Amigos:
Yes, the title of this post might be shocking for many ....... in fact it is shocking for everyone! but sadly, it is also true! When?, how?, what for?
You know, poverty has many faces and one of the worst is this: organized criminals look for poor people that work long hours for a miserable salary and don't have a safe place to leave their young children during those periods; these criminals convince the parents (it's usually the single mother) to "take care" of them during a whole day and pay them a little more than 3 dollars a day for each one and return the baby or youg child home around 10:00 or 10:30 each night; meanwhile, those poor souls are used by adults begging in the streets with them as if they were their own children. Recent studies show that a beggar when begging alone on a "good location" can make 10-15 US dollars a day (specially on Fridays and Saturdays, or better, on paydays!); but when they begg with a young baby in his or her arms, they can make 20 - 25 US dollars; worst of all if they rent, let's say 3-4 babies to do it for him or her, they can get 10- 15 US dollars for each of them!
One of may jobmates, a few years ago, told me that his wife, who used to pick him back home after work encountered almost daily a "poor" woman with a small baby, almost nude, in her arms on a street corner no so many blocks away from our office in Miraflores (a nice middle class area of Lima); she thought she could help this poor lady giving her the almost unused clothes of her own children, already grown, she had at home; the next day she gave the woman some little pants, socks, jackets and the like, so the baby could make it in the harsh winter going on.
A few days later, she happened to find again the "poor" lady and again, with the almost nude baby again in her arms; when my coworker's wife called her attention about why she kept the baby exposed to the cold wind and rain when she had gave her enough warm clothings to prevent the child to get a cold, fever, etc.; the answer she received was stunning: "if I put the baby the clothes you gave me, no one will give me a dime then!!!!"
I personally had the next "experince" some years ago: while waiting for the red light on a corner to change to green, offered a bread and a banana I happened to carry in my car, to a smoking young guy in his early 30's who came to my window; I was so surprised when the guy rejected my offering in a rather angry way and saying: "Keep it for you! I need money, what good is to me a dam bread and banana!"
This is the reality in many poor countries, Peru is no exception to the rule yet (although we are founding our way to a better future as a country these days!).
What can you do in these cases? The answer is no so simple; the creation of new jobs in our country, I hope, will lessen these terrible panorama, meanwhile I rather give the lonly child a piece of bread or a banna or any fruit I may have at hand.
jueves, 14 de febrero de 2008
domingo, 27 de enero de 2008
Peruvian hairless dog
My friends:
You should know that we have an ancient (pre-incan) peruvian dog breed, called just that: Peruvian Hairless Dogs; as you can suppose it is a hairless one (with just a small spot of yellowish hair over their heads), we could say it is not a beauty, with a "chihuaha" appearence, but a little larger in size; it happens that because they have a large amount of fat under their skin they don´t need hair to keep warm during the winter days; this dogs are very friendly (as peruvians!) and in the last few years this dogs have been gainning value for its unique look.
Lets see the next picture to illustrate a typical one:
But you will sure ask: what has to do the Peruvian Hairless Dog in a security blog?; well my friends it happens that yesterday, loooking the local TV news, I saw that two young peruvian guys, in a centrical street of Lima, were trying to sell seven dogs, supposedly, Peruvian Hairless Dogs, to a group of tourists but when the police found them (it's now forbidden to sell any kind of animals at any street) and took a close look to the dogs, guess what! ........, yes my friends, .............. the puppies were anything but Peruvian Hairless ..... (we call that type "seven milk" dogs or street dogs) that had been carefully shaved all over their bodies to get the looks of this unique breed!
In the next image you can see when a local authority takes note over two (out of seven) fake Peruvian Hairless Dogs being sold last Saturday in Lima:
So, you have to be aware of all of this "risks" when you visit my lovely country!
JSR
You should know that we have an ancient (pre-incan) peruvian dog breed, called just that: Peruvian Hairless Dogs; as you can suppose it is a hairless one (with just a small spot of yellowish hair over their heads), we could say it is not a beauty, with a "chihuaha" appearence, but a little larger in size; it happens that because they have a large amount of fat under their skin they don´t need hair to keep warm during the winter days; this dogs are very friendly (as peruvians!) and in the last few years this dogs have been gainning value for its unique look.
Lets see the next picture to illustrate a typical one:
In the next image you can see when a local authority takes note over two (out of seven) fake Peruvian Hairless Dogs being sold last Saturday in Lima:
If you look carefully you'll see that the dog in the left side of the image is clearly "shaved", nothing near of the right look of an original one!
