State-owned TV Peru is to launch a news program in Quechua as part of a government policy to end ethnic and cultural discrimination. Culture minister Jorge Nieto said the program will be broadcast as of 5 am, to reach the broader rural population of Quechua speakers. Both TV Peru and Radio Nacional have been transferred from the more political Council of Ministers to operate now under the Ministry of Culture. Nieto said that some of the cultural programs that already exist will be reinforced and others will be added.
At the Bandurria archaeological site in Huacho, north of Lima, the government has succeeded in recovering 8,000 m2 (about 21 acres) of land surrounding the complex, where invaders have been excavating, moving earth and also planting crops. The Ministry of Culture executed the eviction and slapped a stiff fine of 500 tax units (UITs), equivalent to S/. 1.97 million ($588,000). Bandurria, close to Caral, was built by a fishing community some 5,000 years ago and includes ceremonial platforms built of stones.
The Peruvian Environmental Law Society, SPDA, is celebrating its 30th anniversary with talks, book launchings and photo and documentary film exhibition from Nov. 2 to 11, at the Catolica University’s cultural center in San Isidro (Av. Camino Real.1075, 5th floor). Admittance is free to all events, but registration is advisable for the talks and film shows, listed on the SPDA website at this link http://www.eventbrite.es/o/spda-30-aniversario-4493917753 Talks cover a wide range of topics in climate change, illegal mining and logging, national parks and the Interoceanic Railroad project.
The tenth oil spill in a year on the Northern Peru Pipeline has led the government to shut down the pipeline temporarily and call for a state of emergency in the districts of Urarinas and Parinari in Loreto. Clean-up teams are required to clean up the damage of the extensive areas affected, before the rainy season sets in. Although the pipeline was built in the 1970s and recently maintenance has been poor, Petroperu’s new chairman, Augusto Baertl, says that seven of the 10 spills are due to sabotage, where the pipeline has been cut.
Intersting item on Quechua. A comparative study with the use of the Navajo language and the use of radio on the large Navajo Nation in Arizona and NW New Mexico could be of interest. The Navajo are the largest of theIndian Nations in the United States, and their language is famous for its use during WWII as a code in the combat eforts against the Japanese.