Plagued by Alan Garcia...
Please note: I meant to post this on Monday, March 27, but internet was not plentiful that day. 
The Canadian university reps, SmallTime and I arrived in Lima, Peru during the run-up of the Peruvian Presidential and Congressional elections. Election Day will be on April 9, and until then there are a multitude of billboards littering the city streets, all displaying happy, smiling candidates. Most look quite youthful and you have to wonder how long ago they had their photos taken for these billboards!
If you would like a more in depth and certainly more informed chronicle of the candidates I would recommend Dr. Max Cameron’s website at http://weblogs.elearning.ubc.ca/peru/. Dr. Cameron is a UBC professor in the Dept. of Political Science who studies Latin American politics and will soon be departing for Peru to monitor the elections first hand.
My opinions of the candidates are of course, biased and likely uninformed as I have not been keeping up with the elections in great detail, and have pieced together my views from previous childhood experiences and anecdotal stories I’ve picked up along the way from my relatives. The country should be happy I’m not voting!
Essentially, the top three candidates for President (of the approximately 26 that are running) are: Ollanta Humala, Lourdes Flores, and Ex-President Alan Garcia. Now Alan Garcia continues to plague me. You see the last time Alan and I encountered one another was in approximately 1985 (my parents will know the exact year), when my family traveled to Peru on vacation. Alan Garcia had just began his presidency, which would last until 1990.
My memories of Lima at that time include a city-wide curfew, being stopped by men with machine guns because our flight arrived late in the late evening past the curfew, “terrorist” activities including minor bombings, and a military presence in the streets. Moreover I remember that my godparents took us and their family to see the play Annie and we bought the cassette tape with the music and were enjoying a little karaoke session when all of a sudden the lights went out and the music stopped. Upstart “terrorists” would routinely take out the electric power plants leaving parts of the outskirts of Lima temporarily in the dark to disrupt people’s lives and prove their point. My cousins had become accustomed to the disruption and they instantly pulled out some candles and a board game so we could keep on playing.
My older cousin remembers the hyper-inflation during that time that resulted in such an extreme devaluation of the currency that we had to create a new one – the new Sol. He also remembers having to line up at the supermarket early in the day, waiting for the doors to open so he could run in and buy food before the prices soared earlier in the day. He remembers that although he was young and fast, older people lined up outside were not nearly as lucky. When I asked him what was the problem with Alan Garcia’s presidency, he just cites that it was all around disastrous.
Later that vacation, as I was watching TV I remember Alan Garcia addressing the nation, and I figured this man was doing a terrible disservice to his country. Perhaps SmallTime will also be as fascinated with politics at a young age. I think we may need to register him as a “Peruvian” (if that’s even possible) in the event s/he wants to run for President of Peru sometime in the future. Apparently all you need is a gigantic billboard, and a really big smile.
In our humble opinion, SmallTime and I are throwing our support behind Lourdes Flores. She’s pretty much the only one who isn’t an Ex-general whose promises to nationalize Peru’s industries could hinder rather than help an economy on the rise, nor an Ex-disaster like Alan Garcia. Go Lourdes Flores!
The Canadian university reps, SmallTime and I arrived in Lima, Peru during the run-up of the Peruvian Presidential and Congressional elections. Election Day will be on April 9, and until then there are a multitude of billboards littering the city streets, all displaying happy, smiling candidates. Most look quite youthful and you have to wonder how long ago they had their photos taken for these billboards!
If you would like a more in depth and certainly more informed chronicle of the candidates I would recommend Dr. Max Cameron’s website at http://weblogs.elearning.ubc.ca/peru/. Dr. Cameron is a UBC professor in the Dept. of Political Science who studies Latin American politics and will soon be departing for Peru to monitor the elections first hand.
My opinions of the candidates are of course, biased and likely uninformed as I have not been keeping up with the elections in great detail, and have pieced together my views from previous childhood experiences and anecdotal stories I’ve picked up along the way from my relatives. The country should be happy I’m not voting!
Essentially, the top three candidates for President (of the approximately 26 that are running) are: Ollanta Humala, Lourdes Flores, and Ex-President Alan Garcia. Now Alan Garcia continues to plague me. You see the last time Alan and I encountered one another was in approximately 1985 (my parents will know the exact year), when my family traveled to Peru on vacation. Alan Garcia had just began his presidency, which would last until 1990.
My memories of Lima at that time include a city-wide curfew, being stopped by men with machine guns because our flight arrived late in the late evening past the curfew, “terrorist” activities including minor bombings, and a military presence in the streets. Moreover I remember that my godparents took us and their family to see the play Annie and we bought the cassette tape with the music and were enjoying a little karaoke session when all of a sudden the lights went out and the music stopped. Upstart “terrorists” would routinely take out the electric power plants leaving parts of the outskirts of Lima temporarily in the dark to disrupt people’s lives and prove their point. My cousins had become accustomed to the disruption and they instantly pulled out some candles and a board game so we could keep on playing.
My older cousin remembers the hyper-inflation during that time that resulted in such an extreme devaluation of the currency that we had to create a new one – the new Sol. He also remembers having to line up at the supermarket early in the day, waiting for the doors to open so he could run in and buy food before the prices soared earlier in the day. He remembers that although he was young and fast, older people lined up outside were not nearly as lucky. When I asked him what was the problem with Alan Garcia’s presidency, he just cites that it was all around disastrous.
Later that vacation, as I was watching TV I remember Alan Garcia addressing the nation, and I figured this man was doing a terrible disservice to his country. Perhaps SmallTime will also be as fascinated with politics at a young age. I think we may need to register him as a “Peruvian” (if that’s even possible) in the event s/he wants to run for President of Peru sometime in the future. Apparently all you need is a gigantic billboard, and a really big smile.
In our humble opinion, SmallTime and I are throwing our support behind Lourdes Flores. She’s pretty much the only one who isn’t an Ex-general whose promises to nationalize Peru’s industries could hinder rather than help an economy on the rise, nor an Ex-disaster like Alan Garcia. Go Lourdes Flores!
posted by Paola at
6:08 p.m.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home