Whispering in the Giant's Ear: A Frontline Chronicle from Bolivia's War on Globalization

I have just finished Whispering in the Giant's Ear and felt compelled to write a review. So much of what Powers has written about Bolivia has struck a chord with me, as I have just returned from Bolivia on assignment for a Canadian magazine. As I read this book, I found myself on the edge of my seat, anxious to see how Powers dealt with many of the same contradictions and frustrations I witnessed traveling through the Andes and into the low-lying areas in the east. This book's obsession with the fine line between romanticism and pragmatism, the spiritual difficulty in assigning "value" to a forest in order to ensure its protection, makes it an absolutely crucial (and very entertaining) read for anyone interesting in globalization, indigenous rights, environmentalism, global warming, Kyoto, NGOs... the list goes on. Pick up this book. Expose yourself to one of the most heart-wrenching (and under-reported) social dramas currently unfolding on our planet.

I learned of the concept of carbon credits when I read Big Coal. It seemed like an interesting idea, but I was curious about investigating it from the perspective of those countries participating on the other side of things. Whispering in the Giant's Ear was an excellent choice to reveal the conseqenses of our exploitation of non-renewable resources on "less developed" nations. Powers does an outstanding job of providing an interesting narrative with which to educate the reader about the role carbon credits are playing in the struggle of indigenous people to gain political power in a nation that is caught up in the process of globalization. The number of characters is not so many as to cause confusion, but enough to provide insight into several segments of Bolivian society. A sympathetic portrait of the indigenous peoples of the poorest of South American nations.

I have to say, I'm envious of Bill Powers' writing abilities and his experience in Bolivia. Thanks to his detailed descriptions of character conversations, speeches, emotions, reactions, etc., I feel like I could easily recognize any of his Conservation International colleagues - Salvador, Smithers, Len - if I saw any one of them on the street...or deep in the Bolivian jungle. I did wonder whatever happened to the author's relationships with Daniel and Anaí - two of the author's close friends - but at the same time both side-stories were pleasantly left open to the possibilities. This book provides a highly readable, history of Bolivia and it's current political and environmental challenges. In addition, it provides a detailed look into the relationships between a "gringo" do-gooder and his Bolivian counterparts.

I thought I'd just grab a primer on Bolivia, but got a whole lot more when I picked this book up. This guy is so multi-faceted, you never know what he's going to write next. Nearly every passage in his work make you angry, make you take sides, make you pause with a sense of befuddlement. Sometimes I folded it in front of me just to let a particularly beautiful revelation or moment sink in. For anyone who is eager (or compelled) to learn about the actualities of Bolivia's incredible past five years, its "war on globalization", this is the book to read. Powers, who was one of the few "there", talking and sharing with those involved and wholly understands what occurred. This is apparent in his telling of the Indian road-blocks, impending rain-forest catastrophe, and the stories of real people that you can relate to. After reading William Powers, the world becomes a far stranger, grander, mythical, more intriguing--and puzzling-- place than ever before.