The Honduran Minister of Defense, Edgardo Dumas, said last week that the "the Armed Forces have opened their doors to the Comptroller General's Office to be investigated." This headline from La Tribuna would have been impossible to print 20 years ago, when the military had absolute control inside and outside their doors.

Minister Dumas has demonstrated with his statements that the total supremacy of civilian power over the military is an irrefutable fact. National defense is in the hands of a civilian who has received the full cooperation of the military without any restrictions. At the same time, the minister said that "this is a revolution of truth," meaning that the military are subject to investigation by the corresponding agencies of the state.

This, as we have said before, is in accordance to the present circumstances of the country that demand an exact accounting of the internal proceedings of the Armed Forces (FF.AA.), because it is a national investment that derives from the sacred taxes of the Honduran people.

Democracy is democracy when we all know about it and act in accordance to its principles and ends. The chief of the FF.AA. is a lawyer "sin pelos en la lengua," that is, he is not afraid or shy of saying anything, and he loves the law and good customs. His mandate has not had any crisis and has been vertical, placing the law first and the selfish interests of the dealers-turned-military last. The evolution of the military lately has been historical, and we could say that the internal restructuring has been well taken by all but a few.

The crisis with Nicaragua regarding the maritime boundary has been a clear demonstration of the pacifist spirit, to a normal extent, that today embodies the military. The military are to coordinate joint patrolling of the oceans after a solomonic compromise was reached.

In the past, we have written many bad things about the Honduran Armed Forces. On this occasion, we are not going to praise their conduct because they are human beings subject to human codes of conduct. We do, though, recognize their advancement toward the strengthening of our democracy and this we praise.

Those days of anguish are over when the military spent their time waiting for advancement and becoming chiefs. This seems to have become secondary. What is most important now, is justifying their salaries and showing exemplary citizenship.

Nothing is forever and things are changing for the better.

A few years back, some friends and I pooled our money and purchased an old dilapidated "house" on the waterfront in beautiful downtown Puerto Castilla, Colon. The place had been a beer joint and dance hall downstairs, with "hotel rooms" upstairs. It was in need of many repairs, but it was perfect for us, as we all like to ride motorcycles and the big concrete dance floor was great for working on our bikes.

After lots of hard work and considerable expense, we turned the upstairs into a place we really liked and could be comfortable in. We had a big area open to the sea and spent many pleasant nights admiring the lights of Trujillo across the Bay.

Then came Mitch. The eye of the storm passed right over our place and, needless to say, did considerable damage. While we were trying to patch the place up, our watchman left us. A few days later, we met Dr. Steve Foster, the head of "Corazon a Corazon," who was in the area delivering aid to the unfortunates in the Mosquitia. He offered to use our place as his headquarters and not only to guard it, but said he would fix it up also. We trusted him and left him with it.

Once when the doctor and his crew had to be gone for a few days, he hired a watchman from Guanaja by the name of Erik Moore. Big mistake. This "watchman" proceeded to steal and sell everything he could, including the doctor's boat. Dr Foster did everything he knew how to have Moore arrested, to no avail. Soon after this, Dr. Foster and crew abandoned our house without bothering to notify us until months later.

When Moore heard that our house had no guard, he returned and completely stripped the place, even stealing the windows and toilets. He hired a boatman in Trujillo to haul the booty to Guanaja. From the sheer quantity of stuff that he took (refrigerators, beds, furniture, diesel generator, windsurfers, etc.), this must have taken some time -- days even. He was arrested for riding one of our motorcycles and crashing it, but was released the next morning so he could get on with his stealing.

The police in Honduras are very good at harassing motorists on the highway and collecting bribes for imaginary infractions, but God help you if you expect them to carry out the duty's they are supposed to.

Watch out for Erik Moore. He's not worried about the cops.

Doug Breeding
Ex-Honduras visitor
via Internet

By ALEJANDRA PAREDES

Special to Honduras This Week

Learning to speak, read and write in the English language is very important for young Hondurans, as it is for other cultures of the world at this point in time. The reasons for this are numerous, but I will stress two I consider most important. First, English is a powerful tool for education in every field. Second, the increasing number of foreigners who visit Honduras, especially from the United States and Europe, makes it important for locals to have knowledge of English as a second language.

All throughout the 20th century, the United States created a way of life where information played a leading role. Newsletters, magazines and textbooks were developed (and still evolve online) to instruct and inform on the various fields of human knowledge.

This vast existence of information resources published in the English language explore and inform extensively on every theme imaginable. Medicine, science, history, art, entertainment, sports, finances, humanitarian causes, current events. In order to be updated on these and many more subjects, full command of the English language is a must for the young professional and entrepreneur.

Another good reason for speaking English here, is that Honduras is a country with a promising future in tourism, as well as business. In the middle of America, Honduras is a country likely to undergo important industrial, as well as touristic growth. Its proximity to the United States and access by sea to both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans makes this even more likely.

So, in order to communicate with the visitors, it is important for the locals to be in good command of the language. And it is a fact that English is the most popular of second languages in places as far away as India and Japan.

In this era of technology and communication, business and travel, the English language is a powerful tool for investigation, development and communication. It is also a crucial language to get together with the members of other cultures and share impressions, thoughts and knowledge.

It is hard to determine the quality of the water in our country since the sources used are many. Water quality control is barely kept in the big cities where there is also no supply for approximately 30 percent of the population.

In the 1950s, the administration of water was the main problem stated and solved in the newly created nation of Israel. Water was taken directly from the source and supplied to the deserts, making them the oases of today. The desalinization of sea water has also been used with good results, guaranteeing the high standard of living of that country.

In Honduras, on the contrary, the solution to the problem is seen in quantity. The rationale seems to be the more water there is, the better quality it has. For this reason, among others, the infant mortality rate has always been high. When giving babies powdered milk, parents trust the milk and the water, having little or no knowledge of the concept of water purification. There is also the national electricity factor. Much of the energy produced in the country is used -- or misused -- in the necessary boiling of water.

Massive deforestation in the hands of so many irresponsible people, as is customary and apparently unstoppable, is drying up water sources. This, plus the population boom and migration from rural areas to the cities, weighs heavily on the nation's water infrastructure. In our country, this migration has reached critical levels. For example, Tegucigalpa has grown at an uncontrolled rate. In 1960, the population was 250,000. Today, it is more than one million, with few changes in the water system design. And growth continues without any end in sight.

For all of this, there is no clear future. All we hear is that there will be water rationing again, like every year, since we are in the middle of the dry season. This is the season when we pay nature's bill, the toll of our environment's deterioration. They tell us that we have to use water rationally. What we do not hear is that there are massive reforestation projects or that there are plans on the way to make our water supplies more efficient and trustworthy.

Water is dirty and scarce. Conserve it and what you intake, boil first. The whole country's supply needs treatment.

The Prairie Populist

By ERLING DUUS CHRISTENSEN

Suppose you were asked to determine what percentage of the adult population in a modern democratic society must have a profound grounding in the liberal arts in order for that society to be successful in solving its problems and nurturing its culture. What would you say? My answer would be that no less than 15-20 percent needs to answer to that description, and constitute a genuine educated intellectual elite.

However, it is my belief that despite the massive spending on education in the United States, substantially less than 10 percent, perhaps no more than 5 percent actually qualify. The fact is that education in America is not oriented toward creating intellectual elites, but instead generates financial elites, and is otherwise oriented toward educating the democratic masses toward being worthy cogs and aggressive if gullible participants in the consumer society.

