Singing Our Way To Truth: Peace Chorus Travels To Venezuela
Whom to trust? In a world full of manufactured truths, it’s hard to know. But this much is true. If we’d trusted the Bush administration, our group of singing ambassadors would have missed the chance to interact with some of the hemisphere’s most astonishing vocalists and musicians.
We would have missed the mating dance of the chacha laca bird in Cerro Copey National Park. We would have missed being in a country that promotes the articles of its new constitution (ratified with massive popular support) on bags of rice!
But we weren’t so trusting. So off we went — to Venezuela. This oil-rich Caribbean country is a traveler’s paradise. The only problem is that President Hugo Chavez is demonized by the U.S. He, in turn, demonizes our leadership.
The State Department warned us with the following: “Venezuela is an enemy of the U.S.” Something about Chavez’s unwillingness to combat terrorism, but we weren’t convinced. Maybe it was a disagreement about oil. Nah, we like that stuff. The State Department couldn’t be against the country’s beaches, national parks, birds, night life or people, could they? All were fabulous and welcoming. Maybe it was the way Chavez was redistributing oil revenue. Hmm. We were curious.
First, we needed to do what the Venezuelans had asked us to do. Sing! The Seattle Peace Chorus accepted the invitation to sing at Venezuela’s 5th Annual International Choral Festival on Isla de Margarita. We were the sole U.S. representatives and took our mission seriously: to engage in peaceful communication through song. Our signature piece, “Si Somos Americanos” (”We Are All Americans”), written by Ricardo Alarcon, won the award for Best Song.
Naturally, between singing gigs, we engaged in conversation with as many people as we could. Opinions were strong, both pro- and anti-Chavez. For the remainder of our visit we hooked up with Global Exchange, a U.S.-based “reality tour” agency. We met with school principals, college and public school teachers, students, community leaders, opposition party spokespeople, Venezuelan-based journalists and a Fulbright scholar.
This is a thumbnail sketch of what we learned. The Chavez government has been very active in redistributing wealth, not only through its rural and urban land reform programs, but through oil revenue-funded social programs that now provide free health care, education and basic food stuffs, as well as loans and subsidies for cooperatives. A short explanation: At the time Chavez was elected in 1998, poverty had been on a constant rise since the ’50s. Agricultural lands had been consolidated into the hands of a few, displacing millions of farmers who migrated in large numbers to cities in search of work.
Neoliberal policies embraced by Chavez’s predecessors such as privatizing state-owned businesses and deep cuts to social spending had put 80 percent of the country in poverty.
Chavez, who was re-elected in 2006 with 63 percent of the vote, turned the country’s economic and social systems inside out and upside down. Widespread literacy programs were introduced. It will be hard to ever forget the tears of an adult woman, literate for the first time, who now had the ability to learn a new profession in a technical college free of charge. Public schools, once only half day, are now all day, with free lunch available for all.
Three weeks isn’t long enough to learn everything about a country, to dig deep and determine what’s true and what isn’t. But it was long enough to learn that Venezuela is not our enemy. And long enough for us to want to learn more about this diverse and complex country, bring it back home and return, again and again.
Martha Baskin is a member of the Seattle Peace Chorus.
© 2007 The Seattle Post-Intelligencer
“Venezuela is an enemy of the U.S.”
Whose opinion ???
Not mine for sure, this is where I learn what is going on in Venezuela, http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/
Wikipedia has some links explaining the Bolivarian Missions, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolivarian_Missions
We need the same reforms and missions in the good old USA.
Now the poor people of Venezuela at least have access to medical care, 47 millions of us can only dream about that. Venezuela is not our enemy.
I have spent a lot of time in Venezuela over the past 4 or 5 years.
It’s the only hopeful project on the planet.
And the first law of money still stands–money comes to you when you are doing the right thing–as Venezuela continues to be number 2 in economic growth.
Watch your back, Pres. Chavez. You are officially on the “enemy” list. Seriously, don’t slip in the shower, make sure your cigars are fully out before going to bed, check your brakes, don’t trust your friends. Pat Robertson,is praying to his strange god for your elimination. But he really didn’t mean assisination! Honestly!
Watching the progress of Venezuela is inspiring. It is frightening to think what the U.S. is plotting against them though. Look what happened in Nicaragua in the eighties. It was a venal crime against humanity.
Thanks to the Peace Chorus for spreading the message of hope.
Meanwhile, over on the editorial page of mt corporate elite rag:
“…His latest, long-anticipated plan would do several things that critics rightly claim will put Venezuela on the path to dictatorship, including eliminating the two-term limit for presidents and creating federal districts that would allow him to bypass state governors he does not control. For his proposed changes to become reality, they must be approved by the National Assembly and then be put to the voters, but neither of those requirements should pose a problem. The National Assembly has been filled with Chavez supporters and he remains wildly popular among Venezuela’s poor, even though his power has not yet led to any significant improvement in their lives.
Mr. Chavez says fears that he wants to create a Cuba-style communist state that he would lead for decades to come are unfounded, but it is difficult to come to any other conclusion in the face of his proposed constitutional changes.
If Mr. Chavez is successful, it will mark the end of nearly 50 years of democracy in Venezuela. That would be a sad event for the United States’ neighbors to the south and could prove dangerous to the overall stability of Latin America.”
So, a completely transparent process, requiring both legislative and public ratification of all his changes, is “the end of democracy???”
Is it because the majority of the people of Venezuela, who will ratify his measrures are poor, so their opinions are not to be taken seriously? Only rich peoples opinons count???
