Long time, no see

Well, it’s been quite a long time since I last posted on my blog, and I apologise for that. Since I last posted, allot has happened in my life which has pulled my attention in other directions, and I apologise to anyone who’s posted commets here that have gone ignored. Well, as I was saying, allot has happened. I got married here in Tarapoto, my wife gave birth to our son, Mateo Luke Alonzo Isuiza. I also lost my job with the UCV (still not sure why, I suspect internal politics since the excellent man who hired me to start with is no longer here, but running the new Universidad Autonoma in Lima).

Recently I’ve been working on a project to promote the city of Tarapoto in English on the internet. Anyone who might be interested is invited to take a look at www.visittarapoto.com

Italian Company in Amazon Deforestation

It was reported in the regional newspaper ‘Ahora’ today (March 13) that local authorities together with the ministry of Agriculture, and a number of other governmental agencies will inspect a site in the district of Chazuta, which is near the city of Tarapoto, where an Italian company named as ‘La PAESANA SAC’ and linked to the name Antolin Guerrero Córdova wish to deforest 800 hectares of Amazonian forest with the intention of planting various agricultural products for export. The products mentioned include peppers, tobacco, cacao, and sacha inchi. The Italian operation has stated that it will reforest various different parts of the region with local species (it’s not stated if the area to be reforested will match the 800 hectares to be chopped) but locals from the district of Chazuta do not believe the firms promises, and that they are not going to allow the destruction of their natural resources. According to the newspaper, experts on the cultivation of peppers claim that the area that the Italians want to clear and plant, named as Siambal, does not suit the cultivation of the said product. They claim that it rains permanently there, but that the peppers need more sun and little rain. ‘Ahora’ suggests that the company is not planning on planting or exporting the peppers, but intends to take advantage of exploiting the 800 hectares of wood that will be cleared if the project is allowed to continue.

En español:

Se reporta hoy (13 de marzo) en el diario regional ‘Ahora’ que las autoridades regionales, junto con el ministerio de Agricultura, y varios otras agencias del gobierno inspeccionarán un sitio en el distrito de Chazuta cerca de la ciudad de Tarapoto donde una empresa italiana llamado La PAESANA SAC, y vinculado con el nombre Antolin Guerrero Córdova quieren deforestar 800 hectáreas de bosque amazónica con la intención, dicen ellos, de sembrar varios productos agricultores para la exportación. Productos como Ají Páprika, tabaco, cacao, y sacha inchi. La empresa ha indicada que reforestarán en distintas zona de la región con especies locales, pero dice el reportaje que los pobladores de Chazuta no los cree, y que no van a permitir la destrucción de los recursos naturales. Según el diario, expertos en la cultivación de Ají Páprika dicen que la zona donde quieren talar y sembrar los italianos, conocido como Siambal, no se conviene a la cultivación de dicho producto. Allí llueve permanentemente pero el producto necesita de más verano, y poco lluvia. Sugiere el diario no piensa en sembrar y exportar productos agricultores, sino aprovechar de la explotación de la madera que talarán si se permite avanzar su proyecto.

Deforestation in San Martín

Este artículo está disponible también en castellano.

Tarapoto, the city where I live in northern Peru, sits in the large rural region of San Martín. The principle economic activity in the region is agriculture, with products such as rice, maize, and fruit being the regions major products both for local consumption and export to coastal cities, in particular the nation’s capital, Lima. Geographically, the region consists of two river valleys. The river Huallaga is the largest, flowing from the south of the region to the northeast and into the next region, where it feeds into the mighty Amazon. The river Mayo (which is featured in the graphic at the top of each page of my blog) is the other major river, which flows from the northwest and into the Huallaga in the north of the region.

