Public Service Announcements

With tear-gas seeping through the air-vents in the restaurant where we ate lunch, we stepped outside to find the protests growing.  This cellphone snapshot accompanies the slew of photos my dad has stored on his camera. Police set up two perimeters around the government center in La Paz after protestors stormed through the lone perimeter earlier in the week and burn down the face of a government building with dynamite. 

After more than a week of protests, the US Embassy finally issued a warning to registered American citizens residing in Bolivia:

Large scale labor and wage-related protests are ongoing throughout Bolivia and are expected to continue into tomorrow.  U.S. citizens in Bolivia are advised major roads in most urban centers and main highways between several cities have been blocked during the day.  While some roads have reopened to vehicle traffic, groups of protestors remain active throughout the country.  Similar blockades are likely to occur on Friday, April 15.  The protest situation remains extremely fluid and Americans living and traveling in Bolivia should keep well abreast of news reports and carefully monitor information about their planned routes before leaving home.

I also received an unrelated, but equally interesting, public service announcement from my telephone provider, Tigo:

Today participate in the Communal Cleaning Efforts Against Dengue, rid your house of any accumulating water container. ALL AGAINST DENGUE. (TIGO)

It's real interesting to see what warnings get sent out down here.  My dad and I had spend a good chunk of the week photographing protestors and riot police, shielding our faces from tear gas, and navigating the shut-down streets of the country's capital, before the US Embassy even issued a warning.  The only email I received from the Embassy was sent on April 14th, the last day of the ten day national strike.

Also, to receive Dengue warnings is a first here.  I love how Bolivian phone companies accepted text message donations after the Haitian and Chilean earthquakes, the Japanese Tsunami, and the La Paz landslides.  Accompanying cellphone banking, which is becoming popular in parts of Africa, India, and Asia, I commend the poverty fighting efforts telecoms companies are making in the developing world.  I hope that as technology becomes even more accessible, these innovative measures that incorporate the poor into the global economy continue.

Public Service Announcements