The people are heard Part II

Just as there is a lot going on in the world currently such as in Libya, Jordan, Egypt and Wisconsin, there is quite a bit of activity going on here in Bolivia as well. According to the newspaper Los Tiempos, in just this past week the country has lost $5.6 million due to the flooding and social conflicts. The strikes, blockades and flooding have neither allowed the normal flow of products nor food to travel to the market in Bolivian cities nor to neighboring countries as exports. Also, primary materials are not able to be brought to plants to continue production as usual in various industries…it’s just a big chain effect.

Just yesterday the World Food Program distributed 20 tons of food in the tropical region of Cochabamba where the flooding is really bad, and went to 778 families. They say about 9,500 people have been affected so far by the intense rains we’re getting, destroying homes, causing deaths of people and livestock and trapping people either in their own towns or in transport trying to get somewhere else.

As much as I enjoy seeing the hills and mountains green, I am very sad for all the people suffering from such intense rains. It’s really hard to believe, even living in the midst of it, that it’s possible to have such severe drought for much of the year and then BAM we just get rain after rain…the extremity of it is really not a good thing for anybody or the environment. What the reports say about the increase over the more recent years in intense weather patterns, it’s not a joke, at least not here, and it is having very serious consequences.

Switching from the weather issues to the social issues, let’s go back to what happened in December when the diesel and gasoline prices were hiked up for a week when the national government took away those subsidies. “The measure led all other prices to increase exponentially, beyond the purchasing power of the majority of the population. Although increasing food costs followed international trends, many Bolivians remain frustrated that these prices have not returned to previous levels, despite retraction of the temporary fuel hike” (Andean Information Network).

Just a week ago I got a text message from a friend offering to sell me sugar at only 7.50 B’s ($1.08) per kilo. This was exciting because sugar has not been sold for a while now. One day a couple weeks ago I was walking along Lanza, a road in the market section of Cochabamba that always has grains and sugar, but the majority of the tiendas were closed with signs about the injustice and corruption around sugar supply and price manipulations.

“In October 2010, the Morales administration designated the Food Production Support Bureau (EMAPA) as the overseeing organization in control of sugar distribution. In January 2011, rising prices for sugar caused widespread shortages and affected tens of thousands of informal intermediaries who previously made small profits from sales. Organized protestors who opposed the rising price of sugar blocked transportation and flights out of major cities, and large-scale sellers withdrew their sugar stocks from the market in hopes of greater price increases. This deadlock generated several weeks of scarcity for consumers as sugar disappeared temporarily from the market” (Andean Information Network).

Now, the current hot issue that is affecting everyone is the cost of public transportation. The drivers nationwide want to increase the fare from 1.50 B’s to 2 B’s claiming the need to do so because of the food price increases and their needs to support their families. Their income is based on the fares they charge and then take away fuel and maintenance costs. However, the general public is not happy one bit about rise in transportation fares because as a wonderful example of economics at work, transportation costs are a factor in almost all parts of a society and would thereby increase prices of all other products and reduce the buying power of each person, which is already low to begin with.

With only breaks on the weekends, we in Cochabamba, have been without public transportation due to the drivers striking since Wednesday February 16th. Only in Santa Cruz have the people, transportation unions and the government come to an agreement of 1.80 B’s fare. In the rest of the country’s cities the arguing, strikes and blockades continue. Two days ago the transportation union here in Cochabamba agreed to request 1.80 B’s but neither the leaders of the neighborhoods nor the government is in line with this, so starting Monday we will continue to struggle to get about with no public transportation.

So what does this mean for me? It means that everything is up in the air and I know even less now than normally what I will do each day. Reneé and I just barely made it to one of our gardens, which we hadn’t been to in 10 days because of transportation difficulties. Last night I walked an hour to a friend’s house. The other day I walked outside my door to find the street fully congested with parked cars, and I’m talking about a major street in Cochabamba. I couldn’t go to visit someone who is very sick because we couldn’t get to his house. I haven’t gone to the after-school group as often because it takes about 45 min. walk each way and not as many kids are coming when school is in session and some days they cancel it. It takes even longer to do things than it normally does, and I find that in general everything takes longer to do in Bolivia than it did for me when I lived in the United States.

