Prof. Peter Phillips (r).*** The inexistent Venezuela of Peter Phillips.
I have received a very curious article on Venezuela (“Democratic Socialism Moves Forward in Venezuela”), written by Mr. Peter Phillips, a member of the faculty at Sonoma State University, California. ( http://www.projectcensored.org/articles/story/democratic-socialism-moves-forward-in-venezuela/). Probably influenced by his wine country surroundings Mr. Phillips writes about a Venezuela that does not exist. I will mention some specific examples of his inaccuracies and will end with a general comment about his enthusiastic endorsement of Venezuelan autocratic and president for life pretender Hugo Chavez.
Mr. Phillips opening statement is that “Democracy from the bottom is evolving in Venezuela”. It could not be farther from the truth. Mr. Chavez himself has told us: “I am no longer Chavez. I am the people”. He has also said: “I am the only one who can govern Venezuela”. His pretensions of “being” the people remind observers of fascist rulers like Mussolini or Argentina’s Juan Peron. In six to seven hours long monologues in television, every Sunday, Chavez tells us, Venezuelans, what he has already decided to do. What he means by “participatory” democracy is simply: “I participate to you what I have decided”.
Mr. Phillips’ second paragraph is also plainly wrong: “PSUV [Chavez’s party] gained over 1.5 million votes in the most recent elections November 23, 2008”. In fact, as compared to the seven million votes Chavez obtained when he won re-election for his second term, he now obtained slightly over 5 million votes. He has lost about two million votes in the last two years. You can look it up. Mr. Phillips quotes a Professor at the Bolivarian University to the effect that Chavez won “a wonderful victory”. He lost the three main Venezuelan cities: Caracas, Maracaibo and Valencia. Opposition governors are now installed in Miranda, Zulia, Nueva Esparta, Carabobo and Tachira, the most important states of the country and control almost 50% of Venezuelan voters. Chavez’s “victory” is a political mirage. He is deeply depressed, in fact, about his loss of these major urban, political and industrial centers, while reduced to controlling mostly the rural areas. The opposition lost in several states because they did not present a unified front.
Mr. Phillips is wrong when he says: “The Bolivarian University is housed in the former oil ministry building”. This “university” has been located from the start in the old Lagoven building in Caracas, a no longer existing state-owned oil company, not in the ministry’s headquarters. He says this university is “symbolic” of the “socialist changes” taking place throughout the country since “the university was only for the rich before Chavez was elected”.
I have received a very curious article on Venezuela (“Democratic Socialism Moves Forward in Venezuela”), written by Mr. Peter Phillips, a member of the faculty at Sonoma State University, California. ( http://www.projectcensored.org/articles/story/democratic-socialism-moves-forward-in-venezuela/). Probably influenced by his wine country surroundings Mr. Phillips writes about a Venezuela that does not exist. I will mention some specific examples of his inaccuracies and will end with a general comment about his enthusiastic endorsement of Venezuelan autocratic and president for life pretender Hugo Chavez.
Mr. Phillips opening statement is that “Democracy from the bottom is evolving in Venezuela”. It could not be farther from the truth. Mr. Chavez himself has told us: “I am no longer Chavez. I am the people”. He has also said: “I am the only one who can govern Venezuela”. His pretensions of “being” the people remind observers of fascist rulers like Mussolini or Argentina’s Juan Peron. In six to seven hours long monologues in television, every Sunday, Chavez tells us, Venezuelans, what he has already decided to do. What he means by “participatory” democracy is simply: “I participate to you what I have decided”.
Mr. Phillips’ second paragraph is also plainly wrong: “PSUV [Chavez’s party] gained over 1.5 million votes in the most recent elections November 23, 2008”. In fact, as compared to the seven million votes Chavez obtained when he won re-election for his second term, he now obtained slightly over 5 million votes. He has lost about two million votes in the last two years. You can look it up. Mr. Phillips quotes a Professor at the Bolivarian University to the effect that Chavez won “a wonderful victory”. He lost the three main Venezuelan cities: Caracas, Maracaibo and Valencia. Opposition governors are now installed in Miranda, Zulia, Nueva Esparta, Carabobo and Tachira, the most important states of the country and control almost 50% of Venezuelan voters. Chavez’s “victory” is a political mirage. He is deeply depressed, in fact, about his loss of these major urban, political and industrial centers, while reduced to controlling mostly the rural areas. The opposition lost in several states because they did not present a unified front.
Mr. Phillips is wrong when he says: “The Bolivarian University is housed in the former oil ministry building”. This “university” has been located from the start in the old Lagoven building in Caracas, a no longer existing state-owned oil company, not in the ministry’s headquarters. He says this university is “symbolic” of the “socialist changes” taking place throughout the country since “the university was only for the rich before Chavez was elected”.
