| Sunday, March 12, 2006 |
| Meshuggah was WAY better |
Items of business to discuss:
1. The concert.
2. My bag.
3. Soccer.
4. Nationalization of gas
Item number 1
The concert
Last night I went to a concert. It was a concert of a band called "Manu Chao". My UK buddy William really likes him and invited me to come. I figured it would be my only chance of going to a large concert in my 6 months of being here, so I went. I had never heard of this group before, but Will said that he's really good, which, when most people say that to me about music, I usually hate it. It held true to this situation as well. It turns out that Manu Chao is the despicable heathen that wrote that wretched "Bongo Bongo" song (I FREAKING HATE THAT SONG SO MUCH OEIWURO(WEIRUOIEWJRWOEJ"()#"!) as well as the equally terrible "Me Gustas Tu" song. Prior to going to the concert William and I listened to a Manu Chao CD at his apartment so I could at least hear a bit of the music before hand, and I was NOT looking foreward to 2 and a half hours of reggae-listening. After living with Kris (the biggest reggae fan I've ever met...and I don't mean his waist size) for 3-4 months I still think reggae is as boring and tasteless as beforehand (I'm sorry Kris) Fortunately for me, in the live versions of his songs Manu Chao sped up a few of them into jumpable ska/punk tunes, which I don't like much either, but at least it was entertaining. I bet about every gringo in all of La Paz was at the concert, and there was probably more tourists there than locals. Manu Chao, from what I hear, is the only big name act that has ever come to Bolivia in, well, ever. At least since the last time they came here.
Item number 2
My bag
My bag got stolen! Yaaay! But, have no fear, it was only a little bag that I bought here full of a few useless items. Will had my bag one night at a pub, and it was sitting on the back of his chair. One guy was distracting Will while two other weiners made off with it. I would have, however, loved to have seen the look on their faces when all they found inside was a spanish-english dictionary, a hackey sack, 3 pens and half a block of cheese. I'm still kind of pissed about my hackey sack though, because I've had it since grade 7 and it's a great damn sack. To rub salt in my wounds all the hackey sacks here are garbage, made of thick wool and filled with maize, thus making them pretty much unusuable.
Item Number 3
Soccer
On Friday all the kids from Alalay went out and played soccer. It was fun. I am, also, very useless at any physical activity, let alone sport. Particularily in the thin air at 4000 meters above sea level. But it was still fun.
Item Number 4
Nationalization of gas
Current events time! I'm reading a decent book called "Bolivia Between a Rock and a Hard Place" which details the political and social history of Bolivia since colonialization. In the 1980's and 90's Bolivia fell victim to the typical neoliberal globalization policies that plagued (and still plague) our world today. Bolivia had a succession of very right-wing governments who catered the (caucasion) economic, social, and political elite. One of the gems that politians such as Banzer (formally military dictator, in the 90's a democratically elected president...who knew?) did was to sell off Bolivia's gas reservers (estimated at being the 2nd biggest in latin america) for waaaay less than they were worth to huge multinational corporations. Multinationals extract gas from Bolivia for very little taxes and sell it to western consumers for huge profits, while Bolivia gets basically nothing for it and continues to be the poorest country on the continent. What's worse is that more often than not companies lie about how much gas they actually DO extract, since Bolivia in it's economic dissaray lacks the ability to properly oversee and regulate these companies, so Bolivia gets even LESS money from their own resources than they SHOULD!
Now, we have a new president here, named Evo Morales, who came to power on the MAS (Movemiento al Socialismo) ticket, and the big issue that got him in office was the issue of nationalizing the gas. All of Bolivia's problems basically come down to it. The education system is crap here and they need more money to finance it. Solution? Nationalize the gas. The USA is cutting military aid to bolivia to basically nothing and they need money to finance it. Solution? Gas. Bolivia has terrible infrastructure and horrible rural living conditions. Solution? Gas. The list goes on forever.
The problem is that Evo cannot LEGALLY "expropriate" the gas reserves here without technically "stealing" from the huge multinational corporations (which they have been doing do the Bolivian people for decades). I don't know whether it is because Evo is being a pansey or that he is afraid of a backlash from the USA, but he seems to be very relucant to expropriate the gas reserves and refineries. If he does what the people here want and need, he will move further to the left and nationalize the gas and use the money to move the country foreward. If not, my best guess is that people are going to be VERY pissed of here...and who knows what will happen?
There is your Bolivian current events update. There's a good site that a guy named Jim Shultz updates with news on Bolivia. Check it out here if you want...
http://democracyctr.org/blog/
See ya! |
posted by Ben @ 1:24 PM  |
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| 3 Comments: |
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Hola Mi Hijo: So add the music to the cuisine, but the politics are unbelievably fascinating. I have been reading about Chile and this is quite an interesting development-hope it augurs in a new era and some hope. Sorry to hear about your lost bag-happens everywhere. We are super busy just one week away from grand opening-I am finding myself more anxious than excited and look forward to getting a few weeks into this new chapter. Did hiring seminar last week and will be helping with training to extent I am able this week. Hope you are feeling well and that you are getting what you wanted from this trip. Love Dad
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Hello Ben
Apparently, Manu Chao is Canadian, and trilingual (english, spanish and french), which I'm sure doesn't interest you whatsoever, but I thought I'd put it down anyway.
So you're still adjusting to the air, huh? No lungs of steel yet?
That sucks about your bag getting stolen, the hackey sack is only memories, right? lol.
I was watching family guy the other night. It was the one where Meg's in love with the TV news anchor. Brian walks in on her kissing the TV and he puts his paws up in the air and says "awkward" (i can't spell) just the way that you would have said it!
Faking David had a show at Fibonacci's on Saturday. There were some sound issues but they were excellent as usual. It's weird because they charged $10 at the door and the place was practically full! (and the last couple of times they've charged $5 or nothing and there haven't been many people at all, but maybe that's because those were out of town gigs?) They also started selling a "short set", like an EP, it's got three songs from their new album on it (and a really wicked cover) and they were selling it for $5. They sold all 8 that they had there that night.
It was great! Their hope is to get out their new album sometime this spring. And so far it's great! You should see their design for the new cd package, its wicked cool.
Anyways, enough about them. I'm almost finished my outline! Hooray me! Soon I can start the actual writing part (the funnest part). I'm so excited.
Anyways, I've jabbered enough for now.
Take care, love ya
Ellie
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The fact that he happens to be born on one side of a line and speaks three languages doesn't mean he still doesn't suck.
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Hola Mi Hijo: So add the music to the cuisine, but the politics are unbelievably fascinating. I have been reading about Chile and this is quite an interesting development-hope it augurs in a new era and some hope. Sorry to hear about your lost bag-happens everywhere. We are super busy just one week away from grand opening-I am finding myself more anxious than excited and look forward to getting a few weeks into this new chapter. Did hiring seminar last week and will be helping with training to extent I am able this week. Hope you are feeling well and that you are getting what you wanted from this trip. Love Dad