Saturday, October 18, 2003
The Bolivian president eventually resigned. Uncanny resemblance to what happened in Argentina in 2001...
Wednesday, October 15, 2003
The Peace Nobel Prize Adolfo Pérez Esquivel wrote in a newspapers today:
The danger that the FTAA is representing -defined by some Latin American statesmen as "the annexation to the United States" more than a trade treaty-, can't be seen as an isolated fact. It's part of a domination project that embraces also the "integration" of the army of the region, the permanent conditioning of the IMF, the World Bank and other "creditors" of the external debt and the strong pressures of the Unites States against the positions taken by Argentina and the rest of the G22 in the WTO.
The danger that the FTAA is representing -defined by some Latin American statesmen as "the annexation to the United States" more than a trade treaty-, can't be seen as an isolated fact. It's part of a domination project that embraces also the "integration" of the army of the region, the permanent conditioning of the IMF, the World Bank and other "creditors" of the external debt and the strong pressures of the Unites States against the positions taken by Argentina and the rest of the G22 in the WTO.
Tuesday, October 14, 2003
As if the blogosphere wasn't full enough, our friend George W. Bush has his own weblog. I think it's time to withdraw and find some other unpolluted corner...
Sunday was officially the day of the discovering of America. I translate this from some newspaper today:
The truth is that everything related with the American continent is surrounded by confusion: the vikings were in fact the first Europeans to reach these shores, and not Columbus. Columbus reached eventually, but he never understood it. The natives were called "Indians" because of India. By a mistake, the new continent was called after Américo Vespucio, who didn't "discover" it. The new continent wasn't new but for those who weren't already living there, and in consequence couldn't be discovered by anyone in any case. The civilizing and "evangelizing" heroic deed was nothing but a bloody conquest, a genocide, and implied a mass slavery. And if all of this is not enough, to this confusion of names and epithets the inhabitants of the dominant country of this continent (and now of the world) have taken ownership of the national, calling themselves (and being called) "Americans", depriving everyone else of that right.
I think the fate of Latin America is sealed, like in Macbeth. We're bound to this. We repeat on and on the same mistakes. What's happening these days on Bolivia only confirms this. Twenty years ago we were coming out from bloody years of military dictatorships, many of them imposed or supported by the United States. Thousands died in the name of a country, thousands were innocent. Finally, democracy arrived to the continent, and the few dictatorships left were seen as out of fashion, and quickly deposed. The new trend was to elect our leaders, but we never learn to choose. Paraguay kept on electing dictators, disguised on democratic clothes. Perú chose twice a right winged Japanese who sank the country even more, despising their most prominent intellectual, who fled offended to Spain. Argentina repeated that double mistake with Menem. Bolivia with Sánchez de Lozada. Bolivia, the poorest country of the region, who suffered this Sánchez de Lozada once, preferred to turn the back on leftist Evo Morales and incline again to the right. The scandalous privatization affair favouring the United States was naturally the result, and all the dead people in confrontations the usual balance.
León Gieco, an Argentinean musician, once wrote about the American continent:
It's darkness with flowers, revolutions, and even though many are missing, noone ever thought of kissing your feet: five centuries and no change.
The truth is that everything related with the American continent is surrounded by confusion: the vikings were in fact the first Europeans to reach these shores, and not Columbus. Columbus reached eventually, but he never understood it. The natives were called "Indians" because of India. By a mistake, the new continent was called after Américo Vespucio, who didn't "discover" it. The new continent wasn't new but for those who weren't already living there, and in consequence couldn't be discovered by anyone in any case. The civilizing and "evangelizing" heroic deed was nothing but a bloody conquest, a genocide, and implied a mass slavery. And if all of this is not enough, to this confusion of names and epithets the inhabitants of the dominant country of this continent (and now of the world) have taken ownership of the national, calling themselves (and being called) "Americans", depriving everyone else of that right.
I think the fate of Latin America is sealed, like in Macbeth. We're bound to this. We repeat on and on the same mistakes. What's happening these days on Bolivia only confirms this. Twenty years ago we were coming out from bloody years of military dictatorships, many of them imposed or supported by the United States. Thousands died in the name of a country, thousands were innocent. Finally, democracy arrived to the continent, and the few dictatorships left were seen as out of fashion, and quickly deposed. The new trend was to elect our leaders, but we never learn to choose. Paraguay kept on electing dictators, disguised on democratic clothes. Perú chose twice a right winged Japanese who sank the country even more, despising their most prominent intellectual, who fled offended to Spain. Argentina repeated that double mistake with Menem. Bolivia with Sánchez de Lozada. Bolivia, the poorest country of the region, who suffered this Sánchez de Lozada once, preferred to turn the back on leftist Evo Morales and incline again to the right. The scandalous privatization affair favouring the United States was naturally the result, and all the dead people in confrontations the usual balance.
León Gieco, an Argentinean musician, once wrote about the American continent:
It's darkness with flowers, revolutions, and even though many are missing, noone ever thought of kissing your feet: five centuries and no change.
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