Saturday, July 02, 2011

Break time

I had scheduled long a go a break for this July to attend to some family obligations.  Thus I will be out of the country through July.  I am not planning to follow closely what happens inside Venezuela, regardless the recent decrepitude of Chavez.  So, what's wrong with this picture?

For those who are long time readers of this blog you know that historically the bases are always covered.  That is, my main hobby being reading boring historical books and memoirs (currently reading Bismarck, next on deck Cleopatra and just finished Polk) I try to have a sense for historical context and accuracy through my posts.  Thus, for me, missing the bicentennial of my birth country should be a no-no.  After all I lived in the US for its bicentennial (of the constitution, watching tall ships in Manhattan) and somehow I connected, making then the US my adopted country; and of course 1989 was an important commemoration for me, celebrating the best book on the French revolution: "Citizens" by Simon Schama while not celebrating at all the revolutionary carnage that started in 1789.

So how is it possible that I scheduled my departure before July 5th?  Because the country about to celebrate its bicentennial is not mine anymore.  I have been rejected by the chavista hordes who only want from Venezuela free-bees, and I have been alienated by the opposition who is unable to find a response to the take over of the country historical record, neither able to follow chavismo for July 5th nor able to take a stand and do its own celebrations.  Few seem to care really about our past.

While all of Latin America has been celebrating its bicentennial by opening new museums, building magnificent avenues, offering new hospitals, in Venezuela the only thing the regime is able to give us is white washed walls and yellow washed road sides.  April 19 last year was such a fiasco that I simply could not endure the promised embarrassment for this year.  Believe it or not, but our mediocrity as a nation has become oppressive for me.

But there is also another reason. I am really tired of chavismo.  I am perhaps even more tired of the opposition who scores one point after missing ten.  I am too bitter in my writing lately and I need to take some distance.  I think it is OK because the country is fucked up, because what is happening right now could be sort or predicted, the only difference being that Chavez sickness is speeding up the end. As a long time Cassandra I am being finally vindicated and yet I could not care less anymore, kind of like Cassandra, watching Troy burning while waiting quietly for her captors.

In other words it does not matter what happens to Chavez now, the dices are rolling and obsessing about it brings no dividend for people like me who have lost a decade of our lives trying to merely survive.  When you now that you are tonight's dinner, do you care how you will be fixed up?

Thus expect little posting through July though there might be rainy days where out of habit I might write, and hopefully not about Venezuela.  But if you want to keep discussing Chavez sickness gossip and send him further devil's eye, count me out until August.

31 comments:

  1. Recommendation:
    Caesar: The Life of a Colossus by Adrian Goldsworthy. This is good.
    You could enjoy it while staying at a nice cafe close to Cap Blanc-Nez on a short visit from Paris.

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  2. Hope you enjoy a well deserved break.

    Fair winds and good travels.

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  3. Anonymous12:04 PM

    Migrate. There are still many places in the world that welcome free thinkers. If chavez, ends, it will be at least a generation to recover the financial and infrastructure systems. I'm travelling in UK this week and to Paris in mid July. Will toast glass of Medoc to you and your efforts.

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  4. Anonymous12:31 PM

    Consider the consequence of Chavez going to meet his Creator while you are on vacation. It would be prudent to prepare for the withdrawal symptoms that would ensue on your return. If no longer an anti-Chavez blog, what will this be? I look forward to your take on Cleopatra. Have a nice vacation.
    Lim

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  5. Island Canuck2:02 PM

    Have a nice break Daniel. I just got back from a month in the Imperio & it helps in your perspective.

    Anyone who believes that the death or incapacity of Chavez will mean an end to the problem just doesn't understand the problem. If anything the desperation in his followers will make things much worse.

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  6. Sorry you are so down in the dumps.I am beginning to intuit a kind of Capricornian pessimism.

    Look on the bright side....in few countries can you take so much time off!Even business men here have to be on top of things most of the year.

    Have a nice trip and remember, a country is not just made up of politics.Who cares who rejects whom in the maldito world of sick politics ??? You can't have real relationships if you think too much about them.

    Have a lovely trip, and keep your marvelous sense of humor.Is is your gold mine.

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  7. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  8. I expect great things from you once you return from Elba.

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  9. kernel_panic3:56 PM

    Do not post anymore til at least a week after you're back!

    Go away, sleep, drink, dance, take pictures, visit places, make love, whatever you want, just one rule:

    There is no Venezuela, it was just a really really bad dream that would make even freddy krugger wet his pants.

    Enjoy your time out! :D

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  10. Anonymous4:07 PM

    I'll miss you. Enjoy your trip and I'll keep an eye on the tv coverage of the Tour de France, perhaps I'll see you.
    Mercedes

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  11. Boludo Tejano4:33 PM

    Have a good vacation and come back refreshed.

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  12. I'll miss reading you so frequently.
    I wish you luck and try to relax.
    Leave if you can. :)

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  13. 1979 Boat People8:32 PM

    Hope that you can forget the fucked up Venezuela during your well deserved break so that you could really rest.

    Have a nice vacation.

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  14. Anonymous11:01 PM

    Si algún momento te fastidias y nos echas de menos, escribe alguna crónica de viaje. Siempre son entretenidas tanto para el viajero como para el lector.
    Mercedes

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  15. Daniel, we all need our yearly break, however, we all know you will come back with fresh energy, and next year will be so important in our country's history that you HAVE to participate. We all should clear our minds for a while, but many of us feel that somethiing great is in the horizon and it will for sure test this nation again.

