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#1
11-27-2008, 01:36 PM
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Frontline episode on Hugo Chavez
Anyone see the Frontline episode about Hugo Chavez last week? Anyone who doubts the value of PBS should check it out:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/hugochavez/ I knew the guy was an ass but I had no idea just how bad it was. Full tilt communism is a disaster, it's clear. No central planner is going to know events on the ground as well as those right up next to it. Chavez is an egotist on steroids.
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1986 300SDL, 362K 1984 300D, 138K 
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#2
11-27-2008, 02:14 PM
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Pretty good discription of him here from the US perspective.
http://www.dickipedia.org/dick.php?title=Hugo_Chavez
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Terry Allison N. Calif. & Boca Chica, Panama 09' E320 Bluetec 77k (USA) 09' Hyundai Santa Fe Diesel 48k (S.A.)
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#3
11-27-2008, 04:17 PM
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I don't want to defend the guy but from what I gather, disparities between rich and poor can be pretty stark in Latin America and it is perhaps that which has enabled his rise to power and led to the flirtation with pronounced socialism.
And, the Yanqui has pulled some shenanigans down yonder more than once. The guy is whack and an ass but he's not a complete anomaly.
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1986 300SDL, 362K 1984 300D, 138K
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#4
11-27-2008, 06:08 PM
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A cross between Hitler and the Inquisition
'Does Nothing Positive for the Poor (the Majority) in Venezuela.
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'84 300SD sold 124.128
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#6
11-27-2008, 08:25 PM
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Quote:
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2006 CL500 1969 280SE 2023 Ram 1500 2026 Genesis GV70 2007 Tiara 3200
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#7
11-27-2008, 10:15 PM
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Quote:
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1986 300SDL, 362K 1984 300D, 138K
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#8
11-27-2008, 10:17 PM
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Quote:
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1986 300SDL, 362K 1984 300D, 138K
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#9
11-28-2008, 12:25 AM
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Leaders of foreign countries are none of our business, unless they declare war on us.
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Last edited by LaRondo; 11-28-2008 at 12:34 AM.
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#10
11-28-2008, 01:32 AM
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Perhaps assassinations of foreign leaders worked centuries ago, before modern communications. Today, I'm thinking the blowback, the downside, is going to more than negate any gain that might be had from bumping off a pesky dictator/president for life.
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1986 300SDL, 362K 1984 300D, 138K
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#13
11-28-2008, 10:08 AM
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Hugo Chavez is as you described him and Socialism/Communism will guarantee his reign for decades. Socialism is an attractive nuisance at best and a perilously slippery slope at worst which is why we should never even flirt with it's principles as we have. I think it would be wise to research what those principles are so we can recognize them in all of their iterations. I also think it would be instructive to identify for perspective all of the infamous and murderous political leaders who were Socialist/Marxist/Communist so that we may be appropriately motivated to avoid their siren's song.
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#14
11-28-2008, 10:32 AM
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CMAC has it right concerning the history of injustices leading to Chavez. The secular patron saint of Venezuela is Simon Bolivar, a revolutionary with striking similarities to our own George Washington. After the revolt fro Spain, the landed, wealthy former supporters of Bolivar betrayed him and Bolivar's dream for a free and democratic South American collapsed into a bunch of landed former colonialists squabbling for despotic power. They broke the nation into separate states (Venezuela, Columbia, Ecuador, IIRC)and have maintained oligarchical power ever since. Superficially the various countries have flipped from dictatorship to democracy but in their essential power structure, they remain oligarchical.
Chavez, for all his weaknesses as a democrat, is not part of the oligarchy. He is intent on disassembling the oligarchy's power base -- the land in the hands of a few large families. In Chavez' defense, there is no easy way to deprive wealthy people of land their families have held for generations. Not much defense, but that's all I have for him. (BTW, Simon Bolivar died in poverty, a disillusioned, bitter man -- it could have happened with George washington had the former American colonies NOT joined in confederation and so forth).
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#15
11-28-2008, 11:04 AM
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Why Chavez has some popularity there
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^^^^^^ Not just "perhaps". I have been to Peru several times in the last 15+ years. I remember on one such trip, visiting an extremely remote and isolated Peruvian indian village in the Andes to see some Inca ruins. Innocently, I mentioned to the bus driver who took us there, "How come there is nobody around here over 50 years old?" The bus driver replied, "That's because everyone here over 50 is dead. The Government never comes here at all, and there are no schools, or hospiials or Doctors. If you live here and get sick, you just die. That's it. No one cares." It is no wonder that the Communist revolutionary group, the "Sendero Luminoso" gained traction on those fertile grounds. Similar conditions exist also, in the urban slums where Indians come down from the mountains in search of a better life. I have seen those slums, too, the shanty towns in Lima, a city of over 9 millions, home to one of four of ALL Peruvians.....If you could see those "Pueblos Jovenes" ( literally, "Young towns") the conditions would leave you aghast. They are never in the Tourist brochures. A good written "snapshot" can be had by reading the English language translation of the Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa novel "Death in the Andes. Colombia is Peru's neighbor, with Ecuador, to the North. Undoubtedly, similarly conditions exist there also.
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 1991 560 SEC AMG, 199k <---- 300 hp 10:1 ECE euro HV ... 1995 E 420, 170k "The Red Plum" (sold) 2015 BMW 535i xdrive awd Stage 1 DINAN, 6k, <----364 hp 1967 Mercury Cougar, 49k 2013 Jaguar XF, 20k <----340 hp Supercharged, All Wheel Drive  (sold)
Last edited by Jim B.; 11-28-2008 at 12:53 PM.
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