The topic of the week is Bolivian president-elect’s understated style of dressing. Leftwing Evo Morales doesn’t actually own a suit, but only street clothes, something that’s creating a bit of a sensation around the world. On Morales’ first unofficial World Tour to meet assorted leaders in places like Spain, Belgium, Netherlands, South Africa and China, riding there on a Venezuelan PDVSA state oil company jet, he encountered baleful looks in ultra-formal Spain, and phony expressions of sympathetic support from the nominally communist Chinese for his dressed-down look.

I don’t have a problem with him being who is he and in general I like the fact that he is in this one way being true to himself – it makes me hopeful he’ll be true to himself in other ways (though it was never the case with Castro), which would necessitate shaking off his Cuban and Venezuelan diplomatic handlers. Those handlers almost totally cut out the Bolivian embassy from any involvement on Morales’ trip to Beijing, making all the arrangements and keeping Morales sealed in their bubble. I hope he eventually realizes he doesn’t like being a puppet, because it was obvious to the Chinese that that was what he was.

The Chinese wrote him off as a rube and secretly laughed at him behind his back.

But Eduardo Avila on Global Voices has an interesting week’s roundup of blogs from Bolivia describing much of the local reaction to Morales’ choice of attire. Read it here.