July 6, 2009
Lots of crazy things to talk about, so let’s just start one at a time. About a month ago, Mauricio Funes, the first “leftist” elected to the presidency of El Salvador, became President. Everyone is very interested to see how it all works out, and how different of a government he will run from all the previous governments.
Also, in other political news, the whole Honduras “coup” is and has been ALL over the news here since it happened. It has really hit home here, because in a military that is traditionally conservative and a leader elected who is liberal, there is a latent fear of something similar here. To me, this has all been VERY interesting to see how the media plays it, as well as the US. For those of you who haven’t stayed upon it, here is a quick recap. Now former President of Honduras, Miguel Zelaya, will end his term in office this January. The Honduran Constitution, as do many Latin American Constitutions, limits the terms that a President can be reelected due to the recent history these countries have with military dictatorships; one person who slowly acquires all/majority power in a country, as Chavez is doing at the moment. Former President Zelaya decided that he wanted to change the Constitution, so he asked the Honduran Congress support him in a ballot to call a Constitutional Assembly, to rewrite the Constitution so that a president could be reelected (ring any bells there, Chavez). He then wanted to hold the referendum himself with the military, but the Supreme Court ruled it illegal according to the Constitution. Both said it was illegal, even his own party who later called for an investigation into his mental fitness, so he turned to the military to get help in the referendum to put on himself. The head of the military said no as well, so….he fired him. In the end the Supreme Court ordered the General’s reinstatement and the Attorney General ordered the confiscation of the ballots sent from, you guessed it, Venezuela. The Attorney General also said that he would issue an arrest warrant for anyone who continued the illegal ballot. Zelaya then supposedly organized the break in of the air force base where the Venezuelan ballots were housed of the said referendum. End of the story, the Attorney General eventually issued the warrant for the arrest of Presidente Zelaya and it was signed by the Supreme Court. The Court sent the military to remove him from office, and then sent him to Costa Rica. None were hurt in the process. The arrest warrant was based on “acting against the government, treason, abuse of authority, and usurpation of power.”
http://www.libertaddigital.com/documentos/orden-de-captura-de-la-fiscalia-17057381.html
There are articles roaming around as well that the Honduran confiscated from him were modified to the point that it would have allowed him to stay in power with the making of the new Constitution all at once. They say that this was why the government acted so quickly to arrest him. But once again, nothing concrete as of yet on that account.
The Congress then appointed the next in line, President of Congress (the Vice had already resigned in 2008), member of the same liberal party as the ex-president, as President.
Here comes my personal opinion in a few words, what a TRAGEDY, for the Latin American people. Honduras had a primetime chance to legally remove a President from power who wanted to defy the Constitution and remain in power without the assent of the rest of the ELECTED/CONSTITUTIONAL government. And, Congress and the Court blew it. They were so concerned with keeping the peace after his arrest, that they sent him to Costa Rica, and that’s when the arrest basically turned into to a coup/kidnapping in the eyes of the international community. The government says they did it to keep down the bloodshed, but they didn’t think out the consequences fully of sending a citizen out of the country. For this reason this is a tragedy, the Congress should have removed him in due time and due process, however difficult because of his actions, and proved to the world that Democracy can work in the face of Presidents who don’t want to heed the law they are sworn to protect. The tragedy is that they had correct motive and faulty procedure. Reading en El Heraldo, one of Honduras’ newspapers, and listening to many commentaries in El Salvador, public sentiment seems to be pretty much in line with what I just described….ok maybe they didn’t use the word tragedy, but seeing it basically like I said.
That being said, was this a coup as many “leftist” Latin American Presidents are calling it? Here is the supremely erudite definition of coup d'état from Dictionary.com:
“The sudden overthrow of a government by a usually small group of persons in or previously in positions of authority.”
