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Jorge Cabrera / Reuters
A woman shows a placard to riot police during a protest outside the National Congress in Tegucigalpa on Thursday. Thousands of teachers and activists of the National Front of Popular Resistance marched.
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — Street surveillance cameras in one of the world's most dangerous cities were turned off last week because Honduras' government hasn't paid millions of dollars it owes. The operator that runs them is now threatening to suspend police radio service as well.
Teachers have been demonstrating almost every day because they haven't been paid in six months, while doctors complain about the shortage of essential medicines, gauze, needles and latex gloves.
This Central American country has been on the brink of bankruptcy for months, as lawmakers put off passing a budget necessary to pay for basic government services. Honduras is also grappling with $5 billion in foreign debt, a figure equivalent to last year's entire government budget.
"There are definitely patients who haven't been able to get better because of this problem," said Dr. Lilian Discua, a pediatrician. "An epileptic who doesn't take his medicine will have a crisis. This is happening."
The financial problems add to a general sense that Honduras is a country in meltdown, as homicides soar, drug trafficking overruns cities and coasts and the nation's highest court has been embattled in a constitutional fight with the Congress.
Many streets are riddled with potholes, and cities aren't replacing stolen manhole covers. Soldiers aren't receiving their regular salaries, while the education secretary says 96 percent of schools close several days every week or month because of teacher strikes.
Some government offices must close because they don't have ink to take fingerprints. The country's national registration agency has been shuttered for 10 days because of unpaid salaries.
"In many ways, the state is no longer functioning," said Robert Naiman, policy director of Just Foreign Policy, a Washington D.C.-based organization aimed at reforming U.S. foreign policy. "If they keep not paying their soldiers, those soldiers are probably going to stop being soldiers and maybe take some other action."
Experts say a mix of government corruption, election-year politics and a struggling economy has fueled the crisis.
Jorge Cabrera / Reuters
Demonstrators march toward the National Congress in Tegucigalpa on Thursday. Among them are teachers who say they haven't been paid in six months.
Although Congress goes on recess Friday, lawmakers have only partially passed a budget to pay some of state employees and contractors. That leaves undecided the budgets of autonomous institutions such as utilities and the port authority.
The institutional paralysis has also spread to the justice system. The Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court has not met for a month and a half because President Porfirio Lobo accused the magistrates of being part of a conspiracy to overthrow him.
The government and the ruling bloc have at least one idea to solve the fiscal crunch: They've introduced a bill that would create the country's first sales tax while eliminating tax breaks for companies that import goods.
The bill's supporters predict it will generate an additional $1.2 billion in revenue, which would double the government's yearly tax intake.
Some families have survived the government vacuum with remittances sent by some of the 1 million Hondurans living in the United States. Their money equals 19 percent of the country's gross domestic product, according to the World Bank.
Yet it isn't enough for government workers such as teacher Daniel Espunda, who have lost paychecks to the political crisis.
"Now they owe me five months of salary. January will be the sixth I haven't been paid," Espunda said. "No one says anything about when the payday will come."
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Give the U.S. another 1-2 years and this is where we'll be, same boat. Bernake and the unlimited QE3. This is what will take the U.S. under. No budget and the fiscal cliff?...just side shows. It appears the politicians on both sides know what is coming as directed by the Fed and Big Banking. And that is why they do nothing to try to fix it. What would be the point?
Money is as tight as the bark on a tree and has been for over four years for 90% of the population, while at the same time, the value of the money is dropping constantly. Thanks to the Fed, but we hear little about this. It's like frickin' magic. They draw our attention over here to watch the left hand so we don't watch what the right hand is doing.
A trillion dollar coin? Everyone was in disbelief but in reality, it's no different than what Bernake and the Fed are up to. Whether its a coin, currency or money created from out of thin air like the Fed is doing, it's the same end result. Their "creative accounting" has just about reached the end of being creative.
You don't know much about things, do you? But thanks for playing!
We'll be in the same position after Obama and his idiotic programs that really do nothing but cost tax-payer dollars, shield the criminals from any resistance facing them as they gun down more good people in "Gun-Free Zones" and after Obamacare screws up the health industry beyond repair while further plunging us into debt that even out kid's kids will never be free from.
