Esto lo escribo en cristiano porque los gringos saben muy bien que Trump es un bocón. No que en un futuro más bien lejano no nos suelten 4 drones encima, pero simplemente ellos tienen otros asuntos más urgentes que atender en este momento. Aquí les estoy escribiendo a unos cuantos venezolanos que se retuercen en agonía y jolgorio (de ambos bandos) ante un putativo desembarco de Marines.
Antes que todo, cualesquiera sean los fundamentos de una invasión a mi patria, eso significa guerra, poder arbitrario para los dos ejércitos, daños materiales y psicológicos inconmensurables. Siendo profundamente anti-militarista no puedo suscribir a cualquier guerra aunque desafortunadamente hay que aceptar que en ciertos casos no hay opción. Ejemplo, contra ISIS.
Showing posts with label united states. Show all posts
Showing posts with label united states. Show all posts
Sunday, August 13, 2017
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
The Great Republican Hope...not
 |
| 7 days or 7 eras, who's counting? |
Oh dear.... Marco Rubio is one of the great Republican hopes for 2016 and yet he made a major blunder that basically bars him from ever receiving votes from people like me. Not that I vote in the US, mind you, but there are a lot of folks there who would love less taxes and a little bit more austerity in the US budget but could never entrust that task to someone that does not know the difference between 7 days and 7 eras, whatever "eras" mean....
Let's look at the actual quote from GQ who interviewed Marco Rubio, junior Florida Senator, already on any Veep GOP list.
Thursday, November 08, 2012
4 more years! At the very least?
Thursday, November 04, 2010
An undeserved victory in the US of A
And so, as expected, and predicted almost a year ago, Nancy is out of a job and the Democrats clang to the Senate (but barely and uselessly as filibuster will be fine and dandy).
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Scott Brown versus Obama. Really?
Allow me to indulge in a non-Venezuelan (almost!) post.
I have written often to my US detractors, from either side, that one of the things I admired the most about the U.S. political system was its ability at some point to correct its excesses, to find ways to return to more centered positions when a political group loses its ways and purpose.
I have written often to my US detractors, from either side, that one of the things I admired the most about the U.S. political system was its ability at some point to correct its excesses, to find ways to return to more centered positions when a political group loses its ways and purpose.
Sunday, July 19, 2009
The Eagle has landed
In a few hours we will celebrate the 40th anniversary of Neil Armstrong on the Moon. I am 
watching documentaries on History Channel, able to experience still the wonder of a childhood memory. One is a scientist nerd all through life, I'll have you know.
And while we are at it, one of my favorite visits at Washington DC is the Air and Space museum where I stop lovingly under the Lindbergh plane and in front of the Command Module of Apollo 11, for me, each in its own right, two of the greatest human achievements; the Lindbergh one perhaps the most courageous as Science was of not as much help then.
But today I am also thinking about the U.S. of A. glory. As an historian wonk of sorts it occurred to me that July 20 1969 could be the perfect date to mark the apogee of the American Empire, evil or not as you wish it to be.
The fact of the matter is that in 1969 the United States proved that it had won the Moon race, that technologically the capitalist West was ahead of the commie East and that the gap was bound to widen. Maybe it was not obvious then, but with the benefit of hindsight, the writing was on the wall. Or perhaps rather as a foot print on the Lunar dust.
Once the troubled 70ies were left behind, that Vietnam was ended, the 80ies came and the long delayed end of the Berlin Wall finally happened. To some that point would be the ultimate triumph of the US, but I disagree. The US needed Europe to reach that goal whereas in 1969 the US was still pretty much on its own staring down the Soviets. True, the prosperity of Europe West is due in part to the US and its Marshall plan, but like other empires, the US has started needing and relying on allies more and more. In 1969 it was still towering alone, with a few side kicks if you like.
But do not feel bad or upset about this if you are a US reader. Like all Empires the US has a rise and a fall, and that its apogee might have been reached in 1969 does not mean in any way that its end is at the corner, as simple minded know nothing like Hugo Chavez believe. Let me give you the French example. The French Empire probably came to be at Rocroi when in 1643 the French army decisively beat the army of the former European Empire, Spain. The French apogee cannot be really placed but a case can be made that the decline started in 1685 when Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes. Thus the French glory lasted for barely 40 years, in politics, economy and arts, all together in a resplendent period, rarely seen elsewhere in such synchronism.