In reading the actual definitions, in the basic, generalized sense, I think it has to be admitted that it there was a forced change of EXECUTIVE, but not of STATE, and up until the final sending to Costa Rica, it complied with Honduran law. So, the branch of the government with the power to remove the president, stayed intact, as well as the Supreme Court. Was the change affected by a small group? Nope, everyone but the president and his guards participated. Was it performed by a group by a group that previously held power? Nope. Was it sudden? Well this whole controversy started months ago with the Congress and the Supreme Court ruling against it, so I’d say no. Was the political catalyst a force already in a position of less power? Here is a Yes, but they were ELECTED, so we are now talking IMPEACHMENT and not a COUP….Bill Clinton anyone?
I hope in the end that the Constitution is upheld in Honduras and that they hold out until the people elect their new president in November as was originally intended. This story is huge all over Latin America, because it is a litmus test for how future governments will put up with power hungry executives, and how a country can follow its Constitution and fight off the sanctions of the international community at the same time. If only he’d gone to jail instead of Costa Rica.
Check out a decent article here from the Wall Street Journal:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124623220955866301.html
This ended up being much longer than I expected….I’ll post on the rest of my stuff here with my life in the next few days.
Thanks to all who have donated to our Community House fund, WE ARE ALMOST THERE!!!! Let’s finish it off so that we can start repairing!!!
https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=519-124
"Those who seek absolute power, even though they seek it to do what they regard as good, are simply demanding the right to enforce their own version of heaven on earth. And let me remind you, they are the very ones who always create the most hellish tyrannies. Absolute power does corrupt, and those who seek it must be suspect and must be opposed."
From the interesting Legislator of Arizona, Barry Goldwater
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Peace Corps Partnership Grant, NEED YOUR HELP!!!
The Peace Corps Partnership Fund has accepted my community's proposal to renovate the community house. I have mentioned a few times that this was in process and that I would let everyone know when it was accepted, and now it has been! The community house has survived high magnitude earthquakes and torrential rains for more than 2o years but the roof no longer will hold out. The center is usuable in the dry season, but the other half of the year, it is not. So this project has contemplated in it everything from repairing the roof to painting it and buying chairs and tables for the community to use, as well as community announcement boards that I am very excited about.
The way the Partnership fund works is that Peace Corps publishes our project online, and lets everyone who wants to donate to it do so (tax deductibly). When the total has been reached, they send us a single check to execute the project.
You can find the Partnership page here:
https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=519-124
Or, you can go to www.peacecorps.gov, go to the donations tab, then "volunteer projects", and then search my project by Homestate:SC or country: El Salvador.
If you know any friends or families or collegues that might have interest in helping out, feel free to mention the link to them. With a bunch of families donating a lot or a little, I feel confident that we will reach the goal and finish the project.
The way the Partnership fund works is that Peace Corps publishes our project online, and lets everyone who wants to donate to it do so (tax deductibly). When the total has been reached, they send us a single check to execute the project.
You can find the Partnership page here:
https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=519-124
Or, you can go to www.peacecorps.gov, go to the donations tab, then "volunteer projects", and then search my project by Homestate:SC or country: El Salvador.
If you know any friends or families or collegues that might have interest in helping out, feel free to mention the link to them. With a bunch of families donating a lot or a little, I feel confident that we will reach the goal and finish the project.
"Many hands make light work"
Monday, June 1, 2009
New Government and Random Stories
May 28, 2009
Well, things are always nice to start with a positive story. The neighbors family have an unproportionally large amount of birthdays in May, so they try and make a trip to the beach (40 miles…maybe) in that month once every two years or so. So everyone piled into an orange truck and we headed out to Las Puntillas. It’s the point of a little harbor basically. We went crabbing again with hoes and machetes…..I found 5 this time, so I’m getting better at digging holes in the mud, haha.
The 6th of May we had three more eye surgeries, all cataracts done by FUDEM, the eye NGO here, and they are mostly a success. One old person says she has more headaches, and another that his eye waters up a lot, and third says life is good, so I’d say it was a success, haha. That same day I headed out to the National School of Agriculture for our last Peace Corps training for my group. It wasn’t near as good as the last one, but I made a nice find with an NGO there called CARE that might work in water projects so, we’ll see how it turns out.
