Time machine

Nicaragua’s president Daniel Ortega seems set on accomplishing what scientists for centuries have failed to manage. Apparently he wants to invent the time machine – and he seems pretty keen on the project.
As most will recall, Ortega used to be president in Nicaragua back in the 1980’s when the civil war ripped the country apart. That was when the ‘imperialists’ in Washington fought against ‘socialists’ in Nicaragua. When the Berlin Wall still made it easy to figure out who were the bad guys and who were the good guys. Since then, things have become less evident, and globalization has reduced borders to lines on a piece of paper.
But no so in the presidential house in Managua. Or should I say, in Daniel Ortega’s house in Managua? Well, doesn’t really matter, because it is all the same. The president now rules from the headquarters of the governing party’s – which by the way is located on the premises of his private mansion. Who mentioned separation of state and party, let alone private property?
Anyway, Ortega seems set on this time machine issue. His language hasn’t changed a bit since the 1980’s, he still wants to fight the ‘imperialists’ in Washington, this time not with the help of the Soviet Union, but with help from his friends in exotic places like Venezuela, Iran, Libya and Cuba. Obviously this has pissed off the entire opposition and most of the population as well. So much for fulfilling his main message from the November 06 elections; peace and reconciliation. Seems he forgot to mention that the reconciliation was with odd buddies from around the world.
The language is thus the same. But what really worries me and a whole lot of other people, is that physically Ortega also seems set on turning back time. A couple of weeks ago he ordered the demolition of the fountain built by the liberal, former president Arnoldo Alemán. The fountain had been built on the Revolutionary Square in the heart of the old part of Managua. Not too pretty though and it was most definitely a bad move to place the fountain on the historic square where the popular revolution in 1979 celebrated the end of the Somoza dictatorship. Every year since then the Sandinistas have celebrated July 19th on the square, but with the construction of the fountain in 1999 that became impossible.
But as somebody said on national tv, you just don’t correct one mistake by making another. Unless you are Ortega it seems, because even though he doesn’t officially have the power to decide what should be on Managua’s squares, he ordered the demolition, answered no questions and sent in the trucks with fresh asphalt to bring back the revolutionary square to its old, parking lot look.
So now the time has been turned back, we are ready to celebrate the upcoming July 19th revolutionary day. I just wonder if we are to start celebrating from scratch again – ie. 1979 – or if the year is in fact 2007?

Published by Christian Korsgaard