Ahh phil I didn´t know you were off to Central America, My girlfriend has just returned from Guatemala, Mexico, Honduras and El Salvador... She agreed with you on most things but is less of a cynic than you (or me). Very interesting stuff these hippies get up to, very difficult to talk about as well as it hurts alot of do gooders and makes people irrational...

Education? it is sometimes very difficult to convince people of very simple things... like the role of the US in all this. this morning I was trying to tell a class of racist 14 year olds what morons they were without saying that... WHY? "Have you ever talked to a black person?" I said... "yes, when thay robbed us" was the reply... why would they want to do a thing like that?.... and things got a bit too complicated for they´re English.
good luck