• Final Exam and Research paper for Church History I
• Tested Positive for Typhoid and Paratyphoid
• Completed paperwork and deliveries to a) get a new passport and b) not go to jail
• Staton’s Quince
• Katherine Returned to the States
• Discovered that not only is my backup drive fried, but I also seem to not have my data (read: school papers) on my laptop drive, either (read: panic).

I woke up today thinking that Staton had been 15 and Katherine had been in the States for at least two weeks. But no, just a few days.

Note for future reference: research papers on historical subjects, like, say, medieval scholasticism, are murder when one has no access to a physical library. JSTOR is lovely and all, but, man. I miss books.

Here’s the problem.

I will lose the Katherine Card.

The Katherine Card works all manner of magic. Observe:

Convincing Teenage Sister to Accept Medicine

Lorien: “Staton, you have to take this medicine.”
Staton: “Um, no. It does nothing for me.”
Lorien: “It doesn’t matter if you think it does nothing for your symptoms, because it’ll stop you from being contagious.”
Staton: “So?”
Lorien: “Katherine will be here Friday. If we get her sick, her first two Bolivian Weeks will be miserable.”
Staton: “Oh. Okay. Can I have the pills?”

Convincing Eleven Year Old Brother to Bathe

Lorien: “David, take a bath.”
David: “Nope.”
Lorien: “You stink.”
David: “Yup!”
Lorien: “No, seriously, you smell really bad.”
David: “[snicker] Yeah, I know!”
Lorien: “Katherine will be here in three days! You don’t want her to smell you like this.”
David: “Oh. Yeah.”
Lorien: “You’ll need to bathe more than once a month, you know.”
David: “True. Like, every day. Oh man, I need to go do my laundry, too!”
Lorien: “Um, okay, yeah, definitely.”
David: “GOTTA RUN, I SMELL BAD.”

Admittedly, the Katherine Card is less effective on the elder of the younger siblings, Thomas and Nicholas. They’re very much, “eh, whatever, I’m doing my own oh-so-cool-and-suave thing.” I suspect this will change when they stumble out of their rooms, like any other grumpy early morning, and realize, “POPE’S POOP! THERE’S A GIRL IN THE HOUSE. WE HAVE TO BE NICE!”

On second thought, Katherine should still come to Bolivia. That reaction will be worth the loss of the Katherine Card.

Update! Jeff McMorrough made his own version of the Katherine Card:

But stupid ridiculous Blackboard coupled with Bolivian internet apparently thinks it’s funny to give me endless network errors. I’m amazed I was able to stay on for the entire OT midterm last week. I get to the discussion boards to post the assignments, and errors and errors.

must. find. solution.

Christianity stands in direct connection with the covenants between God and humanity. Accordingly, Christians must study the history of God’s relationship with man and the principles He has communicated.

The Abrahamic Covenant became an unconditional promise of God’s ultimate fulfillment of His promises to Abraham and his descendents. The Mosaic Law was a complement to the Abrahamic Covenant in that while the Abrahamic Covenant ensured a relationship between God and the Israelites, the Mosaic Law provided the route to the present enjoyment of that relationship. The Law was not a route to salvation, which instead was strictly based on faith, but was a grant of access to the immediate provision of God’s grace and blessings. The Law provided the specific details of how the Covenant would best operate amongst the Israelites, and it was specific to their particular covenant with God. The Law also served as the most efficient tool by which the Israelites would serve as a missionary presence amongst humanity by calling the Israelites to adhere to a very different set of life functions and principles.

The law displayed God meeting the Israelites at their level and raising them up to a reasonably higher degree. The law gave their relationship with God a depth and substance. They could learn through the implementation of the law to recognize and fear God’s holiness and moral perfection. The law demanded of them that their relationship with God be exclusive. They had to meet God on His terms and worship Him properly without engaging in the degradation present in pagan forms of worship. The law demanded that they live in sexual and moral purity. Through the law God taught them elements of true justice which could be implemented in practical ways, and similarly God taught them practical methods and sound principles for caring for the poor and the needy. The Mosaic Law was specific both in its provision of practical details and in its application within the context of the Abrahamic Covenant.

