Chavez wasted money on health care when he could have built skyscrapers

[Enrique]

just mentioned on Democracy Now.

http://www.fair.org/blog/2013/03/06/ap-chavez-wasted-his-money-on-healthcare-when-he-could-have-built-gigantic-skyscrapers/

One of the more bizarre takes on Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's death comes from Associated Press business reporter Pamela Sampson (3/5/13):

Chavez invested Venezuela's oil wealth into social programs including state-run food markets, cash benefits for poor families, free health clinics and education programs. But those gains were meager compared with the spectacular construction projects that oil riches spurred in glittering Middle Eastern cities, including the world's tallest building in Dubai and plans for branches of the Louvre and Guggenheim museums in Abu Dhabi.

That's right: Chavez squandered his nation's oil money on healthcare, education and nutrition when he could have been building the world's tallest building or his own branch of the Louvre. What kind of monster has priorities like that?

In case you're curious about what kind of results this kooky agenda had, here's a chart (NACLA, 10/8/12) based on World Bank poverty stats–showing the proportion of Venezuelans living on less than $2 a day falling from 35 percent to 13 percent over three years. (For comparison purposes, there's a similar stat for Brazil, which made substantial but less dramatic progress against poverty over the same time period.)

Of course, during this time, the number of Venezuelans living in the world's tallest building went from 0 percent to 0 percent, while the number of copies of the Mona Lisa remained flat, at none. So you have to say that Chavez's presidency was overall pretty disappointing–at least by AP's standards.

[The Magistrate]

1. Jesus Wept, Sir....

"The mind wobbles...."

[niyad]

2. this is from the Onion, yes? oh, wait. surely this twit was trying to be satirical? please,

please tell me she isn't serious.

[Cal Carpenter]

3. Holy shit

yeah, he shoulda done it like Dubai, with SE Asian slave labor and confiscated passports.

Seriously that is the most fucked up thing I have read as far as all the anti-Chavez propaganda goes. Really brings out my potty mouth.

Feeding people is meager. Oh My Fucking God. Only to a business reporter who has likely never struggled to feed their kid or pay a co-pay.

Viva the fucking revolution.

[limpyhobbler]

43. +1

[Kolesar]

4. Pamela Sampson would have fit in with the yacht-club types I used to know

Inherited wealth and all that

[Coyotl]

5. I thought they remaned all the "yacht clubs" to "Bush Tax Cut Clubs"

and the usage "yacht club" had been deprecated

[lastlib]

29. Yacht Clubs are now "own-a-ship societies."

We just thought Dubya was saying "ownership society"..........
How dumb of us....

[Coyotl]

62. Good one!

[Egalitarian Thug]

6. K&R That monster didn't give even a dollar to any insurance companies while doing it.

He just spent it on caring for people's health! Little people's health, no less!

[valerief]

7. Why men with guns continue to protect these overlords baffles me. nt

[Moostache]

31. They won't eventually...

When the shit really hits the fan, people who think like that, the types who pay others to guard them to protect their "wealth" instead of seeking equality and ways to create a better life for all, they will one day find themselves on the business end of one of their hired guns.

The horrors of the 21st century resource wars will not spare the 1%, even though they live in a denial bubble that makes them believe it will. The coming wars and slaughters of this century are going to make those of the last seem tame in comparison.

[newfie11]

8. What a great idea

To bad America doesn't do that

[go west young man]

9. Another good read in regards to the US propaganda.

http://subversivethomism.com/?p=1090

[kardonb]

13. go west

why don't we just declare Chavez a saint , and be done with it . After all , he could do no wrong , apparently , and he hated the US ( as if that were a plus point ) .Oh yeah , we mistreated the poor guy , boohoo .

