Tag Archives: poverty

Discrimination – Getting Called Out in a Crowd

Cusco draws a lot of tourists. Expensive restaurants like Jack�s Cafe serve American-style burgers and hiking stores — due to the big attraction of Machu Picchu — swarm the streets near the central Plaza de las Armas. Many locals pinpoint foreigners to sell goods or ask for money. People actively pursue this so often that it becomes a headache.


A street artist waited for me outside a restaurant for an hour and a half with his portfolio. He managed to sell me a picture I didn�t even particularly like, simply because I felt badly for him.


After that, a shoe-shining man, seeing the leftover food I had in a doggie bag, proceeded to follow me and Sam halfway to our hostel several blocks away. He begged me for the food continuously. If I hadn�t already spent so much money on the painting, I might�ve given it to him.


Little girls on the street will look at me and smile. I�ll smile back. Then they�ll hold out a hand, saying in a sweet voice, “�Propina?“, which of course means that they�re asking for money.


People ask me for money so often that I don�t even know what to do with myself anymore. I just want to shout at them, “I can�t help the entire freaking world! I want to, but do you know how many other people I�ve helped today?”


And it�s ridiculous for me to get upset like this: I�m not the one begging on the street.


It�s in this context that, after visiting a church in the Plaza San Francisco, Sam and I were drawn to a street comedy show. A man had drawn a laughing crowd of 150 people or so and was shouting and acting obscenities. After one of his sketches, he pointed directly at us and shouted, “You! Whitey! Where are you from?“


Sam responded, the United States.


The comedian busted on him for a moment. Then he called me out, asking for my nationality.


I responded, the United States.


Everyone laughed and he joked about me, as if it that fact were impossible.


This was easy to smile at until the comedian grew progressively more incisive with his commentary. I don�t remember what he said exactly. He sarcastically mentioned people from the United States coming to have a good time in his beautiful country. He put on a blond wig of long hair like a woman�s, saying he now looked just like us. Everyone continued laughing.


He then said that us — these people from the United States — should give him money, right there in front of the crowd, or be disgraced. He approached us, holding out the wig in mock, exaggerated suppliance. Everyone watched in anticipation and the tension in the air was thick. Sam didn�t understand quite what was going on, and he was still laughing at the “joke.” Angry, uncomfortable and defeated, I reached into my pocket and gave him two coins. I wasn�t even sure how much they were worth.


“6 soles! Look, how generous! Thank you so much!” he said when he�d returned to the center of the crowd.


Even then he continued heckling us and abruptly Sam caught on and said, “Let�s get out of here.”


This scenario was still burning in my mind when we sat down at a poller�a (restaurant that sells almost exclusively chicken, fries and salad), less than 20 minutes later. Sam and I were eating quickly, having paid before sitting down because we had to catch a bus.


When Sam rose to fill up his salad bowl, a Peruvian man glared at me and said condescendingly, “Make sure he leaves tip. Don�t forget to leave tip.”


I was ready to freaking explode.


I scarfed down a few more forkfuls of food, shaking my head and getting angrier by the second. Sam saw my annoyance but I wasn�t even paying attention to him. Far past ready to leave, I tore 2-sole coin out of my pocket, held it up so the man could see and slammed it on the table-


As we were leaving, I leaned onto the table next to the man. He looked past me at the television screen, ignoring me. I said in Spanish while Sam put on his backpack, “I�m the son of two Peruvians, and he is one of best people I�ve ever met.“


“And I speak very good English!” he said turning his head.


I�m not sure what I�d wanted to accomplish. All I�d wanted was to combat ignorance or discrimination, I think, but what would the confrontation really get me? Nothing in the end. But I was so incredibly pissed at everything that had transpired before then that I wasn�t thinking straight.


“Don�t judge my friends,” is what I said, and I left the restaurant, shaking my head, a mix of emotions I�d never felt before swirling around inside me.


Thankfully, I�ve never experienced much discrimination in my life. If I have, it�s been inconsequential. So to walk around with Sam — tall, white and blond — while in Peru has been an eye-opening experience. People treat me so differently when I wander around alone, lending themselves more warmly to conversation, begging me for money less. Now I�ve been noticing the eyes watching us as we walk, and I stare pointedly back at them, wanting to say, “What is your problem?”


Things have been different since leaving Cusco, but those few days have been branded into my memory.


Location: Arequipa, Peru

Privileges

It still seems unreal to me that I am living in Paris. Each morning I am struck anew with this revelation, usually at about the same time I see the sunlight illuminating the treetops and the buildings on the avenues of Montparnasse.

The leaves in the Jardin du Luxembourg (where the Senate is located) are beginning to turn gold and red. The morning air is cool, although it will be warm in the afternoon. This makes me wonder what the thousands of sans-abri, the homeless, will do in the winter. Every day the problems of poverty and homelessness confront Paris. On every other street there are men and women sitting on the sidewalk or in metro stations, huddled with an outstretched hand or a cup. Some ask passersby for money, or pray aloud, or perform a song. Some ride the metro, switching between cars and giving each a speech about his or her life. Others are silent.
I feel immensely guilty every time I pass les sans-abri. I have come to this country in a mantle of privilege – a college student without a job, simply here to study literature and cinema and experience a different culture. But I also know that I can’t help everyone. I thought that France had a strong system for the welfare of the homeless and those in poverty, but maybe I need to research this a bit more. Because many of the sans-abri are immigrants, the issue is sensitive; France recently departed large numbers of Roma and is being harshly criticized (deservedly, I think) by the other members of the EU.
It’s just sad to see people with so little in a country that prides itself on its haute-couture, art, and libert�, �galit�, et fraternit�. But unfortunately, I guess it’s the same in most cities. I’m going to look into volunteering opportunities here, so that I can make use of my French citizenship (however temporary it may be).
Le Palais de Justice

Location: Jardin du Luxembourg, Paris 75006, France

Starting Life in Tanzania…

Mambo!

