October 11, 2012: El Comercio

It’s All in the Relationship

From the “Economia” section of this Thursday’s edition of El Comercio came a story about the MSC Ines, a container ship that is – to put it mildly – on the big side.

The story itself – about how this Panamian-flagged vessel would be docking in the Peruvian port of Callao – was not what grabbed my interest.

What I found interesting was the comparison the newspaper used to convey to the reader how big this seafaring craft really was. Sure, El Comercio could have simply stated that the MSC Ines was 348.4 meters in length (381 yards), but where is the fun in that.

In the United States, when periodicals and publications want to give the reader a sense of scale, they trot out a football field (examples here and here and here).

Here in Peru, El Comercio does the exact same thing except that they use a futbol field (“soccer” for those of you reading from the States and Europe).

She can hold 9,000 containers

If you look down at the bottom of the above picture, you can see the comparison the newspaper makes.

According to Wikipedia, a futbol field can be anywhere from 90 to 120 meters, so the MSC Ines is indeed three pitches (the fancy name for a soccer field) long.

I simply enjoy the fact that something as simple as the object used for a size comparison can vary depending on where you live.

 

October 1, 2012: El Comercio

I know I have problems at times with the language situation here in Peru, but this was taking things too far for me.

I honestly thought someone was playing an April Fool’s joke on me when I saw the front page of this Monday’s edition of El Comercio except for the fact that a) it was October and b) that punnish holiday does not hold much sway here in Peru.

Here is the front page in question.

Remember to read right to left

The editors of El Comercio were paying homage to the Arabic-speaking visitors who were in town for the 3rd Summit of South American-Arab Countries, a gathering to establish social, economic, and cultural ties between the two geographic areas.

So that traffic would be less than its monstrous self and so the visiting delegates would not have to sit in gridlock (which, so you know, is not the official governmental version), the President of Peru declared that the 1st and 2nd of October (the same days as the summit) would be official city-wide holidays.

Woo-hoo! Four-day weekend!

 

September 17, 2012: Publimetro

At first, it seemed like a giant “Oops!” from the Peruvian free daily, Publimetro.

This was part of the front page that greeted readers on this Monday.

Who took my photo?

This missing photo on the front page was not an isolated incident as this image of a gray background with the “broken image” icon appears again on the front page…

This image is broken, not stirred.

…a page 3 article about the premier food festival in Lima called Mistura…

I would have liked to have seen the food on display

…and the movie section.

Not the silver screen I was expecting

Almost every image – expect for the pictures on the crossword-type puzzle – had this broken image icon associated with it.

So what was the issue. Had there been a strike amongst the graphic designers and/or photographers of this paper? Did the paper receive a royalty for every “broken image” icon they displayed?

No, it was a promotion.

In the next day’s edition, the paper announced it was hosting a photo contest (look here for details) and was asking for readers to send in their favorite photographs in a variety of categories including “My Country”, “My Night”, and “Capture the Moment.”

I have entered this contest and this was my entry in the “Capture the Moment” category…

Catching some air in Miraflores

I’ll let you know if I win.

 

September 14, 2012: Peru 21

By the Numbers

The Friday edition of Peru 21 had some interesting figures in their newspaper.

The second and third pages of this paper had results of a poll (1,209 respondents; margin of error 2.9%; confidence level 95% for those of you who need to know) that asked who were some of the most powerful people in Peru.

The results…
…30% thought Ollanta Humala, the President of Peru, was the most powerful;
…18% gave that title to his wife, Nadine Heredia;
…15% responded that Alan Garcia, the former President, was the most powerful;
…7% said that Keiko Fujimori, a member of Congress, the runner-up in the last election, and the daughter of a former President, wielded the most power.

When asked if people thought Ollanta Humala, his wife, or both governed the country, the breakdown went as follows…
…36% thought the wife governed;
…35% thought the President governed;
…26% thought both governed.

>>>>>>>>>>
SEPTEMBER 24, 2012 UPDATE
A later story has the President denying that he co-governs with the First Lady.
>>>>>>>>>>

When it comes to Peru’s friends and not-friends, the people had the following to say…
…22% thought that Brazil was Peru’s best friend;
…18% said that the United States was “El pais mas amigo del Peru” (the country most friendly);
…74% responded that Chile was the worst friend to Peru; and
…8% gave the title of “least friendly” to Ecuador

The survey takes even have their say about the 2012 Presidential election in the United States…
…48% said that it would be better for Peru if Barack Obama is re-elected;
…12% said that it would be better for Peru if Mitt Romney is elected;

Which means that forty percent of respondents had no opinion or didn’t bother to answer this question…and that number (40%) puts them in line with the percentage of eligible voters in the United States who didn’t bother to cast a vote in the 2008 Presidential election.

In other numbers in the news, the Organizacion Meteorologica Mundial ranked Lima as the most polluted city in South America.

 

September 14, 2012: El Otorongo

How influential and important is soccer futbol in Peru?

I offer the following post as proof.

