The Great Continental Divide

As the saying goes, “America and England are two countries separated by a common language”.

Taking it one step further you get: “South America and England are two continents separated by different languages and everything else”.

Given that we all got our troubles and nobody knows the other man’s pain we are perhaps on equal footing although I doubt that very much. If you read the local papers the angst that dwells in the British heart has a lot to do with the holidays and the new nanny state as remixed by Boris Johnson wagging a finger at the exhausted Brits and telling them: “You can go to Greece. No, you cannot go to Greece but you can go the Greek islands (swimming?). You can go Portugal but not Spain but yes you can go to the Balearic Islands. Nope. Forget the Balearics”.

And let’s not start on France. No wonder South America, in spite of our wonderful cultures and infinite gastronomic variety is not even in the picture.

So this and the growing wokiness (more of that later next week) permeating all walks of life which threaten to end the enviable tolerance of the English towards eccentricity, sartorial excess and the occasional deviant sexual shenanigans which can and did include an English football fan sticking a flare up his bum and lighting it up -the flare did expel a patriotic plume of red smoke. The guy was pleased as Punch. This during the Euro Finals in the middle of Leicester Square in front of hundreds live and millions, virtually, about summons the sturm und drang of the inhabitants this Fair Isle.

Wish we had your troubles, mon.

All this time South America is going to the dogs. Fast. I will not have the cheek to speak about other than what I know well, my country, who also happens to be the last casualty and on the very brink if not of extinction then at least of becoming uninhabitable in my lifetime. The present government -whose mandate ends in 10 days, yes ten days- just signed a law making it legal for anyone to occupy any flat or house or condo “in case of sanitary emergency or national catastrophe”.If you happen to live in Peru, that means your house and mine.

And who decides when it’s the time and case? My money is on the incumbent ruler and his band o’ thugs.

At the same time a video of a middle-aged man was taken while he was picketing the seat of the Justice Palace and almost beaten to death by the above mentioned thugs; all while the police just relaxed and enjoyed the show.

I don’t know about you, patient reader, but when you attack the principles of private property and limb and life and get away with it, you have lost two of the pillars which took us out of slavery, feudalism and gave us a few, not many, tenets by which we all agreed to live by.

That life is worth defending and that the state will see to it. And that a man’s home is his castle. Loose that and believe me the dogs is not the most uncomfortable place you will find yourself.

While this is happening to Peru, a small-world player, is there any kind of international reaction? Nah. But who can blame them? The world is looking at the riots in South Africa, the flooding in Europe, the economy everywhere and Putin and the Middle East; always Putin stealing the limelight.

Why does Peru matter in the bigger scheme of things?

It matters because it is a democracy, because it had a functioning and healthy economy, because it was pulling people, albeit a bit slowly, out of ancestral poverty, because it was proof that with less corruption and a bit more efficiency it all was within our grasp, in our lifetime. All that is now lost. The country has already started sliding in slow motion back into civil unrest, inflation, unemployment and despair. The once shinning star of Latin America is in a race to play catch-up with Bolivia, Nicaragua and Venezuela. The very large groups protesting the massive electoral fraud undertaken by a coalition of leftist groups, foreign and domestic, have lost traction.

All this is bad not only for Peru but for all the Third World wannabees economies; butterfly effect, 'member? It does not help that there has been but a smidge of protest from the local media. The leading media group in Peru has remained mutis hiding under some reporter's desk, and hoping -and this is not new- that somehow the worst of the nuclear fallout will bypass them.

Good luck with that.

So as you can see, I wish our troubles down South were about wearing masks or not, going to the Algarve or not, avoid inserting stuff into our bottoms or not. These are happy people’s worries.

Wish we had them too.