There are wide ranging ecological issues facing the San Martín region. Perhaps the most significant of these is an ongoing drought that is threatening crops and harvests, as well as water supplies in some parts of the region, and could threaten to expand to the whole region. The amount of rainfall in February was significantly lower than the usual. February is traditionally a rainy month. Although it is predicted by the Peruvian government’s meteorological department to end in March, it has been a cause for concern for many people. The authorities assert that the cause of drought is the ongoing destruction of the regions forests. It is estimated that 15 hectares of forest are destroyed every day in the region, and in the previous 36 years, over 1.3 million hectares, or 26.41% of the total forest area were destroyed according to a local ecological and economic study conducted by the ‘Instituto de Investigaciones de la Amazonía Peruana’ in 2006. Destruction proceeded at a rate of 40 hectares a day, until the regional government began to take action. These estimates can be considered conservative, more recent media reports claim that up to 1.9 million hectares, in excess of a third of the regions forests have been logged, making San Martín the most deforested region in Peru.

Deforestation is increasingly a political issue. Environmental issues in general are widely forgotten by the people and the press, but as they begin to hold consequences for daily lives, the press at least, and the authorities are taking notice, although the issues remain very low in the conscience of the population. In spite of that, in January a new regional president, council and new mayors at almost all levels of regional and local government took office following elections in November 2006. The political party that assumed office in many cases was an independent regional party called ‘Nueva Amazonia’. This party came into office with strong commitments to tackle ecological issues such as deforestation. Whether they will make a difference is yet to be seen.

The effects of the destruction of the woodlands can increasingly be seen on the ground. Not just in monthly rainfall statistics, but also in natural springs, small rivers and brooks, some of which serve as the only source of water for some communities, which are beginning to dry up.

The causes of deforestation in the San Martín region vary. In the south of the region along the banks of the river Huallaga the development of new highways has enabled greater access to the forests, and the area has been settled by migrants, who are largely responsible for felling the trees. The authorities claim to be acting against this. A state of emergency declared in 2006 had the result of reducing the amount of felling. Meanwhile in the north, near to the city of Tarapoto, another growing problem is threatening supposedly protected forests. Here, people cut down areas hidden deeper in the mountainous jungle in order to grow primarily coca to meet growing international demand for cocaine. Whilst cultivation of coca is illegal in Peru, coca farmers are organised, and have the support of at least one major political party at the national level in Peruvian politics, not to mention the support of some sections of society. Coca is a cash crop that brings in much higher returns for a Peruvian farmer than traditional crops. As the authorities clamp down on farmers growing the plant on conventional farmland, the farmers are pushed into the forests to earn their living.

Western coca demand is driving the destruction of the Peruvian Amazon in the San Martín region. And in spite of international assistance to combat illegal cultivation of drugs in general and specifically here in San Martín, and even a recent visit to the region by Washington big-shots on such issues, the regional authorities are seen to do very little to tackle the issue.

By Robert Jones, March 2007.

Sources: Diario Ahora,; Via Television.

La deforestación en San Martín

Tarapoto, la ciudad en que vivo en el noreste del Perú, está ubicada en la región rural de San Martín. La actividad económica principal que se realiza es la agricultura, con la siembra de arroz, el maíz y la fruta siendo su mayor producto ambos para el consumo local como para exportación a la costa y sus grandes ciudades como la capital del país, Lima. Hablando de su geografía, la región consiste en las valles de dos grandes ríos. El río Huallaga que es el más largo, corre del sur de la región hasta el noreste y hasta la próxima región donde se une con el gran Amazonas. El río Mayo (cual aparece en el imagen a la cabeza de cada página de mi blog) es el otro río, que corre desde el noroeste hasta el este donde se une con el Huallaga.

