"Disguised as mild mannered shoeshine boy, when danger rears its ugly head..."
Posted on 07/20/2006 2:28:48 PM PDT by Kitten Festival
Wanna read a great Horatio Alger story? Except that in Latin America, it’s a far more radical thing: President Alejandro Toledo, the outgoing president of Peru, a staunch, effective opponent of leftist Chavista populism, has decided to go back to being a shoeshine boy for charity, doing $100 shoeshines on behalf of the the shoeshiners pension fund.
Toledo leaves office on July 28, and although he had plenty to be proud of as Peru’s first full-blooded Indian president, he was never ashamed of his humble roots ...
Toledo was a wonderful president of Peru who openly challenged Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez and all his leftist populist panaceas. He got nothing but trouble—much of it of a vicious racist personal nature – from both Chavez and Bolivia’s Evo Morales, with each insinuating that he wasn’t quite Indian enough, or else was a sellout. Chavez hurled the equivalent of “Oreo Cookie” charges at Toledo a few months ago. Morales tried to argue with Toledo that he was a better Indian.
Toledo’s fierce, fiery response to the two leftists has been pretty much, in different statements, summed up as: “don’t you dare try to tell me about poverty and racism and sell me your leftwing snake oil. You know nothing about poverty and racism, so don’t go there. You poverty-pimps are frauds.”
The amazing Toledo has been fearless about opening opportunities for Peru’s Indians to succeed with greater opportunity, rather than affirmative action or handouts, and he has been utterly intolerant to the proposed left populist solutions of socialism and underclass dependency.
As a result ... Peru was saved last month from sliding into the Chavez orbit, with its voters decisively rejecting Chavez’s personal puppet candidate for president in favor of Alan Garcia, a candidate far more likely to follow in Toledo’s example.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
He triumphs. Chavez screams. Now we have to hope his country gets its free trade pact with the U.S. so that Peru can exact the ultimate revenge on Hugo Chavez: Living well. I hope it succeeds because Peru has come so far, and done so much damage to Hugo Chavez.
Not bad for a humble shoeshine boy from the streets of Lima.
I would say that sounds like a job for XXX-42, except that he would probably only shine the shoes of young women in short skirts.
I wonder if this guy takes mail orders. WOW what a deal!
Chris
Shining shoes is probably all many of our own politicians are qualified to to do in the first place.
Toledo sounds like a good guy. I hope his successor keeps up the good work and the Toledo stays in Peruvian politics.
I have a question. I keep hearing from the far left how things just keep getting worse under non-socialist Latin American countries and things are getting better for ones that have Chavez like jerks running the place.
Is that true or BS? I have also heard arguments that under non left wing git leaders, they are powerless to do anything downthere. Any good websites on this?
It's all baloney, but you bring up a very intelligent point.
If things are all so bad under rightwing president, how come they keep getting elected? In Mexico, a rightwinger was elected even though the polls said a leftist would be elected. Surprise! Costa Rica elected a rightwinger, too, and so did Colombia. Peru elected a moderate who is clearly showing signs of being a rightwinger instead. Now Lula in Brazil is dropping in the polls, even though he is not that bad a leftwinger. As for Chavez, who is a truly odious leftwinger, he won't even allow polls, even though some slip out - they all show that he is despised. Nobody can stand the guy that I walked into when I went to Caracas. The guy is as detested as Castro.
I think there is a great rightward wave going on in Latin America right now. The only real scumbag who's been elected is Evo Morales of Bolivia. Everyone else elected is to the right of that thug.
It's important to remember that none of these guys are right-wing as we usually use the term. They are all socialists. The question is degree. Chavez/Morales kill all foreign investment. Garcia/Toledo attempt to attract it, though through Peruvian corporations.
China is very hot on investment in Peru at this time, as are many other entities. It will be interesting to see if Garcia can get anything done, and whether Brazil and Peru can complement one another.
"Disguised as mild mannered shoeshine boy, when danger rears its ugly head..."
It all depends. In places like Chile that has a functioning democracy and has instituted free-market reforms, things are better for people in general.
Where the economies are controlled, whether by the right (for the rich), or by the left (for the govt), things suck. Chavez has not made things better for most of the poor. The only jobs he has created are in his new military, into which he pouring the countries oil wealth.
Most of the governments in central and south america have stron leftist elements that are always fighting agaisnt the government. How bad things are depends much upon the level of corruption too. Mexico is a case-in-point.
Mexico is a democracy. But it does not have free-markets. anyone who wants to start a business of any kind has to jump through thousands of hoops, and grease the skids each step of the way. It is governemtn by the rich, for the rich:
Mexico is Rich- Mexican wealthy play American taxpayers for suckers
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1608417/posts
There is also lots of classism/racism down there. Indians vs. those of Spanish or mixed blood. Full-blooded indians being at the bottom and Spaniards at the top. Throw in some latin machismo and you get the pictuire.
The biggest problem in Latin America is convincing them to enable truly free markets and root out government corruption. Until Latin American governments and their peoples embrace those two concepts, things will suck for all but the rich, no matter who is in charge.
BTW. In Venezuela, the rich are still rich. It's just that for the time being, they have to pay protection money to Chavez. The poor are still poor, but now some of them have guns and spiffy uniforms.
Wow, thank you everyone.
I don't THINK so. Not in this lifetime.
Toledo's gone, and one left leaning candidate beat a farther left leaning candidate to replace him. What Peru needs is to bring back Fujimori!!
This new one, Alan Garcia, is fine. He just appointed a rightwing finance minister to keep him on a leash. He'll do fine. Better still, he's out to kick Hugo's butt.
Fujimori seems ok, but lots of people said he was corrupt and his spy chief, Montesinos, helped Hugo rise to power. Fujimori's all done.
hopefully ....
As to Fujimori, he did defeat the Shining Path, who were the Alquida of his day. THAT is his legacy.
Yeah, I can't hate him for doing that. They really were the alqaida of their day, a dirty filthy stinking job indeed to take care of, truly the trash that needed taking out.
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