Sunday, January 23, 2011

English language chavismo in the web on the decline

Out of idleness I decided to visit some of the English language sites in the web that support Chavez.  My last visit was to Venezuelanalysis sometime at the end of 2010.  The other sites?  Who knows, I forgot.....

Oil Wars which was the lone consistent blog has its last posting on July 6, after months of irregular postings, and a refusal to break up with chavismo once and for all.  Unable to support chavismo anymore and unable to go back to democratic causes I suppose that the editor thought it best to drop the whole thing.

Borev was some ersatz humor blog which was way more vindictive than humorous.  I, for one, never found it amusing but it might just have been a question of taste since I do not get Chavez "humor" either.  Whatever, its last post is from March 2010!  Borev was rumored or even proven, I forgot, to be financially supported by the Venezuelan embassy in Washington.  I let the reader guess on such implications.

And there is of course Venezuelanalysis, the Greg Wilpert joint that he even used to publish a book out of his columns.  The site presented itself as a kind of e-magazine but lately it was goign downhill.  I think I read somewhere that Wilpert had moved to the US as he is married to some Venezuelan diplomat.  That would  explain the decline of a site who at least had the decency to link to opposition sites such as this one (though you had to work at finding the link whereas yours truly has its reciprocal square on the right side).  Apparently the site was left in the care of a single person and simplified greatly its presentation (it is a strange coincidence that a regular harasser of opposotion sites disappeared when Venezuelanalysis went to that simple mode, curious, no?)  Now, things seem to revive some to the point of recovering some of past presentation dash and even, hold tight, advertising for a part time journalist position!  Note that the socialist site offers no benefits with the position........ 

Outside of Venezuela the lone energumène of note was Calvin Tucker who used to work for London's Red Ken and even threatened me of judicial pursuit because apparently he wants us to believe that all paid expenses trips are not subsidies.  Or something like that, I forgot, I am still waiting for the subpoena.  He has a 21 century socialism site which is not dead but which seems to concentrate its activities on other countries than Venezuela.  I suppose that his team is looking for a more reliable sponsor than Chavez....

And I have saved for the last the very best.  Eva Golinger does have a blog in addition of editing the English version of the Correo del Orinoco propaganda sheet.  Her blog is unreadable, kind of niña rosa as we would call it in Venezuela.  Thus it has probably be a year that I have not visited it.  Well, I was rewarded.  Not only the woman is still at it, but she even publishes an interview that Reuters made to her.  I suppose that no one else wanted to talk to Reuters who is somewhat discredited in Venezuela.  You do not need to read the whole thing, the very first few lines are enough to take the full measure of the brunette bimbo:

The Salon Eliptico is reserved for the most important and prestigious events, and only two people from the U.S. have ever spoken there. One is me and the other is John F. Kennedy

You cannot make up things like that!  I am still crying with laughter!

PS: The Salon Eliptico refers to the event last November when Eva asked publicly Chavez for laws and actions to shut up people like me.  You know, your standard fascist proposal tot he beloved great leader.  I was wondering a while back why Reuters had stopped citing this blog (they even posted some of my posts!).  But now, if they prefer to publish such type of interviews I understand why and I even think it better to be ignored by them.  ¡Que raya!

18 comments:

  1. Brigitte11:30 AM

    There is also a "German" with a blog who is very active in German discussion forums. She (???)does it that in a very personal agressive way and never with any word about the subject which is discussed, just personal attacks
    http://olivia2010kroth.wordpress.com/about/

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  2. Daniel,

    There is a typo, very evidently product of Spanish interference:
    You wrote "Correo del Orinoco propaganda sheet. " It should read "shit". I know, we Spanish speakers sometimes confuse short /I/ with /i:/. But in this case it is definitely /I/

    There is a German woman, on retirement, living in France, who started to write in her blog somewhere in 2010. She hardly gets any visitors. She links to the Venezuelan embassy in Paris and now she has been visiting blogs and forums that write about Venezuela in German. Her blog is quite weird, it's the kind of people who believe in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion and all that stuff.

    I had to delete lots of her insults (no arguments, just insults) and so did a German lady who is living in Venezuela and who is writing about reality.

    I have the impression the Venezuelan embassy is using her to try to get someone write something possitive in English/German about Chavismo. It's curious just because it shows how now Chavistas are having such difficulty in finding useful idiots.
    Hasta allí llegaron.

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  3. Brigitte

    Thank you for the tip on German (confirmed next by Kepler). I do not read German blogs, for obvious reasons, but I do not read French ones either, besides my little outings to Agoravox. I am pretty sure the embassy in Paris must be sponsoring French people to write but no one has made any dent, otherwise in all of these years I would have known about it.

    There is/was some French guy writing from Merida but he has been way less supportive last time I checked.

    Heck, even in Spanish they cannot manage anything consistent outside of Aporrea....

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  4. Kepler

    Thank you for the orthographical correction. I will correct it as soon as blogger spell checker works again :)

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  5. @Daniel,

    English is a strange language.

    In USA English we would write: "I got caught IN a spider web."
    But, we would write: "ON the web (meaning the the internet).

    I have no idea why it is ON the web ans not IN the web. I tried to do some research, but came up empty handed.

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  6. Brett5:08 PM

    I think vheadline is still treading water.

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  7. Daniel, I think the disappearance of chavista blogs in English has to do with the fact that the tide has simply turned.

