Bennett Hennessy speaking on Bolivian macaws

On 7th and 8th October this year, Dr. Bennett Hennessey spoke on the Bolivian macaws. He is a conservationist in Santa Cruz, which is the largest departamento in Bolivia. His work takes him all over the country, including Pando, where rare macaws have become an icon.

A write up of his appearance Fauna, New York's largest exotic pet shop was made by Diana Hubert of the Epoch Times, and is available at http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/44461/

Wikileaks material is hosted by the Bolivian government

Proof that the US is spying on us

By Nick Farrell

Thu Dec 09 2010, 09:46

THE BOLIVIAN GOVERNMENT is so miffed at what the US government has been saying about it in diplomatic cables, it has decided to host some of the Wikileaks cables itself.

The leaked cables are being shown on Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera of the State of Bolivia's own website .

According to Linera's website the use of the official website was approved by both the Bolivian President and the Presidency of Legislative Assembly Multinational.

Linera said that is important that people know the level of infiltration, intervention, conspiracy and espionage by the US on Bolivia.

The cables prove that US diplomats have been spying on Bolivia for at least two years.

The quality of the information that has been flowing back to the US was total rubbish with most of the intelligence being based on gossip, rumours and assumptions, Linera said.

There is a lot of bad blood between the Bolivian government and the US. Bolivia expelled the US ambassador in 2008, accusing him of conspiring against it.

(THE SITE IS LISTED AS www.vicepresidencia.gob.bo - but safari did not open it for me)

Read more: http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1931124/wikileaks-material-hosted-bolivian-government#ixzz182CwCccr
The Inquirer - Computer hardware news and downloads. Visit the download store today.

NYU speech about Bolivian immigration in the 1940s

A friend attended the NYU speech yesterday (3 December) on Bolivian immigration policy in the 1940s, and was moved to write about it, which he did - posting it first to the Jewish Chronicle site - under the title:

What South American country saved thousands of Jews in WWII?

The answer to that title is Bolivia. And it is an answer to an urgent question inside of me, one I have been asking myself for some time; why am I so supportive of Bolivia? Well, yesterday at New York University I found out something that almost never gets discussed while attending Laura Gotkowitz's speech on Bolivia in the 1940s. The nation had a major upheaval due to an immigration issue - when it opened its doors to Jewish refugees in 1938. And wide were they opened; the visa applications were so simple that almost anyone could fill out their name and come, without even visiting an embassy or consulate or having means; some visas were rather vague, admitting a hundred people at a time. As they needed to be. With this policy, many were saved, some even from the camps, where the rules dictated that those who had a place to go could leave. So many poor Jews did just that. Up to 35,000 made their way to Bolivia. Leo Spitzer writes of this miraculous exodus in Hotel Bolivia.

Gotkowitz, noting that title in her speech, said that Bolivia was more than a hotel to many of them - though most have since emigrated - she told me there were only

10 Jews in Cochabamba today. And her research noted that upon arrival not all was a bed of roses; nazi instigators went so far as to write letters into the papers to instigate the crowds against the immigrants. The Bolivians expelled the German ambassador over it all. But it was not only the national socialists who caused problems, ironically, Polish Jews were barred from entry - on orders of one of the leading tin magnates - Mauricio Hofschild - a German Jew who insisted only German speaking Jews need apply. Thus 60% were from Germany, 20% from Austria, and only 15% from Poland.

The minister in charge of such generous policies was to lose his post over it all, Diez de Marina.

Today few know about this bit of history. Bolivia ultimately influenced other nations including the US to take Jews - the only other nation to act in time was the Dominican Republic, but that was not so desirable, as there they were told to take Latin names and attend Mass. They live on today as Garcias and Morenos and living on the north side of Santa Domingo.

The Jews of Bolivia have kept their identity but moved on, mostly to Argentina, Israel or the US. Gotkowitz is continuing her research and quite likely will publish a book on the subject. I am grateful for her already, and look forward to more on the matter. I am now more determined to work for Bolivia and promote its image in the press, a tough task as most journalists like to do stories by cutting and pasting! I will get on a few of them soon and get them on to the task, sending them such information as the discovery of new orchids and passion flowers (which can be seen at www.cuentasdebolivia.blogspot.com).

Image of newly discovered passion flower

One of the newly discovered plants from Madidi National Park in Bolivia, this is Passiflora madidiana.

Newly discovered species in Bolivia

Eight new plants discovered in Bolivia
Jeremy Hance
mongabay.com
November 07, 2010

Researchers have described eight new species of plant from in and near Madidi National Park in the Bolivian Andes and Amazon rainforest. Described in the journal Novon by botanists with the Missouri Botanical Garden and the National Herbaium in Laz Paz, Bolivia, seven of the eight plants were found as apart of the Proyecto Madidi (Project Madidi), a ten year effort to describe the plant species of three inter-connecting protected areas in Bolivia—Madidi National Park, Pilón Lajas Biosphere Reserve and Communal Lands, and Apolobamba Integrated Management Natural Area.

"Before we started this project in 2000, this botanically rich area was essentially a white area on the map, almost unexplored," says Dr. Peter Jørgensen, associate curator at the Missouri Botanical Garden, in a press release. "There has been very little general collecting in this area. Over the course of a decade we have documented more than 7,000 species, which is about a third of what you can find in North America."

Of these 7,000 species, researchers with the project have found 132 that were unknown to science, only 32 of which have so far been formally described.

The protected areas spread over 100,000 square kilometers and cover habitats from high glacial peaks to the Amazon rainforest. Although protected, portions of these areas are threatened by new roads, expanding cattle ranching and farming.

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Life shocker: new species discovered every three days in the Amazon

(10/26/2010) A new report by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) confirms the Amazon rainforest, even as it is shrinking due to deforestation, remains among the world's most surprising places. According to the report,Amazon Alive, over the past decade (1999-2009) researchers have found 1,200 new species in the Amazon: one new species for every three days. Not surprisingly invertebrates, including insects, made up the bulk of new discoveries. But no type of species was left out: from 1999-2009 researchers discovered 637 new plants, 357 fish, 216 amphibians, 55 reptiles, 39 mammals, and 16 new birds. In new discoveries over the past decade, the Amazon has beaten out a number of high-biodiversity contenders including Borneo, the Eastern Himalayas, and the Congo rainforest.


Stunning monkey discovered in the Colombian Amazon

(08/11/2010) While the Amazon is being whittled away on all sides by logging, agriculture, roads, cattle ranching, mining, oil and gas exploration, today's announcement of a new monkey species proves that the world's greatest tropical rainforest still has many surprises to reveal. Scientists with the National University of Colombia and support from Conservation International (CI) have announced the discovery of a new monkey in the journal Primate Conservation on the Colombian border with Peru and Ecuador. The new species is a titi monkey, dubbed the Caquetá titi ( Callicebus caquetensis). However, the announcement comes with deep concern as researchers say it is likely the new species is already Critically Endangered due to a small population living in an area undergoing rapid deforestation for agriculture.


New bird discovered in Colombia—and released alive

(05/26/2010) Researchers have discovered a new species of antpitta in the montane cloud forests of the Colibri del Sol Bird Reserve in western Colombia. A thrush-like bird, the new cinnamon and gray species was, according to a press release by the American Bird Conservancy (ABC), "captured, banded, measured, photographed, sampled for DNA, and then released alive back into the wild". This is one of only a few incidences in which a new species has been described without 'collecting' an individual (i.e. killing) to provide a model of the species in a museum. The new bird has been named Fenwick's antpitta (Grallaria fenwickorum) after the President of ABC, George Fenwick, and his family.

