Trouble at the sausage factory
Tibisay Lucena, the head of Venezuela’s National Elections Council, has been called many things before: a die-hard chavista; a machiavellian tool of the revolution; a sensible technician; a lover of fine London restaurants (ask me about that later). But one thing she had never been called before was “feminist icon.”
After today, that may change.
Today, Lucena announced that at least 40% of the candidates nominated to the National Assembly by political parties had to be women. She said the rule – agreed to by the National Elections Council – applied to both main candidates and substitutes, and for nominal as well as list candidates.
This, of course, has wreked havoc inside the MUD coalition. The MUD held primaries, and the winners in those primaries were mostly men. Furthermore, the MUD announced its full slate of candidates yesterday, and … wait for it … they were mostly men as well!
Now the MUD will be forced back into its internal negotiating table to come up with feasible female candidates.
Now, let’s put aside how grossly unfair this is. After all, you don’t change the rules after the political parties have spent months negotiating. And let’s forget any qualms we may have about quotas and how they limit individual freedoms.
If we put all that away, this is actually a good thing.
Now, the MUD will be forced to confront its woman problem. With few notable exceptions, the Venezuelan opposition is a boy’s club. The worst part about it? They don’t even recognize they have a problem.
Now … well, either they adapt … o no van pa’l baile.
Caitlyn pa’la Asamblea!!
The other good thing that comes out of this is that it forces the MUD to be nimble and adapt. This is just the first salvo in the Tibi vs. the MUD war that will keep us gripped in the next few months. If the MUD can’t deal with this, then it won’t be able to deal with the tsunami of bull-crap coming their way, courtesy of the Revolution’s institutions – candidates disbarred, judicial investigations, torture, harassment, etc.
They need to show their mettle, and they need to do it quickly. They have more than enough capable women in their ranks to fill Tibi’s absurd quotas.
They need to get the drama over and move on. It’s not like the slate of candidates they announced yesterday was making anyone’s hearts beat out of their chests.
Who knows? Maybe we’ll end up with a roster of more electable candidates thanks to this.
Update: The MUD’s response … is to change the topic:
Caracas Chronicles 
I always thought No-Rule-Changes-in-the-6-Months-Before-the-Vote was a hard and fast rule in Venezuelan elections. Bueh, toss that one into the pyre as well…
I agree with your political analysis, though. This is the first hurdle, better not fall at this stage.
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If I interpret the rule correctly, my guess is that the MUD will fill their women quota giving some women the chance to run for some circuits in Portuguesa, Delta Amacuro, and other Chavista strongholds; as well as assigning them the last spots in the state lists… So don’t expect them to actually change their macho attitude.
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What’s more likely, given that it shakes the least the status quo, is that they will just put the wives of enough candidates. Of course, that’s walking straight on the trap, because then the PSUV gets to dictate the frame of the argument by showing itself as oh-so-inclusive against the machista MUD, but that has never stopped the MUD before.
The rule of the “cogollos”, in other words, of eternal leadership of a small crowd, is a political weakness that any rival political party would exploit, the PSUV is doing it using their usual lack of scrupules and their complete control over the CNE.
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Exactly: it will be all the wives of all those guys.
The MUD doesn’t realise it has to be more Catholic than the Pope. In fact but for some exceptions – women and very few men – they didn’t even realise there was a gender problem here
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And when the mud fills the “woman quote”, chaburrismo will make another excuse to ban and invalidate those candidates as well.
It’s not the “macho attitude”, it’s the “dictator attitude” from chaburrismo.
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Guerra Avisada… http://caracaschronicles.com/2015/03/28/sobremesa-chronicles-8/
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“Fraud, fraud, fraud, the fraud is the word!”
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You ain’t gone get rid of PSUV with votes, live with it.
