Good Things Happening in Venezuela

[chlamor]

Good Things Happening in Venezuela


Monday, Apr 04, 2005

By: Michael Parenti - ZNet Commentary

Even before I arrived in Venezuela for a recent visit, I encountered the great class divide that besets that country. On my connecting flight from Miami to Caracas, I found myself seated next to an attractive, exquisitely dressed Venezuelan woman. Judging from her prosperous aspect, I anticipated that she would take the first opportunity to hold forth against President Hugo Chavez. Unfortunately, I was right.

Our conversation moved along famously until we got to the political struggle going on in Venezuela. "Chavez," she hissed, "is terrible, terrible." He is "a liar"; he "fools the people" and is "ruining the country." She herself owns an upscale women's fashion company with links to prominent firms in the United States.

When I asked how Chavez has hurt her business, she said, "Not at all." But many other businesses, she quickly added, have been irreparably damaged as has the whole economy. She went on denouncing Chavez in sweeping terms, warning me of the national disaster to come if this demon continued to have his way.

Other critics I encountered in Venezuela shared this same mode of attack: weak on specifics but strong in venom, voiced with all the ferocity of those who fear that their birthrights (that is, their class advantages) are under siege because others below them on the social ladder are getting a slightly larger slice of the pie.

In Venezuela over 80 percent live below the poverty level. Before Chavez, most of the poor had never seen a doctor or dentist. Their children never went to school, since they could not afford the annual fees. The neoliberal market "adjustments" of the 1980s and 1990s only made things worse, cutting social spending and eliminating subsidies in consumer goods.

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=1413

[Demit]

1. Good article. My favorite part--

"...A leftist is someone who advocates a more equitable distribution of social resources and human services, and who supports the kinds of programs that the Chavez government is putting in place. (Likewise a rightist is someone who opposes such programs and seeks to advance the insatiable privileges of private capital and the wealthy few.)

The term "leftist" is frequently bandied about in the U.S. media but seldom defined. The power of the label is in its remaining undefined, allowing it to have an abstracted built-in demonizing impact which precludes rational examination of its political content...."


A plain and clear summary of the problem we're having here as well.

[Squeech]

2. When I feed the poor they call me a saint.

When I ask why the poor have no food they call me a Communist.

[Judi Lynn]

3. "A plain and clear summary of the problem we're having here as well. "

Amen to that, DemItAllAnyway! It's a problem you wouldn't expect to find among Democrats.



Is someone kidding us with these photos? Is he thinking? Praying for nukular bombs?

[colonel odis]

4. citgo oil is owned by the govt of venezuela, too. which is why i

buy it.

[Frederik]

5. Chavez is doing everything right

He's nothing short of a hero. Putting military doctors to treat the poor in free clinics is exactly the sort of creative use of a country's resources that is needed to combat poverty and exclusion. Hats off and thanks for the article.

[0007]

6. I wish The United States of America had a Hugo Chavez for president.

This is the part I liked;

"When the free clinic in Barinas first opened it was flooded with people seeking dental care. No one was turned away. Even opponents of the Chavez government availed themselves of the free service, temporarily putting aside their political aversions."

To the wealthy money is everything and folks without money aren't given a second thought.

This article is a keeper.