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Arabica Robusta

Adrienne Pine and David Vivar: Saving Honduras? - 0 views

www.counterpunch.org/pine10152010.html

honduras us intervention coup neoliberalism caceres

shared by Arabica Robusta on 16 Oct 10 - No Cached
  • They say that following the coup, Cáceres, working with the pro-coup Marrder family that controlled the HTW website, deceitfully wrested control from the Gutierrez family which had founded the paper and until then had maintained editorial control.
  • The Marrders eventually decided to found Honduras weekly as a competing newspaper, with Cáceres as editor. Stanley Marrder, listed on its website as "Owner and publisher of Honduras Weekly," is a Texan businessman and large Republican donor who grew up in Honduras. As they watched their own paper go under, the staff and owners of HTW darkly joked that they too had been victims of a coup.
  • HTW had been a printed and online English-language newspaper aimed at tourists and investors, employing journalists. Honduras Weekly, by contrast, is a blog that does not employ any trained journalists or paid staff, although you would not know that from its "about" page. In a tally last week, of forty-one "guest contributors," fourteen were evangelical missionaries who had each written one travelogue in classic "Heart of Darkness" style. Here is an example: After months of prayerful, "Jonah and the whale" thoughts, I booked my ticket to La Ceiba, Honduras this past weekend and no longer retain a wussy status. This gives my 'I don't leave home well' feelings a whole new slant. I'm flying out with the Vision Honduras team from Dassel, Minnesota on March 3 for a volunteer eye care mission that will last 19 days, carrying only what I can fit into a backpack.
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • Cáceres uses deceptive tactics like these specifically to prop up an illusion of balance in a blog masquerading as a newspaper, but which is really Cáceres' personal soapbox. In a similar vein, Cáceres recently quoted me out of context in a way that made the quote appear to support his work in a press release promoting his book, written for the 700 club.
  • One of the articles recently republished to appear to look like it was written for HW was titled "US, Honduran Soldiers Partner on Medical Mission to Colón," describing a "humanitarian" mission to the community Guadalupe Carney, written by Alex Licea .Two important facts are left out in the article: first, that SOUTHCOM specifically targets communities like Guadalupe Carney, named for the revolutionary priest and martyr, that are united in their resistance to the coup and U.S. imperialist policy for its "aid" efforts, and secondly, the full attribution of the article, reprinted from SOUTHCOM's website and written by Sgt. 1st Class Alex Licea, SOCSOUTH PAO [Public Affairs Officer].
  • Cáceres has been an enthusiastic supporter of SOUTHCOM's operations in Honduras, and Joint Task Force Bravo, and Bravo has returned that enthusiasm, even sponsoring his annual conference in 2008, themed "Building Global Partnerships: Implementing MDG 8 in Honduras." According to a participant at the conference, Cáceres proudly described to his audience the process that led up to the partnership, explaining that a director at DARPA who had been on a mission trip to Honduras with his church and "fell in love" with the country arranged for SOUTHCOM to allocate a substantial sum of money for the conference.
  • a woman from Task Force Bravo spoke. She proceeded to describe what they did as well as how they help humanitarian efforts. But she also gave a short history of the base. She stated that the base was there in the 1980s to combat aggression. That deeply affected me because I know the role of the US government at that time and have seen the effects of US support of Central American regimes like Honduras and El Salvador in that time.
  • As described on an earlier version of its website, the goal of Cáceres's conference is "to inform, inspire and to generate creative thinking about ways to help Honduras through grassroots projects aimed at providing the Honduran people with some basic abilities to live, learn, and grow... so that eventually they are in a better position to solve the problems of their society." The Social Darwinist assumption implicit in this description (as in the missionary travelogues posted on Honduras Weekly) is that Hondurans have not been able to solve the positions of their society for cultural and developmental reasons-rather than military and economic imperialism. Cáceres insists in his writings and in official conference propaganda that the work is apolitical, but this is of course an impossibility in today's Honduras.
  • While these and other individuals representing the U.S. State will be presenting, the vast majority of individuals attending come from reactionary evangelical groups, promoting charity work based on a premise of "apolitical" salvation that stand in direct opposition to the vibrant Honduran resistant movement's goals of justice and self-determination.
  • Why is USAID ("From the American People") officially sponsoring the Conference on Honduras this year? It's not because the NGOs involved are doing any good; they aren't. In their acceptance of a Social Darwinist model that identifies poverty as the result of a lack of "empowerment" and human capital, they can't.
  • In ignoring those voices, they refuse to address the roots of the problem. Instead, they provide ideological cover for a neoliberal agenda, promoting a Protestant ethic of individual responsibility that eschews notions of social justice, participatory democracy and the public good.
  • why, then, does the U.S. State support Cáceres? It is because he, like the NGOs he promotes, has been a truly effective tool in whitewashing the neoliberal undermining of democracy in Honduras, and the role of U.S. policy and military in it. Cáceres' advocacy is Clinton's Smart Power, combining institutions of military force and media and Non-Profit Industrial Complex coercion to undermine democratic processes in the interest of supporting the corporations that funded and have benefited from the coup. And indeed, as long as we don't focus on the pro-corporate, anti-democratic golpista praxis in our own government, as the State Department employee I met on the train said, our fingerprints are all over that.
Morgan Somer

