marching on, twenty by ten

Over the past week the scene of protests in favor of ousted President Mel Zelaya can only be described as frightening. The national police, twenty wide and ten deep marching on women with their umbrellas, men in baseball caps and youth wearing black and red t-shirts with images of Che. To watch people flee from a force they can't see completely, looking for an exit that doesn't exist is harrowing. Several media outlets (though probably using the same source) are quick to mention these protesters hold hand-made weapons such as picks and large sticks. Provocation is a poor argument for a strategy that pits professionally trained individuals with weapons (some graduates of the School of Americas) against protesters with farming tools.

For everything I've recorded on this blog what's been omitted is the absolute control of the state (read: partly under the duress of Honduran business elite)  on its citizenry, and the bludgeons are not discrete. Curfews, military road blocks and bus checks, message control through print, radio and television. The same soldiers protecting citizens gathered in support of the new government march on the opposition and are responsible for at least one death this past weekend. 

Rep. George McGovern is a Congressional Representative I respect. He's supporting legislative efforts that would tighten the pursestrings, for one, of folks who led the coup. Read more here. This isn't an endorsement but a consideration - how do we, as US funders to foreign militaries and corrupt governments, act on our role in this and other conflicts? 

On a personal note, the government isn't alone in its suppression of information. Zamorano, the agricultural school where I hold an office and enjoy access to a swimming pool, tennis courts, riding stables and two coffee shops, has blocked internet access to several liberal news outlets including Upside World. Business as usual for the silent, deadly business elite. 

only contemplating good governance

The country afuera del tiempo - outside of time- as a Mexican reporter is calling Honduras. Marches continue, the road to my community is blocked by small rocks and women with umbrellas protesting the heat and the takeover government. Two things occurred this weekend which fall outside my common Honduran experiences - stars and a cold nose. I was thinking of something which is also hard to come by: high in the mountains near the El Salvador border in a hammock swinging over banana trees swinging over coffee, I contemplated good governance.

Hondurans active in politics related to Mel Zelaya's forceful removal and transitional government appear to be fighting for a side not a better government.

Demands presented by protesters for Mel Zelaya: bring him back, what you did was illegal and he loves the people and we (speaking for all the poor) want him back.

Demands presented by protestors for Micheletti (new president): don't ever bring him back, what he did was illegal, he was hurting all the people and we want peace, all Hondurans want our peace.

Maybe my frustration stems from the signs that don't appear at Honduran road blocks (for multilayered reasons):

---

1. My son waited 2 months for a life saving amputation of his left leg because we couldn't afford the knife or anesthesia for the surgery. I demand social services that respect human dignity.

2. I borrowed 1000L ($50) from a coyote (middle man that buys products from farmers and sells them in the city for double the price) and lost my crop. My seven year son sells water on buses to recuperate the money. I demand that my right to earn a decent living from my work be respected.

3. If the United States government is serious about restoring the democratic process in Honduras, why is it still funding a military in charge of fear and intimidation? ---

In a statement shortly after confronting the Mexican government in the state of Chiapas, Mexico, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) declared its political intentions as an organization composed of marginalized peoples by political and economic powers:

"The EZLN does not seek the victory of one party or another. The EZLN seeks justice, freedom and democracy so that the people can choose whoever seems best to them and so that their choice, whatever it is, receives the respect and understanding of all Mexicans and of people in other countries."

(EZLN communique, 1/11/1994)

Afuera de victoria.

golpe de state and pueblo

Public participation in national governing decisions is ______. I so state this publicly to remind myself that there is no finite resolution to a political event such as a "golpe de estado" or military coup.

The finite is only the name of a person who claims to be in charge:

Honduran President Manuel Zelaya is not that person now. But we will be reminded that his name is Mel Zelaya over many days and that he should or should not be the president of Honduras.

The infinite challenge is establishing a government with leaders who embody a form of public representation that includes and requires the participation of society's most marginalized and least protected. Those voices, those interests, those stories are hidden beneath the dramatics and egos of Honduran politicians who have an awful record of standing with the material poor in their communities and fewer problems when it comes to favoring a wealthy elite. Sigh - a philosophical rant, it does nothing to inform but feels good to let go.

