¿Con qué se come la paz planetaria?

/ October 4, 2012

Extra points if you get the picture reference before clicking on the link

Over on the International Herald Tribune, I explain how this year the chavistas sound like opositores and the opositores sound like chavistas:

Chavismo has completely given up on its aspirational agenda. After 14 years in power, Chávez no longer has anything specific to say to Venezuelans hoping for a better life. Instead he is campaigning on grandiloquent abstractions about “achieving equilibrium in the universe and guaranteeing planetary peace” and “preserving life on the planet and saving the human species.” This borders on self-parody.

Es que lo de la paz planetaria es una bombita por todo el medio del jompleit…

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25 thoughts on “¿Con qué se come la paz planetaria?”

  2. I can see your point. One other way, which I noted on another blog, is that Chavez has become the conservative here – you can see it at least three of the “five great historic objectives” (except for developing new geopolitics and saving humanity – I guess he has to go big because he’s already promised to save Venezuela and failed, so he has to go bigger). It really is upside-down.

    The Carroll piece was quite interesting. For me, the money quote is “Neither side likes to acknowledge it but the revolution is in many ways a continuum of oil-fuelled populism dating back half a century…[t]he difference is Chávez had even more money, more power, more showmanship.”

    Which means less excuse for failing, especially since he’s had so much more time. “Here was a sublimely gifted politician with empathy for the poor and the power of Croesus – and the result, fiasco.”

    (P.S. Nice suggestions Guido, and TP was a fantastic movie.)

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    • “Neither side likes to acknowledge it but the revolution is in many ways a continuum of oil-fuelled populism dating back half a century, notably that of the giddy, spendthrift 1974-79 administration of Carlos Andres Perez”

      Actually many people have already noted that Chavez is a more corrupt and megalomaniac version of CAP. But the real difference is that Chavez has promoted a culture of hate and division among the people that didn’t exist before and no one has flouted the laws with as much cynicism as Chavez.

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  3. Good morning, this might be off subject somewhat but we in the States had two oil refinary fires yesterday, one in LA where gas is approaching $5 a gallon alread and the y say by next week could be 40 cents higher and at the largest one in the US at Baytown Tex ass.

    Wonder if our oppo’s on this site will blame it on President Chavez also.

    Couple more days left, hey. Enjoy the scuttlebutt…

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    • I just wonder why our troll du jour is not living in caracas en la color ita or las ad juntas but in good ole u s of a? Are you like seanpennlike? All talk and no up close and personal live in with your idol? Puuuuhhhlleeezzz

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    • Yes, the really interesting question is not how much Chavez will win by, but what will happen on this blog. For example, how will the percentages break down. Some will be in complete denial, some will claim fraud, some will stop posting, and some will go (even more) completely insane. We can only wait and watch.

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      • oh yeah, the most transcendent thing that’s going to happen in Venezuela on Sunday is…the comments posted in Caracas Chronicles!

        Y después dicen que yo estoy out of touch!!!

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    • I still wonder WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING ON THE EMPIRE’S BED!?!!?!?!?!?!
      Do you support the War on those poor countries with your taxes? Go to troll school mate.

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  4. Just what is Cort Greene’s interest in Venezuela. I have lived in Caracas for 10 years with my company. The last 4 years I have been trying to get the government to pay its bills and to pay for what they have expropriate (stolen) from my company.
    But I just don’t understand what a socialist nutbar living in the United States who so obviously has limited knowledge of the situation on the ground here has such a perverted interest in Venezuela…..unless of course he is being paid by the Chavernment.

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    • No, too dumb to be paid by the Chavernment. Just your run-of-the-mill young romantic, perhaps still a student, without a clear vision of his/her future and how to reach it. So nutbar, who looks for guidance, wraps him or herself in political idolatry that includes an imaginary enemy, silly words with no concrete meaning, a leader who pretends to be responsible for all yet does not inspire excellence or accountability — all these things are the equivalent of comfort food for a low achiever, who does not live in the crumbling country of his/her imagination, and so who doesn’t really care.

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      • It could just as easily be someone like Jim Jones or some other religious fanatic.

        He just happened to stumble onto Chavez.

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  5. The breadth and depth of Rory Carroll’s eye, in his beautifully written article in (choke) The Guardian is astounding. Chapeau.

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    • Dang it! I was gonna say that. It was time when Dan Akroyd and Eddie Murphy were still funny. Akroyd really nailed this portrayal of the silver-spoon Winthorpe. Eddie was funny Eddie with a great last name Valentine.

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  7. I still find it amazing to hear a leader in the 21st century talk about himself in the third person. When Elmo does it, kids find it endearing. When Chavez does it, Canucklehead thinks it sounds out of touch with reality.

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  9. I could not help but note this little gem from the Guardian:

    Thanks to “Mision Robinson”, an adult education course, one of myriad social programmes, Guerrero obtained a law diploma and now earns $380 a month teaching at a Bolivarian university. “Before that I had lived a life full of injustice. Chávez has been my teacher and leader.

    In other words a fairly elaborate and disguised form of a simple government handout. I have doubts about the quality of this law diploma (I thought Mission Robinson was for learning to read and write, since when does it issue law diplomas?). And then the job this person gets is teaching at a Bolivarian University… again I have doubts about the quality of this institution and the people who graduate from here to join the workforce (never mind that this is a government job).

    This is akin to hiring three secretaries and the best thing they can do is file their nails while answering the phone (Admittedly this is a stereotype). I wish this person could see that she has had the wool pulled over her eyes and that her diploma and job are basically worthless as they don’t really contribute to society or the economy. The government has given her the illusion of accomplishment when really, all they are doing is issuing her a paycheck for supporting the revolution while failing to actually give her skills that would allow her to function independently of the government.

    Of course I am making some assumptions here and could very well be wrong, but that is the gist of what I took from that paragraph.

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    • You’re right on calling to question the bit about Ruth Guerrero and her “law diploma” through the Misión Robinson. I stopped there, too. But did not question, as I should have, enchanted instead by the well-flowing article that provided an accurate interpretation of the day-to-day reality in Venezuela. I assumed (not a good thing) that perhaps the Misión Robinson had ties to the Univercidad ;-) Bolivariana, through which Guerrero could gain perhaps a para-legal diploma. In all, Rory Carroll should have been more accurate, notwithstanding his need to draw some Bolivarian positives, that is, for balance.

      I have requested clarification, my little message likely lost among all the hothead commentaries by pinkos and reds, following Rory Carroll’s article in The Guardian.

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