On Tuesday, September 11, Peru played against Argentina in the round-robin tournament to determine who will qualify for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Before this game, Peru was near the bottom of the nine-team standings and Argentina was in first place. The prevailing mood going into this contest was that Peru had little chance of winning.

So, two minutes into the game, the fans of the red-and-white had reason to celebrate as an Argentinian player committed a foul in the penalty area which meant that Peru was awarded a penalty kick.

Claudio Pizarro lined the ball and prepared to take his free shot. Now, I can’t point to any official statistics to back up this next statement, but 8 times out of 10, a penalty kick will result in a goal. It is rare (though not unheard of) for a free kick to not result in a score. So, fans all around Peru were eager to see their team go up by one point so early in the game.

Pizarro missed. He fired the ball low and to his left, but not hard. The goalie dived to his right and caught the ball.

The game wound up being a draw (1-1).

This missed penalty kick was so big in the national consciousness that when the next edition of El Otorongo, the insert that appears in every Friday edition of Peru 21 that contains nothing but editorial cartoons, came out, four of the fifteen cartoons made reference to Pizarro’s error.

This was the satirical drawing that graced the front page of El Otorongo (“The Jaguar”):

Many goalies prevent the score

The gentleman taking the penalty kick is Peruvian President Ollanta Humala. Facing off against him in the goalkeeper area are various members of the working class as they participate in a strike (huelga and paro in Spanish) by doctors, teachers, and vendors at a Lima market called La Parada.

No Gol

This type of cartoon, the “DVD Pirata”, appears every week in this insert. It always features the artist’s fanciful view of a contemporary issue by using the poster of a current movie. The title of this faux movie is “Gol! The Dream Ends.”

I must be honest and state that I do not know what movie the artist is riffing off of.

…Translation unavailable…

I know that this cartoon is referencing the futbol incident because the person in the drawing is wearing the uniform of the Peruvian national team. The white shirt with the red stripe is iconic here. My second clue is that the voice balloon uses the word “penal”, which can mean “penalty kick”.

I am going to guess that the person being caricatured is former president of Peru Alan Garcia, who is always in the news for one reason or another.

Google Translate was of little help to me when trying to parse together what Garcia was saying. The best I came up with was, “We should not dramatize. Sometimes it fails with a penalty.”

Pizarro makes a second appearance in cartoon form

This last cartoon features Pizarro himself with the comment, “If Ollanta explains Conga to me, I will explain to him how I missed the penalty kick.” (As always, I could be wrong.)

“Conga” refers to a mining project in the Cajamarca region Peru that has seen protests against it.

One missed shot by Pizarro results in four shots taken at him by the leading pens and pencils of Peruvian cartoonists.

 

September 14, 2012: Publimetro

Starting off our look at this Friday’s edition of Peru’s free daily, Publimetro, with a picture of food, but not just any food item.

Ironically, none of them are hot.

This picture from the front page highlights the potato, the tuber born in the Andes. This picture was taken at the Mistura food festival, which saw a record number of visitors in its 2012 incarnation.

Somebody once told me that the agricultural school near where we live grows 100 different types of potatoes. Now that would be quite an adventure – or a mildly interesting blog premise…or a reality show on the CW – to try and sample each and every type of potato.

Plus, this picture also allows me to link to this book…and how often do I get that chance?

Strike Three
Page three of the paper alerts the keen-eyed reader to the fact that the workers at a large outdoor market, La Parada, will be going on strike starting Wednesday, September 19.

This follows on the heels of the work stoppage by teachers and members of the medical profession.

How Are You Feeling?
The fourth page offers the following numerical information about how people in Lima see their city.

Of the 501 respondents…
…36% say their city is “insecure”;
…80% describe Lima as “beautiful”;
…2% would use the word “boring” as an adjective for Lima;
…53% say they would continue to live in Lima; and
…31% say they would move out of Lima, but still live in Peru.

Tennis, Anyone?
While futbol is the number one sport in Peru and volleyball makes a good argument for being the silver medal sport, tennis holds the attention of many a Peruvian reader. I make this assertion based on the fact that an entire page of Publimetro contains a trio of stories about the 2012 Davis Cup.

Talent, Anyone?
Coming to the airwaves of Peru this Saturday is Peru Tiene Talento. Similar to America’s Got Talent, this program will feature folks showcasing their talent.

New Word of the Day
An article on page 15 alerts the even keener-eyed reader that the Birding Rally Challenge will be held from November 27 to December 7.

This locale is not a bad place to go see our avian friends as, according to the article, this country hosts 1,831 bird species of which 120 are endemic to Peru.

The word I learned while reading this article was avistamiento de aves which gets translated by the paper as “birdwatching”, but the paper also uses the word aviturismo (“bird tourism”).

(End Note: If you combine the first section of this post with the last item, you get this.)

 

September 3, 2012: El Comercio

El Comercio reported in their Monday special section, Dia_1, that the following restaurant chain will be coming to Lima in 2013.

Chuck E. Cheese’s.

