(Abdus Salam and Richard Feynman)
After eight years of blogging, I think I am entitled to a very personal rant. I have received a few comments about me noting that Chavez broke relations with Colombia while meeting with Maradona, most of them critical of even including Maradona in the post, or in the way which I referred to him.
Sorry people, screw Maradona, he has no right standing next to any Venezuelan President, least of all to have the dignity to be present at a major announcement about Venezuelan politics, whether I agree with it or not. (I disagree, because Chavez is just playing for Chavez, not for Venezuela)
Maradona is and should be nobody’s hero. Not to the Venezuelan President, nor to the Venezuelan people. He is the typical Latin American idiot, who God gave him all this talent and he has screwed up and wasted it all the time, because all he is interested in is himself. And if this reminds you of Hugo Chavez, you are right, he had the goodwill to do so much and the money came right after it and he did nothing but waste the opportunity, just like Maradona.
Come on! God even threw in his hand to help him! Contrast that with those that are always asking God to even give them a hint he exists!
And since we are on the subject, let me tell you a couple of stories of three true heroes, one long, one short. (Yes, that is two, but a third hero of mine is involved)
In the long story, there was a much-maligned President of Venezuela, whose name was Carlos Andres Perez (CAP). Yes, the much despised and screwed up President during the IVth. Republic, which now seems like Nirvana compared to what we are witnessing.
After CAP left office in his first term, he was not loved. Oil prices went down during the last year of his first term, he had to cut the budget and worse, he had to wait ten years to be President again.
It is not easy being a former President in any country…
But then someone created the so called “South Commission” and invited distinguished people from the Southern hemisphere, who would meet to discuss the important problems of the world. Someone suggested Carlos Andres Perez and given his status as an ex-President, he rapidly accepted.
Separately, Abdus Salam, the Physics Nobel Prize in 1979 for his work on quantum electrodynamics and creator of the ICTP in Trieste, was also invited. Somehow, Salam took a liking to the then energetic Venezuelan politician sitting next to him at meetings and traveling and talking to him. Salam convinced Perez that the only way out of underdevelopment was through science and technology and convinced him that a country like Venezuela should spend 2% of GDP in science and technology.
CAP bought the story. In fact, if my memory serves me right, he went to Trieste a month before his election and promised Salam that he would increase the Science and Technology budget to 2% of GDP. Once elected, CAP even went further: On his first trip abroad he stopped first at Trieste to visit Salam and ratify his promise.
Events conspired against CAP, the Caracazo took place as he was just getting started and he was almost a lame duck before he even got started. He did try to help science and technology. He got a loan from the IDB to fund five areas of priority to the tune of US$ 90 million (Disclaimer: I was involved in this project) and created and funded a number of R&D institutions. But politics (as usual in Venezuela) took over.
The point is that I very much prefer CAP’s hero Abdus Salam than Chavez infatuation with a man, Diego Maradona, who is not precisely an example and represents (to me) the worst qualities of the Latin American idiot. Chavez examples and idols are no heroes’s, and we have to call a spade, a spade. Few of them have any redeeming qualities.
Screw Maradona! My heroes are absolute, not relative. So are my principles. Presidents should lead by example. Politicians should not lead by the most likely way to win an election, but the most honest way to do what is right for the people an set an example. That is why I will never be a good politician.
Which leads me in this rant to my second story. Many years ago when I was in science, another hero of mine, Richard Feynman, died. That day we had a meeting of scientists to discuss mostly irrelevant and mostly innocuous subjects. A brilliant Mathematician and friend, who emigrated many years ago, turned around and told me something like” I can’t believe we are discussing such trivial matters on the day Feynman died, rather than pay tribute to his work and accomplishments”
Those are true heroes that lead by example: Abdus Salam, who went form his farming village in Pakistan to a Nobel Prize and the promotion of science. Richard Feynman, son of inmigrants who would play with equations and bongoes at the same time. Both made full use of their God-given talent.
And, of course, there is my then good friend Gerardo Mendoza, the Mathematician in my story, who I lost track of, but whose values were also absolute and could not be compromised and who is always sorely missed.
Three true heros
Screw Maradona
End of rant!
The Devil's Excrement 
November 18, 2010 at 9:28 pm
MARADONA pemain terbaik sepanjang masa!yang lain kurang makan doang……………………………………………………………………………………..
July 26, 2010 at 11:56 am
That sould have read : Idiots ARE just idiots.
