Trying to love the Disqus commenting system

July 12, 2010, 5:25 pm

≫ Next: Cultural differences: Consumer complaints

≪ Previous: Connecting to and using Disqus

The Blogicito is trying out a new commenting system. The built-in Blogger commenting system just has no flexibility and it is annoying and very inefficient for blog owners. Worst of all for me, while Google does an outstanding job of filtering spam in Gmail, they put absolutely no effort into filtering spam comments in Blogger. None. Zero. Zilch. Nada.

Unless a blog has comment moderation turned on, a comment with 15 links to spam or p()rn sites will be posted by Blogger.com. (I can't even type the P or V words because it would attract more spammers to my site!) Turning on captchas slows down the rate of spam somewhat, but also slows down legitimate commenters and sometimes malfunctions preventing them from commenting at all. Moderating all comments is annoying for users and blog administrators alike.

Disqus (pronounced 'dis-cuss') has a built in spam system (Akismet) and gives moderators the ability to whitelist or blacklist commenters once and for all. That is a huge bonus for me, the Russian spam magnet! It also gives blog administrators tools to manage comments more effectively. I've already noticed that it makes it much easier for me to interact with commenters.

But enough about me,
what will Disqus do for you?

With Disqus, readers don't have to sign in every time to leave a comment and there are no annoying captchas to slow you down.

If you are signed in to your social media service or to Disqus, Disqus will recognize you and you are all set to leave a comment. If you are not signed in anywhere, you'll only need two clicks to do so. If you have more than one online presence (for example business and personal), you won't have to worry about which one you are signed into as your screen name and avatar will already be showing above the comment box. 'Guest' comments will also be allowed, for now anyway.

Disqus gives readers the ability to later edit and manage their own comments as well as to subscribe to comment replies. If you decide that 'Pete' is an absolute genius, you can subscribe to all of his comments (if he has a profile). If you later add or change your avatar, it will be changed on every comment you have made. You can even elect to automatically post your comment to Twitter or your Facebook page if you think it is particularly brilliant!

Readers, whether you comment or not, have the ability to 'like' a comment as well as to 'flag' an inappropriate comment for review, giving all readers a general idea of reader sentiment. Your preferred view of all comments can be arranged by oldest, newest, or best rated. Arranging comments by newest first will definitely be a time-saver when you just want to check back to see what's new.

Replies made to the comments of other readers are threaded to make discussions much easier to follow, especially when there are numerous anonymous commenters. (There is nothing like an 'anon' commenting on an argument between 'anon' and 'anon' to get the rest of us totally confused!) Comments are updated real-time, no need to refresh the page, so you don't have to worry about confusing cross-postings. Commenters also have an option to sign up to receive by email replies to their specific comment or all comments received on that article made after theirs and can post a reply by email.

You can connect your Disqus profile with your own blog (on any platform), website, Twitter, Facebook, or other social media accounts and display your own screen name and avatar, making commenting a much better social experience. If you don't have and don't want any of that, you can set up your profile to just display your screen name with no links. You set that up once, and you are done, but you have the ability to change your settings at any time.

There are so many options for 'connecting', including Open ID, that I'd rather let you review them and decide what is best for you. I will explain more about that in the next article. But if you have any specific questions, please leave a comment and I'll try to find an answer.

Tip: if you already have a Google, Blogger, Yahoo, Wordpress, Flickr, or one of several other accounts, that is your Open ID. You won't have to set up a new one.

All of these options sounded fantabulous to me! What do you think?

Note to bloggers:

Despite all of the above and my strong desire to love this system, I cannot recommend Disqus to bloggers yet. I'll give you a review of the Disqus system after I've tested it for awhile. Installing it was easy enough, but it did not install properly on my custom template. After two weeks, I have not been able to import all of my thousands of old comments into the Disqus system — something I'm not happy about at all! I'm trying to be patient, as Disqus has assured me that they are working on a fix right now, but I was disappointed in the customer support suggestion to "play around" with my coding.

To make matters worse, I discovered that Internet Explorer 8 could not display some of my blog pages at all. And then, for the cherry on top of this high tech nightmare sundae, my laptop is broken and I'm limited as to my online time, all my files, programs, and prior templates are inaccessible on my computer, and I'm totally discombobulated using J's computer when I can.

Feedback

I'd love to hear your feedback on this new system. I invite you to try it out on this post, even if you only want to say "testing!" You won't bother me at all and it will help me to test the system. If you have problems of any kind, please try to be as specific as possible so I can try to troubleshoot. If you are unsure about or have problems signing in, please first read the next article, Connecting to and using Disqus.

↧

Cultural differences: Consumer complaints

July 19, 2010, 10:49 am

≫ Next: Cultural difference: Consumer experiences

≪ Previous: Trying to love the Disqus commenting system

I'd like to start a cultural difference discussion about consumer complaints. These are only my observations and are very general so I hope that no one takes offense. I bring this up only to share something that my patient Honduran husband has been trying to teach me (with only a modest amount of success!) for almost 9 years in Honduras.

I have the US American 'complaint gene' — truth be told, I have an overabundance of that gene. In the US, the customer is always right, they say. We are miffed if the clerk isn't friendly and expect that they will show the appropriate appreciation for our money or patronage. Heaven forbid that a meal be cold or the bread stale. If there is a problem with goods or services, we complain and demand action. Anything that doesn't "make sense" or isn't "fair" must be rectified!

US Americans have a long history of complaining, starting with "No taxation without representation!" There is no doubt that history of complaining has resulted in lots of good changes that protect citizens and consumers and hold businesses and governments accountable. In some cases, it goes to the extreme (think hot coffee), but that is a different topic.

The first thing that you have accept is that things are not always fair in Honduras, nor do they always make sense by US standards, and very rarely will you be able to change that. 'Buyer beware' is the motto here. If you buy something that is the wrong color or size or food that is already spoiled, you may not be able to return it. And that may be true even if the thing doesn't work or has been misrepresented. Look it over carefully, check the expiration date, plug it in to see if works. Ask about price before you buy, and just walk away if it seems too high. Don't ask about guaranty, because there is none, no matter what they might tell you.

In Honduras, and maybe many other Latin American countries, complaining is considered rude and a lack of respect for the person to whom you are complaining. To the clerk you deal with, his or her job and the risk of annoying the boss with a question are much more important than leaving you a dissatisfied customer. In general, admitting that his initial answer was wrong or that he doesn't know the answer is not an option. Almost all of the time, the first person that you deal with does not have the authority to make the change that you want even if they did agree with you, so complaining just gets that "no" embedded in stone.

If the person won't listen to or act upon a calm, reasonable explanation, you may be able to move up the line to a manager or owner, but surprisingly, in La Ceiba, often that person with authority is not on site or not available to customers so don't burn bridges with the clerk. Do you really think that the clerk will ask the owner to call you so you can tell him what an imbecile the clerk is?

I've found that getting angry or emotional when faced with a difficult situation almost never ends up with good results in Honduras, no matter how righteous my cause might be or how many reasonable people might agree with me. El Jefe always tells me, "When you lose control, you lose the battle." It tends to close any options that might otherwise have been available. I still have problems with this! I am an emotional person by nature and it's hard to change. I get especially emotional in any situation that seems unjust to me. Thankfully, El Jefe is a miracle man who deals with people much better than I do.

Losing the battle can happen with business owners as well. Pride and dignity mean more than money in Honduras. Sometimes a business owner would rather lose your business and your money than submit to an angry gringo making demands of him. "I'll take my money elsewhere!" will likely be met with "gracias!"

I would also like to point out that sometimes it is the gringo's lack of knowledge that gets him or her into trouble. Gringos aren't always cheated or overcharged or treated unfairly. And sometimes assuming that things are the same way that they are in the US (or should be! as some say) is the problem.

The best advice that I can give is to choose your battles. Not everything matters! Other advice is to show your appreciation for good service and give your business to those establishments that deserve your patronage — I think that is especially important in a small town like La Ceiba where we don't always have a lot of choices and where people will remember you the next time you come in. In the next article, Consumer experiences I'll give some examples of my experiences — successes and failures.

What do you think? If you live in Honduras or another Latin American country, how do you deal with tough consumer situations? Have you found the magic language to make a wrong thing right?

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Cultural difference: Consumer experiences

July 20, 2010, 8:34 am

≫ Next: Carao

≪ Previous: Cultural differences: Consumer complaints

In the last article, Cultural differences: Consumer complaints, I wrote about some general cultural differences. Here are some examples of some consumer experiences in Honduras.

Petty pasta problem

Upon returning home from a small grocery store (which is no longer in business), when putting away a package of pasta, I noticed that there were black bugs crawling all over the pasta. This was in my early days in Honduras, and I insisted that El Jefe take it back and exchange it. Not because of the little bit that it cost, but just to teach the store that they should be more careful about the products that they sell. (.....hahaha, yeah, right. I was so naive.)

Not happy about it, El Jefe returned anyway, went to the store manager and said that he wanted to exchange the pasta because it had bugs in it. There was no "Sorry for your inconvenience" or "Let me get a new package for you." The manager looked over the package carefully, and indignantly said, "Well! There's not very many bugs in it!" and he belittled El Jefe for being so picky. He did exchange the pasta, but less determined customers would think twice before trying to return anything again. We rarely return grocery items anymore and just chalk it up to a learning experience when we make a bad purchase. It just isn't worth the time, effort, and aggravation.

Note: at most grocery stores in La Ceiba, customers have 24 hours to return anything and there are no cash refunds under any circumstances.

Success with the stainless steel stove

A month after we moved here in 2001, we bought a Maytag stainless steel stove at the nice Diunsa store in San Pedro. Within a very short time, the stove started rusting. At first it was only inside the bottom drawer so I tried to pretend it wasn't happening. After two months, the rust was quickly spreading to the outside. "This stove is defective and must be returned!" said me. "Impossible. It will never happen," said El Jefe. Despite that, at my insistence, we packed the drawer into the car and off to San Pedro we went. (We obviously couldn't carry the whole stove in the car.)

We were met at the door by an armed guard who told us we couldn't return it and in fact we couldn't even carry the drawer into the store. El Jefe insisted. Inside we were met by a clerk who asked us when we bought it and then told us flatly that we couldn't return it. ("Ask to talk to the manager", I whispered to El Jefe.) He did and eventually a supervisor showed up to tell us again that we couldn't return it. J still kept calmly insisting to talk to the manager. Finally, the store manager showed up and was just as adamant that we could not return the stove after two months. He talked a mile a minute and at that time, I could only catch about half of the Spanish that was being spoken, but I did hear him say that it was because it was so humid in La Ceiba and that the rust was probably from my lax cleaning abilities (!).

In my badly accented Spanish, I said, "Disculpe, qué significa 'acero inoxidable'?" ("Excuse me, what does stainless steel mean?") 'Acero inoxidable' in Spanish has an even better meaning than 'stainless steel'. The words literally mean 'non-rustable steel'. Everyone got quiet, and the manager stopped dead (I could just see his mind racing) and after a minute, said, "Oh, all right! I can't give you your money back but go find another stove." The new, more expensive stove was delivered about a week later and the old stove was picked up.

The transaction wasn't entirely successful because he said that he couldn't refund the tax. That was unfair that we had to pay tax on two stoves, but at least we got satisfaction on the price of the stove itself, something that El Jefe and his family never thought would happen. We traded it in for a Whirlpool stainless steel stove, and after 8 1/2 years, it still has no rust and looks like new.

"It's the policy of the company"

That is an often heard statement to which there usually is no recourse. One time during our house construction we went to a hardware store and bought 100 bags of cement. As was the custom, one person attended to us, another wrote the ticket, another collected the money and stamped our receipt, and yet another went to the warehouse to give yet another person the ticket for delivery. Oops! "What do you know! We don't have any cement."

"Okay, no problem, give us our money back and we'll go to another hardware store." "Uh, fíjese que...." (the red flag words) "we can't. No cash refunds. It's the policy of the company. You'll have to buy something else." So that was that. No money and no cement and we sure didn't need L.8,000 of anything else at the time. Not fair? No, but once you've paid your money, you are at their mercy. We took a store credit which we were eventually able to use, but we only shop at that store as a last resort anymore.

A Honduran friend told me another great example of how that policy can lose customers. His sister bought an extension cord at an electronics store at the mall. As she was walking out the door, under the watchful eye of the armed guard, she realized that she actually needed a longer one. She turned around and walked through the entrance door, went back to the clerk and told him her dilemma . "Sorry, no refunds, no exchanges," was the response. The extension cord was still in its package, still in the bag with her 2-minute old receipt stapled to the outside. She not only did not want a refund, she was planning to spend more for a longer cord. No amount of logic could trump the store policy.

