Wonderland

Wonderland

By: Cristiana Guevara Mena

Nicaragua is known as the "land of lakes and volcanoes", with friendly, warm, and caring people, and beautiful beaches. Where tourism is promoted thanks to its vast natural beauty. But while Nicaragua may be physically beautiful, it is also a world where anything is possible. In our country, it is the same thing to be honest and a thief, ignorant and a great teacher, or do things legally or illegally. In this wonderland, we find corrupt people like the Chesire cat, that appear and dissapear; as well as a queen of hearts that according to her, paints everything "pretty". All the state institutions are perfectly orchestrated to the sound of the same carousel music, and the people are the great spectators. It is a great amusement park, where the director is always the head of government. Everything that happens is part of the wonders of the country.

The country's laws are considered suggestions and not mandatory by nature. The disorder that triggers the disobedience of the same is seen as part of the folklore that we see and experience every day. The national police are purely decorative and do not guarantee any order. They’re like a "jukebox" of the fifties that works when it gets some money and plays the song to suit the client that put in the coin.

Public officials of the Supreme Electoral Council, the Supreme Court, the Comptroller General of the Republic, the Central Bank, and all ministries compete to take the place of the best puppet of the puppeteer who controls everything with his or her strings. These are the most recognizably corrupt people in the country, but they have never known prison bars because they appear and disappear at will and only leave behind a big smile. They are nothing more than pets that just obey their master’s orders unconditionally. If the great master gives them treats, the pets will remain obedient to his orders and wishes.

We belong to a country where there is no conscience or political, historical, or economic memory, as we are used to electing leaders without knowing what their plan of government is. If they give out shirts, hats, chickens, or zinc sheets during the campaign, it’s good enough to choose them, regardless of whether or not they have a future plan. This way of thinking is very convenient for leaders, because it ensures their long life in power.

Let’s not forget the hospitals where sick people come out more sick than they were when they entered; in many cases, people go in alive and walking, and leave dead. Public schools do not educate or prepare students for the future; instead, students are indoctrinated to obey the government in power and given incentives to be idle. Furthermore, the unified opposition is absent. Opposition voices are drowned out by the noise of the people in this great amusement park, where only the sirens chant, played perfectly by a large orchestra led by the leaders is heard. It's also part of wonderland that we have a citizen suspectful of everything, and unslanderable (because every accusation against him are apparantly true), as President of the Republic.

All this is part of the folklore of our beloved Nicaragua, the beautiful wonderland of excellence. Not the "land of opportunities" as we would like it to be, and what are our neighbors from the north are, but the "land of possibilities" where even the most absurd is perfectly possible. Our unsolved problems increase in a non-stop roller coaster. In short, we do not know how far we will go or if our country will go ahead, because Nicaragua has been a wonderland for a very long time.