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TL😉R ALERT: This article is about the future of the Bolivian community. It is a frank discussion on current realities, and it calls out not just leaders and wannabe-leaders, but all true Bolivians who want an independent state. If there’s a true commitment by the community to thwart the Pindonga, I’m thrilled to be in the fight with you; if, however, no one really cares, it’s okay, I’ll move on.


Is Arjay playing superhero yet again?

While it disturbs me to see my friend Arturo Espinoza permabanned for creating multi’s, it doesn’t break my heart. The Pindonga trolls made a persuasive argument in the Bolivian media yesterday that he has indeed created multiple citizens and were manipulating them to his advantage, the admins bought the argument, and now he is kicked out of eRepublik. Should he be successful in returning to the game, his reputation is now shattered, and it will be very difficult for him to ever be taken serious again. In other words, don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time.

Arturo’s expulsion doesn’t help a Bolivian community struggling against the pro-Argentine bloodsuckers that have a firm grip on the country. The Pindonga have ruined this country more than I’ve ever seen a PTO group foul up a country. The currency is worthless, trading today at around 130 BOB per gold (up from 160 BOB/g last week, but still an incredibly weak currency). A quarter million BOB’s have been donated to Argentine orgs. There are few jobs that are not Pindonga communes. The community IRC is quiet, the community forum is slightly better, and were it not for my daily articles, the newspapers would be nothing but articles of Pindonga trollery. It’s bad here, and even if the community were to somehow defeat the Pindonga to get back Congress and the presidency, Argentina would immediately renew their declaration of war, funded by cashing in their BOBs, wipe the country off the map, re-open citizenship, and start the process all over again.


Argentina has Bolivia in a vicious cycle, like a gerbil constantly running in its wheel, never allowing it to get ahead for even a second.

All this, I deem a challenge to overcome. I’ve seen communities come back from the dead before, with little gold to work with, with few connections at their disposal, and with hostile neighbors pounding down the walls. This isn’t a matter of ability, for there’s always a loophole to exploit, a corner to cut, a grindstone to put your nose to. This isn’t a matter of no one in the world caring, because truly, we do have an MPP network, and a lot of people came here from Poland and Romania to assist us in elections and battles.

The only thing that’s keeping the Bolivian community from rising up and kicking the Pindonga out of the country once and for all is the Bolivian community.

A small community is one thing, and through demoralization and destruction, the Pindonga have done an extraordinary job of keeping that community small. However, small and defeated does not make for a comeback. Small and spirited, small and feisty, small and dignified, that’s a community that can make a difference.

We need the old crowd to step up, people like Ernesto_Guevara and jesusfbo, veterans of this game, to get in the newspapers and to shout down the lies put out there by the Pindonga. We need the next generation, led by Arturo and talomedina, to continue the charge.

The big lie being spread about these days is that talomedina, as president of Bolivia, presided over a theft of nearly A QUARTER MILLION BOB’s. The Pindonga are spreading this lie, hoping that if they say it enough times, it will become true. The fact of the matter is, the Pindonga dominated Congress, the Pindonga proposed three times to issue money that dropped the value of the BOB through the floor, and the Pindonga passed five proposals to send over 248,000 BOB to various pro-Argentine orgs. All talomedina could do as president was vote no, a futile thing to do.


That pretty much says it all, no caption needed.

The theft is one thing, it was a heinous thing for the Pindonga (translated into English as “prostitute”) to do, and of course, lacking things like dignity and class, they’re going to pin this all on the president, talomedina. It’s nasty politics designed to keep the Pindonga perpetually in power, to keep Bolivia their personal piggy back, and to convince citizens that the liars and thieves are really the good guys, while the core of community leadership is corrupt.

All that is criminal enough. What I need to know is, why isn’t talomedina attacking these charges in the Bolivian press? Why is he currently in Polish-controlled South Dakota, doing God knows what, when his reputation is being drug through the dirt in South America, and Arturo and me are left here to try to set the record straight? The only thing talomedina is guilty of is being a lame-duck president, unable to overcome Pindonga dominance in Congress. He is responsible for his own actions. He is not guilty of theft at all, but as of right now, he is guilty of apathy, for leaving the fight, for allowing others to pick up the pieces. Were my name being sullied as his has been (and yes, my name has been drug through the dirt pretty well), I would be mad as hell and fighting for my honor, to set the record straight, to speak my mind, and should I then leave the stage, it is with my head held high, my chest out, and feeling proud for standing up for myself.

