Beautiful Horizons

Useful FTool

I don't object to Eva Golinger going to Venezuela and supporting Hugo Chávez's government in Venezuela. While I disagree with her, she's certainly entitled to her opionion.

I am also entitled to mine and the linked article doesn't present her in a flattering light, but her sense of annoyance at the article is, frankly puzzling. She claims to be defending social justice, but praises the government of Aleksander Lukashenko, notwithstanding extensive reports of human rights abuses by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the UN (pdf file). She praises Ahmed Ahmedinejad as "gentle," while ignoring the evidence of brutal repression in his government; a government that has imprisone thosuands for the non-violent expression of their beliefs.

A friendly suggestion: if you want to be taken seriously and not just be perceived as a tool of the government, put some critical distance between yourself and the government. Supporting Chávez is one thing, but supporting the likes of Lukashenko and Ahmedinejad, frankly makes you appear to be little more than a sycophant.

When Your Enemy Is Unable to Run for Reelection . . .

 . . .Then you just make a new one! What Greg said here: every last word.

It's Probably Not True

I was skeptical that Hugo Chavez had actually accused the US of causing the earthquake in Haiti, not because he isn't capable of saying something wacky, but because all signs pointed to one unverifiable source, the Spanish newspaper ABC.

I was also skeptical, however, as there was no denial apparently from the Chavez camp. That denial has been sent to Dan Drezner.

Absent any actual evidence to the contrary, I see no reason to doubt the denial.

Muddying the Waters

When a nation has suffered the horrific tragedy that Haiti has suffered, it needs help from whatever sources are willing to furnish help.  Why anyone would devote time to carping about this is beyond me.

Although I agree with Robert Farley here, and I fully expect Hugo Chavez to say stupid and tendentious things, I'm skeptical that he said what he's being accused of in the link in Robert's post. The only source I have been able to find making this claim points to ABC, a notoriously right-wing newspaper in Spain with strong ties to the Popular Party there.

It certainly wouldn't surprise me for Chavez to make that asinine claim, but I would like to see another source with substantiation.

The comments in Robert's post range from the informed to the idiotic. My favorite among the latter is this one:

The current government is despised by the vast majority of the population, who want the return of their democratically elected president (who's been coup'd twice and his party was banned during the last election).

Apparently this person has read a newspaper since 2006 when the current president, Rene Preval was elected. Someone with such a feeble understanding of current events in Haiti, frankly has no business commenting on the subject.

If you want to read probably the most concise and coherent analysis of Haiti's history, I would urge you to read this op-ed from Friday's New York Times by Mark Danner.

If you want to help Haiti, please visit one of the recommended links at the top of the page and visit the Jubilee  USA webpage. The organization is dedicated to debt relief in the developing world. Debt to its former colonial masters started Haiti on this difficult road; debt relief will go a long way to helping them recover.

Red Meat for a Windbag

I'm hardly a fan of Hugo Chavez, but this is stupid:

In a list of 10 predictions for the world next year, Newsweek foresaw in Venezuela a year of soaring inflation, power blackouts, food shortages, spiraling crime and tumbling popularity for Chavez, with the mood on the street turning "mean" even among the poor who put him in power.

"The military steps in to depose Chavez and restore order, as 21st-century socialism spins toward the familiar 20th-century tableau of scarcity, poverty, and chaos," it said in a year-end edition.

It's stupid because it's backwards and shows an insulting lack of awareness as to how problems should be solved in Latin America. It shows an utter lack of awareness of the Inter-American Democratic Charter.

It's also stupid for the predictable response from Chavez:

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez scoffed on Wednesday at U.S. magazine Newsweek's predictions that he would be toppled by a military coup and his Cuban mentor Fidel Castro would die in 2010.

In a lengthy televised New Year's address, Chavez, who has taken Castro's position as Latin America's leading critic of U.S. power, described Newsweek as "the empire's magazine."

"They feed on hatred and the wishes of the imperialism that they represent -- big money, big newspapers, the TV stations of the global bourgeoisie," he said.

Chavez feasts on these comments about him. No need to feed him.

Hugo's Onto Something

Hugo Chavez is railing against the Netherlands and claiming that they are conspiring with the US against him. He may have a point. After all:

• Dutch treat is no treat at all.
• A Dutch door is really only half a door.
• A Dutch uncle isn't very avuncular.
• Dutch comfort is hardly comforting.
• Dutch courage requires alcohol.
• A Dutch wife has nothing to do with marital bliss.

One wonders if Chavez fears hordes of hut sput and herring sandwich chomping hordes rolling huge wheels of Gouda down the main streets of Caracas, destroying the rain forest of Venezuela in order to make shoes.

When You've Lost COHA . . .

Who knew? A critical and measured examination of Hugo Chavez from the Council on Hemispheric Affairs. I thought this part was especially cogent:

Since appearing on the world stage in 1998, Hugo Chávez has become an international figure with his erratic personal behavior, legendary incorrect commentary, and often offensive evaluations of other leaders. Rather than comporting himself as a decorous world leader and sober national representative, he has at times behaved as what some have described as “a petulant child.” After calling former President Bush “the devil” at the UN General Meeting in 2006, leaders across the globe have cited the incidence as evidence of his “clownish” behavior and lacking political gravitas.

