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| A sign for a Lima security company...some people would like to encircle the whole world in barbed wire |
Seriously though, isn't the media annoying. One day the Embassy issues this warning saying nobody should go to Machu Picchu and everybody babbles about it, then two weeks later they issue another warning saying everything is fine.
This is one of three things that have happened recently that make Peru look bad, and as of yet there is no evidence that Peru has done anything wrong. First there was the "Nightmare in Peru" episode (and I'm pretty convinced the tourists were drunk and acting like assholes), second there was the "Phantom Kidnapping" episode (some kid didn't post a picture on Facebook for a month so his mom made the Peruvian government go find him--at great expense to the indigenous people of Peru, and no expense to the idiot tourist), and now this "Phantom Kidnapping Warning" BS.
Look folks, the random warnings that you issue do have an effect.
The real amazing thing is that the next time some institution of authority makes an absurd claim or issues a bizarre warning, everybody is going to look at me like I'm the crazy one when I express skepticism.
To paraphrase Einstein, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. How many times do you have to listen to the fools of the world before you stop believing them?
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Have you noticed how there's such a "monkey see, monkey do" approach with the media these days? They copy each other without thinking or even investigating the story on their own. Seems lately Peru is being typecast as a dangerous "tourist hell hole" with everyone jumping on the band wagon at the slightest provocation. And let's be honest, tourists for the most part are gullible chumps wandering around with their heads up their asses throwing money around and speaking Spanglish to the locals. Hell most of them couldn't find their way back to their hotel room without a guide. Just saying....
ReplyDeleteBelieve me, those guys at the US Embassy in Lima probably spend more time looking for that city's best cebicheria than in searching for accurate information about Peru.On top of that, I'd be willing to bet that whoever they pay for reliable information is laughing his brains out, successfully playing a game of payback for all the wealth that the US has drained out of Incaland.
ReplyDeleteDo you asshats work for the state department? Do you prefer it goes down like Benghazi where the state department came out looking like jagoffs after 4 Americans were killed? Obama and Hillary did nothing even though they had sufficient warning and looked what happened. Peru's military and police a complete joke so how can you blame the US for trying to protect its citizens?
ReplyDeleteSo Hines, as an expert authority on foreign policy and a rabid Fox News enthusiast, what exactly is an "asshat"? Inquiring minds want to know.
DeleteNo, I don't work for the State department, but I have enough experience travelling overseas and in Peru interacting with State Department officials to know that their skill levels are variable, and many State Department employees have barely any knowledge of the countries to which they are assigned. I also know that much of the information that they send to their chiefs in Washington on a whole variety of issues is extremely inaccurate and based on faulty intelligence or on political considerations that result in misleading and or inaccurate warnings.The comparison with Bengazi is completely irrelevant. What the State Department personnel need to do in Lima is too spend more time compiling accurate data rather than spending their breaks searching for souvenirs in that shopping mall in Surco a block away from the US Embassy there.
ReplyDeleteI'm suspicious when the US does things to "protect" US citizens, it usually results in them takin' our guns and medical marijuana. On the subject of Benghazi, I'd like to hear comments on this video.
ReplyDeleteTom Ricks said it all in that interview, Fox news was acting as a branch of the Republican party in hyping the news on the Benghazi attack. That comment was exactly on Target. The Fox news station, far more than most others in the USA, doesn't disseminate news. Rather it's a propaganda agency, owned and controlled by Big business, that picks, chooses, and distorts information to forward its own particular agenda. The other news outlets are more or less variations of the same thing and basically function to MANUFACTURE opinions among the consumers of the news. How do you know when the news is reliable? You can't, but one way of helping to insure that you get accurate facts is to read the news from various outlets and pray that, in this way, you can get more valid information.As far as international news is concerned, read the news from news agencies in different countries. That's helpful, but regrettably still is no guarantee that you will get accurate news.
ReplyDeleteIn the video Tom Ricks unabashedly accuses Fox of being the "mouthpiece" for the Republicans and conservative right and "hyping" the whole Benghazi incident to discredit President Obama and "distort" the facts behind our country's over dependency on "mercenary" security contractors to do the "dirty work" or shenanigans our government wants kept off the books and unbeknown to the public. Let's stop fooling ourselves, Iraq and Afghanistan became "cluster fuck" follies of epic proportions in the so called War on Terror, where an estimated 6,700 Americans, not including security contractors, and who knows how many Afghans and Iraqis all died in vain while wasting trillions of dollars in national treasure. The worst US foreign policy failure since Vietnam. What did we accomplish there? Absolutely nothing! In fact, we're more hated now in that region of the world than we've ever been. Hines Bourne is entitled to his opinion, but I think he's grossly misinformed and needs to stop praying at the alter of Fox's in house "clown monkeys", Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity.
ReplyDeleteTo add to Dr Anonymous' point, whenever a news outlet or network says their reporting is "fair and balanced" take that with a grain of salt and assume it to be pure, unadulterated bullshit. Why? Just remember this quote from Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Germany's Propaganda Minister, who said to Adolf Hitler, "The bigger the lie the more likely people will believe it".
ReplyDeleteThe State Department has an obligation to protect its employees and to share threats with US Citizens. Obviously it does not always do a good job at evaluating credible threats, but this is hard for outsiders to determine since we do not have access to the intelligence they might receive. Fortunately for us outsiders, Bradley Manning (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/28/bradley-manning-explainer-guardian-coverage) blew open their low-level intelligence reports and revealed that most of the information they have is pretty mundane. Like the Lima Embassy dispatches on their opinions of Peru - they thought Castañeda would have been a perfect president. You can see them here http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Category:Peru and some analysis by El Comercio hereÑ http://elcomercio.pe/tag/248459/wikileaks-peru
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