Sing, sing a song

I'm late in posting this but it's worth archiving, if only for the photo. Condi Rice met with newly elected Bolivan president Evo Morales on a state visit to attend the inauguration of Chile's first woman president, socialist pediatrician Michelle Bachelet. Morales gifted Rice with a guitar-like instrument.

Rice told Morales, "I'm a musician you know," and strummed the instrument, a typical Bolivian lacquered handicraft with five pairs of strings.

It was unclear whether she immediately realized what adorned it.

As you can see from the photo, it's inlaid with coca leaves, a rather ballsy move on Evo's part I thought, but in keeping with his position on the coca plant, that being, "Yes coca, no cocaine!" He's paying the price for standing on his principles. US anti-drug aid has been reduced to Boliva in response to his refusal to allow the US to foist off Plan Colombia style eradication campaigns on his people.

"We don't want the drug fight to be a political tool to defend geopolitical interests," Morales said last month. "We don't want a drug fight that is a pretext for the U.S. or other powers or governments ... to simply control (Bolivia's) government, blackmail or place conditions."

Meanwhile, it remains to be seen whether Condi will be able to get her present through US customs.