Too bad you didn't care about our "kids' futures" as much when Bush was running up huge debts on unpaid for wars and trillion dollar Medicare giveaways. Now suddenly you care? Then tell the (GOP controlled) Congress to stop spending so much money, since they control the country's purse stings.
I also have to laugh at the GOP's solution to so many shootings - more guns. Yeah, that makes sense. Because 300 million guns for 300 million people is still not enough for you.
Post #3
Hell same old BS, Blame the black man, ( and that is how it looks to me) so why not just come out and say it? President Obama isn't leading us down towards this path. Let me be clear, the bigoted racist, in congress hate this man because he is black not because he is a liberal and are willing to destroy our country because of this hate.
Every time something happens no matter what it is someone will blame Obama, for no other reason then the fact that he is black and they hate him.
Night Hawk, it's likely you'll never understand because you've been sold a bill of goods for the simpleminded. Obama is despised not because he's black but because he's a US-ruining SOCIALIST. Really.
The only thing funny is you BUTTREALLY.
Night Hawk, be a little racist there buddy! So lets vote in all black people and we can solve this problem right. Everybody all the democrates hate him too?
Night Hawk,
You are the one who is sounding like a racist considering Obama is not the FIRST black President because his parents were not both African Americans which makes him a mixed race just like ALL of the other Presidents we have had in office. You obviously like him due to the color of his skin whereas a majority of voters who do not approve of Obama dont like him because of his POLICIES and not the Color of his skin. Sadly you and all of the Race driven voters are grasping at straws when you announce him as your First Black President just because he shows his African gens more prominently then his Caucasian genes. I guess you would not think the same if he had white skin and blue eyes huh, but still had a black dad and a white mom????
Well, Night Hawk, he and George Bush can comiserate with each other. Only they just like to hate George because he's out of office and easy to blame. He can't even claim being black.
By the way, I don't hate Obama. I do vehemently disagree with his socialist agenda, which is backed by the left wing of the Democrats. I don't like socialism no matter what color the mouth is that spouts it. Really, just look at Western Europe to see how well socialism works.
It always amazes me the people spouting off against socialism without realizing how much they benefit from the socialist elements of most civilized nations. Public schools, public utilities, public libraries, public health system, the city sewer system, state colleges with that great in-state tuition rate, the fire department, the police department, roads and bridges built by the government, street lights installed and run by the government, public parks and golf courses, public pools.
Yeah, we could get rid of socialism. Education would be available only to those who could afford private schools and universities. Everyone could pay to have water wells drilled on their property, or collect rain water in barrels or something. People could get septic tanks installed in some places, but in the cities sewage would be thrown out the windows into the streets like it was back in the good old days. Garbage could rot in the dirt streets. We could take Medicare away from all those old folks, put the disabled out in the streets with tin mugs to beg, end unemployment benefits, and stop social security benefits. We could let buildings be built without building codes and enforcement, have food served in restaurants without health codes, and produce and sell prescription medications without gubment approval or oversight. The days of leeches, bloodletting, and snake oil salesmen were the good old "caveat emptor" days when society worked on the fine Christian principles of greed, selfishness, and "I got mine, so *&#$ you." Jesus would be so proud.
I would make a small point from a purely scientific genetic basis. If you mix white and negro genes in equal measure (as with Obama) you do not get an even mix. This is because most genes that are unique to negroes are dominant whereas those same genes in whites are recessive. This is why Obama has dark skin and nappy black hair and brown eyes. So if you are a person with a white parent and a black parent, you are black, not mixed. Mixed comes in when you are less than 1/4 of one of the races. Obama did not "choose" to be black any more than he chose to have nappy hair, dark skin, or brown eyes.
And when people spout "socialism" without any understanding of what socialism really is, then I immediately consign them to the "idiot" category. There are two kinds of socialism --- in one (usually called Democratic Socialism) the "socialism" consists almost entirely of giving the taxpayer's money back to him in the form of services. The destructive form of socialism is when the government owns all the factories and financial institutions and runs them, promising the taxpayer that future profits (which never seem to materialize) will make their lives better. All people in this country benefit from one or more "socialist" programs --- whether it is local fire departments, Social Security, or the G.I. Bill --- all Americans participate happily in one or more socialist programs and would have a fit if the "socialist" programs they used were stopped.