Enough said.

 

August 31, 2012: La Republica

Something changed.

From the last time I wrote about La Republica to today, something was changed with the format of this newspaper. It’s still thirty-two pages and in a tabloid format, but the price increased thirty centimos to S/. 1.

With this latest edition of La Republica, I discovered more numbers in the news. Let’s share.

108,418,000,000 – In soles, this is the amount of the proposed budget for the Peruvian government for the upcoming fiscal year. At the current exchange rate of S/. 2.6 = $1, this comes out to $41,699,230,769 (which comes out to nearly 41.7 billion dollars for those who like their monetary figures written out). For comparison, in the federal budget for the United States for the the Fiscal Year 2011, the amount of outlays for the Department of Homeland Security was $45.7 billion.

100,000 – Number of families each year that benefit from connections to natural gas. I certainly would like to be one of those units as our home continues to use bottled gas for our hot water.

74 – The percentage of poll respondents (out of 1,450) who disapprove of the mayor of Lima, Susana Villaran. At least this August 2012 result is better than her March 2012 disapproval rating of 79%.

40,000 – The capacity of Estadio Nacional, the home pitch of Peru’s national soccer team. The team will most likely fill all of those seats as tickets went on sale for the 2014 World Cup Qualifiers as Peru faces off against Venezuela and Argentina. Lines snaked around the stadium and they were quite long around all the other ticket-selling kiosks that can be found in the local grocery stores. I know this from personal experience because I went to our local grocery store the day tickets went on sale and saw a line disappear around the block. A quick inquiry from the local newspaper vendor confirmed that futbol would be the only reason why Peruvians would wait in such a long line.

>>>>>>>>>>
September 12, 2012 UPDATE

The red and white of Peru defeated Venezeula 2-1 and played Argentina to a 1-1 draw. This gives Peru 7 points in the standings and places them in 7th place (out of 9). The team coached by Sergio Markarian will have to step it up because only the top 4 teams qualify to play in the World Cup in Brazil two years from now.

Next up – Peru travels to Bolivia on October 12
>>>>>>>>>>

 

August: MoliNews

I’ve been told that Peru has a postal system SERPOST. This may be true but you do not see many mailboxes in Lima (or at least in the district that I live in). Most of the time when packages and letters are sent, they are kept at a SERPOST facility where the recipients have to go and pick them up. For anything delivered to a home, there are private courier services that will deliver message, advertisements, and other assorted material. Usually, this stuff is slipped under a door or a garage where hopefully someone finds it before it gathers a layer of dust.

This method of delivery is how I came across a local magazine/advertisement periodical called MOLINews.

It’s a magazine with nice glossy pages, nice shiny pages, and plenty of advertisements for the businesses around the district of La Molina.

Oh, yeah, and there are some article also.

Roadway Numbers
MOLINews reports that the city of Lima hosts 68,000 taxis and that nearly half of these transportation devices are 16 years or older in age. Our fair district is trying to set up rules and regulations mandating the use of paraderos, which are designated places for taxis and combis to stop and pick up/drop off passengers. As it stands now, these ubiquitous vehicles stop wherever and whenever they please which tends to tie up traffic.

In a totally unrelated statistic, authorities reported to MOLINews that the firefighters of Lima responded to 36,907 emergencies. Eighty percent of these emergency calls covered medical issues such as heart attacks, assaults, poisonings, suicide attempts and transfer to hospitals. These first-responders fought against 3,971 fires, attended to 1,883 gas leaks, and rescued 746 people.

Out on the Town
As I have written before, Lima is a rockin’ place as many musical acts make their way 12 degrees south of the Equator (also here and here). MOLINews lets its readers know that the band Air Supply is coming to Lima on September 25. The band was originally scheduled to play here in early July, but that date was postponed.

In addition to music, Lima hosts a wide variety of other cultural outings. MOLINews is kind enough to let us know that the following events are playing…

…TOC TOC, a comedic play about obsessive-compulsive disease;
…La Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional (Peru’s National Symphony Orchestra) is starting off its Winter Season 2012; and
…the ballet Sleeping Beauty is performing at Teatro Municipal (but our family already knew about this and you can read the story here)

 

August 28-29, 2012: Peru 21

That Was Fast

The August 28 edition of Peru 21 led off with a story with the headline Gana Contratos (“Win Contracts”). The headline is a pun off of the name of the bancada (name of a political party in Peru usually made up of a group of political parties), Gana Peru (“Win Peru”), which is headed by Ollanta Humala, the President of Peru.

The sub-headline on the front page and on pages 2 and 3 goes on to read that a certain company that donated over a million nuevo soles to the President’s election campaign has been awarded a 21.5 million nuevo soles contract to provide 40,000 laptops to the Ministry of Education.

The August 29 edition of the same paper has the story that the Contraloría (I’m taking a guess this is akin to the federal government’s Attorney General or Department of Justice) has announced an investigation into the purchase of the 40,000 laptops.

All in a day’s work of a free press.