Granada in 15 years?

at the moment Granada still has a culture and community that aren't derived entirely from what corporations tell them will make them happy. Kids with big smiles, without greed, that still know the value of a dollar because it isn't handed to them to go play at the mall. What you call dirty are the things you can see here. They don't require money to to change, it's just an attitude to change and that can happen. Where I left from Canada, the dirty is what you can't see, the industrial/ agricultural pollutants, the toxic superfund sites that border Canada, that have been leaching toxic carcinagens into the "great lakes" for decades. Good help Nicaragua if it ever buys into the greed economy of the developed world where the mantra is "what you want, is what you need" to quote Toyota. Money is received, not made - and not enough is received to satisfy the desire that marketing has created. So the average north american has a 2500 revolving credit card bill at 17% interest. How did we ever get so heavy running on that treadmill. The Canada I left was ultra clean, 98% germ-free clean, made of plastic, and had a corporate logo on anything that wasn't moving, and most things that were moving. Even the people were branding themselves, and proud of it. Nicaragua has problems, there is an underclass, there is underemployment. Would the North Americanization of Nicaragua help them. It hasn't helped them in Canada or the US. I think the UNESCO heritage designation can't come soon enough to keep the corporations from imposing their ideal of beauty, harmony and global homogeneity on this city.

Some people are conflicted about nice and fancy/gringo/etc. You can have tradition and modernization together. Certainly cleanliness and some money for poor folks doesn't get in the way either. probably means a bit pricer locale for all, but on balance makes it better for more than it hurts. OK..so we will pay a buck and a half for beer.ZZT