"Your alms are of no use"

Peru, of course, is a third-world country, and it comes as no big surprise when you see some extreme poverty on the outskirts of large cities (as well as within, of course). My friend Martin who has volunteered for an organization that feeds homeless children in the wee morning hours told me of young boys sniffing glue, not to get high, but rather to get rid of the hunger pain, and of 8-year old girls prostituting themselves for 1 sol ($0.30). In Lima I myself have come across people sleeping naked on the highway median, blind, crippled and old people peppering the streets, asking passerby's for money; young children stepping on busses or into restaurants, singing to the passengers in hopes to receive a few centimos, and one or the other ex-drug addict asking for help now that he's sober.
I thought at first that I was targeted by them for being white, but from hanging out with locals, I learned that even for those struggling to keep their rented rooms, a few cents or even soles aren't too much to give to those who appear to need it more.
Now none of that seems too out of the ordinary. Seeing children begging for money, and young mothers with their infants spending the night on the street is upsetting and depressing, and I wish I could somehow take care of them all, but it exists in all large cities.
All along the highway that runs from the north end, to the south of the country, one is bombarded with politicians' slogans. The words "[politician x] for a united country" and "Brotherhood and equality" are painted on buildings, walls and even mountains and hills.
The only unity that can be found, however, is that of uniform separateness throughout the country and within the city.
Even my life here is divided into three equal parts: 1) living in Miraflores with other International students, 2) being on campus around the children of the most privileged and well-to-do families in the country, and 3), (my personal favorite) the part of my life that I spend with my local friends I met through CouchSurfing. These three parts ought to mix, but I feel strange about it and I am making it my personal goal to try to combine them somehow. At this point though, the three are absolutely isolated from each other.

Historically speaking, ever since Spain came and colonized this part of the world, Peru has been divided--be it into "Indians," Europeans, Mestizos (mixed) or Criollos (born in America to European parents); into people from the coast, desert, or forest; or into those 30% who can read, and the even smaller percentage who can afford a decent education versus the rest of the country.

Last night I went to a dance-theater-fusion performance put up by the Centro Britannico and my University. The show creatively and bitterly portrayed the problem with the pressure on women nowadays to fit a certain beauty type. While the message this spectacle sent was indeed a great one, I couldn't help but think of the hundres of young women I see every day on my way to school who have no choice in (and frankly probably don't care much about) what they look like and how they present themselves to the outside world. While they carry themselves with dignity still, it is naturally more important to survive and make it in this world than to worry about the latest fashion. There's no taking pills to lose weight when one struggles to keep oneself fed and healthy.
Of course it was quite startling to step onto my campus and to see students expressing their stylistic tastes in their outfits (a few are dressed in "goth" clothes, others clearly fall into the hippie/stoner category etc.) We are truly so privileged!

One naturally tries to find a relation between the obvious disconnect in the disparity between rich and poor, and the "united country" and "brotherly equality" that is being advertised by various politicians. While I have heard that current president Alan García Pérez has made some positive (yet minimal) social progress in his 25 (!!) years in office, he is like all politicians here extremely corrupt.
Examples of that can be seen all over the city with an unfinished building that had been promised to be the most state of the art edifice in the country before the money for its completion ran out because Garcia decided to take it for himself. Now about 15 hideous stories of raw materials are stacked up in the middle of Lince, creating not only an eyesore, but also the bitter reminder of the corrupt and dirty politics that rule this country. The same thing happened with the much needed tram that was proposed, planned and promised by García until money ran out again. Lima is still stuck with privately owned buses and combis (vans) as the only public transportation method.
Mayor of Lima, Óscar Luis Castañeda Lossi has promised to rebuild one of the largest roads in downtown Lima. It has been torn open and left a traffic disaster for the past year and half. From what I understood Lossi has cut some kind of deal with the construction agency in which both will award themselves with a good chunk of money that was intended for the construction budget. By stretching out the construction, less budget money, and more tax money is being used to fund this enormous infrastructural project. In the meantime, getting into the city and crossing the road is an adventure in and of itself.

Another huge part of the corruption phenomenon manifests itself in the government's efforts to hide all that of which Peru isn't exactly proud: poverty and all that comes with it (hunger, lack of work, education, and sanitation etc. ).
Walking through Miraflores, for example, one comes across distressing signs that read (in English!) "Your alms are of no use", specifically targeting tourists, advising them not to give money to beggars, especially children. While I understand the argument that giving money doesn't get them off the streets and leaves them even more undignified, I firmly believe that one sol is one less hungry night that child might be spending on the pavement. And while it sound like a conspiracy theory, I really think that these signs are there to prevent beggars to come into the ritzy streets of Miraflores in the first place, knowing that they won't get much.
The same happened in the center of town, which used to be the touristy area of Lima. Here homeless people were kicked out by state police to hide out under streets and out of the way of tourists, who might "get the wrong idea about this oh so beautiful country." While giving alms is certainly not the best thing for poor people, the government provides no funding for any kind of program that helps poor people and children getting off the street. The only organizations that exist for that cause are private non-profits and the church. To put up signs and kick out homeless people without providing any options for them to me is one of the most disgusting injustices put forth by this government. Especially while I study with students who take private limos to and from school and during lunch time. They have probably never set foot on a bus and are completely unaware of who lingers under the bridge, or has to spend another night outside next to the stray dogs.

Also, as you may have heard, during the global financial crisis, Peru was one of the only countries that actually profited while the rest of the world was struggling to keep out of the reds. With its enormous exporting capacities, Peru has slowly been climbing the economic ladder in recent years, yet all the people I've talked to here tell me that they have seen none of the progress. To the Wallstreet Journal and International eye, this country is progressing, but form the inside nothing has changed.



I found this picture at an exhibit of political cartoons. My friend Victor's cousin won an award as one of the leading cartoonists at this exhibit of a particular magazine. This image stuck in my memory merely for its simplicity. (Avanza = Move Forward, and the man in the Michael Jackson outfit doing the moonwalk is a caricature of President Pérez García). While it's poignantly bitter, I think it nicely wraps up my drawn-out "socialist" rant.