Evo Morales- Jaci

The president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, is leading a socialist movement. Socialism is a governmental policy in which the government is in charge of regulating production, distribution and exchange. This means that Evo is trying to redistribute the wealth. While some of the country has really taken to this, there is a big portion of the country that is against this movement. There is a big divide in the country and this is causing rioting in the streets. It is not uncommon for a riot to break out either started by the government, to try to dismantle an organized group of opposition, or started by the group themselves. It is currently apparent that people in the West side of the country, with higher incomes and European descent are much more likely to be against Evo, and Indigenous people on the East side of the country tend to be more in favor of him.

It is clear that Evo Morales is much more popular with the indigenous groups, and it is quite obvious why. Evo has made it very clear that he is intending to lead his country in favor of the indigenous people. Evo himself is indigenous and was a coca farmer up until his career in politics. Because of these things, he strives to connect with these people most and to begin to hold them up higher in the eyes of society.

On the other hand many people are against Morales because they think he is too radical in his socialist beliefs. People living in the Western half of the country feel that they are in some ways being neglected, because Evo has made it so clear that he is governing for the indigenous people. Many people in the West also feel that their opinions and needs from the government are not being allowed to be shared. It seems that Evo is prohibiting them, from making their opinions too loud. It is a common belief in Bolivia that 85% of news is censored by the government. The Western half of the country is typically wealthier than the East. This somewhat explains why they tend to disagree with Evo’s socialist way of governing. They know that it will most likely result in them losing money. In 2010, Evo lost a majority of trust of these wealthier people by taking control over many private funds and distributing the money to thousands of poor Bolivians.

             While Evo disappointed the West half of the country, for most of his presidency he has been very popular among the indigenous groups until recently, when he had a major setback with the indigenous people. He angered the people in two major ways. The first was when he tried to end government fuel subsidies. He said that this would be a helpful thing to do because of the amount of fuel that was being smuggled out of the country. Morales said that the lowering of fuel prices made it easier for these people to smuggle gas out of the country. This resulted in the price of fuel increasing by 70 percent. This major change brought about violent protests. Although Evo seemed to be somewhat in denial about the protesting this brought about, after a while, he backed down and returned the prices back to normal. The second major upset 

more directly affects the indigenous people. Evo planned to build a highway through part of the Amazon, a homeland for many indigenous people. This led to a massive protest of more than 700 indigenous groups marching for more than nine weeks, from their home in the amazon to La Paz. Once again after these protests, Evo backed down, and he decided not to build the road.

In trying to uphold this socialist movement Evo has also been dismissing the U.S in many ways. Recently Evo has gotten rid of almost every U.S connection with Bolivia. He has kicked out the DEA, the U.S ambassador and the U.S aid agency. The reasoning behind him dismissing the U.S. ambassador and the U.S aid agency he would not give specifically, but he did share that he thought they were trying to undermine his socialist way of governing, and convince the citizens of Bolivia that he was doing something wrong. He has also suspected them of funding certain organizations that were against him and his way of leading. He kicked out the DEA because they were trying to take control over coca farming, and trying to eradicate the growing of coca plants. Some believe that the DEA was only trying to eradicate the production of cocaine, not all coca plants. Others, like Evo, were worried they were going to end it all. Coca farming is a very important tradition to Bolivia’s economy and culture. It has brought in a lot of money to the Bolivian people, especially indigenous farmers. Coca is sold to make tea, balms, gum, and many more things. There is also a large amount of coca being made into cocaine.

While there is a big separation in the country of those against, and those for Evo Morales, overall good things are happening for the economy of Bolivia. In 2013 the economy had grown by 6.5 percent. He had balanced the budget as well as paid off an enormous amount of debt that the country had owed. It is uncertain whether or not this growth will be long term, or if it is just a small spike. It is also uncertain whether or not this is directly in result of what Evo has been doing. The market in South America is up, and commodity prices are high. This could be the sole explanation for the economic growth. Either way, for the time being the country is doing better economically.

