Research in the Lagoon

 I just completed my first week stay in  the small  Caribbean  town  of Pearl Lagoon. This week I have been getting acquainted with the community and as well framing my questions and objectives of my independent research. I met with my advisers at the Wildlife Conservation Society this past Monday  which they helped me to  narrow my project themes and provided with   literature so that I could read and use the information to  help formulate my questions.
 On Thursday  I had the opportunity to go turtle egg excavating with my adviser at the Pearl Keys. I was a wonderful experience to witness the efforts that my adviser and her excavating team puts forth into digging out nests and counting and recounting hatched egg shells and unhatch eggs in order to determine the quantity that survive the hatching and the ones that didn't. The excavation also helped them to determine whether the eggs are being poached or not. Most importantly I got to witness the return of a loggerhead turtle back to it's habitat in the sea. It was really exciting to witness this because it was my first time being every close to a sea turtle, second I got to see my adviser execute her work efforts towards the conservation of turtle, and most importantly I witnesses the collaboration between the organization and one of the communities of the Pearl Lagoon Basin.
Yesterday I got to interview three members of the community. Each of them had their own experience with the usage of the resources of the region. Two out the three interviewees had dedicated their lives into fishing while one dedicated his life to farming beans,rice, and coconut. Because I am exploring the theme of sequential exploitation , each of the interviewees are aware that the catch of fish has  been reduced drastically. The all have different opinions in finding solutions for these issues and by hearing these opinions I was able to detect the mean of their opinions and understood that there should be some government involvement with creating alternatives and policies to prevent the exploitation of other reources

Results!!!

Daniel Ortega got the result that he wanted by getting over 60% of  the votes. Not many people are not pleased with this result especially Fabio Gadea and the PLI. The members of of the PLI are not recognizing Ortega's victory and are contesting it. Also the international community is still unsure whether to recognize Oretga's victory or not especially the United States. Whether the elections were fraud or not it was a spectacular experience to witness. I never seen so much enthusiasm in a national election before. Everybody from my community were excited to vote on Sunday and the FSLN supporters were proudly wearing their white bright letter colored FSLN shirts. I anticipate that the situation in regards to the recognition of the elections settles down really soon, there has been  a few clashes between the opposing parties. I will continue to observe this tension that is going on as I prepare to go to the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua where I will commence on my independent study project on the Fishing Industry in Pearl Lagoon and Environmental Justice.

Otra Vez

Today Nicaragua will be experiencing its 2011 elections. It has been an intense week for Nicaraguan political parties, especially for the Sandinistas(FSLN) and the Liberales (PLC) because they had to put forth all of their efforts into campaigning. Campaigning was so extreme this week that there were demonstrations on rontundes or round-abouts where large number of party supporters would be gathered and showing their support. Also there has been a series of rallies going on throughout Managua which cause some roads to be closed and resulted in heavy traffic. 

Everybody in Nicaragua are excited for the elections. Although there are a handful of Sandinstas throughout the country there are also voters who are conservative and ally themselves with the PLC whose presidential candidate is Arnoldo Aleman. There are also citizens who believe that Daniel Ortega has abuse his executive power and has not served the country well and view  Fabio Gadea of the PLI (Partido Liberal Independiente) as a potential candidate to become presidents.

The US government is not in favor of the Sandinista government and anticipate that another government be elected. But after observing and talking to people it is unlikely that a new government will be elected. People in Nicaragua especially in Managua feel that the Sandinistas have brought drastic change into Nicaraguan Society. People agree that the Sandinista government is not the most honest one but the officials running it are doing their best to help the people prosper. There is also skeptics saying that even if the Sandinistas lose the elections they will force themselves into power and fraud the elections. At this points I cannot give my position to that skepticism because I have not lived long enough in Nicaragua to be criticizing its electoral process. The only thing that I could say  is to wait and see later on this evening who will be triumphing this election.