Coup d’etat
Oooooppsss. Keyboard sucks. Buenas tardes.
July 26, 2010 at 11:52 am
I agree with some points, but strongly disagree with some others. I like Maradona the football player…his persona off-the-field is rather comical, but hey… to each its own. He is a diva…a showman just like El Comandante. Both are attention-grabbing whores. That is as far as the linking goes in my humble opinion.
I am totally on-board against the crazy pseudo-socialist crap and working to forge a new chance for development and democracy in my loved country, but using blanket statements such as “He [Maradona] is the typical Latin American idiot, who God gave him all this talent and he has screwed up and wasted it all the time, because all he is interested in is himself”… just isn’t cool. It is demeaning, condescending and discriminatory against my history and culture as a Venezuelan and Latin man. Idiots and just idiots…I don’t think we can or should group them and classify them by geographic/cultural areas. Most importantly, such language is alienating and therefore dangerous.
Finally, I beg to differ in regards the validity of this statement: “I take Chile’s success, which had something to do about the Chileans and little about the US.”. I really don’t think a coup d’state and a complete revamping of the economic model (both conceived and executed by American minds) could be deemed of “little” importance.
Just my two cents. Keep up the good work. 🙂
July 25, 2010 at 2:24 pm
OT:
ha, ha, ha
Chavez is threatening the US (again) with cutting off the oil exports if they look at him funny.
http://www.noticierodigital.com/2010/07/chavez-ni-una-gota-mas-de-petroleo-a-eeuu-si-ocurre-agresion-militar-contra-venezuela/
ha, ha, ha
And where will the little bit of income that he has now come from?
What an idiot.
July 25, 2010 at 11:56 am
Undoubtedly, I agree with you on Chavez shutting down Venezuela’s relations with Colombia and having Maradona next to him while making the statement. All he needed to complete the Circus was to have invited the other personalities he relies on Oliver Stone, Sean Penn and Danny Glover amongst others. What a pity to see such a beautiful country and people going down the drain
July 25, 2010 at 3:56 am
OT, Russian prime minister here:
http://online.wsj.com/video/black-clad-putin-roars-into-biker-fest/B436A5AC-5D1D-48A8-A9DF-3B419957BE2F.html?mod=WSJ_World_VideoCarousel_2
Some parallel to our milico?
July 25, 2010 at 3:31 am
Some of you make it sound as if Maradona did something similar to Hitler, he’s considered by many the world’s greatest football player who happened to had a tragic personal life including substance abuse. Nothing more.
I don’t even understand how he deserves mentioning in any way, the real problem we have is Hugo, not Maradona.
Just sayin’
July 24, 2010 at 9:08 pm
I read “Are you joking Mr. Feynman” when I was about 9 or 10 and since then he has also been one of my heros. Later when I got around to studying physics I read his lectures. I also remember reading about electro-weak theory and Abdus Salam (who shared the prize with Weinberg and Glashow, if I remember correctly) in Discover magazine at around the same time… fascinating although i would later discover I was no good at physics and consequently dedicated myself to art. Thanks for the post, I thoroughly enjoyed it and SCREW Maradona.
July 24, 2010 at 6:30 pm
Bruni, the policeman of your blog post (http://cuentosintrascendentes.blogspot.com/2008/01/post-para-un-verdadero-hroe.html) is indeed a Venezuelan hero. Too bad we don’t know his name. Thank you for the story.
Let me second DeannaNash’s recommendation of THE PLEASURE OF FINDING THINGS OUT. It’s well worth watching. I have not seen it in a while, but I remember really liking it.
Incidentally, Feynman does not appeal only to science types (I guess that’s obvious from the accolades he got here.) My daughter just graduated from High School and she is not too interested in science as a career, but she loves Feynman. About four years ago, when she was a HS freshman, she started to read a Feynman book I had. She got hooked and ended up writing a couple of school papers on him. I remember spending good times with her listening (on CD) to Feynman narrating some of his amusing life stories. His experiences in Los Alamos and Oak Ridge, his safe cracking, and on and on…
July 24, 2010 at 12:51 pm
My own personal rant would be very short: Can Chavez please stop messing around with Bolivar’s remains?
July 23, 2010 at 11:57 pm
Miguel, thanks for reminding me why I like you sooo much. Feynman is also one of the people whom I greatly admire and strive to emulate.
