BABETTE'S FEAST FOR THE DISPOSSESSED: WHY THE FUTURE OF CHAVISMO MATTERS

[Catherina]

Last edited Sun Apr 28, 2013, 07:11 PM - Edit history (1)

BABETTE'S FEAST FOR THE DISPOSSESSED: WHY THE FUTURE OF CHAVISMO MATTERS

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Published on: Fri Apr 26, 2013
Author: Asa Cusack
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk

This weekend the legacy of Hugo Chávez has been raked over the coals one last time, but the same old stats on poverty, inflation, and crime miss the real story. Chávez's success is as much about how the poor feel about their place in society as it is about improvements in their material conditions. According to pollster Oscar Schemel, these days "it's not enough to present a discourse offering food and employment; people want dignity." Depictions of Chávez supporters as wacky, warm-blooded stooges overlook this factor, yet it underpins the remarkable longevity of Chavismo, most recently reflected in the victory of Nicolás Maduro.

Inside the Barrio, Outside Society



To really understand the impact of Chávez's election in 1999 we have to go back in time. The former missionary Charles Hardy spent eight years in the pre-Chávez barrios (shanty-towns), and his memoir Cowboy in Caracas provides a striking account of what life was like for Venezuela's majority urban poor. It's a grim picture of everyday humiliations like throwing parcels of excrement down the hillside, mounting tension as water trucks fail to materialise, and shoot-to-kill repression of unrest. Within the barrios the state was an absence or a threat; within the state the barrios, entirely absent from official maps, didn't even exist.



Under Chávez the barrios were charted and formalised, the title deeds going to their inhabitants. While problems with basic services persist, they are reduced, and crucially there exists the will to tackle them. One lesser-known social programme, Barrio Tricolor (http://venezuelanalysis.com/images/5658) beautified poor areas by repainting houses in the colours of the Venezuelan flag. Past governments liked to pretend the barrios didn't exist; Chávez governments said "we know there are problems, but these are your homes and they are nothing to be ashamed of."

...

Between Tropicalismo, Rationality, and Dignity

The foreign media have remained blind to these changes, simply supplementing the usual "populist buys votes of the poor" line with a new "Maduro plays up spirituality to Chávez-obsessed electorate" trope that trivialises support for Maduro while appearing to explain it: "Y'know, it's those wacky, warm-blooded, and irrational - if not downright stupid - Venezuelans!"

...

http://lab.org.uk/babettes-feast-with-the-refugees-at-pdvsa-the-real-importance-of-maduros-victory-in-venezuela



Truly an excellent article that should be read in full

[Judi Lynn]

1. Love seeing this article. Never saw the work being done in the barrios, either.

Already the brightness changes the atmosphere altogether on their way to bringing the buildings up to standard conditions for their well being.

The bone-deep changes are slow-going as they have to be transformed from the ground, even below ground and up. New strong foundations are essential for many of them to keep them from continuing to give way and slide down during hard rains.

Went looking for photos, found an interesting one, at night:

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From an interesting article, the first image is from the area which was invaded by criminal Capridiots right after the election:

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Newly painted houses are seen at 'El limon' neighborhood in Caracas May 3, 2010. Chavez's popularity has dropped this year but, he still retains a near-50 percent approval rating. Much of his popularity comes from social missions in poor neighborhoods. The "Barrio Tricolor" or "Three-color Neighborhood" mission has gathered pace this year, with soldiers going into poor parts of Caracas to spruce up dilapidated houses with a fresh coat of paint, new roofs and other repairs.

REUTERS/Jorge Silva

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Venezuelan soldiers rebuild damaged walls as part of the "Barrio Tricolor" government mission in Caracas May 3, 2010. Chavez's popularity has dropped this year but, he still retains a near-50 percent approval rating. Much of his popularity comes from social missions in poor neighborhoods. The "Barrio Tricolor" or "Three-color Neighborhood" mission has gathered pace this year, with soldiers going into poor parts of Caracas to spruce up dilapidated houses with a fresh coat of paint, new roofs and other repairs.

REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins[/center]

Here's Why Millions Of Venezuelans Loved Hugo Chavez [PHOTOS]
Adam Taylor | Mar. 12, 2013, 1:30 PM | 45,009

Before his death from cancer this week, Hugo Chavez had been President of Venezuela since 1999.

In that time he became a divisive figure, making serious economic reforms in the country, seizing private property, and clamping down on criticism. Critics say that the Venezuela he created is simply not sustainable.

Even so, he had millions of supporters. Last year, while seriously ill from cancer, he was able to come back and win an election by a margin of 10 points, down from 25 percent in 2006.

One approval rating from last year gave him a 64 percent positive rating — 15 points higher than Obama received in the same poll.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/hugo-chavezs-venezuela-2013-3?op=1#ixzz2Rn9kBHfs

[Catherina]

5. "with soldiers going into poor parts of Caracas to spruce up dilapidated houses"

"with soldiers going into poor parts of Caracas to spruce up dilapidated houses with a fresh coat of paint, new roofs and other repairs"

What a refreshing difference

[sabrina 1]

7. Yes, letting the soldiers work for the good of their own people. What a concept.

He really was a very excellent 'business' manager, utilizing all the tools he had to try to make life better for his own people.

I love how the Western 'media' talks about WHY the poor loved him, as if it is a bad thing to support someone who supports YOU.

