Ciao!

Some words about words

Technorati tags: academia political science Latin America

Matt Shugart at Fruits & Votes has a great post on populism, the left, and problematic labels used by the media when covering Latin American politics. Highly recommended reading.

And, for the record (since not all Ciao! readers are polisci nerds), Matt Shugart is probably one of the top ten names in the study of electoral systems. His Presidents & Assemblies (co-authored w/ John Carey) is mandatory reading for comparative studies of institutional design.

Posted by Miguel at 01:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

BBQ12 postscript

Moped Army BBQ12 is over. Overall, it was a great time. Too bad The Motron wasn't ready to run. Worse, Lucia (my 1977 Bianchi Snark Eagle Deluxe) got a flat tire Sunday afternoon. But I was mostly interested in seeing old faces back — like Caleb & Marci, Annie, J. Edmund, Brian & Kelly, Ali, Simon & Meredith, Kathleen & Brett, and several others — in town again. So I had a good time w/ everyone. Despite my painful sunburn.

Posted by Miguel at 11:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

MAS proposes constitutional reforms

Technorati tags: Bolivia politics Evo Morales

Evo's MAS announced its constitutional proposals, which are in some ways similar to those proposed by Tuto & Podemos. The proposal includes a second-round election of the president if no candidate wins a simple majority (50%+1) of the popular vote. There's also a call for a constitutional way to shorten a president's mandate (other than through impeachment). And then there's some provisions for "communitarian" (that is, indigenous) legal procedures. Below are my thoughts on some of these proposals.

Posted by Miguel at 11:43 AM | Permalink

It's amazing how when Charter fixes your cable, they break your broadband. So I've no internet at home, though I've been too busy to do much about it this weekend.

Posted by Miguel at 07:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Just saw The World's Fastest Indian (2005) tonight. Wow. Starring Anthony Hopkins, it tells the story of New Zealand's Burt Munro, who at 68 broke the land speed record at Bonneville Salt Flats in the 1960s on a 1920 Indian motorcycle — he hand-made his own parts. Especially if you like motorcycles, it's a great fun little film. Oh, and his 1967 record still stands.

Here's the preview trailer. It's out on DVD in June.

Posted by Miguel at 11:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

The beautiful game

Technorati tags: soccer World Cup

There's a great article in National Geographic about soccer & the 2006 World Cup. If you've ever wondered why soccer's World Cup tourney's so powerful around the world, read the article. Note that qualifying for the once-every-four-years tournament (temporary?) halted a civil war in Ivory Coast. Yep, it's that powerful.

For sports fans, the best analogy I can think of is this. Take your interest in the NCAA basketball tournament, college football, the NFL, baseball, the NBA, and even some NHL. Take all that interest on a year-by-year, season-by-season basis. Now. Compress it into a one-month period. And know that you won't get another for the next four years. That's the FIFA World Cup.

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UPDATE: I've posted a World Cup iCal calendar if anyone's interested. I'll update it as game play starts after 9 June.

Posted by Miguel at 04:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Moving delayed

I'm not moving from Kalamazoo now for another three weeks. So I get more time to spend preparing to leave, which is a good thing. But I have to pay another 20 days rent, which is a not-so-good thing. Eh. So I'll only be a Chicago resident for one month. But I'll be a Michigan resident a month longer.

Also, the Moped Army BBQ 12 starts this weekend. So former Kalamazoo folk & friends from far & wide are gathering. Along w/ other Moped Army members from across the country. Last night I played Clue w/ J. Edmund & others.

And. Finally. The summer movie season is upon is. Starting w/ X-Men 3. I love summer movie season.

Ok. I'm off to Albion for a Centellas brothers dinner reunion.

Posted by Miguel at 03:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Evo reelected?

Technorati tags: Bolivia politics Evo Morales

I've been skeptical of Evo for a while. While I don't think he's quite as radical as some of his detractors point out, he's clearly a populist (in the negative sense of the word). The recent announcement that he's seeking a new constitution that allows for immediate reelection of the president & vice president is distressing.

Posted by Miguel at 10:18 AM | Permalink

Back for 7

Back in Kalamazoo. It's the top of my last seven days as a Michigan resident. A little sad, but also excited to be moving on into something different. Pennsylvania was great, and I look forward to living in picturesque Carlisle.