Christians do not operate under the Abrahamic Covenant, although it holds profound impact in our understanding of God. Our relationship with God is made in new terms through His provision of Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Accordingly, we are not under the Mosaic law. Romans 6:14 makes this clear in that we “are not under law but under grace” (NKJV) and Hebrews 7:12 refers to a “change of the law”. The law remains relevant for us, however. In Christ we are given a “perfect law of liberty” (James 1:25) and we are to “establish the law” of Christ (Romans 3:31). Rather than pulling a detailed set of casuistic laws from the Mosaic Covenant, we are to implemant Godly behavior in our lives through principles of His morality.

The gleaning of principles from the Mosaic Law which can and should then be applied to modern life can best be accomplished through the methodology of principalism. This methodology is consistent in its consideration of the Bible, does not depend on arbitrary extra-biblical determinations, reflects the literary and historical contexts of the Bible, is highly conscious of the theological context of the Bible, and corresponds with New Testament teachings.

Principalism consists of five key steps. The meaning of the Old Testament law must be identified as understood by the initial audience. The initial audience must be differentiated from modern believers. Universal principles should be drawn from the text. Universal principles are understood to be reflected directly in the text, timeless in their nature, systematically compatible with biblical theology, not culturally based, and relevant to both Old Testament and New Testament readers. Those universal principles should then be correlated with New Testament teaching. The universal principles are thus modified in such a manner that they can be applied to modern life.

I’ve oodles of bugs to work through with various nooks and crannies, and I need to reconstruct the archives and categories in full, but – after midterms.

I’ve a midterm exam due tonight – two and a half hours on Old Testament history. This has been one of the most interesting courses I’ve had in a long time.  I’m drafting up outlines right and left, watching lectures, etc. I’ve two book critiques I want to finish this week as well.

I’m horrible at this distance class concept. I deliberately chose a program which demands just as rigorous a schedule as an on-campus program, and it’s still a fantastic way to fill a year overseas. The result is something much closer to the British tutorial system. Independent diligence is not my strong suit! The internet isn’t making things any easier. The connection here in town, thanks to the rainy season, is skipping out constantly. I’ll get online after much tedium, it’ll be dirt slow, and then it’ll disappear again. Not great for Blackboard and its hogging of the broadly bandying net-wit. Here’s hoping I keep the net long enough to take the test!

In reality, I’m lucky that so much of South America has internet at all…

I never again want to be grateful for the receipt of Cs. Perhaps disturbingly, I’m less bothered by the hair.

In that following week, the break between terms, I came to a conclusion: I will not apply to graduate school for 2009.

I went to bed on that Thursday, the 23rd, having processed the fact that I was not happy and would not be happy any time soon if I don’t alter course. I woke up on Friday the 24th having decided somewhen in my sleep that I’d not apply for next year, not even to the U.K. as I’d planned. Friday was exceedingly peaceful. By the time I’d gone to bed that night I’d budgeted plans for various regions in the States, scouted the apartment market in several cities, selected furniture from IKEA, decided on a deep-concealment firearm, investigated the job market in teaching, publishing, and general office-ness, and developed a ridiculous excitement about the intention to live a normal and boring life for one academic year.

Reality set in on Sunday, of course: I still have 2.5 semesters left in my current M.A. program. I enjoy most of the material… it’s the doing of it which I despise. That’s much of what has me concerned, ultimately. I could be digging through the correspondence of late eighteenth-century America and would still feel burdened by the necessity of it.

Thus, a vacation from my chosen vocation. I’ll stay here in Bolivia through August of 2009. I’ll spend the summer months studying for the LSAT. I’ll return to the States and take the LSAT and make my applications. I’ll then spend the next year in whatever “normal” job or three I can find.

The task at hand, however, is to wrap up all of my assorted loose ends and excel in this last year before a much-needed gap.

