So while what I’m sure Fox has dubbed “War on Free of Speech” in Venezuela rages on, a similar “Attack on the Press” is going in Honduras. Honduran President Manuel (Mel) Zelaya is currently putting himself on air on every Honduras based radio and television outlet for 2 hours daily. This started last Monday, and is going to go on for a minimum of 10 days. (CNN Article)
Mel is doing this in response to what he considers a media that is overly critical of him. I haven’t been here long enough to gauge the accuracy of that, so maybe it’s true.
But as far as freedom of the press goes, I realized something interesting.
We are not willing to get news from people we elect, whose goal is (should be) the people. Yet we are more willing to listen to what a company, whose goal is to make money, and in which we have absolutely no say. This seems backwards.
I am definitely not advocating getting rid of a free press, and depending on the government for news. However, I think we have too much faith in the free press. Just as we see the vested interests in official propoganda from governements, we need to learn to see the vested interests of other news channels.
On a slightly different note, the rains of May finally arrived, on the last day of May. In the past, rains came much earlier, but due to deforestation and other ecological problems, rain has been coming later and later every year.
I’m just glad that there isn’t as much dust, and that the sky today is blue and free from the smoke (see my post on burning) and haze that has been making blue skies impossible to get in my outside shots. And it’s definitely feeling a lot less hot here.
Saturday was the La Ceiba Carnaval, the 35th one, evidently. We got a decent balcony view at a language school along the parade route, mostly out of the sun, and full of expats having a good time. Sadly, there were a lot of wires and trees in the way, so the pictures aren’t the best. The basic parts of the parade:
Semi clad women
Semi clad women with big costumes (somehow not even an oxymoron)
Bandas de Guerra (marching bands)
Semi clad women throwing beads
It was a slower parade than I am used to, meaning the bandas de guerra had time to march around and go through their entire repetoire (including 90′s US hits, atonal pieces that would make John Cage proud, and the YMCA). Now let me explain. These bandas de guerra are a bit different than what you may be used to. You’re used to trumpets, saxophones, that kind of thing in a marching band. Here, the only instruments are drums, guidos (a scratchy metal scraper), and xylophones. As many as possible. And played as loud as possible. And in unison. No such thing as harmony. That got annoying REAL fast. Who let xylophones out of the kindergarten play room?
After it got dark, some bands started playing- there were probably 10 stages set up over the 23 block parade route, and even more loud speakers. but it was good music, and a lot of fun… got to see a five year old boy school a bunch of foreigners in dancing, a hand cranked amusement ride, and a stream of transvestites (evidently this is an international tradition, and the one time a year males are able to show “feminine” aspects). Also hit up a licuados place for some much needed refreshment. I got here at a good time, glad I didn’t miss this.
And one of the bands, dancing. Sorry it’s so short.
Went to a great game last night, and España managed to pull off a 3-1 victory. The stadium was waay too full, but hey.. more fun, right? As long as you don’t want to sit down…
Afterwards, there is a caravana, which basically means everybody goes to one street to parade up and down, yelling, setting off fireworks, whatever. It’s a pretty amazing sight to see a trash truck using its hydraulics like it was a pimped out Mustang, with 25 people on top.
An entire segment where all the B roll had a posterization effect applied
A cell phone video of some guy performing cunnilingus, supposedly in a
university cafeteria- during the news. This was a news item.
The “Live” overlay on soccer footage that was obviously not live and likely pirated
Audio not coming in on time
Inconsistent Drop Shadows within a segment
Random beeps in the background
They have Fox News. And that’s pretty much as bad as TV can get.
The text on a blank screen: “Downloading. Please wait.” Then: “Can’t find satellite.” Then the show comes on, but with a box in the middle saying: “Satellite found. Click OK.” No one clicked OK.
The mobile unit’s feed on a 2 person strike cutting out. (Seriously… they had footage of 2 people standing there with signs on 8 1/2 by 11 paper.)
I’m a city slicker, I’ll admit. I’ve lived most of my life in the inner city. But I know a bit about agriculture from working at a farmer’s market, selling the occasional wheelbarrow of cantelope or fresh corn to neighbors, and visiting my grandpas’ farms.?And then?I lived with some coffee growers, working on a documentary about them. What they are doing is great. They’re working together to clean each other’s land, basically weeding the farm. (You can see this documentary, “En La Unión Está La Fuerza” here)
What I didn’t realize at the time was the alternative. The other, much more common method, is simply to burn the fields. Flying in to Honduras 3 weeks ago today, I noticed so many pillars of smoke. With my current schedule, I’m getting out into the countryside about 2 or 3 times each week. And every single time I have seen multiple fires. In the last 3 weeks, it has only rained once, meaning it is very dry. The fires spread quickly, and at night it is almost cool to see the fires far off. Yesterday I drove through an area completely devastated by the fires- I was waiting for a fireball to come down from the sky.
So what are the results of this? Well, immediate effects include a very hazy sky, and poor air quality. I’ve been battling a cold for about a week now. Not fun stuff. Long term, it has the potential to be devastating for the land. There are some short term benefits, a quick rise in the pH levels, for instance. This makes it a cheap fertilizer. But it also depletes nutrients, and contributes to errosion. (Thinking I’m smart, eh? I just looked it up on Wikipedia, silly.) After suffering from Hurricane Mitch, I would hope that Honduras would pay more attention to erosion.
Ahh… I absolutely love soccer games where fans are in to it. Tonight was the first game of the finals between Marathon (boo) and Real España (yeah!!!). They’re both from San Pedro Sula, where I’m living, so that’s pretty crazy… since all the fans are here. Both teams are the home town favorite. Sadly, buying a bootleg España jersey had no positive effect on their playing, and they lost 2-1.
And sorry Ken Pletcher, but I think I may have some ideas for next year’s soccer game!
An anchor receiving a call on a cell phone from the head of the Supreme Court, and conducting a quick interview before filling in the audience on?the other side of the conversation
A serious news peice on a guy who claimed to be Jesus Christ trying to cross the border into Honduras. And then- “This just in- he’s now claiming to be the Anti-Christ”
Telling people to SMS them, and they’ll put the message on the bottom of the screen during the news.
Using an Excel-type program to show the results of a poll, asking which soccer team the viewers favored, during the news. They then chided people from one city for not calling.
Changing exposure while live
The anchor fading in late, on top of the green screen background- I think they’re using GlobeCaster.
A roundup of all the?bloody deaths of the weekend across the country, including shots of bloody bodies.
A US Army recruitment commercial. On local TV.
The anchor on a major news station reading off papers for lack of a teleprompter.
Honduras 2007, old blog | James | 
June 2, 2007 1:40 pm | 
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