I'm quite naive in politics, and not sure I
ever will ever understand by just watching the Daily Show and willfully hoping that everyone
just supports everyone. But what is
interesting is watching Bolivia work. I’m living the historically richest,
elitist province of Santa Cruz, which has struggled under the socialist rule of
President Evo Morales, the first indigenous man to be elected to office in La
Paz. Maybe one day I’ll write about all the people I know who almost broke off
to form Nacion Camba with half the
country, and still have dreams of it. It’s
tough because Evo has spent his 9 years in office pushing recentralization, and
nationalizing some large industries.
The other day I had breakfast at a hostel I was at, and I
met Kent Eaton (UCSC politics professor) who was here for research, as he knows
much of the research is done in La Paz, whereas Santa Cruz is a fantastic place
to study the dissatisfaction and anti-government movement, which almost led to
civil war in 2008. He pointed out one of the main problems with Evo’s rule is
the lack of checks and balances existing, and the fact that Evo mostly controls
the judiciary branch as well. My friends talk about how he pays off all the big businessmen here to kept hem calm. Besides the corruption, Evo was actually recently
praised in the NYTimes article for perhaps the best economic management in
South America.
Kent only had time to do one unofficial interview thus far,
and it was the taxi driver who drove him back from the airport. It went something like this: “No way, I don’t
like Evo at all. He is stealing all the money from Santa Cruz and not giving it
back to us. Yeah. But thanks to him, my brother is able to have reliable phone
service for the first time.” Through nationalizing things like the phone
system, Evo has pushed for the many still living in rural poverty to have
access to paved roads, electricity, and phone. Since the opposition is to divided, Evo is set to win the election this year, but it'll be interesting to see the lead up...
The daily show is a good start :) it is on the "right: side at least if you asked me.
ReplyDeleteI found that caring for people gets you more involved into politics...whether you want it or not.
If you care about their health, you care about their social history, what they do, where they live, why they live there.
In France, a lot of physicians end up being active in politics. Sure we love Politics to being with but it also makes sense. Medecins sans Frontiers for instance was created after the Biafra conflict by a now very famous French physician who ended up being a ministre (MP in British English I guess)
In India or in the US there are very good examples policies and politics that can make people's life miserable or so much better -Romney Care- .:)