Sometimes you win

I don't mean to make it sound as if every experience is bad. We impressed our construction workers a few times when they laughed at us for thinking we could exchange something. Once we bought a bunch of very expensive white cement that was hardened in the bag — which, of course, the worker accepting delivery didn't notice until after the delivery truck had left. It was exchanged the next day.

Another time we bought a bunch of 4" x 1" lumber and then discovered that we really needed 3" x 1". The carpenters were painstakingly cutting it down to size. I suggested why not ask the lumber yard if we could exchange it instead? Haha! sneered the workers. Fat chance. Lo and behold, the store owner not only delivered the 3" wood and picked up the 4" wood without charge, but he refunded the difference in price, which we hadn't even asked for. That lumberyard was our store of choice after that.

Where you shop can make a big difference, as can developing a relationship with the owner or manager. Eventually during our home construction, we discovered a little hardware store owned by a Cayman Islander. Wow! What a difference, Ferretería Toronjal treated us like valued customers. We could just call to order things and pay for them when they were delivered! No going to the store to get the ticket written up, going to the bank to get the cash, going back to the hardware store to pay for it, and then waiting another day for delivery. They gladly took our checks! They let us return things when we bought the wrong thing or too many! Their prices were a little bit higher than the big stores, but it was well worth the difference. That store has since expanded, a sign that others appreciate being treated well and fairly.

Sometimes you lose

I could probably list 50 examples of consumer experiences that might shock or dismay US Americans. Some of them turned out okay, but usually only with extreme insistence and persistence. Others did not and some cost us big time. Whenever and wherever shopping, we try to remember 'buyer beware' and the more money involved, the more attention we pay to what could go wrong. I've also learned to not always go with the lowest price, especially when it comes to services. That almost invariably ends up costing more in the long run.

With the growth of La Ceiba, I have noticed a change in attitudes over the past 9 years. It might be that there is more competition or that store owners and managers are learning that it pays to treat their customers right. I hope so.

↧

Carao

July 21, 2010, 6:12 pm

≫ Next: Watch out, girls!

≪ Previous: Cultural difference: Consumer experiences

Carao fruit

El Jefe found this woody 2-foot long "bean" which he said is called carao (pronounced ca-rah-oh). He said when he was little, they used to suck the jam-like fruit from the little sections containing seeds. The bean comes from a large pink-flowering tree called Cassia grandis. The tree is common from southern Mexico to northern South America.

"It smells a little funny," he said, so I took a whiff. Yeah, "funny" like sweaty sneakers smell funny. However, I have heard of other tropical fruits, like the durian, which are said to smell absolutely terrible but taste wonderful. That is hard for me to imagine, but I was game so I tasted the goo around the seeds.

I tried really hard to think about how I could describe the flavor and I just don't know. I could almost fool myself into thinking there was a chocolate flavor, but mixed with something a bit tangy, maybe like chocolate and cherries mashed together.

Apparently carao is most popularly used in a drink made with milk. I found a nice story about a small businesswoman who bottles the syrup in Costa Rica, amusingly titled "Don't let the smell fool you". Yes, I could see that diluted with milk it would probably taste pretty good. I'd have to use the machete to get all those little sections open and I don't think my aim is good enough for that.

This particular bean may be past its prime. Trying to get a better photo of the inside, I broke a piece off, but that end was white and dry inside. I couldn't break the remaining piece at all until I put one end on the floor and put my foot on it to break it, it was that hard!

But then I somehow managed to take 4 blurry photos so you can't really see the inside anyway. Above you can see the brown goo on my finger. In the photo at the left, I have folded back one woody section to expose another seed and more gooey fruit. For a better look at the inside, see these photos.

I couldn't find much information on the internet and almost all of it is in Spanish. Apparently, it is known as a blood builder and is used to treat anemia. I wonder if this could be useful for treating dengue hemorrágico patients. Other (unproven) health claims are that it increases energy, increases milk in nursing mothers, prevents hemorrhages, and is an aphrodisiac.

↧

Watch out, girls!

July 22, 2010, 8:07 am

≫ Next: Honduras' dispensazo scandal

≪ Previous: Carao

Those Honduran guys are really charming, really, really charming. Apparently one is headed north and planning ahead. Here is what he googled:

"i need to learn english in order to flirt with some gringas when i will go to the united states"

I'm confused, though, because his English looks pretty good to me. I'm sure he'll do just fine.

90% of the searches leading to the Blogicito are some combination of words La Gringa Blog or Blogicito, in every imaginable form of spelling. But every now and then there is a good one that makes me laugh. I am sorry that he probably didn't learn any good flirting moves here at the Blogicito.

↧

Honduras' dispensazo scandal

July 30, 2010, 10:07 pm

≫ Next: Not negotiable — No work, no pay

≪ Previous: Watch out, girls!

"Melito" Zelaya Castro and Dariela María Pineda Mendoza

Photo: El Heraldo

Subtitled: The tale of the 2010 Porsche Cayenne,

or
How Zelaya* and other officials continue
to rape the country of Honduras

Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.

And this is such a tangled web that it has taken me days to write this, with new and/or corrected information coming out daily.

Glossary:

constancia - a statement or oath sworn to by the signer; may or may not have legal standing
denuncia — a formal legal complaint
diputado — congressman elected by the people
dispensa — a legal document issued by the government granting exoneration of taxes and import duties, in this case regarding vehicles
-azo — a far-reaching (usually corruption-related) scandal; the suffix is used similarly to '-gate' scandals in the US.

Background

Since 1993, Honduran diputados have had the right to import two vehicles completely tax and duty free during their term.

On March 16, 2010, the National Congress, led by Nacionalista President Juan Orlando Hernández (photo La Tribuna), unanimously (supposedly) agreed to repeal (supposedly) the right of diputados to two vehicle dispensas each, a special political privilege which costs the government an estimated L.100-300 million per year in lost taxes and duties. At least 'repeal' is what the public was led to believe. Hernández's announcement on the Congressional web page speaks of the unanimous vote as "contributing to a greater transparency, improving the finances of the country, reducing the privileges of the political class, and setting an example."

However, in a July 29 editorial, El Heraldo points to the old adage, "quien hace la ley, hace la trampa" (he who makes the law, makes the fraud/mockery/loophole). All is not what it seemed.

The tale of the Porsche

A few days ago, Director Ejecutivo de Ingresos (DEI—similar to IRS), Oswaldo Guillén (photo La Tribuna), announced in a press conference the completed investigation of the March 1 importation of a US $88,000 2010 Porsche Cayenne by a diputado, who he named as José Mauricio Rosales Cardoza (related to Manuel Zelaya Rosales?) Guillén stated that the automobile was declared abandoned on March 28 due to failure to pay the taxes. It was included in the list of vehicles to be auctioned by the state for failure to pay the importation fees and taxes, which in the case of the Porsche, amount to L. 1,313,788 (US $69,500). (Note that a diputado suplante (substitute) like Rosales Cardoza net earnings are less than US $1,000 per month.)

After the Porsche was declared abandoned, on May 12, the Panamanian seller of the vehicle reported — oops! — an "error" in which the actual owner of the vehicle should have been named as Dariela María Pineda Mendoza and the actual shipping destination should have been the Dominican Republic, home to former president Mel Zelaya. This request was denied as it is illegal to reexport property previously declared abandoned. On May 20, a dispensa was requested, processed, and presented to the port authorities in little more than 24 hours, a near impossibility for mere mortals, which raised a red flag to DEI. Use of the dispensa was denied because it was not presented by the deadline. Guillen made the statement to the media, "If this costs me my job, so be it."

El Heraldo reported that 22-year-old Dariela Pineda Mendoza is the girlfriend of "Melito" (little Mel) Zelaya, youngest son of Manuel Zelaya and demonstrated photos of several trips to Paris and elsewhere taken by Dariela and Melito during Zelaya's administration as proudly displayed on Dariela's Facebook page, which has since been eliminated. During Zelaya's term in office, the family and girlfriends/boyfriends made trips, allegedly in the presidential jet, to Europe and the US. Photos of those trips, with the "kids" sporting their Rolexes and drinking champagne also disappeared from Facebook last year.

On July 21, the young lady, accompanied by Melito, visited the offices of the DEI to take care of the little problemita but were refused an audience with the director.

Diputado José Rosales Cardoza (photo La Tribuna) has belligerently stated that the car is his, he will have it, and he can send it or sell it to whomever he wants under the law. He says that it is one of two cars he has imported under the dispensas he is entitled to as a member of congress in the previous term. He implies that someone in the DEI wants to keep his car. He did not explain why he waited two months after the importation of the car to apply for a dispensa, but it is likely that he thought "other arrangements" had been made to avoid payment of the taxes (wink, wink).

The tip of the iceberg

Back in March, during the time that the repeal of the vehicle dispensas was being discussed, Juan Orlando Hernández told reporters that dispensas were a focal point of corruption, including fraudulent use of photocopies of dispensas, but at that time, Hernández failed to mention where that knowledge came from or whether he or anyone else had filed a denuncia or whether it was or would ever be investigated, something that struck me as very wrong.

On a Tuesday morning talk show, I learned that the law doesn't apply to current officials after all because it "wouldn't be fair" to them since they were elected under the assumption that they would receive this benefit (though when the law was changed in 2002, it retroactively granted privileges). I also learned that the constancias in which some (not "all but one" as was previously reported) of the diputados swore to not use the dispensas have no legal effect but should be morally and ethically binding. Two diputados on the show said that the names of those who have requested and/or received dispensas should be made public.

Later in the day, the National Congress published two lists on their website. One was a list of 18 current diputados and 6 prior diputados who applied for dispensas after the date of the decree. The other was a list of 10 diputados who have used dispensas since March 16, 2010. The list reflects mostly luxury cars, though not to the extent of a Porsche. Interestingly, only Liberal diputados were listed.

Channel 10 news speculated that the list was not complete as it included no Nacionalistas and did not include Diputado Rosales, importer of the infamous 2010 Porsche. Additionally, not all of the ten diputados who have used dispensas are reflected on the list of 18 who have requested dispensas, nor does the list reflect those who have used two dispensas after March 16. Providing further doubt, it appears that #4 on the list has been deleted and the preparer of the list forgot to renumber it.

Diputado Carlos Martínez Zepeda (who has used a dispensa this year) was quoted in La Prensa as saying that "members of both [major political] parties have submitted dispensas" and that "this is nothing more than a circus to divert attention from the true [crime of] clonation."

Cortina de Humo

Secretario de Finanzas, William Chong Wong (photo Hondudiario), states that all this talk of the diputados' dispensas is just a cortina de humo (curtain of smoke) to prevent the investigation of fraudulent dispensas. Chong was named llorón (crybaby) by President Lobo, for his constant calls to cut costs and quit giving out handouts because the country is going bankrupt.

Chong Wong states that they have investigated the clonation of five dispensas but there are many, many more from, he says, prior administrations. He also denounced that a large legal firm in Tegucigalpa has processed forged dispensas, without naming the firm, of course. Guillén reported that 128 vehicles have been determined by DEI to have been imported with fraudulent dispensas by those from the "political, economic, and non-profit sectors", who have not been named. Another report was that 160 vehicles are circulating in Honduras with cloned dispensas.

The dispensa scandal not only includes Honduran citizens and officials, but also foreign embassies, who have not been named. Minister Chong has promised to post a list of all of the functionaries (diputados and others) who have requested dispensas. Will charges be brought? Current talk is that the perpetrators will be required to pay the taxes, but is it not a crime to forge government documents? Shouldn't these people go to jail? Which government employees approved and processed the fraudulent documents? Have they no responsibility? Will this all be hush-hushed so that no one important suffers embarrassment as is usually done?

Incredibly, the answer came on the Friday night news. Guillén announced that the proprietors of the 128 vehicles which were fraudulently exonerated will have until September 30 to pay the taxes or the vehicles would be confiscated and auctioned. What does this mean? Anyone in Honduras can just decide that crimes don't need to be prosecuted? Shouldn't this be a decision for the Ministerio Publico?

This is exactly why corruption runs rampant in Honduras. Everything is forgiven. The worst that can happen if one is caught (extremely rare) is that he may have to pay what he would have originally had to pay anyway. There is no punishment, ever. It is things like this that make me despair that anything can ever change in Honduras.

Chong Wong told reporters that dispensas for a "lot" of Hummers was requested by the Minister of Tourism for a car rental business. The Minister of Turismo, Nelly Jerez, denies that Tourism has approved any Hummers, but has approved cars, buses, and pickups for tourism and car rental business. She also says that the prior administration approved a helicopter.

Full disclosure:

La Ceiba Diputada Margarita Dabdoub Sikaffi, known locally as Margie Dip, is one of the listed diputados who requested a dispensa after March 16.

