The highlands of Southwestern Bolivia are unbelievably cold. I have read that the temperatures drop to -25º C. which is close to -10º F. for those of yall that are afraid of conversion. I actually had to go to the trouble of buying a new blanket which is about 2 centimeters thick. It goes on top of my sleeping bag while I sleep inside with 4 pairs of socks, three pants, 3 shirts, a sweater, and 3 wool hats. Don't feel sorry for me because I sleep comfortably. Without the blanket, though, I was freezing my ass off at night. I don't carry a thermometer with me but I can assure yall this is the coldest weather that this Texas boy has ever experienced. Anecdotally, I have camped next to ponds which freeze so thouroughly that I can put my entire weight on the edge without breaking the ice and no less than a softball-sized rock thrown at an upward angle breaks the surface. The water in my camelbak tube freezes and I have to insulate all of the water I am carrying so it doesn't freeze solid.
My tent no longer zips shut but this isn't too much of a problem right now as it is too cold for any insects or other critters to intrude upon my space while I sleep. I already wrote a letter to R.E.I. that was persuasive enough for them to refund my money for the tent and I have ordered and sent a new one to my friend who lives in Buenos Aires where I plan to stop on my way towards Brazil.
Braving the cold is not without its rewards. This part of Bolivia is beautiful. If the southern coast of Peru is a martian landscape the Salar de Uyuni is a venetian landscape, beautiful in its stark white infinity. I had to wear my sunglasses the whole time because it is more than sufficiently bright and reflective to cause snowblindness. I rode out to the Isla de Pescado or Isla de Inkahuasi if yall prefer. The cacti on this island are incredible, reaching up to 12 meters and living for hundreds of years. Most of them are massive, moreso than the same variety in other parts of Bolivia. The trip to the Inkahuasi was definitely worth the trouble.
I have previously mentioned that the Salar de Uyuni holds over half the world's lithium carbonate deposits. This metal is essential for both laptop batteries and for the batteries in electric cars as it is the lightest compound from which batteries can be manufactured. So far these supplies continue unexploited, as I hope the Evo Morales administration is driving a hard bargain to any company which wishes to access these deposits. The developing world has long suffered economically from the exportation of raw materials and the importation of manufactured goods leading to trade deficits which always benefit the more advanced economies. Evo Morales should offer access to these deposits for no less than having the multinationals build battery manufacturing plants for laptops and electric cars. In fact, he should hold out until the companies offer to build laptop and electric car factories in Bolivia. Until then, I hope the natural beauty of the salar remains untouched.
I finally encountered a road which caused me to hitchhike out of a situation without experiencing mechanical problems. Heading south from the salar, which has wonderful, hard, and flat surface, the roads can only be described as a washboard covered with 3 inches of sand. After moving maybe 10 kilometers in about 5 hours I hitchhiked the fuck out of there at the first chance I got. The road from Uyuni to Tupiza isn't a whole lot better but I doubt it will drive me to the fits of rage that I was experiencing on this glorified sand pit. Bolivia is beautiful but it has the worst roads I have experienced by far. I can't wait to get to Argentina where I already have friends waiting to share barbeque with me.
If anyone wonders why I don't like cops the case of a a 72-year-old Austin woman who got tazed by a trigger-happy cop should illustrate why. I actually read about this in the B.B.C. so the rest of the world is learning how brutal these Texas pigfuckers are. Ever since the vast majority of American police departments were equipped with these "non-lethal" tazers, the incidences of abuses have steadily risen every year. Because they are "non-lethal" police use them much more excessively than they would ever dare use a gun. You mouth off to a cop, you get tazed. You move suddenly, you get tazed. You have dark skin, you get tazed. The federal government should make very strict guidelines for when a police officer should be allowed to use his/her tazer. I would suggest that they only be allowed to use their tazers when the "suspect" is exhibiting violent behavior.
