New month, old rhetoric
Posted by ddelaney on March 3, 2009
Today’s news carried some interesting headlines. One of the local regional newspapers, La Verdad, reported that the National’s Assembly’s Education Commission will soon begin reviewing text books to see which authors “distort” history (by simplifying U.S. imperialism or foreign affairs since 9/11). They will also think about ways to give expression to socialism and communism. One of the teachers here said that if Chavez’s administration wants to say that imperialism is bad, they must also admit that communism has failed in every country where it’s been attempted, or even that socialism is the quickest path to capitalism, like Winston Churchill said.
While it is not surprising to read that Chavez has begun to compare Obama to Bush, it is remarkable to read that he is essentially telling Obama to mind his own business. In fact, “Venezuela no es su problema, ese es nuestro problema” (Venezuela isn’t his problem, it’s our problem). It certainly is a problem these days. After hearing about another of my good friends here being robbed (and not just your standard on the street mugging)—the fourth, in fact—I can’t help but feel that Chavez isn’t dealing with some of Venezuela’s biggest problems. Spare us the anti-Obama (or Bush or U.S. or whatever is his fancy on a given day) rhetoric. I think all Venezuelans, chavista or not, should not be complacent about the problems of violence and insecurity here, among others.