Additionally, as an incentive to attract expatriates to move to Honduras, the immigration law provides that expatriates who are approved for residency as a pensionado (retiree with a proven pension) or rentista (other proven foreign source of income) are entitled to apply for a dispensa for the importation of one vehicle and their personal household belongings. In every case that I know of (a lot!), the dispensas were used to bring the immigrant's current used vehicle to Honduras. The law relating to foreign residents differs greatly from the law relating to government officials in that expatriates who sell the vehicle within 5 years must repay the tax.

I used a dispensa to bring my 2-year-old car to Honduras and saved about US $12,000 which at that time was approximately 50% of the value of the car! That is the only residency benefit that I have received from the government in almost 9 years in Honduras. As happens to many (most?) expatriates moving to Honduras, various governmental inefficiencies and misinformation resulted in my receiving, but not being able to use a dispensa for personal belongings. I have never heard of any expatriate selling a dispensa or using his dispensa for nefarious purposes though I suppose it is possible.

Nothing new

This is not a new scandal, nor does it only affect diputados. News articles from February 2009 during Mel Zelaya's administration read exactly like the current ones, with everyone accusing everyone else of fraud. Only the names and dates have changed.

In an El Heraldo investigation in early 2009, it was reported that a Corvette Z06, 17 Porsche Cayennes, two Ferraris, a Lincoln Navigator, a Maserati, five Hummers y eight Cadillac Escalades, among other luxury cars had been imported with dispensas by diputados who earn about US $2,500 net per month. El Heraldo reported that Supreme Court Justices, members of the Central American Parliament, embassies, NGOs and churches are eligible to receive dispensas, for a total of more than 3,000 vehicles from 2006 to 2008. There were even accusations of organized crime being involved in the trafficking of diputados' dispensas.

Diputado Marco Antonio Andino (photo El Heraldo) imported a Maserati and was accused of using fraudulently using a dispensa exonerating him of more than a million lempiras in taxes. As far as I know, no action was ever taken and the scandal didn't hurt him at all — he was reelected!

Two members of the UD party (now associated with the Resistance) were denounced for selling their four dispensas to an auto importer for US $90,000. The UD party responded by demanding an investigation of the diputados of other parties, some of whom they claimed were using more than two dispensas each. The then director of the DEI denounced that some diputados had used up to eight dispensas, though only two are allowed by law. UD Diputado Marvin Ponce claimed that bands of organized crime were using the constancias and dispensas of diputados. Accusations were thrown in every direction, investigations were started, and .... nothing ever happened.

El Heraldo also reported that when he was President of the Congress (2001-2005), current President Pepe Lobo was against any restrictions against vehicle dispensas as was Roberto Micheletti, when he was President of the Congress. In fact, three decrees under Lobo's leadership significantly liberalized the rules in 2002. If a diputado was not able to use both of his dispensas during his term, he was given an extra year to do so. If the diputado died before using them, his heirs inherited that right. And worst of all, the law which originally only allowed "work" vehicles, was changed to remove restrictions so that luxury vehicles could be included and provided that the vehicle owners did not have to pay annual registration taxes for five years. The ability to import any type of luxury vehicle compounded the problems of corruption because now "real money" was involved.

Presidential candidate Pepe Lobo later decided he was for eliminating the dispensas.

Same old, same old

One thing that all of Honduras' '-azos' have in common is that usually no one 'important' is ever named and certainly not punished, restitution is never made, and rarely does anyone ever even lose a job over it, much less go to court. In fact, generally whatever the scandal is, it usually continues year after year unfettered by the government no matter who is in power. Corruptos protect corruptos.

And sadly, this is only one of many -azos right now and it represents a grain of sand in the ocean compared to income tax evasion, fraud, and exonerations which are estimated to cost the state in the tens of billions of lempiras each year. Meanwhile people are dying every day from lack of medical care for dengue and even more so from lack of police protection against crime.

* While no evidence has been made public yet that the Porsche was going to Mel Zelaya in the Dominican Republic, Hondurans aren't stupid! Even President Lobo in an assembly yesterday in Trujillo said, "Everyone knows for whom this car came."

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Not negotiable — No work, no pay

August 6, 2010, 11:08 am

≫ Next: La Gringa's quest for the best cinnamon ice cream

≪ Previous: Honduras' dispensazo scandal

A frequent sight at Honduras' public schools

Honduran President Porfirio "Pepe" Lobo announced on Monday that there will be no negotiation with the teachers' unions regarding his decision to deduct pay for days not worked by teachers while they are striking. Additionally, Minister of Security Oscar Alvarez has promised that the law will be enforced prohibiting blocking streets and the "taking" of public buildings, including schools.

August 2, 2010 poll: Did Pepe Lobo do well to deny payment to teachers for the days that they don't work? Yes 91%; No 9%

We have heard both statements before, from these leaders and prior administrations, but unfortunately there hasn't been much action behind the words against the "untouchables". School directors have been allowed to lock the school doors to prevent entry of students and those teachers who do want to do their job. In fact, teachers were on strike and blocking roads on Thursday and Friday this week, so it appears that the promises made above are humo (smoke).

Teachers' unions for at least a decade have consistently deprived children of their constitutional right to an education (Article 123) but that has been ignored in Honduras, where children's futures have been shamelessly used as a bargaining chip by the (often corrupt) union leaders. Many public school children have not received anywhere near the required 200 days of classes in any year of this century. See my article Honduran teachers: the czars of strikes for an incredible summary of the strikes from July 2008 to June 2009.

The last several presidents have been afraid to confront the illegal actions of the teachers' unions because of the political power that they hold and the influence they have over families and children. Often parents even have been intimidated from complaining because of fear of retribution against their children. It happens.

August 5, 2010 poll: Do you approve of the government contracting with unemployed teachers to replace striking teachers? Yes 93%; No 7%

In an effort at reconciliation, President Lobo named Alejandro Ventura, a former teacher union leader, as Minister of Education. Initially teachers were very happy with that, but after Ventura began enforcing the laws, the unions now want him removed. Minister Ventura is now threatening to hire new teachers to replace those who won't work, saying there are 20,000 teachers who want to work in the public schools (because by Honduran standards the pay and benefits are very good and teachers pay no income tax).

In addition to these actions, the government needs to follow through on the 2008 audit which showed that the government was overpaying 10,579 teachers to the tune of about US $65,000,000. The audit investigation results were shelved during Manuel Zelaya's administration so we can only assume that the over-payments have continued for another two years for uncounted additional millions in wasted funds. Since teachers were told by their unions that they didn't have to cooperate with the auditors, the true number is probably even higher, especially if the salaries paid to hundreds or possibly thousands of phantom teachers (who don't work anywhere) are considered.

The civic group Transformemos Honduras ("Let's Transform Honduras" in English) is not going to let this 'maestro-azo' fade away. In a full page ad last week entitled "We demand action be taken now!", TH 'graded' every organization that should have been taking action, specifically naming the person ultimately responsible in each organization. Most officials had done absolutely nothing about it in the two months since TH originally exposed the existence of the audit. TH has published the audit and has named names of the overpaid teachers in each district on their website.

Additionally, TH members have gone from school to school performing their own audit. As an example, at one school they found that while only 33 teachers work there, 55 teachers are on the payroll. The other 22 are phantoms [site in English], being paid each month, even though no one at the school knows who or where they are. The TH website includes lists of paid teachers [in Spanish] at each public school which parents can compare with the reality and report back to TH.

I would encourage anyone who is interested in supporting an organization that is working for the betterment of Honduras to join and support Transformemos Honduras (TH website in English). I've been impressed with what they are doing. TH has focused on 15 basic proposals that I can't imagine anyone of any political persuasion being against. Another organization that has been putting pressure on the government to take action is the association of parents [in English].

August 3, 2010 Poll: Do you support Pepe Lobo's order to maintain schools open in spite of the threats of strike by the teachers? Yes: 94%; No 6%

UNICEF recently made the shockingly strong statement that education in Honduras is 100 years behind that of Costa Rica and Panama [in English]. If the quality of Honduran public school education was to improve tomorrow, it will still take at least a generation before we see the results.

Like the majority of Hondurans (see the polls included here), I cheer Pepe Lobo's words but I'll withhold final judgment until we see whether or not he follows through and whether or not the appropriate action is taken regarding the teacher audit. In my opinion, teachers or directors who have defrauded the government should go to jail. School directors who fraudulently put phantom teachers on the payroll and people who receive government salaries for jobs they do not do are criminals, nothing more, nothing less.

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La Gringa's quest for the best cinnamon ice cream

August 8, 2010, 2:17 pm

≫ Next: La Gringa's Cinnamon Ice Cream

≪ Previous: Not negotiable — No work, no pay

We interrupt your regularly scheduled corruption reporting for a recipe break. Talk about a blog with an identity crisis, a split personality ..... well, that's me. ;-) What else can I say?

Whoopee! A new flavor ice cream recipe for you. If you like the taste of cinnamon, you'll like this recipe. Note that as I blabbed on and on below about my process, detoured to chat about plants, and ended up revising the recipe twice, I decided to post the actual, final, LG-approved recipe in a separate article, which you can jump to here, La Gringa's Cinnamon Ice Cream.

I had a craving for ice cream last Sunday, but had nothing interesting to use, except cocoa for chocolate ice cream (I prefer to use a combination of melted chocolate and cocoa) and coffee for coffee ice cream, both of which I've made the last few times.

Telling El Jefe of the limitations, I asked what kind of ice cream he would like (secretly hoping he would offer go to the store and buy a mango or papaya — heheheh!). It backfired. He said vanilla. Bor-ing! I'm sure you can tell that I'm not a plain vanilla kind of person, unless it is slathered with hot fudge and nuts or sprinkled with fresh fruit or used in a root beer float. ;-)

But, trying to please, I thought I would use the opportunity to try a custard based vanilla recipe so I went to his computer (mine still has me locked out) and searched the internet for a good recipe. Many were similar and I was still comparing recipes when I ran across All Recipes top 20 ice cream recipes. I skimmed through the first 19 (no, don't have this ingredient; no, don't have that ingredient) but number 20 was cinnamon ice cream. Yep, got cinnamon! I knew I would have no trouble getting El Jefe to change his selection to cinnamon. He loves cinnamon and I knew he would be intrigued by a cinnamon ice cream. (I know my man!)

By the way, we have a cinnamon tree. Cinnamomum zelanicum is a very attractive tree with small glossy leaves which grows quickly in Honduras. The cinnamon spice comes from the dried inner bark of the tree. One of these days I'm going to have to research how to harvest some fresh cinnamon from it. I love to trim this tree because you can't imagine how wonderful it smells when you cut the branches. Cinnamon is called canela in Spanish.

We also have a vanilla orchid vine (Vanilla planifolia) growing in an avocado tree but as you can see in the photo most of the flowers have aborted before making the beans, apparently from not being pollinated though we have tons of bees. The relentless zompopos (leaf eater ants) could also be to blame. Vanilla is 'vainilla' in Spanish, pronounced 'vy-knee'-yah'.

Unfortunately, despite the rave recipe reviews, I didn't like the original recipe. It was a cooked base, which I was looking for, but it included whole eggs. I don't have a good track record of being able to cook or even heat raw egg yolks much less whole eggs without ending up with scrambled eggs in a sweet pudding base — yuck. The recipe also called for 1 1/2 cups half and half (which I can't get here) to 1 cup cream. I also like enough mix to fill the ice cream maker (about 5 cups).

So, I changed the ingredients as follows:

Cinnamon Ice Cream (first revision*)

4 egg yolks, beaten
1 cup sugar
2 cups milk
2 cups cream
1 tsp. vanilla
2 tsp. cinnamon

I followed the preparation instructions in the original recipe.

*Note that this recipe does not carry the La Gringa mark of approval. See the recommended changes below.

Review

This resulted in a very, very rich ice cream — I'm going to shock you here and say, it was really too sweet and too rich. The mouth feel was greasy rather than creamy. The original recipe called for the same amount of sugar and cinnamon with only 2 1/2 cups of liquid! Even though I love cinnamon and generally use the double the amount called for in any recipe, I can't imagine how strong that would have been in the original recipe.

The failure might be partly mine as I used the yolk of one regular size egg and six yolks from my small bantam-sized eggs. Generally I use two of my bantam eggs for each egg called for in a recipe, but these eggs have a higher ratio of yolk to white than grocery store eggs, so maybe I should have used less. To my eye, it looked to be about the right amount, but who knows? Also, I noted some tiny cooked flakes in the custard, so I strained it to avoid scrambled egg ice cream. I admit that I may have overcooked the base, too.

