Bolivia

Today's roundup includes China, Turkmenistan, Gabon, Bolivia, Iran, and Kenya. Photo of demonstrators in La Paz, Bolivia, by Flickr user GafferBee.

In today's roundup: Burma, Bolivia, China, Kosovo, USA, Zimbabwe, and Haiti and the global food crisis. Photograph of children in Haiti by Flickr user sagabardon.

October 9th sees our feature film, Looking for the Revolution, occupying the day's discussions. Coinciding with the 40th anniversary of Che Guevara's death, the Democracy House is asking our readers what would make you start a revolution?

As an icon of socialist revolutionary struggle, Che Guevara has transcended cultural boundaries to become a symbol of leftist thinking around the world. Shaped in a similar revolutionary mould forty years later is Bolivia's Evo Morales. Besides being the first indigenous Bolivian president, Morales has sparked a crucial debate about the role of socialism in the twenty-first century.

My graduate thesis was about The Daily Show and its relationship to media and politics, and so I grew almost embarrassingly excited when someone in the house told me that Evo Morales (who is featured prominently in the Why Democracy? film Looking for the Revolution) had been Jon Stewart's guest last week. It's a decent 8-minute interview, and it's interesting to hear the crowd's positive response to Morales' various acheivements that don't jive so well with official US policy. The interaction between Stewart, Morales, and Morales's translator is pretty hilarious, too.

Almost two years after Evo Morales gained 54 percent of the votes to become President of Bolivia he faces his toughest crisis: For over a century La Paz and Sucre have shared the title of Bolivia's capital. Now this situation is at stake, with proposals to transfer executive and legislative government to Sucre. With raising tensions among protesters, police and military forces as well as limitations in freedom expression, many are concerned about the new un-democratic movement in the young democracy of Bolivia.

Read more about the democratic Bolivian revolution BBC News online, from AP and Jurist.

Join the debate in our forums: What would make you start a revolution? and follow our documentary Looking for a Revolution, which shows how Evo Morales, the first indigenous leader in Bolivia became President.