OPINIONS & EDITORIAL

Monday, September 29, 1998 Online Edition 125

Thanks for small favors!

By W. E. GUTMAN

Honduras, take heart! It's how you look at it. Yes, criminal violence is up, with bank robberies, car heists, murder, kidnappings and assaults topping the list. Yes, your cities continue to crumble and decay. Produced with gleeful abandon, garbage disfigures your streets, highways and byways. Malaria and dengue fever claim new victims every day. Tuberculosis, often

undiagnosed and ineptly treated, ravages indigenous communities,

particularly in the western highlands. Rampant and unforgiving, HIV and AIDS lay waste to your youth. Poverty and discontent tear at your soul.

Yet amid the rising calamities that eviscerate and dispirit you -- take heart Honduras, every cloud does have a silver lining -- the good news is: torture is down!

A recent report by the non-governmental Committee for the Defense of Human Rights in Honduras (CODEH) asserts that torture, a method commonly used by the police and military as an aid to memory, or to kill time in periods of extreme boredom, is no longer as widespread as it was eight years ago. To compensate for such restraint, however, about 200 extrajudicial executions took place during that same period. While no one looked.

CODEH president Ramón Custodio has released a new survey of human rights violations committed from 1990 to June 1998, including summary executions, under the watch of President Roberto Carlos Reina (1994-1998).

According to the report, Honduras' chief accomplishment in cleaning up its abysmal human rights record was the gradual elimination of torture by security forces. "Torture can now be considered to occur occasionally, but not as an expression of an institutional policy," Custodio added.

Gee whiz!

The good people of Honduras will now be left to ponder under what circumstances could torture still be considered defensible, and to what degree extrajudicial executions can be expected to increase should torture, by some fluke, be finally abolished.

Rumors, unsubstantiated at this writing, suggest that efforts are currently underway to change the country's motto to one that best reflects both the national psyche and the current reality. Under consideration: "If It's Not One Thing, It's Another."

AIR FARE TOO HIGH

Dear Editor:

While everyone talks about improving the tourist industry in Honduras, no one talks about the high cost of travel to Honduras. It is very illogical that it is cheaper to travel to Costa Rica in the same airplane than to go to Honduras, and at certain times of the year it is cheaper to go to Europe.

I feel that unless this inequity is taking into account or at least addressed, tourist interested in visiting Honduras will travel to other places.

Jorge A. Cano

Sonny3lsu@aol.com

Monday, September 14, 1998 Online Edition 123

Issue of Patuca dam not complicated

If, despite the opposition of indigenous groups and the overwhelming statistical information that says it is not needed, the Patuca II dam is built, it has a very high potential to become one of the most disastrous projects in the history of the region, and everyone connected with its building will have a unique opportunity to have its consequences attached to their collective reputation forever.

It would bring great quantities of bad publicity to Honduras, a nation which can ill afford the same, and would bring international discredit to the administration of President Carlos Flores Facusse. In fact, the fall-out from the project could doom the Liberal party to years in the political wilderness, a fate it will richly deserve if the dam is built.

The wonder is that given the political sensitivities of our times, that anyone should even be thinking about such a project, much less moving forward with serious intent. So blinded by their rapacious gleam do these developers appear to be, that they actually appear to imagine that the opposition of indigenous peoples in the Mosquitia and the warnings and dark prophecies of environmentalists can be shrugged off. After all, they must think, this is Honduras, where the rich and the powerful usually do exactly what they want to do, and where the opposition is too disorganized and weak to stop them.

But this is not simply a local issue. Preservation of rain forest and protection of indigenous cultures have become issues internationally supported by all the progressive forces this world can muster. Coalitions have been established that touch many bases and which can generate a sea of activists. People know increasingly that we are fighting for our survival on planet earth, and that the survival of 1,000 Tawahka Indians touches upon the survival of us all.

Developers, of course, don't like to think in such terms. They prefer to think of themselves as benefactors, even as environmentalists of a kind. And if nothing else, they can always fall back upon the old justification that they are providing jobs. Since they normally understand very little about indigenous groups, or about what the survival of such groups really involves, they can't see what the fuss is about.

The facts concerning the proposed dam are so clear that anyone can understand them who genuinely wants to do so. This dam is not needed in this time and this place. The now and future needs of the country for energy can be supplied without destroying rain forest or endangering indigenous groups. If it is not needed, why build it? Simply put, because a group of Honduran businessmen have convinced Harza Engineering based in Chicago that here is some easy pickings, and that they can work together and make lots of money.

While we await the environmental impact statement, which may or may not be a serious document, does anyone seriously doubt that a large dam would have a devastating effect on the entire biosphere. Large dams are by their very nature incontrovertibly a major invasion of a habitat. In some cases, the advantages out-weigh the depredations, but Rio Patuca II would most emphatically not be one of those. Honduras will not, and cannot benefit, but great damage can be done to the body and soul of the nation.

Day of unity

This September 15th Independence will be celebrated in Honduras, the day independence from Spain was declared in 1821.

On this date we celebrate Independence Day with parades. In every town and city throughout the country young Hondurans will march and beat their drums commemorating that distant 15th of September when we achieved liberty with the sublime sense of liberty, equality and fraternity as in the French Revolution.

Once again, marching youths will fill the streets, and drums, trumpets and native music will be heard striking a martial air in a war that does not exist and has never existed. This occasion is sunny and colorful and high school students dream of winning trophies because they had the best band or they were the best marchers.

These young men and women marching on the street are the future leaders of the country: the doctors, laborers, and community leaders who represent this country’s hopes for the future.

