PING – Hugo is at it again!
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HugoPing Archive
Posted on 12/31/2006 9:15:19 AM PST by cll
Porlamar 24.12.06 | Having being in my country for nearly 4 months now has given me much time to ponder about the utility of continuing with the crusade that I once embarked upon, that of reporting Venezuela’s crisis. When I started back in October 2002 an almost physical need to tell our side of the story prompted me to launch this site, learn to write in English, inform, counteract with facts other versions, lobby, investigate and create an outlet where I could vent the anger caused by the misinformation spread around about Venezuela. Much writing I did and many, many, many hours were spent on this endeavour. My perception about the situation has changed though and the change has come about by being much closer to the country’s reality. “Our side of the story” is an empty concept nowadays, it no longer applies. To begin with there’s no crisis here. People of all walks of life are on a spending spree that would make Londoners jealous, restaurants are full so are posh hotels. Although foreign investment is down considerably the inflated oil prices and associated income is of such a scale that the country is reliving the oil bonanza of the 70ies, when Venezuelans used to go to Miami to do their grocery shopping. Private airports are chock full of new jets, car sales continue on the rise, public employees have received an inordinate amount of Christmas bonuses that, allow me to tell you, it does show everywhere.
So I keep asking myself, what crisis? Many opposition folks, for all their bitching, lead a life that certainly is above regular European middle class standards, surely way above mine. Take my uncle for instance. The other day I went visiting and as conversation progressed the work topic came. Surprisingly he said that he had never had so much work in his life. Then I asked about surgery he had had in the back and after explaining the whole problem he said “and the best of it? It didn’t cost me a dime, new platinum plates, operation and the rest of it were covered by the government.” Amazed I said “then why in hell are you complaining about Chavez? You ungrateful bastard!” In short such nonsensical behaviour is characteristic of unhinged opposition people, people who believe that the world ends tomorrow, that Chavez will cubanize Venezuela, that kids will start being indoctrinated –even those in private schools, that communism is upon Venezuela, mind you so much bullshit that is very hard to keep a straight face hearing such arguments. Chavez may have ‘grand plans’ for Venezuela but his greatest and insurmountable obstacle is the utterly capitalistic nature of Venezuelans, young and old, rich and poor even more. Venezuelans in general are shallow, materialistic, snobbish, but man how they love the freedom to do whatever they want at any given time. If someone is thinking that the new chavista establishment will go quiet about their kids –now regulars at very expensive bilingual private schools- being fed some socialist intellectual potpourri, well think again for those who dressed in red revolutionary garments get off $30 million Gulfstream jets have a different idea about how the revolutionary offsprings should be educated. For example the very first thing that invaders of private land do when they manage to seize a parcel is put up a sign that reads “do not trespass, private property.” Can anyone foresee Chavez succeeding in his plan of imposing the premise of collective property as alleged by the opposition? That would mean he would have to reengineer all Venezuelans and believe you me he won’t be able to pull that one, regardless of how much money he throws around or how hard he tries should that be his real intention.
That’s part of the reality I have seen thus far. Another is the sheer state of anarchy in Caracas, a new feature that I had not seen before. Bikers in Caracas (locally known as motorizados) block traffic now in main avenues and even in highways, in order to exert revolutionary justice before unperturbed police officers or to mourn dead colleagues. No one does anything, no one dares say anything while the police and other law enforcement forces look the other way. Comandante Lina Ron, tellingly a blond-dyed revolutionary woman, has got many a high ranking chavista scared. She commands civil militias and bikers in downtown Caracas that answer only to her wishes and effectively controls el centro. Again no one dares reminding the woman about rule of law and other rather boring concepts. But all in all Caraqueños seem to be coping rather well, they have adapted to the new reality and are living like there’s no tomorrow. In fact the valley in which Caracas is located ought to be renamed “South America’s Silicon Valley” in allusion to the many women that have had a boob job. Ruben Blades song “Ella era una chica plastica” comes to mind.
I once felt that my dignity was being trampled upon. I once believed that by exposing the vices and double discourse of chavismo I was doing my bit for my country. No more. Most of my countrymen, on both sides of the divide, think otherwise and behave accordingly. Chavismo is but a manifestation of Venezolanismo and its time has come. The country has changed for good, those who were in the back of the list are now in power and with a fresh mandate. Whatever comes after depends on them, in the meanwhile many folks around are having the time of their lives.
As in the picture above I have left a cyber trail that, like in the sand, will disappear almost instantly in this age of instant gratification and virtual personalities. But also like in the picture the future, as the horizon, looks bright and the sun is shining upon my face. The little adventure nearly cost me my marriage and robbed my daughters of their dad for far too long a time. It has been a gratifying experience that provided the opportunity of doing extraordinary things and meeting extraordinary people around the world and to all of them and to my readers my deepest gratefulness, respect and admiration. If financial conditions permit perhaps I will allow myself to devote some time to write a book about this year’s presidential campaign and my experiences in this 4 month long journey of reencounter with my country during which I rediscovered Venezuela, the land of grace.
