Day 38: Caracas, Venezuela

Alright. We've been in Venezuela for a couple of days now. I like it here. Staying at Hotel Odeon, which is an ok place (no hot water or cable, but the rooms are big and it's clean). They have a metro here, which is a real life saver because taxis are fairly pricey. I think Panama and Venezuela are two of my favorite places on this trip. People here so far have been friendly, I'm not endlessly getting harassed by someone who wants something from me, the literacy is pretty close to 100%, and I don't constantly hear stories of how bad the government is (with the exception of U.S. media of course, and Israeli media--and my brother. And probably a bunch of other people). Ok, of course there are people who don't like the Venezuelan government. Much in the same way that the U.S. gov't doesn't interact with terrorists, this government doesn't cooperate with imperialists (at least in theory--but guess who they sell lots of oil to...). You can make enemies really fast that way. But I have to say, the standard of living in Venezuela seems to be much better than everything I saw in Central America.

Some might say, "well of course Venezuela has a higher standard of living! Look how much oil they have!". While it's true that Venezuela has more oil than just about any country in the world, it is not this fact alone which helps the general population. In fact, there is quite a bit of oil in Central America as well. Chiapas, Mexico, for example (yes, Chiapas is considered Central america by many--and if the zapatistas have their way, it won't even be part of Mexico for long) has tons of oil, but because of some bizarre bureaucratic/corporate ballyhoo they ship it off to the U.S. to refine it, and then they have to buy it back at a more expensive price, which as you can guess, has a tremendously negative effect on the economy. Huge amounts of corruption don't help either.

This interesting fact aside, if the Chavez gov't hadn't made efforts to de-privatize the oil here, it wouldn't matter how much oil there was, only the ultra-rich (i.e. U.S. interests) would benefit from it. As it stands, Venezuelan oil helps fund programs for food, education, health, agriculture, and much more--not just in Venezuela, but all over Latin America, Africa, AND even in poor areas in the U.S. that the U.S. government won't even look at. Politics aside, per capita, Venezuelan women have such a high (beautiful):(not beautiful) ratio that it's stunning. If you think that is a good thing, you may want to come see for yourself.

Oh, yeah. Quick sidenote: I know I've touched on this general topic before, but notice how the mainstream media describes Mexico's Lopez Obrador as leftist? Well, that's kind of odd, because he really isn't, but I guess I can forgive his followers for thinking that he is. The publicity machine works well everywhere (John Kerry, anyone?).

I've tried several times at a few different internet cafes to get some pictures up, but the damn thing just won't work. I hope to figure out a solution soon. I have some beautiful pictures to share. Lots to be excited about here, and putting in a lot of work to make things happen. More info soon!