Model Cities in Honduras

The phrase Model City is most closely associated with Johnson's Great Society and War on Poverty. In the international realm, however, the concept of a model city is intriguing because it combines both unproven facets of international development and urban planning. In essence the model city becomes an almost sovereign, controlled environment, or the proving ground for Paul Rommer's ideas. Rommer has been proposing the idea of a model city for quite some time now, and his ideas have taken hold, and found support with President Lobo, and after a recent vote from congress appear closer than ever to being a reality. These model cities would be near sovereign bodies, in most instances only needing a simple majority vote from their host nation's congress.

" [They] would be areas with their own legal personality and jurisdiction, their own administrative systems and laws. A [city] can also negotiate international treaties with partner countries or organizations. Congress would need to ratify these international treaties with a simple majority."

I've included some more information below from the research non-profit associated with the Charter City movement. I'm not completely sold on the idea. I still hold skepticism with the regards to ideas of sovereignty and total privatization of municipal services, but vamos a ver. 

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http://chartercities.org/blog/191/a-new-city-in-honduras

Concept

Charter cities are special reform zones. They let governments quickly adopt innovative new systems of rules. A charter city’s formal rules, and the norms that they encourage, can differ markedly from a country’s prevailing system of rules. The concept is very flexible, but three elements are common to all charter cities:

1. An uninhabited piece of city-sized land, provided voluntarily by a host government.
2. A charter that specifies the rules that will govern the new city.
3. The freedom for would-be charter city residents to move in or out of the reform zone.

Charter cities are based entirely on voluntary actions—no person, employer, investor, or country can be coerced into participating. Only countries that want to charter new cities will free up the land to do so. The use of unoccupied land ensures that only the people who want to live and work under the new rules will move to the reform zone.

The charter itself is a foundational legal document, not an exhaustive city plan. The charter will set forth the process by which rules and regulations will be established in the city. The charter might also initiate a legal framework on which the city can grow and prosper, establishing some early rules to foster long term investment and ensure the safety and security of residents. The residents, employers, and investors will follow, attracted by the chance to work together under the rules of the charter.

There are three basic roles that countries can assume when chartering a new city in a special reform zone:

1. Land comes from a host country.
2. People come from a source country.
3. The assurance that the charter will be respected comes from a guarantor country.

Because these roles can be played by a single nation or a group of allies, there are many potential charter city arrangements. The hypothetical cases listed below help make the many possibilities concrete and clear. However, they do not reflect ongoing conversations or prospective projects.

• One country could assume all three roles, much as China did in establishing special economic zones like the one where the new city of Shenzhen emerged. For example, India appears to be headed down this path, using public-private partnerships to create new cities on greenfield sites. Such projects could potentially do much to alleviate pressure on India’s rapidly growing slums while providing better social and economic opportunities to the people who might otherwise end up there.

• One country could serve as both the host and the guarantor and attract residents from a specific source country. Consider the hypothetical case of Brazil chartering a new city and inviting Haitians to move there. Brazil took the lead on the UN’s MINUSTAHmission to Haiti. It may want to create an exit option that allows it to withdraw soldiers from Haiti even as it creates new options for Haitians who would prefer to live under a different set of rules.

• One country could serve as both the host and the primary source, but the role of guarantor could be filled by a consortium of the host country’s allies. Consider the hypothetical case in which Mauritania hosts a charter city, New Zealand and Norway serve in the guarantor roles, and a number of regional countries, including Mauritania, fill the role of source. By cooperating with its allies in New Zealand and Norway, Mauritania may be able to create a development authority that is capable of generating much higher levels of investment and employment in the new city than Mauritania could achieve acting on its own.

The Myth of Economic Growth-By Marco Cáceres

The Myth of Economic Growth
Thursday, 05 May 2011 11:31

Economic growth is not necessarily synonymous with national development. If economic growth only succeeds in adding to severe income inequality, which Honduras has in spades, then there is no development... and the country is all the worse for it.

Back in the 1960s, the World Bank sought to encourage economic growth and development in Honduras by expanding beef exports. This was seen as a good strategy for creating badly needed foreign capital for investment in the country. There was a growing demand for cheap beef around the world, as fast food restaurants like McDonald's continued to spread throughout the United States and Canada, and began establishing franchises in Asia, Europe, and Latin America in the early-1970s. The World Bank provided low-interest loans to Honduran cattle ranchers, who used the money to enlarge and fatten their herds. One of the ways the ranchers did this was to obtain more pasture land for grazing. In numerous cases, lands were simply taken from small farmers engaged in subsistence agriculture.

Given Honduras' poorly-administrated land titling system, many of these subsistence farmers did not have proper titles to their properties and lacked the education, knowledge, and financial resources to be able to defend their rights before local magistrates and other government officials. The farmers were thus easy prey for wealthy ranchers, who pushed them off lands that had been farmed by their families for generations. All this so that cattle could have more space to roam and eat, and then ultimately be consumed by foreigners on their way to obesity.

The predictable result was the creation of tens of thousands of landless campesinos unable to plant and cultivate the basic staple crops such as beans and rice required to feed their malnourished families and have a little cash left over to cover other basic needs or put away for rainy days. The actions of the ranchers aggravated an already acutely unequal land tenure situation in Honduras, dramatically increasing poverty and hunger in the countryside, and fueling a mass migration of people to urban areas... in search of jobs and scraps of food.

