Venezuelanalysis goes on to refute Latulippe’s nonsense rather nicely; go there and read it for yourself if you’re so inclined. Since they’ve already taken on the task, I’m not going to duplicate their work.Meanwhile, those of us up here who’ve been following Harpocracy’s shenanigans are doing our accustomed, dreary facepalm. You see, we know all about what the government has done to this so-called “arms’-length” organization. They’ve politicized it utterly to suit their con-tard view of the world. They’ve gutted it of all voices critical of Israel, and the stress of the scandal killed Rémy Beauregard, who used to head it up (and who opposed what Harpo & Co. were trying to do to it.) There have been several high-profile resignations, too, by members R & D could ill afford to lose. As a result of all this, R & D has gone from unremarkable and respectable to fractious and conspicuously neo-con, with an ugly dominionist-Christian fug on top of all the Zionist miasma. So no, I’m not surprised in the least that they are the “arm’s-length” bludgeon Harpo & Co. were going to use to club Venezuela, which IS democratic, more so in fact than we are…and which just happens to vote overwhelmingly in favor of non-conservative candidates, when all’s said. Harpo is doing his damnedest to turn this country and all its institutions into cheap, shoddy copies of all the shit we see going on below the 49th Parallel. So of course he’s going to copy their stance on Venezuela, too. Venezuela has done what we haven’t: rewritten its own constitution (and amended it) democratically, using assemblies of candidates elected by the people. It has freed itself from an old imperial power (Spain) and is in the process of decoupling from a newer one (the US). It has made all healthcare, including eye and dental coverage, free to citizens, whereas we’ve been backsliding into stealth privatization and those odious “public-private partnerships”, which have benefited no one but the private sector, while sucking up ever larger sums of our public money. They have 100% literacy, thanks to Fidel Castro; we don’t, thanks to a prevalent mindset that considers cutting teacher salaries and squandering the “savings” on standardized testing to be the “solution” to our schoolkids’ poor performances. Their citizens make constant reference to their constitution; do many of us even know what ours says? Venezuela has been giving power to its people, while Harpo & Co. have been sneakily taking it away from us. So of course, Venezuela is a “tyranny”–it’s the tyranny of a good example that they don’t want us following. Chavecito walks in the footsteps of Simón Bolívar; what if Canada walked in the footsteps of Venezuela, or at least Tommy Douglas?And of course, Harpo and his Cons are too cowardly to bring up the matter of Venezuela and its tyranny-of-a-good-example themselves. So naturally they’re going to send The Tulip down on behalf of their little rejiggered Mulroney-era quango to talk to the discredited oppos, who are only too happy to feed him all kinds of bogus horror stories. Of course The Tulip is going to give them our taxpayer dollars, USAID-style, to help them plot their little putsches. And then, naturally, The Tulip is going to dutifully come back and talk smack about Chavecito here! What else WOULD they all do? This entire fuckery was as boringly predictable as an old soap opera plot. But damn, it sure makes me hang my head when I’m on the tweeter, talking to friends in Venezuela. I still love my country, but I hate this insane, antidemocratic government. It makes me ashamed to be Canadian, and that’s something I never thought would happen in my lifetime. Guess I’m gonna be flying that upside-down flag of distress a lot here from now on.While many on the left know that Washington has spent tens of millions of dollars funding groups that oppose Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, less well known is Ottawa’s role, especially that of the Canadian government’s “arms-length” human rights organization, Rights & Democracy (R&D).Montreal-based R&D recently gave its 2010 John Humphrey Award to the Venezuelan non-governmental organization PROVEA (El Programa Venezolano de Educacion-Accion en Derechos Humanos). According to R&D’s website, “The Award consists of a grant of $30,000 and a [just completed] speaking tour of Canadian cities to help increase awareness of the recipient’s human rights work.”PROVEA is highly critical of Venezuela’s elected government. In December 2008 Venezuela’s interior and justice minister called PROVEA “liars” who were “paid in [US] dollars.”During a September visit “to meet with representatives of PROVEA and other [Venezuelan] organizations devoted to human rights and democratic development” R&D President, Gérard Latulippe, blogged about his and PROVEA’s political views. “Marino [Betancourt, Director General of PROVEA] told me about recent practices of harassment and criminalization of the government towards civil society organizations.” In another post Latulippe explained, “We have witnessed in recent years the restriction of the right to freedom of expression. Since 2004-2005, the government of President Chavez has taken important legislative measures which limit this right.”Upon returning to Canada, Latulippe cited Venezuela as a country with “no democracy”. He told Embassy magazine, “You can see the emergence of a new model of democracy, where in fact it’s trying to make an alternative to democracy by saying people can have a better life even if there’s no democracy. You have the example of Russia. You have an example of Venezuela.”