Also represented in the parades are students of bilingual and forestry schools and on occasion even the firemen and union workers have marched in peace and harmony. They all march for a peaceful country. Our peace is the most sacred thing we can possess, and peace must be earned.

Every September 15th is a day of unity in our country; everyone is peaceful and no alcohol is available. There are no protests, and a sense of discipline is shown. The families of the young marchers line the streets and there is an equality between the sexes, as boys and girls march together. This spirit of unity and equality should be utilized as and example and inspiration for what we might be and become as a growing nation.

Monday, September 7, 1998 Online Edition 122

President Flores, in response to the countries unprecedented crime wave in which even the lives of members of his family have been threatened, has decided to fight crime. The president decided to take urgent action by creating a new Ministry of Security, naming lawyer Elizabeth Chiuz Sierra its minister, and allocating Lps. 41 million to support this effort as well as existing law enforcement agencies and imposing strong legislative measures.

These measures, soon to be put in place as a means of crime prevention and control, can be summarized as follows: creation of a metropolitan police force for Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula; salary hikes for law enforcement personnel; strengthening the national penitentiary system as well as improving present installations; creation of a special gang control unit; implementation of a youth delinquency prevention plan in conjunction with the Ministry of Education, religious organizations, non-governmental organizations and the media.

The armed forces will also participate through the creation of an auxiliary plan for supporting the national police force; and feasibility studies will be conducted for the creation of a rural police force. Flores also promised to pressure Congress to pass a bill concerning the illegal possession of fire arms, imposing consecutive life sentences, and increasing sentences for serious crimes.

We have always thought that all and any security measures taken are welcome; even more so if and when they can all be implemented together.

The steps the president is taking are certainly positive and well-conceived, although he did not include the neighborhood watch system that is needed. Citizen involvement is necessary even in countries with well-financed and experienced police departments. Informative publicity campaigns concerning citizens rights and obligations are urgent and necessary. These should begin with school children and be followed up with media campaigns.

A safe country will attract investment, tourism and lend the country credibility. Honduras needs to convince criminals that an efficient and professional criminal justice system is in place, and that the consequences of delinquency are sure.

Eating out in Tegucigalpa is always an adventure. One never knows quite what to expect. The other day I stopped in at a comedor that advertised desayuno, almuerzo and cena, that is breakfast, lunch and dinner. I asked what the cena was. The waiter, who was most likely the owner and cook as well answered in Spanish,"arroz, frijoles, huevo, platano frito, y queso (rice, beans, egg, fried plantain and cheese).

Recognizing this as the popular breakfast in Honduras, I asked somewhat skeptically,"and what is the breakfast?" Lo mismo was his reply. "(The same)." I did not have the courage to ask about the luncheon menu.

On another occasion I stopped at something called the Burger Hut. There was an item on the menu called "the vegetariana." This intrigued me, so with visions of soya dancing in my head, I asked what it was. "It is a hamburger, without the hamburger,"was the reply. Unbelieving, I went ahead and ordered it, and sure enough, it turned out to be a hamburger bun, with lettuce, tomato, mayo, and onion. It was a hamburger without a hamburger.

Special to Honduras This Week

With tongue in cheek, I feel the need to pass on some rules of the road for drivers to ease their transition from what they've been taught in high school driving 101 to Honduran road etiquette.

The first consideration should be speed limits. When you see a 40-mph traffic sign you might as well be doing the speed of light as nobody else comes close to obeying posted speed limits. Actually there are only two speeds driven in this country: 3 miles per hour or 100. Mostly, you'll find the drivers doing a hundred in your rear view mirror as you're stuck behind the guy doing the snail imitation.

Next thing is to know when to use your headlights. I don't know if it is a written law or not, but it seems to be offensive to other drivers to be the first one to turn on the headlights in the evening. Therefore, most drivers refuse to use lights until three or four hours after sunset. This, of course, applies only to the few cars and trucks that have more than one light in operating condition. When you see a driver frantically flashing his lights in the middle of the day, hit the shoulder because he is in your lane coming at you fast. You're in his passing lane. Machismo keeps many young men from doing this, which accounts for all the white crosses you will see on perfectly straight stretches of highway.

There are seat belt laws here in Honduras. They are for the driver only, as it is absolutely permissible to have a child sitting on each knee and four or five more pushed up against the windshield. These laws are not meant for the purpose of anybody's safety, but rather to supplement the income of the police officer who is lucky enough to catch you without your belt on. There are also strict laws on how many people you may carry in the back of your Toyota pick-up. Under Honduran law, one may put no more than four in the back of any truck. Four may be the smallest number I have seen back there.

When is the proper time to use one's horn? Unless you're reading this at the airport, you have probably already figured this one out. Just in case, let's go through the rules of horn etiquette. You should use the horn only when something is blocking the road ahead or when something is about to block the road. Also, it's allowable to blow your horn if you think someone is thinking about hindering your path. And, of course, it's okey to sound off so people ahead won't even think about thinking of blocking your way. It is standard tradition to blow the horn to check if it is in good working order. Many local drivers also substitute the horn for the brakes.

What about requirements on vehicle maintenance? As we learned earlier, lights are not a serious consideration and even those who have them don't use them. A string of Christmas tree lights in the back window often suffices for tail lights. As we know, most drivers prefer the horn to brakes, so selling new brake pads is unlikely to be a lucrative business here.

Tires are used down to the last ply. Actually, most tires are on the car until they blow out. As a rule, the majority of vehicles are kept on the highways until they turn to dust. The others are the ones that are responsible for all the white crucifixes along the roads.

Anyway, you'll be sure that each and every excursion will be anything but dull. Welcome to Third World driving.

Phillip Bannister is an expatriate living in Tela.