Here is a link to a video and pictures I took on Friday February 18th of a group protesting on one of the streets blocked off by blockades.

https://picasaweb.google.com/nora.pfeiffer/ProtestBlog?authkey=Gv1sRgCM6ika7x6YzmmgE#
As you can see, not violent, but they were chanting very strong messages such as that the police can either be with the people or assassinate them, referring to the police enforcing the set tariff of 1.50 B’s for transportation and not supporting the drivers. Or another one was directed at the government saying how they always talk about being for change and being for the people and they need to stick to that etc.

So, in summation we’ve got intense flooding and droughts, struggling and trapped people, commodity speculations, rising food prices, protests, strikes, blockades with people demanding conflicting needs. “After overcoming many hurdles to achieve constitutional reform and establish important legislative changes, the Morales administration now has to confront the specific demands of different groups who supported those measures and expect concrete returns. MAS (political party of President Morales) must find a balance between compromising with its social movement and union support base, while seeking long-term economic stability” (Andean Information Network).

5 things I’m grateful for today: spending a relaxing evening with a friend; having internet access; nothing was stolen from the Justice and Peace office even though the doors were found open the other morning; a new cell phone that works better; unexpected time to play “soccer” with my neighbor kids, clean my room, sew up holes in my shirts and watch a good movie.

The people are heard

It was the week after Christmas here in Bolivia, just 2 months ago, December 2010. During this week many people are on vacation or traveling to see family, as is also common in the United States, so at first there was not a very visible reaction to the surprise over-night increase in fuel prices between 70-80% implemented on December 26th. The president, Evo Morales made a Supreme Decree taking away subsidies for diesel and gasoline, but NOT for natural gas, which is often used by buses and cars in cities and as cooking fuel. The reason stated for removing the subsidies is that the subsidized prices encourage a great deal of fuel contraband to Bolivia’s neighboring countries. At the same time he also increased salaries of public workers (police, known for being a very corrupt and under-paid institution; teachers; firemen etc.)

It took several days but people were NOT happy about the fuel price increase and on Thursday December 30th there was a strike here in Cochabamba by all the public transportation people as well as blockades in several main roads to prevent anyone from passing. At the time I was house-sitting for friends who live outside the main city, near a lake in the southern zone, so I walked back to the city for a 3pm meeting I had. It only took an hour and it was actually pleasant with not a whole lot going on during the end of the lunch hours…but that would soon change.

As I sit inside the office of Justice and Peace, which is situated one block from the main plaza in Cochabamba, I hear very loud BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! I look over with wide eyes at the person I’m meeting with, a Franciscan living here well over 30 years, who says to me calmly, “Oh, that’s just tear gas, it’ll probably be entering the building pretty soon.” Trusting him and his non-flustered demeanor, I said, “oh, ok then” and we continued on talking as lots of shouts and more shots were heard right outside our door.

The gas never did enter our building, or at least I didn’t sense it. When I opened the door to leave a couple hours later, there were about 30 police officers with plastic shields in the corner, trying to move dumpsters that had been pushed into the intersection as a blockade. I walked back to my home 2 blocks from the office and saw many people in the streets burning things in the intersections or just walking. I never felt in danger, but it’s not something that happens every day so it was a new experience.

Mind you, all that week, I was being charged double the price to ride public transportation, which is an awfully big jump to happen without any warning and I felt it in my pocketbook, so just imagine what an average person would think who has more people to care for and less resources than I do. Finally, to end the rage, strikes, some violence and speculation of public transportation and food prices, President Morales took away the decree the night of New Year’s Eve, so that 2011 began with prices of diesel and gasoline going back to the way they were before December 26th. Although the price of natural gas for vehicles was not increased, it is not available in areas outside of cities and therefore “disproportionately affected these communities” (The Andean Info. Network).