Quechua Week at New York University

Quechua at NYU Updates

Quechua Night Many thanks to Cassandra Torrico, who presented at the recent Quechua Conversation night in Bolivian Quechua. We had a great turnout, and the new format for the event is working out well. For those studying or interested in the language - this is a great place to continue developing your Quechua communication skills. Quechua Night is a monthly event held in Quechua that includes a presentation and lots of conversation time -- even those speakers at the basic level will leave having practiced Quechua. Read more about Quechua Night. Instead of having a Quechua Conversation Night in December, we will be focusing our energies onQuechua Week, see below.

Quechua Week 2010 NYU's first ever Quechua Week will span the days between Monday December 13and Friday December 17. While some details are still pending regarding a film screening event, the rest of the week's events are posted on our Quechua Week page. Please forward this info to friends and colleagues who may be interested! If you are a student at NYU and would like to help with these events, please reply to this email with your availability.

Evo Morales speaks in New York

Last night, 21 September, the Amigos de Bolivia crew went to hear Evo Morales speak at the Community Church on East 35th Street, after a session at the UN and a talk at Hunter College the day before. The line was around the block by 5pm, with the speech commencing at 7pm. A full house cheered him on with shouts of Evo! Evo! and he delivered in top form.
The subject was the rights of Mother Earth, and he made many references to capitalism and its role in impoverishing people around the world. Fidel Castro, he pointed out, made the remark 15-20 years ago that rich nations ought to recognise their ecological debt to the world; Morales noted that at first he did not realise the significance of that remark. But now with melting glaciers, dry spells, cold snaps that kill millions of fish, water levels receeding and other problems, he finds it very significant.
He rejected the Copenhagen accord which would have allowed for a rise of 2 degrees Centigrade worldwide, noting that an existing rise of .7-.89 degress was already in effect and was unbearable.
Such policies have not earned him praise among the corporate rulers, and one doubts that this speech will get the coverage it deserves -as so many papers are so indebted to the corporations which advertise in them - from the New York Post to even the Guardian (see the outing of this paper for its large 4X4 ads at http://www.hempforvictory.blogspot.com). He noted that after 9/11 the rich countries labeled him and some of his colleagues as drug dealers and, yes, terrorrists.
He ended saying he was actually a bit nervous, peasant farmer that he was, speaking to a crowd in a part of the world that labeled him drug dealer and a terrorist.
We are glad he stood up to his detractors, and look forward to hearing more from him in the future.

Evo Morales to speak at Community Church of New York

The Permanent Mission of the Plurinational State of Bolivia to the United Nations

Invites you to attend a public lecture by

President Evo Morales

"Nature is not for sale: the Rights of Mother Earth"

At the Community Church of New York

40 East 35th St. (between Madison and Park Ave.)

Tuesday, September 21st, 2010 at 7 PM

Doors open at 5:30 PM. General admision.

Please confirm attendance to bolivianmission@gmail.com (does not guarantee a seat).

***

La Misión Permanente del Estado Plurinacional de Bolivia ante las Naciones Unidas

Invita al acto ofrecido por el

Presidente Evo Morales

"La naturaleza no se vende: los derechos de la Madre Tierra”

En el Community Church of New York

40 East 35th St. (entre Madison y Park Ave.)

Martes, 21 de septiembre de 2010 a las 19:00 PM

El ingreso será a partir de las 17:30 PM. Espacio limitado.

Se ruega confirmar a bolivianmission@gmail.com (no implica reserva de asiento).

Evo Morales to speak at Hunter College in New York City

Evo Morales Speaks at Hunter College
Monday, September 20, 1:15-2:30pm
Evo Morales, President of Bolivia, will speak at Hunter College in celebration of the publication of the English language edition of Martin Sivak’s biography, Evo Morales: The Extraordinary Rise of the First Indigenous President of Bolivia. His speech will be followed by a brief Q & A and a discussion with bi-ographer Martin Sivak.
THIS EVENT IS IN SPANISH, WITH TRANSLATION
Headsets are available for English translation.
For security reasons, guests must present a valid photo University I.D* before entering the event. Guests are discouraged from bringing large bags and backpacks.
Copies of Evo Morales: The Extraordinary Rise of the First Indigenous President of Bolivia will be sold at the door.
* If you do not have a university I.D., please contact jfriedla@hunter.cuny.edu
Location: The Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College
East 68th Street (North Side) between Park and Lexington Avenues
DOORS OPEN AT 12:30 p.m.
The program will begin promptly at 1:15 p.m.
Free to the Public.
Seating is limited.
This Event is Co-Sponsored by:
Hunter College’s Departments of Africana and Puerto-Rican/Latino Studies, Anthropology,
Economics, Film and Media, Geography, History, Latin American and Caribbean Studies,
Political Science, Romance Languages, Sociology, and the Center for Puerto Rican Studies.
CUNY Graduate Center’s Departments of Anthropology, History, Political Science,
Sociology, and the Bildner Center.
New York University’s Center for Latin and Caribbean Studies, the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics, and Department of History
Palgrave Macmillan
Special Thanks To:
The Center for Latin and Caribbean Studies at New York University

Bolivian event in Hackensack

Sunday I took the bus to Hackensack, NJ, where the Bolivians had their annual festival. A couple friends showed up, one who writes for HDL in Israel, and they were quite impressed. Each departamento had their dancers in colourful native dress do a parade.

Marco Medrano was officiating as usual, this being an event he started for the Bolivian community before he became Consul General in NY.

Native food was also on hand, and I had a very nice ceviche, which was not acidic at all as some can be. Best with lots of cilantro and some red onion, washed down with some jugo de tamarindo or coco.

What impressed me the most was just the vibe, real friendly, there does not seem to be much strife in their society, despite the decades of turbulent politics. It happens that this is a very safe country, there are no real crimes, so travel to Bolivia is in demand. Try to go when there is a festival, and you are in for a treat. The next event I know of there is the Tenth Annual Orchid Festival in Concepcion, Santa Cruz, 8-10th October, which will be just as colourful as the parades of dancers in native dress - check out the cattleyas, brassias and sobralias!

End of summer Bolivian Festival in New Jersey

A big end of the summer event not to be missed is the Third Annual Festival Boliviano. See flyer below for details, and CU there!

Press Reception at the Bolivian Consulate

An intimate crowd had a priviliged look inside the Bolivian Consulate in New York last month, there to mingle with artists, poets and diplomats from Bolivia. Press from around the world, press from New York, and lots of playwrights and photographers drank coca liquor and chatted up the consul, Marco Medrano, his staff, and his fellow diplomats from the Bolivian Permanent Mission to the UN.
An unusual white powder was displayed - stevia - the sweetener that can be used for diabetics - which is one of many plants Bolivia has to offer the world.
Much of the presentation focused on Bolivia's new tourism initiative, which will tie in to promoting Bolivian products. Presently, Bolivia has very few tourists but could attract millions every year through eco-tourism, sporting tourism, educational services, business conventions and just plain feel good-and-do-nothing type tourism. With the low crime rate, and so many birds and orchids to look at, this is the new hot spot!

