« Welcome to JPF blog | Main | Let who decide? »
August 20, 2003
Greetings From Nicaragua
Nicaragua has so much natural beauty, and so much poverty. As one new friend from the Consumer Network here pointed out, they are not a poor country. They are rich in resources. For those of you who saw 'Greetings From Missile Street', you may remember Kathy Kelly speaking of 'enforced poverty'. Such is the case in many places, and there are numerous methods by which this form of violence is executed.
There is also an invading hegemony here in Managua. Perhaps it is more accurate to say that the invasion has already taken place. Pepsi, Coke, McDonalds, Burger King, Pizza Hut, Shell, Esso... on and on it goes. They're here. There are Nicaraguans who see this as progress. There seem to be more who, no matter what their political position on the matter, simply cannot afford to take part in the changes in any way.
Part of an effective invasion seems to involve erasing as much of a culture or country's history as possible. I have already heard from many people that most of the young Nicaraguans have no sense of history. They have no knowledge of the revolution that took place in the late 70s/ early 80s. And now, though a Sandanista minority still exists, it seems they may have lost their vision. More on that later.
The Consumer Network is a very dynamic group who work on, among other issues, water privatization issues. The network has referred me to many people and places where I can get more information on concerns being raised by what seems to be the impending beginnings of privatization of Nicaragua's water. It will be a busy couple of weeks, and I am very excited about it!
Posted by Joe Public at August 20, 2003 02:54 PM
Comments
Post a comment
Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)