a new chapter for Perú

Yesterday was Election Day...and unlike what everyone and their mother, including foreign media, were predicting, Ollanta Humala did NOT win. As yours truly predicted right from the very first round of elections, Alan García of the oldest political party in Perú, APRA, won by about 11%. I knew I should´ve bet money.

Anyway, as my host parents told me, independent of the electoral winner, things will get more expensive. Neither candidate was exactly a shining candle of hope. I guess looking at Peruvians´ choices for president makes me feel better about the choices us Americans had in 2004. So Perú is entering into an uncertain future. My optimistic side likes to remember that when Alan García was president in the 80s, he was only in his 30s...now that he´s much older, maybe he´s learned not to spend, spend, spend in such an irresponsible way that it leads the country to another 5-digit level of hyperinflation. I do believe he means well. He just better find a good economic adviser. At least his rhetoric has been rational enough and investor-friendly. I´m no expert, but he has been promising a lot in terms of social programs. Making promises that you don´t keep was the mistake of the outgoing president, Alejandro Toledo. As most developing countries realize, it will be a challenging task to balance supporting effective social programs while maintaining economic progress and stability.

Speaking of which, my political nose is incredibly strong. Besides predicting correctly that Alan would win, I have been saying the following ever since Kerry conceded on that dreary morning a few Novembers ago: BUSH DID NOT WIN 2004. Finally, more and more articles are coming out about all the questionable electoral results in certain parts of the US as well as stories of manipulation and trickery...and now Robert Kennedy has written a thesis on the subject for Rolling Stone. Mom always told me I had a good nose. Hmph.

OK, enough bragging. The past few days have been extremely busy, yet very interesting. In Perú, there is a governmental organization that runs the elections as well as teaches people how to use the ballot -- since voting is mandatory, it´s a responsibility of the state to do so, unlike in the States where PACs and NGOs and the entire world spend gazillions trying to promote civic education and participation. It´s called ONPE, and I´ve made friends with the team in my town since they´ve been here for months. They invited me to go watch the voting process as well as take pictures (they eagerly jumped in photos themselves). That was pretty cool...one of those things that would be extremely awkward if I didn´t know most of the people working there and voting.

The voting is done in public institutions -- mostly schools. I went to both schools in my town, with the pretext that I was dropping off lunches for the volunteer election workers (my host sister and host uncle). Voters are separated into different groups -- kiiind of like wards -- and siphoned into different classrooms to vote. In each classroom is a "Mesa," which means a team of volunteer election workers and a corner with a secret ballot. Voters fill out the ballot with a pen, drop it into the ballot box in front of the Mesa. At some point, they need to make a fingerprint of their middle finger. Whenever I asked someone if they´ve voted yet, they showed me their middle finger. Oh, cultural clashes are so fun. Anyway, no chads or faulty computers involved here! And somehow, it seems like a better system than in the US, especially since the entire country uses the same voting system.

On a different note, today was World Environment Day, and it went extremely well. All the schools showed up. Some kids were dressed up as flowers and trees. I wanted to hug them silly, they looked so cute.

I´ll be uploading pictures onto flickr when I get the time.