This Is What I Mean By Nuance

I have made no secret of my distaste for Hugo Chávez. I think he's a demagogue, I think he's divisive and I think he has dictatorial ambitions.

It is worth noting, however, that his rise to power did not occur in a vacuum. This article in today's New York Times illustrates why he has support among the poor:

Siadys Bayuelo, 33, has spent four years urging local authorities to pipe potable water into her home in this dusty town in eastern Venezuela, sparing her the trouble of walking a mile every day to the nearest well.

Now, contractors are drilling wells around the region as part of a $140,000 project that will eventually pipe water into her three-room cinderblock house and hundreds of others nearby, easing a hardscrabble life. But rather than thanking the local government, Ms. Bayuelo says she is grateful to the state-run oil company, which has extensive but faceless operations in this gas-rich region.

"I'm so happy that we're finally going to have water in the house," she said recently while bathing her 1-year-old son from water drawn out of an old petroleum drum. "This is the first time the company has ever done anything for us."

In a country that is as full of natural resources as Venezuela is this should not be happening: "According to Venezuelan research groups, more than 70 percent of the population lives below the poverty line." I'm also inclined to agree with this comment:

Though social activists say there is a desperate need for increased social spending, Ana María Sanjuán, sociologist and human rights activist with the Center for Rights and Peace in Caracas, questioned why a multinational oil company like Pdvsa is running social projects rather than government agencies designed to do so. "There are certainly legitimate reasons for increasing social spending in Venezuela," she said, "but it should be the state, and not Pdvsa, that carries out social projects."

I am fortunate enough to only have to presume that one who lacks running water will probably not care who supplied it as long as they have it. The solution to prevent further Hugo Chávez's from taking power in Venezuela will be to make for a much more just society, something which I will willingly concede is much easier said than done. I will say this, however: if you think that markets are the best or only solution for this, I urge you to try and convince someone who lacks running water in a country that is rich in resources like Venezuela.