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So, forced quotas is all good? Next, we’ll have the afro-descendant quota, the Venezuelan Native American quota, the Pardos quota, the Wayuu quota. What happened to each according to his/her interest/ability? How many countries have political candidate quotas by gender? If anything, this move is just the tip of the iceberg to eventualy freeze out the Oppo’s chance of achieving a Parliamentary majority. Some of the math: 3mm central govt. employees + families; ?mm Misiones/Mercal beneficiaries + families; 1mm Pensionados + families; hundreds of thousands of regional/local govt. employees + families; 150m PDVSA employees + families; 100m+ “Reservistas” + families, etc. All subject to Govt. intimidation to vote for the Govt. candidates, particularly with the threat of the captahuellas. Sure, the polls show the Oppo winning handily, but virtually the whole country depends on the Govt., and the Country is INCREDIBLY poorly-educated and poor economically, not to mention ill-/mis-informed by virtually all major Govt.-controlled media. Plus, the inevitable fraud, to be utilized as necessary. I know most on this Blog think this type of thinking is defeatist, but try driving through the real barrios (not the fringes around the Country Club/Altamira/El Marques/outside La Lagunita, etc. Better yet, take a light plane/helicopter ride over Caracas, the wealthiest of Venezuelan cities–mostly barrios,as far as the eye can see. And, the Interior poverty/dependence on the Govt. is much worse. It may seem counter-intuitive to those on this Blog, but many/maybe most of these poor/suffering barrio dwellers are afraid to lose the puny economic benefits they need to barely survive. Only if/when these poor eventually rebel physically, and risk all because “the only thing they have to lose is their chains”, will there, in my opinion, be real change for the better in Venezuela.
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So, chaburrismo finally lost its marbles, outright stating that they’ll use any cheat and fraud to keep the power at any cost.
It’s funny how people thinks here that the problem is that the mud has “a woman problem”, when the actual problem is that chaburrismo will do anything to cheat the elections, first by claiming “I don’t like those candidates”, until it gets to the point that chaburrismo itself will choose the candidates for opposition, like the fatty fag ricardo shánchez or the other lambucio helidoro quintero, chronic backstabbers.
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Aside from changing the rules in the middle of the game, is it even constitutional? And, if it is, is it the purview of the CNE to make such a ruling?
I know that these are silly questions, given that “legal” is anything Chavismo says, but still…
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The problem is that the MUD needs a perfect environment to win. And this is far from it. Granted, chavismo doesn’t have it easy, after all, all the problems they created ain’t gonna fix themselves (and they sure won’t be the ones solving them); but this has got to be one of the bigger hits they deliver to the MUD. Let’s hope the oppo doesn’t lose its head with this…
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Can the CNE legislate, or it isn’t a law? The problem as I see it it’s not a MUD’s, it’s a venezuelan democracy one.
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The extent of Venezuelan collective deterioration is illustrated by this post. The decree, which is totally unconstitutional, absurd and designed to put a new hurdle on the electoral process is defined as “convenient” , because it will force MUD to stop being “machista”. Dr. Juan Pangloss says.
I heard similar arguments about the closing of RCTV, defining it as a good thing because Marcel Granier was getting “too arrogant” or about the prison of Leopoldo as “teaching him a lesson” because he was politically too “ambitious”.
The problem is that the decree of this monstrous woman, Tibisay, represents an intolerable abuse of power.
This is why an open rebellion is required
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I think the extent of Venezuelan deterioration is illustrated by someone calling for a civil war from their computer while they type away, safe in the USA.
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FYI this country is ALREADY at war.
500 casualties a month goes on par with conflicts like Syria’s and Iraq’s ISIS rampage.
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And a bit if deterioration is shown too when the wildcard argument to counter something today is “you don’t have a right to say anything about Venezuela if you are outside the country”.
Rebellion doesn’t mean a violent confrontation as the compulsive, blind voting advocating people threaten, the problem at hand is that the regime’s just pulling from its ass a cheap excuse to invalidate the candidates from the oppossing party, which is yet another cheat in a long string of frauds and underhanded tricks they’ve been using to keep their grip in the power.
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An open and ARMED rebellion.
War is the only credible solution for venezuela´s problems
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No. You don’t have the skill or mindset, Ralph has got it. Rebellion can take myriad forms. Vzla will find the one that suits the moment. My thoughts are very angry women.
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Every time somebody using an anonymous handle on an internet forum calls for armed rebellion, a kitten is clubbed to death.
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Kittens are useless, though.
Time will tell. Cubans know the consequences of “waiting things to settle down and go the peaceful way”
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No! Not the kittens! D:
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“My thoughts are very angry women”
And mine point at “very angry people in general”.
Gender doesn’t matter, folks, everybody has to eat, everybody has to feel they have some respect at some basic level, chaburrismo is constantly showing they don’t care about the respect at all, and they have shown too that they won’t care either for people’s food either.
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Dear Sirs,
Could you please tell us a bit more about Tibi’s favourite restaurants?, I love to follow celebrities around London and I would love yo see her eating pescaito frito y tostones in Chelsea.
