The Illusionists

 Honduras, as well as other developing countries has a long tradition of being illusionists.  Not the “Abracadabra” sort of yester-year, this breed is practicing exclusively in the workplace.  People give the illusion of caring, the illusion of helping and also the illusion that they intend to show up at the hour that they themselves arranged.  Forever the optimists or maybe just perpetually naïve, we put our faith in these skilled practitioners. What we have learned again (for the second time now) is that in their minds the most important thing is “me, myself, and I” and they strive to protect their image, honor and jobs at all costs.  We can work with people, make suggestions and have meetings.  During these moments, the illusionists will listen intently to what we say and nodding in acknowledgment.  But despite issues being spelled out clearly, changes will not be made because it against their mantra of self promotion and honor preservation. 

Titles seem to mean everything and nothing at the same time.  Their job titles define them and take great pride in this, but any of the actual job responsibilities became meaningless once they obtain the role.  In a place where everything can be bought; from driver’s licenses, higher education to practicing medicine, I have come to lose trust in everything. 

The wealthy classes who appear to want to help the less fortunate of their nation really want nothing more than the credit of doing it.  They do not care to actually experience the work or the people first hand.

People use defamation of character freely.  That seems to be the tactic of choice for self promotion for the illusionists.  We ourselves have been slyly accused of trying to steal funds from the project; they are looking to make that hint to instill just a shadow of a doubt in regards to our intentions.

We have spent so much of our time going around in circles dealing with the conflicting personalities.  These wars that occur among the rich and powerful have managed to do little more than delay the progress of the project by months and as usual it is the poor who have suffered.  At this point, the poor have no faith in anyone or any promise that is made.  Unfortunately, I don’t feel that our efforts have proven to be any different.  We have made promises that we were unable to keep, by external forces but our promises were broken just the same. 

My illusionist apprenticeship has been a failure.  It is increasingly difficult to get through a meeting pretending that our words matter.  The illusionists are also masters at resurrection.  They skillfully revive issues and concerns that have been long dead.  We continuously have the same conversations just phrased slightly differently.  I can’t sit there anymore and pretend like it is all as new and important as they seem to believe it is. 

Possibly the act was amusing the first time but it has quickly grown old and it is long overdue to come to an end.  The world would be better off if all the charades would end but with such traditions well engrained in the population I am sure the illusionists will continue to practice for many years to come.