Peru's Choice - by another Elitist Snob

Living in Peru has published another in a long line of snobbish writers (Stephen Kurczy) bemoaning the patheticism [sic] of the mysterious, unfortunate and pitiful political system of Peru. They do this mind you, while all the first world nations are trying to figure out how to save their economies from irreversibly falling off an economic cliff into a bottomless cavern of debt. And, while Peru continues to be the economic envy of the World.

You know how I can tell they are snobs? Everyone of them can’t help working in the comments of leftist Mario Vargas Llosa while illuminating the dull witted common man with their rarefied air intellectualism and insight. Please! How about some originality!?

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Excepts from the article by Stephen Kurczy “Peru’s Choice.”

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“That includes Mario Vargas Llosa, who, after calling the June 5 presidential run-off a choice between “terminal cancer and AIDS,” endorsed populist candidate Humala, even if “unhappily and with fear.””

““It's a country nobody can understand,” a Dutch scientist says in Vargas Llosa's 1993 novel “Death in the Andes.” “And for people from clear, transparent countries like mine, nothing is more attractive than an indecipherable mystery.”

”“I don’t know if Vargas Llosa’s endorsement of Humala was for AIDS or terminal cancer, but both options sound pretty bad.”

“Indeed, as Vargas Llosa himself said ahead of the April 10 first round, this presidential campaign has been a “tournament of clowns with an absence of an ideological debate.”

”(“That's enough brooding,” as the main character says in Vargas Llosa’s “Death in the Andes.” “Fix us some coffee for this shit weather.”)
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Keiko is a great candidate. She will turnout to be the best president Peru has ever had. She is very well educated (Keiko has a business degree in the University of Boston and a master degree from Columbia University) and she understands the importance of world commerce and interconnectivity. There is great opportunity ahead and Keiko will allow that opportunity to continue to flow into Peru. She is also a compassionate woman who will care for those less fortunate. It is these elitist prognosticators that need find other work. They all sing the same song and call it insightful creativity. Nonsense! Why do they waste our time!?

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Political Scientists say No to Keiko

A group of leading Peruvian and foreign political scientists signed a statement this week to say they believe Keiko Fujimori would be the worst option as leader of Peru. The full statement reads:

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Unfortunately, a well known and accepted (decades old) statistical fact is that, universities are overrun and dominated by far-left Marxists and socialists. It is akin to walking into any mainstream media organization and trying to find a conservative. That may be where the term “needle in a haystack” originated. At least now they have provided us with a list of some of their names. These people are not simple minded enough to actually believe the absurdity of these, unfounded in fact and unsupportable, assumptions and accusations they communally publicize in this statement. But it was nice of them to come out of the closet, and spread their bias opinions, for this occasion.

My only criticism is that they do not, like most liberal-progressive elements, declare their political bias in such statements. I don’t believe it is because they are dishonest. I think it can be explained by realizing that these far-left zealots are so removed, pompous and delusional that they believe they are mainstream. Even though, when their ideas are aired in a free democratic society, they are rejected overwhelmingly. Time and time again. But, it is shameful that these presumably well educated people wouldn’t at least be capable of comprehending that such blanket unsubstantiated statements are the foundation of dogmatic intolerance.

The Hall of Shame:

Rolando Ames, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú
Julio Cotler, Instituto de Estudios Peruanos
Henry Pease, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú
Francisco Miró Quesada, Diario El Comercio
Martín Tanaka, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú
Carlos Alza, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú
Rosa Alayza, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú
Mariana Alvarado, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú
Jorge Aragón, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú
Omar Awapara, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú
Rodrigo Barrenechea, Instituto de Estudios Peruanos
Fabiola Bazo
Jo-Marie Burt, George Mason University
Maxwell Cameron, University of British Columbia
Julio F. Carrión, University of Delaware
Catherine Conaghan, Queen’s University
John Crabtree, Oxford University
Eduardo Dargent, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú
Henry Dietz, University of Texas at Austin
Joanna Drzewieniecki,
Graciela Ducantenzeiler, Université de Montréal
Romeo Grompone, Instituto de Estudios Peruanos
Carlos Indacochea, The George Washington University
Farid Kahatt, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú
Charles Kenney, University of Oklahoma
Denise Ledgard, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú
Steven Levitsky, Harvard University
Cynthia McClintock, The George Washington University
Andrés Mejía Acosta, University of Sussex
Carlos Meléndez, University of Notre Dame
Cynthia Milton, Université de Montréal
Paula Muñoz, University of Texas at Austin
Philip Oxhorn, Mc Gill University
Simón Pachano, FLACSO (Quito)
Luis Pásara, Universidad de Salamanca
Kenneth Roberts, Cornell University
María Ana Rodríguez, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú
Eduardo Romero, Nonprofit Roundtable of Greater Washington
Mariela Szwarcberg, University of Chicago
Carlos Torres Vitolas, London School of Economics
Jorge Valladares, University of Essex
Sofia Vera, Instituto de Estudios Peruanos
Alberto Vergara, Université de Montréal

