"An ignorant population is a blind instrument of its own destruction"
Simon Bolívar
Si was the bloke who liberated half of South America from the Spanish, and he was a Venezuelano, so he is a bit of a hero around these parts. This statement takes on a bit of a twist in modern Venezuela as the uneducated majority continue to vote in and standby a hedonistic and power crazy (allegedly) president who doesn´t always seem to have all of the country´s best interest at heart.
"30,000 children die every day through hunger as a result of capitalism. Who said capitalism is a good thing?"
Source Unknown
I´ve seen in several publications now the president, Hugo Chavez, use the term ´capitalism´ to refere indirectly to the west (i.e. North America and Europe), followed by arguments that capitalism is inherently an evil thing. Chavez and his government are self proclaimed socialists, and are always ascerting this fact. By constantly stating that an ideology is evil, and defining yourself as a practioner of the opposite, you are automatically implying you are on the right side. And with ´publications´ like this one springing up everywhere, you are constantly building up and enforcing the peoples opinion of yourself and the enemy. Clever stuff. Also, to the right hand side you can see the faces of some important socialists from history, though I can´t remember what all of the obscured writing said.
3 comments:
Interesting reading trick, the graffiti seems far more profound than that you'd typically find in the uk. Do you find that the population have more of a sense of their political heritage in a country like Venezuela?
Good to see that you're giving some thought to the background of your host country, although not sure of your support of the propoganda, "clever stuff" etc. Would be interesting to see what you would have blogged if you'd taken a couple months travelling in Germany in the 30s(!)
Take it easy buddy, I'm enjoying the updates
"Do the population have more of a sense of their political heritage?"
Good question porko. The people I´ve met so far have definitely had strong opinions about the political situation at the moment and in the past few years. You only have to ask a fairly tame question around the subject, and it´s usually followed by 20 minutes of passionate ranting.
For example, Venezuela has something like the worlds 5th largest oil reserves at the moment. And petrol within Venezuela is subsidised; it costs less than 2p a litre here! Which is damn cheap even for Venezuela; a daily newspaper here costs about 25p, and a short bus ride costs about 12p, to put it into perspective. The president is soon to reduce, or remove this subsidy on some fuels (not diesel); its part of his socialist crusade to share more of the countries wealth amongst the poor majority who don´t have cars, rather than the upper class minority who do. The other week, I just casually asked a taxi driver exactly when the fuel prices were set to rise. That was the end of my evening, he just went off on one for half an hour about the government blah blah blah, I didn´t catch all of it, but I got the gist that he was cheesed off, and that he cared a lot. But then taxi drivers always have an opinion on everything right?
Most people I´ve spoken to have had a strong opinion, and a good knowledge of what has happened in the past 10 or 15 years. But in terms of their political heritage, I think maybe its no different from anywhere else; people often forget the details of the past.
For example, last month on Jan 23rd, it was something like the 50th anniversary of the end of a military dictatorship in Venezuela, after which a democratic government was put in place. But there were no celebrations or ceremonies to mark this event. A couple of the newspapers here ran articles highlighting and complaining about this. My Spanish teacher didn´t seem to remember why the day was important either, even though she has plenty to say about the political situation at the moment.
But the lack of remembrance might also be down to the fact that the government aren´t too keen to celebrate the ending of that military rule - I think it might have been celebrated in the past, but not this year.
Hi Trev
Just thought I would show you this, it is regarding the mysterious Ian
http://www.myspace.com/rubix41
Hope your having a good time
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