“The City of Contradictions” The Realities of Social Extremes

By: Rayna (Arena)

I´m sitting in a café (Harrys on Avenida Arequipa) and enjoying a chicken sandwich and french fries during lunch hour. People are chatting on their I-phones, drinking lattes, and taking pleasure in their mid-day break from college or work. All the streets are meticulously clean and skyscrapers are lined with glass windows that reflect one another’s shimmering surfaces. The trees and flower beds along the boulevards are perfectly trimmed. The city reminds me of the flawlessly groomed streets in Edward Scissor Hands. However, if you travel towards the outskirts, in any direction for twenty minutes, you will find yourself gazing at miles and miles of shacks made from dirt and straw hardly supported by the desert sand. This is Lima.

“The well established cliché is to call Lima a city of contradictions, but it’s difficult to get beyond that description. Here you’ll encounter grinding poverty and conspicuous wealth in abundance; the hardships of the poor in this sprawling metropolis of 8 million inhabitants are all too evident in the lives of those struggling to get by in the crowded streets and frantic bus lanes.” (Footprint, Peru)

For the last two weeks, we have been graciously hosted by generous friends of Mira Flores, Lima, Peru. Mira Flores is one of the nicest parts of town and our hosts have been living comfortably here for many generations. Our Mira Flores friends and I had a discussion about the realities of Lima one evening at a 21^st birthday party. They explained to me that when they drive to the outskirts of Lima, they don’t notice the shanty towns because they have become so use to the contradicting social realities of Lima.

“I have a friend that lives in this Mira Flores bubble and is so isolated that she has no idea about the poverty that surrounds us. Poverty doesn’t even seem real to her,” said my host.

I compared this image to people who live in New York City who walk past homeless people everyday only to take the elevator up to their beautiful Central Park apartments. However, the extremes in Lima are much more apparent.

I explained to our hosts that the US has services provided by the government, for people who cannot provide for themselves. For example, there are homeless shelters, food stamps and welfare. I then inquired about those types of services in Peru. The answers provided lead me to believe that Peru does not offer such services.

“If you don’t work, you don’t eat,” exclaimed my host.

There is a huge discrepancy between the rich and the poor. The question is: how did it become like this and what do we do about it? In the States, our government and our politics are constantly squabbling over this issue. Where do we begin when thinking about a solution for everybody? This is not only a complex issue in the States, but also a debate all over the world. Will there ever be a solution or consensus between the haves and the have-nots. I don’t know, but what I do know is that Lima is in need of serious brainstorming to help find a solution to the iniquitous social injustice.