Comments on: Bolivia – Land of bad photofits and democracy

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 21:00:07 +0000

Of course. Power and wealth is linked to race. Nothing new there. Not sure about American involvement. Will ask friends who’s brother lives out there. Ultimately you must have the spanish to blame.

By: Nick

Nick — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 13:16:46 +0000

Yes, true although I think such tensions have less to do with race and more to do with power and wealth. The colonizing elites that originally robbed the indigenous population will obviously object to power and wealth being spread more equally throughout society. Those at the extreme end of this spectrum are not worried about resorting to illegal tactics either as the recent assassination attempt on Morales illustrates (including an Irish mercenary incidentally):

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8003117.stm

Morales himself believed there was American involvement:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/20/evo-morales-bolivia-us-embassy

By: Ed

Ed — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:16:27 +0000

Too true..although there is trouble within Bolivia, I hope that will not distablise it. As you might guess it in part is generated from non-idigenous vs indigenous!

By: Nick

Nick — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:08:20 +0000

I wouldn’t have done much better to be fair. The TV channel however have no excuse – surely their technology extends beyond that lame masking effort.

That’s true about the salary. My maths is as bad as my drawing. Still, the fact that an indigenous peasant has been elected at all still says a lot about the democracy they must have their. I think it’s considerably more impressive than the USA electing it’s first black President for example.

By: Ed

Ed — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 15:55:18 +0000

About as good as my art skills. Not to discredit Morales too much as he has done some good reforms in favour of the poor. If only is could be replicated. His monthly salary of $1,875 is still a huge amount more than the average GNI per capita per year of $1,260 in Bolivia (I know not the best way to talk about salaries but it is the best I could find). Not sure many UK politicians earn more in a month that the GNI per capita per year of their country.