Friday, September 22, 2006

American People Must Free Their Country: Hugo Chavez

Jenna Orkin


Five months after Mike Ruppert declared in what would become his farewell speech to America that the 'paradigm is the enemy, ' Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, speaking from the same stage at Cooper Union, proclaimed that the planet cannot endure any more consumerism.

"Capitalism destroys ecological balance," the President declared, "and not just because of bombs.... The U.S. spends approximately $600 million p.a. on the military, five times Venezuela's Gross Domestic Product."

Careening from sublime heights of oratory to ridiculous references to the smell of sulphur when Bush was nearby, the President held a roaring, U.S. and Venezuela flag-waving crowd rapt til past eleven o'clock. (The event was late getting started because of no-nonsense security measures including detailed inspection with a flashlight of a visitor's keys.)

"I don't prepare speeches," he explained unnecessarily as he engaged audience member Roger Toussaint, President of the Transport Workers' Union, in impromptu dialogue about how New York City's bus system worked: Were the busses owned by the Mayor? The question manifested more than idle curiosity; recently Venezuela struck an oil-for-expertise deal with London Mayor Ken Livingstone. "But I'm very disciplined," Chavez added, another attribute he shares with his country's new guest, Ruppert. Also acknowledged in the audience were Ramsay Clarke, four Hassidic rabbis and the lawyer and investigative journalist Eva Golinger.

"Capitalism is the road to hell" for education, the President continued, a field for which the U.N. recommends that 7% of GDP be used. Venezuela uses close to 10%. Some of their schools are in old buildings whose structures are still good. The day before, Chavez was at a school that had been built for 2000 but because of privatization, the population had fallen to 200. The day Chavez visited, the school re-opened for 1200.

Students in Venezuela are given paper, pencils and wherever feasible, computer labs. In primary schools the students get breakfast, lunch and a snack. To get children used to going to school, there are "Simon sitos" (sp? not on google) such as the one attended by Chavez' 2-year-old grandchild.

Venezuela also has almost a million adults of all ages finishing high school (more are in college) who hadn't been able to in their youth because of the need to work. They study from videos in their own communities.

The President reminisced about Laurenzo Perez, his friend in fourth grade, who had to leave school to sell tripe. Now the father of twelve children, he is still poor. Had he had enough money, he could have been an engineer. To prevent more such cases, Venezuela offers scholarships to needy students of 100$ a month.

In all, more than 60% of the Venezuelan population is in school, including from the indigenous populations to whom supplies are brought via donkey.

It occurred to this reporter that Chavez is living out an idealistic child's fantasies of "what I would do if I was President." When he likes a book, as he did Don Quixote, he distributes thousands of copies to the population. (Don Quixote is often in his thoughts; Castro is the Don, he said, though a skinny one these days.)

Indeed, children are an abiding theme of the President's reforms. Last month Venezuela opened the largest pediatric cardiac facility in the world where needy children from all over South America can be treated for free. Soon their mothers will also be able to be housed for free in a nearby hotel. The hospital is equipped to perform four thousand surgeries a year, more than double the number of the previous largest facility.

The theme then turned to a less happy subject: the recent activities of the United States.
Referring as he did often in his speech, to illustrious predecessors on the stage of Cooper Union, the President quoted Mark Twain who in 1901 said the imperial eagle should not dig its claws into foreign countries.

What the U.S. is doing in Iraq and what Israel did in Lebanon, Chavez said, was terrorism. In the interest of fairness he also mentioned Caracazonas, (caracazanos? neither is on google) asking rhetorically, "How could we do that?" The U.S. used biological and chemical weapons in Fallujah, he said; even rats and cockroaches died. "This is genocide."

(At another speech the following morning Chavez reported that it hadn't been easy for him to come to New York; some of his assistants hadn't been allowed in. These were efforts to dissuade him from coming, he alleged, going on to threaten that If the United States attempts a coup as they did in 2002, Venezuela would stop providing the 1 1/2 million b.p.d. of oil that they currently sell here; oil would shoot up to $150-200 p.b.)

He did respect President Jimmy Carter who gave back the Panama Canal although as a consequence, his life was threatened. Chavez also pointed out that Kennedy had proposed an alliance with Cuba to help the poor and look what happened to him.

The speech was laced with fond references to Castro who had lost forty pounds from an intestinal hemorrhage whereas Chavez himself, he said, looks like a fatted ox. He spoke of visiting Castro and telling him he couldn't die. "Who said I'm dying?" Castro responded.