The decline was long, it did not quite finish in 1789 as the Napoleonic Empire (not only in might but in name) had a final and useless paroxysm. It was succeeded by a brief colonial Empire but that was a very meager consolation since that Empire was built mostly after 1870 at a time when Germany and the US were already stronger nations, and England the ruling empire. The final demise of the idea of a French Empire was 1914-1918 from which France ceased being the veto country once and for all even if it still keeps a UN veto out of tradition.
The American Empire started its rise after the Civil War and came into being when it removed the Spaniards from their remaining possessions in the continent (the official end of another long declining Empire by the way). As such the US of A Empire might be one of the fastest rise of recent Empires. The British Empire, for one, needed the Tudors, Cromwell, and the defeat of France in 1713 to finally put an Imperial claim, though its apogee period certainly lasted more than France, from 1815 until the Boer war.
But the US of A failed to become the Empire in 1919 when the Versailles treaty provisions could not be enforced and where England still could not resign itself to go to secondary status. The failure of the League of Nations that the US never joined eventually allowed for Pearl Harbor and the rise of the Soviet Union, amen of Nazi Germany. If by production the US was numero uno since WW1, politically it reached that position only after WW2 and reached the cultural top spot in 1969 when we had that rare chance of seeing a myth created in front of our own eyes.
Only great civilizations, great empires have the luck, sometimes, to create a myth. Those who saw live that first step on the Moon are blessed.
----------------------------------
PS: all dates, opinions and chronology subjected to my very own personal, subjective and totally biased opinion due to the emotion of the day. That you agree or disagree with them leaves me cold. :)
-The end-
watching documentaries on History Channel, able to experience still the wonder of a childhood memory. One is a scientist nerd all through life, I'll have you know.And while we are at it, one of my favorite visits at Washington DC is the Air and Space museum where I stop lovingly under the Lindbergh plane and in front of the Command Module of Apollo 11, for me, each in its own right, two of the greatest human achievements; the Lindbergh one perhaps the most courageous as Science was of not as much help then.
But today I am also thinking about the U.S. of A. glory. As an historian wonk of sorts it occurred to me that July 20 1969 could be the perfect date to mark the apogee of the American Empire, evil or not as you wish it to be.
The fact of the matter is that in 1969 the United States proved that it had won the Moon race, that technologically the capitalist West was ahead of the commie East and that the gap was bound to widen. Maybe it was not obvious then, but with the benefit of hindsight, the writing was on the wall. Or perhaps rather as a foot print on the Lunar dust.
Once the troubled 70ies were left behind, that Vietnam was ended, the 80ies came and the long delayed end of the Berlin Wall finally happened. To some that point would be the ultimate triumph of the US, but I disagree. The US needed Europe to reach that goal whereas in 1969 the US was still pretty much on its own staring down the Soviets. True, the prosperity of Europe West is due in part to the US and its Marshall plan, but like other empires, the US has started needing and relying on allies more and more. In 1969 it was still towering alone, with a few side kicks if you like.
But do not feel bad or upset about this if you are a US reader. Like all Empires the US has a rise and a fall, and that its apogee might have been reached in 1969 does not mean in any way that its end is at the corner, as simple minded know nothing like Hugo Chavez believe. Let me give you the French example. The French Empire probably came to be at Rocroi when in 1643 the French army decisively beat the army of the former European Empire, Spain. The French apogee cannot be really placed but a case can be made that the decline started in 1685 when Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes. Thus the French glory lasted for barely 40 years, in politics, economy and arts, all together in a resplendent period, rarely seen elsewhere in such synchronism.
The decline was long, it did not quite finish in 1789 as the Napoleonic Empire (not only in might but in name) had a final and useless paroxysm. It was succeeded by a brief colonial Empire but that was a very meager consolation since that Empire was built mostly after 1870 at a time when Germany and the US were already stronger nations, and England the ruling empire. The final demise of the idea of a French Empire was 1914-1918 from which France ceased being the veto country once and for all even if it still keeps a UN veto out of tradition.
The American Empire started its rise after the Civil War and came into being when it removed the Spaniards from their remaining possessions in the continent (the official end of another long declining Empire by the way). As such the US of A Empire might be one of the fastest rise of recent Empires. The British Empire, for one, needed the Tudors, Cromwell, and the defeat of France in 1713 to finally put an Imperial claim, though its apogee period certainly lasted more than France, from 1815 until the Boer war.
