Fundamental imbalance

"Following James Wolfensohn, the ex-president of the World Bank, there exists a 'fundamental imbalance,' the world spends 900 billion dollars on defense, 325 billion dollars on agriculture subsidies, and only between 50 and 60 billion dollars on development aid."
From a UNDP study on crime in Honduras



Según James Wolfensohn, ex presidente del Banco Mundial, existe un “desequilibrio fundamental”, el mundo gasta 900 mil millones de dólares en defensa, unos 325 mil millones de dólares en subvenciones a la agricultura y sólo entre 50 y 60 mil millones de dólares en ayudas al desarrollo. IANSA - www.armasbajocontrol.org

Wage Inequality

Local wages in Honduras 2009

Minimum wage: About $1.75 an hour (though it only specifies a wage total per month)

Housecleaning wage: About $1 an hour not including travel time (1.5-2 hours each way) or expense (about $2)

Housecleaning wage with the above included: About $.65 an hour

Manual labor wage: About $9 a day or $1 an hour

In many local markets or street stalls, vendors have trouble breaking a 100 Lempira bill that is equal to about $5.50.

Elizabeth pays a local adolescent girl about $1.50-2 an hour to sweep and mop our floors twice a week.

I pay my assistant twice her previous salary as a Catholic Church social worker. She receives a "generous" wage of $2 an hour to help me with data collection. I was told by a number of NGO workers not to overpay those helping me as it may lead to: dependency of the individual on a foreigner; jealousy among other community members; it changes power dynamics in the family and society; etc. Although I do not believe all of these are reason enough to underpay someone, I do believe there is some validity in being cautious. In consulation with other Honduran friends, I decided upon the above number.

Lunch including drink can cost anywhere from $3 to $5 per person in the community. Dinner tonight cost Elizabeth and I about $4.50 for us both. I took two Spaniards, who work for a major development NGO in Honduras, out to lunch a couple of weeks ago in Teguc and mistakenly allowed them to decide where we were to eat. It cost me upwards of $45…a valuable but expensive lesson.

Honduras Update 5—A heavy heart

I write this to you on a quiet Wednesday as I break from work and overlook the beauty that is Honduras. Corn tufts sway in the wind and the clouds curl slowly over the mountain tops. Rain will come soon, as it does about four times a week, to replenish the forests and crops while at the same time cleaning the streets and sidewalks of human debris.

Last week in Tegucigalpa I ran into one of my old students Miguel from the orphanage. I had worked with him and another student, Orlando, for more than a year on the reading, writing and math skills so they could keep up with their grade level. I grew found of them both and loved and treated them like little brothers.

Miguel had grown significantly since I had said goodbye seven years ago. Now twenty, he was good-looking, mature, and strong from cutting weeds with a machete six days a week. This day he was wearing an old U.S. used (Goodwill) t-shirt, jeans that had flakes of mud at the cuffs and old brown shoes. His smile was the same with straight white teeth which contrasted against his dark complexion and black hair. His personality—distracted from undiagnosed ADHD, good humored but with a less than average intellect--remained the same.

He began to share his story with me of the last few years. Unfortunately, there wasn't much to tell. He ran away from the orphanage with his sister to Tegucigalpa about a year or two after I left. He has been living with her ever since taking part time work when possible, hanging out at the mall when not. He has returned to school since he left the orphanage and has little desire to continue doing something he consistently failed at. His life is led a day at a time with no plans for the future and no current preoccupations. It was good to see him and catch up.

However, he had more to tell me about Orlando. Orlando had left the orphanage as well and returned to his "home" of Santa Rosa de Copan. I note home in quotation marks as he only lived there a few years before arriving at Nuestros Pequenos Hermanos orphanage. Miguel then took his thumb and made a horizontal arc across his neck—Orlando had been murdered only two months ago.

It brings me great sadness to think about Orlando as a ten-year-old boy, bright eyed and excited about coming to my class. Many, many people gave much of themselves to offer this kid, who had a terribly hard life to begin with, an opportunity, a chance to make something of himself. And that was taken away with his life at age eighteen; all of that work, his generous spirit, his love of soccer, everything.

Currently, Honduras has the highest murder rate in the world. To put it in perspective, Honduras had about 58 murders for every 100,000 people in 2008, the United States had about six, and Mexico had about eleven. This in a country that never had a civil war like its neighbors, that has been the closest ally to the United States over the last century, has had more Peace Corp volunteers than any other country in the world, and is wealthy in natural resources. It makes me wonder whether I should move from studying post-disaster community development to crime reduction strategies, especially among young people.

Often I try to find the bright side in every situation but I do not really see one right now. It just sucks to have a friend, a little brother who I did my best to love and support, no longer have a future.

 

Inequality and Social Change

I am currently working on a paper discussing how "engaged" Americans believe social change happens. I have identified five belief types, as noted below. Belief types can be defined as a categorical belief about a phenomenon, in this case the location of inequality (in the local or the structural) and the location of the solution to that inequality (in the individual or somewhere else). Almost every response maps onto this diagnosis/prognosis template.

I believe these belief types map onto larger cultural narratives in the U.S. For example, the individualist follows the cultural script of the American Dream, believing the solution to inequality is found within the individual pulling themselves up by the bootstraps. The voluntarist follows the civil rights script, where protesting and voting are means of addressing inequality effectively. The authoritative/disciple remind me of the follower type who want strong leadership or someone else to solve issues of inequality. The observer are those who see the problem as out there, as in the government and feel the responsibility for solving that problem is out there as well. However, I don't believe they have a script (cultural narrative) because they do not need one. Since they are removed both from the problem of inequality and the solution, they do not need a cohesive explanation of social change. There is one other category that doesn't fit in completely. I call this fifth group the self-reflective voluntarist who is both self-reflective like the individualist but also wants to change the structure. Since this is a hybrid group, I also believe their narratives is both practical (I can make a difference) and broad enough to offer a solid way to engage structure.