This week's all about wrapping up a few things on campus, packing up my apartment, and saying goodbye to long-familiar friends & places.

Now. Here's hoping our application to live in our first-pick apartment goes through.

Posted by Miguel at 01:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

In the mid Atlantic

Been travelling, looking for apartments near Dickinson College. We think we found a rental house that's right for us. Now we're hoping we get it before anyone else snatches it up. We've also in Wilmington (visiting Andy & Saloumeh and K8's grandparents). This afternoon we fly back to Chicago. Tomorrow I drive back to Kalamazoo. Talk about a busy week.

Posted by Miguel at 10:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Conceptos

Technorati tags: Bolivia politics Evo Morales

My cousin Martín (who's doing graduate work in public communication in Argentina) finally has his own blog: Conceptos. The first entry's an interesting retrospective on Evo's frequent accusations about domestic conspiracies, corruption, and other statements that merely "end in the microphone." The posts are in Spanish, but he speaks/reads good English (Michiganese, actually).

Welcome to the blogosphere, Martín.

Posted by Miguel at 08:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

ND regional conference

Technorati tags: academia political science

Tomorrow I'm heading out to Notre Dame for their 3rd Annual Regional Workshop on Latin America. Should be interesting. There's a track on general comparative politics, and another on the Andes (less polisci, more interdisciplinary). Some of the papers are online; several written by some pretty heavy hitters.

Then off to Chicago to do wedding stuff. Then off to Carlisle to look at apartments. Then back for my last week as a Kalamazoo resident.

Posted by Miguel at 07:52 PM | Permalink

Autonomy referendum poll

Technorati tags: Bolivia politics Evo Morales

A very quick note on the upcoming referendum on regional autonomies in Bolivia. Today's La Razón published two polls showing declining support for regional autonomies across the country. But more importantly, support is heavily skewed by region. In El Alto (the "rebellious city") "No" is winning by 12 points.

Posted by Miguel at 06:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Glowfriends at IPO

Technorati tag: indie music

I just found out that Kzoo's own The Glowfriends is playing at the International Pop Overthrow Festival in Liverpool, England (the famous Cavern Club). You can listen to four tracks at myspace.com/glowfriendsnet. And their new website features a snapshot I took of them at Kraftbrau a few months ago.

One of the things I'll miss about Kalamazoo is the ability to go see these guys live on a regular basis. Also, April goes crazy when she dances.

Posted by Miguel at 01:12 AM | Permalink

Evo & Lula friends again

Technorati tags: Bolivia politics Evo Morales

Evo's now-rivals-now-friends rhetoric towards Brazilian (and other foreign interests) investments in Bolivia's hydrocarbons keeps getting duller. Frankly, I think it's becoming clear that Evo's "nationalization" was a populist stunt to gain support on his party's way to the July constituent assembly election (the announcement was made the day the campaign officially began & dominated the news cycle). Today's La Razón opens w/ a story on Evo's promises to Lula (Brazil's president).

Posted by Miguel at 01:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Open to comments

Technorati tags: Bolivia politics political science

Below is a short section of the introduction to my dissertation & a flowchart meant to explain how Bolivia went from political stability (1985-2000), to a crisis of legitimacy (after 2000), to the October 2003 break. I'm opening it up to comments (especially from Bolivian & political science blogospheres) while I wait to hear from my committee. I think it does a decent job explaining not only the recent Bolivian experience, but also how other new democracies are susceptible to crisis from what I call "the paradox of democratization" (explained elsewhere in the chapter).

Posted by Miguel at 01:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Nu Tones

Technorati tags: music NOMO HNIA

I didn't get to squeeze off (many) good pictures (I was working the door much of the time). But last night's Rocket Star show was a rare treat. Bill's been trying to book His Name Is Alive for a long time, but it's probably not going to happen. If you don't know, HNIA (which has a constantly changing lineup & sound) is an indie music legend from Livonia, Michigan, going back to the 1990s. Oh, and they're on tour for the first time in ten years!

Posted by Miguel at 12:41 PM | Permalink

Toborga, Miguel de los Santos

I've never heard that name before, frankly. But this is my June project. I was contacted by some editors at Thomson who're publishing a new version of the multi-volume Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture. They want me to write that entry. Hopefully, they'll ask me to write entries on things that I'm more familiar w/ (say, late twentieth century Bolivian political history) rather than things I'm not familiar w/ (say, 19th century Church figures). Still, $30 is $30. And, as the cliché goes, it's an honor just to be nominated.

