A couple of days ago I was in an audience of about 75 people to hear Honduras' President Ricardo Maduro speak in support of DR-CAFTA.
NOTE: I beg that this humble diary not become a Pro-Con DR-CAFTA debate thread. I will not say where I am on this issue, here -- in another thread or diary, sure.
At any rate, President Maduro and his Central American counterparts, Presidents from Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatamala, Panama and Nicaragua are "on tour" throughout the U.S. this week (and into next week?) promoting DR-CAFTA. I invite you to go see any of them speak -- again, whether you're Pro- or Con on this issue.
This diary, rather than about DR-CAFTA, is about sitting rapt for half an our as an elected Head of State spoke extemporaneously and eloquently, in fluent English, about a subject that he is knowledgable. I wanted to swap Presidents, then and there. More --->
He's Honduran by birth, but was born in Panama. He's a member and President of Honduras' conservative National Party.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Party_of_Honduras
He's Stanford educated who's served as both Xerox's General Manager in Honduras and as Executive Director of an investment holding company and has all of the "usual suspect" awards for business, but also won Honduran newspaper, El Heraldo's, "Man of the Year" Award in 1991.
Now, just when you think he sounds TOO REPUBLICAN (pro-CAFTA, business tycoon, darling of the Chamber of Commerce, etc.), I want you to read this, with a sympathetic eye and open mind: in 1997, before he entered politics, Maduro's 25 year old son was kidnapped and murdered. This event motivated him to enter politics. He also since established a not-for-profit organization in memory of his son, Ricardo, for the improvement, equality and efficiency of education in Honduras. According to President Maduro, the program which he's initiated that he's most proud of is a school meal program covering all of the children in Honduras -- who's meal at school may be the only one they get at all in a day -- which he hopes will not only feed the children for its own, obvious, benevolent sake, but also help them stay in school, get an education, and help break the cycle of poverty that continues to plague his country.
He's also for DR-CAFTA (again, I get and agree with many of the arguments against it -- let's please not let this thread debate that issue) for, according to him, the simple reason that it will help raise the standard of living in Honduras and the rest of Central American (and the Dominican Republic), which will help him fight poverty, which -- he argues -- will in the long run be extremely beneficial to the goals of peace and prosperty and stability and democracy in Central America. He's also been working with a number of hospitals in the U.S. to help finance and build better clinics and hospitals in Honduras and equip them with what, for U.S. hospitals, is "2nd hand" equipment, but for Honduras and much of the 3rd world is certainly "state of the art."
Is Maduro just a Central American "Ross Perot" who "had it all" and just wanted to add a presidency to his CV? I don't see it that way at all. His son's kidnapping and murder shocked his system like no other event and lead him to a political life. I should note: an introductory speaker referred to that tragedy, but he never did.
My point is simply this: agree or disagree with President Maduro's position on DR-CAFTA, it was a JOY to listen to an intelligent, articulate, well-travelled, dynamic Head of State speak without notes as an adult to adults. Along with that feeling, a profound sense of EMBARRASSMENT for the the U.S.'s Dolt-in-Chief bumbling and fumbling all over himself on the National and World Stage who "speaks" (ha!) on behalf (officially, not really) of the citizens of the United States, has stayed with me the past couple of days and I just wanted to "share". (how liberal!).
BenGoshi
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