I will be in the US during April – May. I just finished up a 2-day corporate workshop that I’ll be offering while I’m in the US.
The idea of this workshop will be to challenge participants to erase the destructive corporate culture of the late 20th century and replace it with new, responsible thinking. Any inquiries or referrals, please contact me.
Ward Welvaert
ward DOT welvaert AT gmail DOT com
919 889 9208
Otto at Inca Kola News has some good analysis on the work stoppage at La Oroya today.
From Reuters:
“Doe Run Peru has halted work at its sprawling La Oroya smelter after banks cut credit lines for the company.”
Also read my previous post about money and La Oroya. It remains to be seen if Alan Garcia’s pro-mining government will step in. Personally, I’m with Otto on this: Ira Rennert took the money and ran.
A friend of mine sent me this. Crude, but funny. Also sad actually, because it’s becoming increasingly obvious these bailouts are set up to protect greedy incompetent executives who caused the mess in the first place. If anyone knows of the correct origin, please let us know in the comments.
I took a walk through Calle Procuradores on the way home last night. Procuradores is a narrow street on the NW side of the Plaza de Armas in Cusco. There are a lot of small bars and restaurants on Procuradores, but to locals it’s known as the bad part of the Plaza de Armas because it’s the main hangout for the small-time drug dealers who peddle “weed” and cocaine (“Charley”) to the tourists.
Calle Procuradores seen from the Plaza de Armas, Cusco
Calle Procuradores, Cusco
Calle Procuradores looking towards the Plaza de Armas
Unfortunately local authorities don’t do anything to clean up Procuradores. I imagine plenty of kickbacks keep the status quo in place. It’s sad really, that people who come to a beautiful place like Cusco, with all of its attractions, entertainment and nightlife, still feel the need to fry their brains with cocaine to have a good time.
A friend of mine, alias “C”, was in town for a visit last week. Check out his story, a must read. While your visit will (should) likely be much more uneventful, his account gives you a good idea what to expect in Cusco from the viewpoint of a young, single guy.
My comments:
Final thoughts:
The political posturing around the AIG bailout back home in the US almost makes Peruvian politicians look sincere…
Remember when former NY Attorney General Elliot Spitzer – not exactly the poster boy for ethics himself – keelhauled then-CEO Maurice “Hank” Greenberg in 2005? Here’s what Greenberg recently said about credit default swaps at AIG:
Instead of all the posturing, let AIG fail. It was just a house of cards. AIG’s business model of insuring investments only created a false illusion of security. Letting AIG fail would be a good first step to cleaning up both the financial system and ethics in business.
Bailouts and political posturing don’t change the fact that money is just a funny printed paper. Real productivity, what we contribute to society in tangible terms, and the tangible things you expect to get in return, is what matters. Just printing up more money so old guys in suits can continue to get ridiculously rich doesn’t seem like the solution to me.
We took a walk through some residential areas of Cusco on Sunday. Wanchaq, our neighborhood, is a fairly nice, middle-class part of Cusco. Some of the nicest residential areas of Cusco are Larapa, Magisterio and Huancaro Residencial. There are also poorer neighborhoods both near downtown as well as on the outskirts of the city. The residential areas of Cusco are growing fast, new buildings are going up everywhere. True to Peruvian form, some unfinished buildings linger around for years.
Cusco is an expensive city by Peruvian standards, thanks to the tourist industry. The cost of real estate is entirely out of line with personal incomes. Asking prices for nice apartments easily exceed $50,000. Consequently, as in all of Peru, it’s not uncommon for 2 or 3 generations of a family to share a home, which is also why you find lots of young couples making out in public places.
These are pictures of middle-class residential areas in Cusco. I’ll try to get some pictures of the other districts later.
We spent 60 Nuevos Soles (about $20) to buy new doggie beds for our bi-national, US-Peruvian mutts this weekend. Here’s how they ended up:
Roxi and Manchita
Funny how Manchita’s big bottom doesn’t quite fit in Roxi’s bed. Manchita looks tough but Roxi is a bossy little terrier, and she’s also older than Manchita. We think Manchita is a Blue Pitbull, but without Roxi around she’s just a big baby.
