Newley.com: Weblog

I won't be posting anything here until Tuesday. Jill A., Mike F., and I are leaving tonight for an Amazon jungle expedition. We've got Monday off school, so we're getting out of dodge.

We're heading to Tena, a town notheast of here, in the rainforest. And from there we'll book passage into the heart of darkness--possibly do some trekking and stay at a jungle lodge. We hope to spot some monkeys and interesting birds and perhaps even do some piranha fishing.

(Preliminary note to my mom: don't worry. I'm fine.)

Typhoid fever--yes, Typhoid Fever--has hit Cuenca.

A Spanish teacher at my school came down with it a few days ago. She was hospitalized briefly and she's recovering now. And two people who'd had close contact with her also tested positive. They're being treated with antibiotics as a precaution and haven't produced any symptoms. Other teachers are getting tested just to be sure.

Luckily, I got a typhoid vaccine a couple years ago; it's good for five years.

More info on typhoid, which is potentially fatal, is avaiable here.

Aaron Tassano, a friend I know through my New York pals Nick M. and Russell W. and Reeves H., is teaching English in Busan, Korea. And he's blogging up a storm. An especially hilarious posting from a few days ago:

Cats are only in Busan because they eat rats. The cats here are wild and can be heard nightly fighting in the streets. There are no rats, fortunately, because that's my most feared animal. Though the cats are mangy, a little like rats.

I asked the student if he still had the pet cat.
"No...," he said, stopping. Looking for the right words. "I...used to give bath...to cat."
"You bathed your cat?" I asked.
"Yes..."
I started to wonder what happened to said cat...
"Did it like the bath?"
"No...it hated bath."
"But you kept giving it baths."
"Yes...I give bath...every night."
"Every night?!"
"Yes. It's..." he made a motion as if to pet the smoothly washed coat of a cat "...very soft after I give bath to cat."

You can read more here.

This should be of practical interest to approximately .001% of newley.com's readership. Nevertheless, if you're looking to buy a vacation home, check out my adopted hometown, Beaufort, South Carolina.

MSN Money says it's one of the top 10 American towns for "second-home investments":

You know Beaufort, even if you've never been there. You've seen it in movies like "The Big Chill" and "Forrest Gump," and you've read about it in the pages of "The Prince of Tides" and "The Great Santini" by one-time Beaufort resident Pat Conroy. Fishing, shrimping and a National Historic Landmark District are features of "The Queen of the Carolina Sea Islands."

(Thanks to Mike W. for the heads-up.)

I'm not writing about Bolivia very much these days, as events there have slowed down; Indigenous protesters are giving Carlos Mesa, the new president, a grace period to see how his new policies shape up.

But Randy Paul and John Smith are keeping tabs on what's happening in La Paz. I recommend checking out what they have to say; in the meantime, I'll continue to weigh in every once in a while.

Update (Wed. afternoon): from Jordan M.'s dad (by way of Jordan M.) comes this excellent political cartoon making light of (no pun intended) the natural gas issue.

A brief anecdote: Last Saturday night, I attended an unbelievable party at my girlfriend Jill A. and my buddy Mike F.'s apartment. It was perhaps the best soiree I've been to here at latitude zero.

Jill and Mike live with an Ecuadorian woman; she's friends with a great number of gay men from Cuenca. The party consisted of the four of us--and about 25 gay Cuencanos (and, briefly, approximately 10 Ecuadorian lesbians).

The highlight of the evening was when a bunch of guys (no, I wasn't one of them) turned the living room into a catwalk and strutted their stuff, two by two and one by one, to the delight of the thronging crowd. ("Estamos modelando!!" they exclaimed repeatedly.)

Most of the self-styled runway models had ditched their shirts. And all of them were grooving to the tunes thumping out of the stereo: lots and lots of Madonna and a little ABBA thrown in for good measure. It was an extraordinary scene. Gay culture is very underground here, where the Catholic church and Latino notions of masculinity reign supreme, and I'd never seen such outward displays of flamboyance.

Opposition leader Evo Morales, who narrowly lost Bolivia's last presidential election, received a $50,000 peace prize from Muammar Gadhafi last year.

Morales might be anti-Semitic; he's certainly anti-"foreigners." "Bolivia's Jews," meanwhile, uncertain whether new president Carlos Mesa will survive for long, "are keeping a low profile."

Turning to the drug issue, Al Giordano reports on Morales's recent comments regarding the US's coca eradication program in Bolivia:

"The so-called war against drug trafficking is just an excuse for the United States to increase its power and to control other countries,'' said Morales, who represents traditional coca growers in Bolivia...

The Bush Administration drug policy folks in Washington must be sweating bullets right about now; Morales wields extraordinary power in Bolivia.

And in the world of Weblogs, Colorado Luis (via Body and Soul) asks an interesting question: if Goni had been ousted on Bill Clinton's watch, would the media have made more of the story? He thinks the media don't question Dubya enough, but I disagree.

The media largely ignores third world crises that don't involve US interests. Period. (Sure, the coca angle is important, but it can't compete with the specter of terrorits in Iran or Syria or Afghanistan plotting an attack on US soil.)

Taking a step back, I think people exaggerate the issue of media bias (though I agree with Brian Montopoli that liberals tend to enter the field of journalism because they want to "speak truth to power").

3.3 million people have died in the Congo in the last five years. How come you see little US mainstream media coverage of what some are calling the "African Holocaust"? Because media outlets are businesses, and they produce products that are intended to sell.