Nighthawk..........We don't hate Obama because he's black, we hate him because he is ignorant, economically oblivious and is the most divisive president I've seen since Richard Nixon, and I've seen a lot in my 70 years. Obama works in the dark behind closed doors, but he opens those doors often to his Union Bigwigs who fill the coffers of his party for special favors that the rest of us can't receive.....specifically the favors that exempt their union members from the same rules we have shoved down our throats with Obamacare.
The REAL racists that you DON'T point to are among the 97% of black voters that voted Obama in for a second term..........and for no apparent reason other than the fact that Barack is "black". And the funny thing is that our President is NOT black......he is Mulatto, half black and half white.....and totally incompetent.
Beangrinder, thanks, you prove the point of hysterical white guys spouting nonsense about Obama. He's black! No, he's not really black! But I hate him because he's black! Wait!
For the record, I think Bush and his moronic administration is as much to blame for every liberal law passed as Obama, in fact he is more to blame. Clinton created the housing collapse while we focused on his affair with some plus-sized chick who loved cigars in every orifice. We have failed as a nation at handling our own country while trying to "free" other nations who don't want out help in the first place, so our kids go and fight and die for really nothing.
As far as being racist, the race card is so old its lost all colors due to excessive handling. I don't dislike Obama because he's black. I dislike him because he is doing nothing to help us out of the mess we have paved for ourselves through a mountain of bad decisions from both the right and the left. He promised a lot and delivered on nothing. I don't care WHAT color the fella is who is in office as long as he makes good decisions and thats just not happening. Obama is up against a lot but he's failing on all fronts and, really, I can't think of anyone who would not be kicked around while in office because theres so much wrong with the country and society today. We will have a Republican administration after this is over and I'm sure it won't be much better.
Vico, you made some great points, but what you missed is that we pay for each and every one of those services with tax dollars and we pay a lot.
Inkowthis: who passed the 1999 Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act which repealed the Glass-Steagall act leading to the financial crisis? Oh right. It was Gramm, Leach and Bliley who are REPUBLICANS....
Hi basedrum777 - Thank you for noting Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. You are right about it repealing Glass-Steagall Act. And both Republicans and Democrats overwhelmingly voted to pass Gramm-Leach Bliley. Both parties, quite frankly, are in the pockets of big business--there are major corporations that donate to both parties so that they have a foot in, no matter who wins. That is why I voted for a third party.
Wow--we are surely between a rock and a hard place. What do we do?--I think that, as much as possible, we the people need to clean house via the voting booth, and also vote with our wallets. And I encourage everyone to have a plan B, C, even D--because who knows what will happen! A black swan event (for instance, a major earthquake in my neck of the woods happens periodically) can make it even dicier than it already is.....
American voters should be forced to read this article every month. This is what happens when the government makes more promises than they can legitimately pay for.
Think where Honduras would be if they didn't have a million people up here sending money back home. A honduran in the US is making many times what the same labor would produce back there. So a million here are sending home the equivilent of what several million workers in Honduras produce. Still they are broke financially and broken spiritually.
IReadYou...............
You just presented the solution. Convince all the wealthy ex-patriots who are leaving the U.S. in droves because of our high taxes to send money back to the U.S. Let's start with George Clooney!
Beangrinder : You're on to something; there are approximately 4.1 million Americans living abroad, excluding military. Not all of us are rich though, can live the good life on Social Security or a small pension with no financial worries. We earned our pensions and can spend them any where we choose, right? Living in America and waving the flag doesn't put food on the table or pay the bills for older Americans on a small fixed income.
This sounds like Puerto Rico... It is headed in the same direction. The government has a $300 million déficit, and their bonds are junk, one-third of the working population works for the government doing nothing. Yet the new governor has promised to créate 50,000 new Jobs in 18 months. How? It has to be in the private sector because the public sector can´t afford to hire new workers who do basically nothing but collect a paycheck. The only answer is to créate incentives to attract more private sector employers.
Tourism is the ideal industry for Puerto Rico. Manufacturing is dead because wages and infrastructure costs are too high. Tourism generates more employment per dollar invested than any other industry and we have what it takes to expand the sector. The sector also pays more taxes and generates more secondary employment tan manufacturing. Yet the government continues to pay lip service to the tourism sector and continues to try to generate manufacturing jobs without reducing infrastructure costs, and do-nothing government jobs that it can´t afford.
