Mayan end of the world

The truth about the Mayan calendar

I had a laugh about this cartoon. How about you?

Honduras has a new tourism campaign, touting the supposed Mayan prophesy that the world would end in December 2012 and if that is so, you might as well spend your last days in Honduras. That seems to leave a lot of room for bad jokes that wouldn't be particularly favorable to Honduras tourism.

But Mexico, which does a much better job of promoting tourism, has a similar tourism campaign going on which will include celebrating Mayan rites and incense burning in the historically Mayan areas of Mexico. We can assume this will not include the human sacrifice rituals and partaking of the delicacies of the sacrifices. Aztec mythology included the world passing through the "Nine Hells of Increasing Doom", each one worse than the last, prior to the end of the world.

I haven't done much reading about this so I'm no expert but apparently there are alternate theories that the whole 'end of the world' prophesy has been misinterpreted and that 2012 may mark the beginning of a new era. The beginning of a new era sounds much better to me!

May 2012 bring the beginning of a new era of peace and prosperity for you and for Honduras!

Where has La Gringa been?

No hammock time for La Gringa!

Dear Blogicito readers,

I just realized it is December 18th and I haven't posted since November! Given the subject that I have been writing about, some friends and readers have been worried about me. I really have to apologize for that. And thank you to all of you who have written.

I've just been extremely busy helping El Jefe with a project that has taken almost every waking moment of our lives. ;-/ Along with being totally overwhelmed and depressed about the crime and corruption news in Honduras — yes, I do take things that affect Honduras personally! — this has resulted in blogger block.

As usual, I have a backlog of more than a dozen articles on the crime/corruption theme drafted but can't seem to find the time or the mental focus to edit and finish them. I hadn't even finished posting the original crime series when the 'stuff hit the fan' on the criminal cops scandal. The media is full of new stories every day, including the assassination of Alfredo Landaverde, a high-profile person who was previously involved with the Anti-Narcotrafficking Directorate (DLCN) and likely had much inside knowledge that isn't available to the general public.

Landaverde had been bluntly outspoken in the media recently about corruption and incompetence in the justice system. His wife, Hilda Caldera Tosta, who is not a Honduran citizen and who was also shot in the drive-by attack on her husband, promises to carry out his work and in a public statement to the cowards who assassinated her husband, "If you want to kill me, come and kill me!".

Señora Caldera has joined forces with Julieta Castellanos, mother of one of the university students murdered by police in October, and Leslie Portillo, widow of Arístides González who was the head of the DLCN at the time he was assassinated in a drive by shooting while dropping his daughter off at school. Señora Portillo has publicly denounced that the authorities know that police murdered her husband and they have done absolutely nothing for two years. They are calling their coalition the Honduran Spring against Crime. These three brave women may be able to get enough international attention to force action.

In my opinion, no real effective action that I can see has been taken. I also have absolutely no faith that any plans to do so would actually be carried out. It's corrupt and incompetent business as usual in Honduras, even when its citizens are dying at an alarming rate. I hope that I'll be pleasantly surprised, but don't think I will be. President Pepe Lobo has even made the incredible statement several times that he "had no idea that crime and corruption in the police department was so bad". I can only ask what country he lives in and why doesn't he start by listening to his ministers and reading the newspapers.

On another topic, to update you on the Facebook situation, I believe that the petition to restore my account was sent to Mark Zuckerberg but did not even receive the courtesy of a canned response, so not too much more I can say about that. :-/ The petition and the heartfelt comments left by Facebook friends was amazingly gratifying to me personally. You'll never know how much I appreciate Ricardo for setting up the petition and all of you who signed it and took the time to leave a comment. I'm going to consider my options again in January, but in the meantime, I sure do miss all the feedback from FB friends!

I'm not sure when I'll get back to this. I don't want to spoil your holiday season with these depressing topics and it seems frivolous to chatter about non-important topics. In the meantime, if you don't hear from me before then, I wish all of you a wonderful Christmas and a safe, peaceful, and prosperous new year. Please pray for change in Honduras.

Love and abrazos to all,




PS: Rather than checking back to see if and when I've posted something, you might consider signing up for an email subscription. You won't get any email until I next post something new. Click on the yellow sticky note in the sidebar and follow the instructions to receive email updates.