International news--unless it threatens America--just isn't a hot commodity. And regardless of who's in the White House, consumers in the United States don't really care to spend their hard-earned dollars on news stories that don't resound with them. Bolivia, just like The Congo, is simply an abstraction to most Americans.

If you've never seen this, feast your eyes on Japanese Cat Costumes. (Scroll down for photos.) Simply unbelievable.

Last May, I met an American woman who lives in Riobamba. She said rumor had it that a munitions plant explosion there this time last year was no accident: lots of people think it was orchestrated by the military in order to hide evidence that the army had sold small arms to Colombia's FARK rebel group.

Now comes more info: Reuters's Amy Taxin says continuing scandals threaten to undermine "the role of Ecuador's military as a calming, central power broker in an unstable nation." She writes:

In the latest scandal, two acting sergeants were detained on accusations of trafficking arms to rebels in August and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe last week said a rocket launcher used in a Bogota attack belonged to Ecuador's army.

A couple interesting items from another poor Andean nation: Ecuador. Home sweet home.

First, the AP's Gonzalo Solano brings us up to speed on the ChevronTexaco trial. The American gas company is being sued by an Ecuadorian Indigenous group for polluting the rainforest.

And second, a story that's too good to be true--mainly because, well, it's fake. Joseph Addison, writing in Wayne State University's student paper, claims that...are you ready for this? No, seriously, are you ready?

Addison says a tribe of "headhunters" in the Ecuadorian rainforest is in posession of a nuclear bomb. And they're threatening to detonate it unless the US stops cutting down the jungle. Quoth Addison, in a article I really really really hope is tounge-in-cheek, but which I fear is not:

Problem is that when a story is truly terrifying, we aren't told because we might stop shopping, causing our economy to crash.

This is why the mainstream media has not reported the Jivaro tribe and its A-bomb.

The Jivaro peop le are a primitive tribe of headhunters that dwell in the Ecuadorian rainforests of South America.

According to an article entitled, "Amazon headhunters: We have the bomb," which appeared last week in the Weekly World News (the only mainstream press with the guts to tell this story), a Soviet-era bomber disappeared in the Amazon jungle in 1961. It was carrying a 28-kiloton nuclear bomb.

The headhunters found it, and they have made a demand: America must stop the destruction of the rainforest.

Um, Joe: you missed one crucial thing: the Weekly Word News is a fake newspaper, a completely fictional supermarket tabloid.

The stories from Bolivia this Friday afternoon have one common theme: coca.

Writing in the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Daisy Pareja, a journalist who grew up in Bolivia, reflects on her home country's future. She concludes that coca is--and will continue to be--the major issue:

...the (coca) farmers are said to be growing many times the amount of coca they can possibly use for any legitimate purpose. Washington's concern is that the excess is going to cocaine traffickers. Under U.S. government pressure, Sanchez de Lozada was eradicating coca fields. This loss of the cash crop for extremely poor farmers was what really led to the rioting, though the opposition to exporting natural gas from Bolivia's abundant reserves to the United States and Mexico helped fuel the protests.

It is now President Mesa's turn at the wheel. If he delivers, we will all be pleasantly surprised for the first time. If he doesn't, then we are back to hoping the next president will.

After all, the coca is always greener with another president. And the one after that. And the ones after that.

Miguel Centllas reports from La Paz: "The news is starting to slow down a bit. Mesa's honeymoon's now in earnest, though different groups still press their demands."

JoinTogether, a clearinghouse for drug and gun news, has a nice summary of Larry Rohter's article in yesterday's New York Times. Rohter speculates on what Goni's ouster means for the US-led war on drugs:

United States officials interviewed here minimized the importance of the drug issue in Mr. Sánchez de Lozada's downfall, blaming a "pent-up frustration" over issues ranging from natural gas exports to corruption. But to many Bolivians and analysts, the coca problem is intimately tied to the broader issues of impoverishment and disenfranchisement that have stoked explosive resentments here and fueled a month of often violent protests.

And finally, Andres Oppenheimer, who's quickly becoming one of my favorite pundits, questions the future of the American drug war:

...the death of up to 80 people in street protests last week and the subsequent collapse of former President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada's elected government raises questions about the wisdom of maintaining a U.S. policy that demands the forced eradication of coca plantations without offering equally attractive solutions to poverty-stricken peasants.

In my old job as a Web strategist in DC, I had the pleasure to work with the really smart and friendly (and prolific) folks at the Pew Internet Project.

They publish, with amazing regularity, top-notch research on how people use the Web. Their latest article, which I'm happy to see is getting a lot of attention among bloggers, is called "Spam: How it is hurting email and degrading life on the Internet."

Evan, from the interesting Anarchogeek Weblog, asks whether or not there's an RSS feed for Newley.com. The answer: No. But I'd like to have one installed in the coming months. (Here's some technical info on RSS, an emerging Web communications channel. A more basic overview is here.)

I took yesterday off from covering the happenings in Bolivia; there've been some new developments, though, and I'll get to them after a couple personal notes.

First, congrats to my kid brother Colin and the Beaufort (South Carolina) Academy high school soccer team, who won their second straight state championship yesterday. BA triumphed 2-1 over Greenville's St. Joseph's. And Colin, I'm proud to say, scored the winning goal. Josh Erikson, our neighbor and Colin's good friend, had two assists and the other tally.