First of all, sorry I haven’t updated in a while. I arrived at JFK in New York at 7:30 AM on Monday May 17th. We actually arrived to our hostel in Dar es Salaam around 5:30 PM on Tuesday, May 18th (Tanzania time). Once we were actually into our hostel – surprise, surprise – we didn’t have internet service. So now, we are currently in Morogoro, we have internet service and I will do my best to catch you up on my adventures so far.

Tanzania is pretty awesome. Dar es Salaam, or ‘Dar’, was our first stop. Dar spoiled me. Our hostel was surprisingly nice. We had air conditioning, our own bathroom and a comfy, foam mattress. After talking to a local we found that the neighborhood our hostel is in is a ‘rich’ neighborhood. Now that is rich for Tanzania, not for America. Granted the neighborhood is pretty nice compared to others we have passed on the street but these conditions would not be accepted by the wealthy in the west. While in Dar we had 3 lectures at the University of Dar es Salaam. What a difference there is between Penn State and the university here! The campus was nice – every piece of nature here is beautiful – but again, the conditions would not be accepted in the west. Electricity flickering on and off during lectures, hot stuffy rooms. Students at Penn State would withdraw if they had to deal with that! It really shows me how lucky we are and that’s when looking at the one of the most prominent universities in the entire continent.

Other than our lectures, we spent a lot of time stuck in traffic, eating out and walking around. We visited downtown Dar which was nothing like our downtowns. The food in Dar was pretty awesome. There was nothing I had that was bad. The only thing I received but didn’t eat was raw vegetables and some rice with curry (I’m not really a curry fan). The second night we had gotten dinner at a restaurant right along the waterfront. It was very nice but kind of white-person-central. It was very odd to see foreigners dressed up and looking nice coming into the restaurant when I knew of the poverty that lay just down the street.

Life in Dar defiantly is different from that in an American city. The urban poverty is obvious. People are out on the streets, on the sidewalks, in alleys trying to sell something to get some cash and they are there at all times. They literally have EVERYTHING to sell on the streets. For example, when we were driving in from the airport one guy was walking through the traffic lanes with a fish aquarium on his head. Need a fish aquarium? He was your guy.

The mixture of styles in Dar amazed me. You would have some people walking along the street looking like they just stepped out of an American mall while you have others – like the Maasai tribe – who walk around in traditional African attire. I guess it shows how globalization and the western world has influenced these people, but not taken over. I hope they continue to keep their culture. It is unique and very beautiful.  

In Dar we didn’t have too much time to truly interact with the people and the locals. We did spend some time talking to adults who knew English and playing soccer with some school children, but other than that our interactions have been somewhat limited. I am defiantly a minority here, that much is obvious. Being in downtown Dar was a bit much at times. Having so many people stare at you can get kind of old.

Anyways, that was a quick summary of Dar. We left there Friday morning and arrived here in Morogoro where we have been the last few days before we leave for Mang’ula and the Udzungwa National Park tomorrow morning.

Morogoro is gorgeous. The mountains in the background and the green environment all around. I wish I could show you some of the pictures I’ve taken so far. The city is nice. It is smaller than Dar but I think it is nicer. The people are kinder and the environment is greener, more welcoming and easier to appreciate. Traveling here we went through the rural countryside and got a glimpse of some more rural type poverty. The mud houses and limited access were hard to observe, especially when we waste and have so much. However here in Morogoro, people seem to be doing well for themselves. There are many tin roofs which shows a higher income status compared to thatched roofs.

Here in Morogoro we have been spending time doing a lot of work. Yesterday we had 5 lectures at the Sokoine University of Agriculture. We learned all about the agriculture system in Tanzania, deforestation, rural sociology, etc.  It is shocking home much forest land has been altered and degraded here. The mountains shown about normally would have been covered in forests but deforestation for firewood and farming land has removed most of the trees.

This is a topic that has repeatedly sprung up here in Tanzania. The people, government and economy are trying to develop and advance but at the same time the country is rightfully concerned about environmental damage and degradation. Finding a balancing act is going to be difficult. When is ruining the environment okay? And where do you draw the line between environmental rights and human development? In America we have been lucky to develop and establish our country in a time where environment didn’t have to be a concern. Now we are trying to clean up our mess but Tanzania has to consider this from the beginning. Putting more pressure on Tanzania is the extraordinary importance of their land; agriculture and ecotourism are huge parts of the economic sector. Additionally, this country has the most amazing, diverse environment. It would be a shame and a loss to the whole world to see more lost than what needs to be.

Well, that is all I have time for now. We should have internet regularly now so I should be able to post more frequent and more detailed entries for the next few weeks. I can’t post pictures with this internet but as soon as I get back there will be a photo-blog post!


Location: Morogoro, Tanzania