Chávez’s raffish style is further exemplified by his behavior at an Ibero-American Conference in 2007 in which he repeatedly interrupted the Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, causing a rare outburst from the Spanish King Juan Carlos I, who told Chávez “que te calles.” Of course, to many, Chávez scored a winning response when he addressed the Spanish monarch as “Mr. King”, reminding him that he did not achieve office via election. Chávez admirers would further argue that Chávez’s derelictions are mainly a matter of style, that the Venezuelan leader is a preeminent democrat, and that his multiple shortcomings are trivial in nature.

If his admirers wish to make that argument, then they are being foolish and in my opinion, beholden to the cult of his personality. What they should applaud is a leader who stays on message and spends his time calling attention to the issues he wants to address and the problems he wants to solve rather than giving red meat to his critics.

Some, however, have uncontrollable egos, untempered by the slightest sense of humility. A little humility is an excellent trait for leaders to have.

Willful Ignorance

One of life's ongoing mysteries is the inability of some to see beyond their own blinders or to even gain the slightest bit of knowledge about a partisan issue before bloviating. Here are a couple of examples:

In the comments to this post by Matthew Yglesias, a commenter named Hector in response to this comment:

None of which justified Hugo Chavez once again being a loudmouth ass and pompous underminer of legitimate issues in Venezuela by having to say offensive and uninformed bullshit simply because it seems contradictory to things said ‘in the Empire’.

makes this comment:

Much as i love Chavez, and would not call him a ‘loudmouth ass’ what you say is largely true. He does have a pronounced taste for saying dumb things just to p*ss off the Empire. I wish it wasn’t the case but it is. In fairness, he isn’t a very highly educated man, much as his heart and ideas are in the right place, and some of his occasional sillinesses can be charitably forgiven him on the grounds of lack of education. [my emphasis]

Wow. Perhaps Hector should give some thought as to how one makes it to the rank of lieutenant colonel (Chavez's rank at the time of his attempted coup). Or he could just go to Wikipedia:

At age seventeen, Chávez enrolled at the Venezuelan Academy of Military Sciences. After graduating in 1975 as a sub-lieutenant with a degree in Military Arts and Science, Chávez entered military service for several months. He was then allowed to pursue graduate studies in political science at Caracas' Simón Bolívar University, but left without a degree.

So what does Wikipedia say about the Venezuelan Academy of Military Sciences?:

The Academia Militar de Venezuela ("Venezuelan Academy of Military Sciences"), founded in 1810, is the oldest military academy in Latin America.

So Hector, really has no idea about that which he is braying. Let's take his comments one step deeper. When the subject of lack of education comes about, perhaps Lula would be a better example as he had to drop out of school after the fourth grade. I do not recall Lula praising Idi Amin, Carlos the Jackal or Robert Mugabe.

There is little doubt that the coup that tossed Manuel Zelaya out of the Honduran presidency was very divisive. Indeed one of my regular commenters vigorously embraced the coup, while turning a blind eye towards the fact that the coup government violated Honduran law by throwing Zelaya out of the country and credible allegations of human rights abuses by the Micheletti government. After having posted several comments regarding this on this blog as well as other blogs in which this commenter had commented eliciting no response, I finally pressed the issue in the comments to this post on Greg Weeks' blog.  The response? I get falsely accused of having called the commenter a paleocon (something that I cannot recall having done and, the commenter offered no proof of my having done so) and then accused me of engaging in "gringo imperialism" for the sin of having brought up the subject of human rights.

Let's do some basic research here. Honduras is either a signatory or has ratified the Convention Against Torture, the Covenant for Civil and Political Rights, Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Disctrimination Against Women, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Civil Rights, the Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, as well as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

How respect for human rights is gringo imperialism is beyond me. This is basic moral relativism and it's beneath contempt. That's the sort of comment I would expect from a Castro or Pinochet sympathizer.

A Tale of Two Presidents

Hugo Chavez:

In his speech, Mr Chavez also described Presidents Mugabe and Ahmadinejad - who like Mr Chavez are strong critics of the US - as brothers.

Barack Obama:

I had the honor and pleasure of attending the RFK Human Rights Award ceremony last night, hosted by President Obama and Mrs. Obama at the White House, where Magodonga Mahlangu and Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) were recipients of the annual award. I can sum it up in one word: wow. I laughed, I cried, I was disappointed the toilet paper did not have the presidential seal.

In President Obama’s words:

And that may be Magodonga’s greatest achievement — that she has given the women of Zimbabwe each other.  That she has given people who long for peace and justice each other. That she has given them a voice they can only have collectively-and a strength that they can only have together. They are a force to be reckoned with.

Read the whole thing.

More Idiocy From a Reliable Source

What president praised Carlos the Jackal, a man who, among other things, waged a campaign of terror against civilian targets in France resulting in the deaths of more than 20 in order to unsuccessfully free his wife from prison for possession of explosives?

What president expressed doubts about Idi Amin's record of brutal rule claiming that Amin was a "patriot?"

What president also praised as a patriot, Robert Mugabe, a man willing to drive his country to financial ruin and cause his people great suffering?

Hugo Chavez, of course.