In its effort to stimulate economic growth in Honduras, the World Bank -- as it unfortunately often does -- neglected to seriously consider and analyze the potential impact of its policy on the country as a whole. Because of this failure, the bank succeeded in making wealthy people in Honduras wealthier and poor people poorer and more desperate. The political and social consequences, in terms of massive poverty, hunger, landlessness, lack of productivity, and violent conflict can be seen throughout Honduras.

http://www.hondurasweekly.com/editorial/3687-the-myth-of-economic-growth

Related Article: "Interest in investing US$25 million in Honduran livestock"

"all my loving"

After returning from my meeting in Siguatapeuqe on Saturday I got a text from another one of the rare north coast volunteers to see if I wanted to go for a day hike in Pico Bonito national park on Sunday morning. Seeing as how this had been on my list of things to do and because it was a Sunday with nothing going on in site, I jumped at the opportunity.

We decided to hike to a waterfall near the town of El Pino called Cascada Zacate. After getting into town we walked through one of Dole's massive pineapple fields, which in itself was pretty incredible for two reasons. One, the entire walk smelled like pineapple, and two it's just really interesting to see how pineapples are grown.

After the pineapple field we hit the jungle and started up a path that basically hugged the Río Zacate all the way to the waterfall. The jungle was really awesome, and the amount of tree coverage was mind boggling. Even in the midst of a heavy rain storm it only seemed to drizzle while we were walking through. the jungle was filled with awesome vistas, lizards, butterflies, and even a few old wooden footbridges. eventually, after about an hour long hike, we hit the waterfall, which was roughly 40 meters high, and just absolutely crazy.

We wanted to see the view from the top. so we hiked up a rain slicked trail to where there were bats swooping out of their caves and crystal clear pools of water. the one closest to the waterfall was a real life infinity pool, so we almost immediately jumped in and  went swimming. as we did this the rocks, already soaked with rain, became even harder to grip, and of course, being the clumsy asshole that i am, i slipped, fell, and nailed my head on a rock creating a nice 2 inch gash below my eyebrow but above my eyelid. we managed to stop the bleeding and walk back down the mountain where i caught a bus to my sadly familiar stomping grounds of hospital d'antoni. where obvious questions led to...

"¿Te duele?" Does that hurt? 

"¿Que piensas?" What do you think?

also, the doctor who was stitching me up was pretty peculiar. as he was sewing above my eye he started to sing to me in broken english. out of all the song choices available to him he chose the beatle's song, "all my loving," which goes something like, "Close your eyes and i'll kiss you, tomorrow i'll miss you." I'm pretty sure he had no idea what he was singing, at least i hope he didn't, or maybe he was just screwing with me. who knows. 

Since it was late and there were no more busses to Jutiapa  I had to spend the night in town on pc's dime, which wasn't too bad, except that I was still wearing my soaking wet clothes from earlier,  and i had nothing with me as far as food, toothbrush, etc., but all in all it wasn't too bad. today i just have a pretty solid black eye, and the right side of my face is pretty swollen, but eh what are you going to do? when people in town ask me what happened to my face I just respond. "Estoy bien, pero usted debe ver el otro hombre." so far people don't think that's funny, but then again humor is a whole different story down here. 

"Do not refer to him as a junkyard cat. He has a name..."

Junk Yard Guy " We don't have no dogs."
Charlie "What? I"m sorry, is this not a junk yard?"
Junk Yard Guy " We got a cat 'round here somewhere..."
Frank " Cat! We don't want a cat!"
Junk Yard Guy " Wait a minute..wait a minute. Believe me, that is a tough cat. It was born in a puddle of gasoline on a piece of rusty scrap metal. I've seen that cat go through barbed wire into a vat of hot tar. That cat, eh heh, is indestructible."
Frank and Charlie "We don't want a cat. We want a dog."
Dennis "Now wait a second, I wouldn't mind takin' a look at that cat.."
Charlie "Come one dude, what are we gonna do with a cat?"
Frank "Is that a cop car?"
Dennis "OH my god. You guys, if we park that in front of Patty's, no more bums. No problems, period.
Frank " Is that..is that old cop car for sale?"
Junk Yard Guy " EVERYTHING is for sale!!"
Frank " We'll take it."
Dennis " And throw in that cat.

So I'm admitting defeat in my war against mice. My foray into chemical warfare has failed about as badly as it could have. I should have taken some lessons from Fritz Haber, but I bet he didn't have any problems with Cheezit eating rodents though. The chemical pellets I've been using have killed most of the mice living in my apartment building, but it has also allowed them to start dying within my walls, which besides being odorous has invited a new following of insects, specifically cockroaches, who seem to have happly joined this arduous conflagration. the oppressive north coast heat has not helped matters either, dramatically speeding up the decomposition process.

So, I'm pulling my Ghadafi and inviting in outside help in the form of a nasty junkyard cat.  ok maybe not so nasty, but I'll train it to be. i'll raise the thing in a puddle of gasoline and teach it to be the most feared cat in all of Jutiapa. i should be picking it up in a couple of days from my host-family's farm,  so we'll see how the rest of this plays out.