[kenfrequed]

17. Great arguement.

I am complete confident everyone here is completely convinced by your use of logic and evidence.
*maximum legal amount of sarcasm intended*

[noiretextatique]

19. i regret to inform you

that you know nothing about this topic. half of the world hates the US, with good reason. we propped up horrible, murderous regimes in third world countries for our own benefit. we didn't give a shit about the people who suffered under those regimes, so YES, there are many people in this world who don't think we are as great as a lot of misguided no-nothings in the US think we are.

[xtraxritical]

27. Start wars with impunity for no reason other than to enrich the MIC.

[noiretextatique]

45. yep...as with bush, inc

we spent public funds to enrich private corporations, including cheney's haliburton pals, while destroying the lives of iraqis. and they are supposed to LOVE us? ridiculous.

[L0oniX]

20. Enjoy your stay. n/t

[Spitfire of ATJ]

22. Okay,...THAT was worth a chuckle.

[Cal Carpenter]

23. Most people don 't want to make him a saint

They are only reacting to the propaganda that is trying to make him out as the devil.

Ultimately none of it is about Chavez himself, it is about the economic/social programs he implemented and the greater movement in Latin America and elsewhere to move away from western capitalism and toward some sort of (small s) socialism.

This threatens the capitalist ruling class, who own the majority of the media, so they demonize the man rather than addressing his POLICIES and their RESULTS, and the actual conditions for life and livelihood for the working classes and poor.

[prole_for_peace]

25. you forgot this

[brush]

44. Is this post serious? No sarcasm symbol? You do know you're on DU, right? nt

[BeHereNow]

50. I just now served on a jury for this post.

I voted to leave it because it makes you ever so much more identifiable.
You are the one who is spouting RW talking points, IMO.
You appear to be completely ignorant of the help Chavez provided
to poor people HERE, in your own back yard, with free heating oil.
Look it up.
The Lakota Reservation in particular.
The people we have thrown away.

BHN

[sofa king]

57. Perhaps you could explain WHY he hated the US.

Because there was a coup attempt against Chavez in 2002:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_Venezuelan_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat_attempt

The Bush Administration backed the coup:

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/03/international/americas/03venezuela.html

The Bush Administration was caught meeting with the coup leaders:

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/16/world/bush-officials-met-with-venezuelans-who-ousted-leader.html

And of course, on the very same day, the Bush Administration lied about all of it:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/1933526.stm

So, you know, there's that. I should also mention that I hold Caracas of the 1980s, which I happened to see once, as the gold standard of social stratification, mass poverty, societal breakdown, and civil disobedience. It was the saddest place I have ever been, so if Hugo Chavez improved it at all he is more deserving of praise than the US President who attempted to keep those people in squalor, while he impoverished his own people at the same time, and lied about it all.

[BobbyBoring]

18. I can't believe that writer is an assistant professor.

Piss poor writing!

[RitchieRich]

26. thanks!

thanks for turning me onto that site, posted the story on my FB

[malthaussen]

10. What a loser.

Didn't he know? Feed the poor today, and they'll want you to feed them tomorrow as well! But a skyscraper is forever!

-- Mal

[Swagman]

52. and in Dubai those skyscrapers will be forever empty as their re-sale value is plummeting

just ask the thousands of Brits talked into 'investing' there.

[harun]

11. And we complain about North Korean propaganda?

[Mr Dixon]

12. SMH

[Pararescue]

14. Damn his eyes.

How dare he provide for the people of Venezuela rather than the corporations.

[Bainbridge Bear]

15. This is just the kind of crap

that I would expect from a business columnist. By the way, Pam, that tallest building in the world that you are gloating about can't even handle its sewage properly. It is a real problem and representative of the kind of unintended results from the bigger is always better and growth, growth, growth crowd that you are a part of. The elitist priorities of this article speak for themselves. Real people count for nothing in Pam's sick vision of the world.

[treestar]

16. Ayn Rand would have had a fit.

Skyscrapers are a sign of man's achievement!

