La democracia y la gobernabilidad en Nicaragua 2007

This morning I attended a conference on democracy and governability in Nicaragua. Three non-profit organizations presented their findings regarding the changes that the national government have made last year to the Constitution and the laws and how these changes have impacted the institutionalization of democracy in Nicaragua. It was also a great history lesson for me because they also reviewed all of the major legal changes made since Nicaragua officially became a democracy in 1990 (a very young democracy).

Now, to the non-nerd/academic, this might sound really boring. However, because opponents of the current President, Daniel Ortega, accuse him of abusing his power and of trying to change the Constitution in order to maintain control of the country for years to come, it is a very important current debate.

(It would be as if our President, George W. Bush, tried to change the American Constitution in order to allow the President (i.e. Bush) to run for as many re-elections as s/he wished. Or as if Bush tried to bypass state laws and state legislatures altogether and institute his own laws on the local level to secure his power. If such changes were made to our Constitution, Bush could reign forever and we would become a dictatorship under the Bush regime. A very scary thought...)

On a lighter note, I thought the conference was being held in the IPADE building where my affiliate institution is located; however, it turned out that it was at the Holiday Inn in downtown Managua (which is actually a five star hotel here and looks more like a Hilton to me). Anyway, the IPADE building is a heck of a long ways out of town, so I did a lot of unnecessary traveling today. On top of that, after I had been in the conference for four hours (9AM-1PM) and was about to head home, it began to rain as only it can in Nicaragua (like a hurricane--actually, it probably was a result of the hurricane on the East Coast). So here I am looking for the bus stop with my compact and lightweight umbrella flimsy in the wind, trying to cross a busy street in a torrential downpour and trying to avoid being covered by the waves of water coming off the streets as giant trucks passed by...It must have been quite a funny sight. I got a laugh and a thumbs up from one street vendor who watched me incredulously. I finally got a taxi home.

The taxista asked me all about my work in Nicaragua and asked me if it were true that North Americans are very sentimental. When I looked at him quizzically, he told me that when he was driving an American girl around town last year that he accidentally hit a dog and she began to cry. (I think he thought that I was sentimental too because I'm living in a poorer neighborhood in Managua. Well, maybe I am, but I don't want to speak for all Americans.) Always fun jawing with the taxistas around here. :-) Oh, and I also met a fellow gringa at the conference, though she is from Germany and doesn't speak English well, so our common language is Spanish. Still, we exchanged numbers and will hopefully hang out soon. Talk about self-selected segregation by minorities (white people like me in this case)! :-)