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Misplaced blame for Venezuela's woes
Commentator David Frum.
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Kai Ryssdal: Hugo Chavez is looking for some help from his friends. The Venezuelan president has invited a team of Cuban energy experts to help Caracas deal with an ongoing power crisis. That's interesting on two counts. First, Cuba's not really known for having sound energy policies of its own. Also, Venezuela is one of the world's leading energy exporters. It ships millions of barrels of crude oil every day.
Commentator David Frum has just come back from a State Department-sponsored trip to Venezuela. And he sent along these observations about the curious state of its economy.
DAVID FRUM: The campus of the Central University of Venezuela is a UNESCO landmark, a perfect example of the tropical modernism of the 1960s. I visited just a few days ago to talk to students and faculty and noticed something strange: Every clock in the building had stopped dead. I asked why. Answer: The 1980s vintage computer that controlled the clocks had failed, and the university could not obtain foreign currency to repair or replace it.
It's not an unusual story in Venezuela. In the five days I spent there, I met middle-class professionals who had given up their cars for lack of imported spare parts. Next-door, Colombia demands dollars for its coffee, so most Venezuelans must make do with brackish Nicaraguan brew.
Those who have maintained illegal bank accounts in the United States smuggle scarce goods from Miami. It took an hour to load my flight, as middle-class Venezuelans struggled to wedge their bags into the overhead bins. They won't check their luggage because, they explain, they fear the Caracas luggage handlers will rob them.
Those who must use local currency lose one-third of their purchasing power to inflation every year and in late January saw their savings cut in half by a devaluation. Electricity disappears for two hours a day outside the capital. Water taps run dry. In the single month of January, the Hugo Chavez government seized ownership of a major shopping mall and a large grocery chain was caught shipping a boatload of missiles to Hezbollah and ordered cable stations to drop the country's most popular TV station because it did not carry a long-winded presidential speech in full.
It takes a certain kind of genius to lay waste to the economy of one of the world's major oil producers. But in his excuses, at least, Chavez is very far from original. He fixes the blame where it always goes: on the Americans and the Jews.
RYSSDAL: David Frum is a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
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I about drove off the road when I finally heard a story on Marketplace telling the truth about the situation in Venezuela. I have lived there, I have many many friends there. They are hurting because of the thievery, mismanagement and incompetence of the Chávez government. In 1999 he sent US aid away that immediately came to the rescue of thousands in the Christmas time floods on the coast below Caracas. In 2004 he banned any person who had signed a petition calling for a promised referendum on his term in office from being employed by any company doing busines with or for the government. He nationalized Conoco Phillips operations and is now going to the Cubans for help. Tolomeo Parao - have you tried to buy coffee in Venezuela lately? No more of that delicious Madrid Venezuelan coffee in the stores Chamo. Someone above accused Frum of not being able to spell Colombia - Mr Frum did not WRITE this it is a transcript of what he said. The transcriptionist (or the spell checker) put the incorrect spelling in. Don't believe the starry eyed celebrities like Danny Glover who think this despot is a great man.
Is David Frum lying? His State Department-sponsored trip was a fiasco because he cannot even spell Colombia correctly.(It is not Columbia!) I support Hugo Chavez' endeavors that have helped the poor in Venezuela. It's a pity that David Frum's neocon views help continue spread hatred against a leader that is not favoring the rich and powerful in Venezuela. For the sake of helping the poor, I applaud President Chavez efforts to find an alternative to the politics of greed.
<> Shame on David Frum! <> Mr. Frum's ridiculous and clumsy remark about Venezuelans consuming "brackish Nicaraguan brew" is totally inaccurate.
I consume coffees from the Jinotega/Matagalpa regions in Nicaragua and they are superior than any coffee from Colombia. ATTENTION READERS: The comments from David Frum are SO biased, readers/listeners should question his sarcasm and 'holier than thou' attitude. CONCLUSION: I think Mr. Frum's observations would be more appropriate with Rush Limbaugh listeners. <> American Public Media listeners deserve better than this type of U.S. State Department-sponsored propaganda. <> Thanks but no thanks, Messrs. Ryssdal and Frum!
Dear David: Hugo Chavez is HELPING THE POOR. I respect him for doing that. What a surprise that must be to you--a leader actually trying to help the poor. We usually get rid of people like that. He remembers where he came from. Remember when he offered to help us after Katrina? George Bush, I believe controlled by the likes of you, refused the help. Americans realized after that fiasco that we are on our own. Remember when he offered free eye surgery to Americans who could not afford it? Remember when he offered low heating oil prices for poor Americans? When have you EVER heard of American corporations offering such things. When? Never. You, I believe, are a Neocon, one of the people who have gotten this country into the absolute mess that it is in. Screw the poor; bomb the world -- that, in my opinion, should be the motto of the American Enterprise Institute. By the way, how much poverty is there in Israel now that so much of the country has been privatized? How much poverty is there in this country? Who is to blame? The people? I don't think so.
Why would Hugo Chavez blame any of his troubles on America? Surely he knows that the US lived in peace with Cuba for fifty years, did not overthrow governments in Guatemala, Chile and Panama. He must know that the US always subjugated the interests of American corporations to the wishes of the local citizens. Doesn't Hugo Chavez study history?
The fact that this man is state department sponsore says it all!! He is such a patheitic lier that makes me laugh. Specially the part about coffee....our coffee is as good as Colombia's and the reason we don't export much of it is because it is consumed nationally and we produce enough! this Chavez hater is a carbon copy of the Venezuelan oposition. Chavez has been there 11 years and guess what? he will be there 20 more, he has no political oponents, all those jokers sponsored by the zionist US government that form the opposition are brainless. As for RCTV....well this tv station belongs to the ganster Phelps yanqui family who has done anything they want in Venezuela before Chavez came in and force the law. David Frum did you ever visited Venezuela before Chavez...you know the days when the USA was so happy with our politicians? the poverty levels were in the 60%++ education, health and food access for the poor and middle classes was out of reach. Today thanks to Chavez the poor eats 3 times a day, there are thousands of new clinics and hospitals unemployment has been reduced to around 7%. David Frum you are a criminal..it's people like you who prepare the public by lying so that governments invade others. ie. Iraq! If the US invade Venezuela it is because of liers like you who work hard at fabricating lies, Shame on you!
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