Ain't That America

Happy 4^th of July!

I haven’t celebrated Independence Day in the United States for a while now (at least 4 years) so this day doesn’t really stand out as much anymore. But given recent international events, it’s definitely a weird time to be from the United States and abroad!

Bolivia and the United States have a tenuous relationship at best. Evo Morales, the president of Bolivia, is not particularly a fan of Obama or the US generally, and with some good reasons. First, the US is not especially kind to Bolivians immigrating or visiting the country—the reason we have such a high visa fee to enter Bolivia! Additionally, Evo is somewhat concerned about assassination attempts from CIA/US agencies or just US spying in general. This is not entirely unfounded- in the past few years, several groups of people posing as researchers and government diplomats have been discovered as spies, although details regarding their spy status vary depending on who you ask!

In addition to long-term diplomatic tensions, stakes have recently been raised by the Snowden/NSA case and yesterday’s “emergency search” of Evo’s plane (aka Bolivian Air Force One) on his way back from a diplomatic trip to Russia. Forced to land in Austria for 12 hours while his plane was searched and then declined passage through French, Spanish, and Portuguese air space, Evo was not pleased, to say the least. And no matter what one’s beliefs about the rights and justification for this search, this was not the way to repair US-Bolivian relations! It will be interesting to see what happens over the next few months, years etc. Needless to say, while I might go enjoy some good ol’ Murrican pizza and beer later, I probably won’t be flaunting my citizenship status… (Not that it’s really dangerous or anything to be here, just to avoid any fights or whatever)

In totally different news, I’m always struck by the canine genetic diversity here in Copacabana. Most dogs are more or less street dogs—people will often have one particular dog that they feed and maybe let stay in their yard at night, but mostly dogs run free in the streets, scavenging food and generally having a good time. Definitely no leash laws here! What’s amazing is that there are literally all types of dogs- ones that look like purebred German Shepherds, tiny Shih-tzus, Sharpeis, Golden Retrievers, and plenty of mutts. I’ve always thought the variety is pretty cool and so this year I’ve been chronicling it on this site: dogsofcopa.tumblr.com. Just pictures of various dogs I’ve seen around town, but kinda cool! Plus most of them are really cute J Here’s one of my faves, chowing down on some bread I gave him (oh yeah, dogs here eat ANYTHING):

Hopefully you all get to eat some hamburgers and hot dogs, drink some cold ones, and watch some fireworks tonight!