Another Holiday
The workers get a day off. The MKL Memorial is in financial trouble, the kids squabbling over whether they ought to sell the buildings and collection to the government. The irony is piercing that keeping the legacy of a true revolutionary alive could be compromised because of lack of money. King thought long and hard about lack of money.
"These are revolutionary times; all over the globe men are revolting against old systems of exploitation and oppression.The shirtless and barefoot people of the land are rising up as never before.We in the West must support these revolutions"
Looking through the magazine rack on Friday I found the cover article in Foreign Policy Magazine interesting."How Chavez is Refashioning Dictatorship" by a fellow named Javier Corrales whose only credential is associate professor of government at Amherst. I can speculate that he lost out when the US backed coup against Chavez failed. He makes broad ,unsubstantiated claims, using the word authoritarian three times in his opening. He claims "a Chavez -controlled election body ensures that voting irregularities committed by the state are overlooked." and says this of the international election monitoring that endorsed the election as fair. "Ease with which international observers condoned the Electoral councils flimsy audit of results".Javier is a sore loser who gets a nine page article in a major periodical and who would prefer the Supreme Court decide elections like it does here.. He ominously claims the opposition is being targeted "by compiling and posting on the Internet lists of voters". I can get lists of US voters on the Internet, as can anyone .So what? This is a good one "Chavez has failed to improve any meaningful measure of poverty,education or equity". Big Lie. This is an interesting argument. He claims because Chavez is giving more wealth to his supporters (80% come from the poorest segment of society) he is fueling "polarization". The logic is he should be giving equally to the rich. Or like Bush, give it all to the rich. His biggest complaint is that "more than 2.7 million new voters have been registered in less than two years."This he calls "gaming the system".
The article is trash but is joined by one in the Jan issue of The National Interest (Kissinger is a Chairman)with dire warnings and one in the recent Foreign Affairs Magazine called "Is America Losing LatinAmerica?" You probably didn't realize it was our property in the first place but these intellectuals and academics sure consider it that. I'll bet they are none to thrilled that socialist Michelle Bachellet won the presidency in Chile with a strong majority. She was imprisoned and tortured by Kissingers close associate Pinochet.
posted by troutsky @ 9:50 AM
4 comments
4 Comments:
Troutsky,
I read a short piece along the same lines on Venezuela analysis that talked about the foreign policy piece. It is pretty incredible some of the claims the guy makes. I have to admit I'm not sure what he was getting at with pointing out that 2.7 million were registered in the last 2 years. My take is that people really like Chavez enough to get motivated to vote for the guy.
You really hit a good point with the idea that our audit of the 2000 elections were flimsy at best. Talk about calling the kettle black. I guess people will do anything to try and maintain the empire.
Yes John, the hypocracy is so blatant, you almost don't know where to start.Im trying to keep an open mind but none of the analysis in any of the mags I have read has seemed aware of the imperialist filter they see through.We need to get some of the counter arguments out there, maybe we need our own zine?
Your own zine? That's a great idea! Seriously, I think you have enough passion about this topic, and you have some good thoughts too as long as you can take a little more time to edit them, I think it'll work.
I really don't have much of an opinion on what's going on in Latin America. Sad, perhaps, but I'll just watch from my little suburban shelter thank you. If the people are doing better under Chavez, great. If not, we'll know it soon enough.
It's hard to say that registering 2.7 million voters in two years is bad. Didn't Bush tell us democracy is all good. It's like Buchanan says, we care about pro-American regimes, democratic or otherwise. I think Chavez proves that at least.
In a country where a guy runs away with the election, people vote. In an election between two career politicians set on continuing the plutocratic empire, we yawn. Someone get us a South American "autocrat". At least then we can get a little excited.
"If the people are doing better"..It often comes down to the question, who are "the people"? The multitude,the masses? A majority in Venezuela seem to be doing better but they have such a long way to go.A minority is doing worse but they didnt even bother to vote their own interests. Like here and elsewhere, "the people" is a divided polity.
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