The Dangers of Ungratefulness
by Jorge Vargas
Every language has its own way of expressing gratitude, down from the most complex and important languages - Chinese, Japanese, English, Spanish, etc. - to the far less important, though perhaps equally complex, languages of tribal Africa and Central America. Every culture values gratitude at some level, down from the most 'polite' nations - Great Britain, France, Spain, Argentina, etc. - to nations that are considered 'popular' by some cultural snobs - Dominican Republic, the United States, the majority of the African nations, etc.
In Peru, we consider ourselves a polite group. We learn, from infancy, the various subtleties and hypocrisies of true politeness. We learn when to give a gift, when to expect one, when to be genuinely grateful for one, when to be concerned about one; we also learn how to spot two-way gifts and how to pinpoint manipulation. We are very clever in the art of politeness and proper behaviour and, having observed the Europeans and the North Americans, one can readily point out that not only do we rival them in the art of politeness, we Peruvians actually surpass them. We are so good in the intricate web of politeness that we can spot out the true hypocrites and the fake 'thank you' from a kilometer away.
Throughout South America, and beyond, we are known for our hospitality, for kindness, and for laughter; and our closer neighbors also know that we are great ones for duty when we have successfully internalized that duty.
The agents of the Grupo Especial de Inteligencia Nacional (GEIN), which is a part of Dircote (Dirección contra el Terrorismo), successfully internalized their duty in the years 1989-1992 when Peruvians felt a deep sense of defeatism. After all, what moral defense could there be for a nation that, in the realm of economics and security, was going from bad to worse? (I wonder if the U.S., which is itself going from bad to worse, would like to tackle that question.)
GEIN's agents were the only individuals who were successfully combating the terrorist group of Shining Path (Partido Comunista del Perú-Sendero Luminoso, PCP-SL) in an era when the entire Peruvian Republic had begun reconciling itself with the notion of a perennial state of internal war. Suddenly, despite our Hispanic pride and our strong national traditions, we saw a future for ourselves that was no brighter than that of Uganda or that of the Democratic Republic of the Congo - back then known as Zaire.
They tracked the leader of the PCP-SL terrorists in the late 1980s and early 1990s and, finally, they found out that the top terrorist leader was living in a ballet studio in Peru's own capital. In 1992, without a shot being fired, Abimael Guzman, who is currently in prison for treason, was captured by Luis Valencia Hirano-the first member of GEIN, a branch of the Peruvian National Police (PNP) to enter Guzman's room and actually arrest him-and the rest of the GEIN team.
Benedict Jimenez, founder of GEIN and thus its leader, along with Valencia Hirano and Marcos Miyashiro-another member of the team-were considered heroes at the time. After Guzman fell, along with several of his top agents, the PCP-SL movement began losing its balance and, only a year later, the terrorists were not carrying out even half the number of attacks that they had carried out in 1992. By 1995, PCP-SL was basically extinct in Lima and it held power only in a few small enclaves under the leadership of Comrade Artemio, who is still at large though highly debilitated.
Let's go to 2008.
Miyashiro became a Lieutenant General of the PNP, the highest possible rank available to a member of the Peruvian National Police.
Jimenez retired as a colonel. He was never commended for the rank of general, much less Lt. General. He now receives the miserable retirement pay of a PNP Colonel.
And Valencia Hirano? The man who put the cuffs on the terrorist leader and who, by that action, brought Peru back to life in the most surprising and beautiful of ways - what happened to him?
He is still an active member of the PNP-SL. He was sent to the Alto Huallaga Valley along with several other veteran GEIN members. His actions there have been highly distinguished. In 2003-2004, Artemio, who is stationed in Huallaga-Peru, and his PCP-SL terrorist thugs suddenly started to rise up and carried out a series of successful ambushes against members of the Peruvian National Police. Terrorism, some feared, was on the rebound. The nation grew afraid.
Enter Valencia Hirano and his GEIN veterans in 2006. Suddenly Artemio was losing ground. Suddenly top leaders of PCP-SL (those not in jail and not defected) were killed in a night assault in November 2007. Today, Artemio and his foot soldiers— most of his officers are dead and the rest in prison—are barely surviving with the Peruvian National Police readily behind them.
And what rank does Valencia Hirano have? Is he a Lt. General? Not a chance, nor is he a general. He, too, is a colonel and, thus far, has not been recommended to the rank of general despite the fact that other countries would have promoted him well over a decade ago.
Of course, here one could say that the rank of general is difficult to achieve in the Peruvian Armed Forces and in the PNP. But that would be a blatant lie. How many favorites become generals? How many aristocrats? How many white, hand-picked generals do we have in our great forces of national security? How many of our generals are genuine heroes?
Two? Five? Maybe twenty, at most?
How many were hand-picked within a backwards meritocracy that prizes last names over body counts and political connections over successful military maneuvers? Dozens?
Too many to count. And let's not even go into the Admirals of our weak fleet, because if the PNP is aristocratic, the Navy might as well be regal.