Current policy makes the United States the biggest threat to world peace according to world opinion, Chavez asserted, while also calling for substantive debate among presidents. The present norm of giving speeches, he said, amounts to 'a dialogue of the deaf.'

But he ended on an optimistic note: Eight years ago, the world was asleep. It is now waking up.


The following morning the President spoke at Mt. Olivet Church in Harlem about the Citgo program to distribute heating oil to low-income communities. Last winter Citgo gave out 40 million gallons of oil to 180,000 households. This year that amount will be multiplied by two and a half to 100 million gallons of oil going to 459,000 households, including indigenous peoples. After the President's speech several of these, from the Unangax tribe in Alaska, performed traditional dances wearing beaded headdresses and facial designs representing family lineage across the cheeks and 'puberty lines' on the chin. These are painted on boys at the age of seven and on girls at menarche.

Although 10% of U.S. oil comes from Alaska, gas there is more than 8$ p.g. Some people go without food in order to heat their houses said Jolene Petticrew, teacher of the dancers, in an interview. Others who lack gas to run their boats and 'four-wheelers' must forego hunting.

Chavez explained that the distribution system in Alaska eliminates the middleman, a bane of capitalism.

He also explained his program for distributing oil among his own neighbors: In exchange, Cuba sends Venezuela doctors and medicine; Uruguay sends prefabricated houses; Argentina sends incubators, nuclear energy for medicine and agricultural machines as well as pregnant cows that have been bred to produce 20 liters of milk p.d. as well as to give birth only to females.

He also touched on the theme of coca which he said is used for making non-fattening bread, tea and toothpaste.

Quoting Martin Luther King: "I have a dream," Chavez ended with a reference to the Noam Chomsky book Hegemony or Survival, that he had mentioned at the U.N. on Wednesday. He said that there are two superpowers today: 1) the United States and 2) the rest of the world. For the sake of the rest of the world, the people of the United States must bring down the current administration and free this country.

17 comments:

Rice Farmer said...

For all Chavez's faults (and we all have faults), he stands head and shoulders above the likes of Bush. Yesterday Nancy Pelosi attacked Chavez and called him a thug. What a joke! Wayne Madsen had a few telling comments about that.

Rice Farmer said...

Ploy or not, people who avoid freezing to death thanks to Chavez don't see it that way. And the fact remains that Bush has abandoned his own people.

Em said...

While I am aware that it is impossible for us in the US to get the entire story about the leaders, and the political scenes, in other countries, in particular countries in Latin America, I haven't gotten the impression that Hugo Chavez stole his election... nor that he is a thug -- though I am quite certain that is what our media and our government would have us believe. Fortunately, our "man on the street" has begun to report on the conditions under Presidente Chavez... so we are able to get a little clearer picture of what he what is actually going on there.

Howlin_Dog said...

To Heck with the Opra Book Club Endorsements.... Looks like a Hugo Chavez endorsement is even better!

Noam Chomsky's "Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance (The American Empire Project)" is rated No. 1 on Amazon's Bestseller list and NO. 3 on Barns and Noble's list. These lists are updated hourly. My guess is it will be high soon on the other lists which are updated less often.

Maybe Mike should get a Chavez endorsement for "Crossing the Rubicon" to help sales. I am sure Chavez would like it.

Howlin_Dog said...

tnt in tampa:

Provide me the data from a reliable source to back up your statement that Hugo Chavez was never elected and why you call him a monster.

I have been web searching to find the bad about Hugo Chavez. I have found plenty to tick off the business as usual US crowd, but I have not found anything that seems to be not in the best interest of the majority of the Venezuela people.

BTW rice_farmer: Thanks for pointing out a specific statement by a democrat, Nancy. It is nice to see them showing their true colors.

Pandabonium said...

Recalling Bush's childish penchant for passing gas to see the reaction of new interns, I couldn't help but wonder if that was the true source of the sulphur that Chavez said he could still smell at the rostrum! ;^)

Rice Farmer said...

tnt -- I don't know about militaresdemocraticos.surebase.com, but vcrisis.com is a rabid anti-Chavez site. As noted by a recent FTW article, "VCrisis effectively functions as an anti-Venezuelan Langley (CIA) propaganda tool." Just a heads-up on that one. And the Carter Center found no problems with the referendum.
http://www.cartercenter.org/news/documents/doc2023.html

Howlin_Dog said...

tnt in tampa:

Thanks for the reply. I have read and absorbed the first article. Your right, it reads exactly like those here about the voting machines.