Habitat for Humanity came out to my site and we did some house by house publicity. They brought out the megaphone mounted on a truck, and about 5 people so we started handed out all their info. They basically work on building new houses or repairing the ones people have by giving credit at a lower rate than the banks. Not as exciting as I thought they would be at first, but they do what they can. We then went through San Pedro doing the same thing. Wahoo, :)
Later in the week Water, Trees, and People, the NGO collaborating on the stove project, sent a US representative to El Sal, who decided to drop by and visit the project here in San Pedro Nonualco. That went well, and she got to meet a bunch of the families and all that jazz.
Oh yeah, we ended up making it into the final tournament in the last spot (8th) for soccer. Which means we had to take on the number 1 team in the first round. We tied 0-0 in regulation and then won in penalty kicks. I pretty much helped in no way that game. No worries though, we played a much bigger and more physical team the next Sunday and got beat 4-0. I got there late, so I couldn’t play….my alarm didn’t go OFFFF.
Also in a proud moment, I would like to announce the completion of my porch closing in deal (except for doors). Don Raul and I finished that up, and I feel like a real skilled mason now.
Check out the pics.
Almost forgot, the mayor has now officially changed here, so this month has been me getting used to the new personnel, manner of work, and all that jazz. Work continues. This Monday the Presidency will change hands for the first time a leftist party in the history of the democracy, so everyone is interested to see how it works out. I have hopes and fears. Only time will tell.
A random note, I think I have heard on the bus a remake of the George Micheal? Careless Whisper song by some rock group. I don’t know if it’s not bad or just me liking some with a little bit of an American rhythm.
Everyone is planting their corn farms and bean “gardens” here now that the rain is here and things won’t dry up. An exciting time for all.
In random news things I’ve seen. I saw that the California Supreme Court upheld the gay marriage ban recently approved by voters. The vote was 6-1 if I’m not mistaken. Anyone want to know which of the 7 California justices was being considered for the US Supreme Court? Let’s see, ah yes, Notre Dame, seems like that’s just a giant cluster. What were they thinking. I saw a video where they were arresting priests on Notre Dame’s campus? Sounds to me like Notre Dame (administration) acted without thinking it through and then felt too deep to pull out. I guarantee they will think twice before giving an honorary degree to someone who is the leading figure in the fight against the Church in the realm of the most pressing moral issue of the day. For some reason, when I see the arresting of old priests at a Catholic school, it reminded me of the scenes in the third new Star Wars movie where the emperor, gives the command for the clones to turncoat on all the Jedi and shoot them in the back. Oh well, who knows why it came to mind. On the Pro-Obama side though, I got a chance to glance at his “Terminations, Reductions, and Savings” document for the 2010 budget and it’s impressive. Reducing funding by $17 billion to govt programs isn’t an easy task without making quite a few people, I’d imagine influential people, somewhat angry. What he is eliminating and reducing is of less importance to me at this point, more the fact that they are making tough decisions to bring part of the budget to more order while admitting that they will be spending more money in the next few years than any administration in the history of our nation. Whether that parts a good or bad thing, I’m not sure yet. Hmmmm what else, ah yes, saw where a Catholic priest got caught with a chick at the beach, and decided to change over to Episcopal church to be with her and so as keep his job as a pastor. It was on the front page here in El Salvador a few days ago too. I couldn’t help but get a kick out of the comments to the articles online about this. There were praising the Episcopal church for having been the recipient of a few renounced Catholic clergy over the past decades, even some that are serving as their bishops now. Ummmm….roight.…. And you wonder why the Episcopal church has so many problems nowadays with defining moral teachings? I have no idea why that might be. They also might want to check the recent entrance rate into the Catholic Church from the Anglican Communion and Episcopal side. Canterbury is the biggest Catholic promoter nowadays :)
Finally, I was awoken last night by the tremors of a 7.1 earthquake off the coast of Honduras. It was kind of cool, but probably the strongest tremors I’ve felt here yet. Everything was swaying right to left, over and over. I walked outside in time to see some lights being cut on in neighboring houses. Crazy stuff.
