In the Daily Mail today is a precious picture of George W. Bush winking at the Queen. In the Guardian we find Maid Service, an article on the question of corruption. Below are some highlights, with interesting information on contemporary Peru. I have of course bolded the most shocking paragraph.
Why is corruption endemic in parts of Latin America? A recent case from Peru suggests that a mixture of inequality and uneven enforcement of the law for those in power are at the heart of the problem.
In late April, the television program Cuarto Poder [Fourth Power] revealed that Elsa Canchay, Peruvian member of congress from the province of Junín, had placed her maid on the congressional payroll as a “political adviser.”
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The salary of a congressional advisor is roughly $1,500 per month – about 10 times the miserable allowances generally given to maids in Peru. The press presumes (though this is rarely stated explicitly except by bloggers) that Canchay was using her maid to line her own pockets. Jacqueline Simón Vicente, the maid in question, would have been placed on the payroll in exchange for agreeing to turn over most of her salary to the member of congress, though none of this is yet publicly confirmed. Such practices have, nevertheless, been revealed repeatedly in the past, and in one exceptional case a member of congress was expelled as a result.
Public indignation was stirred when Canchay not only lied about her maid – claiming she was a notary-in-training when photos show her wearing a maid’s uniform – but also suggested the accusations against her were motivated by racism.
If racism is the issue, it is only because discrimination is at the root of inequality in Peru. Gross inequality makes it possible for employers to engage in abusive practices such as stealing from employees. Maids are subject to extremely abusive and discriminatory working and living conditions in Peru (recently dramatised by their exclusion, like dogs, from beaches near Lima.
It would be easy to minimise the case against Elsa Canchay as merely another episode of petty malfeasance. As the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) notes, however, “corruption in public office extends uninhibited when citizens either resign themselves to living with it or contribute to spreading it further.”
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Axé.
coldhearted scientist وداد 