Sep 7, 2009

ELTeCS_PERU] Limenos Deserve Better Public Transportation - Peru This Week, 112th edition

Limenos Deserve Better Public Transportation

Yesterday’s strike among the drivers of about 80,000 buses and taxis turned Lima into a Paradise when all the poorly maintained, horrible looking, and rusted out vehicles that typically prowl the streets were barred entry. Not since the APEC meetings back in November has Lima been so nice to get around and I hope that the government and the police are going to enforce their laws, write bus drivers a ticket if they break them, and confiscate their vehicles if they fail to pay.

As our minister of Transportation and Communication Enrique Cornejo yesterday so correctly said, “if you don’t break the law, you don’t have anything to worry about.”
The Municipality of Lima should concentrate on creating a new public transportation plan for Lima and to offer safe passage for all. It's time they finished the Metro that Alan Garcia started back in 1980’s. They should also consider purchasing 5.000 new buses to replace all the old and unsafe vehicles which are currently being allowed to drive around all over Lima.
The rumor is that many bus companies are owned by members of congress and police officers, which perhaps makes the above suggestion an impossible mission. But wouldn’t it be nice if we all could travel around Lima like people do in other great cities around the world, in comfort and without fear of faulty vehicles or overcrowding? Starting August 14, citizens of Lemvig in Denmark will be able to take the bus for free, as the municipality figured out that there was no money to be made from public transportation!
I hope that those using the buses will one day go on strike and demand that the police all over Peru enforce the existing traffic laws to secure passengers a safe and comfortable journey to and from work or wherever they wish to go within this great country. After all, it's the passengers who ultimately dictate how public transportation in Lima should be, and the good people of this great city deserve to be treated MUCH better.

[ELTeCS_PERU] Free downloadable books

Dear ELTeCS PERU Members

Surfing the Oxford University Press website, I came across a bunch of FREE books ready to download. Below is the information as itr appears on the site; to gain access, you must log in (create a free account in the Teachers´club) and trhen you´re set up.

Free downloadable books

Below is a list of free downloadable Applied Linguistics books. You can browse the contents tables, download the PDF format files, and even print out chapters of interest!

NEW
An Applied Linguistic Approach To Discourse Analysis by Professor Henry Widdowson

On the occasion of Professor Henry Widdowson's 70th birthday, we are offering this unpublished Ph.D. thesis free to download, making this classic linguistic text accessible to a wider audience for the first time.

Conditions for Second Language Learning by Professor Bernard Spolsky

Explorations in Applied Linguistics by Professor Henry Widdowson

Explorations in Applied Linguistics 2  by Professor Henry Widdowson

Learning Purpose and Language Use  by Professor Henry Widdowson

Second Language Pedagogy by Dr N S Prabhu

OUP´s website is at: http://www.oup.com/  ; choose Peru and then click on the ELT orange icon, next, click on the Teachers´club section and follow instructions. You´ll be able to see the free resources and access them easily.

Cesar Klauer