But the US of A failed to become the Empire in 1919 when the Versailles treaty provisions could not be enforced and where England still could not resign itself to go to secondary status. The failure of the League of Nations that the US never joined eventually allowed for Pearl Harbor and the rise of the Soviet Union, amen of Nazi Germany. If by production the US was numero uno since WW1, politically it reached that position only after WW2 and reached the cultural top spot in 1969 when we had that rare chance of seeing a myth created in front of our own eyes.
Only great civilizations, great empires have the luck, sometimes, to create a myth. Those who saw live that first step on the Moon are blessed.
----------------------------------
PS: all dates, opinions and chronology subjected to my very own personal, subjective and totally biased opinion due to the emotion of the day. That you agree or disagree with them leaves me cold. :)
-The end-
Sunday, April 27, 2008
The US versus Chavez: was it worth?
It has been almost ten years of continuous anti US rhetoric from Chavez. And in a few weeks San Felipe will be inaugurating its new Burger King, right across the McDonald that has been running for about 5 years. Thus this corner of deep Venezuela will look a little bit more like any US anonymous suburbia.
I took this picture just as a family was getting out of a "buseta", a rickety old truck converted in some form of bus, a picture which I took accidentally before the above shot (click pics to enlarge). As you will see there is absolutely nothing glamorous about the mode of transport that this family took to go to McDonald. They are what US/European clichés love to call the "downtrodden dark skinned masses whose better fate has been brought courtesy of chavismo". And yet? where are they going to have their Saturday fun meal? At McDonald.
That is right, it is true, they have more money than before and can afford more stuff. Including the ideological symbol of the hated empire: McDonald (and surely Burger King in a future week end outing). I wonder if thsi family belongs to some "mision", if they are public workers, if they attended electoral rally to support chavismo. Maybe they did, maybe they did not, but they end up at McDonald anyway.
Because make no mistake, the odds that their new acquired relative wealth are coming from some private sector activity is very low. The industrial park of San Felipe has still an abandoned look, half the land is still unbuilt or abandoned with some ruins in the middle. Since 1999 there has been only three new "business": a new experimental university (UNEY), a central MERCAL distribution area and the latest one, a cooking gas bottling facility from PDVSA. In the same period at least 6 private business have closed down. Elsewhere in the area the only thing that has grown is the commercial district. But you would be very hard pressed to find new and shinny production facility in the area...
Thus this picture is actually two symbols. First, the failure of chavismo to distract folks from consuming US products and US lifestyle, no matter what is their social background (pictures of chavistas visiting the US and shopping abound all through the Internet). The US invasion is already here, it fills up malls showrooms and the bellies of those who visit. And second the economic failure in spite of recent high growth rates. We import all, even our food, export less and less, and things get worse as the price of oil keeps increasing.
Meanwhile the little joint I used to patronize in my earlier days at San Felipe, Cachapas Coa, is near dead. It used to have some of the best cachapas in Venezuela (as read in the guides of Valentina Quintero). The owners are (were?) chavistas and they tried to keep cost down, to remain close to the people. Service suffered, the already rustic "decoration" could not keep up, people showed less and less and the quality of cachapas started to fall. Now, I rarely go and when I go for lunch I am one of the very few customers even though the cachapas are almost as good as they were before (when you go at jojoto season, that is). But McDonald always as a crow for lunch, with a simple Mac at four times a delicious, natural, Venezuelan Cachapa...
Qu'elle était belle ma revolution!
-The end-
Friday, May 25, 2007
Those exquisite revolutionary moments: media blitz at its worst
As the closing of RCTV nears, the Venezuelan government is not feeling so good about it. So, as it has been usual in such moment of crisis, cadenas start succeeding each other.
Cadenas are the forced simultaneous broadcast on ALL TV networks and ALL Radio stations of Venezuela, at the same time, for as long as the government wishes, for the government to say whatever it wants. There is no right to reply for anyone aggressed during such cadenas. That is, if Chavez decides to make a cadena to attack a Venezuelan political opinion, or propose a given policy without national consulting, the other side does not even get 1 minute of air time on the state TV VTV to refute the Chavez attacks. But Chavez could have spent 5 minutes or a full hour attacking the said political group on ALL broadcast waves of Venezuela simultaneously. Nobody is even allowed him to ask him a question, a precision. Nothing, he speaks as he wishes and no one can counter him except next day on newspaper, or maybe a given talk show of much more limited audience.
It is important to remind folks what a cadena is since sometimes, even after years of reporting on this greatest of media abuses, we still find some Chavez supporters coming to places such as this blog and pretend that they do not know about cadenas, or the extent of the abuse they represent. Amazing!
