Is the (Red) Tide Turning in Venezuela?
The recent loud but silent protest by the very beautiful outgoing Miss Universe, a Venezuelan, has not gone unnoticed in a country where the Miss Venezuela and Miss Universe contests are major distractions from daily woes. Miss Venezuelas have won many Miss Universe competitions, most recently in both 2008 and 2009:
In her last catwalk in Vegas … [the outgoing Miss Universe] decided to unfold a Venezuelan flag, not on protocol. But that was not all, and in Venezuela we noticed that her flag had ONLY 7 stars instead of the official 8 (video here). Sure enough there are already chavistas accusing her of all sorts of conspiracy, and the poor woman might want to think about it before coming back to Caracas. Certain things happen in Vegas that cannot stay in Vegas.
Many Venezuelans view the eight-star flag as representing Chávez rather than Venezuela, and don’t like it even a little bit.
One of the online English language media outlets I go to daily to take the pulse of Venezuela, Vheadline, styles itself as “100% independent of all political factions in Venezuela.” It has however generally been quite supportive of el Presidente Chávez and his merry band. If a recent article there is any guide, the tide may well be turning even among some “elite” Chávez supporters, quite possibly due to the deservedly nasty things being said about Chávez et al domestically and internationally — even by the UN Human Rights Council’s investigator on freedom of expression.
Vheadline had offered some pretty mild criticism in the past, but this article by the editor and publisher, “Alice’s looking glass is surely in need of urgent repair,” should win a Pulitzer prize for unvarnished anger. Published on September 6, it manages to dump a heavy load of fecal matter on the Chávez administration, particularly the (Chavista) United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) election czar Andres Izarra.
The angry italics and bold face shouting are in the original article:
Wowee! Andres — who used to be a reasonably competent press attache at Venezuela’s embassy in Washington D.C. before he was allowed to let power go to his head as Minister of Communications & Information (Minci) and latterly as president of South America’s CNN-clone TeleSur — gets himself all worked up because … offenders have concentrated on “giving full coverage to NGOs [Non Governmental Organizations], which have allegedly received money from abroad (namely USA/CIA) to engage in a destabilization plan against Venezuela.”
Of course they do … how else is the Venezuelan electorate to get to know about the multitude of things that have gone wrong and continue to go wrong with Chavez’ Revolution. Does Chavez really believe there is any other means by which the Venezuelan public is to get to know about malfeasance in public office, widespread corruption and soaring criminality?
Andres, of course, neglects to mention the hundreds of government-funded local newspapers and radio stations that have proliferated in recent years “to spread the good word” about President Hugo Chavez’ Bolivarian Revolution. …
To crown it all … Andres has just authored a government-funded book called “The Guardians of pornographic journalism” which he admits was dashed off in four days, presumably as a response to opposition newspapers’ “calumny” of publishing a graphic picture from the overflowing Caracas Morgue.
An attack on a close Chávez official is an attack on Chávez personally. Sit, Hugo. Bad dog!
For those who don’t pay much attention to Venezuelan goings-on, there is very little actual opposition media in Venezuela; most have been shut down, nationalized, or otherwise effectively muzzled.
The “pornographic journalism” about which Minister Andres complained so passionately consisted of photos published by el Nacional and then by a few other Venezuelan newspapers attempting to demonstrate solidarity with el Nacional. The photos show large numbers of corpses in the Caracas morgue, because the extraordinarily high murder rate in Caracas leaves few other places to put them out of sight.
The photos were censored by the Venezuelan government:
[El Nacional was] prohibited … from publishing “images, information, and publicity of any type that contains blood, guns, alarming messages or physical aggression images that incorporate warfare content and messages about killings and deaths that could alter the well being of children and adolescents.”
“More people now talk about el Presidente Hugo Chávez like a dog.”
Personally, I would never do that.
I’m a dog lover.
Whatever you may think about Chavez, I find it hard to believe he talks to his dog. He may appear mentally unhinged at times, but talking to one’s dog is a sign of real psychosis that Chavez does not suffer from. I just cannot believe he talks to his dog.
How many democracies have arisen from dictatorships? None. Chavez will prevail just as Obama will in November and 2012.
Well, Sir, I disagree with your analysis. If it is true that Chavez talks to his dog and the Venezuelen people find out about this, then I would think democracy would work and they’d vote him out!
Try Romania for one.
Wouldn’t Taiwan qualify?
Fernandez should not return to Caracas to ensure her personal safety, but she shouldn’t stay in the U.S. either, again for her safety. Obama, and Chavez are of like minds, both are Marxist, and both want to see the U.S.A. spiral downward, and crash. If she stays here she may wake up some morning in Caracas, transportation provided by the present regime in D.C.
Oogoe is really screwing the place up, crashing what’s left of the economy, ruling by bombast and intimidation (the increasingly secretive and tyrannical Oogoe is a mini-version of Saddam Hussein, attempting to shut down all avenues of criticism, subjecting his various ministers to regular public embarrassment sessions), building socialist villages that no one wants to live in…
His cadre of ideologically attached, Communist supporters in Venezuela continues to shrink.
Western idiotlogues who don’t live in Venezuela & don’t have to actually experience deteriorating conditions in the country (the Oliver Stones, the Sean Penns, FCC guy Mark Lloyd is a big fan) likely haven’t yet gotten the memo, or the message.
