Bolivia

[ver$hy ver$h]

I've seen bits and pieces but as ever it's tricky to navigate. As far as I can tell Morales, a left winger, has been ousted by protesters and the military and a religious conservative has been installed in his place. Morales has now sought asylum in Mexico and is alleging a coup involving foreign powers whilst his opposition are claiming he tried to or did rig at least one election and had to go.

There's also some issue surrounding the new cabinet's lack of indigenous appointees and the removal of the indigenous flag.

Anyone following this stuff closely or familiar with Bolivia in general?

 

[yyaldrin]

it's one of the richest countries of the world i think, considering it's natural resources. galeano wrote a lot about one of its fameous mining cities potosi:

They say that even the horses were shod with silver in the great days of the city of Potosi, The church altars and the wings of cherubim in processions for the Corpus Christi celebration in 1658, were made of silver: the streets from the cathedral to the church of Recoletos were completely resurfaced with silver bars. In Potosi, silver built temples and palaces, monasteries and gambling dens; it prompted tragedies and fiestas, led to the spilling of blood and wine, fired avarice, and unleashed extravagance and adventure. The sword and the cross marched together in the conquest and plunder of Latin America, and captains and ascetics, knights and evangelists, soldiers and monks came together in Potosi to help themselves to its silver. Molded into cones and ingots, the viscera of the Cerro Rico— the rich hill— substantially fed the development of Europe. “Worth a Peru” was the highest possible praise of a person or a thing after Pizarro took Cuzco, but once the Cerro had been discovered Don Quixote de la Mancha changed the words: “Worth a Potosi,” he says to Sancho. This jugular vein of the viceroyalty, America’s fountain of silver, had 120,000 inhabitants by the census of 1573. Only twenty-eight years had passed since the city sprouted out of the Andean wilderness and already, as if by magic, ithad the same population as London and more than Seville, Madrid, Rome, or Paris.

Potosian society, sick with ostentation and extravagance, left Bolivia with only a vague memory of its splendors, of the ruins of its churches and palaces, and of 8 million Indian corpses. Any one of the diamonds encrusted in a rich caballero’s shield was worth more than what an Indian could earn in his whole life under the mitayo, (A mitayo is an Indian who pays a mita. or tribute, usually in the form of forced labor in public works, especially the mines, (Trans.)) but the caballero took off with the diamonds. If it were not a futile exercise, Bolivia— now one of the world’s most poverty-stricken countries—could boast of having nourished the wealth of the wealthiest. In our time Potosi is a poor city in a poor Bolivia: “The city which has given most to the world and has the least,” as an old Potosian lady, enveloped in a mile of alpaca shawl, told me when we talked on the Andalusian patio of her two-century-old house. Condemned to nostalgia, tortured by poverty and cold, Potosi remains an open wound of the colonial system in America: a still audible “J’accuse.”

http://library.uniteddiversity.coop/More_Books_and_Reports/Open_Veins_of_Latin_America.pdf

 

[yyaldrin]

they had a president not that long ago who couldn't even speak spanish or any of the other languages spoken in bolivia.

 

[luka]

Danny's going to go absolutely spare when he sees this I'm staying out of it

 

[luka]

Although just to throw some fuel on the fire I noticed earlier today poetix brother in law said if you talk about 'nuance' here you're a massive cunt.

 

[luka]

I'm staying out of it though what do i know about Bolivia

 

[luka]

:crylarf:

Why? I don't think anyone's said anything contentious yet (... although I imagine you're desperately trying to stop yourself from doing so).

He was ranting about it yesterday and he called me and yyyyyaldrin horrible racists

 

[luka]

And he said we get our politics from a rage against the machine album. I didn't take offence. I knew he was getting exasperated and I wasn't really helping matters so fair enough

 

[luka]

Also he said yyyyaldrin was much worse than me so that helped take the sting out of it. He said he wouldn't piss on yyyyyaldrin if he was on fire.

 

[yyaldrin]

i just googled why the bowler hat is so popular in boliva.

 

[yyaldrin]

okayyyyyy

 

[luka]

Oh, I saw all that. I just thought it was tongue-in-cheek.

Don't think so. Pretty sure he was spitting tacks. That's why he's not been back since I guess.

 

[wg-]

Some beautiful looking buildings here, almost surreal to look at- some streets must look like paintings.

I have been reading about the salt flats, "like walking on clouds" if you can catch the right moment of the day's light

Cable car public transport systems at extremely high altitude, the traffic of La Paz below

There is a high altitude brandy apparently , Singani

I need to go here i think.

This thread does not seem idyllic- i have no idea of their current politics- but i believe as an ignorant tourist i could have a wonderful few days. Bet they have some cool hash too

 

[luka]

Looks shit tbh

 

[wg-]

Nothing in comparison to the glory of South East England of course

 

[luka]

Nothing in comparison to the glory of South East England of course

The Greenwich to Dartford riverine corridor.

 

[ver$hy ver$h]

 

[ver$hy ver$h]

Bolivia expects to announce later this month one or more partnerships with foreign firms to exploit the salar's riches. Eight competitors from China, Russia, Argentina and the United States are bidding - none of which have exploited lithium at a commercial scale before.

Lithium prices have skyrocketed this year and automakers from Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) to Volkswagen AG (VOWG_p.DE) are struggling to source the metal.

Bolivia's long-shot goal: to make lithium-ion batteries locally by 2025, an ambition even neighboring and more affluent Chile, the world's No. 2 lithium producer, has not achieved after decades of production.

Insight: Legendary lithium riches from Bolivia's salt flats may still just be a mirage

On Bolivia's Salar de Uyuni, a vast white salt flat that feels almost otherworldly, Karina Quispe is watching from the sidelines a global resource race for the world's largest - and almost untapped - trove of battery metal lithium.

www.reuters.com

 

[john eden]

@wild greens Bolivia is well worth a visit - mad contrasts to Brazil.

The Uyuni salt flats are extraordinarily trippy.

 

[ver$hy ver$h]