tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-93320912010-04-30T20:53:11.569-04:00The Democracy Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10012139731455088911noreply@blogger.comBlogger683125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9332091.post-34806854743334589822010-04-29T15:51:00.005-04:002010-04-29T16:02:24.192-04:00

Readers:This week, with the People’s Summit on climate change wrapped-up and gone (and Tiquipaya returned to its normal people-to-cows ratio), the Democracy Center has had an opportunity to begin looking more deeply at what happened last week – at what messages have come out of the Summit and at what impact it might have globally and here in Bolivia. Today we begin a series of Blogs posts looking

The Democracy Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10012139731455088911noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9332091.post-9735848655381795552010-04-21T01:06:00.009-04:002010-04-25T22:54:43.168-04:00

Update, Sunday April 25:The Democracy Center team is still in recovery from the People's Summit on Climate Change that left town in a flourish on Thursday. In the Blog posts below you will find a wide variety of material on the summit, ranging from my Democracy Now interview, to video interviews with participants, to our analysis of the goings-on in Tiquipaya. We are now at work at a set of

The Democracy Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10012139731455088911noreply@blogger.com59tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9332091.post-34732164695311977292010-04-20T00:10:00.008-04:002010-04-20T00:37:57.549-04:00

Readers,Imagine you live in a slow and sleepy village where the cow population rivals that of people and suddenly some ten thousand people from all parts of the planet descend upon it – bearing slogans. Welcome to Tiquipaya on the opening day of the People's Summit on Climate Change.My personal day began by riding my bike to the conference site (the local university, Univalle) to make an 8 am

The Democracy Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10012139731455088911noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9332091.post-87708992298134187142010-04-16T09:30:00.005-04:002010-04-16T14:46:09.581-04:00

Last December, leaders and negotiators from more than a hundred countries went to Copenhagen for a global summit that was supposed to produce a set of actions to aggressively tackle the crisis of climate change. The summit failed. No binding agreement was forged and a global response to the crisis was set adrift once more.This coming week here in Bolivia, a very different sort of global climate

The Democracy Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10012139731455088911noreply@blogger.com34tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9332091.post-27809468851372911142010-04-10T13:23:00.008-04:002010-04-11T14:09:29.349-04:00

Dear Readers:I am just back from a week away to a place without Internet (my novel-writing escape), which answers the questions some have had about why I haven't written about the elections. The results don't take either a rocket scientist or political scientist to understand. It is certainly, on the one hand, a substantial victory for MAS. In 2005 MAS won three of the nine governorships. This

The Democracy Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10012139731455088911noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9332091.post-41324913694545775892010-04-03T13:51:00.020-04:002010-04-04T12:32:35.251-04:00

Readers:Thank you for your positive reaction to our April Fools Day Blog on the plan to make Bolivia and Venezuela one country. We especially thank those of you who fell for it and reproduced it as news.This Blog post is not a joke. It is dead serious, a special report on how the U.S. went behind the back of a democratic President and today lets that former leader hang in the wind on treason

The Democracy Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10012139731455088911noreply@blogger.com42tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9332091.post-36315755105240927472010-04-01T00:03:00.004-04:002010-04-01T12:34:47.058-04:00

In startling back-to-back news conferences in Caracas and La Paz, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Bolivian President Evo Morales announced Wednesday that they plan to merge their two countries into one nation by the end of 2011. The plan – which would establish the new Republic of Bolizuela – came as a shock in both capitals."This new nation will complete the dream of our great liberator,

The Democracy Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10012139731455088911noreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9332091.post-76073721856832222202010-03-30T09:28:00.003-04:002010-03-30T09:32:41.617-04:00

Readers:In 2006, the Nobel Prize for Peace was awarded to the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh, putting a global spotlight on the enterprise of providing microcredit for the poor. The Grameen system of putting small bits of capital in the hands of fruit sellers, seamstresses and other especially small businesses has been repeated al over the world in developing countries, including here in Bolivia.