    As much as Chavez was the darling of the Left in the early days, now, only radical fanatics, such as Golinger, Weisbrot, Wilpert, Tucker, etc., have the courage, or shall we say stupidity, to carry on praising the guy. These are the same people that have no qualms is praising FARC, Hamas, ETA, Fidel Castro, Stalin...

    Mind you, here in the UK, it was quite a challenge when I started lobbying, to get a moderate person express any sympathy for the opposition: Chavez was the man, he was teaching people how to read and write, providing health care, etc. However his abuses are so notorious by now, that not even Amnesty International is prepared to apologise for him. And that's the problem the mentioned suckers have these days, they have been discredited by their own. Talk about human rights, every major NGO has some negative report about Chavez. Talk about the economy, well. Talk about social advances and poverty alleviation programs, the numbers aren't there and chavista statistics are not trusted by anyone.

    So what's a revolutionary with a modicum of self respect left to do? Hide beneath a rock, in the hope that past utterances will be forgotten. Of course, there are some, like the ones mentioned, that appear to lack the most basic self preservation instinct. We shouldn't worry about them, for they have no relevance, anywhere. As some say, they are people of no consequence.

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  8. Dave

    You are right but still, I will not change the title becasue now that I think of it they are trapped IN. that is, their stupid words of sycophancy cannot be erased that easily... :)

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  9. Dave Barnes,

    Referring to Daniel's phrase:

    "web it is somewhat inside of it."

    When a fly is caught in a spider web you say 'in' because
    'inside' is a little more precise in meaning and contains the idea of being enclosed in something.But as a spider web is not THAT deep in dimension " in" would be slightly more correct.

    However" On " the Web is like 'on the computer', or 'on the internet' or 'on TV'.You can cannot get inside of the virtual WEB in any real dimension but you can gaze upon or look on.

    But yet we say 'in the virtual world'.But here in the virtual world would mean 'within',whereas being on the web would indicate the state of " being on" or looking on the Web at a particular point.

    :)Quite a confusing mess isn't it?
    But somehow when you get the intuitive grasp, it makes things amazingly more simple.

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  10. England Calling....9:34 PM

    With regards to AB comments....
    Has he or you Daniel , come across the " Friends Of Venezuela " site here in England ?
    Is it still going strong ?
    Colin Burgon , ex Labour M.P , big supporter of Chavez and Castro , still seems to be sending letters to the national newspapers here defending their actions.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Boludo Tejano3:13 AM

    Interesting that Venezuelanalysis prominently displays on its front page a request for funds. Should I give them my two cents worth?

    ReplyDelete
  12. boludo

    yes, you should definitively give them 2 cents....

    it is interesting that with all the money wasted the regime cannot find a way to spare 50,000 USD a year for v-anal. then again it might be a ploy to make people believe that indeed they are not funded by the state....

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  13. ... then again it might be a ploy to make people believe that indeed they are not funded by the state....

    Right on Daniel. Wilpert registered some foundation in NY, not long ago, after word had gotten out that his site was funded by the regime. This he did with the intention of appearing independent. The raising of funds is just a facade. As per the site's objectivity, one only needs to read the requirements for that job they are advertising, Wilpert may as well have said: "ONLY FOCAS SHOULD APPLY."

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  14. Mr. Oil Wars, Dan Burnett, drops by Miguel's and Quico/JC's blogs every now and then to comment on something. It's clear that he has changed his mind on just how good Chavez is for Venezuela, but that does raise the question: If he was so thick-headed that he could still believe when many of us were peppering him with undefendable facts, what was it that pushed him over the edge? Given how adamant of a supporter he was, I have a very hard time thinking of him as being on the right side of things now.

    AB, maybe V-A has gotten more balanced, and I say that based on the job announcement. After all, they want someone who has "a strong sense of solidarity with Venezuela’s majority." Are they using the last elections to demonstrate which group that would be? ;)

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  15. AIO, Wilpert is on the record somewhere admitting that only radicalisation will end winning the day for chavismo, and, as that's movement he so feverishly supports, and married into, he is eager to radicalise with it.

    Yesterday, I was reading HRW report of Venezuela. One of the issues they raise is that Chavez and his focas have actively sought to discredit both national and international human rights defenders. Wilpert is pretty much the front man of that effort in English, let us not forget the letter of 'more than 100 experts' that he, and two other 'academics' presented to 'refute' HRW findings last time. Unfortunately for him, and the 100 imbeciles that signed the letter, HRW dismissed them as being no more than propaganda peddlers. That's what they are. Everyone's got their number. Will he accept a job application from me, given my strong sense of solidarity with Venezuela's majority? Not in a million years!

    As per Burnett, he's just a wanker.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Anonymous6:10 PM

    It would really be interesting to know how much money Golinger manages to get paid from all of her various propaganda sites.
    You also have to laugh at the absurdity of a job writing propaganda for a Hugo that does not include any health benefits.
    Write about the glory of the Bolivarian Revolution but dont get sick.

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  17. Alek, I understand completely, and have no doubt at all about what they MEANT by that, nor about Wilpert's dedication to the cause. I just got a real kick out of the ironic wording.

    Anon, don't forget that the job is in Venezuela. Someone without health benefits can always go to their neighborhood Barrio Adentro! Those V-A guys have to know that...which is why they said there's no health benefits. :D

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  18. Charly2:19 AM

    Daniel, "v-anal", did you do it on purpose? It is true they got their brain in a funny plae.

    ReplyDelete

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