Here and there...

The market on the steps of the church in Chichicastenango, Guatemala.  The majority of these people would be considered self-employed, and thus counted in the employment numbers cited for the rest of the world to see.

So, I pulled up to my parents house this morning, and there was not a soul in sight.  There were some cars parked in driveways, but no people visible.  I didn’t think about it at that precise moment, but I am now.  That is a sight, or lack of, that just doesn’t happen in Guatemala.  In Guatemala there are ALWAYS people around.  I think it has something to do with the unemployment rate, or the type of employment.  We are complaining about unemployment here, worried, anxious - but there it is a way of life. 

The website CIA World FactBook, lists Guatemala as only having an unemployment rate of 3.2%, quite suspicious numbers to anyone who has ever been there.  Being suspicious I started to do some research this morning (when, of course, I should have been doing other things.)  I learned that:

Guatemala is ranked 3rd worst, globally, when it come to distribution of wealth.  On a scale of 0 - 100% (with 100% meaning one person holds all the wealth in the country) Guatemala scored a 59.6%.  Now, I’m no statistician, but that shows me that all the wealth of Guatemala is owned by about 40% of the country.  Most of that wealth is centered in the department of Guatemala, which includes Guatemala City - thus the big shopping malls, universities and the like.  Guatemala City is compared to an “Asian tiger” city, while the rest of the country is compared to “equatorial Africa.” (Guatemala Hardship Considerations, Andrew Reding, 2000.)

The 97.8% of the country that is considered employed, includes a large number of people who are underemployed.  Basically, they are making some money, at a job of some sort - but I have heard that the government includes begging on the street as a form of employment.  Now, I haven’t actually seen that in print - but I certainly believe it.  The income distribution rate is so off, that the per capita average of around $4,000 is very misleading.  UNICEF found (Reding) that about 53% of the population earns less than $1 a day.  Their yearly income is $365, when most of us spend more than that per month in groceries alone.

So, back to my morning car park experience.  I pulled up on the side of the road, left the children in the car while I brought the dog into the house, let the kids out, left the van wide open (with my computer in it) while I took the various loads of “stuff” into the house.  During that whole time, I never saw a person.  I would NEVER do any of those things in Guatemala, anywhere.  There are always people around, busy being underemployed, and most of them are perfectly willing to help you take care of all that stuff you have - you just may never see it again.  Not very shocking when you figure how many years they could live off of one computer.