Does having security make you secure? Some comments on the situation in Lima, Peru.

In this well written piece for LivinginPeru.com, Larry Pitman covers many of the security issues that affect those of us who call Lima home. As Larry's neighborhood had been suffering some instances of breakins and petty theft their neighborhood decided to band together and hire a private security person for their block.

Photo - courtesy of PUCP

Now, as with many things in Peru, this is a very informal procedure and consisted of the neighbors getting together, many meeting each other for the first time - this also might have something to do with crime in Peru as neighbors rarely know or for that matter recognize the person living across the street.  At these meetings the neighborhood determines that they want a watchman on the street.  Generally, a local man is hired to carry out security duties on the street.  At first glance this man would hardly seem to put a scare into any evildoers and thieves that might be in the area.  Their physical presence would hardly put a scare into school aged children let alone hardened criminal elements.

Photo Courtsey Patazas.com

However, with little money budgeted for a more formal security presence (as pictured at left) this is generally the best that the neighbors can do.  At the very least it is somebody that is physically present, not including the several hours a day that they are found dozing at their posts.  Catching a little shut-eye is the least of the concerns as these watchman are almost always giving little training let along access to any type of restroom facilities.  Further complicating matters is that they do not have either a radio or a phone to alert the local municipal security of the police.  

What they are good for though is keeping taps on the gossip of the neighborhood.  They without a doubt would be able to make confirm if there was a spouse having an affair, if a local kid was sneaking out to smoke some "hierba buena" or who on the block doesn't take their trash out on time.  

As Larry mentioned in the article on his block ever since they hired a local security guy there have been no breakins or petty theft so perhaps they security agents have a few tricks up their sleeves.  At the very least they are always good to check in on the local gossip.  

Lima: More Bus Stops per meter than any other city on earth

Ahhh, the joys of living in Lima.  Here in this wonderfully designed urban landscape we, the users of the "public" transport system, have the luxury of having more bus tops than street corners.  How you might ask is this possible?  Well it just is.  Apparently, every person in Lima is a moving bus stop.  It does not matter where you are if you stick out your arm and flick your index finger a bus, that just seconds before was careening down the boulevard, will come to a screeching halt.  Not even Superman had this type of power.  All it takes is a flick of the wrist to exercise power over the "public" transport system here in Lima.  This hold true in all circumstances.  The power is so great that each individual possesses that a bus will stop 3 or more times on the same city block to pick up or drop off passengers.

The only thing that is now required is for the Municipality of Lima to remove those ugly blue signs that faintly try to indicate where the "officially" sanctioned bus tops are.  While they are at it they can also remove the bus top prohibited signs as, if we are going to be truly honest with ourselves, had little affect as to where the people boarded or disembarked their bus.

So instead of complaining about the lack of order and respect of the law in Lima's "public" transport system we users should rejoice in the fact that to some extent Lima has created what could be the world's first individualized mass transit system.  Hats off to you Lima!

How Many Bus Stops Are There?

Anyone who is familiar with "public transport" - term is used very loosely in this context - in Lima will be able to understand the question posed in the title.

Today, on my commute into work, as my bus/combi stopped at intersections, bus stops, where bus stops were prohibited, at stoplights, in the middle of the street, etc. I got to wondering if the diver or the cobrador know how many stops were on there route?

I ask this question because in must transport systems each bus travels on a particular route and has X stops along the way. Express buses have less and local buses have more stops. This is all normal. However, in Lima this is not something that is normal as bus stops exist only as a term. Yes, there are official stops with their blue sign saying paradero (bus stop in Spanish) and people will use therm but buses will stop wherever there are passengers. This

means stopping 3-4 times on the same block in some instances, waiting 30 seconds for a passenger to saunter to the bus from a alleyway, or simply parking and waiting at a stoplight as it goes through various changes trying to fill up the bus with as many people as possible. Do remember that there is always room for another passenger on a Lima bus!

This lack of a transport system that uses something as simple as a bus stop leads to all sorts of chaos and frustration. Traffic flows are disrupted, people take great risks crossing streets to hail their bus, and buses will rapidly stop causing those passengers standing to feel as if they are on some type of amusement ride (without the safety harness).

