Global Voices Online

Blogs can remind us about the plight of others. Since many Bolivian bloggers write from various locations around the world, they can also capture the experience of other Bolivians, who are trying to make it in a land far from home. Isabella Fuente recently returned from a trip to Bolivia, where she ran into many of her fellow countrymen and women in the Madrid, Spain airport. These Bolivian immigrants were not as fortunate and faced an uncertain future. She writes in her blog, Ergoth (ES):

Una escena dura. Aeropuerto de Barajas y la cola para migración interminable. Más de 600 personas de distintos vuelos intentando entrar a España. Todos con diferentes objetivos, por diferentes motivos, con diferentes sueños. De pronto alguien es retenido en migración, le dicen que sus papeles no están en orden, que debe esperar en una especie de sala que está a un costado. Poco a poco la sala se va llenando. Primero cinco, luego son doce, luego cada vez más. Yo era una de las últimas en la cola de migración y comencé a inquietarme, sabía que a mi me dejarían entrar, yo tenía tarjeta de residencia, no había porque no, pero la cola seguía creciendo y la situación se volviá francamente angustiante, todos mirábamos a los que iban sumándose a la sala. Llegué a contar hasta 78 personas detenidas, prohibidas de ingresar a España. Mi mayor dolor era que casi todos los detenidos eran bolivianos.

A couple of bloggers from Cochabamba, Javier and Luis Rodriguez recently started their stint on a local radio station every Saturday. As Blogs de Bolivia highlights, they decided to use the internet to complement their airtime. For example, they opened up an official blog called La Música Que Escuchan Todos (ES) (Music that Everyone Listens to) for the radio show, where they also include a podcast download of their most recent show for listening at a later time or for those who may not live in Cochabamba.

Finally, as the debate regarding the Constituent Assembly carries over to the blogosphere, the relationship between the mainstream media and blogs is closer than previously thought. Plan B’s Sebastian Molina was casually reading a story in the Santa Cruz newspaper, El Deber, about 5 recent proposals in this Assembly, when he noticed an analysis given by his father and blogger of Ágora (ES), Carlos Hugo Molina, the former departmental prefect. The text looked rather familiar because it turns out that it was the exact commentary left by Carlos Hugo as a comment on one of Sebastian’s earlier entries on this topic (ES). When consulted, Carlos Hugo indicated that he did not speak with any reporter to provide his opinion, but instead, the journalist used the comment as a part of his story with no mention that it was a comment on a blog and not based on an interview with the original comment author.