The Honduran educational system is a pale copy of the failed framework so disastrously established in the United States. An informal poll of Honduran friends yields the estimate that here the number would be less than 5 percent, perhaps as small as 1 or 2 percent. It is the belief of this writer that the European educational system, less "democratic" but with much higher standards, comes closer than countries in this hemisphere to creating the requisite intellectual leaders a democratic society needs.

In Honduras, as in the States, many people look to education as the antidote to the problems that plague the country, but there is a lack of attention to the quality of education that is available. A good part of the problem is that there are in the country few, if any, viable examples of high quality education. The country badly needs some "elite" schools. But the very concept of an elite in Honduras gives false signals, and challenges known realities.

There are a few bilingual schools here that are thought of as being elite: the American School in Tegucigalpa, and possibly Los Pinares and Del Campo as well. Mazapan in La Ceiba is considered an elite school, as is the International School in San Pedro Sula. And, to some extent, any bilingual school and some parochial schools in the country are thought of as being more or less for the elite. But what elite means in this context is quite simply schools for the affluent. The elite status that this dissertation is calling for should be based on excellence, not wealth.

The reality is that all bilingual schools open their doors to virtually any student whose parents are able to pay the tuition. A history of academic failure or bad conduct is normally not enough to prevent the matriculation of a student. In some schools, students are actually accepted at the secondary level who speak or read little or no English. Depending on the situation, a certain number in any class are motivated to learn and are significantly intelligent. From my experience of teaching in four Honduran bilingual schools, I can say that their number in any given class can range from 5 percent to 30 percent. The majority almost never fit this description. Therefore, the class dynamic is invariably one in which the non-motivated predominate, and often set the tone.

When students move on to the university, this situation does not change very much. Admission to Honduran higher education institutions is not competitive, so admission is open to essentially everybody who had graduated from a secondary school. Of course, in the private schools, the ability to pay is a qualifying factor. But exclusion is not made on the basis of a lousy record, or a lack of intelligence or motivation. Once again, the gifted and creative student is subjected to an environment designed for the average, or below average student.

At all levels it is clear that the educational system favors the mediocre students, no doubt because there are so many of them. This is obvious in the infamous recuperacion exams instituted by the ministry of education. A student, either for reasons of thick-headedness, or laziness, can fail most of his classes, but then during the summer take recuperacion tests. In these, he is given some information in advance that he has a chance to more or less memorize (if there is one thing the Honduran student is trained to do it is to memorize), and so he comes to take the test, and behold, an entire school year of learning little or nothing, and failing everything in sight is miraculously wiped out and off the record, while the student moves on victoriously to the next grade, where the same pattern often repeats itself.

And after a few years, this veteran of many a recuperacion test has become a graduate, and he enters the university to "continue" his studies, where he will probably survive by paying other people to do his work, or engage in other forms of the cheating grotesquely common, especially at the national university.

The greatest price to be paid for an educational system that embraces and rewards mediocrity involves what happens to the gifted, creative, and motivated student. This student is rarely challenged, finds it too easy to get good grades, and fails to develop his or her potential. Worse, the student is likely to develop the suspicion that intelligence and hard work are not really critical to the process, since mediocrity and dishonesty appear to offer no impediment to advancement.

Somehow, the Honduran society must conspire to establish educational institutions at every level to which students cannot be admitted without a demonstration of high aptitude and motivation, and where continuance is dependent upon performance. Such schools should be in a position to enroll students who are not from affluent homes, as well as those who are. Such schools would generate the kinds of leaders the nation needs, and have the general effect of raising standards and expectations throughout the entire country. Above all, it would establish learning communities of intelligence, excellence, and dedication as an alternative to communities of indulgence, privilege, and indifference.

By CHRISTIANA CASEBOLT

In comparison to the many other complaints or issues that need to be addressed in Honduras, machismo may seem to be just a small problem. However, I believe that the disrespect shown for women by the way men harass them with words -- piropos, and the obvious movement of their heads as their radar zooms in on some innocent lady's behind, are indicators of a deeper problem with more than one negative effect on society.

From my own personal experience, adding mens' unsolicited comments -- whether they come from taxi drivers, bank guards or the random friendly-looking man in a nice suit -- to the poor children begging for lempiras and the ever present danger of getting mugged can make a woman a bit paranoid when walking in the city.

I'm sure that many of my other foreign friends would agree this phenomenon is definitely a problem that affects them. The problem is that many Honduran women accept that asi es la vida (that is life) and some don't even consider piropos insulting, depending on the guy. I guess it is not so strange that this happens, seeing as this is the reality in which they have grown.

Still, it's depressing to see how a woman's worth is based solely on her appearance. Guys, for their part, have to deal with keeping up their macho image in front of their friends, and bringing the money. This division between the sexes and classes is destructive for a productive society as well. It is all about image, and as they say, appearances are deceptive.

Age doesn't seem to be an impediment, either. Many times we foreigners have to learn from first-hand experience that the amicable, old man isn't just making friendly conversation. It is another sad reality to have to accept the fact that you can't trust any person of the opposite sex unless they are about 6 years old. It may seem like they are just being friendly, offering you help, but if you accept it, it could be at worst dangerous for you and at the least they are probably hoping to develop a romantic relationship.

There are so many freedoms that we lose due to this ideology, especially the women. We must always worry about our safety when alone and put up with disgusting gestures and noises from people we don't know. This is another sickness that Hondurans must work on and try to recover from.

I believe the solution lies in beginning to respect first oneself and from there everyone else. We must respect everyone, children, elders, women and men, the poor and the rich, and value them for what they are, not for what they look like.

In Central America, many of these financieras have caused the economic crash of families and investors who have trusted these investment houses, seeking greater interest rates. They all believed that they were backed up by said institutions or the government.

The interest rate return these financieras offer has been too high and disproportionate since our national private enterprise has not yet found its safe niche in the face of monster markets that offer unbearable competition and surplus products dirt cheap. That is, that our private enterprise fails against these high volume markets, with high operating costs and high expectations from the financieras that can be more agile than normal banks.

Our private sector and the financial institutions like banks and said financieras lack something that our universities cannot give them, which is a moral code of business ethics. There are people in this world and in our country who do have ethics in business but it would appear they are scarce.

In this absence of honor, many operations are circumscribed to purely legal matters that become burdensome to the investor as well as to the institution. It is not healthy to work in an atmosphere of distrust.

The mismanagement of funds by the owners of BANCORP, a national bank, which left many frustrated creditors and the government's inability to act with clarity and determination, has left a bad aftertaste and many doubts.

There are many Honduran institutions capable of fulfilling their moral and financial commitments. But still, the flaws and weaknesses in the system became evident when many investors found out that their investments were just numbers on paper and that BANCORP's operators worked in bad faith.

Any economy analyst can see that the higher the interest rate, the higher the risk. But risk is the word that all fail deliberately to mention. Our investors must be well informed because information is vital.

The frustrated investor can do very little here. Few are willing to fend for their rights. Many believe that the all investors are profiteers themselves and that they deserved what came to them. But we know this is not true. Many lost their pensions where there is no pity.

Our deficient legal structure rears its head. It cannot outmaneuver the powerful tricksters who created companies with deliberate bankruptcy in mind.

Guess who is going to pay for this?

For starters, the investors. But the snowball effect is not exclusive for them. The State will also pay when it tries to recover from these blows. The BCH must also double its watch and the Honduran private sector will pay for international distrust.

We wish to emphasize the importance of having a strong and clear law as tradition, a real work spirit and much dignity to give momentum to our good country.