"He who willingly volunteers to render his intellect useless before that of another, for the sake of an ideology, creed, or belief commits the supreme act of denying its own self." Alek Boyd
Thank you for your hard work, Alek.
And Venezuela, good luck to you.
Ping
-bflr-
Mexico's oil was supposed to bring something like nirvana to Mexico, too. No wonder the left doesn't want us drilling for it. You never know who will come out on top.
Having been married to one, I can attest to this fact!
Fueled by the prospect of essentially unending oil wealth, this situation can continue for a very long time. The cost is nominal for the inhabitants - class and party loyalty. And when socialism falls these folks are the last to go and the first to rise up again in the form of robber barons, as a cursory examination of the ex-Soviet Union will immediately reveal.
Should the oil wealth diminish, and it will eventually, for the appetite of the New Class always exceeds its means, then it becomes insular and predatory. At that point it must have solidified control over the state means of coercion or it will fall. There we have party armies defending class interests against the population at large. Mugabe's Zimbabwe is a case in point. Chavez has already made moves in this direction.
The predation of the New Class also manifests itself in a desire to export revolution in order to feed its appetite for power and provide the necessary means to keep its members in the style to which they've become accustomed. To a degree this is the reason the Wahhabi clerics are currently so fond of expansionism - it isn't all about religion, and they are very definitely the recipients of unearned oil wealth redistributed their direction by Islamic charity. Why not the world? What else do they have to do?
All of this is a result of the ability of the capitalist West to generate an astounding level of wealth. As long as the West continues to provide it, the New Class will spend it, and they'll happily kill the goose that lays the eggs because they don't think it exists.
For what its worth, I have said that the primary reason Venezuela's opposition parties have been unable to really coalesce against Chavez is that, at bottom, they agree with him. They know he is a bad guy, but they are unable to explain why he is a bad guy philosophically.
The natural political philosophy of Venezuela and indeed latin america in general is a kind of populism that sometimes manifests itself as leftist government, sometimes rightist, usually a combination of the two as now.
Although Chavez claims to be a revolutionary, he is really more of the same, just in a higher dose. He rails against the "neo-liberalism" that has supposedly destroyed the countyr, his name for free market economy, but Venezuela has never known a free market economy, it has always been a centralized economy in which the major resources are government controlled, which means that they are controlled by what ever elite are able best to manipulate the government.
The country was wrecked by other populists trying to do what populists do. They nationalized the oil industry in the seventies, and the result was economic stagnation. For years the government has robbed the oil industry to pay for its social programs, and the result has been entirely predictable, a one industry country, a people angered that they could be so poor in a country so supposedly rich, without any clear understanding that a country can not ever be rich with only one state-owned industry to pay the bills.
When Chavez launched his coup, the country went wild with adoration, and this included the political elite, who fell all over themselves trying to out-Chavez Chavez, trying to capture his popularity by attacking the banks, attacking what private business there is, attacking what foreign investment there is, and the result was to drive the country into the ground at an even faster rate.
Chavez stepped onto the stage, promising to throw out the constitution, blaming a non-existent "free enterprise" for the country's ills, and the people went for it in a landslide, the traditional parties collapsed, because none of them could explain why he was wrong. They could not because they agreed with him.
Even the opposition basically agree with him. They have faced him bravely because they know he is a dictator, they know he is a murderer, but they also feel betrayed philosophically because at heart they agree with the vision he promised. Venezuela is populated by populists left to right, top to bottom, and as a result who ever rules, who ever is overthrown, over the long haul the result is the same.
At some point you have to decide, either you love the country, and you do the best you can with what opportunities the system affords you, or you leave and start your little company in Miami or Los Angeles. If you stay in Caracas, you can do very well; populist systems are full of contradictions and if you are well connected you can do very well.
Chavez is not an aberration. He is a very Venezuelan throwback to a time everyone thought was past. That, and the mafia is more naked than usual is all.
"I believe the word we are looking for is "apathy"."
Looking into the recesses of my mind, I think it was locked who mentioned that some people suffer from the "fear of liberty". Liberty is too big of a responsibility and some people don't wanted. They rather have their lives run by somebody else (as long as there is food on the table).
Dad always said: "People get the kind of government they deserve."
locked = Locke
Well stated, both.
"nothing to do with this thread"
Hey, it's the same thing but in a larger scale.
OK, it's a weird list. Great stuff, though. Happy New Year!
As a card-carrying guy, I had to look up this "Comandante Lina Ron" and answer the question: hot or not?
http://www.reconocelos.com/data/media/1/linaron.jpg
Before you click the link, the answer is: not. She's a bowser.
Why did I expect any different from a "revolutionary chick"? Usually it means she's rebelling against bourgeois concepts like bathing and pit shaving.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
Yikes.
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