Tidbits 1: Aporrea is a cultural institution

Thursday 27, May 2004

I figured out that to catch up with the last week and a half, I would post a few comments on some information tidbits as I come across them. I will start with Aporrea.


Aporrea (beat up, bruise), a site upon which I have already commented, is a bulletin board of sorts where a permanent staff supposedly filters and posts all sorts of news and comments that reach Aporrea. If it seems to be an unruly hack job of a site, not afraid to throw all sorts of accusations without accountability, it still does serve a great purpose: it is an open window into the chavista mind set.

Well, the latest development is that the cultural agency of the Venezuelan admisnitration, CONAC, has given Aporrea a grant for 30 million VEB ( 15,384 USD). That sum is not that much, really. What is much more interesting is that it was given, according to Tal Cual in its Tuesday edition, for programs to develop radio broadcast. Tal Cual pointed out that in the web page of Aporrea there is no link to any radio program that they might be developing at the present time. When I checked a little while ago I could not find anything but there was now at least a "post" from a certain Billy Rojas as to the need to create a educational radio, whatever that might mean.

Consulted on how come a web site gets a broadcasting grant, CONAC lamely claimed an "umbrella" grant.

What is more interesting is that Aporrea has a little note on its left side thanking people that have been contributing and thus allowing it to stay on line. With 15 K they certainly can afford a good server site!!!!!

Ethics aside, this is all fine and dandy. Except that I wonder what would the CONAC do if Miguel, Francisco and myself (the three "blog only" sites specialized on Venezuela politics) submitted a proposal to create a "cultural" English language radio broadcast from Venezuela. Me thinks that our chances to get even 1 K are zero, even if we were to promise to include venezuelanalysis.com for 51% of the broadcast time.

Then again CONAC has ceased long ago to promote real cultural values, becoming an agency to promote chavista culture.

-----

PS: added in proof. Just in case, considering the local nervous tension. This post cannot be constructed as an "attack" on aporrea. If there is any "attack" it is against CONAC.