Bibliography

Valdez, Carlos, and Frank Bajak. "Bolivia’s President Expels U.S. Aid Agency." Washington Post. The Washington Post, 02 May 2013. Web. 16 Apr. 2014. <http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/bolivias-president-expels-us-aid-agency/2013/05/01/a290899e-b28b-11e2-baf7-5bc2a9dc6f44_story.html>.

Buenos, Rapheal L., and Ajoy Datta. "The Politics of Evo Morales' Rise to Power in Bolivia." Home. N.p., Mar. 2011. Web. 16 Apr. 2014. <http://www.odi.org.uk/publications/5674-evo-morales-think-tanks-social-movements-mas>.

Earle, Ethan. "Bolivia and the United States: A Relationship in Transition?" Bolivia and the United States: A Relationship in Transition? UpsideDownWorld, 13 Mar. 2012. Web. 16 Apr. 2014. <http://upsidedownworld.org/main/bolivia-archives-31/3505-bolivia-and-the-united-states-a-relationship-in-transition>.

Neuman, William. "Turnabout in Bolivia as Economy Rises From Instability." The New York Times. The New York Times, 16 Feb. 2014. Web. 16 Apr. 2014. <http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/17/world/americas/turnabout-in-bolivia-as-economy-rises-from-instability.html?_r=0>.

Sam

This is my fifth time leading a trip to Latin America with Scattergood but my first time going to Bolivia.  I have been close to Bolivia before (in Puno, Peru) and I am very excited to see Emma’s hometown, to work in schools, and to interact with Quakers who will likely be different from the Quakers that I know.  I look forward to learning from these differences.  I also hope to get to know Bolivians through eating and pick-up soccer (my two favorite travel activities).

Annie

My name is Annie Caldwell, I am 18 years old and I am from Wisconsin.

This is my first time traveling out of the United States and I am really excited to go to Bolivia and spend time with a host family! I have two older brothers and I hope that my host family becomes just as close. I am interested to learn more about the different environments in Bolivia, and if there are any problems with deforestation or if there are other things hurting the environment. Mostly, I am excited to have a good time and get to know new people.

After Five Consecutive Viewings of Watchmen... - Neal

I got off the plane and I was in Norway, a friend and I were staying at a farm house out in the country. Sometimes we would boat over to a lakeside cabin that my friend’s parents had, but for the most part we were staying with the family at the farm house. Here there were fun things to do. We had access to a go-cart, a gator (a farm equivalent of a 4 wheeler) and a various number of tractors and boats. On our way over to get the gator, we were walking along a path and out of nowhere we started to notice slugs. These were slugs that were a fair size and they kind of grossed us out a little. Never the less, not enough to stop us from putting them on my friend’s sister and her friend. Victory us. 

So we got the gator and my friend was driving it back on the road to the farm house.

Not really noticing out of the ordinary, I struggle to place what was wrong with the situation I was in. Never mind that two young teens were driving at top speed with two middle schoolers in the back wagon part, screaming at the top of their lungs. I shrugged it off and enjoyed the scenery and the manufactured noise. 
When we got back, we broke for dinner and had the standard Norwegian hot dog (over a foot long it was the best). After dinner and retiring to our little alcove of a room hidden up the stairs we discussed about where we were going to go next. We could just drive to the cabin and to the lake shore but that was old hat. 

There was however, a quarry that we had seen on the way to the cabin from the airport where we landed when we first arrived in the country of rain and moose. Wanting to see what was it was like there, we hopped in the gator and sped off, this time with me driving. This is when what was odd feeling earlier finally hit me. While earlier we had come up with the conclusion that we were supposed to be driving on the left side of the road, it turns out we were wrong and while slowly putting this together (hmm I wonder why the past three signs have been backwards, oh well screw it) it became ever so apparent when over a hill came a car on our side of the road. The need for speed professional stunt drive came out in me and I veered to the right. Though unnecessary because we had a good amount of clearance between us and the car, we were screaming and shouting, scared and hysterical at the same time. 

 Joking about how we would relate this story to our host parents later, we decided to keep our mouths shut because though the car didn’t kill us, we could not be as sure about the woman we were staying with. We finally got to the quarry and started to explorer. When, after getting the gator stuck twice, we finally got back to the house and decided that we should be done with the gator and start trying our luck with the boat.