But back to this topic (all links in English for a change).
The thing for Chavez is that tonight he had some problems. First the US Senate foreign committee approved a resolution to be sent to the floor recommending a unanimity vote. That resolution, it is interesting to note for those supporters of Chavez that think Clinton or Obama are natural allies of Chavez, is supported by the said senators. That is, to make things absolutely clear Liberals such as Clinton or African Americans such as Obama are not buying Chavez line, at least when this one threatens freedom of expression. Of course Chavez cannot understand that because, well, in Venezuela I cannot say certain things about the president of the country, nor can I burn the Venezuelan flag in public. But I can do those things in the US. And to add insult to injury, along the expected Republican names we find Ted Kennedy signing but also Christopher Dodd who has been until now a strong Chavez supporter and now is the co-signer promoter of the bill with Richard Lugar. So much for the millions spent in propaganda in the US through the VIO.
But things did not get much better from Europe where the European parliament voted also such a resolution 2 to 1. Europe also is clear. But Europe being so democratic, that barely 10% of Euro deputies attended the session gives Chavez the opportunity to make lots of fun on Europe where only 10% bother attending. Granted, that 10% of the deputies constitute a working body of the European parliament in Strasbourg is rather embarrassing. But it is also an excellent sign of the democratic vocation of Europe where if such a vote where taken without the necessary clearings, one can be sure that an emergency session would be immediately convoked. Chavez can certainly laugh, but his own monochromatic parliament who surrendered its legislative power to him is infinitely mire pathetic than the EU parliament where its deputies have actually work to do reporting back to their countries of origin.
And to complete the scene, Chavez surely heard of Granier going to Globovision tonight to defend RCTV. Since the RCTV campaign is gaining momentum and polls are not favorable to Chavez on such an arbitrary measure, then the best strategy was to launch yet another cadena tonight, another one this week (after the CANTV launch of two days ago and I am sure other to come before RCTV is closed).
Tonight cadena is rather pathetic, in front of an audience full of red clad “students” sycophantically hoarding the Teresa Carreño, our national theater now the private domain of Chavez. The cadena has no reason to be held. There is no other event this week as important as CANTV going to the state or RCTV going off the air. So Chavez uses some minor event about some “independent“ universities measures to call for a cadena and start attacking the US senate, the European parliament, Marcel Granier and rant, and rant on endless useless subjects. For example, why must we have a cadena to hear about Chavez brother, Adam, girl friends when he was young? Is Adam’s past sexual life a national matter? Must ALL the country be forced to listen to such a trivial topic? And then, after making mockery of real democratic values that Chavez is so busily destructing at home, he starts perorating on PDVSA and what not, including Castro. On occasion though, he comes back to the students, but to tell them to go out against the Venezuelan oligarchy which is “fighting like snakes” in a pit.
Will Granier have the right to reply on VTV? Will Christopher Dodd be allowed to explain on VTV why he decided to sponsor a US Senate resolution? Will the Europe deputies be able to explain why in Europe the closing of RCTV is so odious? Will a historian be allowed to correct the fantastic ideas of Chavez on Latin American independence? No, no cadena except for Chavez.
That is what await us once RCTV is closed. More cadenas, more Chavez on the air, less and less different views until there is no dissent on the air. What awaits us is the ultimate privatization of the media in a country, all at the service of the interests of a single man, Hugo Chavez, the sole owner of Venezuela.
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
PS: the cadena is not over and I am done with this post, with dinner, with listening to bits an pieces, expecting that in a few minutes Chavez might announce the end of university autonomy, another long cherished dream of his in addition of closing private media. We'll see. But what I saw tonight is that Chavez does not even know where Strasbourg is. On live TV, reprimanding his staff fro not giving him the right information! But who cares, as of today maybe in all Venezuelan geography books Strasbourg will be erased from French maps or, who knows, perhaps placed ambiguously on the Rhine border. Weirder things have been seen in this glorious bolivarian involution.
-The end-
Cadenas are the forced simultaneous broadcast on ALL TV networks and ALL Radio stations of Venezuela, at the same time, for as long as the government wishes, for the government to say whatever it wants. There is no right to reply for anyone aggressed during such cadenas. That is, if Chavez decides to make a cadena to attack a Venezuelan political opinion, or propose a given policy without national consulting, the other side does not even get 1 minute of air time on the state TV VTV to refute the Chavez attacks. But Chavez could have spent 5 minutes or a full hour attacking the said political group on ALL broadcast waves of Venezuela simultaneously. Nobody is even allowed him to ask him a question, a precision. Nothing, he speaks as he wishes and no one can counter him except next day on newspaper, or maybe a given talk show of much more limited audience.