Projects continue advancing here, more on that soon.
I finished Orthodoxy and there are a plethora of thoughts I’d like to put down, but here are just a few.
“The last chapter has been concerned with the contention that orthodoxy is not only (as is often urged) the only safe guardian of morality or order, but is also the only logical guardian of liberty, innovation and advance. If we wish to pull down the prosperous oppressor we cannot do it with the new doctrine of human perfectibility; we can do it with the old doctrine of Original Sin. If we want to uproot inherent cruelties or lift up lost populations we cannot do it with the scientific theory that matter precedes mind; we can do it with the supernatural theory that mind precedes matter. If we wish specially to awaken people to social vigilance and tireless pursuit of practice, we cannot help it much by insisting on the Immanent God and the Inner Light: for these are at best reasons for contentment; we can help it much by insisting on the transcendent God and the flying and escaping gleam; for these are at best reasons contentment; we can help it much by insisting on the transcendent God and the flying and escaping gleam; for that means divine discontent. If we wish particularly to assert the idea of a generous balance against that of a dreadful autocracy we shall instinctively be Trinitarian rather than Unitarian. If we desire European civilization to be a raid and a rescue, we shall insist rather that souls are in real peril than that their peril is ultimately unreal. And if we wish to exalt the outcast and the crucified, we shall rather wish to think that a veritable God was crucified, rather than a mere sage or hero. Above all, if we wish to protect the poor we shall be in favour of fixed rules and clear dogmas. The rules of a club are occasionally in favour of the poor member. The drift of a club is always in favour of the rich one.”
Orthodoxy, p. 148
A group called PICO, based in California, a grass roots community organization NGO, has started working with the parish here, and talking about the fact the everyone has certain rights, the guy said something that caught my eye in an effort to get people to think how to make good on their rights as well becoming involved to help make their rights a reality:
“All people have rights, but they also all have obligations.”
Delivering stove materials in the trash truck to a neighboring community.
BRICKS!
The driver of City Hall giving all you guys a thumbs up while tying up some barrils of molasses for the stoves.
The second part of the visit of Trees, Water, and People was visiting with the families where I actually live that have had the stoves for almost two years to evaluate their experiences.
The first part of the visit of the US NGO was to train the new families on how to use the stove and for the US representative to see how the project was moving along.
The lesson.
These ladies and gentlemen are the new City Council members for San Pedro Nonualco.
This is the new Mayor of San Pedro Nonualco, Mr. Sergio Orellana, seen here giving his acceptance speech and work plan for this term.
The exchange of the baton/scepter of the city, the symbol of power in the municipality held by each mayor (alcalde)
The previous Mayor, Mr. Guillermo Garcia, giving his speech while addressing the new government seated in the background.
This is sad that the pictures will be backwards, but.... oh well. This blogger continues to not let me move the pictures. Here is my new wall deal on my back porch that Don Raul and I did. Eventually will doors, it will keep the skanky ducks out that keep pooing ALL over my porch, hah.
Getting there.
Almost halfway.
Starting.
The trip to the beach.... we crossed over to these islands to go crabbing. This everyone washing up after having gotten all muddy.
Thats the neighbor Mauricio and a hoe and a hole....and somewhere in the future, a crab... which will in the immediate future be in a soup.
Having a good laugh watching Francisco try and fit in the life jacket. 
Nina Delfina and Alex, basically my fam in the main town, working day by day on the computers.
Well, things are always nice to start with a positive story. The neighbors family have an unproportionally large amount of birthdays in May, so they try and make a trip to the beach (40 miles…maybe) in that month once every two years or so. So everyone piled into an orange truck and we headed out to Las Puntillas. It’s the point of a little harbor basically. We went crabbing again with hoes and machetes…..I found 5 this time, so I’m getting better at digging holes in the mud, haha.
