The United Nations Department of Global Communications (DGC) promotes global awareness and United Nations paintings through its network paintings of United Nations Information Centres (UNIC) worldwide The United Nations Information Service (UNIS) in Geneva paints with local audiences in Switzerland.
The United Nations team in Bolivia is looking for new tactics to interact with the network to help the government fight the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s a technique that has sparked an artistic partnership between the talented young rap “Krisso MC” and the new UN resident. the coordinator for Bolivia, Susana Sottoli, as Solange Behoteguy of the UN in Geneva writes.
“It’s like waking up one day in a movie and knowing that the virus is everywhere,” says Christian Lawrence Vélez Zambrana, better known in global Bolivian hip-hop as “Krisso MC. “
This before quarantine measures to save him the spread of COVID-19 brought a brutal end to the career of the young artist in the capital, La Paz.
Known for his quick voice on topics close to his center and those of other young Bolivians, today the 32-year-old singer-songwriter doesn’t know when he’s going to go back to rap – or freestyling, as he is. also known. – in theaters, squares or fairs.
Today, from earning $20 to $30 consistent with consistent performance, Krisso collects fabrics to recycle them and takes them to a warehouse in the village of El Alto where he lives, above the capital, is hard work, but achieves his goal, putting the distance between him and the gangs in his neighborhood.
However, there is still time for music, and he can, Krisso records new curtains on his phone.
“I realize that I have influence over other people and I have to be careful what I say,” he says, adding that every time he goes to school, he is very careful with his words to give glamour to drugs and violence.
He also has time for the UN, helping percentage of important COVID-19 data with a younger audience, through his TikTok video, “COVID-19 can anyone.
This initiative is part of the United Nations country team’s “I Quarantine” campaign, which was launched after a survey of 3,000 young people revealed that many believed that COVID-19 only affected older generations.
The videos are shared on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube and posted to the official UN in Bolivia.
“The ultimate purpose is to tell other young people that, despite the uncertainty, they can take the lockdown time to learn, bond with others, and create projects and dreams that can be learned in the future,” says Susana Sottoli. Resident of the United Nations and coordinator for Bolivia, who invited Krisso to participate in the campaign.
They met for the first time in February at a UN-organized citizens roundtable to publicize the debate with young people. At that time, it had only been about two weeks since Ms. Sottoli landed at El Alto Airport. Sottoli arrived in the country before the pandemic hit Bolivia, at a time when the UN’s priorities were to help repair peace and promote social discussion in the country that is still reeling from last year’s elections that led to the dismissal of President Evo Morales.
Krisso obviously recalls the assembly organized through the UN: “It gave me the opportunity to pay attention to other young people who might not stick to the same line in rap and hip-hop, but who share the same ideology about human well-being. be, ” he says. ” The UN gives me confidence and the chance to succeed in other people. “
For Ms. Sottoli, Krisso is precisely with whom the United Nations interacts, in Bolivia and beyond.
“Krisso combines the whole ethics of El Alto, a strong culture with a strong civil society movement, but also uses a language, in this musical, communicative case, that is understood all over the world,” he says. Only related to one country, for example the United States, “exists with its own cultural and contextual elements and Bolivian artists have followed it as their own, as other young people have in other Latin American countries. “
Although the young rapper equates words with weapons when he acts, he prefers not to communicate about the war for the new coronavirus, which two weeks ago has claimed more than 380,000 lives internationally to date. “Wars are not smart for peace,” he said. This is more of a non-public war and the question is: what do I do to feed myself, take care of my family, help my neighbor?”
Krisso had a complicated childhood, developing in El Alto, a city of more commonly deficient indigenous immigrants, and where everything happens 4150 meters above sea level, to survive he did everything from washing the floors to the masonry, to the doorman, the mechanic and the chalequero.
Before everyone had a cell phone, the chalequeros were other people who wore walleted jackets full of cell phones; they walked the streets providing passers-by with reasonable calls, no more than one Bolivian (equivalent to about $0. 14).
It’s a thing from beyond now and today, Krisso identifies with a pop-up hip-hop rap movement called ‘Profecia Xplicita’. His message is a message of hope, equality and progress through opportunity, far from what you expect when you first see him, dressed in his popular combat jacket, wraparound sunglasses and a basketball cap turned up.
“It’s my way, a lot of other people judge you by the way you dress or think that if you rap you’re in a gang or drugged,” he says. “Many of us are looking to get out of this environment. It’s not easy for a young man to work, eat and study. “
Determined to face these demanding situations after arriving in Bolivia as the new head of the United Nations country team, Mrs Sottoli that COVID-19 has turned it all upside down: “I came here to prepare theoretically, but the landscape has completely replaced it. The political schedule and the schedule of exercises came here in combination and we had to turn around, change course and adapt the schedule to the new truth of living with an invisible enemy,” he says.
An unforgettable moment came shortly after taking office, when the government asked him for help in coordinating the country’s reaction to the pandemic from the Casa Grande del Pueblo, a huge tower in the center of La Paz.
The 120-meter layout commissioned through former President Evo Morales; it is still full of political importance, enjoyed and vilified through its supporters and detractors to an equivalent degree.
“I won a call from the government calling for UN cooperation to establish a scenario room to deal with the COVID-19 crisis,” he said, adding that Ground 22 was temporarily reshaped to a position where key fitness decisions the crisis. “For me, it is a huge challenge and a wonderful opportunity to lead a team of UN agencies that help identify such a strategic area to combat the pandemic. The communication component is basic in an epidemic,” he insists.
The government, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Planning, the Army, the National Emergency Committee, several United Nations organizations, the United Nations Information Centre (UNIC) Bolivia participated.
Today, the resident coordinator works from her home, from where she can see the “impressive mountains” surrounding the village of La Paz, facing a backdrop of bright blue sky. The view provides “an impression of horizon, brightness and hope,” she explains.
While helping the government succeed over COVID-19 is the immediate priority, its next challenge is just as urgent: leading the UN in supporting the country to prepare for the next elections in the midst of an ongoing fitness crisis. He also knows that there will soon be a third crisis, related to the socio-economic consequences of the pandemic.
In the Andean vision of the universe, the representation of time is contrary to that of the West: the long term is us, because it is not seen; the afterlife is before us, because we know him. Maybe that’s why Krisso wouldn’t replace his beyond.
However, he believes that we will have to fight for a long time the theories of conspiracy, superstitions and mistrust that have marked the era of COVID. “Before, the political crisis, things were made by a decision because of the color of the party. support; in the long run it will be the distrust of others – he is ill of health by coronavirus – we are going to want a lot of rehabilitation, dialogue, adaptation and awareness of the population (of what we want) ».
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