Sabina
great take on the Venezuelanalysis article but Canada besides the meeting mention in the article organized by the Canadian Embassy in Panama with the Cuban opposition and others from Latin America, has also been doing the same thing in Cuba for years with NGO’s, funneling money and agents disguised as tourists and even jump starting the introduction of capitalist economics in Cuba with a joint Havana/Carleton Universities economics MA program talks starting in December 1993 and the program started in 1994.
This move to introduce conventional economics was spear-headed by Dra. Lourdes Tabares, who was the Chair of the Economics Department at the University of Havana at the time with unanimous support within the University and the reformist section of the CCP and financed by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), and coordinated by Dr. Gary McMahon, this meeting brought together a number of academics and officials from Chile and Argentina and Canada, with University of Havana counterparts and is partly responsible for the new path towards capitalist restoration their with Chinese characteristics.
Sweet critique and observations Bina.
Check out “The Death of Liberal Class” by Christopher Hedges. He illustrates he ratcheting movement to the right with the vilification of socialists and ardent critics of capitalism.
Authentic left-progressives may be critical of aspects of the Chavez government–but ALWAYS note the country and the privileged positions from which they criticize.
I would examine closely the memes and talking points about Venezuela advanced by the so-called liberals. They are the front line to cave into the wold view supported by the ruling classes.
Chavez and Morales are cogent in their criticisms about contemporary capitalism and US imperialism.
It is the supporters of capitalism that are the true enemies of anti-imperialism. Liberals are among that number.
Now that Bush is gone, we here in the US see the limits of the liberal wing of the ruling class.
The most progressive politico in Canada would join the jackals attack on Venezuela if they will someday come to power. Maybe a bit of an exaggeration, but in keeping with the dominant trends among Western capitalist powers.
I call them craven, opportunistic, fair weather liberals who will join in the lynch mob, or stand aside tsk tsking the target of character assassination from the side, while maintaining their lily white purity. It is a perverse sense of entitlement and self-righteousness trolling that goes out of its way to find fault with others, so as to remove the pressure of actually showing solidarity for a change.
Even some mainstream progressives are vilified in this way by other liberals. Note how much Michael Moore is hated by some sections of the liberal intelligentsia because why, he talks about class issues?
Always willing to believe the worst of others, the same venom is now being expressed for Assange for allegations, not even actual charges.
What say you of Chavez’s wanting absolute power to rule by decree for one year?
So much for ‘power to the people’ huh?
Chavez supporters are so fucking stupid. Why don’t you pack up your stuff and move there you fucking moron? Oh wait better to stay here and praise the murdering dictators of the world!
According to Unicef, Venezuela has a literacy rate of 93%. Pretty good, but neighbouring Colombia has a rate of 94%.
One does not become 100% literate by proclamation.
Ahh yes, Harper is an evil dictator bent on destroying our freedoms, better give him all out guns, right?
And of course we should blow a gasket when he tries to reduce the amount of information that his government has on each of us by making the long form voluntary, correct?
And let’s not forget that he’s trying to make the senate less democratic by making it um,….elected?
And uh,…remember how he used to threaten us all with those darn elections?
If those aren’t the hoof prints of a dictator, what are?
BTW, a lot of people are coming to the conclusion that liberalism is a mental disorder.
Get help.
