A few realizations

The first is something that seems stupid in retrospect, but I finally realized that Spanish is not merely a translation of English, but an entirely different language. I´m not sure why I didn´t view it this way until recently, and it´s been something of a stumbling block in my learning. There are similarities, but there comes a point when trying to understand it through English limits you. Right now it´s best for me to let it stand on its own. It´s hard to describe, but I think...was it Warf who theorized that your language shapes how to you view the world? I think I´m starting, just barely starting, to see how the world looks, how ideas are organized and how objects are grouped and related when viewed through Spanish. It´s different, and has reenergized my studies.

The other is about Venezuela. There are so many amazing government programs. Say what you will about socialism, but in every town there is a store that sells basic foods (flour, sugar, salt, rice, powdered milk etc) nearly for free. Any town with more than a thousand or so people has a free clinic with the latest technology that provides free healthcare. Access to medicine is a problem, but I think it has more to do with supply than the governments willingness to give. There aren´t enough right now, but the government is building free universities as fast as they can. There are a lot of good things going on here.

I really wanted to view Venezuela as a model for poory developed nations like Honduras, but I just couldn´t make it work. I realized my error, again fairly obvious in retrospect. Simply because they are both Latin American nations, I had groupd them together but the difference is profound. Venezuela is rich with resources, mostly oil. In a recent study, they estimate there is more oil under Lake Maracaibo than in Saudi Arabia, previously thought to be the most oil rich nation. Honduras has no valuable resources that I know of.

Venezuela is a resource rich nation with many social problems that is using its resources to address those problems. Honduras is a resource poor nation with social problems that, even if they wanted to, would have a difficult time addressing the problems. So it´s not as simple as everyone else doing as Venezuela is doing. But, as Venezuela and Brazil, two resource rich nations, improve their infrastructure and the standard of lving for the average person, they increase the wealth and technology in the region, and are willing to share. This sharing is in its infancy, as are most developments here, but there is an explicit and believable willingness to help the nations around them, much to the dimsay of the IMF, World Bank, and US.