So, you have to be aware of all of this "risks" when you visit my lovely country!
JSR
miércoles, 9 de enero de 2008
The "ant's" or "bombing" methods to steal small parts
Amigos:
It's obvious that burglars have many ways to steal small valuables anywhere: here in Perú some of the most "popular" methods are:
The "ant's" method:
Unloyal workers of a large industy will hide small parts (tools, pens, ink cartidges, tooth pastes, soap, lightning bulbs, etc.) under their clothes or inside small bags or suitcases they usually carry and then assume a "natural" look when they pass through the controls by our guards at the gates of the facility. It is not so rare that a well aware guard will observe that a rather skinny worker ready to go back home looks as if he has, suddenly, gained weight or is wearing a bulky coat in midsummer days; it will be necessary then to politely ask the suspected one to open his bags o his unusual "summercoat" to be sure nothing strange (like the latest cell phone of "Miss Sexy Personnel Manger" or the much appreciated external hard disk of the Security Manager) is being taken out of the factory; perhaps, if the guard takes a closer look inside his, supposedly empty, "thermos" or "tupper" where he brought his luncheon this morning he will find there, "camouflaged" under a used and dirty napkin, the shiny golden "Cross" pen reported missing by the CEO this afternoon. When this kind of burglary is done by several workers we call it the "ant's way" of stealing.
Now I remember something that "marked" me many years ago while still in the Navy: the junior officer responsible for the meals reported that every end of the month he noticed that he was short of beef, so we decided to extreme our controls and after an exhaustive check, one afternoon we found .... a whole cow leg! (some 90 pounds in weight), doubly wrapped in huge plastic bags, was under a large amount of trash ready to be taken on a truck outside of the trainning school where I was posted then.
But if the unloyal worker is a woman..... well ......, things are harder; we have to have a female guard to do the checking, and the lady guard in charge will hear some harsh, outloud and intimidating phrases like "are you a lesbian?", or "why would you like me to show my underwear?", and the like. But we know that in security we have to be the "bad guy of the movie" in order to guarantee our clientes everything goes OK; we will have to use the well known "Garret" metal detectors to prevent this, but then the real bad guys will prefer to steal plastic, but not less valuable, parts.
The "bombing" method:
In large industrial facilities the unloyal employee will agree with an external accomplice that a specific day and hour (lets say: tomorrow at 5:30 p.m.) he will throw a closed black plastic bag containning some valuables (tools, carburators, faxes, and a million more things) in a exact location of a lonely section of the perimetric wall of the facility while he was "only looking for some fresh air"; an accomplice will sure be waiting outside and will pick it up in such a "natural" way that people passing by wouldn't imagine he is doing something illegal at all. A well lit facility and CCTV cameras do a great job against this type of crime (but a couple times we've found that through a 1.1/2" hole on a perimetric wall (inside of a warehouse), a terribly bad worker was passing to a smart accomplice several hundreds yards of a special and costly hose!).
The fight goes on and on .... it never ends!
JSR
It's obvious that burglars have many ways to steal small valuables anywhere: here in Perú some of the most "popular" methods are:
- digging tunnels to get where the parts are stowed, breaking in and leaving with the valuables the way back.
- forcing their entry to warehouses or stores (through doors or windows at night)
- disguising small part under their clothes or other places (known here as the "ant's" method)
- throwing small parts over the perimetrical walls to accomplices (the "bombing" method)
The "ant's" method:
Unloyal workers of a large industy will hide small parts (tools, pens, ink cartidges, tooth pastes, soap, lightning bulbs, etc.) under their clothes or inside small bags or suitcases they usually carry and then assume a "natural" look when they pass through the controls by our guards at the gates of the facility. It is not so rare that a well aware guard will observe that a rather skinny worker ready to go back home looks as if he has, suddenly, gained weight or is wearing a bulky coat in midsummer days; it will be necessary then to politely ask the suspected one to open his bags o his unusual "summercoat" to be sure nothing strange (like the latest cell phone of "Miss Sexy Personnel Manger" or the much appreciated external hard disk of the Security Manager) is being taken out of the factory; perhaps, if the guard takes a closer look inside his, supposedly empty, "thermos" or "tupper" where he brought his luncheon this morning he will find there, "camouflaged" under a used and dirty napkin, the shiny golden "Cross" pen reported missing by the CEO this afternoon. When this kind of burglary is done by several workers we call it the "ant's way" of stealing.
