many things, politically and economically. Large foreign merchandise enterprises have arrived in San Pedro Sula, and Tegucigalpa and are challenging the old order and ways of doing business. But one could also say that foreign capitalists domination of weaker LDC economies is taking place. Is it a healthy competition or are local enterprises being crushed by big MNC with huge continent wide buying powers and unlimited financial resources?

There is a very modern industrial US$30,000,000.00 complex almost finished, ten kilometers west of San Pedro Sula being financed and managed with Taiwanese capital. With the generous help of many countries, Honduras is recovering from the damage done by Hurricane Mitch. A great amount of foreign debt of Honduras, will be forgiven in the near future and it will greatly help the financial and economical situation of the country. Hopefully, some OPEC nations will be generous, as in the past, and will give some surplus oil money for worthwhile projects in Honduras. A reasonable expectation since Honduras is greatly disadvantaged by the present high price of oil. Custom tariffs within Central America and Mexico are slowly being lowered which will be an opportunity and challenge for Honduras and will improve the economy of the whole region.

A great benefit to Honduras will be the lifting of tariffs of textiles made in Honduras by the U.S.A., to be able to compete with Mexico, which is a NAFTA member. Honduran farmers are now exporting fruits and vegetables in ever-increasing amounts to the world. Tourism is expected to increase, since it is at such a low point at the present time. Inflation has been brought under control and the devaluation of the Lempira was only a few percentage points in one year. Certain industries like Hondutel and airports will be privatized and we can expect better service from them.

No amount of foreign aid, good will and forgiveness of international debt from the DC alone will ever get Honduras out of the present situation. It is the responsibility of the people of Honduras themselves to change their situation for the better.

Math is one of the oldest sciences. It was acquired by man in the earliest stages of development, even in the most imperfect productive activities. The road to understanding the world around us has been long and painful.

In our early stages as a civilization, we were shocked by unpredictable and irregular catastrophes. These events were so devastating that they took a place in our collective legends, history and subconscious. Gradually, through these manifestations, man gained understanding of contrasts, such as: in the face of the un-ordinary, there is the ordinary. All of which is linked to what is explicable and predictable. This is the part of our world that allows us to predict the future based on our past. Putting these predictable occurrences into a systematic order gave way to an extraordinary and transforming activity which we call science.

When we analyze scientific activity, we see that it is intimately linked to a numeric concept: to measure, to count, to survive, to divide and to create patterns. Mathematics and scientific development have converging destinies, often intertwining and indistinguishable. But why? Mathematics function as a description of the world and of what goes on in it. But why does the world dance to the tune of mathematics? Why do some phenomena follow the pattern of a sequence of numbers whose equation can be set down on a simple piece of paper, apparently without much effort?

Numerals have a great influence in our lives. Parents always want their children to get good grades in math, thinking that this will be a passport to success and economic security. They probably do not consider the fact that mathematics elevates their children's knowledge of and to unknown universes. Mathematics is a science which will delight them their whole lives, one which can open doors to unknown dimensions not much different to the world of Alice in Wonderland.

The contribution of mathematics was necessary for air, galactic space and interplanetary flight. The beauty of this case, revolves around the fact that neither Sir Isaac Newton or Galileo Galilei ever flew physically; however, mathematics so enriched their vision, adding new planes to their perception of the world, that their privileged minds allowed them to conceive of flight. Similar to Beethoven, who, although was never able to hear to a single note of his Allegro Hymn, his mind, free of the concept of the senses, danced to the notes of the numerals of mathematics and converted them into notes, times and measures.

Pythagoras, a native of Samos, a mediterranean island near Ephesus, was a master whose influence in mathematics is real even today. Pythagoras and his followers considered numbers as the real essence of things. They converted mathematics into a mystic religion of high moral and spiritual values. This is what we feel must be the role of math teachers and scholars. Their role is to enrich and spread knowledge; instead of presenting it as something esoteric and unreachable.

When Jesus said: "Let the children come to me," he was giving a great message: children have pure souls and minds and it is towards them that we must direct our best efforts. Mathematics will continue to be excellent companion in the third millennium.