Not so long ago in our history, a huge institution called BANFINAN went bankrupt. Not too many people remember this but the shockwaves are still being felt in our economy. On another occasion, dollar accounts were frozen in the banks and one could only take out the equivalent in lempiras. What next, trying to hide the sun with one finger...

The Prairie Populist

By ERLING DUUS CHRISTENSEN

The tourists from Lima swarm over the water temple of Tambo Machay... a thin stream of water, sacred to the Incas, flows from the rock as in other days, but this flock of revelers has not come to worship. Then, why have they come?

One young man draws away from the crowd to a high place to sit and think. We meet there and exchange glances. He takes some of the edges from my anger. One. At least one chooses to remove himself from the crowd and their clicking cameras, the mindless laughter, and raucous shouts. There is more in his being here than in the accumulated nullity of the rest.

There are a few campesino mothers and children gathered on the edges of the crowd with their proud, quiet llamas. They hope to sell some of their handiwork, or make a little money posing with their animals. They are picturesque and dear beyond expression, but the self-absorbed barbarians from the city, smug with the superiority of money, race, and Lima, ignore them.

It is sad to see young children converted from the games of childhood into dogged, relentless hustlers. But perhaps the corruption is not deep-reaching, is merely a strategy for survival, leaving the spirit in camouflage. I experiment with this thought.

Sitting against a large rock, I respond to the pleadings and demands of one young girl by pulling her toward me and asking for her name. Suddenly the brisk, impassive mask breaks, and something soft and secret stirs. Her voice softens, shyness enters her eyes, and she whispers, "Maria," and is quickly gone.

"And now the spoiler is come," wrote the rock-bound poet Jeffers in another context. "But does it care? Not slightly. It has all time."

Jeffers was describing the impersonal beauty of nature, not campesinos and their animals in the Andes, but his lines suddenly resonate. THEY have all time. The bendings and the contortions of the Andinos in the necessities of survival may be painful, but are on the surface. In the deep places, the calm is unruffled, the river run deeps.

The Limenos on their busy coast party on toward an undignified destruction, the poison flows in shallow ditches without outlet. In the deluge, it seems a tumult, but then dissolves...

I read W.E. Gutman's article, "Is Democracy Wasted on Hondurans?", in the March 11 issue with great interest. He spoke of the permissive acceptance of Hondurans to the evils and short comings of their leaders. I was almost mesmerized by his words and thoughts until suddenly a ball of bile realization rose in my throat and shifted my attention to the fact that one could replace the word Hondurans with Americans, British, Germans, or for that matter almost any national people.

In the United States, we the people consistently accept the lesser of the evils at the polls. We too forget the promises made during elections and accept far less that what we bargained for. We allow our most important leaders to lie, cheat, steal and commit a multitude of political wrongdoings. On a rare occasion one of our politicians is charged, tried and convicted. Then they are sentenced to a country club prison for normally one fourth (if that much) of their sentence and then quietly released.

Is democracy wasted on Hondurans? Is democracy wasted on North Americans? I hardly think so! I am in Honduras because I am an American. I can chose where I go, who I go with and what I do (within the constraints of legal behavior).

No one told me where to attend university. No one told me what I had to study. No one tells me where I must live or what I must do for a living. No one tells me when, where or how to worship my God. I am free -- a part of democracy.

Democracy is never wasted -- to fully understand that statement Mr. Gutman must pay a visit (if allowed) to Iraq, Syria, Vietnam, or North Korea. Then, I believe, he would agree, democracy is never wasted.

Does corruption exist in Honduras? Certainly it does! Does corruption exist in the United States? Certainly it does! Do politicians lie to the people? Certainly some of them do, but one can't judge all by the conduct of a minority.

With respect to the fundamental responsibility of making politicians accountable for their promises, I, along with millions of U.S. citizens, must plead guilty to malfeasance. We just don't hold them accountable for their promises or their actions either, for that matter. But we are still a democracy and I contend that it is not wasted.

Mr. Gutman, please continue with your provocative articles, say what you want -- about whom you want and when you want -- that is democracy at its best in a vacuum or in earth's gravity. Democracy is never wasted.

Marvin Bell
via Internet

It was refreshing to read an article of that nature published in an English publication. In the 80s and early 90s such comments would have landed the publisher in jail or permanently disappeared. Either way, it is nice to see writers express their ideas freely without any interference from the government.

But I must remind the writer that each and every time we Hondurans have tried to liberate ourselves from the tyranny of the evil forces that stole our nation under the pretence of free market economy or democracy, the writers of his caliber either fail to show the intellectual support needed in a revolution, or, they join the reactionary forces of the government in condemning the actions taken by those who are at the forefront of the struggle.

Nonetheless, I must agree with the writer, perhaps democracy is being wasted in Hondurans. Mr. Gutman's point is well taken but perhaps he could help a little in the awakening of the Honduran people, perhaps he could remind Hondurans that being so passive is not always good for the mind, that maybe, just maybe, if we awaken to the realities around us we would have a better government, responsive to the needs of the people.

But he has a talent and a position he can use, Mr. Gutman can write. Perhaps he could start awakening people by making them aware of their rights guaranteed to them under the Constitution.

By W. E. GUTMAN

With news proliferating well beyond the public's capacity to digest it fully and critically -- be it about depravity, crimes against humanity or bloody conflicts in faraway places -- it is easy to forget that collecting that information can be hard and often dangerous work.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), 33 journalists were killed in 1999 -- one-third more than the previous year when 24 journalists were killed in 17 countries. The New York-based CPJ, which compiles the annual list and investigates crimes against members of the media, notes a striking trend toward "silencing the witnesses to wars, atrocities and corruption."

The largest single number of journalists this year -- 10 in all -- lost their lives covering Sierra Leone's brutal civil war. Other journalists died of the hazards of venturing into war zones. While high-profile international newsmen and women are always at risk, it is often the local purveyors of news who have most to fear. Take the very recent case of my old friend and colleague, Jose Eduardo Zarco.

"Chepe" Zarco, the former editorial director of Guatemala's premier newspaper, Prensa Libre, now a television producer, was the subject of death threats on Feb. 4. The threats came soon after Zarco was forced to cancel his much-acclaimed tele-revista, "T-mas de Noche," an action he blames on "political pressure" exerted on Channel 13 owner Angel Gonzalez to suspend Zarco's program. Zarco is convinced -- and independent evidence suggests -- that Guatemalan government officials, including newly elected President Alfonso Portillo, forced Gonzalez to terminate the show.

Two days later, Zarco left Guatemala for El Salvador. He released a communique stating that he had "definite reason to believe" that government pressure had been brought to bear against him. Zarco also asserts that Gonzalez had called him numerous times earlier in the year to say that he was "tired of getting calls from the government saying that President Portillo did not like the show and asking him to cancel it."

On Feb. 8, Portillo announced that he had met with Gonzalez. What transpired during the meeting is not clear at this writing but will reviewed in a future edition.

What is clear in the unceasing tug-of-war between truth and obfuscation, transparency and chicanery, is that in Guatemala (and the rest of the Isthmus, for that matter) journalists are increasingly being viewed as "political actors."

According to CPJ Latin American Desk specialist, Marylene Smeets, "the press now fills a void left by the weakness of other political institutions. [Victims] of crime report it to the press, not the police; people with political complaints send letters to newspapers, not to Congress." This phenomenon, in nations not known for unfettered news coverage, has created a perception of members of the media, not as impartial messengers but as contestants -- if not co-conspirators -- in the political struggles within polarized societies.

