October 20, 2008
Friends,
It seems there are problems over all the world—some of them may be more apparent to us now due to the economic situations of so many who are suffering and worrying from the problems in financial markets. There is a lot of pain, and it can manifest itself in interactions among people in the United States, sometimes positively but also negatively as some folks’ emotions erupt over little or no provocation. Our way of living, especially during these elections, where positions are staked out, sides chosen, and those who disagree are perceived as obstructionists, or worse, with harsh words used one against the other, makes us more leery and concerned rather than enlightened and confident. Violence can take in forms other than the obvious of war, hunger, disease, and poverty; there is also the violence of words that we may all engage in from time to time, although we may put them in a lesser category than we do the other forms of violence. But it is with words where most of us interact, not in wars or fights but in the use of words meant to injure, harm, and demean, often frequently disguised as protecting oneself or some group or justifying oneself. This happens even among our brothers here and I will expand on the topic of violence in a coming newsletter.
The Kekchi people with whom Gloria and I work have little money. There must be some Kekchi who are successful by North American standards, but I don’t know any of them. That is probably due to the nature of our work, but at the same time the statistics, which are frequently published in the Prensa Libre and other local papers, do not allow me to believe there are many. Guatemala has more inequality as regards access to health care, education, water, jobs, government services, and opportunities in general, than more than 80 percent of the countries in the world. A recent study pointed out that when you compared a child in Guatemala City whose parents had high school educations with a rural child the same age, the city child had more than 10 times the opportunities than did a child from the rural areas. Most of the people reading this only work with people from the rural areas, so this is a telling statistic.
Massive social investment is required to make any change in these numbers but that means money. Tax avoidance, probably evasion, is a way of life here, and is one reason (among others) there has been so little social outlay, especially in rural areas. In the United States, we may pride ourselves on our ability to take deductions to lower our taxable incomes, but even there the deductions benefit primarily those who have excellent incomes. I recall taking advantage of a lot of deductions in former times. But here there is a dual system. Official receipts are called “factures.” These facturas are issued every time a purchase is made and are issued in consecutively numbered, officially printed books. These books represent a record and can be audited by the government to make sure they are receiving their taxes. The other part of the system involves merely hand-written receipts called “recibos.” A factura requires a value added tax of 12 percent, but a simple “recibo” does not. This is to say, for example, that if I purchased a chair that had a list price of Q100 and requested a factura I would pay Q100. But in many establishments if a “factura” is not required the same chair could be purchased for Q88, or 12 percent less. This dual system is followed in hotels, restaurants, hardware stores, personal services, and all types of businesses. The larger international hotels such as the Marriott and Radisson and finer dining establishments in Guatemala City only offer facturas. Companies like Coca Cola pay the tax prior to delivering their merchandise to their outlets.
You have all seen 100s of little tiendas selling all sorts of products used in daily consumption, and none of them give any kind of receipt, but the tax has been previously collected from the suppliers. The system, though, is full of opportunities for corruption, and those who study how to avoid or possibly evade those taxes do it—just as many do in the United States. The rent I have paid on my houses here is subject to the tax. I have avoided the tax. As I have written previously, it is easy to get caught in mild corruption. A well-to-do Guatemalan (the top 10 percent in income) earns more in a year than a campesino will earn in 70 percent of his life. Eighty percent of the productive land is in the hands of only 5 percent of the producers, and this has been the case since the middle of the last century.
Even today, only 39 percent of the kids who enter school will graduate with a primary education, and the north of the country, Kekchi country—your country—is the area that has the greatest inequality in all these areas. (All figures from Prensa Libre October 3, 2008.)
There have been more than 20,000 Guatemalans without documents deported from the United States this year. It is a very dangerous and risky business to travel to the United States, and most who do it are those who have both the desire for a better life and the willingness to take the chance. The deportees are interviewed upon return, and although it is difficult to know the exact numbers it was learned that less than 1 percent of those who were deported were from Kekchi country. Many were from Huehue, San Marcos, Quetzaltenango, and Guatemala, but it is rare for a Kekchi to attempt to cross. What these numbers mean is still open to interpretation.
