The joy of releasing birds free in Thailand

My friends:

The next "story" is not a local one; I just saw it on film in TV; but it is so creative (it has nothing to envy to the ones we find in Perú) that I would like to share with you all:

It happens that in Thailand, local merchants keep small birds in nice and colorful birdcages at the popular markets anywhere for the (unaware!) tourists to buy them and get for themselves the "pride and joy" of liberating inmediatly them to the nature on a near bridge or special spot where they can see the "finally freed bird" fly away as they had been supposed to be always! After all, paying, perhaps five or ten dollars for each bird-to-be-free, is nothing against the pleasure of liberating them over a special spot where you can even take a photograph to help remember of such a magnificent moment!

But what those tourists don't know (until it is too late!!) is that those "poor birds" have been trained to come back, as soon as being released, to the cages of the merchant from where they were taken for you to buy them, so that he will sell them again soon, to another "lost" tourist, and the circle starts again, and again, ......

JSR

The winning lottery number story

Amigos:

The next one is a method local thieves use against unaware passerbyes (perhaps tourists!) on any street or near a large mall on the big cities in my country:

You may be walking, alone and calmly, any day over any sidewalk when a "poor" guy (men or women) will interrupt you handling some kind of a piece of paper in his hand for you to read; you, by the way he dresses and talks, will easily take the guy for someone new in "the big city" (a peasant from any lost village up in the Andes, perhaps) who asks you some help to read the "paper" he is handling; he will "explain", in a very poor spanish, that he doesn' know to read and needs to check if the paper he handles out, a lottery bill in fact (a false one, but lottery bill anyway) has won any prize at all;

of course, there happens to be a lottery stand very near both of you (you don't know yet, but it also happens that the lottery stand is run by a "friend" of the poor guy ---we'd better call him his accesory or accomplice) who "luckily" have at hand the results of the right lottery game he is looking for, and, ......why not?...... the lottery bill you have at hand has "won" an important amount in cash!!

In your mind (it almost every time happens so) you may try to keep all the prize for yourself (or perhaps you may try to get some of the money this poor guy has brought so fast to you at least, for helping him!!); it results then that the poor peasant was not so ignorant as you thought first: he realizes there is some big money involved and proposes you to keep the lottery bill (and cash it later) but "in compensation", he asks you to handle him any valuables you may carry then (money in cash, an MP3, your sun glasses, your italian shoes, shirt ot tie, .... anything goes!!)

If you are "hungry for money" (as almost always happens) you will accept, and agree, to give the poor man all you have "on board" inmediatly; after that you run to the lottery house to cash the large sum, to find minutes later that you have been a new victim of fraud.

And the list goes on and on ......

JSR

Street robbery with the "cascade" method in Lima

Amigos:

This method ("cascade" or "fall", like in Niagara Falls --don't know why it is called that way!) of robbing has long been known in Perú (I remember hearing, while still being a kid, about this cases) usually victimizing any native or indian guy (poor, candid, innocent) who is visiting Lima for the first time after "coming down" from any high Andean village or town ; the method consists of two or three thieves that, after choosing the best place, leave a notorius pack of money (in shiny bills, like those you have collected from a bankteller sometime) that the newby in the "big city" finds as he walks down any lonely sidewalk (like if someone in a hurry has left there inadvertly); the thieves rely solely on the espontaneous or "natural" desire of anyone of being suddenly the owner of an unexpected pack of fresh money left somewhere). Something like this:

But, (there is always a but in these cases) one of the thieves is walking behind the victim and, after he notices that he has recognized the pack of "bills" and when he is going to pick it up, he loudly shouts: " hey!, I saw it first!!"; inmediatly, the second thief appears in the scene, when the victim and the first thief are already arguing who should take the shinny pack with him (let's assume the package "seems" to contain one hundred dollars in one dollar bills). The second thief "confirms" that the poor victim was the first one to find out the "treasure" and he should be the lucky one; after a few minutes and "only to be fair to both guys arguing", he proposes the victim to keep the package of bills but, he should give the other guy (thief number 1) anything of value he could be carrying in that moment in his pockets (you can imagine: a watch, some coins, bills, jewelry, even his new shoes, anything goes!!); the victim, because he has already "calculated" how many dollars may contain the shinny package, accepts inmediatly and the two thiefs leave the scene with any valuables the victim may had handed away.........., only to find, few seconds later, that only the first two bills of the package were original, .... the rest were blank papers very well cut and packed even better!

This method has several variants as we'll show in coming posts (so don't change the channel then!)