There is a crasser and more insidious side to journalism in Central America. Good news helps generate and boost advertising revenues. It also invites paid government ads and a condescending if eager reliance on more good news from the paper, magazine or network. Bad news does the opposite. Countless publications have been subdued, then obliterated by unhappy advertisers. Pointing fingers at a crooked or incompetent cop will have no effect on advertising. Exposing corruption or ineptitude in high places will. A first-person account of this writer's experiences with Islena Airlines, for example, never got into print. His exposes on police violence or the incarceration of minors with adults were published verbatim. The consequences of having to balance journalistic integrity against financial well-being ultimately do journalism incalculable harm.

Yes, honest journalists are a disruptive and subversive force and influence. They ask people to look at the obvious and question what is NOT being said. They point at a manifest reality that no one wants to behold. They view freedom, like George Orwell, as "the right to tell people what they do not want to hear." And, like Socrates, they are doing more than anyone else to establish the principle that, in a free society, everything must be open to inquiry and scrutiny. It is such fractious doctrine that doomed Socrates to the hemlock; it is the same passion for truth that exposes journalists to violence everywhere.

Cables are attached to a bus so that it can be removed from the collapsed bridge. (Photo by Mario Gutiérrez.)

It is regrettable that in Third World countries like ours things turn out just like that: Third World.

Right after Hurricane Mitch, we proposed that all bridges be built of stone, not to criticize the Bailey-type bridges that were being put up due to the emergency. We mentioned the many advantages that stone bridges have, like the Ponte Vecchio in Rome, over which we walked many evenings. This bridge is over 1,500 years old and is standing there like the first day, showing not only strength but beauty.

One needs not to be a very scholarly person or an analyst to understand that public works must offer safety and long-term savings. Added to this, stone bridges are made with 100 percent Honduran materials and labor.

Anyway, the first victim, which was announced, was the bridge named after our renowned poet, Juan Ramon Molina. The bridge gave in to the negligence of the heavy vehicle drivers as well as to the lack of maintenance. This particular spot in the city withstood the passage of no less than 42,000 vehicles each day. The excellent metal structure lasted just over one year after U.S. President Bill Clinton officially inaugurated it as an act of solidarity. During his speech, Mr. Clinton recited one of the best works of the poet Molina.

Meanwhile, the hotel and business owners of Roatan in the Bay Islands, demand that the Tourism Office improve the dock for big cruise ships. These cannot dock appropriately and international tour operators have threatened to weigh anchor and erase us from the map as a tourism destination. In this case, it is plain government negligence and bureaucracy that obstructs healthy development in our country.

These are the kind of things that force us to stand guard and think big, patiently, as if all this was the Great Wall of China. In Honduras, very few things are monumental. Everywhere we look, we find works "made in improvisation" and "temporary." It is like trying to put a child's shirt on a big, fat man.

We must carefully think through, at every level, works that are real solutions, so as to immediately replace those that have accomplished their goals as temporary and provisional. We must remember the Bailey bridge that was installed in the Colonia El Prado in Tegucigalpa right after Hurricane Fifi in 1974. This bridge withstood hundreds of thousands of cars through the decades, without any maintenance, until Hurricane Mitch came in 1998. It was a record for Ripley's Believe it or not.

All this improvisation is no way to thank our friends and allies. We should have started to plan and build seriously, using our own materials. Also, with our tremendous unemployment rate, we have all the labor we need.

What is lacking to think big? The problem is the politicians who see in fast and easy solutions an opportunity to put their names on plaques everywhere, even if the works have not even been started.

It is not hard to give Roatan a dock, or to build solid bridges. It is a question of enthusiasm, a bit of money and the willingness to work hard.

Amid much controversy, land is being cleared for a new airport on the small island of Utila. The culprits: the Honduran government through SOPTRAVI and the mayor's office of Utila. (Photo by Gunther Kordovsky.)

By ERLING DUUS CHRISTENSEN

Some years ago in the United States, during the years when greed was officially sanctified, that is, the Reagan years, a concept evolved from government planners which called for the Great Plains to be designated "a national sacrifice area."

The notion was that this region was not productive enough, and was expendable as far as its human communities were concerned. These should be cleared away to make way for whatever projects the government, large corporations, and an expanding military might determine.

But the reaction to this when it first surfaced was so negative that it disappeared, at least formally. Most Americans did not really believe that their government would turn against its people in such a fashion.

The Honduran citizens from the island of Utila have never had much faith in their government, but nevertheless it would have been difficult for them to imagine that they might be targeted as a "national sacrifice area." But the thoughtful among them are concluding that this is exactly what has taken place. To tell this sordid and shocking tale of government corruption and criminality, a little history must first be reviewed.

Utila, a one-time British possession peopled historically by English-speaking folk, black and white, British citizens, was "returned" to Honduras along with the rest of the Bay Islands in 1861 for reasons of big power politics. This gratified somewhat the ego of the Honduran government, but otherwise the islands offered very little at that time which was of much interest.

Other than imposing the Spanish language on the natives as best they could, the government was content to mostly leave the islands alone. The islanders were glad to be left alone. They felt far closer to the British Caribbean, and increasingly to the United States. Over the decades that followed, nothing much happened to change this. Until recently, that is.

When this writer lived in Utila during the winter and spring of 1989, there was little tourism, and those who did come were usually church related, or were adventuresome people in search of places far off the beaten track.

But two years later, this situation had begun to change rapidly. This change was effected by social and economic developments, especially in Europe, and the creation of a spawn of highly alienated, but essentially conformist and affluent youth who sought, at least for a time, to escape the smothering strictures, vapid materialism and rigid traditions of their ancient countries. The collapse of communism and socialism in Europe had evaporated the last hope that there might be some alternative to the consumer society.

So these youths no longer hoped even slightly to create a better world. They were not, for the most part, either rebellious or idealistic. But they were in a position where they could more or less drop out, at least for a time. Their affluent societies afforded them the luxury of bumming around the world, on a small budget, perhaps, but nevertheless in a state of unconcern, and without the need to work. Some few of them were genuinely adventurous or curious, but most emphatically were not. What they did seek was some exotic, low budget, laid-back environment which they could Europeanize, where they could drink beer, smoke dope, and generally engage in a hedonistic life-style with others of their age and disposition without fear of restraint. Somewhere around 1992, they discovered Utila. Scuba diving and the underwater marvels of the coral reef provided the context, but the life style was the deeper attraction.

There was only one problem. Traditionally, Utila had always been a very conservative and moralistic society. When he had first arrived on the island 20 years earlier, Gunther Kordovsky had been arrested for walking down main street without a shirt. Scores of very righteous Methodist ladies kept track of people's behavior and let them hear about deviations.

Of course, there were, and are, members of the community who marched to a different drummer; these mostly men, hard-drinking and rough talking, who went to church, if at all, only on New Year's Eve, and for their own burial service. But even they were not rebels, and in theory at least they supported the standards of the Methodist ladies. They thought that others, their wives and daughters certainly, should live up to them.

Plainly then, if Utila was to become a backpacker's paradise, a gathering place for alienated, hedonistic European youth, the traditional Methodist culture of the island would have to give way, or at very least learn tolerance, a virtue heretofore not much embraced on the island.

There was another problem. A few Utilians had money or access to some, but if facilities were to be developed to cater to the needs of a growing group of visitors whose potential numbers began to seem unlimited, then money, a great deal of money would have to be found, a huge financial investment would have to be made.

