Two weeks in…
Dear readers, deepest àpologies for the long delay between entries. Luckily, I have not been kidnapped or murdered, but I did lose my laptop cover in a taxi in Maracay-does that count?
Since I have been here, I have grown accustomed to the huge billboards blaring the face of President Chavez with slogans of praise for the Bolivarian Revolution. I have also become accustomed to the delapidated barrios sprawling out in every direction from Caracas, the giant cess-pit of trash on the road from Maracay where old women and their children rifle through desease-invested bins for something of value, and the constant shortage of basic commodities like milk and most recently coffee in the supermercados.
Chavez says that coffee is being sent to Colombia, so he shut down all the coffee plants. Last I recall, Colombia has some of its own coffee…you know, the stuff you can find in every store from New York to London. But hey, maybe he knows something I don´t. That seems to be the way it is here for most anything.
You can´t deny that President Chavez has his supporters-they come out in droves to marches decked in red. And the people in government ministries I have spoken to have a passion and zeal for there work unrivalled by anything in the West. But, do they really understand what they are fighting for? Do they really feel strongly enough for the idea of socialism, or are they following their leader blindly?
Case in point. Recently I had an interview with Parodi Florangel a woman from the government ministry of women, Inamujer. Parodi spoke of the difficulty in overcoming the culture of machismo, the advancements they were making in women´s rights and how women were the heart and soul of the Bolivarian revolution. She proudly told me president Chavez was a feminist. I asked her if she remembered when her president publicly announced that the reason Condeleeza Rice was so aggressive was because she needed to ´be serviced´ by a man. Chavez then kindly offered one of his men for the job.
“Isn´t that sexist? Would a feminist really say this?” I asked her. She told me that his speech was necessary because A.) Condolezza Rice doesn´t behave like a woman (whatever that means…don´t get me wrong, Rice doesn´t behave like a human, but how exactly should a woman behave to avoid sexist comments?) and B.) She said: “in the words of my president, if you make me open my mouth I will”. Well now, that doesn´t seem very responsible for the leader of a country that claims to be doing its best to tackle Venezuela´s deep rooted history of machismo.
When people stop taking the time to challenge the contradictions of their society, whatever its chosen ideology, that people will lose their freedom. As I look at those billboards, each paid for by the government to sport its anti-capitalist brand-name, it´s hard not to think that the fight for justice and liberty that brought so many onto the streets ten years ago is being forgotten, and in it´s place is an empty icon.