By MARIO R. ARGUETA

Special to Honduras This Week

Motivated by a combination patriotism and partisan fervor, the majority of the diputados (congressmen) of the National Congress in 1911, rejected the proposal of President Miguel R. Davila to acquire a $10 million loan from the Pierpoint Morgan Bank, which also had the approval from the U.S. government. The State Department's purpose was to weaken British influence by having U.S. financiers buying Honduras' XIX external debt with the British banks, to build the Inter-oceanic railroad.

Due to the fact that the grant of said loan required a control and cleanup of the country's customs offices by U.S. functionaries, this policy conflicted with fiscal concessions granted by previous governments to the banana companies, including Samuel Zemurrays' Cuyamel Fruit. On the other side, Washington Valentine, founder of the New York and Honduras Rosario Mining Co., was lobbying actively for the approval of the loan.

The conflicting interests of these businessmen, the delay tactics of Honduran envoy Juan Paredes and legislative opposition, all combined so that the Knox-Paredes Treaty, as it came to be known, was voted out by the Honduran Congress 33 to 5, because it was considered harmful to the national sovereignty.

The so-called Tacoma Conferences meant the delivery of President Davila's power to Francisco Bertrand, a deputy for Manuel Bonilla. This happened aboard the U.S. warship "Tacoma" in 1911 and was mediated by U.S. government representative Thomas C. Dawson. United States diplomatic intervention in Central America started in 1906 when, in conjunction with Mexico, they had reunited representatives from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador aboard the ship "Marblehead."

During the 1919 Civil War, which was unleashed when President Francisco Bertrand tried to impose Nazario Soriano as his successor, U.S. intervention was in the form of an ultimatum for him to resign presented by diplomatic envoy Thomas Sambola Jones. This was observed by Bertrand, but not before he emitted a protest manifesto.

The occupation of Tegucigalpa by U.S. troops in 1924, when a civil war broke out because Tiburcio Carias Andino's electoral victory was not recognized by the government, caused writer Froylan Turcios to publish with his own resources the National Defense Bulletin. In it, he and many others expressed their outrage at the occupation and their repulsion of the dollar diplomacy and the Big Stick politics.

A whole generation represented by Federico Peck Fernandez, Luis Andres Zuniga, Visitacion Padilla, Juan Pablo Wainwright, Pablo Zelaya Sierra, Zoroastro Montes de Oca and Manuel Calix Herrera, among others, expressed in theory and in practice, their condemnation of such imperialist practices.

Opposition against Carias' desire to stay in power in 1936, caused the protest of ex-president Miguel Paz Barahona in the form of a manifesto written in New York. Another prominent "nacionalista", Venancio Callejas also protested, as did many other literary figures like Jacobo Carcamo, Medardo Mejia, Alfonso Guillen Zelaya, Rafael Heliodoro Valle and Jose Angel Zuniga Huete.

The repression and massacre of 1944 in San Pedro Sula was condemned by Jose Antonio Peraza, Ernesto Argueta, Carlos Roberto Reina and thousands of other citizens who saw dictatorial regimes in neighboring Guatemala and El

Salvador break down, which made them wish for a democratic opening in Honduras.

The worker strikes in 1954 had the sympathy and support of practically all of the national community: students, politicians, teachers, professional people and businessmen took as their own the demands of the workers for a better treatment from the fruit companies. The 69 day strike by the employees of the Tela Railroad Co., a subsidiary of the powerful United Fruit, was the beginning of a new order between capital and work and of a new and healthy sense of Honduran sentiment. We then wished we weren't strangers in our own land anymore.

The military aggression against Honduras by El Salvador in 1969 united the people-army, first in the defense of the territory and later, in the proposal of a series of changes in the administrative, economic and social areas. Areas that were vulnerable and disorganized, which in turn had allowed a military defeat. Again, we looked in retrospect towards our deficiencies in every respect and formulas were presented to overcome them. There was an aspiration for renovation in all areas which would be seen in books, new political parties, the study of reform processes in South America and a national dialogue for unity.

During President Ramon Ernesto Cruz's term, in 1971, the United States gave back to Honduras the Swan Islands. An effective diplomatic mission contributed to this. By 1960, the International Court of Law had ratified the "Laudo" or decision of 1906, confirming the Honduran possession of part of La Mosquitia and demarcating definitely the Honduran-Nicaraguan border.