La región San Martín está frente a una variedad de problemas ecológicos. Tal vez el más importante de ellos es la continua sequía que amenaza la cosecha y el suministro de agua potable en algunas partes de la región, y podría amenazar avanzar y afectar a toda la región. La cantidad de lluvias en el mes de febrero fue significantemente menos que lo normal. Normalmente el mes de febrero es lluvioso. Aunque el servicio meteorológico del gobierno peruano predica que el mes de marzo va a ver mas lluvias, ha sido una causa de preocupación para muchas personas. Las autoridades afirman que lo que tiene la culpa para la sequía es la avanzada destrucción de los bosques regionales. Se estima que 15 hectáreas de bosque son destruidos cada día, y en las últimas 36 años, más que 1.3 millones des hectáreas, ó 26.41 por ciento de la superficie total de bosque fueron destruidos, según un estudio local ecológico y económico, elaborado por el ‘Instituto de Investigaciones de la Amazonía Peruana’ en 2006. La destrucción avanzó con una taza de 40 hectáreas diarias, hasta el gobierno regional empezó a tomar acción. Estos aproximaciones se puede considerar como cálculos por lo bajo. Informes recientes en la prensa local dicen que hasta 1.9 millón de hectáreas, superior a un tercero de las bosques de la región han sido deforestados, haciendo que la región San Martín queda como la región más deforestada del Perú.

La deforestación es un asunto que se trata cada vez más importante dentro de la política regional. Los temas medioambientales son por lo general olvidados por el pueblo y la prensa, pero a medida que empiezan a tener consecuencias para la vida diaria, por lo menos la prensa y las autoridades empiezan a hacer caso, aunque los temas quedan de poco importancia en la vista de la gente. A pesar de eso, un nuevo presidente regional, regidores, y alcaldes a todos niveles de gobierno en la región asumieron sus cargos después de elecciones regionales y municipales en noviembre del año pasado. El partido político que asumió el poder en la mayoría de casos era un nuevo partido independiente ‘Nueva Amazonia’. Este partido vino al poder con compromisos fuertes, comprometiéndose a solucionar los problemas ecológicos como la deforestación. Todavía hemos de ver si lo lograrán.

Los efectos de la destrucción de los bosques cada vez más se lo puede ver en la región. No solamente en las estadísticas de lluvias mensuales, sino también en las fuentes naturales, ríos y quebradas, algunos de ellos sirven a algunos comunidades con agua potable, los cuales están secando.

Las causas de la deforestación en San Martín varían. En el sur de la región por las orillas del río Huallaga el desarrollo de nuevas carreteras y caminos ha permitido más acceso a los bosques, y la zona se colonizó por inmigrantes, los quienes por lo general tienen la culpa por talar los bosques. Las autoridades dicen que están actuando en contra del problema. Un estado de emergencia declarado en 2006 resultó en una reducción de deforestación. Mientras tanto en el norte, cerca de la ciudad de Tarapoto, otro problema amenaza los supuestamente protegidos bosques. Aquí, algunas personas talan zonas de bosque escondidos más adentro de la selva montañosa para sembrar y cosechar principalmente la coca, para poder abastecer la demanda internacional para la cocaína. Aunque sea prohibido cultivar la coca en el Perú, las cocaleras son organizadas, y tienen el apoyo de alguna parte de la sociedad, y al menos un partido político al nivel nacional. La coca es cultivo comercial que trae más dinero para un granjero peruano que otros productos. Las autoridades toman medidas fuertes contra la cultivación de la coca en los campos convencionales, forzándoles buscar otras partes escondidas para sembrar y ganarse la vida.

La demanda occidental para la coca impulsa la destrucción de la amazonia peruana en la región San Martín. Y apenas del apoyo internacional para combatir la cultivación de drogas en general y específicamente aquí en San Martín, hasta una visita reciente a la región por peces gordos de Washington sobre el tema, pero las autoridades regionales no parecen hacer mucho sobre el tema.

Por Robert Jones, Marzo 2007.
Traducido al castellano desde inglés.

Fuentes: Diario Ahora; Vía Televisión.

