We can either contemplate the horror of Libyan repression with a hint of genocide, or we can look to the ridiculous.
Let's look at the ridiculous, how the British Foreign secretary allows hismelf to say that Qaddafi is on his way to Venezuela. Let me stress that, Mr. Hague said such, that his "credible" info seemed to point it that way. I think that the British secret service needs to clone back 007 urgently..... Because not only the Venezuelan regime hurried up in denying this thing but Qaddafi claims to be still in Libya (though of course we have no idea whether his recent "broadcast" was actually taped in Libya......)
Quickly, two things here. First, I hope for Mr. Hague's sake that indeed Chavez is getting ready to welcome Qaddafi otherwise his head will run (or some major collaborator that fed him such crap). And two, it is a mark on how low the Chavez regime reputation has sunk that so many unquestioning people hung themselves to Hague's word and were already spotting Qaddafi shopping in Caracas malls. OK, I exaggerate but you see my point, I am sure.
Now, in a rare show of support for Chavez, I, for one, do not think that the Chavez regime is foolish enough to welcome Qaddafi, who at this point might not even be welcome in Saudi Arabia. Sudan for him, at the very best. Then again Chavez antics have proven me wrong in the past.
Yet I wish Chavez would welcome Qaddafi because this would only speed up the demise of Chavez as it would be his final break up with the civilized left. I mean, could even Sean Penn support Chavez with Qaddafi quietly ensconced in Hato Piñero?
I mean, could even Sean Penn support Chavez with Qaddafi quietly ensconced in Hato Piñero?
ReplyDeleteBut of course Sean Penn would be cool with Gaddafi hanging out in Venezuela. In fact, Sean Penn might get jealous of Gaddafi hanging out with Hugo and demand that Gaddafi have the run of his Hollywood mansion. I mean like, how can you not support a prophet like Gaddafi who was for green energy decades before Al Gore had heard of green energy? After all, Gaddafi wrote the Green Book thirty five years ago. Totally awesome, man. Totally revo.
Why is it that the MENA countries can throw off the yoke of dictators and Latin countries cannot?
ReplyDeleteHere I look at the three main MENA (Middle East and North Africa) countries who are rebelling and compare them to the three Central and South American countries who also have dictators and seem to be doing little to dump them.
Country Literacy School Expectancy GDP per capita
Venezuela 93% 14 years $12,600
Nicaragua 67.5% 11 years $2,900
Bolivia 86.7% 14 years $4,800
Tunisia 83.4% 15 years $9,500
Egypt 71.4% 11 years $6,200
Libya 82.6% 17 years $13,800
The MENA countries have somewhat higher GDP per capita (average $9833) vs. Latin countries (average $6766) but similar education figures (79.1% literacy in Mena, vs. 82.4% literacy in Latin countries).
Certainly in the MENA region there was a surprising ground swell of popular resistance that moved from Tunisia to the whole region. That did not occur in Central and South America but given that international communications are so broad spread it is reasonable to assume that people in those area would be aware of what is going on in North Africa. So why have the Venezuelans, particularly, not been stimulated by the freedom and democracy wave?
Some interesting commentary comes from a few Venezuelan blogs like http://lasarmasdecoronel.blogspot.com/ and http://daniel-venezuela.blogspot.com/ who make some points but one does not perceive a major response from the people.
Check out http://cliftonchadwick.wordpress.com/