Photographs: Sean Hawkey.
Honduras, A Name Which Defines Our Current Situation
I beg that you must please put your hand on your hearts and minds to ponder. That you must think deeply and reflect with everlasting mercy that perhaps none of these people would ever rebuild nor recover. Honduras overall does not believe in nor could afford insurance, at least not the working class nor the small farmers and small business owners in rural areas where the majority of this damage is concentrated.
To my recollection, Honduras has no known program as the US does; FEMA, or its equivalent, due to the most recent dragged out nepotism, outstretched political corruption. Most people either have no money and no longer trust, not even the banks.
So when these people lose everything, it is indeed everything. So I beg that you inquire who is assisting in aiding with such recovery and if you could afford to help out, please do so? These are very hard times for most people on the planet, though as in the words of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, who indicated through his lectures and speeches, as he uplifted the spirit of African American community that “if we are one individual and are poor, with only one dollar, well that is indeed being poor, but if we were to come together as a unit of us to join a million others, each with a dollar to contribute. That person is no longer poor, thus rather a millionaire, with a dollar plus.” (Though not a direct quote).
And as we look back with resentment to renege upon our inability to gather as a family and exchange turkey gravy recipes with our friends-meanwhile our neighbors, we are just trying to remain healthy and preserve life in the midst of a pandemic on this blessed holiday.
I beg that you might reflect in thought and prayer about this already impoverished country, whose people have lost, but all including hope, due to the widespread corruption, thus run amok.
Selfish, narrow-minded, unescrúpulos leaders, who remain dishonest and greedy even under these dreadful circumstances. Yet they must remain quiet and content, else they might easily disappear or dead, and their remains serve as a grim warning to others who may speak up; hence they stand back quietly.
Forced, face deep in waters of starvation, and a virus that is awful and deadly, such as the political virus that’s been looming over their heads during this pandemic.
Keep our people on prayer? Please help\ support.
I still remember the dreadful storm of 1974 vividly. Since then, Honduras had not changed but rather grown far worse. Perhaps one of the first changes exhibited, following its current government, ought to be its name, which spells out as one of the worst names for a country, “Honduras?”
Now, who in the hell names a country looser, backward, unachievable, lack of success, etc., etc.
According to history, Honduras had a beautiful name. A suitable and sensible name. I believe the Natives named it Hibueras (gore \ calabash). Which is a native medicinal fruit. With its shell, once dried, is used to store water. Many of the farmers I saw while growing up using it as a canteen when working outdoors, since it keeps the water cool, even while in the sun.
It is believed that during one of Christopher Columbus’s last journey to the Americas, his ship was caught in a storm off the Eastern coast of Honduras, near Gracias A Dios. The legend states it was severely intense, causing his almost loss of a ship. As the storm ceases and the seas settled, and they sailed away from the Honduran coast, he uttered the phrase aloud, “gracias a Dios que salimos de estas honduras!” ( thank God that we are finally out of these depths!)
Not sure if this is truth simply a fable taught to us during elementary school. Since I’m not an authority on Columbus studies, his writings, nor his history, I might safely say I don’t know. I’m not sure.
According to Wikipedia
“Columbus named the country Honduras (“depths”) for the deep waters off its coast. In January 1524, Hernán Cortés directed captain Cristóbal de Olid to establish a colony in Honduras.”
What I do know, and I’m quite sure about, is when comparing the naming of most countries, the focus has all appeared to be rather based on a positive impact and not a negative connotation or a derogatory. Such as examples, El Salvador, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, etc… for starters, the naming of a country, Honduras, or anything for that matter, Honduras as a name is negative. Hondo, deep. Why not Arriba, Adelante, Triunfante?
Either way, the country and its politicians have failed to move forward the uplifting of its people for its people since 1974, during the days following huracán Fifi, but instead chose to drag us all down into the deep.
Not an insult, rather a wake up toward our positive.
Although in reality, as my friend journalist Fredy Pineda puts it,
“caeremos con honor por decir la verdad y no es cambiando un nombre que traerá cambios, es cambiando de actitud y aptitud ante los desafíos HONDURAS es un nombre que significa mucho si lo vemos desde el lado positivo.”
HONDURAS does have the riches and lots of natural resources that are unfortunately are being dragged out and extracted from its heart each and every day by the rich. Although the country boast of the most significant and deepest harbors in Central America, yet these are each day become more inaccessible to academic research, due to pollution and even to the local artisan fishing.
Hence it was not in vein that this now impoverished Centroamérican nation carried still such a high valued name when seen from the perspective of ‘La Selección Nacional,’ soccer field’s point of view, though when reflecting from an intellectual and an environmental standpoint, it changes a whole lot.
There’s a well known Latin American adage that goes, “los buenos somos más.” Although I’m not sure what has happened with that older spirit of great nation loving, Catrachos whom proudly stood years ago to defend their constitution, their soil and that native land? Their battle cry and creed, “al abismo y profundidad hay que enterrar a los malos hijos que la destruyen sin misericordia!”
Photography: Fotografo inglés Sean Hawkey.
#prayingforhonduras #prayingtocentralamerica
