Ayn Rand quotes for today Venezuela

I have not read any book of Ayn Rand yet which has not stopped me from being exposed to this icon of Libertarians. I suspect perhaps because so many people have told me that "YOU MUST read her", that it would "change my vision", has made me diffident in attempting the lecture. After all I have a certain allergy to "salvation literature" and other messianic forms such as uncouth military self appointing themselves as the savior of the poor of the world.....

Thus out of character when I received a note from occasional reader S.C. with an ill translated quote of Ayn Rand I decided to check how badly it was translated (heck, her name was put as Any Rand which had an interesting promiscuity shade to it). It was quite bad, but that is not the point of the post. Checking through some of Rand quotes I found some that are particularly appropriate to today's Venezuela and I could not resist sharing them for fun. The case to refer to and the quote.

On Chavez motivations. His anti US stand as well as his "resentido social" approach to life which lead him to make us believe he hates money and rich people while his family is now the richest of Barinas.

A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.

Run for your life from any man who tells you that money is evil. That sentence is the leper's bell of an approaching looter.

On Chavez economic policies and the future of Venezuela.

When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion - when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing - when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors - when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them against you - when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice - you may know that your society is doomed.

On Chavez view of the world and human rights.

The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities.

On the mediocrity of chavismo.

Wealth is the product of man's capacity to think.

On the dangers of chavismo, in particular as it is creating a national police and increasing the numbers and functions of the indoctrinated militia at the expense of the more "controlled" armed forces.

A government is the most dangerous threat to man's rights: it holds a legal monopoly on the use of physical force against legally disarmed victims.

On the Anderson case and the fraud to justice by Isaias Rodriguez

There are two sides to every issue: one side is right and the other is wrong, but the middle is always evil.

On the legal system that allowed a monstrosity like Isaias Rodriguez.

There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What's there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted and you create a nation of law-breakers.

On the "misiones"? That is, all of the social programs whose benefit increase with your direct support to the government.

The difference between a welfare state and a totalitarian state is a matter of time.

On the "boliburguesia"? That is, the chavista nouveau riche class versus the hoi poloi, be it opposition or pro Chavez.

Upper classes are a nation's past; the middle class is its future.

On PSF and other assorted fools here and abroad so willing to serve and justify chavismo actions.

The man who lets a leader prescribe his course is a wreck being towed to the scrap heap.

Reason is not automatic. Those who deny it cannot be conquered by it. Do not count on them. Leave them alone.

There is a level of cowardice lower than that of the conformist: the fashionable non-conformist.

On the difficulty to be a blogger trying to express the reality of his country

The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody had decided not to see.

PS: readers that can find more quotes that can be linked to Venezuela today are welcome to submit them :)

-The end-

Chavez new constitution: articles 328 and 329

Introduction: this commentary is by Alek Boyd (Vcrisis) who needs no introduction. I think it is timely that Alek sent me his contribution a few hours before the latest repressive actions exhibited by the Venezuelan "security" apparatus.

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Article 328 (1999): The National Armed Forces constitute an essentially professional institution, with no political orientation, organized by the State to guarantee the independence and sovereignty of the Nation and ensure the integrity of its geographical space, through military defense, cooperation for the purpose of maintaining internal order and active participation in national development, in accordance with this Constitution and the law. In performing their functions, they are at the exclusive service of the Nation, and in no case at the service of any person or political partisanship. The pillars on which they are founded are discipline, obedience and subordination. The National Armed Forces consist of the Army, the Navy, the Air Force and the National Guard, which function in an integrated manner within the scope of their competence to fulfill their mission, with their own overall Social Security system, as established under the pertinent organic law.

