<br /><div class="MsoNoteLevel1CxSpFirst" style="margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Our Brand is Crisis</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> is a documentary film by Rachel Boynton that was released in 2005.<span> </span>The film chronicled the American political campaign-consulting firm Greenburg Carville Shrum (GCS), as they help Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada (Goni) get elected president of Bolivia.<span> </span>The film shows, basically, the end of neoliberalism in Bolivia.<span> </span>The chapter from Chasteen’s <i>Born in Blood and Fire</i> discusses the rise and fall of neoliberalism in Latin America as a whole, while the reading by James Cypher discusses Latin America’s neoliberal ties in Washington, D.C.<span> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNoteLevel1CxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoteLevel1CxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">“For better or worse, neoliberalism- with a familiar emphasis on free trade, export production, and the doctrine of comparative advantage- reigned supreme in Latin America at the turn of the third millennium.” (Chasteen 311)<span> </span>Goni was most assuredly a neoliberal, which worked well for him when he was the president of Bolivia the first time.<span> </span>However, in the 2002 election covered in the film, it seemed that Bolivia was ready for something new, or maybe something a little older.<span> </span>The few Bolivians that are actually heard in the film seem to want to return to a time before the neoliberals, such as Goni, “sold off, or <i>privatized</i>, the state-run corporations and public services that nationalists had created… as declarations of ‘economic independence.’” (312)<span> </span>At least it seemed that the indigenous population wanted to try their hand at nationalism.<span> </span>So the fact that the GCS was still trying to sell the Bolivian people a neoliberal is somewhat baffling.<span> </span>Except for the fact that he hired them.<span> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNoteLevel1CxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoteLevel1CxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The 1980s saw a shift in the way that the U.S. government made economic policies in relation to Latin America, which was known as the “Washington Consensus”. (Cypher 47)<span> </span>This shift was towards a more neoliberal approach to the economy, and to trade with Latin America.<span> </span>So after about a decade, neoliberalism is common in almost every Latin American country, including Bolivia, and with it came:</span></div><div class="MsoNoteLevel1CxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span> </span>Increasing poverty, stagnant or falling real wages, and a further and steady widening of the distribution of income in virtually every nation has also become the omnipresent and largely ignored social context of the neoliberal era.<span> </span>(47)</span></div><div class="MsoNoteLevel1CxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Neoliberalism would have worked out fine for Bolivia if it’s leaders had actually done any of the things that they said it would do, and that they would do.<span> </span>Neoliberalism’s greatest fault:</span></div><div class="MsoNoteLevel1CxSpMiddle" style="text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span> </span>was the implicit assumption that all capital inflows are equally good and that importing what cannot be made best within a Latin American nation is always and everywhere the epitome of economic rationality.<span> </span>(49)</span></div><div class="MsoNoteLevel1CxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">This was not even kind of what Bolivians wanted at the time of the 2002 presidential election, but they bought it anyway because it came in a somewhat shiny, slightly warn package.<span> </span>Cypher claims that “the death-rattle of neoliberalism is the sweetest sound</span></div><div class="MsoNoteLevel1CxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">to be heard from Washington in a long time,” and many Bolivians would probably strongly agree with that sentiment.</span></div><div class="MsoNoteLevel1CxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoteLevel1CxSpLast" style="margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Sure the Bolivian people bought the politician that was best advertised in 2002, but they returned him for store credit as soon as they got the chance. <span> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNoteLevel1CxSpLast" style="margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QVN0_DP0nO4/TbL8qe2xLiI/AAAAAAAAABg/PsIiRkpdWi4/s1600/comradejd_sb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="271" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QVN0_DP0nO4/TbL8qe2xLiI/AAAAAAAAABg/PsIiRkpdWi4/s400/comradejd_sb.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Comrade JD says, "It's about time, for summertime!"</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNoteLevel1CxSpLast" style="margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/1378570525637450649-7326127098145385677?l=dcaldwellhistory475.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>