The Honduran delegation sent by President Villeda Morales made a brilliant exposition of our rights with the help of illustrious foreign lawyers.

Two individual actions deserve to be remembered. Roberto Galvez Barnes renounced his place in the Military Government "Junta" in 1957. In this way, he questioned the decision of the Asamblea Nacional Constituyente of choosing a president by second class elections. Later, Miguel Angel Rivera sent a memorandum to president Ramon Ernesto Cruz telling him that the sectarian politics fostered by his Ministro de Gobernacion (Minister of Interior) sabotaged the National Unity Government.

During the 80's, most Hondurans, with our silence, were accomplices to repression and the permanence of troops from three different countries in our territory. Just barely, were the voices of people like Efrain Diaz Arrivillaga, Ramon Custodio and the mothers of the tortured and executed, heard. Collaborationism, by action or omission, was the norm.

The awakening of ethnic minorities claiming their rights during this decade can be included in a continental and global context. By presenting their own initiatives in a peaceful way, they have questioned a paternal state and have caught the attention of mestizo Hondurans regarding their existence and problems.

The aspirations to put an end to impunity, the establishment of a Legal State and the prevalence of civilian society have marked the last years of the XX century. This signals that, at the beginning of a new millennium, we will have advanced towards harmony and the reign of justice.

Clarification regarding article published in Honduras This Week on Saturday, December 18, 1999.

1. There is no division of groups in La Mosquitia of Honduras. MOPAWI is a registered non government organization (NGO) with the mission to facilitate integrated human development and biodiversity conservation, it is not an ethnic group and does not represent one.

2. Land Rights. It is a reality that MOPAWI started, as part of its development work, to promote indigenous land rights within La Mosquitia around 1987. During the process of land rights negotiation, MASTA - one of the representative organization in La Mosquitia -- was strengthened to take the role of the negotiations with government officials. We as MOPAWI, are much satisfied that MASTA has taken this role and we count it as part of our success in community development in La Mosquitia.

3. Confusion among the communities. If some of the leaders are telling the people in the community that there is someone against the land titling process it is absolutely normal that the people will react in discontent. If there are leaders telling this about MOPAWI that is a manipulation, and it is not saying the truth. We don't blame the community for reacting to this type of manipulation. But we are totally confident that the truth shines on its own and sooner or later the people themselves will find out who is manipulating them. We invite any one that can show where MOPAWI is "supporting ladino colonization in indigenous communities" as denounced in the article quoting the Raya declaration.

4. A brief recount of the process of land rights negotiations for La Mosquitia is presented here:

- Identification of the issue of land rights in La Mosquitia. As MOPAWI started working on community development in 1985, it became evident that there were not legal land rights established for the local people in La Mosquitia. The land in the entire region was, and still is, classified as national land. The people found themselves unaware of this reality. In the absence of an organized community group, MOPAWI invited members of different zones in the region to visit government offices in Tegucigalpa to start finding out how to solve the land rights breach. We also visited the Tolupan of Yoro and the Pesch of Nueva Subirana for an interchange of experiences regarding land rights, since they had their lands titled in the 1860's by Father Subirana. After this interchange we traveled to the agricultural frontier and navigated the Platano, Patuca and Paulaya Rivers to observe the advancement of deforestation into the tropical rain forest towards La Mosquitia.

-The above experiences gave place to creating the Land Legalization Program within MOPAWI in 1988 to start lobbying for land titles for La Mosquitia in 1988 to start lobbying for land titles for La Mosquitia. In this sense MOPAWI did not "put up a sign in the Puerto Lempira office" as mentioned by Buenaventura Calderon and quoted by Fiallos in the 18 December article. Our land legalization program was ended after 1992 and became the Local Organization Strengthening Program. We worked hard and started a process that has resulted in the present agreement on land titling signed by INA and MASTA. This process went through the following steps among others:

- In 1987, the Federacion Indigena Tawahka de Honduras was created with the collaboration of Ms. Von Finckstein, a volunteer assigned to MOPAWI by the IGFM Association of Germany.

