Happy 4th 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!
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