<DOC>
<DOCID>In_A_Country_Far,_Far_Away...Volume_3.doc.txt</DOCID>
<AUTHOR>John Petkus</AUTHOR>
<TEXT>
I was hoping to finish this series of articles in this paper but that is not to be.   One more at least will be enough tell some of the end and then another to finish it.  If you are looking at this paper wondering what in the world I am talking about, go to the Compass website or stop by the office and ask them for back issues of the paper to read articles I have already written on this subject.   Got it?   Are you ready to move on now?   Good, on we go!

Bolivia, starting in the eighties, has undergone a series of changes pulling that country from its poverty and slowly into the twenty first century.   Some aspects can be very amusing to watch from an American viewpoint.   Once I watched as the village where I lived had a movie night.   The local government had recently purchased a television set along with the equipment to play DVDs and so, for profit, decided to offer some real American movies, for people to see.   They set up around 150 chairs in the municipal building with enough space for a television to be set up.   That evening the building was packed as the villagers, many of whom had never seen a movie before, crowded around the screen as the movie Shrek was introduced for the very first time. Truly American culture was at last coming to their village!

Other aspects of Bolivias rapid technological development are apparent everywhere.   Some children will go to the city to learn and thus are instructed in the use of computers and email and many of the aspects of life as we understand it here in the United States.   Meanwhile their relatives back in the rural areas may never have had the opportunity to learn to read.   Many of the homes in the village where I lived for 6 years have no indoor plumbing whatsoever, and their only cooking facilities is over wood fires on the floor, yet many have television sets.   Aspects of the American influence are everywhere, yet each with its own twists as and adaptations to the local culture.

Many of the youth of Bolivia are breaking away from their traditional family values and starting to strive for better education but also for a completely different life from their families.   Many try to come to the US or Spain, and even though the travel is expensive many are leaving the country in hopes of finding a better life elsewhere.   Many more turn to alcohol, and cocaine as a means of escaping their troubles and end up in addiction and even worse.   For the first time in history, some to the products that are troubling for the United States have become equally as dangerous for our suppliers.   

The United States has responded to the increasing drug supply by paying the Bolivian government vast quantities of cash to destroy the coca, plant and reimburse the farmers of their nation for their crop.   The Bolivian officials have for decades now, simply taken that money for themselves, and destroyed the plants without giving any money to the Bolivian owner of the crop in the name of the United States War on Drugs.   These policies have infuriated Bolivian farmers, who feel the United States is unjustly oppressing them and denying them the ability to feed their families by destroying their livelihood. 

All of these factors, along with the history of the continent and some very foolish American foreign policy decisions, have initiated some terrible consequences.   

Bolivia recently elected a president, Evo Morales, who has reacted negatively to the situation with the youth and the American influences. He has decided that the best course for Bolivia is not to reject the drug culture, but rather to embrace it. Bolivias President won the election on several key issues.  He stands for the more socialist left of the government but also for the conservative side in Bolivian politics.   His desire is to make Bolivia independent from the imperialistic clutches of the United States and change it back to what it was in the old Inca Empire thousands of years ago.   He sees a path towards better technology as a method that is used to keep his people under repression.   He views cocaine as his way out.   According to him, cocaine will become the foundation of his new empire, which he will unite with Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, in order to rule most of South America in a blend of Communism and Inca traditions.   The demand for cocaine will drive his country similar to the oil industry now, or so he claims.  

That is it for now.   The next article will be the last I promise!

</TEXT></DOC>
