Posts from Peru

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Some of the recent political news inspired new posts in Peruvian blogs; here are some of them:

Jomra takes a look at Quechua in Congress: a small step for a language forgotten by the State (ES). The post discusses the consequences of an incident that took place during the initial session of the new congress, when a congresswoman refused to be sworn in in Spanish and insisted on carrying it through in Quechua, the native language of thousand of Peruvians and one of the official languages of the country. I was particularly pleased with the final reflection of the blogger:

El día en que dejemos de lado el hispanocentrismo daremos un paso adelante en el reconocimiento pluricultural del Estado, de nuestra población, y un paso en la integración (que no asimilación) de todos los peruanos sin necesidad de obligarles a abandonar lo que son o lo que tienen para una idea única de lo culturalmente mejor, que es lo que predomina, somos un país que tiende a convertir a sus miembros en alienados sin alma ni espíritu, y que olvida los otros idiomas en perjuicio de las poblaciones que hablan dicho idioma, desde la educación hasta el trato con la administración central.

The day in which we put aside our Hispano-centrism, we shall take a step forward towards pluricultural recognition of our population by the state and take a step towards the integration (not assimilation) of all Peruvians without the necessity of forcing anyone to abandon who they are or what they have for a specific idea of what is culturally best, that which predominates. We are a country that tends to alienate its people, without soul nor spirit, and which forgets the other languages, damaging the populations that speak them from education to interactions with the state.

One of the congresswomen opposed to the use of Quechua in congress was Martha Hildebrandt, of whom the blog Opinión Libre (“Free Opinion”) focuses on but for another reason in, “Martha Hildebrandt: Will you know the meaning of the word SHAMELESS? (ES)” In this case one is his reluctance to return money procured not illegally, but of questionable morality.

La mañana de este martes declaró a RPP “A mí nadie me da lecciones de moral, no las acepto. (…) A mí nadie me va a decir que si dejo de cobrar la situación de la pobreza en el Perú mejora, son tonterías “, afirmó la congresista Martha Hildebrandt. Asimismo explicó que cobró los gastos por concepto de instalación debido que su bancada, Alianza para el Futuro, lo autorizó… preguntémonos ¿en los últimos 20 ó 30 años, cuál ha sido el aporte de esta señora para con el país? ¿saberse el origen y significado de un millón de palabras? En 10 años de parlamentaria y un nuevo periodo por ejercer ¿cuáles han sido las leyes que ha promovido en beneficio del país? ¿Qué propone para mejorar las posibilidades de inversión y generar empleo?

This Tuesday morning, on the Radio Program of Peru (RPP), she declared, “nobody gives me moral lessons, I don't accept them. (…) Nobody is going to say to me that if I stop tackling the situation of the poverty in Peru, it will improve. Those are foolish remarks,” affirmed to congresswoman Martha Hildebrandt. She also explained that she earned the payments for the installation because her foundation, Alliance for the Future, authorized it … we must ask ourselves, in the last 20 or 30 years, which has been the contribution towards our country from this woman? To know to the origin and meaning of a million words? In 10 years of parliamentary and a new legislative period, what have been the laws that have benefited the country? What has she proposed to improve the investment possibilities and create employment?

In the blog La Nacion Inka del Siglo XXI (“The Incan Nation of the 21st Century”), they speak of another subject that has been occupying the front pages: “A Reflection On Capital Punishment” regarding President Garcia's intention to restore the death penalty for rapists of minors who cause the death to their victim. And in this case, there are no doubts of the blogger's opinion:

La lectura que hago del dicho, “maten a esos malditos”, a quienes cometen esos actos, no es porque la gente quiere venganza, es de aquellos que temen que a sus hijos esos miserables los dañen e incluso maten. … el que vivamos detrás de rejas y con calles enrejadas nos dice que es un escenario extremo y no simples hechos aislados. y como se trata de un escenario extremo se justifican medidas extremas que en escenarios normales no podrían justificarse. Por tanto la pena de muerte en el escenario actual se justifica, claro no como la colonia donde se hacían las ejecuciones públicas ni tan puras como las actuales donde se les inyecta, pero quizás la horca sea una forma de aplicarla.

My understanding of the saying, “kill those damned ones” referring to those who commit these acts, is that they don't want revenge, but rather they fear the damage and even murder that these deplorable people can do to their children. … we are a society behind bars and with streets lined with barred windows they tell us that they are extreme scenarios and not simply isolated events. And as one is an extreme scene extreme measures are justified that in normal scenarios could not be. Which is why the death penalty in such a scenario is justified; clearly not like colonial times where executions were done publicly nor current methods where they are injected, but perhaps execution by hanging is a form to apply it.