Second, just a few words about what I've been up to, as I've been devoting this space to the events further south of here.

Things are, as ever, tranquilo in Cuenca--I've got four classes and I'm taking a Spanish course of my own. Last weekend was fun: among other things, a group of my friends and I attended a Deportivo Cuenca (the local pro soccer team) match. Our side beat Liga de Quito 3-0.

And that's about it. Things are low-key here in Ecuador's southern Andes. Just how I like 'em.

Okay, on to Bolivia:

The AP's Vanessa Arrington reported yesterday that new president Carlos Mesa is being pressured not to hold a referendum on whether or not the natural gas pipeline project should be completed:

Civic leaders and businessmen in Tarija, a southern Bolivian state that is home to most of the nation's underground natural gas reserves, rejected President Carlos Mesa's plans to hold a referendum on the idea.

They are demanding that the government move ahead with plans to export gas to the United States and Mexico.

And today, she tells us that Evo Morales, leader of Bolivia's coca leaf growers, says Me sa has one month to show the nation's poor that the he intends to help them.

Time Europe's Tim Padgett has written a tidy article about what Goni's ouster means for the rest of South America. He mentions the new left-leaning administrations in Brazil, Peru, and Venezuela, but doesn't mention Ecuador.

(And Ecuador should surely be considered a nation that's drifting leftward, although Lucio Gutierrez, our prez, has, since being elected last year on a pro-Indigenous plank, become pals with Dubya. But more on Ecuador later; Al Giordano, as I mentioned yesterday, predicts Lucio will be the next South American head of state to fall. But people I've talked to here feel the Indigenous movement in Ecuador lacks the organization to cripple the country should their disillusion reach Bolivian proportions.)

There's more incisive analysis from The Lincoln Plawg (he's really on a roll, and even links to this humble blog): John Smith, doing his own speculating and commenting on Miguel Centellas's intriguing thoughts, says of Mesa:

I get the impression of a Mr Smith Goes To Washington with a salsa beat: a guy with no party political background who thinks politics is usual is both corrupt and dispensable, and chooses to go amongst the people, cutting out the pesky middle-man of constitutions and elections, and such.

And, finally, Uruguayan journalist Eduardo Galeano argues that Goni got the boot because Bolivia's people refused to let natural gas, yet another natural resource, be gifted to foreign interests. He also has harsh words for Goni, a gringo-in-disguise:

As for the fugitive Sanchez de Lozada, he lost the presidency but he won't be losing much sleep. Though he has the crime of killing more than eighty demonstrators on his conscience, it wasn't his first bloodbath. This champion of modernization is not bothered by anything that can't turn a profit. In the end, he speaks and thinks in English--not the English of Shakespeare but that of Bush.

My thoughts: this is more anti-globalization rhetoric that has little basis in reality. (Though some fervent us-versus-America ranting can be expected; the US has just invaded and toppled and occupied another third world country; the rest of the world is just as vulnerable as Iraq.)

The bigger issue for the Bolivian protesters, it would seem to me, wasn't the somewhat abstract notion of a pipeline pumping gas to the rich Yankees via the hated Chileans' coastline. It was the very real condition the Indigenous population finds themselves in every day--suffering from abject poverty. And living with a biting sense of alienation.

Calm may have returned to La Paz, but new president Carlos Mesa knows his job is fraught with danger.

The BBC forecasts: "Bolivia's hastily-appointed new president, Carlos Mesa, has told his cabinet that any mistakes they make could consign the country to the abyss."

Mesa swore in a new cabinet of political unknowns yesterday. And the New York Times says the protesters' "ideology of fury" could easily be used to topple the new president should the peasants become further alienated.

In the world of Weblogs, The astoundingly insightful and comprehensive Lincoln Plawg offers a lengthy article about what may lie ahead for Bolivia.

Meanwhile, Al Giordano's frothy self-congratulation reaches fever pitch (his NarcoNews publication has closed, and he keeps posting fan mail decrying the site's demise). Nevertheless, in his latest update, he reports that Mesa is considering a measure that would allow Bolivian families to cultivate a 40 by 40 meter plot of coca legally. The US goverment, obviously, is opposed to the idea.

Incidentally, Al G. also argues that Luci Gutierrez, the president here in Ecuador, will be the next to fall:

I say Ecuador because traitors tend to get dealt with more rapidly than people who you always knew were against you. And the Ecuador social and indigenous movements are super-organized - they got Gutérrez elected in the first place - and they're justifiably angry. And they toppled the last government. And the country is majority indigenous.

We shall see.

Elsewhere, Body and Soul has some thoughts on Bolivia's future. As does AnarchoGeek: "The battle is won, the struggle continues."

And Miguel Centellas continues his quality blogging from La Paz; he, too, questions Mesa's ability to lead:

I'm worried about Mesa's attempt to govern as an "outsider", w/ a clear "anti-politics" attitude, and intending to govern w/o the support of any political parties. Previous Latin American leaders who've taken this route as presidents include Peru's Fujimori and Venezuela's Chávez. Neither are shining examples of democratic governance.

Finally, the best analysis of the day: an entertaining, informative dispatch from my brother Mechum, who recently arrived back in La Paz after an accidental exile in Sucre and Santa Cruz. He writes:

Got back Saturday afternoon on a Bolivian C-130 with a group of US embassy staff. The flight was cool for about 15 minutes; it was neat to check out the inside of the plane, but once the novelty wore off I was sitting in an uncomfortable seat with earplugs in (so not able to talk) and with nothing to read. I did catch a nap though, amazingly enough. Best of all it was free so I saved about 60-70 bucks.

