Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2006/11/20
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 09:21 AM 11/20/2006, you wrote: >I am curious. > >Are we to regard these people as poor? They are campesinos - farmers who come in from the rural areas for the market every week. Most of the villages in Guatemala have a market day one day a week and many farmers travel from one market to the other to sell their produce. If you visit the people in their homes, they live in one room adobe houses with no running water and no electricity. From a report on Guatemala's GNP which has increased to $1910: "From the social point of view, poverty is still a major problem for more than half of the population, and almost 25% of the population lives in extreme poverty. The per capita GDP is increasing too slowly to improve significantly poor people?s standards of living. Moreover, social indicators are among the worst in Central America in terms of social public expenditure, access to health and basic services, education, child and maternal mortality rates, distribution of wealth and land. Indigenous peoples, who constitute 50% of the population ? one of the highest rates in Latin America - suffer from strong racial, social, economic and cultural discrimination. Seven indigenous people out of ten are poor and live on the margins of the society." The average of $1910 also includes all of the very, very wealthy Ladino people in Guatemala City who own McDonalds and Wendy's and Toyota franchises :-) > From the look of their food, it is absolutely high quality. It is - just like at farmers' markets here in the US - the produce is fresher and nicer than anything you find packaged in the grocery stores. It is also a lot cheaper. >I'm touched by the bucket of water one of the >ladies has with here. Water is such a valuable commodity. Chichi has running water in the market but in most of their homes, the people have to carry water from the nearest river. Thanks, Daniel. Tina Tina Manley, ASMP, NPPA http://www.tinamanley.com