Recommended changes

I would try the custard base again, but for this recipe, I recommend decreasing the egg yolks to two or maybe three, the sugar to 3/4 cup, and the cinnamon to 1 1/2 teaspoons. If you don't like a strong cinnamon flavor, you might even reduce that to 1 teaspoon.

Trying again

El Jefe said it was good but he didn't ask for seconds. ;-/ Not wanting him to be disappointed with cinnamon ice cream, I prepared another batch a couple of days later using the Ben and Jerry's base recipe that I normally use, reducing the sugar to 3/4 cups. We really liked it much better. It was rich and creamy without being over-the-top.

After tasting the second recipe, El Jefe admitted that he thought the first batch had too much cinnamon, even though the proportion of cinnamon was reduced from the original.

So, in the end, even though the cooked custard base ice cream is supposed to be the "best" according to dessert gurus, I think I'm going to stick with my easier and quicker Ben and Jerry base which has never failed me yet.

Other Ice Cream news

At the same time that I was drafting this article, a friend (thanks, César!) coincidentally sent me the link to a New York Times Style page which had some interesting ice cream articles. If you have a fear of using raw eggs, check out Egg-Free Ice Cream Lets Flavors Bloom. To read about the usual USA excesses (US $5 scoops of ice cream), read You Scream, I Scream ... at the Price of Ice Cream. Their review of premium store-bought ice creams was also interesting: Taste Testing Strawberry Ice Cream. You cannot fool a true ice cream aficionado with those artificial ingredients! I have never liked store bought strawberry ice cream, but my homemade strawberry ice cream is heavenly.

I read so many comments on the recipe sites from readers horrified at the the thought of using raw eggs but I feel comfortable with my home grown, fresh organic eggs. I like easy recipes and living dangerously. After all, this is Honduras where we don't sweat the small stuff!

Find my final improved cinnamon ice cream recipe here.

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La Gringa's Cinnamon Ice Cream

August 8, 2010, 2:40 pm

≫ Next: La Gringa's ice cream making tips

≪ Previous: La Gringa's quest for the best cinnamon ice cream

Cinnamon Ice Cream

(I lost my photos, and this pathetic melted one was the only one I could find)

To read what led up to my quest for the best cinnamon ice cream recipe, see this article.

La Gringa's Cinnamon Ice Cream

2 eggs*
3/4 cup sugar
2 cups heavy cream
2 cups milk
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 to 2 tsp. ground cinnamon

Beat the eggs with a wire whisk for 2 minutes. Gradually add the sugar continuing to beat for about a minute. Stir in the cream, milk, vanilla, and cinnamon (I used 2 tsp.).

Chill the mix thoroughly in freezer until a frozen crust appears around the edges of the bowl (usually one to two hours in my freezer). Scrape the sides of the bowl, stirring in the frozen bits for a few seconds until melted, and pour into your 1 1/2 quart ice cream maker.

Freeze according to your machine's directions. Freeze the ice cream in a separate container in the freezer for about an hour before serving. If you are too anxious to eat it, it will look like the photo above.

We had this ice cream sprinkled with Heath bits. Yes. Mmmm-mmm good.

For a cooked custard base cinnamon ice cream, see the previous article. I suggest adjusting the ingredients as I recommended in the article.

*Note that in place of 2 regular eggs, I generally use 4 small bantam eggs, which have a higher yolk to white ratio than normal sized grocery store eggs, so that could make a difference in the final product. To simulate the bantam eggs, try 1 whole egg and 2 egg yolks. For those who are concerned about the raw eggs, you can use the pasteurized eggs in cartons that are available in the US. I've never seen those here in La Ceiba.

I understand your fear! But I live in Honduras. Raw eggs are the least of my worries. Besides, my eggs are organic.

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La Gringa's ice cream making tips

August 12, 2010, 10:36 pm

≫ Next: Ice cream maker reviews

≪ Previous: La Gringa's Cinnamon Ice Cream

La Gringa's Mango Ice Cream
(recipe here)

My promised ice cream week was delayed by weed eater research and other distractions. Don't worry, you'll still get your money's worth. ;-) I've been writing up a storm.

I love ice cream! I think of it as cooling myself from the inside out and it really works. My ice cream recipes usually get so long-winded as I give this tip or that tip, so I decided that I would try to combine every single tip that I could think of in one spot. I'm not holding anything back. I want you to love my ice cream recipes as much as I do. ;-D

Tips for making ice cream in an un-airconditioned kitchen in the tropics:

A few extra steps really are necessary to combat that 85-90°F average air temperature (29-32°C) with 85% humidity. I've tried some crazy things in the past, including putting the whole machine in the refrigerator to run or taking it to the bedroom and turning on the air conditioning. Neither one worked that great, especially considering that I kept opening the refrigerator to check on the ice cream. The following are some steps that I normally take.

Chill, chill, chill: Chilling the mixture for 1-2 hours in the freezer (and stirring occasionally) prior to making the ice cream is a necessary step at my house, sometimes even longer if some of the ingredients were warm. Just the 4-5 minutes of beating and mixing ingredients is enough to warm the mix beyond what my ice cream maker can handle and I work as fast as I can. I've regretted it every time I've skimped on the pre-chilling. Chill until about an inch of frozen crust rings the top of the bowl (see the photo) or until it reaches about 35-40°F (2-4°C). Don't overdo, though! If you put frozen bits into your ice cream maker, you may end up with 'icy' ice cream — not acceptable! Be sure to stir in any frozen bits for a few seconds before pouring the mix into your machine.

La Gringa's Cappuccino Caramel Swirl Ice Cream

Chill some more: I place the ice cream maker blade into the freezer at the same time I place the mix in the freezer and of course make sure the machine's freezer canister has been in the freezer for at least 24 hours. I chill the serving bowls and the container that I'm going to put the finished ice cream into in the freezer, too. It is amazing how quickly a room temperature warm bowl will start melting the ice cream.

Scrape: After a few minutes of churning, I stick a small plastic spatula into the ice cream maker and very carefully run it up and down the sides and bottom of the canister to scrape off the frozen part. Make sure the spatula doesn't interfere with the blade or slow down the machine. This mixes in the thin frozen mass from the edges and seems to help the ice cream freeze a little faster/better. Usually once is enough, but sometimes I do this two or three times.

Cover: I've recently tried putting a heavy towel over the machine cover while it is running to try to hold the cold in/keep the hot air out. It seemed to help and I'm going to try that again.

Time: Set a timer for 25 minutes. Anything over 30 minutes churning time on the Cuisinart does no good at all. By that time the ambient temperature of the kitchen has warmed the freezing canister too much so that the ice cream will actually get softer, not harder. Your best bet is to place the ice cream into a container in the freezer and just wait. ;-/

Wait: I'm sorry to say, but unless you like very soft ice cream, you are going to have to put your ice cream in the freezer to harden up a little, probably for at least an hour or two.

La Gringa's Toasted Coconut Ice Cream
(Recipe here)

Using Eggs

This is such a controversial topic that I had to give it its own separate article. The eggs-in-ice-cream controversy and some alternatives also includes some egg-free recipes and Custard-based ice cream includes instructions for turning any of my recipes into a cooked custard base.

Other ingredients:

Chunky add-ins: I freeze any add-ins such as nuts, cookie pieces, chocolate chunks or chips, and just quickly stir them into the finished recipe as I scoop it out of the freezer canister. Solid ingredients added to the machine must be no larger than a chocolate chip. Sometimes they clog up the machine or don't mix in evenly and sometimes the difference in temperature causes the ice cream to get even softer. Soft add-ins can get beaten to death (pulverized).

Sugar: Honduran sugar is coarse and very slow to dissolve, sometimes resulting in a grainy ice cream. I sometimes (not always) run a bag of sugar through my food processor for a few seconds and store the resulting 'azúcar fino' in a separate canister for ice cream use. American style fine sugar is available in La Ceiba, but it is hugely expensive compared to Honduran sugar. Other things you can do is to melt the sugar if any part of the mixture is going to be heated, or mix it with fruit that is going to be blended for purée.

Fruit: I usually purée fruit in the blender with the sugar from the recipe. If the fruit results in much more than 2-3 cups of chunks, I might dice some of the fruit for topping, use the extra purée for topping, or use double the sugar and store half of the fruit purée in the freezer for another time. I'm very lax on the fruit measurement, using anywhere from 1 to 2 cups of fruit-sugar purée, adjusting the milk measurement to make up the difference.

Don't forget to adjust the sugar: very tangy fruit may need 1-1 1/4 cups, very sweet fruit may only need 2/3 to 3/4 cups. One cup is usually about about right for most fruits. (Pineapple is a whole other ballgame — I'll post my Pineapple Cream recipe soon.)

Fruit chunks: Chunks of fruit will freeze solid in ice cream (not a good thing) unless you macerate it in sugar for quite some time. Even then, it is iffy, so if I want fruit chunks, I usually stir them into the finished ice cream or serve it as a topping. I generally also add fruit purée to the mix as described above unless I want a vanilla base with fruit (think Cherry Garcia). Macerating the fruit in sugar with a bit of alcohol for a few hours might also work though I haven't tried it. The fruit should be drained of excess liquid before adding to the ice cream.

Alcohol: Vanilla and other extracts have alcohol which retards freezing. I don't use more than about a teaspoon. When adding larger amounts of alcohol for flavoring (rum or whatever), it is recommended to add it in the last 5 minutes of churning. Store the alcohol to be used in the recipe in the freezer for a few hours or overnight.

Equipment

Measuring bowl: I use a plastic 2 quart measuring bowl/pitcher to mix my ingredients. I find it indispensable. It's easy to make sure that I have the right quantity for my machine (about 5 1/4 cups maximum). I always add the milk last, adding a little more or less than the recipe calls for as necessary. That is especially helpful for fruit recipes in which the quantity of fruit from, for example, one mango, will vary. The pouring lip makes it much easier and tidier to pour the mix into the ice cream maker than it would be to pour from a bowl. I use the same bowl to mix the ingredients, chill them in the freezer, and sometimes even to store the ice cream later.

Mine is an old Tupperware pitcher but you may find something similar at Target or a kitchen supply store. If not, Amazon has a glass one, 2 Quart Glass Batter Bowl With Lid.

The lid could be handy so this doesn't happen to you. Don't use a regular shaped 2-quart measuring cup. It needs to have a rounded bottom so that the whisk can reach all of the ingredients.

Machine: My ice cream maker is the Cuisinart 1 1/2 quart electric ice cream maker and I love it. I've been using it for more than 10 years and it is still going strong! It cost US $50 when I bought it and still costs around US $50. This is the type where you have to store the ice cream canister in the freezer for at least 24 hours in advance. Needless to say, my canister lives in the freezer. Read more about this machine here: Cuisinart ICE-20 1-1/2-Quart Automatic Ice Cream Maker.

In a following article, I'll report on some other style ice cream makers.

You can find my favorite ice cream recipes by clicking on "LG recipes" in the topics list in the sidebar.

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Ice cream maker reviews

August 13, 2010, 1:00 am

≫ Next: La Gringa's Cappuccino Caramel Swirl Ice Cream

≪ Previous: La Gringa's ice cream making tips

If you click this photo to enlarge,
you'll be sorry that you can't put your spoon
through the computer screen to get a bite

I'm often asked what ice cream maker I use. Rather than just saying "buy this one — it's great", I did a few hours of research on ice cream makers. Well, guess what? I can honestly say of my machine, "buy this one — it's great!" For the price, I don't think you can beat the Cuisinart. But I'm including several other options for you to consider, too.

Amazon.com is the first place I look when I'm considering any purchase. I haven't found any other website that has the volume or quality of reviews. Reviews saying "I just bought this and I love it!" are much less helpful to me than reviews saying "I've used this for 6 years with no problems." Click on the ads or links* below to read the details of each machine as well as the customer reviews.

The rating scale is 1 to 5, with 5 being the best. If the item is shipped by and sold by Amazon, any of these machines would have free shipping and no sales tax. If they are shipped by another vendor, then there may be shipping and/or taxes. If you are really interested in buying one, watch these prices as Amazon's prices change frequently. The prices that I mention in the text were the prices when I viewed the item. The prices in the ads will automatically update to Amazon's current prices.

I use the Cuisinart 1 1/2 quart electric ice cream maker and I love it. I've been using it for more than 10 years and it is still going strong! It cost $50 when I bought it and still costs around $50.

This is the type of machine where you have to store the ice cream canister in the freezer for at least 24 hours in advance. The instructions say at least 16 hours, but I haven't had any luck unless I keep it in the freezer a minimum of 24 hours. Needless to say, my canister lives in the freezer. This model gets an average rating of 4 1/2 stars from 1,103 users. Read more about

this machine here: Cuisinart ICE-20 1-1/2-Quart Automatic Ice Cream Maker.