When we arrived in La Paz, we had the most sore-thumb ride down to the embassy. A total of seven brand-new and shiny-white Ford Expeditions and full-size Chevy vans. I felt like such an imperialist, cruising through places where the roadblocks had very obviously been breeched just the day before, where tires had been burning and people laying dead.

Some interesting new information about the whole thing, though. The word is that the protesters who had come from other cities had actually been bussed in and were paid 100Bs a day ($12) in addition to food,drink, and coca leaves for their services.
That's a ton of money where many normally make around $2 a day.

Not on the payroll, though, were many who lived in areas of town where the local government had pledged to support the demonstrations; my friend's maid, for example. She said the the mayor of her district told everyone that if they didn't march that their house would be broken into.

This puts a d ifferent slant on everything. Coupled with Evo Morales' trip last month to Libya and his evasive answers about his relationships with the likes of Chavez, Castro, Ghaddafi, and Sadat, I see less populist upr ising and more delibirately
orchestrated sociopolitical mayhem engineered by people with (I would say shady) international connections and deep pockets. Democracy has not yet taken root in Bolivia if elected leaders are forced to step down by the actions of their political opponents.

On President Mesa, he seems to be saying the right things. The vice-presidency was his first political office after a career as a journalist, which makes many skeptical but may be to his advantage after all. He seems to be trying to address the real problems of the country, but most people I've talked to think it is just a matter of time (maybe a few months) until the problems start back up. If one is to believe that all of what has just occured was the result of plots by Goni's opponents, then it is relatively certain that no matter what Mesa does he will eventually face the same end as Goni. Mesa has the right to fulfill the rest of the presidential term, which ends in 2007, but he will probably call for new elections long before then (or face a resurgence of the wrath of
Evo).

On the gas issue, interesting to note is that Santa Cruz and Tarija, where the country's hydrocarbons live, say they will secede if the gas isn't exported. Same if Morales was to come to power. The Crucenas feel (with a certain amount of evidence to back it up) that they make all the money for Bolivia and send it up to La Paz where it is squandered. In fact, last Friday a group of protesters marching to Santa Cruz's
main plaza were met by members of Camba Nation (the term for lowlanders is camba) who didn't want anything to do with the demostrations that had seized the rest
of the country. Interesting.

Anyway, La Paz is back to normal and everyone is just going about their business as usual as can only be done in a place that has seen far too many upheavals of this sort...

Bolivia's new president, Carlos Mesa, is scrambling to assemble a Cabinet following his rise to power; the mood is festive in La Paz.

Reuters says: "Bolivia's new president was forming his Cabinet on Sunday as support grew from key power brokers, including some Indian groups that led a bloody popular revolt that toppled his predecessor."

Another Reuters dispatch says former President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada is trying to get over his "shock and shame" at being kicked out of office. And Al Giordano takes the US governement to task for sheltering "Goni The Butcher." (For more info, check out Andres Oppenheimer's account of what the ousted president had to say just after arriving in Miami.)

ABC News tells us people are happy in the Andean capital: "Tear-gas and bullets have been replaced with smiles and celebrations, La Paz airport has reopened and streets are being cleared."

And finally, for a sense of how the Indigenous parties feel about Goni fleeing, take a gander at this illustration (and read the corresponding article in Spanish, if you're so inclined).

For an in-depth and well-researched (and delightfully snarky) examination of the political implications of Mesa's transition to power, go to The Lincoln Plawg Weblog. John Smith describes the situation in La Paz:

At first glance, it's a cartoon with characters from Central Casting: a class/racial struggle between the white, upper-class, gringo-fied president and the charismatic Indian peasant leader; riots, tanks, blood - the whole nine yards. The Latin equivalent of Errol Flynn versus Basil Rathbone - and the result is similar, too.

Then gradually, the subtleties become more apparent, questions spring to mind...

In other news, the State Department, Knight Ridder reports, has thanked Goni for his work.

But officials "stopped short of congratulating new President Carlos Mesa, whose position on U.S. interests in Bolivia, particularly an unpopular coca eradication program, remain unclear...Mesa, a former television journalist, has been critical of many of Sanchez de Lozada's reforms, including a proposed new income tax and a U.S.-backed effort to eradicate the production of coca, the leaves of which are used to produce cocaine."

Bolivia has a new president this morning. Carlos Mesa, the former VP, was inaugurated yesterday after Gonzalo Sanchez de Loza da resigned. (The BBC has posted English translations of Goni's resignation letter and Mesa's acceptance speech.)

My brother Mechum reports from Santa Cruz that he's headed back to La Paz (in style) this afternoon:

Well how about a rapid change of events...last night people were talking 10 days to 2 weeks before things settle down in La Paz, then Goni (the pre sident) resigns and I´m on a US C-130 transport plane back home at one this afternoon! Never been on that type of plane before, so I´m looking forward to it.

Well, looks like the stay in Santa Cruz will be more abbreviated than I thought, but we still got to go out ith some teachers from the school here yesterday. It as a nice time; we went to a lagoon out in the jungle nd played bocci. It truly is the game of the gods.

Well, more from La Paz...I´m going to see if they´ll et me parachute in.. .

Mesa, a 50-year-old former journalist and respected historian, takes the reigns of a nation in peril.