[Whisp]

21. oiy

I guess when those capitalists get fat enough to burst then the pieces that float down is what the poor are supposed to eat? But they have to wait and until that time, starvation kinds of takes you out of the waiting line. But some day, maybe your kids can dine on pieces of exploded capitalist ass.

I am disappointed that the usual shows I watch on MSNBC didn't do the Chavez story any justice, disappointed but not all that surprised. So in another bout of pissed-offedness toward MSNBC I turned the channel to CBC. And they were worse with carrying on all the lies and distortions of who Chavez was and what he really accomplished.

If someone still disagrees that there are forces working against the common person, a group of people that want us ignorant and stupid, well this is as good example as any for you to wake up. We can just as easily be talked into another war such Iraq.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

24. Now where is the article claiming it was terrible that he BRIBED his people to vote for him?

[Melinda]

28. :facepalm:

[abelenkpe]

30. I hope people write to Pamela Sampson and AP

To let them know some crazy person stole their identity and posted an absurd column in their name stating that building skyscrapers was more important than a government providing education, healthcare and working to raise it citizens out of poverty.

[darkangel218]

32. Just to play the devils advocate

Could have been that the AP writer was just being sarcastic?

[liberal N proud]

33. AP actually had guts to print that shit?:

[malaise]

35. And you are surprised because????

[liberal N proud]

37. We all know that is how the right thinks but never thought they would put it in print directly

We all know that caring for the people is against the beliefs of the right wing conservatives for which the AP is a major propaganda tool.

I just never expected them to be so blatant about it.

[malaise]

38. They are effin shameless

BBC isn't much better - you think they'd show empirical evidence showing how conditions for the poor in Venezuela have improved. No Katie Key that idiot is talking about the Iranian President's presence at the funeral.

Maduro just won the election with that tribute to Chavez - AP can continue with their BS.

[liberal N proud]

39. It probably really rips at these people that in spite of Chavez' socialism, Capitalism still reigned

Venezuela still had capitalism while caring for the people, imagine how that tears at the (hearts is not the right word) of those who think like this reporter wrote.

[malaise]

42. Chavez merely did what the happiest countries in the world hae been doing for decades

He practiced social democracy. Chavez was a genuine practitioner of liberation theology.

[booley]

34. I think I hit on the problem with the economy

The economic "experts" don't see a connection between the economy and making the lives of humans better.

The latter is seen as incidental and some times even antagonistic to the former.


Which begs the question.. who do the economic experts think the economy was made for?

[tavalon]

36. The very reason I consider Chavez one of the good guys (albeit flawed, and who isn't?)

is that he built his community rather than skyscrapers.

[LeftInTX]

40. Maybe Ms. Sampson should move to Dubai

[brush]

41. I have no words.

Last edited Fri Mar 8, 2013, 03:59 PM - Edit history (1)

Hope someone will write the real truth about Chavez and his achievements for his people, and I hope it's written through unfiltered, non-imperialist, non-capitalist eyes. He could easily have lived it up to the hilt with millions of multi-national bribe money stashed in Swiss, or Cayman Island accounts but he chose to improve the lot of the disadvantaged in his country. That sounds to me like a hero — flawed, not a saint — but a hero nonetheless, no matter how the Western, corporatist media tries to sully his name.

[Egalitarian Thug]

47. Oh, haven't you heard? He died a billionaire after looting his country of their legacy.

There is nothing beyond a guillotine that will convince these parasites that they are wrong. They honestly believe that stealing the proceeds of other people's labor is an honorable life.

[TheKentuckian]

46. If you think these people are going to ever be reformed or that there is "common ground" to be found

then you need to puff, puff, pass.

Corporate folks will have to be trucked, right wingers severely marginalized and shrunk to their ideology can be drowned in a thimble.

