I moved this article to the top of the page because it has developed into one that I feel is more important than most. I have added to it over the week.
Yesterday, I was at a social event and was seated next to a doctor. The fact that I had spent last month in Venezuela came up of course and we talked about it briefly.
How, he and I are both from the Ashkenazic Jewish ethnicity and the mention of Chavez and his stupid anti-Semitic rantings and his love of the right winged Ahmajinedad is viscerally disturbing given our history.
Chavez may or may not understand what effect this irresponsible rhetoric has on people like that doctor and I. If he knows, he may not care. Much of the political discussion in Venezuela, and in Canada for that matter, is pretty shallow. Words that define concepts seem to be used more as political signposts.
The images of a Star of David and a swastika together work on his population. At the root of the issue is Chavez’s use of the class struggle. Most of the Jewish population in Venezuela is middle class and therefor not considered to be allies. Anti-Semitism serves him as a ready-made, if imperialistic in origin, cultural tool.
Chavez may support the poorer classes because he is a truly Marxist or a populist who knows that is where his power does not come from the middle class. I don’t know. I do know that the Venezuelan middle class threatens his power.
But non South American international analysis is not his strong point.
But this was an interesting conversation for me, not so much for what the doctor said but for what I said. I find that sometimes I have to open my mouth and say something in order to know what I am thinking.
I talked about the free clinics with Cuban doctors. He scoffed at the quality of Cuban medicine (a topic that I am not all that up on) but I thought of the 50 million Americans without medical care.
I talked about the subsidized food for working people. And so it went.
Then I said, “Anyone who says that what is happening in Venezuela is all good does not know what they are talking about and anyone who says that what is happening in Venezuela is all bad is just as ignorant.”
That sort of ended the conversation. Both he and I were out of our depth. 26 days in country does not give you an in-depth understanding of its situation.
I saw a lot that I liked and a lot that disturbed me. Some of my discomfort might be from looking at things with a first world eye but some if it is probably true.
At this point, all I know is what I said to that doctor.
Venezuela is complicated.