With Arturo permabanned, with talomedina out of the country (I have to be consistent, I bagged on New Zealand president Calbe for only writing articles when running for election, but talomedina, even though I respected his work and think he fought the good fight for a long time, did the same freaking thing, writing three articles in three months, talking about nothing but his desire to run for office. For shame.), with Ernesto and jesusfbo all too quiet, who is left?

Well, among others, there’s this Arjay cat who’s constantly writing in English, calling the Pindonga a bunch of whores, and coming up with a lot of ideas that aren’t yet going anywhere. Are you telling me Arjay Freaking Phoenician is the loudest, strongest voice for Bolivian independence and against Argentine treachery? Why isn’t he making a move? Why isn’t he showing the community how it’s done? Why doesn’t he put up or shut up?

The answer to that is, I’m not going to throw myself into the morass as fully as is necessary if there’s not any real community support for it.

I’ve talked like this in other countries around the world, and every so often, there comes a point where my words are meaningless if I don’t act on them. That always leads me to running for office, to which I’ve been in Congress for four terms in Bolivia and South Korea, I’ve been president for two terms in South Korea, and I’ve been in ministries here and there all over the world. In every case, there was support for what I was talking about. There were trolls, of course, and they tried to get under my skin and spread lies about me (I especially liked the one time Carlos Bianchi tried to convince South Korean voters I was a North Korean spy), but my goal was not to defeat trolls, hence it never mattered what they said. The goal was to bring my vision of leadership to the country, and let voters decide for themselves if it’s something they wanted.

Maniek M got 213 votes for President last week, 45% of the total. That’s enough to start a revolution, but only if every one of those 213 voters is willing to do more than show up on election day. That’s why leadership is so important; you can only blame so much on community apathy and ignorance. At the end of the day, if you as a leader didn’t do everything in your power (and I mean EVERYTHING, not just writing a few articles and getting into a few arguments, I mean everything short of creating multi’s to vote for you) to beef up activity, to find leaders that are diamonds in the rough. The revolution will not work if there’s only five out of that 213 who are willing to take the onslaught of insults the trolls will heap upon you. It will never get off the ground if you look at the newspapers, see that nine of the top ten articles are all trolls talking trash, and you don’t comment on them, you don’t write your own articles to break their monopoly of the press, and you don’t lend your voice to what you know in your heart to be true and righteous.

Can a Yankee win power in the heart of South America? Of course he can. It’s not a matter of language; it’s a matter of intelligence, a matter of nerve, and especially a matter of commitment. I want Bolivia to throw the Pindonga out on their asses, but if Bolivians are content to remain discouraged, if they’re too willing to let others lead while they just ride along, if they’re not concerned with Bolivian money stolen from the treasury and sent to Argentina because of Pindonga treachery, then it doesn’t matter how many articles I write, how good of ideas I have, or how much experience I bring to the table. I still believe one person can make a difference in this world, but one person alone cannot shout down the trolls all by himself, and one person cannot defeat a nation of thousands just because he wants to. One person, however, can lead the way, can inspire others, can meet people in the community, collect them, refine them, sharpen them to razor perfection, and then go into battle. I may not be the person Bolivia needs at this point in time, but then again, I may be.


This is a popular picture from Tienanmen Square in China, summer of 1989, to illustrate the strength of the individual to overcome brute force. I have every reason to believe, had the Chinese government not cracked down on student protests the day before, with the whole world watching on CNN, this cat would have been squashed. The point: being big and bad requires an understanding of context on one hand, and moral support on the other; if you have those two things, you can stop a row of tanks all by yourself.

None of this matters, however, if everyday Bolivians don’t step up in their own way and be counted. If only seven or eight people truly give a damn about keeping Bolivia independent and free from Argentine influence, so be it, I can go elsewhere and find an equally small, but decidedly more energetic group to fight the good fight with. But if we have fifty, a hundred, two hundred people who are tired of Argentine manipulation and Pindonga lies, it merely takes inspiration and organization to kick the bastards to the curb.

If you want a free Bolivia, let’s make it so.

If you really don’t care all that much, I understand, I’m sorry for waking you from your nap.