I haven't written anything for almost two months now. The critical situation in the country had to sink in first, before I dared to talk about the happenings publically... now I do not want to keep silent anymore.
What happened here is terrible and it is still happening. I feel, it is the perfect example for what is going on in the whole world on different scales. A small group of very powerful and rich people control the poor, the uninformed and the uneducated ones in order to receive more power or at least lose none of it - and to benefit themselves personally by repression, creation of hate and stimulation of fear through mediatic propaganda and the use of weapons.
Here in Honduras the example is an extreme one. There is extreme poverty and extreme wealth: The country itself is not poor - only that its rich recources are benefitting a very small group of people.
This group of people, stimulated by and in eager exchange with the shiny capitalism of North America, did obviously not agree with the socialist tendencies of the last and still official president Zelaya. As the caricature below shows, president Zelaya promoted the change of the constitution, which would have given a voice to the poor majority of the country's population, giving them a voice: indigenous groups, farmers, youth, women, teachers, workers in the health sector etc.
But as this could have taken away a little crumb of the mega-super-cake that the elite of this country keeps consuming, action was taken against this socialist president.
By military force -one early morning at the end of june - he was made to leave the country. Some hours later, the parliament had already sworn in Mr. Micheletti as de facto president. This man and his powerful mates are ruling the country still, more than one month after the coup.
Many people are actively resisting and protesting against this new government. There has been much violation of their rights to express themselves. They are limited evento manifest peacefully, to call for the reinstallation of a real democracy. People with a critical opinion towards the new "president" and his followers, asking for respect of the human rights and freedom of expression and movement, have been arrested, beaten, threatened and even murdered.
The local media, owned by the same powerful, rich people - are very manipulative. It reminds me of the Nazi-propaganda before the second world war, that we studied about in school. There's lots of lies and false information in the press. Hate and fear is delibirately created. The local media are denying the coup d'état that took place. The little, critical media have been taken off the air. The big newspapers assure how much peace and democracy there is right now. In the meantime, the military is repressing the resistant people with guns and sticks.
Naturally, the local press confirms that military is only active to maintain order and tranquility. And that the activists are the violent ones, creating terror and chaos.
This is what worries me most. There is a scary polarisation between the people, stimulated by the press. The news only talk about "white" and "red" people. The white ones are the supposed supporters of Micheletti: "democratic and peaceful" - in reality, their leaders are acting like dictators, using military forces to maintain the power. On the other hand there are the red ones, the social activists, by the media known as dangerous "communists and terrorists."
Of course, in the local news they say that there is more people, supporting the new president than the old one. But intern, alternative information states the opposite! The resistence is powerful - there is many people, especially in the rural, poor areas of the country that do not accept this self-named government. They ask for new rules and regulations - written by the people themselves and respected by the powerful. They also ask the actual powerful to leave the country. All these persons of the elite / the so called "bourgeoisie" are known for having exploted the country's recources only for their own benefit during the past decennias. Some little groups of upper/media class people - a minority in this country - without much background information, convinced by the lying media, may be supporting this new government.
Personally, I find it difficult to see a solution to this problem. I admire the peaceful resistence, the movement in favor of respecting human rights and turning into a real democracy. There have been taken many actions - marching, singing, playing concerts...
An extended armed conflict between the people would be the worst. Of course, there must be some who would profit from a little war - otherwise there wasn't so much creation of division and hate between the people.
In the end, I think it is mostly a conflict between rich and poor, once again, dressed into the robes of a "political crisis, socialist / communist movement, democratic approach." In the end, it is as it is always: The rich are benefitting from any conflict of the poor. The more weapons there are sold, the more money is made!
I would love to convince myself that there will be no more violence. There has been enough in only one month of instability. I notice that there is fear. As the activists are feared, also the soldiers are scared. This is what disturbs a lot. Supposedly the military is controling the folks sometimes keeping them quiet, sometimes hitting them brutally - but the military is the same poor folk! I saw the faces of some of them - many are not even 18 years old, they came to the military because there was no other chance to feed the family: parents, grandparents, siblings, uncles... who knows for whose benefit these guys are actually working . I am sure they give little about the fact that they really protect the richest of the rich in this country - they just want to earn money to be able to survive.
Let's hope for the people of Honduras - lower, middle, even upper class - uniformed or not, educated or not - that in the end they stick together: promoting a peaceful, social identity. Not letting themselves destroy by a greedy national or international elite that stimulate the confrontation between everybody.
If anyonelikes more intern information on this topic, look at these sites or articles:
Alternative, informative Blog about plausible background of the Coup:
http://machetera.wordpress.com/
Blogs by resistent folks of Honduras, created in Spanish:
http://honduras-en-resistencia.over-blog.es
http://honduraslaboral.org/leer.php
Artikel und vieeel Hintergrundinformation auf Deutsch:
http://www.neues-deutschland.de/artikel/153741.verhaertete-fronten-in-honduras.html
http://womblog.de/2009/08/08/otto-reich-und-der-staatsstreich-in-honduras/
What happened here is terrible and it is still happening. I feel, it is the perfect example for what is going on in the whole world on different scales. A small group of very powerful and rich people control the poor, the uninformed and the uneducated ones in order to receive more power or at least lose none of it - and to benefit themselves personally by repression, creation of hate and stimulation of fear through mediatic propaganda and the use of weapons.