A newer version of Cuisinart 1 1/2 qt. model has a slightly different blade and look. The Cuisinart ICE-21 Frozen Yogurt-Ice Cream & Sorbet Maker is currently priced at $47. This model only has 4 reviews so far but receives 5 stars, with three reviewers mentioning that it is quiet. A review of ice cream makers by Cooks Illustrated stated, "This model’s ice cream and sorbet rivaled the winner’s—at less than a quarter of the price."

Cuisinart recently came out with a sleek stainless steel 2-Quart Automatic Frozen Yogurt, Sorbet, and Ice Cream Maker. I am sooooo tempted, but can't bring myself to spend $75 for an extra 1/2 quart. Although, I have been thinking it would be nice to have an extra canister ($40) to keep in the freezer for when I need to make a larger quantity of ice cream for guests. Looking at it from that standpoint, it's only an extra $35 dollars, right? ;-) If you have a larger family who loves ice cream, I'd recommend this one over the 1 1/2 quart. The 2-quart ice cream maker gets an average review of 4 1/2 stars from 408 users.

I recently received a notice from Amazon that all of their ice cream makers are 30% off (how did they know?). I had to take a look to see what else was new.

Amazingly, I found a $700 Italian ice cream maker! No! As much as I love ice cream, I can not imagine spending that kind of money on a machine unless it would do my laundry and wash the dishes, too. This type of machine has the advantage of having a built in freezer motor so you don't have to plan ahead or even pre-chill ingredients and can make multiple batches, but it also has a huge disadvantage. The ice cream container is not removable so you have to carry this 40 pound monster over to the sink to wash it out.

The Musso gets an average of 4 1/2 stars from 94 reviewers. If any of you try the Lello 4080 Musso Lussino 1.5-Quart Ice Cream Maker, please let me know so I can be jealous!

I also discovered that Cuisinart has a Supreme Commercial Quality Ice Cream Maker for a mere $260. It also has the built-in commercial-style compressor freezer which allows for successive batches. Like the $700 model, it has a capacity of only 1 1/2 quarts. Unlike the Musso model, the ice cream container is removable for washing — that makes sense to me. The Supreme model gets an average of 4 stars from 128 reviewers, with several complaints about the noise.

(Hmm, maybe I should reply to Mr. Hasheed at the Bank of Nigeria about that $10 million inheritance after all.)

My first ice cream maker was very similar to this Rival 8550-X 5-Quart Wooden Electric Ice Cream Maker, but I was shocked to see that it now costs $65. I didn't use it very often because it was so messy with the ice and rock salt. The bucket leaked and eventually the ice cream tub started rusting. Things haven't changed much: this Rival gets a low 2 1/2 star rating.

Rival does make a $41 model with a plastic tub, Rival 8806-BL 6-Quart Oval Electric Ice Cream Maker which rates 4 stars with 49 reviews.

A similar Hamilton Beach 68330R 4-Quart Automatic Ice-Cream Maker costs $33 and gets an average 4 1/2 star rating from 104 users. If you want ice cream for a crowd, the Hamilton Beach might be your best bet, but I'm not even sure whether rock salt is available in Honduras. If you factor in the cost of crushed ice and rock salt, I'm not sure that this type is really as economical as it might seem.

Along the same lines (ice and salt freezers), a big step up in price but not necessarily quality are the White Mountain electric ice cream makers. These make large quantities (4 to 6 quarts) and have large prices to match. The F69204-X 4-Quart Electric Ice Cream Freezer costs $178 (3 1/2 star rating) and the F69206-X 6-Quart Electric Ice Cream Freezer costs $180 (4 1/2 star rating).

You can save a little (but not much!) if you have lots of kids willing to do the cranking by hand: White Mountain F64304-X 4-Quart Hand-Crank Ice Cream Freezer at $134 (3 1/2 star rating) or the White Mountain F64306-X 6-Quart Hand-Crank Ice Cream Freezer at $153 (3 1/2 star rating). I saw way too many reports of serious quality issues in the White Mountain reviews to even consider any of this brand at these prices.

If you already own a KitchenAid mixer, the KitchenAid Ice Cream Maker Attachment might be an option for you. At $59, it gets an overall 4 1/2 star review from 437 users. However, many commented on the poor design which makes it hard to attach to the mixer and difficult to pour in the mixture without spilling. Additionally, a troubling number of purchasers reported that their bowl split and leaked the blue freezing compound, though KitchenAid will replace defective units. I think I would consider this one if they came out with an improved design, but it seems pricey considering that unlike the others, you aren't buying a motor!

A common complaint about all of these machines from the unsatisfied reviewers is that the ice cream doesn't get hard enough. From reading some of the reviews, it seems that some users did not follow the instructions by turning on the machine before filling it. It's also likely that the ingredients were not chilled enough or the container wasn't frozen solid, but none of these machines are going to make rock-hard ice creams like you bring home from the grocery store. After all, when you buy at the store, those cartons have been frozen in commercial freezers for weeks or months. If you want a firm ice cream, you'll just need to resign yourself to waiting another hour or two or overnight while it hardens in your freezer. (See my ice cream making tips article.)

You can also read ice cream maker reviews at Cooking.com. I hope this is helpful to you!

*Note: I am an Amazon Associate so if you visit Amazon.com from any of these ads and buy something, whether it is an ice cream maker or anything else, I'll make a small commission. Thank you if you do. ;-)

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La Gringa's Cappuccino Caramel Swirl Ice Cream

August 15, 2010, 3:11 pm

≫ Next: The eggs-in-ice-cream controversy and some alternatives

≪ Previous: Ice cream maker reviews

Cappuccino Caramel Swirl Ice Cream

Cappuccino Caramel Swirl is my dream ice cream. I don't mean that it is my favorite ice cream, though it could be really close. I mean that, literally, I dreamed this ice cream recipe! Isn't that the strangest thing you've ever heard? I rarely ever remember dreams at all (except scary ones), much less a detailed recipe. I woke up in the morning all excited about my new recipe!

LG's Dream Cappuccino Caramel Swirl Ice Cream
makes 1 1/2 quarts

3 tbsp. coffee, instant or regular
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
2 cups heavy cream
2 cups milk (divided use)
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 to 1 tsp. cinnamon (to taste)
1 cup caramel topping

1. Prepare the coffee: Use instant or regular. I used instant granules, stirred into about 1/4 cup of the milk. I've also used regular coffee. Place 3 tbsp. coffee grounds into about a cup of warm milk. Let steep for 30 minutes or so, stirring occasionally, and then strain out the grounds with a very fine strainer or through a coffee filter. This can be prepared early in the day so the coffee-milk mixture has time to chill. I don't really have a preference of instant or regular coffee for ice cream. I keep a very small jar of instant coffee in the freezer just for ice cream in a hurry.

2. Pour the caramel topping into a bowl or measuring cup and place into the freezer.

3. Beat the eggs with a wire whisk for 2 minutes. Gradually add the sugar continuing to beat for about a minute. Stir in the cream, milk, coffee-milk mixture, vanilla, and cinnamon (I used 1 tsp.). Or you can use the same ingredients in a cooked custard base if you don't like to use raw eggs in ice cream.

4. Chill the mix thoroughly in freezer until a frozen crust appears around the edges of the bowl (usually one to two hours in my freezer). Scrape the sides of the bowl, stirring in the frozen bits for a few seconds until melted.

5. Freeze according to your machine's directions. Remove the ice cream from the canister into a separate container and freeze for an hour or two or until firm but not frozen solid. Keep an eye on the caramel. If it starts to freeze solid, place it in the refrigerator. I don't think that it will freeze but a different brand might behave differently than Smuckers.

6. When the ice cream is firm but still stirable, dump some of the caramel on top and swirl with a wide spatula. (Do as I say, not as I do! Note the consistency of the ice cream in the photos. I didn't wait long enough.)

Don't stir too much or the caramel will disappear into the ice cream. Try to bring up the bottom portion, dump the rest of the caramel on top, and swirl again.

Depending upon the heat in your kitchen, after swirling in the caramel, the ice cream may benefit from a little more firming up in the freezer.

Enjoy!

See also my ice cream making tips, the raw egg controversy and alternatives, and, if you are in the market for a machine, my ice cream maker reviews.

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The eggs-in-ice-cream controversy and some alternatives

August 18, 2010, 10:51 am

≫ Next: Custard-based ice cream

≪ Previous: La Gringa's Cappuccino Caramel Swirl Ice Cream

A jumbo egg, an average size bantam egg, and a tiny bantam egg

Using Raw Eggs

Using raw eggs in ice cream is such a controversial topic. I've read so many comments on recipe sites from readers horrified at the the thought of using raw eggs but I feel comfortable with my home grown, super fresh, organic eggs. I like quick and easy recipes and living dangerously. After all, this is Honduras where we don't sweat the small stuff!

I am generally a world class worrier so I sympathize with your fear. But I live in Honduras. Raw eggs are the least of my worries. And did you know that you can also get salmonella and E coli from melons, spinach, lettuce, and a bunch of other "healthy" foods? My theory is that there are only so many things you can worry about.

I'm not saying that you should use raw eggs or that your fears are groundless. I'm just saying that I do. I never use a cracked or dirty egg for ice cream or those eggs that have been hanging around the fridge for weeks. Eggs serve a purpose in ice cream besides adding richness. Eggs stabilize the ice cream and prevent it from becoming rock hard. But I feel that I must give some options to those with raw egg-phobia. Washing the eggs right before you crack them might not be a bad idea.

Another simple option is to use the pasteurized eggs in cartons that are available in the US. I've never seen those here in La Ceiba. Another solution is to gently cook the eggs in a custard base. Instructions for converting any of my recipes to a cooked custard based recipe are here.

Not using raw eggs

Other options are, of course, to use an eggless recipe or a cornstarch base. Here are a couple of eggless recipes that get good reviews.

Ben & Jerry's Sweet Cream Base #2
makes 1 quart

This is Ben & Jerry's eggless base. They point out that it does not freeze well, "so plan to eat it all the same night". I assume by that they mean that it freezes rock solid. For easier serving of rock solid ice cream, microwave it on 50% power for 10-15-20 seconds, depending upon the quantity. This is my preferred method of softening ice cream as it results in a more evenly soft ice cream. Slightly softened ice cream tastes better and that's a fact.

This simple recipe is made with a minimum of ingredients and requires no cooking. It makes a very creamy ice cream with 25% butterfat.

2 cups heavy or whipping cream
3/4 cup sugar
2/3 cup half & half
Pour the cream into a mixing bowl. Whisk in the sugar, a little at a time, then continue whisking until completely blended, about 1 minute more. Pour the half and half and whisk to blend.

Ben & Jerry's Sweet Cream Base #3
makes 1 quart

This ice cream base is described as: "This recipe makes a less creamy, less rich ice cream. Ben likes the slightly cooked flavor of the sweetened condensed milk." This one will not freeze rock solid because of the condensed milk.

2 cup light cream
1 cup sweetened condensed milk - cold

Whisk the light cream and the sweetened condensed milk together in a mixing bowl until blended.

LG note: I occasionally use sweetened condensed milk in a pinch when I can't find cream. I do not add any sugar to the recipe. To use this base in a fruit recipe, there is probably no need to increase the base recipe for 1 1/2 quarts. To make 1 1/2 quarts of a vanilla base, do not increase the sweetened condensed milk — it will be much too sweet. Instead, increase the cream or add milk (about a cup).

Cornstarch-based recipes

I've only tried one cornstarch-based recipe so far (Mocha gelato, to be posted soon) — how much ice cream can a person eat in a week?! Although, El Jefe asks me every night, "Are you going to make ice cream tonight?" I do plan to try a couple more gelato recipes using cornstarch, but it may be a week or so until I do.

Egg sizes

I don't think egg size is too critical to a 1 1/2 quart ice cream recipe. Note that in place of 2 regular eggs, I generally use 4 small bantam eggs, which have a higher yolk to white ratio than normal sized grocery store eggs, so that could make a difference in the final product. For those who want to live dangerously like me, to simulate the bantam eggs, try using 1 whole egg and 2 egg yolks in place of 2 eggs — but again, I really don't think it is critical.

The photo shows a large grocery store egg, and two normal bantam eggs. In case you don't know, bantams are just small chickens. The brighter color of the yolk is because my chickens free range and find lots of tasty greens to munch on in the garden.

I hope this helps to ease your mind! See also my ice cream making tips (especially for the tropics) and my ice cream maker reviews. For several of my favorite ice cream recipes, including some using tropical fruits, click on "LG recipes" in the topics list in the sidebar.