Prior to the Ambush in the Pando, Evo expelled almost all of the press. That is a significantly contributing factor as to why we have so little visible evidence and sound accounts of what really happened.

Earlier today on a radio station in Cochabamba it was announced that evidence had been found and confirmed that all individuals who fired weapons at the violent clash were Venezuelan troops. This is believable, because it is well known that the Bolivian military is fiercely uncomfortable with attacking other Bolivians. (This matches an article I saw yesterday. I’ll add a link to that here soon. Need to track it down again.)

Legal Consequences of the Pando Conflict:

After the attack in the Pando, the Pando government was disbanded and Martial Law was instigated in that department. Martial Law is limited by the current Constitution of Bolivia to last no more than 90 days. Under Martial Law, no arrests or charges can be made.

Also under the current Bolivian Constitution, no official can be arrested under any circumstances. Let’s backtrack and define this. Until relatively recently, the Constitution defined Prefects of Departments as being members of the President’s cabinet, government officials, whom the President personally selected. Under President Mesa, however, the Constitution was legally amended so that the Prefects are elected by the people of the departments. The definition of a Prefect remained the same: Prefects are government officials and members of the President’s cabinet.

Current context:

The Prefect of Pando has been detained by the national authorities under Evo’s leadership. He has not been arrested or charged. He is informally accused, but legally he is only under armed/guarded confinement. He is not at liberty to leave. When a Bolivian citizen is under confinement, the normal response is a writ of habeas corpus. He has not been arrested or charged, however, so habeas corpus does not apply. But! In situations in which a confinement has been initiated but no arrests/charges have been made, the Bolivian Constitution offers a protection: an automatic visa to leave the country.

The legal Constitution of Bolivia promises the Prefect of Pando an automatic visa to leave Bolivia. That’s Latin American legal systems at work if I’ve ever seen it. His family have today filed the case to have that visa processed.

Evo’s team is arguing that because the Prefect was in rebellion, he cannot be considered an “official of the government”. However, this doesn’t hold up legally:

• The Constitution has no provisions for situations of rebellion. That status does not legally exist.
• The Prefect was elected by the people of the Pando. Therefore, he is an official of the government of Bolivia as designated by the people of his department.
• The Prefect is legally a member of the President’s cabinet, but is not subject to the President’s selection or preference (reserved by the department, as shown in point 2). The Prefect is as much of an official of the Bolivian government as every other member of the President’s cabinet.

Unfortunately for Evo, by placing the Prefect of Pando under confinement he has given him a free exit from the country and from possible prosecution. This is what happens when people do not respect their own laws enough to know their own laws. If you make a law and/or if you claim the authority of a law, then you need to know that law and follow that law. Evo’s team does not, and that’s a significant weakness for his leadership and his factions.

Evo can continue this fight against the Prefect. Attempting to keep the Prefect in the country by denying his constitutional claim to an exit visa forces a case into constitutional courts. In Bolivia, cases can take months and sometimes years. Consitutional cases will get heard much faster than civil cases, but they can take just as long… and that’s a long time. IF this case goes before the constitutional courts, then due to its high profile the new Constitution proposed by Evo, which has not yet been approved and put into place by the people of Bolivia, cannot be approved. Evo can fight to keep the Prefect, but his Constitution will be delayed inevitably, and with it his political ideals.

Ouch.

International Support and the Limits thereof:

We keep hearing about the overwhelming solidarity of the continent, represented now by UNASUR and the OAS, for Evo Morales. That may well be an exagerration, and the inclusion of international authorities may prove to be Evo’s political downfall.

Evo set the schedule for negotiating with the opposition leaders in Bolivia. He picked the dates. At the last minute, Evo attempted to change the negotiations for one day earlier than planned. This would have caused the opposition leaders to be unprepared. UNASUR and OAS said, emphatically, “No.” The schedule had been set, it was not appropriate to change it.

August Referendum – Bogus?