Yuru: Princess of the Jungle

The most popular type of television show in the world by far is without a doubt the telenovela, that is the Latin American soap opera. Over a billion people watch telenovelas everyday, and they’re largely full of acting that ranges from reasonable to outright ridiculously bad; cheesy music and even cheesier and predictable story lines. Some are realistic, and others are more like fantasy. In spite of all that, they appear to be extremely addictive and very popular. If I look at the TV grill to see what’s on TV today, there are 17 programs listed as telenovelas, and that’s just counting five main channels, there are countless more on cable and satellite.

Here in Peru, the clear majority of telenovelas on TV are from other countries, mostly Mexico, Puerto Rico and Brazil. But one current Peruvian telenovela showing on one of Peru’s national channels, Frecuencia Latina, is Yuru: Princessa de la Selva. It’s of particular interest because it’s the first telenovela, at least that I’ve seen in the short time I’ve been living here, which exposes viewers to ecological issues, in particular animal rights and protection of endangered species. That said, like many telenovelas, it’s very exaggerated, and plays on stereotypes to a large degree. Though we should bear in mind that it is intended primarily to be humorous. In the show, which is due to finish this week, Yuru is a young girl from Iquitos on the banks of the Peruvian Amazon, who’s pet ‘red tailed monkey’ the last of its species, is stolen by a pair of hunters, and sent to Lima to a mad scientist who’s willing to pay the hunters up to $1 million to get her hands on the monkey to conduct experiments.

Telenovelas have been noted in the past to make a substantial difference in public attitudes towards some social issues. It is possible that Yuru may help people in Peru take ecological issues more seriously in their daily lives.

The Nigel Farage Show

Something fishy is going on at the BBC (and it has nothing to do with weathermen – outdated, I know). The BBC is one of the great institutions of the UK, recognised and respected worldwide as a reliable, trustworthy and largely impartial source of information and news. But I am increasingly convinced that there is a growing bias in the BBC towards the scourge of the United Kingdom Independence Party, and has been developing since at least the last European Elections in 2004. If you remember, that was the election where the entire country was plastered in UKIP posters and the greatest political idiot in the World, Robert Kilroy-Silk, Britain’s very own Benito Berlusconi, was their top candidate. The nation was awash with Europhobia, because after all, if not ‘Brussels’, who can we blame for all our problems?

The BBC runs a very useful television channel available on digital called ‘BBC Parliament’, which helps keep people in touch with what’s going on in the world of politics at regional, national and European levels. Broadcast weekly on this channel, and repeated on BBC News 24 (their news channel) is a lovely show called ‘The Nigel Farage Show’. Well, actually it’s called something like ‘The Record: Europe’ but Nigel Farage, UKIP leader and MEP and regular Eurobasher, seems to be the star guest every week, and responds to every single question with an answer that always leads back to the same question… Why is the UK in the EU? In fact, he is quite a genius! If only I knew how to turn absolutely any questions around and direct it towards my own political agenda…

– So, Mr Farage, don’t you agree that the EU is doing a good job through it’s Neighbourhood Association Agreements with certain states that border the EU such as Morocco?
– Well, perhaps I should remind everyone that Morocco is a dictatorship, so really it’s just another example of British taxpayer’s money poured down the Brussels drain and another reason why the UK should get out of the EU.

Wow. That was easier that I thought… perhaps Nigel Farage isn’t as clever as I thought. But this goes beyond the Nigel Farage Show, in other aspects the BBC seams to give excessive coverage to UKIP, considering how small the number of seats they and the parties in their grouping actually hold in the European Parliament. If you look around the BBC News website you are sure to find plenty of examples of coverage given by the BBC to UKIP and its members.

So, is the BBC really biased towards UKIP or am I just seeing things which aren’t really there. Of course UKIP has a right to have its voice heard in a fair and democratic debate, but I do suggest the BBC lends its cameras and web pages far too much to UKIP. I invite the BBC to defend itself.

