barrio flores

I hope they DO remember what he said - unfortunately, it's all too easy to use Uncle Sam as a punching bag and assume it's all perfectly all right, completely natural, completely normal and the US will always be there for one no matter what one does.

The 9-11 hijackers certainly believed this, living it up in the US, taking the west's education, taking the west's technology, taking the west's medical care, taking the west's money - (remember the scene where the hijackers went to the US government small business grant giver and demanded cash up front from her or they would kill her - she thought there was nothing wrong with this approach to doing business, merely cultural differences, and that attitude sent a message to the hijackers that America was easy pickings, decadent as hell, unable to distinguish friend from enemy, and therefore contemptible).

These malevolent US-haters took plenty from us but only offered destruction in return. It's a very confused and resentful attitude described by VS Naipaul in many of his books.

To call something 'good' 'bad' and expect the 'good' to kiss it up is nothing more than to expect patronization and to imagine that what Bolivia or Morales says or does doesn't matter because it is too small. It is not a good relationship of equals.

One thing I think George Bush has tried to teach the world, and in this regard, he is sort of different from his predecessors, is that the US should only like those who like us back. We must try, as Florentine philosopher Guicciardini once noted, to understand that 'those who speak ill of us do not love us.'

It's very bad policy to love those who do not love us back. If there is to be a relationship of equals between the US and Morales' Bolivia, there needs to be motion in two directions. Morales can't sit there, snipe at us, and expect us to give him free money. If he takes steps to be friendly and act as some sort of friend (and I hope he does), the US should take steps to be friendly in return.

I would agree with cutting him a little slack in terms of campaign rhetoric is a good idea, but if he makes good on his promise to be 'America's worst nightmare' he should prepare for the U.S. to respond as any nation would respond to someone who wants to be their 'worst nightmare.' We should not forget this talk, for it expresses an intention. Morales should not think he can bite the hand and then expect to be fed with friendship.

That said, there is something striking about Morales' campaign rhetoric: it does not anger me as Hugo Chavez's does. Chavez's is personal, aggressive and thuggish and definitely should not be forgotten. There is a reason Chavez can't get his phone calls returned at State - he makes perverted sex and racist remarks against Dr. Rice, screams Mister Danger and 'pendejo' at Bush like a clown, and makes vicious insulting remarks about Vicente Fox. He HAS to make amends for that or expect no succor. He can't expect normalcy after that. Morales hasn't said anything like that that I know of. I really hope he reaches out and can be worked with. Relations, if they are to mean anything, are always a two-way street.

State Dept Web site says, on the topic of Bolivia, that relations have always been 'cordial.' I hope Morales does not throw that away.

Si, la idea es mantener bolivia.mundoalreves.com el 2006. Hasta Febrero/Marzo estará en prueba, la idea es ver la respuesta de la gente, la cantidad de aportes, la gente que se suma a colaborar para que se continue, etc.

Si te animas a darnos una mano, pues genial :)

Un abrazo.

I really think there is a lot more backlash against the politicians from the past 20 years than there is against the US.

I was in Cochabamba for two weeks last month, and the only thing I saw there that could be perceived as anti-American in the slightest, was a single graffito near the Plaza 14 de Septiembre that said "Tuto Titere De Los Gringos".