Mourning Chávez on the Web
http://www.putneydebater.com/2013/03/10/mourning-chavez-on-the-web/
t’s been fascinating seeing the response to the death of Hugo Chávez playing out on the web, for it not only confirms his status as a world historical figure, but because of the high symbolism of the event, clearly exposes the fundamental ideological rift of our days—not simply the chasm between the rich and poor countries of the world, but the confrontation between Eros and Thanatos: the love of social justice, represented in the adored figure of the defunct leader, against the destructiveness unto death of the empire of capitalism, with its headquarters four-and-a-quarter hours flying time due north from Caracas (or less than three to Miami, where rich Venezuelans go to do their sumptuary shopping).
Web platforms like Twitter and Storify produce a fluid form of instant montage. An editorial in the Dallas Morning Herald, is quite brazen: ‘During his 14 years as president, Chávez fooled Venezuelans into believing he would improve their lives and strengthen their democratic powers. In reality, he accomplished exactly the opposite…Chávez squandered his nation’s vast oil wealth on socialist gimmickry.’ As if in direct response, a tweet points out that ‘Being vilified by the political & media establishment usually signifies you’re a threat to US-corporate world hegemony.’ A wonderful parody of this vilification turns up in a blog entitled ‘Every Hugo Chavez Obituary in the Western Press’.
‘Darth Hugo Destruktor Chávez, the outspoken and inflammatory Venezuelan leader, died yesterday in Caracas when the Invisible Hand of the free market reached down his throat and shook loose his gall bladder. He is survived by his four children and his millions-strong army of terrifying cyborg drones…’
The ‘socialist gimmickry’ in question consists in the redistribution of wealth, in particular by repatriating the country’s huge oil revenues and ploughing them into healthcare, housing, education, food and cash benefits for poor families. To capitalist apologists this is illogical, because revenues exist to be re-invested. ‘That’s right,’ says a blogger on FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting), in response to an AP business reporter, ‘Chavez squandered his nation’s oil money on healthcare, education and nutrition when he could have been building the world’s tallest building or his own branch of the Louvre. What kind of monster has priorities like that?’ (The question is not quite rhetorical.) The former diplomat Craig Murray explains on his blog—and he should know—that the politicians, who are controlled by the ‘multinationals’, ensure that the ‘western’ states do everything to stop ‘developing countries’ doing this kind of thing. ‘Chávez faced them down. There are millions of people in Venezuela whose hard lives are a bit better and have hope for the future because of Chávez. There are billionaires in London and New York who have a few hundred million less each because of Chávez.’ We need only add: in order to do this, he also turned the political system upside down, and gave the popular classes a voice—they speak out in all sorts of clips and films now popping up on the web, and channels like Al Jazeera.
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...and the voters of Venezuela who have chosen the Chavez government and its policies time and again, in what Jimmy Carter recently called "the best election system in the world."
The facts have been systematically suppressed by the Corporate Media (as shill to the Corporate Rulers). For instance, the UN Economic Commission on Latin America and the Caribbean recently designated Venezuela "THE most equal country in Latin America." They look at income distribution, wages/benefits, good jobs, high employment, access to educational opportunity and other such indicators--as does the Millennium Project. Venezuela has met all of its Millennium Goals (similar indicators)--an unusual achievement.
The Chavez government has also stimulated awesome rates of economic growth (10% during the 2003 to 2008 period), and built their economic growth rate back up to over 5% recently, in spite of the Bush Junta-induced worldwide depression and WITHOUT CUTTING ANY SOCIAL PROGRAMS.
Venezuelans see the effects of these progressive policies in their lives every day. In the recent Gallup Well-being poll, Venezuelans rated their own country FIFTH IN THE WORLD on their own sense of well-being and future prospects.
This information is suppressed by the Corporate Media, and thus it is a puzzle to many people why Venezuelans have voted for the Chavez government and its policies by big margins--when the Corporate Media says he's so horrible. Uninformed people (those who get their information from the Corporate Media) are thus made vulnerable to phony explanations for Chavez's popularity--for instance, that Chavez is a "dictator" who "buys" the support of the poor. The opposite is true. Chavez was a democrat who has RESPONDED to the majority will of the country--just as FDR did in the 1930s. (The rightwing/1% also called FDR a "dictator."
Lula da Silva, recent former president of Brazil, said of Chavez,"They can invent all kinds of things to criticize Chavez but not on democracy." Looking at public participation levels, voter turnouts, Chavez government inclusiveness (i.e., women and minorities), new public access to the broadcast media, an honest, transparent election system and other such indicators of the health of the democracy, Lula da Silva was right on, as usual.
But it doesn't just depend on whom you believe. It comes down to facts being deliberately suppressed in a decade-long Corporate Media campaign of utmost viciousness and falsity. It is a credit to the Venezuelan people--to their smarts, to their political savvy--that they have been able to see past this crap to what is REALLY happening in their lives and in their country.
The Corporate Media and the Corporate Rulers are now engaged in a new and equally vicious and lying campaign to slander Chavez's VP, Nicholas Maduro, and elect their slick, "neo-liberal" (rightwing) candidate, Enrique Capriles, in the new election that must be held in the wake of Chavez's death. Venezuelans have been good at resisting Corporate lies, and I have confidence that they will do so again.
Then, what is the Corporate Media going to say? They'll make up something ELSE about why Venezuelans consistently vote against the Corporate Rulers' wishes.
The truth is that the Venezuelan people demanded a "New Deal" for themselves, organized to get it, elected Chavez to implement it, saved Chavez from a rightwing coup and have supported Chavez throughout the implementation of their "New Deal." They were also the pioneers of the leftist democracy movement that has spread far and wide in Latin America. This is something else that the Corporate Media suppress--that it is the VENEZUELAN PEOPLE who are the most important political actors in the Bolivarian Revolution. The hysteria of the 1% that this leftist democracy movement may spread north is palpable. They fear Venezuela as an EXAMPLE as much as they want their grubby hands on all that oil again.