Postcards from Ulysses

There is something special about Evo Morales' appearance on The Daily Show.  But his appearance on Democracy Now is worth reading or watching as well.  The discussion goes into greater depth.  Here, as in the segment on The Daily Show, he emphasizes life: saving lives, caring for life on earth, being united as equal beings with equal rights to live a good life. 

He makes some wonderful points during this discussion.  Some are tremendously important for people to consider and then act on.  Like biofuels.  Morales puts the matter simply: food should be grown to feed people, not outdated machines.  Growing crops to feed cars and machines creates a whole lot of problems.  The solution Morales proposes for deciding the matter of biofuels is totally in line with the founding principles of the United States, which means it is totally out of line with our current practices: put it to a democratic referendum.  Educate the people, then let them decide.  What a revolutionary idea.

Other points are philosophically interesting and link up to current discussion on the sustainability crisis.  Morales argues that "indigenous peoples are the moral reserve of humanity."  Many thinkers working on the sustainability crisis have turned to indigneous views on life and the relationship between human beings and the more-than-human world. 

Morales is turning out to be a heroic figure.  We can only hope he is able to continue on this path for as long as possible.  Keep an eye on this guy.

View the transcript or watch the segment here: 

Evo Morales on Democracy Now 

Posted by Nickolas Knightly at 08:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Noam Chomsky has made some of the most simple, direct comments about the election of Evo Morales as president of Bolivia.  It comes down to this: there were real issues in the election, people knew what they were, people thought they mattered, people got out and voted, the elections weren't fixed.  If you want to see democratic elections, you have to go to Bolivia.   If you compare what we have going on here, it's rather startling.  This is a great clip of President Morales on The Daily Show.  Take note: in his campaign he had a real platform, and he delivered on his promises.  And . . . get ready for this . . . "socialized" management of the natural gas resources of Bolivia allowed the Bolivians to make more money!  Impossible.  Shouldn't their society collapse?  Bolivia may prove that "socialized" programs and mixed economies demand democratic processes. 

Posted by Nickolas Knightly at 04:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)