Don't Panic! (thanks to Douglas Adams for this one)

In my experience, whenever government officials have to ask the public to remain calm, there's usually a very high likelihood that that won't happen.

A little background: Last week Congress passed an oil & gas law that has the multinational business community threatening to go to court and stop further investments in the country. It also has the most radical leftist groups angry because they want to nationalize the industry, or at least tax it to death. Congress sent the bill to the President, who had two options: revise portions of the bill and return it to Congress, or approve it.

On Tuesday the President decided to punt, saying he would send the entire bill back to Congress (essentially a veto) but calling for a Grand Meeting of National Unity on Monday to draft an entirely new bill. The only thing is, he neglected to find out if anyone wanted to go to his meeting. Sure enough, Congress said no way, the Supreme Court said no way, and this afternoon the meeting was called.

Protests had already been planned for next week, but the hope was that the unity meeting would put them off. No more. The government is now urging the public to "remain calm". Fortunately, my sister-in-law and her mother are already on their flight to La Paz and will have no idea what's going on until we brief them at the airport. Wish us luck.