Reflections.

Normal service from "Blogger"  seems to have been resumed and notification of my last 7 or 8 postings has now been sent!    So, dear readers,  (been reading Jane Eyre), don't forget thatthe blog i sbest read from with the blog itself!   Simply click on the title of this post to go there! It is underlined in blue!  

For those of you NOT up-to-date a lot of water has passed under the bridge!

...............splosh!  (the sound of abandoned plans) ..........

and

 ............   mmmmmmmmm, (contentment getting back on track)

............................................>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>............................


Reflections.

When I first saw this picture I thought, oh, here we go again another devout man fulfilling his ambition/destiny in playing the part of Christ Crucified on Good Friday.  Well, no.   Although he has come pretty close to being crucified.  The guy was one of three thieves to break into a shop, his misfortune was to be caught, not by the police but by the locals who administered their own form of swift and terrible justice.  This is one of the things that reminds me that I am definitely in a different culture and definitely in a developing economy.  The rule of law is administered by the police, who are under-educated, underpaid and in many cases completely corrupted by a corrupt system.  Had the police caught the thieves they would have either arrested them or done a deal with them and shared the spoils or made arrangements for the misdemeanour never to get to court. However, the people were there first and meted out instant justice.  They also refused to allow the police to take the guy away until his offences and situation made the papers (and thus something had to be done), the other two guys were pursued and caught and probably had a similar fate.

Police officer

It is hard to judge this behaviour, because on the one hand, it is all very liberal to want communities to maintain their identity, heritage and culture and on the other hand there is an expectation that certain morals and values will be upheld.  What was meted out was justice in the eyes of the community, and nobody saw anything wrong in the action they took. But, at the same time, there was the expectation that the people would allow the rule of law to operate, which is in many ways foreign to their (the peoples) own moral code.

Armed and ready

Here people have the right to “bear arms” and many situations could very easily be sorted out very directly and finally!  Here you don’t pick a fight with fellow road users, and don’t express opinions too openly, especially in more rural areas.  The hits and mistrusts caused by the civil war still echo through the society in general, especially as the Maya remain largely uneducated, marginalised and desperately poor, even if they are 6 million of the 14 million population!  It is like a kind of wild west in places, they guys wear boots, jeans, checked shirts and big ten gallon hats, have amazing belt buckles, carry a gun and now instead of jumping on their horse (though many still do) jump instead into their 4x4 pick-up.  Disagreements are sorted without recourse to the law or the police. And life goes on.

21st century horse!

Of course it also means that in these communities, the women are still second class citizens, the girls still seem to get pregnant at 14 and less than 10% of children will finish an education at 16.  Most (52%) will have left school well before they are 11.

98% of crime goes unsolved!

For me, I am always trying to understand how to maintain the delicate balance between, improvement and opportunity, versus the further erosion of heritage and culture. There must be a way whereby indigenous communities can develop but not at the cost of self destruction.   Many of the missionary groups here are “evangelical” in their need to convert or apostatize, but the price for the church, the school, the food, the new house, the love of God(?), is to completely disown their heritage, their Gods, their traditions and culture.  The Mayan culture was one of the most advanced when we Europeans were still running around in bear skins! Despite the efforts of the Spanish conquistadors, that culture still exists ( and not only for the amusement of coach loads of tourists)  but more and more it exists in the few remaining remote areas of this beautiful and amazing country.

We wouldn’t bat an eye-lid if Sir David Attenborough was telling us how these “tribes” decide the fate of a thief by tying him to a tree in a jungle. Well, here, the jungle has been replaced by a town and the tree by the irons rods of cement construction …… and the justice ……….   and then there are the drug cartels ....who are yet another law unto themselves and lay claim to vast swathes of northern Guatemala along the border with Mexico ...........

How to rescue justice back from narcotraffikers?

Or does the one have to totally submit to the other?  

Footnote:

Fair trials

Maya had a very strict law. Punishments varied, but the laws were fair. If you stole something and you got caught you would be held captive by the victim. If you committed a lesser crime, your hair would be cut short. Short hair was a disgrace. A punishment could me that they would sell all your possessions at an auction.  But, everybody was entitled and got a trial.



Hasta luego amigos