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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsChavez wasted money on health care when he could have built skyscrapers
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):
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 statsshowing 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 disappointingat least by AP's standards.
The Magistrate
(95,248 posts)"The mind wobbles...."
niyad
(113,434 posts)please tell me she isn't serious.
Cal Carpenter
(4,959 posts)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
(8,244 posts)Kolesar
(31,182 posts)Inherited wealth and all that
Coyotl
(15,262 posts)and the usage "yacht club" had been deprecated
lastlib
(23,251 posts)We just thought Dubya was saying "ownership society"..........
How dumb of us....
Coyotl
(15,262 posts)Egalitarian Thug
(12,448 posts)He just spent it on caring for people's health! Little people's health, no less!
valerief
(53,235 posts)Moostache
(9,897 posts)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
(8,159 posts)To bad America doesn't do that
go west young man
(4,856 posts)kardonb
(777 posts)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
(7,865 posts)I am complete confident everyone here is completely convinced by your use of logic and evidence.
*maximum legal amount of sarcasm intended*
noiretextatique
(27,275 posts)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
(3,576 posts)noiretextatique
(27,275 posts)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
(31,493 posts)Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)Cal Carpenter
(4,959 posts)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
(2,064 posts)brush
(53,794 posts)BeHereNow
(17,162 posts)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
(10,857 posts)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
(1,965 posts)Piss poor writing!
RitchieRich
(292 posts)thanks for turning me onto that site, posted the story on my FB
malthaussen
(17,205 posts)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
(1,934 posts)just ask the thousands of Brits talked into 'investing' there.
harun
(11,348 posts)Pararescue
(131 posts)How dare he provide for the people of Venezuela rather than the corporations.
Bainbridge Bear
(155 posts)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
(82,383 posts)Skyscrapers are a sign of man's achievement!
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
(32,723 posts)Melinda
(5,465 posts)abelenkpe
(9,933 posts)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
(13,985 posts)Could have been that the AP writer was just being sarcastic?
liberal N proud
(60,338 posts)malaise
(269,083 posts)liberal N proud
(60,338 posts)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
(269,083 posts)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
(60,338 posts)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
(269,083 posts)He practiced social democracy. Chavez was a genuine practitioner of liberation theology.
booley
(3,855 posts)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
(27,985 posts)is that he built his community rather than skyscrapers.
LeftInTX
(25,408 posts)brush
(53,794 posts)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
(12,448 posts)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
(25,026 posts)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
(1,250 posts)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
(10,530 posts)And election reform.
And education.
idwiyo
(5,113 posts)raouldukelives
(5,178 posts)If she thinks that's bad. She ain't heard nothing yet.
Wolf Frankula
(3,601 posts)They could have bought weapons, and made Cheney's friends at Halliburton and the Carlyle Group richer.
Bravo for Chavez!
Wolf
Perseus
(4,341 posts)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
(27,461 posts)she doesn't sell kool-aid, as you put it. She gives information, including criticisms of Chavez.
Catherina
(35,568 posts)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
(24,010 posts)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
(13,566 posts)And they had to be bailed out from their $80 billion debt in 2010.
99th_Monkey
(19,326 posts)Along with other quaint notions like social security and universal health care for all.
TomClash
(11,344 posts)They are playpens for the economic royalists.
kitt6
(516 posts)WAS HIS OWN BUSINESS. My 13 year old ask me: why do good people die young; and devils live for a long time?
HoosierCowboy
(561 posts)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
(24,010 posts)nt
quaker bill
(8,224 posts)there is little to take pictures of, but real wealth grows.