The Next “Nightmare” for Bush
Anyone who doubts that two decades’ worth of U.S. policy in Latin America is now in a shambles, need only review Sunday’s election results out of Bolivia. Radical Evo Morales is going to be the next president. Here’s the news lead from Reuters:
LA PAZ, Bolivia (Reuters) - Evo Morales, a leftist former coca leaf farmer vowing to be a "nightmare for the U.S.," was poised to become Bolivia's first indigenous president on Sunday after likely clinching one of the biggest electoral victories in the country's history.Morales appeared certain to take office in January when his rivals conceded defeat and results tabulated by local media showed him garnering slightly more than 50 percent of the vote, much higher than predicted…
I’ll have more to say about this in the days to come (I’m currently semi-out-of-circulation in the desert). But the very best analysis I’ve read on Morales comes from Nick Buxton in a piece written just before the elections.
The rise of Morales doesn’t have to be anything near a nightmare for the U.S. – unless, that is, the Bush administration insists it does. What’s your bet?
December 18th, 2005 at 11:32 pm
I am extremely happy morales won. I always thought that the combination of democracy and the neo-liberal economics of the Washington Consensus would was a recipe for the spread of socialism in Latin America.
December 19th, 2005 at 6:10 am
First indigineous president? Where did the others come from?
December 19th, 2005 at 9:49 am
Wish I’d seen Syriana when Marc was discussing it, because while the movie veers into implausibility toward the end, it’s not close to being as confusing as the review here claimed (in fact, as Bob Baer, the ex-CIA agent who inspired the central character in the film puts it, the murky interwoven complexities of Middle Eastern and oil politics are the point of the film.) But there was one thing in Marc’s review that struck me as wildly wrongheaded: the statement that the implication of the film is that if we redirected energy policies the Middle East would be on the brink of “nirvana”. I hope that’s not too rough of a paraphrase, but I’d suggest that if you came away from the film with that message you wildly missed the point. The point as regards domestic energy policies is that, aside from the obvious ways in which they’ve contributed to the “non-nirvana” aspects of the Middle East in the past, the place is so explosive and the politics there so twisted that our energy policies and oil politics as presently constituted can only draw us deeper into a region that we can’t possibly control. I believe the most uncomfortable moments in the film for an American audience are the portrayals of the Wahabbi schools, because there’s a kind of innocence and spiritual longing on the part of the students – some of whom are obviously being groomed by the imams for the kind of fundamentalist fanaticism required for suicide missions – that rings true and is ultimately more terrifying to contemplate than any of the more familiar adversaries, up to and including a Saddam-type.
Incidentally, while I’m off-topic on nightmares, Joe Klein stated on Sunday’s Hardball (and David Brooks stumbled into an affirmation of the fact) that Iran is already so deeply imbedded into Iraqi politics via the Shiite connectoin that no one gets appointed to the Interior Ministry in Baghdad without Tehran’s approval. The celebrated Iraqi elections are more likely to ratify and further empower these forces than not over the coming year, so it would be wise for the tattered triumphalists to consume any remaining champagne before it goes totally flat.
December 19th, 2005 at 10:24 am
Link to more info on the last point…and evidence that the twists and turns that “Syriana” attempts to dramatize aren’t the stuff of celluloid fantasy.
http://tinyurl.com/dmkcq
December 19th, 2005 at 10:43 am
So it looks like we’ve just doubled the size and scope of Iran. Yeah, that’s a good move.
December 19th, 2005 at 11:16 am
There are some very good blogs on Bolivia at the moment. I’m surprised Marc didn’t mention Democracy center’s Jim Schultz, who has been posting about the elections from Bolivia and is here: http://democracyctr.org/blog/. Another excellent Bolivian blog is MABB, here: http://www.mabb.blogspot.com/.
In the interminable and silly controversy about blogs as journalism, there are, actually, some blogs that actually do reporting. These are two of them.
December 19th, 2005 at 11:31 am
Good links, as is the Nick Buxton article. Also a thoughtful read that is linked in the Buxton piece is David Rieff’s NYT piece from a month ago.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/printer_112005H.shtml
It would appear that Democracy is on the march in Bolivia, so my presumption is that BushCo is elated…right ?
December 19th, 2005 at 11:31 am
“Where did the others come from?”
Spain.
December 19th, 2005 at 11:47 am
I didn’t realize the Spaniards ran the place until now and the idigenous candidate is the dangerous one. What does this say?
