Archive for
September 13th, 2006
Stories
The Week that Was - Bolivian Blogs
Este artículo también está disponible en español en el sitio Blogs de Bolivia
A large part of Bolivia remained at a standstill last Friday, when four of the country’s nine departments called for a strike. A major point of contention was that the Consitutent Assembly, which is given the task of rewriting the country’s Constitution, should respect the rule that any new article must be approved by 2/3 of the delegates. The ruling party, MAS, believes that the articles should only be approved by simple majority, which they hold and only then, should 2/3 of the votes be needed to approve the finished draft.
Keeping the original formula as stipulated by the Convocation Law would mean “pluralism, diversity and consensus,” writes Carlos Hugo Molina in Agora (ES). Keeping the fact that all articles must be approved by 2/3 would mean that the minorities in the country would be allowed to have input.
Molina’s son, Sebastian, who saw the strike firsthand in his native Santa Cruz wonders whether the strike should have been voluntary, instead of imposed. As he writes in his blog Plan B (ES).
¿Para alguien está en duda la representatividad que puedan tener tanto los prefectos como los comités cívicos de los distintos departamentos que están llevando adelante este paro? Yo creo que si está en duda para alguien; para ellos mismos. Si no, no deberían tener ningún temor de hacer que este paro cívico se desarrolle de manera voluntaria y, justamente, cívica. O sea, sin obligar a nadie. Sin utilizar la violencia que están criticando del gobierno. Sin utilizar elementos típicos del autoritarismo -ese mismo que le están criticando al M.A.S.-, como el de los grupos de choque, por ejemplo
Does a doubt exist regarding the representativeness of the prefects and of the civic committees in the different departments where this strike is taking place? I think someone has a doubt - themselves. If they did not, then I don’t think there would be any fear that this strike would not be anything but fair and voluntary, or in other words, civic. The strike would also not be under any obligation, without the use of violence, which has been criticized by the government and without utilizing the typical elements of authoritarianism - which is something that these groups are criticizing MAS for being - and for the use of groups of confrontation, for example.
The irony in this situation is that the government is criticizing the strike and blockade, which was utilized by the current President in his struggles against the coca eradication issue. “How much did Evo Morales’ blockades affect the country? How many days did he leave Bolivia completely paralized, hurting the production of many farmers?” asks Martin Gutierrez, who writes at Vitrina de Realidad Boliviana (ES).
The divisions and polarization is causing many to question the current political climate. “This situation appears to create the perfect condition for the creation of a third alternative, hopefully free of all of the “isms” that afflicts the current government’s politicians or of the current and past opposition (prebendalism, nepotism, populism, evoism, neoliberalism, etc),” comments Jaime Rubin de Celis at JCR’s Place (ES). He also adds that it would be very difficult that this third actor could be any worse that what is currently on the table.
As things continue to go the wrong way, Joup writes about a “pais enfermo” or “ill country”. She continues on at her blog Este arcoiris se llama Joup (ES) with a series of rhetorical questions, such as “When will we leave racism behind?” and “How much longer do we need to live with resentment and hate?” Earlier that month, the government faced numerous problems, such as a transportation strike and teachers’ protest. Hugo Miranda aka Angel Caido (Fallen Angel) pointed out that “Bolivia is returning to normalcy little by little…Bolivia continues to lose in football, in its economy, in its education, etc. Someday we have to start winning.”
The Sitting Party: Cross-cultural Reflections on Social Relations in Vietnam
Recently there has been a very lively discussion in the English-language Vietnam blogosphere about the phenomenon of the self-proclaimed expat expert. Kevin of What Happened to Your Hair? started it all off with a provocative posting on the Westerner who returns home after a short stint and adopts an authoritative attitude on his host country. This discussion spread across several blogs including Ethnically Incorrect Daughter, VA to VN and Antidote to Burnout. When the dust settled there seemed to be an agreement that cross-cultural insight is most fruitful when it is also accompanied by an awareness of what we do not understand.