Proposed Amendment:
Article 328: The National Armed Forces constitute an essentially patriotic, popular and anti-imperialist institution organized by the State to guarantee the independence and sovereignty of the Nation; to preserve it from any internal or external attacks and ensure the integrity of its geographic area through the study, planning and execution of the Bolivarian military doctrine, the implementation of the principles of integral military defense and the war of popular resistance, the permanent participation in tasks akin to maintaining security of the citizenry, and the upkeep of the internal order as well as the active engagement in economic, social, scientific and technological development plans in accordance to this constitution and the law.

In the performance of its functions it will always be at the service of the Venezuelan people defending its sacred interests and under no circumstances will serve any oligarchies or imperial foreign powers.

Its fundamental pillars are this constitution and the law, as well as discipline, obedience and subordination.

Its historical pillars are in Bolivar's mandate: to free the nation, to take the sword to defend social guarantees and to deserve people's blessings.

Commentary: The first and most important aspect that jumps from the proposed amendment is that the National Armed Forces will no longer be an apolitical body. Professionalism is replaced by “patriotic, popular and anti-imperialist” one supposes according to Hugo Chavez's understanding of these terms. A fact that has not gone unnoticed in recent military parades in Venezuela is the chant “fatherland, socialism or death” (Patria, socialismo o muerte). In fact president Chavez maintains that such premise has to become the backbone of Venezuela's soldiers.

This amendment plainly seeks to remove any traces of separation between Executive and military power, fusing the two and subordinating the latter, according to the new constitution's fundamental pillars, to the president, ergo Hugo Chavez effectively becomes the people. Such absolutist measure has no parallel in Venezuela's contemporary history though it is to be expected from a militaristic caudillo hell bent in ruling indefinitely.

The term “popular” seems misplaced within the context. However the introduction of an “anti-imperialist” reference within the constitutional framework serves the purpose of legalizing an otherwise rhetorical term, deprived of its meaning, commonly used by the president and his supporters, considering the leverage that the Cuban dictator has not only on Chavez but in matters of State in Venezuela.

The Boliviarian military doctrine remains as unknown as an intelligible definition of 'XXI century socialism.' However the term “war of popular resistance” has got an awfully similar ring to Cuba's “guerra de todo el pueblo.”

Article 329 (1999): The Army, Navy and Air Force have as their essential responsibility the planning, execution and control of military operations as required to ensure the defense of the Nation. The National Guard shall cooperate in the carrying out of these operations, and shall have as its basic responsibility that of conducting operations as required to maintain internal order within the country. The National Armed Forces shall carry out activities of administrative policing and criminal investigation activities as provided for by law.

Proposed Amendment
Article 329: The Bolivarian Armed Forces are formed by the different land, sea and air bodies, administratively organized in the following components: the Bolivarian Army, the Bolivarian Navy, the Bolivarian Air Force, The Bolivarian Territorial Guard and the Bolivarian Popular Militia, said components structured in combined units of assistance, training and joint operations, both at the tactical and strategic level in order to fulfil its mission.
The Bolivarian Armed Forces will be able to perform administrative police and penal investigation activities as mandated by law.

Provisional ordinance (from the National Assembly dispositions)

The National Guard will become an essentially military body that might be destined by its commander in chief to form land, sea and air units as part of other military components. With part of its human, technical and material resources police corps could also be formed. Its military definition will change to that of Territorial Guard.

Another provisional ordinance

The units and components of the military reserve will become units of the Bolivarian Popular Militia.

Commentary: “defense of the nation” is not reiterated in the proposed amendment to article 329. Rather it aims at restructuring the armed forces and introduces the militia, that president Chavez has been forming and arming, as just another branch of it. To date no legislation to regulate the militia has been drafted and no evidence has been presented as to the final destination of the many thousands of Kalashnikov riffles imported from Russia, thought to be in the hands of the militia. The common military hierarchical meritocratic structure will coexist alongside a poorly trained civilian component. Revolutionary fervor and absolute allegiance to Hugo Chavez appears to make up for military knowledge. The interesting aspect of it is that Bolivarian militias will perhaps keep orthodox military personnel / components in check in order to inform the maximum leader. Having no formal, professional or institutional structure militias could have direct access to the office of the presidency. Needless to say that there is no contemporary constitutional precedence of giving praetorian guards such status within Venezuela's armed forces. Again its resemblance with Cuba's structure is remarkable

