Military Coup in Honduras

As a diver, I wonder what will be of the Bay Islands with this military coup in Honduras. Some American expats there, are already sounding like the character Hyman Roth in the movie The Godfather:

"[I]t looks like they got rid of a Chaves [sic] wannabe....and if so good for them".

"The military intervened to impose the rule of law just clarified by their supreme court and congress. Hats off to them..."

With such comments, no wonder people like Hugo Chavez in Venezuela have an easy time fomenting anti-American sentiment in the region.

While I do understand that divers are generally wealthy people, I would also like to believe that they are people with some kind of sensibility toward the environment, the rule of law, and the planet's overall well being. But I guess this is an overly romantic view of the diving community.

The reality, as it seems to transpire from comments such as those above, is that by selfishly aligning themselves with the local wealthy ruling elites, Americans expats keep reinforcing the notion that when it comes to Central America, the United States care more about hegemony than the rule of law.


(source)

I was in Roatan in 2007, and I have seen some of the abject poverty that the locals live in. While there is something to be said about tourism bringing cash to the Bay Islands, it is also true that most of the money does not trickle down to the local Hondurans. Most dive resorts are foreign (i.e. American) owned, and they operate on a "all inclusive" model in order to shield tourists from the surrounding reality as much as possible.

Timothy Padgett has some interesting comments in regard to the current military coup on Time Magazine's website:

"[W]hen soldiers in Latin America haul a democratically elected president out of his palace and into exile, the U.S. has no choice in this day and age but to roundly condemn it. Not just to throw Washington's hemispheric antagonists off base — but to keep the region's military troglodytes from making a comeback."

For a while, I had been planning a return trip to Roatan, plus Utila and a side trip to the mainland to see the Mayan ruins in Copan, for 2010. But as things stand right now, it doesn't look like this trip will be happening until there is some return to normalcy in Honduras.

Give the People What They Want: Noam Chomsky on the Heathcare Hold Up

As usual, Noam Chomsky is right on the money: health care reform in America is starting to become a possibility mostly because a sector of concentrated capital is beginning to push for it. The manufacturing sector, such as GM, is getting killed by the rising cost of health care so finally, there is some interest in reforming the system on Capitol Hill.

Never mind that the vast majority of the people have been wanting a single payer health care system for decades now. A recent poll showed how 72 percent of Americans want a public option and yet, there are some Democratic senators, led by North Carolina Senator Kay Hagan, who are so in bed with the vested interests in the health care industry, that are willing to go against the will of their own voters.

The time has come to let the US Senate know where the people stand. You can find out where individual Representatives and Senators stand on health care here. Let them know that health care is a human right, not a for profit business.

FOX News: "Worst Person in the World"

Australian owned Fox News channel has become the mouthpiece of sedition in the USA for some time. It started fomenting civil unrest against Obama since the Presidential campaign, and now that the right wing crazies are starting to come out and do what Fox News has been exhorting them to do, they act as if they have no responsibility while continuing their seditious propaganda as if they had no responsibility.

I have already blocked Fox on my TV set and I have called my cable provider to tell them that as a matter of balance, they should add Al Jazeera to their line-up and, possibly, put it next to the Fox News channel.

Right Wing Rhetoric of Purgation and Annihilation

Here is an example of right wing rhetoric of purgation and annihilation by CBS golf analyst David Feherty, as observed in Salon by writer Camille Paglia.

"From my own experience visiting the troops in the Middle East, I can tell you this, though: despite how the conflict has been portrayed by our glorious media, if you gave any U.S. soldier a gun with two bullets in it, and he found himself in an elevator with Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Osama bin Laden, there's a good chance that Nancy Pelosi would get shot twice, and Harry Reid and bin Laden would be strangled to death."

(the source on D Magazine has by now disappeared, but you can still find some traces of it here)

Bill O'Reilly Has Blood On His Hands

Perfect case of the pot (O'Reilly) calling the kettle black.

Right Wing Media Psycho Talk

These right wing crazies are really getting out of hand.

Obabaluba

Don't ask...

Teaser Fare

Yesterday I got an alert for a great fare to go see my brother in Europe. Today, after making sure everything would work out with dates, work, etc. I went back online to purchase the tickets only to find out that the great fare had vanished; now it's double.

Talk about teaser fares...

Dry Suit Diving

Last Sunday I tried diving with a dry suit for the first time. I have to say that before trying I thought that I was not going to like it, as I always enjoyed the part of being wet in the water. Also, it seemed like a big effort to put on a dry suit. After trying one on, and doing two dives, I have changed my mind and now I am thinking on buying one.

I find dry suit diving neither better, nor worse, just different. It adds a little more separation between the person and the water;not like being totally separated as in a submarine, but more so than a wetsuit where one feels totally immersed in the water. I guess it's hard to explain
and that's why I wasn't sure what to expect. But it is definitely something worth considering simply because it expands the diving horizon.

I initially got interested in dry suit cold water diving after seeing Werner Herzog's Encounters At the End of the World: a great documentary and with some astounding under water images. Definitely worth checking out even if not a diver.

Feeling The Hate In Jerusalem On Eve of Obama's Cairo Address

Youtube keeps removing this video. I guess censorship is a selective thing.

To Blog Or Not To Blog

Today I decided not to censor myself so much and to keep blogging on a regular basis. It seems that waiting to have a complete thought or concept clear before I post results in very few posts; the thoughts get washed away as new things keep distracting my trains of thought. One of the reasons why I started blogging, is to keep an inventory of my thoughts as they come. Let's see what happens with this new approach.