What Goes Up....Does Not Go Down

The never ending tranport issues in Lima are always front and center in the local press.  

This story, summarized nicely in English by the folks at Living in Peru, mentions the fact that a couple of months ago when oil prices were at all time highs the transport units in Lima (remember there is not a public transit system in Lima) raised their prices in response to increased fuel costs.  

Now that oil prices have tumbled student groups in Lima have begun to mention that student fares should drop to take into account the new lower prices for fuel.  Apart from the students there appears to be little protest from the other users of Lima's transport units.    A reduction in student fares should be immediately implemented but I would hold off on reducing the adult fare and hopefully the transport companies would use some of this profit to upgrade their 20th century buses for something more modern and cleaner burning.  

Sadly, I do not hold out much hope for this as there has been very little initiative amongst the various actors that are involved in Lima's chaotic urban transport system for trying anything different.  Someday these students will understand that companies will raise fares overnight but it will take months of public pressure before they will even consider dropping fares even 10 cents.  

The Lima Traffic Situation is Laughable

I had to chuckle to myself yesterday when I cam across the following headling from Lima's major newspaper, El Comercio, 68 Traffic Citations Given per Hour.  Why this headline produced laughter is the fact that I could stand on almost any given street corner in this bustling city of nearly 9 million and give out 68 citations in about 15 minutes. 

The story, in Spanish, indicates that there has been a reduction in the number of citations compared to previous years, which boggles my mind as the number of cars, buses, and other transport vehicles has been steadily increasing as Peru and especially Lima continues to enjoy an economic boom.  It would make sense to assume (big assumption I know) that with more traffic on the roads the number of fines should increase because I can assure you that the typical Lima driver has not all of a sudden become civil and now obeys all traffic signs.  

If you can understand Spanish give the story a read as it is truly a laugher.

As much of the U.S. foreign policy lays in waste after nearly a decade of Bush administration policies, the U.S. relationship with Latin America is no exception.  

In a piece for the Council of the Americas, former President of Bolivia, Jorge Quiroga, laid out a plan for the new Obama administration to re-establish the US./Latin American relationship through partical proposals that take into account the many common issues in this relationship.  

Although many of these ideas are straigtforward many are new for people, who have not paid much attention U.S. policy in its own neighborhood.  

Reducing Traffic Stress in Lima

Living in Lima, Peru comes with all the joys of a city of nearly 9 million people with a transport system deisgned for a tiny fraction of this number.  With the Peruvian economy booming more and more people are purchasing, many for the first time, cars.  Behind the wheel of their new cars these people take their vehicles onto the already congested city streets.  The good news is that they streets are so congested that it is hard to see what a few more cars will do to make things any worse.  Within a year or so the transport situation in Lima will reach a point of no return.  

Added to this problem are the thousands of "buses" (I use this term lightly as many of them decades ago lost any quality that would have made them a bus) cruise the streets looking for passengers.  As their is very light, read not at all, enforcement these transport units (better term) are allowed to do whatever they want including stopping and picking up passengers wherever they wish.  If you really want to have some fun ask a Lima transport unit driver how many bus stops are on his route and I gurantee that he will be unable to answer the question.  

Thankfully, there appears to be some one at least trying to make this situation a bit better for everybody and it comes from a most unlikely source, the Dept. of Labor (Min. del Trabajo) http://www.elcomercio.com.pe/ediciononline/HTML/2008-12-10/regularan-jornadas-laborales-choferes-transporte-publico.html.  They announced that the will be cracking down on the companies that make their drivers work 12+ hour days without a break.  This is with the goal of reducing the hours of the drivers and thus their stress and levels of drowsiness, which will hopefully correleate to less accidents and a happy driving experience for everybody.  

I do not hold out a lot of hope but something needs to be done to try to confront this transport beast that has become unbearable here in Lima so here's to the Dept. of Labor!  

U.S. Media Talking about Latin America!

Finally, a major U.S. media source has begun a discussion about Latin America. I for one hope that this becomes more of a trend as the U.S. has for to long ignored its southern neighbors.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/28/opinion/28fri1.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

Long-term U.S. goals

David Brooks, NYT columnist, hits the nail on the head on how the U.S. needs to get out of its short-term mindset and begin to construct a long-term economic vision. I especially like the long-term capital gains idea to not begin to reduce rates until an investment is held for 3-5 years. Right on Mr. Brooks!

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/28/opinion/28brooks.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink