Views from the Teleférico

     Today I rode the teleférico for the second time. When I ride, I am usually taking the green line, which leads me closest to my house in Zona Sur. Setting aside the surrounding controversy of necessity, the teleférico itself is a really interesting form of transportation, and riding it can get you some of the best views of La Paz. And some of the most telling.
     Getting to see the city from above ground can give the city perspective. It helps me orient how the city and its numerous zones are laid out, and it also gives me a broader view than I have from walking the streets below the buildings. From up above, it is easy to identify contrast. Especially stark contrast. As I ride the green line to my neighborhood, I notice a particularly poor area. Stray dogs run down every street. There is no space in between buildings, which themselves look as if they might crumble at any minute. Unfinished walls and roofs. All crowded along a steep hillside. Now we reach the top of the hill and I notice a really large house. And then another. And another. And suddenly there is a neighborhood of wealthy mansions, sitting atop the mountain, an overt contrast to the shanties that sit quite literally just below.
      A similar contrast emerges when you see the soccer fields that now dot the city. From the teleférico one can see the same image: run down houses and neighborhoods, but interrupted by a beautiful green turf soccer field. On the bus ride to Potosí and Sucre we counted 5 soccer fields within half an hour at one point. And this was passing through a part of the country that is extremely spread out. There seemed one beautiful field for every town, no matter how small or sparsely populated.
     The images of course raise concern. The first view, the sharp contrasts that lay adjacent to one another, primarily acts as a starting point for the discussion of inequality and even rural-urban migration and development. How can these wealthy people, whose neighborhood has only one entrance so as to make it nearly impossible to access, boast their mansions right next to families that are unable to put roofs over their heads, or are poor enough to not want to finish the houses for tax breaks? What are our responsibilities and obligations to our neighbors and fellow citizens?
     The image of the soccer fields raises another question, and one that is also reflected in the debate surrounding the building of the teleférico itself. This is a question with which I struggle. I am eager to say that the allocation of resources and government spending concerns me. Evo has spent an exorbitant amount of money on these fields and on things such as the teleférico. I am careful not to dismiss these expenditures as frivolous. Many claim that Evo constructed the fields for votes, but even if it were out of the goodness of his heart and for the bettering of his people, is this really the best way to do so? And it is with this part of the question that I am sometimes torn. The camaraderie of sports and the opportunity for people to engage together in a fun way is extremely important and valuable to society.  And I certainly do not want to discount that or say that spending on other things is objectively better or more effective. Yet, there is lots of evident need in La Paz and in the more rural towns beyond. Every day we can compile an endless list of outlets for effective and beneficial government spending: hospitals, schools, etc. So what is Evo's justification for his spending? And how do we decide how to allocate spending in general? What do the citizens of these communities feel about Evo's allocation of resources? Communities that have received these pristine soccer fields, but may lack sufficient educational or medical resources. And I do not mean that to be a leading question. I genuinely am eager to know how people in varying communities prioritize their needs and wants. Does the answer change with size of town? Wealth of the individual? Political tendencies? Furthermore, should citizens have more of a say in how spending is allocated?
     This of course is not a question unique to Bolivia. I ask myself these same questions in regards to the United States government. Even the sports example can carry over. At my high school, there was often frustration among my teachers about the expenses of the new football fields or jumbotrons (yes, high school), while textbooks were outdated and falling apart, and many students at the school were part of the high school lunch program.
     I am not advocating reliance on only one or abandoning of another. I think the balance is important. I am just struggling to understand where it falls. And where it should.