Ambassador

From left: Molly, Aerka, Charles Ford, Allison, Katie

On February 22nd Charles Ford, the US ambassador to Honduras came to Santa Barbara to spend a day learning about the projects going on here. To start off his visit he met with four of the Peace Corps volunteers from Santa Barbara to hear about our projects. Before the meeting I tried to brainstorm some of the questions he may ask us, one of which being what I thought was the biggest obstacle to Honduran development. My answer would have been dependency; the lack of self-initiative and feelings of entitlement that many Hondurans have. The ambassador didn’t actually ask this question, but he himself expressed the same opinion about the problem of dependency, and that both sides (the US & Honduras) are responsible for creating the problem.

After lunch he went with the local Rotary Club to check out some of their projects and then we joined him again for dinner with the Rotary Club, the Minnesota Rotary people and other guests. Before dinner he spoke for about an hour and actually said some interesting things (unfortunately I have gotten used to people talking a lot and saying nothing, especially at dinners such as these). He argued that right now Honduras is in a position to develop and right now small business especially can take advantage of the US market through CAFTA. He talked about the “American Dream” that so many Hondurans have and suggested that instead of paying a coyote $5,000-$7,000 to get you to the US you invest that money in a small business and strive towards the “Honduran Dream” (In Spanish this is really catchy because it rhythms). This part I definitely agreed with, that you could do a lot better good investing that money in a business here than blowing it on a dangerous trip. However, I wasn’t convinced that small Honduran businesses would be able to compete in the US market. I understand how large manufacturers could do it, but I just do see how a small businessman could compete. He also compared Honduras to some of the Asian Tigers, citing how in the 1960s, Honduras was better off than South Korea and now South Korea is leaps and bounds ahead of Honduras. He used this comparison not to make the Hondurans feel bad, but to give them hope that they have the potential to develop within just one generation as South Korea did. His speech was respectful but did make some strong points that change really has to come from within the country. I asked a few Rotarians what they thought about his comments afterward and they seemed to agree that in the end they really are the ones that need to change to see their country change.