In Praise Of... Peru

The Incas worshipped the sun and kept time by the stars but modern Peru, it seems, relies on the marines. Today, at noon Lima time, the country's navy will send out a special time signal causing church bells to ring and sirens to sound. Under the slogan "Peru: La hora sin demora", or "Peru: On time", the government will launch a campaign intended to inspire a new spirit of punctuality among a population whose attitude to timekeeping has always had an Andean informality.

Peruvians joke that "hora Peruana" runs an hour behind the clock and only an appointment specified as "hora inglesa" demands a prompt arrival. President Alan García's grand gesture is just the sort of thing Peruvians like to see from their politicians, even when they go wrong, as they once did for a minister who tried to prove that the country's fresh fish was safe to eat by downing a plate of marinaded ceviche before the cameras, only to catch cholera.

But Peruvians are also a contrary sort of people, and may be unlikely to listen to an official command to keep time. They like to be different: alone in South America, they prefer their own bubble-gum-flavoured soft drink Inca Cola to the corporate blandness of Coke and Pepsi. When he ran Peru in the 1980s President García oversaw a national economic disaster as the currency collapsed and 707 jets flew extra notes into Lima airport daily. He later fled abroad. Back in office, will his new campaign against tardiness prove any more successful? Only time will tell.