We bought their new camas at the weekend market on the Plaza Tupac Amaru. Unlike in the US, local markets still have a big economic significance here in Cusco. At the Plaza Tupac Amaru vendors sell anything from furniture to flowers, handicrafts, snacks, nectar de sabila, etc. Unlike the markets in the downtown area, this market is mostly for the locals, you typically only find a few gringos strolling around.
Sundays the market is rather quiet, on Saturdays it's busier
I’ve sat through my share of corporate workshops and training, in the US as well as here in Peru. Some I found valuable, others less so, but at the school where I teach we had a workshop this weekend that took the cake in a bad, bad way.
It was long – 8 hours with no more than 1 hour of interaction, the remaining 7 hours you sat and listened. It was in Spanish – knowing full well there were several gringos in the audience (including me) whose Spanish ranges from mediocre to non-existent. It was boring – by the end of the day even the Directors of the school looked exasperated. No schedule – There’s never a schedule for our academic meetings, you just sit and wait for whatever comes next.
A friend of mine said “It’s like a D-version of Dr. Phil.”
It was offensive and demeaning. The parts I did understand were about psycho-analyzing yourself, but in a very “in-your-face, you’re life is all bad, let me tell you how to live” kind of way. The facilitator yelled at grown adults like they were kindergartners.
To top it all of this workshop was held at the Royal Inca Hotel in Pisaq, an absolutely beautiful place with outdoor recreation facilities and a spa. The weather was beautiful… yet we spent the better part of the day inside listening to a condescending fool.
I usually skip the mandatory -yet unpaid – monthly academic meetings, but I thought I’d sign up for this one since it was supposed to be a fun weekend to get to know each other. The only fun part was when we took a break after lunch to check out the pool, although swimming an olympic size pool after drinking rum and coke was a bit tricky. That’s how bad it was… I resorted to drinking hard liquor in the middle of the day.
And this is going to help me how?
Even the Directors on the far end look bored
Unfortunately I don’t deal well with situations such as these, and I said some choice words as the day went on. I didn’t want to play the gringo card and leave, because I’m getting really disappointed at how our Peruvian teachers are treated, they don’t enjoy the same liberties us gringos do. Even though the school receives US taxpayer money, I would bet no US lawmaker would want their son or daughter to be treated like a Peruvian teacher here.
The plan was to stay overnight and “have fun” the next day, but I decided to skip out and head back to Cusco at night. I might have said things I would regret if I had stuck around to get drunk with the rest of the teachers and the Directors.
That’s right, I don’t mean people from small villages like Accha, but The Village People, the 1970s disco band of “YMCA” fame.
Now Cusco has great nightlife, with live local bands playing bars and discos around the main square and in San Blas. But since I’ve been here, no big name bands have performed in Cusco, which is really surprising considering the amount of culture, history and fun-seeking tourists in the city.
Here’s my wishlist of rock ‘n roll bands who really, really, really ought to come and play in Cusco:
1) Bruce Springsteen. Fresh of his superbowl performance here’s a chance for “the Boss” to prove he’s really all about working people: play a free live show on the shores of Lake Titicaca during 4th Continental Summit of Indigenous People. Have some cervezas with Evo and fly back home to tell the bureaucrats at the State Department that Evo’s not all that bad after all.
2) Mark Knopfler. Just once I want to hear Love over Gold (translation: the reason I’m here) live.
3) Paul Simon. Supposedly Paul Simon spent some time in Cusco. He made the Peruvian song El Condor Pasa famous in the West in 1970, and consequently brought attention to Peru long before tourism here became mainstream. Plus, he’s from New York so maybe he can bring along some people who know how to make real pizza.
4) Peter Gabriel. You’re going to be in Lima later this month, why not take the 1 hour flight to Cusco and play a small gig here?
5) Last, but not least: what could be more Peruvian than this?
Led Zeppelin!!! The band was more into symbolism than any other I know, and Cusco is full of the symbolism of the Incas. Come on guys… I will make arrangements for you to play at Sacsayhuaman during Inti Raymi, the traditional midsummer celebration of the Incas, what could be more mythical than that?
One of my all time favorites, Jungleland, just begging to be performed in the jungle of Peru:
Feel free to add suggestions 😉
Life in Peru 