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Custard-based ice cream

August 18, 2010, 1:40 pm

≫ Next: La Gringa's Mocha Gelato

≪ Previous: The eggs-in-ice-cream controversy and some alternatives

The photos show chocolate ice cream
but the instructions can be used for any flavor

Here are some general instructions that you can use to turn any raw egg recipe into a cooked custard-based recipe. There are other methods, this is just the one that I have used. I'd rather not take the chance of curdling the cream, so I add it after the heating of the other ingredients. The most important point is that you never want to boil or curdle the eggs or you will have scrambled egg ice cream.

Custard base ice cream

1. Using the same ingredients from the specific recipe, beat the eggs in a small bowl.

2. Combine the milk and sugar in a saucepan or double boiler. Heat until simmering. Since the mixture will condense with cooking, you might consider adding an additional 1/4 cup or so of milk.

3. Remove from heat and slowly pour the hot liquid into the beaten eggs while whisking constantly. Pour the egg mixture back into the saucepan. Heat over medium heat, stirring constantly until mixture just begins to bubble and is thickened. The mixture should coat the back of a spoon and a line drawn by your fingertip through the custard on the back of the spoon should remain visible. Do not boil.

4. Remove from heat and allow to cool, stirring occasionally to prevent a skin from forming. Unless you are very confident that you have no lumps or cooked egg particles, it is a good idea to strain the mix before cooling.

5. If you are making chocolate ice cream, add the chocolate after the mixture has thickened but while it is still hot. Stir well until the chocolate is melted and is well combined. Cool the mixture.

6. You can speed the cooling process by putting the pan in an ice bath for 15-20 minutes first (photo above). Put the pan in a larger bowl filled with ice and a small amount of water. Don't forget to stir until the mixture is cool enough to not form a skin.

7. Add the cream, flavoring, any fruit purée, and any other ingredients when the mixture is cool. This mix will probably need 2-3 hours chilling time in the freezer before freezing in your ice cream maker.

Note: If you are making a fruit ice cream where the quantity of fruit may not be exact, you can reserve about 1/2 cup of milk. Check the amount of your mix after all the ingredients have been added. You may or may not need to add this remaining milk to the mix. On the other hand, this recipe may lose some volume through cooking. Check your final measurement and add additional milk at the end, if necessary. (This is assuming that you want to make the maximum amount of ice cream without risking an ice cream volcano erupting from your machine.)

See also my ice cream making tips (especially for the tropics) and, if you are in the market for a machine, my ice cream maker reviews. Click the 'LG Recipes' topic in the sidebar for additional ice cream recipes.

Enjoy!

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La Gringa's Mocha Gelato

August 19, 2010, 10:38 am

≫ Next: What is this??

≪ Previous: Custard-based ice cream

LG's Mocha Gelato The true color was darker,
but this night time photo with a flash doesn't show that

What is gelato? Gelato is Italian ice cream which is generally less high fat than American or French ice creams, often using a higher milk to cream ratio or even no cream at all. It is sometimes, though not always, made with no eggs. It is not made from gelatin, which is what you might initially think from the name. Gelato is a little denser than American-style ice cream because less air is introduced in the making. Ice cream cookbook author David Lebovitz has a good article that explains the different types of gelato from different parts of Italy in What is Gelato?

After reviewing many gelato recipes, I adapted this recipe primarily from a Gourmet Magazine Mocha Chip Gelato recipe which called for using 1% milk (bleech!). I used about 3 parts whole milk and to 1 part cream. Most gelato recipes called for whole milk, some that I viewed used 2% milk. Some of the reviewers skipped the cream completely in recipes, used half and half in place of cream, or even used skimmed milk. You're on your own there! Let your conscience be your guide. (I have no conscience when it comes to ice cream.)

I really changed the recipe a lot. Based on the reviews, I reduced the proportion of cornstarch and increased the coffee. I didn't have any chocolate so I upped the cocoa considerably. I used Penzey's Dutch Process High Fat Cocoa* which gives an amazingly good chocolate flavor without the harshness that some cocoa has. I prefer to use part cocoa and part melted chocolate when I have some. I also increased the recipe as it only called for 1 3/4 cups of milk. It seemed a lot of work to do for such a small quantity of ice cream.

*Yes, that is the name on the package: High Fat Cocoa. Pretty gutsy in this day and age, don't you think? ;-) Just a note for the tropics: Though refrigeration is not recommended for cocoa, I store cocoa in a plastic bag in the freezer. I have had cocoa go moldy in the pantry because of the high humidity.

Without telling El Jefe much about the recipe other than it was Italian ice cream and didn't have eggs, I asked what he thought of it. His review had me laughing, because it was exactly what I expected him to say:

"I was excited: "gelato"? I've never heard of that. Italian ice cream. Wow. But it wasn't as rich as you usually make. It was fine. But I would choose pineapple ... or caramel cappuccino or .... I wasn't excited. I think it needs eggs. It was okay but I think you have to make it a little richer."

He also said that he couldn't taste the coffee, so next time I think I'll use regular coffee steeped in part of the milk.

Not exactly a rave review, huh? The resulting ice cream was dense as gelato should be and it was very smooth, a really excellent texture. I thought it was good, but not fantastic. Though much lower in fat than most of my recipes (even as modified), I don't think it tasted like a lowfat ice cream.

Note that with the lack of eggs and less fat, this ice cream will freeze very hard by the next day. Taste and texture as well as scoopability will definitely improve with a few seconds (10-20) in the microwave at 50% power.

I think this ice cream could really benefit from some luscious add-ins, but then, of course, you'll be upping the calorie content, too. The next time, I'll have to try one or more of the variations that I dreamed of (below) but just didn't have the ingredients. I think some add-ins would give it enough kick that El Jefe wouldn't notice the lower fat content. But for those who have been clamoring for gelato and egg-free or lower fat recipes, here you go:

La Gringa's Mocha Gelato
Makes about 1 quart

3/4 cup sugar
3 1/2 cups milk (divided use)
3 tbsp. instant coffee
2 tbsp. plus 1 tsp. Dutch-process cocoa powder
3 tbsp. cornstarch
1 cup cream
1/8 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla

1. Stir together 1/2 cup milk and cornstarch in a small bowl. Set aside.

2. Whisk together sugar, cocoa, coffee granules, and 3 cups milk in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil, whisking often. Stir cornstarch to mix again and whisk into coffee-cocoa mixture. Return to a simmer, whisking for 2 minutes. Mixture should be thick.

3. Remove from heat. If you have any lumps, strain the mixture through a sieve. Stir in vanilla, salt, and cream.

4. Set saucepan in a large bowl of ice water to cool, whisking frequently so that a "skin" does not form. When room temperature, place in freezer for an hour or two until thoroughly cold, stirring occasionally.

5. Freeze according to your machine's directions.

Variations:

Cinnamon Mocha: Add 1 to 1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon with the vanilla.

Double Coffee Mocha: Add 3 tbsp. Kaluha or other coffee liquor during the last 5 minutes of freezing.

Double Chocolate Mocha: Chop finely 4-5 oz. of bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate. Add half with the vanilla and stir until melted. Stir the other half into the finished ice cream.

Mocha Chip: Add 3/4 cup chocolate chips or broken chocolate chunks.

Toffee Mocha: Add 3/4 cup Heath bits, or better yet, real Heath bars broken into pieces. (The second night, I topped the gelato with Heath Bits and it was an improvement.)

Toppings: Sprinkle with sliced almonds, pecans pieces, or chocolate covered coffee beans.

Enjoy!

See also my ice cream making tips, the raw egg controversy and alternatives, and, if you are in the market for a machine, my ice cream maker reviews.

↧

What is this??

August 22, 2010, 7:12 pm

≫ Next: Honduras' 2010 dengue epidemic (1 of 2)

≪ Previous: La Gringa's Mocha Gelato

We had a heavy rain the night before and when I went outside I found this bowl full of thick, white, slimy, foamy, something ....

What on earth?

This was a dog dish that I think someone took off the terraza to wash and left it on the grass by mistake. There was no dog food in it that might have grown moldy or anything like that. The bits of grass on top are only because someone was weedeating at the time. This is what the stuff looked like when I poured it out....

Gross!

Then I found this....

I think Arexy may have been giving the chickens water in this or maybe it was just from the rain. We feed the chickens in another area, so I don't think that it had chicken food in it. This is what it looked like when I poured it out...

The interesting thing is that none of this stuff soaked into the ground. It was thick and stayed there until I washed it away with a hose.

Then, going to check on some chicks in the chicken coop, I found this inside the coop where it couldn't possibly have been rained upon ...

The red stuff is wood shavings that the chickens had kicked on top of the .... whatever it is. This dish probably had rice and cracked corn in it, but how and why did it turn into this slop? This is what it looked like when I dumped it out...

This was thicker and less foamy than the other two. None of it had an odor, not that I got any closer to it than I had to to get rid of it!

I thought it would make a great horror movie, the foamy slime that took over the world.

Does anyone anywhere have a clue as to what this could possibly be?

↧

Honduras' 2010 dengue epidemic (1 of 2)

August 31, 2010, 7:16 pm

≫ Next: Honduras' 2010 dengue epidemic (2 of 2)

≪ Previous: What is this??

Aedes aegypti mosquito,
very distinctive and easily recognized

The Honduran dengue epidemic I wrote about in June continues. At one point, there was even mention of it turning into a hyper-epidemic, though more recent reports seem to indicate that there is a reduction in numbers being admitted to hospitals, "a 25% reduction last week and 13% the week before", according to the Minister of Health, Arturo "Tuki" Bendaña last week. More on that statement below.

Bad numbers

The statistics are something hard to pin down as most people do not go to a doctor for dengue (there is no real treatment), and it's doubtful that private doctors report all of the cases that they treat. In fact, an August 14 La Prensa article flatly states that the private hospitals are not reporting dengue statistics at all because they say they "care for their prestige". [What the...??] Miraculously, even though those statistics are not reported, La Prensa says they are somehow "included in the total numbers reported by the Minister of Health". Disputed in that same article, a regional director admitted that they don't have accurate statistics.

(The same Aedes Aegypti mosquito, but this time engorged on human blood)

Providing further doubt of the validity of the statistics is the 'Honduran math' in which a decrease to 5,162 new cases in Week 32 from 5,253 new cases in Week 31 was announced on television as a big success, "a 25% decrease in cases this week" according to the Minister. It just doesn't compute.

patients in hospital hallway in Honduras

In a later article on August 26, that was clarified to claim a 15% reduction from two weeks prior, not the week before and not 25%. Alas, it still doesn't compute! The math shows that the week 32 decrease was 1.7% and comparing it to two weeks prior results in a 13.7% decrease. Sadly, Honduran newspaper math is just as bad. They dutifully report what was said and they don't check the math or point out these errors of fact. Picking and choosing the comparative week just makes the Minister look bad, especially when he doesn't use the same week for the DH statistics.

The other day on the news a doctor said that the test kits that the hospitals were using were worthless, that they were resulting in a lot of false positives and a lot of false negatives. So once again, it seems the government has wasted money on poor quality. Also, if the tests aren't accurate, how can the statistics be relied upon?

The statistics are also hard to believe because we have seen playing with the numbers in the past. In 2007, the number of cases was compared to an arbitrarily selected high incidence year (2002) rather than the prior year in order to show the situation was under control, but reporters didn't catch on to that for several months. Other times, there were lengthy delays (weeks) in the reporting of confirmed cases of dengue hemorrágico. This year, at times the year-to-date numbers are reported and other times it is the June-to-date numbers. Confusing to say the least.

The red line in the chart is supposed to be actual cases in 2010. As best as I can tell, the green area signifies what would be considered "under control" while the orange area would be considered an ''alert" or epidemic. Like most data from the Minister of Health, it doesn't even make sense, since it only goes to 3,500 and as of week 26 (the supposed date of this chart), the count was already at 17,620 as shown earlier in this same report.

In July, anonymous doctors at the Tegucigalpa hospital with the highest incidence of cases in the country accused the Health Department of hiding figures, telling reporters that there had been 50 deaths from dengue, not 19 as had been officially reported at the time (July 8). They also said that the Minister had forbidden public health employees from giving accurate statistics on pain of firing. Two public health doctors who criticized the dengue eradication campaign were fired.

So...there isn't much reason to rely on the statistics, but it is all we have and there isn't much chance that they have been overstated.

Latest statistics

I started writing this article about two weeks ago and decided to wait for the latest statistics. Week 32 statistics weren't given until the end of week 33. Then, I really wanted to check the veracity of that "25% decrease" statement. Last week's statistics were finally reported yesterday.

