Back in my corner
Hello people! Did you miss me? Did you spend a week of sleepless nights and nightmarish days waiting for me to return? Did you come to realize how meaningless your life is without my posts?No? Too bad, maybe someday.
In any case, I have returned from Hudson pumped and ready to post. Or, come to think of it, maybe pumped but not ready post, as I have no clear idea of what I'm going to be saying in the next few lines. That sounds exciting though; it could be anything.
Will it be an epic tale of high adventure full of great heroes and dangers, signifying the battle life must be? Will it be a poem of such beauty that it will awaken our hearts to that strange longing inside, which we know must somehow be connected to the meaning of Creation? Will it be a scathing essay that will shatter modern myths and bring forth forgotten truths?
No? Too bad, maybe someday.
But I am working on something. I promise. In the meanwhile, though, I would like to say that it SUCKS that Chavez did not get recalled in Venezuela and that if you do not know anything about this autocratic ruler and demagogue, then its time you find out. I am not Venezuelan, but in Colombia we dislike him tremendously for tacitly approving of the guerrilla organizations that have hurt our country so much. However, even leaving that aside, you should know that during his term in office, Chavez has orchestrated a new constitution to increase his own power, has brought further ruin on the Venezuelan economy despite increases in international oil prices, and has polarized the country to seriously dangerous levels. Chavez claims to be a champion of the poor and has indeed initiated certain welfare initiatives and stepped on powerful toes, but it is hard to see how his policies can be sustainable in the long run.
I am not sure what is in store for Venezuela during the next decade now that 58% of the people decided to keep the President in office, but I think there are good reasons to be worried. Those in the opposition, which are a very significant proportion of the population, do not seem ready to cooperate with a Chavez government that could extend itself until 2012, while those who support the President remain resilient behind their leader despite strikes, protests, a referendum and even a military coup. The country, in that respect, seems rather ungovernable, and if the executive does not become more inclusive and willing to compromise, there is likely to be great social unrest in the future. All I can say is that Venezuelans are playing with fire, and I worry that mere social and political instability may eventually transform into violence such as that we have experienced in Colombia. Happily, though, things will probably never reach that point.
If you had already heard about all this, then I'm sorry for wasting your time, but I figured that most of those reading this blog might not know about what has been going on down there. For more info on last weekend's events you can visit the following websites:
- Revista Semana (if you speak Spanish)
- The Washington Post (if you are deprived of the best language around)
Also, I will try to get my Venezuelan friend to give us an insider's perspective on what awaits his country after the referendum, so stay posted.
P.S. I realized last night that I forgot to mention something in this post in order to be truly fair to the situation, and that is that if a guy like Chavez is in power, this is largely because the Venezuelan political elite, like most elites in Latin America, has been very negligent of the poor. However, I stand firm by my contention that Chavez is taking Venezuela down the wrong path.
posted by ertandberni @ 9:56 AM
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