The Democracy Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10012139731455088911noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9332091.post-73568565688589064212010-03-21T15:27:00.011-04:002010-03-21T23:34:30.731-04:00

Readers:Sunday two weeks from now will bring more to Bolivia than Easter (and at my house a visit from the Easter Bunny). It will bring, yet another round of national elections. Just four months after the December vote that swept President Evo Morales solidly into a second term, Bolivians are headed back to the ballot box, this time to select the nation's governors and mayors.While none of the

The Democracy Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10012139731455088911noreply@blogger.com59tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9332091.post-30133231540511780322010-03-11T13:46:00.006-04:002010-03-11T20:23:35.326-04:00

Here is my nightmare, and it should be the nightmare of everyone of my generation.It's two decades from now and my life is approaching an end. The realities of global climate change are no longer debated. They are clear, enormous, and worsening with great speed. Draught and rising seas are converting millions into climate refugees. Whole regions lack basic access to water and others are battered

The Democracy Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10012139731455088911noreply@blogger.com54tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9332091.post-87568863686203784202010-03-03T01:17:00.009-04:002010-03-03T01:39:49.900-04:00

The beginning of March in Bolivia. Some things just come around as predictable as the seasons.The hills of Cochabamba have turned a lush green from the late summer rains. I can walk safely down the street again without fear of the water balloons of Carnival coming down upon my targeted gringo head. And the governments of Bolivia and the U.S. are launching broadsides against one another over the

The Democracy Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10012139731455088911noreply@blogger.com56tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9332091.post-42326321899437903542010-02-25T11:12:00.003-04:002010-02-25T11:16:36.250-04:00

Readers:I am back from my work in humid Bangkok and back to a welcome downpour of rain in Cochabamba. We haven’t forgotten you and the Democracy Center team is madly at work on a host of projects coming up shortly on the Blog. Here’s a preview:Elections Once More!Next April Bolivians head back to the polls yet again, this time to elect Mayors and Governors across the country. What’s at stake? Who

The Democracy Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10012139731455088911noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9332091.post-82326537867096757142010-02-05T22:33:00.005-04:002010-02-07T01:01:02.718-04:00

I'm on the loose. I'm away. I'm out. I'm on the lamb, Manfred-style but without a warrant chasing me. But please don't tell anyone my location. Top secret.On the one hand, farther away from Bolivia I could not be. My daughter and I examined the globe together before I left three weeks ago, one of those older globes where Germany is still two countries and the Soviet Union just one. Thailand is on

The Democracy Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10012139731455088911noreply@blogger.com25tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9332091.post-16580282700297270362010-01-29T22:21:00.003-04:002010-01-29T22:36:51.811-04:00

Readers,A week ago Bolivian President Evo Morales was sworn in to his historic second term of office – historic both because of the margin of his December election victory (63%) and the constitutional change that for the first time in decades allows a president to serve a second consecutive term. To mark the occasion and spark the debate that this event surely does, we bring you an extended Blog

The Democracy Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10012139731455088911noreply@blogger.com50tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9332091.post-62721231538409455072010-01-24T19:41:00.002-04:002010-01-24T19:50:24.498-04:00

Readers:Different countries have different protocols as to what happens to candidates who lose their nation's Presidential elections. In the U.S. Al Gore wrote a book, made a movie and won both a Nobel Prize and an Oscar. John McCain returned to the Senate and became one of the opposition's leading voices.Bolivia is different than the U.S. in many respects and here again that's true. Manfred

The Democracy Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10012139731455088911noreply@blogger.com61tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9332091.post-35215384701104820802010-01-20T14:42:00.002-04:002010-01-20T14:53:07.392-04:00

Readers:There is not story in Bolivia this week, or anywhere in Latin America, that is more urgent than the devastating earthquake in Haiti and its aftermath. With deaths measured in the tens of thousands and individual stories of terror, pain and suffering greater than any most of us could even conjure, Haiti is home to one of the largest single tragedies that most of us will see in our

The Democracy Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10012139731455088911noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9332091.post-25417057318252113632010-01-13T00:42:00.004-04:002010-01-13T00:58:49.271-04:00

Dear Readers:You can breath easy again. The Democracy Center team is springing back into Blog mode after a well-deserved break for the holidays and the New Year. Here is a preview of some of the stories and events from Bolivia that are making news and that you can expect to see us writing about in the weeks to come.Manfred on the Run in the USADifferent countries have different protocols for

