Posts from Peru · Global Voices
Juan Arellano

This time it is three rather than two weekly summaries from the guys at Perú Político: Weekly Chronicle (September 6 to the 12) and Weekly Chronicle (September 13 – 19) Gobierno y Congreso tras el clamor popular, and there is a version in English for readers of the anglophone world: Weekly review (September 6-12) and Weekly review (September 13-19) Congress and Government behind popular clamour.
The first summary principally deals with the repercussions in the Judicial Power after the recent cases of corruption and the national proposal for 2007, while the second looks at the recent polemic actions of the Congress regarding the death penalty for rapists of minors as well as the law to eliminate the basic charge for a fixed telephone.
The whole world is opinionated about the topic of a basic telephone charge and even though there is general consensus that the user's costs should be lower, how to do it is what leads to interminable debate. Citing two blogs, El Otro Tambor posted “The Basic Charge” with lots of interesting links in the following tone:
Telefónica del Perú cobra 47 soles (en la práctica más todavía) simplemente por dejarnos tener un teléfono, aparte de lo que pagamos por llamadas y servicios. Se supone que eso es lo que le cuesta a Telefónica mantener sus instalaciones y equipos. Esos que en cierta medida se construyeron con nuestros impuestos mientras la empresa era estatal, y en otra medida se podrían financiar con una parte de las enormes utilidades que consigue la empresa gracias a su posición de monopolio. Pero no, Telefónica sólo quiere maximizar su ganancia y que nosotros sigamos financiando la inversión y costeando las pérdidas. Y la institución encargada de regular esto, Osiptel, bien gracias…
And in the blog of Raúl Weiner, the post, “Media and Telefónica,” which as its title suggests, covers other investigations:
Ya está visto que la prensa de unanimidad que tenemos instalada en el Perú desde hace un tiempo funciona bien cuando trata de promover algún miedo, pero no tiene el mismo éxito en inducir a que la gente que la ve, escucha o lee, adhiera a sus preferidos. … ¿Qué cosa de técnico por supuesto puede tener el cobrar más o menos 50 soles por tener un aparato de teléfono en la casa así no se use, si por ejemplo casi te regalan el celular con tal que entres a su sistema?, ¿cuánto de técnico hay en redondear los segundos en minutos, cuando se tiene la tecnología suficiente para la medición exacta del tiempo de llamada?, ¿por qué en España hay tarifa plana y se puede llamar tantas veces y tanto rato como se quiera, y aquí es un escándalo reclamarlo a los españoles de Telefónica?
Another topic in the media these days was the case of Lima's mayoral candidate from the ruling party (APRA), Benedicto Jiménez, who might have made indebted and illegal use of some audio cassettes which, above all, he had tried to use to boost his candidature. Blog de Notas writes about it.
There are little things that we see in our daily life and which make us reflect and go beyond the simple act of observing. La página de Milanta posts: “¿oe la niña va a pagar su pasaje?” o la institucionalización de la ignorancia y la indiferencia (“Is the little girl going to pay for her trip?, or the institutionalization of ignorance and indifference”). Beginning with the daily charge of the trip for minors and the impossibility of sitting in the famous vans in Lima, Milanta talks to us about indifference and the loss of values. An interesting post as well as the readers’ comments sharing their own experiences.
Mi música, escritos y otras hierbas, in the post “Reasons to see us as third world,” where he also begins with a public transportation experience, mentioning some of the behaviors and social phenomena that contribute to our low quality of life in general. And it's no coincidence that the “combis” or public transportation vans are what make our bloggers think. Rather than vehicles of public transportation, they should be called torture machines for the frequency with the passengers are mistreated; something which our next mayor should be taken to task about.
But since not everything can be bad news, Maskus informs us in “Images of Peru in New York” that, thanks to an agreement between PromPerú and National Geographic, something like three and a half million people will be able to appreciate some spectacularly huge photographs of Peru in New York's Central Station. Cosas que (me) pasan tells us in “Second International Festival of Short Films” about the festival of shorts that is taking place these days in Lima.
Someone else who was in this city and also in Arequipa was Gustavo Cerati, former leader of the Argentine band Soda Stereo. In ¡¡Y no paran de sonar!! the post the story of a fan that attended one of the concerts: “The most recent visit by Cerati to Lima.” And from Arequipa, El Desfachatado – in “Como una Bocanada” – tells us rapidly of what he liked about the concert there. To end with music, El Modem has prepared a selection of Peruvian rock videos: “Peruvian rock on YouTube.” Enjoy it.
And finally, we bloggers were enthusiastic these last days with the activity of “Day of the Free Book, unfortunately, its energy idled at the last moment and there was not time to coordinate a more organized event, however, the intention to follow up on the project and spread its message remains. There is also a post which remembers the day and a new blog to serve as the starting point for new related projects.
The photo with this post is from a part of Lima known as “Gamarra,” a place where the majority of small and medium-sized textile factories are located. And yes, on the avenue you can observe various “combis”.