I had a dream last night that was so vivid that, dare I say, I think it was a vision. Many saints have visions of bleeding Jesi or weeping virgins but the late, great Bill Hicks appeared to me in my vision. In the dream, I had gone to a KKKristian church for the sole purpose of mocking them and laughing at them. After making loud fart noises and laughing hysterically at the verbal flatulence coming out of the pastor's mouth, a raging redneck dragged me out into the church lobby and threatened to pummel me when a plastered Bill Hicks showed up, shooed the redneck away, put his arm around my shoulder, and told me to, "Keep up the good work." I have interpreted this as an endorsement of the Ganjobiclatholic church. In my authority as the Grand Supreme High Archbishop of Austin, I have decided to mark this miraculous vision by canonizing Bill Hicks. He will, from now on, be referred to as Saint Bill Hicks by all Ganjobiclatholic practitioners. It has been decreed.
On a more serious note, I have been trying to form a new political manifesto that best represents my beliefs. I have fulminated many times on this blog about my objection to the drug war, racism towards immigrants, the bloated military budget, etc... but I have never tried to formulate an overreaching political agenda. My main objection to national politics is that they are so myopic. The problems that face the world face us all and not just each individual nation. We need solutions that encompass the whole world and not a patchwork of solutions for each nation. Nationalism replaced the obsolete system of feudalism but it has become obsolete itself. We need to form a political party with an international perspective to confront the problems that our world faces today.
I believe that every human being has a fundamental right to education, health care, access to clean water, access to nutritious food, access to shelter, and access to all job markets. The right to make money is subordinate to these rights. I was tempted to include security on this list but I fear that this has too much potential to be abused and misinterpreted by this world's governments. I will now elaborate on these rights.
Education is the great equalizer. It is the only thing that can enable someone to rise from poverty and improve their lot in life. There have been studies that have shown that birth rates decline when women have real educational and economic opportunities. I would define the minimum standards of education as being trilingual (not bilingual) with emphasis on the use of technology and access to higher education for all. I prefer trilingual education for several reasons: there are already children who grow up bilingual and it would allow the entire world to have a common language without forcing the extinction of less commonly spoken languages. For example, a Peruvian kid could learn Spanish, English, and Quechua, an Israeli kid could learn Hebrew, English, and Arabic, and a Chinese kid could learn Chinese, English, and some other Asian language depending on what region they live in. Not only would this give everyone on the planet a common language with which we could resolve our differences but it would allow us to open up our perspectives to better understand the cultures of others.
Access to health care, clean water, nutritious food, and shelter are really one and the same problem. Take away any one of these and the others fail. A child without proper shelter can't really defend against mosquito-born malaria just as a child without access to clean water really can't defend against typhoid. We all know that lack of access to proper nutrition can lead to a number of ailments. The reason why the right to make money has to be subordinate to these rights is to prevent companies from hoarding water for industrial purposes. Water intensive industries such as nuclear power production has to be subordinate to agriculture which, in turn, has to be subordinate to the right of everyone to have access to clean water. I should mention that health care should emphasize preventative care rather than reactionary care.
Access to all job markets means that all borders should be open everywhere. This would allow people to leave areas that, due to drought, famine, poverty, government corruption, or anything else that might disadvantage these populations, in search of jobs elsewhere. The only legitimate use of a border, in my opinion, is for epidemic control. An American has no inherent right to jobs over people from any other part of the world and vice versa. Borders only serve to lock poverty in to certain regions while other regions benefit from pseudo-slave labor of their poorer neighbors. Remittences sent home from immigrants to their home countries are ten times as much as all foreign assistance and do more to alleviate poverty than anything else. Moreover, there are people from the developed world, such as myself, who prefer the cultures and the climates of the developing world.
I admit that I am an idealist but I am also pragmatic enough to know that this vision will probably never be complete within my lifetime. In response to this, I would say that I am on a hundred-year plan. I am doing my part by learning new languages and living and working in parts of the world other than the United States. This international political party would have a difficult time establishing a foothold in the United States since the two-party monopoly has a stranglehold on power but could be a force to reckoned with in parliamentary systems where governments have to create coalitions. Some of these plans are expensive but could easily be paid for if we collectively cut our military budgets. Even countries like Bolivia waste money on their militaries. I have passed by way too many military bases in this country. The fact is that Bolivia would get their asses handed to them in a conventional war with any one of their neighbors except maybe Paraguay. I am not so naive to think that world would function in the absence of security forces but I think that these security forces should be international in nature and should only be used in the face of humanitarian crises. In future blog posts, I will try to focus on ideas I have for implementing these changes to our world political structure.
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