Asks Francisco Rodríguez - assistant professor of economics and Latin American studies at Wesleyan University, and former chief economist of the Venezuelan National Assembly.

This is really a very unusual venue that professor Rodríguez is using - the infamous CiF. In any case, you would expect some attention to what the man is telling, since his bio makes what he says highly relevant, coming from a person who was a supporter of Chavez’ reforms for some time. And the story he is telling is grim - even for people who suspected the rising caudillo from the beginning.

It wasn’t just that the government did not understand the difference between dissenters and opponents - perhaps understandable in a climate of heightened political polarization. Nor that they seemed genuinely disinterested in anything that was not directly connected with their staying in power - also understandable when the opposition seems to only think about how to oust you from power. It was that they really didn’t seem to care much about any of the reasons we were there: improving the well-being of the poor and making Venezuela an open, democratic society.
…
There is a broad gap, however, between what the government says it is doing for the poor and what is actually going on. Did you know that the percentage of underweight and underheight babies has actually increased in Venezuela during Chávez’s administration? That, once you take out social security - which, in Venezuela, benefits mostly the middle and upper classes who work in the formal sector - the fraction of social spending in the government budget has actually decreased? That, despite the government’s claim of having eradicated illiteracy, its own Household Surveys revealed more than one million illiterates in Venezuela at the close of 2005, barely down from pre-Chávez levels?

I have chosen on purpose the quotes that deal with economy, but the article tells more and is quite depressing. For a normal person, that is. And this gets us back to the question asked in the headline.

Unfortunately for professor, his choice of venue has proved (once again) to be self-defeating. Looking for egalitarians (or progressives mentioned in the subtitle) on CiF is a bad decision, and after a few positive remarks the flood of foulmouthed usual suspects begun in earnest.

Just a few examples to get you all going:

But Chavez’s strong arm tactics seem almost gentlemanly compared to that thicko Bush and his redneck regime.

This stinks of CIA propaganda to me.

Subject US citizens to your neo-liberal economic theories by all means but you should not expect other nations/states to believe in your bullshit.

No one’s property is being “taken” and the media and opposition remain amazingly free and vocal…much more than in the US.

So who’s paying you then sonny? Oh I see a US college. Figures.

I wonder how much the author was paid to write the intial comment, and paid by who ?

Stupid right wing propagandists, please go away.

Ehehe. Enough for now. Looking for egalitarians and progressives in that cesspool…

Cross-posted on SimplyJews

A 19-year-old woman was murdered in an apparent “honor” killing. Not for marrying the wrong guy. For wanting to wear clothing that her family felt was unsuitable.

A 19-year-old was shot to death by unknown assailants on Tuesday at her home in the Jawarish neighborhood of Ramle, in what police estimate was an “honor killing.”

According to police sources, the teen was not involved in a “forbidden” relationship, but was considered a rebel in her behavior and choice of apparel.

Around noon, police received an emergency call reporting gunshots, and at around the same time, police received intelligence information regarding a teen being murdered in her home.

Yep. Those wacky Muslims. You can’t wear what you want without being beaten, and ultimately, murdered.

About a year ago, the victim returned to her family’s home after residing in a women’s shelter for an extended period of time due to a fear for her life. When she turned 18, she left the shelter and returned to her parents’ home, in spite of the threats for her life, even though police had informed her of the threats. The teen insisted on staying with her parents and even signed a police statement saying she was aware of the angers.

[...] Last year, eight women were murdered for what is termed “honor killings.”

When people decry Jewish “fundamentalists,” I often as them how many Jewish women were murdered by those extremists for not wearing the right clothing, or for wanting to divorce their husbands, or for not marrying the man chosen by their parents.

The answer would be: None.

Senator Barack Obama, who has almost no experience whatsoever, wants to be the next president of the United States.

Democratic Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois jumped in the 2008 White House race on Tuesday, promising to bring Americans together and “change our politics” with a campaign that could make him the first black president in U.S. history.

Obama, a freshman senator and rising party star, formed a committee to begin raising money and hiring staff to campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination to succeed Republican President George W. Bush.

He plans a formal campaign launch in his hometown of Chicago on February 10.

Go home and grow a little, son.

According to Ha’aretz, unofficial and secret talks with Syria were going on for two years, even during the Lebanon war.

The document is described as a “non-paper,” a document of understandings that is not signed and lacks legal standing - its nature is political. It was prepared in August 2005 and has been updated during a number of meetings in Europe.

The meetings were carried out with the knowledge of senior officials in the government of former prime minister Ariel Sharon. The last meeting took place during last summer’s war in Lebanon.

Government officials received updates on the meetings via the European mediator and also through Dr. Alon Liel, a former director general at the Foreign Ministry, who took part in all the meetings.

The European mediator and the Syrian representative in the discussions held eight separate meetings with senior Syrian officials, including Vice President Farouk Shara, Foreign Minister Walid Muallem, and a Syrian intelligence officer with the rank of “general.”

The contacts ended after the Syrians demanded an end to meetings on an unofficial level and called for a secret meeting at the level of deputy minister, on the Syrian side, with an Israeli official at the rank of a ministry’s director general, including the participation of a senior American official. Israel did not agree to this Syrian request.

The war, which happened in part because Syria has allowed the arming of Hezbullah through its territory, did not stop the talks. Syria’s demand to speak with someone of higher level—who might be able to actually agree to something—is the reason the talks stopped. Are you seeing a pattern here?

Ehud Olmert denies any knowledge whatsoever of these talks.

“It never happened … I knew nothing and no one in the government knows. No one of the government officials was involved in this. That’s a private initiative by a man who spoke with himself, and from what I’ve been reading his conversation partner was a weird figure from the US,” he said.

What is it with Israelis who have no power holding talks with Israel’s enemies? Every time this crap comes out, the world says, “See? You could have peace, you just don’t want to!”

Wait for it. If the AP picks this up, that will be the angle.

This is a headline of an AP news item (via CNN).

A Buddhist man in restive southern Thailand was beheaded by suspected Muslim insurgents who left a note by the body warning Buddhists to leave the area that has been gripped by bloody violence for three years, police said.

A barbaric atrocity by itself, everyone (well, aside of the “insurgents” and their sympathizers) would undoubtedly agree.

If you are blessed by an above average eyesight, you would be able to see an additional, less newsworthy item in the next paragraph:

The man and his wife were working at a rubber plantation in Yala province when a group attacked them, shooting the man three times in the chest before beheading him and killing his wife, said police Lt. Kittiphong Phuduangjit.

Is AP so busy catering to the Muslim population that the fact that a woman was killed is mentioned in such a casual manner? In Buddhism there is no stress on the superiority of men, as far as I know, by the way.

And since Thailand is mentioned, it is worth a notice that the RoP heroic deeds described in the next quote are hardly a front page material.

Drive-by shootings and bombings occur almost daily in Thailand’s three southernmost Muslim-majority provinces of Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani, where an Islamic insurgency that flared in January 2004 has killed more than 1,900 people.

Be interesting to know why?

Cross-posted on SimplyJews