Honduras DemocracyFollow

Yes... military coups are totally Democratic governments. Do you actually know what's going on? Here's a hint: when the president is acting in a manner the courts declare is illegal you usually impeach him, not arrest him through military might, lockdown the country, and force the old president into exile while having the military-backed Congress handpick a successor.

Edit: Reading the post you linked makes it obvious what your opinion in. Because Hugo Chavez backs the old president, the coup must be Democracy! Because the opposite would be, uh, socialism! Or something. Suffice it to say you don't like Chavez and don't actually know what the situation is but anyone whom he likes must be BAD.

Edited, Jun 29th 2009 5:53pm by LockeColeMA

I'd bet a considerable amount of money that until yesterday, varus would have been hard pushed to point out Honduras on a map.

What would you think if US soldiers, tired of Iraq and Afganistatan, had said **** it and overthrown Bush in 2004 and instated Senator Kerry? That's not democracy. What's going on Honduras . . . isn't democracy by a long shot.

They're all in Central America. How's that for basic knowledge.

From what I have read he was trying to get a referendum to see if he could change the term conditions (ie, so he could run again). It would be put to a popular vote in the country first. The president was popular in select areas of the country, especially amongst the poor, but the military and Congress were not. Fearing his imminent reelection the Supreme Court declared the move illegal, arrested the president, and instated their own candidate. The former president went to Costa Rica.

There are two real camps on this thought opposing the military coup (and yes, it was a military coup). The one spouted by Chavez is to stir up trouble. He can point to the problems in Honduras and say to his people "Look at the fascists! Isn't it great you have me? We need to support our friends, ra ra ra!" That's the main issue right there. Then there's the camp in which the US and the UN fall. Destabilization is bad, because it's lending support to leftist governments like that of Chanvez. It is also bad because it is democracy failing; and a military state OR a socialist state are both unwelcome by the US. Obama wants democracy preserved; that doesn't mean he wants new leftist dictator AT ALL. Assuming the referendum failed, Zelaya would be out in 7 months anyway. If it passed, then the other candidate better start campaigning well.

What should have happened is the impeachment process should have taken place, since every other branch of the government declared Zelaya's actions illegal. Instead the other branches let the military take over, gave up democracy, and chose their own candidate.


And as for the comment, Bush did give himself new powers; we just didn't do anything about it :-P

It's funny because you think that we teach geography.

They taught geography in highschool, at ninth grade, as an optional course that would delay world history for a year; of course if people aren't constantly exposed to that knowledge and practice it, they're going to forget it.

In university, as part of world history and "global issues" (whatever that is supposed to cover) they gave a map test that everyone was required to pass in order to pass the class, you know, standard fare: label 25 randomly chosen countries. A lot of people had to retake that thing.

I didn't get every single question myself.. I mean sometimes you transpose two next-door countries or whatever, but I passed it fine, but that's basically the extent of the geography practice I've seen in my education. It's not sufficient to give someone a knowledge of the precise, or absolute location of a country.




Belgium is about as far from England as North Carolina is from Georgia. Geographical knowledge is important to cultivate but this really isn't a good comparison of ignorance relevant to reasonable expectation.

Edited, Jun 29th 2009 10:30pm by Pensive

No. I spent enough time in the USA to know that geography isnt taught to any extent in the schools there.






I'm assuming that most of us have learned about the geographical relationships of various countries by looking at them on maps and such as opposed to walking between them, and unless your map is of a unuasually large scale, the distance would never be more than a few centimeters (inches).

(Having said that tho, I did in fact personnaly walk accross the border from Guatamala to Honduras after a visit to this place) wich was actually pretty interesting if you ever happen to be in the area.

I could pinpoint Belgium easily but Honduras I would have had to guess between it, Guatemala, and Nicaragua. I think Belgium has had a lot more dealings with England than Honduras with the US. And Belgium has a lot more globally notable "things" about it than Honduras. It's also got twice as many people, 33 times the GDP, and 5 times the armed forces.




Edited, Jun 29th 2009 11:21pm by trickybeck

Also worth mentioning is that the Honduran constitution explicitly states that anyone who proposes changing the presidential term limit (one term) must immediately be removed from office and barred from holding public office for 10 years.

And that the Honduran constitution does not describe a mechanism for impeachment.



Anyway, given that Zelaya had already ignored the supreme court, the legislature, and the constitution several times, I doubt there were workable options beyond evicting him with the military.

It also says that, through some sort of court action (sue me, I'm using Wikipedia as a reference) their citizenship can be canceled for that.

That has got to be one of the world's most bizarre constitutions. I suspect there's a clause stating that every time the 27th lands on a Thursday, a chicken must be mailed to every single woman whose last name begins with a vowel.

And at the risk of being accused of being self-righteous again The old ones are always the best......

Jebus, you lot are touchy about geography!

Ok, Paul, here are ten geography questions. Don't cheat!

1) Who is the reigning monarch of Sealand?
2) What's the principal export of India?
3) Which has the higher sheep to people ratio, Wales or New Zealand?
4) Which country has sex with the most sheep annually?
5) Name a country beginning with x.
6) Name the world's third largest island.
7) Name the second largest empire ever to exist.
8) Why does no one care about Ireland?
9) Where is the cave of tits located?
10) Which continent is the most awesome?

Edited, Jun 30th 2009 11:38am by Kavekk