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Bolivia Quotes

“When we came out of the cookhouse, we found the boy's father, the Indian man who had been grazing the horses in the pasture, waiting for us. He wanted someone to tell his troubles to. He looked about guardedly, afraid that the Señora might overhear him. 'Take a look at me' he said. I don't even know how old I am. When I was young, the Señor brought me here. He promised to pay me and give me a plot of my own. 'Look at my clothes' he said, pointing to the patches covering his body. 'I can't remember how many years I've been wearing them. I have no others. I live in a mud hut with my wife and sons. They all work for the Señor like me. They don't go to school. They don't know how to read or write; they don't even speak Spanish. We work for the master, raise his cattle and work his fields. We only get rice and plantains to eat. Nobody takes care of us when we are sick. The women here have their babies in these filthy huts.' 'Why don't you eat meat or at least milk the cows?' I asked. 'We aren't allowed to slaughter a cow. And the milk goes to the calves. We can't even have chicken or pork - only if an animal gets sick and dies. Once I raised a pig in my yard' he went on. 'She had a litter of three. When the Señor came back he told the foreman to shoot them. That's the only time we ever had good meat.' 'I don't mind working for the Señor but I want him to keep his promise. I want a piece of land of my own so I can grow rice and yucca and raise a few chickens and pigs. That's all.' 'Doesn't he pay you anything?' Kevin asked. 'He says he pays us but he uses our money to buy our food. We never get any cash. Kind sirs, maybe you can help me to persuade the master . Just one little plot is all I want. The master has land, much land.' We were shocked by his tale. Marcus took out a notebook and pen. 'What's his name?'. He wrote down the name. The man didn't know the address. He only knew that the Señor lived in La Paz. Marcus was infuriated. 'When I find the owner of the ranch, I'll spit right in his eye. What a lousy bastard! I mean, it's really incredible'. 'That's just the way things are,' Karl said. 'It's sad but there's nothing we can do about it.”

Social JusticeSlaveryNative AmericansRainforestBoliviaAmazonia
Book:Jungle: A Harrowing True Story of Survival
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“What's the story here, Karl?' Kevin asked. 'Hard as it is to believe, these people are slaves,' Karl explained. 'Slaves?' I asked skeptically. 'Well, you might not call them that but they are virtual slaves. They don't receive any pay. They are dealt with harshly. They don't have anywhere else to go' 'What about the government? Don't they help?' Marcus asked. 'The government?' Karl laughed. 'The government my eye! Those generals stay in power several years, make a bundle smuggling drugs, and once they're millionaires, they retire. Some other lousy generals take over from them, and history repeats itself. You think they give a shit what happens to a few lousy Indians?”

Social JusticeSlaveryCorruptionNative AmericansBoliviaAmazonia
Book:Jungle: A Harrowing True Story of Survival
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“The battle with Men Who Explain Things has trampled down many women - of my generation, of the up-and-coming generation we need so badly, here and in Pakistan and Bolivia and Java, not to speak of the countless women who came before me and were not allowed into the laboratory, or the library, or the conversation, or the revolution, or even the category called human.”

MenNeedsHumansSpeakGenerationsRevolutionBattleConversationLibraryCategoriesPakistanLaboratoryMy GenerationJavaBolivia
Author:Rebecca Solnit
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“Human relations tend to be more difficult when you're dealing with someone who weighs 30 kilograms more than you do. That's when you worry about whether a well-meaning gesture could produce complications. We have no problems with countries like Madagascar or Bolivia, for example. But Germany is our neighbor and we have a shared past. Besides, Germany is powerful and ambitious and more than four times as large as we are. It makes complete sense that we would act cautiously. It's simply Realpolitik.”

HumansWellsCountryProblemPastDifficultPowerfulWorryFourExampleProduceRelationNeighborGermanyGesturesAmbitiousNo ProblemHuman RelationsComplicationBoliviaRealpolitikMadagascar
Author:Vaclav Klaus
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“Bolivia also depends not only on tin and other minerals, but also depends on the gas and oil. A rational extraction should be made, taking care of the environment. We should give added value to this natural resource, and generate revenue to fight poverty with more resources, that come from natural resources.”

GivingShouldMadeCareValuesFightingNaturalPovertyEnvironmentDependsResourcesOilRationalGasRevenueNatural ResourcesMineralsTinBoliviaExtractionAdded Value
Author:Evo Morales
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“I have no regrets - in fact, I am pleased to have expelled the US ambassador, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and to have closed the US military base in Bolivia. Now, without a US ambassador, there is less conspiracy, and more political stability and social stability. Without the International Monetary Fund, we are better off economically.”

FactsPoliticalSocialMilitaryRegretDrugInternationalAdministrationFundStabilityConspiracyEnforcementBetter OffNo RegretsMonetaryAmbassadorsHave No RegretsBoliviaUs Military
Author:Evo Morales
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“I returned to Kabul after a 27-year absence. I came away with some optimism but not as much as I had hoped for. The two major issues in Afghanistan are a lack of security outside Kabul (particularly in the south and east) and the powerful warlords ruling over the provinces with little or no allegiance to the central government. The other rapidly rising concern is the narcotic trade which, if not dealt with, may turn Afghanistan into another Bolivia or Colombia.”