The 6th of May we had three more eye surgeries, all cataracts done by FUDEM, the eye NGO here, and they are mostly a success. One old person says she has more headaches, and another that his eye waters up a lot, and third says life is good, so I’d say it was a success, haha. That same day I headed out to the National School of Agriculture for our last Peace Corps training for my group. It wasn’t near as good as the last one, but I made a nice find with an NGO there called CARE that might work in water projects so, we’ll see how it turns out.
Habitat for Humanity came out to my site and we did some house by house publicity. They brought out the megaphone mounted on a truck, and about 5 people so we started handed out all their info. They basically work on building new houses or repairing the ones people have by giving credit at a lower rate than the banks. Not as exciting as I thought they would be at first, but they do what they can. We then went through San Pedro doing the same thing. Wahoo, :)
Later in the week Water, Trees, and People, the NGO collaborating on the stove project, sent a US representative to El Sal, who decided to drop by and visit the project here in San Pedro Nonualco. That went well, and she got to meet a bunch of the families and all that jazz.
Oh yeah, we ended up making it into the final tournament in the last spot (8th) for soccer. Which means we had to take on the number 1 team in the first round. We tied 0-0 in regulation and then won in penalty kicks. I pretty much helped in no way that game. No worries though, we played a much bigger and more physical team the next Sunday and got beat 4-0. I got there late, so I couldn’t play….my alarm didn’t go OFFFF.
Also in a proud moment, I would like to announce the completion of my porch closing in deal (except for doors). Don Raul and I finished that up, and I feel like a real skilled mason now.
Check out the pics.
Almost forgot, the mayor has now officially changed here, so this month has been me getting used to the new personnel, manner of work, and all that jazz. Work continues. This Monday the Presidency will change hands for the first time a leftist party in the history of the democracy, so everyone is interested to see how it works out. I have hopes and fears. Only time will tell.
A random note, I think I have heard on the bus a remake of the George Micheal? Careless Whisper song by some rock group. I don’t know if it’s not bad or just me liking some with a little bit of an American rhythm.
Everyone is planting their corn farms and bean “gardens” here now that the rain is here and things won’t dry up. An exciting time for all.
In random news things I’ve seen. I saw that the California Supreme Court upheld the gay marriage ban recently approved by voters. The vote was 6-1 if I’m not mistaken. Anyone want to know which of the 7 California justices was being considered for the US Supreme Court? Let’s see, ah yes, Notre Dame, seems like that’s just a giant cluster. What were they thinking. I saw a video where they were arresting priests on Notre Dame’s campus? Sounds to me like Notre Dame (administration) acted without thinking it through and then felt too deep to pull out. I guarantee they will think twice before giving an honorary degree to someone who is the leading figure in the fight against the Church in the realm of the most pressing moral issue of the day. For some reason, when I see the arresting of old priests at a Catholic school, it reminded me of the scenes in the third new Star Wars movie where the emperor, gives the command for the clones to turncoat on all the Jedi and shoot them in the back. Oh well, who knows why it came to mind. On the Pro-Obama side though, I got a chance to glance at his “Terminations, Reductions, and Savings” document for the 2010 budget and it’s impressive. Reducing funding by $17 billion to govt programs isn’t an easy task without making quite a few people, I’d imagine influential people, somewhat angry. What he is eliminating and reducing is of less importance to me at this point, more the fact that they are making tough decisions to bring part of the budget to more order while admitting that they will be spending more money in the next few years than any administration in the history of our nation. Whether that parts a good or bad thing, I’m not sure yet. Hmmmm what else, ah yes, saw where a Catholic priest got caught with a chick at the beach, and decided to change over to Episcopal church to be with her and so as keep his job as a pastor. It was on the front page here in El Salvador a few days ago too. I couldn’t help but get a kick out of the comments to the articles online about this. There were praising the Episcopal church for having been the recipient of a few renounced Catholic clergy over the past decades, even some that are serving as their bishops now. Ummmm….roight.…. And you wonder why the Episcopal church has so many problems nowadays with defining moral teachings? I have no idea why that might be. They also might want to check the recent entrance rate into the Catholic Church from the Anglican Communion and Episcopal side. Canterbury is the biggest Catholic promoter nowadays :)
Finally, I was awoken last night by the tremors of a 7.1 earthquake off the coast of Honduras. It was kind of cool, but probably the strongest tremors I’ve felt here yet. Everything was swaying right to left, over and over. I walked outside in time to see some lights being cut on in neighboring houses. Crazy stuff.
