John Toner

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Lake Titicaca

On March 15 I went with Rotary Club San Pedro to a small village near Lake Titicaca to distribute donations of more than 300 pairs of shoes, school supplies, and clothing. We got up early on Saturday morning and traveled with three Rotarians and two contacts we had with the village who had worked there as nurses. The drive took about 4 hours and included a brief ferry ride over a portion of the lake. A stunning, sunny, 60 something degree day surrounded us the entire time. We spoke with some of the leaders of the town ( some of the few who spoke Spanish) and they gave us a brief tour including a semi-finished plaza the local authorities had promised to finish. They also explained that the new expressway ( or Bolivian equivalent) would cross through or near their town a major boost to their local economy of artesanal weavings and agriculture.

We ate a communal meal of potatoes, corn, a garlic-salt cheese, ispi, and habas- delish. After chatting with the leaders some more we distibuted all the items we had and were presented with many thanks from an assorted group of leaders. A wonderdful experience and an even more wonderful Saturday evening when we got back to La Paz.....

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FOODS I'VE EATEN

Andean Cheese ( a white cheese that comes in a thick disk- it's meaty, soft, and salty. Goes well with bread)
Api con empanadas (a hot sweet purple drink with fried empanadas filled with cheese with a sprinkling of sugar on top)
Grape Nuts O's ( my preferred cereal)
Saltenas ( a mix of potatoes, meat, broth,peas, and other vegetables wrapped in a fried dough pouch the size of a baseball and a half)
Andean Famous Bowls; note reference to KFC ( ispi, salty egg patty, rice, salsa, potatoes layered in that order)
ispi ( native fish from lake titicaca (unlike the trout) little fish which you eat whole)
Andean Wakasi ( A shared communal meal of rice, rabbit, onions, and colored popcorn)
Bolivian Lima Beans (Hava)
Cow Heart with Cream Sauce( Anticucho)
Llama ( Charquekan)
Cow Tongue (lengua)

My little moleskin of facts:

I've always wanted facts at my disposal during an argument- or at least to give an academic context to an argument. Here are a few I've picked up through out my studies. I'll try to add more as I go along! It's not the best academic citation but sometimes the facts come from my reading notes- i.e. I don't have page numbers always.

World Population in Billions (UN Dept. of Econ. and Soc. Affairs/ Population Division World Urbanization Prospects)
Year 1950 1975 2007 2025
World 2.54 4.08 6.67 9.19

In "more"developed and "less developed"
Year 1950 1975 2007 2025
More . 81 1.05 1.22 1.26
Less 1.72 3.03 5.45 6.75

Alicia Ziccardi (Las ciudades y la cuestión social)

In 1993 in Brasil, income from children represented 30% of the family income.

In Bolivia, Honduras, and Venezuela 30-40% of the public employees were considered poor and 13 of 17 Latin American countries had less income in 1997 than in 1980

In Bolivia in 1995 half of the workers were employed with informal work and only ¼ in formal work

(CEPAL) In 1994 there were 209.4 million people living in poverty and 135 millon poor lived in urban areas in Argentina, México, Venezuela, y Honduras.

La Comision Económica para América Latina y el Caribe Políticas Sociales en Tiempos de Crisis
The Bolivian economy grew between 1960-1980 at an average rate of 5%

4% of the the investors/stock holders represented 52% of the investments/ shares at the beginning of the 1980's

42% of the strikes between 1982-1985 were rights-based or for demands for the fulfillment of laws

Bolivia: Población Territorio y Medio Ambiente: Analisis de Situación de la Población, 2007

Bolivia had a population of 1.6 million at the beg. of the 20th century; now it has 8.3 million.
Between 1950-2000 the average annual growth was 2.3 %
Between 2005-2020 it is expected to be 1.9%
In Latinamerica for the same period are 2.3% and 1.3% respectively

In 2000 the average age in Bolivia was 20 years old: only 5% were older than 65 years old

IN 2003 Bolivia had an indigenous population of 4.1 million of a population of 8.3 million

The maternal deathrate in 2003 was estimated to be 229 deaths per 100,000 live births; in 1989 it was 480 per 100,000.

In 2003, it was estimated that the infant mortality rate was 54 out of every 1000; 44 in Urban areas, 67 in rural.
This is the highest level in Latinamerica with the exception of Haiti.

According the the International Monetary Fund, between 1960 and 2004, Bolivia had a real growth average of 2,6% while the rest of L.A. had a growth of 3,8 %

Although there was a growth between 1994 and 1998 of 4.4% annual average of the Gross Domestic Product, between 1999 and 2003 it dropped to 1.9%; some factors were economic crisis in Brasil and Argenina and the coca leaf policy

The GDP per capita, according to the IMF was only 0,3 % on average between 1960 y 2004. Today the GDP per capita in dolars in 1/4 of the rest of L.A. $1.129 to 4.787 in 2006

Between 2004 and 2006 the GDP reached an average growth of 4,3% with a 2.0% per capita growth.

Urban unemployment was 7.2% in 1999 and reach 8.7% in 2003. In 2005 it lowered to 8.2% affecting mostly women: in 2005 it was 10% for women while only 6.8% for men.
At the same time in 2004 around 63% according to the Unidad de Análisis de Políticas Sociales y Económicas through the census surveys around 63% of the urban population had informal employment.

National debt reached 8.8% of the GDP.
In 2000 social spending on health, education, housing and social services was 1.3 billion dollars, about 15,8% of the GDP. In 2004, that increased to 1.4 billion dollars or 16,2 % of the GDP. Between 2000 and 2004 public expenditures on public spending increaed from 40 to 46%