IfsYearsMayLittlesTwoGovernmentTurnsPowerfulIssuesSecurityMajorsConcernOptimismTradeSouthEastAbsenceRisingAfghanistanRulingAllegianceProvincesColombiaNarcoticsBoliviaKabulCentral GovernmentWarlords
Author:Khaled Hosseini
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“Though people could, in principle, cross national borders to reach places where their work is more highly rewarded, they are in fact prevented from doing so. As a result, huge differences also persist in the price of labor, as you can see when you get a haircut in rural India or hire a driver or babysitter in Bolivia. You can easily buy such services at one-fiftieth the price you would pay in London, Hamburg or Manhattan.”

PeopleFactsDifferencesResultsPayPrinciplesHugeLaborCrossesIndiaLondonBordersDriversPersistManhattanHaircutsBabysitterBoliviaNational Borders
Author:Thomas Pogge
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“Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador lived through times of cruel and ruthless capitalism where the workers, the masses of the population, saw themselves living in a precarious state of employment and subsistence conditions. The impact of this reality took hold and impacted the evolution of the social situation of those countries and even though that produced movements that were not exactly political movements but social movements.”

CountryStatesRealityPoliticalSocialSituationSawsConditionsMovementEvolutionMassCapitalismImpactWorkersPopulationEmploymentRuthlessRough TimesPrecariousVenezuelaSocial MovementsSubsistencePolitical MovementsBoliviaEcuador
Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
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“Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Nicaragua have made a tremendous leap just by rejecting the neoliberal adjustment policies, they are making a statement from the social perspective. Capital in these cases has not been protected in any way which along with non - interference of the state is what neo liberalism stands for. It has gone the other way around; they have looked for social policies from the political movements and then when they have acquired the power of those political movements they have become in charge of the State.”

WayMadeStatesPoliticalSocialCasesGonePolicyMovementPerspectiveStatementsLiberalismLeapProtectedAdjustmentInterferenceRejectingVenezuelaPolitical MovementsNicaraguaBoliviaEcuadorSocial Policy
Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
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“Bolivia is in the lead internationally in talking about the threat of environmental catastrophe. It's generally true where there are indigenous populations, there are important things happening; where the indigenous populations have been marginalized or exterminated, things go to a disaster. This is true worldwide, and Bolivia is striking because it's a majority population and in the lead.”

Has BeensImportantTalkingHappeningsImportant ThingsMajorityThreatEnvironmentalPopulationDisasterThings HappenCatastropheIndigenousMarginalizedBolivia
Author:Noam Chomsky
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“The rich and powerful countries are trying to wreck as much as possible. You know, go off the cliff as soon as you can. Extract every drop of hydrocarbons off the ground and destroy the environment. At the opposite extreme are countries like Bolivia and Ecuador, indigenous people around the world, and first nations in Canada and tribal people in India, campesinos in Colombia... They're trying to save the commons.”

PeopleKnowsWorldTryingFirstsCountryNationsPowerfulRichEnvironmentOppositesIndiaExtremesAround The WorldCanadaIndigenousCliffsWrecksColombiaIndigenous PeopleBoliviaEcuadorHydrocarbonsPowerful Countries
Author:Noam Chomsky
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“Today, practically every country outside the West is undergoing an intellectual, political, and cultural churning, from China to Bolivia, Egypt to Indonesia, but we haven't really had, after the 1960s, a major oppositional culture in Western Europe and America. The Occupy movement was so startling and welcome partly because it was the first such eruption of mass protests in decades.”

FirstsCountryTodayAmericaPoliticalCultureHavensMovementMajorsMassIntellectualEuropeWestWesternChinaDecadesWelcomeProtestEgypt1960sIndonesiaEruptionWestern EuropeBoliviaChurningOccupy MovementEurope And America
Author:Pankaj Mishra
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“Bolivia's majority Indian population was always excluded, politically oppressed and culturally alienated. Our national wealth, our raw materials, was plundered. Indios were once treated like animals here. In the 1930s and 40s, they were sprayed with DDT to kill the vermin on their skin and in their hair whenever they came into the city.”

WealthAnimalCitiesMaterialsHairSkinsMajorityPopulationTreatedIndianOppressed1930sExcludedRaw MaterialsBoliviaVerminDdt
Author:Evo Morales
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“Bolivia is a striking example. The mostly white, Europeanized elite, which is a minority, happens to be sitting on most of the hydrocarbon reserves. For the first time Bolivia is becoming democratic. So it's therefore bitterly hated by the West, which despises democracy, because it's much too dangerous.”

FirstsHappensWhiteDemocracyDangerousExampleBecomingSittingFirst TimeDemocraticWestHatedMinoritiesDespiseElitesReservesBoliviaHydrocarbons
Author:Noam Chomsky
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“I learned to read at the age of five, in Brother Justiniano's class at the De la Salle Academy in Cochabamba, Bolivia. It is the most important thing that has ever happened to me. Almost seventy years later I remember clearly how the magic of translating the words in books into images enriched my life, breaking the barriers of time and space.”

YearsImportantBookAgeRememberSpaceClassFiveHappenedMagicBrotherImportant ThingsBarriersTranslateSeventiesTime And SpaceAcademyBoliviaAcceptance Speech
Book:In Praise of Reading and Fiction: The Nobel Lecture
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