- A fifteen day expedition on the Platano River was completed in 1988 to document the front of colonization in the area of Tilopo - Waraska (Video "El Dilema de la Biosfera del Rio Platano")

- The coastal communities of the Platano Reserve get organized in 1989 as the Comite Vigilante de Tierras (CVT) later to become RAYAKA, one of MASTA'S Federations.

- First negotiations undertaken with INA to obtain three land "warrants" of about 6,000 hectares each: one for the Tawakhas, one for the Miskitos, and one for the Pesch.

- In 1990-91 Dr. Herlihy from Louisiana University in association with the Instituto Hondureno de Antropologia e Historia (IHAH), FITH and MOPAWI, studies the subsistence lands of the Tawahka in Rio Patuca and finds out that the required land for the Tawahka's subsistence is around 78,000 hectares, about 13 times more than they had been assigned by INA. This is the first mapping experience of indigenous lands in Honduras. The study and the maps were the basic material used to draft the first proposal for the Tawahka Biosphere Reserve, recently legalized by the National Congress.

- A fifteen day expedition on the Paulaya River was completed in 1991 to document the front of deforestation and colonization in the area of the Sico - Paulaya valley. Written report by Simon Cremer.

- In 1992 and based in the work done with the Tawahkas, the entire area of La Mosquitia was mapped with support of Dr. Mac Chapin of Cultural Survivial (now Center for the Support of Native Lands.) Dr. Herlihy was again in charge of the mapping project and the process was coordinated by MOPAWI and MASTA. This process together with the information gathered during the three expeditions was key in the promotion and development of the seven federations of MASTA and for the development of the land legalization proposals presented to the government by MASTA since 1994 to date.

- From 1991 to 1994 all seven MASTA federations had been formed with support form MOPAWI.

- In 1994 the government of Honduras ratified the International Labor Organization's (ILO) Convention 169 and invited all indigenous peoples in a national convergence to present proposals regarding land rights titles. Since then MASTA has presented several versions of land rights proposals to the government of Honduras.

- In 1996 MOPAWI assisted FINMOS to reach an agreement with COHDEFOR for the usufructure of 68,000 hectares of land and forest for 40 years in benefit of 9 communities in the area of Mocoron to develop a community forest project.

- In 1999, MOPAWI has provided support to MASTA for the subscription of the agreement with INA, which has been signed recently for land titling in La Mosquitia. The project is being worked out in detail to achieve a participatory scheme with municipalities and other key stakeholders in the region.

MOPAWI is satisfied with the role that MASTA is playing in the land legalization process in La Mosquitia and is satisfied of the contribution that has made to this process, both as a contribution to the people of the La Mosquitia and as a contribution to the government of Honduras in the prevention of social conflicts around land tenure.

5. The Municipalities. In 1996 four new municipalities were created in La Mosquitia in addition to the existing two. MOPAWI has contributed to the local governments with the formation of the Unidad de Manejo Ambiental (UMA) within its structure and after Hurricane Mitch working together in reconstruction in the region. The municipalities are also interested in defining urban areas within their jurisdiction. MOPAWI is promoting an inclusive participatory process for land legalization and not an exclusive one. Other stakeholders to participate in the process are total of ethnic groups present: Miskitos, Tawahkas, Pesch, Garifunas, and Ladinos; different producers such as: farmers, ranchers, traditional leaders, and local authorities.

6. MOPAWI's contribution. Mopawi has contributed to the development process of the region in a modest way, without making proganda of it. In the fifteen years of presence its contributions have greatly influenced the history, culture, social organization, and economics of the region. Some of this contribution is briefly presented in the following lines:

