Vcrisis on a hiatus

I was saddened but not surprised by Alek Boyd decision to stop for an undetermined time publication at Vcrisis. I am convinced that he will return sooner than later. But I can guess that his tireless work for the good cause eventually took a toll and he need a break, to regroup, to be with his loved ones, to think about a career now that he probably cannot go back to Venezuela (nor would I advise him to do as you need to have experienced the progressive degradation of the country to be able to resist what we are living). Alek Boyd, or Quico, or Alexandra, or Gustavo and many others who have the good (?) fortune to have a life outside of Venezuela should remain there and help us from there to improve things here. In Venezuela they would be swallowed by the vortex of misery where few have the skills to survive and stay afloat. Not that Miguel or myself are particularly talented, no, not at all: we just are like that ancient Greek king who was trying to take a little bit of poison everyday, a little bit more every so often, to try to build up resistance to poisons. By the way, that king was quite advanced scientifically.

Alek has been a notable resistant to chavismo operetta fascism. Perhaps he was hot headed at times, perhaps his ideas were too radical (geez! Did I get into private arguments with him!). But none did as much to expose the rottenness of chavismo as he did. Should I remind folks that the is the one that unmasked Eva Golinger who eventually became a paid agent of the regime, a modern Tokyo Rose, a betrayer perhaps of her country of birth? Should we recall that Alek Boyd exposed the Venezuelan Information Office in a way that no Venezuelan journalist was able to do? Should I remind that the exposé of the alleged pollster NAOR started with Alek and some of his co-investigative readers? And this is only a fraction of what Alek did. Just for holding Vcrisis relentlessly for years he has given the opportunity to many people to get exposure (including yours truly who got known through Vcrisis), people that wrote from all sorts of things from petty corruption to electoral treachery.

It is no accident that Alek Boyd is the most hated and vilified person for the chavista propagandists. That he did not manage to gain unconditional love from the opposition ranks is a witness that he did something right. Nobody loves Alek but all are in awe. And that is no mean feat!

I do happen to like Alek, in spite of his excesses and my deep disagreement on many issues, when not outright antagonism. But Alek is true person, there is nothing fake about him. I like that rarest of qualities. It is not for me to speculate on his reasons, he knows how to reach me if he reads these lines. But his withdrawal (hopefully provisional) made me think about my own blogging expiration date.

The main difference between Alek and my style is that Alek was out to convince, almost in a missionary spirit. I do not care about convincing as much. I know I am right. Alek also is right on his general understanding of chavismo, and he is no fanatic in this respect. But Alek is an activist; Alek is a pedagogue in his own way; Alek perhaps believes more in human nature and intelligence than I do in spite of his apparent bravado. That explains his mistakes (for some) but it also explains his triumphs, considerable by any standards.

When I wrote that I know I am right, it sounded arrogant but bear with me for a few more lines. Perhaps because I am a scientist, perhaps because I like to verify things, perhaps because I am trained to conceptualize models and not get hold down by useless details thrown at me to hide reality, I am not, I do not feel threatened by chavismo. I find it repulsive, but it does not threaten me. Even if tomorrow there were real free elections and 90% of the Venezuelan people supported Chavez, I would still be in a stern opposition because, simply put, what Chavez does, what he offers is wrong. Plain wrong. Chavez is a bad revival of tested past failures, a source of future misery for Venezuela, a quest for personal power under the guise of “love of the poor”. Why people fall for it is a true mystery for me. But I have never bought an ounce of it, nor has Alek.

Perhaps it is not idle to remind folks that Hitler could have probably won free elections in 1935 or 1936. That Mussolini could have won elections in 1930. That Mao could have carried the vote in 1952. That Pinochet almost won his referendum and could have won it if he had held it years earlier. Even Castro could have won in real elections in 1960, perhaps as late as 1970. Does that make any of these regimes “good” “right” “worthy” “representative” “ethical”? No. And thus some few courageous souls, sometimes many, that opposed Hitler, or Mussolini, or Mao, or Pinochet, or Castro had to find the roads of exile or of the Gulag or forget about their fights for a while hoping not to let it consume them, be the cause of their demise, physical or moral. But they were right and history always proved them right in the end. Beijing, and Havana, and Pyong Yang, and Hanoi, and Rangoon, will find the way of Santiago, Capetown, Berlin (twice!), Rome, Budapest, Bucharest, Baghdad… It cannot be helped. Alek web site might be a small drop in this river to hope, but that drop will reach the sea someday.

However I might be digressing so back to my own expiration date. I will at some point stop writing. I was actually thinking about next December when this blog will reach its fourth anniversary. Then the authoritarian proto totalitarian regime installation currently in course will become bolted in place until civil war or a miracle happens. Writing this type of blog will become useless: what else could I write that would not be a repetition of 4 years of analyses and observations? No, I will still do something but it might not be a blog as the one I hold now. And if by good fortune Chavez leaves, or is even weakened, it would require another type of activity, not this format anymore. Venezuela News and Views would remain, along Vcrisis, Caracas Chronicles, Devil’s Excrement, to name only the longest and longest serving ones, the narrated experience on how Venezuela lost its democracy. The story on how we got it back will be something else, no matter if it starts this next December or in ten years from now, no matter if we write it or someone else does.

Then again, since I do not care about what people think of me, since it is immaterial whether I am pushing Chavez out, since what I really do is to write for myself a diary that people happen to be allowed to read and comment on, I might thus keep on writing. Who knows? Scientists do not care much about cost benefit, they only care about the truth.

End of this self indulging rant, even if originally meant to praise Alek's achievements.