Caribbean with Simon Reeve Documentary Part 3

     In this part of the documentary, Simon continues his journey along the Caribbean and sees how government plays (or does not play) a role in the lives of the people. Starting in Nicaragua where people will be divided with the plan to build a new canal in the country. One man in the small village of Monkey Point pointed out that, "normal people have been left out of the decision making process." The people who these decisions will most greatly effect are getting no say in whether or not they want these things introduced to their land. Of course, the Nicaraguan President claims that building this canal will bring many, many jobs to the people and boost the overall economy. Of course, one citizen makes the claim the building of the canal is, "a good idea just for the President and leading group, but for the poor, the rest of the country, that's not fair." It is also important to point out, like the documentary did, that people who get put to work on this canal will not be from the country, but rather brought in from places like China, so most Nicaraguans truly would not benefit from the project. In earlier parts of the documentary, I believed some of the countries needed a stronger government to run things, but not if there is corruption and if the overall good for the people is not being taken into account. 

    On the flip side, as Simon continued his journey to Honduras, you saw a place where the government has lost a lot of its control in one of the deadliest places in the world. Much of this violence has come as a result of the overwhelming presence of gangs like the MS-13 and the drug war. Villages and neighborhoods are taken over by these gangs, with murders happening daily. The documentary shows this in a real sense and also shows how there are young kids living in these places, running around the roads where people are being killed. Simon calls the people like those in Honduras, "victims of America's demand for drugs" which has led to these places becoming the hot beds for violence that they are. It begs the same question that the other two parts of the documentary raised: is America - or anyone - doing enough to help these countries? Knowing how these lands were settled makes me wonder if there should be a greater responsibility on countries like ours to aid in efforts to 'clean up' places in the Caribbean. This documentary showed just how helpless some of the people there are and how hard it is for them to enact any change.

-cs

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