Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Life of Jose

"It’s a story that almost defies belief, but if true the man’s ordeal would rank among the greatest tales of survival at sea. He is a native of El Salvador but had lived in Mexico for 15 years and fishes for a man he knows as Willie. ‘‘It does sound like an incredible story, and I’m not sure if I believe his story.’’

RelatedCastaway saga shifts to El Salvador

UPDATE:

"Found fisherman is healthy; But doctors say survivor remains shaken by ordeal" by Marcos Aleman |  Associated Press, February 13, 2014

SAN SALVADOR — In stunningly good health....

Jose Salvador Alvarenga underwent a battery of tests after returning home from the Marshall Islands, where he showed up after what he has described as 6,500-mile journey from Mexico across the Pacific that began when his small fishing boat was thrown off course by bad weather.

The medical team that examined him at the San Rafael hospital in the Salvadoran capital said he was in remarkably good physical health: with no skin lesions from overexposure to the sun, and no cardiovascular or kidney issues. His only physical problem, doctors, was a case of anemia.

(Blog editor really does not want to comment on this bullshit story by this piece of shit liar. So how is that radiated ocean from Fukushima, huh? Is that the point of this farcical fiction and the massive amount of attention it is getting in my pos paper?)

‘‘All of the exams have been basically close to normal. It’s incredible,’’ said El Salvador’s minister of public health, Maria Isabel Rodriguez.

Not really when you think this through logically.

She and other Salvadoran experts who looked at Alvarenga’s results said they had no doubt about the veracity of his tale, so incredible that it left many skeptical even in the absence of an alternate explanation for his appearance on the Pacific Island atoll.

You folks really think we are that stop-pid, huh? They have no doubt so we should have no doubt, and even skeptics believe it -- says my agenda-pushing pos.

‘‘He challenges ideas about human physiology that we’ve had for a long time, but miracles exist and I don’t think there’s any reason to doubt him,’’ hospital director Yeerles Ramirez told reporters.

(Blog editor now shaking his head. Yup, miracles exist -- like jet fuels fires dropping 100-story skyscrapers at free-fall speed into their own footprint).

All of the doctors expressed concern about Alvarenga’s mental state, however, saying he appeared shaken and asked to be given as much privacy as possible....

PFFFFFT!

She said that after Alvarenga arrived at the San Salvador airport late Tuesday and saw dozens of waiting reporters, photographers, and cameramen, ‘‘he quickly fell into a depression and started crying because he’s not ready to talk to the whole world.’’

Sorry, but I'm not feeling the sympathy here.

Alvarenga, 37, has asked for tortillas and a pupusa, a thick stuffed corn tortilla that is a Salvadoran specialty, and he has already eaten a tortilla with cheese, Rodriguez said.

Like we give a shit?

She said Alvarenga told doctors that he had given up hope of being rescued after several large ships came near his small fishing boat, with sailors on at least one even greeting him, but none tried to rescue him.

OMG!! 

This WHOLE STORY STINKS like a pile of shit!!!!

‘‘They passed close by, he asked them for help, and they didn’t want to give it,’’ she said....

Uh-huh. 

I was told he had AMNESIA!

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So which story do you like better? 

Too bad he missed the voat:

"Voters in El Salvador, Costa Rica go to polls" by Marcos Aleman |  Associated Press,  February 03, 2014

SAN SALVADOR — Presidential elections in two Central American countries Sunday are referendums on political stagnation, with voters in Costa Rica deciding whether to oust the long-ruling party, and voters in El Salvador deciding whether to bring it back to power.

El Salvador’s ruling leftist party faces an uphill battle to keep the presidency after one term. Critics say President Mauricio Funes did little to energize the economy and reduce gang crime.

In Costa Rica, a ruling conservative party that is battling corruption allegations is being challenged by a charismatic left-leaning congressman.

Analysts expect Sunday’s votes to result in runoffs.

In El Salvador, Vice President Salvador Sánchez had a moderate lead going into the vote in his bid to extend the rule of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, the party of former civil war guerrillas that defeated the Nationalist Republican Alliance, or ARENA, in 2009.

Trailing closely is Nationalist Republican Alliance candidate Norman Quijano, 67, the mayor of San Salvador.

A former television journalist, Funes has won the support of the poorest sectors of Salvadoran society by implementing social programs, giving books, shoes, and uniforms to school children, seeds and fertilizers to the poorest farmers, and a small pension to the elderly.

