I’m back in Bolivia, and its good to be here. But things seem to have changed considerably since my brief trip last year, and its not just because my Spanish has improved so that I now have a better grasp of what’s going on. Everyone is talking about how much food prices have risen – some say prices are four or five times as much as they were a year ago.
While in the US I was beginning to notice that it now takes $40 to fill the tank of my car while less than a year ago it took $30, I hadn’t begun to notice the rise in food prices much except for a small sign in the bread section of a supermarket explaining why they had rise their prices by 50 cents. Here in Bolivia it is glaringly obvious everywhere we turn. The supermarket near my apartment in La Paz has a big sign over the front door saying “Solidarity against inflation! Buy rice here!” (and this, by the way, is the very posh neighbourhood where people actually shop in supermarkets rather than in street markets). In the rural town of Tiwanaku where I am doing most of my work there are bread shortages. Usually the archaeological project I am working with eats a lot of bread – for breakfast, accompanying each meal, and at ‘tea’ in the afternoon. This year we were told no-one was selling bread in Tiwanaku any more. Elsa, the woman who used to make and sell bread each day in the plaza, had to give up because wheat prices were too high for her to make it affordable. The project cooks suggested they make us Buñuelos, a kind of deep fried donuts/pancake instead. I can’t stand them (I’m a crepe purist), but even those that like them as an occasional treat are baulking at the idea of having them everyday for breakfast. But while we will have to make do with deep fried non-wheat alternatives for a few months, Elsa has lost her business and the rest of Tiwanaku are probably having to change their eating habits for good.
Everywhere prices are higher, and wages are slow to catch up. Having put in grant applications for research a year ahead of when they plan to do field work, several anthropologists I know are finding that when the money comes through its already not enough. The airfares have doubled, the cost of living is three times as much as they budgeted, the wages they were going to pay assistants are not engouh. What with the dollar falling even against the boliviano money doesn’t go as far as it once did, although living in Bolivia as a foreign will always be very cheap in comparison to Europe or the US. I’m beginning to worry about when I go to Chile next year though. The cost of living in Chile is comparable to the US already, limiting the amount of time I can afford to do my research in by the limits of the grants I can apply for. Speaking to members of the project I will be working with there next year, they are saying that this year they already can’t afford to run their vehicles and are having to cut back on food costs.
I am only feeling this so directly because I have just left the US and am in South America. Other than gas prices, are we feeling this crunch in the “West”? Is it affecting us on a day to day basis, so that our eating habits are changing as dramatically as they are everywhere else in the world?
Fri, 6, Jun, 2008 at 1:48 am
Moll,,,
I’m guessing it depends upon what one’s economic strata is–if in the US and poor, then definitely the answer is yes–from little to a lot less–or nothing. Less poor people can cut back on other ways, and the wealthy don’t have to worry much at all (I’m told). It seems to have happened in Bolivia in just the last few months–when in Bolivia Jan-Feb, the prices had risen only a very little then, and I believe the immediate reasons are the conversion of grains to bio-fuels, commodity speculation and the long-term reason–a world-wide unsustainable population–but I could be wrong.
Part of me is suspicious that prices are intentionally being engineered higher to foment unrest and dissent in Bolivia and anti-government sentiments against the Morales government. That would fit the pattern of US policy–against any and all socialist-leaning regimes in Latin America, and indeed the whole world–but again I could be wrong.
Whatever the reason is though, I’d bet that I’ve listed it above.
I’m sorry it has had an effect upon your research there, but more-sorry it has had such an effect upon the Bolivians, who will suffer from the effects of neo-liberal imperialism even more.
I was told by one of Bolivia’s chief archaeologists that Bolivia has something like 1300 under-explored archaeological sites which need research and protection to help re-find their history, and it looks as though, unless the Morales government can turn their economy around, that many of those sites will languish, or worse–be destroyed.
How do you see it, or are you not at liberty to say?
Regards,,,John
Fri, 6, Jun, 2008 at 8:00 am
Hi John,
Well first I should say that of course I am far more concerned about the effect on the Bolivian people I work with than on my own research. But we see and understand the world through our own experiences, no? So (at least in this fairly personal space of a blog) I tend to waffle on about my own experiences rather than speculate about things I don’t know very well. (Well, sometimes :) So in my experience this week, the people I work with are no longer able to buy bread and are cutting back on all sorts of foods that they usually buy, and its worrying them. That the archaeologists I work with have to double the wages they pay is a problem not just for the archaeologists, but for the community of people they work with who are not stupid, and perfectly well understand that there is a limited amount of money in a research grant so that higher wages for some equals less jobs all round.
