Allo Presidente!!

It’s no secret that me, Lydia, loves Hugo Chavez. Although, it seems that there is massively split opinions of Chavez on the left in Scotland.

However, Chavez just keeps doing cool shit that no one can deny is totally fucking awesome.  In Venezuela right now, horrible flooding has claimed the lives of over a dozen citizens and has forced over 30,000 Venezuelans to flee.

Chavez has been markedly criticised for failing to produce housing for the people of Venezuela, but Chavez’s rebuttal blames his predecessors’ profit-oriented manner of producing housing has made that difficult for him. So disenchanted, the people living on the hillside of Antimano (Werstern Caracas) refused to relocate. They demanded that Chavez come to them. So he did.

Chavez went to the flood-ravaged hill and said something. (Try to imagine one of the things David Cameron is LEAST LIKELY to say to homeless folk in Scotland’s City Centres?)

Chavez opened his palace up to those who had lost their homes to the flood. Not just for today, not just for a week, for the whole year.

“I have a proposal for you families: stay here for a year,”

The Palace

Now forgive me, but I think that is fucking sweet. Chavez decides to have an office in his palace converted into small apartments for the families and situated them near his presidential kitchen, where there is enough food and cooking supplies for over 20 families. As if that wasn’t cool enough, Chavez also offered space within Venezuela’s military hub, Tiuna Fort, meaning that he would have to temporarily vacate several buildings of their military officers to make space for the homeless.

Now, you’d think that charity could not be criticised. A columnist in newspaper Tal Cual had this to say about public acts of charity:

“ it can also be demagogic, exhibitionist and when taken to its extreme, truly grotesque and tacky.”

I think that people who attack Chevez forget something. Chavez does not have a hell of a lot to work with. People in this country pooh-pooh his extensions of great personal kindness to the people of his country as simple media-service. I don’t believe that it is true. Chavez is trying to build socialism in a country where there is fuck-all. The whole country was simply a massive capitalist regime, hence the astronomical inflation in the last decades. Chavez is prevented from giving the people free housing  because of the powerful industry of real-estate which is sitting on so much money. Chavez cannot wave a magic wand and declare “Socialism”. His government must work democratically, casting votes to make decisions, and unfortunately quite a lot of Venezuela will not want free housing as they are brainwashed (As most of our own country is!) by the illusion of success that Capitalism  propagates so well. This in turn means that Chavez cannot make the changes he wants to make and then his people become disillusioned. This is a vicious cycle. Chavez must turn to personal deeds which do not require any kind of vote or consensus. Chavez must offer his people the hand of a civilian to a civilian to show his great kindness. This is why he publically allows people to come live in his palace and famously last year had a Christmas event where he bought lots of toys and sold them for knock-down prices. Chavez wants Venezuela to get better, but he cannot do it without support. His opposition brutally tears apart everything he does, calling him false and accusing him of selfishness.

Sure, he has his own TV show. But he sings fucking songs on it and plays guitar and answers questions. I’m sorry, but that’s fucking cool. If it’s a first foot in for the reconstruction of Venezuela, then so be it.  Chavez is not a dictator. Chavez is a man who is trying his best for a country with little hope and he is working to build a better world with only two bricks. There are folk who make out like Chavez took over by force, which he did do ONCE, but failed and stood in elections – and won! Venezuela trust Chavez with their country. They trust his ideology and they love him as a figure. Acts like giving up your own palace space will make people love you, and Chavez does need that, what with the recent decline of his vote percentage in the previous elections. Chavez needs more people to trust him before he can start to rebuild a country where so many are so devoid of hope or trust for their leaders. When Chavez has the trust of the people he can truly start to make changes.

Also, he has a little bird with the same hat as him. OH MY GOD.

Today sees the launch of the 2010 football world cup in South Africa. It’s great news for football fans, and we’re playing our part with a world cup raffle (comment if you’d like to get a ticket!) and South Africa night for the final (watch this space for details.)

But great as it might be for us on the other side of the world to get a month of football to watch, the real costs of the tournament for South Africa are getting hidden amongst the excitement.

Over the next month we’re going to be bringing you a series of articles about South Africa, its history and long political struggles for democracy and socialism that are far from over.

Twenty years ago, holding the world cup in South Africa would have been unthinkable. The world at large refused to allow South Africa to participate in most major sporting events because of Apartheid, the state enforced system of extreme racial segregation and oppression.

But with the fall of Apartheid in the early 90s, the world’s media told us South Africa’s problems were solved. There was democracy, and a government elected by the black majority was finally in power.

Since then however, South African governments have turned away from the left wing ideas that inspired many in the struggle against Apartheid, and looked to global capitalism to solve South Africa’s problems.

The result has been that the majority of South Africans continue to live below the poverty lines, with millions of homeless and low rates of access to clean water or electricity. The average male life expectancy is just 49, and there are unemployment rates of 40%.

While so much has been spent on the world cup, the government still does not provide thousands with a proper home

The government has made the world cup an important part of its economic strategy, and has spent $4.1 billion on hosting the event, more than any other country before it. A series of brand new stadia have been built, driving an economic bubble in the construction industry. However, now that the work is done, the real question is, how much will South Africa actually benefit from the world cup?

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