Bolivian coffee

THE BOLIVIAN COFFEE INDUSTRY

Bolivia is a small player: it ranks 38th on the list of coffee-producing nations, even behind the U.S., which ranks 35th. In the last few years, the country’s coffee has made great strides, in part thanks to the Bolivian Specialty Coffee Association (ACEB), and an event called the Cup of Excellence.
The best Bolivian coffees have a very sweet, very balanced cup; aficionados assert that they have a deep berry in flavor; my own impression is that they are nutty, with a hint of caraway. They’re creamy and sweet, one coffee roaster has noted, and a comment on a NYC site about the Coffee Foundry on West 4th Street noted the nutty taste of their Bolivian mix. The proprietors there note that the beans grown at a higher altitude are denser, and thus roast more evenly. Again, a personal impression is that the taste of the Bolivian beans is more noticeable in iced coffees.
The very geography of much of Bolivia is designed to produce coffee, but has also contributed to the country’s struggle to produce consistent specialty coffee. Most farmers de-pulp the coffee at the farm, and then must truck it over the mountains to La Paz at a whopping 12,500 feet, where they deliver it to centralized co-ops or intermediaries. Because the beans were half-processed, they were still wet and would freeze and then thaw again on their way over the mountain. But recent developments in the industry have changed that, and most coffee is not processed locally to avoid such problems.
Bolivian coffee is almost 100 percent arabica, mostly of the typica and criolla varietals. More than 90 percent of the coffee grown in Bolivia is produced in the Yungas area, a tropical region in La Paz with altitudes between 1,600 and 5,200 feet. Other important growing regions are Cochabamba, Santa Cruz and Tarija and Beni.
Before 1991, most farms were owned by wealthy land owners, who had Brazil’s native people work for them. In 1991 a governmental land reform forced the larger landowners to return the farms back to the families who had originally owned them. These small farms, which range in size from 3 to 20 acres, now produce the majority of coffee (estimates range from 85 to 95 percent), despite the fact that often, only a small percentage of the land is dedicated to coffee.
“The Bolivian coffee industry has been fine-tuning itself by producing quality in the cup and improving post-harvest techniques mostly at the wet- and dry-milling stages,” says Marcos Moreno, agribusiness and marketing advisor for the Market Access and Poverty Alleviation (MAPA) project, a USAID-funded project that provides technical assistance to coffee growers in Bolivia. “This is a young coffee industry in the hands of more than 23,000 small growers who are learning to make better coffee and bring home a steady income.”
“It is not a miracle what has been happening lately in Bolivia, but it is the result of hard work on behalf of coffee growers that want to showcase what they can produce and turn around the misconception that Bolivian coffees were a bag full of unpleasant surprises,” Moreno adds.
Most smallholders use little or no fertilizers or pesticides. The coffees are typically hand-picked and washed, and then sun- or machine-dried. New projects, such as those funded by the U.S. to eradicate drugs, helped build coffee processing plants in the main growing regions so that the wet coffee would no longer need to be trucked into La Paz.
Along with ACEB, the U.S. government spent $150,000 to bring the Cup of Excellence program in Bolivia in October and December of 2004. In the first year, 13 Bolivian coffees earned the Cup of Excellence designation. First prize, with a score of 90.44, went to CENAPROC, a co-op that received more than $11 a pound for its coffee. In addition to inspiring more farmers to participate in coming years, the hope is that the potential of this type of money will continue to turn farmers away from coca acreage and into coffee. However, at around $2 a pound, coca still pays at least double the current price of coffee.
Bolivia has all the ingredients to be a high-quality coffee producer, such as altitude, fertile soil, and a consistent rainy season. However, the rugged terrain and lack of infrastructure and technology make post-harvest quality control a challenging task. Funds from development agencies are working to establish processing facilities in rural areas so that farmers have access to the resources that will help ensure quality beans, while also adding value to their product.
Within the entire industry, 28 privately owned firms control more than 70 percent of coffee export trade. The remaining percentage is traded by Bolivia’s 17 coffee cooperatives. Both the private and cooperative sectors are members of the Bolivian Coffee Committee, or Cobolca. Most of Bolivia’s (green) beans are exported to the US, the EU, the Russian Federation, and Japan.
The global coffee crisis has produced devastating effects for Bolivia’s rural farming population, as well as the economy as a whole. With coffee prices reaching as low as $0.40 in early 2002, many producers have been unable to cover the costs of production. Despite a price spike in 1997, coffee production and its value on the international market has been decreasing steadily since the early 1990s. The role of coffee in the national economy fluctuates based on the highly volatile international commodity price, or New York “C” price. In 1997, Bolivia exported 6,725 metric tons of coffee (green) and received $26,040,000, meaning that each metric ton was worth approximately $3872. However, in 2003 coffee exports (green) totaled 4,453 metric tons and returned only $6,389,000, thus valuing each metric ton at a mere $1,4237 . This staggering price disparity reflects (on a smaller scale) the natural boom and bust cycles of the coffee economy, making small-scale farmers extremely vulnerable to cyclical price shocks.
In the past few years specialty labeling (Fair Trade, organic, and shade grown) and the cooperative movement have been gaining momentum among various rural commodity producers. Many cooperatives have united under this movement, yet others are incapable of paying the certification costs, which are considerable in the context of such poverty. ANTOFAGASTA, established near La Paz in 1992, was one of the first cooperatives on the Fair Trade register that sells a portion of their coffee through Equal Exchange’s Fair Trade market.

Open House day at the Bolivian Consulate

On Wednesday, 30 June, from 5:30 - 7:30 pm, there will be a reception at the Bolivian Consulate in New York. Interested parties including journalists, playwrights, professors and students are invited to attend, meet diplomats, meet the founders of Amigos de Bolivia, and take away some information packets.
The consulate is located at 211 East 43, Suite 1004, New York, NY, 10017.
Learn about the orchids, birds, mining and other industries, or just sip come Bolivian coffee or coca liquor!
For more information contact Carlos Reyes at carlosreyes99@rocketmail.com

Handel in Bolivia

An article from the Guardian about music in Bolivia caught my eye....

Bolivia's soaring symphonies

One of Kurt Masur's mentees, American conductor David Handel's novel approach and ongoing fame fills concert halls wherever he works. Eleven years ago he moved to La Paz, Bolivia, where he's been radically transforming the local Symphony Orchestra. Since his arrival audience attendance has rocketed and he has achieved an extraordinary reputation among conductors in Latin America. He describes what music means to him and Bolivian society

