Day 23: Bolivia
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  Day 23: Bolivia
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Tetro Kornbluth
Gully Foyle
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« on: September 23, 2015, 05:24:10 PM »

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolivia



Officially 'The Plurinational State of Bolivia', its full title gives away something about the country - it is a highly multicultural one. Indeed, by most calculations it is the only state in the Americas left with an indigenous majority and 38(!) languages are official. Although as in other states with multiple official languages it effectively means the most dominant and prestige language is used at the top of the offices of state, which is Spanish, although Aymara, Quechua and Guarani are also widespread. 'Whites' only make up 15% of the population. Its current president is an indigenous ex-Coca farmer (the Coca plant grows wild here and so inevitably, Bolivia is a major source of cocaine) and union leader who, despite his initial Chavista orientation, has proven surprisingly competent and looks like he may the job for life. The country is named after Simon Bolivar. The city of Potosi in Bolivia was a key nodal point in the Early Modern Spanish Habsburg Empire as it is origin of the bulk of that Empire's silver from the famous silver mountain of that region. Mining, although not for silver, is still an important part of Bolivia's economy today.

Below is a map showing the Early Modern global silver trade, which was mostly Spanish silver from Potosi and its destinations across the world (mostly to China)



(Sorry for the somewhat fuzzy image)
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Zioneer
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« Reply #1 on: September 24, 2015, 01:37:42 AM »

My Spanish Teacher in high school was from Bolivia. Really nice guy, gave an interesting perspective on the country (he's a Mormon, but very lefty economically, and a big support of Evo Morales).

I'm not sure what's going on there right now, but I've heard they've been able to help impoverished Bolivians have more prosperity than the poor of some of the other nations.
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seb_pard
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« Reply #2 on: September 24, 2015, 07:30:36 AM »

Nice country, was very unstable 10 years ago but now (although still poor) they're better culturally and socioeconomically. The people love Evo Morales and he is respected even by the opposition.

There's a video of a Naughty boy with Sam smith recorded in Bolivia where you can see a city (the video is a mix of an old bolivian legend and The Wizard of Oz) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3O1_3zBUKM8
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