Regards,
A Patriota Cooperante that has satado la talanquera
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London,
A friend who works in the City spotted here dining at Scott’s a few months ago, sipping down Dom Perignon with a friend from the Embassy. She had a bunch of bags from Harrod’s with her. Sweet life, huh?
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Maybe she just got her utilidades or used her cupo… or a friend paid for it..Oh dear.. the Rojitos love money and spending it.
So far I have seen Clodosbaldo Rufian eating in Covent Garden and Delsi and her brother the siquiatra buying shoes and drinking champagne at Selfridges ..well I also saw one of their friends at the Patek Philippe museum in Geneva… he was one of the guys who help them to set up the notas estructuradas ..un guiso pues…
Lo unico que protege a los rojos son los secretos y los guisos que comparten…
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This is the first volley in the Chavista effort to assure that there are no serious MUD candidates to vote for. By the time the ballots are printed, all of the serious MUD candidates will have been disqualified, one way or another.
This move is particularly brilliant from an international image perspective. The MUD will be asking foreign countries to repudiate the ruling, but this will force those countries to take a stance that can and will be interpreted as “anti-women”, something that is currently politically incorrect. Therefore, foreign governments are likely to be very equivocal in their responses. As we speak, journalists and politicians are looking at the trap that Chavismo has baited for them and debating how to address it. Let’s see who has the moral courage to confront it head-on.
And when the dust settles, they will have changed the subject of the debate from dictatorship and repression to sexism.
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So, now what to do? We go up in arms or do we conform?
Are there even enough women in the opposition willing to run?
I for one, hate the system of quotas (just like they are doing with the admissions to the universities). The people running should be there because they are capable and willing to do it, not to fill a quota.
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Of course. Meritocracia en vez de Cleptodictadura.
But the MUD is a mess anyway, there are no internal elections, but that’s besides the point. Baby steps first, to get rid of the Totalitarian Dictatorship. Con quien sea, ninos, mujeres, maricos, transfo, monta-cachos machistas, whatever makes the MUD any stronger for now..
“Dedocracia Machista”? So be it, for now. Eso es peo interno, anyway.
http://devilexcrement.com/2015/06/25/a-rant-for-democracy-in-venezuela/
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De acuerdo.
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Ditto!
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Carolina,
You see how this is changing the debate already? Nobody can attack the ruling without being labeled “Sexist”.
What to do? We play their game. The Oppo has 80% of the population. We should be able to turn that into a win, regardless of how they change the rules. And if we can’t, everyone will know it was because of massive fraud and manipulation.
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I’m pretty sure that the MUD will just turn to the wives of several candidates to reach the required quota. Hopefully this will not be the case, as it would a wasted opportunity to change what is clearly a Boy’s Club
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What it matters is to get something different from chavismo in any seat of power, it doesn’t matter which cromosomes they have.
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I agree with Net. and Gustavo, and a few others here.
In any reasonable reasonable, semi-developed country this Draconian, clearly unconstitutional, utterly absurd rule would have caused major commotion; heck, one would have even dared to even propose anything like that in any “democratic” elections system in the freaking 21st century, to begin with.
Tibitch, in any half-decent nation, with somewhat educated people would have been fired for this nonsense.
“If we put all that away, this is actually a good thing” Really?!…
This retarded “feminist”opens yet another Pandora box, as Net. suggests above. It’s amazing that even smart, educated, anti-dictatorship people on this board think this is all nice and dandy. Next thing you know, no one can run for office if they ever bought a Polar Emperialistic product, or watched Law & Order on cable, or if they are or mixed descent, etc..
And to change the rules at this stage?! it OBVIOUS the design is to hurt the MUD, beyond Evident the rule favors the Dictatorship, and people say..” chevere, pue”.. Coronel is right, to what level of Democratic deterioration are we stooping down to, nothing seems to maze anyone anymore.
A putrid, Corrupt sold “Elections entity”, that is supposed to be completely independent, pure, democratic, in charge of the entire Political system itself decrees such an atrocity, and all we say “that’s cool”.. even the more educated ones, the sharp observers and analytical minds, huh?..
The freaking “President” says he’s going to hit the streets himself, provoke revolts, calling the people to refuse accepted the results of the “elections” if the opposing party wins, and we say nothing??!!
And of course it’s not a good thing, anyway, for any opposition of a Dictatorship to have less options for their candidates. They are already battered by the unjust Media Machine, Bribes, Threats, Smartmatic Fraud, Gerrymandering, and now a late-night Machiavellian Tibitch hurdle is good for the MUD and Democracy?!
No wonder Cubazuela is where it is today.