It is important to remind folks what a cadena is since sometimes, even after years of reporting on this greatest of media abuses, we still find some Chavez supporters coming to places such as this blog and pretend that they do not know about cadenas, or the extent of the abuse they represent. Amazing!
But back to this topic (all links in English for a change).
The thing for Chavez is that tonight he had some problems. First the US Senate foreign committee approved a resolution to be sent to the floor recommending a unanimity vote. That resolution, it is interesting to note for those supporters of Chavez that think Clinton or Obama are natural allies of Chavez, is supported by the said senators. That is, to make things absolutely clear Liberals such as Clinton or African Americans such as Obama are not buying Chavez line, at least when this one threatens freedom of expression. Of course Chavez cannot understand that because, well, in Venezuela I cannot say certain things about the president of the country, nor can I burn the Venezuelan flag in public. But I can do those things in the US. And to add insult to injury, along the expected Republican names we find Ted Kennedy signing but also Christopher Dodd who has been until now a strong Chavez supporter and now is the co-signer promoter of the bill with Richard Lugar. So much for the millions spent in propaganda in the US through the VIO.
But things did not get much better from Europe where the European parliament voted also such a resolution 2 to 1. Europe also is clear. But Europe being so democratic, that barely 10% of Euro deputies attended the session gives Chavez the opportunity to make lots of fun on Europe where only 10% bother attending. Granted, that 10% of the deputies constitute a working body of the European parliament in Strasbourg is rather embarrassing. But it is also an excellent sign of the democratic vocation of Europe where if such a vote where taken without the necessary clearings, one can be sure that an emergency session would be immediately convoked. Chavez can certainly laugh, but his own monochromatic parliament who surrendered its legislative power to him is infinitely mire pathetic than the EU parliament where its deputies have actually work to do reporting back to their countries of origin.
And to complete the scene, Chavez surely heard of Granier going to Globovision tonight to defend RCTV. Since the RCTV campaign is gaining momentum and polls are not favorable to Chavez on such an arbitrary measure, then the best strategy was to launch yet another cadena tonight, another one this week (after the CANTV launch of two days ago and I am sure other to come before RCTV is closed).
Tonight cadena is rather pathetic, in front of an audience full of red clad “students” sycophantically hoarding the Teresa Carreño, our national theater now the private domain of Chavez. The cadena has no reason to be held. There is no other event this week as important as CANTV going to the state or RCTV going off the air. So Chavez uses some minor event about some “independent“ universities measures to call for a cadena and start attacking the US senate, the European parliament, Marcel Granier and rant, and rant on endless useless subjects. For example, why must we have a cadena to hear about Chavez brother, Adam, girl friends when he was young? Is Adam’s past sexual life a national matter? Must ALL the country be forced to listen to such a trivial topic? And then, after making mockery of real democratic values that Chavez is so busily destructing at home, he starts perorating on PDVSA and what not, including Castro. On occasion though, he comes back to the students, but to tell them to go out against the Venezuelan oligarchy which is “fighting like snakes” in a pit.
Will Granier have the right to reply on VTV? Will Christopher Dodd be allowed to explain on VTV why he decided to sponsor a US Senate resolution? Will the Europe deputies be able to explain why in Europe the closing of RCTV is so odious? Will a historian be allowed to correct the fantastic ideas of Chavez on Latin American independence? No, no cadena except for Chavez.
That is what await us once RCTV is closed. More cadenas, more Chavez on the air, less and less different views until there is no dissent on the air. What awaits us is the ultimate privatization of the media in a country, all at the service of the interests of a single man, Hugo Chavez, the sole owner of Venezuela.
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
PS: the cadena is not over and I am done with this post, with dinner, with listening to bits an pieces, expecting that in a few minutes Chavez might announce the end of university autonomy, another long cherished dream of his in addition of closing private media. We'll see. But what I saw tonight is that Chavez does not even know where Strasbourg is. On live TV, reprimanding his staff fro not giving him the right information! But who cares, as of today maybe in all Venezuelan geography books Strasbourg will be erased from French maps or, who knows, perhaps placed ambiguously on the Rhine border. Weirder things have been seen in this glorious bolivarian involution.
-The end-
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