Oh look! A troll attack! How cute–just in time for Xmas, too! Who sent you, boys? Oh, I just love doing battles of wits with unarmed men! Okay, one by one, here we go…
Your data is two years out of date, Stewart. Nice try, though. Here’s some newer info:
http://venezuela-us.org/2010/08/31/unesco-praises-venezuelas-fight-against-illiteracy/
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/5107
Venezuela has now surpassed Colombia for adult literacy. Ouch! PS: Nobody “proclaimed” anything; that was UNESCO’s words that were cited, not Chávez’s. Next time, pay closer attention and don’t put words in other people’s mouths. Thanks for playing! Better luck next time! Bye.
Insult Boy from Edmonton, please use your real name next time or, better still, as your nick suggests, just don’t fucking bother. I’m not interested if all you want to do is lob insults and bullshit; it stinks the joint up and doesn’t make you look like anything other than an impotent douche who has nothing of substance to say. Next person that tries that is gonna join you in my shit filter. PS: Calling me a cunt not only doesn’t intimidate me, it is very unoriginal metonymy, and speaks to your lack of maturity. (Not to mention it’s a dead giveaway that you ain’t gettin’ any. Why do you whiny little mosquito-dicked guys always blame women’s vaginas for your own shortcomings, I wonder?)
As for you, Mr. Cook, try reading this:
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/5865
If you did, you’d realize that there’s a climate-change crisis going on there, and the worst floods in 40 years don’t leave time for endless, ridiculous wranglings in parliament. People have been killed in those floods, in case you hadn’t heard. And if you read that site regularly, which I strongly recommend that you do, you’d see that the last time evil, wicked Chávez had decree power (which, BTW, is fully constitutional in Venezuela–as voted and approved by the people!), he didn’t abuse it either. He uses it to get constructive things done, which is more than any of his predecessors did; all they used theirs for was repressions, and all he uses his for is to serve the public. That’s why he keeps winning the elections and they’re all discredited losers, duh. Thanks for playing! Better luck next time! Bye.
And Stan? As I recall, Harpo LOST the election; 2/3 of us did not vote for him, about the same as Germany and Hitler. And he PACKED the senate with his cronies, so there goes your “elected” bullshit. As for who’s mentally ill, well, since you can’t even read what I wrote and don’t understand what this post was about, choosing to rant instead about something not even closely related, I’d say it’s you con-tards who are the sickos. Your incoherence leads me to conclude that it’s you who have the problems, not I. And if you’re going to link political convictions with mental problems, better learn to read:
http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~altemey/
Conservatives, especially the authoritarian types like Harpo, have serious personality disorders. I’m guessing you’re not real popular with the ladies any more than is Insult Boy, given your attitude. Get help yourself, or better still, go fuck yourself, but don’t tell me what to do. I know the score better on my worst days than you do on your best. PS: I’m a socialist, not a liberal. Boogaboogabooga!
Thanks for playing, Stan. You lose. Now go play on the freeway. The grownups are busy.
I see the Small Dead Animals dropped by to wish you Seasons Greetings.
Oh great, Hate McMillan has finally discovered me. Was wondering when the death-wishing airhead would get around to it. Lord knows I’ve been here long enough.
Mass bans all around, since a sincere debate is obviously beyond the capacities of the Small Dead Asshats.
I go slumming once a week or so and stop by Kate Central just to see what they are up to and if I can annoy them at all. Doesn’t take a great deal to do so.
Thought I would let you know where they came from. Her topic is still up if you want to drop by. Entitled Scratch a Leftist.
Thanks, I think I’ll pass. I’ll just wanklist Hatey Katie instead.
Too funny, Bina. These Uncle Sammie ball-lickers sure run in packs. Like the mangy jackals they are.
You body slammed them with superior arguments and fact. Sends them scurrying back to small dead reptile environs. Nice.
“BTW, a lot of people are coming to the conclusion that liberalism is a mental disorder. Get help.”
Heh, a typical jackboot-wearing member of the Savage-stapo. Don’t these Nazis have anything else to do than to shout random Fourth Reich slogans…
No, because they don’t watch anything else on TV but FUX Snooze idiotica. Anything where intellect is involved is too threatening.