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Viva Chavez
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Posts: 1,794October 2012OldGoldenVision said:
Yes... Few of us meetin in town beforehand if youre about?
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Should be, might depend on me Da, he may have plans. -
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Posts: 24,743October 2012 Isnt CHavez that pot head that just got a schooling off Martinez?? Nothing to Viva about him like, he needs help....
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Posts: 1,794October 2012OldGoldenVision said:
Well the offers there... Am gettin in to lime street about 11...
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I am going up saturday, seeing my mum's new pad in Hoylake, will come across in the morning, will let you know -
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Posts: 2,554October 2012MavisCruet said:
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Chavez supports Bassam al Assad in his nigh on genocide of those looking for democracy in Syria, as he did Ghadaffi, can you really condone this slaughter of innocent women and children ? Is that what Venezualan democracy is all about ? -
Posts: 2,554October 2012MavisCruet said:
Shush!
Youse lot about on Derby day?-----------------
Where will you be having that drink ? -
Posts: 1,794October 2012escla said:
Chavez supports Bassam al Assad in his nigh on genocide of those looking for democracy in Syria, as he did Ghadaffi, can you really condone this slaughter of innocent women and children ? Is that what Venezualan democracy is all about ?-----------------
I don't know the details of that. However is that anything to do with Venezuelan democracy? -
Posts: 2,554October 2012 ShareClipReprintsPrintEmail
October 9, 2012 7:02 pm
Goliath wins, but Venezuela is at a turning point
By Moisés Naím
Last Sunday Goliath crushed David. Hugo Chávez, Venezuela’s political giant, defeated Henrique Capriles, the 40-year-old opposition candidate, by more than 10 percentage points to win another six-year term leading this oil-rich country. If he completes the term, Mr Chávez will have been in office for two decades.
Yet this election may still mark a turning point in Venezuelan politics. The opposition is better organised and, in Mr Capriles, it has found the best leader it has had since Mr Chávez rose to power. In contrast to the ideological, divisive tactics of the latter, Mr Capriles campaigned on messages of national harmony, tolerance against political opponents and pragmatism – and he succeeded in boosting the anti-Chávez vote by 60 per cent compared to the last election. Millions of erstwhile Chávez supporters have abandoned him. It is impossible to win the 6.5m votes that Mr Capriles received last Sunday without the support of millions of poor people who in past elections were stalwart Chávez voters.
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Nevertheless, he failed to unseat the president. This was, first, because charisma and cunning make Mr Chávez a formidable competitor who enjoys broad popular support. But in this case, oil matters more than talent. Incumbents always have advantages over their challengers, and Mr Chávez is an incumbent on steroids. He controls all the levers of power and can tap Venezuela’s oil revenues at will. Mr Capriles said: “I am not running against another candidate, I am running against the Venezuelan state.” In just one example, according to data compiled by his campaign, in the week before the vote Mr Chávez was on air for nine hours while, after protesting, Mr Capriles was allowed to address the nation for two minutes.
This abuse of state resources and limits on the opposition are common among semi-democratic countries rich in oil and poor on checks and balances on the executive branch. Think for example of recent elections in Russia won by Dmitry Medvedev and then Vladimir Putin.
An important test for the opposition will come next December, when regional elections will be held – even though, once again, the disadvantages of running against a petrostate will be hard to overcome.
Yet the bigger test may be that faced by Mr Chávez. No doubt, the president will continue to wield huge discretionary power: that feature of Venezuela’s political landscape is unchanged. But in the coming years, he will have to use his power to deal with something an election victory cannot change: the country is a mess. It suffers from inflation and homicide rates among the world’s highest, decrepit infrastructure, declining oil production, a deeply distorted economy, dismal productivity and rampant corruption. Going by his record, Mr Chávez is unlikely to succeed in his efforts to alleviate these problems.
And these domestic difficulties will take a toll on his international activism. In this new term, Mr Chávez will not enjoy the same popularity abroad as he did earlier. He will have less money and his credibility has been hurt by the many unfulfilled promises he has made to his allies. Most important, the allure of his Bolivarian revolution has faded as Venezuela’s difficulties have become better known abroad. While he may still take the international stage with gestures such as his unconditional support for the Syrian and Iranian regimes, or his alliance with Belarus, his regional influence is faltering. Meanwhile his economic dependence on the US – the main client for his oil – is unabated.
But perhaps the most important feature of Venezuela’s politics, which the election result can do nothing to change, is the president’s health. Mr Chávez has been battling with cancer, and the precise condition and prognosis of his illness are a state secret. It may well be that Venezuela’s destiny in the years ahead will be determined by human frailty, rather than by ideology.