However, this proved to be a surmountable obstacle. Over a period of a very few years, hotel and restaurant development of many kinds went up. Entrepreneurs from the United States, not to mention Denmark, Germany, and the Netherlands joined in with the locals in exploiting the opportunities. In no time at all the traditional culture was either co-opted or overwhelmed.

How much of a tragedy one thinks this is will depend upon how much one valued the old. Utila has certainly become more lively and interesting, with many more places to lodge, dine, or drink, and far greater human diversity as well. On the other hand, in the old Utila there was virtually no crime or violence. During the last years, there have been several murders, drug trafficking has gained a hold, and there is even a juvenile gang. In the old Utila these would have been inconceivable.

The difficult and easily compromised condition of the Utilians needs to be appreciated. Most undoubtedly valued the life-style available on the island, but there were so few ways to earn more than a subsistence living. Only so many could own stores, or be the captains of cargo boats. Most became fisherman, not out of any love for the life, but because that was available. Many men left the island, taking positions as crew on large ships of various kinds, and spending only a few weeks annually with their families on the island.

So, when tourism opened up, and the real estate boom began, whole new possibilities developed. But here too there was a problem. Most Utilians had always manifested a singular lack of interest in the island or the sea around them and under them. Most of the island, including its most beautiful parts, were uninhabited, and unexplored by most. Islanders lived bunched together in the village on the protected south-side, and expressed aversion if trepidation about the swamps and rain-forests of the island.

And if their life was lived in close conjunction with the sea, it was no romance. Pantheistic expressions of love for the sea were heard as rarely as the Honduran national anthem. But if Utilians were to take advantage of the tourism boom and not leave it to the foreigners, they would have to transform themselves into divers, explorers, and hotel operators. If they were going to sell their island, they would have to know it.

No imaginable force on earth could have achieved such a dramatic transformation save one; the opportunity to make money, to achieve affluence without having to leave home. Many Utilians rose to this challenge with imagination and courage, for which they deserve credit.

But whether or not they have in the process opened the lid to Pandora's troublesome box, and set in motion a process that will eventuate in their losing their island and their culture is as we shall see a matter that may already be out of their hands.

end of part one

After Hurricane Mitch, the government of Honduras received a great deal of money for purposes of reconstruction from many sources. It was under pressure to not encourage or allow corruption, to not only rebuild, but imaginatively re-conceive the nation, and it was under pressure to enhance the tourism possibilities of the country, under sway of the oft-repeated but disastrous notion that in increased tourism lay the foremost hope for a speedy rejuvenation of the Honduran economy. The failed attempt to repeal Article 107 represented a part of this push for an invigorated tourism.

In Utila, there was a new mayor, Monte Cardenas -- young, inexperienced, well-meaning. In all of his efforts to discern the will of the people of the island, a few priorities had emerged. Utilians wanted a decent water and sewage system, 24-hour electrical service instead of 16, and improvements of their primitive airport.

In the old days people had not cared much about such things, but the advent of tourism had taught them to care. The pre-historic state of the infrastructure was incompatible with being a major tourist destination. Additionally, some tourist operators were getting tired of the back-packers, not so much because of their etiquette as because of their small budgets. The more up-scale operators longed for a different class of tourists. In the last analysis, how much money are you going to make on people with a $25 a day budget. And if you happen to be one of the operators who invested in $200 a day kind of facilities, you will feel the need with a particular urgency.

Such individuals are the type who are particularly eloquent about the beauty of the island, and the delights of its relaxed life-style, but who nevertheless work ceaselessly to change not alone the culture, but also the topography and ecology of the island. Drain the swamps, cut down the mangroves, move sand unto artificial beaches, build a new airport; all part of the formula to bring in the $200 a day tourist, with the $500 a day variety hopefully on the way. All this, and almost no taxes to pay!

Island ecology was hardly on the table at all, except in the minds of a few "zealots" from the Bay Islands Conservation Association, just a bunch of trouble-makers, in any event. Tree-huggers, and that sort of thing. For his efforts on behalf of the island's ecology, Shelby McNabb the director of the BICA, got punched out by one of these noble foreign exploiters.

It is difficult to know what happened next, and most likely we will never know. It is believed that the government of Sweden gave Lps. 250 million to the country for airport improvement. True or not, the Honduran government made that sum available, and last summer notified Mayor Cardenas of that fact. Later, perhaps in September, engineers from SOPTRAVI, the Ministry of Public Works, came from Tegucigalpa to see what could be done about the old airport.

After looking around for a time, they announced that the present airport could not be improved substantially. Any significant expansion would damage the coral reef, and impinge on the village. They were then informed of the existence of a survey that had been done some years earlier during the Callejas administration, which explored a possible airport on the interior of the island with aerial access near Pumpkin Hill.

The gentlemen looked around at this site and expressed enthusiasm before returning to Tegucigalpa. Jimmy Gabourel, the principal landowner affected, had approved the earlier survey and willingly gave his consent to having the land considered.

For months after that nothing happened in Utila. But there must have been a great deal happening in Tegucigalpa. The 25 million project was put up for bids, and a company named SERCOIN put in the lowest bid, reputedly 16 million, and won the contract. Supposedly, it was later determined that the bid was too low, and they were allowed to raise it. It is rumored in Utila that a high-ranking member of the government is one of the principal owners of SERCOIN. This has not been confirmed, though it would explain some things.

Suddenly, in December, things began to happen in Utila too. A Honduran naval vessel arrived and dropped off some bulldozers. On Dec. 18, Mayor Cardenas called Jimmy Gabourel and invited him to come out to the airport to meet informally with some engineers from SOPTRAVI.

When Gabourel arrived, they asked him for permission to cross his property with the power equipment, because they needed to do some preliminary, exploratory work. Gabourel refused permission, but said that Monday they could go to the judge and draw up a statement that would carefully specify at what point they could enter and cross the property. This was on Friday. That afternoon the bulldozers began to move unto the property of Jimmy Gabourel, knocking down fences and trees.

The next day, Mario Pineda, a high-ranking official from SOPTRAVI flew to Utila. On the flight down he had spoken openly about the great things THEY were going to do in Utila. They were going to build a massive international airport, put in a 4-lane highway connecting the village with the airport, and build some luxury hotels. But Pineda ran into an angry Jimmy Gabourel who ordered the equipment off his land, and threatened a lawsuit. The dozers withdrew to the airport where they sat, waiting. When Gabourel demanded an explanation from Monte Cardenas, the mayor said that he had not known what SOPTRAVI was going to do.

Utila was now into the holiday season, and though there were plenty of rumors, nothing happened. But in January, as if to celebrate the new millennium, the dozers again without preliminaries, entered the doomed properties and went to work. Property owners were contacted, and it was promised that a meeting would take place and terms negotiated for the confiscated land. But no negotiation ever took place.

Meanwhile, as island people began to see the scale on which the bulldozers were working, shock turned into rage, and wild rumors began to circulate. The national press reported that the United States was rumored to be building a military base. BICA got involved, focused some media attention, and began to make things hot for SOPTRAVI, not to mention the mayor of Utila, Monte Cardenas.

This is a good place to say a word about the involvement of Utila's mayor. Being that this is Honduras, there is no lack of suspicion that his cooperation in SOPTRAVI's big project was purchased, that he was bought and paid for. But there is no proof of that. For his part, he maintains that he was doing what the community wanted, and that since being elected that has been his only objective. He feels that he gave people sufficient opportunity to know what was going on and to express an opinion. He feels that only a few land-owners and troublemakers are upset, though he freely acknowledges that the government has not gone about doing things in a good way.

