They say Honduras is improving, and in some regards I guess they're right, but it doesn't feel like it. The The Institute for Economics and Peace, which gauges ongoing domestic and international conflict, safety and security in society, and militarization, recently released it's 2011 Global Peace Index. Not gonna lie, but I've been sorta nervously awaiting the 2011 report for some time now (not a lot going on in small town Honduras if you can't tell by now). I really wanted this document to correlate what I've been seeing, hearing and experiencing here over the past year, and prove to me that all of this has some base in statistical reason.
I've been feeling for some time now, and I'm not the only one, that Honduras is slipping. Increasing drug violence, a political system polarized by the remnants of last year's coup, a primary education system that has been essentially non-functioning for the past year, increasing commodity prices that are pushing a large portion of population towards food insecurity and instability, not to mention increased attacks on journalists. At the same time it's been hard to find positive trends. Sure Zelaya will finally return this weekend, closing the chapter on Honduras' most infamous event since Hurricane Mitch, but does it really matter? Will it dramatically improve the existing tensions or just exacerbate them? More than likely nothing will happen. I mean, after sneaking back into Honduras during the height of the coup, an action three times more risky than his return now, Zelaya did little to rally the FNRP, and then slipped off to the DR soon after Lobo was sworn in. I doubt anything comes of his return, except for honduras' return to the OAS.
Anyway, linked statistics are available below. I've found that this organization is a great clearinghouse for information regarding development, but as always statistics have to be taken with a grain of salt. Sure Honduras may have a primary school enrollment ratio of 91.83%, but does it really count if those children continue to miss months of school at a time because of teacher strikes?
