Bolivia is a lovely place, overall, and well worth visiting. That said, if you’re coming for the first time you should be aware of a little cultural trait that you need to be prepared for: Be sure you always carry spare change. One of the minor, but daily frustrations of traveling or living in Bolivia is the universal lack of—and incessant hoarding of—spare change.
The official ceremony to swear in Bolivia’s nine governors-elect before the president, Evo Morales, went smoothly enough, despite some interesting hitches. A heavy pro-MAS crowd jeered Savina Cuéllar (outgoing Chuquisaca prefect) & the three media luna governors-elect. Evo gave a brief speech, in which he singled out the three opposition prefects & accused them of conspiring against his government. The three opposition figures (Costas, Cossío, and Suárez) stood still when asked the raise their hands for an oath (because they swore before their own people either earlier, or would soon after); the six MAS governors-elect raised their left fists in the now-familiar MAS salute. After the brief ceremony, Evo greeted each governor in turn; Costas took the opportunity to exchange a few words w/ Evo, and that was it.
All in all, a rather rocky, but not unexpected start to the new “state with autonomies” political model.
Later that day, the nine regional assemblies elected their leadership. Thanks in part to a controversial interpretation of the electoral laws that favored MAS (more on this in a later post) & some last-minute alliances in Beni & Tarija, MAS has gained control over all of the departmental assemblies—except Santa Cruz. This means that Cossío (in Tarija) & Suárez (in Beni) will fave an opposition assembly loyal to MAS. (It also means that if either is formally accused of a crime, according to the new law, they’ll have to step down. Their replacement would be appointed by their departmental assembly.) Only in Santa Cruz does the governor count w/ a friendly majority—though even there it’s a multiparty coalition.
The Santa Cruz book expo is going on this week, and I stopped to look around. It’s an interesting mix of traditional book fair & social identity construction. One of the remarkable things about Bolivia is the high volume of print activity for such a small, developing country. One of the most surprisings features of Bolivia’s literary world is that so much of it is sociopolitical—from every imaginable ideological persuasion—and so little of it ever reaches the “exterior” to be read by foreign analysts.
The autonomy process continues in Bolivia this weekend, w/ some interesting twists. Although all nine governors-elect have promised to attend the official swearing in ceremony in Sucre, several have already preemptively had their own ceremonies. And not just the opposition governors-elect.
There’s a little corner in Sagarnaga, the key tourist district in La Paz, that’ll always have a special place in my heart. Years ago, when I was doing my dissertation fieldwork in Bolivia, I went in w/ some friends to start & run a small café off the corner of Sagarnaga & Linares, in the same tambo as the Coca Museum.
During grad school I worked as a volunteer barista at a cooperative coffee house. It was a great experience, both in terms of staying connected to something outside academia & because I was able to drink all the free coffee I wanted. We tried to bring a similar concept to Ô Mundo Café (we bought the place from a French ex-pat & kept the name). We served almost exclusively local drinks, eco-friendly Bolivian coffee, and we introduced profit sharing for our employees (on top of their salaries). The enterprise failed after a little more than a year.
I like to go back to check out the spot. A fashion designer has taken over the space & transformed it (at great cost, it seemed) into an upscale bohemian boutique (Gitano Urbano). The restaurant upstairs (Pot Colonial) serves an amazing llama steak, but it was closed, so I lunched at the next-door Angelo Colonial instead. The rest of the old tambo remained the same, and the Coca Museum is still there. If you’re ever in La Paz, you should definitely check it out.
The last two days, the news has shifted away from this weekend’s inaugural controversies (which have now been largely resolved: all the governors-elect will attend the inaugural ceremony in Sucre). Instead, the new news has to do w/ the shocking lynching of four police officers near the municipality of Uncía.
After some parliamentary wrangling, Evo signed into law Bolivia’s new Transition Law, which regulates the handing over of power to newly elected autonomous governors & serves as a bridge for a more detailed Law of Autonomies to come later. MAS is officially celebrating the “birth of the era of autonomies” (the banner headline in the party paper, Cambio) & Evo is quoted as saying “mission accomplished” immediately after signing the law. Although the official establishment of regional autonomy—which transfers a total of 36 jurisdictional competencies to autonomous regional/departmental governments—opposition is still unsatisfied & threatens political mobilization (those in Beni have already started). So, what’s going on?
About two years ago I was invited by the folks starting up e-IR to write something about the impact of Evo on Bolivian foreign policy (“Bolivia’s New International Stage”). In it, I made a few points: 1) that Evo was one of the most internationally active Bolivian heads of state (some have suggested the most active ever, and I think that might be correct), 2) that Bolivia had a strong potential to translate existing international goodwill towards the causes like indigenous rights into support for his government, and 3) that Evo’s policy had (by July 2008) moved closer to Chávez than to Lula.
