Remarks: Public Dinner - Ollanta Humala, President of Peru, in English

Well, I have little time as president of Peru, also little time as a politician. I am by training, I am a military person and my aspiration was not to be president of Peru. It was to be commanding general of the Peruvian army. Circumstances led me to this situation; I do not know how but here I am. And I intend to do it well. My military career taught me to know my country. It took me to various places in my homeland and made me realize things weren’t going well. As a soldier I have defended, become friends, but I noticed in many places that the state was not present. Then I used to find myself asking, where is the state that I have to defend? And there was no government presence. Consequently, that led me to think that there are areas of the country where people probably do not feel a sense of belonging to the country and, besides that, we have created a set of inequalities. Latin America is one of the most unequal regions of the planet and we need to change that.

So let’s talk about what social inclusion. Social inclusion, as I have said repeatedly, is to make the state, designed today to serve only 30% of its population, serve and meet the needs of 100% of its population. Social inclusion is a process of major transformation. Because of that, I'm exhausted from so much yet deserved tribute, even if I had the idea of commanding, as the first day. And I would feel more satisfied. For me, at the end of my five-year term, I hope for a major revolution involving education, transform education, and change education. Education should no longer be a privilege but a right. It should no longer be an instrument of exclusion but become an instrument of inclusion. When talking with my friend [former President of Brazil] Lula, we agreed that a great transformation, a great revolution would be to have a farmer in a remote part of the country at 5 p.m. to have a coffee, watch the sunset, have water flow through his plumbing, and be with his children at home doing their homework. Achieving that would be a great revolution in my country. Because that would imply infrastructure building by a state that must get there and undertake the basic sanitation to install water and drainage. It involves taking electricity there. It involves having good coffee and that this farmer will have enough money to buy that coffee. And for this, he should not have to work 18 hours a day, but enjoy life a little, because sometimes we complain we do not have time, and time controls us rather than us controlling time. And at the end of the day, time passes, we begin to get gray hair, and we ask, how much time have we spent with our children? How much of our lifetime have we spent enjoying a sunset?

I think we should not lose sight of that. We are all human beings behind the tie and shirt, human beings who can pinch ourselves and feel the pain. And we have the same needs, the same aspirations and that, I think, is the message of social inclusion. To make this farmer do this, in a town like Atalaya, to enjoy life a little, then it implies bringing the government there. To reach Atalaya which is in the Amazon jungle, from the coast, we have to get the state across areas that are 4,500 or 5,000 or 6,000 meters above sea level in the Andes, and then descend to the Amazon. This means the government should not suffer from mountain sickness, which occurs in high altitudes. The state should travel up without mountain sickness and down to arrive at the farmer’s home in Atalaya, who must feel the presence of the state. Because institutions regulate life in communities. It is what makes justice, provides education, health, roads, takes care of the environment, provides light so you can go out in the middle of the night—otherwise nobody would go out.

So a great deal of investment is needed for the state to perform these actions. For this farmer's son to do his homework there must be a school. And there must be qualified teachers in that school, otherwise he will not be able to do homework. And then, we have a problem. In the case of rural schools and rural education, we need more teachers but teachers' salaries are quite low and discourage a young person to become a teacher. Or, at least, they get paid so little that the young teacher takes it as if the state is saying: "Pretend you are teaching. You pretend you're teaching and I'll pay you. Simply, act like you are teaching." And the message from the state to the student, with what the state provides is: "Pretend that you study. Because what they teach you is so basic.” Then we can’t make it so that you have to attend university. Therefore, education has a price the poor cannot afford. So we have to solve that problem, so this boy, the son of a farmer, can be doing his homework at 5 p.m. But at 5 pm, it becomes darker in the Amazon so we must understand the issue of electricity. Today, much of the population lives on kerosene lamps or these petromats that are powered by kerosene and/or alcohol. And obviously, these people do not have enough money to pay for kerosene every day, so some days they simply use the light of the sun and the moon.

