Sunday, May 18, 2008
If that's really the case, maybe he shouldn't run around places like the UN yelling "I smell sulphur!" The Globe's Martin Baron writes about a meeting a group of US newspaper editors had with the Venezuelan pseudo-dictator. There are some interesting tid-bits. For instance:
...I beg for a pardon from them. I beg for forgiveness if in my speech I've hurt any feelings back in the States. I ask for forgiveness. When I speak about the United States, I do not refer to the people, to the citizens. I refer to the elite that is governing the United States - and not even referring to all of the elite governing the United States. Because we have friends among the elite governing the US. The economic elite, we have friends. We have friends among the cultural elite of the United States . . . Danny Glover. Kevin Spacey came over here. Sean Penn. Those are my friends, close friends . . . And when they come over here, they say what they like and what they don't like. And we still are friends. And that's what we want. We want to be friends. And I hope that with the new government we can then open new space for exchange - and discuss...
This is typical of totalitarians, and particularly Leftist ones, to misunderstand how Americans view their republic and over-emphasize the separation most Americans feel between themselves and the government. Yes, we gripe, but if the likes of Chavez thinks he's going to step into the breech he's got another think coming, in spite of what his Hollywood friends might tell him.
Much more blah blah about his love for Fidel, his worries about a US invasion over oil (where it's pointed out that, despite skyrocketing oil prices, Venezuela still has a poverty problem). Will Chavez be leaving office in 2013? After listening to much rambling, Baron notes:
Chávez never answered whether he would be leaving office for certain in 2013.
"..the Venezuelan pseudo-dictator."
Wouldn't "quasi-dictator" be more accurate in this case?
It would indeed.