The next step for me will be looking into biographies and/or other work by the two authors.

The second article will take even more time... However, the sidebar is really interesting.. especially the bottom one. "Keep refering to yourself as a true democrat. Call everone else a fascist or terrorists" .... Sounds like the same spin artists everywhere.

All in all tnt, I am really not sure if I should thank you or cuss you... now I have a lot of work to do. This "believe noone without proof" stuff is a lot of work!

Anonymous said...

Here's my take on Chavez.

My recollection is that exit polls during his election showed that Hugo was primed to be the big loser. And that the election results were verified by Jimmy Carters election monitoring organization.

That tells me that more than likely, contrary to popular belief, Jimmy Carter is still in the business of planting nuts.

Ok, Chavez isn't a nut, but he's a socialist.

That's the same Jimmy Carter who sat on stage with GOP/Dem propagandist Michael Moore during the 2004 DNC in Boston. The same Carter who's foreign policy resulted in the current Iran (who's President had a private audience last week with the Council on Foreign Relations), and the same Carter who's former National Security Advisor has written exensively about the necessary expansion of US military and economic influence.

It's my opinion that Chavez was placed in office by the New World Order globalists who run the Dem and GOP parties in the US. How they play him remains to be seen, but so far they've painted him as evil and I've heard him refered to by national leaders as a dictator. He's a catalyst, giving the empire something to push back against in South America.

Whether Chavez is sincere or not, I don't know. But considering the circumstances surrounding his election victory, I believe he's in office as a means to project US interest and power into the region.

That's my two cents on the issue.

Howlin_Dog said...

shorebreak:

I have been doing a lot of thinking about Chavez and all of the negative being thrown around about him.

The bible has a statement about determining truth. "Judge by the Fruit of the Tree". Also, I once worked for a company that was trying to improve the quality of software and the determining factor was looking at actual source code not the rules & regulations or memos written by the managers. The quality auditors called the actual source code clues "artifacts". This was judging by the fruit... not the statements.

The fact is there was an coup and the people of Venezuela put Chavez back into office. That fact to me is more important than any voter watch-dog organizations or aligations of "fixed" voting machines.

That being said, I also am still wondering about who is playing who.

Anonymous said...

howlin_dog,

I don't disagree with you.

(I'm rushing this response on my way out to work, so forgive the lack of detail, chronology, and supportive material that a good response would have. You can research "FTAA" or "Pan-American Union" and "globalism" to get more detail on my comments.)

I probably think of the Wall Street Media machine (including the White House) the same way that you do. While most Americans believe that the media only gives them the tip of the iceberg, it's my opinion that the media often gives us a manufactured iceberg tip, when in reality there is nothing beneath it.

I lump the demonization of Chavez into that category.

But my earlier lumping of Chavez into the same group as Carter, Brzezinski, and others among the Council on Foreign Relations goes much deeper than recent history. It reaches back at least thirty and forty years to the Pan-American Union and more recently to the the efforts to establish the FTAA (Free Trade Area of the America's).

Prior to Chavez, unification of South America was proving to be a near impossible task among the globalist movement (aka "The Empire"). It was the people of each country - the citizens - who wanted to gaurd their sovereignty and protect their nations from corporate take-over.

What the citizens (and many Americans) fully failed to recognize is that globalism holds allegience to nothing except the goal. Political ideology is merely a tool to be used in response to popular opinion. It was used to take Russia, it was used to take China. and it's being used to take South America.

One thing that Chavez has done better than anyone else is to unify the South American nations and to create the foundation of a regional economic entity that is typically referred to as PetroAmerica. It's stated goal is energy independence for South America (which is an interdependency among SA nations) and a regional economic development plan to place SA on the competitive map.

Very similar to NAFTA/CAFTA or to the EU.

What Chavez has accomplished is to use anti-American feelings to motivate the people of South America to unite economically AGAINST the US. But in the end, the citizens of that region don't realize that they're being led into the exact same economic structure that the FTAA would have placed them under. The only difference is that the people believe it's their own initiative, rather than a US led initiative.

Any way you slice it, it's still cut from the same hide as the FTAA and the global integration plans of Wall Street and their White House.