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A decent analogy here is a bloody Box match, with a completely unfair, sold referee, indeed:
Tibitch, sold, rotten Machavellian Ref, allows low blows, changes the rules during the match. And we even applaud each low blow, and joke about it, with the country on the line.
As if Low Blows do not pile up, and weaken the opponent progressively. Not, the make the opponent receiving the low, illegal blows stronger, ready to avoid more dirty tricks, huh? Awesome logic.
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La corrección política es la espada de Damocles de la oposición. Por ella misma es que el gobierno hace rodar sus cabezas.
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I loathe quotas , they are an insult to the principle that in every thing the best and most capable should be preferred to the less able and capable , that some extraneous factor should influence the way we choose who is the best equipped to do an specific task .
What is important is that the assesment system be fair and impartial even if the results be lopsided in favouring some part of the population rather than others.
I once faced the job of filling two professional positions which were being sought by hundreds of candidates , I created a matrix so only the 20 best would be interviewed , the matrix was demanding and genre blind , the result: of the 20 preselected candidates 18 were women and 2 were male, afterwards i discovered that one of the males unknown to me had been ´smuggled´in to sattisfy a colleagues personal preferences ( the colleague was a lady).
In the end we hired two females , one of them a very remarkable young lady ( wife to a person who writes in this blog from time to time) who went on to a very succesful career outside Venezuela.
If I had applied a quota I would have had to interview 8 males that didnt deserve the interview and had to hire one male that didnt meet the criteria.
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Adopting the rule at this late stage is clearly wrong and probably illegal.
However, having gender quotas for candidates to elected offices is probably not a bad thing considering how underpresented women are in politics worldwide. Many countries have a adopted gender quotas of some form, both in the developed and developing world, with varying degrees of success. If it can achieve greater female representation in a country as machista as Venezuela, I don’t have a problem with it.
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Female or Male representation is not the goal , its getting the best people to do the best job regardless of gender . Some women may feel better represented in parliament by certain men and some men may feel better represented in parliament by certain women . Whose to force them to vote for someone guided by a gender preference. !! Machismo is thinking someone is better because he is a male , Anti Machismo is thinking that whoever is better can be a male or a female.
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The thing is do we get the best people for the job? the people who get elected are the people who have enough money to campaign and support from parties, not necessarily the best people for the job, i think the best people don’t even run.
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I think he MUD should go cutting-edge politically correct, and declare that 40 percent of their candidates are women trapped in men’s bodies.
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You, my friend, have earned a virtual Newcastle Brown Ale from me for that comment.
Some day, we’ll pop open a real one.
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What Roberto N. said, but it will have to be Clamato Juice and 151.
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Thanks guys,for the virtual drinks.
Just think….Some wigs, a little lipstick….problem solved!
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Hahahaha….
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“Sure, the polls show the Oppo winning handily, but virtually the whole country depends on the Govt., and the Country is INCREDIBLY poorly-educated and poor economically, not to mention ill-/mis-informed by virtually all major Govt.-controlled media. Plus, the inevitable fraud, to be utilized as necessary. I know most on this Blog think this type of thinking is defeatist, but try driving through the real barrios ..”
Exactly. Lately what we see here is a sense of false security that the opposition has to win, regardless of all the trickery from a spineless regime.. since the Polls show an “overwhelming”, “unbeatable”, 80% or even more against Masburrismo..
Duermanse en esos laureles..
The MUD and the Public now easily accepts, as if whistling through a park in the afternoon, every dirty trick on the book, confident, somewhow, on “elecciones justas, con supervisiondel Papa y la Onu..” and shit.
– Massive Gerrymandering? “ha, ha,funny trick, we can take it”.
– Fuera los caudernos electorales??! ” Que ladilla, vale, pero no importa chamo..”
– Fuera diputos electos, sin razon?! “Eso ya estamos acostumbrados desde antes de MCM..”
– Fondos ilegales para propaganda, guisos, intimidacion? “Como siempre chico, tranquilo, pana..”
-Reglas inconstitucionales a ultima hora? “Cero peo, que ganamos de todas formas..”
Sigue creyendo creyon. And just wait till el Mago Rodriguez pulls out the Olivetti Lotto Machines and a few Chavezmatic malicious software tricks, again, at the last minute, as needed.
Can’t wait to see what happens after they steal this laughable “elections” for a non-existing “parliament”, and the MUD does “win” 55/45%, or whatever.. Dollar at 600bs, zero reserves or loans or bond tricks left, colas and escasez go back up.. 2016 is gonna be a riot, literally.
