Bolivian Women Spearhead Socialist Revolution

Bolivian women spearhead Morales revolution

By Andres Schipani
BBC News, La Paz

In the early 19th Century, Bolivian women fought alongside men for the country’s independence from colonial Spain. They stormed into battle on horseback, seized cities and were on the frontline.

But their presence on the battlefield did not translate into presence in the political life of their nation. For many, their education, job opportunities and political rights were limited - until now.

“For a long time, we women have been excluded - it was one of the dark legacies of the colonial model,” the recently appointed Justice Minister, Nilda Copa, told the BBC at her office.

“I remember my mother didn’t know how to read and write, neither did my grandmother… not because they didn’t want to learn,” Ms Copa says.

Ms Copa joined a trade union very young, when she was only 16, because she felt a drastic change was needed and that was the only platform where women “had some voice”.

And that change seems to have arrived. Today, posters proclaiming the slogans of female Bolivian heroes such as indigenous rebel Bartolina Sisa and independence icon Juana Azurduy plaster the walls of several ministries.

That shows the fervour felt in the Bolivia of President Evo Morales, who seems to be changing things not only for the country’s indigenous majority, but also for its women.

Today women are involved in running the country as never before. Mr Morales began his second mandate last month with a cabinet reshuffle that complies with the gender parity stated in the new constitution he pushed for.

Now the new cabinet has 10 men and 10 women, three of them indigenous.

“There used to be a lot of racism and machismo. There is still some, but now that structure is changing thanks to brother Evo Morales,” Ms Copa says.

“Today, for example, there are no illiterate women, but women with enough capacity to develop activities at the same level as men. But the fight has been harsh and long.”

Her voice trails off and she focuses on a picture of her and Mr Morales from the times when she was a member of the assembly that wrote Bolivia’s new constitution.

Homage

For Mr Morales, achieving gender parity in the cabinet was a long-held aim.

“One of my dreams has come true - half the cabinet seats are held by women,” Mr Morales said recently. “This is a homage to my mother, my sister and my daughter.”

Mr Morales said that since his early days as a leader of the coca trade union, he had always worked towards getting women into decision-making posts based on the chacha warmi, a concept that in the local Aymara indigenous culture means that men and women are complementary in an egalitarian way.

But another sign that women’s political influence is on the rise is the fact that they now occupy an unprecedented 30% of seats in Bolivia’s new legislative branch.

One of them is Gabriela Montano, a senator who represents the eastern city of Santa Cruz - Bolivia’s opposition heartland - on behalf of Mr Morales’s party, the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS).

“This is the fruit of the women’s fight: the tangible proofs of this new state, of this new Bolivia are the increasing participation of the indigenous peoples and the increasing participation of women in the decision-making process of this country,” Ms Montano told the BBC.

Ms Montano was the subject of several physical attacks during her stint as the government’s envoy to Santa Cruz, and last year she was kept at a secret location as a safety precaution after she was threatened by opposition groups.

“The awakening of women has been brewing for a while. Women have been a key element in the consolidation of this process of change led by President Morales, from the rallies, the protests, the fights. Now, they will be a key element in affairs of national interest,” Ms Montano says.

However, while change for women is under way, for some there is still a long way to go until full equality is achieved.

“Not long ago, 10 years ago, nobody talked about women in power in this country, that was unimaginable,” explains Katia Uriona, of the women’s advocacy group Coordinadora de la Mujer.

“And even if I applaud all of these victories, I am aware this is not enough. Now we have to see if all of this is translated into something concrete that will truly change the gender face of this country.”

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/8498081.stm
Published: 2010/02/11 10:15:41 GMT

Climate change affecting Kenya’s coffee output

Climate change has affected Kenyan coffee production through unpredictable rainfall patterns and excessive droughts, making crop management and disease control a nightmare, a researcher said on Thursday.

Intermittent rainfall in the 2007/08 crop year, for example, caused a terrible bout of the Coffee Berry Disease that cut Kenyan output 23 percent to 42,000 metric tons as farmers were caught out by rains and did not protect their crop in time.

“We have seen climate change in intermittent rainfall patterns, extended drought and very high temperatures,” said Joseph Kimemia, director of research at Kenya’s Coffee Research Foundation (CRF).

“Coffee operates within a very narrow temperature range of 19-25 degrees (Celsius). When you start getting temperatures above that, it affects photosynthesis and in some cases, trees wilt and dry up. We have see trees drying up in some marginal coffee areas.”

For coffee to flower, for example, it needs a couple of months of dry weather followed by showers. This year, Kenya had rains in January, normally a very dry month when the bushes undergo what is known as stress before they flower.

Because of the unpredictable weather, bushes are flowering when they should not and have coffee berries at different stages of maturity. This means farmers have to hire labor through most of the year to pick very few kilos of coffee.

“You look at a coffee tree and cannot determine the season because it has beans of all ages. That is a problem when it comes to disease management, insect management and the worst problem is in harvesting,” he said. “The cost is enormous.”

IRRIGATION NOT AN OPTION

In a normal year, farmers spray their crop protectively against Coffee Berry Disease (CBD) as from April but because of unexpected rains, they are unable to plan.

“It makes management totally difficult. That is one of the reasons we had CBD,” Kimemia told Reuters on the sidelines of the annual African Fine Coffee Conference bringing together producers from nine African countries, buyers and suppliers.

“Farmers went into spraying but the damage was done. It was throwing good money after bad money, making our coffee production cost higher than it should be.”

Drought may mean crop losses ranging from 10 percent to the entire crop in some areas, but a bigger cost would be if the country were to lose its global market share.

Unlike Ethiopia and Uganda, which are Africa’s top coffee producers, Kenyan coffee output is under 1 percent of global production but its beans are popular for blends and its buyers have specific volume requirements.

“If you are not able to meet that volume in one, two years, they are traders, so naturally they will look for another coffee to replace your coffee. And when they do that, then they cannot come back, even when you get back to production.”

The most immediate solution is for farmers to conserve whatever rainfall they receive through mulching, digging trenches to hold water, pruning, forking and planting shade trees.

“We have no time for research because the problem is with us,” Kimemia said. “If we can get agronomic practices that conserve moisture, that is what we need before we talk about new technologies or new varieties that are drought tolerant.”


Source:
Reuters, “Climate change affecting Kenya’s coffee output“, accessed February 12, 2010

From the Inbox: Jon Stewart mocks climate deniers

Extreme weather brings out some strange behavior. In the middle of this week’s storm, Senator James Inhofe constructed an “igloo” in Washington, DC and posted a sign reading “Honk if you heart global warming.” Senator Jim DeMint tweeted “It’s going to keep snowing in DC until Al Gore cries uncle.” Rush Limbaugh and Fox News chimed in with story after story distorting the facts to fit their dishonest narrative. Climate deniers like Inhofe and DeMint are willfully missing the point: Extreme weather is climate change! Not only does “Snowpocalypse” not disprove global warming, it actually matches scientific predictions that climate change will increase extreme weather events of many kinds, including heavy snowfalls in regions like the Northeast. Together, we can and must stop this disinformation campaign. Jon Stewart just did a great job taking on the deniers. Check out a short clip from The Daily Show and help spread the truth about extreme weather. Thanks for supporting the facts about climate change, Giselle Barry Communications Director Repower America