News Roundup - August 6, 2008
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton, left, waves as Mexican billionaire businessman Carlos Slim stands behind at a press conference in Mexico City, Monday, Aug. 4, 2008. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)TOP STORY - Bill Clinton's new mission in Latin America: Shoring up lap-dog governments (Canada NewsWire)
Bolivia - President suspicious over helicopter crash (Agence France-Presse)
Bolivia - Morales Says He 'Doesn't Fear' Results of Recall Referendum (Bloomberg)
Mexico - Mexico's Poor Forgo Goods as Income From U.S. Drops (Bloomberg)
United States - Militarizing the Social Sciences (Global Research.ca)
Venezuela - New Books by Marta Harnecker and Michael A. Lebowitz for Debate on Socialism (Monthly Review)
World - Privatisation and the World Bank (The Daily Star)
World - Don’t cry for Doha (Daily News)
posted by Justin Delacour | 1:22 PM
10 Comments:
THE WASHINGTON POST - Editorial
Thursday, August 7, 2008; Page A20
Power Grab
Venezuela's Hugo Chávez launches a new attack on his country's freedoms.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/06/AR2008080602793.html
ONLY NINE months ago, Venezuela's voters rejected President Hugo Chávez's proposed rewrite of the Venezuelan constitution. In addition to making Mr. Chávez de facto president for life, the changes would have given him the power to supplant locally elected governors with his own appointees, dispose of the reserves of the central bank and, perhaps most ominously, create a new "Bolivarian Militia" answerable not to the Venezuelan army's chain of command but directly to him. The defeat, followed soon after by embarrassing revelations of his support for Marxist guerrillas in Colombia, seemed to have a chastening effect on the Venezuelan strongman. He withdrew a provocative domestic spying plan and even called on the Colombian guerrillas to make peace.
But now Mr. Chávez has unveiled a package of presidential decrees that will do by fiat most of what the voters refused to authorize in the constitutional referendum. There will be no perpetual reelection or official declaration of Venezuela as a "socialist" state like Cuba. But Mr. Chávez's decrees would nevertheless radically tighten his grip on power: The "Bolivarian Militia" is back, as is a plan for a parallel system of Chávez-appointed governors with free access to the national treasury. As the economy continues to suffer from shortages of basic goods, caused mainly by his policies, Mr. Chávez has answered with a string of state takeovers of various industries and of a Spanish-owned bank. His new decrees reinforce this by threatening food distributors with imprisonment for allegedly refusing to produce or sell "items of basic necessity" -- which are to be defined by Mr. Chávez. Separately, citing trumped-up corruption charges, a Chávez-controlled government office is barring some 250 opposition candidates from contesting state and municipal elections scheduled for November.
After his referendum defeat last December, Mr. Chávez made contradictory statements. He said he did not want the "Pyrrhic victory" of pushing through his constitution against the wishes of the majority. But he also declared that he would not retreat from "one comma" of his plans, adding ominously "this is another 'for now,' " a reference to his famous words following a failed military coup he once led. Apparently, the latter vow was the one that he meant. His power grab is a backhanded tribute to the strength of Venezuela's democratic opposition -- proof that this tribune of the people actually fears them.
Anonymous--and you will wonder why Chavez's socialist alliance will win big again this coming election cycle?
The 'freedoms' that are being truncated are the Venezuelan elites' freedom to exploit and plunder the economy.
What is more Anon--it is a bit vile for the WP to preach about 'freedom' when this news/propaganda organization has never seen a US invasion and slaughter of civilians that it didn't support.
This editorial is chalk full of decontextualized slanders and half-truths, outright falsities, and malicious fear-mongering. All of it is directed at the managerial classes and the brain-washed intelligensia of the empire.
The Washington Post is truly Orwellian in its use of language and sins of omission.
Jeez, talk about complete misinformation from the Washington Post. They call this news? This article is completely riddled with factual errors, and just plain lies.
First of all, the 2007 constitutional reform dealt mostly with issues of property, presidential terms, and labor rights. These new laws deal mostly with Agriculture, Housing, Public Administration, etc. etc.
The only similarities I see are in the changes to the military, which is little more than a name change for god's sake.
The article states as fact that it was revealed that Chavez was supporting the FARC. That is plain false, and even the INTERPOL report itself said they had no way of verfying the evidence that the Colombian government presented. The OEA said the same.
The article says food shortages are due to Chavez' policies. Hmmm, that's strange, so what's been causing this global food crisis? Is it ALL because of Chavez? And how could Chavez' policies be creating food shortages if agricultural production is higher now than ever in Venezuelan history? Wow, pretty wild claim.