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Final presidential debate in Peru

This short news video from NTN24 has some English translation.
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De Soto says Fujimori backs Peru anti-poverty plan 

LIMA — Renowned economist Hernando de Soto said on Thursday presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori backs anti-poverty programs he has implemented around the world and that they will help Peru avert nagging social conflicts. 

De Soto, who is advising Fujimori through his Lima-based Institute for Liberty and Democracy, is well-known in development circles for his work on extending property rights to the poor and getting them access to credit.

He says the last two governments have largely failed to implement policies that address poverty reduction and aim to bring workers into the formal economy.

Fujimori faces Ollanta Humala in a June 5 run-off. They beat three seasoned moderates in first-round voting on April 10, partly as poor voters demanded inclusion in the country's economic boom.

"This Peru is knocking on the door of the public's conscience and it is saying I am not happy because I am not participating," said de Soto who has advised current President Alan Garcia as well as Keiko Fujimori's father, jailed former president Alberto Fujimori.
Peru is one of the world's fastest-growing economies, but still has a high poverty rate, estimated at 31 percent of the population.

The failure of Peru's growing wealth to reach rural provinces is partly responsible for some 200 protests that have broken out against proposed mining and energy projects expected to bring $40 billion in foreign investment to the Andean country over the next decade.
Complicating matters, residents of Peru's resource-rich Amazon region are without property rights and unable to form businesses, obtain credit, or access lucrative international markets through Peru's free-trade agreements, de Soto added.

He said Humala's proposal to fight poverty largely depends on raising salaries for sectors that are neither salaried nor unionized.

"It's a plan that does not address Peru's problems, Keiko (Fujimori's) plan takes account of this complexity," he said.

In addition to entering the formal economy, de Soto said rural populations must have a larger role in government as well as a greater say in extractive industries on their lands.

Peru's next Congress will likely vote on ...

READ MORE HERE

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Debate of Contrasts

Even being a Keiko supporter, I have to say Ollanta brought his best game to the ultimate Peru 2011 Presidential Debate. To be fair… he had to bring his best game, because it is the only game he has. Unfortunately, being Ollanta’s only game, it has been overplayed and is in terrible condition. The one most obvious thing I observed, was that Humala is not a very complex man. Like many people with criminal backgrounds, Humala has the ability to laser focus on that which he desires at the expense of rational thought. This allows him to be unimpeded by related integrity, functionality and morality issues that may contradict or undermine his desired goals. As long as those goals go unchallenged. Humala has never abandon his Marxist socialist tendencies, he just changes the public presentation of his plan. In an attempt to appease those that disagree with his (and Chavez’s) vision of a government owned and controlled society in Perú. I see Humala as Chavez’s, heavily flawed, Trojan Horse gift to Perú.

For fun: Just a personal observation on the body language displayed during the debate. Humala appeared unusually subdued at the beginning of the debate. Like a person who had taken something to calm them self down. By the end of the debate his eyes appeared heavy as would be a person's who had undergone intense scrutiny and whose energy had been sapped by the ordeal. He was ready for it to be over before it was over. I’m just observing parallels, not attesting to the veracity of this. I agree with Bayly that Humala should stick to a script. It is difficult to appear earnest, while being untruthful, on the fly.

Keiko, on the other hand, appeared upbeat, energetic and unfazed from beginning to end and seemed ready to go another hour and a half by the end of the debate. This is normally a sign of confidence, openness and an unshakeable knowledge and belief in what it is you’re doing. After all, as Keiko deftly pointed out, she doesn’t need to change her propuesta ni compromiso (proposal nor commitment) to accommodate the political winds. She performed very well. Keiko had a casual and relaxed air about her. She was able to deliver her message, offhandedly fended off Humala’s constant non-policy related attacks and maintain a sense of humor. She was even able to, vigorously and with poise, remind an apparently forgetful Humala that he was in a debate and presidential race with her… not her father. Then when Humala drifted treacherously into the area of personal and political backgrounds, Keiko promptly jogged Humala’s memory, that it was his personal history that was sullied not hers.

