Michael Moore: enemy of the Bolivarian Revolution?
Although I’ve appreciated some of his work, filmmaker Michael Moore has a history of, um, making selective use of facts. So I’m not sure how credible is his rather amusing account (on the Jimmy Kimmel TV show) of meeting Hugo Chavez during the Venice Film Festival.
Among other things, Moore claims that Chavez asked him what to say in his upcoming speech to the United Nations, and that the president took his advice (although I don’t think Chavez apologized for calling President Bush “el diablo,” as Moore says he advised).
But according to leading Venezuelan-American chavista Eva Golinger (whom Chavez has called “the Sweetheart of Venezuela”), it’s all lies, lies and more lies.
I suspect the truth lies somewhere in between.
Of course things aren’t going so well for Chavez back home. He is now rambling on TV about how Venezuelans are wasting water by taking excessively long showers (three minutes is more than enough for him) and asking, “Why do people need hot water? Why do they need jacuzzis?”
As Juan Cristóbal writes at Caracas Chronicles:
The stuff about the showers, in particular, is another manifestation of a tendency we don’t talk about enough: for Chávez, Venezuela’s problems are Venezuelans’ fault. They have nothing to do with him.
No food in store shelves? You’re all shopping too much. No electricity? You bunch of wasteful pricks. No water? Get out of your jacuzzis! No dollars? Stop drinking Scotch and we might come up with some.
It used to be his Ministers’ fault, or the IVth Republic’s, or the Empire’s. But those scapegoats doesn’t seem to be working anymore.
Barack Obama got his share of criticism for shaking Chavez’s hand and accepting a book from him. But this has made it harder for Chavez to invoke one of his favorite scapegoats: Yankee imperialism. The Venezuelan cartoonist Eduardo Sanabria may have been on to something.
Comments
| 23 October 2009, 4:54 pm |
“But this has made it harder for Chavez to invoke one of his favorite scapegoats: Yankee imperialism”
Castro brothers have been riding that hobby horse for 50 years despite the absurdity of it in a post Cold War era and Cuba having access to all the other markets in the world.
| 23 October 2009, 5:04 pm |
“But this has made it harder for Chavez to invoke one of his favorite scapegoats: Yankee imperialism”
Castro brothers have been riding that hobby horse for 50 years despite the absurdity of it in a post Cold War era and Cuba having access to all the other markets in the world.
Yes, but there’s no US embargo against Venezuela (the embargo against Cuba is the visible symbol of US hostility) and no sitting US president has shaken Castro’s hand.
| 23 October 2009, 5:08 pm |
Have to agree with him about the showers thing. You get in, you get yourself wet, you turn the shower off, lather up, then turn the shower back on to rinse yourself. Shouldn’t take more than three minutes.
| 23 October 2009, 5:12 pm |
Have to agree with him about the showers thing. You get in, you get yourself wet, you turn the shower off, lather up, then turn the shower back on to rinse yourself. Shouldn’t take more than three minutes.
Even with lather, rinse, repeat?
| 23 October 2009, 5:13 pm |
If Hugo would just learn to blame all his country’s problems on George W. Bush, there might just be a Nobel Peace Prize for him next year.
| 23 October 2009, 5:16 pm |
Have to agree with him about the showers thing. You get in, you get yourself wet, you turn the shower off, lather up, then turn the shower back on to rinse yourself. Shouldn’t take more than three minutes.
Venezuela, which is not in the Gobi Desert, should not have water supply issues. And what the hell business is it of his how long people spend in the shower? Next thing you know, he’ll be telling them to check their tire pressure and turn up their thermostats.
| 23 October 2009, 5:29 pm |
The showers story has been creating great amusement on radio 5 all day, not cos of the presidentially endorsed 3 minute norm, cos he’s being reported as saying people have got to stop singing in the shower.
listeners are being asked to text in (85058) the last song they’d sing in the shower if shower singing were to be outlawed tomorrow.
| 23 October 2009, 6:16 pm |
“Venezuela, which is not in the Gobi Desert, should not have water supply issues.”
Yes. But it may have power supply problems as a result of the superior production qualities of the peoples run oil and power production facilities. Lack of power means no pumping capacity.
PS:
I should say the above only applies to the comrade in the street. The ruling classes and their friends will of course have unlimited supplies of power and water.
| 23 October 2009, 7:51 pm |
He’ll be threatening to put tanks outside of people’s bathrooms, next!
Live long….
| 23 October 2009, 8:45 pm |
The BBC’s man in caracus spoke of unannounced power and water cuts. Clearly there really were things closer to home he should have been investing in rather than subsidising London busses.
| 24 October 2009, 1:15 pm |
The BBC’s man in Caracus, went crackers and was caught listening to Fox News!
| 25 October 2009, 12:34 am |
“The BBC’s man in Caracus”
The third fruit vendor from the left as you leave the train station.
| 25 October 2009, 1:17 am |
Michael Moore makes Nick Griffin look like Nick Clegg; he’s positively Gallowayesque.
| 25 October 2009, 4:04 am |
Eva Golinger is obviously an escapee from Peter Simple’s ‘Way of the World’ column.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Peter_Simple%27s_characters
HASTA LA VICTORIA SEMPRE !
… which means
NOSOTROS LOS GRINGOS UNIDOS JAMAS SERAMOS VENCIDOS !
| 27 October 2009, 2:57 pm |
Publicly available evidence demonstrates that Eva Golinger is nothing but a fraud.
Well, Castro has been riding that pony for 50 years(things would be better if not for the Yankees), Chavez will no doubt continue in his mentor’s footsteps.