When you wrote that on the day he died, a group of you were meeting to “discuss mostly irrelevant and mostly innocuous subjects” I honestly thought you were going to say that this was the BEST WAY that you could have paid tribute to such an extraordinary mind, er man.
A large part of Feynman’s genius lay in his ability to see what everyone else missed in the every day (normal) parts of life.
To all, if you haven’t seen the BBC Horizon/PBS Nova Richard Feynman Interview entitled THE PLEASURE OF FINDING THINGS OUT, (1981), you really should watch it. His Northeastern accent is sometimes hard to discern, but it’s well worth the 50 minute investment: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8777381378502286852#
July 23, 2010 at 8:16 pm
I agree, but that has nothing to do with the point of the story. The point of the story is that the true heroes are not those that do one thing in their life thanks to their God given talent, but those that work at it and use it properly. Few people know Abdus Salam, his work, his school and his effort to promote science in underdeveloped countries. He could have sat in London, doing science rather than do what he did which was precisely educate. Same with Feynman, yes he got the Nobel prize, but he also helped educate and promote Physics like few people have done. They are my heroes, but most people dont even know them. But I do think role models are important, you start with your favorite elementary school teacher, then your science or math teacher and so on, it is inevitable.
Our society needs, besides education, stability. People don’t have stability and it is disappearing even more. When institutions are renamed, restructured all in the name of politics (sand I am not only talking only about Chavez) countries can’t progress. You need to have a clear path that if you do your job well, you will stay and keep doing it. We dont have that. Thus, educators want to become administrators so they can get their pension fast and fat. (You get extra points for being a boss in terms of years.) To hell with education itself.
And you also need economic stability, teachers have night jobs because of erratic salary increases in an environment of 30% inflation, it is hard to think about doing a good job when you have two teaching jobs, one public, the other private and you race and spend two hours in traffic to get form one to the other.
It is in the end, a daunting task.
July 23, 2010 at 7:42 pm
I completely understand your rant.
However, I think without realizing it in a way you are making the same mistake as Chavez and others in Latin America. And that mistake is giving importance to “superstars” or celebrities period, be they soccer players, artists, musicians, politicians or scientists. Having celebrities in and of itself will never get a society anywhere. Look at your own example – Salam. He might have been a brilliant scientist but what did he do for Pakistan? It would seem not much, that country is as poor and messed up as ever.
What makes a country advanced or better off is having your average member of your society who is better educated, gainfully employed and productive. If I lived in a poor country and I had the choice of getting for that country either a couple super star scientists who win Nobel Prizes or a couple hundred thousand scientists and engineers who were competant, but not brilliant, I would choose the latter. I think they would do far more to take the society forward.
Personally, I think super star worship is reflection of poverty, backwardness and some times repression. You see it in the poor sections of U.S. society too, but not nearly as much among the middle class. Large numbers of poor youth in the U.S. try to become superstars and almost invariably they fail and remain poor. Meanwhile middle class kids study, get a good education, get work experience, and have a much brighter future – even if they never become rich or famous.
As another example, am hard pressed to think of any Canadian or South Korean celebrities or any Nobel Prize winning scientists – yet those societies are quite advanced and people in them live well.
That is because your AVERAGE Canadian or South Korean is well educated, your AVERAGE person in those countries is productive, even your AVERAGE bureaucrat in those countries takes their job seriously and does decent work. I don’t think those societies focus on trying to make super star celebrities – they focus on making the average person good, and that has worked well.
Therefore, in my personal opinion, when it comes to developing their human resources poor countries would do well to ignore the extremes, ignore celebrities, don’t even try to have roll models, and concentrate on improving the education, circumstances, and opportunities of your average person.
July 23, 2010 at 6:08 pm
Good post, Miguel. Good role models. Who does not like Feynman? What a character (and great story teller) he was! He brimmed with enthusiasm and lived life to the fullest. Physics Nobel Prize laureate, bongo player, painter, prankster, etc, etc. He poked fun at the silliness of those who denied biological evolution, believed in astrology and other sorts of woo-woo stuff. And yet for him, this life, just as it is, was full of wonder and beauty.
As to Maradona, hey, the guy is a jerk, but let’s give him credit where credit is due: he overcame a very bad substance abuse problem (cocaine and alcohol) that plagued him for years–this is not an easy feat. Let us give him his due for that. Even though I didn’t like him, I thought it was unfair to diss G.W. Bush for his former problem with alcohol. The fact that he overcame his problem drinking was much more meaningful than the fact that he used to have the problem. This did not make me support Bush, nor does it mean that I like Maradona, but hats off to them for what they did. A lot good people have tried and failed.
