As a writer of fiction tales, I tried to keep away from political issues. However, the current events at my home country have touched the inner core of my never-before-known patriotism.
We had a President elected by the people, but after three years in office, and a hard turn towards the left, he was preparing himself to dissolve the Congress and the Supreme Court. Thus, prompting the afore-mentioned to take steps into separating Mr. Zelaya from the Presidency.
Why the Armed Forces instead of the police? No disrespect to police officers, but Army was better equipped to handle the send-off of a President. The Military was not after the power, they were after the President, and turned him, safe and sound, to another nation. Why? Simply put, to avoid bloodshed. Not a single casualty had been reported until Zelaya, most stubbornly, attempted to return to Honduras. So, you can see, the correct choice was taken.
What surprises me the most is that universal condemnation of our country, both by United Nations and Organization of American States, without as much as making sure the events that took place on Jun 28, were indeed legal albeit not understood. The responses seemed biased, to say the least. I understand that they were defending the figure of the Presidency and not Zelaya himself, but they picked the wrong example to do it. When Mr. Insulza visited our country, very arrogantly did not cared about the documents that he was shown, did not meet with the new President Micheletti. He was obviously just going through the motions to fulfill his own private agenda. We were trialed and convicted without chance to prove our case.
Now, Mr Zelaya is begging, on National TV, in fact demanding, that President Obama sends troops to return him to power! And this is the same guy who claims he is non-violent? The same guy who approved the distribution of abortive pills (not contraceptives), and the same guy that without much paperwork sent his Secretary to withdraw from Honduras Central Bank40 million Lempiras (About 2 Million US Dollars) in cash!
And to add insult to injury, we had just discovered that even though shipped out on his pajamas, he had his Honduran-government-issued credit card stashed somewhere for he spent 80 thousand dollars on expensive suits, hotels and food in only 5 days! Apparently, he lived by the AMEX motto of “don´t leave home without it!”
There is a site: http://www.laverdadenhonduras.com/ that I invite all of you to see. There are transcripts and English translations of the documents and chronology of the chain of events that required the ousting of an imminent dictator.
So, in lieu of the above, I could not keep quiet. The recent death of the king of Pop has only reminded me of the chorus line of one of his most controversial songs: “All I wanna say is that they don’t really care about us!” It seems sadly accurate of our situation.
9 comments:
Good post! I'm glad you said it!. Not all Americans are crazy!
So glad you posted this. I'm still scratching my head, trying to figure out why Honduras' situation warrants American comment and intervention when Iran's situation drew a stern "hands off" comment from Obama -- he said it's not for us to meddle with other nations' internal affairs.
The fact is, at least some of us who follow world politics enough to care (who even subscribe to services like Stratfor) have had the advantage of news sources other than the cultural mess that comprises American 'news.'
My friend, who is from Honduras, danced in my kitchen last Sunday as the first Stratfor of Zelaya's ouster came across my computer. We celebrated the fact that Honduras had gone through appropriate channels to prevent Zelaya from seizing power a la Chavez. The Supreme Court ruled his power grab a violation of the Constitution and the military carried out a de facto impeachment.
Our world is full of people who think everyone wants world peace, every government deals with its citizens fairly, and everyone negotiates in good faith. Until this global naivete falls to the realities we face, I'll celebrate the few good results like these whenever they happen.
Dear Mr. Bogran,
I'm sure that it is no surprise to you that, as the world moves away from failed leftist ideology, the United States of America is moving toward it at an alarming rate. The current administration is of a bent that would actually send the troops requested to restore the would-be dictator to power. The American left has always been enamored of dictators from Fidel Castro to Joseph Satlin, and the left is no friend of freedom. I fear your best hope for Barrack Obama is that he will NOT take action, for anything he does will only enslave the Honduran people as the sycophant American press publishes lies to cover him. I am only sorry that you moved from a democratic nation to a future "Banana Republic".
Yours,
Randall Lang
Nancy: Thanks for the support.
Anonymous: Whoever you are, wherever you are, thank you for your encouraging words. Let's hope your friend can keep dancing.
Randall: Yep, hoping Pres. Obama doesn't taking any action is probably best. Hope it does not come into economical sanctions either.
Thank you for this - so frequently there is little or inaccurate information available on regular media channels. The corporations that control the press seem to be very choosy about what they report, for example, so little is said about the genocide in the Sudan, or, on the other hand, to fully examine why good men and women are sent to die in the deserts for causes few of us can understand, let alone justify.
And I doubt America is on the path to left wing leanings - it's got a long way to go!
Glenys: Glad to be of help in clearing up this murky water.
Thank you for speaking up. At least half of America agrees with you that America had no dog in this fight and the Honduran people did what was right and best for them. They did what we will probably need to do in the future here. I hope we have the spine to do it. We have rights in America, though we're losing them rapidly...but we also have responsibilities. We need to fight for our continued freedoms, like the Honduran people did. Kudos to them.
May God be with you and the people of Honduras who are fighting for their freedom. May the people of the United States do likewise before its too late.
Hello,
Another author here. It's hard to get unbiased information about situations like the current one in Honduras, so I was very grateful to read your description of the situation.
Several years ago I was living in Thailand when a non-violent coup ousted the corrupt and self-serving prime minister in the midst of a constitutional crisis. The U.S. and other western countries decried the move and even imposed limited sanctions on the country, but I can tell you from personal observation, there was literally no other resolution to the situation.
I do rather wonder what Obama is thinking, though. Unlike many Americans, he does know that the rest of the world exists.
Regards,
Lisabet
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