Feliz Navidad!

In the last few weeks, people at work have been talking a lot about "canastones". From what I could tell, these were baskets of goodies traditionally handed out before Christmas. I had imagined they would contain some chocolates and perhaps a bottle of wine or champagne. Well, I was in for a surprise. On Friday, we each received our canaston. Instead of a basket, we received a custom-ordered backpack (with our name and the Pro Mujer logo) plus a big plastic bag filled with .... what I can most easily sum up as non-perishable food items. There was a package of spaghetti, a jar of mayonnaise, canned peaches, canned peas, condensed milk, some packaged cake, powdered mix for pudding, powdered mix for Jello-O, a jar of Nescafe, Bolivia's version of Spam, quite a few other things, and a bottle of wine (at least I wasn't wrong about that). Wow! They certainly have me stocked up through the New Year now. It was all so heavy that I needed help bringing the bags home.

On another Christmas note, a new movie theater opened up across from where we live. Actually it's a mall, but only the ground and basement floors are ready at this point, i.e. the movie theater and food court. Apparently, that's enough to have a grand opening. Despite the fact that the rest of the building is still very much in construction (as you can see here) - with steel poles sticking out, unpainted cement slabs gracing the next 1-2 floors (and the building is supposed to have 10 floors of which 7 are still missing), and construction materials surrounding the place. Safety standards are a little different here. It is a good theater though. We saw Avatar in 3D there yesterday and it was impressive (plus I really liked the movie itself).

We won't really be celebrating Christmas this year. It feels odd to do so when it's 20+ degrees Celsius out and we don't really have close family and friends around. The whole Christmas spirit has largely passed us by. But the travel spirit is still very much alive, so we'll be making our way to Chile instead, which I can't complain about at all as an alternative.

Don't Get Mad, Get Civil

It took a while for me to notice that Bolivians in general don't raise their voice. You hardly ever hear quarrels on the street, public transportation, between customers and vendors. I guess they just don't like to argue. If you are not happy about something or want to complain you employ the "whine" I have mentioned previously. Being used to almost constant grumpiness and complaints back home (Bulgaria) and the eternal quest for perfect customer service in the U.S. (so much so, people often end up telling others how to do their job), this "state of things" in Bolivia, took me by surprise. I felt like a jerk when I had to argue with a woman to change our cinema tickets to another movie only minutes after we had bought them (as a result of a misunderstanding by both me and her). But in my world, when something isn't done right, it has to be fixed. And if it can't be fixed, you at least have to let off some steam. Shows what I know. This weekend showed me that perhaps, just perhaps, I may be wrong.

We traveled to Coroico for the weekend, a town approximately 2 hours away from La Paz, in the warmer Yungas region. We had it all planned out - where we would stay, what we would do, how much money we would need. In general, we try not to take our credit and debit cards around with us out of precaution for having them stolen. All was well until the time came for us to check out. What we had thought would be the cost of the room (and therefore what we budgeted for) turned out to be the cost per person. Gulp. We didn't have enough money to pay our bill. We were about $15 short. There are no words that can truly capture how I felt once I realized this - embarrassed doesn't begin to cover it. We had no credit cards, no debit cards, no other money at all. I explained that when we booked and been told the cost, no-one had clarified it was per person. (Granted, we could and probably should have verified, or at least over-budgeted.) But what was done was done. We remembered the hotel site mentioned they accepted Paypal. However, their account wasn't working or something of the sort. I mentioned that I know one of my credit card numbers off by heart, but that didn't work either. The card had to be scanned through a reader. At this point, I thought that the lady at the reception would get really mad or at the very least lecture us for being so stupid. Instead, she was super calm and helpful. There wasn't a hint of an attitude. She asked us if we lived in La Paz and then told us we could deposit the remainder we were missing into her account the following day. She would cover the bill for the time being. I apologized profusely several times. And all she said was, "No se preocupe" (Don't worry about it). I am still in a state of astonishment - not only at her reaction but at her level of trust towards us. Fine, we are not talking about hundreds of dollars here, but still. Maybe there is something to this more zen-like attitude.

