Somewhere between fifteen
and twenty thousand people took to the streets of Juigalpa, Nicaragua this past
Saturday, June 13th, to protest the construction of the interoceanic
canal. Over a year ago, Chinese billionaire, Wang Jing, with his company HKND
(Hong Kong Nicaragua Development) Group, convinced the Nicaraguan President
Daniel Ortega and the rest of his government to grant them access to the land
of Nicaragua in order to build a canal deeper and wider (as well as much
longer) than the one in Panama. However, many of the citizens of Nicaragua,
especially those who will be forcibly removed from their land, are not too
happy about the decision. This past Saturday, thousands of Nicaraguans, from
all over the country, filled the streets with chants of:
¿Que
quieren los campesinos?...
¡Que
se vayan los chinos!
What do the people want?...
That the Chinese get out!
Of course it has a
better ring to it in Spanish.
Environmental
concerns, socioeconomic concerns, and a lack of transparency by the Nicaraguan
government as well as HKND Group have many, inside and out of Nicaragua,
wondering if this megaproject is such a good idea. Even the U.S. Embassy, not
known historically for their support of the Nicaraguan poor, issued a statement
citing their concern over the lack of transparency.
The only thing lacking
from the scene this past Saturday was the Nicaraguan press. During the 80s, Ortega’s
government used military force to silence the media that was critical of their
actions. Now they have discovered that it is much more socially acceptable to
just pay them off; the majority of news outlets in Nicaragua are considered to
be on Ortega’s payroll. How else do you justify the extremely limited coverage
of the largest protest to date concerning the highly controversial project. Controlling
the international press has been a little tougher, however, and Ortega’s had to
resort to harassment and detainment by military and police, as well as
revocation of permission to be in the country.
This past Saturday, I
woke up at 3:15 am, and began traveling towards Juigalpa, with two of my
Nicaraguan friends. We made it there by 11, just in time to see the multitude
of people cresting the hill and peacefully marching down towards town square.
They were led by a banner which read:
Daniel Vende Patria
Daniel is Selling the Homeland
Many in Nicaragua,
having a history of their natural resources being extracted and used for profit
by foreigners, view the contract signed by their government and the Chinese
development company as the selling off of lands for others profit.
It was inspiring to
see thousands of people who had travelled from all corners of Nicaragua in boat
and bus, peacefully standing up for their rights. It remains to be seen,
however, if their chants will be heard, or if the never ending lust for the
almighty dollar will prevail.
I got back home that
night at 9pm, exhausted, but animated by the energy of the people, and their
will to protect one another and the environment.
So… I am back in
Central America. But this time in Nicaragua, not Honduras. I just recently got
here, after spending the last six months in Wichita Falls catching up with
family and friends, and enjoying hamburgers, french fries, and Shiner Bock. Don’t
get me wrong, I definitely enjoyed my time in the States, but I felt like I
needed to come back to Central America.
The last three years
in Honduras have been an education for me in many ways. I began to know and
learn more about areas of life that before I had little or no experience of. At
the orphanage, I got a small taste of what human suffering comes from not
having a family. How that affects a child, and what can become of it. But I
also learned about the slow upward march of overcoming struggles, of finding
joy in the darkness, and clinging to one another when times are hard. I also
learned about how the majority of the world lives: in a material poverty. It
was a type of poverty that I had seen before, but hadn’t known very intimately.
“The poor” were no longer people I heard about in Sunday sermons or saw on TV
commercials asking for money, but they were my friends next door, the guys I
played soccer with, the people I drank coffee with. Honduras opened my eyes in
many ways, and for that I’m very grateful.
However, leaving the
Farm didn’t feel like a chapter of my life that I read and then could turn the
page on. It felt more like the beginning of a book, and that I was only a few
chapters into it. So I have decided to return to Central America, and continue
on this journey, not knowing where it will lead, or what God has in store for
me, but confident that I am taking a step in the right direction. I am living
in a small village called Tepeyac, several miles outside of Granada, Nicaragua,
where I have visited many times before during Spring Break trips with TCU, as
well as during the previous years while I lived close by in Honduras.
Thankfully, because of my past experiences here, I have several friends, and
one is allowing me to put up a small, one room, sheet metal hut on their land
where I will live. In the meantime, while I am gathering materials and digging
the latrine, I am staying at a retreat center located on the edge of the
village run by several wonderful nuns.
My plan is to live
here like the average Nicaraguan does. In a small, one room shack, looking for
work in the fields or in construction, and living off of whatever I can make.
The goal is not to bring any particular “service” to the community. Obviously I
will work with them in whatever way I can, but I won’t be working with any
particular nonprofit organization or on any particular project. I will just be
living and working, much like they do, and trying to get a better understanding
of material poverty from the inside.
I heard a quote once,
from a woman named Lilla Watson, an indigenous Australian and activist, and it
rang true with me and what I feel like my role here is. She said:
“If you have come here to help me,
you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is
bound up with mine, then let us work together.”
I didn’t decide to
move back to Central America because I feel like I am needed here. I decided to
move back because I feel like I need to be here. For my own inner peace and
fulfillment, and because I feel that slowly, step by step, we can work together
for a more peaceful world for all of us.
That being said, I do
miss the hamburgers and fries…
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