Mr. Phillips is plainly ignorant about the Venezuelan education system and has been told a bunch of lies. Higher education in Venezuela has always been free of charge. There have always been private universities in the country but the bulk of Venezuelan students have always gone to state-run universities. In these universities they are also fed almost at no cost. Thousands of students, professors, staff and relatives have had for years a complete lunch for the equivalent of about fifty U.S. cents at the Universidad Central de Venezuela that has about 60,000 students. They put lies in Mr. Phillips’ mouth.
He quotes the principal (President) of the Bolivarian University saying that the university was “established to resist domination and imperialism”. As a university professor, Mr. Phillips, wouldn’t you rather think that a university is established to find and teach the truth, to open the minds of the young to all ideas and to create citizens capable of living in a free, modern society? Shouldn’t you rather suspect the motives of a university created “to resist imperialism”, as defined by Chavez (U.S. imperialism, not Russian, or Chinese or his own)?
Mr. Phillips interviewed a person called “Carmon Aponte, from Patare”. He probably meant Carmen Aponte from Petare. The person seems to be a member of a community center that exemplifies, according to Mr. Phillips, the “bottom up democracy”. He was told that “there are 25,000 centers of this type in the country” but he saw only one and managed to misspell both the name of the one single person he talked with and the name of the place where the center is located. Isn’t it possible that he has been told a lie? I can tell him that the 25,000 community centers are a political illusion and that the concept, as used by Chavez, rather than being democratic, is built along the lines of the Cuban dictatorship committees. They are centers of political espionage, to keep the neighbors from criticizing the regime. In addition, Mr. Phillips was not told that in Petare Chavez was soundly defeated last November 23! In explaining this humiliating defeat Chavez had the gall to tell international journalists (he does not receive Venezuelan journalists) “Petare was a rich neighborhood” when, in fact, everyone knows that is one of the poorest and most dangerous slums in the world.
Mr. Phillips writes on enthusiastically: “Democratic socialism means healthcare, jobs, food and security in neighborhoods where in may cases nothing but absolute poverty existed ten years ago…” Do you know, Mr. Phillips, that the level of social inequality under Chavez, as measured by the Gini coefficient, is higher than ten years ago? Do you know that Chavez has received over $700 billion in the last ten years and has pilfered this money in handouts to his ideological friends and to the Venezuelan poor, instead of creating programs to tackle the structural, not the day-to-day, problems of poverty and disease? There are no new hospitals or schools or roads being built under Chavez that are remotely proportionate to the immense income he has enjoyed. How can you justify the tragedy of a country with this huge income but having a rigid exchange control, importing $40 billion of food and other essential items per year, having the highest crime rate in the hemisphere, the highest rate of inflation in Latin America, where people have to get in line for two or more hours to get milk and beef and with about 50% of the population able to work engaged in the informal economy (street peddlers) because there are no jobs for them?
Mr. Phillips, you mention MERCAL. This is a Chavez demagogic program designed to offer subsidized or even free food to the poor. The food bought by the government is mostly sold by companies such as the ProArepa group, owned by Chavez’ friends and/or relatives. I refer you to my paper on Corruption under Chavez (Development Policy Paper #2, Cato Institute, November 2006, http://www.cato.org/) if you desire to know more details about this scam. Both the paternalistic concept and the mechanism of food distribution of MERCAL are deeply corrupt. MERCAL gives the poor a fish a day but does not teach him/her how to fish.
Mr. Phillips, you mention that the regime publishes 1,200 books per year in today’s Venezuela. Have you seen the list of such books, are you sure they exist? Did you know that, in some of the books published, the Chavez’s regime is reinventing Venezuelan history to show, for example, that Bolivar was a socialist zambo (like Chavez) and that Miranda and Paez, two of our national heroes, were traitors? This distortion of history is typical of fascist regimes. As a professor of sociology you should be concerned about this attempt by Chavez to change history and to indoctrinate our children. Today Venezuelan children go on Chavez’s TV to recite poems to Che Guevara, Fidel Castro and other criminals. Do you, as an educator, approve of this?
I am at your service to go to Sonoma State College (if I can get the money to pay for my travel expenses) to debate with you, as long as you want, about the Venezuelan situation and to let your students and the academic community at Sonoma State College decide what the truth about Venezuela really is. Apparently you went to Venezuela for a few days and you are now repeating what you were told, without examining the other side of the coin and swallowing whole every piece of misinformation being given to you. This is not the manner, my dear sir, that a university professor should behave.