How the Street Gangs Took Central America | Foreign Affairs - 0 views

www.foreignaffairs.com/...eet-gangs-took-central-america

violence crime gangs substance abuse men

shared by Morgan Somer on 16 Sep 09 - Cached
  • claude adjil on 16 Sep 09
     
    In December of 2005, a bus driving in Honduras was stopped by gunmen in the notorious street gang Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and had chosen their victims at random. The attack was meant as a protest generated towards the government's crackdown on gang activities. As the United States shifts its focus to the Middle East, it is ignoring a dangerous problem close to home, and the gangs have grown in power and numbers.
  • Morgan Somer on 05 Oct 09
     
    Gangs that started in the slums of the United States slowly shifted back to the homelands of these Central American members without warning local governments. An explosive growth in youth populations with social problems like that of poverty and unemployment are resulting in the the rapid spread of gangs north into Mexico and even back to the United States. Gangs are bringing in rampant crime, partaking in drug trade, and committing murders on innocent civilians. These gangs are threatening the strength of their weak government, who no longer know what to do to solve this ongoing issue that only seems to be getting worse.
Kat Dunn

Gender and Alcohol Consumption and Alcohol-Related Problems in Latin America and the Ca... - 0 views

www.scielosp.org/...10984.pdf

Men Alcoholism Substance Abuse Violence Venezuela

shared by Kat Dunn on 05 Oct 09 - No Cached
  • Kat Dunn on 05 Oct 09
     
    This article talks about the role of alcohol and substance abuse and its affects on Latin America and the Caribbean. Social, political, religious beliefs are all topics of this article as it talks about the problems and solutions of this important issue.
Sam Obstfeld

Latin American Herald Tribune - 40% of Guatemala's Elderly Living in Poverty - 0 views

www.laht.com/article.asp

Guatemala Social Problems Social Service Poor Standard of Living

shared by Sam Obstfeld on 17 Nov 09 - Cached
  • Aria Auerbach on 17 Nov 09
     
    This article discusses the notion of poverty and violence within the Guatemalan society. Currently, there are at least 900,000 residents, all above the age of 60 who are living on the dirty, impoverished streets of Guatemalan cities. Although the government has proposed solutions to the overwhelming amount of poverty and economic turmoil, there has been little progress in recent years.
  • Sam Obstfeld on 17 Nov 09
     
    This site reports a recent study of the living standards for Guatemalans. In the past few years, the rates of poverty, crime, and malnutrition have skyrocketed alarmingly. The hardest hit are the elderly and the children. In order to combat this, Guatemala is instituting benefit programs to give welfare to the elderly.
Jackie Moran

Guatemala News | Guatemala joins UN global call for action: Say no UniTE to End Violenc... - 2 views

www.guatemala-times.com/...nd-violence-against-women.html

violence against women networks Guatemala unity social problems

shared by Jackie Moran on 17 Nov 09 - Cached
    • Jackie Moran
      Jackie Moran on 23 Nov 09
       
      This article pertains to the course topics because it talks about violence against women. Women's violence is a serious issue in many Latin American countries; thus, it is necessary to implement initiatives and programs to prevent it, such as "Say no-UNiTE to End Violence against Women," an initiative proposed by the Guatemalan government and the UN.
  • SamanthaAndreacchi on 17 Nov 09
     
    Say No UniTE to end violence against women is a global call for action that began in November 2009. Its main purpose is to raise awareness of the tremendous violence against women, for example femicidio, in Guatemala. Its goal is overall education reaching across social classes and various societal institutions in hopes to eliminate violence against women and girls.
  • Jackie Moran on 17 Nov 09
     
    The article discusses how the Guatemalan government and different UN offices are launching a regional initiative called: "UNiTE to End Violence against Women." The initiative is a global action to end violence against women and girls in Guatemala. According to the article, violence against women has far-reaching consequences, harming families and communities, along with undermining economic growth.
  • Morgan Foster on 17 Nov 09
     
    This article focus's on Guatemala's need for the vote to end violence against women. Around 70% of women and girls are physically or sexually abused by men in their life time. This article highlights the importance of this issue and its prevalence in Guatemala.
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