March 21st, 2007 by: Ashley Cecil Email this to a friend
Venezuela, part 6
8″ x 10″ oil on canvas, $220 ($50 donated to Witness for Peace, or a nonprofit of the buyer’s choice)
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Harsh criticism never gives anyone the warm fuzzies, and until I returned from Venezuela, this blog had only faced mere complaints about careless typos. I’ve certainly changed that. In my on-going efforts to tell more people about my artwork, I recently jumped in on other blog conversations related to Venezuelan issues. I was quickly reminded of how naive I can be when I was verbally jumped by bloggers and blog readers because of my “10 day tour of generalities.” My novice, although sincere, interest in Latin American issues of politics and humans rights were indicted by many with long standing personal experience in Venezuela. With a simple link to my website and two lines of text, I unleashed a Pandora’s box of emotion and fervor in others that made my palms sweat (here’s a rather mild example).
My greatest struggle has been surrounding myself with a group of people who share very similar beliefs and, without any previous point of contextual reference, I begin to mold to that group’s philosophy. Then, I intentionally immerse myself in another group with opposing views because I want to get both sides of the story and find that, again, my thoughts bend to that group’s opinion. As a result, two things have happened; 1) I’m overwhelmed and uncertain, and 2) I’ve really ticked some people off by simply entertaining ideas of people on the other side of the fence. Everyone has facts, statistics, and personal accounts, but as I taxi back and forth from one side to the next with new information, inevitably I’m met with equally substantial informative ammo once again.
Unfortunately, this doesn’t leave me anywhere especially productive, but I have a plan. I’m going to list just a couple of repeatedly mentioned talking points, and with extra prompting on my part (via sending emails), I hope to start a discussion in comments below.
- Hugo Chavez has been decidedly democratically elected president three times by clear majorities, but have his election platforms been more talk than anything else? Some argue it has been unfilled propaganda to appeal to the poor majority; playing to their needs foremost to position himself in the authoritarian role he is now in. Others feel that Chavez has truthfully implemented many of his promises, such as social programs addressing literacy and job creation. For those agenda items left unfinished (or even not yet started), many believe he will come through in time and that anyone with such a monumental job of leading a revolution needs allowance for error and time for implementation.
- Although Venezuela has a long history of being a country rich in natural resources, the distribution of this wealth has not been fairly distributed. Corruption has bred a great divide of classes that Chavez is supposedly tackling by nationalizing many companies and industries. Through small business loans and support of community cooperatives, Venezuelan poor are enabled to pull themselves out of poverty and develop a skill that sustains them and a community. Others argue that many such ventures are not sustainable. They rely on government aid for survival, reinforcing the dependency of the majority of Venezuelans on Chavez’s “hand outs” which keep him in office.
This is my enticement to encourage the behind the scenes messages that slam my inbox to come to the forefront by leaving comments here.
5 Comments
March 22nd, 2007 at 9:24 pm
One word that people use vs. folks like us who come back from an intense week to see and hear for ourselves what’s going on is “propaganda”. As if we are duped by those foreign propagandists. Of course, we all know that the news we get here in the U.S. about anything, let alone about countries or presidents the U.S. doesn’t like, is nothing but the truth. No “propaganda” coming from our side, where media like the NY Times could have as it’s motto “All the news that fits”.
So often people say folks like us are victims of propaganda because folks up here in the U.S. have all the right information from our government and its media, and that’s a given. Antagonists simply can’t think of another way to discredit what we have seen or heard, so we’re duped by propaganda, an easy way out, and much easier than being openly vitriolic.
On a side note, the word “propaganda” comes from the Latin pro which is more or less “for” and “pagani”, or the “hoi poloi”, peasants, illiterates, the poor, marginalized, outcasts.
I remember that one picture on the public history mural we saw in Caracas: a clergyman proclaiming “Have Faith” to a skinny man, woman and child. That’s the kind of “Christian missionaries” that VZ oligarchs liked. The kind that might come preaching for the poor, or giving them medical aid, or education, or transportation are some kind of “propagandists”, probably “communists” of some latter-day vintage.
March 23rd, 2007 at 8:02 am
absolutely breath-taking!
;-)
March 26th, 2007 at 3:59 pm
Ashley,
The de-colonization process is intense: you will
undergo much attack and field identity questions from your closest friends and from within. Trust your gut, it leads to truths that you question now but are inevitably the salvation of your mind: I call this centeredness. Centeredness is a synthesis of balance and consciousness that together works to negotiate spaces into new places where equality/human rights/and your own unique perspective become the place to stand.
Peace in this journey,
Jardana
March 27th, 2007 at 4:03 pm
Socialism and the “fair” distribution of resources is an evil only eclipsed by Communism.
“We’ll all be equal because we are equally poor” is no way to build a civilization.
March 27th, 2007 at 7:26 pm
Agreed Shoulung, but where do you draw the line? “All equally poor” is one end of the spectrum and the other is 1 or 2% owning over half the world’s wealth. I’m not saying that either way is right, but unless I have an alternative solution, I have to see the good in what we have to work with and be engaged in what I perceive as positive change.
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