He quotes the principal (President) of the Bolivarian University saying that the university was “established to resist domination and imperialism”. As a university professor, Mr. Phillips, wouldn’t you rather think that a university is established to find and teach the truth, to open the minds of the young to all ideas and to create citizens capable of living in a free, modern society? Shouldn’t you rather suspect the motives of a university created “to resist imperialism”, as defined by Chavez (U.S. imperialism, not Russian, or Chinese or his own)?
Mr. Phillips interviewed a person called “Carmon Aponte, from Patare”. He probably meant Carmen Aponte from Petare. The person seems to be a member of a community center that exemplifies, according to Mr. Phillips, the “bottom up democracy”. He was told that “there are 25,000 centers of this type in the country” but he saw only one and managed to misspell both the name of the one single person he talked with and the name of the place where the center is located. Isn’t it possible that he has been told a lie? I can tell him that the 25,000 community centers are a political illusion and that the concept, as used by Chavez, rather than being democratic, is built along the lines of the Cuban dictatorship committees. They are centers of political espionage, to keep the neighbors from criticizing the regime. In addition, Mr. Phillips was not told that in Petare Chavez was soundly defeated last November 23! In explaining this humiliating defeat Chavez had the gall to tell international journalists (he does not receive Venezuelan journalists) “Petare was a rich neighborhood” when, in fact, everyone knows that is one of the poorest and most dangerous slums in the world.
Mr. Phillips writes on enthusiastically: “Democratic socialism means healthcare, jobs, food and security in neighborhoods where in may cases nothing but absolute poverty existed ten years ago…” Do you know, Mr. Phillips, that the level of social inequality under Chavez, as measured by the Gini coefficient, is higher than ten years ago? Do you know that Chavez has received over $700 billion in the last ten years and has pilfered this money in handouts to his ideological friends and to the Venezuelan poor, instead of creating programs to tackle the structural, not the day-to-day, problems of poverty and disease? There are no new hospitals or schools or roads being built under Chavez that are remotely proportionate to the immense income he has enjoyed. How can you justify the tragedy of a country with this huge income but having a rigid exchange control, importing $40 billion of food and other essential items per year, having the highest crime rate in the hemisphere, the highest rate of inflation in Latin America, where people have to get in line for two or more hours to get milk and beef and with about 50% of the population able to work engaged in the informal economy (street peddlers) because there are no jobs for them?
Mr. Phillips, you mention MERCAL. This is a Chavez demagogic program designed to offer subsidized or even free food to the poor. The food bought by the government is mostly sold by companies such as the ProArepa group, owned by Chavez’ friends and/or relatives. I refer you to my paper on Corruption under Chavez (Development Policy Paper #2, Cato Institute, November 2006, http://www.cato.org/) if you desire to know more details about this scam. Both the paternalistic concept and the mechanism of food distribution of MERCAL are deeply corrupt. MERCAL gives the poor a fish a day but does not teach him/her how to fish.
Mr. Phillips, you mention that the regime publishes 1,200 books per year in today’s Venezuela. Have you seen the list of such books, are you sure they exist? Did you know that, in some of the books published, the Chavez’s regime is reinventing Venezuelan history to show, for example, that Bolivar was a socialist zambo (like Chavez) and that Miranda and Paez, two of our national heroes, were traitors? This distortion of history is typical of fascist regimes. As a professor of sociology you should be concerned about this attempt by Chavez to change history and to indoctrinate our children. Today Venezuelan children go on Chavez’s TV to recite poems to Che Guevara, Fidel Castro and other criminals. Do you, as an educator, approve of this?
I am at your service to go to Sonoma State College (if I can get the money to pay for my travel expenses) to debate with you, as long as you want, about the Venezuelan situation and to let your students and the academic community at Sonoma State College decide what the truth about Venezuela really is. Apparently you went to Venezuela for a few days and you are now repeating what you were told, without examining the other side of the coin and swallowing whole every piece of misinformation being given to you. This is not the manner, my dear sir, that a university professor should behave.