That economic regionalizaion is the root of my Chavez assesment. I'm not trying to read into or disseminate spin. I'm simply looking at the basic facts that are emerging from an historic perspective.

The corporate globalists have long planned for a Pan-American union, using trade and economic regions as a foundation for integration. The effort failed in South America due to suspiscion. After that failure, a globalist CFR member named Jimmy Carter aids Chavez in winning his initial elections and Chavez stands in opposition to the FTAA, gaining public support by heading a South American economic movement.

The result is that the unrealized plans of the FTAA are coming into fruition, so long as the US continues to apply negative pressure.

That dynamic is a fact. Whether Chavez is complicit or not, I cannot judge. But I can say definitively that his plans and activities play directly into the long established integration goals of the globalists.

mrs p said...

Anyone who thinks Chavez is a monster & isn't loved by the voters who put him where he is, has been brainwashed by the very controlled U.S. Corporate owned soundbyte barbie doll fake media which is very good at putting down democracy 24 / 7 worldwide in it's usual incidious manner.

America needs "independent media" bigtime! You can find some on Directv channel 375 (World Link TV) and on Dish it's 9410. There's also "Free Speech TV" on Dish at 9415? See Democracy Now or go to their website.

mrs p said...

Somebody send Hugo Mike's book if it hasn't been done already!

Howlin_Dog said...

mrs p:

I do not know of any good television stations but some very good alternative audio that can be found on some public broadcasting stations.

A website about it is: Alternative Radio

you can search the site for a station near you or if you have a high speed link you can listen to many off the net.

Howlin_Dog said...

shorebreak:

I think I agree with almost everything your saying although I tend to come from the left and not the right when it comes to economics.

Mainly I think big is bad whether it is big government, big corporations, or big unions. A long time ago I read a book called "The Breakdown of Nations" by Leopold Kohr. It explained a lot of what is going on in the world anymore. This includes the quicker and quicker trials (Bush's tribunals) and even no trials until the evenual final solution of getting rid of all of "that kind". It is a scary track we are on.

I have about 3 possible models of what may be going on with respect to Chavez right now.

1: The WWE (wresting) model where they put on a show of opposing views, yet both are the same. Your GOP vs. Demo example.

2: The PCY (Pak Chung Yi) model. This is from when I was in the army in Korea in the early 70's. If you asked a Korean what they though of their leader they immediately got silent. That could be either because of the US was supporting a puppet, or it could be because the government had a real enemy nearby and had to enforce tougher rules. If I am giving the benefit of the doubt I would choose the latter.

3: The Big vs. Big model. This is the idea that the only way to beat a big foe is to get big just like they are. But to get big means one probably must become just like the enemy one dislikes.

After doing more thinking about all of this I believe I have really got myself sidetracked. Although geopolitics is very interesting, there is very little I can personally do about it.

The folks at FTW are doing a great job of sorting the news for me and keeping me aware of what is going on. I need to get back at doing what I prefer to do for me and that is learn new skills and stay active.

Jenna Orkin said...

geop:

re your last comment, i couldn't tell if it was all a quote from wayne madsen or if some of it was yours. if madsen, plz send link. if yours, we can post as is. thx

mrs p said...

Bush & co. are thugs. And are we not starved for a real leader? A leader who can speak in public without a speech writer's punch words, cries of a little girl in gradeschool..."they hate us for our freedom". Must be a Rovism. Where's a leader who can speak a whole sentence from the heart & soul? Wow what a concept. One who speaks to the world with feeling and sincerity. One who unites and inspires without talking about fear & doubt & fighting, fighting, fighting the "enemy". One who doesn't sound like they've got a chip implant in their brain. Yes Hugo I couldn't agree more. We do need to save our country but it might be too late. It's one big toilet right now. Has been for some time but so many are in denile and will never, never, take a good look. They just don't want to go there. They'll just keep on shopping at Mal-wort.

It's not an easy thing to change your country out of a tail spin by voting. Especially when the voting isn't democratic and the Votes Are Not Counted! They hate us for our freedom. NOT! What freedom? You're taking it all away. Even this here will be taken away from all of us if you get your way, even the "Net" will no longer be free soon. So how do we all organize and democraticly, non-violently fire the worthless slobs running our country? We do have to do something. Every little bit helps. We all must vote even though it may not get counted. We must not be silent. November is coming. We have regressed really, really far backwards. And it may take decades and decades to recover. But we must not be silent.