We should look to Bolivia for inspiration

[Judi Lynn]

We should look to Bolivia for inspiration
Bolivia under President Evo Morales is seeking a radical development model based on equality and environmental sustainability – and there are lessons we can all learn

In 2006, I was working at the UN in Mexico City, which happened to be hosting the World Water Forum that year. On the large civil society march (which the risk-averse UN security team had advised staff to stay away from) one sovereign government was represented: Bolivia. The message was that water was a public good, not a private commodity.

Water was the emblematic issue at the core of the peaceful revolution in Bolivia that had swept a new and radical government to power just two months earlier. Packed with new ministers who had been at the heart of the mass demonstrations in rejection of the privatisation of urban water, the new administration became one of the first governments in the world to enshrine the right to water in its constitution.

Bolivia has got used to standing alone in the international arena. In last year's climate talks in Cancún, in Mexico, it was the only one of the UN's 192 member countries to vote against a deal it – along with most scientific experts – considered insufficient to tackle critical levels of global warming.

Bolivia is the conscience of the world on climate change and sustainable development. Global warming is not a theoretical issue in Bolivia. One-third of its Andean glaciers have melted, and a further third are expected to melt in the next 10 years. Rather than compromise in international forums, it is sticking to its guns, buoyed by mass meetings such as the World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth in Cochabamba in 2010.

More:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2011/apr/19/bolivia-inspiration-development-model-evo-morales

[Citizen Worker]

1. To quote a friend: Bolivia under the leadership of President Morales is EVOlving.

[hatrack]

2. Hell, why not? Not a whole lot of inspiration stateside these days . . .

:shrug:

[bertman]

3. Great idea!! REC. nt

[bvar22]

4. Look to South/Central America for the Blue Print for "CHANGE".

What has happened in Latin America over the last 10 years gives me "HOPE" for the World.
Of course, this has been ignored or demonized in the US Media.

VIVA Democracy!!!!
I pray we get some here soon!



Who will STAND UP and FIGHT for THIS American Majority?
"By their WORKS you will know them,"

[Moostache]

6. The irony of South/Central America is our role in getting them to this point...

It was the US and multinational corporations that deployed Naomi Klein's "Shock Doctrine" there first....the very same principles that are being rolled out against Americans in Wisconsin, Michigan, Florida, Pennsylvania and other places RIGHT NOW.

Those Latin American countries suffered enormously before turning to other governments and a sharp leftward turn.

I am all for the policies but not really looking forward to the intervening 20-25 years of torment...

[bvar22]

7. Yes. Things WILL get worse here before they get better.

I probably won't live to see it.

In 2006, my Wife & I moved to The Woods and started growing our own food.

[bvar22]

5. Go EVO!!!

"The worst enemy of humanity is U.S. capitalism. That is what provokes uprisings like our own, a rebellion against a system, against a neoliberal model, which is the representation of a savage capitalism. If the entire world doesn't acknowledge this reality, that nation states are not providing even minimally for health, education and nourishment, then each day the most fundamental human rights are being violated."
----Bolivian Reform President Evo Morales

FDR said much the same thing in 1944 with his Economic Bill of Rights.
Bolivian President Evo Morales sounds more like FDR than anyone in the Democratic Party Leadership.

I wonder how difficult it is to immigrate to Bolivia?
Isn't that where Butch Cassidy went?

[swilton]

8. Met Bolivia's ambassador to the OAS

while in grad school (2007). They had forecast to open up a regional scientific center to study indigenous medicines; another program initiative was solar batteries and lithium - most importantly Bolivia's wealth of resources are nationally owned....I wish some of Bolivia's insights would migrate north.