Most Hispanic countries have this problem. Mexico is a failed narco state. Used to be just a failed state. They haven't had a decent chance since Juarez. Cuba is totally dependent on tourism after being totally dependent on Russian (Soviet) largess for decades. Honduras, Puerto Rico not well run societies. Puerto Rico has become a bunch of folks waiting for the US to make them a state so a whole new ration of welfare will flood to them and (in their minds) solve their problem. So they do nothing to fix their real problems while waiting. Statehood is not going to happen. Nicaragua and Costa Rica are doing fine right now and are shining stars. Many Americans are relocating there in retirement. Social stability, medical care, cheap labor are the attraction right after gorgeous scenery. Panama is looking better and better each year. If the other Hispanic states don't want to model after the US they should try modelling after Costa Rica. Columbia is doing better now after the US invested billions trying to help break down the larger drug cartels. But the problem moved to Mexico so Columbia is a little better. Stop the US involvement and it will likely backslide into a failed narco state again. So it is a financial burden on the US. Venezuela has serious problems and is "Cuba light". So from Mexico to Venezuela Americans as well as local citizens run serious risk of kidnap for ransom as this activity becomes a major cottage industry. These societies are built around the idea that the top 1% should be allowed to own everything, run everything, commit crimes and remain above the law. The other 99% are there to serve the 1% and if they don't like it they can leave or die, it matters not to the 1%.
I: Thank You! Very interesting and informative.................
Yes, the places doing really well in that region are all colonial properties of European countries, because they have good governance.
And since we responded to this one, MSNBC added an article about US tourists in Peru being robbed and beaten. Lucky they weren't kidnapped for ransom. Course, in Chicago they would have been shot and robbed. Max: The US, The Brits, French and Dutch still have islands in the Carrib but not sure they are Hispanic. IT is true they are better managed than Islands not run by these countries. Although Bermuda and the Caymans are getting to be a bit of a problem to good international finances and home country taxation. the son of a Dutch nobleman in Aruba was killing people and using his special social status to avoid proper investigation. So not all is perfect - just better. Haiti, Dominica are pestholes of poverty. Again, they are surrounded by successful societies to model after but don't.
At some point you have to stop spending money you don't have, or tax everyone much more to pay for the nonsense. That is, if anyone is working.
Back in 2004-2005 I worked down there with the US Army. It really is an impoverished state. Virtually no economy, lots of political corruption, gangs and drugs are rampant. Much of this is not the fault of their government (which has changed several times since the 1980's), but caused by a mix of bad circumstances. They get ravaged almost annually by hurricanes without relief. Yes, it is a lesson in government spending, but some of that spending is necessary (sanitation, electricity, social services, etc) with only a small initial pool of money to work with, unlike the US. Our issue is truly bad money management by our government, theirs is a bit more complicated.
Scorch, I served some time with the US Army down there in the 80's.
Sounds like some things never change.
Obviously they have not tried to solve their crisis the American way - by printing truckloads of money.
Capitalizm is the bane of humanity. Dem. Comm., Social. all use capitalizm to run the world. As screwed up as this world is getting you would think someone could figure out a better way.
No problem, just bring them all here, like all the illegal mexicans, and the democrats will put them all on welfare, make them legal, as a reward for sneaking in, and turn them into democratic voters. Problem solved!
This country should serve as an example for the GOP, rather than Greece.
IT is. They dream they are the 1% with the other 99% in economic slavery serving their needs - just like in most of these Hispanic countries. When the people revolted in Nicaragua, The Samoza family owned 95% of all the wealth in the country. Everyone rented their homes and land from them. Everyone worked for them. If one of their employees (a local shariff) was told make someone disappear, it was unquestioned and done. Like taking out the trash. After all, the guy was owned by the boss and if the boss wanted him gone, the sheriff better do it or guess who is next ? The US is getting too much like one of these countries.
To quote Pogo regarding our congress, the electorate thst put them there, and the lack of will to pay the nation's debt -- "I have seen the enemy and it is us!!"
Wow, Pogo! You must as old as me to remember that.
