Tuesday, August 17, 2004
Venezuela, Olympics, Football, Eon...
Yep, there's heaps of stuff going right politically-speaking the world over, as well as the Olympics in Athens. I've also been fucking busy sorting out Eon stuff, just little nagging stuff with our new web hosting company etc. As mentioned before I urge you to sign up to our official mailing list where you will get all your Eon Automatic info (gigs, news, albums, world tours etc).
Venezuela has kept my attention over the weekend and into this lovely sunny winter week. The country went into election mode and voted against recalling their current "lefty" President Hugo Chavez.
This guy has survived eight elections in six years... that's what I call democracy. The Venezuelan media is awash with right-wing trash and disinformation (courtesy of the neo-liberal oligarchs of the country), so for the President to keep on surviving with the help of people (the majority of supporters are of the lower classes) is quite staggering (for a Western eye especially). Despite the pressure of the media, the CIA-sponsored opposition and the continued pressure from the U.S (Bush and his cronies are no fans of Chavez' "socialismo", their oil needs come first!)
Chavez is basically a champion for the poor, his focus is on converting the country's massive oil wealth (rivalling Iraq's oil stores) to functioning social programs. Healthcare, food programs for the needy in the slums around Caracas etc etc... it's quite a bit to go into the full details but I will post some articles here for you to browse through if you're interested... this whole issue catches my eye because it shows how strong the will of the people can be against the current age of media-flooding... Venezuela has been a country choked with corruption for many many years, it's oil wealth squandered at the expense of the country's struggling classes ("77% of Venezuela's farmland is owned by 3% of the population"). They believe that Chavez is the only President who has given a shit about them and it is great that their voice has been heard... hopefully he can deliver the results of that same hope they have put in him.
... Plenty of news and views available at VenezuelAnalysis.com...
.......... Greg Palast (I enjoy reading this guy, young and passionate) writes about "Why Venezuela has Voted Again for Their 'Negro e Indio' President" and Tariq Ali has written a fantastic article at Counterpunch
.... I stayed up last night very late indeed to watch Thorpe, Van Den Hoogenband (sp?), Phelps and Hackett battle it out in the 200m freestyle... great stuff, I love the Olympics despite it's recent over-commercialisation. Gotta keep it's spirit and celebrate it for what it is at heart.
.... Also.... Howard is in over his head with a big wobbly lie with the childen overboard issue once again... a former advisor, Mike Scrafton, has revealed "that he told the PM that the photos of the "children overboard" were taken after the boat was sinking and were NOT of people "throwing their children into the water" as the PM had alleged". It seems Johnny is in a bit of a muddle with whether or not he thinks the photographs were discussed with Mr Scrafton... 2004 must be the Year of The Senile Australian Prime Minister... in 2002, he confirmed the photographs were discussed... yet in 2004 he's denying!
Check Jeremy's post for the lowdown on the whole shemozzle... Australia here is your Prime Minister showing his skills in lying. Do with it what you will.
Make an entry in the NWE Guestbook
Yep, there's heaps of stuff going right politically-speaking the world over, as well as the Olympics in Athens. I've also been fucking busy sorting out Eon stuff, just little nagging stuff with our new web hosting company etc. As mentioned before I urge you to sign up to our official mailing list where you will get all your Eon Automatic info (gigs, news, albums, world tours etc).
Venezuela has kept my attention over the weekend and into this lovely sunny winter week. The country went into election mode and voted against recalling their current "lefty" President Hugo Chavez.
This guy has survived eight elections in six years... that's what I call democracy. The Venezuelan media is awash with right-wing trash and disinformation (courtesy of the neo-liberal oligarchs of the country), so for the President to keep on surviving with the help of people (the majority of supporters are of the lower classes) is quite staggering (for a Western eye especially). Despite the pressure of the media, the CIA-sponsored opposition and the continued pressure from the U.S (Bush and his cronies are no fans of Chavez' "socialismo", their oil needs come first!)
Chavez is basically a champion for the poor, his focus is on converting the country's massive oil wealth (rivalling Iraq's oil stores) to functioning social programs. Healthcare, food programs for the needy in the slums around Caracas etc etc... it's quite a bit to go into the full details but I will post some articles here for you to browse through if you're interested... this whole issue catches my eye because it shows how strong the will of the people can be against the current age of media-flooding... Venezuela has been a country choked with corruption for many many years, it's oil wealth squandered at the expense of the country's struggling classes ("77% of Venezuela's farmland is owned by 3% of the population"). They believe that Chavez is the only President who has given a shit about them and it is great that their voice has been heard... hopefully he can deliver the results of that same hope they have put in him.
... Plenty of news and views available at VenezuelAnalysis.com...
.......... Greg Palast (I enjoy reading this guy, young and passionate) writes about "Why Venezuela has Voted Again for Their 'Negro e Indio' President" and Tariq Ali has written a fantastic article at Counterpunch
.... I stayed up last night very late indeed to watch Thorpe, Van Den Hoogenband (sp?), Phelps and Hackett battle it out in the 200m freestyle... great stuff, I love the Olympics despite it's recent over-commercialisation. Gotta keep it's spirit and celebrate it for what it is at heart.
.... Also.... Howard is in over his head with a big wobbly lie with the childen overboard issue once again... a former advisor, Mike Scrafton, has revealed "that he told the PM that the photos of the "children overboard" were taken after the boat was sinking and were NOT of people "throwing their children into the water" as the PM had alleged". It seems Johnny is in a bit of a muddle with whether or not he thinks the photographs were discussed with Mr Scrafton... 2004 must be the Year of The Senile Australian Prime Minister... in 2002, he confirmed the photographs were discussed... yet in 2004 he's denying!
Check Jeremy's post for the lowdown on the whole shemozzle... Australia here is your Prime Minister showing his skills in lying. Do with it what you will.
Make an entry in the NWE Guestbook
