soapbox

I know just as well as anyone else how easy it is when you are living comfortably in the U.S. to forget about looking into what's going on in other places of the world. Sure, we hear and talk about the shocking, big story events like the Swine Flu (excuse me, H1N1), and the terrible AirFrance tragedy, but how often do we really take the time to find out what is going on elsewhere? If it isn't put directly into our lap by CNN or told to us at the water cooler at work, when do we take the time to find out what's up? There have been many sad deaths due to both political unrest and poverty here in Peru recently, and I am guessing most of you haven't heard much about them.
Please take a minute or two out of your day to look at these links attatched about two stories currently in the news here.

1. Puno. Puno is a city in the south of Peru, where temperatures get very cold in the winter, and because of the extreme poverty, every year there are many deaths. Recently over 150 children died across Peru, (35 of them in Puno) all because of a combination of lack of proper food, clothing and heating. See here: http://www.peruviantimes.com/puno-regional-president-accused-of-negligence-in-child-deaths-from-cold/

2. Protests over the Amazon. This is currently a VERY heated topic here. Current President Alan Garcia had made a plan to open parts of the rainforest to foreign investment (AKA mining, drilling for oil). As you can imagine this has sparked extreme anger from not only the indigenous people living in the area, but people all over Peru. HUGE protests, road blocking, and numerous deaths have occured in the North. Sympathy protests are now occuring in Lima, Cuzco, Arequipa nd other areas. Today a bunch of kids from my school went to participate in the protest in Lima. I didn't go, as I was scared because if U.S. citizens get caught protesting in anti-govt events they can be jailed and HELD! GAH! Glad I didn't go, my roommate Jenna went and got tear gased. Bah. Check out this story: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/groundreport/up-to-250-indigenous-peru_b_214517.html

Money and clothes are now being given to help out the people in Puno and other areas, but there is a lot of anger about the government not taking precautionary steps earlier in the year.

As for the Amazon issue, this is something I forsee going on for a while. Stay tuned.

Besos y Abrazos