- Bilingual Intercultural Education in Miskito - Spanish. Simultaneous to the land legalization and organizational promotion, Mopawi started the promotion of bilingual-intercultural education in early 1986, with the first negotiation of a specialized training course in bilingual education in the USA, negotiated with USAID, which happily accepted the initiative. A group of about 25 school teachers attended the course creating an environment for reflection and analysis on the importance of bilingual education. From 1987 to 1990, surveys were carried out to diagnose the real situation of education in La Mosquitia, which showed the inefficiency of the current monolingual education for La Mosquitia. In 1990, the Secretary of Education (SE) welcomed the initiative of bilingual education. The Committee for Bilingual Education of La Mosquitia was formed, facilitated by Paul Stephenson, a volunteer assigned by Tearfund UK to Mopawi. Two teachers were assigned by the SE as technical staff of the committee. Mopawi has covered expenses for training courses, production of materials and the assignment of a linguistics specialist with sponsorship of international groups such as the Kellogg's Foundation, Tearfund and the Methodist Church. Twenty elementary schools have been integrated to the bilingual program and differences in efficiency are starting to be noticeable

- Sustainable Agriculture. Over 700 families have received support for the cultivation of Cacao and by September 1998 production of Cacao was around 300,000 pounds in the Patuca River becoming one of the main sources of income for these families. Cacao growers associated to shade crops as plantains, ingas, and precious woods, providing additional harvests of staple foods, firewood, and others.

- Microenterprise. Mopawi facilitates access to financing for starting small businesses, training in basic administration and management, and production techniques such as baking, cooking, sewing, motor repair and maintenance, boatbuilding, etc. Several Community Banks are operating mainly by women.

- Land legalization and organizational promotion and strengthening. This area has been presented above.

Critical opinions of Mopawi's work. Mopawi welcomes constructive and well intentioned critique. We even encourage our audience to do so. We recognize that we are not perfect but can improve effectiveness in many way. We welcome question opinions and comments to our work and methodologies, but we would appreciate that those making comments and critiques to our work would also take some time to visit and see our development work in the field.

The new millenium is about to be born. It really isn't such a big deal; after all, the Christian year 2001 is the Muslim year 1379, the Mayan year 5114 and the Jewish year 5762.

The new millenium is born on the first of January due to the whim and caprice of the senators of the Roman Empire, who one fine day decided to break the old tradition which ordered the new year to be celebrated with the beginning of spring. And the count of the years of the Christian era comes from another caprice: another fine day, the Roman pope decided to fixadate to the birth of Christ, although nobody knows when He was born.

Time mocks the limits we invent to help us believe the tale that time obeys our dictates; but the whole world celebrates and fears that frontier. It's an invitation to flight. A millenium comes, a millenium goes, offering a fine occasion for puffed-up orators to pontificate about human destiny, and for the spokes-persons of the wrath of God to announce the end of the world and the big final bang, while time continues without a word its steady trek down the length and breadth of eternity and mystery. The truth is that, faced with a date like this, arbitrary as it may be, we can't resist: we all experience the temptation to wonder what will be in the new time to be. And who knows what will be?

There is only one sure thing: in the twenty-first century, if we are still here, every one of us will be persons of the last century, and worse yet, persons of the last millenium. Although we can't prophesy about the time that will be, we at least have the right to imagine what we would like it to be. In 1948 and 1976 the United Nations proclaimed extensive lists of human rights; but the vast majority of humanity enjoys only the right to see, to hear and to shut up. What if we decide to put into practice the undeclared right to dream? What if we talk nonsense for a bit?

Let's focus our eyes beyond the common infamy and try to make out another possible world:

In the next millenium the air will be cleansed of all poison except that which comes from human fear and human passions; in the streets the cars will be run over by the dogs; people will not be driven by their cars nor programmed by their computers nor bought by the supermarket nor seen by their television. The television will cease to be the most important member of the family and will be treated like the iron or the washing machine; people will work to live instead of live to work.

The penal codes will incorporate the crime of stupidity, which is the crime committed by those who live to have or to make money, instead of living for living's sake, like the bird sings without knowing it is singing and the child plays wihtout knowing it is playing; in no country will the young men who refuse to do military service be thrown into jail, but rather those who want to do it; the economists won't give the name standard of living to the standard of consumption, nor will they confuse quality of life and quality of things.

Cooks won't believe that lobsters love being boiled alive; historians will cease to believe that countries delight in being invaded; politicians will no longer believe that the poor relish eating promises. Solemnity will cease to be considered a virtue and nobody will take seriously anyone who can't take a joke; death and money will lose their magic powers, and neither demise nor fortune will convert the scoundrel into a virtuous gentleman. No one will be considered a hero or a fool for doing what he believes is right instead of what profits him; the world will no longer be at war against the poor but against poverty, and the military industry will have no choice but to declare bankruptcy.

