We were in Costa Rica 3 or 4 years ago, we stayed a night at a nice little hotel compound not far from the airport as we had an early flight out the next morning. We were having supper at their dining facility, out on the patio, and get talking to an older single guy at the table next to us. He was a USAmerican, had lived in CR for some years, had a little finca on the east coast with a local family as the all-around caretakers, etc. He had built them a little house for which they were most appreciative. At some point he gave them a coupla acres of his 10 or 12, around the house for them to do their garden and animals and whatnot. No big deal to him, they were still there, the land was still contiguous, he had plenty enough with the remainder, not that it really mattered whether it was his or theirs. Anyway, he said these people were incredibly grateful and would do anything for him, they treated him almost as a god, which he found a bit uncomfortable but understood that what he had done was to give them something that they never imagined could happen. He said that he had put the rest of the place in his will for them as his kids had no interest in it, so he figured that could propel them into another stage of land ownership, farming production, whatever. I had not realized until then that land ownership for many people, even in CR which is pretty well developed politically, comparatively, was such a huge deal.
Our guide in Peru was telling us about his parents' farm. We drove pretty close by when we were on the way from Cusco to where our trek started, it was in a beautiful area, a valley in the mountains, and he pointed out to us where it was. It had been in the family for pretty much forever. His parents had moved to Cusco some years ago as had most of the family, but they still went back for holidays and vacations. The thing that distressed him was that there was no title to the land, it was just "known" to everyone that it belonged to his family as it had for ever how long. But since they were not living there, the neighbors had begun to encroach on the property, taking a small field here and there, and there was not much to be done to stop it without being there to fight them off. I thought that was quite interesting.
--R On 6/7/16 11:25 AM, G Mann via Mercedes wrote:
Having spent much of my adult life traveling the world, with significant portion of that into SA, I'll throw in my 0.02 cents worth. All countries south of USA, Mexico included, are at their cultural foundation, based on the Spanish rule model. That Government model dictates there be an "Al Cald`e" who is all powerful representing the direct wishes of the King of Spain. All others are citizens of a lower class who must ask permission for everything. This cultural pattern is ingrained into the people so deeply, even 3'd and 4'th generation latin americans who have lived in USA and were born here still are not "self responsible" in a practical sense, compared to other "Native Born Americans". They still look to leadership for every decision, rather than the American Citizen idea of "Self Rule". Couple that with the law form used in all South American countries which is based on Napoleonic Code rather than British Common Law Code. and you have a continuation of the idea that "only rulers can made decisions" not "empowered citizens". This translates in the SA real world into things like land ownership, for example.. The ruling class owns land and property.. everyone else works for them.. generally speaking.. [there have been revolts in Mexico, for example, which resulted in "private ownership of land" by peons.. but in general principle.. the ruling class still "rules". This cultural principle rules South America, while USA is all about the individual Citizen having Rights.. which can't be infringed.. Well. in theory, at least.. recent regulations excepted.. IRS, EPA, et al... <https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail&utm_term=oa-2322-b> Virus-free <https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail&utm_term=oa-2322-b> <#DDB4FAA8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2> On Tue, Jun 7, 2016 at 5:17 AM, Dan Penoff via Mercedes < mercedes@okiebenz.com> wrote:Peru is not such a bad place relative to other SA countries. The elder Fujimori, while not the most up front "president" was definitely better than your average SA dictator/despot. He did a lot for social causes and really went after the Shining Path (Maoist rebels) that terrorized the rural areas. I got to meet him once when a business associate I traveled SA with regularly arranged the donation of some medical equipment to a rural hospital. We attended a state dinner where the President honored a bunch of people who supported local charities. My buddy was a Peruaño and did a lot of logistical work for some charities in Milwaukee who supported rural medical care in Peru. Peru has a large number of Asians, much like Panama does. Not sure why, but the Asian community there was pretty significant from what I saw. In big cities like Lima it was pretty safe for Anglos, but if you got out into the rural areas you had a target on your back. The locals had no problems and were actually pretty cool (indigenous folks with the cool bowler hats and serapés) and neat to hang with, but the Shining Path guys were totally psycho and would kill foreigners without so much as a by your leave. As a result it wasn't a good idea to go wandering around the countryside unless you were with a local. The State Department pretty much said you were on your own if you left the city. Peru was a cool place to visit, and I always enjoyed my trips there. It helped that my buddy was a local, as he was able to navigate for us and knew his way around. I'm not sure I would feel safe going there as a tourista. Dan Sent from my iPadOn Jun 6, 2016, at 5:52 PM, Joel Cairo via Mercedes <mercedes@okiebenz.com> wrote:I asked my niece that question in reference to SA countries, but Mexicois similar enough. She was the resident expert on certain political and economic matters in a certain SA country for A Government Agency, so was probably as knowledgeable about such things as anyone could be. She has a degree from Georgetown in International Relations, and a fair amount of training. She has briefed presidents directly/personally on these matters.She thought about it a bit and attributed it to the effects ofcolonialism, in that the ruling classes of most LA countries are the descendants of the yurpeens, the Spanish specifically, and mostly white/mestizo not native and their attitudes towards the indigenos is not wildly different from colonial times 500 years ago. That sorta made sense -- they have their status and wealth and really don't care that much about the rest. In places where indigenos do get elected (I think Hugo in Venezuela and the guy in Bolivia?) they tend to go overboard the other way with the predictable results -- it gets even worse.Interestingly, we were just in Peru and the electioneering was going bigtime for the election yesterday. They started out with something like 30 candidates, it got winnowed down to 2, Fujimori and Kuczinski (sp?), both right-center candidates and obviously neither has an indigeno name, not even a Spanish name. I'm still not sure which got elected as last I heard it was 50.5-49.5 for K. In any case, Peru has been fairly right of center, and their economy has been going pretty well, and from what I saw it did not have the really bad poverty you see in Mexico and some other countries, though most people would not be wealthy by any means. The Fujimori candidate is the daughter of a former president, now in prison, who went a bit too far after eradicating the communist Shining Path uprising, which people are still grateful for though a few remain back in the mountains and in the forests causing trouble.Some countries are starting to get their acts organized though Argentinakeeps regressing every 10-15yr or so. Chile is doing well, as I think is Colombia, mostly, after the bad times with the drug trade. Brazil is starting to slow down after some good growth. Costa Rica and Panama are doing pretty well. Ecuador could but their idiot presidente keeps trying to screw things up with socialismo to appeal to the lower classes. It seems that the ones doing well adopt some US-style reforms and the leaders take some interest in the general welfare and actually _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com_______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
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