What is the importance in the ranks of a few police officers who undertook heroic actions some sixteen years ago?
It is a simple matter of that beautiful phrase: Gracias a usted. That's what this is all about.
How can the Peruvian Republic foster a nation in which the youth wants to serve and advance the country, even at a personal stake, if our State is incapable of properly thanking and awarding the men who saved it and kept it from a complete downfall? What do we tell them now? Do we do like the priests and say that gratefulness will be given in the after-life?
It is true that we are a Catholic nation, and we are proud of that heritage, but we are not the Romans of old and though it'd be swell to have God's gratefulness in the after-life, it would be nice if we could offer people a little bit of it in their paychecks and in their retirement package. After all, it's bad enough that some our glorious athletes from the 1970s are homeless and struggling to get by, but our military heroes?
If the Chileans invaded tomorrow and I were to charge down the beaches of Tacna to face off with an entire Chilean landing ship, what can I expect in a return from the State that I defended? A pat on the back and a beer? Come on now, at least give me a couple of stars on my shoulder.
In a recent survey, cited from Peru's Caretas magazine issue from July 24, 2008, several hundred students were asked what was most important to them and they had the ability to say yes to more than one choice: 80% answered professional advancement; 56% said economic security; 54% said friendship and affection; 48% said strong family ties; 43% said independence/autonomy; 33% said they wanted a significant other, once again proving our Hispanic sentimentalism; 27% cited intellectual and artistic creativity; 24% said social ascendance; 16% answered that they want to 'find themselves' (I think they've been watching too many U.S. teen soap operas); and 11% said fame and fortune.
The fact that so many answered that they think friendship and family ties are important, and that so few openly want fame and fortune, says quite a bit about the morals of our Republic and proves that Peru can utilize today's youth. In other, lesser nations, the answers regarding friends and, especially, family ties would have been at the bottom and 'fame and fortune' would have been somewhere near the top, which is something truly praiseworthy in our Republic.
But today's youth also want professional advancement and economic security above all else. These things are important to them, and why should they not be? They are willing to work hard for themselves and for the Republic but they expect something in return. They expect advancement and personal economic growth.
Perhaps some of the older generations may not approve of these goals but the older generations taught the young ones of today, through years of economic suffering and professional stand-stills, the importance of career advancement. This is a new and more modern Peru, and Peru is stronger because of it.
But the State's message is equally strong: There is no meritocracy for those who serve the State. If you do not know the right people, too bad for you.
A few decades ago, it would have been too bad for Peru's youth. They would have had to take the State jobs anyhow and live without financial security and career advancement, settling for good friends and strong family ties to get past the slow personal and professional growth (the top fear of young Peruvians, coming in at 39%). But Peru's economy has grown for 35 months straight at levels of 3.5% and higher, and that growth has been controlled and responsible.
Peru's investment grading now rivals that of new economic powerhouse Chile, and it has surpassed Colombia's and Mexico's and Panama's, and Turkey's to look beyond the American continent. Peru is now not simply a nation of the future but a nation with a future. The difference is subtle but awe-inspiring.
And what has all of that economic growth, and newly-discovered confidence, wrought? Strong private sector growth. Sure, State employment is still strong, but the private sector is growing and paying more, and it is not as dominated by the backwards meritocracy of the State.
If the State does not learn how to properly thank its employees, such as colonel Valencia Hirano, then the State will lose the best Peruvians to the private sector and our future, far from being closer in its development to Europe's own growth, will instead begin to mirror the growth of countries such as the U.S. Do we really want to become that?
I thought so.
Thus, to avoid the deplorable situation of becoming a racist, elitist, non-redistributive, and completely unequal society, and to more quickly and readily escape the miserable situation of our Peru today, the State needs to change its actions.
Let's finally promote the colonel and show him that we are grateful for the fact that he saves our Republic through his heroics and through his hard-headed insistence on the fact that Abimael Guzman was actually hiding out in the ballet studio even when others thought Guzman was hiding elsewhere.
Let's invest in a Peruvian State that embodies two of Peru's greatest qualities: Politeness and Gratitude.
That's the only way that our youth will grow up admiring and respecting the Peruvian way, because the alternatives - the U.S. way, for instance, which has such a problem with gratefulness that instead of being grateful to Christ for his sacrifice, they took his name out of his own birthday and converted it into the abomination otherwise known as 'X-mas' - are options horrible enough to make even the most stalwart and patriotic amongst us shudder at the thought of being a Peruvian citizen come the year 2050.
In the meantime, I will begin: Thank you, Colonels Benedicto Jimenez and Valeriano Hirano, and thank you, Lt. General Miyashiro, because you three, and the rest of your team, freed my home, my neighbors, my friends, my family, and myself from the dark clouds of terror, war, death, murder, secrets, and deplorable violence. Now, General Octavio Salazar, commander of the PNP, was that really so difficult?