AP says: "Bolivia's new president rushed to form a transition government in talks Saturday with political and labor leaders as his predecessor fled to the United States, forced from power by weeks of deadly riots."

The New York Times weighs in: "One of the books that Carlos Mesa wrote when he was a historian is titled "Bolivian Presidents: Between the Voting Booth and the Gun." Mr. Mesa is about to experience that situation himself."

The AP tells us the US military has dispatched a small team to "assess security at the US Embassy."

And things are returning to normal in La Paz, Reuters reports: " For the first time in a week, buses ran, airplanes took off and people shopped for groceries on Saturday as Carlos Mesa took over Bolivia's presidency following a deadly revolt that forced out his predecessor."

Turning to the blogosphere, Al Giordano has the details on Goni's exit from Bolivia (he flew to Miami). And Miguel Centellas has some questions about returning to La Paz.

Looking ahead, the major questions are these: will Mesa be seen by the Indigenous opposition as being linked to Goni--a wolf in sheep's clothing? Will the protesters be satisfied that he truly represents a break from his predecessor's policies? We shall see...

Al Giordano, CNN Espanol, AP, and Reuters are reporting that Bolivian president Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada will resi gn this afternoon. Giordano says Vice President Carlos Mesa will assume power. Developing...

My brother reports from Sucre that he's safe and, happily enough, enjoy ing himself. But things in La Paz remain tense, with "tear gas...being dispensed in the streets like mayonaisse from a fritte stand." He says:

Well after the 3-day trip to Sucre got a bit extended due to the airport being shut down in our absence, we came down from Sucre to Santa Cruz today. Back to the heat, it's great! Love the lowlands. Anyway, people here aren't nearly as upset as elsewhere in the country. The biggest division in Bolivia is between the mountain and lowland people.

This is safes t place in the country and is where people are evacuated to if they get out of La Paz. We have decided that we are very glad that we took the chance on leaving for the weekend because it sucks more and more each day for those who are in La Paz. We are staying at a very posh place.

All my friends in La Paz are stuck and can't leave by land or air and veggies are running short but tear gas is being dispensed in the streets like mayonaisse from
a fritte stand. And things are getting worse, or at least not better. The whole situation is probably not going to get better soon, like certainly not in the next few days. They may be trying to evacuate Americans from La Paz soon (as Brazilians,
Germans, and Brits already have been), but the problem will be getting them to the airport, the road to which has become increasingly blockaded and dangerous in the
past few days. Food is becoming the main concern for the people I know there, as grocery stores are now empty.

At a certain point, I suppose the government ill have to declare martial law everywhere arou nd La Paz (it's only in El Alto right now) and start really cracking down in order to get basis necessities into the city. I don't want to be around when that happens for sure. At least only one side seems to have weapons, and if it really comes down to it, I think it's better for everyone that wholesale street warfare will almost certainly not happen. Everyone wishes the police and military would stop shooting people though, because that's just making it worse.

If bad feelings extend all the way down her e (which is highly unlikely), we are working on plans to head to Buenos Aires.

Turning to other news sources, Al Giordano proclaims Goni may resign soon: "Either Goni Goes Today, or Bolivia Explodes." (Giordano is really on top of things in La Paz, but in my book, he loses credibility when he uses breathless, over-the-top languge--for example, he calls David Greenlee, the US ambassador to Bolivia, a "war criminal.")

The AP is running an article devoid of major new developments: "Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada inherited a country suffering a deep economic crisis and long-simmering class and racial tensions when he became president of Bolivia."

Reuters says 1) "Bolivian lawmakers tried to make their way into the blockaded capital for an emergency session of Congress on Friday to find a way to end a month of protests against a deeply unpopular president" and 2) "chief coalition partner of embattled Bolivian President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada withdrew his support Friday, robbing the leader of key legislative support as a popular uprising intensifies."

The New York Times is running a largely derivitave piece about, as we've read plenty of times, Indigenous leaders' gripes about the evil G-w ord: globalization.

CNN reports that the State Department (surprise!) says Americans should steer clear of Bolivia--or hit the road if they're already there: "Citing the 'unstable political and security situation' in Bolivia, the State Department Thursday urged Americans not to travel there and suggested that U.S. citizens already there l eave immediately." Leave immediately? Tell that to the tourists who're stuck there. La Paz is locked down. It's impossible to leave.

CounterPunch has published an excellent background piece from Newtown Garver, who's in La Paz. He concludes: "It is well to recognize that change is not always for the best. But it is for the best to recognize change when it is at hand and to adjust policies to accommodate it."

Today's award for the most interesting story comes from yesterday's Miami Herald. Columnist Andres Oppenheimer intereviewed the Bolivian president recently. Goni claims that the opposition leaders are being financed by Libya and Venezuela.

Stay tuned for more...

Opposition leaders continue to press for for president Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada's resignation; the army continues to battle protesters.

Bolivia Blogger Miguel Centallas, who believes the president should not bow to the pressure, reports from La Paz:

This point must not be ignored: Much (though not all) of the Bolivian protests are not democratic social movements; they are authoritarian, sectarian opponents of the current government, and a danger to the democratic institutions themselves.

And Al Giordano says the Bolivian government has begun a shocking crackdown:

Meanwhile, Bo livian military and police forces, unable to stop or impede the rapid growth of the protests that have paralyzed the country, began, tonight, going house to house in a search for indigenous, union, and other opposition leaders.

