Failure to communicate…

Just put up the new BEING HAD Times. The last couple I have made seem to me to be some of the best work I have done in a while. Worthy to take a look.

In this latest edition the big stories are about Hugo Chavez coming to Belarus. He included a visit with his good friend Alexander Lukashenka along with two stops in Moscow and a stay in Iran.

Mr. Chavez is pretty much filthy, oil rich these days and has a sincere anti-American agenda. He brought his "Fight the Empire" rhetoric with him and had no problem taking potshots and what he feels is wrongful US involvement in South American politics.

"The empire that has called us dictators aims, itself, to establish a global dictatorship. There few nations that are experiencing such a strong pressure from the empire as Belarus. Because Belarus is being subjected to such strong threats on the part of the empire, therefore we are brothers in this struggle. It is necessary to overcome many obstacles, especially those posed by the forces that are against us. If we have done so much within a year, imagine how much we'll do over the 20 years that we are yet to spend in power!"

Lukashenka was said to have chimed in here: "Don't scare the Americans,"

Several blogs also covered the story and the general consensus there is that regardless of how much money is spent, the bottom line is that Venezuela is not strong enough to actually do battle with the united States military.

From Venezuela News and Facts

What in hell is Venezuela going to do with 5 Russian submarines? Does any one seriously imagine that 5 Russian submarines, with 4 missiles each that can reach 250 miles target (if well managed, something that I truly think the Venezuelan Navy is unable to do) can stop a US invasion to Venezuela?

And from Gabriel's Trumpet:

"In the United States, they say my trip to Moscow and Beijing is a concern," Chavez said Saturday, accusing Washington of meddling where it doesn't belong. "These relations are highly strategic, and are tied up with our security, defense, and overall development," he said.

During Sunday's military parade, Chavez brandished a Russian-designed AK-47 assault rifle proclaiming: "If it weren't for Russia and China we'd be almost weaponless today. "We must recognize the Russian and Chinese governments bravery for not caving in to the pressures of the dying US empire that intended to disarm us all."

I for one say we should take the man seriously. But at the same time, I am not speaking of starting a war. Basically, I think what we have here is… failure, to communicate.

It is very easy to say that the argument at hand is capitalism vs communism (Your reactive mind reacts to this word by saying: Communism doesn't work) or socialism. Certainly if Marx or Lenin (now, according to newthink: a mass murderer) were still with us, they would go straight to this point and say that the entire deal is about the bourgeoisie refusing to the death to give up their property. And probably this is the bottom line.

But another way to look at it is in exactly the same was as we looked at the American Revolution. During those times, the main gripe on the part of the American founding fathers was over taxation without representation. In this case, the main gripe of the Russians, South Americans and Middle Easterners are that they do not wish to accept American and/or European rule without having any real say over their presence. From this perspective, it is the Americans who are the tyranny, Chavez is playing Patrick Henry and shouting "Give us liberty or give us death!" and probably, flying a couple of airplanes into the World Trade Center could be seen as sort of a Boston Tea party, the first shot of the next revolution.

The American counter argument is that the proletariat of these countries (forgive me, I couldn't help myself) needs to exist in some form more along the lines as the American/European voting populace sees themselves and their failure to do so therefore becomes an issue of national security. (Usually the American opinion from here on in refuses to see vastly different economic situations, but let's let that go for the moment.) As soon as we start talking "national security", from this point we get into needing lots of money for guns, bombs missiles and other weapons of mass destruction- which of course are needed by the Americans for that same national security but are forbidden to other countries for theirs. Usually the Americans clean up on this arms sale stuff but unfortunately, these days the Russians get richer off it too. To lovers of western style democracy the rulers of these countries are in error and need to be ousted. They are rogue states and need to be wiped out- uh, except for any import materials that couple possibly be of use.

Actually, yea, it probably is about communism vs capitalism.

There is another interesting article in the BHTimes about the life expectancy of people in the FSU. We have been talking about this here in a previous post entitled Between the men and the women…. I refer to this only because of the photo, which is of a cigar chewing Dady Warbucks type pissing on the little people as an explaination of capitalism. The second choise for that picture was the one at right.

I think what needs to be said once and for all is that the people of the FS were communists and that this did not mean that they were really closet capitalists waiting to be freed, it meant that they were really, really, really communists (repeat again: Communism doesn't work). The reason I say this is that people in the west are completely misinterpreting what is going on because they are refusing to either understand this simple fact or listen to what is being said.

Ok, you might ask here what right I have for saying these things. Well, for one, I ride the busses with people here all the time and everybody I ever talk to likes to see it this way. And about Latin America, well, I used to live in Hamilton Heights in upper Manhattan (Pocito Santa Domingo) and they all agreed with this point as well!

All I am saying is that it is a real problem.

Yea, you can go about trying to win the enemy's hearts and minds, or you can just understand where they are coming from and work with that. I think Mr. Bush just wasted all of America's bank trying to BS his way through point number one and I think we would still have those two big ugly megaliths in New York if we would have done #2. And hey, don't believe me: Lukashenka got re-elected by a huge majority and he is very, very popular. Hugo Chavez is very popular in Venezuela and communism has a very strong following. I think it is time to deal wiith this in a way that does not lead to a great big boom...

Strother Martin, who played the "Captain" in the movie Cool Hand Luke, knew a little something about communications

So, what I am saying is, I think it is time to drop the guns and start really talking. I also think it is about time to stop fighting over oil and start figuring out ways to really build a sustainable ecological and social system for all people. To me, this thought is impossible without agreeing to work together, peacefully and with mutual best interests at heart. I repeat: It is impossible any other way.

And in case you don't understand what Mr Chavez and Mr. Lukashenko are saying, they are only agreeing with this point and find it humorous that they were the one's with the solution to the problem all along.

At least, that's how their story goes…

More soon…