And I’m back…

Well it’s been quite some time since I posted on my blog. In fact this is the first update I’ve really been able to do since I moved to Peru. So my new situation is simple, I’m living in a rented apartment in Tarapoto, which is the largest city in the rural region of San Martín. Tarapoto sits at a few hundred meters above sea level, in the eastern foothills of the Andes, on the edge of the vast Amazonian jungle. Over the past few months I’ve been very busy getting used to my new career teaching English. I have a job in the Language Centre of a national private university, Universidad César Vallejo, they pay me just enough to get by. Well, almost just enough, it would be sufficient if I didn’t have huge expenses travelling back and forth to the capital Lima (unfortunately the only practical option is by air, a bus takes more than 25 hours and passes through some of the most dangerous roads in the world, with bus loads of people dieing every week in accidents) organising various immigration documents. The world would be such a simpler and quite possibly safer place without borders, passports or ‘foreignership cards’.

Meanwhile, before I left the UK to come here, I took a decision which I have regretted for a number of reasons to renounce my membership of the Green Party of England and Wales. This was a very difficult thing to do, but I consider that it was a justified measure of my anger towards the ever increasing influence of socialism and outright communism over the period since I initially joined the party. Since I left, the extent to which the party is being hijacked to serve another agenda has deepened.

The truth is that I haven’t ever been fully at ease with some of the policies of the party. And I am utterly convinced that ecological sustainability can coexist in harmony with a capitalist economy, provided the necessary adjustments are made to the economy. Not only are such adjustments possible, but they are the only viable option for a safe and stable transition to an ecologically sound and sustainable economy and society, without the strife and disruption of a full blown, pitchforks at the ready, socialist revolution. It’s even possible that such adjustments will occur by themselves as the reality of global warming becomes more and more evident.

Since August I have been involved in a new political movement across Europe, which combines many of the ideas and principles which I believe in and support. Open and transparent democracy, an ecologically sustainable society and economy, equality and social justice, and a united and federal Europe which fully embraces all of its peoples, from all corners of the continent, even Turkey. Although in its infancy, Europe United has grown rapidly and continues to show potential. But, this movement has attracted people from various political corners, including the more sinister. I believe that this is however only a teething problem, brought about by the party’s open and revolutionary development on the internet, and we all know there are all kinds of freaks on the web.

So, nonetheless, Europe United is full of potential. When I read the party’s founding charter, it was almost as if it were something I could have written myself. The fundamental commitment to European unity, to global democracy, and to sustainable development is the key political perspective I have been looking for in a party for years.

Chau.

Bringing Quechua to Congress

Two newly elected representatives from Cusco in the Peruvian Congress of the Republic have declared to a press conference in Lima their insistence upon using their native tongue, Quechua in the assembly’s plenary sessions. Hilaria Supa and Sumire López de Conde declared their determination to defend indigenous people of Peru, and preserve their linguistic heritage. “We do not want to be excluded. This is an ongoing abuse, marginalization and discrimination of our people”, Sumire stated in the press conference, which had to be translated for journalists into Spanish by a colleague.

Both politicians of the nationalist Union por el Perú party speak Spanish. In the press conference Sumire López de Conde explained to journalists how she had to learn Spanish at school, and would be punished every time she couldn’t speak properly.

They have requested that Congress provide the translators and technology to make it possible. Surprisingly, this is the first time that members of Peru’s Congress have insisted on using the nations second language which is granted official status by the 1993 constitution. Both ladies had also earlier been sworn into office in Quechua by means of a translator. The official website of Congress is available to users in Quechua as well as Spanish and English, but only Spanish is usually spoken within the institution itself.

Quechua is the most widely spoken of Peru’s many native languages. Around 10 million people in Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador speak various varients of Quechua. It is also spoken by some communities in Chile and Argentina. The language was spread throughout the Andean region by prior to the arrival of Spanish conquistadors in the sixteenth century by the rapidly advancing Incan Empire. The vast majoroty of it’s speakers are illiterate.