And turning to the traditional news outlets:

AP: "Indigenous leaders on Thursday rejected Bolivian President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada's attempt to defuse a deadly revolt and promised to continue protesting until the 'butcher' quit...Jaime Solares, head of a major labor union, added: 'Let him not just leave the government, but Bolivia as well. And may he take the ambassador from the United States with him.'"

Miami Herald: "Coca growers, labor and student groups, and miners armed with dynamite paralyzed several cities Wednesday amid more deadly clashes between protesters from Bolivia's poor indigenous ma jority and a government dominated by the rich descendants of European migrants."

Reuters says the president has decided to make further concessions to the oppostion: "In what could be a last ditch attempt to avoid the danger of a bloodbath, the president stood side by side late Wednesday with his coalition partners, saying 'Bolivian democracy was never in such grave danger' and ceding to some opposition calls to reform his free market economic policies."

For a comprehensive, link-filled piece of analysis, go to Mother Jones's "Bolivia's Battles":

The Bolivian president's future looks dim. Protestors say they will not stop until he resigns. Although he currently has the backing of the military, officers have reportedly said they do not support Sanchez de Lozada "as a person", only that they will "defend a legitmately constituted government." Which doesn't rule out that they'll ask him to step down.

Today's award for the most short-sighted editorial goes to the New York Post, which opines simplistically:

No one asks to be born in a poor country with a history of tyranny and instability. But there are times when Third World peoples are truly their own worst enemy. And right now in Bolivia - the poorest country in all of Latin America - there are people fighting to remain poor.

In other news, my brother Mechum isn't stuck in Sucre anymore. He and his friends have made their way to Santa Cruz; in a worse case scenario, they can leave the country from there. Sucre doesn't offer international flights.

And, finally, a report on media coverage of this media coverage: yesterday Glenn Reynolds linked to my news round-up via his excellent site, Instapundit.

Stay tuned for further developments...

Bloody protests continue in and around La Paz, and pressure is mounting on president Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada to step down. Today's notable stories:

--New York Times: "Despite moves by the military to tighten its control of the capital, President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada's hold on power grew more tenuous on Tuesday, as demonstrations demanding his resignation spread to provincial cities, and important political allies scrambled to distance themselves from him."

--Miami Herald: "President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada's hold on power weakened Tuesday as the capital's airport remained closed and food and fuel supplies ran short amid bloody street protests that have sparked Bolivia's worst political crisis since the return of democracy 21 years ago."

--AP: "Protesters promised a new wave of demonstrations against Bolivia's president, putting more pressure on his increasingly fragile coalition government after deadly street riots swept this poor Andean nation."

And there're also stories from Financial Times and Reuters.

Today's best big-picture analysis comes from The Economist. They're running an interesting look at "the Andean countries? deep malaise."

And don't miss "Coca Culture," a New York Times op-ed by an indigenous Bolivian coca grower. She says the real issue isn't the (now abandoned) plans for a natural gas pipeline, but the plant the US says she shouldn't cultivate:

I am a cocalera. I owe my life to coca. My father died when I was 2 and my mother raised six children by growing coca. I was a farmer myself, growing coca for traditional purposes. But the United States says it is better for us to just forget about coca.

Turing to the world of Weblogs, AlphaPatriot has posted some thoughts of the situation: "Revolution is Brewing in Bolivia." And Randy Paul comments, as well.

For first-person reporting and photos from La Paz, go to Miguel Centellas's excellent blog:

Most of the neighbors here understand the frustrations of the people from El Alto and the campesinos. But they also support using democratic means to affect change, not violence. La Paz is still tense, while the protests are gaining steam in Cochabamba. Things are still utterly quiet in Santa Cruz.

UPDATE (1:32 p.m. EST): Glenn Reynolds disagrees with Al Giordano, who says true democracy is coming to Boliva.

Reuters reports that "dozens of tanks" are shielding the Bolivian presidental palace from protesters, and that 52 people have now died in clashes with the military.

As the poorest nation in South America lurches toward complete upheaval, my brother Mechum, who lives in La Paz, provides some insight. He's been stranded in Sucre for the last few days; he went there for the weekend and got stuck--the La Paz airport was closed due to protests. He writes:

Well, I´m still in Sucre, and it may be a bit longer...We will return to La Paz as soon as the airport is re-opened there, which may be a few more days.

Sucre remains calm, but La Paz is getting worse, so it´s actually better that we´re here...not in a safety sense really, since we´d be equally safe there, but at least we can go out and w alk around a bit here and go to restaurants and such.

I believe there is more international coverage of the situation now, and I wish I could offer better insider info, but although no one really knows what is going to happen, I will give the background I know.

The situation is a bit remisiscent what happened in Venezuela last year, where the president was unpopular and people wanted him to step down and protested to that end. Goni, the president, doesn´t seem like he is going to step down; he was, in fact, elected, and this is a democratic country with constitutionally dictated policies, and what kind of precedent does it set for an elected official to step down outside of the protocols for such a change?

That said, he was elected with just 22.5% of the popular vote (even less than G Dub, whose administration backed Goni in the 2002 election), and the man behind all present protests, Evo Morales, got 22%. Evo is the leader of the Movement to SocialismParty, and many see this as his attempt to gain control he thinks he should have anyway. He has the support of a lot of Bolivia´s poor country-folk, like the coca growers, of which group Evo was a member before his move to politics. Unfortunately, the feeling is that a lot of his monetary support comes from the cocaine producers (who are rich, unlike the coca growers), who would greatly benefit from the abolishment of the US-backed coca eradication policies which Goni has supported and Evo wants to get rid of.