The Democracy Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10012139731455088911noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9332091.post-35892615318135180112010-01-04T13:36:00.002-04:002010-01-04T13:39:22.127-04:00

Readers:For many years the Democracy Center has joined with those fighting to protect natural resources and the environmental against takeover efforts by international corporations. This included our work in the campaign against Bechtel's post-Water Revolt case against the people of Cochabamba. More recently we have joined with other organizations across the Americas to build a new project to

The Democracy Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10012139731455088911noreply@blogger.com25tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9332091.post-85055972412180183042009-12-24T14:11:00.002-04:002009-12-24T14:17:32.139-04:00

Dear Readers,On behalf of everyone here at the Democracy Center, we wish you, your families, your loved ones, your pets and anyone else you care to celebrate with – a very happy holiday, whichever you one you celebrate this time of year.So, if Jesus is your deal, Merry Christmas!If the festival of lights is more your gig, Happy Hanukkah!If a black nationalist holiday is more to your liking, Feliz

The Democracy Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10012139731455088911noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9332091.post-9946988851436703552009-12-19T12:30:00.008-04:002009-12-19T13:51:48.336-04:00

"I am the spokesman for the indigenous and peasant peoples who live in harmony with Mother Earth.”-- Bolivian President Evo MoralesMany environmentalists were no doubt thrilled and inspired this week by the declarations of Bolivia's President at the Copenhagen summit. Amidst diplomatic dithering by the world's wealthy nations over doing anything real about the global climate change their people's

The Democracy Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10012139731455088911noreply@blogger.com35tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9332091.post-4971432573240888382009-12-11T17:39:00.003-04:002009-12-12T13:47:50.206-04:00

Dear ReadersThis week in Copenhagen representatives from 192 nations have gathered to discuss the future of our small and imperiled planet.The crisis of global climate change lingers over most of us in gauzy and unseen ways that make it easy to still ignore. Easy for us to still live in ways that turn up our planet’s temperature more each year. Easy for us to let our governments act as if

The Democracy Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10012139731455088911noreply@blogger.com35tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9332091.post-29019100231222652272009-12-06T11:00:00.010-04:002009-12-06T23:38:42.079-04:00

Readers: It has been quite a day in Bolivia. In a vote with few glitches, Bolivians went to the polls today in huge numbers and gave President Evo Morales a huge victory. Morales won more than 62% of the popular vote, beating his nearest opponent, former Cochabamba Governor Manfred Reyes by more than 2 to 1.It is a huge mandate by any conceivable measure. To put this in perspective, for more than

The Democracy Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10012139731455088911noreply@blogger.com35tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9332091.post-42798202164969966272009-11-30T17:10:00.017-04:002009-12-04T08:40:34.736-04:00

Readers:As promised, we have just posted a new video featuring interviews with the National Senate candidates from Cochabamba from the two leading political parties in Sunday's vote, Evo Morales' MAS party and Manfred Reyes Villa's Plan Progreso para Bolivia-Concertación Nacional.Subtitled in English, this offers you the chance to hear directly from those on Sunday's ballot. The video, which took

The Democracy Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10012139731455088911noreply@blogger.com63tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9332091.post-55635863600977510802009-11-24T12:33:00.007-04:002009-11-24T23:54:30.608-04:00

Yesterday the Wall Street Journal published another opinion piece on Bolivia from its columnist Mary O’Grady. I really wasn’t going to write anything about the column because, frankly, I (and most of the journalists I know) don’t take Ms. O’Grady’s writing all that seriously. But since a number of readers have specifically written to me and asked me to write something about the article, here

The Democracy Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10012139731455088911noreply@blogger.com52tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9332091.post-91517365205771347772009-11-15T21:35:00.003-04:002009-11-15T21:41:34.867-04:00

Dear Readers:I am a citizen of the United States. For that reason I am, like many millions of others, paying close attention to the deliberations of the Obama administration over how the U.S. will proceed in its nine-year-long war in Afghanistan.I do not pretend to be an expert on this issue. While I have had a chance in recent years to speak with a number of journalists and others who have

The Democracy Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10012139731455088911noreply@blogger.com13