Many people seek to put the blame on all of this on the bus drivers and their cobradores (fare collectors), but I see the situation differently. As the driver and collector receive a percentage of the passenger revenue it is in their interest to pick up as many passengers as possible and their compensation system would have to be changed to de-incentivize this practice. However, this does not entirely take the blame away from them. A second culprit in this are the municipal governments who have not even attempted to complete a study on the best areas to create bus stops. Instead they appear to have just randomly put up signs for bus stops and others to prohibit bus stops. Finally, the last and perhaps the greatest culprit in this whole mess are the bus users themselves. Their inability to make use of existing bus stops combined with their egoistical me first attitude form a lethal combination. Little do they know that if they were to walk a couple of extra blocks this would reduce the amount of stops and help all the reach their destination more rapidly and safer.

So, if you want to play a fun little game next time you are on a bus in Lima, ask the cobrador just how many stops are along the route as I am sure he/she will not have any idea as to just how many stops there are.

Illegal Immigrants make their way to Peru

It looks like Peru's economic success is starting to attract people from other countries who are looking to get a fresh start on life.

Peru's Official Languages

According to UNESCO's latest study on world languages in danger two of the more common languages of Peru were included ; Quechua and Aymara.  Although some 6 million Peruvians speak one of the other, with quechua being the more prevalent of the two, they still managed to make the list of endangered languages.

More needs to be done to ensure that these two languages, officially recognized by Peru's Constitution, do not indeed become extinct.  The fact that they are officially recognized is really just lip service as the Peruvian government does very little to promote or use their languages in its official business.  Translators are rarely used during government speeches, bilingual workers in government offices, schools, and banks are scarce, and outside of Movistar forget finding a customer service agent on the phone.

Peru has one of two different options: One would be to follow the path of other countries, like Canada, that have a thriving minority language and begin to incorporate its other languages into the daily life of all its citizens; the second would be to remove quechua and aymara from the constitution as official languages.

Even with the potential increased costs, I would hope that the government adapts a model similar to what is done in Canada and other countries than watch to rich languages potentially die.  It might be time to spend some of this economic boom money to invest in making Peru a truly multi-lingual society.  

Peru Transit Laws Not Having Desired Effect

Residing in Peru, and especially in the country's capital of Lima, one adapts to how things work or in some cases do not work.  Several months ago there was a big announcement that the government would begin cracking down on pedestrians for a variety of offenses with the hopes that this would help make the streets safer and improve traffic flow.

Withing the first couple of days 10,000 some fines were give out throughout the country, with the majority handed out in Lima.  However, as one can imagine, after the first couple of weeks there has been nary a mention of this new law and a simple observation of pedestrian behavior in the streets of Lima will show that the law has not had its desired affect on changing people's habits as is evidenced by a recent follow up study.

For us Peruvian veterans this does not come as all as a surprise as most times people in the country seem to believe that the law only applies when the authorities are present.  Until there is a dramatic change in people's morales and values do not expect to see pedestrians waiting for the light to change to cross or using the pedestrian bridges to cross the expressway.  Long live el vivo!

Is Lima Loud. And is it Excessive

Recently, a report was published that indicated that Lima has a very high noise level.  For those of us who live here that goes with out saying.  Although the report measured in certain parts of the city the noise level it did not get into the real details of why?   Outside of mentioning that there are some older vehicles that have loud motors and that the Lima driver honks the horn in excess the report did not look at to some of the underlying causes of this noise.

The single most important factor that this study should have included is the fact that almost all of this noise has one simple solution, changing human behavior.  The streets are noisy because Limeños want it that way.  That is the only conclusion that one can draw.  Not honking the horn would result in a nearly 100% reduction in the street noise, getting the street vendors to stop whistling would also go a long way to providing a more peaceful environment.

However, as we know, changing human behavior is hard and by the looks of it Limeños have gotten used to a certain degree to this noise and prefer to complain about it than do something to solve it.  It is everyone else´s problem but not mine is the classic refrain.  The authorities also only pay lip service to this problem, perhaps because they can´t hear the complaints due to all the noise.  

Here is another opinion on the same subject.