MetaFilter posts tagged with Bolivia

Not a Halloween Post.

gman — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:46:13 -0800

The Maskatorium: hundreds of masks collected from around the world over the past 20 years.

Che Guevara's death

Postroad — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 07:23:44 -0800

Cold, Wet, and Doubly Up in Your Crotch.

Toekneesan — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 10:27:24 -0800

"While we were there, sitting by the fire one night, I saw an extraordinary-looking dog that appeared to have two noses. I was sober at the time, and then I remembered the story that the legendary explorer Colonel Percy Fawcett came back with in 1913 of seeing such strange dogs in the Amazon jungle", explains fellow British Colonel John Blashford-Snell. The double-schnoz phenomenon has been documented in other species, and has even been studied, dramatized, and synthesized in humans. But a clue has recently been discovered in Bolivia that hints at not just a random mutation, but what might have once been a multi-snouted dog breed.

Escape from La Paz

jonson — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 21:31:13 -0800

In the 1981 film Escape from New York, the entire island of Manhattan had been converted to a self-sufficient, walled off open air prison, devoid of guards & cells. The fiction of the film bears an alarming similarity to the reality of life in San Pedro Prison, a walled off, police-free convict slum in Bolivia's capital city, La Paz. This fascinating/horrifying experiment in criminal justice is the feature of a 2003 eponymous documentary; some of the details include the story of a drug kingpin, unhappy with his cell, who had a second story constructed to allow more breathing room; or the prison soccer team, sponsored by coca-cola, or even the non-prisoner children of the imprisoned, who roam the streets of San Pedro ("At least this way the parents live with their kids, and the family stays together. Outside, they’d have nowhere to live").

Backs to the future?

youarenothere — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 16:04:02 -0800

New analysis of the language and gesture of South America's indigenous Aymara people indicates they have a concept of time opposite to all the world's studied cultures -- the past is ahead of them and the future behind. The morphologically-rich language, of which you can hear samples here, may also prove useful to computer scientists due to its unique ternary logic system.

Bolivia Nationalizes Natural Gas

redsparkler — Wed, 03 May 2006 09:56:00 -0800

My mother is very worried. ExxonMobil moved in and helped Bolivia develop, she says. Now they have food and medicine, thanks to the kindly hand of Big Business. But now Bolivia's kicking them out. After Exxon spent 3 billion dollars helping them! What will happen to the next poor country that needs Exxon's help?

Pachakutic on schedule for 2012

airguitar — Thu, 13 Apr 2006 08:57:43 -0800

Latin America Turning Left? From the top: Lula da Silva *, Lopez Obrador, Nestor Kirchner, Hugo Chavez *, Alvaro Uribe, Michelle Bachelet *, Ollanta Humala, Alfredo Palacio, Oscar Berger, Leonel Fernandez, Oscar Arias, Tony Saca, Tabare Vazquez, Martín Torrijos, Evo Morales * Manuel Zelaya, Nicanor Duarte, Daniel Ortega, Rene Preval *.

If you're evil, Google will know

panoptican — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 23:02:17 -0800

Google fights terrorism!

South American dominoes

wilful — Sun, 18 Dec 2005 21:25:03 -0800

[NewsFilter] A leftist candidate from one of Bolivia's Indian peoples who wants to legalise coca-growing has claimed victory in the presidential election. Mr Morales, an admirer of Fidel Castro, said on Sunday that he wanted ties with the US but "not a relationship of submission". He also promises to make foreign oil and gas investors pay what he says is a fairer share to Bolivians.

bolivian unrest!

tarantula — Wed, 08 Jun 2005 18:30:09 -0800

Indigenous communities taking over oil fields.... Is any one paying attention to what is happening in Bolivia? On the brink of civil war over the second largest reserve of natural gas in South America.

Soldadito de Bolivia, soldadito boliviano ...

magullo — Thu, 16 Oct 2003 09:35:31 -0800

Coca culture (NYT) I am a cocalera. I owe my life to coca. My father died when I was 2 and my mother raised six children by growing coca. I was a farmer myself, growing coca for traditional purposes. But the United States says it is better for us to just forget about coca. In the early 1990's, Bolivian officials distributed American money — $300 to $2,500 per farm — and told us to try yucca and pineapples. But 60 pineapples earn us only about eight bolivianos (about $1). And unlike coca, yucca and pineapples are difficult to carry to the cities to sell, and they spoil. So many farmers returned to growing coca.

gloege — Thu, 07 Nov 2002 06:52:59 -0800

Bubonic plague strikes again... It seems that bubonic plague has never actually gone away with reports of occurences in Madagascar, Bolivia and now it seems, from New Mexico. Given that the disease has been diagnosed and treated outside of the host cities in the cases of the Bolivian woman and the couple in New York, I think this highlights how diseases we tend to classify as third world health problems, are merely a plane ride away from causing an outbreak here.

trismegisto — Sun, 30 Jun 2002 07:44:10 -0800

interference in bolivian elections by usa (why if he is unlikely to win?) The US Ambassador to Bolivia has told the Bolivian people not to vote for the indigenous Indian candidate for the Movement for Socialism (MAS), Evo Morales Ayma. If he is elected next Sunday, the USA will suspend economic aid and will review its agreements.

why?.. he is unlikely to win, this will surely give him a boost in the polls instead