"Where is the wisdom that is lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge that is lost in information?"
- T.S. Eliot
So a funny thing happened to me in eighth grade geography class. That was the first time & place I learned about Bolivia, which seemed impossibly exotic and far away from the suburban Ohio junior high school I was attending. We learned in class that Bolivia suffered from a surfeit of water during the rainy season, when flooding was a severe problem. But then in the dry season, the country endured drought conditions. Many Bolivians had trouble getting enough water to drink or to cook with or to wash. In my wise-ass way (at least I was paying attention to the topic at hand) I suggested that what Bolivia needed was a giant funnel to catch the rain and gather it for storage during the rains for use in the dry season. It was both a flip comment and a sincere one, if you can permit such a paradox...
Well, my suggestion was met with raucous ridicule. The laughter did not end with that class period. My "bizarre" suggestion followed me to the end of my middle school days. In the final issue of "The River Ripple," our school newspaper, each departing grad was listed with what they were taking with them and what they were leaving behind. Among my "bequests" was my "giant funnel, which he leaves to Bolivia." Odd shit, right? So now it's half a century later and I actually live in Bolivia. And nothing reported in our 8th grade geography book has changed. And guess what, folks? I stand by my story.
This country really does need some way to retain and store water for the terrible dry times, a reservoir system to preserve the prodigal downpours for the inevitable period of zero rainfall (which in Cochabamba, lasts from April to November) which dries up the rivers and the ground water. Bolivia fifty years ago and Bolivia today is all about water. If the U.S. really wanted to help Bolivians, not just tie them up politically, they would have constructed the Giant Funnel by now, or some equivalent system of covered reservoirs to alleviate the seasonal hardships which Bolivians have endured for hundreds of years, most acutely in our own century. when greater populations have depleted lakes and rivers to the crisis point. Bolivia has long been a harbinger of the coming Earth Thirst! reality. The Cochabamba "water wars" of 2000 were another telling sign of coming planetary distress.
Okay, you can all go back to your TV and pizza now...
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If the U.S. really wanted to help Bolivians, not just tie them up politically, they would have constructed the Giant Funnel by now, or some equivalent system of covered reservoirs to alleviate the seasonal hardships which Bolivians have endured for hundreds of years, most acutely in our own century.
But of course "the US" doesn't really want to help the Bolivians, or the Israelis, or the Palestinians, or the Americans. "The US" is the moniker for a gang of corporate and now plutocratic interests out to look after Number 1 exclusively, in the media-wise most circumspect way, of course.
And it's not just "the US" that acts exclusively for its own interests but every nation state on the planet. It is only we the people of the planet who are capable of looking after non-institutional interests and we only do so after we've found secure places within "the institution" from which to operate. Or after we've given up the notion of security.
The people of Bolivia are going to have to divert some of the cash the Bolivian Funnelers funnel into their own pockets into the a scheme to leaven their hydrologic cycle. You can rest assured that a scheme that benefits the people will be last on the National Priority List as defined by US/Bolivarian politico interests.
This will be my last post here. I dislike using a google id and won't do so. I'm sure I have an audience of one here anyway and you surely have samll interest in the random comments of someone from the other side of the earth.
Good luck.
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