Official statistics as of week 33 (August 26) show that country-wide 53,700 [suspiciously round number?] people have been diagnosed with dengue clásico, 1,796 with dengue hemorrágico (DH), and 60 have died from dengue. These numbers finally show a significant decrease in new classic dengue cases, 29% from the previous week, but show a 5% increase in new confirmed DH cases, or a 28% increase over two weeks ago (since the Minister likes to use two weeks prior when convenient). This might have more meaning if they also reported the statistics for the backlog of cases stuck in the confirmation process each week.

By comparison, the counts for the entire year of 2009 in Honduras were as follows: 14,528 dengue, 604 DH, and 12 deaths. To see how totally out of control this year's epidemic is, check out these 2007 and 2006 statistics from my article about this same time of year in 2007.

An important thing to know which is not usually made clear by the newspaper articles is that more than 50% of Honduran cases of both dengue clásico and dengue hemorrágico (the potentially deadly type) have occurred in the capital, Tegucigalpa. Another 10% have occurred in the San Pedro Sula metropolitan area.

Dengue Hemorrágico: 2010 cases in red;
2009 cases in blue; through week 26.

Even more interesting, in searching for the data, I ran across articles from January 2010 predicting the epidemic this year and indicating that the reported dengue cases in Tegucigalpa were already up 600% over the year before. So if the government knew it was coming, why didn't they do anything? Had appropriate actions been taken in that city earlier in the year, we might not have reached epidemic proportions.

Why Honduras?

Map of dengue hemorrágico in Central America
Yellow = number of cases; Red = number of deaths

As of week 31 (August 12), in all of Central America, 75% of the total deaths from dengue had occurred in Honduras, and 50% of the total deaths had occurred in Tegucigalpa. Comparing Honduras to its neighbors, Costa Rica has had only a little over 17,000 classic cases, the same as El Salvador. Guatemala, with almost double the population of Honduras, has had only about 7,500 cases of dengue clásico, 104 cases of DH and 15 deaths. Honduras represents about 18% of the Central American population.

Civic group Transformemos Honduras has quite a lot to say about the government's mishandling of the dengue epidemic this year. [This Google translation to English is worth reading.] This organization's well-documented article points out that not even basic steps were taken and places the blame squarely on the shoulders of the Health Minister, who among other things, placed a newly graduated doctor with no experience or specialization in the area of dengue or infectious diseases in charge of the program.

What is dengue?

Basically, classic dengue is like a very, very bad flu, with excruciating pains in the bones and joints and behind the eyes. If you aren't familiar with dengue, you could take a look at my 2007 article which gives lots of details and has some links to World Health Organization and US Center for Disease Control information. Only a certain type of mosquito carries the dengue virus and the only way the mosquito can contract it is by biting a human who has dengue. Dengue does not spread from person to person. While it is not easy, there are ways to control the proliferation of this mosquito, but instead, what we are seeing in Honduras is a spreading of dengue to areas which previously had very little incidence.

Why is Honduras being hit so much harder than other Central American countries?

See Part 2 tomorrow.

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Honduras' 2010 dengue epidemic (2 of 2)

September 1, 2010, 4:44 pm

≫ Next: Organic fire ant control

≪ Previous: Honduras' 2010 dengue epidemic (1 of 2)

"Woman, someone needs combat the mosquito!"

"Be tranquil. Let the government come!"
(Cartoons by Dario Banegas)

Why is Honduras being hit so much harder by dengue than other Central American countries with similar climates and terrain? From part 1 of this article:

As of week 31 (August 12), in all of Central America, 75% of the total deaths from dengue had occurred in Honduras, and 50% of the total deaths had occurred in Tegucigalpa. Comparing Honduras [~45,000 cases] to its neighbors, Costa Rica has had only a little over 17,000 classic cases, the same as El Salvador. Guatemala, with almost double the population of Honduras, has had only about 7,500 cases of dengue clásico, 104 cases of DH and 15 deaths. Honduras represents about 18% of the Central American population.

Here are some of my thoughts:

1) There is little or no personal responsibility among many people. Like the cartoon above indicates, every problem is somebody else's responsibility. Most Hondurans know how and where mosquitoes breed (in standing water). The dengue mosquito (Aedes Aegypti) does not travel far in its lifetime. On every authoritative website I've read, the number one effective recommendation to prevent dengue is to clean up trash and any receptacles that hold water on your own property.

A common breeding ground is among plastic rubbish that holds water. With nothing more than some trash bags and a few machetes, shovels and rakes, neighbors could work together to eliminate breeding grounds in their colonias. But very few neighborhoods take those simple actions that they could take to make their areas a little safer. To sit back and expect that any government can or will clean up every neighborhood is unreasonable; in Honduras, it is just plain stupid.

2) Actions taken by the government are expensive and ineffective. The manner of fumigating (thermal fogging) is scientifically one of the least effective methods and most enlightened governments have discontinued its use. I liken it to running down the street with a fly swatter trying to rid the world with flies while ignoring the garbage pile breeding flies in your backyard.

Experts from the US, the Pan American Health Association, and possibly other organizations have been here to analyze the effectiveness of Honduras' methods and the chemicals used. One of the issues discussed was whether or not the Aedes Agypti mosquito has become resistant. I have not been able to find that the results of those reports have ever been made public.

The chemical may (I'm not even entirely sure about this) kill all mosquitoes unfortunate enough to be out and about at that exact time and in the direct path of the spray, but that's about it. Authorities have said that the spray is only effective for a couple of hours. They can't expect to be able to spray every neighborhood and inside every house (which they do!). I'd be surprised if any neighborhood ever gets sprayed twice in a year, so what happens to all of the mosquitoes that are born the next day or the day after or next week or next month? Use your head! Fogging is a waste of money.

Two weeks ago a friend was in the San Pedro airport midday waiting for his flight to La Ceiba when all of a sudden white "smoke" starting coming through the ceiling vents right on top of the people sitting in the waiting area! Some people started panicking while others sat there unconcerned engulfed by the "smoke". Finally an announcement came over the speakers saying not to worry, that they were fumigating and there was no reason to leave the area as it was a non-toxic chemical. Enjoy!

El Jefe had his own experience of being fumigated along with a lot of food that was sold to an unsuspecting public at a 2007 university function. Not one word of warning was given to the hundreds of students and visitors before a truck drove through the event spraying the public.

On the news, I see schools, houses, kitchens, cabinets, restaurants, day care centers, dishes, food, etc. etc. being engulfed in this smoke. I even see people with happy faces standing amid the fog, pleased that their house is being fumigated. Since everyone is convinced that this chemical is non-toxic, do you suppose that anyone washes the dishes, the school desks, or the kids' toys before they put them in their mouths?

Despite looking for years, I have never seen the name of the chemical used. It may or may not be less toxic, but I am 100% sure it is not being used as recommended. When was the last time you read any chemical insecticide label that said, "Go ahead and spray people and food with this"? Professors at the National University and several large businesses have refused to allow fumigation. Maybe they know something that we don't.

What should they do, in my not so humble opinion?

President Lobo in front of the IMF and World Bank
with hat in hand. Fill 'er up!

1) The government needs to stop waiting for crises before acting. Money is no excuse. It costs more to deal with an emergency than it does to try to prevent one from occurring. If they came up with a decent plan, I'm sure that the money would flow in to help them implement it.

A serious educational and clean up campaign should start immediately to prevent another epidemic next year or the year after — which we all know will happen. Patronatos (neighborhood associations) should be contacted to set up neighborhood meetings. Use doctors, teachers, or others with authority to present a standard educational program to the neighbors and schoolchildren. Train the military to help organize the volunteers to clean up the colonias with the highest incidence. My guess is that those educational programs as well as programs for school children have already been developed in other countries. Don't reinvent the wheel when there is no need to do so.

2) The government should do some scientific research. I don't mean set up a commission of 'notables', hire million dollar consultants, or task the universities to develop "new science". Collaborate and find out what has worked in Central America and other tropical countries and use the best of those methods. Don't be so arrogant as to think that the way things have been done here are the way they have to be done forever. If it isn't working, admit it and change it. It wouldn't surprise me one bit, nor I'm sure most Hondurans, to find out that the chemical used is not because anyone even thinks it is effective but rather because someone made a dirty deal with someone else for the equipment and supplies.

3) Promote the simple, natural things that people can do at no or very little cost, but again, investigate before you recommend them. We use more chemicals than ever before and have more dengue than ever before so what does that tell a logical person? There are some plants and herbs that when used properly, work pretty well for repelling insects for those who can't afford DEET, and most people in Honduras cannot afford it. Australia had success by encouraging children to place a certain type of water bug which consumes the mosquito larvae into their water storage containers (pilas)!

But don't invent ridiculous things that have no scientific basis. When I see so-called experts on TV suggesting that sticking cloves in a cut lemon and setting a couple of them around your house will prevent mosquitoes, I just want to scream at the stupidity. Better to spend that limited money on a trash bag and use it.

4) The government and/or municipalities should take responsibility for the things that individuals can't do anything about, like potholes that hold water, non-existent trash pickup in many poor areas, water systems that constantly leak, and sewage systems that don't drain causing permanent swamp-like conditions in some neighborhoods. But here again, if the government doesn't do it, the people have to do something. That can be as simple as borrowing a shovel and filling up a hole or digging out a ditch so that it no longer holds standing water. It can be done and it doesn't take an epidemiologist to do it.

5) The municipalities should consistently and fairly enforce the laws already on the books about maintenance of private properties. They should increase the fines so that they can afford to enforce them. This should be looked upon as a break-even activity, where the fines imposed are enough to pay the inspectors' salaries and the clean up crews. No one should have the right to put their neighbors at risk because of their own negligence.

This wouldn't be a popular move, because as El Catracho wrote [Google English translation], he places much of the blame on the municipalities for lack of trash pick up and street repair. He believes that the income from the fines would be used to finance political campaigns. El Catracho also believes that this would be an unfair burden on the middle class and businesses, since the poor can't pay and the rich and important will never be fined.

Summary

Please don't think that I have no sympathy. Like almost everything else, this affects the poor more than anyone else. Seeing the heartbroken, sobbing parents who have lost a child on television brings tears to my eyes. I'm angry that people go through this year after year, especially because it is so darned unnecessary.

The government needs to reevaluate and stop being so stupid and arrogant. Obviously, they do not know what works or do not have the will to make it happen. And citizens need to realize that they have responsibility, too, and that since the government cannot protect them, they need to take steps to protect themselves and their children, even if it means that they spend a Saturday or Sunday every now and then cleaning up their own neighborhoods.

Will any of these common sense steps be taken?

No.

Why?

Because this is Honduras and that is how we do things here. Corruption and incompetence invade every aspect of life. For any solutions that you or I could come up with, I can tell you how corruption could overtake the process preventing success. A hundred times more effort would be put into figuring out how to rip off the government or aid funds than would be put into doing something that works. That is true from the top levels of government all the way down to the people who are supposed to be helped. Oh, there are exceptions, but not enough to make a difference.

(Cartoon: President Lobo, "To unite, we have to share.")

If, for example, the government was to provide trash bags for clean up campaigns — because there are people who actually cannot afford to buy a trash bag — first a lot of political hiring would occur. They would need nice offices and cell phones and cars. Then the person in charge would set up a fake bidding process in which he would give the contract to a buddy in return for a kickback. The now expensive bags might sit in a warehouse until they deteriorated or maybe they would already be of such low quality that they are virtually worthless.

If the bags were delivered to the towns, probably the mayor or other city employees would divert a bunch of them and they would show up for sale somewhere. If the bags made it to the colonias, you'd probably see the patronato president and his friends with nicely bagged trash for the next months or see them for sale in the neighborhood pulpería. But, we would be treated to a special press conference in which a smiling president or minister of health would be personally delivering the bags to a mayor. Oh, and I forgot to say that the extra expense of having the bags printed with someone's picture or a political party emblem would undoubtedly be incurred.

The number of cases will diminish and not so many people will die. There will be no research, no plans for the future, no effective educational programs. Oh, there might be some million dollar program with a bunch of unqualified, highly paid political appointees from which all the money will disappear. The government and the people will forget that dengue exists .... until the next time when we will again see the authorities waiving their arms in the air and lamenting all the deaths and the lack of money to do anything about it, and begging for help from your tax dollars. The people will be clamoring for the government to fumigate their neighborhoods and kitchens, and the newspapers will be asking where all the money went.

Too negative?

Or too realistic for comfort?

Check back in a couple of years.

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Organic fire ant control

September 2, 2010, 8:30 am

≫ Next: Expropriation of media in Honduras

≪ Previous: Honduras' 2010 dengue epidemic (2 of 2)

Ant invasion (not fire ants)
that occurred between midnight and 10 a.m. one day

Sometimes it seems that Honduras must have every type of ant in the world. Zompopos (leaf cutter ants - photo below) are the bane of gardeners and farmers who can see a rose bush or fruit tree completely defoliated in one night. Medium-sized black ants invade the house every now and then for no apparent reason and then disappear just as inexplicably.

zompopo, leaf cutter ant, La Ceiba, Honduras

Very large light brown ants sneak into the house and lay big eggs a couple of times a year without you even knowing it — that is, until you pull some long unused item out of a cabinet or closet and have 50 giant ants and their sticky eggs fall onto your head! Aaack! Those ants are practically indestructible. Even stomping on them barely slows them down.

