Record as I Am

Tech && Soccer && PHP Coding - More Bolivian than America expected.

I sincerely hope that both parties are negotiating in good faith and trying to prevent further violence and bloodshed.  But that's me, I'm a bit of an optimist that way.  When Morales says he will get his constitution approved "Por las buenos, o las malas", essentially translated as "By any means necessary", its difficult to believe that the opposition would come to the table and make many concessions.

Here's the thing, I agree that most, if not nearly all, Bolivians of European backgrounds hold very disturbing and racists views towards indigenous people.

...click to continue reading.

Things continue to deteriorate in Boliva. First, Evo's government expels the U.S. ambassador - but at the same time sent a letter to Dept. of State indicating that Bolivia wants to "maintain bilateral relations." Me thinks someone should explain to him what expelling an ambassador indicates. The eastern provinces are in basically full rebellion against the central governnment.

Both sides have all the rhetoric, but at the heart of this dispute is who controls one of South America's largest natural gas reserves and the revenues that it generates.

...click to continue reading.

Heading into 2008, Bolivia is fundamentally polarized such that no resolution seems possible.  Granted, it has been like this for almost four years now, but with both sides unwillingly to concede or even talk, you have to wonder how much longer lines on a map will continue to hold it together.

...click to continue reading.

Bolivia's Constituent Assembly, charged with rewriting the country's constitution by December 14th,
has suspended its work indefinitely.  Campesinos and other indigenous groups plan to march
through the streets of Sucre peacefully to advocate "http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2007/agosto/lun27/35marcha."> ...click to continue reading.

It's been one year since Evo Morales became Bolivia's president.  While the goals of his administration - refounding the country on a more equitable foundation - are hard to argue with, his methods and results are disastrous.  He's used demagougery and stirred up his supporters to cause civil unrest and blockades around the country in the hopes that his party, MAS, will get its way.

...click to continue reading.

As usual, MABB has an informative analysis of the situation in Bolivia, where 4 of the 9 departments have elected to reject the new constitution if the Constituent Assembly revokes the 2/3 majority rule.

...click to continue reading.

Your semi-regular Bolivia update.  The governors from six of the nine departments (states) have cut all communications with the federal government.

...click to continue reading.

The excellent MABB tells us that Things are Getting Ugly in Bolivia.  My native country is in the midst of rewriting the Consitution and it is turning into a divisive process.

The main message is that the Constitutional Assembly is in serious crisis.

...click to continue reading.

Blue Screen of Death is "Anqas Toqu millay" - Filthy Blue Window is the best I could do. Microsoft releases language support for Quechua, one of the native languages spoken in Bolivia. Probably to less fanfare than they expected.

"We congratulate Microsoft for having facilitated the use of computers in our own languages, but we have to advance towards systems that are more open because we still have to pay a license fee (to use the software) to Microsoft," Bolivia's Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca said.

...click to continue reading.

Talk about putting the cart before the horse!  Bolivia's Hyrdocarbons Ministry aanounced that the nationalization of oil and gas industries will be temporarily suspended.  Seems the state company does not have the fund or operating capacity to take over production.

...click to continue reading.