Good Morning, Gringa

The following email cheered my day yesterday. Reprinted with permission.


Good morning, Gringa.

I really admire your comments about the social problems in Honduras. I find them so constructive. I find that when we ignore a bad situation, we tend to do nothing, yes, exactly that. NOTHING!

Reading the comment of that "typical honduran" I mean the ignorant honduran that is threatening you, instead of giving a intelligent response of an analysis of what you said, he resorts to the the only way most of Hondurans do: through intimidation and silencing the truth.

In relevance to this, I am going to cite what a reporter − American reporter − wrote about the freedom of speech in Honduras.

Journalism: When Truth is More Important Than Optimism
Arjuna G. Shmerendrique
Special to Honduras This Week,
Thursday, November 22, 2007

The following article was written at the invitation of HTW publisher, Mario Gutierrez, following a letter to the editor in which the author argues that this newspaper should tell readers not only what the editors choose to say but what readers need to know to form an accurate and useful impression of Honduras. Journalism is the first draft of history. On the printed page, on radio, and TV are seized, then frozen in time, indelible images of the human drama. Lucid and hard-nosed renderings discouraged revisionists from tampering with fact. Unfortunately, in an imperfect world, fact is calumny, reality is disgrace, and truth is scandal.

(This part reminded me that yesterday, President Zelaya said in the papers that the papers were being yellowish in their renderings, that Honduras was the most peaceful country in Central America, that there was not such violence that the papers were trying to portrait. I was really dumbfounded because I read La Prensa everyday, and what you see is bodies everywhere. Could be that the president don't read the paper or want to dismiss the truth?) continuation......

For those whose only loyalty is to the truth, it is a lonely world as well. The price for such devotion is often steep and those who are willing to pay it never lack enemies. To the enemies of truth, journalists make an especial appetizing prey. If our accounts lack focus or detail, we are dismissed as shallow or irrelevant. If our exposes or editorials are graphic, irreverent or too close for comfort, we are accused of needlessly giving readers palpitations. No matter what we report, journalists are sure to be reviled by someone along the way. Fortunately, most readers seek to be informed. Most possess the mental elasticity to judge an article on its merits. It is to them that scrupulous journalists devote their columns. Others see conspiracy in the truth. Others yet are so shocked by it that they want it suppressed, obliterated, reduced to ashes, along with the reporters who unearth it.

So gringa, you are not alone in this problem. People from abroad are also to but in this problem in Honduras with the intention to "HELP" not vent frustration, like the Honduran in New York said.

An applause to you Gringa.

I hope you like this excerpt from a Journalist who visited Honduras and gave this analysis.

Edgar