24 May 2006 - Disturbed...

Great Britain

This journey started before I did. I became aware of it over 13 months ago. I was settling down to my good job, doing good work, for a good enough salary. On the gravy train as it were. Then it hit me like a conger eel flung from the Eurostar I’m quite a worldly chap who hasn’t really seen the world.

Having avoided this smouldering bombshell of a realisation for some weeks it finally had me cornered. Action ensued:

• Quit my job

• Rented my flat

• Moved away from my city to stay with friends in a new and less personally absorbing area

• Looked at where I was in my life and what I was looking for

• Followed up some options for world travel

• Chose South America, Bolivia. With Raleigh International, Chile as an in

• Did some fund raising and got something like organised

• Took part in my first Raleigh International Expedition

• Learnt that Chile is not all that desperate anymore, thanks to good relations with the UK amongst others for some time. They call Bolivians (along with other neighbours weaker than themselves) lazy. Castilian is quite a tricky language

• Spent Christmas and New Year with two families who earned my deepest respect through their hard work, dignity and generosity

• Started the Next RI Expedition and decided not to finish it, in order to get on with why I had come away

• Travelled north through Argentina, Chile – Santiago, back into Argentina, via Cordoba to Buenos Aries. North via Salta to Tarija in Bolivia

• Spent two weeks trying to make friends, find voluntary work, feeling pissed around by business people. Eventually being befriended by a Finish chap just as I was in the process of executing my departure plans

• In La Paz I met a poor carpenter who helped me find footing in the city. Eventually a department of the University agreed to support me in doing some project investigation work in a tropical northern region

• Took two quick whistle stop visits to Cochobamba and Copocobana to have better comparisons in the locality

• Spent one month in San Buenaventura achieving very little in the way of information but a great deal the realms of experience of the difficulties that are to be faced in this time in this place

• Returned to La Paz to gather more information and make a contact in government

Findings

• Countries in South America have a history of being shafted by visitors and collaborators. The Spanish (1400’s), the yanks, any country wanting some of what they got and more recently, the real modern day superpowers, global corporations

• Bolivia was founded in 1825, it stood at 2,373,256Km2, in the name of and in regard for Spanish liberator Simon Bolivar. They have had land taken by Chile (the route to the sea, a deeply sensitive subject) Argentina, Brazil and Peru. They did beat Paraguay in a war at a point (1932) for some reason (over oil) but somehow still managed to loose a large chunk of land. It now stands at 1,098,581Km2, less than half it’s original size

• It pays better to break the law than to abide by it for most people in Bolivia, most don’t even know the law or if they do understand how it helps or affects them

• The biggest crooks are those in positions of power mainly because they have more responsibility and thus move more

• Bolivia is rich in resources and should, could or will be a thriving and prospering country

• In the past Bolivians worked very hard “like ants” to build up the structures of what appears to be a relatively modern, up to date cities. Now, I have been told, current generations are happy to coast forth upon the work of their forefathers. Fine but their work no longer equates to and finding first gear (let alone one that is going to get them anywhere) appears to be a problem

• Bolivians favour the strong, in so doing support bullies and corruption

• The 34 different languages all with their own traditions, rituals, cultures and priorities. Many more tribes and three main areas (highland, mid and lowland peoples) mean that Bolivia spends most of its time squabbling amongst itself making it a prime subject for exploitation by other countries for example in October of 2005 the highland peoples of La Paz shut down and isolated the city by blocking the roads (they exploded out the supports of foot bridges) and for three weeks starved the city of food because

• Bolivia is rich in culture crafts, dance and festivities. These are learnt by the majority at a young age, thus they are preserved with the elders dipping in as and when. Not unlike the national military service here

• For a portion of families in Bolivia it is more important to do Military Service than it is to finish school

• The sense of family and community are stronger here than they are at home making for better more accessible support structures but also allowing for inter-family sickness and secrets

• There is a blur between fact and fiction. Loving the American dream but hating America. Wanting development, tourism, better economy but despising the social ills that come with it

• The general mentality of Bolivians is that if they have enough for today all is well, meaning that they live a lot more in harmony with their surroundings but find themselves victim of calamity. They see the West as having mystical protection which is waited for rather than worked for

• Catholicism is practiced with vigour and naivety. I was taught that god will not do for you what you can do for yourself…

• Football has earned my deepest respect out here it’s a world of its own. I truly believe that international battles are fought and won upon the battlefield known as pitch

• People move to Spain to do low status jobs in hope of a better life. While they do such dirty work, people pay small fortunes to spend a week or two in the paradises abound back home

• Here any of the global giant corporations that get into the country have run amok. For example you cannot look anywhere without seeing a Coke or Nestle advertising slogan. You cannot swing a cat without hitting an internet call centre. More people have mobiles than have access to a private toilet

• The physical talents of the average Bolivian far exceed those of us westerners, I have seen children work as young as five, and grand fathers with more than 70 years grafting hard, boasting better a better figure than I will ever have

• Bolivia has very little industry making it dependant on its neighbours for utensils, gadgets and the like. Hence it is relying on other countries for its current, not overly advanced life-styles, as we rely in England on consumables and materials from developing countries

• The teaching method in Bolivia is very poor copy, copy, copy

• Everywhere I go they officials say “Yes, we need help. I have many projects that need any type of funding you may have. Yes I will produce information on what projects we have and the related problems and what we can and are doing about it…” nothing…

• The Castilian for the verb to wait is Espera. Their word for hope is Esperanza

The Future:

• Bolivia needs three main fields of progress Education, Industry, Administration of funds

• The only way that it will achieve substantial movement is with a common leader or leading group which all three major groups (highland, mid and lowland) have some respect for and a level of trust in

• This could come about internally with time but currently seems unlikely due to the complexities of the current deeply ensconced delusions. The other possibility is that the country is carved up by its stronger neighbours and thus ruled. I guess that it could also be invaded and governed by another outside country… now there’s an unenviable challenge

• The crux is education. Leading to the pig of enlightenment. How do you teach the impoverished and exploited, whose only interested in getting mine today that it will be most prudent to learn and then work reverently for the future common good

I don’t know how it is in other “developing” countries. But it seems to me that unless we take responsibility in standing up against our past in the current climate of exploitation we don’t give countries like this a chance to develop, to learn the truth rather than allowing them to buy into the fallacy publicised on telly by the west. Our obsession with easy living, economy and success is out of control. This is not a game this is our world, our species. I believe that what goes around comes around. I turn my faith to the attributes that make us great, that make us civil dignity, honour, self sacrifice. We are living in a global society, these are our neighbours. Since when was it cool to stand on the neck of the younger and weaker chap who lives down the road and extort his lunch money…

Okay for some of us in our youth this may have helped ones rep. We’re not children anymore. Let’s wake up and smell the coffee. The likelihood is that it was grown next to cocaine plants, harvested by children and that the lion’s shares of profits are reinvested by some fat cat with a fetish for raping the land for oil.

Fuck this, do something or I will. I have limited time on his earth. I am currently unimpressed at our achievements cost and reward. Alright to survive is pretty worthy. To rule is pretty impressive. But this… I am disappointed. No, I am ashamed to identify myself as human. The finger pointing must end. Action must ensue.

Spend your money wisely and I mean with wisdom not with selfishness

Choose the hard path for the global good

Think big, no don’t think, know big

Today, that is you, that you are giving to or taking from

Fear not death for it will come to us all, it is part of life, a blessing