A short list of events from this morning : around 6:30am news reaches the general public that President Mel Zelaya has been sequestered by the military. Government television stations are calling for public demonstrations until electricity is turned off throughout the country. Families in urban areas rush to grocery stores to bolster their food supply. Rural Hondurans, who make up more than 60% of the population, either don't have electricity and/or are accustomed to such rolling blackouts and wait for news over the radio. Electricity returns mid-day and with it a Congressional session and press conference from President Zelaya who is in Costa Rica.

At least for now I'll refrain from making statements of judgement related to specific coupe events. But certainly, today was not an act of justice and equality for Honduran people. Fear and force are the law today.

in cahoots

What I imagined was a shared space, something that would write itself with the experiences and thoughts of a collective. But I never said bienvenido. Here it is; I'm not trying to evade responsibility for writing regularly (ehem, a wee fib).

But more than genuinely, this is shared tierra - welcome.

How? Email me and I'll publish it to the blog, or post a comment and I'll publish it on the main page. Easy, shared, no fibbing from now on.

Swoon

This morning as I walked along the lakeshore,

I fell in love with a wren

and later in the day with a mouse

the cat had dropped under the dining room table.

Aimless Love - Billy Collins

It's 95.3% true I'm not one to keep a list of desirable characteristics one looks for in a partner. Put me in the camp that suggests it's better to remain open and celebrate the moment when one finds something spectacular. And oh how I swooned last Sunday evening. What beauty, what grace, what substance! These shelves have no equal; the wood is dusky, worn and textured, and the strong rope pops with a spring-sky blue. Each slab rests slightly from two nails facing a window where light reflects on its uncomplicated strength. What conversations to be had, so much beyond the surface. Titles like Cradle to Cradle, Food Politics, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn offer the beginning of a long, delightful journey of discovery. 

The most devout love is not possessive: I do not own these shelves. 

The deepest love is shared: I offer you the elements, but not the splendor of the shelves. 

GoodReads is an online booksharing network where I have posted a "shelf" or category called shelves of danli.  It seemed shameless to write all the titles down upon first meeting, so the GoodReads list is only a start from memory and will grow with time. 

I can only hope the shelves didn't see me blush. 

Thursday evening::Yuscarán

Many months ago (more than I care to admit have passed) I wrote an email to people who inspire courage-accountability-inquiry-confidence-resistance. Honduras in January felt to be unfamiliar territory. What’s familiar tonight: a cat named “Tito” rests a chin on my thigh ignoring music from the neighbor’s place. Anna, my roommate, is gone for a few days and the men who run a metal shop permit their tools a little rest. Sporadic water is a great excuse for skipping showers, though my feet would be confused for a welcome mat worn with serious dust stains.

It’s neither a personal narrative nor an exposition of my work that I intend for this blog, but maybe it helps to contextualize the person in the place. I arrived to news that my host project dissolved due to funding issues, forcing a reconsideration of my research proposal. Over the following weeks I visited communities and accompanied an extension agent working on family gardens and a transitional cash crop called maracuya. I moved to Yuscarán, a beautiful town that sits on ridges surrounded by 19 aldeas and close to the University of  Zamorano where I keep an office. Time ran away and everything felt unsettled against the backdrop of a very structured grant proposal laden with mountains of data collection that wasn’t being collected. But it took that time for my priorities and purpose to focus.

Honduras, by identity and survival, is a farming country. Where the U.S. is experiencing a burgeoning local food movement (maybe an idealistic characterization), supermarkets and food imports owned by Wal-Mart are increasingly indispensable in the Honduran diet. Let’s not ignore that Honduras is a historical marker for the agro-industrial sector credited to American companies' export of bananas from the north coast to U.S. homes starting in the 1880’s with dependable service to present-day U.S. consumers even during winter blizzards. The majority of rural workers who do not migrate to free-trade zones (that are also “free” of paying their employees the recently increased minimum wage), depend on the land for basic staples like beans and corn.  Sometimes I put my head against the wall thinking about all the factors involved in making farming a sustainable livelihood here (oh what a list), and then I tell my head to be quiet for a minute and get to work. 

It may never be simple, but we move along: over the course of the next eight months I’ll provide more detail on the livelihood research I’m conducting in an aldea called Tablones, the community garden at the school, the food cycle project in Yuscaran, and CIAL farmer groups who were the disappeared program that recently reappeared (yay!).

You are kind beyond measure to read such a long blog entry. To solve this problem I promise to secure an editor (with a dark red pen) and post more pictures. Hold me to that promise.

Woman’s labor movement in banana plantations

Media source on activism in Latin America

Livelihood study in Honduras

News via photography