Reply #4: Some interesting environmental stuff in this Morales interview...

[Peace Patriot]

"Bolivia's first indigenous president also told the AP that the world's richest nations must be made to pay for the damage their profligate use of natural resources has caused developing countries.

"He said he and other Latin American leaders are exploring possible legal means for demanding compensation for the developed world's 'ecological debt.'

"'It's not possible that some in the industrialized world live very well economically while affecting, even destroying others,' said the 48-year-old Aymara Indian. Scientists count this Andean nation's rapidly melting glaciers among the most profound signs of global warming."

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/B/BOLIVIA_MORALES?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2007-11-03-03-12-30

------

"Ecological debt." Now there's an idea.

"...his vision of socialism is guided, Morales said, by the communal decision-making of Bolivia's indigenous societies and their 'way of living in harmony with Mother Earth.'"

I swear, South America's indigenous people are going to save us all. They are so amazing in their lo-o-o-ong, tough, dangerous, seemingly hopeless battles for the environment in the middle of frigging nowhere--remote jungles and mountains--protesting rapacious mining and logging. They just won't give up. They are dauntless. And--FINALLY!--they are gaining rightful political power in this wondrous democracy revolution that has swept South America. They elected a president of Bolivia! A coca leaf grower! Stomped on by narcos! Devoted to Mother Earth!

I rarely use the word "beautiful" about political events. But this is beautiful.