Why Bolivia turned away Bill Gates' chicken donation

[Judi Lynn]

Why Bolivia turned away Bill Gates' chicken donation


It's about more than a few ruffled feathers
By Lindsey J. Smith
on June 17, 2016 04:38 pm

Why Bolivia turned away Bill Gates' chicken donation

Bolivia's outrage yesterday at being a beneficiary of Bill Gates's "Coop Dreams" — a project with Heifer International to donate 100,000 chickens to poor countries — shocked many. But upon closer examination of Bolivia's political climate, none of us, Gates included, should be surprised. Under its current president Evo Morales, Bolivia has a robust history of rejecting US aid, whether governmental or philanthropic.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Over the last decade, the landlocked Andean country has undergone sweeping political changes. Morales, an activist and prominent coca farmer (yes, it's legal to grow coca in Bolivia; no, it's not legal to turn it into cocaine), became Bolivia's first indigenous president in 2006. He won hearts and minds with his socialist party, Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS), which campaigned on a pro-environmental, pro-indigenous platform. Since then, he has been reelected twice and along the way enacted sweeping reforms. In 2008, he established a new constitution and renamed the country Estado Plurinacional de Bolivia, the plurinational state, in recognition of its cultural diversity. (Bolivia has 37 official languages.)

Two concepts sit at the core of Morales' and MAS' decade-long agenda. The first is Buen Vivir — a vision of the world as interconnected and interdependent, where economic, social, and environmental priorities coexist in a balance. The second is La Ley de Derechos de la Madre Tierra, or "the Law of Mother Earth." The law, which passed in 2010, grants nature equal rights to people, including the right to persist without human intervention.

Part and parcel to this pro-environmental platform is a rejection of Western capitalism and traditional development aid. Morales threw out the US Ambassador and the US Drug Enforcement Agency in 2008, and the US Agency for International Development in 2013 — none have yet to be welcomed back. Although Gates' offer is nongovernmental, with such chilly diplomatic relationships, it shouldn't come as a surprise that it was rebuffed.

Good as Gates' intentions are, it's easy to see why a nation so hostile to foreign aid would bristle at the offer. Hell, his comment, "In fact, if I were in their shoes, that's what I would do — I would raise chickens," rubs me the wrong way, too. It rings insincere (c'mon, do you really believe Bill Gates would be content to simply raise chickens given different, impoverished circumstances?) and a little smug. There's nothing like having the rich neighbor next door tell you he would live just like you — if he had to.

More:
http://www.theverge.com/2016/6/17/11965820/bill-gates-bolivia-heifer-international-ngo-us-aid-rejection

[Judi Lynn]

1. 'I find it rude': Bolivia shuns Bill Gates' chickens

'I find it rude': Bolivia shuns Bill Gates' chickens
AFP
Published Friday, June 17, 2016 9:13AM EDT

Bolivia's government turned up its nose Thursday at U.S. billionaire Bill Gates's initiative to donate 100,000 chickens to people living in poverty worldwide, including Bolivians.

"I find it rude, because unfortunately some people, especially in the empire (the United States), still see us as beggars. We don't depend on chickens. We've advanced," said Rural Development Minister Cesar Cocarico.

"Our people have dignity and they know how to work," he told journalists.

. . .

Bolivia's economy has grown rapidly under the left-wing government of Evo Morales, who took office as the country's first indigenous president in 2006.

More:
http://www.ctvnews.ca/business/i-find-it-rude-bolivia-shuns-bill-gates-chickens-1.2949905

[bemildred]

2. What is rude is these libertarian assholes talking out both sides of their mouths.

They whine about charity and welfare making people dependent, and they whine when people insist on being self-sufficient (from them). I think people like Gates, they just like to whine, it's not really about helping anything but their ego. If they wanted to help, they have the means, but they choose to play these little "dole it out" games instead.

[Joe Chi Minh]

3. Didn't Gates genially remark recently that in some country or other, they

could get by on two dollars a day ? What would be Gates' next demarche towards the country be. Can a 'naughty' tree bear good fruit ?