A day in my life, February 2011

Morning routine of boiling water for 10 min. so that we can have safe drink-able water, while making oatmeal for breakfast. For the stove we use natural gas, and our extra tank is to the right in the photo on the floor next to the bananas. When we run out or gas, we await anxiously in the morning for the clanging bell of the truck and then race outside to catch it so we can exchange the empty tank for a full tank for a price of 22.50 bolivianos or $3.25

 

First place to go of the day is the university agriculture department where Reneé and I have a square foot garden we´re tending to with the help of an agricultural engineer whose focus is dirt and water. In exchange for his guidance we help him tend to other gardens and provide him with more research. Our reason for being here is to learn more before teaching families in the neighborhood about utizlizing their home-made compost to make a vegetable garden.

 

Second stop of the day is a neighborhood in the southern zone (characteristically drier and poorer) where there is a chapel of a Maryknoll priest who has an after-school program we´ve been working with to teach them about composting and gardening. I´m shoveling out very old food waste to use in a new composter. Smelly stuff.

 

Putting the final dry leaves into a tire composter Reneé and I have just put together at the chapel with the after-school program. The kids used the compost we harvested several months ago to mix in with the dirt to start a garden, which now has lots of spinach, brocoli, swiss chard to pick with the kids very soon.

 

On my way home for lunch from the southern zone, I came across a group of people yelling at a driver of a trufi, which is a type of vehicle in the public transportation fleet. The people are blocking him from passing, probably because he wants to charge 2 bolivianos, instead of 1.50 bolivianos. As I write this, the fight continues and I´m home today because there is no public transportation for reasons of blockades and strikes.

 

This is a common scene I walk past multiple times a day in the city. It is common that women from poorer more rural places of Potosi or Oruro bring their children to the city of Cochabamba to beg for money.

 

As is in the United States, many people simply walk past the begging women and their kids. I am not saying that one should or that I do give them something every time, but I try to at least acknowledge them by saying hello. I have a moral dilema on a daily basis of what I should do.

 

Every day I carry my food waste down to the tire composter we set up in the garden of the social center where I live. And every day the kids who are my neighbors at the center, rush to help carry it down and dump it in the tires.

 

I´m so lucky to get much-needed hugs from my "mamá" as I am her daughter "Fabiana", or at least that's what we like to pretend.

 

Me and my gentleman. Almost daily he offers to carry my bookbag, open my door, carry my stinky food waste to the composter, wash my clothes or trim bushes in the garden. He's a favorite of everyone's but he knows he's cute so he gets away with a little too much...

 

In the afternoon I go to work in the office and trim bushes at the office of the Franciscan Movement of Justice and Peace. There I have a desk with the NGO Franciscans International, which works at the United Nations to communicate what´s going on around the world within the Franciscan family. This is a peace post in 4 of many languages in Bolivia.

 

Standard afternoon coffe/tea/bread break in the office of Justice and Peace.

 

Unfortunately I don´t get to spend all day outside. At this desk I do various things such as preparing for the radio show we have ¨Onda Verde¨ which means Green Wave, and its focus is encouraging environmental awareness and integrity of creation.

 

After I get home about 6pm, some of my neighbors, kids recovering from burns, help out in the social center´s garden.

 

As I walk back from the post office later that night, I come across one of many people selling things on the sidewalk. While hard to see, this woman is wearing a long skirt, typical apron, two long braids and is selling belts on the sidewalk. Bolivians seem to be very good at just making themselves a spot in the market anywhere.

 

This particular day I cooked and ate both lunch and dinner by myself because my roommate was working and eats there, but that's not always the case. After all that, I was tired and put off doing my chores in order to escape into a tv show series I have on DVD before going to sleep. This is not necessarily an average day because each day is different, but it's a little sampling of my daily life.

5 Things I'm thankful for today: good walking shoes so that I can walk multiple hours a day without discomfort because there is no public transportation currently due to strikes; amazingness of sugar and butter and chocolate to still create delicious brownies despite my crooked un-insulated oven that tends to spite me; the softball team I've joined that I'm going to practice with tonight and the women on the team who bring me a lot of joy; I'm about to go see the kids from the Cerro Verde after-school group today for the first time since summer vacation ended; the rains that while flooding some areas here are also making everything so much greener!