Here in Honduras the example is an extreme one. There is extreme poverty and extreme wealth: The country itself is not poor - only that its rich recources are benefitting a very small group of people.
This group of people, stimulated by and in eager exchange with the shiny capitalism of North America, did obviously not agree with the socialist tendencies of the last and still official president Zelaya. As the caricature below shows, president Zelaya promoted the change of the constitution, which would have given a voice to the poor majority of the country's population, giving them a voice: indigenous groups, farmers, youth, women, teachers, workers in the health sector etc.
But as this could have taken away a little crumb of the mega-super-cake that the elite of this country keeps consuming, action was taken against this socialist president.
By military force -one early morning at the end of june - he was made to leave the country. Some hours later, the parliament had already sworn in Mr. Micheletti as de facto president. This man and his powerful mates are ruling the country still, more than one month after the coup.
Many people are actively resisting and protesting against this new government. There has been much violation of their rights to express themselves. They are limited evento manifest peacefully, to call for the reinstallation of a real democracy. People with a critical opinion towards the new "president" and his followers, asking for respect of the human rights and freedom of expression and movement, have been arrested, beaten, threatened and even murdered.
The local media, owned by the same powerful, rich people - are very manipulative. It reminds me of the Nazi-propaganda before the second world war, that we studied about in school. There's lots of lies and false information in the press. Hate and fear is delibirately created. The local media are denying the coup d'état that took place. The little, critical media have been taken off the air. The big newspapers assure how much peace and democracy there is right now. In the meantime, the military is repressing the resistant people with guns and sticks.
Naturally, the local press confirms that military is only active to maintain order and tranquility. And that the activists are the violent ones, creating terror and chaos.This is what worries me most. There is a scary polarisation between the people, stimulated by the press. The news only talk about "white" and "red" people. The white ones are the supposed supporters of Micheletti: "democratic and peaceful" - in reality, their leaders are acting like dictators, using military forces to maintain the power. On the other hand there are the red ones, the social activists, by the media known as dangerous "communists and terrorists."
Of course, in the local news they say that there is more people, supporting the new president than the old one. But intern, alternative information states the opposite! The resistence is powerful - there is many people, especially in the rural, poor areas of the country that do not accept this self-named government. They ask for new rules and regulations - written by the people themselves and respected by the powerful. They also ask the actual powerful to leave the country. All these persons of the elite / the so called "bourgeoisie" are known for having exploted the country's recources only for their own benefit during the past decennias. Some little groups of upper/media class people - a minority in this country - without much background information, convinced by the lying media, may be supporting this new government.
Personally, I find it difficult to see a solution to this problem. I admire the peaceful resistence, the movement in favor of respecting human rights and turning into a real democracy. There have been taken many actions - marching, singing, playing concerts...
An extended armed conflict between the people would be the worst. Of course, there must be some who would profit from a little war - otherwise there wasn't so much creation of division and hate between the people.
In the end, I think it is mostly a conflict between rich and poor, once again, dressed into the robes of a "political crisis, socialist / communist movement, democratic approach." In the end, it is as it is always: The rich are benefitting from any conflict of the poor. The more weapons there are sold, the more money is made!
I would love to convince myself that there will be no more violence. There has been enough in only one month of instability. I notice that there is fear. As the activists are feared, also the soldiers are scared. This is what disturbs a lot. Supposedly the military is controling the folks sometimes keeping them quiet, sometimes hitting them brutally - but the military is the same poor folk! I saw the faces of some of them - many are not even 18 years old, they came to the military because there was no other chance to feed the family: parents, grandparents, siblings, uncles... who knows for whose benefit these guys are actually working . I am sure they give little about the fact that they really protect the richest of the rich in this country - they just want to earn money to be able to survive.
Let's hope for the people of Honduras - lower, middle, even upper class - uniformed or not, educated or not - that in the end they stick together: promoting a peaceful, social identity. Not letting themselves destroy by a greedy national or international elite that stimulate the confrontation between everybody.
If anyonelikes more intern information on this topic, look at these sites or articles:
Alternative, informative Blog about plausible background of the Coup:
http://machetera.wordpress.com/
Blogs by resistent folks of Honduras, created in Spanish:
http://honduras-en-resistencia.over-blog.es
http://honduraslaboral.org/leer.php
Artikel und vieeel Hintergrundinformation auf Deutsch:
http://www.neues-deutschland.de/artikel/153741.verhaertete-fronten-in-honduras.html
http://womblog.de/2009/08/08/otto-reich-und-der-staatsstreich-in-honduras/
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