Enough of that political stuff! I'm sick of seeing Obama and McCain on my blog or anywhere else, aren't you? So I closed the polls early. Deal with it. File a complaint.
My official La Gringa election poll for those who couldn't vote ended up with 227 votes of which 52% were for Obama, 35% for McCain, and 11% neither of the above − probably pretty close to what the actual votes will end up being. I was impressed with voter turnout.
(Edit: Well, darn! I tried to close the poll, but Blogger told me it was illegal, so the final result may vary from what I reported above.)
Those of you in the US will finally have a respite from politics and campaigning for....how long?....5 days or so before it starts up again.
Honduras is just gearing up for its elections next year. I read that over 33,000 candidates are vying for around 2,000 elected positions in Honduran government − just goes to show how well-paid and lucrative those jobs are. Surprise, surprise!: Everyone is against corruption. Vote for them so they can be the next corruptos.
One of those running for diputado (congressman), Dario Banegas, is going to be decidedly unpopular with the others as he is calling for diputados' salaries to be reduced from the current L.60,000 per month (US $3,175) to L.3,500 (US $185), the minimum wage. ;-) What poetic justice. I love Dario. He's the cartoonist for La Prensa whose caricatures I often post. He's really good at nailing the target.
The Ceibeño section of La Prensa had an article about two of the La Ceiba mayoral candidates. One of them, who just left a government position as head of the public hospital amidst accusations of corruption (missing equipment and medicines), has a plan to turn the estero (the creek in which the raw sewage floats out to sea) into a tourist attraction.
For all the other big things that the city needs and which have been promised for years and years, like constructing Calle Ocho (8th street) to alleviate the traffic, fixing the sewage system, and rain drainage system which floods the city, he says there is no money and we'll have to get international funds for that. I'm impressed.
Several mayoral candidates had ads in the newspaper indicating that they are the anti-corruption candidate. One of them apparently didn't proofread his ad or doesn't know how to spell. His motto is "No votes tu voto!" which would mean "Don't vote your vote!" I think what he meant to say was "No botes tu voto!", which means don't throw away your vote. Mixing up 'b's' and 'v's' is a very common spelling mistake. Whatever. It doesn't instill confidence.
I'll leave you with this:
Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner.--James Bovard, Civil Libertarian (1994)
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