The present Venezuelan government is pushing the story that their president is working for the people.
Everything we hear about Venezuela reports that this is false and a that the president is building a dictatorship.
What are we to believe?
I've found a pretty simple way to find out what's really going on. That method has nothing to do with Venezuela. It's useful for any situation where the only thing to go on is information from other people. That trick is to wonder: "Who does this info come from? What are their interests? What would they want us to believe?"
What are we to believe? Think about who wants us to believe what?
I got the opposite impression from unpopular sources.
I went to Venezuela to see for myself.
So much of what I saw could have been staged for a group of western tourists, but I also saw so much couldn't have been. We can all be conned, but unless it is carried out very well we can all see when something is wrong with the things that have been arranged for us. How could anyone arrange the enthusiasm of the people for their president? Well, we've seen that a lot, but it has to be convincing. What will fool you?
A bunch of us were in a street of the poorest suburb in Caracas (Venezuela's capital city) and it started raining heavily. An old lady invited us into her house to shelter with the rest of her family and straight away we felt the family was very interested in us strangers from a far off land. Anyway, after a while the lady told us how life had changed for the poor people after president Chavez was elected.
In the old days the poor had to live with the constant background fear that some calamity would ruin the family. They would be destitute, loose their home, split up and one or more people might eventually die.
She said that now there was some sort of security of day to day life. She said that poor people even had a little money in the bank.
Don't get me wrong. There are still too many people living with filth and death, but there are a hell of a lot less than there used to be.
Now take the question "Is El Presidente really governing for the people?" Consider what you read and hear? Is it through the western media? They are pretty reliable. Aren't they?
There are a few extremely interesting features of Venezuela. It has a lot of oil and President Hugo Chavez doesn't want the US to keep it's grip on their oil.
The US is the overwhelmingly dominant world power. That dominance is in terms of military strength, but not in economic terms. Their national debt is stupendous. Did you know they are propped up by Europe? I won't go into that, but suggest that they have indeed been skating on thin ice for a long time and that the US will slide towards economic crisis if they don't get things cheaply. It's crucial that world trade is carried out on their terms ... free trade agreements.
The US is "up to it's eyeballs" in debt and it's critical that world trade is done in their preferred ways.
How do we do this? Look at information that comes from volunteer organisations and other people that don't have a vested interest. We never hear from them, but if you just do a little of the most simple digging you will see that there is too much truth comming out of Venezuela.
So, what are theose sources? Simple ... avoid the mainstream media, especially commercial TV. Their business is selling you what they think you want to hear.
Avoid the normal newspapers for the same reason ... or do you think they are credible, that they would go against the prevailing corporate and government systems?
Indeed, the normal media is in the service of the government and corporate interests. It's their disguised propaganda outlet. Look to socially oriented organisations that have less vested interests.
I have seen for myself the enthusiasm of the masses for their democratically elected president and heard one of them explain how they are now getting a bit of a grip on life. Health services are growing. Litteracy is now almost universal. The list of other social support organisations that are growing is too large for me to go into.
That old lady that gave us shelter explained that before the common people elected Hugo Chavez to power life was a daily struggle just to keep "their heads above water". And on top of that there was the ever present danger of crisis befalling the family that should never have happened in the first place. Getting ahead in life was just a fantacy. But now there are public services which are usable by the poor. Nowadays they even have some money in the bank.
The things I heard from the unpopular sources was so encouraging that it made me go to Venezuela to experience this stuff for myself.
Democracy and hope in Latin America have been revived by Venezuela's leader. There were bumper stickers over there that said "Proud to be Venezuelan" ... and they should be proud.
The western world doesn't like it one little bit. Imagine what would happen to corporate interests if more countries took on the ways of Venezuela ... and that is what is happening in Latin America. So, the western world is as threatening to Venezuela as they are to Iraq, that other oil rich nation, and Cuba, that other thorn in the side of the US. Here we have 2 serious reasons why the US, with their propensity to violently "involve" themselves in the affairs of other countries, is a grave threat to Venezuela.
For decades I grew more and more discouraged by the ways of Australian governmemt. Venezuela is my hope that the world can be a better place for the common people who have to live in it.
The US wants oil. If the US brings down the present government of Venezuela the it will be a crushing blow for the world.
But the western world can't do anything about Venezuela without the public first swallowing Bush's cowboy rhetoric and using the media to sell us more stories.
If you are still skeptical about Chavez ... he has got the military doing community services. All sorts of jobs. If the army work with the public then they will become less willing to shoot them. The Australian and American military work away from the public. Doesn't that tell you something?