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Proceso 1141
April 20, 2005
ISSN 0259-9864
Editorial: The shopping malls, a world apart
Politics: Political times of the Legislative Assembly
Economy: Regional emergency!
The shopping malls, a world apart
The main cities of El Salvador have been invaded by
shopping malls. In San Salvador, they have multiplied themselves like fungus;
they have become important areas not only for recreation and consumption, but
for the massive dissemination of transnational symbolic-cultural ideas. With the
shopping malls -specially with the largest ones- the urban appearance has been
transformed (and it keeps transforming itself) taking quick and gigantic steps;
the economic, social, and the cultural life revolves -or so it seems- around
them. What seems to be overwhelming about them -the enormous billboards, the
bright lights, and the large display windows- points at a kind of prosperity and
to a kind of progress that just recently were considered unattainable and that
now are apparently within most people’s reach. What happens is that if the
country is seen from what the shopping malls display, everything seems to be
prosperity, comfort, luxury and consumption.
In El Salvador of the shopping malls, poverty, exclusion, and marginalization do
not exist. Nevertheless, what they offer is a mirage -of prosperity, progress,
development and well-being- that has nothing to do with reality. The situation
is quite different; this is a reality of unemployment, immigration, lack of
educational opportunities, and weak public health services. The actual face of
El Salvador has nothing to do with the fictitious country that the shopping
malls offer. Peculiarly, that fictitious country is devouring the few
possibilities that the real country has in order to face its most critical
challenges. Thus, the construction of enormous shopping malls -for example, the
ones built in the area of the Espino- has caused a serious damage to the
ecosystem of San Salvador. Water-bearing mantles, flora and fauna were
sacrificed for the construction of enormous buildings that, although
overwhelming, are economically detrimental. And they are that because they
become part of an economic logic that is taking the country to bankruptcy.
If economically speaking the largest shopping malls are the expression of an
injurious economic logic for the country, at a cultural and at a social level,
they are the symbol of an identity that has nothing to do with commitment,
solidarity, or with the civil action in the fundamental social problems. This
last subject is worthy of consideration, mainly because not much people actually
pay attention to it.
Shopping malls are areas that define the identity of the different social
segments: downtown San Salvador, with its shopping centers surrounded by
informal vendors for the lower social classes; Metrocentro or the Cascades, the
Zona Rosa, the San Benito establishments, are for the middle- class sectors. For
the people with a higher purchasing power and with a higher degree of education,
there are the Parisian, the Madrilenian or the New Yorker’s style coffee shops,
where they can have social gatherings, read, and, for the most sophisticated
ones, write. Each area provides a sense of belonging for the visitors.
The shopping centers are a space to meet others, those strangers who run after
the same brands with similar styles of consumption. In this sense, they do not
only circulate through goods and brands, but also represent certain stereotypes
with lifestyles associated with sports’ personalities, performers and other
figures that belong to the world of show business. Each person who visits a
shopping center goes not only after a certain kind of goods, but after a
particular identity. And that identity is in the air with the brands and the
personalities that exude it.
In the "new economic culture", which reproduces itself in the large shopping
centers, life is structured around symbols, networks and mechanisms of feedback
that make people get connected with them time and time and again. The large
shopping centers can be considered as a product of the suburban development,
where the intention is to establish diverse kinds of experiences: shows,
concerts or art exhibitions, medical check-ups, social gatherings, sports,
events, and meetings between friends.
They are a world apart: in the outside world, insecurity, heat, and
contamination prevail in an environment of chaos and risk. Inside shopping
malls, there is security, order, and tranquility. A kind of security that only
the consumers can enjoy. It is not the type of security developed for the
ordinary citizen. When the shopping centers offer a fictitious public life, what
they actually do is to privatize even more the public spaces, that is, to
destroy the sense of what is public. To do that is to act against citizenship,
because citizenship –with its rights and obligations- can only be lived in the
public spaces, where the encounter with the others is not regulated by the
market, and it is not protected by private security guards.
The public space combines the concepts of risk and freedom: the shopping
centers, when they are privatized, they lose their nature; their security system
is fictitious, and the freedom of the citizens is harmed. Wherever freedom is
rationed to specific spaces, there is a sense of slavery: slavery -in this new
economic culture- towards fashion, brands, artists, and all the symbols that
help people to get away from reality. Reality is outside the large shopping
centers; it might be possible to put it inside a parenthesis for a while -while
there is purchasing power or credit power to become indebted-, but no one can
hide from reality forever.
Political times of the Legislative Assembly
Both the Executive and the Legislative power adopt public
policies and assign resources. Such duties, among others, reveal the importance
of these institutions, from a procedural point of view, to understand the
political systems. In fact, the history of these duties is in the genesis of the
western democracies, which has evolved towards different models. "On the one
hand, there was the model dominated by the British understanding of policy, in
which the Parliament was the political nucleus, and there was a confusion of
powers at the service of a complete connection between the cabinet and the
Parliament, since the former came from the confidence of the latter to which it
remained attached and, therefore the cabinet was a collegiate organ able to
decree the dissolution of the Parliament. Right in front of this situation there
was the position that kept a strict separation of the powers, so that, unlike
the previous one where the legitimacy was unique, they created organs with
separated legitimacies and perfectly diversified functions. The first one
created a structure called parliamentary model, whereas the second one responded
to a presidential title".