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My interpretation of Lucena’s announcement is that this is more of a way for the government to give the opposition the middle finger. It’s really just a way of taunting the opposition. A way to say “Do what we tell you to, jump through the hoops and check all the boxes. But finally realize that “there is not a chance in bloody hell that we will let you win this election”. I truly believe that the election is a forgone conclusion at this point.
Even if there was “Divine Intervention” and the election was won, what then?? Do you really believe that there would be a peaceful transition? Everybody ready to forgive and forget, hold hands and sing Kumbahya? Are the thousands in the collectivos going to lay down their weapons and get day jobs?
The second option is even worse. When wins the election (AND THEY WILL), what then. Push for another election? I worry because I do not see any type of peaceful resolution to the problem given the increasing violence daily and the economy (I use the term loosely) in shambles. I still have family there that I worry about and pray for daily. I just don’t see the resolution coming from a conference table.
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Tip: opposition chances are much higher in politics than in violence.
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On a separate note, why does this Draconian, unconstitutional “rule” affect the Opposition MUD much more adversely than the Dictatorship Machine in power?
This is gonna be controversial, see if I care:
Women have proven to be tough as nails when it comes to defending their homes, husbands, not to mention their children. But historically, and to this day, the fact remains that they have less Desire and less Time available to spend their energies on Politics.
First, it’a an undeniable statistical fact that women in thirld-world countries are even less educated, and ready for politics than men: they often get pregnant every early, in their teens. For one. Unfortunately, under-developed Vzla is no exception when it comes to Machista Societies, where women are often (not always) required to stay at home, take care of the house and the children. They don’t crave political power as alpha males do, heck, it’s almost natural in the animal kingdom.
Therefore, less women actually show up for political positions, much less prepare themselves for such dirty and nasty battles, as men do. You only see women like Lilian, Patricia, Ledezma lady? and others in the fight now because their husbands are in deep shit. Very few have a political passion like MCM.
So OF COURSE this weakens the already battered and divided MUD even more.
But not so much the PSUV Dictatorship. Not anywhere near. THAT’s the real machista, disguised group of thugs that LOVE to have more innocent looking women doing the dirty work for them. You see, Chavista “ladies” give a false sense of comfort, trust, “yo no fui” image. That’s my personal opinion, of course, but it’s common freaking sense. Imagine if they had an ugly dude like “Chucho” instead of inocent looking “Tibi” running that crucial den of thieves called the CNE?
Whether we like it or not, in Vzla women are still “weaker” in many ways, easier to manipulate, as prettier facades, parapetos mas apetecibles y creibles que hombres.. A bunch of very few Mach men like Masburro, Cabellos, Rodrigues, Arreaza, who are the only ones really in power just LOVE that. Plus women are about half of the voters, even less-educated, more brain-washed with novelas and media crap at home, so they tend to believe other women as “candidates”, especially the Chavista, poor segment of that demographic.
More pleasant-looking, more innocent looking, “mother-figures” like the cunning, deadly Fiscal General Luisa Ortega Díaz.. Tibitch, pure Evil impersonated, or the infernal Iris Varela.. doing all the dirty work for Cabello. Heck, the Tyrant even uses his own pretty daughter, Danielita, as head of the freaking political campaign.
You don’t thibk Chavez, and the currents thugs don’t know all this very well? Heck, they don’t care, more women in power, they tend to steal a bit less, appease the crowds, while they get most of the money and real power. The more innocent, wicked “Tibis” “Iris” and “Luisitas” to manipulate, the better..
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It’s not “controversial”. Controversial is when you write something that divides people. This comment is the opposite of that: it unites us in the conviction that you’re an asshole.
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That controversy isn’t important to the topic on hand, what it matters is that the regime is saying again “Haha! We can do whatever the fuck we want and you can’t do zilch about it!”
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Which is partly what I wrote above, besides explaining why Net. and Coronel are right in disagreeing that Tibi’s unconstitutional aberration is all good and funny stuff..
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And it is completely pertinent to the topic at hand, the core of it: Imposing this absurd Draconian rule, 50% women”, hurts the opposition for many more reasons than just opening the proverbial Pandora Box, as you suggest. I listed a few of those in detail.
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And this is the “moderator” of the blog.. 2 options, stoop down to your level, or ignore, ass-wipe, what do you prefer?
