Hope and Contradiction

Was I really sitting in shorts under a coconut tree, watching a frigate bird, sipping my guava juice juice a few hours ago? Humans are not made for such radical shifts. Im looking out a snow covered mountains, grey skies, a modern world.

I have some great pictures and lots of information which I will be posting soon. For now it must suffice to say that there is a real project ahead digesting, interpreting, analyzing the many voices and perspectives which I heard in ten days of interviews. But one message came through clear and consistent. There is change taking place in Venezuela. It is directed by Venezuelans and for Venezuelans who are a proud and capable people with a proud history. The participation and empowerment of people from all social stratas is so much more complete than the process we here in the US call "politics"that if anything, they should be instructing us on how to form institutions and create models for democratic involvement. Instead we have the ludicrous example of Condi Rice lecturing THEM on how to behave. Untill you can be removed to another culture, if even for a short while, you can not truly appreciate the absurdity of such a ridiculous character or understand how truly bizarre she, and by extension US power players, appear to much of the rest of the planet. Cartoon Rulers!Welcome Home.