Isn't that how it works everywhere? Here people vote for same reason, the wealthy push and finance candidates who will help make them even wealthier and take as much as possible from the poor. But we never see stories about 'why the wealthy loved Bush etc'.

I hope Venezuela and the rest of Latin America for that matter, spend at least as much on spreading the truth about their countries as their Western enemies spend on negative propaganda.

When I think of why people have the wrong impressions they have of many of the nations we have an 'interest' in, it is because there is no big media machine to counteract the lies and deceptions. Same goes for the countries we invaded illegally, Iraq, Afghanistan etc.

I think it would be worth while for these emerging democracies to counter the money of their enemies for negative propaganda, with positive, FACTUAL magazine stories, news items etc in the Western media, even if they have to publish their own.

[ocpagu]

2. You're right. That really is an excellent article.

"Past governments liked to pretend the barrios didn't exist; Chávez governments said 'we know there are problems, but these are your homes and they are nothing to be ashamed of'."

That was Chávez's "mortal sin". Putting the poor in evidence, placing them as a priority. Making them visible.

That's unbearable to the Venezuelan elites. As any Latin American elite, they are bigoted, racist, fascist. They hate the poor. They don't want them anywhere around. If they could, they would "nuke the favelas" (I have heard this so many times in my life, both from fascists and the useful idiots - the imbeciles in the middle class who likes to emulate the "rich mindset&quot . They can't tolerate a government which is not there to make things easier to those who already have everything. It threatens their sick minds' illusion of superiority.

Thanks a lot for sharing this.

[Justina For Justice]

3. Thanks for Posting This Great Article!

I lived in Venezuela for six years, up until December of 2012. This article really captures the reason that President Chavez was so loved in Venezuela. He respected the dignity of his fellow citizens -- all of them -- not merely the rich one percent. He genuinely cared about improving the lives of the people and put the vast oil resources of the country to work on projects that met their needs.

For Chavez, those needs were not only material -- job training, new or renovated houses, subsidized food markets and free healthcare -- but intellectual and spiritual as well. He constantly shared the books he was reading with the country via his television program urging them to read those books as well. He did the same with the music and dance of the country. In a very Catholic country, he claimed to be following the teachings of Jesus Christ -- to feed the hungry, heal the sick, cloth the naked, house the homeless, minister to those in prison -- thus putting spirituality to work in the many socialist missions.

Thanks Catherina for posting this article.

[Catherina]

6. I envy you

I envy you for having had the privilege of that experience. How wonderful! Thanks for adding this warm, personal comment about him. He was a truly great man. It's unfortunate everyone doesn't have the wisdom, or the compassion towards their brothers, to see that.

[idwiyo]

4. K&R Thank you for posting this.

[sabrina 1]

8. I have read the article in full, it is an excellent accounting of life under Chavez as opposed to

what it was like to be poor in Venezuela before he was elected.

These paragraphs should touch the hearts of any democrat who actually believes in 'equal rights' for all citizens:

And so it was that after interviewing some oil official or other I found myself in a cavernous PDVSA auditorium watching foreign-language cinema with as ragtag a sample of Venezuelan society as you could hope to see. With the best equipment money can buy, in plush surroundings once reserved for well-oiled executives, I sat down with a low-ranking soldier, an old man or two, and a handful of riotous, track-suited refugees to watch the Franco-Danish rumination on sensuality Babette's Feast.

And so what? Did the screening change their lives? Perhaps not, but it was not a one-off and it certainly had more impact than no screening at all. More significant than the event itself was the fact that the state considered this audience worthy of access not only to "high culture", but also to the literal corridors of power. Symbolically it was saying "the arts and institutions from which you were excluded are yours and you are worthy of them." This is fundamental to the socio-political inclusion that really could make a difference long-term. It would have been inconceivable before Chávez.

And it is essential that the work goes on, not destroyed once again by outsiders who have no right to be interfering in any of these countries. As the article points though, hopefully since Chavez did so much more to try to protect his country from outside influences that do not have their interests at heart, this time at least, it is going to be much more difficult for them. Still, the powerful forces they are up against, will not give up easily. Here we need to do our part to change OUR government's policies towards the rest of the world. But it will be difficult.

[Judi Lynn]

9. Seeing the video of Hugo Chavez over 30 years ago, as a young officer

revealed the fact he was a total people magnet throughout his life!

He would never have been beloved, admired if he had not loved the human race, loved life, and had deep principles which mattered above everything to him. He had character, purpose, meaning, all simply missing in people who are congenitally disposed to be completely narcissistic. "You can't get there from here" would explain why they could only spend their time reviling, mocking, hating this man, why they referred to him using obscenities, publicly insulting him in terms which only finally pointed out their own low natures.

The oligarchs are from a dark, twisted way of life. Chavez lived for others, which is beyond their ability to understand. They don't comprehend it. Their spirits and minds are too shriveled and dead already. They were born that way!

Thank you for sharing this excellent article. Wanted to mention the enlarged version of that photo of the Mission Barrio Tricolar is wonderful, and it shows a community arriving at a stage which is lighter, cleaner, safer, and on the way to something even better.

That is a sign of the impact of a good man in the world, and we know how these houses looked before this man became the president of the whole country in 1999, replacing those who would have kept the poverty and the spiritual devastation for the poor just as it was.

This has been enlightening. They've come to far to let the walking dead destroy it permanently.