The fact appears to be that the mayor has been used, and that he did not clearly know what was going on. These were high level government engineers, and they were telling him what they were going to do, and why. He had no city engineers to consult, and no environmental lawyers looking over his shoulder and demanding an environmental impact study. So he did what Hondurans are prone to do when confronted with power and money: he went along.

Now he attempts to rationalize or justify what has been done, but it seems likely that when he looks at the holocaust of the big tractors, his throat constricts, and his heart sinks. Anyone with eyes to see and a brain to think with, whose good sense and conscience has not been beclouded with the lure of dollars, cannot possibly miss the fact that this project has been conceived and carried out by a deadly combination of ignorance, insensitivity, arrogance, and greed. Nor that it constitutes an inexcusable, indefensible, and highly illegal violation of the human rights of islanders, and the desecration of a fragile ecosystem that belongs, finally, to all of humankind.

What exactly has been done? Consider that the small island of Utila is about 60 percent swamp. Of what remains, perhaps 10 percent is given over to human habitation. Of the 30 percent remaining, no less than 20 percent has now been devastated, and much more than that affected. The island has been more or less cut in half, the range and habitat of countless creatures disturbed. It is reported that some 200 lbs worth of dead iguanas have been found in the debris.

We do not have the exact dimensions of the proposed air-strip. The present runway at the old airport is somewhat less than 1/4 of a mile, and perhaps 60 yards wide. The projected airstrip looks to be at least a mile long, and perhaps 300 yards wide. Additionally, a road has been cleared to the village that is being called the "boulevard." It is projected as a 4-lane highway. This on an island where there are almost no automobiles, and nothing that could in good faith be called a highway.

And all of this has been done without the approval of the residents, and without serious consultation with the community, not to mention the approval of land-owners whose property has been trespassed and sacked. The only islander who has been consulted has been the mayor, and his role has been to be recipient of the plans concocted elsewhere, and to attempt to put a civilized and democratic face on what has been in truth a raw act of tyranny. Even Mario Pineda, in a sober moment, admitted to Jimmy Gabourel that "we invaded your property."

The deed has been done. That much is clear. Now what happens? Some feel that since the project has come so far, it should be finished. Others, drawing on their knowledge of Honduran habits, feel that the government will run out of money and simply abandon the project.

But it would be good if the focus is kept on two things. The first is that a massive violation of human rights has taken place as well as a monumental destruction of the environment. These are crimes, and they should be prosecuted. The second thing for Utilians to keep in mind is that the 4-lane highway and everything else about this project should make clear that it is not Utilians who the government imagines living on Utila. The island and its people are obviously deemed expendable.

What is being conceptualized is a playground for the rich, cozy deals for the Honduran plutocracy, and big money flowing, not into the pockets of Utilians, or really even into the coffers of the government, but into the bank accounts of financial elites. Soon Estilo magazine will be featuring Utila, but their will be no photos of Boddens or Coopers or Morgans. Miguel Facusse will be shown at the helm of his yacht at the Pumpkin Hill boat club.

Honduras This Week has covered a long debate over the future and value of tourism for Honduras. My colleague, Howard Rosenzweig, and others have called for the government to get more involved in promoting tourism, especially a environmentally sustainable ecotourism. If we lived in a different realm and dimension they might be right. But unfortunately, we do not and they are wrong.

By W. E. GUTMAN

Are money-strapped Hondurans really fed up with subsistence wages, inflation, rising taxes, spreading crime, a growing national debt, a Byzantine and corrupt banking system, and politicians who grant themselves obscene salaries (and invest their ill-gotten spoils abroad instead of at home)? If so, will they rebel at the polls?

Doubtful. Hondurans may be miffed but they have very short memories. Estranged from the political process, they are fearful of change, unnerved by serious and lasting reformation. They choose to be seduced by the echo of old words instead of shaking the political dustbin dry. Truth has an unsettling resonance. Fearing ridicule, they'd rather endure the emperor's nudity than speak out against his threadbare apparel.

Nor do Hondurans retaliate. Passive, submissive, they never look back except to reminisce about a blurry and irretrievable past. They are too busy existing and procreating to realize that they are being fleeced, led to slaughter, then devoured by the very shepherds entrusted with their care.

Once in a while, they give in to knee-jerk reactions, most of them reduced to a feeble nervous tic. Feeling the sting of injustice and villainy, they even succumb to an aberrant act or two, an atypical act of defiance that momentarily horrifies the flock, then is promptly forgotten. Anticipated and grudgingly tolerated by the oligarchy (but ruthlessly quelled, on its orders, by the Cobra Commandos), these random displays of exasperation are then flouted as the undesirable by-products of a free society, instead of being flagged and condemned as the warning signs of grave socio-economic ills.

For lack of a cohesive voice, Hondurans -- apathetic, if not inert -- will continue to put into office people who know how to stir the nation's quasi-messianic hopes for deliverance from the status-quo but who spend their term polishing the next speech instead of cleaning up the mess, which is what they were elected to do in the first place.

Hondurans, particularly those who have been conditioned to believe that a plate of rice and beans is a privilege rather than a right, will be content to live with slogans instead of awakening from the stupor of their political gullibility.

Democracy does not work in a vacuum. It requires the active participation of all. Hondurans will waste democracy so long as they continue to bask in the feeble light of an ideology instead of becoming its mirror.

One of the basic rights of democracy -- and a fundamental responsibility -- is to make politicians accountable for their promises, answerable for their broken words. Long overdue is a nationwide nausea, a loud collective spasm of revulsion at the vampires impaled at their throats.

Time has come to slam the shutters open from sea to shining sea and to exclaim, loud and clear: "We're mad as hell and we won't take it anymore -- not the garbage and the crumbling sidewalks, not the pollution, power outages and water restrictions, not the chaotic traffic, the police corruption, the narcotrafficking and money laundering, the inept and fossilized bureaucracies, the dehumanization of indigenous peoples, the limp excuses..."

But such outbursts are best dramatized on celluloid and glorified in the cinemas where Honduran catharsis takes place on Saturday nights, or in the "estancos" where the national bile is habitually drowned. At the polls, where the democratic process has been reduced to a thoughtless ritual, there will be no surprises. It will be business as usual. Hondurans will opt for the "least worst" and hope for the best. It's the safe way out.

Convictions are ever so easily subverted by sheepish conformity. In the rush to find whom to blame for their woes, the good people of Honduras ultimately exonerate their tormentors. There is comfort in permanence, they say, in the illusion of continuity. "The more things change, the more they stay the same."

That is why when the lamb lies with the lion, the lion licks its chops.

By DON PEARLY

Thanks to my new friend, Wendy Griffin, also writing for HTW, for yet another subject to explore: That of world-class fishing. I know this will come as a shock to a lot of you and it will be taken as a challenge by others, but I can back up what I am about to say. Guanaja, that's Guanaja with a "G," is known by many experienced fisherpersons as the "Permit Capital of the World." Yes, ask an ORVIS man because they sent team after team of inspectors and affiliates to Bayman and other resorts to check out the rumors and all came up with the same results: Excellent permit fishing is right here.

On one occasion, I was asked by a photographer friend to go stand in the "flats" area with a fly rod and look like I knew what I was doing. Sure enough, in a few minutes I spotted the tell-tale black antennae weaving in and out of the area. I was not, of course, equipped emotionally or physically to go after them, but I know they are there. I have talked to numerous fisherpersons who have never ever seen one, let alone catch one, and many others who have seen them but have never hooked up with any of them, and a really rare few that actually have landed one.