So we need a process in place to provide electric power to rural areas. And it can be done, it can be done. But what happens is that, as the state has never been present there, under the rules of the market it is not profitable to invest in rural electrification because people do not have much spending power and also the population has gradually migrated ti the coast. Because young people ask, where is the government? Who has seen it? And someone says, "I have seen it around Lima, the coast has seen it, near the sea!" So the young man, as soon as a road is paved, he takes his backpack, leaves his parents and seeks his opportunity on the coast.

That is what happened to my father, because my father comes from a village in the interior of the country, where, before he could speak Spanish, he learnt Quechua. And as there was no state there he had to leave to the capital. I am a product of my father’s decision. But not everyone has the opportunity to succeed in the capital. Because in the capital there is a lot of competition and then we have a serious problem. Hence, we need social inclusion to solve the problem of rural electrification because we also need to create development in these inner areas of the country. Notice this figure I'll give you: 97% of the fresh water reserves in Peru, which are from the Andean glaciers, is running from the Amazon area towards the Atlantic. And only 1.7% of these water reserves are going to the coast, to the Pacific. However, only 29% of the population lives in the Amazon, while 60% of the population lives on the coast. So we have one of these unbalanced situations because there is more water than needed in the Amazon, while in the coastal area water is scarce and many people have to live with water cylinders. This must be resolved with the social inclusion process.

But we also need... I don't know if the microphone is working. We also need, for this man to have his coffee at five in the afternoon, to provide jobs, otherwise he will not have money. So we have to find work for this man. He may have work at the farm. But if there is no market, this man is not going to sell his products. Then he will not be able to buy coffee because he produces rice or papayas. And would not have any unless he managed to barter for coffee. Therefore we need to create jobs in rural areas. And what can the man do for work? How can we give this man work? We need to create an agricultural policy. Consolidate domestic markets. Value agriculture. And so the activity, the product he is producing, will have a place in the local market and he will have money to spend.

As you can see, I am laying out the work I have to do. Not to worry you, but so that you understand that it is difficult to carry out this concept of social inclusion and make sure the state meet everyone's needs. Now, what is the role of investment? It plays a fundamental role, because we need the economy to keep moving. Peru has natural resources, many natural resources. With just 1.3 million square kilometers of rural area, we have a mining sector—producing gold, silver, copper, zinc, and molybdenum—competing with countries that have more than 8 million square kilometers. This means that we are a mining power.

But not only that. We have one of the richest seas in the world. The cold Humboldt current gives us a variety of fish that allows us such wealth and to become one of the richest seas in the world, along with the Sea of Japan. Peru has a series of microclimates and its territory is more than 60% in the Amazon. We have one of the most important water reserves of the planet.

We need investments. But we also need to seize upon the concept of corporate social responsibility. It is quite an old concept, but it is a concept that we should always be aware of. Because our work is to maintain a balance between extraction activities and environmental conservation. Today there are over 220 social conflicts in Peru. Most of them arise from the communities—the clash of communities and businesses, particularly in mining. And we need to analyze this problem. If we put the map showing areas of mineral deposits and areas of poverty together, we have almost an 80% match and this is a problem we have to solve. Most of these conflicts arise over water, because everyone has an interest in water.

And how shall we solve these problems? Today, through dialogue first. The Congress, for example, has now approved a legislative package where we forge a new relationship with the mining sector. And, in that sense, I'd like to congratulate the mining companies that, together with our government and through dialogue, have been able to agree and understand that it is currently necessary to better support what goes to the treasury for infrastructure in poor regions of the country. This is an important way to meet the claims of the people from the country’s interior who say: "The state did not take me into account, I am a second class citizen". In addition to this we have adopted, within the framework of Convention 169, the prior consultation law, which is not a right. But it is important. We take into account the views of communities and we are planning a land law to allow the population to collaborate bringing order to the national territory in their regions to say which areas are going be dedicated to nature reserves, which areas are going to be for mining, agriculture, industry, exports, industrial zones, free zones, etc.

