Culture Shock! Bolivia - A Survival Guide to Customs and Etiquette

246 CultureShock! Bolivia

colonies develop more slowly or less profoundly than other

countries within the same category. It is precisely because

Bolivia is so rich in hydrocarbons and minerals that it is

so undeveloped.

One explanation is the ‘Dutch Disease’. When Holland

found natural gas in the North Sea, the sudden infl ow of dollar

revenues led to a sharp rise in domestic currency. Non-oil

sectors like manufacturing or agriculture are rendered less

competitive in world markets.

Oil and gas industries employ few unskilled labourers

so the wealth reaches a tiny segment of the population.

Some governments have tried to set up special funds

that would save some of the infl owing revenue for future

generations or distribute it directly to the people. President

Chavez in Venezuela has used oil revenue to subsidise social

programmes and even as aid for neighbouring republics.

Governments that do not follow the Chavez example may

remain tempted to borrow from hydrocarbons or mineral

revenues to patch up the budget or worse, for the personal

gain of a few.

Whole treatises are written on the subject, but one thing

is clear: natural resources do not correlate with wealth for

the general populace.

Colonial structures engrained a system whereby a raw

material might be extracted at little cost thanks to near

slave labour, exported immediately abroad to a wealthy

company where the product was refi ned and elaborated

into something new, with ‘surplus value’, and this new

product was then sold back to the country where its raw

material originated. The price was rarely affordable to the

masses of people who would have benefi tted if this raw

material had been elaborated at the point where it had

been extracted.

Raw Materials The Raw Reality of

RAW MATERIALS

Rubber was once the primary

product in the deep rainforests

of north-east Bolivia. Working

I once asked a Bolivian zinc
miner about the potential for
uncovering new lodes. He told
me, directly, that if I wanted
to benefit from zinc, forget
mining; I’d do much better as an
intermediary trader.