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I don’t know Francisco, I think it’s controversial when you claim things like:
“First, it’s an undeniable statistical fact that women in third-world countries are even less educated, and ready for politics than men” and you don’t offer one shred of evidence, because, you know, it’s self evident, right?
or
“Whether we like it or not, in Vzla women are still “weaker” in many ways, easier to manipulate, as prettier facades, parapetos mas apetecibles y creibles que hombres”
I sure hope he’s either married to a non Spanish speaker or that he’s a gay man, ’cause if he ain’t and his wife reads that BS,I gotta think that sofa at his brother’s house is gonna get some use.
I mean, you even manage to somehow triple down on the misogyny by claiming they can’t be more corrupt than men!
Muchacho no es gente, vale……….
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Dude, my personal situation is irrelevant, funny guesses though, if you’re drawing from your personal experience.
– How many women graduated for College, or higher schooling systems in the past 3 decades, ready for public office today, compared to men? (please go beyond basic misreading and misspelling of 3rd grade in a public school), More importantly, how many women are “capacitadas” y con experiencia profesional, para ejercitar cargos politicos? How much experience did Lilian or Patricia have, or, as important, even desire to get into filthy politics.. and that’s the Elite of what we have.. then you have Iris Varelas.
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And before irrational sensitivities go wild, of course women today, especially in developed countries, are as educated and smart, or more.But products of Venezuela’s retrograde, subpar and male dominated Higher education school systems of the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s ? Think again. Look it up.
Less suited and prepared for politics? Of course they still are, in general. That’s one of the main reasons you still see a lot less women in politics in any decent, democratic country today. They like to do other things, which corroborates their intelligence. Still, imposing this draconian rule on the MUD obviously hurts them, and boosts the corrupt PSUV even more. Such barbaric “rules” only are tolerated in Vzla.. or Saudi Arabia and Iraq perhaps, the other way around.
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First, it’a an undeniable statistical fact that women in thirld-world countries are even less educated, and ready for politics than men: they often get pregnant every early, in their teens.
For levels of education and literacy, look at the following data for Venezuela from the World Bank.
Indicator Name 2009
Literacy rate, adult female (% of females ages 15 and above) 95.4
Literacy rate, adult male (% of males ages 15 and above) 95.7
Literacy rate, youth female (% of females ages 15-24) 98.8
Literacy rate, youth male (% of males ages 15-24) 98.3
Secondary education, pupils (% female) 51.2
Then talk to us about “undeniable statistical facts.”
http://data.worldbank.org/
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Nice nitpicking. The bulk of my post addressed more important factors pertinent to the specific topic at hand, but anyway..
That’s If you think “literacy rate” (basic reading and writing) means Education; and you think Venezuela’s populace is “educated”, specifically here for higher political positions.
In that case, you have a very educated president, that bus driver who quit a poor high school with abysmal sub-standards at an early age, and can barely read&write. Great! awesome, capable public official!
But since you are a reader here, I was hoping you’d be smarter and were more educated yourself than that, able to really READ and think, comprehend and analyse certain concepts in due context.
Namely, that women often stop their studies much earlier than men in third world countries, to have children, stay at home, in our undeniably male-driven machista societies, and so on, plus the other conditions I specified. Plus the basic “literacy” and “secondary education” data only in 2009. What about before, when these MUD women were supposed to be in Universities, say 10 years ago? THAT’s what’s available today. Much less educated women than “Tibi”, mind you, for the most part, if not pregnant at home with 5 kids.
And how about College, which is minimal desired education level for public office, % of women who graduated College 10 years ago, ripe for politics today, compared to men, compared to Total Population? Care to nitpick and dig on that?
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Plus the basic “literacy” and “secondary education” data only in 2009. What about before, when these MUD women were supposed to be in Universities, say 10 years ago?
You could have found the data also. I gave you the source. In any event , the data shows that in the 15-24 age cohort, females have had higher literacy rates than males for decades- not just in 2009.
Indicator Name 1981
Literacy rate, youth female (% of females ages 15-24) 93.9
Literacy rate, youth male (% of males ages 15-24) 92.3
1990
Literacy rate, youth female (% of females ages 15-24) 96.4
Literacy rate, youth male (% of males ages 15-24) 94.5
2001
Literacy rate, youth female (% of females ages 15-24) 98.1
Literacy rate, youth male (% of males ages 15-24) 96.3
Ditto for 2007, but I believe I have made my point.
And how about College, which is minimal desired education level for public office, % of women who graduated College 10 years ago, ripe for politics today, compared to men, compared to Total Population? Care to nitpick and dig on that?