[johnlucas]

48. If I was this author's father I would have disowned her on the spot for that foolishness

Chavez invested Venezuela's oil wealth into social programs including state-run food markets, cash benefits for poor families, free health clinics and education programs. But those gains were meager compared with the spectacular construction projects that oil riches spurred in glittering Middle Eastern cities, including the world's tallest building in Dubai and plans for branches of the Louvre and Guggenheim museums in Abu Dhabi.

I would be ashamed that my daughter would write such a sick callous statement.
I would have to admit my failings as a parent, as a father.
Her ass would be disowned on the SPOT, you hear me.

Understand folks. Media is a the key to change.
Media shapes the mind & if more media outlets broadcast this kind of message over the equitable kind, then this is the kind of society we're gonna have.
We have to drown out voices like Pamela Sampson's.
John Lucas

[snot]

49. +1: "Media is a the key to change."

And election reform.
And education.

[idwiyo]

51. I am fairly positive my IQ dropped at least 50 points just from reading that drivel.

[raouldukelives]

53. I hope for her mental well being nobody tells her about Jesus Christ.

If she thinks that's bad. She ain't heard nothing yet.

[Wolf Frankula]

54. You Do Realize that Both Groups Wasted the Money

They could have bought weapons, and made Cheney's friends at Halliburton and the Carlyle Group richer.

Bravo for Chavez!

Wolf

[Perseus]

55. Where do you people get your information from?

Has anyone on this blog ever been in Venezuela?

Hospitals are so underfunded there that its hard to get a band-aid, people die in corridors waiting for a physician to treat them. Many Cuban "Doctors" were taken to Venezuela and medicine in Cuba is not as good as what Michael Moore made you believe. They misdiagnosed Chavez cancer and that is why he never got any better, a Venezuelan Dr. diagnosed him correctly but because Chavez trusted more the Cubans than his own people, he decided to get treatment in Cuba. Venezuela is blessed with some of the best minds in the medical field, a proof of that is that there are many hospitals in the USA where Venezuelans are the head of different departments. I don't know if he is still there but the head of the cardiology department at the Mass General Hospital was from Venezuela during the 1980s.

It is truly amazing how fanatic the people at DU are, I have family and friends who live there, all the praises and support for Chavez just shows the ignorance that prevails at DU in regards to Chavez and Venezuela.

All of you become frustrated when trying to discuss issues with republicans because, not only that they don't listen, but most of their answers are nothing but insults and wisecracks. Sorry to tell you but, from what I have read here and the answers I got to a previous blog of mine, you are no better. Needless to say, it was a very frustrating exchange.

I was in Venezuela in 1998 during the presidential campaign, and what I heard from Chavez was fantastic, I told my family that if I could vote there I would vote for him, but the reality of his years as president is very different. I also won't deny that, on paper, he had very good ideas, but the people he surrounded himself with and the advice he received from Castro deviated him from his original goals. He has created division between classes, Venezuela was never knows for kidnappings, it is now rampant, the killings, the corruption from government officials.

I am sure that most of you cringe about Scalia and Roberts here in the USA, but they are nothing compared to the supreme court in Venezuela, and that is saying a lot.

Education is meant to indoctrinate children to the "Socialist" agenda, and teach Cuban philosophy. Chavez gave more to Cuba than to the Venezuelan people, the poor are not better off, some of them do love him out of ignorance, but not because their life is better off today.

Once again, I dare any of you Chavez supporters to visit Venezuela and see for yourselves, and stop drinking the cool-aid that people like Amy Goodman and the "Revolution will not be televised" try to sell.

Also, don't bother to answer this entry because I will not read the wisecracks that i am sure will be posted against my entry.

Educate yourselves, and this will be a better World.

[Enrique]

56. Amy Goodman is a good source

she doesn't sell kool-aid, as you put it. She gives information, including criticisms of Chavez.

[Catherina]

58. Pure comedy gold.

Love always,

a Chavez supporter who spent much time in Venezuela

ps. I thought you were leaving this site of "children who cannot maintain a serious exchange" http://election.democraticunderground.com/1014406581#post14

[Peace Patriot]

65. "...some of them do love him out of ignorance"! Ah, the stupid peasants theory!