Guardian Weekly
Thursday 30 April 2009 09.00 BST

I grew up in Buffalo, New York and went to the University of Michigan before becoming an assistant conductor at the Leipzig Gewandhaus. I was there with Kurt Masur, who made an enormous impact on my way of thinking, especially in the sense of an orchestra's role in a community. Now I am totally dedicated to the orchestra in La Paz.
An orchestra is a team effort, everybody is involved and everybody has something to contribute. My contribution during the course of these years has been mostly directing it, trying to professionalise the ensemble – the intention is trying to professionalise the institution so as to reflect other orchestras in other parts of the world.
Of course an orchestra is not a Bolivian invention, it is not a North American invention either, it comes from a certain part of the world at a certain point in time and the idea in La Paz was to create the finest orchestral organisation we could.
The orchestra was pretty rustic but now I'd say we have a dignified group. We have a longer rehearsal cycle because we have musicians that have other jobs. Many of them are professors at the National Conservatory, some give private lessons, some divide their time between chemistry and the symphony, and we even have a doctor in the orchestra. It's a professional symphony orchestra, but one that is still in a state of transformation.
Musically it is at a completely different level. In part because we have more musicians on staff and musicians of a higher level, but also because we have inculcated a sense of discipline and order and work ethic. Having said that we have been doing so with a really wonderful and open spirit, a collegiate spirit between friends and colleagues.
The environment we've created allows my colleagues to express themselves, and have reason to challenge themselves, and dedicate themselves to the music they rehearse and perform every week.
Bolivia is a demographically and geographically diverse country. We play in every part of it; we have annual tours to every region, as well as an annual festival in southern Bolivia which involves musicians from all neighbouring countries, and from Europe and North America. This offers our musicians the opportunity to make contact with other musicians, and that has really contributed to the level of the group.
We de-centralised the orchestra from the state bureaucracy. This means we created a legal structure where we have economic independence, the liberty to hire musicians and to grow the organisation. We created the National Symphony Foundation, a private sector organisation which raises money and helps with volunteer activities. The biggest contribution during so far has been the building we are in now, the Centro Sinfonico, of which we are very proud, and we are one of the few orchestras in Latin America that has its own concert hall.
Our repertoire is diverse and innovative, in the sense that we've tried to project the aspirations of our musicians and the aspirations of the public, as well as open doors and reflect musical backgrounds from all parts of Bolivia. In that sense we've grown our institutional library, with more than 100 new works – either original commissions or arrangements of traditional Bolivian music.
If we think about Beethoven's country dances and Mozart borrowing from affectations of Turkish music, you can see that the idea of borrowing from other musical and cultural sources has always been around, it was a question of applying it here. Think about 20th century musical figures: Alberto Ginastera and Lopez Bouchardo in Argentina; Leonard Bernstein and George Gerschwin in the US. All of them were very important musical voices and important, let's say, expressions, orchestral expressions of their respective cultures, so why not, try to create that dynamic here.
When I arrived there was no connection between the orchestra and the contemporary composers who were living and working here. So one of my tasks was to launch an open call to all composers, announcing that, 'works are welcome, the orchestra will perform them'. By starting that way we have created a very dynamic relationship with all our composers.
I think the orchestra reflects the diversity of the country. If one analyses what an orchestra is beyond its musical role, it's an idealised social paradigm, that is to say it's a little bit authoritarian in its structure, a little bit vertical, but when the public attends a concert they perceive right away that it is a paradigm– a dream of how a civil society can work.
The audience sit down in front of the music stands and have ideas put in front of them but they have different interpretations of how it might be brought together. We have a conductor, a concert master, and various leaders in the orchestra, who bring it all together through coordination and hard work in concert – and we hopefully arrive at the harmony and conclusion the composer hopes for.
We have musicians from all different backgrounds, whether it's Quechua, Aymara, Spanish, North American, Chinese, Brazilian, and we have a young lady from Uzbekistan; and I think that is inspiring for the public in a society where there are so many, let's say, intercultural tensions.
I think a symphony orchestra has a role in any society. Bolivia actually has a long tradition of orchestral music and ensemble play, obviously dating back to the Spanish colonial times. Archives found in several parts of the country reflect this tradition. In fact, I think it was 'L'elisir d'amore' [The Elixir of Love by Donizetti], a very important nineteenth century opera, that was first performed in La Paz, Bolivia, before Buenos Aires, I'll tell you. So there is a long history.
The country today has over nine million inhabitants, and growing, so we tend to repeat all the programmes, three, four, five, times. So our work is relevant. Statistics demonstrate that a symphony orchestra has a place beyond anyone's assumptions.
• David Handel talked to Andres Schipani during a rehearsal in La Paz. Handel has twice been a fellow of the prestigious Fulbright Program, and is laureate of the Chicago Artists International Program. He has received numerous awards including two Rackham awards and the UNESCO/Pro-Santa Cruz National Prize in Culture.

PINK RIVER DOLPHIN RESCUE

Just in from AP, a story on the stranded dolphins in the Amazon Basin of Bolivia:

Bolivian scientists are trying to rescue a group of pink river dolphins that have become stranded on a river clogged with mud.
Biologist Mariana Escobar says the nine freshwater dolphins migrated to avoid turbulent floodwaters on their home river, only to find themselves stranded on a connecting river by sediment deposits from the flood.
Scientists say they may use helicopters to remove the dolphins from the Paila River.
Biologist Noel Kempf said Tuesday that the dolphins are in good health for now.
But two newborns and another youthful dolphin still cannot survive and learn to fish in the unusually strong currents of their native Rio Grande. The dolphins have long beaks and can grow to 8 feet (2.5 meters) long.

Bolivia nuts

A lots of food from Bolivia is taken for granted; the ubiquitous potato, for instance, was once unknown to the Europeans, but now it is in almost every meal, from fish'n'chips to vichysoise.
But one item in particular from Bolivia not only gets taken for granted, but is named for its large neighbour, even though most of this is harvested in Bolivia; the 'Brazil' nut. Most of this is from the nothern departamentos, where 15,000 tons are harvested each year. (Source: Enciclopedia de Bolivia - ISBN 84-494-1248-8).

It truly is an amazing plant; a tree grows to be 500 years or more. And there is this mysterious symbiosis with an orchid. Orchids, of which Bolivia has quite a few (thousand), are some of my favourite plants. But to think that a tree actually needs one of these is a fantastic construct! Below I have posted a write-up, everything you always wanted to know about 'Brazil' nuts (which are not actually nuts, but the way, so a double mesentendre here...) but were afraid to ask.


The Brazil nut (Bertholletia excelsa) is a South American tree in the family Lecythidaceae, and also the name of the tree's commercially harvested edible seed.
The Brazil nut family is in the order Ericales, as are other well known plants such as: blueberries, cranberries, sapote, gutta-percha, tea, kiwi fruit, phlox, and persimmons.
The Brazil nut tree is the only species in the monotypic type genus Bertholletia. It is native to the Guianas, Venezuela, Brazil, eastern Colombia, eastern Peru and eastern Bolivia. It occurs as scattered trees in large forests on the banks of the Amazon, Rio Negro, and the Orinoco. The genus is named after the French chemist Claude Louis Berthollet.
The Brazil nut is a large tree, reaching 30–45 metres (100–150 ft) tall and 1–2 metres (3–6.5 ft) trunk diameter, among the largest of trees in the Amazon Rainforests. It may live for 500 years or more, and according to some authorities often reaches an age of 1,000 years. The stem is straight and commonly unbranched for well over half the tree's height, with a large emergent crown of long branches above the surrounding canopy of other trees. The bark is grayish and smooth. The leaves are dry-season deciduous, alternate, simple, entire or crenate, oblong, 20–35 centimetre long and 10–15 centimetres broad. The flowers are small, greenish-white, in panicles 5–10 centimetres long; each flower has a two-parted, deciduous calyx, six unequal cream-colored petals, and numerous stamens united into a broad, hood-shaped mass.

Brazil nut trees produce fruit almost exclusively in pristine forests, as disturbed forests lack the large-body bees of the genera Bombus, Centris, Epicharis, Eulaema, and Xylocopa which are the only ones capable of pollinating the tree's flowers. Brazil nuts have been harvested from plantations but production is low and it is currently not economically viable.

The Brazil nut tree's yellow flowers contain very sweet nectar and can only be pollinated by an insect strong enough to lift the coiled hood on the flower and with tongues long enough to negotiate the complex coiled flower. For this reason, the Brazil nut's reproduction depends on the presence of the orchid Coryanthes vasquezii, which does not grow on the Brazil nut tree itself. The orchids produce a scent that attracts small male long-tongued orchid bees (Euglossa spp), as the male bees need that scent to attract females. The large female long-tongued orchid bee pollinates the Brazil nut tree. Without the orchid, the bees do not mate, and therefore the lack of bees means the fruit does not get pollinated.
The fruit takes 14 months to mature after pollination of the flowers. The fruit itself is a large capsule 10–15 centimetres diameter resembling a coconut endocarp in size and weighing up to 2 kilograms. It has a hard, woody shell 8–12 millimetres thick, and inside contains 8–24 triangular seeds 4–5 centimetres long (the "Brazil nuts") packed like the segments of an orange; it is not a true nut in the botanical sense.
The capsule contains a small hole at one end, which enables large rodents like the Agouti to gnaw it open. They then eat some of the nuts inside while burying others for later use; some of these are able to germinate to produce new Brazil nut trees. Most of the seeds are "planted" by the Agoutis in shady places, and the young saplings may have to wait years, in a state of dormancy, for a tree to fall and sunlight to reach it. It is not until then that it starts growing again. Capuchin monkeys have been reported to open Brazil nuts using a stone as an anvil.

Despite their name, the most significant exporter of Brazil nuts is not Brazil but Bolivia, where they are called almendras.

While cooks classify the Brazil nut as a nut, botanists consider it to be a seed and not a nut, since in nuts the shell splits in half with the meat separate from the shell.]

Around 20,000 tons of Brazil nuts are harvested each year, of which Bolivia accounts for about 50%, Brazil 40% and Peru 10% (2000 estimates). In 1980, annual production was around 40,000 tons per year from Brazil alone, and in 1970 Brazil harvested a reported 104,487 tons of nuts.

