Welcome! This is an unapologetic, agenda-free zone. Just commentaries on current events that’ll move you to think, laugh, rage, and even cry.
Venezuela might not be a “shithole country,” but it’s certainly a basket case — so much so that it’s making Zimbabwe look like a paragon of political stability and economic sustainability. Five years ago, there were 4000 white-owned farms in Zimbabwe; today, there are only 400 (mostly unproductive) farms left. Five years ago, Zimbabwe was… Read more.
Despite having the world’s largest proven oil reserves, Venezuela has suffered for several years from high inflation, rampant crime and a shortage of basic goods. The protests taking place across the country were expected to be the biggest in three years, putting extra pressure on President Maduro to negotiate with the opposition and find a… Read more.
According to the February 13, 2014, edition of Business Insider, Venezuela sits on the world’s third largest energy reserves – valued at $34.9 trillion. This includes 297.6 billion barrels of oil – the most of any oil-producing country. Therefore, it speaks volumes that 25 percent of Venezuelans live below the poverty line. Even those who… Read more.
My socialist affinities are such that I used to be a big fan of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez: His critics argue that Chávez is merely expropriating property in a Robert Mugabe-style land grab. (No doubt Mugabe is flattered by the allusion.) But Chávez has declared it a ‘war on the latifundio’ (or rich estate owners),… Read more.
If one buys Chávez’s sales pitch, PetroCaribe promises to ‘…contribute to the energy security, socioeconomic development and integration of the Caribbean countries, through the sovereign use of the energy resources.’ I am loath to suggest that Chávez is selling snake oil instead of the crude oil that is supposed to fuel this pact. But I have… Read more.
Nobody should have been shocked yesterday afternoon when Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez finally died after a well-publicized, two-year battle against cancer. Nor, shamefully enough, should anybody have been shocked when so many in the United States joined a virtual conga line to dance on his grave … even before his body went cold. Which stood… Read more.
Without exception, pre-election reports in the United Sates gave the impression that 40-year-old challenger Henrique Capriles was poised to dethrone Hugo Chávez on Sunday as president of Venezuela. But I knew better; not least because here, in part, is what I wrote six years ago after Chávez fended off the challenge of Manuel Rosales –… Read more.
Few things political have given me more perverse pleasure in recent years than commenting on the way Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez kept thumbing his nose at U.S. President George W. Bush. Remember how he began his address before the UN General Assembly in 2006? The Devil came here yesterday. [He crosses himself, then clasps his… Read more.
With all of the media attention focused these days on the menacing antics of North Korea’s Kim Jong-il and Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, it’s easy to forget that – not so long ago – Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez was the foreign leader who gave the United States the most political heartburn. For when he wasn’t talking about… Read more.
In previous commentaries I have lamented the fact that, on the world stage, President Obama is looking far too much like George W. Bush. In fact, despite his transformative rhetoric, Obama is not only continuing but actually expanding far too many of Bush’s foreign policy tactics. One glaring example of course is his recent decision to escalate… Read more.
