Chavez has been demonized by a frustrated America for years. We hear, and god knows we say, plenty of rude things about him when his name comes up. What we don't talk about much is Venezuela's economic progress, its rampant -- and very American -- consumerism, and (shhh) the extent to which his attitude about America is shared by a pretty big chunk of the rest of the world. Nor do we talk about him in the mainstream media as just another successful Latin American leader responsible for prosperity and democratization across most of that world.
Chávez’s rhetoric might not be out of place in “The Little Red Book,” yet everyday life for many Venezuelans today looks more like the Neiman-Marcus catalogue. Thanks to the boom in the price of oil, many Venezuelans have been indulging in rampant consumerism that might give even an American pause. In the past year, auto sales have doubled, property prices have soared (mortgage loans are up three hundred per cent), and, thanks to this buying frenzy, credit-card loans have nearly doubled. And while Chávez has done a good job of redistributing oil revenue to the Venezuelan poor, via so-called misiones, designed to improve education, health care, and housing, and has forced oil companies to renegotiate contracts, there has been no nationalization of industry, relatively little interference with markets, and only small gestures toward land reform. If this is socialism, it’s the most business-friendly socialism ever devised. ...James Surowiecki, New Yorker
In many respects, not so very different from Venezuela's big neighbor to the north. It's all about oil.
Surowiecki wrote that about Chavez before he began to become ill, back several years. Ironically, many -- including many Americans -- would agree with Chavez in at least one respect:
When he spoke in front of the United Nations General Assembly in September, a day after President Bush, he said, “The devil came here yesterday.” ...Surowiecki
William Neumann reports in the Times:
Despite a rocky economic record and strings of broken or half-filled promises during his 14 years in office, the fundamental legacy of Mr. Chávez, who died on Tuesday, is not made of concrete and steel, highways and houses, but something less tangible: he has changed the way Venezuelans think about themselves and their country.
“He has made people who didn’t feel they were part of democracy before feel like they’re part of the system,” said Joy Olson, director of the Washington Office on Latin America, an advocacy group. “That hasn’t happened in very many countries. If you look at the United States, poor people don’t feel like they’re very much a part of the system, and he did that.”...NYT