The debate has just begun and there are conflicting positions, so there will be more of this. And to continue with presidential proposals, there was another about the increase of study hours in the schools. Surprising Gamma-Nomids, who normally does not write about these things, opines in It is Necessary for Peru to Do Something … (ES):

El asunto de la educación me afecta directamente. Como profesora particular y madre, se que muchas veces los padres le dejan la tarea de la educación totalmente a los maestros; y estos se amparan en que los padres aclaren y/o ayuden a los hijos en temas anexos. ¿Pero cuando puede rendir un padre que trabaja 12 horas y que luego tiene que venir a casa a empezar a construir una maqueta del sistema digestivo, tema que el maestro ha pedido investigar en casa? ¿O a un maestro que tiene un cachuelo en las tardes para mantener a sus propios hijos? Entonces pedir uno del otro es absurdo. Y si tenemos en cuenta que muchos padres tienen esa preocupación en mente siempre, ¿como pedirles que sean productivos en sus trabajos, sabiendo que sus hijos NO APRENDEN, y que tienen que trabajar más para conseguirles un profesor particular? Para que todos, padres e hijos trabajemos juntos, lo que hay que hacer es mejorar la calidad de vida de todos, y eso no es solo cuestión de sueldos. Todo esto, se agrava con otro problema que se ha vuelto endémico en el Peru: la flojera.

The subject of the education affects to me directly. As a professor and mother, I know that often the parents leave the task of education completely to the teachers; and these seek impunity with parents who clarify and/or help their children with extra-curricular subjects. But how long can a father work 12 hours a day and, as soon he comes home, begin constructing a scale model of the digestive system, a project that the teacher requests to be investigated at home? Or what about a teacher who has part-time job in the afternoons to support his own children? And so to request more by one of the other is absurd. And if we take into account that many parents always have such a preoccupation in mind, how to ask them to be productive in their jobs, knowing that their children DO NOT LEARN and that they have to work even more to obtain a particular teacher for their children? So that everyone, parents and children, work together, what must be done is to improve the quality of life for all. And that is not just a question of salary. All this, worsens with another problem that has become endemic in Peru: lethargy.

Something which is not spoken much of in blogs, except in specialized circles, are the economic policies that the new government will begin to implement. In Ingenuopais they touch on the topic but on one of the last measures taken by the previous regime: LAN, TANS and AEROCONTINENTE… or on Subsidies and Competitiveness (ES):

Una reciente disposición legal, que exonera del impuesto a la emisión de pasajes aéreos cuyo destino y partida es Iquitos, nos pone -una vez más- ante la disyuntiva de considerar la pertinencia de los subsidios frente a la libre competencia. Es evidente que, los empresarios y amigos “liberales” de LAN-Perú (vinculada a LAN Chile) están sumamente felices por la medida tomada.

A recent legal decision, which repeals a tax on flights arriving to and departing from Iquitos, puts forth – one more time – the dilemma to consider the applicability of subsidies as opposed to free competition. It is evident that, the workers and “liberal” friends of LAN-Peru (tied to LAN Chile) are extremely happy by the chosen decision.

And it seems that the campaigns for the municipal and regional elections have already begun to claim victims, at least that is the virtual result of the scandal produced by the propagation of a video showing a bribe between the brother of the previous mayor of Lima and the present mayor of Miraflores. El Brujo político, a newer blog speaks of this in “The Bribery Institution of Peru“:

Alguna vez alguien me dijo que un máximo ejecutivo de una empresa pública le había manifestado “ está bien ser honesto, pero no coj…..” para justificar alguna “coimisión”. Cuantas veces también hemos escuchado la frase “ roba pero hace obras” , o mas recientemente aún, en las pasadas elecciones presidenciales, en las tandas comerciales de algún canal de TV promocionando la cobertura de dicho proceso, en el cual un modesto hombre decía “que roben, pero que roben poquito”. Esto es indicativo de la aceptación de las capas populares en la cultura de la corrupción, donde al que roba le dicen “que es mosca” o que miren con admiración a alguien “ que ha sabido forrarse con tal o cual cargo” y que por el contrario justifiquen el no nombramiento de otro porque “era demasiado sano” o “ demasiado zanahoria” para describir a alguien honesto.

One time somebody told me that the hightest executive of a public company had declared to him “is good being honest, but ….” to justify some “bribe-commission”. How many times have we also heard the phrase “rob but do good works”, or still more recently, in the last presidential elections, in the commercial announcements of some TV channels covering the said process, in which a modest man said “they will steal, but that hopefully they only steal a little.” This is indicative of the common acceptance of the culture of the corruption, where they say of the thief “(s)he is a ‘fly'” or they look with admiration at somebody “who knows how to cover him/herself with such-and-such position.” And, on the other hand, they justify the nonappointment of somehone who “was too clean” or “too much a ‘carrot'” to describe someone honest.

