"Navel of the World" a Cuzco Travel Page by Assenczo

Poverty marketing must be the defining feature of Peru. Not that there is no such a thing elsewhere but it is usually on personal basis even when the beggars are employees of a “company” and they have to share their proceeds with the boss.
The Boss in Peru is the state represented by different state organizations. This is obvious in Cuzco where the touristy areas are flooded with the needy. They almost universally address you with their need for money (to eat, to go to school etc.) When a shoe-shine boy is asked who his boss is the surprising answer is: the city hall. In a moment or two while still rubbing your eyes in disbelief, you can verify this statement with a look at the uniform of some of these fellows where it is clearly written. So you are paying for the service a set price than you give a tip most likely for the tip-giving culture of yours with the addition of some compassion percentage and at the end the funds go to the city hall, which has already sheered you by selling wickedly packaged tickets to sites in Cuzco and the vicinity.
To have no doubt whatsoever in the government’s involvement of exploitation of the already exploited, one has to buy postcards with images of object poverty. There is no way that in the strictly controlled tourist business in Peru these prints are not government endorsed publications. Some people apparently think that the people photographed there are cute and exotic.

Cathedral, churches, cobbled stones, tiles roofs, Inca walls… Looking for the unexpected in this well-stylized town? What about a gentle stroll in the main Plaza? Suddenly a vicious barking draws your attention. The realisation that this is a fight for life comes next. A dog love triangle has come to an unhappy ending, at least for one party. The more fit for the prize, a black shiny-coated male struggles to copulate with a laissez-passer female right on the sacred sidewalk of the park. At the second attempt he seems to be on top of things but a streak of life-giving substance squirts in plain view apparently missing the target. And all this happens in front of the vanquished rival and the innocent passers-by. What a triumph! What a failure!