WILL THE REAL OSCAR ARIAS, PLEASE, STAND UP?

About six months ago Oscar Arias, the President of Costa Rica, left me speechless with a statement to the effect that Hugo Chavez "was several times more generous than the U.S. and that Hugo Chavez was free to decide what to do with Venezuelan petrodollars" (see my post, October 5, 2008 in this blog: "Lo que Dice Oscar Arias y por qué lo Dice" ). I gave him a piece of my mind, defining him, with some reluctance, as an ill-informed "turd".

Now, in the Summit of the Americas Oscar Arias gave a speech in which he spoke like a totally different man. He asked Latin American political leaders to stop browbeating the U.S. and examining where "we" went wrong. Great speech, placing a good portion of the blame where it should be.

The problem is: what will he say next month? Six months ago he was Mr. Hyde. In Port Spain he was Dr. Jekill. There is no future in this split personality game, Oscar, as Stevenson's book tells us. Dr. Jekyll explained his dilemma best when he said: :

" I sat in the sun on a bench; the animal within me licking the chops of memory; the spiritual side a little drowsed, promising subsequent penitence, but not yet moved to begin. After all, I reflected, I was like my neighbours; and then I smiled, comparing myself with other men, comparing my active goodwill with the lazy cruelty of their neglect. And at the very moment of that vainglorious thought, a qualm came over me, a horrid nausea and the most deadly shuddering. . . . I began to be aware of a change in the temper of my thoughts, a greater boldness, a contempt of danger, a solution of the bonds of obligation. I looked down; my clothes hung formlessly on my shrunken limbs; the hand that lay on my knee was corded and hairy. I was once more Edward Hyde".

Will the real Oscar Arias, please, stand up, or is he forever trapped, as was the unfortunate Dr. Jekyll, by the animal who lived within him?