Prophets and Government: Macondo comes to the Web

The Devil's Excrement ^ | Nov. 17, 2004 | Miguel Octavio

[Kitten Festival]

This morning I posted as a comment the presence in the Exchange Control Office’s official website of a page which describes a prophecy by self-described prophet Cindy Jones. Many people have written to me about it because it took them a while to realize that this is actually an official page where individuals and companies register to obtain foreign currency at the official exchange rate.

First of all, an explanation, the presence of this page can only be termed as bizarre in a country which is mostly Catholic and where there is supposed to be a clear separation of church and state. The President of the Exchange Control Office CADIVI Captain Hernandez Behrens is a very religious fellow who always mentions Gods in press conferences and clearly is evangelical. When the CADIVI website first appeared, everyone was surprised by this “mild” religious reference:

[Kitten Festival]

Folks, it doesn't get weirder than this - Chavez of Venezuela has some freakish 'christian' astrologer making 'prophesies' on his foreign exchange capital controls Web site. I kid you not. Venezuela is getting weirder and weirder by the minute and it's starting to remind me of Jonestown, Guyana. Which just happens to be the country next door. Miguel the author calls it 'Macondo' in a reference to Magic Realism, but this is just too freakish for words. I think it's more like Conrad's Congo Diaries myself. Freaks! Bottom of the barrel, fourth-world freaks!

[nw_arizona_granny]

ping