The permit population just does not seem interested in eating out, it is as if they eat at home, then come out to look around. There is a religion about catching them as well. For example, chumming is verboten until the last day when they are desperate to hook-up with one. They say if they hook-up while chumming, they won't actually claim it as a real event but will at least have the thrill of the chase under their belts.

Now, the bone fish is something else. Although extremely rare in most parts of the world as well, we have them here and they are hungry hungry. Some of our guests report pulling in a dozen or two in one day's time. Some actually tell our guide to move on because they are just plain tired of pulling them in and letting them go, the action is so furious. Of course, they relocate and try again but what a treat to be able to do that.

In closing, I will try this story but it really is a visual one, and you will have to cooperate to the max to make it work. I am looking down on our Grand Pier one early morning, watching a fly fisherman do his thing. He is smooth and precise and the little fly lands in exactly the same spot on top of the water time after time. I watch for over 15 minutes before I realize the man has but one arm. He is pulling out the string with his teeth. Down I trot for a closer look. He appears to have a shoulder holster rig with a swivel base that the butt of the rod rests in allowing him to handle the winding of the reel with his one hand while pulling out the line with his teeth as I mentioned. Are you picturing all of this?

I ask the man, did you make that outfit? He responds with a little story. It seems his brother-in-law is a detective lieutenant in Ayrora, Colorado and he took one of his old shoulder holsters and removed the actual holster part and put in a pepper gas canister holder just the right size to accept the end of a fishing rod. He showed me how this left him free to do this and

that without a problem. I said that is great, so how is fishing? He then put his one good hand straight out in front of him and said, "Terrific, this morning I caught one this big."

Should you be in the neighborhood of Central America or, better yet, the Bay Islands or even better yet, Guanaja with a "G," drop in and I will show you the joke rather than write you the joke.

Responding to our repeated denunciations, the Ministry of Tourism has decided to activate a tourism police in the world-famed village of Copan Ruins. This means that the police could begin operating soon in other tourist sites in the country.

Our reports on crime against foreign citizens have been innumerable. We are witnesses to some of these crimes because several victims have visited our offices in anguish, looking for answers.

There is no doubt that tourism is a springboard to get much-needed economic development. But crime is not an exclusive modus vivendi of Honduran nationals. Some foreigners do not come here just to admire our beautiful ruins but also to traffick in drugs and commit other crimes, including the sexual exploitation of minors.

Then, this police can become a boomerang because, when they take a tourist to jail, bad publicity follows. This in turn is followed by never-ending warnings in tourist guides that, in the end, simply damage the country's image.

We hope that this is not the case here and we are more than happy that the government authorities have focused attention on what we have published and have found a way to balance things.

The issue here is that everything is relative, and that it is how it should be handled. For example, in our visits to other countries, we have seen that, if a tourist is found with a couple of marijuana cigarettes, the tourist is reprimanded and invited to leave the country in a week. This happens, logically, because this person is not carrying commercial quantities. This is being practical. But our police can sometimes seem impractical. We hope nothing gets out of hand.

A tourism police has always been a good idea. This can mean that the tourists can feel safe even with the cutthroat rates some service providers charge. This is not widespread but still, we should be alert.

A tourist should be considered like a delicate woman that shouldn't be touched even with a rose petal. A tourist is a friend who is visiting and wants us to share the wonderful things we have to offer.

We applaud this initiative.

By MARIA A. SAN MARTIN

Dear Valeria, just three days ago you were born. Such a tiny, little person, eyes wide open checking everyone around you. As I was driving to greet and welcome you into this world, I was thinking of what would be the best wish for you, and I recalled what a Canadian friend of mine recently told me as a wish for the new millennium. He said, "Maria, I look into your eyes and wish you love."

This very wish that moved me to the core is what I wish for you Valeria, I look into your eyes and wish you love throughout your lifetime. You have been born into a family of strong women and adventurous men. Love is the motor that moves us.

It was a long drive and while at it I also recalled this series of articles, "Writings on Vision," that is being promoted by Projecthonduras.com and I started to think of how I would like Honduras to be the perfect place for you to grow in. And I thought that we could truly dream of that almost perfect place if we sat down and thought out what we want for our grandchildren.

Thus, here I am wishing for you as well a better Honduras where all the children feel safe and loved. A place where children can play, laugh and be happy. This would be a place where great warmth is felt everywhere a person goes; the sun would shine even on rainy days because everyone will be happy to live in this country you were born.

As I envision Honduras as a clean, bright colorful country, I see the emerald green of its forests predominating in the distance. The houses on the hills and valleys have fruit trees planted in their yards that cool and scent the breeze that flows down the mountains. Among its people an atmosphere of contentment prevails. Everyone is always eager to help out his or her neighbors, visitors or friends. People from the world over see this country as the perfect place to rest and relax.

Our country has many cared for rain forest parks that are packed with birds, trees and animals of many species. The tourist centers at the parks are built in such a way as not to interfere with the surrounding nature; hotels or lodges are integrated into the forests; houses or cabins no taller than two stories. People who stay overnight can enjoy the song of beautiful strange birds and share energy with ancient trees.

As an atmosphere of peace is nurtured, throughout the country centers for the promotion of holistic health attract visitors from the world over who undergo special treatments with wild herbs found in the wilds of Honduras. The many hot springs found in the country have adequate facilities that provide ideal places to heal from the stress suffered by people living in the metropolis.

Our country's stunning white sand beaches and crystalline seashores provide tourists with hideaways found only in the Bay Islands, where the local inhabitants are well-trained to cater to their needs. Great interest prevails among the locals to serve tourists given that their presence is an important source of income to their livelihoods. The arriving groups are looked after with great care. Everyone here is aware that keeping beaches and the water clean is of vital importance to the inhabitants of this country of yours.

The Government of Honduras is made up of a group of citizens interested in the common good; as most of them have made their personal fortunes elsewhere, their main interest is to make their country of origin a better place to live. Its first no-nonsense decision is to declare the country a forest; hence, from then on people will plant trees as the main crop. A family will be assigned a plot of forest for which they will be held responsible. Trees that are chopped down will be accompanied by immediate replanting.

Each family will have access to education through AgriFuture's computerless program. Families taking care of forest plots will have access to flying vehicles, hence no roads that require chopping down trees will be needed. By then, wood will be so scarce in the rest of the world that each family will easily pay for such a vehicle. The taxes paid by the export of harvested wood to the government would help provide for excellent education to all Honduran citizens.

Our country's cities will have important but different roles. La Ceiba will turn its eyes back to the sea and will immediately get to work on the creation of the largest dancing and gallery center in the country. Its inhabitants will promote the construction of an enormous gallery to exhibit the paintings made by the many renowned Honduran painters. Special amphitheaters will be strewn throughout the city; poets and writers from all over will read excerpts from their books and poems while people stroll along the seashore, children play in the clean white sand and watch skaters do their thing. The rustle of coconut tree palms is music to the ears of all.

A spirit of incredible cleanliness prevails throughout the whole country. Love and peace are felt everywhere. A country such as this I wish for you my dearly beloved; a country of loved and loving people.

Dear Editor:

I read HTW each week and always see it -- gratefully -- as a great resource for information on what's happening in all phases of life in this country. Your reporting is excellent: from the progress that is being made by the government to the problems the Mosquitia and other indigenous groups face in places like the Department of Gracias a Dios.