Brazil nuts for international trade come entirely from wild collection rather than from plantations. This has been advanced as a model for generating income from a tropical forest without destroying it. The nuts are gathered by migrant workers known as castanheiros.

Brazil nuts are 18% protein, 13% carbohydrates, and 69% fat. The fat breakdown is roughly 25% saturated, 41% monounsaturated, and 34% polyunsaturated. The saturated content of Brazil nuts is among the highest of all nuts, surpassing macadamia nuts, which are primarily monounsaturated fat, and the nuts are pressed for their oil.

Nutritionally, Brazil nuts are a good source of magnesium and thiamine, and are perhaps the richest dietary source of selenium; one ounce can contain as much as 10 times the adult USRDA. Recent research suggests that proper selenium intake is correlated with a reduced risk of both breast cancer as well as prostate cancer This has led some health commentators and nutritionists to recommend the consumption of Brazil nuts as a protective measure. These findings are inconclusive, however; other investigations into the effects of selenium on prostate cancer were inconclusive.

As well as its food use, Brazil nut oil is also used as a lubricant in clocks, for making artists' paints, and in the cosmetics industry.
The lumber from Brazil nut trees (not to be confused with Brazilwood) is of excellent quality, but logging the trees is prohibited by law in all three producing countries (Brazil, Bolivia and Peru). Illegal extraction of timber and land clearances present a continuing threat.

Bolivian Hawk

BOLIVIAN HAWK

Above is an image of a Harris' Hawk, found in Eastern Bolivia. Taken with permission from www.lureofthefalcon.blogspot.com

Harpy seeks a meal

BOLIVIAN EAGLE

Here is another image of a Bolivian bird, the Harpy Eagle, which is the world's most powerful raptor. It is seen here hunting a curassow, species of which also live in Bolivia. Used with kind permission of www.lureofthefalcon.blogspot.com

Seriama

TAKING A SNAKE FROM THE GRASS

This bird, which is found in Eastern Bolivia, is the the Red-legged Seriema (Seriema cristata); it has just bagged lunch, a Smooth Machete Savane (Chironius scurrulus). The snake's genus is endemic to South America, as is the bird's; however, one might note some similarities to the Houbara (Chlamydotis undulata) and other bustards. That is because they are in fact in the same order, the Gruiformes, along with rails. Credit for this goes to http://www.lureofthefalcon.blogspot.com/, used with kind permission.

Tale of Two Cities: New York and La Paz on Earth Day, 2010

On Earth Day, 22 April 2010, there was much going on in La Paz and New York. The former had some 15,000 visitors to hear talks on melting glaciers and capitalism, whilst in the latter great crowds tuned in to hear about capitalism and, er, capitalism. POTUS turned up, to the chagrin of the Big Apple's biggest billionaire, who was not informed ahead of time about the visit. The billionaire happens also to be the mayor, so it is protocol to do so, but when you are a novice politician, protocol is often lacking; just look at the pictures of POTUS at a seder without a kippa, or yarmulke as it is better known in New York. The novice, who also happens to be a millionaire, was in NY to address Wall Street, which was worried that he might do something to regulate them, especially after the latest scandal with bankers putting together idiotic deals and then betting against them; the buyers lost a billion, the bankers made a billion. Many millionaires are now ex-millionaires. But the billionaire was not going to let the loss of a mere billion serve as an argument for regulation. His argument ran something along the lines that if you regulate them, NY might lose out - kind of like asking the government not to enforce the law on the mob, as it makes money and without mob money NY might lose out... The Amigos de Bolivia crowd, however, had a better speaker to listen to, even if he wasn't a billionaire or even a millionaire; someone who could talk about credit upgrades, best GDP in the region status, and increased social spending, rather than stock market swindles. The speaker was Luis Alberto Arce Catacora, Minister of Economics and Public Finance. He spoke at Columbia University, flanked by the Bolivian Consul, Marco Medrano, and his aides.
Arce mentioned Bolivia's vast mineral resources - no talk on Bolivian economics would be complete without that - and said one very good thing: that Bolivia was not going to just count on these to get by, but was going to create businesses that would be sustainable for the future; he mentioned eco-tourism, paper mills and agriculture.Of the first, there was not much detailed discussion, Bolivia has always lagged behind on this, whilst Ecuador, Peru and Costa Rica are the leaders in the field. Bolivia has greater biodiversity than any of them, with 1448 species of birds and well over 1200 species of orchids. But this market will have to be tapped; there needs to be more scientific papers and publicity about what is there, with the museums and other institutions working to alongside this industry. Amigos de Bolivia members offered their help on this and we shall see. As to paper, Arce qualified what materials were used by saying that the mills were all for recycling; much room for improvement exists here if new fibres can be sourced, either grown for paper, or, in the case of hemp and banana, the fibres that are generally thrown away can be used. Hemp is the oldest paper fibre in the world, and banana is a relative of Manila hemp, used for making rope, so both are excellent choices and can grow in Bolivia.
As to agriculture, Arce noted there are two kinds of crops: those known in the West, such as maize, rice, sugar, etc., and those endemic to the Andes, such as quinoa and maca; a student added stevia to that list. Then of course there is wine (grown in 6 departamentos, mostly in Tarija), coffee, and coco. Arable land, however, is not abundant in Bolivia, it comprises only 4.5% of the country; by contrast, 56% of India is arable land. Thus agriculture needs to be both diversified and focused on those plants which would make the country competitive.

World attention is turning to Bolivia more and more, so expect to hear more about it. My guess is that the mineral resources will ultimately prove lucrative, but not without struggle, and that in the meantime, and for the future, the best bet is to develop sustainable industries such as Senor Arce mentioned.

Earth Day in Bolivia

This is a nice piece I pinched from http://www.itsgettinghotinhere.org/
It was funny that none of the major papers in New York ran anything on this...
So here is a really great article by Joshua Kahn Russell, posted to their site on 22 April.

This morning my email inbox was full of advocacy groups commemorating the 40th anniversary of Earth Day. As the ecological systems that support life are reaching their brink, there is certainly a good reason to use this opportunity to shine a spotlight on a range of issues and challenges. But activist organizations aren’t alone in commemorating today.
Today I was struck even more by corporations trying to capitalize on Earth Day to green their images. As Becky Tarbotton observed in the Huffington Post, the New York Times summarized the situation well: “So strong was the antibusiness sentiment for the first Earth Day in 1970 that organizers took no money from corporations and held teach-ins ‘to challenge corporate and government leaders’… Forty years later, the day has turned into a premier marketing platform for selling a variety of goods and services, like office products, Greek yogurt and eco-dentistry.”

Against this backdrop, World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth in Cochabamba today is a breath of fresh air.
The Indigenous Environmental Network celebrated today by explaining that “this morning Bolivian President Evo Morales was joined by representatives of 90 governments and several Heads of State to receive the findings of the conference on topics such as a Climate Tribunal, Climate Debt, just finance for mitigation and adaptation, agriculture, and forests. The working group on forests held one of the more hotly contested negotiations of the summit, but with the leadership of Indigenous Peoples, a consensus was reached to reject REDD and call for wide-scale grassroots reforestation programs.”
Jason Negrón-Gonzales of Movement Generation elaborated on how they do Earth Day in Cochabamba: “…from now I’ll be talking to my children and 2010 will be remembered as the year that Earth Day took on new meaning. It will be the year that humanity turned a corner in our relationship to Mother Earth and began struggling along a new course…more than politics, the conference in Cochabamba brought to the table humanity’s relationship with Pachamama. This question, raised most pointedly by the Indigenous communities present, was reflected in the project of creating a declaration of Mother Earth Rights, but also went way beyond it. Can we really reach a sustainable relationship with the Earth unless we stop looking at it as something to be conquered or fixed that is outside of us? How would it change our lives and our struggles if we thought, as Leonardo Boff of Brazil said, ‘Todo lo que existe merece existir, y todo lo que vive merece vivir (Everything that exists deserves to exist, and everything that lives deserves to live)’? Or if we understood the Earth as a living thing that we are a part of and that, ‘La vida es un momento de la tierra, y la vida humana un momento de la vida (Life is a moment of the earth, and the human life is a moment of life)’?”

