Equal employment opportunity

Equal employment opportunity? Not in Honduras.

I translated some excerpts from the classified ads in Monday's employment section of La Prensa:

• Store manager, sex male, no more than 30 years old ....
• Warehouse assistant, no more than 25 years old ....
• Accounting assistants, age: between 20 and 25 years .... (This one was Holiday Inn Hotel)
• Need young men 18-22 years ....
• Need female accounting assistant, no more than 30 years old ....
• Need female cook, 25-35 years old ....
• Technical assistant and sales, age: 25 to 35, sex: male ....
• Warehouse helpers, age: 18 to 25 ....
• Warehouse manager, sex: male, age: 26 to 35 ....
• Need personnel: In charge of store, 22 to 30 years old, female; sales persons, 18 to 30 years old ....
• Need sales persons, sex male, 22-30 years old ....
• Need young men of 18 to 25 years ....
• Need male personnel, age between 22 and 26 years ...

Don't think I just picked these to make a point .... well, of course I did .... but there were even more ads exactly like these. Only for a couple of executive-type positions were the age limitations as high as 40 or 45.

About two-thirds of the ads did not spell out the age or sex requirements, probably because IT IS AGAINST THE LAW in Honduras to discriminate because of age or sex.

I guess in Honduras, you are supposed to just curl up and die once you hit age 35.