Hormigas locas (crazy ants) are the tiny, tiny ants who swarm around in circles inside the house and manage to get into sealed bags, boxes and containers, inside the coffee pot, into the sink drains, everywhere. I don't know if they are called crazy ants because they run around in circles like they are crazy or because they can drive a person crazy by swarming up their arms and legs while the person is just standing in the kitchen or sitting at their desk or even while they are in bed. Here is a video of a Texas variety of crazy ants so you can see what I mean. The Caribbean crazy ant is smaller. I've tried to get videos but they are just too small to show up well.

I've adapted. I just pick out the ones that float in my coffee in the morning and drink it anyway. I generally have a live and let live policy when it comes to ants, unless they get really out of control, like the photo at top. After all, there are about a million ants for every person so it's not like we can ever hope to or should even try to eradicate them. Ants serve a purpose in the natural order of the universe.

But the worst of all ants, in my opinion, and the most aggressive and unbearable, are the fire ants. Fire ants are the small stinging ants which have invaded the US causing serious problems to gardeners, farmers, and livestock. Originally only a tropical pest, for decades now the ants have been spreading further north in the US each year. The stings really hurt and can cause blisters that itch for several hours. With a big enough infestation, fire ants can even kill livestock, especially small animals like baby chicks. Texas has a huge problem with fire ants so I had some experience with that.

The invasion!

For the past couple of months, fire ants have been invading the dog food dish on the terraza to the extent that the dogs wouldn't touch their food at all. The ants are really viciousness and their stings are painful. I would see the dogs frantically rolling around, trying to scratch their mouths and rubbing their face on the ground trying to remove the ants.

We had to use a large potted plant saucer filled with water as a moat with the dog food dish in the center — not really a good idea during a dengue epidemic! The ants would still get into the dog food. They got so bad that I couldn't even step onto the grass in the yard without them attacking my feet and legs. My garden was a miserable place to be for the dogs, the chickens, and us. I had to take back control!

A Texas treatment

In Texas, I used an organic agricultural product called dried molasses, which is actually some sort of residue from the sugar making process which is sprayed onto rice hulls or other grain residue and dried. It is inexpensive and is used for fertilizer, a livestock feed additive, and, you guessed it, fire ant control. The molasses obviously doesn't kill fire ants — they don't eat it — but what it does is to promote the growth of some sort of good microorganisms in the soil that attack fire ants. The ants instinctively know that and leave the area.

Texas organic gardening guru the Dirt Doctor has a good article on fire ants. After fighting fire ants for many years in Texas and watching my neighbors use toxic chemicals — year after year after year — I know that getting them to go somewhere else is really the best you can hope for. Even Texas A & M university which strongly promotes chemical use confirms that. Texas fire ants have become resistant to the chemicals used and have adapted by hosting multiple queens in nests now instead of just one queen. Overuse of chemicals has resulted in the breeding of super ants. Like so many other issues, this is a man-made problem.

My unusual organic fire ant control

When I brought this up on our expatriate group (Honduras Living), I'm sure that some of my fellow expatriates thought it sounded nuts — and I really have to agree that it does sound crazy. But it worked!

If you are in the US, you can usually find dry molasses at feed stores or organic gardening supply stores. It wasn't available here in La Ceiba that I could find. Out of desperation, I tried regular sugar a few years ago and found it worked as well as the molasses. In the past 6 or 7 years, we've treated for fire ants three times, so it isn't something that you generally even have to repeat every year. But then, I don't have a lot of neighbors using chemicals either so that could make a difference. Another thing to consider is that most Honduran sugar is less refined, less white, and sometimes has a slight molasses flavor to it.

We sprinkled the sugar lightly on the soil, grass, and mulch all over the yard, including in the built-in jardineras (planter boxes), under the bushy plants, on the compost, on top of the soil in potted plants. You need to treat every single area outside except solid surfaces like concrete or tiled areas.

Amazingly, it worked instantly. I walked out in the garden just minutes later and not one single fire ant stung me. Even I wasn't expecting instant gratification. Now a week later, still not a fire ant in sight. Not in the dog food, not anywhere that we can see (or feel!). The ants have gone on to terrorize other areas.

Arexy and Jorge, our current occasional yard helper, were very skeptical. I recommended to another gringa that if her neighbors asked, to tell them that she was using a highly toxic chemical, not sugar, in order to gain approval. Otherwise they would think she was crazy!

This time we used an old small hand-held grass seed/fertilizer spreader that holds about 1-1 1/2 pounds of sugar. It worked very well on the finest setting, but you can just throw it around by hand, too. In total we used about 5 kilos of sugar (about 11 pounds) but we have a pretty big yard. I wish I could be more exact, but it doesn't take much. When spreading it around, you shouldn't see it covering any area — think of it as similar to very lightly salting your food. The key is to get some sugar everywhere. We had a heavy rain that night, so rain or watering will not wash away the effectiveness.

I can't guarantee that this will work for you, but if you have a similar problem with fire ants, it is definitely worth a try. You don't have to worry about your kids or animals being exposed to (or eating!) chemicals. It's cheap compared to chemical methods and easy to give it a try. I hope that you will let me know if it worked for you.

Good luck with those ants!

See also, How to get ants out of the sugar

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Expropriation of media in Honduras

September 6, 2010, 3:38 pm

≫ Next: Current events checklist

≪ Previous: Organic fire ant control

Honduran President Pepe Lobo and Elías Asfura
Cartoon by Dario Banegas, La Prensa

Put any spin on it that you want — Honduran President Porfirio Lobo is trying to expropriate a privately owned television channel by presidential decree and is using his political clout to ensure it passes congress, no different than Hugo Chávez in Venezuela.

(Note: all of the links are to Spanish-language newspapers or documents, unless otherwise noted.)

Conatel (the Honduran governmental authority over such things) refused to grant Channel 8 to Elías Asfura and his Teleunsa company, not on the basis that he didn't qualify in any way but by saying that use of Channel 8 "would cause interference with Channels 7 and 9". Conatel was led at the time by Rasel Tomé, one of Zelaya's right hand men. Like Chávez with his Channel 8 in Venezuela and Daniel Ortega with his Channel 8 in Nicaragua, former President Zelaya wanted his own propaganda channel, so he took it.

Asfura went to court and won. The court cited Tomé's own statements as proof that the excuse was not valid. Zelaya's government took the case to the appeals court and Asfura won again. Zelaya then took the case to the Supreme Court who again confirmed the verdict in favor of Asfura.The denuncia (complaint) was originally filed in 2006, the first verdict was May 15, 2007, and the final decision by the Supreme Court was May 20, 2008. After two years of court cases, still Conatel refused to turn over the channel and Zelaya kept it until June 28, 2009.

Virtually the same thing happened to Asfura with Channel 12, indicating that politics or something else is going on here that we don't know about. Asfura's company Eldi applied for Channel 12, met all the legal requirements, and again Conatel refused to turn over the channel. Instead Conatel gave the channel to Televisora de Honduras, a Rosenthal company and strong Zelaya supporter, who applied for it after two successful court verdicts had already ordered Conatel to turn over the channel to Eldi. After years of court cases, Channel 12 was finally turned over to Asfura in 2009. Both of these cases were included in the US State Department's 2008 Human Rights report (English).

Tomé was charged criminally for defying the court orders in 2008 and then violated another court order while he was hiding out in the Brazilian Embassy with Mel Zelaya. His cases have yet to be adjudicated although he has proposed that the cases should be dismissed under the 2010 amnesty decree, which was denied. He acts as a frequent spokesperson for the Resistance and Mel Zelaya and travels back and forth to the Dominican Republic freely. (Photo: Rasel Tomé in his campesino disguise which he wore to protests. He frequently talked with foreign reporters of the plight of the poor, pretending to be one.)

One of the first things that President Roberto Micheletti promised after June 28 was to return Channel 8 to its lawful owner. However, because of the political crisis, Micheletti asked and Asfura agreed to lease the channel to the government for a symbolic fee, one lempira per month for seven months. In the same document, it was agreed that the government would obtain another channel, which they did and they were later granted Channel 20 by Conatel.

Now Lobo says that Asfura can have a different channel and if he doesn't like it, he should take the matter to court and the government will abide by the decision. A prospective investor in Honduras might ask, how many times does someone have to take something to court to get a decision to stick in Honduras?

President Lobo has made some arrogant comments, such as, "Channel 8 belongs to the people, period." and "....the poor state has to submit to the appetite of some who can't be filled", referring to the fact that Teleunsa already has two channels. Lobo made several misleading statements designed to rile up the population which probably doesn't know the history of the situation or that the government has been granted another channel.

He and his people disingenuously do not tell the public that the government has legal access to Channel 20. He implies that Asfura is unreasonable by not accepting a different channel, when he himself is not willing to accept another channel. The President admits pressuring the court and the President of the Supreme Court on "repeated occasions". He publicly denigrates the courts (like Zelaya did) by accusing the judges of overstepping their bounds and vaguely implies that corruption was involved in their decision. Lobo also offered to purchase the channel from Asfura, a clear indication that he recognizes Asfura's legal right. But the sound bites of the day from all of his minions are that they are merely "protecting the rights of the people".

Just like Mel Zelaya, Lobo appears to think it is within his right, in the name of the people, to ignore court decisions with which he doesn't agree. Various Honduran judges have been accused in the past of corruption or being unduly influenced by politics, but the proper way to address that is legally, not by picking and choosing which court orders will be ignored.

As many have asked over the past few days, what happens when the government decides it wants, needs, or is entitled to another channel, or a hotel, or a farm, or an oil company? And what happens when those decisions are based, not on the true needs of the state and the laws, but on politics or the whims of one man? What happens when those of one political persuasion are denied access to the airways in favor of friends? The answer to all of those questions is: Venezuela. Who protects the rule of law if court decisions can be ignored or overruled by the president?

The President of the Congress, Juan Orlando Hernández, tried to diminish the situation by saying that they are merely trying to resolve an old problem, that the President and Asfura should come to an accord, but that if Asfura feels he has been affected, he should take the matter to court [again], and the Congress would accept that decision. All that put together proves, in his mind, that obviously Honduras honors the rule of law.

This isn't the first time that the president and/or congress has put pressure on the courts or simply ignored their decisions. Shades of Mel Zelaya.... The president's surprise decree suspiciously came up for discussion after a lengthy session when most of the congressmen had already left. At least one congressman has claimed that there was not a quorum present. Though it was reported that the Nacionalista party voted in favor with 64 votes, some Nacionalistas were absent and some Nacionalista congressmen say they are against the decree.

They are in good company, joined in condemning the action as illegal and unconstitutional by the National Corruption Agency, Association of Media Communications, Honduras' Association of Journalists, Association of Judges and Magistrates of Honduras, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Cortés, Association of Private Businesses, the National Association of Industries, the Human Rights Commissioner, Unión Cívica Democrática, congressmen from the other political parties, and political analysts.

This is second case of expropriation of private property by Lobo's government, in violation of Article 105 of the constitution. Several thousand acres of a private producing palm oil plantation have been expropriated by the government against the wishes of the corporation who owns it. It's also not the first time that Lobo has put pressure on the courts to reverse decisions or used his clout in the Nacionalista party to force questionable actions by the congress. Hondurans are seeing the same disrespect for the rule of law and separation of powers of the state that we saw under Manuel Zelaya.

One of the goals of this government is to attract new business to Honduras. The complete and continuing lack of judicial security in Honduras is going to be a huge stumbling block to potential investors when an arbitrary — and most say illegal — presidential decree can overturn a supreme court decision.

Reconsideration of the decree will be discussed further in Congress on Tuesday. There is still time to do the lawful thing.

Update: Tuesday's verdict —Honduras Congress votes to overrule Supreme Court decision

Related offsite articles:

Statement from the Office of the President: Gobierno aclara que no existe ninguna expropiación de Teleunsa (Governement clarfies that there is no expropriation of Teleunsa)

Statement from Pro-Justicia de Honduras: Leguleyadas del Ejecutivo y Canal 8

Marco Cáceres' opinion piece, A President is not a monarch (in English), does not refer to current President Lobo, but the similarities are striking.

Eloy Page's blog article, Hay si! Qué Macho!!

Ricardo Trotti's blog article, Canal 8: torpeza y ridiculez

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