The World Bank doesn’t have data on degrees granted, but it does have enrollment data.
Ratio of female to male tertiary enrollment (%)
1986 72.1
1987 107.9
1988 93.2
1989 91.8
2000 146.2
2002 108.9
2003 107.4
2008 169..4
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Much less educated women than “Tibi”, mind you, for the most part, if not pregnant at home with 5 kids.
Perhaps you consider this “nitpicking,” but the fertility rate in Venezuela is 2.5, not five.
And how about College, which is minimal desired education level for public office, % of women who graduated College 10 years ago, ripe for politics today, compared to men, compared to Total Population? Care to nitpick and dig on that?
Indicator Name 2010
Labor force with tertiary education, female (% of female labor force) 27
Labor force with tertiary education, male (% of male labor force) 27.5
Contrary to your claims, when it comes to educational attainment, the stats point to females in Venezuela being at least on par with men, all the way up to university.
http://data.worldbank.org/data-catalog/world-development-indicators
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“First, it’s an undeniable statistical fact that women in third-world countries are even less educated, and ready for politics than men…How many women graduated for College, or higher schooling systems in the past 3 decades, ready for public office today, compared to men?…Namely, that women often stop their studies much earlier than men in third world countries, to have children, stay at home, in our undeniably male-driven machista societies, and so on, plus the other conditions I specified.
If you compare Barro-Lee: Percentage of female population age 25-29 with tertiary schooling. Completed Tertiary, with Barro-Lee: Percentage of population age 25-29 with tertiary schooling. Completed Tertiary, you can get a pretty good indication of the female-male parity in completing a college education. If the female percentage for completing Tertiary is less than the overall population’s percentage for completing Tertiary, then there is not parity. By your hypotheses, <i.Percentage of female population age 25-29 with tertiary schooling. Completed Tertiary should be less than Percentage of population age 25-29 with tertiary schooling. Completed Tertiary. Because, doncha’ know, women in Venezuela are not well-educated compared to their menfolk.
Barro-Lee: Percentage of female population age 25-29 with tertiary schooling. Completed Tertiary
1970 1.32
1975 2.85
1980 4.34
1985 4.68
1990 4.48
1995 4.46
2000 5.93
2005 6.3
2010 6.87
Barro-Lee: Percentage of population age 25-29 with tertiary schooling. Completed Tertiary
1970 2.14
1975 3.14
1980 4.81
1985 4.37
1990 4.09
1995 3.77
2000 4.55
2005 4.71
2010 5.28
Gap between % of females 25-29 who completed tertiary schooling, compared to population 25-29.
1970 -0.82
1975 -0.29
1980 -0.47
1985 0.31
1990 0.39
1995 0.69
2000 1.38
2005 1.59
2010 1.59
You are definitely correct for 1970: 1.32 % of females 25-29 had completed a college/Tertiary education, compared to 2.14% of the population as a whole.The gap was closing by 1975: 2.85% for women compared to 3.14% for the population as a while aged 25-29. By 1985, the percentage of females aged 25-29 who had completed tertiary education was greater than the percentage of completing tertiary education for all those aged 25-29, a trend which has continued to this day.
So to your question “How many women graduated for College, or higher schooling systems in the past 3 decades, ready for public office today, compared to men?., the answer is more women compared to men in the last 30 years. I very much doubt that 2015 has seen a reversal of this long-term trend.
I agree with you that women are not as inclined to politics as men, and that the Chavista requirement of 40% women candidates is absurd. Nonetheless, your claim about Venezuelan women not being as well educated as men does not stand up to scrutiny. “Undeniable statistical facts” are not necessarily what you believe them to be.
http://databank.worldbank.org/data/home.aspx Education Statistics – All Indicators
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Juan: Riposting the way you did to me is not going to make my observations go away. Later comments confirm this.
You told me two things, both pretty weak:
one, that I don’t live in Venezuela, therefore, I should not write about my country and countrymen from “the safety of another country”. This is weak and mean because, among other things, I have lived in Venezuela much longer than you have. I played an active role in Venezuelan affairs long before you were born. I was in jail in Maracaibo for conspiring against Perez Jimenez and did my duty for the country. The current circumnstances of my living abroad have an explanation: I simply refuse to live under another dictatorship, I will not coexist with Maduro and his gangsters. Others do and that’s their choice. You cannot use my living abroad as an argument to invalidate my right to express my opinions. If I am not mistaken you have also spent considerable time abroad and no one would tell you to stop writing about Venezuela while you are in Chile or Canada.
two, You said that I am calling for civil war.You are wrong. I am calling for open civic rebellion, for a show of massive dignity. This means civil disobedience, massive sit-ins, marches, open protests in the streets. Could this lead to civil war? Unlikely, as we are not armed and the gorillas of Maduro and Cabello are..
