Bolivia photos from the last Luther J-Term (2007)

Alan Perry, our main man in Bolivia, has posted some photos from the last Luther group to visit the area, in 2007. This time, we may or may not visit the same community (Sani), but the photos give you a good general idea of the region.

(There are photos of some other groups as well; just click on Sani/Luther College.)

short article on Brazil nuts in Bolivia

You can get an introduction to the harvesting of Brazil nuts in the Pando Department of Bolivia - one of the most important sources of income for the people there, and indeed in other parts of the MAP region - by reading a short article by Jeff Bentley (with whose work I'm not otherwise familiar but who describes himself as an agricultural anthropologist, nicely providing a bridge between the physical and the social sciences as, of course, we ourselves aim to do in this course).

comment on Bolivia's recent recall referendum

There's a fairly comprehensive article about the recent referendum can be found here. It's put out by Upside Down World, an outfit with which I'm not familiar, but which looks sufficiently reliable at first glance for me to sign up for their free newsletter. (Their site also has an article about recent issues in Peru, which I haven't looked at yet but which is also likely to be relevant.)

I know that some of you, whose interests are more narrowly environmental than narrowly political, may think that my posts are getting too heavily into social science. It's obviously my natural inclination, but I should stress that the course itself will strike a balance between the two "narrow" views. Indeed, arriving at a "broader" understanding of the issues is one of our main goals.

So... let me encourage those of you who wouldn't normally "follow politics", to read articles such as the one mentioned above. If you want to follow events in the Bolivian Amazon, some such background (and, of course, other perspectives may be equally valid) is indeed essential.

CEPR article on Bolivia

The Center for Economic and Policy Research (often a somewhat progressive organisation, let it be said) has just published a report on Bolivia that you may find useful. Even if economics and political science are not your main interests, it is hard to understand what's going on in Bolivia unless you have some background of this kind - though other sources, of course, may be equally valuable, yet have different points of view - so I draw the report to your attention.

You may know that tomorrow, 10 August, is the date of an important national referendum, called by the President to buttress his position, but fraught with risk no matter what the outcome. I imagine the poll will be covered in the US press (eg, the New York Times and other major national papers), so I encourage you to keep your eye on the issue.

Brazil to help Bolivia with road

I mentioned the other day that Lula would be meeting Evo Morales on 18 July. I've been slow to keep you updated, mainly because I've been travelling, but here's an article from Reuters that brings out the main points of their get-together (at which Hugo Chavez was also present).

Don't miss the last paragraph of the article, which has the specifics - but don't forget that the road they're talking about, which will run through northern Bolivia as far as Riberalta, isn't the "Transoceanic" road on which we've concentrated so far, and which connects Brazil with Peru. Many of the same issues are involved, though, in the two roads, and in fact in January we may travel along the existing road up to Riberalta, just to see what it's like before the new road goes through. (I made this journey by bus in October 2006 and it was pretty rough; in January, which is in the rainy season, it may simply be impassable.)

By the way, I'm currently in Manaus, where the local paper today happened to mention this agreement between Lula, Evo and Chavez. This paper, at least - I won't give you the link, as it's in Portuguese which I don't think any of you know - regards the whole exercise with approval. They see the road to Riberalta going on to connect with Brazil at Porto Velho (which we'll visit), and then going on up to Manaus by reopening an old highway that's been unusable for many years. (It was open briefly in the late '60s, when I travelled along it. Yes, that's right - the late '60s.) The editors of this Manaus paper see such roads as allowing the city to export its manufactured goods more easily. (There's already a road from Manaus up to Caracas in Venezuela, which Luther students travelled on in January 2007.) We usually think of these roads as helping Brazil export its agricultural products to China, so it was interesting to think of this additional support from manufacturing interests in the major city of Manaus.

Of course, not everyone would share their view. That's what makes this important issue so interesting.

Getting back to Lula, we seem to be following each other around. He was in Bolivia shortly after my visit there earlier this summer, and a couple of days ago I was in Leticia, Colombia, just 24 hours after Lula left having had yet another meeting with regional presidents (this time, I believe, from Peru and perhaps Ecuador as well as Colombia).

There's a whole lot going on in this part of the world, though I doubt you've heard much about it in the press back home.

Bolivian blog

I'm not yet sufficiently familiar with it to assess its reliability, but from what I've seen so far the Blog from Bolivia is quite likely to be helpful. It's in English.

The most recent post mentions the important national referendum to be held on 10 August.

Bolivian newsletter on sustainable development

Again for those who read Spanish, you might be interested to sign up for a newsletter put out under the name REDESMA. (Go to Boletín in the left-hand panel, and click on Suscribirme.)

REDESMA'S coverage is not limited to the Amazon, but I'm hoping that if some of you keep your eyes on this kind of source material, we won't let anything slip by.

Bolivian and Brazilian presidents to discuss roads on 18 July

Those of you who read Spanish will see from this article that Evo Morales and Lula are to meet in Riberalta, Bolivia, on 18 July to discuss regional integration and, in particular, a road through northern Bolivia to the border with Brazil.

The article also mentions another project, that would link the Brazilian port of Santos with Arica on the Chilean Pacific, this time passing through Bolivia to the south of our area of interest (namely, through Santa Cruz and Cochabamba).

For better or worse, roads and other transnational infrastructure are hot topics in our region. I'll try to keep you informed as to any announcements that come out of the meeting on 18 July.

National Geographic article on Bolivia

I'm back from a productive visit to the region we'll be visiting in January, and shall have more to say about it in future posts.

For now, let me just draw to your attention an article on Bolivia in the latest issue of National Geographic. I haven't yet had a chance to read it all - you might want to note that there are a number of related articles, which can be found by following the links - but it does seem to be a helpful introduction to the country in which we'll be starting our visit to the region.

As I've found Guillermoprieto's work useful in the past, you may eventually find this article amongst the required reading for our course. In the meantime, however, perhaps you'd like to look at it simply out of interest :-)