Food will not be merchandise nor communication a business, because food and communication are human rights; no one will die of hunger because no one will die of indigestion; street kids will not be treated as garbage because there won't be any street kids; rich kids won't be treated as if they were money because there won't be any rich kids; education won't be the privilege of those who can buy it; the police won't be the curse of those who can't buy them; justice and liberty, Siamese twins who have been condemned to live apart, will be joined together again back to back.

A black woman will be president of Brazil and another black woman will be president of the United States; an Indian woman will govern Guatemala and another Perú; in Argentina the crazy mothers of the Plaza de Mayo will be held up as exemplars of mental health, because they refused to forget in times of obligatory amnesia. Holy Mother Church will correct the typos in Moses' tablets and will restore the lost commandment: "Thou shalt love Nature, of which thou art a part"; and the deserts of the world and of the soul will be reforested.

The despairing will find hope and the lost will be found, those who despaired of so much waiting and who got lost while they were searching; we will be countrymen and contemporaries of all those who thirst for justice and seek beauty, no matter where they were born or where they lived or when they lived, and the frontiers of the map and of time will be worth not a whit. Perfection will continue to be the boring privilege or the gods; but in this thrown together and messed-up world every night will be lived as if it were the last and every day as if it were the first.

-Article by Eduardo Galeano, Teatro La Fragua News ulletin, December 1, 1999-.

Unfortunately, modern man is not prone to redistributing his profits with his fellow beings. Anything goes to save a penny, including the suffering of his neighbor. The new world man is the one that speaks big words like de-centralization and globalization which are no more than an economic utopia: unlimited profit and the monopoly of development. The crazy race for money has provoked dehumanization without precedent.

From our dream list to solve the problems of humanity, we bring to you some food for thought for this new era:

1. The petroleum industry ceases to be a political means and end.

2. Medicinal products approved by the World Health Organization become patent free for any country to produce.

3. All food surplus is donated to the neediest and a quota is established for nations damaged by a force of nature.

4. The world community establishes more efficient mechanisms to alleviate tension between countries.

5. The exploitation of the seas is effectively controlled and maritime borders are demarcated with prudence.

6. The world's religions are totally apolitical and non- commercial.

7. Birth control is stricter.

8. All forest and natural reserves are bigger and better protected.

9. Pesticides and chemical fertilizers are eliminated

10.A universal language is established but native tongues are respected.

11.All nations have a plan for international aid.

12.International aid plans have no clauses that favor any sector of its origin. Monetary and material help is unconditional.

13.Cases like the Nicaraguan pretensions over Honduras are resolved in days and not months, without costly trials.

14.Culture has no owners and is accesible to everyone without
restrictions.

15.Tirannies are fought.

16. New fuels are found for airplanes, cars and ships.

17. Communication media are oriented towards world peace and civil order.

18.Corruption is a universal crime and is tried in special tribunals.

Undoubtedly, man's dreams and aspirations are many but few can be handled. Man is being consumed by his fellow beings regardless of his background or religion. Every day man has less worth. Work is less rewarding while profits are greater. A kilo of bananas is not the same as kilo of computers, as we we said in a recent editorial.

We men have a lot to discuss if we want a long term relationship. Man is an animal of rare habits. One of these habits is the habit of adapting and tolerating and this is being lost.

In a world made up of jungle and forests and where the power of man is measured by his capability to destroy, it is necessary that we meditate in this self-destruction. International rules and norms of conduct do not exist. We are globally, without a doubt, highly disorganized.

Governing is critical, but it is even more difficult to select leaders to govern us. These are usually a gang of glorified and worshipped lunatics who cannot see beyond their noses.

In the past millenium, one day there was talk of liberty, equality and fraternity. Today, the words are the same but the values and concepts behind these words are different. They have particular, personal interests behind them. The french revolution could mean destruction and demoralization of many things to modern day politicians.

Thank God that we crossed into the new millenium. What changes are you dreaming of?