Projects continue advancing here, more on that soon.
I finished Orthodoxy and there are a plethora of thoughts I’d like to put down, but here are just a few.
“The last chapter has been concerned with the contention that orthodoxy is not only (as is often urged) the only safe guardian of morality or order, but is also the only logical guardian of liberty, innovation and advance. If we wish to pull down the prosperous oppressor we cannot do it with the new doctrine of human perfectibility; we can do it with the old doctrine of Original Sin. If we want to uproot inherent cruelties or lift up lost populations we cannot do it with the scientific theory that matter precedes mind; we can do it with the supernatural theory that mind precedes matter. If we wish specially to awaken people to social vigilance and tireless pursuit of practice, we cannot help it much by insisting on the Immanent God and the Inner Light: for these are at best reasons for contentment; we can help it much by insisting on the transcendent God and the flying and escaping gleam; for these are at best reasons contentment; we can help it much by insisting on the transcendent God and the flying and escaping gleam; for that means divine discontent. If we wish particularly to assert the idea of a generous balance against that of a dreadful autocracy we shall instinctively be Trinitarian rather than Unitarian. If we desire European civilization to be a raid and a rescue, we shall insist rather that souls are in real peril than that their peril is ultimately unreal. And if we wish to exalt the outcast and the crucified, we shall rather wish to think that a veritable God was crucified, rather than a mere sage or hero. Above all, if we wish to protect the poor we shall be in favour of fixed rules and clear dogmas. The rules of a club are occasionally in favour of the poor member. The drift of a club is always in favour of the rich one.”
Orthodoxy, p. 148
A group called PICO, based in California, a grass roots community organization NGO, has started working with the parish here, and talking about the fact the everyone has certain rights, the guy said something that caught my eye in an effort to get people to think how to make good on their rights as well becoming involved to help make their rights a reality:
“All people have rights, but they also all have obligations.”
Delivering stove materials in the trash truck to a neighboring community.
BRICKS!
The driver of City Hall giving all you guys a thumbs up while tying up some barrils of molasses for the stoves.
The second part of the visit of Trees, Water, and People was visiting with the families where I actually live that have had the stoves for almost two years to evaluate their experiences.
The first part of the visit of the US NGO was to train the new families on how to use the stove and for the US representative to see how the project was moving along.
The lesson.
These ladies and gentlemen are the new City Council members for San Pedro Nonualco.
This is the new Mayor of San Pedro Nonualco, Mr. Sergio Orellana, seen here giving his acceptance speech and work plan for this term.
The exchange of the baton/scepter of the city, the symbol of power in the municipality held by each mayor (alcalde)
The previous Mayor, Mr. Guillermo Garcia, giving his speech while addressing the new government seated in the background.
This is sad that the pictures will be backwards, but.... oh well. This blogger continues to not let me move the pictures. Here is my new wall deal on my back porch that Don Raul and I did. Eventually will doors, it will keep the skanky ducks out that keep pooing ALL over my porch, hah.
Getting there.
Almost halfway.
Starting.
The trip to the beach.... we crossed over to these islands to go crabbing. This everyone washing up after having gotten all muddy.
Thats the neighbor Mauricio and a hoe and a hole....and somewhere in the future, a crab... which will in the immediate future be in a soup.
Having a good laugh watching Francisco try and fit in the life jacket. Nina Delfina and Alex, basically my fam in the main town, working day by day on the computers.
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