Terribly Upset for Honduras
By Ben Anson
HAVANA TIMES – It has been a year, which has left me – if nobody else – without words.
If I hear “let’s pray to God” or “God knows what he’s doing” once more I will probably end up axing someone to death…
If the language may be forgiven, I would like to ask: just what in the male testicular fuck is God playing at?
Honduras.
An impoverished nation whose history is riddled with injustice, violence, misery, upset, rape, pillage, and murder.
A nation that appears utterly unable to ‘get ahead’ – through no fault of its own.
Looted and ransacked
Furthermore, a nation formed yet looted and ransacked by the Spaniards over five hundred years ago.
A nation monopolized and controlled either blatantly or within the shadows by foreign powers ever since the Spaniards’ arrival. From the deeply corrupt and entirely unscrupulous North American fruit companies of the 20th century to the corrupt oligarchs in recent decades.
A nation which has not seen a decent leader since arguably Francisco Morazan – who died in the year 1842. I use the word ‘decent’ to simply describe the personality let alone the politics.
A nation plagued by drugs trafficking. The Clinton administration can be largely thanked for that, given that the US government simply deported violent gangsters en-masse back to their parents’ home countries in Central America – literally by the planeload – late 1990s onwards.
A nation whose shameless president/dictator Juan Orlando Hernandez never ceases to astound with his unacceptable antics left, right and center.
I could go on until blue in the face.
With such terrors and injustices to contend with day to day – as if life was not hard enough, a global pandemic and now not just one but two hurricanes will have hit the coastal zones in a few days time.
Honduras had bravely fought the pandemic, which it was (quite needless to say) totally unprepared for and incapable of fighting effectively due to lack of economic resources and infrastructure. After a year of people losing jobs, livelihoods, health and loved ones, hurricane ETA derailed the Caribbean sector of the country last week. Scores lost everything. Literally everything. Houses gone. Many dead or missing.
Now the second hurricane is on its way. Hurricane Iota.
It pains me, and many, many more, the destruction which has occurred and that which is about to fall upon the most beautiful part of the country. For a people so genuinely warm, kind, noble and above all – loyal, I just cannot begin to understand why Honduras deserves such constant misery.
“Put your faith in God Ben, pray to him as we all will,” said an acquaintance of mine the other day.
“Fuck that. It’s about time he prayed to us and asked for our forgiveness,” came my gritty response.
How do you get down with someone who puts children and the elderly living under bridges?
What now for all those who have and who will lose their arduously acquired houses?
Someone once asked me; an Englishman who only knew Honduras for its bad reputation: “so if there is one, what’s the worst thing about Honduras?”
I replied: “Nobody outside of Honduras gives a shit.”
Those who have lost their homes… have lost their homes. Period. Maybe some would like to read that sentence again and really let it sink in. How are these hurricane victims meant to go on in an already impoverished nation with no welfare system during a pandemic?
Marian, it seems that I was appallingly mistaken…
You see, I was under the daft impression that you were in need of a great array of things from me.
Thank you ever so much for clearing that up.
I shall sleep much better now knowing that you are most certainly not in need of my white guilt.
Hugs, kisses and blessings mi florcito.
Ben with just a quick search online you will quickly find-out that Honduras has been this bad or worse even before it’s current president. The Spanish left back in the early 1800s, the Americans do not influence our decisions anymore. The giant puss filled cyst that Honduras has become is the fault of us HONDURANS. Quit the white, imperialist blame game. Our culture is violent, sexist and backwards. We have to change ourselves – you come from a country that also left a bad mark on Honduras, you have no say in what we need to do. We live in fear or violence from gangs and criminals – they don’t bother you perhaps because you are gringo to them, you are in a fantasy with the picture you portray of everyday life in Honduras. I would prefer a truthful critique than you white pity.
Hello there Nick,
My apologies for the late response, good internet connection only just came back after basically a week of being incomunicado.
Thank you very much for your promoting of one’s articles, I am glad that they are consistently to your taste.
I can agree with that last part about God granting us some sort of wisdom or whatever he deems fit in our bid to combat real problems with real solutions. When he fancies getting round to it, I’m sure we will all be quite pleased.
Howdy Ben,
Always good to read your updates. I was just now responding to Elio’s latest article on Cuba and I suggested readers check your articles on Honduras to make a comparison between the two very different but very much imperfect countries.
I found myself describing your articles as ‘visceral and eloquent’ so there you go….
May God bless all those in Honduras including your good self…..
And may God forgive all those who carry out dim-witted foolishness and absurdity in his name.
And may God grant everyone the wisdom to look at the real world, to find real-world solutions to real-world issues and to stop taking the lame-assed, easy way out by constantly referring to the supernatural…….