Football chant
Apparently, when Chile play Bolivia at football, the Chile fans delight in singing, "Vamos A La Playa" ("Let's all go to the beach") at the Bolivians.
Harsh. Funny, but harsh
Bolivian president Evo Morales has pledged that his landlocked nation will reclaim access to the sea, 132 years after it lost its coastline to Chile. Speaking on the "Day of the Sea", marking the War of the Pacific which ended with a defeated Bolivia cut off from the Pacific, Morales rattled a legal sabre at Chile over the " …
"Chile is Chile. We're not Bolivian Indians. Imperialist British out."
There's a lot of racism towards the indigenous indians from Hispanics. Although they're in the majority in Bolivia, Evo Morales is the first indigenous leader they've had (and they've had a lot. I think they've had well over 100 governments in 200 years of independence) . And the hispanic population tend to look down on them. It's like that in a lot of other south american countries and I'd be willing to bet that the author of that comment was hispanic and is writing to a hispanic audience.
To me that comment stinks of racism.
Although, maybe the Bolivians should get a port so they can move their navy back off lake Titicaca.
Starting crazy expansionist wars, losing, and finishing up with less land than they started with was Bolivia's hobby in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Unsurprisingly, none of the inhabitants of this disputed area want to be repatriated from Chile (the richest country in South America) to Bolivia (one of the poorest). To everyone but Bolivians this is ancient history now. Evo likes grandstanding but he must know Bolivia is never getting the land back.
If this goes bad then it'll cause problems for all the astronomy projects in the Atacama desert in Chile. They're all towards the Bolivian border, and there has already been a case of astronomers held at gunpoint, taken into Bolivia, robbed, and then abandoned at night in the high desert to make their own way back.
While I know American history and quite a bit of Asian and European history, but next to nothing south of the Panama Canal.
Oversight on my part... kinda like the quote from Stewie Griffin, "So which of the Latin countries are you from: the one with the civil war, the one with the cocaine, or the one with the fancy hats?"
;)
Racism in South America? Typical anglo framing of what happens in the rest of the world. South America is the quintessential definition of a melting pot of cultures and races. You can't define what indian or hispanic (the correct word you're trying to use is "criollo") is now days as population in South America truly is a continuous spectrum of ethnic mixes.
I'm not saying that the way that "indio" is used is not going in the direction that you're understood, but although it looks like racial, it really is classicist. If you take a 100% native in South America, no matter who his/her parents are, and make sure that he/she is educated and behaves accordingly, nobody will call him indian anymore. If on the other hand, you hardly speak Spanish, can't read/write and have no idea of what happens outside of your immediate surroundings, you'll get the label immediately. I've even heard people refer to some "mestizos" as being blond indians.
Sometimes I think that the US' handling of the civil rights movement was intentionally pushed towards race to keep it from being a socioeconomic class struggle... After all, the communists could not be allowed to be right about anything.
I like Bolivians. Unlike most of us in the West, they actually have the guts to get up and fight for their freedom when greedy corporations and tax-crazed governments try to rip them off. Google "Cochabamba Water War" to see what happens when greedy multinationals and politicians try to bill Bolivians for collecting rainwater.
Which is in stark contrast to the spineless sheep of Australia, who are just sitting on their fat backsides taking it up the sphincter while the SA government tables a bill to introduce rainwater metering here. That's right, a greedy government measure, which in Bolivia roused an ENTIRE FUCKING CITY to tear down a water company's offices and drive its governor from the country, in Australia doesn't produce even a "fuck that!"
Maybe I'll go and live in Bolivia. Seems like it's fast becoming a better place to live than Ausfailia right about now. At least the rainwater's still free there.
Speaking from wet New Zealand, I can only assume the SA Government are taxing rainwater because there is bugger all of it in Australia.(Except occasionally in Queensland and NSW)
However it is strange that the Canberra Government wants to tax Carbon because you have too much of it.
FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!
[cue music from old DOS game 'Cannon Fodder']
WAR!
Never been so much fun,
WAR!
Never been so much fun,
Go to your brother,
Kill him with your gun,
Leave him lying in his uniform,
Dying in the sun....
There's nothing so enjoyable as watching mid-american tropical dictatorships duke it out. With luck, some of them are still flying Mustangs, Vampires or Mig 15s!
You started a war. You lost. The opposing nation took land in what WAS your territory. It is now how many hundreds of years later, and you want it back? Stiff! Thats what happens when you start a war and lose!
Hell the Germans have significant claims to large parts of Poland, and the Czech republic, to you hear them asking for that back? What about the English demanding back Normandy from the French? Or maybe all of Europe should be given back to the Romans cause they took almost all of it over (except Scotland - good work their lads!). Or maybe go further - the greeks should get all the land conquered by Alexander the Great? Or Xerxes Persia?
Geez it annoys me - if you get into a war, you may win, you may lose. Whatever land changes hand in the process is gone. The only time that the land should potentially be given back is if the people of that land that changed hands want to be reintegrated with the original country, but the Chileans in the disputed territory dont want that in this case, the falkland islanders dont want to be part of argentina either, so bloody well get over it. Start focusing on your countries own issues rather then firing up nationalist sentiment and hiding behind those flames!