In addition, the international agencies are going through the election results from August with a fine-tooth comb. They are being extremely strict. Under these strict counting procedures, Evo’s “mandate” is adding up to be approximately 32% – that is 35% lower than the 67% claimed by the Bolivian government. A more moderate counting which allows for a reasonable amount of casual error suggests that Evo would have earned the necessary 52% to stay in office, but only just, and certainly not a 2/3 mandate.

A more obvious limitation to the security of the election, especially valuable for those of us who are distrustful of even third-party agencies counting votes (it’s scary, when you think about how easily shaded our counting systems are, regardless of nation!), is that in a normal election every polling location is monitored by a representative of every single party in the election. In those situations, if any of those representatives point out a possible problem, then the whole polling table in question is shut down! In August, however, the referendum did not involve specific parties and a selection between candidates – it was a simple Yes / No vote. Representatives from multiple parties were not present at the polling places, thus eliminating one of the more significant protections of the electoral system in Bolivia.

The international agencies are going through the records and finding thousands upon thousands of voters listed as “Mama AAA”, “Papa BBB”, and so on – clearly fraudulent names. Reports are also being submitted of citizens who appeared at their polling location to vote but were informed that someone had already voted that day in their name! Awkward. Now, be rational, guys. In the United States of America wwe have elections upon which the entire world looks because our elections affect the entire world… and yet, we still have dead guys voting in Chicago. Election fraud in Bolivia? Believable.

The Compromise:

UNASUR and the OAS, however, are not demanding that the August election be thrown out. They’re going much deeper than that. Now that they’ve been invited in, they’re staying. Evo’s “mandate” will stand, but on their conditions. UNASUR and the OAS are demanding that all voters re-register. From now all, every voter must present their carnet (ID) and give their thumbprint in order to vote. That data will correspond with the data in the brand new voter registration database.

The rest of the continent really doesn’t want to deal with a country firing its legally and constitutionally elected President – and Evo’s presidential election was legal and valid. But forcing a just and accountable system of voter registration? That could solve a ton of future headaches.

The Bolivian Economy:

Bolivia’s national bank has been deliberately suppressing the U.S. Dollar. We’ve all seen this. When the dollar was going down, so did the exchange rate – obviously! When the dollar went back up, however, the exchange rate did not rise in turn… it even went down further. The Bolivian economy is still too tied to the dollar to play these games, and games they are. The economy is in a mess!

Worse still is that Evo was depending on high oil prices, circa $140/barrel, to pay for several of his major projects. He banked on being able to sell Bolivian oil for those prices. Unfortunately for him, oil has dropped back down to circa $100/barrel.

People aren’t exactly thrilled about all of this.

Evo’s Path to Success:

Please note: the following is not my idea! This, too, is coming from the brilliant legal advisor. He’s thought of two very simple and, shockingly, obvious answers to almost all of Evo’s problems.

First, regardless of which option he selects, he needs to give the opposition what they want. All of it. Halt the new Constitution. Give them “autonomy”. Stop interfering with revenues. All of it.

Then, he has two strategic options:

• One month prior to the next election, Evo could resign as president of Bolivia. His vice president would become president. Evo would be legally free to run for re-election.
• Alternatively, he could have made all of his concessions to the opposition conditional on an amendment to the current Constitution which would allow him to run for re-election. That’s it.

Why would these work? Because people are dead tired of the conflict. The opposition will not ever be thrilled with Evo, MAS, or any other socialist regime. They will be content, however, if they are given what they want – and that’s a return to normal without the demands of the new Constitution, the stolen revenues, etc. The moderates within Bolivia (who likely outnumber either faction) and the international community will praise Evo for his compassion, his wisdom, and his commitment to peace. His popularity will skyrocket. Due to the new voter registration systems, there would be no reasonable question of the validity of his election and democratic mandate. He would be elected by a huge majority, and he would have the political backing in his second term to force through the new Constitution (or at the very least a slightly milder version) without significant problem.

