'Whispering in the Giant's Ear' looks at Native challenge in Bolivia

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BY JAMES C. McCLELLAND / For the Lincoln Journal Star

 (“Whispering in the Giant’s Ear: A Frontline Chronicle from Bolivia’s War on Globalization” by William Powers, Bloomsbury Publishing, 305 pages, $16.95.)  It used to be referred to as Oblivia, a small landlocked country ruled by a typically corrupt elite. About three years ago, however, news from Bolivia started creeping toward the front pages of our press as large groups of Natives began to protest the longstanding discrimination against them. Since almost two-thirds of Bolivia’s population is composed of indigenous peoples, the largest of any country in the hemisphere, this movement is no small matter. Its main tactic was the nonviolent blockade of roads to and from the most important cities.  It culminated in December of 2005 with the election of Evo Morales, the first indigenous head of state in Latin America.

The author, an American who is a professional environmentalist, lived and worked in Bolivia at this time. But rather than recount the movement of political protest, he focuses on his personal involvement with small indigenous groups intent on preserving the 3  million acres of pristine rain forest in eastern Bolivia. Rain forests absorb the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, thereby slowing down the rate of global warming. Powers was helping to implement a Kyoto Protocol agreement by which three large multinationals (including the gigantic British Petroleum) agreed to spend millions to help preserve the rain forest, in return for credits that enable them to lower by 25 percent their goals for reduction of pollutants from their own energy plants. They would also work to establish ways for local people to earn a decent living without decimating the forest by mass logging.

This “cooperating with enemy” earned Powers and his Native coalition scorn from other eco-groups, but he is convinced that it is a feasible and workable approach.

The specialist will not find a precise description of these complex political, economic and legal issues. As the author states, his goal is to evoke, not explain. His swirling, novelesque narrative is a fine vehicle for that purpose, and good news for the general reader.

As such, the book is a rarity: It deals with a crucially important international issue yet is so well-written that it is difficult to put down. On one level it is intensely personal. The author presents himself as a 21st century Thoreau intent on merging with the beautifully described exotic nature of the rain forest. Simultaneously, he is a hard-driving activist who thoroughly integrates himself with the local Chiquitano tribe while constantly traveling to maintain contact with high-level, powerful international figures who support his cause. Throughout the narrative we share his doubts, discouragements, and failures as well as his optimism and successes.

Similarly presented in three-dimensional form is the indigenous population of the country, which is divided over goals and tactics. Some, including most of the Chiquitanos that Powers works with, are not favorable toward the blockades and Morales’ policies, while still others are ignorant or selfish and shortsighted. Powers’ ally Salvadore is a complex, impressive Native activist full of internal contradictions, who nonetheless manages to keep a foot in each of the two main indigenous camps.

In conclusion, a crucial question lingers: Will the Giant listen?

The author never explains or alludes to the book’s title, and leaves that question open. But I would take the “Giant” to refer not just to the indigenous population, or the Bolivian elite, and not just to national or international capitalism, but to the whole world bent on short-run development and consumption at any cost.

Powers’ alternative of sustainable development based on small-scale capitalism may or may not be applicable to larger areas of the globe. But the fact that small groups of people are not only whispering these ideas but actually implementing them against great odds certainly calls for a big cheer.

Jim McClelland lives and reads in Lincoln. His son Jeff recently spent two years in La Paz.