Letter to the Editor

Corruption Found Everywhere

There has been a lot of recent discussion of corruption in Honduras, stimulated by the publication of a survey made by the German Organization Transparency International which showed Honduras to be one of the most corrupt countries in Latin America. This study may or may not be true. I have not reviewed it. But in my experience, surveys frequently are designed to accommodate on organization's point of view. which may be very different from another point of view of the same situation. A good example is that there are numerous studies making ranking the desirability of various locations around the world for retirement living. If good climate and low cost of living are ranked heavily, then Honduras may rate very desirable. But if police response to problems, or quality of highways are ranked more heavily, then Honduras might not look good at all. At the end, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Some time ago I was involved in the management of an independent petroleum refining operation in the United States. There was a very interesting business venture tied into the refinery. A licensed waste water disposal well was taking the waste water from the refinery and pumping it into a very deep salt water aquifer of no potential value as a water source. We paid for the disposal based on a charged per volume of waste disposed. Waste water contained mostly crude oil contaminants that are washed out in the refining operation. If the refinery is operated incorrectly, significant volumes of good crude oil can be sent to disposal also.

The waste water disposal well was owned by a company that was in fact owned by local politicians, and also partly by business interest owned by a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives. At the waste disposal site, a system had been installed to collect and separate any crude oil that was discharged by the refining before the waste was transferred to the disposal well. The oil that was recovered could be resold to anyone wishing to buy it.

One of my first projects was to improve refining operations to virtually eliminate crude oil discharges with waste water. At $20 per barrel or more, a lot of money was at sake. Not long after we stopped discharging oil, we received a visit by a local politician who noted that since we'd stopped discharging crude, the disposal operation was unprofitable. We were advised that if we didn't liberalize oil discharges, they'd have to shut down the well. Of course, this would have shut our refinery down, because without a legal way to dispose of waste water, we'd be out of business.

Well, we weren't willing to discharge crude, so we had to negotiate the purchase of the disposal well from a very weak bargaining position (we had to buy the well, almost whatever the cost).

On reflection. I realized that this setup had actually been created by the refinery's previous owner, who may have wanted to funnel some money under the table to the politicians in return for some other benefits such as better crude supply (at which he succeeded), faster environmental permitting, and the like. I have the strongest suspicion that many such concessions are made all over the world. Some of the worlds astute politicians probably are making equally obscure and profitable deals like this everywhere.

The process of government all over the world lends itself to foster corruption. Governments controls the process of permitting, regulations, taxes-just everything any business needs to pay or do to operate. Government decisions and rule modifications always have the impact of helping or hindering one organization or group of people at the expense of another. With this life or death power over business at the stroke of a pen, corruption is natural outcome.

Transparency is highly desirable, as it makes corruption harder to hide. However, there are many smart people who will figure ways sufficiently complex to hide corruption. The waste water scheme I came across was one of these. And there's nothing the businessman being robbed can do. If he blows the whistle, and calls the press or television the most probable outcome is that the silver tongued politicians involved will slither out of the problem, but the business many be lost forever.

Human nature is such that there are crooks everywhere. My personal suspicion is that the more powerful and complex a government is , the greater will be the corruption, regardless of how well it may be hidden.

Nevertheless, corruption must be aggressively rooted out as effectively as possible. Locations with less corruption are obviously more desirable places to do business. Making your location in a good and easy place to do business works wonders. It created growth and prosperity. We sure need that in Honduras. And you know, it could happen.

After living in Honduras for 16 years I came to love the country as if it was my own. I may be Canadian by birth but I am definitely Honduran by heart!

I just started logging on to Honduras This Week in the last few weeks and wanted you all to know how much I appreciate the opportunity to find out about what is going on in "our" beautiful country.

I know with hard work and a little faith the situation in Honduras will improve. Hopefully, soon, I'll be able to return for a visit to see the progress that has been made.

Best wishes to all of you. Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year!

By MARIO R. ARGUETA

Some of the eras in our national history are in chiaroscuro: beams of bright light mixed with impenetrable darkness, great heights and then an abyss, greatness and humiliations. There are acts of which we are legitimately proud and others which are hideous. Let us review the first.