That never goes over well with the PtB.

For Salvadorans, the main issues are a sluggish economy and rampant gang crime in the country of 6 million people.

Under Funes, leaders of El Salvador’s Mara street gangs declared a truce in several cities that yielded mixed results.

‘‘Homicides have gone down but [the gangs] are still killing; now they hide the victims,’’ said Roberto Rubio, director of the National Foundation for Development. ‘‘Extortion has intensified and gangs have solidified their control over territory.’’

Bankers and IMF have the government in thrall, huh?

On top of the lack of security, Funes was not able to control the deficit or create jobs. But his poor handling of the economy might be not enough to bring back the Nationalist Republican Alliance, said Omar Serrano, at Central American University José Simeón Cañas.

‘‘The population is not satisfied with the current government, is not convinced that the [Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front] should continue to rule, but it’s very much convinced that [the Nationalist Republican Alliance] shouldn’t return to government,’’ he said.

They don't like U.S.-sponsored thugs and killers ruling them?

In Costa Rica, the ruling National Liberation Party has been beset by infighting and corruption allegations and its presidential candidate, Johnny Araya, now faces three rivals.

Araya, the mayor of the capital, San José, since 2003, must overcome discontent over high unemployment .

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"Runoffs called likely in Costa Rica and El Salvador; Neither leader in voting reaches threshold for win" Associated Press, February 04, 2014

SAN SALVADOR — El Salvador’s ruling leftist party appeared to win the presidential vote with over 99 percent of ballots counted by Monday, but candidate Salvador Sanchez of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front probably faces a runoff after narrowly failing to win a simple majority of votes.

That means vote couldn't be rigged enough to bring back the U.S-sponsored killers, and third-party involvement practically confirms electoral skullduggery.

Presidential elections in Costa Rica were much closer, but that race also appeared headed toward a second round....

With 88 percent of ballots counted in Costa Rica, upstart opposition candidate Luis Guillermo Solis had won 30.98 percent, while ruling-party candidate Johnny Araya had 29.57 percent. Costa Rica requires a runoff when no candidate wins at least 40 percent of the votes; the second round would be held April 6.

Araya’s ruling National Liberation Party, the PLN, has been weighed down by corruption allegations. Araya, who has been mayor of the capital of San Jose since 2003, also needed to overcome discontent over high unemployment during President Laura Chinchilla’s government.

Few had expected Solis’s center-right Citizen Action Party to even make the second round, in a country where politics have been dominated for three decades by the two main parties, National Liberation and the Social Christian Unity party.

University of Costa Rica professor Francisco Barahona said that a large number of voters were looking for alternatives to the ruling party.

‘‘With the opinion polls in November, it became clear that 65 percent of voters do not want a third consecutive PLN government,’’ Barahona said.

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I thought the next story was rather earth-shaking:

"No volcano damage cited in El Salvador" Associated Press, December 31, 2013

SAN SALVADOR — Ash from the Chaparrastique volcano has fallen on several parts of El Salvador, with some reaching the capital, San Salvador, officials said Monday.

Observations by the US National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration of the ash plume from the weekend eruption suggested the clouds of gritty dust will probably dissipate soon.

Compared with the giant plume of ash and vapor that the peak spewed 3 miles into the air on Sunday, the Environment Ministry said, camera images showed moderate emissions on Monday. A fine dusting of ash accumulated on vehicles and windows in the capital.

President Mauricio Funes said in a broadcast message that the eruption ‘‘has not caused serious injuries or damages.’’ Funes said it was unclear whether the activity would continue or increase.

The 7,025-foot volcano is about 90 miles east of San Salvador. Its last significant eruption was in 1976.

About 2,214 people were evacuated from communities near the volcano and were taken to shelters.

Related: Indonesian Eruption

The international airport at Comalapa, 21 miles south of the capital, resumed operations Monday after the Avianca-Taca company canceled about 30 flights after the eruption.

Last week, the Canary Island of El Hierro was rocked by more than 50 tremors in 24 hours, two years after a new volcano began to appear off its southern coast, according to the National Geographical Institute of Spain. The tremors caused no damage, local officials said.

I note that because that is where a mountain-sized slab of earth could drop into the sea and cause a tsunami the likes of which no one has ever seen.

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As usual, such things that are real threats are a one-day wonder while I'm propagandi$ed daily with imaginary or manufactured problems.