Sign Language

When I first saw it, the sign on the beach made me laugh, or more accurately, it was the tire tracks in the sand beside the sign prohibiting vehicles on the beach that I found humorous. Later in the day, though, I found myself thinking about those drivers' blithe disregard for local bylaws and what it represents. The tire tracks were laid down by the wealthy Nicaraguan politicians and expats who live in the enclave of big, razor-ribbon protected villas north of the town that can be seen in the picture's background. Not using the beach would mean a four kilometre drive along a dirt road for them, but leave the beach safer, cleaner and more attractive for residents and the tourists that the town's economy depends upon.

Nicaragua suffers from the same absurdly lopsided distribution of wealth that is common to most third world countries. A tiny local elite and a few wealth foreigners enjoy a lavish lifestyle with servants to care for their every need or want while the vast majority of people struggle to acquire the bare necessities of life. Unfortunately, this situation tends to breed in the well healed minority a sense of entitlement, as if their privileged lives are the result of some God given superiority rather than fortunate birth, or perhaps larceny.

Such delusions have consequences. The people with the resources and influence to bring constructive change to the country see themselves as detached from the majority of society and without responsibility, to pay taxes, respect the law or contribute to the betterment of their nation. They dismiss the situation of their less fortunate compatriots as inevitable and insoluble.

First world nations like Canada have a much more even distribution of income that Nicaragua, a gap between rich and poor that narrowed consistently in the first forty years after the Second World War. Over the past two decades, however, the neo-liberal agenda that has been gaining ground in Canadian politics resulted in a widening of that gap, as the rich have gained spectacularly while the rest of society have seen their incomes stagnate or decline, and shrinking social programmes have removed many of the supports that made life bearable for low income families. The people pushing for cuts in taxes and social spending are the same ones who benefit most from the former and don't use the latter. It is the kind of thinking that creates a 'Devil take the hindmost' society.