Another problem facing our Kekchi friends has to do with the increase of land devoted to the planting of the African palm oil tree. The oil from this tree is now used in bio-fuels as well as cooking. The land use has grown from 31,000 hectares in 2003 to more than 83,000 so far this year. This is due to the increase in bio-fuels. The people this impacts the most are subsistence farmers, especially Kekchi, since most of this increase acerage has come from land in the municipalities (comparable to counties) of El Estor, Ixcán, Sayaxché, Chiséc, Panzos, Chahal, Fray—all of these communities well-known to you since all are Kekchi. Reports indicate that companies take advantage of poorly educated campesinos by offering amounts of money for land a campesino can only dream of—Q25,000, which is a standard amount for a piece of land, even though the land is worth far more. The campesinos then become landless and are forced to look for new land. This leads to invasions in protected areas, often in the Petén, where entire groups of people will squat and then agitate to have land given to them by the government. The governor of the Petén told some visitors from the Presbytery of Middle Tennessee and Rotary during dinner recently that these people who have sold their land are encouraged—it not taken actually delivered to these areas—to invade by unscrupulous companies who hope to get the government to cede land to campesinos. This land will eventually be sold to the companies at bargain prices, and the cycle starts again. Ecologists indicate the damage is worse than any benefit, since vast amounts of land need to be cleared and vast amounts of fertilizers and herbicides must be used to produce the product in quantity. The chemicals contaminate sources of water that are already at risk.
So much land devoted to this one product has increased the alarm about food security here in Guatemala. It is always the poorest countries and the poorest people in them that efforts like these affect. Many of you will recall the village of Progreso in Sayaxché. We visited there many times. But about two years ago the entire village was sold and is now devoted to palm trees and palm oil fabrication, and friends like Antonio Cucúl now live in El Estor or other parts. Now and then he calls me seeking funding to open yet another tienda. I saw him not long ago and he told me his son, 10 years old, had quit school because he didn’t like it. Antonio will not insist he go to school since he sees little value in it. The future for Antonio and his family is grim.
It is still the rainy season in Guatemala. I received a call yesterday from Sebastian Seb Quim in Sayaxché. He told me he was calling from the Presbyterian Center and that water from the overflowing nearby river was entering the first floor of the building and they were abandoning it. He sloshed around so I could hear it. Those of you who have visited know that open sewers flow down the street in front of the center. You can imagine just what is entering the center. Sebastian says the water is very thick and dirty. The kitchen building was unusable. They were removing all equipment from their radio station and going off the air. He called again this morning to say that things were worse. The students have all moved out and won’t return until the water subsides.
Domingo Botzóc of Chiséc came by yesterday with stories of flood damage in the Presbytery of Playa Grande. Alberto Sacúl called today to see how I was doing since one has to ford three rivers to get to his little village of Santiaguito in Izabál. He added that some days the road was passable but others it wasn’t. Today it wasn’t. He called because he was concerned about Gloria and me, but the rains have not impacted us yet. Jose Saguí called from Ixcán asking similar questions. It’s good to know people are thinking of us.
All of this reminds me of the efforts many in the AOK (Amigos of the Kekchi) are making among the Kekchi. None of us, and that includes Gloria and me, are social workers in Guatemala. None of us has access to the kind of money required to solve these profound issues. But I do believe we can listen to our friends and work with them in regard to what they want rather than what we think they need. Even as I write, I am convinced that the only way to long-term improvement is through solid education. Regrettably, too many of them do not want it or do not see the value in it since they must spend their time striving to make a living. But we can do more than we have done if we work together and work with open minds—rather than determining when and what we will do while sitting at home in the United States.
I still encourage you to take advantage of the AOK and to get to know one another by participating in one another’s trips. The problems our friends face impact all of them alike, but it would be advantageous if you had a wider view of the Kekchi and their entire geography. My hope is that some day there can be a consensus in the AOK about how to work together to make genuine, long-lasting improvements in the lives of people made known to us by the church, and entrusted to us by God, just as we have been made known to them by the church and equally entrusted to them by God so that all of our lives could be enriched. How much of our lives and attention should be paid the Kekchi? How much of our resources and thought do we give them, especially now with a faltering economy? Should they be a focus or just a sidelight? How much is required of us? All of us who have come to know the Kekchi have to ask ourselves these questions. There is much to be done that requires time and serious thought but there is much hope because of who we are as children of God.
For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.
- Jeremiah 29:11
Peace,
Roger
The 2008 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 258 |