JSR

Terrorism in Perú

Amigos:

Terrorism in my country has long been known by now; since the early 80's Sendero Luminoso (or Shinning Path) appeard in Ayacucho (high sierras) impossing violence on the poor villagers of a very underdeveloped region; President Gonzalo, as they called their leader Abimael Guzmán Reynoso, a philosofy proffesor at a local university with a strong and radical personality led his troops to killing local authorities, kidnapping young peasants to form their own forces and pleading maoist policies (they were assumed to be cattle robbers by the government for some 2-3 years); as their number increased they expanded slowly at first but by the end of the 80's they had a somewhat considerable "army"; they roamed many regions of our sierras and our police forces were designed, initially, to war against them but, the poor trainning and logistics of our police forces led to the expansion of this terrorist and bloody legion; initially making "war" in the sierras at first they expanded to the outskirts of Lima, the capital city of Perú, by the end of the decade.

It was very common those days to suffer many car bombings and 2 or 3 blackouts per week on some large cities caused by the destruction of endless energy transmission towers. By 1987 the peruvian armed forces (specially the Army and Marine Forces) took control of many large towns and cities but they did it when Sendero Luminoso had already got a psicological advantage (not real). Urban citizens felt Sendero was much stronger than it really was (small "cells" of 10 to 12 men attacked a given town and then flew fast enough to another town some 40 or 60 miles away, creating the idea they were a much larger force), and that they had the lead and the armed forces were only reacting of whatever Sendero did.

Our armed forces then trained local citizens of many rural areas (they knew better than no one else their territory) on self-defense and war tactics against Sendero (that was a key factor later to the defeat of this radical maoist group). There were many cruel fightings with many people from both sides killed (because Sendero Luminoso fighters never used any kind of distinctive uniforms, they mimetized as local civilians and that caused many missunderstandings, later called as "genocides" by their own corp of lawyers, disregarding their own senselness killing thousands of innocent county people.

Finally, as a result of an incredible good job done by the peruvian intelligence corps, in September 1992, President Gonzalo was captured in Lima by our police forces(living on a typical middle class house) without firing no shots at all and put into prision at the Naval Base, located in El Callao port city, where he is until now. Some minor Sendero Luminoso "cells" are still present in two very clear and defined locations inside of our country, and many or their fighters have "blended" with large drug traffiquers and they occasionally appear at small towns (see the map ahead) just to justify their presence but doing only small or none damages at all; obviously, this regions are forbidden for any foreigners to visit while in our country.


But there was another terrorist group (more on the guerrilla action type) called MRTA (Tùpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement) operating also during those years. They used violent attacks against the police and armed forces, bombings to terrorize civilians and kidnapps of important entrepeneurs as a way of finance their military needs. They used to "make justice" on behave of the "abused" workers of many enterprises taking the lives of managers and directors alike. We can vividly remember that 2 or 3 Kentucky Fired Chicken restaurants in Lima were attacked and burned down by MRTA (forcing first their customers to abandon the place, because "they were only against the imperialist owners"). In 1994 the last MRTA "cell" was killed by a select grup of combined armed forces members in a memorable operation known as "Operación Chavín de Huantar" after MRTA fighters captured more than 70 local civilian and military authorities during a big celebration at the Japanese Embassador Residence in Lima some 4 months earlier. MRTA doesn't have any visible remanents nowadays.

Carelessness or excess of confidence?

I've had in the past the opportunity of visiting many different countries, while in the Navy, and have experienced how confident about security matters act the citizens in Europe, Japan and many small cities in the USA.

In Tokyo, as an example, when you are travelling on a train and it is rainning outside, you can take home with you, for free, any available umbrella you may need as you leave the train on any given station; everyone knows that you will carry it back to the train the next time you use it, no doubt!

In Lisboa, or Paris, etc., anyone can buy any newspaper needed from a public dispenser on a given corner by just putting the necessary coins, lifting the dispenser cover and picking your preffered newspaper and leaving the place as something so natural that no one repairs on it.

In any Starbucks Coffee restaurant all over the world you can bring in your laptop (cell phone, Palm Treo, Blackberry, etc.) with you and make use of the hotspot available in each of them for mailing, read the recent news or keep in touch with customers, classmates or friends; if you need to go to the restroom you just stand up and go, leaving your valuables at your tabletop, to come back later and continue working with them, no problem!

Well my friends, not so in Lima!!

What if here, on any public transport, there would stand, ready-to-take, umbrellas of different colors (well, in Lima it really never rains, as in Southern California!) so anyone could take them as needed as in Tokyo? In a couple of hours, all the buses would run off umbrellas forever!!

