Hugo Chavez Dies

[Gregg]

It will be interesting to see who keeps power and which direction Venezuela goes.

[redfox]

Huge. Many interesting write-ups, from the NYT to Democracy Now!

[gimmethesimplelife]

I personally am saddened by this news. I worry for the poor in Venezuela who have gotten assistance from the Chavez regime - is this going to go away in pursuit of globalization and profits, and if so, how much will the poor in the barrios endure before revolt? Such an interesting country too with funky history and lots to see other than Caracas. Rob

[Gregg]

Just a little snapshot of life under Chavez. Outside the cities very little has changed. Inside the cities millions of people still live in barrios. For anyone who is not familiar with the term barrio basically means slum. Slums with spotty electricity, very little sanitation, horrendous construction (an earthquake could easily kill hundreds of thousands of people), no healthcare, no schools, no access to the city's goods and services, no safety nets of any kind. In the first pic take a wild guess which side of the road the oil money landed on. It's hard to imagine things could get worse for people in the barrios or that things will change at all for people in the bush.

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[gimmethesimplelife]

Just a little snapshot of life under Chavez. Outside the cities very little has changed. Inside the cities millions of people still live in barrios. For anyone who is not familiar with the term barrio basically means slum. Slums with spotty electricity, very little sanitation, horrendous construction (an earthquake could easily kill hundreds of thousands of people), no healthcare, no schools, no access to the city's goods and services, no safety nets of any kind. In the first pic take a wild guess which side of the road the oil money landed on. It's hard to imagine things could get worse for people in the barrios or that things will change at all for people in the bush.

1159116011611162My understanding is that Mr. Chavez did set up health clinics for the poor and even flew the poor to Cuba for necc surgery in Havana. I also understand he set up state run groceries for the poor and also established some kind of system where some of the poor received an education. I'm sure the barrio photos are for real but one thing I have noticed online - there are many different takes on Mr. Chavez, from somewhat sympathetic such as mine to those who claim all sorts of horrible things about him. I'm guessing the truth is somewhere towards the middle and I'm guessing the poor who needed healthcare were grateful and did not care about the politics or where it came from - something that worries me about the United States if indeed living standards continue to fall. I could in theory see the same happening here.....a large class of people not caring where the assistance came from since the need is so great.

As always, I see things from the lens of people over profits, and I know what it is like to be US poor....which is steps above Caracas barrio poor. I can certainly sympathize with grabbing whatever help you can from wherever you can get it.....I just hope the poor in the barrios of Caracas are not going to get thrown under the bus now due to globalization and profits meaning more than human life in much of this world.

As to Mr. Chavez, indeed he had his issues, and he was no saint. He has made numerous quotes that are a bit out there, such as accusing the US of giving him cancer.....This one is too over the top even for me lol. But I still commend him for using some of the oil money for doing some good for the poor, regardless of what a mess Venezuela is today. Let us hope the murder rate can go down in the future and instead of just giving the poor handouts, perhaps some kind of jobs creation scheme (that we should have done in the US four years ago or so) can be started to create some kind of work for the masses. Rob

[ApatheticNoMore]

As to Mr. Chavez, indeed he had his issues, and he was no saint. He has made numerous quotes that are a bit out there, such as accusing the US of giving him cancer.....This one is too over the top even for me lol.

And this is what I suspect might be the case (unprovable of course), with no help from Chavez himself, as soon as I hear about his cancer. :0! Reminds me of this incident: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4088345.stm

[Gregg]

1178

Hmmm....