My poor country is only in the news when calamity strikes.
There was an earthquake 40 miles from Roatan early this morning. I've seen varying reports of the extent of the damage, although overall it doesn't seem too bad. I'm hoping a lot of people weren't made homeless since the quality of construction in the country is, shall we say, less than stellar. I'll have to call my grandmother to get an update because I'm sure she knows more than any new outlet.
(ETA: I found out one of my uncles is visiting Roatan. If there's one thing my family has, it's a horrible sense of timing.)
Earlier in the month, there was rioting in Roatan. In my quick search, I couldn't find any "official" articles on the riots (which would probably change if I ran a Spanish-language search) but there was this article. Basically, mainland Hondurans are afraid they won't be allowed to work on the island without approval from a government agency called Zolitur. The mainlanders are pissed, which is understandable, but they didn't much care about Roatan or the Bay Islands before our tourist industry was really developed and the cash started flowing. Plus, there is the simple fact that Roatan is an island so it can't accommodate an unlimited flow of people from the mainland. But then, I'm don't pretend to be unbiased about the issue.