If you were Chavez, engaged successfully in helping all your people, not just multinational corporations and their rich enablers, and the most powerful country in the world was out to kill you, take over your oil as in Iraq and put your people into extreme poverty again, what would you do?
Me and my dad are going to Venezuela in October and are going to be given a tour by a civil engineer who is working on Chavez’s projects. I simply don’t trust the information we get here in the U.S about Chavez, and I also live in Southern Florida where we bear the brunt of the overly anti-Castro and anti-Chavez Cuban community.
And employ/ed a number of the CIA-planted anti-Castro journalists working for the Miami Herald, evidently…
Hugo Chavez, an exeptional leader of a DEMOCRACY BY, FROM and FOR THE PEOPLE.
He prevailed because he by-passed the “two” party
trap of Venezuela and led a movement of the majority of the popular masses; the poor and the marginalized indigenous.
Venezuela is becoming the source of political learning and hope for the oppressed peoples of the world. It is too much of a good example of fair wealth distribution, cooperation and solidarity to be left alone by the US gangsters of impeialism.
The Bolivarian Socialist Revolution must have the support and solidarity of the American people.
It is our time now to by-pass our own deadly “two” party trap and with the majority of the popular forces in the USA raise the banner of our revolution for peace,justice, cooperation and solidarity among all nations.
The State Department warned us with the following: “Venezuela is an enemy of the U.S.”
More outright lies from the State Department. What they should say is:
“The entire world is an enemy of the U.S.”
…which is true…
Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
If you are going to call Chavez a dictator just come out and say it instead of beating around the bush.
Why is it that our “enemies” usually seem to be “oil rich”?
Hey, if a dictatorshp will work for Venezuela, then so be it. Chavez appears to have the right idea for his people. If you keep your crew happy you can’t go wrong.
But we can’t leave them alone. Too many people at the very top want to use up all the oil they can find so as to have more money to burn as the world burns.
Hugo Chavez may be Bush’s enemy, but that does not mean he is an enemy to the US. Just ask the elderly and the poor in Boston (and elsewhere) who received discounted heating oil through Venezuela’s oil for the poor program.
And if you ever go to Venezuela, you will be greeted warmly and with open arms by both the Venezuelan people and Chavez. They have nothing against the US or the American people. But they do resent Bush’s support for attempts to overthrow their beloved, democratically elected leader. They are incredibly forgiving of the American people for our government’s actions in our so-called democratic society.
Seventh Son — where the heck do you get your information? Zero infrastructure? Like for the first time in recent history developing food independence in the country? Developing an auto industry and other manufacturing enterprises? Giving out tons of microloans for cooperatives? Despite what you read in the American press, he is not “throwing” money at the poor. He is developing the non-oil sectors of their economy and preparing precisely for peak oil scenarios. The problem in Venezuela is that the previous administrations never invested a dime in the country’s infrastructure beyond the oil industry because they were all getting rich off it, so what was the point? They didn’t give a shit that the majority of the people were completely cut out of the economy. Chavez is the first one to take giant leaps in that area.
If more than 60% of the people vote for him and support him, then is perfectly ridiculous to call him a dictator.
Hugo Chavez is one of the few world leaders who has had the courage to speak out against the world’s most violent terrorist group - the USA.
The US ruling elite who control their puppets bush and cheney, are terrified of true democracy. Their worst fears come true when Americans look at Venezuela and see/say that their government is helping the people, not pissing on them, and wonder why can’t the American gov’t do the same?
Hugo Chavez is the shape of things to come. Eventually all the political leaders will love the people and earnestly strive to help them. Right now the American politicians are puppets for the super rich. They don’t really care about the people.
Seventh Son of S….., just drop it. You are completely uninformed about Venezuela and you are a transparent cohort in the ongoing campaign by the US administration and the corporate press to demonize the Bolivarian Socialist Revelution in Venezuela. Your logs are like a series of bumper stickers taken from the main stream press or the State Department. Just drop it and stop pretending you give a darn for the democratic rights and the economic welfare of the people of Venezuela and Latin America.
Why must I feed the trolls?
Seventh son said:
“Chavez is leaving zero infrastructure for economic growth based on something other than oil (unlike Lula in Brazil, or Vazquez in Uruguay) and when the oil money goes away, whither Venezuela???
Baloney.
For a more detailed economic analysis, try reading this:
http://www.cepr.net/documents/publications/venezuela_2007_07.pdf
Not all is rosy, but it’s pretty impressive. And it’s not all about oil prices.
“iwarrior, the trouble is, what will happen when the price of petroleum goes down (possible, if not probable) and/or when Venezuela runs out of oil (certain)? Chavez is leaving zero infrastructure for economic growth based on something other than oil (unlike Lula in Brazil, or Vazquez in Uruguay) and when the oil money goes away, whither Venezuela???”
Dude, ALL the oil is going to run out anyway. That’s one reason why we need alternative fuels.
“If Hugo Chavez is the shape of things to come, we are all in trouble. The world can do without one more personality cult, and one more leader for life, we have enough of those in Belarus, North Korea, and Zimbabwe. The shape of things to come, in Latin America, at least, is Lula, Bachalet, Vazquez, and Alan Garcia.”
How is Venezuela a threat to all of us? Even if he does turn out to be a monster, what then do we do? Go stomp on him?
What the US needs to do in that regard is set some sort of example. America doesn’t exactly have a sterling civil rights record either. We can’t go around forcing democracy on people period, let alone the fact that we’re more of an oligarchy than a democracy.
The US should leave Venezuela and every other nation alone.
Oooooh Chavez. What a scary guy. I mean, the guy actually takes care of his people!!!! How horrible!