Nine Citizens in the Bolivian Community. Is that all? Really?!

Day 1,122, 14:41 • Published in Bolivia Bolivia • by Arjay Phoenician
TL😉R ALERT: This article discusses yesterday’s party elections in Bolivia. While the world is rooting for Bolivia to thwart the Pindonga and reclaim their right to govern their own country, low voter turnout is not the way to do it. Being so reliant on global goodwill for its existence, the Bolivian community has no right to appear negligent or apathetic when it comes to basic matters like voting. Whether true Bolivians feel tired, burned-out, or hopeless, they need to think about how bad they want their country back, if they want it back at all.


Count for yourself. Nine.

It’s not the fact that I lost my bid for president of the Pindonga Nacionalista yesterday that bums me. I’m not all that upset that Pindonga candidates won all five party elections, a couple running unopposed. I’m not even that disappointed that pro-Bolivian candidates only got 24% of all votes cast.

What really disappoints me is that all of 37 votes were cast in total. Check the results for yourself and do the math.

This election was not so much about Arjay swooping in and saving the day from the heathen Argentine faction that has taken over, militarily and politically, turning the Bolivian treasury into their own private piggy bank; this was about gathering community support for taking the country back and ousting the Pindonga (which translates into English as “prostitute”) once and for all. I’m no caudillo, no cacique, looking to seize control and push forward, come what may. I’m a cat with a newspaper, a vote, a bag full of experience, a sense of right and wrong, and a heart, and I was hoping that would be enough to at least transcend the language barrier and get more Bolivians involved with the liberation of their own country.

One lost election doesn’t discourage me from continuing the fight, but it wake me up to the stark reality I mentioned in an article last week, that at some point, if Bolivians want a country free from Argentine thieving and Pindonga trolling, they’re going to have to work for it. There are a lot of people here who are making the effort, not just me, but people from around the world. There are folks from Poland and Romania who have come here to lend their votes and their military prowess for the sake of Bolivian sovereignty; it’s not them who need to rise up and take back Bolivia. It is the Bolivian community, no matter how small it is, that needs to get active in the newspapers, that needs to vote in every single election possible, that needs to educate itself as to who those who care and wish to lead are, and separate them from those who came here to troll and steal.


Bolivian cats are running out of lives fast, and they can’t always depend on foreign assistance to extend the ones they still have.

I’m of course not talking about every Bolivian, but when 37 in total show up to vote in party elections, and less than a quarter vote for non-Pindonga candidates (that means ONLY NINE BOLIVIANS VOTED AGAINST PTO CANDIDATES), it means one of two things:

1. The Bolivian community is too small to be effective.
2. The Bolivian community is tired, burned out, and too used to constant invasions and PTO’s to be anything other than apathetic.

I don’t believe there is a third option, that the Bolivian community likes Argentine dominance and Pindonga thieves periodically raiding the treasury and giving thousands in gold and hundreds of thousands in currency to pro-Argentine factions. I simply cannot believe the Bolivian community, as a unit, would accept the Pindonga president and Pindonga-led Congress pocketing Bolivian tax monies. No community with even a shred of pride would let just theft, graft, and corruption go unchecked.

It shouldn’t matter that the loudest proponent for Bolivian sovereignty writes in English. Instead of crying about what language I speak, the community needs to speak for itself. It needs its own leadership to emerge that does speak Spanish, if Spanish is so important to the community.


There. Spanish. Happy?

I want to thank Joshua Morriseau for taking me up on my challenge to run a campaign of his own in another party. He lost as well, but he fought the honorable fight.

I also want to thank those who stopped what they were doing in other countries to come, use their Bolivian citizenship, and vote for the good guys. Assuming, in the five parties, the three non-Pindonga candidates (Joshua, Vintersong, and myself) all voted for themselves, that means six citizens—SIX!—stepped up to vote for Bolivian independence and against Argentine dominance.

That’s all there is in Bolivia. Candidates and voters combined, there are currently nine Bolivians, not just in Bolivia, but including Bolivian citizens all over the world, who give enough of a damn to come and vote for a non-Pindonga candidate, me or otherwise.

As far as I’m concerned, the Bolivian community has been whittled down to nine people. I’m one of them, and it aches to know I can count all the people who give a damn about Bolivia on my fingers, and still have one to spare.

For those who came into my inbox and told me I was doing something good and noble, those who applauded me in my articles, but didn’t bother to show up and vote—you know who you are—I’m disappointed most of all in you. Encouraging words don’t mean a whole lot if they’re not backed up by action, and voting in this game is not the most energy-exhausting action I can think of. If you have Bolivian citizenship, and you read this paper and knew what I was trying to do, there’s no reason to not have voted, if not for me, then for Joshua or Vintersong. Hell, if you have Bolivian citizenship and have a vague understanding of what the Pindonga have done to this country, there’s no reason to not have voted.


You can’t spell Ninel Conde without NINE.

I understand, the party elections are consistently the elections with the lowest attendance, and more will vote in the Congressional and Presidential elections. I saw the votes Maniek M got in the last Presidential election, he got 45% of the vote, but that translated into 213 votes. If only a quarter of those who voted for him in the last election showed up yesterday to vote for the non-Pindonga candidates (do the math, that’s 54 Bolivian citizens), the results could have been incredibly different. If only a tenth showed up to vote—THAT’S 21 VOTES—we could have made the Pindonga break a sweat, and we might have won a party or two.

Nine votes is four percent of all the votes Maniek M got ten days ago.

Nine votes is less than two percent of all the votes cast for president on December 5. Am I to assume that over 98% of the people around the world with Bolivian citizenship don’t care enough to vote in party elections, because they are either unable, unwilling, undereducated on what’s going on in Bolivia, or just apathetic?

Bolivia isn’t 98% pro-Pindonga, is it?

You tell me, Bolivia.

I’m not ready to give up the fight, I want to see a Bolivia that is stable and prosperous, where Bolivian citizens aren’t paying taxes for the Pindonga to play with and send back to Argentina. The Pindonga aren’t invincible, they’re not overpowering, they’re just a few punks who are taking advantage of your indifference and making you pay for it. That should resonate, whether I’m speaking in English or Spanish, if you want to see that prosperity and stability in Bolivia that I want to see.

I want to be part of Bolivian resurgence, but I’m not going to waste my resources on a community that won’t fight for its own autonomy. I can deal with the trolls and their trash talk, I can deal with losing elections, but what I can’t deal with is a community that doesn’t give a damn. As it stands, there are nine people in the world who care enough about Bolivian independence that they’re willing to vote for it. That’s all. Nine. I’m one, are you?