Now I remember something that "marked" me many years ago while still in the Navy: the junior officer responsible for the meals reported that every end of the month he noticed that he was short of beef, so we decided to extreme our controls and after an exhaustive check, one afternoon we found .... a whole cow leg! (some 90 pounds in weight), doubly wrapped in huge plastic bags, was under a large amount of trash ready to be taken on a truck outside of the trainning school where I was posted then.
But if the unloyal worker is a woman..... well ......, things are harder; we have to have a female guard to do the checking, and the lady guard in charge will hear some harsh, outloud and intimidating phrases like "are you a lesbian?", or "why would you like me to show my underwear?", and the like. But we know that in security we have to be the "bad guy of the movie" in order to guarantee our clientes everything goes OK; we will have to use the well known "Garret" metal detectors to prevent this, but then the real bad guys will prefer to steal plastic, but not less valuable, parts.
The "bombing" method:
In large industrial facilities the unloyal employee will agree with an external accomplice that a specific day and hour (lets say: tomorrow at 5:30 p.m.) he will throw a closed black plastic bag containning some valuables (tools, carburators, faxes, and a million more things) in a exact location of a lonely section of the perimetric wall of the facility while he was "only looking for some fresh air"; an accomplice will sure be waiting outside and will pick it up in such a "natural" way that people passing by wouldn't imagine he is doing something illegal at all. A well lit facility and CCTV cameras do a great job against this type of crime (but a couple times we've found that through a 1.1/2" hole on a perimetric wall (inside of a warehouse), a terribly bad worker was passing to a smart accomplice several hundreds yards of a special and costly hose!).
The fight goes on and on .... it never ends!
JSR
miércoles, 26 de diciembre de 2007
Notes on the restaurants in Lima
The next is a "copy" of someone else's post (that I can't recall to mention, sorry for that!) but it reflects just what I wanted to tell you:
Lima, the city where I live, is well known because its great cuisine. You can find delicious food for every taste and at reasonable prices. You just have to choose what kind of food are you in the mood for. Here is some general information about the restaurants in
Tips: they are not included in the bill. We usually tip 10%. If you are paying cash, just leave it cash, but if you are paying with a credit card, just add this amount and do the math before signing the voucher(Note of JSR: but please, check what is done with your credit card in the meantime, for example: if anyone is trying to "clone" it if when they carry it with them to the cashier).
Security: something that can surprise you is finding chains under your table or in the chairs. They are used to lock your purse or bags. Some years ago,
Hours of attention: depending on the kind of food they are open for breakfast, lunch and/or dinner. Just the cebicherias (the seafood places) work only for lunch. We don't use to have seafood for dinner.
Left overs: if there are left overs you want to take with you, just say it is: "para llevar", so they will put it in a doggy bag.
To share: if you want to split a dish, just tell the waiter this is "para compartir", so he will bring 2 plates.
Buffets: they are becoming more popular and you can find chinese, peruvian, seafood buffets. Their prices usually don't include a beverage. The food can be cheap, but they will make money with the beverage
JSR
jueves, 20 de diciembre de 2007
Is it safe to live in Perú?
Amigos:
After reading several of my posts, the question arises naturally: could anyone live safely in Perú? The answer is not a simple one: if you are native to this country it would be easier, safer, but nonetheless free of risks if you don't follow the "common sense" (the less common of the senses) rules; as anywhere, you have to know the town, the city or the metropoli where you live; but .... if your skin and the color and shape of your hair or eyes signals that you are a typical caucasian citizen (or japanese, malayan, indian, etc., etc.) and, worst than that, your spanish is more "spanglish" or "portugnol" (spanish-portuguese) and so on, then ... beware where you roam in the cities, specially the larger ones.
In my case, I am over 6 feet tall and, in spite of the light tanned color of my skin, there are some places outside of Lima (where I live) that many people tend to realize that I'm a foreigner (arab perhaps?); it may be because the typical peruvian is a little over 5 feet tall (when I played basketball in Iquitos, a nice city in the jungle of northeast of Perú, I was called "the giant player from Lima": they didn't know that if I stayed near Kobe Brian or "Magic" Johnson I would be seen as a dwarf!).
So, if you look, per say, as japanese, and talk "japagnol" (japanese and español or spanish) the "cream of the cream" of the criminals would spot you from miles away if you strand inadvertly over our streets. You'll be approached easily by hords of "gentle" people trying to sell you the skeleton of the "young Francisco Pizarro", who founded Lima in 1523 (he died at the age of 56, I think, in Spain), or offering themselves as tourist guides in a taxi in Lima, for some ridiculous 100 american dollars the hour, and the like.