And the politics do matter. The cross-pollination of grassroots social movements in Bolivia are charting a course and global program that articulates both an analysis of the state of play of the United Nations negotiations as well as a set of solutions moving forward. Jason helped outline the core points of the ABC’s of the Climate Negotiations distilled from analysis coming out of the Cochabamba conference:
1. The key question (aside from decreasing emissions) in negotiations is how to divide up the atmospheric space left for emissions given that the US and other developed countries already used up most of the space that there was for greenhouse gas emissions. This then leads to the obvious follow-up question of whether or not the same countries that overused already should get the overwhelming share of what’s left. The obvious answer that most children would tell you is that no – that isn’t fair, or for that matter, just or equitable. Yet when a country like the US says it can’t or won’t cut emissions to the level it demands of others, that’s what happens.
2. Many countries in the Global South, and certainly the Bolivian government, believe that when developed countries like the US need to decrease their emissions that we should do it domestically, in US industries and the US economy, instead of creating carbon markets that let the US pollute away while paying someone else to decrease for them. This makes sense because history has shown that the projects that are supposed to “offset” emissions in the US or EU are often dubious, or might have happened anyway, or cause other problems for the people who live where they are happening (like with dams).
3. Regardless of the above points, the rich nations pushing the current arena of international negotiations are not seeking to get industrialized countries to decrease their own emissions by their fare share. Right now there are two competing options for a global framework to address climate change– a backroom deal the US is trying to move called the Copenhagen Accord, and the continuation of the international negotiations that have been happening according to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) process since the Kyoto Protocol was signed in 1997. You read that right. The US-backed “Copenhagen Accord” has no relationship to the ongoing global negotiations process. As Angelica Navarro, one of the UN climate negotiators from Bolivia told the story, “It (the Copenhagen Accord) was given to us and we were told we had an hour to decide if we would support it enough. How are we supposed to make a decision about the future of the earth in an hour?”
4. The Kyoto Protocol, adopted through the UNFCCC as the global plan to set targets and mechanisms for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in 1997 has lots of well documented problems: a carbon market has allowed developed countries to avoid making real reductions to their emissions, a “clean development mechanism” which has spurred all kinds of destructive projects in the Global South, and the use of offsets which lead to continued pollution in communities of color in industrialized countries while paying projects elsewhere to cut their real or planned emissions. However, on the positive side Kyoto has: shared legal limits on emissions that are (at least prospectively) based on science; the concept of “common but differentiated responsibilities” meaning that those who have polluted the most should have a different burden than those who haven’t; exceptions for Global South countries with the intent of not restricting their development; and an enforcement mechanism if targets aren’t met.
5. The Copenhagen Accord, on the other hand, has: voluntary limits set by each country, no process to reconcile or pressure countries that offer less regardless of responsibility, no enforcement, continued carbon markets with offsets, etc., and an overall target set not by what science says in necessary, but only representing the total of what all the countries offer up. A study done by the EU estimated that if the Copenhagen Accord was approved with the existing commitments by countries it would optimistically only decrease emissions by 2%, probably locking us into a 3.9 degree Celsius temperature increase globally (this comes from a recent MIT study) – which would be a serious disaster.
Just as companies are using Earth Day to green their images, the Copenhagen Accord was an attempt to pretend a lot more is being done than it really is. It gets worse. This Earth Day comes on the heels of the leaked U.S. Government document trying to “Reinforce the perception that the US is constructively engaged in UN negotiations in an effort to produce a global regime to combat climate change,” “managing expectations” of the UN Climate talks in order to undercut critics. Though the story has predictably gotten little attention in the U.S., the 40th anniversary of Earth Day is framed by extremes filling my email inbox: the predatory opportunism of corporations and some governments on one side, and real solutions proposed by Indigenous groups and other front-line communities on the other. Today, I’m grateful for the 15,000 people making history down south.

Revolution and Education in Bolivia

In New York, Amigos de Bolivia members have been gearing up for events later in the year to promote their favourite Andean state. It has been a topic of discussion also at New York University, where CLACS, the Center for Latin American and Carribbean Studies has been sponsoring lectures by visiting professors, presented by Sinclair Thomson and Carmen Medeiros of NYU.
But wait a minute, is this not the alma mater of one Jose Brechner, that ex-politician whose shrill rants against the mestizos (the indigenous population) and the collas in particular (the Aymara and Quechua) make him sound like the Fuhrer on a bad day? Most people outside of Bolivia have never heard of this clown, though he writes for a number of large dailies including Ha'aretz (maybe they need token nazi). His reputation, however, is not much bigger even in his own backyard, no matter how much he pisses in it with his rants. At the latest events, neither Marisol de le Cadena nor Bret Gustafson had heard of him. Brechner's stomping ground is the right wing Santa Cruz, which also happens to be Gustafon's residence these days.
But, moving on from the likes of Herr Brechner, of whom Melvyn Kohn writes more on the Jewish Chronicle site, let me throw a more positive light on the work of de la Cadena and Gustafson; the former is based in Davis, where she teaches at University of California, and the latter in St. Louis (when not in Santa Cruz) - where he teaches at the University of Washington. The UC instructor gave a talk on 29 March titled "Indigenous Politics: Beyond politics as usual", in which she held forth on the ontological pluralisation of politics in regards to the conjuring of non-human beings, i.e. mountains, water, soil, etc., as beings to be regarded in the making of laws, mostly in regards to mining. She being a Peruvian, this had more to do with Peru than Bolivia, but touched on both. Gustafon's speech, titled "Epistemic Rupture, Affirmative Action or 'Reverse Racism'?: Decolonizing Knowledge in Evo's Bolivia", was almost entirely limited to Bolivia, with a focus on the province of Santa Cruz, the large and wealthy southeast departamento. He is the author of New Languages of the State: Indigenous Resurgence and the Politics of Knowledge in Bolivia (Duke, 2009) and is presently working with Niki Fabricant on Remapping Bolivia: Territory and Resources in a Plurinational State.

His talk included much of his own memories of education in Bolivia, starting with the policies of the mid-'90s, the heyday of neo-liberalism under Losada; these for some reason were backed by the World Bank, and some say it was with the intention of weakening the teachers' union. The more recent talks about education reform entail what Gustafson calls a "distinct shift from the neo-liberal period", adding that the "neo-liberalism of the '90s saw indigenous language as a problem to be addressed." The present movement has attracted "violent right-wing opposition", he notes, to the surprise of no one familiar with the situation. Some of the proposed changes in education include the teaching not only of indigenous languages, but of local rituals as well - such as the uta chana - a ceremony for homebuilding/starting a new family.