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  16. RabbiBulla4:34 AM

    Agreed, Daniel. From a "geometric point of view"-Chavez defining new realities- and opposition seems unable to "relocate"-identify a. where they are and ,b.where they want to be going.
    It seems so silly- we should be able to locate where things are placed in realtion to where they actually should be and therefore-how, when, and what to do to get things "there"- but-again Chavez will change the field or something..
    We know what is not normal-and what it takes to get things back to normal. There is nothing new about Chavez-just a bunch of old tricks-c'mon fellas-each and every situation can be corrected. But, also -you know the "big picture" is Chavez IS THE CAUSE of the problems- HE HAS TO GO!!

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  17. Anonymous6:58 AM

    It is kinda amusing, with the weakened state Hugo finds himself in, that Noam Chomsky found it the right time to come out and criticize him:

    Noam Chomsky denounces old friend Hugo Chávez for 'assault' on democracy

    Even more amusing is the reaction from Guardian readers.

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  18. It may be understandable that Daniel is no longer up to it, but right now the situation for the first time in years is fluid.Being so, it is the first time it truly could benefit by careful and deep analysis.

    Before it was always the same and pretty much written in stone.For the first time we have a possibility for something new.

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  19. RabbiBulla5:50 PM

    Time to wake up! And move to a new spirit- a happy song-a new beat!
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cx0XexGN_E8&feature=related
    Enjoy!!!

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  20. Why don't you to move to Israel, I'm sure they would welcome you. You would feel right at home with the zionists. Venezuela will be better for your having left, take the rest of the oligarch lovers with you too. South America has had enough of elite US lovers selling them out.ld welcome you. You would feel right at home with the zionists. Venezuela will be better for your having left, take the rest of the oligarch lovers with you too. South America has had enough of elite US lovers selling them out.

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  21. loroferoz12:03 AM

    To tell the truth, it's hard to celebrate 5th. of July when it no longer has a meaning to Venezuela.

    The then Congress signed a declaration to stop depending on the whim of an amoral despot such as Fernando VII, or on a foreign tyrant's puppet like Giuseppe Bonaparte. Right now... The chavistas are messing even with the bicentennial celebrations because Hugo Chavez has an illness: He who manages to be BOTH an amoral despot and a foreign tyrant's puppet.

    They also signed for a Republic with institutions that would ensure good, fair, limited government in all situations. As for good, fair and limited, let's not elaborate. Moreover, the "Revolutionaries" have shown the world that there are no institutions in Venezuela, just some brown-noses who are incompetent, incapable of taking decisions of their own. All are proud of being remote-controlled by the despot!

    Which brings me to the last point. They signed for an independent nation. Venezuela is not independent right now. It is a colony of Cuba, with Fidel Castro calling the shots and dominating Hugo Chavez in ways that are rather than humiliating, obscene!

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  22. RabbiBulla4:21 AM

    Judi, Judi, you don't like Jews? And, you don't like US?
    So, I suppose you ARE a Chavista-please note Rule 1 and Rule 4-
    {I am sure you did)
    I pray that you will wake up to the reality of what has happened to Venezuela under Chavez-how could you not know...
    Wait- are you Eva?That would explain it...

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  23. Boludo Tejano5:23 AM

    RabbiBulla : My take is that JL is just another ignorant PSF who couldn't tell the difference between an aardvark and an arepa. But appears to be as anti-Semitic as Thugo.

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  24. RabbiBulla5:31 PM

    According to blogger Angelica Mora, the Castro dictatorship has sent 1,700 Cuban troops to Venezuela under the command of two Cuban generals. It is an obvious effort to maintain the Chavez dictatorship in power at all costs, and ensure the billions of dollars in subsidies the Castro regime receives from Venezuela to fund its own repressive tyranny.
    Chavez is returning= to conquer "el pueblo' (Re.Quadaffi "My people, they love me,)
    reported on Babalu today- 4 July. Viva Venezuela!! Sorry, Viva Venecuba...

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  25. I will miss Daniel, he has been Expropriate by the Zionist Cabal!

    Good luck and Gawd Speed Daniel D. my thoughts will be with you.

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  26. I'm not given to conspiracy theories, but Chavez's sudden return after this supposedly grave illness is conveniently timed to make him appear a conquering hero.

    He probably did or does have cancer but if it came out later he just spent some time on the fat farm in Cuba and cooked up this load of bull as a stunt, it wouldn't surprise me.

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  27. Anonymous2:26 AM

    Judi Lynn

    ============


    so much hate and venom ....

    you are clearly a fantastic Chavista ...

    happy anniversary on the independence of your country ( or should I say , subjugation to your puppet handler , Fidel )

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  28. last anonymous2:09 AM

    I just got done with a Drudge photo series.

    Hugo being embraced by his daughters.

    I have seen pictures of people that exhibited more family warmth while they were hugging tombstones.

    Hugo Chavez.
    The Clown of S. America

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  29. Daniel, I hope at least you will bring us an episode or two of "Where's Daniel?" That's always such fun! Plus, it always seems you're enjoying yourself when you post those, so all the more reason. Buen viaje, amigo.

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  30. I just finished watching Aljazeera where they had Eva Golinger and a person from the opposition speak about Venezuela. I so wish it was you Daniel who was there to shut that woman up.

    The person on the opposite end though did pretty well. She brought up the fact that Chavez has been around for 12 years and that should have been enough time to put inflation and electricity and all those problems under control. Pointing to Brazil who used to have 100% inflation and other left of centre governments in SA that have brought about positive changes.

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