The writer is a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He served as Venezuela’s minister of industry and trade in the early 1990s
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Disappointed with you Mavis, thought you were better than "I don't know about that " you are usually so very well informed. -
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Posts: 1,430October 2012 "Chavez supports Bassam al Assad in his nigh on genocide of those looking for democracy in Syria"a simplistic point of view.yes,assad is an ****, but he allows womens rights, modern attitudes and is against islamic fundamentalism.who will he be replaced with? some kind of taliban? most likely. look at iran. nearly 70% shia just like the iranians next door. they are just waiting for the "allies" to leave and they will form a new power block in the m.east.same in afghanistan. when we leave it will revert to an islamic fundamentalist state. a complete waste of allied lives and resources. the whole process of trying to change the world by war is not only uncivilized, it is stupid.and talk about genocide? thats one of the reasons so many hate the west. we are responsible for millions of deaths in all these parts of the world in recent years.the most horrible crime against humanity committed by a so-called western democracy occurred recently and it was largely ignored by our "free and open" media.The algebra of infinite justice"In 1996, Madeleine Albright, then the US secretary of state, was asked on national television what she felt about the fact that 500,000 Iraqi children had died as a result of US economic sanctions. She replied that it was "a very hard choice", but that, all things considered, "we think the price is worth it". Albright never lost her job for saying this. She continued to travel the world representing the views and aspirations of the US government. More pertinently, the sanctions against Iraq remain in place. Children continue to die."half a million kids under five! so when you talk of genocide by assad remember the genocide of the west. its on a much larger scale, its a lot more brutal. and the ignorance and hypocrisy associated with it beggars belief.and if you wanna hear madelaine confirming that killing half a million kids is ok; here she is in all her evil glory. this was the clinton-gore admin by the way.
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Posts: 1,794October 2012The writer is a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He served as Venezuela’s minister of industry and trade in the early 1990s
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So about as impartial as asking John Prescott for a view on Cameron?That didn't say anything really did it. It was a right wing PR piece for the right wing opposition bitter about losing. I am not saying Chavez is immune to criticism, and yes, he does overuse the national address system, though I think in his mind because they're his people, not in a possessive way, and he wants to chat to them in their living room.There have been freedom of press issues, some stations have been effectively shut down, but then they did partake in a coup against the elected incumbent regime, which interestingly enough, Capriles, that wonderful hero of democracy took part in.I think that needs to be reiterated. The opposition leader was in charge of some people, a gang, unit, call it what you will, in a Coup d'etat against Chavez in 2002.Democracy? Blow me. -
Posts: 109October 2012
Chavez supports Bassam al Assad in his nigh on genocide of those looking for democracy in Syria, as he did Ghadaffi, can you really condone this slaughter of innocent women and children ? Is that what Venezualan democracy is all about ?-----------------
and the uk and usa supporting Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Equatorial guinea ,Turkmenistan , Uzbekistan , they also supported Egypts president mubarak before he was kicked out of power to name but a few ..........is different because ...... -
Posts: 1,430October 2012 criticizing muslims for being barbaric whilst ignoring the wests and your own countries war crimes only creates more violence.you have to condemn human rights abuses whoever commits them.Indifference to Reality. “All nationalists have the power of not seeing resemblances between similar sets of facts... Actions are held to be good or bad, not on their own merits, but according to who does them, and there is almost no kind of outrage — torture, the use of hostages, forced labour, mass deportations, imprisonment without trial, forgery, assassination, the bombing of civilians — which does not change its moral colour when it is committed by ‘our’ side. ...The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them.” G. Orwell, Notes on nationalism.
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Posts: 1,794October 2012Knoxy2001e said:
criticizing muslims for being barbaric whilst ignoring the wests and your own countries war crimes only creates more violence.
you have to condemn human rights abuses whoever commits them.Indifference to Reality. “All nationalists have the power of not seeing resemblances between similar sets of facts... Actions are held to be good or bad, not on their own merits, but according to who does them, and there is almost no kind of outrage — torture, the use of hostages, forced labour, mass deportations, imprisonment without trial, forgery, assassination, the bombing of civilians — which does not change its moral colour when it is committed by ‘our’ side. ...The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them.” G. Orwell, Notes on nationalism.-----------------
That's really good, and so applicable to modern times.I am often labelled as a terrorist sympathiser for defending people who I don't think have done any more wrong than others. It is however important to remember to apply the rules to both sides, whatever your rules are.I do love Orwell. -
Posts: 1,297October 2012scouse48 said:
she sounds like BR saying "I did'nt see Suarez dive.
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Poor response mate...when yer beat...lie down.. -
Posts: 1,297October 2012escla said:
Chavez supports Bassam al Assad in his nigh on genocide of those looking for democracy in Syria, as he did Ghadaffi, can you really condone this slaughter of innocent women and children ? Is that what Venezualan democracy is all about ?-----------------
Can you really condone the support o' British infant democracy in its creation o' its empire an' its slaughter o' innocent women an' children throughout the world? seems so.
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