Upside Down Notebook

For those in or near the People’s Republic of Vermont, please attend the “Winds of Change in the Americas” Conference on Sunday, March 5th from 3-5PM. This event will be on Social movements in Latin America and How to Bring the Revolution to the US! Vermonters who participated in the World Social Forum in [...]

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The road from Cochabamba to the Chapare (a coca producing region) is a rough one. The lack of shock absorption on the bus I was on made it possible to feel each bump and pothole, physically connecting to the route, a part of the landscape. Just as the sun set, I began to make out [...]

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I arrived in Cochabamba after a nine hour bus ride from La Paz. On the way we went through a small town in the altiplano (a flat area at a high altitude) where a road blockade was taking place. Road blockades are a common form of protest in Bolivia. By cutting off transportation, the [...]

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Parts of La Paz, Bolivia are orchestras of bus horns and vendors hawking goods, a multitude of stalls under umbrellas and blue tarps crammed into every foot in the street that’s not overrun with traffic and people. Women in an array of bright colored clothing sit like islands of cloth, their small children orbiting around [...]

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Upon visiting the FEJUVE office in El alto (Federation of Juntos Vecinales/Federation of Neighbourhood Groups) I spoke with a president of one zone in the city. We talked for awhile about his group, the said it would be fine to sit in on a meeting they were having on Sunday at 2pm. Around 1 that [...]

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Before you read any further, please visit http://forumsocialmundial.blogspot.com
It’s a blog by some good friends of mine from my alma mater (Bard College) It’s extensive, colorful and honest - a real look into what the world social forum in Caracas was like from the perspective of a cool group of folks.
I arrived in La Paz, Boliva [...]

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