Posted on 08/26/2007 9:53:39 PM PDT by neverdem
CITY’S Routine Will Adjust to New Time Zone,” read Thursday’s headline of Últimas Notícias, the most widely circulated daily in Caracas. The tabloid, sympathetic to President Hugo Chávez, went on to describe the benefits of his plan to move clocks forward by half an hour in a bid to improve the “metabolism” of his fellow citizens.
In a time of startling policy announcements from Mr. Chávez, it is no wonder that picking up a newspaper in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela can sometimes feel like perusing The Onion. Recent statements by Mr. Chávez have some Venezuelans pondering the inspiration for his latest moves.
Last Sunday, Mr. Chávez rolled out plans to build a set of artificial island-cities, intended to demarcate Venezuela’s sovereignty in the Caribbean, and to import 5,000 Russian sniper rifles to arm guerrillas in the event of an American invasion. It was also the day he announced the change in time zone.
Such announcements reflect the deep changes to political institutions that have allowed Mr. Chávez to solidify his grip on power. His is a government intent on leaving a symbolic mark on everything from the country’s coat of arms — redesigned with a white horse pointing leftward in sync with the president’s left-wing ideas — to its oil tankers, renamed in honor of historical figures instead of beauty queens.
The time-change proposal — planned to accompany a shift to a six-hour workday as Mr. Chávez accelerates a socialist-inspired project to transform Venezuelan society — raised eyebrows around the world.
It would put Venezuela in company with Afghanistan, India, Iran and Myanmar, countries that offset time in half-hour increments from Greenwich Mean Time. (Nepal stands out, with its clocks 15 minutes ahead of India and 5 hours and 45 minutes ahead of Greenwich, England.)
Mr. Chávez’s highest-ranking science...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Amazing. The writing tries very hard to keep the tone of admiration for Chavez out of his writing, but doesn’t really succeed.
The funny thing is, is that if Bush did stuff like Chavez, like taking a “critical TV station off the air”, the Times would be using Hitler and nazi every other sentence.
Whoops. That’s “The writer”
American sniper weapon:
I can’t speak for Hugo, but my crops wouldn’t be able to handle that extra hour of sunlight.
"Candygram for Hugo..."
LOL!
He’s nothing but a control freak socialist. I wish we shift his buddy Sean Penn over to Venezuela too.
Caracas
Times-speak for, "This guy's nuts, but we'd never tell you that!
Good one. One less crazy in the world thanks to the candygram.
Double standard liberals. They make me laugh at their own hypocrisy.
EvilBushHitlerregime= evil
Dictatorsoftheleft=good
WOW! I had no idea. That’s not an elephant, that’s a mammoth.
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