However, independently from the shape that a government adopts, one hopes that
each institution entirely fulfills its political responsibilities. Nevertheless,
in El Salvador, since the discussions about the approval of the general budget
of the nation, at the beginning of the year, the Legislative Assembly has lost
its leading role in the news. This comes as a surprise. When the congressmen
prepare themselves to appear before the electorate, inexplicably, their images
have been erased from the memory of the voters.
Such fact is somewhat incomprehensible because the close context of an electoral
event is supposed to increase the anxiety of the politicians to vindicate
themselves before the electorate. And this vindication happens to discredit the
adversary, as well as to present new proposals in favor of certain groups of
voters that can make a party win or lose. Yet, in the Salvadoran case, the
legislators have not done much to get the attention of the electorate. For
instance, during the preparations for the elections of March in 2004 there was a
higher level of political dynamism in the Legislative Assembly, even though it
was the presidential elections, which were not an element close enough to the
activities and the procedures of that Organ of the State.
Some will sustain that the "political absence" of the congressmen is due to the
considerably important leading role of the Presidency. Antonio Saca, with his
presence and the constant publicity that surrounds his administration of a "government
with a human sense" has intensely shadowed the congressmen. In this sense, the
battle against the opposition is mostly fought in the press and not in a debate
in the Legislative Assembly. It will be possible to observe that in El Salvador
there has never been a parliament that has totally developed all of its duties,
and that whenever they have intended to do so, it has leaded to insults and
negative recriminations. However, in the context of the elections of 2004, there
was a higher level of debate as far as the congressmen are concerned about the
sociopolitical situation of the country.
The congressmen from ARENA believe that the figure of Saca will be enough to
reach the pre-established political goals, and that is why they have not even
taken the time to discredit their political rivals. Surprisingly, in this
occasion, the subject of the trash has not been touched, nor any other subjects
that are usually used against the mayors from the opposition. Besides several
specific frictions, that have always been present in the relation between ARENA
and the FMLN, it is not possible to say that this pre-electoral conjuncture is a
confrontation.
This does not mean that the left wing party has not tried to take the political
battle to the Legislative Assembly. Its leaders have tried to introduce the
subject of the minimum wage and the derogation of the amnesty law; they have
also requested a report of the budgetary expenditures of the Executive in
reference to the expenses of the campaign of former president Francisco Flores
when he intended to occupy a position in the general secretariat of the O.A.S.;
and, lately, they have tried to include in the legislative agenda the subject
connected with the price of fuels. Several proposals have appeared in reference
to this matter, which go from a subsidy to the passengers of the public
transportation system to the negotiation of a contract with the Venezuelan
government to purchase petroleum at more accessible prices in the international
market.
However, in part because of the confidence that ARENA has in getting good
results during the next elections, in part because of the incapacity of the FMLN
to place its subjects in the agenda of the media or because of the lack of
initiative of the other parties from the opposition, the present political
debate is definitively poor. Ironically, while Saca and his team continue
handling with an iron fist the destiny of the country -the repression of the
police on the demonstrators who were protesting against the Free Trade Agreement
last week is a small sample of it-, there are no evident initiatives to question
the decisions of the Executive.
Other competing parties have their own difficulties. The PCN is tied-up to
validate the actions of the Saca administration because one of their magistrates
was placed inside the Electoral Supreme Court for that reason (TSE, in Spanish),
and to keep existing as a political party. The CDU is in the same situation,
saved by the Supreme Court of Justice, that this time played for the political
interests of ARENA. The same thing is happening with the branch of the PDC
directed by Rodolfo Parker, who was also saved because of his connections with
the official party, and, in addition, a person close to the most conservative
thesis of the right wing.
This strategy will have, without a doubt, negative repercussions on the results
achieved by these parties in the next elections. The parties that do not
showcase a clear identity before the eyes of the voters also tend to lose
importance in the political life. The last elections, with all the discussion
that was created about the political center and the later disappearance of the
organizations that claimed to belong to this political tendency, are enough to
corroborate the previously explained situation. These parties do not worry about
the subject and do not seem to have learned the lessons left by their political
failure.
This context has created a policy of power concentration inside the Executive
authority. Although it is true that the Constitution grants an important amount
of power to the parliament to create public policies and to allocate resources,
actually, the Executive has monopolized the power in El Salvador. The
Legislative Assembly has been put in the background and the Judicial Organ has
blurred its presence in the logic of power that prevails in El Salvador. The
fact that the congressmen are nowhere to be found or that the Supreme Court of
Justice is willing to follow the game of ARENA are just a couple of examples of
the inefficiency of the Salvadoran democracy. In a word, in these days, Saca and
his team have won the battle for the control of the institutions where the
public policies are formulated and where the resources are assigned.
