Monday, September 19, 2005

On Blogs, Bolivian Elections, and Dogs and Kids in Rivers

First, a special greeting to all the recent newcomers to this Blog. Saludos de Cochabamba!

Over the weekend I checked the little tracker we use to see how many people are visiting our Web site and the graph just about flew off the page. Normally (meaning Bolivia is not in turmoil and driving visitors to our site for information) we have about 1,000 visits per day. Over the weekend that average leapt to 4,000, which is really a lot of people.

I couldn’t figure it out. My last Blog entry on Wednesday morning was one I wrote in a semi-coherent state in the La Paz airport after a sleepless night of flying American Air flight #922 from the US. Could it be that people like Blogs better if written by people suffering from serious sleep deprivation? It is a bit of an odd theory, no?

Then someone sent me a note that the Blog from Bolivia had just been listed as a "Blog of Note" on Blogger.com. My guess is that this is how so many of you have come to check us out. So, again, greetings from Cochabamba and keep on coming.


Polling Tales -- We Told You So

On August 28th we offered a Blog entry noting that the Cochabamba daily, Los Tiempos, had run a huge front page article showing that former President and current candidate Jorge Quiroga has leapt to a commanding first place lead in the coming Presidential elections (December 4th). We noted that the poll was a pretty lame measure of the candidates' support since it expressly limited itself to voters in the cities and excluded rural voters who are the major base of support for MAS candidate Evo Morales. We wrote:

What happens in October when someone actually produces a poll that includes both the cities and the rural areas (where Morales’ base and support is much, much stronger)? Suddenly the numbers are going to look wildly different and, like it or not, Los Tiempos is going to get stuck with a story showing a Morales surge, when in fact all that really happened is they used a representative sampling.


Well, we were off by two weeks. The "Morales surge" articles started today. The Swiss-based Center for Security Studies published an article today – one likely to be a precursor for many to come in the next few days:

Bolivian Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) presidential candidate Evo Morales has surged to a lead of 28 per cent of potential votes ahead of December elections, according to a recent poll conducted by an independent research firm.


Morales now enjoys a six percent lead over Quiroga, says the poll. What's behind the "surge"? The new poll included rural voters in the sampling.

But to be clear, it is a long, long way to December 4th and the Bolivian election road will be windy and ever-changing. We'll be back with a more in-depth analysis for those interested in the next few days.


Rivers, Rocks, Dogs and Kids – The Joys of Being Home


Ahhh, the joy of being home in Bolivia.

Yesterday my wife, my two-year-old daughter, our two dogs, and I took off early for a hike into the hills behind our house. Back beyond the end of the bus lines. Back beyond the mammoth cooking pot full of greasy fried pork being prepared for a whole neighborhood. Back beyond the adobe houses and flower farms. There we found the small river where our two dogs find their bliss in chasing rocks.

Really! They chase and bring back rocks, the way other dogs do with rubber balls. This is fortunate because Cochabamba is blessed with many, many rocks. At the orphanage where we were volunteers for many years the kids thought the dogs were actually eating rocks. To my knowledge neither Simone nor Little Bear has ever swallowed.

Equally joyous was my soon-to-turn-three daughter who spent the morning walking around barefoot in cold mountain water. She is also working on her rock-throwing skills and shows great promise.

Cochabamba at the start of spring.

27 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

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9:27 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey, you have a great blog here! I'm definitely going
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9:27 PM  
Blogger Al S. E. said...

Don't knock sleep deprivation. The sleep-deprived mind can make associations that it can never make in the ordinary state of consciousness.
Although there is strong interest within the First World's progressive movement in the democratic developments of the past few years in South America, I would suspect most ordinary people in the US don't even have a clear idea of Bolivia’s location, let alone its political situation. The fault partly lies with their "news" media. Obsessed as the media are with sensationalism and selling their propaganda services to the highest bidders, they have no time for anything that runs counter to those interests. I would be interested to learn about the place of Bolivian politics in a larger picture, that is, within the political ferment in Latin America, as well as within the overall progressive movement in the world at large.

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10:55 AM  
Blogger Nanette said...

When are the Bolivian elections? Do they have the two rounds like in Guatemala? I thought that the elections had a lot of interest in Guatemala, which is great, even though the people are very suspicious of their leaders! And you're right, the people in the countryside have very different opinions than the ones in the city usually.

Congrats on the blog of note listing!

11:14 AM  
Blogger Taylor Kirk said...

It's great to see that your traffic has soared. More people should take note of What;s going on outside of the US. What exactly is the Democracy Center doing there in Bolivia? Just curious, I haven't heard much about it. I can see the web page but would like an insider's point of view :).

Taylor Kirk
The Latin Americanist
http://ourlatinamerica.blogspot.com

11:38 AM  
Blogger Dan said...

I will be visiting Cochabamba from Kansas City in 10 days - I am really looking forward to it!

1:51 PM  
Blogger Deb S. said...

Excellent reporting and analysis. I, too, saw you listed as "Blog of Note."

2:54 PM  
Blogger Marxiana said...

Conecto con vos, en el analisis y en la escritura. Retornarè...
Now that I´ve written in spanish I`m wondering if you can read it right, I guess u can... :)
Salu2 desde Uruguay

3:59 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Russian brides!

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Blogger R2K said...

Lol I knew my spanish class would be used some day!

R2000

6:30 PM  
Blogger Darrell said...

So, that's what happened. I noticed it too, in the comments. There were many more. It looks like a nice dynamic as most I scanned over seem enthusiastic, and enthusiastically supportive. I really think that's a big key to life - why waste your time on something your not enthused about. That's if you have the luxury of that choice; I know everyone doesn't.

6:32 PM  
Blogger sinaean said...

welldone with your blog! a proud anti-us soldier!

2:08 AM  
Anonymous JAp said...

For newbies to this blog, go here first.

and/or here

to see the hidden agenda of the author of this blog.

5:49 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Jim, don´t fool yourself, all the additional traffic seems to be from advertisers for Russian brides and other assorted goods. People still don´t give a damn about Bolivia and they never will until blood starts flowing. Sorry, that just is how it works. I don´t like it either. On the upside, now I know where to get a nice Russian women. Funny, why not advertise Bolivian brides?

10:03 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Its a beatufil Day!

I salute Evo Morales - peoples power. I hope it will be a fair election and no reason for fighting in the streets..
Now is the chance for Bolivia to build a strong independent nation. Look to Caracas!

Greetings from a Happy Norwegian with a new historicly red-green government, in the rich oil-country of Europe.

11:07 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Russian brides???

Sex is a global issue my friends...recently found "porno cholas" in Cochabamba as noted on local news paper Los Tiempos.

http://www.lostiempos.com/noticias/20-09-05/20_09_05_loc9.php

Javier

11:30 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi Jim..I have been reading your blog for a couple of years now and love your descriptions of CBBA. Please keep writing, as you are my best source of what is happening politically.

9:24 PM  
Anonymous Kenmo said...

"JAp said...

For newbies to this blog, go here first.

and/or here

to see the hidden agenda of the author of this blog."

All we see when we go there is your agenda... you make it sound like there's some kind of deceit going on here. I don't think so.

Jim, I think you're doing a great job...

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