Job Discussion Forums

[JamesonBell]

Hello everyone. I was wondering if anyone had any info on Bolivia. TEFL needed? Jobs available? Thanks a lot for your time!

Best,
Jameson

[moonraven]

No TEFL needed.

Jobs available.

You won't make much money, but you will be able to watch an interesting political situation unfold.

Say hello to Evo Morales (leader of MAS, 2002 presidential candidate, front-runner for 2006) for me!

[gambasbo]

Evo Morales isn't at all popular amongst most people here. (I can only speak for the city of Cochabamba). I teach free, with about 40 students, so they are not from the 'well-off' sector, and none of them have a good word to say about him. Others I speak to say the same, regarding him as a troublemaker. He was recently slapped around the face at Cochabamba airport. (I am not saying that was a good thing to do)

Also you often see 'Evo Asesino' scrawled on walls here.

Thought you might like a view from the inside.

Mike

[moonraven]

Been on the inside, too, but my eyes are different from yours. Plus, I KNOW the person.

The person who slapped Evo and tore up his boarding pass so that he couldn't board the plane was not one of your poor students. It was a member of the oligarchy who was angry because the roadblocks prevented him from shipping his products to La Paz.

If Evo isn't that popular, why did the US ambassador have to threaten the Bolivian congress in 2002 to keep them from making him president? And why is he presented, even in the US media (the US government will not give him a visa and accuse him of being a pawn of Ch�vez), as the forerunner in the 2006 presidential contest?

[gambasbo]

I was just about to add to my post that one reason his party got so many votes at the last election was that the American ambassador here stupidly said., 'Don't vote for his party!' Talk about interference. So naturally.....

Mike

[moonraven]

The ambassador did more than that. Because there was no clear winner between "El Gringo" Gonz�lo S�nchez de Lozada and Evo Morales, the election was thrown into the Bolivian Congress. The US ambassador actually went to the Congress and threatened to have all of Bolivia's loans made due and deny any further access to the US-comtrolled World Bank and World Monetary Fund for loans if they decided for Evo Morales!

That's the Big Stick policy in action--threaten the poorest country in South America to make it poorer. Real diplomacy.

S�nchez de Lozada has been living it up in Miami since October of 2003--when his government fell after he ordered 2 separate massacres. He's just another in the long line of US lackeys in Latin America that left "por las malas" with his ill-gotten gains to spend in Miami. There is currently a case moving through the Bolivian court system against him for crimes against humanity and genocide. Great guy.

It is not necessary to patronize the poor folks you supposedly give free lessons to by saying that they only voted for Evo because the US ambassador told them not to. (Not that that is a bad reason....)

[gambasbo]

I think that sentence shows what you are all about, moonraven, completely judgmental and prejudiced. Who said I teach poor students? Who said they voted for Evo Morales? I certainly didn't. I will not even bother to reply to you in future, as I think you ooze nastiness.

Mike

[moonraven]

You can stop any time, since your motive is to vilify an indigenous political leader, not have a dialogue with me.

However, it was you who said: "I teach free, with about 40 students, so they are not from the 'well-off' sector".

If that isn't saying that you are teaching poor students--then perhaps you might consider improving your writing skills so that you can write what you mean.

And you also wrote: "one reason his party got so many votes at the last election was that the American ambassador here stupidly said., 'Don't vote for his party!'

If that did not apply to your students--is it because they are too young to vote, or what? It had to apply to SOMEONE that you know--although you already told us in your first post that "none of them (people where you are living) have a good word to say about him", which means there is a fundamental problem with what you wrote. Why would they vote for someone for whom they did not have a good word just because the US ambassador said not to?

What I "ooze" is information--coherently presented-- and commitment to social change.

And I do make judgments about the motives of folks who post anti-indigenous and anti-mixed ethnicity propaganda on this kind of public forum.

When you want to debate with someone in the future, it would be helpful for you to have information--not gossip--to support your arguments. And a bit of logic would be useful, too.

[gambasbo]

So you're either rich or poor? I think not. And I could go on, but as I have said, I won't. (And I haven't vilified anybody, apart from you, just quoting what I have seen or others have said).

Mike

[quote="moonraven"]You can stop any time, since your motive is to vilify an indigenous political leader, not have a dialogue with me.

However, it was you who said: "I teach free, with about 40 students, so they are not from the 'well-off' sector".

If that isn't saying that you are teaching poor students--then perhaps you might consider improving your writing skills so that you can write what you mean.

[matttheboy]

[gambasbo]

Thanks, Matt. (I just couldn't be bothered)

When would I be able to get my Boliviano?? But we'll probably both go down!!

By the way there's a great free Internet football game at www.hattrick.org Thoroughly recommended.

Mike

[JZer]

[JZer]

[moonraven]

Matt,

You have given your interpretation of what the poster in question wrote about Morales.

But that's NOT what HE wrote. And my interpretation was obviously different from yours.

It is the obligation of anyone who posts--if he/she does not want to be misunderstood--to write what he/she means. I believe I already said that.

The poster in question is living in one of the most racially polarized countries on the planet. If he does not understand that said polarization contextualizes anything said about the political crisis in that country, then he must expect folks like myself--who are aligned with indigenous movements because they are also indigenous in origin--to respond negatively to comments which PERHAPS he did not mean to be polarizing.

Moreover, I might have been inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt if he had not waxed poetic with his insults to me.
I did not insult him.

And, Gambaso, yes--in Latin America you are either rich or you are poor. It is the region of the most unequal distribution of riches on the planet.

[gambasbo]

Moonraven, you said 'It is not necessary to patronize the poor folks you supposedly give free lessons to'. I regard that as an insult and an accusation of lying, which I strongly resent. Find an example of me insulting you before that!

Mike

[quote="moonraven"]

I did not insult him.