lickety jackblog

I've just arrived in Peru, after having spent the better part of two months in Chile. I'm pulled now by obligations here and in Bolivia (old roomie's flyin' in), but I wish I'd had more time there). You can feel the legacy of the spasmodic Chilean government *everywhere* in that country. Photos of Salvador Allende (democratically elected president in power before Pinochet's coup and subsequent years of bloody dictatorship) everywhere, easily as ubiquitous as are Che photos in Argentina. Every Chilean folk song is a reminder. Their most celebrated artists either fled or were killed during the dictatorship.

I was very fortunate to hang out with some really terrific kids in Valdivia, Niebla, Santiago and Valparaiso, respectively, my age and younger, musicians and artists who helped me appreciate the history and culture. I started reading again about the relationship the US has had with various Latin American governments historically(something I've been loathe to do for a while), and now realize that in the past few months I have much more optimism for the future of humanity (in global economic terms) now than I did before I left the states.

There is still much time for many nations down here to avoid making the same disastrous mistakes that the US has made in the past 20 or 30 years. It seems possible to me that "development" here can continue in what Ivan Illich termed a more "convivial" manner (i.e. "a modern society of responsibly limited tools").

Specifically, I refer to the current hopeful triumverate of Chavez, Morales and, to a slightly lesser though still hopeful extent, Bachelet. I just stumbled across this little bit of enthusiasm written by Noam Chomsky a couple months back. I myself was in Cochabamba just days before the Cochacamba Declaration. Luckily I wasn't around for the riots that followed.

Exciting stuff. Hoping to watch it keep moving forward, and hoping that some of the thinkers in the states think to watch how the "second" and "third" worlds choose to allow their own development to unfold.

posted by Little Gordie @ 12:25 PM