If you plan to visit, make some businees or establish in my country, you'd better get the advise and help of someone who really knows the daily security problems here (such as ..... me!!!; that was too obvious, or not?).
Yes, it is safe to live here if you respect the rules, if you keep a low profile, if you don't wear innecesary jewelry or drive a impressive new car on the wrong places, or exhibit a dozen credit cardas when you pay your bill at the hotel or restaurant, etc.
Then you'll be able to enjoy the friendliness of peruvians, the beauty and gentleness of our girls, the unequal flavors of our incredible cuisine, visit safely many wonders we have here to show (as The Lost City of the Incas: Macchu Picchu, The incredible Amazon River, our part of the jungle, The largest Mud City of the World or Chan-Chan, The "out of this world" Nazca Lines, and so many others.
You have to know that President Bush recently signed the Free Trade between the USA and Perú, so the chances of making big business here are unequal!
Hoping you'll visit us soon,
JSR
After reading several of my posts, the question arises naturally: could anyone live safely in Perú? The answer is not a simple one: if you are native to this country it would be easier, safer, but nonetheless free of risks if you don't follow the "common sense" (the less common of the senses) rules; as anywhere, you have to know the town, the city or the metropoli where you live; but .... if your skin and the color and shape of your hair or eyes signals that you are a typical caucasian citizen (or japanese, malayan, indian, etc., etc.) and, worst than that, your spanish is more "spanglish" or "portugnol" (spanish-portuguese) and so on, then ... beware where you roam in the cities, specially the larger ones.
In my case, I am over 6 feet tall and, in spite of the light tanned color of my skin, there are some places outside of Lima (where I live) that many people tend to realize that I'm a foreigner (arab perhaps?); it may be because the typical peruvian is a little over 5 feet tall (when I played basketball in Iquitos, a nice city in the jungle of northeast of Perú, I was called "the giant player from Lima": they didn't know that if I stayed near Kobe Brian or "Magic" Johnson I would be seen as a dwarf!).
So, if you look, per say, as japanese, and talk "japagnol" (japanese and español or spanish) the "cream of the cream" of the criminals would spot you from miles away if you strand inadvertly over our streets. You'll be approached easily by hords of "gentle" people trying to sell you the skeleton of the "young Francisco Pizarro", who founded Lima in 1523 (he died at the age of 56, I think, in Spain), or offering themselves as tourist guides in a taxi in Lima, for some ridiculous 100 american dollars the hour, and the like.
If you plan to visit, make some businees or establish in my country, you'd better get the advise and help of someone who really knows the daily security problems here (such as ..... me!!!; that was too obvious, or not?).
Yes, it is safe to live here if you respect the rules, if you keep a low profile, if you don't wear innecesary jewelry or drive a impressive new car on the wrong places, or exhibit a dozen credit cardas when you pay your bill at the hotel or restaurant, etc.
Then you'll be able to enjoy the friendliness of peruvians, the beauty and gentleness of our girls, the unequal flavors of our incredible cuisine, visit safely many wonders we have here to show (as The Lost City of the Incas: Macchu Picchu, The incredible Amazon River, our part of the jungle, The largest Mud City of the World or Chan-Chan, The "out of this world" Nazca Lines, and so many others.
You have to know that President Bush recently signed the Free Trade between the USA and Perú, so the chances of making big business here are unequal!
Hoping you'll visit us soon,
JSR
Police corruption nowadays in Perú
My friends:
I'm sorry to say that, to some degree, or in some places of our country, our national police force is corrupted to such levels that it is hard to understand.
Today I read this news: a local businessman went yesterday morning to a near bank agency in Lima to retire a regular amount of cash he needed to buy wood for the furniture industry he runs; while he was on his way for the wood, 2 vehicles with 3 burglars inside intercepted him over a lonely corner; this guys shot three bullets to the air and grabbed the money inside the car; the businessman stayed put and only memorized the faces of the robbers; the burglars fled away as hell with his money leaving him alive and unhurt but terrorized.
After some minutes he needed to recover from the terrible experience he went to the local police station to make a formal complaint about it and, to his incredible surprise, guess what......