All these measures will help reduce conflict. What do we gain when we reduce conflict? Social peace—social peace is essential for investors to not pay the extra costs that they have been paying until now. They have been paying this extra cost because a company arrives to a poor community where there is suddenly a need to exploit a mineral and that community where they government is not present and they don’t know the state. They know that the word "state" exists but they do not know what it means and they confuse “company” with “state.” And they demand that the company provides roads, schools, health posts, etc. And then the roles of the company and the state are reversed. We have the political will to order that the state must comply with what it is supposed to comply. And the company should pursue what they know. And hence, we're going to get along well. This is important for social peace in the country to allow a greater flow of investments, and allow families to feel at ease.

That is why the concept of social inclusion is not merely rhetoric. It is a commitment to the country. We know this because Peru has already lived through economic booms. Many years ago we produced rubber for tires that allowed Henry Ford to sell cars. Well, the area where rubber was produced is in Iquitos, Loreto, in the Amazon. That brought a lot of money and there was economic growth, there was an economic boom. This allowed for Iquitos’ mayor to bring the Eiffel Tower’s architect to build a metal-house fountain in the city square. Not happy with that, he brought Enrico Caruso and surely did a few other things. But hen the rubber was finished, neither Eiffel nor Caruso came. And we only realized that we had been left with no resources and that exploitation of this resource had led to the genocide of two communities: the Boras and the Huitotos, who practically do not exist in our Amazon any more.

So we already know, we already know about economic growth. What we don't know is how to use the opportunity wisely, judiciously and sensibly. But with the rubber, because of the slap we felt in the past that, we learned the cost of not having resources or education.

Now, as I said earlier, there is a revolution, and in Peru it should start with the educational revolution so we have the opportunity for all young people, not only those born in the capital, but everyone, to have quality education. It's the best investment, is the best investment and I'm sure we all agree on that. Who would not invest in their children education? A father, a mother can go without eating to provide a better education. When you're looking for a car, you look at the price tag, often for the cheapest. When looking for a school, you look for the more expensive school, the school with better reputation. Just as anybody knows that, doesn’t the government? The ministers are parents and know it.

So we know what happened in Peru before our government and that's why we want to make a difference. Peru has had a financial basis in exporting natural resources and education was not important because labor was cheap, so education became an expense rather than an investment. Today we have changed that concept. Education is an investment, not an expense. Today we recognize that all the natural resources that we export provide revenue except one: the talent and intelligence of young people leaving the country in search of opportunity because they do not find it at home. This is the migrants' phenomenon, some going illegally and others legally—but most are illegal—as they say, to conquer the world. As we could not conquer our country, we will conquer the world. So they say. And we're losing such talent because in their countries of origin there are no opportunities for these young people to develop their talents and skills and generate wealth at home. These are some of the concepts we talked about in terms of social inclusion. As I said at the beginning, it is the commitment we made with the founding fathers from the time independence, to rescue the republic based on moral values and not private interests.

That is what I propose. For this purpose I sought office and I hope to fulfill this mandate within these five years. It is a long process. I'm not saying that in five years we can change everything. It is not like the pregnancy of a child that lasts nine months and should last no more nor less but nine months. If I have learned anything of these processes, it is that political life is short, and we need to have patience and be tolerant. This is what I've taught myself because we have learned, as we say, the hard way. And as I told you, my background is in the military, not university. I have a master's degree in political science but my real education in politics was practical. And in practice, politics have cost me lawsuits, criminal complaints, slander, loneliness when you are losing and friends when you are winning. That is life. That is life, isn't it? And now, in this time of crisis, at this time of a storm—an almost perfect storm that originated in the north—we want to welcome Peru’s friends. I think it is more profitable to get out there and invest in Peru than in Greece. Excuse me if there is anyone Greek here.

So here are the conditions, right? A government that respects what it signs on for: A government that has created a framework for macroeconomic stability to address social issues, to bring governance where you would not have imagined—to the innermost frontiers of the country. That's my job and I have the strength and vitality to tour my country again, like I did when I was a soldier and as I did during the election campaign. Many thanks to you all.