Posted on 01/19/2007 7:06:54 AM PST by pissant
Leftists are flocking to see a country being transformed, writes Rory Carroll in Caracas
TO SCEPTICS, they are naive Westerners who would not recognise communist tyranny if it expropriated their sandals.
"Malodorous, left-wing, US and European peace creeps armed with Mom's credit card and brand new Birkenstocks," sneered the American Thinker, a right-wing magazine.
To the Venezuelan Government, however, they are valued friends who are witnessing first-hand the positive changes sweeping the slums and countryside and who return home, a volunteer army of ambassadors, to spread the good news.
Meet the revolutionary tourists, a wave of backpackers, artists, academics and politicians on a mission to discover if Venezuela's President, Hugo Chavez, really is forging a radical alternative to neo-liberalism and capitalism.
From a trickle, a few years ago, there are now thousands. They travel individually and on package tours, exploring a purported left-wing mecca, and their ranks are set to swell now Mr Chavez is accelerating his self-styled revolution after last month's landslide re-election. "Socialism or death - I swear it," he said last week, and declared himself a communist.
"It's just amazing being here. There is so much vibe and passion, there is truly a sense of revolution," gushed Lucy Dale, 20, a university student from Chicago on a 17-day trip. "I want to return to do volunteer work."
Global Exchange, a San Francisco group that doubles as a travel agent, organised trips for almost 500 Americans last year, five times the 2003 figure, said Jojo Farrell, its Venezuela liaison worker.
From Britain, the Venezuela Solidarity Campaign plans to send at least six delegations this year, mostly trade unionists. "Interest is growing significantly," said Andy Goodall, co-ordinator of the Wolverhampton-based group.
Visitors tend to shun the Caribbean beaches in favour of tours to agricultural co-operatives, shantytown medical clinics and adult literacy programs.
"We saw healthy, happy, well-dressed children taught by well-qualified teachers who get paid a decent salary. These are opportunities that did not exist for poor people before Chavez," said Kate Young, who travelled with the Rotary Foundation.
Others hail Caracas and its alliance with other left-wing governments for loosening the US's traditional grip on the region.
"We need checks and balances to US unilateralism, and any good North American would laud Chavez for doing that," said Clif Roberts, a Californian writer who stayed on in Venezuela after attending a poetry festival.
Visiting celebrities such as the actor Danny Glover, the singer Harry Belafonte and the anti-Iraq war activist Cindy Sheehan, echo the sentiment.
Many enthusiasts set up solidarity groups when they return home and record their impressions in blogs, amplifying the message sent out by Venezuela's embassies and information offices.
The aim is to correct alleged mainstream media distortion depicting Mr Chavez as an autocratic megalomaniac.
"The UK media is very disappointing, always a negative slant," said Rod Finlayson, 62, a British union official who was thrilled by the nationalisations and cultural events. "Bach in the slums. Stuff you could only dream about."
Dreaming, say some critics, is the problem. Instead of investigating complexities, such as the corruption and mismanagement undermining some social programs, visitors sleepwalk through government spin and never hear allegations that Venezuela's oil bonanza is being wasted or that democracy is being smothered.
Mr Finlayson said his delegation ignored such voices because the goal was to express solidarity, not investigate. But the group did encounter some Chavez critics: walking through a wealthy district of Caracas, it was pelted with eggs.
Some groups, such as those travelling with Global Exchange, meet opposition figures and hear claims that Mr Chavez is hoarding power by collapsing his movement into a single socialist party, not renewing the licence of an opposition-aligned TV station and plotting to abolish limits on terms of office.
"I was encouraged by what I saw in Venezuela but the focus on one person as the source of hope strikes me as unfortunate," said Sarah Gelder, an editor of the Seattle-based magazine Yes!.
Another left-wing journalist, Monica Vera, hailed the country as a progressive beacon but voiced unease: "I just hope it continues on that track."
Last Saturday Mr Chavez vowed to replace municipal governments with councils inspired by the Paris Commune, France's shortlived experiment with radical socialism in 1871.
Leftists are flocking to see a country being transformed, writes Rory Carroll in Caracas
TO SCEPTICS, they are naive Westerners who would not recognise communist tyranny if it expropriated their sandals.
"Malodorous, left-wing, US and European peace creeps armed with Mom's credit card and brand new Birkenstocks," sneered the American Thinker, a right-wing magazine.
To the Venezuelan Government, however, they are valued friends who are witnessing first-hand the positive changes sweeping the slums and countryside and who return home, a volunteer army of ambassadors, to spread the good news.
Meet the revolutionary tourists, a wave of backpackers, artists, academics and politicians on a mission to discover if Venezuela's President, Hugo Chavez, really is forging a radical alternative to neo-liberalism and capitalism.
From a trickle, a few years ago, there are now thousands. They travel individually and on package tours, exploring a purported left-wing mecca, and their ranks are set to swell now Mr Chavez is accelerating his self-styled revolution after last month's landslide re-election. "Socialism or death - I swear it," he said last week, and declared himself a communist.