This is just one of Evo´s stances that puts him on the wrong side of the US government (not to mention the name of his party...). Many people here resent the one-sided dictatorial nature of Bolivia´s relationship with the US (as it is in most poor latin american nations), and see Goni, who has spent most of his life in the US and, unbelievably enough, speaks spanish with a gringo accent, as the whipping boy of
the US.

By the way, Bolivia had more governments in the 20th century than any other country, so people are somewhat used to this kind of thing. But why is everyone so pissed? The gas issue is one thing, but it´s really more of a flashpo int than a reason. Bolivia has the second-largest natural gas reserves in S. America, and the plan to sell the gas rights to a private (probably US) company, which would extract the gas and send it through a pipeline to the nearest port in Chile and on to market in the US and Mexico, is very unpopular.

For one thing, because many Bolivians still resent their loss of coastline to Chile over a hundred years ago, but mainly that so many industries have been privatized here (part of the IMF recommendations to stabilize Bolivian currency (which worked) and economy (which hasn´t seen much change) and there has been no benefit to the poor majority of Bolivians. For example, the train system was sold to a Chilean company and now trains don´t run to La Paz because the route wasn´t profitable. The national phone system was sold to an Italian company, etc., etc. It seemed that the rich were the only people to benefit from these changes. They don´t want to see the same thing happen again without guarantees that they will see some benefit.

Bolivia would get around 20% of the profits from the gas, which would mean around $1.5 billion into the country. That doesn´t seem like much compared to the rest of the world, but it could make a huge difference here, where a good blue-collar job could earn you $100 a month.

Vintage David Brooks in today's New York Times:

If a Martian came down and landed in the stands of a Yankees-Red Sox game, he would get the impression that human beings are 90 percent men and 10 percent women in tight T-shirts, and that we reproduce by loathing in groups.

News is spreading fast that 1) battles between police and protesters killed 20 yesterday, and 2) Bolivian president Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada announced today that p lans for a natural gas pipeline have been temporarily cancelled.

The BBC has published a concise piece of analysis that says the protests aren't just about gas, but about globalization. And the Guardian and MSNBC are running stories, too.

But that's not it--Al Jazeerah, a media outlet that makes Fox News look, well, fair and balanced, weighs in thusly: "Crisis deepens as death toll mounts in Bolivia: Yes, it's oil again." (If you like that article, you'll love "Zionism, an effectively organized world wide fascist system.")

My brother, meanwhile, writes from Sucre, in the middle of the country, where he went for a weekend getaway. He's stuck there and not sure when he'll be able to return to La Paz:

Goni, the president, is under more and more pressure to step down, and there has been increasing violence up on the altiplano above La Paz. Unfortunately, that´s where he airport is, so we are probably not going to be able to take our flight back today since the airport is temporarily closed.

Vaclav Havel says Aung San Suu Kyi's plight in Burma serves as a "stark reminder of our struggles against totalitarian regimes in Central and Eastern Europe":

The regime in Burma is, as a matter of fact, the disgrace of Asia, just as Alexander Lukashenko's regime in Belarus is the disgrace of Europe and Fidel Castro's regime in Cuba of Latin America...In Burma, thousands of human lives have been destroyed, scores of gifted people have been exiled or incarcerated and deep mistrust has been sown among t he various ethnic groups.

(Via Instapundit.)

Does the rest of the world care about what's happening in Bolivia? Or, more to the point, does the media? Most of the major US daily papers are talking about everything except the escalating unrest in and around La Paz.

The landlocked Andean nation may be on the verge of being overthrown, but you wouldn't know that if you get your information from American media outlets. As my Mom, a very well-informed sort, said recently, she wouldn't have known anything's happening down there if she didn't read what I've written on this page.

(The latest from Reuters is that the government has sent in "thousands of troops backed by tanks" to subdue El Alto, a poor suburb outside La Paz which has been the scene of the most fervent protests.)

Today's San Francisco Chronicle features an AP story about the situation. And so does today's Washington Post--but surprisingly enough, the paper hasn't put one of their own reporters on the case. And the New York Times isn't running anything Bolivia-related.

The most thoughtful commentary I've seen has been published on CounterPunch. There was Forrest Hylton's article "Upheaval in Bolivia: Crisis and Opportunity" and "Bolivia's Gas War," a piece by Bejamin Dangl. But both of those ran nearly a week ago.

Feel like doin' some writing? And lots of it in a short amount of time? You can now sign up for this year's NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month. Participants must write 50,000 words (abou t 175 pages) between November 1st and 30th. As the organizers say on their site:

Make no mistake: You will be writing a lot of crap. And that's a good thing. By forcing yourself to write so intensely, you are giving yourself permission to make mistakes. To forgo the endless tweaking and editing and just create. To build without tearing down.

Kevin Sites, a freelance journalist, is again blogging from Iraq. (After relating his experiences there when the war began, his employer, CNN, asked him to stop. But now he's switched networks and is writing again.)

His reportage is unique and essential: it's personal, accurate, and updated frequently. Exactly what you don't get from the US national papers.

My brother sends word that things're getting worse in Bolivia. But in the La Paz neighborhood where he lives and works, things're still fine.