They loved him because, according to the UN Economic Commission on Latin American and the Caribbean, Venezuela has become "THE most equal country in Latin America" on income distribution.

According to the Gallup Well-being poll, Venezuelans rate their own country FIFTH IN THE WORLD on their own sense of well-being and future prospects. 5th in the world!

This has to do with better income distribution (good jobs, good wages/benefits, high employment), dramatic increase in educational opportunity, poor people being able to visit a doctor for the first time in their lives, and other very practical and real advances in social justice with programs that reduce poverty and instill optimism.

5th in the world!

Funny that these 'stupid peasants' who "loved Chavez out of ignorance" have weighed the negative drumbeat of the Corporate Media about the Chavez government against what they see in their own lives--their kids able to go college, their grandparents getting health care and pensions, their own wages going up, government loans and grants for small businesses and co-ops, the government coming down like a ton of bricks on the banksters and insuring peoples' savings and access to credit, use of Venezuela's oil wealth in the best way possible--to benefit the people who live there. No wonder they are optimistic! No wonder they have voted for the Chavez government, time and again, by big margins, including giving Chavez's socialist party a near sweep of the recent gubernatorial elections, just after Chavez's re-election, in what Jimmy Carter recently called "the best election system in the world."

These are not people voting "out of ignorance." They are people voting for their own "New Deal"--very like our own forebears voting FDR into office for four terms. They wanted a government run "of, by and for" the people, and by God, they got one, after working extraordinarily hard on their basic civic duties of creating an honest, transparent election system and then participating in it.

What a slander you are perpetrating on your own fellow and sister citizens! Venezuelans may be the smartest voters on the planet!

This is not to say that Venezuela is perfect or that the Chavez government is perfect. All countries have problems. All governments have problems. But Venezuelans analyzed the situation for themselves, and decided, time and again, that the Chavez government is a problem-solving government, had successfully solved many problems, has improved their lives, is headed in the right direction, and would continue to solve problems. Venezuelan voters have clearly understood that the Corporate Media and the Rightwing EXAGGERATES problems (such as violent crime--which is endemic in Latin America (not just in Venezuela) (NOTE: Honduras and El Salvador have HIGHER murder rates!) and COMPLETELY DISTORTS their importance in comparison to problems solved (or in the process of being solved) and goals achieved.

The Chavez government is undeserving of the non-stop criticism of the Corporate Media and the U.S. government and its allies IN THE ESTIMATION OF THE VENEZUELAN PEOPLE. And they are the only legitimate deciders as to whom they want running their government.

If you don't agree with your fellow and sister Venezuelans, GO TELL THEM that they are voting "out of ignorance." See how far it gets you. See how far it gets your party or your candidates.

[killbotfactory]

59. Those fancy skyscrapers were built with loans guaranteed by future oil sales, btw.

And they had to be bailed out from their $80 billion debt in 2010.

[99th_Monkey]

60. Everybody knows that wasting money on Commoners basic needs is so yesterday

Along with other quaint notions like social security and universal health care for all.

[TomClash]

61. Dubai and Abu Dhabi are not democracies

They are playpens for the economic royalists.

[kitt6]

63. Whatever Hugo did with his money

WAS HIS OWN BUSINESS. My 13 year old ask me: why do good people die young; and devils live for a long time?

[HoosierCowboy]

64. When people starve, skyscrapers burn

If this article doesn't illustrate the differences in values, nothing else could do the job. It's not just starvation that can bring down skyscrapers, poverty, ignorance and disease are a match for any monument to human vanity and arrogance.

[Peace Patriot]

66. I don't call them the Associated Pukes for nothing!

nt

[quaker bill]

67. When you feed and and medicate people

there is little to take pictures of, but real wealth grows.