Education ministers have tended to move at a speed reminiscent of the Blair government in the UK - MAS is onto its fourth. The first was Felix Patzi, who was virulently anti-ecclesiastical, and is now doing jail time, or penance if you will, for drunk driving - a crime Morales has cracked down to the protests of drunk drivers. However ridiculous that sounds, that is exactly what happened - there were road blocks and other forms of protests against the new laws designed to improve road safety - and needless to say the protestors were not in favour; MADD would certainly have loved MAS that day. Most of Bolivia certainly did and told the drunks to shut up and get out of the way.
Patzi's successor was from the teachers' union, who in turn was succeeded by one of the leading Catholics, who in turn was succeeded by a criollo who some call an elitist, Roberto Aguilar; so not only have the faces changed in this ministry, but so have the outlooks and backgrounds of the head educators. The Catholic Church is not the only religious entity in Bolivia to have some influence on education, there has been a steady flow of Protestant missionaries, and these founded the Summer Institute of Linguistics back in the '50s or '60s. Many chefs in the kitchen, much simmering debate, and some real hotheads screaming that Morales is making a "pact between the devil and Fidel Castro to take over Bolivian children." Western journalists, often lacking insight into the minutae (how many of them bother to travel to the country?), labeled the whole thing as affirmative action, and indeed when Morales opened three new schools for the indigenous in their municipalities, many expected them to be lefty campuses full of Trotskyites and hippies; no such luck, they were all technical schools featuring nuts and bolts courses on veterinary medicine, improved crop yields and gas drilling.
Gustafson pointed out that Morales is not acting as a left wing extremist at all, but even looks a bit conservative at times; we hear more recycled factoids by journalists who cut and paste from the fax machine, as Guardian journalists Nick Davies explained in his 2009 book Flat Earth News; click here for a review and excerpts. So this is not a country turning into a radical revolutionary experiment; nor are there murderous Indians running around extracting vengeance on the criollos. Brechner take note - there is evidence of a peaceful change, and not a lot of separatism as was expected. Out of 315 municipal areas where a referendum for autonomy was put forward or could have been, only 10 voted for it; two of them in Santa Cruz. Gustafson remarked: "We don't see emerging radical ethno-territoriality of the state...what we see are fragmented differences."Of the problems in Santa Cruz it was noted in the round table discussion that the violence that we are heaing about is not necessarily new there, it is just being brought into the public discourse at this time. Included in any discourse on violence in that departamento would be the plot to assassinate Morales, which Gustafson, perhaps in deference to certain copies of an AP report which cast doubt on the government story, noted as "alleged." Conspiracy theories abounded but were soon debunked, as the plotters had gone so far as to make a video tape of themselves discussing such activities - but rather than enter at large upon this here, Melvyn Kohn's essay on Harry's Place will give the inquisitive some facts; and I might add that there is yet more to the story that Kohn is holding back at this time.
Physical assassins were followed by character assassins; the twain often meet up, especially where there is a prize to steal, and I am referring to resources - Merrill Lynch called Bolivia the "Saudi Arabia of Lithium", and that metal is not the only one under the surface of Bolivia's soil; gold, silver, uranium, zinc, tin, iron, and many others. External conflict related to it all is to be expected, but there are internal conflicts as well, as opposition to mining exists in some of the very indigenous groups that put MAS in office. Morales is holding up well with this, balancing environmentalism and local spirituality with the reality of having to feed some 10 million people. The president at one point drew the line and told some that they could not stand in the way of the good of the nation. This week Bolivia is hosting an international summit on the environment to be held on Earth Day, and Gustafson notes that James Cameron is already in Cochabamba. Forgive me for a note of cynicism here, but I expect lots of grandstanding from rich movie star types and not sure they will make any lasting contribution. That has to come from the Bolivians and their committed allies; lots of limelight grabbers will hug trees, but their hypocrisy is easily seen when they admit they can't be bothered to wear one thread of hemp. They wear cotton and write on tree pulp paper - destroying entire forests to get their names into magazines and newspapers for this or that, and going green is the latest way to get attention. Hopefully their time spent in Bolivia will humble them and they will take away some reality to bring back to the world of virtual non-reality we call the West.
So we shall see. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk greatly improved Turkey in the 1920s with his education reform - so much so that a friend of mine spent one year in school there and was put three years ahead in a New York school - and the same seems to be happening in Bolivia, which, it might be recalled, is noted for having already produced 'America's best teacher', the late Jaime Escalante. There is a lot to learn here and I expect it to be good.

Birds endemic to Bolivia

The following is a list of all the known endemic Bolivian birds. The country has a total of 1448 species, but as many parts of it are unexplored, there may well be 100 more to go. The Latin name appears first, followed by the English and then any local names if known.

Ara rubrogenys Red-fronted Macaw Least known of all macaws.
Habitat: Restricted to a small semi-desert mountainous area. It is highly endangered, and there may only be 150 or so birds left in the wild; the least known of all South American parrots. Red list.

Aglaeactis pamela Black-hooded Sunbeam
Habitat: Subtropical or tropical moist montanes and subtropical or tropical high-altitude shrubland. Red list.

Discosura letitiae Coppery Thorntail
Habitat: Known only from two old male specimens. Red list.

Simoxenops striatus Bolivian Recurvebill
Habitat: Subtropical or tropical dry forests and subtropical or tropical moist montane forests. It is becoming rare due to habitat loss. Red list.

Oreopsar bolivianus Bolivian Blackbird
Habitat: Subtropical or tropical high-altitude shrubland and pastureland. Red list.

Compsospiza garleppi Cochabamba Mountain Finch
Habitat: Between 9,000 and 12,000ft in semi-arid valleys containing Polylepis spp., Alnus spp. and other associated small trees and shrubs. Red list.

Myrmethorula grisea Yungas Antwren Hormiguerito grisante
Habitat: Subtropical or tropical dry forests and subtropical or tropical moist montane forests. It is becoming rare due to habitat loss. Red list.

Grallaria erythrotus Rufous-faced Antpitta Chululu cara colorado
Habitat: Subtropical or tropical moist montane forests and heavily degraded former forest. Red list.

Schizoaeca harterti Black-throated Thistletail
Habitat: Subtropical or tropical moist montanes and subtropical or tropical high-altitude grassland. Red list.

Cranioleuca henricæ Inquisivi Spinetail Curutie de Inquisivi
Habitat: Discovered in 1993; subtropical or tropical dry forests and plantations . It is threatened by habitat loss. Red list.

Scytalopus zimmeri Zimmer's Tapaculo Churrin de Zimmer
Habitat: An edemic which prefers subtropical or tropical moist montanes to subtropical or tropical high-altitude shrubland and rocky areas. It is named after the American ornithologist John Todd Zimmer, who wrote on neo-tropical birds for the American Museum of Natural History. Red list.

Tarphonomus harterti Bolivian Earthcreeper Bandurrita boliviana
Habitat: Subtropical or tropical high-altitude shrubland. Red list.

Asthenes berlepschi Berlepsch's Canastero Canastero de Berlepsch
Habitat: An endemic which lives in subtropical or tropical high-altitude shrubland and rural gardens. It is threatened by habitat loss. Red list.

Turdus haplochrous Unicoloured Thrush Zurzal
Habitat: Subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests. Red list. Hemitriccus spodiops Yungas Tody-Tyrant Habitat: Subtropical or tropical moist montanes. Red list.

The passing of Jaime Escalante

The noted Bolivian math teacher Jaime Escalante died yesterday. The following is his obituary in the LA Times.

Jaime Escalante, the charismatic former East Los Angeles high school teacher who taught the nation that inner-city students could master subjects as demanding as calculus, died Tuesday. He was 79.
The subject of the 1988 box-office hit "Stand and Deliver," Escalante died at his son's home in Roseville, in northern California, said actor Edward James Olmos, who portrayed the teacher in the film. Escalante had bladder cancer.
"Jaime didn't just teach math. Like all great teachers, he changed lives," Olmos said earlier this month when he organized an appeal for funds to help pay Escalante's mounting medical bills.