My parents (Grandma & Abuelito) got into town a few days ago. Tío Andy is in town, too. We’ve had a hectic, short visit trying to keep up w/ an overly-excited Javi. And everyone agrees that Zoë is an incredibly peaceful baby (we were due, after all).
So far Javi’s been pretty good. He even slept in until 7 am! Two days in a row! My parents live in Bolivia, so this visit is a real treat for Javi, whose used to seeing them periodically on Skype. And they’ll be a great help to K8, since they’re staying through most of my research trip to Bolivia.
Now I have to worry about packing & getting my last things ready. This whirlwind trip I have to get as much of the missing data as I can, try to work on setting the building blocks for a future summer field school, all while also getting a head start on at least two writing projects that are creeping over the horizon.
My parents arrive from Bolivia today—and my little brother Andy comes in from Philly. I’m looking forward to spending some time w/ them, before I head out to Bolivia myself. Hopefully, I can sneak some prep time during the visit, since I have a lot of data cleanup issues I’d like to work through before I arrive for a whirlwind research trip.
Javi & I head out to the Memphis airport in an hour. He loves airports, so this is going to be a treat—especially since he gets a day off from “school” (daycare). Spending over an hour at the airport watching planes come & go is going to get him all wound up.
If you haven’t met my son, his “calm” is most other toddler’s “wound up.” Until you spend a lot of time w/ him, you really don’t understand that it’s no exaggeration to say he goes non-stop from the moment he wakes up until he collapses at night. I’m sure his behavior is karmic payback for my own wildness as a boy. I know my parents will enjoy spending two weeks w/ their only grandson—and their newest granddaughter (Zoë is their fourth). I just hope they have the stamina!
I’ve been a longtime fan of The Economist. Recently, they’ve started putting up video reports on their website. This one’s great for illustrating global migration & its socioeconomic impact. In less than 3 mins, it makes some clear points: most migration occurs w/in regions, remittances are an important source of income for developing countries, and most remittances go to middle-income developing countries (not the poorest).
The last few weeks have been very interesting in Bolivia. The World People’s Conference on Climate Change re-energized Evo’s popular base—both at home & abroad. There was, of course, the awkward moment when, during his welcome address, Evo suggested GMO foods cause baldness & homosexuality. Still, despite a brief double-take, the narrative remains the same: Evo as the champion of a new, post-neoliberal, indigenous socialist transformation.
Another video from Current TV’s Vanguard series. This one’s about the controversy over women’s headscarves in Turkey. Although the textbook I’m using next semester doesn’t include Turkey as one its 10 cases (the only Muslim country included is Iran), it does include a brief “mini-case” on headscarves in Turkey & France (in the chapter on politics of inclusion & clashing values).
Image via Wikipedia
I have to thank my little brother, Andy, who recently shared his newfound obsession with Current TV. As I started looking for things to use next semester, I was poking through Hulu.com & stumbled upon Vanguard, a series of 30-minute mini-documentaries. They’re quite good.
Over the next few weeks, as I select videos I will use in my classes (comparative politics & Latin American politics), I’ll post links & brief commentary here.
This first one is about Nigeria (one of our cases next semester), but it is appropriate for any discussion on the dilemmas of petrostates. The Vanguard crew in this video visits the Niger Delta, where much of Nigeria’s oil (which accounts for 80% of GDP) comes from. Just watch.
Just sent another manuscript out, so now I’ve officially got yet another year of college teaching under my belt. I’ll save the detailed review of the year for another time, but here are the highlights: I moved from a big city (Baltimore) to a small town (Oxford) and from a private liberal arts college (Mount St. Mary’s University) to a public research university (Ole Miss). I traded an apartment for a house, bought a minivan, and gained another dependent (Amelia Zoë). In all that, my only new course prep was the first-year seminar I got to design. Not bad.
Now I get to look forward to a long summer, where I can try to relax, do some research, and get started on the next set of writing projects. I leave for Bolivia in less than two weeks, where I’ll spend about three weeks wrapping up (hopefully) the data collection on the NSF project I’ve been working on. I also hope to get some materials for two conference papers: one on the Santa Cruz autonomy movement & another on candidate recruitment in Bolivian legislative elections from 2002-2009 (co-authored with my RA). In between the work, there will be an extended family road trip to Chicago, South Bend, and various points in Michigan. Then we come back in August to do it all over again.
Here’s what I promise in the next few months, as I bring this blog back to life:
Enjoy!
