Bogen illustrerer i sin fiktive verden de mekanismer, som John Perkins behandler i den virkelige verden. Og har endda det ekstra aspekt, at man laver dårligt arbejde - så gælden bliver større.
Den giver også et godt grundlag for at forstå, at Evo Morales er en polpulær præsident.
Den har to slutninger, en realistisk - der udover det allerede nævnte illustrerer de lokale eliters hensynsløshed - og en lidt påklistret mini Happy End formentlig for at muliggøre en filmatisering. Efter beskrivelsen af Esmeraldas burde det blive en smuk film.
Forfatteren beskriver sig selv som: autoworker, activist, international educator, poet, and monologist og han har bevaret arbejderens nærhed til og bevidsthed om virkeligheden.
Værd at læse.
I ikke-forstyrrende grad optræder der ind imellem sætninger, som jeg ikke begriber. Jeg an sagtens undskylde, at forfatteren ikke kan stave til ornitolog og botaniker - men synes nok, at forlagskonsulenten skulle have sørget for, at det ikke kom til offentlighedens kundskab.
"Let me tell you something. When Simon Bolivar liberated these countries from Spain, he thought we would rule this continent as one nation of, by, and for all latinoamericanos. But what do you think he found out? What? Tell me."
Hal could not answer. "I don't know. You tell me."
"The banks of England and los Estados Unidos owned the mortgage to everything. We were in a debt we could never get out of. We have been trying to get out of debt for a hundred and fifty years, but always it gets bigger and bigger. We are all peons, just like the indios. Foreclosure: I know that word. It is English. That is what privatization is. It is foreclosure."
'You mean foreigners are buying everything?'
Yes! Well, some esmeraldenos are buying things, but what do they know about dams, and electric generators, and water-purification plants. 24
"We were not always so poor," began Bolivar, putting his hand on Hal's spoon-holding arm, "but your country has taken all our resources, all of our wealth, and built themselves on that, so that your poor have a hundred times what our poor have. Try some tostados in your ceviche de pescados. It is roasted corn." He released Hals arm. 35
"Well, it supplies about sixty percent of the electricity to this county. They took some shortcuts on construction during the dictadura suave and now it's filling up with silt. They have to pump it out like you pump out a really big septic tank, and we're trying to install an efficient automatic system. Still, it'll cost a lot more than the original system they should have had." 49
"Well, not everything went OK during the dictadora suave. The price of oil dropped. Or I should say all the rich countries refused to pay the old price. So, now instead of owning all our schools and hospitals and utilities free and clear, we now owe the international bankers eight billion dollars. The World Bank and International Monetary Fund wants us to sell everything to pay the debt. Now, our dams: they are more than economic assets, they are national security, and we told the banks no! Our national security is not for sale. So they shut up about the dams. We let the professionals and engineers run the hydroelectric system, but at the top the Army keeps the dams for protection. Your Army Corps of Engineers is basically the same thing, no?"
"I don't think they are quite at that level."
"Our army asked your Army Corps of Engineers for help in running the dams. Then the World Bank asked them to make a big study. All we wanted was technical advice and technical help, as they always did before, but no. After a year of study we got economic advice: privatizacion!" Bolivar jabbed his fork towards Hal.
Hal paused over his choclo and said, "Foreclosure."
Bolivar was surprised. Then he broke into a smile. "You are a smart man. 63
"Everywhere in the Tawantin-Suyo" said Don Marcelo, picking a simple set of :hord changes. "The Tawantin-Suyo is the four corners of the Imperio Incaica. Dur land." His companions got to their ket and adjusted their instruments. /ictor began to play a base line on a guitar while Lenin beat the bald spot on the hairy head of his bomba: one-two-three pause, one-two-three pause.
Angel joined in with a panpipe, playing airily against the bass line. He had a ifferent pipe dangling from his neck, as did Leonidas, who held a straight flute igainst his chin and began to blow. The music filled rhe old house with sweet sobbing tones that slipped through the broken panes and flew down rhe hillside like seedeaters. They harmonized a dulcet complaint, Angel and Victor singing a bittersweet lead over the mournful tones of Lenins baritone and Don Marcelos base while Leonidas was the plaintive tenor. Their short lament spoke of the consolation of music, celebrating those simple gifts - the plow, the harvest, a sweetheart - that yield to the indio in his dolor a scrap of alegria: 91
"Well, take the Indigenous, for example. For five hundred years they worked for nothing on the haciendas except for rhe right to grow themselves a little food on land that was originally theirs."
"It was nobody's."
'Or everybody's"
"Right." Wilber emptied his glass and thumped it on the bar. 105
Hal had seen lots of copies of this style on the streets, usually not so elaborate, but maybe just as good, soometimes, though not so original. 106
How could botonist and ornothologists benefit the community? 205
Yes, but this one was special. I wanted to ask you about the painting the Residence bought. I heard someone arguing with General Rocafuerte about it. The general said it was about despair. The other, an Indigenous, said it was about struggle."
Quishpe looked a little put out. "For the Indigenous nationalities of Esmeraldas, these are not mutually exclusive experiences. When your religion is destroyed, your land stolen, your children killed, what else is there but despair? On the other hand, how do you survive for five hundred years without struggle. And why do you say 'the general' and 'the Indigenous'? General Rocafuerte's nother was Indigenous, like me. Indigenous, white: they are together in this country." 233-4
Bake chewed his lip a moment and spoke: "Hal, we Americans would not have blown it up like they did. But Esmeraldas is a poor country, and they were not getting any financial help. The only thing the world knew about the country was he crazy behavior and fall of Montesinos. Esmeraldas could not afford to keep twenty thousand people in tents and feed them. And you know some very influential people had homes that were threatened by the rising water. Pressure was being applied to do something. So, they blew it up. Actually they fired antitank rockets into it and blew the armor layer off. That layer was getting harder every day, and if they hadn't blown it off, it would not have failed for a long time. anyway, when they blew off the armor it allowed the flow to increase and erosion to initiate the failure." 235
"Oh, we were so happy. Me and all the farmers all around were dancing and cheering to see the water pouring out of that lake. It was the happiest day of my life;. I was so relieved. But I still lost my lower fields. There will be no harvest there this year."
"Of course, Bolivar, it was a mixed blessing."
Bolivar nodded sadly.
"The hydroelectric station was damaged and we only have lights half the time.
Oh, yes. Yes."
And many towns were flooded and many people were lost."
Yes, I know, and your Vilcabamba. I am sorry When we saw the river run, we were not thinking about that. It was terrible."
And they don't want the Indians to go back to their homes. They want to take everything away."
Bolivar was getting nervous. "Yes, I know, the Indians always get the worst. But Hal, the Indians sometimes stand in the way of progress. They don't always think about the working class. And the working class needs industrial developmnent. Science." 237
Orla Jordal, 2007
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