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REVISTA VEJA - Um concurso de piadas na Costa do Sauípe (Una lucha de las bromas en Costa de Sauípe)
O texto é delicioso. Merece ser saboreado na íntegra:
Líderes de 33 países da América Latina e do Caribe reuniram-se na Costa do Sauípe, na semana passada, para sessões de banhos de mar e relaxamento em que o ponto forte foi um concurso de piadas. Como manda a boa etiqueta, o nível do humor foi ditado pelo anfitrião. O presidente Lula colocou a barra lá em cima. "Gente, por favor. Ninguém tire o sapato porque, aqui, como é muito calor, a gente vai perceber antes de alguém decidir jogá-lo, por causa do chulé", disse o presidente brasileiro, divertindo-se à custa do episódio recente em que George W. Bush, presidente dos Estados Unidos, numa visita a Bagdá, teve de se desviar de um sapato arremessado por um jornalista iraquiano. Na tentativa de manter o nível, Evo Morales, presidente da Bolívia, saiu-se com uma finíssima, ao melhor estilo Austin Powers: "Vamos dar um prazo ao novo governo dos EUA para suspender o bloqueio econômico a Cuba... Se não fizer isso... retiraremos os embaixadores", ameaçou o "Doctor Evo" do altiplano. Em gesto de estadista, diga-se a seu favor que ele nem cogitou acionar a marinha de guerra boliviana, preferindo, por enquanto, exercer apenas pressão diplomática sobre Washington. Evitou, assim, que uma piadinha pudesse dar origem a uma crise militar entre as duas potências.
Pena que não valia piada velha. "Doctor Evo" certamente teria repetido uma que sempre faz enorme sucesso. Ela envolve também os Estados Unidos, mas exige especial domínio de economia para ser entendida: "A queda do preço do petróleo foi um golpe do império contra Hugo Chávez". Falando no venezuelano Chávez, é claro que ele não poderia deixar Lula e Morales dominarem a cena em uma especialidade que, todos sabem, é dele. Não senhor! Bolivariano que se preze não perde concurso de piada. Chávez, então, disparou: "Cuba é a essência do coração e da dignidade dos povos da América Latina e do Caribe...". A piada só tem efeito cômico, claro, quando se esquece que a atual dupla de anciãos ditadores, Fidel e Raúl Castro, há meio século no poder, matou quase 100 000 cubanos – sem falar nos mortos de fome, de raiva e de tédio. Mas a platéia na Costa do Sauípe era bem selecionada, entendeu o espírito da coisa e Chávez saiu se até bem. Uma pena que só os ditadores cubanos e seus cupinchas podem sair da ilha. Se as pessoas comuns do povo cubano pudessem viajar, mais gente saberia que Fidel era chamado de "Comediante en Jefe". Mais gente saberia por que o apelido predileto dos cubanos para Fidel é "Esteban"... Nenhum cubano vai se arriscar a vir ao Brasil para ser preso pela polícia petista e repatriado, como aqueles pobres pugilistas dos Jogos Pan-Americanos, então nós contamos: "Esteban" é a abreviatura de "este bandido...!".
Mas isso é piada de povo... Voltemos aos profissionais. Com a liderança ameaçada por Evo Morales e Chávez, Lula deu sua cartada final. Referindo-se à América Latina, o presidente brasileiro disse: "Éramos um continente de surdos, que não nos enxergávamos". Não tem graça? Leia de novo. É uma variante bem mais inteligente, sutil e burilada da piada clássica do Napoleão de hospício que se dependura no lustre e se recusa a descer para não deixar o quarto às escuras. Foi nesse momento que Rafael Correa, presidente do Equador, vislumbrou uma oportunidade. Correa escolheu como tema o calote que deu no Brasil e atacou: "Foi um problema comercial e econômico lamentavelmente transformado em problema diplomático". Em outro ambiente, teria levado uma sapatada... Mas a Bahia não é Bagdá, Correa não é Bush e todo mundo estava ali mesmo é para relaxar e se divertir. Parecia que o encontro caminharia para seu fim sem um vencedor inconteste. Não contavam com a astúcia de Chávez. Sua piada vencedora era algo reciclada, mas levou a platéia ao delírio: "O socialismo não está morto. Está mais vivo do que nunca. O que está morto é o capitalismo". Alguém jura ter ouvido de um concorrente inconformado com a derrota um lamento inaudível: "Vai sifu...!".
Por Reinaldo Azevedo”
I looked up Somona State University. It is located 50 miles north of San Francisco. They do not list Prof. Peter Phillips as a member of their faculty. I wanted to see his background.
Somona is not a private school. It is part of the University of California system. Just think,if you are a Californian, you can see first hand how your tax dollars are being spent.
I looked him up and, yes, he is a member of the faculty, at the Sociology Dept. He also runs a project within the university that is very biased ideologically. As you say, it seems like the university is being used for political purposes. If you enter the link I mentioned in my post you will find more info. about him.
Merry Christmas,Mr.Colonel.We made hallacas in Texas..Not too bad!!This "traveller" sounds like Sean Penn & his bullshit.I wonder where ol' negro Danny Glover is these days??I started checking in on "The Nation"..Creepy stuff!!As they say"know thy enemy"...Saludos
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