Author: Newley

News is spreading fast that 1) battles between police and protesters killed 20 yesterday, and 2) Bolivian president Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada announced today that plans for a natural gas pipeline have been temporarily cancelled.

The BBC has published a concise piece of analysis that says the protests aren’t just about gas, but about globalization. And the Guardian and MSNBC are running stories, too.

But that’s not it–Al Jazeerah, a media outlet that makes Fox News look, well, fair and balanced, weighs in thusly: “Crisis deepens as death toll mounts in Bolivia: Yes, it’s oil again.” (If you like that article, you’ll love “Zionism, an effectively organized world wide fascist system.”)

My brother, meanwhile, writes from Sucre, in the middle of the country, where he went for a weekend getaway. He’s stuck there and not sure when he’ll be able to return to La Paz:

Goni, the president, is under more and more pressure to step down, and there has been increasing violence up on the altiplano above La Paz. Unfortunately, that´s where he airport is, so we are probably not going to be able to take our flight back today since the airport is temporarily closed.

Vaclav Havel says Aung San Suu Kyi’s plight in Burma serves as a “stark reminder of our struggles against totalitarian regimes in Central and Eastern Europe”:

The regime in Burma is, as a matter of fact, the disgrace of Asia, just as Alexander Lukashenko’s regime in Belarus is the disgrace of Europe and Fidel Castro’s regime in Cuba of Latin America…In Burma, thousands of human lives have been destroyed, scores of gifted people have been exiled or incarcerated and deep mistrust has been sown among the various ethnic groups.

(Via Instapundit.)

Does the rest of the world care about what’s happening in Bolivia? Or, more to the point, does the media? Most of the major US daily papers are talking about everything except the escalating unrest in and around La Paz.

The landlocked Andean nation may be on the verge of being overthrown, but you wouldn’t know that if you get your information from American media outlets. As my Mom, a very well-informed sort, said recently, she wouldn’t have known anything’s happening down there if she didn’t read what I’ve written on this page.

(The latest from Reuters is that the government has sent in “thousands of troops backed by tanks” to subdue El Alto, a poor suburb outside La Paz which has been the scene of the most fervent protests.)

Today’s San Francisco Chronicle features an AP story about the situation. And so does today’s Washington Post–but surprisingly enough, the paper hasn’t put one of their own reporters on the case. And the New York Times isn’t running anything Bolivia-related.

The most thoughtful commentary I’ve seen has been published on CounterPunch. There was Forrest Hylton’s article “Upheaval in Bolivia: Crisis and Opportunity” and “Bolivia’s Gas War,” a piece by Bejamin Dangl. But both of those ran nearly a week ago.

Feel like doin’ some writing? And lots of it in a short amount of time? You can now sign up for this year’s NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month. Participants must write 50,000 words (about 175 pages) between November 1st and 30th. As the organizers say on their site:

Make no mistake: You will be writing a lot of crap. And that’s a good thing. By forcing yourself to write so intensely, you are giving yourself permission to make mistakes. To forgo the endless tweaking and editing and just create. To build without tearing down.

My brother sends word that things’re getting worse in Bolivia. But in the La Paz neighborhood where he lives and works, things’re still fine.

The Age says the destitute Andean nation could be headed toward complete upheaval:

Sixty-four people have been killed in a series of protests in Bolivia this year. Many fear that the scattered violence may be the prologue to a more violent and widespread conflict; the expression “civil war” is increasingly on people’s lips.

Yesterday, I had my students play a game in class: in small teams, they tried to think of foods that begin with a series of letters. One was “N,” for which almost everyone in class wrote “nuts.”

But one of my students, a twelve-year-old boy whose physique suggests he doesn’t miss many meals, revealed another option: “nuggets.”

My team, the Atlanta Braves, are out of the playoffs. They disgust me too much to write about here; always such promise and always such post-season choking. I know fellow fans Jordan M. and David Z. and Andrew H. are with me on that.

But the Red Sox, my second-favorite team, and my friend Benny C.’s obsession, are marching forth formidably. I caught the last couple innings of their victory over the morally bankrupt Yankees (sorry, Miles B., but buying all the best players in the league–and from Japan–just isn’t fair) last night.

And with Chicago (who are also, like the BoSox, perpetually star-crossed) still alive in their series against the Marlins, I’m gonna go ahead and call it right now:

Red Sox over the Cubbies in the World Series.

It can happen. It should happen. It must happen. (Related: Bill Simmons reflects on Boston beating the A’s.)

My friend Aaron T. just started teaching English in Busan, Korea. And he’s got an entertaining Weblog.

Matthew “Defective Yeti” Baldwin recounts a disastrous environmental sciences lesson he taught as a Peace Corps volunteer in Bolivia.

Our classes start today. I’ve got two high school-level 103 classes and one 302 class for adults. And I might be picking up a tutorial, as well. I’m looking forward to getting back into a daily routine.