[demigoddess]

4. yet in England they have community gardens, and in the US

we have personal gardens, and some people raise chickens and can their own fruits and vegetables and hold down jobs at the same time. They write about it on their computers all the time.

[Judi Lynn]

5. Native Bolivians are exceedingly industrious, there's not one word than can be legitimately used

against them in any respect, now or ever.

The culture in England and the US European descended culture here have NEVER experienced the havoc, confusion, suffering, hardship, anguish, and monstrosities which have been visited upon the Native Bolivians, who constitute the large majority of Bolivian citizens, who've been living under the hateful boot of European descended filthy racists all these hundreds of years until this last President, an Indigenous President who has brought sudden, and important change to the country, even as the racist Europeans have plotted, schemed, harassed, cursed, done constant damage to his administration every step of the way.

You're not comparing apples to apples here.

What happened to Bolivian citizens in the 1900's was heavily supported by brutal, racist, right-wing bullies in the US military/political/industrial complex.

The "personal gardens" the indigenous citizens of Bolivia used to have were seized by people like President Hugo Banzer, the indigenous people thrown out, and away, even though their ancestors had lived there for hundreds of years, and that land was offered to people like white South African farmers, in Banzer's attempt to change the complexion of the country to more closely resemble his, and his fellow fascists living on similarly stolen land. Until 1952, and after a revolution, Native Bolivians were not even allowed to walk upon the sidewalks used by the European descended occupiers, and they certainly were not allowed to vote for the people who abused them.

Unadorned information shared by a tremendous DU poster years ago:

Monday, May 26, 2008
blatant, violent racism in bolivia

This weekend, as the city of Sucre approached the 199th anniversary of its decisive role in Bolivian independence from Spain, President Evo Morales was scheduled to arrive for an event. Many of his supporters from the campo (countryside) came to the city to receive him. They were met with some of the most blatant and obscene acts of racism Bolivia has seen in modern times.

The Inter-institutional Committee - a self-appointed group of opposition leaders in Sucre who were instrumental in orchestrating the violence there around the constitutional assembly in December - led protests against Evo coming. The rector of the public university there is the leader of this group.

It is also worth noting that Cochabamba Prefect (governor) Manfred Reyes Villa made a point of being there, marching alongside Inter-Institutional Committee leaders.

University students and other protesters attacked campesinos, and beat them, and took a group of them and made them march several kilometers to the town center, stripped off their shirts, and made them kneel in the main plaza and sing pro-Sucre slogans and ask forgiveness for coming to see President Morales.

I am amazed at how little coverage this is getting outside Bolivia. Today on Google, the only news sites I can find covering it are in Cuba. For those who read Spanish, some information is available here.

Some of the public leaders have expressed regret today at the way things "got out of control." But they still blame it on Morales himself. Morales ultimately canceled his trip. But he had also asked military and police to stay away from the marches there. Organizers now say he abandoned the city. But in Sucre and elsewhere, it has been made clear that one constant goal of protesters is to provoke violence on the part of police and soldiers so that they can then label Morales an authoritarian and a murderer.

Some on the left are now saying that Morales should
begin using the police and military more. He has been loathe to allow his government to be sucked into violent confrontations, but some critics now say that this is allowing his opponents to take advantage of him, and that poor and indigenous groups pay the price.

The racism of some Bolivians is overwhelming, and it is being manipulated by political interests who seem hellbent on forcing a larger confrontation with the government. Morales has shown impressive restraint regarding the use of state violence. Unfortunately, he has also shown little ability to otherwise deal with the kinds of scenes witnessed in Sucre this weekend.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x361937

[demigoddess]

6. i was commenting on the idea that Bill Gates was insulting the Bolivians

treating them as a backward un-industrial nation, and saying how can it be insulting them when Americans and Brits do the same thing that he thought might help the Bolivians. Gosh!!!