Changing the subject, Ernesto of Física3 tells us in a pair of posts how his friends arranged a Peruvian lunch in South Africa to celebrate the occasion of Independence Day: En 28 …. Invita algo peruano!!!! (ES) and Aji de gallina en Joburg (actualizacion) (ES), an excellent idea. And AlexCeli gives us his impressions of The new Glass of Pisco, a Peruvian glass for a Peruvian product.

These days in Lima a film festival is approaching and Germán (“El Gato Descalzo”) of Cosas que (me) pasan has a long and layered post on the matter: “Hoy inicia el 10º festival elcine Lima.” We also recently had a book fair and in Lado B took on the subject in the post “Ferias (ES).” And, speaking of books, the author Santiago sudden Roncagliolo tells us of his sudden ills in Vacaciones forzosas (ES) (“Unavoidable Vacations”).

In the field of music, the blog de Adrián posts about “Agenda musical para este mes de Agosto 2006” (“the musical Agenda for this month of Agosto 2006″), which mostly discusses rock and jazz concerts. For his part, the Chepis, a popular blogger these days, writes about reggaeton in Postea Papi Postea! (“Post it Papi, Post It!”):

No quiero ser tildado “enemigo” del reaggetón, para nada… no soy su enemigo, simplemente no soy un fan… pero me sorprende la pegada que éste tipo de cosas puede tener. Igual la música electrónica. Alguna me gusta, la puedo bailar un rato, me divierto, pero después de 2 horas (osea!!! 2 horas! No digan que no soy tolerante!) me produce un terrible dolor de cabeza. Y es que he escuchado explicaciones de todo tipo: Es que es el ritmo del pueblo ps, man! Ok… el ritmo de qué pueblo? (Ya me late que me caerán palos y piedras por ésto…) En mi opinión el ritmo del pueblo, NO es. No pes! No! No! Están locos? De qué pueblo! Huayno, Carnavales, Valses, Negroide, etc… ese es el ritmo del pueblo!… ahora me van a decir que la marinera no es un baile del pueblo, y el perreo sí?!

I do not want to be labeled “enemy” as reaggetón, not at all… I am not its enemy; I'm simply not a fan… but it surprises me how successful this type of thing can get. Just like electronic music. Some of which I like, I can dance to it awhile, amuse myself, but after 2 hours (I mean!!! 2 hours!!! Don't say that I am not tolerant) it gives me a terrible headache. And I have already heard all sorts of explanations: It's the rhythm of the town, man! Ok… the rhythm of what town? (I know that sticks and stones will fall on me for this) In my opinion the rhythm of the town it is not. Not at all! No! No! Are they crazy? What town! Huayno, Carnivals, Valses, Negroide, etc… that is the rhythm of the town! … now they are going to me to say that la marinera is not a folkloric dance, and el perreo is?!

As we say in Peru, “in taste and colors, the doctors can't agree.” And so I leave it up to you to debate. Until the next one …

Translation by David Sasaki

5 comments

  • […] Como bien sabemos .. en gustos y colores… no se ponen de acuerdo los doctores, así que los dejo para que lo discutan entre ustedes. Como siempre, este post lo he publicado originalmente en mi blog Globalizado con el mismo título, y en el blog de Global Voices con el título de: Posts from Peru. Hasta la próxima. […]

  • Hello, i’m Germán, el gato descalzo. The link of the Festival elcine Lima 2006 in this post is wrong, please change for:

    https://elgatodescalzo.wordpress.com/
    2006/08/03/hoy-inicia-el-10%c2%ba-
    festival-elcine-lima/

    Thanks

  • That a excellent review of blogs from Perù, and its a challenge to improve our post, in my case about a personal understanding of the Peruvian Reality.

    Thanks
    Cesar Esquerre
    nacioninka.blogspot.com

  • Sorry for my english.

    It is desapointed to know that This country , full of nature sources and culture, has to live in poverty. It is not fair that many countries tend to steal culture things (comercial interests, example is Pisco, genetic sources like uña de gato, some camellidos, cultural traditions and music, i know that some europeans think that “cajon” is from spain but it is not, i recomed to ask Paco de Lucia, he knows the really story and so on) because money and marketing stead of thinking that poor peruvians need to live in armony with their rigths as a human and then as a citizens. I know that political system sucks in this country, there are corruption and many of then are capable to sell their souls in order to earn much money, and some foreign polititians know that.So, Peru needs to wake up, and to be respected from other countries, and to be recognazed that many things which exist in this world come from this country. I know the patriotism is inherent in every citizen but i only replied to see justice and respect for this people of what they do and what they offer.

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