An example of this kind of cultural dialogue is a discussion amongst Vietnam bloggers on the nature of Vietnamese social relations. This strand began with several posts in Six Months in Hanoi about the contrast between Vietnamese and Western patterns of socializing. In one post, HanoiMark describes a mixed party in which these patterns were in stark contrast: the fluid networks of Western expats vs. the family-like groups of the Vietnamese. In another post he tries to understand the nature of “closed social networks” or “groups” among Vietnamese friends. While Western modes of socializing often involve mixing circles of friends and creating new acquaintances, the Vietnamese approach affords a spontaneity and intimacy between friends that is perhaps less common in the West.
Peruvian Posts Between August and September
Este artículo también está disponible en español.
In the time that has passed since my previous compilation of posts, the people of Perú Político have published three summaries of the weekly happenings, which have to do mostly with events from the government's political actors and the opposition. They are: weekly chronicle (16 to the 22 of August) [ES], weekly Chronicle (23 to the 29 of August) [ES] and weekly Chronicle (of the 30 of August to the 5 of September) [ES]. It really doesn't seem to me that so much time has passed, but so it has. Someone else who will be spending a long time, but locked up, is the member of the Superior Court of Justice that was captured after receiving a bribery, as Politikeando comments on in “Corrupt and Foul Judicial System”:
Hace unos días un vocal superior, Eduardo Palacios, fue descubierto aceptando un soborno a cambio de favores judiciales. Los medios, como es lógico, hicieron eco de la noticia y una vez más sale a la luz la podredumbre en que se encuentra el sistema judicial. Pero en realidad casos de corrupción judicial hay a diario, de todo tamaño y de todo precio, en el ámbito empresarial o civil, además a tarifas para todos los bolsillos.
Russia: Tear of Grief; Intro to Orthodox Culture
In Moscow, Zurab Tsereteli's works seem ubiquitous - and disliked by many. In New Jersey, his first one was dedicated on Sept. 11 in Bayonne: a gift from the Russian government, the 100-foot, 175-ton bronze monument “To the Struggle Against World Terrorism” - aka the Tear of Grief. High-profile guests at the dedication ceremony included former U.S. President Bill Clinton and Chair of the Upper House of the Russian Parliament Sergei Mironov; a note from President George W. Bush was read by U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.
LJ user larinax (Ksenia Larina, Radio Echo of Moscow host) has no kind words (RUS) about the monument and its creator - and the fact that Tsereteli used an outdated list of names of the 9/11 victims doesn't help: 43 names of those who were not killed have been carved into the monument's base:
What horror has Tsereteli [squeezed] into New Jersey! It looks extremely indecent. And this is what poor Clinton has hinted at unambiguously: “It's impossible to ignore Tsereteli's sculptures in Moscow.” Thirty meters tall, weighs 175 tons. All material, transportation, setting up and fixing has been funded from the Russian budget. He dreamed of [giving] this [monster] to New York, but the city turned around and ran from such a generous gift. He's messed all the last names on the mournful list on the [monument's] base (more than 40 have nothing to do with reality!) And he laughs loudly into the cameras. Shame for the whole world to see.
Links for Wed, 2006-09
A Bangkok girl, caught in a flood, devices wateproofing for her shoes. Her friend at Gnarlykitty blog posts pictures of the invention. “Bow had enough. She couldn't risk getting fungi on her toes and liquidised dog poos on her Substance shoes any longer. She went inside a coffee shop and invented her own protective device”
These are places where Naija to the Core would really like to be this autumn.
Zimpundit writes a roundup of the nation-wide strike by the main labor union in Zimbabwe, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions.
NvB: Bored in Brno? posts pictures and video from the town of Zlin: “The town is worth seeing, particularly if you're a fan of twentieth-century functionalist and utilitarian architecture. It turned out that my visit was on the weekend of the 13th annual Festival of Wind Orchestras and Folklore Ensembles.”
English Russia re-posts pictures of Madonna visiting an orphanage in Moscow.
The Accidental Russophile posts pictures of his friend's family picking mushrooms in the Komi Republic.
David McDuff of A Step At A Time translates an article on the recent activization of guerrillas in Ingushetia.
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