The Age says the destitute Andean nation could be headed toward complete upheaval:

Sixty-four people have been killed in a series of protests in Bolivia this year. Many fear that the scattered violence may be the prologue to a more violent and widespread conflict; the expression "civil war" is increasingly on people's lips.

Yesterday, I had my students play a game in class: in small teams, they tried to think of foods that begin with a series of letters. One was "N," for which almost everyone in class wrote "nuts."

But one of my students, a twelve-year-old boy whose ph ysique suggests he doesn't miss many meals, revealed another option: "nuggets."

My team, the Atlanta Braves, are out of the playoffs. They disgu st me too much to write about here; always such promise and always such post-season choking. I know fellow fans Jordan M. and David Z. and Andrew H. are with me on that.

But the Red Sox, my second-favorite team, and my friend Benny C.'s obsession, are marching forth formidably. I caught the last couple innings of their victory over the morally bankrupt Yankees (sorry, Miles B., but buying all the best players in the league--and from Jap an--just isn't fair) last night.

And with Chicago (who are also, like the BoSox, perpetually star-crossed) still alive in their series against the Marlins, I'm gonna go ahead and call it right now:

Red Sox over the Cubbies in the World Series.

It can happen. It should happen. It must happen. (Related: Bill Simmons reflects on Boston beating the A's.)

My friend Aaron T. just started teaching English in Busan, Korea. And he's got an entertaining Weblog.

Matthew "Defective Yeti" Baldwin recounts a disastrous environmental sciences lesson he taught as a Peace Corps volunteer in Bolivia.

Our classes start today. I've got two high school-level 103 classes and one 302 class for adults. And I might be picking up a tutorial, as well. I'm looking forward to getting back into a daily routine.

I'm proud that a travel writer I admire, Rolf Potts, has mentioned my article, "How and Why I Moved to Ecuador," on his Web site.

If you're interested in traveling or moving abroad, I strongly recommend checking out Potts's recent book, "Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel."

Now that I've described all the logistical hassles (i.e. roadblocks a-plenty) that we ran into during our Bolivia sojourn, I wanted to supply a run-down of some of the really cool stuff we experienced. Herewith:

--La Paz is an amazing city. It's a teeming metropolis set in a valley surrounde d by spectacular, snow-capped mountains. Here're some photos. I hope to post some images of my own soon.

--We sat in on a class at my brother's school, The American Cooperative School of La Paz. Nice place.

--Our attempt to take a tour of La Paz's San Pedro prison was denied--the guard said foreign tourists are no longer allowed inside. We did, however, glimpse the prisoners milling about the courtyard.

San Pedro is perhaps the world's strangest prison: visitors can usually take tours--guided by prisoners themselves--for a small fee. And the inmates, who live in rooms of their own making and are accompanied by their families, if they wish, are allowed to make money selling things, like trinkets or drugs. (I've heard stories about gringos going to San Pedro expressly to purchase or do drugs, in fact, which seems incredibly foolish.) Visiting the prison's supposedly safe, and until recently, unless the guard we met was mistaken, sanctioned by the government. More info on San Pedro is here and here.

--As I mentioned earlier, we attened a localy derby between La Paz's two most popular soccer clubs, The Strongest and Bolivar. Lots of fun. The quality of the match was good, and I was amazed by the players' fitness levels: downtown La Paz's elevation is about 12,000 feet.

--We perused La Paz's Witchcraft market, which is the place to go if you're looking for a llama fetus (we weren't, but they're used in various ceremonies, like the blessing of a new building).

--I chewed coca leaves a few times. Doing so is supposed to produce feelings of euphoria; I didn't feel any special effects.

--We took a two-day boat tour of Lake Titicaca's islands and stayed overnight with an indigenous family.

--On the way back, we had a l ong layover in Lima. It's an smoggy, dusty city, but I was glad to get a chance to see it up-close--it's the home of nearly 8 million Peruvians.

We arrived in Cuenca this morning. It's nice to be back. Classes start on Monday.

Bolivia's still a mess: today protesters unsuccessfully tried to block the road linking La Paz to its airport. And for an excellent re-cap of what all the fuss is about, see "Bolivia's Gas War," which ran recently in CounterPunch. Benjamin Dangl writes:

A new cycle of conflict has developed in Bolivia as worker unions, coc a farmers and ordinary citizens unite to prevent the sale of the nation's gas reserves to the United States through a Chilean port. In a country whose economic identity has been strongly shaped by U.S. pressure in the war on drugs and IMF structural adjustments, The Gas War is the most recent case where the Bolivian public has vehemently protested against foreign interests taking priority over the country's economic well being.

We're in Lima now. And we've almost made it back to Cuenca.

We had to leave Puno a day early--our airline changed our Lima to Guayaquil departure time from 10:45 a.m. tomorrow to just after midnight tomorrow. So we bussed 7 hours from Puno to Cuzco yesterday and--get this--wer e held up by roadblocks (yes, more roadblocks!) outside Juliaca, on the way to Cuzco.

The reason for the trouble: a disputed soccer championship, astoundingly. Apparently the team from Juliaca lost to Puno's squad in a controversial match, and Juliaca's fans blocked all highways in an attempt to be awarded the crown. These protesters, though, unlike Bolivia's, lacked logistical organization--our bus driver simply diverged from Juliaca's main drag, where some rocks were strewn haphazardly about, and took an alternate route through town.

We flew from Cuzco to Lima today; we'll arrive in Guayaquil early tomorrow morning and then we'll be in Cuenca by tomorrow afternoon.