What if in Lima we could find those bright newspaper dispensers on some given corners?; it would only need some unaware buyer to put his coin in and lift its lid so to see all newspapers available being taken away in less than five minutes (with no coins left of course!!).

What if in any Starbucks Coffee shop in Lima you feel your "nature call" and decide to go to the rest room while leaving your laptop unattended for one or two minutes over your tabletop? When you come back to your table, no one would have seen anything and your laptop will be gone forever!! (I can tell this in first person, because my own guards in some Starbucks restaurants here have to provide the "security factor" necesary in order to keep all the laptops, cell phones, Palm Treos and the like, over the tabletops where their owners left them even for a few seconds away!!)

Are the cases posted just pure carelessness or an excess of confidence based on prior experience? Of course is the late. That's why I can earn my living here providing the security "cuota" (part) it is needed to "survive" here!

Welcome to my city, I'll take care of your valuables for you!!

JSR

Spark plugs not for starting your car engine

Amigos:

If you have already read some of my posts you'll may imagine what kind of "uncommon" use you can find for certain objects you know quite well; in this case I'll describe how some bad guys use here in my country, for their benefit, a spark plug, that part you need to start the engine of your car every day.

There are in Lima some known corners, where you should be really aware of people walking (and looking inside) near your car when you are waiting for the red light to change, especially if you drive a shiny new luxury model of a Mercedes, Lexus, BMW, or so, and you carry a laptop, a pretty cell phone, a large package with a tempting something inside, etc. over your car seats; if you are not aware then any burglar, passing by, can throw a red-heated spark plug at the glass of your closed window, your window will explode in hundreds of tiny pieces and while you recover from the shock he will have taken your laptop, cell phone or package and rushed away with them in a split second! I have had the chance of seeing some of these guys with half of their bodies inside a car infront of mine and then rushing away with some valuables to the surprise and horror of an unaware lady driver.

Most car window glasses won't resist the effect of being hit by a red heated spark plug unless they are the security type of glass (armored type).

But then you'll think: is there any police in Lima to prevent and capture this criminals? Yes, we have many good policemen who do a decent job (but they are the exception), some of them seem to be coluded with burglars, bad judges, corrupted politicians, and so crime rate in some of the streets of Lima are less than poor so we have to be always alert.

We recommend to our customers:

• that they should be able to identify every risky corners in Lima (for this matter, everyone should know this in his own living area) and then
• trying to avoid stopping at their red lights, especially during night hours
• if they notice that the light of the semaphore is already going to change to red, then they should slow down their car as much as necessary so to avoid be waiting, at that risky corner, the light to change to green.
  
• never carry valuables over your seats inside your car (use the trunk for it always!)
• don`t let music, or a nice partner onboard, distract you from your surroundings.
• never put your car on a bumper - to - bumper situation; keep at least 6-8 feet with the car infront when in a traffic jam or a red light.
  

Shark's back fin mode assaults to car drivers

Amigos:

I don't know if there is another country where this way of assaulting car drivers is being used; in Perú it happens only once in a while, not only over some lonely urban roads but also, and specially, over the driveways between large cities: we call them Shark's Dorsal or Back Fin way, and I show here a couple of pictures of the "instrument" used:

This "fin" is an iron piece, ususally painted full black to minimize its detection, and is usually used during the nights on lonely stages of "long and windy" drives when drivers are less likely able to detect them protruding from the road, like the next picture shows (if you look carefully you will notice the "black fin" protruding some 2-3 inches form the road):

Well, what happens if you run with your car over one of this creative objects is that at least one of the tires of your car will be punctuated and a couple of hundred feets ahead you'll have to stop to repair o change a flat tire; so the criminals will have some men ahead and wait for any inadverted driver who "innocently" will stop in a perfect place to be victimized (to be robbed, kidnapped, etc.); of course the criminals had previously studied the best place to do it, so the surprise is on their side almost always.

What should you do to prevent this?:

• avoid driving alone, especially during the night over unknown or unprotected areas;
  
• be always alert, especially for dark plastic bags on the road (many times they cover the object with them)
  
• have your car's light system perfectly checked beforehand

Finally, if you happen to be at the wheel when it happens:

• never stop on a lonely or dark area ahead;
  
• you should turn as soon as possible backwards (a "U" turn) and forget about ruinning your possibly already flat tire and
• look for a protected and iluminated place where you can safely change or repair your affected tire (s)
• report as soon as possible the incident to the authorities in the area

JSR