Political independence, first from Spain and then from Mexico, (1821 and 1823) meant we began to define an uncertain future of our own, following a path that was both full of optimism and also of cruel disillusions. Historian Jose Reina Valenzuela is responsible for rescuing from oblivion those Hondurans who tried to break the colonial tie.

It was the First Constitutional Assembly's task to write our first Constitution and to begin to organize the State and administration, choosing into power one of our founding fathers, Dionisio de Herrera, as the first president. This occurred in 1824. That year began the slow construction of the public sector.

It was a civilian who had to defend the State's rights in the face of the interference of the Federal Government. This man defeated Federal envoy Jose Justo Milla in the battle of La Trinidad (1827). It was Francisco Morazan who entered Central American history as its most decisive figure.

The capture of Guatemala City, the hub of privilege and elitist domain, by the Ejercito Aliado Protector de la Ley or the Law Protector Allied Army in 1829, started the Revolucion Morazanista, chronologically the first in Hispanic America with a new vision of what the Central American destiny should be. The first liberal generation emerged with all of its successes and all of its errors: Francisco Antonio Marquez, Jose Antonio Marquez, Joaquin Rivera, Diego Vigil, Dionisio de Herrera, Jose Cecilio del Valle, the Barrundia brothers, Mariano Galvez, Pedro Molina, Cirilo Flores and so many others who fought for their own ideas from Los Altos to San Jose.

The Vueltas del Ocote revealed the grandeur and political realism of Morazan when he peacefully convinced the rebels from Olancho to give up their arms in exchange for autonomous concessions from the Federal President (1830), which avoided a war amongst brothers.

The founding of the National University by catholic priest Jose Trinidad Reyes during the Lindo administration (1847), marked the advancement of education.

The attempt by the filibuster William Walker to take over the isthmus was beaten back by the five Central American states. President Guardiola sent a small contingent, commanded by Florencio Xatruch and Lucio Alvarado which contributed decisively in the defeat of the North Americans. Briefly, Central America united efforts in the face of a common menace. Since then, 1856, our compatriots were known as the "xatruchos" or catrachos.

One of the most brilliant milestones in our national diplomacy was the signing of the Lennox Wyke-Cruz treaty with Great Britain in 1859, making the Bay Islands a part of the Honduran Territory.

The Soto administration (1876-1883) reorganized the nation, creating new legislation in accordance with new objectives: transforming the country into a modern, capitalistic state. The leader had in his ranks the talent and energy of those who Ramon Oqueli named, a "decisive generation": Ramon Rosa, Adolfo Zuniga, Carlos Alberto Ucles, Rafael Alvarado Manzano, among others. The "Positivismo" was, for many decades, the intellectual force of the national project.

On the economic plane, it was not until the 60's that a region, on the fringes, unpopulated and unsanitary, was colonized by pioneers from Comayagua and Santa Barbara willing to endure hardships, a brazen sun, torrential rains and tropical jungles. All this was to begin the cultivation of bananas, taking advantage of the fertile river basins of the North Coast. The territorial frontier was expanding with the agricultural and commercial labor of visionaries, Honduran and foreign.

Socially, it was two hundred years ago that the Garifuna people or Black Caribs arrived in Honduras from Saint Vincent (and the Cayman Islands? JFMc.) making a stop on the Bay Islands. The country's ethnic diversity was enriched as was its culture. They settled the coast from Omoa to Colon. Some moved inland and others left for New York.

One hundred years ago, the first Palestinians arrived. At first they lived in the south and then they moved to all areas of the country. They became the most successful racial group, commercially and industrially. Their descendants have identified themselves as Hondurans, forming the nucleus of the bourgeoisie.

In the past century, illustrious Hondurans: Dionisio de Herrera and Juan Lindo were presidents of El Salvador. They and others like Jose Trinidad Cabanas and Policarpo Bonilla embraced the Unionist ideal in an effort to recreate the Central American nation. We must not forget that the region's two greatest sons, Morazan and Valle were born here, amongst the pine forests and plains.

To sum up, we have honorable pages in our past that are an example and pride. Our children and grandchildren deserve to know them.