December 19th, 2005 at 11:49 am
My assumption is that when certain usual suspects check in, the issue of Morales siding with the coca farmers will play prominently in their evidence of his perfidy. I’d like to provide one bit of context for any simplistic assertions about this admittedly controversial and, dare I say it, complex issue. Afghanistan currently supplies upwards of 85% of the world’s opium (read heroin) supply. It accounts for more than 40% of their GDP. The production of opium in Afghanistan is up dramatically since the days of the Taliban, which ironically had the most effective history of any Afghan government of suppressing it. The past year there has been some reduction in opium production, but it’s unlikely that it’s sustainable and more forceful eradication appears likely to increase political/security problems for the government centered in Kabul.
Some data:
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N23494688.htm
December 19th, 2005 at 12:21 pm
Yeah, Mark.
Two-thirds of Bolivia’s population (at the very least) is “injun”, with the remainder being Spaniard and Mestizo (part-Indian, part-Spaniard).
But, as with Venezuela, Bolivia’s ruling class has always been white (although lighter-skinned mestizos are also honorary whites) while the Indios have never been anything other than “hewers of wood and drawers of water.”
A large part of the hostility, anger and resentment now on display by “dissidents” over Morales’ rise to power is the very fact that one of them dares to think that he can rule over us.
It’s even more blatant and out in the open in Venezuela with the “heroic, democracy-loving” anti-Chavistas, whose racism is quite out in the open (no taboos against it over there) as anyone who’s actually gone over there will tell you. Naturally, this aspect of the Venezuelan buddies of Vaclav Havel and Cheney/Bush gets short shrift in the U.S. media.
But it has been covered elsewhere. A great example is this report by Johann Hari, published four months ago in the Independent.
December 19th, 2005 at 2:20 pm
Look forward to your future takes on Morales. Looks to be an extremely interesting guy.
(And showing where my brain REALLY is during this shopping-infested season……I’ve always been in awe of the Aymara women’s stunning style of dress combining traditional fabrics with elements of 17th Century European style, topped with black bowler hats . Yeah, politics is important, but—hey— it’s all about the accessories.)
PS: Reg, I think the Wahabbi school-related story in Syriana was one of the films best narrative threads.
December 19th, 2005 at 3:02 pm
maybe Bush will call him a comrade of Hugo Chavez…then Cooper will surely come out against the Bolivian terrorist leader and call for the US military to bring real democracy to the authoritarian and captive nation.
December 19th, 2005 at 3:06 pm
Two more bits of unsettling reality to ponder as Democracy marches on…
http://tinyurl.com/8odoo
http://tinyurl.com/bm29h
December 19th, 2005 at 4:43 pm
So the true leftists are the natives taking over. Or taking it back if you will. And apparently that’s not a good thing.
December 19th, 2005 at 6:38 pm
Reg.. u got a screw loose, buddy? If I tell you I was confused by Syriana.. that’s what I mean.. I was confused. Not a political commentary but rather the reaction of a real viewer. Makes no difference.. the movie sucked so badly it’s already gone from most screens/
December 19th, 2005 at 7:23 pm
And I’m telling you the narrative wasn’t anywhere near as complex or murky as you made it out…that, subjective reactions to the storytelling aside, your claim about the movie’s “energy politics” vis-a-vis the Middle East is wacky and not supportable…that it just opened a week ago in most cities and is doing better per screen and ranked as high or a notch higher than “Walk The Line” during the same point in it’s release even though it’s got Kong and Narnia to contend with (although Walk will probably do better over the long haul).
December 19th, 2005 at 7:30 pm
Incidentally, I thought there were some definite problems with Syriana, but more on the level of defining the main character and resolving all of the threads, particularly Clooney’s. The final encounter on the road as the movie climaxed made absolutely no sense to me.
December 19th, 2005 at 8:12 pm
Syrianna is not that confusing—there were four inter-related plots—CIA intrigues and assassinations; Washington ideologues at work; the grooming of terrorists; the insidious dealings of oil companies. I think the movie was not intended to have a linear plot but is suppose to be fragmented, in order to give the viewer a sense of the despair and hopelessness that greed and corruption created in the Middle East. King Kong’s script is probably easier to follow.
December 19th, 2005 at 9:46 pm
Now let’s hear from the same idiot who cited blog sites to dispute the Chavez election.You see it wasn’t fair because some people didn’t vote Any person with a brain can see what happens when democracy rears it’s ugly head in South America.They hate us. I wonder why.
December 20th, 2005 at 2:50 am
Actually Syriana, while not exactly blowing King Kong off the screen, isn’t doing badly considering its flaws. It’s 5th in box office gross for the past weekend..
Also, Brokeback Mountain is bringing in the highest per screen average of the season. (Hard to say what’ll happen when it hits the hinterlands, though.)
In any case, here’re the top 12:
1. “King Kong,” Universal, $50,130,145, 3,568 locations, $14,050 average, $66,181,645, one week.