The strategy is brilliant. Appease the opposition. Get legally re-elected under the current legal system. Earn the love and respect of millions. THEN drive in the nails of reforms. The problem with all of this, though, is that it interferes with pride. Evo is far too proud to make the temporary, and frankly superficial, concessions. He’ll never do it.

So what will happen instead? Evo cannot take Sant Cruz and cause it to fall as it did Pando. The new Constitution will probably fail. Evo will stay in office, but he won’t be re-elected. He’ll be done, nothing foundational will be solved, and both sides – the indigenous people who experience discrimination and cultural abuse, and the property-owners who have to battle to keep their rights – will continue to suffer. A very boring, but very predictable, stalemate.

… then it existed in the form of Cranford.

My big boxes full of textbooks (half of which are bigger than the Bible, thank you.) arrived four weeks into an eight week graduate course. My first bona fide graduate course (nearly half of my Missouri State classes were 500s, but it’s not the same). My first course, period, in theological studies which is not my usual field of Early American Republic history, no matter how closely related they may be. Theology is a different world. Meanwhile, and this is quite the confession, as a minister’s daughter I seem to have a Pavlovian response: sleep.

That sounds dreadful. My father is, without question, the most gifted teacher and speaker whom I have encountered. It’s not his fault, this response. But one cannot describe the endless mass of preachers who haven’t skill at preaching, the teachers who haven’t a gift for teaching, and the speakers who can barely speak – nevermind perform. In university this wasn’t a problem for me. Now, suddenly, I’m watching DVDs of a bland speaker discussing something God-esque and I feel like I did as a teenager listening to some random preacher and thinking, “ah, yes. This would be such-and-such outline I heard when I was eleven. Snore.”

No matter that the material is interesting. No matter that Intertestamental Judaism, particularly under Ezra/Nehemiah, is ridiculously fascinating. It’s Pavlov, man.

Nevertheless, to the right of my desk is Cranford, perched impatiently on my bookshelf. Judi Dench and Imelda Staunton are staring at me from the cover. Nineteenth century BritLit! Gaskell of North and South! Staunton. Dench. Atkins. Gambon. All on my bookshelf, waiting for all of my studies to be thoroughly caught up so that I can watch it a free mind and spirit. With special features.

and so I continue studying as fast and as thoroughly as I can, trying to ignore the abject terror of how dreadfully behind I really am. This was not how I wanted to begin grad school.

My GPA is right on the border. 3.745. If I take just one more class, I'm bumped up to Magna CL in the U.S., and firmly upper Second Class in the U.K. I was fine with settling with a 3.74 in order to JUST BE DONE. Until I was looking at my transcript and thinking, but, but, that 3.75 would be awfully pretty… so I decided, okay. One more class. Then I thought, hmm. If I take two more classes, then I can receive most of my normal scholarships and grants and so on. That'd be an extra $1800 in the bank! Just for taking another class!

Well, you can imagine my decision.

So I'm now registered for two Fall classes this year. Rather than graduating in two months, I'll graduate in December. That sounds dreadfully depressing, but a) $1800 extra in my bank (and living in a country where I can live for $30 a month… just buying DVDs and diet pepsi…), and b) a 3.755 as opposed to a 3.745? MSU's online course selection is pitiful. It's mostly accounting classes and How To Run A Farm classes, and all of the interesting courses (historical costuming) have umpteen prerequisites.

Here are the two courses for which I've registered.

English 287: Life Stages in Literature. Read 8 books, write about said 8 books. Artsy-fartsy literature BS, at which I'm pretty good. Even if the books are rubbish. 

Media 300: Film Analysis. Learn about the history of film criticism. Critique movies. Yes, I can cope. Also, the $100 textbook is on sale at Amazon for $11. That always makes me happy.

There you go. Graduation is postponed for fluff classes, for extra scholarship cash and cheap (okay, at $774 per class it's not cheap) GPA inflation. Besides – I can use a little fluff now and then. If only Shakespeare II were taught online!