But if civic rebellion ever leads to civil war I would ask you to hold your judgment of my actions until this comes about. I promise you I will not try to judge your actions prematurely.
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2 of the writers of this blog are clearly totalitarian little Niches at times, aren’t they. Especially the Torito-Bully clown. Supposedly Economists, pseudo-Intellectuals… If they don’t like something you say, first they’ll attack you, then try to block you with stupid “Dollar One”style laughable IP blocks, then are left no other recourse but straight-up ad hominem insults and such.
Awesome.
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I dont hink there is a convinced oppo who will abstain from voting oppo because the candidate is a male or a female , even if all the oppo candidates do not represent our personal preferences , I will still vote for whoever the MUD proposes because my personal preferences are not as important as getting closer to a situation where we are finally rid of our tormentors..
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The inequality argument is so weak that is discriminatory by itself. Should we assume that women are 20% less important than men so that is the reason for a 60-40 proportion?
I think the entire reason for this law is to delay the election. If the MUD can’t make the 40-60, will require primary elections organized by the CNE which time will say it is impossible because they don’t have the man power and time to organize new primary and the overall elections. The opposition will request the elections to be moved at least 6 month based on fairness. Imagine how grateful the will be, an election delay requested by the MUD
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Or, the cñe could say “fuck you, we’ll make the elections now that you don’t have valid candidates for like 3/4 of the seats”
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OpUno sez: “The rule of the “cogollos,” in other words, of eternal leadership of a small crowd…”
I believe this is the root problem that landed us in the shitter to begin with. It was not only a ol’ Boy’s Club, but the power, money, and all the opportunities were help by these jefes who didn’t give a damn about the uneducated, unemployed millions languishing in so many Dog Towns. There’s thousands of El Tigritos in Venezuela and we”ll all been there. The revolution was not the problem, but a symptom of the rotten one-sidedness of the leadership. Chavez did not create the hatred for the cogollos, rather he fanned it and exploited an escalating feeling into a political strategy. Without even knowing it, Tiby “Shit-for Brains” has given MUD an entrance exam. If they fail, they don’t deserve power. Of course they’ll try to have wives run as proxies, but I imagine there are enough girls with 20/20 vision who won’t have it.
But as the man said, this could get interesting real fast.
JL
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The oppo is made up of a bunch of parties and groups , getting to a unitary list of candidates where all the various groups were sattisfied took some doing , now in order to sattisfy this new requirement they have to start again, this causes renewed bickering and discussions inside the oppo , making the unity less solid , also they have to work fast because they are running against a deadline to get to the new lists . The resulting list will likely not be as good as the original one.
They dont have the same problem because they all are subservient to the decisions of a single despotic cogollo or their out !! So clearly the new requirement has nothing to do with gender equality and everything to do with fiendishly making things more difficult for the opposition to maintain its unified list of candidates.
All political movements end up led by a cogollo , whether they are left , conservative or whatever because you cant have complex difficult decisions taken by humongous masses of people each with their own opinion , democraacy also works to produce cogollos through processes in which many people feel that their opinion is counted , but in the end society can only work through cogollos . Hannah Arendt referred to this basic fact of democratic politics by saying that ultimately you needed small leadership groups to do the heavy job of decision making becaue ‘the house will not hold them all´.
Belief in the instinctive wiisdom of the masses is one of those tender superstitions which romanticism introduced into the life of modern politics . no greater folly has ever been canonized by human stupidity .!!
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Great comments..sometimes the comments are better than the article.
I think any university educated woman can do the job as long as they have the guts to tell the truth about what is happening. People are living with repression, shortages, corruption, and much crime and people realise that.
Just tell it like it is and most people will vote for a chance to have something different.
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The cñe asspulls an useless quota to keep the other parties without candidates, yet mrs. elections doen’t say a peep about the glaring breaking of electoral laws, plus threatening and fear-mongering maburro creates when he claims that “They have the right to KNOW WHO VOTED FOR WHO” which translates as “YOUR VOTE IS NOT SECRET”
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Ralph : He didnt say that although he implied it , what he said is that the CNE would tell him who voted and who didnt so that if there was a govt employee who being discontent with the regime stayed home and abstained he might be singled out for punishment.
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