Chavez will only be thrown out of power by either a military coup or by Colombia invading and getting rid of him.
I don’t think Colombia will bother; Chavez is already going down. As to a military coup, I don’t think that will happen either. The military has become even more incompetent than a few years ago and the higher ranks owe fealty to Chavez; if they stray they wind up in jail and forfeit their substantial perks.
That said, I don’t think that the lower ranks in the military would do much to help Chavez in the event of a popular uprising after he fudges the elections. A popular uprising does seem like a real possibility.
Too bad Uribe didn’t do something when he was in power, it probably would have helped him dealing with the Commie scumbags in FARC, who I’m sure are getting help from Chavez.
“Of course, nothing is Chávez’ fault, and he is said to have created three and one half million jobs. Nearly all are presumably in the public sector.”
Sounds like someone else we know, right here in the good ol’ U.S. of A., doesn’t it? Here, everything is Bush’s fault; King Barry asserts his policies have created or saved a multitude of jobs (which we all know is mostly based on cooked figures); and, lastly, he has indeed grown the public sector IMMENSELY.
Theories: twins, separated at birth? Brothers from another mother? Classmates at Mao U.?
Calling Chavev a dog. Calling Obama a dog.
Any similarity there?
For those of us who like Long Beach’s Flug Tag, there was an interesting entry. First let me explain what Flug Tag is. Flug Tag is a day when people who have created various non-motorized flying machines test them by jumping off of a very high pier. Winner is the machine which goes the farthest. Coming in third this year was a machine made to look like our dear President Obama only with very large ears. Sounds like a forecast of the upcoming elections.
Maybe Venezuela ought to have a Flug Tag?
Racial divisiveness to distract from incompetence? Social Justice in California?
Here in Los Angeles we are locking a generation into a cycle of poverty.
K-12 LAUSD graduation rate is now 40%.
Los Angeles 12.5% unemployment doesn’t do justice to the 18 to 25 age group who have no skills and have to compete for the 7.25 an hour minimum wage jobs now w/ college grads sometimes. There will be no jobs for these kids that are being left behind.
This is a long term poverty cycle we are creating. It will get worse and there are a lot of nasty side effects that come w/ it.
It is uncalled for to insult dogs so. Call him a Rat, call him a weasel, call him a pig, but do not call him a dog.
Dogs are noble and loyal creatures who give their whole being to their owners.
They could not be more different from Chaves.
For starters:
Germany.
Japan.
Italy.
Poland.
Czech Republic.
Slovakia.
Romania.
Spain.
Portugal.
South Korea.
Britain (after Cromwell).
France (after Napoleon).
11. Occam’s Beard
How many democracies have arisen from dictatorships? None.
For starters: Germany. Japan. Italy. Poland. Czech Republic. Slovakia.
Romania. Spain. Portugal. South Korea.
Britain (after Cromwell). France (after Napoleon).
Germany, Japan, and Italy became democracies after their unconditional surrender to America and our allies, and we _made_ them be democratic.
The Czech Republic and Slovakia had been democracies until they were conquered by outsiders (first, by Nazi Germany and second by Communist Russia), and upon being liberated returned to their natural state.
Great Britain under Cromwell and France under Napoleon at least pretty much had economic liberty. The same was true of Spain, Portugal and South Korea.
Romania, I don’t know much about.
What _is_ Obama’s policy towards Hugo Chavez? I would expect that he would have a policy that is pretty much hands-off. (I think that’s for the best. If we helped get rid of Chavez, we’d be blamed for every problem short of Utopia that they experience thereafter. I’d rather let it endure longer and fall of its own weight as an example to other South Americans.)
Observations: China and Face, Climate and Truth
China Loses Face: We’ve all heard the old saw that booze is a truth serum meaning that if you really want to know what someone is thinking, get him drunk and he’ll tell you probably more than you want to know.
Top Chinese United Nations diplomat Sha Zukang got pie-eyed, tanked, snookered, drunk as a skunk while retreating with other U.N. big shots at their retreat at Alpbach, an Austrian ski resort, this week and spilled his guts.
Whether it was during some après-ski or pre-ski or non-ski festivities, Zukang let his hair down and brought to mind another old saw or maxim, to keep your friends close and your enemies closer.
Even as the Chinese continue to ramp up their military, (purely for self-defense, mind you, with nary a thought of war), and fill Walmart shelves with their cheap, semi-slave-labor-produced consumer goodies that Americans lap up, they smile at us in their enigmatic way that makes you wonder what they’re really smiling at.
Sha Zukang, U.N. Under-secretary General for Economic and Social Affairs, however, probably wasn’t smiling when he let loose a 15-minute tirade against his boss, Ban Ki-moon, and the United States. And this was during a toast, not a roast!
Sha wasn’t being very social or diplomatic when he said to the Secretary-General, “You’ve been trying to get rid of me. You can fire me anytime, you can fire me today,” turning later to an American present and adding, “I really don’t like him: he’s an American and I really don’t like Americans.”
Hmmm, vedy interesting.
It wasn’t the first time the loose-lipped Sha had spilled on Americans: “In a BBC interview in 2006 he was goaded into a furious, shrieking attack on American criticisms of China’s rapidly growing defence budget.”
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=1892)
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