But, Wendy Griffin's first installment on the work of the Inter American Development Bank (IDB) "Many agencies working to protect the reefs" on the Bay Islands upset me, and others, deeply. Forgetting the fact that she reports on this very complicated and serious issue affecting the reef, its ecology and biodiversity around Roatan in a very general way without giving specifics and substantiating how the four international consortiums are proposing to improve sewage treatment, stopping garbage and sewage run off, halt sedimentation flow, etc., she also totally misrepresents how various agencies here, BICA and NABIBLA, for example, work together on Roatan.

Anthony's Key Resort is not an agency but one of the island's most famous resorts. It is owned and managed by Julio Galindo and his family. Julio Galindo is instrumental in helping many of the agencies who work toward the improvement of the tourist industry and the environment on ROATAN. For example, Julio has been arranging for weekly meetings so that people including Mayor Jerry Hynds and Governor Dorn Ebanks can face each other and discuss their issues.

Thus, AKR does not withhold funds or its contribution (putting BICA in a financial bind) if there is a difference of opinion. In fact, according to Irma Brady, executive director of BICA, Anthony's Key doesn't provide 50 percent of BICA's funding. This resort or any other business or cooperation throughout these islands does, however, offer funds for specific projects based on BICA's request.

I also spoke to NABIPLA'S president, Unwin Ebanks. NABIBLA is in the process of collecting money for road paving and beach stabilization. Clearly, Roatan is in the process of facing its problems, is grateful of any help it can get for reversing some of the damage which occurred because of earlier poor planning, and is working toward solutions.

Eva L. Brooks
Editor, Bahia Magazine
Roatan, Bay Islands

Dear Editor:

A recent article by Christiana Casebolt addressed the necessity of dealing with poverty in Honduras. Last month, Wendy Griffin in HTW showed how Hondurans are no better off after 10 years of neo-liberal policies. A reader's response to Wendy's article suggested that leaders engage in soul-searching and brainstorming to determine what they can do to make Honduras a better place. Perhaps the country's leaders might profit by consulting someone who has some experience in the field of economics rather than come up with their own brainstorming ideas.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) have recently developed similar reports which contain an overall strategy for poverty reduction and economic growth in developing countries. The reports are written at the national government level, i.e., they detail what a national government can and should do to reduce poverty and increase economic growth. The complete reports are available on the respective websites for ADB and IADB.

The primary long-term strategy of the reports is capital formation, specifically human capital formation. Based on numerous studies that prove that education is a major factor in the economic success of individuals and nations, adequate available public education is at the forefront of the bank's long-term strategy. Investments in health care were shown to increase a person's capacity to earn as well as to learn. Development of women and girls was described as a third pillar in long-term poverty reduction and economic growth. The detailed procedures and convincing arguments for the banks' strategies are described in the reports. Honduras' investment in these three areas is minimal.

Because the long-term strategy is not expected to have significant results until after a decade or more of implementation, the reports present a short-term strategy which involves increasing earnings opportunities for the rural poor by providing access to land, credit, working capital and marketing. For the urban poor, encouragement of micro-enterprises, investments in production of labor-intensive manufactured exports, and investments in infrastructure (thereby producing construction jobs) make-up the primary pillars of the banks' short-term poverty reduction and economic growth strategy.

In 1920, the Honduran government sought the advice of economic/financial advisor Arthur N. Young who, after a year of data collection and study of the economy and various sectors of the government of Honduras, made some practical suggestions to change and reform.

Unfortunately, Young's advice was not heeded by the Honduran government. No improvements were made. Not much has changed since then. A letter to the International Monetary Fund dated March 10, 1999, outlines Honduras' economic policies for 1999-2001. Unfortunately, none of the strategies in the ADB and IADB reports were included in these economic policies.

In the words of former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, reports like these "are usually deposited on library shelves and never reach those who are able to act." As I read the strategies of the ADB and IADB, and as I contemplate the success that these strategies have had in Asia over the past 30 years, I can only hope that my own country will break from the pack and consider these strategies for poverty reduction and economic growth.

By W. E. GUTMAN

So Augusto Pinochet, the old caudillo who bragged that not a blade of grass could grow without his permission and trained dogs to violate women for his amusement, went home to Chile after all. Fortuitous signs of senility, following a remarkably clear-headed and pugnacious defense, have dashed all hopes that he will stand trial in Spain on charges of kidnapping, torture, disappearances and the murder of over 3,000 people.

By first sanctioning Pinochet's extradition, British tribunals had given new legitimacy to a principle of justice without precedent: No chief of state can ever escape the consequences of his crimes, no matter how much time has elapsed since they were committed, and regardless of where he might find himself. Surely, the majesty of the law was on display when Britain found Pinochet medically unfit to stand trial. Unlike Pinochet's Chile, Britain subscribes to the view that even the most ignominious individuals have rights. Unlike Pinochet's inquisition, British law provides for the protection of those who are too weak to protect themselves, even people with records as foul as the generals. At the end of a meticulously fair process, he was granted a mercy that was inherent in the law. There was no such charity for the men and women who were tortured and killed under his rule.

Such benevolence, while anchored in sublime abstraction, is ill-served, a step backward in the establishment of an international code of justice superior to that of individual nations. The humanitarian reasons invoked on behalf of a man who denied all humanity to those he persecuted can only be viewed as a perverse and cruel paradox.

Nevertheless, a point of lasting importance has been brought home. People who steal power and run their countries in the way that Pinochet and his gang ran Chile, may no longer be granted sanctuary.

The victory of moderate socialist Ricardo Lagos in Chile's presidential election also increases the chances that Pinochet may yet be called to account for his crimes in a court of law. Lagos has promised that over 50 civil actions on behalf of the more than 3,000 victims will proceed unimpeded. Military files hitherto kept secret may be also opened. For the first time in Chile, Pinochet may be ordered to face official questioning about the killing, torture and repression that followed the assassination of the country's last socialist president, Salvador Allende, in a U.S.-backed coup.

For all its incongruities, the case has had a profound effect on international law. It establishes that even former heads of state do not enjoy impunity for crimes against humanity, and that they may be tried outside the country where the crimes were committed. It has also had a cleansing effect on Chile, which had been wallowing in the muck of cultural regression.

From 1973 to 1990, General Pinochet presided over the murder or disappearance of over 3,000 Chileans and the torture of thousands more. His power of intimidation was so absolute that he and his associates escaped prosecution for a decade after he stepped down. But since his arrest, emboldened Chilean courts have issued rulings that have shaken the military's immunity. Scores of former Pinochet henchmen have been arrested for murder and kidnapping. The bestial, fascist right, having fooled no one with its claim that it offers a future founded on the urgent necessity to forget, suffered a well deserved and stinging defeat.

Ultimately, it is in Chile that the final chapter must be written, that the mother of all trials must take place -- in the very country where Pinochet committed his dastardly deeds. Not everyone is sure that this will come to pass. Warned respected Chilean author, Luis Sepulveda: Should he return to Chile, Pinochet will do so as conqueror; he will be honored like the invincible warrior he never was, and he will remain until the day he dies a pivot in Chile's political future. Only a crook or an imbecile believes that he will willingly step down from his Senator-for-Life throne.

For his part, despite the results of the recent presidential election and the hopes it has raised, this writer believes that Pinochet is as likely to go to trial in Chile as he is to go to heaven. Predictably, his supporters planned a hero's welcome in Santiago. Now that he is free, prospects of a miraculous recovery cannot be discounted.

The real lesson in Pinochet's shameless escape from justice must be a renewed determination to round up other perpetrators of crimes against humanity while they remain healthy enough to stand trial. Many a comfortable Central American exile is now nervously consulting his lawyers -- or ought to be. I know several Honduran generals and colonels who will not be going on vacation to Europe any time soon.