It is to be noted that the Bolivarian militias, as part of the armed forces “will be able to perform administrative police and penal investigation activities as mandated by law.” It remains to be seen what laws will be drafted and passed to regulate such activities, in particular those of the militias and what balancing mechanisms will be put into place to make it accountable before the law. Taking into consideration current circumstances it is highly unlikely that victims of 'revolutionary laws and justice' will get any redress from Venezuela's totally subordinated to the Executive judiciary. The implications that it has for the common folk are manifold, however the most worrying element is that the militias could become a sort of constitutionally backed vigilante groups with plenty of discretionary and fire power and under the direct orders of the president, that could be unleashed on those often referred to as the enemies of the process; read the opposition, human rights NGOs, student movements, the Church, the media, etc.

This measure regarding the militias is already affecting the region, as reports from Venezuelan military presence arrive from odd places such as Santa Cruz in Bolivia. Furthermore the prospect of a confederation between Venezuela and Cuba is constantly announced by president Chavez and one is already seeing Cuban ‘doctors’ working alongside Venezuelan military / militia, as denounced in Bolivia . To date the representatives of the Venezuelan people –read Congressmen and Congresswomen- have not legislated and approved laws with regards to sending troops to foreign countries, for this is a measure that depends solely on the discretion of he in charge of conducting foreign affairs: i.e. the president. Thus the ‘enemies of the revolution’ need be countered regardless of whether they are in Caracas, Bogotá, Santa Cruz, Managua, Buenos Aires or Lima. As Hugo Chavez promised recently from Havana, he is prepared to turn Bolivia into a Vietnam should Morales opponents oust him.

Alek Boyd can be joined directly at his own site, Vcrisis.

-The end-

Chavez cannot get good help: the Centro Internacional Miranda

One of the dramas of regimes that range between autocratic to totalitarian is that the big leaders have a hard time in getting good help. I mean, they can easily attract through power, money, or both, people capable of doing all the nasty things required for the beloved Supremo to remain in office. But that is all. Professional people, experienced people, people aware of their own value, have a hard time putting up with the tantrums and bad manners of the leaders of such regimes and prefer to exile themselves or to stick to some low management job and spend their lives in discretion, waiting for better days. In general the result is countries that on the surface seem to work well enough but who are in fact very fragile and with time simply start crumbling. Nobody cares enough for things to be done as they should be, or worse, nobody in charge has an idea what to do. When that last situation occurs, these deficient bureaucrats manage to survive by doing the only thing that really matters: praise and suck up to the beloved Father so it really does not matter much whether trains run on time or not.

Educational brainwash in Venezuela

There are those exquisite moments where the dignitaries of the regime forget that the "ancien regime" democratic ways allowed them to become the fascists (or is that stalino-commie?) that they are today. For example this week we got the words of Adan Chavez, the evil brother of mini-me, keeping up his drive against private education; and Carlos Escarra telling us that the 37% who voted (official numbers, not a verifiable one) against Chavez had no business in discussing the constitutional overhaul.

Private education under siege

Every totalitarian regime has been hell bent in destroying any form of private education. The reason is very simple: nobody should be allowed to develop a dissenting perception of life, the only one being allowed is the one from the state. The obviousness of this forces me to stop from giving any further detail least I would insult the intelligence of readers of this blog.

In Venezuela the all out assault against private education has been delayed once and again because simply the government has been absolutely unable to reorganize the public system. Closing or intervening private educational system, in addition to its political costs, is simply something that the regime cannot financially undertake, at least as long as it has not shown that it can manage the public system. Even more so when doubts about the educational Misiones (Robinson, Ribas and Sucre) are starting to appear more and more as it is plain to see, for example, that illiteracy is far from eliminated in Venezuela. Or as Mision Sucre students wonder aloud whether their degree will get them a job, if they even get their degree.

