desde nicaragua

Food crisis talks on Wednesday

First the context: a global food crisis, (listen on NPR -- or, see BBC video here).

"The rises are due to a lethal combination of high fuel costs, bad weather in key food producing countries, the increase in land allocated to bio-fuels, and a surge in demand - much of it from the rising middle classes of China and India.

"The problem is that once the price of rice or wheat has risen, other factors kick in which make things worse.

"There is panic and people start hoarding, speculators buy up supply, and food producing countries impose export controls to try and preserve food for their own people." (BBC)

The prospects in a place like Nicaragua don't look good, "after a year in which food prices increased by an average of 50 percent," writes Tim Rogers, partly why "the majority of poor families now spend 75% or more of their family income just to keep food on the table."

(Rising prices of basics such as beans prompted the government to reactive a state-run food bank and selling food through the controversial citizens power councils, and successfully driving down the prices after speculation.)

Last weekend, President Daniel Ortega held an "emergency meeting" to address food shortages across South and Central America. Another one follows this Wednesday here in Managua, and presidents Hugo Chávez and Evo Morales from Venezuela and Bolivia are expected to come.

More on this later.

García Laviana and rabid dogs

Last night, President Daniel Ortega spoke in Tola at an event honoring Gaspar García Laviana, a Spanish Roman Catholic priest who in worked in Nicaragua, and in 1978 took up arms to fight with the FSLN. Before getting into what was said, because as expected Ortega went off on a few other things, let me share a little about García: 

It was in this country where Gaspar truly becomes conscious of what poverty is, and the outrage of the Somoza dictatorship's treatment against the most unfavored classes. He was always on the side of the poor, struggling especially against child prostitution. His voice was  heard loud and clear against the Somoza regimen, which quickly labeled him Communist. That wasn't a much of a mistake since Laviana plainly embraced liberation theology (we must remember that this sector of the Catholic Church was later harshly reprimanded ...) García Laviana finally decided to take arms and join the Sandinista Front insurrection. “Martín” (his war alias) died in combat on Nov. 11, 1978. (Cabeza Mechero, my translation)

There appears to be some confusion about the date of his death. During an August speech, Ortega said the mistake was made on García's tombstone, and that he actually died on Dec. 11.

The following is one of his poems, in Spanish and English (my translation):

La niña del prostíbulo

Catorce añitos de edad,
dos de puta,
cara joven
rasgos viejos,
piel lozana,
ojos muertos.

Pantaloncito ceñido,
desnudos pierna y ombligo,
pies descalzos,
recorriendo el puterío.

— ¿Cuántos años tienes, niña?
— Señor, tengo diecinueve.
— Niña, tú no tienes tantos años.
— Son diecinueve, señor, ataja la criatura.
Mira, niña, soy el jues. Si eres menor
de edad yo te llevaré conmigo y serás honrada.
(cruza un sueño infantil por los ojos viejos
de la niña puta)
— Señor, tengo diecinueve.

El juez se vuelve hacia mí:
— Tiene miedo a la rufiana.

Catorce añitos de edad,
dos de puta.

The girl from the brothel

Fourteen years of age,
Two as a whore,
young face
old features,
lush skin,
dead eyes.

Tight little pants,
naked legs and belly button,
barefoot,
making the rounds at the whorehouse.
— How old are you, girl?
— Sir, I'm nineteen.
— Girl, you are not that old.
— I am nineteen, sir, the creature cuts in.
— Look, girl, I am the judge. If you are under
age I will take you with me and you will be respectable.
(a childlike dream passes those old eyes
of the child whore)
— Sir, I am nineteen.

The judge turns to me:
— She is scared of the madame.

Fourteen years of age,
two as a whore.

* * * * *

So back to last night in Tola ... Ortega compared his political opposition to "a rabid dog that barks every day in the media" (END/photo, too).

As I mentioned earlier, a group of Ortega's critics formed the Bloc against the Dictatorship on Friday.

Ortega called the new bloc "Somocistas." He said they're simply upset that his administration isn't helping the rich and elite stay rich and elite, and that during the 16 years that Sandinistas weren't in power, his opponents did nothing to resolve poverty.

Meanwhile, those opponents are after blood.

They say they plan to pass a legislative decree against a Supreme Court's resolution last week that legalized the controversial Citizens Power Councils (CPCs). They're also asking for the head of Enabás, Róger Alí Romero, for allowing CPC members to handle the money in his agency's program to sell cheap beans in poor neighborhoods.

"The political agenda is one thing, and the needs of the people are another thing, and we want to attend to the needs of the people," Alí Romero said last night.

The opposition's logic is this: If the CPCs are not a legal part of government, then the members shouldn't be allowed to handle government money. The CPCs' legal status is entirely unclear, though. And the topic gets more complicated because not all the judges were in on the ruling that made them legal, so the opposition safely call the ruling illegal.

* * * * *

Unrelated, but important to me: I just learned a woman I worked with on the college paper is in Iraq right now, covering the war for McClatchy News Service. You have to respect the courage it must have taken her to go there. This is her blog.

citizens power councils

I went to a nice government event yesterday, offered to write a story about it for La Prensa and this morning it made the front page.

It's sort of a complicated story, but basically the government is selling beans for cheap to poor people, and using very controversial and new Citizens Power Councils (CPCs) to distribute them. The price for this staple to the Nicaraguan diet more than doubled in the past month, and many families can't afford to eat them anymore.

President Daniel Ortega' political opponents criticize the CPCs because they seem like another name for the Sandinista Defense Committees, which in the 1980s were the "eyes and ears" of the government during the Contra Revolution.

Because of that, the National Assembly vetoed Ortega's plan to make the CPCs an official part of the government. Before that veto was even written into law, an appellate court said CPCs are a constitutional right and overturned the veto. Meanwhile, as the future of the CPCs officially will be decided by the Supreme Court, the Ortegas announced the CPCs will officially go into effect by the end of the month.

I spoke with Juan Ramón Bravo Reyes, president of a large association of farming cooperatives, which are now selling beans directly to consumers through this government program. He's worked with committees, associations and cooperatives since the first Sandinista administration in the 1980s.

He told me that if the CPCs continue with programs like the discounted bean sales, they can be a strong force to protect citizens' interest.

"With the CPCs can begin the solution to their problems, and the inquietudes of the population," he said.
"They can be very useful if they aren't politicized."

* * * * *

Okay, so it's slightly surprising to see your name on the front page of a newspaper in another country. I'm trying to get over shocks. But then yesterday I casually ask my editor whatever happened with a first-person story — a column or essay really — he'd asked me to write about my trip Matagalpa's coffee haciendas.

He tells me it's in the magazine, a beautifully designed, glossy weekly that comes out separately from the newspaper. I buy it. And what do you know — a whole page devoted to the "Opinión" of one U.S. journalist.

* * * * *

Finally, a couple of pictures.

Last week, my friend came into town (err ... country) to visit. We took a bus to Volcán Masaya, walked 6 kilometers up a steep road to the summit. The volcano is active.

Here's Dan at the top.

* * * * *

Finally, I've got a ton of school work to catch up on. Well, by that I mean I have a lot to read. I'm taking a post-graduate history course at UNAN, and the reading/lectures are the kind of stuff you'd (or at least I'd) have trouble understanding in English just because it goes over your (my) head. It's a delightful challenge that it's entirely in Spanish.