A real soap opera! (English)
Dearest friends,
here are some greetings from my corner of the earth, Nicaragua, and some apologies for not writing sooner. It´s been a journey without comparison settling in at this new place and this new job. It took me several months to settle in with everything, but after New Years I feel like more and more things have fallen into place and it´s getting better day by day. I even sort of like Managua, which is a weird city. It´s not a very beautiful place, and it´s not made for walking, which I love, either, but it´s situated quite close to a lot of nice outings and it´s also comfortable and has things I would probably miss if I lived in a smaller town, like movie theatres, nicer restaurants, etc.
Nicaragua is a small country and living here puts you really close to politics and everything that´s going on. When I go out to this one salsa club to dance I usually see the Vice Mayor of Managua grooving it with this woman, dressed in a short skirt and high heels. Who knows if it is his wife or someone else! You can never be too sure in this country.
Politics in Nicaragua is like a soap opera and there are many stories to tell, but I will try to just give you the basic storyline. Presidential elections are up next year and the campaigns are already running. The two biggest parties are the FSLN (the sandinistas) on the left wing and the PLC (the liberals) on the right wing. According to the polls the sandinistas have the biggest support since the sandinist revolution in -79. Unfortunately the party has lost much of its former idealistic value system and even worse its democratic principles by excluding the strongest competitor to Daniel Ortega (current leader of the party) of the party. His name is Herty Lewites. When he decided to run for candidate it was quite a provocation to Ortega, who´s been unchallenged since the days of the revolution. A word and media war started between the two. Words got rougher and rougher until Lewites was finally excluded of the party and Ortega claimed the candidate post. That was that competition! We´ll see if Lewites forms his own party, and sticks to the game.
Who´ll represent the PLC is still unclear, since the strongest voice belongs to ex-president Arnoldo Alemán, who was sentenced to jail (20 years) for money wash, theft of taxes and election cheating. How he can still have a circle of supporters is for me a mystery, but he does, and this crowd is working hard on getting him released to next year´s election. And what´s even more catastrophic is that they are about to succeed. Negotiating in the parliament with the FSLN, interpreting the law or suggesting new ones, they are not far from their goal.
The current president, Enrique Bolaños, represented the PLC when he was elected (because Alemán was in jail) but had very limited support in the parliament and was out-played by the PLC (his own party) allied with the FSLN. They may be enemies but can well unite if they have to, to achieve certain common goals, appearently. Poor Bolaños had to form his own party, APRE or "Azul y Blanco".
As they say, there are three men with power in Nicaragua: Daniel Ortega, Arnoldo Alemán and Cardinal Obando y Bravo. Appearently the sitting president is not one of them.
The soap opera continues...
Here in Managua we have now entered the wet season. I have longed for this moment! But now as it´s been raining constantly for four days, I still wouldn´t mind some sun. However, it´s fresh and nice in the air, and I don´t have to clean the house as much, since the dust doesn´t sneek in through every little hole anymore. That´s a relief!
My parents are coming to see me on July 18 th, for two weeks! I´m really excited about that, so I´m trying to plan the best itinerary for our vacation. But I do hope the weather will stabilize a bit, so we can do all the things we want to. Go to the beach, travel around......
So, I´m sending you big smiles and lots of love,
from Viktoria
here are some greetings from my corner of the earth, Nicaragua, and some apologies for not writing sooner. It´s been a journey without comparison settling in at this new place and this new job. It took me several months to settle in with everything, but after New Years I feel like more and more things have fallen into place and it´s getting better day by day. I even sort of like Managua, which is a weird city. It´s not a very beautiful place, and it´s not made for walking, which I love, either, but it´s situated quite close to a lot of nice outings and it´s also comfortable and has things I would probably miss if I lived in a smaller town, like movie theatres, nicer restaurants, etc.
Nicaragua is a small country and living here puts you really close to politics and everything that´s going on. When I go out to this one salsa club to dance I usually see the Vice Mayor of Managua grooving it with this woman, dressed in a short skirt and high heels. Who knows if it is his wife or someone else! You can never be too sure in this country.
Politics in Nicaragua is like a soap opera and there are many stories to tell, but I will try to just give you the basic storyline. Presidential elections are up next year and the campaigns are already running. The two biggest parties are the FSLN (the sandinistas) on the left wing and the PLC (the liberals) on the right wing. According to the polls the sandinistas have the biggest support since the sandinist revolution in -79. Unfortunately the party has lost much of its former idealistic value system and even worse its democratic principles by excluding the strongest competitor to Daniel Ortega (current leader of the party) of the party. His name is Herty Lewites. When he decided to run for candidate it was quite a provocation to Ortega, who´s been unchallenged since the days of the revolution. A word and media war started between the two. Words got rougher and rougher until Lewites was finally excluded of the party and Ortega claimed the candidate post. That was that competition! We´ll see if Lewites forms his own party, and sticks to the game.
Who´ll represent the PLC is still unclear, since the strongest voice belongs to ex-president Arnoldo Alemán, who was sentenced to jail (20 years) for money wash, theft of taxes and election cheating. How he can still have a circle of supporters is for me a mystery, but he does, and this crowd is working hard on getting him released to next year´s election. And what´s even more catastrophic is that they are about to succeed. Negotiating in the parliament with the FSLN, interpreting the law or suggesting new ones, they are not far from their goal.
The current president, Enrique Bolaños, represented the PLC when he was elected (because Alemán was in jail) but had very limited support in the parliament and was out-played by the PLC (his own party) allied with the FSLN. They may be enemies but can well unite if they have to, to achieve certain common goals, appearently. Poor Bolaños had to form his own party, APRE or "Azul y Blanco".
As they say, there are three men with power in Nicaragua: Daniel Ortega, Arnoldo Alemán and Cardinal Obando y Bravo. Appearently the sitting president is not one of them.
The soap opera continues...
Here in Managua we have now entered the wet season. I have longed for this moment! But now as it´s been raining constantly for four days, I still wouldn´t mind some sun. However, it´s fresh and nice in the air, and I don´t have to clean the house as much, since the dust doesn´t sneek in through every little hole anymore. That´s a relief!
My parents are coming to see me on July 18 th, for two weeks! I´m really excited about that, so I´m trying to plan the best itinerary for our vacation. But I do hope the weather will stabilize a bit, so we can do all the things we want to. Go to the beach, travel around......
So, I´m sending you big smiles and lots of love,
from Viktoria
posted by Viktoria Jendmyr at
11:26 fm
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