As I write these words, it is less that 23 hours to the end of 2004. A year filled with a lot of changes and a lot of the same old crap. Bush got his second term and things are getting pretty heavy here in Honduras. The gangs are no longer a mild irritation but a threat the the security of the entire Centralamerican region. Even in the US, people are divided, are the Bush-Kerry debacle. Even so, the entire world holds the Bush administration responsible for the war in Iraq, the "Fight for Northamerican Freedom." Blah.

The world, slowly but surely, is going to hell. All we can do is go along for the ride. People have forgotten the basic ingredients which can make life great to live. Now, all they want to do is consume and destroy.

John F. Kennedy once said, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal. WE ARE ALL MORTAL. 2005 is THE decisive year for mankind, because if we don't realize that we truly are in this together, there isn't going to be a 2006. When I was little, I used to cry, because the thought came to me that, my parent are not going to live forever. A human life is but a flash in the dark of the universe, in the short period in which we habitate this small planet we have to insure our survivability. Not oly our own, but of those who we love and cherish, because as I mentioned, the world is going to hell. It is up to us to speed up or slow down that process.

People blame their problem of leaders. WE put them in a leadership position in the first place, so aren't we the persons to blame? Isn't it our own fault that we live in a world in which we must look over our shoulder every minute, because of our own fears, which we, ourselves have created, out of our own bad habits?

2005 should be the turning point for the human race to unite as one, starting by changing ourselves and then the people around us.

Happy New Year

President Alex R. Garay III
Federation of Centralamerican States