2. “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” Disney, $31,837,683, 3,680 locations, $8,652 average, $113,169,644, two weeks.
3. “The Family Stone,” 20th Century Fox, $12,521,027, 2,466 locations, $5,077 average, $12,521,027, one week.
4. “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,” Warner Bros., $5,952,452, 3,185 locations, $1,869 average, $252,598,259, five weeks.
5. “Syriana,” Warner Bros., $5,605,167, 1,775 locations, $3,158 average, $22,462,362, four weeks.
6. “Walk the Line,” 20th Century Fox, $3,688,031, 2,667 locations, $1,383 average, $82,607,528, five weeks.
7. “Yours, Mine & Ours,” Paramount, $3,511,110, 2,723 locations, $1,289 average, $45,202,963, four weeks.
8. “Brokeback Mountain,” Focus, $2,508,494, 69 locations, $36,355 average, $3,474,311, two weeks.
9. “Just Friends,” New Line, $2,080,852, 1,882 locations, $1,106 average, $29,572,142, four weeks.
10. “Aeon Flux,” Paramount, $1,751,220, 2,058 locations, $851 average, $23,215,672, three weeks.
11. “Pride & Prejudice,” Focus, $1,579,825, 1,141 locations, $1,385 average, $29,237,853, six weeks.
12. “Memoirs of a Geisha,” Sony, $1,302,331, 52 locations, $25,045 average, $2,274,320, two
December 20th, 2005 at 6:09 am
Well I’m visiting the hinterlands and Brokeback is nowhere to be found. They are touting it as the “gay” cowboy film when that’s not how the short story describes the characters. The dichotomy was they weren’t.
December 20th, 2005 at 6:11 am
I thought they hated us because of banking piracy. There is more than one way to invade a country.
December 20th, 2005 at 8:48 am
RE: Hinterlands and “Brokeback”…
Courtesy of the New York Times, I learned that Caspar Wyoming has an openly gay mayor. Haven’t seen Brokeback Mountain yet but Frank Rich’s column on the question raised by rosedog was “provocative” in that it suggested this stuff isn’t all that provocative anymore and the film will find a welcoming audience among the “hinterlands”. James Wolcott has an interesting roundup of right-wing babble on Brokeback, including the execrable lesbi-con Tammy Bruce’s prayers that the movie will fall flat on it’s face so she can yammer once again about “leftwing” Hollywood being out of step with America. The oil companies may be out of step with America too, Tammy, but you don’t get a mansion and a Mercedes by selling shit that nobody wants to buy. The crazy b—- also describes the Murrow movie as being about reporters who support the communists. Thank god we’ve got Tammy to bring gay McCarthyism out of Roy Cohn’s closet.
I haven’t seen Brokeback and it’s not exactly my favorite kinda movie – I don’t give a shit who’s having the painful love affair, they always get tedious for me (unless it’s Johnny Cash, of course) – but I’ll go because it will probably be the best thing on the screen one weekend soon and, if the buzz is even close to accurate, I expect to be moved. Chronichles of Narnia and Harry Potter are the kinds of movies I couldn’t be dragged to and make me thank god my kids are grown. I’m in one of those relationships where my wife will make sure we see Brokeback real soon and I’ll have an appropriate response, then I’ve got to sneak off and see King Kong all by myself and she’ll make fun of me when she finds out. This will be the first movie with guys in cowboy hats I’ll have seen with her since I forced her to watch The Searchers on DVD years ago and she grudgingly admitted it was kind of okay for a western. Unbelievable…
Anyway, I’m looking forward to another of Marc’s confessions-of-a-moviegoer, because they’re the only topics where I’ve been able to find nits to pick with him recently, and for all of my blabber and bluster about it, I really detest politics and am ultimately bored as much as appalled by the predictable sleaze and end-runs around competence or accountability. But I love movies…with a decided preference for cops, criminals, cowboys, big apes and shit that blows up (outer space, remakes of cartoons/comics, and fantasy ? fuggedaboudit! ). Films, like Brokeback Mountain – as distinct from movies, like King Kong – are okay too. (Unless they’re based on Jane Austen novels. What’s up with that ?????)
December 20th, 2005 at 10:27 am
I’ll see it for the scenery as well. My two favorite movies are A River Runs through It and Legends of the Fall. This one has that sort of true story appeal in a sea of crap. The short story by Annie Proulx is online at the New Yorker it comes from her book Wyoming Stories. All of them are good including this one.
December 20th, 2005 at 1:20 pm
Mark… “Brokeback’s” scenery’s indeed on a par with your favorites. Filmed in the Canadian Rockies, near Calgary. As with “A River Runs Through It,” and “Legends…” the land feels like gorgeous and sometimes stark thematic music that’s deeply necessary to the story, rather than an annoying supporting player that had the citified director all awed, and thus was given center stage more often than was sensible.
