A SUITCASE FULL OF BOOKS

As I prepare to leave for Bolivia, I have one concern in the back of my head: Will I have enough books?

It is extremely difficult to get good quality books in Bolivia. Books printed in high quality are costly – imported, they are subject to high import taxes and, alternatively, produced in Bolivia, the cost of paper and ink (which have to be imported) is a huge burden to publishers (ICEX, April 2005).

Thus, the easiest way to access books in Bolivia is via the black market. Illegal copies of all kinds of books, mainly produced in Peru, swamp the local market and make life for serious publishers and bookshops difficult (ibid.).

If you want a book that does not have one or several chapters missing and that is less middle-of-the-road (because only mainstream trash is profitable for the black market), you have to pay a price comparable to European levels. The other day, I bought a paperback textbook from a Bolivian publisher for about 10 Euros. Bearable for the “gringo” visitor, but for the Bolivian a luxury good.

No wonder that books and reading are a status symbol in Bolivia (ICEX, April 2005). This is also linked to the problem of illiteracy. The former government under Carlos Mesa launched a campaign to support reading, which has however not been put into practice until now (ibid.). The current government fights illiteracy, and has declared the country “free of illiteracy” (BBC mundo, 2008).

Still, there are controversies around the actual illiteracy rates in Bolivia. First of all, the national statistical institute only has numbers up to 2001. And then, it has been brought up that the program against illiteracy has not gone far enough – teaching people to write their name and read basic texts does not mean they are actually literate in the sense of being able to understand what they read and write (Universitarios Boliva, 2008).

In this sense, I am far more privileged than the average Bolivian, being able to read and write, and in different languages! I will be able to import books in English language somehow, and in the meantime I have decided to pay more attention to what is published here – rarely read but important contributions to the debate about the development of Bolivia. There are interesting academic editorials like PLURAL (www.plural.bo) and PIEB (www.pieb.org), and did you know that Bolivia has its own edition of Le Monde Diplomatique?

Still, this discovery leaves behind a bad taste: Given the problems of illiteracy and lack of access to literature – when will the broad public be able to critically analyse the country’s development?

Sources:

ICEX – Instituto Español de Comercio Exterior (April 2005). El mercado del libro en Bolivia. La Paz

BBC Mundo (20 de diciembre 2008). Bolivia, libre del analfabetismo. Retrieved from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/spanish/business/newsid_7793000/7793177.stm

Universitarios Bolivia (2008). El analfabetismo en Bolivia. Retrieved from: http://www.universitarios.com.bo/node/194