Bolivia's Elections

This post comes somewhat late. After all, Bolivia's presidential and parliamentary elections are later today. I am not going to delve into a lengthy analysis here, but I do want to mention a few things, just from personal observation and conversations with various people.

From what I can tell, there has been very little coverage of Bolivia's elections outside of Bolivia. Even, The Economist (a publication I highly respect) managed to publish only one piece (that appeared online only) back in September. By the time the piece came out, several of the presidential candidates mentioned had dropped out of the race. Unfortunately, Bolivia is largely out of sight and out of mind for most people. So, what can I report on that might change that at least somewhat?

Few question that Evo Morales will be re-elected - the uncertainty revolves mainly around what percentage of the vote he will actually win. Will it be higher or lower than the 53% percent he secured in 2005? Either way, polls show him leading his opponents (Samuel Doria Medina and Manfred Reyes Villa) by at least 30 percentage points. (And according to a new electoral law, even if Morales doesn't win a majority of the votes, if he leads the runner-up by more than 10 percentage points, there is no need for a runoff.) It is really hard to predict what that percentage will be, mostly because polling here tends to be unreliable (and most often underreports support for Morales, given that few polls are conducted in the most rural parts of the country). Most of my colleagues at work will not be voting for Morales, they told me. Why? They think that his government could have done more for the people. Many things could have been improved, they claim. (I just want to note that most of my colleagues are not of indigenous descent.) They applaud the concept of greater equality and more opportunity for the country's indigenous population, but inclusion is not everything. You need educated and competent people running the country and in their opinion (and that of many other people of non-indigenous descent), Morales's government is not made up of those individuals. Now, in El Alto, one of Morales's strongholds, things are very different. There, Morales is God. Two weeks ago, we were on a day trip out of La Paz and drove through El Alto. A huge march was taking place, with rows and rows of people (mostly women and mostly indigenous) filing through the streets. To them, Morales personifies greater rights and improvements in their standard-of-living (Morales started several cash payment programs - to children in public schools, to the elderly, and to pregnant women and promises more; in addition, his government claims to have made significant investments in public works - building health clinics, roads, water connections.)

For these elections, a new biometric system has been put in place. When we arrived in August, the registration process was in full swing. It is quite a feat to register more than 4 million Bolivians in the span of less than a year. (Voting here is mandatory, and everyone received an appointment to register for the new system and provide their fingerprint.) Some say that the new system will ensure a fraud-free process. Others claim that the whole system has been financed by Chavez and Venezuela and is therefore rigged. Members of the elite especially like to argue about the prevalence of fraud during the registration process. And some even fear a full-blown socialist revolution taking place should Morales be reelected - with all foreigners being kicked out of the country and all industries being nationalized (very exaggerated in my opinion).

One other interesting thing is that Morales has refused to debate with the opposition candidates. Not quite sure why that is. Given his strong lead in the polls and influence over state television and radio stations, it seems he would have nothing to fear. It has been somewhat hard to get a clear understanding of the issues at stake and the canditates' stand on them. As one of the blog posts (on issues) cited below mentions, in Bolivia the elections do not center so much around issues but around identity, alliances and class lines. And, a final thought - much as was the case with the Bush administration, many claim that it is actually the Vice President, Alvaro Garcia Linera, pulling the strings when it comes to key decisions. And that he is the one to be feared for extremism and human rights abuses.

What do I think is going to happen later today? My prediction is that Morales will win less than 50% of the vote, but that is more of a guess than any scientific projection. In any case, it will be interesting to follow the results, especially those of the parliamentary elections, since they are projected to be closer to call.

And finally, I can recommend the following, if you would like to read up further (albeit with a delay) on the presidential candidates, how the electoral process works in Bolivia, the issues, and a number of opinions of the elections (WSJ, Heritage Foundation, and political science professor Miguel Centellas's blog).