I don't usually get too political here, but today I am going to vent a bit. First, check out this recent article:http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4480
Caracas tops the list of the world's most dangerous cities. New Orleans makes a respectable showing for the U.S. It is good to know that I live in a city that is considered more dangerous than Port-Au-Prince Haiti, or Johannesburg South Africa, just to name two notoriously dangerous cities.
As noted in the article "El Presidente" is a big part of the problem. Frankly, he is equal parts idiot and a**hole. He spends most of his time trying to provoke the U.S. He recently expelled the Ambassador, called the Venezuelan Ambassador home, welcomed a Russian long range bomber, held joint naval excercises with the Russian navy in the Caribbean, and made deals with the Russians to buy weapons and nuclear technology. I guess he figured that being pals with the Russians is good policy. After all, look how well that worked out for Cuba. And Viet Nam. And Eastern Europe. And, for that matter, Russia. Perhaps the Venezuelans will now head to Moscow instead of Miami to buy their iPods, Lacoste shirts, and Louis Vitton hand bags. Rather than try to help the people of Venezuela, Chavez spends money abroad like a drunken sailor in an effort to increase his influence in other countries. He sends free gasoline to Equador, Nicaraugua and the Dominican Republic, sent free heating oil to low income families in New England and sent free high efficiency light bulbs to the poor of Houston Texas. (The press has, until now, completely ignored the plight of the poor of Houston who are struggling to get by with their inferior incadesent light bulbs. Thank you, Hugo, for providing them with highly efficient sources of light.) Meanwhile, there are as many poor in Caracas as ever. Drug smuggling is flourishing here and gangs rule the "ranchitos". The streets are in such deplorable condition that it is actually a bragging point that the roads in the area where I live are "82% free of potholes". That means almost 20% of the roads are not free of potholes. Inflation is hovering at about 30%. Banks pay interest of 23%. The smartest thing a person can do as a hedge against inflation is spend every penny of their paycheck each week on durable goods and foods that have a long shelf life. As a consequence, no one here has any savings. There are chronic food shortages. Staples like beans, chicken, milk, eggs, rice and cooking oil are frequently in short supply. The shortages hit the poor areas first. I know this because our maid always tips us off on what will not be available in the stores next week, because in her neighborhood it is already not available. One thing that he really excells at is insulting world leaders. He famously called G.W. Bush "The Devil", provoked the King of Spain into saying "why don't you shut up" during an economic summit meeting of Latin Countries, and refered to the U.S. as "sh*tty yankies" while throwing the U.S. Ambassador out of the country. Actually, he gave the Ambassador seventy two hours to leave the country, while dramatically holding up a watch in front of a crowd and noting the time. One of his advisors should have told him that the U.S. Ambassador was actually in the U.S. at the time. El Presidente is so small and petty that he won't let the Ambassador's wife return to collect their belongings and their dog. Nice touch, Hugo! That will show the "sh*tty Yankies" .
When I first heard of Chavez, I wanted to like him. I wanted believe that he would give the poor a break so that they could enjoy a slice of the economic prosperity that comes with being oil rich. I hoped that he would improve living conditions and offer economic opportunities to the poor. Instead, about all I can see that he has done is paint a bunch of slogans on the walls, surround himself with cronies, try to amend the constitution to give himself absolute power and the ability to rule for life and insult world leaders in an effort to provoke them. Chavez likes to portray himself as the hero standing up to imperialism, but in reality he is little more than a loud mouth clinging to power.