Escalante gained national prominence in the aftermath of a 1982 scandal surrounding 14 of his Garfield High School students who passed the strenuous Advanced Placement calculus exam only to be accused later of cheating.
The story of their eventual triumph - and of Escalante's battle to raise standards at a struggling campus of working-class, largely Mexican American students - became the subject of the movie, which turned the balding, middle-aged Bolivian immigrant into the most famous teacher in America.
Escalante was a maverick who did not get along with many of his public school colleagues, but he mesmerized students with his entertaining style and deep understanding of math. Educators came from around the country to observe him at Garfield, which built one of the largest and most successful Advanced Placement programs in the nation.
"Jaime Escalante has left a deep and enduring legacy in the struggle for academic equity in American education," said Gaston Caperton, former West Virginia governor and president of the College Board, which sponsors the Scholastic Assessment Test and the AP exam.
"His passionate belief (was) that all students, when properly prepared and motivated, can succeed at academically demanding coursework, no matter what their racial, social or economic background. Because of him, educators everywhere have been forced to revise long-held notions of who can succeed."
Escalante's rise came during an era decried by experts as one of alarming mediocrity in the nation's schools. He pushed for tougher standards and accountability for students and educators, often nettling colleagues and parents along the way with his brusque manner and uncompromising stands.
He was called a traitor for his opposition to bilingual education. He said the hate mail he received for championing Proposition 227, the successful 1997 ballot measure to dismantle bilingual programs in California, was a factor in his decision to retire in 1998 after leaving Garfield and teaching at Hiram Johnson High School in Sacramento for seven years.
He moved back to Bolivia, where he propelled himself into a classroom again, apparently intent on fulfilling a vow to die doing what he knew best - teach. But he returned frequently to the United States to speak to education groups and continued to ally himself with conservative politics. He considered becoming an education adviser to President George W. Bush and in 2003 signed on as an education consultant for Arnold Schwarzenegger's California gubernatorial campaign.
Escalante was born Dec. 31, 1930, in La Paz, Bolivia, and was raised by his mother after his parents, both schoolteachers, broke up when he was about 9. He attended a well-regarded Jesuit high school, San Calixto, where his quick mind and penchant for mischief often got him into trouble.
After high school he served in the army during a short-lived Bolivian rebellion. Although he had toyed with the idea of engineering school in Argentina, he wound up enrolling at the state teachers college, Normal Superior. Before he graduated he was teaching at three top-rated Bolivian schools. He also married Fabiola Tapia, a fellow student at the college.
At his wife's urging, Escalante gave up his teaching posts for the promise of a brighter future in America for their firstborn, Jaime Jr. (A second son, Fernando, would follow.) With $3,000 in his pocket and little more than "yes" and "no" in his English vocabulary, Escalante flew alone to Los Angeles on Christmas Eve, 1963.
His first job was mopping floors in a coffee shop across the street from Pasadena City College, where he enrolled in English classes. Within a few months he was promoted to cook, slinging burgers by day and studying for an associate's degree in math and physics by night. That led to a better-paying job as a technician at a Pasadena electronics company, where he became a prized employee. But the classroom still beckoned to the teacher inside him. He earned a scholarship to California State University, Los Angeles. to pursue a teaching credential. In the fall of 1974, when he was 43, he took a pay cut to begin teaching at Garfield High for $13,000 a year.
"My friends said, 'Jaime, you're crazy.' But I wanted to work with young people," he told the Los Angeles Times. "That's more rewarding for me than the money."
When he arrived at the school, he was dismayed to learn he had been assigned to teach the lowest level of math. He grew unhappier still when he discovered how watered-down the math textbooks were - on a par with fifth-grade work in Bolivia. Faced with unruly students, he began to wish for his old job back.
But Escalante stayed, soon developing a reputation for turning around hard-to-motivate students. By 1978, he had 14 students enrolled in his first AP calculus class. Of the five who survived his stiff homework and attendance demands, only two earned passing scores on the exam.
But in 1980, seven of nine students passed the exam; in 1981, 14 of 15 passed.
In 1982, he had 18 students to prepare for the academic challenge of their young lives.
At his insistence, they studied before school, after school and on Saturdays, with Escalante as coach and cheerleader. Some of them lacked supportive parents, who needed their teenagers to work to help pay bills. Other students had to be persuaded to spend less time on the school band or in athletics. Yet all gradually formed an attachment to calculus and to "Kimo," their nickname for Escalante, inspired by Tonto's nickname for the Lone Ranger, Kemo Sabe.
Escalante was hospitalized twice in the months leading up to the AP exam. He had a heart attack while teaching night school but ignored doctors' orders to rest and was back at Garfield the next day.
Then he disappeared one weekend to have his gallbladder removed. As Washington Post reporter Jay Mathews recounted in his 1988 book, "Escalante: The Best Teacher in America," the hard-driving teacher turned the health problem into another weapon in his bag of tricks. "You burros give me a heart attack," he repeatedly told his students when he returned. "But I come back! I'm still the champ."
The guilt-making mantra was effective. One student said, "If Kimo can do it, we can do it. If he wants to teach us that bad, we can learn."
The Advanced Placement program qualifies students for college credit if they pass the exam with a score of 3 or higher. For many years it was a tool of the elite; the calculus exam, for example, was taken by only about 3 percent of American high school math students when Escalante revived the program at Garfield in the late 1970s.
In 1982, a record 69 Garfield students were taking AP exams in various subjects, including Spanish and history. Escalante's calculus students took their exam in May under the watchful eye of the school's head counselor.
The results, released over the summer, were stunning: All 18 of his students passed, with seven earning the highest score of 5.
But the good news quickly turned bad.
The Educational Testing Service, which administers the exam, said it had found suspicious similarities in the solutions given on 14 exams. It invalidated those scores.
The action angered the students, who thought ETS would not have questioned their scores if they were white. But this was Garfield, a school made up primarily of lower-income Mexican Americans that only a few years earlier had nearly lost its accreditation.
Escalante, like many in the Garfield community, feared the students were victims of a racist attack, a charge that ETS strongly denied. Two of the students told Mathews of the Post that some cheating had occurred, but they later recanted their confessions.
Vindication came in a retest. Of the 14 accused of wrongdoing, 12 took the exam again and passed.
After that, the numbers of Garfield students taking calculus and other Advanced Placement classes soared. By 1987, only four high schools in the country had more students taking and passing the AP calculus exam than Garfield.
Escalante's dramatic success raised public consciousness of what it took to be not just a good teacher but a great one. One of the most astute analyses of his classroom style came from the actor who shadowed him for days before portraying him in "Stand and Deliver."
"He's the most stylized man I've ever come across," Olmos, who received an Oscar nomination for his performance, told The New York Times in 1988. "He had three basic personalities - teacher, father-friend and street-gang equal - and he would juggle them, shift in an instant. ... He's one of the greatest calculated entertainers."
Escalante was the ultimate performer in class, cracking jokes, rendering impressions and using all sorts of props - from basketballs and wind-up toys to meat cleavers and space-alien dolls - to explain complex mathematical concepts.
In 1991, Escalante packed up his bag of tricks and quit Garfield, saying he was fed up with faculty politics and petty jealousies. He headed to Hiram Johnson High with the intention of testing his methods in a new environment.
But in seven years there, he never had more than about 14 calculus students a year and a 75 percent pass rate, a record he blamed on administrative turnover and cultural differences.
Thirty-five years after leaving Bolivia for his journey into teaching fame, Escalante went home. He settled with his wife in her hometown of Cochabamba and became a part-time mathematics professor at the Universidad del Valle, and was still teaching calculus in Bolivia in 2008. He returned to the U.S. frequently to visit his son and give motivational speeches.
He made his last trip here to seek treatment for the cancer that had left him unable to walk or speak above a whisper. In March, as he gave himself over to a Reno, Nev., clinic's regimen of pills, teas and ointments, many of his former students gathered at Garfield to raise money.
Unpopular with fellow teachers, he won few major teaching awards in the U.S. He liked to be judged by his results, a concept still resisted by the majority of his profession.
As he faced death, it was still the results that mattered to him - the young minds he held captive three decades ago who today are engineers, lawyers, doctors, teachers and administrators.
"I had many opportunities in this country, but the best I found in East L.A.," he said in one of his last interviews. "I am proudest of my brilliant students." Read more: http://www.thestate.com/2010/03/30/1223172/jaime-escalante-teacher-who-was.html#ixzz0jneqZDaL