Ozarkers think of themselves as the real people, the salt of the earth, practical, not putting on airs, skeptical but tolerant, willing to help those in need. Our first impulse in meeting someone new is to figure out whether that person is from around here. My guess is that these characteristics are a universal part of human nature in which the question “friend or foe?” is the first issue at the first encounter.
If our first impulse is to stand our own ground, why should we be interested or concerned about what happens in one of the many countries of Central America, especially one as poor as Honduras, whose military just removed the president and sent him into exile in Costa Rica?
Honduras has been an independent republic for as long as Missouri has been a state (since 1821). Honduras is about the size of Tennessee, with a long northern coastline on the Caribbean and a small Pacific coast on the Gulf of Fonseca in the south. The population of Honduras is just under 8 million (like Missouri, Iowa and Arkansas combined), with a per capita annual income of about $4,400 (compared to around $20,000 in the Ozarks).
I don’t have a good feel for Honduran politics, so I’ll let Max Carranza tell his version (shortened by me) of recent events: Read the rest of this entry
Ozarks Law & Economy 