'70s SF Chronicle.
what
And this is the type of situation the GOP want America in..So they can crush the Middle Class once and for all.....
Wrong Coloradoboy, we (Republicans) are the only ones trying to save America, minus the RINO's, but go ahead take another drink from that Kool-Aide, if that helps you sleep at night, a rude awakening us coming, I just hope you and the rest of the liberal minions will be ready for it.
Any organization that cannot manage their finances ends up in this same junk yard...government, corporation or individual matters not...the law of economics applies even if a government tries to legislate the law of economics into oblivion...
Send in the Marines...Again.
Thanks but no thanks...I'm not interested in shooting people just because they're broke...
...no problem, Obozo can send them a few billion of American's taxpayer dollars and buy some more friends....our grandchildren can pay that off too.....
Only choice for suvirvor (firts) this country is abandoned the capitalimo regime (because are short in money) and build a difent style may be a farmer country, diferent sistem like was made in china decades ago with his vidionary lider Ma Tse Tun whit 1,000 million peopla struling for live and NO MONEY, Mao change everithing and his vision and worg PAY PFF, now yoy see his country is strong y whit more population, but are nervius the capitalismo still a menace and star to mess whit the people
Mao Zhedong and his cohort killed over 20 million innocent Chinese citizens and tortured countless millions more in the process of transforming China into a socialist society. Is this the sort of fate you wish to be visited upon the people of Honduras?
China is a more prosperous nation now because it has embraced capitalism. This lesson seems to be lost on people in the Western world.
"Experts say a mix of government corruption, election-year politics and a struggling economy has fueled the crisis."
Sound familiar, America? We are not "too big to fail."
Honduras sounds like a good country for US liberals to take over and show the world their magic kingdom...
http://www.workers.org/2012/08/18/honduran-resistance-declares-fight-for-socialism/
Zelaya ignored the Supreme Court and decided to proceed on the referendum, basing his decision on the Law of Citizen Participation, passed in 2006. Zelaya dismissed the head of the military command, General Romeo Vásquez Velásquez, for disobeying an order to hold the poll, but the Supreme Court ordered his reinstatement. The Supreme Court then ordered the military (who as a non-civilian force had no jurisdiction over the matter) to detain Zelaya. The vote on the referendum was scheduled for 28 June 2009. In the early morning on that day, the army[39] arrested Zelaya at his home.
Zelaya was held in a U.S. airbase outside Tegucigalpa[40] before being forcibly sent to San José, Costa Rica.[41] Zelaya attempted reentry into the country on several occasions. According to the constitution, it is illegal to expatriate any Honduran citizen.[42] Roberto Micheletti, the former President of the Honduran Congress and a member of the same party as Zelaya, was sworn in as President by the National Congress on the afternoon of Sunday 28 June[43] for a term that ended on 27 January 2010.[44]
Welcome to the future of ovomit's america!!!!!!!!!!
The present in America is pretty bleak when people actually believe everything is Obama's fault as opposed to a problem decades in the making by people from both political parties and their puppet masters.
Honduras, Greece, America, makes not difference.
The elitist entitled of this world keep getting richer while the average citizen suffers and looses more and more each and every day.
Do you truly think that a candidate is going to come along and keep their word that things will be different under their watch?
Ya OK, have another toke off that glass pipe in your hand and go back to LaLa land.
The southern European depression emigrates to the new world.
Um, can you tell me when Honduras wasn't in something very similar to Depression? The place has always been dirt poor.
Looks like the Republicans are in charge in Honduras.
Why doesn"t the Honduran government just raise their debt limit or print more money to pay their debts? Isn't that the way we do it in the United States? It would seem that the fiscal restraint and conservatism necessary to avert these cliffs in the first place is not progressive enough and therefore no longer fashionable.
Possible until the users of the newly created money realize that depreciation is permanent, that the debt can NEVER be paid off, that the Dollar can no longer be accepted overseas, and the Trillions of $$$ are flooded back into this country in a mad scramble to obtain ANY material goods as their purchasing power plummets to zero in a matter of days!
"Krugmanomics" has been tried many times in many nations, and is NOT the answer! Find something better at www.mises.org!
Great, you'll be telling people to blindly follow a cult leader like Ayn Rand next.