But with all the changes that we have been threatened with the government is now forced to tighten the squeeze on private education, from your local infant garden to private universities. So, to start squeezing out of existence private schools the government has forbidden them to increase their billing. That is, tuition at private schools for 2007-2008 HAS TO BE THE SAME as during the 2006-2007 period. That official inflation was 15% and real inflation something above 20% does not concern the education minister of Chavez, his brother Adan, who every day looks more and more like the second in command, the bolibanana revolution imitating the Castro brothers show.

In addition minimum wage were increased by 20% last may, which forces an increase of 10 to 20% on wages that are above minimum, anyway. We all know that wages are the bulk of any school budget. Needless to say that private schools are seriously talking civil disobedience and that parents are supporting price increases! In many school parents have gathered to make "donations" and the phenomenon has been so widespread that Adan Chavez had to come out to say that such donations were illegal!

What direct benefit does the government hopes to achieve with that? Either close some schools, or force them to ask subsidies from the state. Subsidies are already given in lower social class neighborhoods private schools since the state has long ago discovered that it is cheaper to subsidize some catholic schools, for example, as it cannot manage the educational system as it should. Subsidies, of course, allow for political pressures on those schools who can at least be barred from any anti Chavez, pro capitalist message, if they were so inclined.

To confirm this wish to control educational message we also got this week an interesting moment. Barreto of soccer fields infamy, has decided to distribute in some public schools little cookies wrapped in political slogans which are by definition of dubious taste and cultural value. Some parents complained and Adan Chavez said that he did not understand the buzz. After all, according to him, children need to be told more and more about socialism of the XXI, which we are to understand is a good thing even if it looks, walks, quacks as a commie duck more and more. Parents of private schools obviously do not want anything related with any political indoctrination of their children.

It is a nice coincidence that the Washington Post reports today that educational textbooks in Russia are changed these days to glorify Putin more. And to bash the Untied States again. Echoes of a totalitarian past are back in the ex Soviet lands. Venezuela-Russia, "même combat".

Note: the children of chavista ministers in general do not attend public school! Most in fact attend some of the priciest private school. For example the Private French School of Caracas hosts many of those nomeklatura kids in either one of its French or Venezuelan section. The French school is one of the most expensive private schools of Venezuela...

Constitutional contempt

But if anyone had the faintest doubt that the chavista administration worried about ALL Venezuelans welfare, this was once again erased by Carlos Escarra. This sleazy and greasy lawyer, not trusted by Chavez, even today, has had to crawl into so many gutters to try to ingratiate himself that now that Chavez finally put into a position of interest, he wallows in intellectual litter even more gladly than when he was trying to climb. The list of all atrocities that Carlos Escarra has said is too long to mention and is worthy of ranking one day with the list of specious politico legal arguments of the Stalinist Massive Trial Judges or the Nazi judges that legalized deportation and racial cleansing.

The latest uttering of Escarra is that the 37% of people who voted against Chavez had no say on constitutional changes, that 63% had voted for socialism and that the change was irreversible so why should the government even bother explaining its reasons to a more than a third of the country. What about "Venezuela es de todos"? Visibly after the fiasco of the Copa America as the rallying moment the government stupidly hoped for, now it is time to erase the memory of those who oppose Chavez. If polls give Chavez below 40% these days, why not come back to that comforting 63% of people who voted for Chavez out of fear and under threat?

That is to be expected in a country that refused to punish someone like Tascon for his apartheid list. Any public official can now speak disparagingly against any political adversary knowing full well that the state power is geared to crush such adversaries.

And thus we can observe the two tenets of brain washing: brainwash the young as soon as possible, and pretend that the ones that cannot be brain washed do not exist.

