Bolivia on the Brink

Another excellent article on a country near and dear to my heart. I tremble for the future of the children I worked with and the people I met in this climate of constant instability. Cochabamaba is essentially in the middle of one of the coca growing areas--arguably the source of much of the discontent. I can't really add anything more, except to say the The Economist in this instance is definitely biased in favour of the energy concerns...but perhaps justly so. Handled properly, it certainly could help Bolivia begin to climb it's way out of the rut in which it finds itself. Handled wrongly, and the 8 million inhabitants will only find themselves deeper in the rut. The proper solution lies veiled in cloud and delicately balanced, teetering on the brink. For a nation which has seen twice as many changes of government than years of independence, hope is grim. I can only seek to promote awareness, until such time as I may find myself in a position to do more (which will, perhaps, be never, if one accepts the straightforward logic of "To Hell With Good Intentions").

A brief quote, although I strongly recommend the entire piece:

Economist.com | Fragile states in the Andes (2): "This is happening because social movements, which claim to represent the poor, indigenous majority, have found in gas a cause that cuts across lines of ethnicity and class. Most Bolivians share the suspicion that foreign investors are cheating the country of its natural resources. Bolivia's last president fell in 2003, after government forces killed some 50 protesters against a scheme to export gas through Chile, an historic enemy. Last year voters approved overwhelmingly a referendum that mandates higher taxes and greater government control over gas and oil. "