Keiko …… A

Ollanta .... C+  

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Puno Perú Without The Hysteria

What I haven't seen in the typical media coverage of the Puno riots:

1. Bear Creek Mining (Santa Ana mining project, Puno) has committed to using new International Mining Standards. Which include independent inspections. There are no reported environmental damages from mines operating under these strict standards designed and sanctioned by The International Council on Mining and Metals (ICCM) and the United Nations. Environmental Impact Studies are still underway. (Update - June, 2011: Environmental Impact Studies have been halted for 12 months because Perú's government has kowtowed to criminal rioters' and terrorists' demands in Puno.)

2. The Santa Ana (Puno) property, of Bear Creek Mining, in dispute is located 140 km (87 miles) south of the city of Puno, 20 km (12.5  miles) south of the paved highway connecting to the port of Ilo, Peru. It isn't even in the same drainage basin as Lake Titicaca or Puno‘s water supplies.

3. Mining is one of the most important sectors of the Peruvian economy and typically represents over 50% of Peruvian exports figures around 4 billion dollars a year. By their very nature large-scale mining is a sector that generates large movements of capital and in 2003 accounted for 4.7% of GDP. Mining has become so important that since 1993, Peru has doubled its production of minerals. In 2005, mining activities accounted for 6 percent of GDP and more than 10 percent of fiscal revenues. Nearly $40bln invested in Peru's mining between 1996 and 2010. The failure of the Santa Ana project (near Puno) would negatively impact future private sector mining investment in Perú.

4. In news reports, which often seem sympathetic to the protesters, they put the number of protesters at 10,000. Personally I would like to know who counted and how they counted 10,000 protesters. But accepting that number consider this: In Peru, 2,519,520 people depend on the mining industry as their primary means of support, resulting in 125,976 direct and 503,904 indirect jobs plus 1,889,640 who depend on workers, the Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM) reported.

5. If Humala is elected President of Perú mining would continue. Only it would be under a nation banner rather than by private sector. There is no assurance Environmental and International Mining Standards would be applied. There is however a high probability, given that mining by government would directly benefit the bureaucrats that are supposed to oversee enforcement of such regulations, that International Mining Standards would be ignored. (Update: Humala has since softened his words about nationalizing mines, but it remains to be seen if he has had a genuine change of heart)

Sources:

AP

Andina

Living in Peru

PR Newswire

ICCM

International Environmental and Human Rights Law Affecting Mining Law Reform

Bear Creek Mining

La Oroya, Perú's government created environmental disaster

Santa Ana Property

Today in Peru

Mining and its economic impact on Perú

Earthworks

Society Hails New Oil and Mining Transparency Standards

The Case for an International Mining Law

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UPDATE: Walter Aduviri


June 15, 2011 8:15am - Walter Aduviri (Criminal Leader of the Puno Riots) is cowering inside Perú's Channel PAN5 TV Station. He is trying to avoid Peruvian authorities and lawful process. The man that lead the costly destruction of Puno's government and private property and sent tourists fleeing in fear from Puno now looks frightened. At one point he could be seen hiding behind an unnamed woman. He has two hundred unruly supporters outside the TV station. Stay Tuned.

A statement by one reporter at the scene rings very true. “The world is watching.” You can bet they are! Especially investors and business people interested in doing business in Perú. Hopefully Perú, for the sake of the vast majority of Perú's population, does not back away from a law and order stance. Walter Aduviri and the other radical terrorist leaders in Puno, who are responsible for the criminal actions that took place during the Puno riots, need to pay for their crimes. Acquiescing to ignorance is the first step toward institutionalizing it.

Walter Aduviri resists arrests and remains inside Lima television station

Story at Living in Peru

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Peru-N-English Comment:

Walter isn’t worried about more fighting. He’s worried about saving his own criminal cowardly hide. I saw his face this morning when he found out the authorities were after him. He was a scared little man, not pensive! Walter is a weasel who has no credible evidence to support his and his rioter’s claims or demands against legitimate businesses. Who have abided by all the rules and invested millions of dollars in studies to protect the environment. Walter says that infiltrators caused the damage in Puno, but quickly shoots back at anyone defending the government with the threat of radicalization of the rioters if their outrageous demands are not met.

Question: Are there no aiding and abetting of a fugitive laws or right of entry warrants in Perú? Panamericana Televisión is just as despicable as Walter!


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