Wednesday, February 8, 2017

Turn left…turn left…turn left…


Anyone familiar with a car GPS might have guessed what the title of this post is referring to. There is a mototaxi; not a car but a mototaxi that regularly patrols our neighborhood either transporting customers or looking for them, that has a GPS. Frequently during the day we hear that female voice saying in English, turn left…turn left. That’s all she says. She never says anything else, like ‘recalculating’, or ‘hey dummy you missed the turn.’ Just…turn left. Obviously there’s something wrong with that GPS, and has been for at least six months.

So why doesn’t the moto driver turn it off or remove it? Maybe it’s a status thing; he thinks potential customers will be impressed that he has a GPS…and in English yet! Maybe he doesn’t know how to turn it off or remove it. Maybe he likes the sound or her voice. What if it’s a political message? What if the driver is encouraging people who may have conservative political leanings to adopt a liberal left point of view? Especially on the heels of Trump’s election. Many Peruvians don’t like Trump, including Peru’s president. They say he is ‘malo’ (bad or evil). Venezuela’s economy is a mess. Very recently Peru approved 6,000 special visas for Venezuelans to come to Peru to work, study and receive health care. When announcing the program Peru’s president said, “Now is the time to build bridges, not walls.”  It’s pretty clear who that message was directed at.

Speaking of the liberal left, there has been a flood (no pun intended) of protests on Chiclayo’s streets and in parks lately. Some of them are in support of the LGBT movement. I admit I had to look up the meaning. Whenever I see LGBT in print my immediate thought is of a bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich. Other protests call for the removal of, “…garbage on television!” I once asked a protester what qualified him to determine what is garbage television. He said he didn’t need qualifications, that it was obvious that anything that didn’t “feed or stimulate the intellect was garbage television.” I asked him if he watched The Simpsons. He said he did, and catching my meaning quickly added, “…but that is not garbage!”

Most of the protesters are very young and very exuberant. It is my impression that they are more focused on enjoying the excitement of the activity then they are on being invested in their cause.

Many years ago I interviewed a newspaper editor in his office (oddly, I don’t remember why I was interviewing him). I asked him what he looked for in hiring a reporter. He said that for a broadcast reporter he wanted a physical appearance and voice that wasn’t distracting. For both written and broadcast, good communication skills were critical. Then he added something that at the time I thought was odd and has stayed in my memory through the years. He said he favored hiring slightly older applicants who “had all of their causes behind them.” He didn’t want reporters to take a position or try to influence, but to report objectively and dispassionately. He said his job was to present the facts and let the readers/viewers draw their own conclusions.

I once had causes. The further in time I am removed from those days of naive idealism the more I forget that I too once thought it was possible to change the path of humanity to a direction that I knew was the right direction! Like those LGBT and ‘garbage’ protesters, I was positive I knew the truth! I wonder if there will come a time when the moto driver’s GPS will say, ‘turn right…turn right…

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On an apolitical note, school supplies are showing up in Chiclayo’s stores. Very soon the phone calls will start coming from pronoei directors asking Promesa Peru to help them. We’re looking forward to it. We’ve had two months off and are ready to saddle up.

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