Orchestrated resistance to the cultural hegemony of the US (real or imagined) fermenting far to its South will be interesting to watch

- my thanks to Rodrigo for bringing it to my attention

- I will keep a weather watch for the skull and cross bones on the hoorizon

Hi Rodrigo,

Do you have much knowledge of the Chavez government's management of its oil and gas reserves? How would you respond to this article in The Economist "Oil's Dark Secret" (http://www.economist.com/business/PrinterFriendly.cfm?story_id=7270301) which depicts the Venezuellan Government as managing its reserves poorly?

You may be interested to read a brief discussion I became involved with concerning Venezuela here: http://johnquiggin.com/index.php/archives/2006/11/27/monday-message-board-51/#comment-96404

The world is in the midst of dynamic change and rebirth. Europe is recreating itself and is in the process of sloughing off the nation state to become a single politic. Europe, China, India and the United States are becoming closely aligned economically. Russia is working to bring back the old satellites into the economic fold. South America has as yet not been stable enough on the whole to create a united politic. Not only have they had the influence of every European colonial power but, the United States and Soviet communism by proxy. While South America has resources to trade with the world it will not have the politic to use those resources as a means to economically influence world direction or become a superpower. Chavez is very immature. At the moment he is prancing about holding his nations natural resources above his head as if he just won a title bout at Ceasars Palace. As the worlds natural resources diminish I'm sure a new economic modality will replace the current "state ownership". One nation or six will not be allowed to hold the world hostage or control all development.
The Chavez's of the world will be replaced by those who have a greater, more inclusive, democratic world view. Right now we're just starting to pick teams for the game of the next century. Those nation states that think their clever and renounce democracy will most likely pay a fair price.

I suspect Bolivia is more likely to face a civil war rather than a coup. The country has two quite distinct cultural regions, and Morales wants to use the resource wealth of the lowland provinces (along the Brazilian border) to fund his Andean collectivist dreams. The lowlanders obviously want more autonomy to avoid being sucked into that kind of retrograde scheme, but Morales will, no doubt, have no qualms about sending in the troops to maintain his grip on power. He is also keen on using the constitutional assembly to remake the political system in his image. He is, after all, a Chavez disciple.

If he is allowed to succeed - and it is highly unlikely that Lula will ever have the spine to stand up to him - one of Latin America's poorest countries will lose the chance to work its way out of poverty, and that will be a tragedy.

aqvarius wrote: "The Chavez's of the world will be replaced by those who have a greater, more inclusive, democratic world view."

But Hugo Chavez has just won an election with 61 percent of the vote. Do you that, perhaps, the people of Venezuela entitled to have a say on this?

Is the "greater, more inclusive, democratic world view" that you talk of the same as thatof the "Sweatshop Lobby" who are now threatening to move factories out of China if that country passes laws which give minimal protection to its workforce? (see http://www.iuf.org/cgi-bin/editorials/db.cgi?db=default&uid=default&ID=505&view_records=1&ww=1&en=1)

"The Chavez's of the world will be replaced by those who have a greater, more inclusive, democratic world view."
But Hugo Chavez has just won an election with 61 percent of the vote. Do you that, perhaps, the people of Venezuela entitled to have a say on this?
Yes dagget I do think they will have a say in this, and after they finish with Chavez they hopefully will get to elect someone with a greater sense of the changing world, a greater commitment to including more of the citizenry in the process of government and business, and the exercise of democratic values in whole rather than selecting values piecemeal. And hopefully not suffer communism or dictatorship as a result of Chavez's vision for Venezuela.

Is the "greater, more inclusive, democratic world view" that you talk of the same as thatof the "Sweatshop Lobby" who are now threatening to move factories out of China if that country passes laws which give minimal protection to its workforce?
Is the "sweatshop Lobby" a democratic government dagget. Do the "sweatshop lobby" dagget have a greater, more inclusive, democratic world view? I doubt it. Their name alone suggest that they have a narrow platform of concerns from which they operate. Why throw this in my face dagget as a challenge to my statement that "The Chavez's of the world will be replaced by those who have a greater, more inclusive, democratic world view." I grant you that Chavez was democratically elected but, to date his policies and behavior do not translate into "those who have a greater, more inclusive, democratic world view."
Have you got anything else eating away at your sense of self-rightiousness that you might want to attribute to me dagget. Or have you finished pissing into the wind.