Regional emergency!
The increase on the prices of petroleum has had intense
repercussions in the economies of Central America. Recently, most countries of
the region have established precise measures to resist the scaling of prices of
fuel. In Panama, Honduras and Nicaragua, the situation is so critical that the
diverse sectors of the civil society have protested against the increasing
prices.
Last week, the directors of hydrocarbon and mines from Central America held a
meeting to establish common measures in order to face the increasing prices of
fuel. The idea is to formally propose to the petroleum-producing countries the
establishment of preferential prices for the regional market. This measure has
already been used in Mexico and Venezuela; however, it has not been successful,
but that does not mean that the efforts of the countries of the Isthmus were in
vain.
In El Salvador the situation is becoming more and more intense, to the point
that the most important political parties -ARENA and FMLN- have taken a stand in
reference to the problem. During the last week, several representatives of these
parties have appeared in the media proposing some possible solutions to the
problem.
The official party, although it intends to develop alternative sources of energy
(bio-diesel and the combination of gasoline and ethanol), considers that the
scaling of prices of fuels is a problem that cannot be resolved easily, because
the prices of petroleum are established by the activity of the international
market. This is why, El Salvador can only establish palliative measures and try
to save fuel in the best way possible, avoiding the unsuitable use of both the
electric energy and the propane gas.
For the most important party of the opposition, this situation is the result of
an irresponsible administration of the policy that has to do with energy. The
alternative they propose is to approach Venezuela and establish preferential
prices for the purchases made by the country. According to Nidia Diaz, a
congresswoman from the FMLN, in the PARLACEN, this measure also needs a
political support due to the fact that the relations between Venezuela and El
Salvador grew weaker during the Flores Administration.
The growing prices
Since last year, the increase on the prices of petroleum has become an
accelerated evolution of the prices of the different brands and types of
gasoline and diesel. In fact, this situation was a factor that played an
important role to end last year with an inflation rate close to 5.5%.
The increase on the prices of gasoline and diesel has reached its highest level
in the last 40 days. From Christmas to February of the present year, the prices
grew by approximately 5%, but after the last days of February, to this date, the
scaling has been so strong, that the prices grew beyond 13%. Since the end of
the last year, the prices of the different kinds gasoline grew by almost 20%,
and the price of diesel grew by almost 10%.
Even with the considerable increase on the prices, the government has not
implemented any measures in the short-term to face the problem. The actions of
the State, promoted through the Ministry of Economy, are basically words of
advice expressed by the Minister of Economy, who recommends the consumers to
save fuel and to keep their engines in a good condition.
The economic and the social consequences
The increase on the prices of fuel has a considerable influence in the economy
of the people. Although El Salvador is one of the countries in Central America
with the lowest prices in some of the derivatives of petroleum, the problem is
based on how easily the prices are actually increased. The operation of the free
market in the distribution of fuels in the Salvadoran economy has created
perverse effects in different sectors of the society.
In 2004, a year in which the prices of petroleum went through a substantial
increase at international levels, some of the other sectors of the Salvadoran
economy also increased their prices. In this context, the real income of the
Salvadorans was deteriorated and it worsened the precarious socioeconomic
conditions of the poorest families of the country.
During last year, due to the fact that the fuel increased, the value of the
houses also increased by 10%. This was fundamentally due to the increase on the
prices of gasoline and iron bars. The public transportation system also
increased the regular fares in the urban areas (it went from $0.17 to $0.20
cents). Perhaps, the increase that had more impact in the economy of the
Salvadorans was the increase on the prices of fruits and vegetables that come
from the rural areas. This had to do with the transportation vehicles of the
local market, which carry the products and had to increase their prices due to
the increase in the prices of gasoline.
Within the economic strategy of the Government, the increasing prices of fuel is
an obstacle in the search of an improvement in the levels of competitiveness of
the Salvadoran products that are sold in the international market. If to this we
add that the country has not reached a substantial increase in the productivity
level, it is evident that the conditions to compete in the international market
are adverse.
If the government implemented measures to regulate the fuel market to control
the indiscriminate increase in the prices of the gasoline, the people would be
happy to see an effective solution to the problem. In this sense, President
Antonio Saca seems interested to find alternative measures to the crisis;
however, there are no specific measures ready to deal with the situation.
From a different perspective, the increase on the prices of fuel does not
exclusively affect the competitiveness of the companies, also strikes the
economy of the Salvadorans. For the second year of the increasing prices, it is
important that the Government can consider if this could become an explosive
factor for a future social crisis.
Last year, the prices of the houses, the public transportation fare and some
nutritional products increased. For this year, due to the drought that affects
the country, one of the leading methods for the generation of electrical energy
is a source that uses fuel as the main ingredient. The fact that the winter came
late this year and the little control of the government over the prices of fuel
are a couple of factors that create a combination that might increase the prices
of the electric energy by the middle of the year. Therefore, it is necessary to
implement short-term measures in order to face the already critical context of
the urban areas of the country.
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