Panta Rei

As municipal elections approach in Cochabamba, there is a sudden frenzy of civic improvement. After years of apparent indifference, officials seeking re-election who need some literally concrete accomplishments to point to, are quickly creating, regrading or paving roads all around the city. Of course, this improvement process causes upheaval. Roads are closed while being upgraded. Bus and trufi lines are rerouted. (TRUFIS are Taxis with fixed routes, which pick up passengers and drop them off for small charges along their ways).

Not uniquely Bolivian is the corruption which accompanies - and drives - this improvement process. For instance, a road of about four kilometers which I know well, has been in dreadful condition as long as we have lived here. The commonly accepted reason is that the politicians gave the road building contract to their friends, who gave the politicos kickbacks and used inferior materials to build with, which quickly began to degrade.

What is more typically Bolivian is that now that improvements to that crumbling road have made it more easily passable physically, it's become a perfect place to hold a protest demonstration blocking that road. Now that you could drive it in a fairly reasonable fashion you can't go down it at all, for political reasons. You must proceed instead on a circuitous route using a network of unmarked dirt roads. Lovely but inefficient, like so much of this country.

Of course politics continues to make travel everywhere more difficult, despite the technology that makes it physically fast and easy to traverse distances . In the name of security, airports have become obstacle courses, impeding the travel process. National governments have found it expeditious and lucrative to demand visas to enter and leave their domains, and to levy routine taxes on travelers and extraordinary fines on those who overstay or who mislay their documents. It's a racket, really, of the bureaucrats and security folk who profit from the "free movement" of humans about the planet, which is actually becoming less and less free in terms of cost or choice.

"Panta Rei" means, approximately, "everything flows" or perhaps "change is constant." One of my favorite translations of the phrase is "it's time for a change." And the fellow who translated panta rei that way added: "It's always time for a change." The phrase is attributed to the Greek philosopher, Heraclitus, who also said things like "You can't step into the same river twice," and "the way up and the way down are the same." Anyway, dramatic changes will be happening for us, that will mean the demise of this blog in its current incarnation. We are leaving Bolivia.

The timing seems right. Evo Morales has just been inaugurated as president for a second term. When Morales first took office, five years ago, it was a moment of great uncertainty for the country. His opposition was vocal and vehement, with threats of violence from various departmental prefects (state governors) and aided by the antagonistic fumblings of the Bush administration in the United States. But Morales responded with strength and restraint. He got rid of the meddling Yankees (expelled the sleazy U.S. ambassador, Philip Goldberg, along with the DEA), found non-violent ways to marginalize the rebellious prefects and push through a new constitution, which guarantees much more justice and equality for the indigenous majority for the first time ever.

True political stability, a rare commodity in Bolivian history, now seems within the country's grasp. While the greatest fears of the oligarchs (disenfranchisement) have not been realized, the Morales government has begun to divest some feudal land barons of the east of some of their fiefdoms, confiscating some of the vast holdings where agro-emperors like Branko Marinkovic and the American Larson family have acted as laws unto themselves. Morales does seem poised to share the wealth much more than before, but in a measured way, not with force. So the reaffirmation of this progressive process seems a good time for us to go. There are others who will continue to drop notes in bottles into the cyber tides about what is happening here.

Because we are leaving Bolivia, this blog will cease in its present form and name in order to make way for another one, oriented toward a different scene on a different continent. Some bloggers live in and through their blogs. For me this blog is but a byproduct of my life in Cochabamba. Some blogs appear to be open-ended and indefinite. But this one will wrap up in this entry to be left "complete" as it stands. Of course, there are bound to be connections between the land we are leaving and the new (to us) one we are entering in Africa. But that remains to be seen.

The weather in Cochabamba is the best I have ever experienced. To be eight thousand feet up in the tropics is beautiful, a lovely climatic moderation, never too hot or cold. The climate here is healthful and fruitful, with lemons and avocados and peaches growing in our own yard, along with a riotous bounty of flowers.

I shall miss the people here, who have endured and continue to endure so much poverty and struggle, but who yet manage to celebrate their existence at every possible opportunity. It has been my pleasure and privilege to live in Bolivia for 3 & 1/2 years, an experience which has changed me and helped to mold my children.

We have been fortunate to enjoy the weather in Cochabamba. May you encounter a similar bounty wherever you wander.