It also claims that Chavez has barred 250 opposition candidates from the elections. That is completely false. 250 candidates have been barred, but the majority of them are NOT from the opposition, and these candidates have been barred because of charges of corruption against them, according to a national law that the opposition themselves voted in support of!!!
Its such a worthless piece of misinformation that I'm surprised even a terrible newspaper like the Washington Post would stoop so low.
Anon, this was an 'editorial', not a news article. However, the line between the two is always somewhat blurred with the WP.
You took the time to list a few of the distortions in this editorial, good for you. However, this stuff is standard fare, and it gains traction by dint of regularity--year-in, year-out. This is the corporate media, and they achieve their goals because of long-term consistency. The goal is to manage the perceptions and influence the opinions of the managerial classes, and other government functionaries. By and large they are sucessful.
Keep in mind that there is a strong level of willful participation in how propaganda works. A nice, steady paycheck with benefits does wonders toward creating a modicum of credulity when it comes to unsupported perceptions and, in general, the dominant ideological coding that reproduces status quo relations of power and subordination.
A nice, steady paycheck with benefits does wonders toward creating a modicum of credulity when it comes to unsupported perceptions and, in general, the dominant ideological coding that reproduces status quo relations of power and subordination.
Couldn't have said it better myself.
Sorry Justin,
Anonymous was me, Slave Revolt.
Just standard, propaganda model analysis using Chomsky/Herman metrics.
The 'consistency' element is the 'difference that makes the difference' (i.e., 'information' defined in the context of Gregory Bateson's information theory line of analysis. They drum it (the dominant ideological memes) into the heads of the population day-in, day-out. Any deviation from the dominant ideology requires space, context, and time so that the new information can be considered. And this is part of the reason that the ruling class is so abidingly sucessful at their game--it takes a relaxed, longer-than-normal discussion/debate of issues in order for alternative views/ideology to be made palpable.
Without this reflection time, alternative ideologies wither of on the vine for lack of basic essentials.
Justin is Slave Revolt who is Anonymous
Self serving propagandist
LOL, Anon,
Justin 'wishes' he were the famous Slave Revolt. Unfortunately, Justin is tethered (tenuously--or, rather, tenurously lol) to one of the empire's institutions of ideological production/reproduction. However, Justin likes nothing more than to sneak in counter-memes into the dominant, imperial ideological codings.
So, in essence, given corporate ideological hegemony--I can say of anyone with the will to question various 'authorities', we are all slaves in revolt. Some work close to the big-house, and some of us linger in the fields, staying close to the wooded areas that allow for quick escape.
Anon, do you think you can introduce something pertinent to this discussion?--or are you simply here to whine because Justin dares to pull the curtain back, so we can see the wizard at work.
Unfortunately, Justin is tethered (tenuously--or, rather, tenurously lol) to one of the empire's institutions of ideological production/reproduction. However, Justin likes nothing more than to sneak in counter-memes into the dominant, imperial ideological codings.
I think Slave Revolt understands more about the social "sciences" than most social "scientists."
Speaking of this stuff, there's a really good book that you ought to look into called Disciplined Minds: A Critical Look at Salaried Professionals and the Soul-Battering System That Shapes Their Lives. Given your graduate school experience, I think you'd really like this book, Slave Revolt. It's written by a really fascinating physicist who lost his job as editor of a physics journal after he published the book. It's a fascinating description of the system of indoctrination, particularly within academia.
Justin, I was exposed to broad swaths of this book through the radio program "Unwelcome Guests" several years ago. The host Lynn Neery read most of the chapters of the book in one hour segments of her program.
All past episodes, two hours of content per week, are archived at radio4all.net--or google Unwelcome Guests on the web. These are downloadable, MP3 format, over 900 hrs of programing to date. Very worthwhile if you have any regular long distance tripping to do--and so, so much better than corporate radio, or even most all of what happens on NPR.
The only part of Lynn Neery's focus is on some 9-11 stuff. I find hatching together disparate incongruities with respect to the terrorist attacks on 9-11 not very convincing, nor compelling. Thankfully, this is a minor part of her programing.
Another work she focused on is John Taylor Gatto's "Underground History of American Education". Gatto is a libertarian, former "Teacher of the Year" from the state of New York. This book is avaiable online--and it will give great insight to why the entire US education system (public and private) produces so many non-critical, apathetic young folk.
Thanks for the recommendation, Justin, and I wish you well on your academic progress. Stick to it--even if you do get tremendous flack. Just play it smart.
Life is a chess game--or, at least it is more like chess than checkers. Play it safe when you must--and make bold moves when you can.
Your website is a must-read for me. Given my limited time, it provides me a nice, broad synopsis of what progressive, socially conscious folks are focusing in on in the Americas.
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