Pensieve 2009 Recap
4
2009, image by Javier Chauran, used with a Creative Commons license
January
Remember proposition 8? Rick Warren, author of bestseller “The Purpose-Driven Life” came under fire for his posture on proposition 8 and gays.
February
February was a slow month, but not without the epiphany of Don Quijote: Humility + Self knowledge = Self Control.
March
Manuel Zelaya called capitalism a repugnant concept, admitted his desire to remain in power, and brought our constitution into the news for the first time, four months before he was to be removed from office. In the meantime, drug-filled planes from Venezuela were crash-landing in the Honduran jungle, and the pink tide overtook El Salvador.
April
A visit to beautiful La Estanzuela national park, Evo Morales’s reelection bid, and the flu pandemic were the only things I was able to blog about in this very busy month for me.
May
Earth Day celebrations in the Macro Plaza of Monterrey dominated my blog, but not my real life. Although I didn’t blog about it, I was suddenly jobless in May, leading to very few entries as hunting for a new job took most of my time.
June
I never expected the arrest of Manuel Zelaya. I was brought back into blogging only a few days earlier, when Zelaya fired the chief of the armed forces in a move that seemed calculated to provoke a self-coup. In one day, traffic to this site almost tripled, and a few days later, increased more than 600%.
July
Overwhelmed by reading the news far into the night and churning several long blog posts a day, July was punctuated by Operation Beehive, where Chavez lent his plane so Zelaya could try to land in Tegucigalpa at the same time as “innocent” people who were paid to be there would charge on armed military. The result: Isis Obeth Murillo was shot and killed, but not by the military, apparently.
August
August saw vandalism in Honduras reaching new levels, even the burning of buses and businesses, while the Zelaya camp gleefuly tarred the Micheletti government for repressing “peaceful” manifestations. Amnesty International was completely fooled, and published a report, that while is not as biased as Zelaya’s claims would have it, show they could not have conducted an impartial investigation. In the meantime, Zelaya was travelling the world, seeking support. He even came to Mexico, but his welcome became stale very quickly when he recognized Manuel Lopez Obrador’s shadow government in a comment.
September
September marked a new low in Honduras as Manuel Zelaya surprisingly returned to Honduras. His dreams of an apotheosis were not to be fulfilled though. His returned forced the interim government to establish the strongest measures yet. Curfews were placed, to separate Zelaya’s supporters from innocent civilians. I also found video proof of Zelaya’s intent to change the constitutional protections against reelection, which, according to article 239 of our Constitution, automatically removes him from office.
October
The greatest news of the month was Honduras’s qualification to the World Cup. Hondurans had a reason to celebrate that overshadowed our terrible stress and brought unabashed joy to all of us. October saw the Tegucigalpa/San Jose accord fall flat on its face, but allowed the US to recognize the November election.
November
The Honduran election, and Zelaya’s attack on them, dominated the blog. He called the elections spurious, and refused to participate in the unity government that the Tegucigalpa/San José accord called for.
December
Congress decided not to reinstate Zelaya, and he has gradually lost support from Hondurans and in the world. Both he and Micheletti are considered one of the 25 people who mattered in Time magazine’s annual Person of the Year article.
2009 has been a very difficult year. For the first time I’ve considered politics as important in my life. The Honduran constitutional crisis has impacted me like nothing else before. But this has also been a very rewarding year. I look to 2010 eagerly, and ask God’s grace over Honduras, Mexico, my family and friends.
¡Feliz año Nuevo 2010! Happy New Year!
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Wishing you a very happy and more peaceful 2010!
You too Gringa, hopefully you can go back to blogging about gardening and tropical life in La Ceiba!
Funny how you never mention the more than 50 members of the peaceful civilian movement who have been killed by the coup regime, nor the anticonstitutional measures taken by your favourite dictator against the rights and freedoms of Hondurans.
Your mention of ‘new levels of vandalism’ is by all means manipulative. You forget to mention that the ‘vandals’ in question have been recognized as municipal employees sent by Alvarez to perform your ‘new levels of vandalism’, such as the burning of the bus and the fast food joint.
You definitely need to get rid of the black sock covering your eyes, boy…
If you can give me credible evidence, I will print a retraction