FATMANNN

You showed your COLOR....Better go to SH!...Now every body knows here

WHO you are!.... We had enuogh BS from you...

Sakinkoylu, if you want to understand how color works in Latin America, you are better off using India as a model, not North America.

Latin America has its Brahmans, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas and Sudras. As you go up the social scale, the people become lighter skinned, but no one outside of a small, inbred population of European settlers is actually de ranga pura. Even those claiming Spanish descent are of mixed race, in fact they were mixed before they arrived, the result of eight centuries of Moorish occupation.

As in India, color is a matter of social class, not race. Look at the pictures from Santa Cruz and ask yourself, how many people in the pro-autonomy demonstrations are white, as a Canadian would understand it? Not too many. They are, for the most part, middle and working class mestizos (mixed) who fear a loss of political representation and personal freedom from a government that clearly favors one caste over another.

Even if comparisons to South Africa are accurate, you only have to look at South Africa to see the future of Bolivia if Morales & Co. aren't stopped. Actually, the result is more likely to resemble Zimbabwe in the long run.

I've been an observer of Latin America for many years, and the sheer complexity of it still drives me to distraction. Nothing is ever what it seems on the surface, and outside reports are often useless, or worse, contain a hidden agenda.

The worm has started to turn though. The information age has now reached Latin America. Thanks to the internet, it is much harder to control people through biased reporting and overt propaganda. The old model of social control is collapsing, and the people best situated to effect real change are the young, who see through all this race, class, and ideological bullshit and aspire to join the modern world, just like their counterparts in India.

There's a revolution going on in Latin America, but it isn't anything like what Correa, Chavez or George Bush envision.

ebear