Anyway, I’m slightly digressing.
Food. It is indeed highly probably that the US government has its fingers in Bolivia’s pie, so to speak, and August is going to be an interesting time to be here in Bolivia, when the vote come. But food prices are sky rocketing all over the world – friends of mine in Africa, other parts of South America and so on are telling the same stories. So its not just about Morales. An interesting thing I heard a few days ago from a guy in the town I’m working in: The police are cracking down heavily on smugglers on the Desaguadero border. This border between Peru and Bolivia is one of the main smuggling routes into Bolivia. People literally just walk across it carrying stuff – its a street between two supposedly separate towns, one on the Bolivian side and one on the Peruvian side. Its a weird place, very chaotic, you have to carry two sets of money around with you. (Oddly enough the only border where I have ever been stopped and had all my baggage searched, but I think that was a fluke – I was single gringa girl travelling alone and their ‘questions’ included several concerning whether or not I had a boyfriend.) Anyway, given that, according to the guy who was telling me about the crackdown, most of Bolivia’s food comes into the country through such permeable borders – not to mention pretty much everything else other than gas and potatoes – then cracking down on it in the middle of a food shortage is a fairly serious problem. Cracking down on smuggling seems like a good thing, right? Well maybe not. So its always a lot more complicated.
In terms of the archaeology – well my views on archaeology are perhaps a little unorthodox. I’m not actually an archaeologist – I’m a socio-cultural anthropologist who studies the use and practice of archaeology. I could write you a whole thesis in response to your question – or rather, I hope to write a whole thesis about it in a few years when I’ve finished the field work I only started this week :) But for a short preliminary response, a) in the great scheme of things, Bolivia has far more important things to worry about that digging up archaeology. b) Everyone has history. It might not be the history that a professional archaeologist would write, but then no-one ever reads what professional archaeologists write other than other professional archaeologists anyway. Plenty of archaeology is done in the US and Europe, but I bet you have never read any of it (and anything written by a journalist doesn’t count). Does this mean you are disconnected from your history? Bolivians, like everyone else, already have a history so I wouldn’t worry too much about them lacking it if not enough archaeology is done. They’ve got by without it so far. c) Archaeology has and maybe always will be essentially tied to national projects of self-identification. Bolivia is no exception. Evo Morales is putting lots of money into archaeology right now, which is great for all the many people who will now be employed through it (not not just hundreds of archaeologists, but also thousands of indigenous archaeological workers). They hope it will boost tourism – that double edged sword. Archaeology and the pre-colombian past in South America are very tied into ideas about indigenous people being somehow closer to the past, more ‘naturally’ related to it. Its not necessarily a good thing, to have your identity (as imagined by others looking at you, rather than your self-identity) so strongly tied to the past rather than the present. But its complicated.
Anyway, that’s some of the ways I see it now. I may very well be wrong.
Fri, 6, Jun, 2008 at 9:37 am
To follow up on that – having ducked out of the responsibility of giving serious informed analysis, I think maybe I should have directed you towards someone who does. So here’s a link for Jim at the Democracy Centre. Expect nothing but rants and ramblings over here on the Wrong Side of the World :)
Sun, 22, Jun, 2008 at 8:58 am
Moll,,,
Your reasoned responses are informing and well appreciated–at least by me. Thank you!
I have been reading/communicating with Jim for several years now, in addition to any and all I can find who has first-hand knowledge of Bolivia.
I wish you well in your endeavors there, and in your writing/studies/teaching? thereafter.
All the best to you–safe journeys.
Regards,,,John
Sun, 7, Dec, 2008 at 3:04 pm
This does not help me with anything AND this is false advertising. This is supposed to give me information about the Bolivian donuts for my school project. But no, instead i here about your stupid trip to Bolivia.
P.S. You need to learn to write better information
P.S.S. This website sucks!
Sun, 7, Dec, 2008 at 3:09 pm
Hi. ME AGAIN. IM SORRY I SAID SUCH HURTFUL WORDS BUT THIS REALLY DOESN’T HELP ME WITH ANYTHING ABOUT MY SCHOOL PROJECT. AND I ASK THAT YOU MOVE PAST THIS INSTEAD OF HOLDING GRUDGE.