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Some students are more student than other, or the Chavez model for work study

When Chavez closed RCTV and unwillingly launched the student movement to the streets, there was a crass attempt at discrediting them: it was the trap set up at the National Assembly (N.A.). The sequence of events is now well known. The dissenting students which were all but summoned to the National Assembly gave a written speech and refused to repeat it endlessly, preferring to leave the sleazed up National Assembly building, requiring protection from a lynch mob.

Chavista propaganda went into high gear.

The students were called cowards for leaving the hall; were ridiculed for not taking that opportunity to expose their ideas fully; were ridiculed for having said a speech supposedly written from some advertising agency; and what not. Of course, chavismo who cherish endless repetition from its leader, who enthralls itself in constant stream of vacuity could not appreciate how complete and to the point was the speech read by Douglas Barrios. Even less could they understand that a consensus speech is always typed and read. Chavismo cannot understand that because it has renounced all critical thinking and as it drinks as nectar Chavez vulgar improvisations. But the worst attacks, the one constantly repeated is about that ad agency helping the students, and that they are paid by the Empire or subject to some sort of such arrangement.

That the walkout of the students paid handsomely on the political front has only served to increase the strident chavista attack as it despaired from finding adequate ideas to reply.

Unfortunately for chavismo, the only card that they thought they were holding has finished to fade. After that memorable N.A. session, some of these chavista students were promoted as the true voice of Venezuela youth, the birth of the intellectual future of the revolution.

Well, there is nothing of the sort, truth always comes up eventually.

It was first shown that many of these students had already active social security accounts, which means that they might be students but they already working. Nothing wrong with that of course, except that they were working in government agencies, and politicized ones at that.

But the press kept digging. For example Tal Cual published that in fact the students that were talking to defend the bolivarian revolution were selected in a casting call at the Vice President office. That is, when the dissenting students hit the streets someone had the idea of creating a public show at the N.A. and quickly sought through the different political agencies of the government a few presentable "students" to select. That means that NO ONE of the pro Chavez student was the representative of any significant student body supporting Chavez. None of them was, for example, the president of the UBV student council. Across the aisle, in the dissenting camp, all of the students are elected, named, voted on, selected in reunions by their fellow students. But of course in chavismo the only thing that matters is to be designed by the divine finger of the autocrat or the people he has designed, in this case Jorge Rodriguez, the vice president who has quite a track record on fudged elections anyway.

But it gets better. Today Tal Cual publishes another pearl. Apparently some of the pro Chavez students that hit prime time in that so called historical session of the N.A. are wined, dined and hosted in some Caracas hotel while all their travel expenses to make the rounds of chavista cells are fully paid by the state. They must have racked quite a few frequent flier miles at Conviasa.

No need to stress that the dissenting student take the metro like any other citizen and probably buy some hot dog at the local "perro calientero". And have the pro Chavez students reached any breakthrough? So far nothing. All the talk about a student power and a huge student assembly is so far just that, talk.

But at least, for the time being the pro Chavez student are adding a new meaning to the term work study.





-The end-

Breaking news: the N.A. ambush of yesterday further exposed

Globovision has just revealed the social security sheets of some of the "students" that went to the National Assembly yesterday to defend Chavez side. At least four of them are public sector employees. That does not mean that they are not students, you can hold a job and be a student. But the jobs were quite telling: one in TeleSur, the chavista CNN, one in RNV, the state Chavez controlled radio, one at some social "foundation" chavista controlled of course and one at the USB. That last one, from the numbers shown does not seem to be some kind of work study student thing, she seems to have quite a job there.

In other words, those "students" sent yesterday to "debate" were no neophytes: they were perfectly trained propaganda machines. No wonder they did not need to hold a piece of paper in front, the indoctrination was deep enough that they know all the pre recorded sentences and sayings that they need to know.

Not only it was a total ambush set, but it was lousily set at that and it is blowing on their faces!!!

How low will chavismo crawl?

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