Posted on 09/08/2012 5:56:07 PM PDT by Texas Fossil
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — Investors can begin construction in six months on three privately run cities in Honduras that will have their own police, laws, government and tax systems now that the government has signed a memorandum of agreement approving the project.
An international group of investors and government representatives signed the memorandum Tuesday for the project that some say will bring badly needed economic growth to this small Central American country and that at least one detractor describes as “a catastrophe.”
-snip-
The project “has the potential to turn Honduras into an engine of wealth,” said Carlos Pineda, president of the Commission for the Promotion of Public-Private Partnerships. It can be “a development instrument typical of first world countries.”
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Anyone know "who" is the "private" group that will be running this?
We had that in the US once upon a time.
Mill Vills.....
You load sixteen tons, what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don’t you call me ‘cause I can’t go
I owe my soul to the company store
bump
I remember some libertarians tried to talk Costa Rica into doing something like that
sounds like midevil europe; a walled defensible city controling the outlying areas
I would suspect the Chinese. They are expanding their economic interests in Africa by building "Factory Towns" that supply all the workers needs, inside a protected perimeter.
This is not so much as a captive worker scheme as it is providing security for the workers. Thuggery and crime against the workers is suppressed and the bums can't even get inside the perimeter.
The Chinese get to pick the best workers, and their wages create a market for Chinese products.
Three privately run cities in Honduras...sounds like a new James Bond movie on the horizon.
Thanks, that makes sense. Honduras is an agricultural country. China has millions of mouths to feed.
Obozo has been “advising” Pepe Lobo about how to deal with his police force. Very very bad sign.
Hondurans have demonstrated they are freedom lovers. November cannot come soon enough.
In the 1920’s, Henry Ford built a company town in the Brazilian jungle, but it failed and is now a ghost town.
It's ridiculous.
Publi-Private Fuedalism
Honduras was always a good ally of the US. (Before Obozo)
They have gone through hell in past few years.
A poor agricultural nation, in the middle of a Commie Mess.
Looks who is thought this up:
NYU economics professor Paul Romer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oath_of_Fealty_(novel)
“Oath of Fealty” by Larry Niven
“In the near future, a race riot results in the destruction of an area just outside Los Angeles. In order to prevent the area from devolving into a tent slum, the city sells the construction rights to a private company, which then constructs an arcology, named Todos Santos. The higher standard of living enjoyed by Todos Santos residents causes resentment among Angelenos. The arcology dwellers have evolved a different culture, sacrificing privacy - there are cameras (not routinely monitored) even in the private apartments - in exchange for security. The residents are fiercely loyal to the arcology and its management, and the loyalty runs both ways. During the course of the novel, Todos Santos is compared to a feudal society, with loyalty and obligations running both ways, hence the title. The systems at the arcology are run by MILLIE, an advanced computer system, and some high-level executives have direct links to MILLIE via implants in their brains. Other workers in the arcology work by telepresence, including one woman who remotely operates construction equipment on a lunar base.
Todos Santos causes resentment among Angelenos, but has improved their lives as well. The company that owns the arcology tows icebergs in, solving the water shortage for all Southern Californians. Todos Santos has dug a Los Angeles subway using a digging machine, which uses an oxyhydrogen torch. Todos Santos is at the hub of the subway system, and contains a huge mall, which Angelenos may visit. This easy access causes Los Angeles’ city officials to complain about the shopping dollars and tax revenues going outside the city limits.
I suspect that the idea behind this is Singapore. For many years they had a “focused authoritarian” leader whose goal was to make Singapore wealthy and pro-business.
He did this, more than in any other way, by oppressing societies’ pests, the annoying people who interfere with others, continually whine and complain and demand change, contribute little or nothing, try to parasite off of others, and who are rude, crude, drunken or drugged, gross and offensive. Corruption is a serious crime at any level.
For some reason this made him incredibly popular with most people. If not with societies’ pests.
During the early years, Singapore had many slums for the working poor, but eventually they became intolerable, so he built much better housing for the poor, but on condition that they upgrade their behavior as well, and stop acting poor. Upward mobility is strongly encouraged, and there are not a whole lot of poor people left in Singapore.
There are many common gross behaviors that are crimes in Singapore, such as public spitting, urinating in elevators and such, that are not punished with jail time, but with fines for most everything. And if you can’t pay those fines, then you work for the city doing manual labor until they are paid.
For even more annoying offenses, as one American teenager learned to his detriment, there is caning.
For first offense illegal drug use an offender is put in a military style boot camp, and they mean it. Second offense, and first offense for dealers, is the death penalty. Though they seldom need to use it. They are very clear about this.
So, could this work in Honduras?
The answer is probably, “Nothing succeeds like success”.
If they create these enclaves, and they are a huge success, a lot of people will learn by their example. Conservatives will respect their process as being the way to achieve their ends; leftists will want all the good stuff without working for it.
Which is why leftists are so often among societies’ pests.
Doubt Honduras is that way. Their Legislature (equivalent) has taken it serious.
I like the Hondurans I have met.
I am a peaceful person, but don’t think I would like to live in a city like Singapore. But for that matter, I don’t even like cities. Not enough freedom for me to breath properly.
Live in the middle of the Big Nothing, and like it.
Sounds like those zombie cities that China is so fond of building.
It’s a great place to visit, as long as you are a polite person. They don’t cotton to hippies.
Parts are really pretty, and they’ve got some real I don’t know what you call-’ems like these buildings:
http://inhabitat.com/editt-tower-by-trhamzah-and-yeang/
http://inhabitat.com/singapores-stunning-digital-cloud-skyscraper/
http://sustainabledesignupdate.com/2009/08/great-green-roofs/
http://www.greenroofs.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Singapore-GardensBytheBayGraphic.gif
Benign Dictatorship?
Think I will pass.
I require space and freedom.
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