Reg, read the Frank Rich column, too. Thought (hoped) it was right on.
PS: Reg, hey, you say you don’t like seeing movies about tragic romance…What d’you think King Kong is????? Okay. Nevermind, how about if you sneak out and I’ll meet you somewhere mid-state to see KK? Deal?
December 20th, 2005 at 5:15 pm
“you say you don’t like seeing movies about tragic romance…What d’you think King Kong is?????”
Oooops….guess I’ve got to add Kong to my Johnny Cash exception for the lovelorn. (Cue “size really does matter” joke.)
Actually I’m gonna sneak off to the Grand Lake tonite to see the damned thing…just me and my Milk Duds. It’s a refurbished “movie palace” just perfect for the big guy in all of his retro splendor.
December 20th, 2005 at 6:06 pm
I’m sorry reg Gorilla’s and dinosauers at the same time doesn’t cut it. Boy Rosedog I’ve never seen such a slow release for a film. 3 theatres in LA. Jeepers. River was shot in Livingston, Montana but beautiful western scenery knows no political boundary. Sounds good.
December 20th, 2005 at 6:23 pm
“Munich” is gonna be the movie that sets fires among the cons and neo-cons…unfortunately their assaults on “self-hating Jew” Spielberg will be diluted by the amount of energy they’ll have to expend this week defending their fearless leader against those of us who are actively attempting to help the terrorists in their war against America by attacking Bush outright, as opposed to the overly-psychoanalyzed who are merely succcumbing to their sense of guilt and ambivalence.
http://www.salon.com/ent/feature/2005/12/20/munich/index.html
December 20th, 2005 at 6:51 pm
I’m headed off to see Kong and have yet to see “Brokeback”, but this struck me as hilarious (from salon): Nathan Lane took a couple of swings at “Brokeback Mountain” on the “Today” show, telling Katie Couric, “It’s really when [Ledger] said, ‘This thing gets hold of us the wrong time, the wrong place, we’re dead.’ I thought, ‘What do you mean, like the A&P? You’re in the middle of nowhere! Get a ranch with the guy! Stop torturing these two poor women and get a room! What’s the problem?’”
Read the Annie Proulx story today thanks to Mark Y’s tip on the New Yorker site…(You’ve got to go to the Google cache, because it’s no longer up on the site)…not a fiction guy, but it was pretty good.
December 21st, 2005 at 9:35 am
All I have to say on Kong is that the giant gorilla together with dinosaurs were just fine with the Milk Duds , but that extra hour devoted to the giant leeches, enormous spiders and huge bats should have been saved for the out-takes section of the DVD, where I understand we’ll also be treated to “Peter Jackson’s Diaries”, a daily chronicle of how he painstakingly remade his favorite movie. Clearly one of the “The Two Towers” was this guy’s ego – which pretty evidently worked counter to his judgement and considerable talents in the course of cooking up Kong. Apparently he’s never heard of the old show business principle of “Leave ‘em wanting more” – the damned thing’s actually quite enjoyable for both story and spectacle, but everything takes too long and there’s just too much of it. It’s like a quadruple dip banana split smothered in extra syrup, with marshallow, whipped cream, nuts, cherries and pineapple on top – and a large chocolate malt on the side. Oh…and Milk Duds.
December 22nd, 2005 at 6:25 am
My only point with that is it makes people more stupid than they already are which is quite high.
December 22nd, 2005 at 8:45 am
I would argue with “more stupid” – I just found myself enjoying my normal level of stupidity. That’s why I sometimes go to those kinds of movies. The movie was fraught with biological anachronism and impossibility, but then Indiana Jones defied the laws of physics…
December 22nd, 2005 at 7:58 pm
All I can say about Kong is that BEAUTY KILLED THE BEAST!
I’m ambivalent about Brokeback Mountain–it’s understood that homosexual relationships are NOT something new or unusual
February 1st, 2006 at 8:03 am
I am impressed with this page…setup really nice. Doesn’t take forever to load pics, like mine… Very impressive.. http://allergy-treatment.yoll.net
February 2nd, 2006 at 1:21 pm
Just checking to see if any relation are out here http://vhs-video.olddj.com
March 23rd, 2007 at 5:37 am
Phentermine…
host letterhead!quietly!coppers Adipex Buy [url=http://www.vheaven.com/#]Adipex Buy[/url] http://www.vheaven.com/# …
May 13th, 2007 at 1:23 am
Hi My Name Is ivajpa.
September 24th, 2010 at 4:16 pm
Aloha! veu