He recognized the police station chief, by the clothes he was still wearing (civilian clothes) as the head of the burglars who robbed him minutes earlier! Later he knew that a second officer from the same police station was involved in the case! Some fellow officers, after being informed by the businessman of the case, arrested inmediatly the suspected burglar and today, the bad officer recognized as being involved in such a crime and he is now in preventive prision to be soon judged.
Of course this case is one of many we read about (or see in local TV news) regularly but it is also true that most of the police officers are professionals that put their own life in risk to protect us against the organized crime in Perú; I've heard that in Mexico there is a popular saying that goes like this: "if you are robbed don't tell it outloud, the police could be near and can hear you!!"
JSR
I'm sorry to say that, to some degree, or in some places of our country, our national police force is corrupted to such levels that it is hard to understand.
Today I read this news: a local businessman went yesterday morning to a near bank agency in Lima to retire a regular amount of cash he needed to buy wood for the furniture industry he runs; while he was on his way for the wood, 2 vehicles with 3 burglars inside intercepted him over a lonely corner; this guys shot three bullets to the air and grabbed the money inside the car; the businessman stayed put and only memorized the faces of the robbers; the burglars fled away as hell with his money leaving him alive and unhurt but terrorized.
After some minutes he needed to recover from the terrible experience he went to the local police station to make a formal complaint about it and, to his incredible surprise, guess what......
He recognized the police station chief, by the clothes he was still wearing (civilian clothes) as the head of the burglars who robbed him minutes earlier! Later he knew that a second officer from the same police station was involved in the case! Some fellow officers, after being informed by the businessman of the case, arrested inmediatly the suspected burglar and today, the bad officer recognized as being involved in such a crime and he is now in preventive prision to be soon judged.
Of course this case is one of many we read about (or see in local TV news) regularly but it is also true that most of the police officers are professionals that put their own life in risk to protect us against the organized crime in Perú; I've heard that in Mexico there is a popular saying that goes like this: "if you are robbed don't tell it outloud, the police could be near and can hear you!!"
JSR
martes, 4 de diciembre de 2007
Pirañas in Lima?
Amigos:
You all know about pirañas (or piranhas, in portugese); they are very agresive small fishes that live in the upper parts of the amazonian rivers and they act collectibly as when a young rat or bird (or whatever living creature) falls down to the water near them; they attack this prey in large numbers, so ferociously, that in a couple of minutes nothing rcognizable is left of it.
But, piranhas in Lima?
Yes, we call "piranhas" to large group of juvenile burglars (almost always they are around 13-17 ages old) that roam some well known places in the suburbs of Lima looking for any unawwere by-passer that looks as if he (or she) carries some valuables on ("valuables" can be even an almost new pair of keds, a wristwatch or some coins on the pockets.); inmediatly, and appearing from nowhere, perhaps a dozen "pirañas" jump over their current "customer" and while some of them just inmobilize him (or her),or knock him (her) down, the others pickpocket him (or her) until nothing of value is left; as soon as they appeard, they now dissapear in near passages, abandoned houses or the like, just as their "cousins" of the amazonian rivers do!
You can get an idea of both type of piranhas from the two next links in YouTube (Warning: the scenes from both videos may hurt some sensitive people):
http://mx.youtube.com/watch?v=fxw1EFcm3vw http://mx.youtube.com/watch?v=qeSjgqmsaGw
JSR
You all know about pirañas (or piranhas, in portugese); they are very agresive small fishes that live in the upper parts of the amazonian rivers and they act collectibly as when a young rat or bird (or whatever living creature) falls down to the water near them; they attack this prey in large numbers, so ferociously, that in a couple of minutes nothing rcognizable is left of it.
But, piranhas in Lima?
Yes, we call "piranhas" to large group of juvenile burglars (almost always they are around 13-17 ages old) that roam some well known places in the suburbs of Lima looking for any unawwere by-passer that looks as if he (or she) carries some valuables on ("valuables" can be even an almost new pair of keds, a wristwatch or some coins on the pockets.); inmediatly, and appearing from nowhere, perhaps a dozen "pirañas" jump over their current "customer" and while some of them just inmobilize him (or her),or knock him (her) down, the others pickpocket him (or her) until nothing of value is left; as soon as they appeard, they now dissapear in near passages, abandoned houses or the like, just as their "cousins" of the amazonian rivers do!
You can get an idea of both type of piranhas from the two next links in YouTube (Warning: the scenes from both videos may hurt some sensitive people):
http://mx.youtube.com/watch?v=fxw1EFcm3vw http://mx.youtube.com/watch?v=qeSjgqmsaGw
JSR
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