"It's just amazing being here. There is so much vibe and passion, there is truly a sense of revolution," gushed Lucy Dale, 20, a university student from Chicago on a 17-day trip. "I want to return to do volunteer work."
Global Exchange, a San Francisco group that doubles as a travel agent, organised trips for almost 500 Americans last year, five times the 2003 figure, said Jojo Farrell, its Venezuela liaison worker.
From Britain, the Venezuela Solidarity Campaign plans to send at least six delegations this year, mostly trade unionists. "Interest is growing significantly," said Andy Goodall, co-ordinator of the Wolverhampton-based group.
Visitors tend to shun the Caribbean beaches in favour of tours to agricultural co-operatives, shantytown medical clinics and adult literacy programs.
"We saw healthy, happy, well-dressed children taught by well-qualified teachers who get paid a decent salary. These are opportunities that did not exist for poor people before Chavez," said Kate Young, who travelled with the Rotary Foundation.
Others hail Caracas and its alliance with other left-wing governments for loosening the US's traditional grip on the region.
"We need checks and balances to US unilateralism, and any good North American would laud Chavez for doing that," said Clif Roberts, a Californian writer who stayed on in Venezuela after attending a poetry festival.
Visiting celebrities such as the actor Danny Glover, the singer Harry Belafonte and the anti-Iraq war activist Cindy Sheehan, echo the sentiment.
Many enthusiasts set up solidarity groups when they return home and record their impressions in blogs, amplifying the message sent out by Venezuela's embassies and information offices.
The aim is to correct alleged mainstream media distortion depicting Mr Chavez as an autocratic megalomaniac.
"The UK media is very disappointing, always a negative slant," said Rod Finlayson, 62, a British union official who was thrilled by the nationalisations and cultural events. "Bach in the slums. Stuff you could only dream about."
Dreaming, say some critics, is the problem. Instead of investigating complexities, such as the corruption and mismanagement undermining some social programs, visitors sleepwalk through government spin and never hear allegations that Venezuela's oil bonanza is being wasted or that democracy is being smothered.
Mr Finlayson said his delegation ignored such voices because the goal was to express solidarity, not investigate. But the group did encounter some Chavez critics: walking through a wealthy district of Caracas, it was pelted with eggs.
Some groups, such as those travelling with Global Exchange, meet opposition figures and hear claims that Mr Chavez is hoarding power by collapsing his movement into a single socialist party, not renewing the licence of an opposition-aligned TV station and plotting to abolish limits on terms of office.
"I was encouraged by what I saw in Venezuela but the focus on one person as the source of hope strikes me as unfortunate," said Sarah Gelder, an editor of the Seattle-based magazine Yes!.
Another left-wing journalist, Monica Vera, hailed the country as a progressive beacon but voiced unease: "I just hope it continues on that track."
Last Saturday Mr Chavez vowed to replace municipal governments with councils inspired by the Paris Commune, France's shortlived experiment with radical socialism in 1871.
Guardian News & Media
The US Media treats this idiot Chavez like the treat all anti-american dictators, like a glorious hero.
El Jefe will institute some Purges that will be overlooked.
"Leftists are flocking to see a country being transformed"
Good, they can stay there and screw up that country, instead of trying to screw up this one.
ping
That's what they are telling you dear -- and you are falling for it.
Kate sweetie... that "decent" salary couldn't purchase your little yuppie backpack that you are sporting as you oogle over the poor "happy" people. And Kate sweetie, if they had fully embraced capitalism then it would be them coming to visit you to oogle at.
Bush or Cheney so much as utter a sentence critical of the lefty media and there is a "chill wind blowing" or shades of Mcarthyism running rampant from the administration.
Chavez shuts down all opposing media outlets and imprisons his political foes and its a paradise to the NY Times.
better yet, can we shoot down their planes?
Kate Young hopefully will be rachel Corrie'd soon.
Lefitst love guns if used by leftist dictators to further socialist goals.
Ignorance really is bliss apparently.
Socialism is more than just a failed economic system. It is a means of legalized theft.
Not THIS good North American!
I wonder if the leftists will still praise Stalin....er.....Chevez when he starts slaughtering his own people because there's not enough wealth to go around once the motivation to achieve is gone.
If left unchecked, in time the liberal/fascist marriage of ignorance and arrogance will beget the bastard children of ruin and slaughter
"We saw healthy, happy, well-dressed children taught by well-qualified teachers who get paid a decent salary. These are opportunities that did not exist for poor people before Chavez,"
Replace "Chavez" with "Joseph Stalin", and change the dateline to 1936.
Sound FAMILIAR????
there would be no 'socialist utopia' without massive inputs of capitalist cash flowing in - oil money. without this vast inflow of money, venezuela would be no different from any other banana republic.
Yes, the economy will go in the tank, the secret police will oppress everyone, and all will be covered by the media. Before long there will be an exodus to the USA like from Cuba.
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