But, seriously, if anyone wants to direct me to excellent sources of information on this character, do share. Thankfully, the University of Chicago library (I'll be in Chicago all June) has excellent Latin American history resources.

Posted by Miguel at 05:51 PM | Permalink

Wedding update

This is shameless self-promotion on my part. But. I'm getting married in a few months. If you wanna buy us wedding presents, we're registered at Macy's, Target, and Crate & Barrel.

Posted by Miguel at 12:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Thoughts on indigenous movements books?

Technorati tags: academia political science

I'm going to spend the last 2½ weeks of my Latin American politics course at Dickinson (POSC 251-01) on indigenous movements. The rest of the semester is dedicated to a broad overview of the region, some democratization literature, and some readings on five major cases (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Cuba). I figured a good, timely, and interesting topic to focus on at the end of the semester — and after students' semester papers are due — would be the recent rise of indigenous movements.

Posted by Miguel at 06:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

On to Tatooine

K8 was in town briefly this weekend. In between dinner, walks around Springtime Kalamazoo, and drinks w/ friends, we made some progress on our wedding registries & settled on likely honeymoon destinations. Malta! And. Tunisia! I'm excited to see Carthage. And perhaps also Tatooine.

Posted by Miguel at 11:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Treading dangerous ground

Technorati tags: Bolivia politics Evo Morales

Evo's recent speech in Bolivia's Los Andes province has some (potentially) dangerous overtones. While using a populist platform — complete w/ his wearing Altiplano garb (for which he's not known to normally wear) in a style reminiscent of Carlos Mesa's attempt two years ago — he defended his recent hydrocarbons nationalization. But he also spoke of "reports" of a "conspiracy" to attack his new policy.

Posted by Miguel at 11:00 PM | Permalink

The myth of revolution

Lee Harris has an interesting post at TCS Daily: " Why Isn't Socialism Dead?" It starts from a discussion about Bolivia's recent hydrocarbons nationalization, then turns to a philosophical discussion on political myths (or "imaginaries"), Georges Sorel, and the idea of revolution as an ends rather than as means.

The myths around revolution are powerful stuff. Really powerful stuff. Just last night, working at Rocket Star, I ran across a patron w/ an anti-capitalism t-shirt. Of course, the t-shirt was well-made, bought from an "anti-capitalism" merchandizing catalog, no doubt. Oh, the ironies! Revolution has become nothing more than another marketing brand, complete w/ its own Mickey Mouse icon (Che) & catch-phrase slogans that could pass for advertising jingles. But it's always funny to see someone w/ an anti-capitalism t-shirt come into a hipster café & order a $4.25 smoothie drink before flipping open their PowerBooks & plugging in their iPods.

Posted by Miguel at 01:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Technorati tags: Bolivia politics

There's a roundup of Bolivian blogs' reaction to the hydrocarbons nationalization over at Global Voices.

Also, the official text (in Spanish) of DS 28701 is now online at the Bolivian communications ministry site.

Posted by Miguel at 12:25 PM | Permalink

YPFB as political slush fund?

Technorati tags: Bolivia politics Evo Morales

Jonathan Olguin at b2bolivia posted a brief critical assessment of the impact of Bolivia's nationalization of its hydrocarbons industry two days ago. Perhaps the move hasn't affected the foreign investors all that much. He even suggests that the "nationalization" may not have been a nationalization at all.

Posted by Miguel at 07:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)

Bolivia as "rentier state"?

Technorati tags: Bolivia politics Evo Morales

Continuing from the previous post, I thought I'd pass along a thought by another blogger: the idea of Bolivia as a rentier state.

Posted by Miguel at 11:25 PM | Permalink

Oops, they did it again

Technorati tags: Bolivia politics Evo Morales

Evo Morales has issued an executive decree to nationalize the country's hydrocarbons. He's ordered the Bolivian military to seize the oil fields. So. That means that rather than negotiate a settlement w/ the international (and domestic) investors, he's just expropriated their property by force of arms. Of all the possible ways to go about nationalizing a country's resources, this is the absolute worst way. I wonder if he's thought out the consequences (e.g. the effect on negotiations w/ the international community for debt relief, new technical assistance, better trade agreements, etc.).

Posted by Miguel at 06:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (17)