July 23, 2010 at 5:48 pm
The last meetings with friends of Chavez are not so inspiring too, Uganda, “Abjasia” and “Osetia del Sur”, the last two I do not know if they even exist as real countries or were created artificially by Russia.
July 23, 2010 at 5:21 pm
MO, Gerardo is not difficult to find if you want to contact him.
I found this in google: Gerardo A. Mendoza
Department of Mathematics
Temple University
Is provably your friend
By the University web he is in vacations.
July 23, 2010 at 5:11 pm
Great rant! Please don’t wait so long to do so again….
July 23, 2010 at 3:47 pm
Enjoyed the essay. I didn’t realize Miguel had a physicist background. Who people choose as associates/ friends/role models definitely says something about them. CAP choosing a Nobel Prize winner. Thugo choosing an idiot savant soccer player whose value and accomplishments away from the playing field are nil to negative.
Another aspect of this is that CAP was not afraid to make friends with someone most likely brighter than CAP was. Thugo makes “friends” only with those he can control, such as idiot savant Maradona.
I cannot get angry at an idiot savant like Maradona. He is a fool, and does what fools do. At the same time, I was glad to see the Maradona-coached Argentine team go down to defeat in the World Cup, as I like seeing bad consequences for Thugo and his minions.
July 23, 2010 at 2:12 pm
Miguel,
A agree about the role models, but heroes are often taken to another dimension.When I grew up I adored Bob Dylan.I thought his poetry was amazing, not to mention his song writing.
However as I matured, I realized that all people have big defects and we have to see each person as both good and bad.
True that some people seem to have more good than bad though and vice versa
July 23, 2010 at 1:29 pm
Not 24 hours have passed since Chávez announced his breaking off ties with Colombia and of course all us Miraflorologists 😉 know how the ‘tarifado’ sycophants elbow each other savagely on their way to backslapping sessions in media but this one really takes the grand prize.
Elías Eljuri has just established, despite admitting to not having a ‘complete’ analysis, that ‘the situation with Colombia did not impact frontier social indicators’ (see http://is.gd/dDE2A).
Chavista insensitivity has plumbed new depths.
July 23, 2010 at 12:55 pm
As a child I was taught a few ageless maxims, one of which was that birds of a feather, flock together. As an adult, yesterdays “meeting of minds” brought this simple truth back to the forefront as these two sorry excuses for humanity crossed lingering glances and adoringly empathized with each other while sealing the fate of countless Venezuelans and Colombians whose livelihoods depend on dealings with each other.
What a horrible state of affairs indeed.
July 23, 2010 at 12:29 pm
I believe there are millions of ” heroes” out there doing the impossible in anonymous ways everyday.To pick one or 2 t idealize does not do justice to the reality out there.
The fact that some people are put on pedestals, is the foundation of why Chavez has gained so much power.
July 23, 2010 at 11:22 am
Well Miguel,
with the exception of your friend Mathematician, it seems that one’s got to get a Nobel Prize in Physics to be one of your heroes…
Your rant made me reflect on who I would name to be my heroes. I ended up with very few, mostly doctors, that work extremely hard and have an extraordinary empathy with their patients. And then I remembered the anonymous policemen of this old post:
http://cuentosintrascendentes.blogspot.com/2008/01/post-para-un-verdadero-hroe.html
That guy is a real hero.
July 23, 2010 at 10:17 am
Like Gonzalo says in comment in last post, with the charges of support to Guerrilla and the laundry of money, Colombia and other countries have a good case to La Haya’s International Court.
The difference from Noriega is it will more difficult to probe the support to drug traffic. But, the others mentioned above aren’t difficult to probe.
July 23, 2010 at 9:09 am
Torres, Excellent comment.
Miguel ,
Thumbs up to you !! I have no heroes.But those of you who are honest and decent and stick to your principles are close to my heart.
July 23, 2010 at 8:56 am
Has anyone taken the trouble to compare the percentage of USA citizens in CAP’s government, versus the percentage of Cuba citizens in chavez’s?
[rhetoric]
—
July 23, 2010 at 8:06 am
Miguel,
Well said!
Richard Feynman is one of my heroes also. Not only was he a brilliant mathematician, but he was also a brilliant teacher. With his gentle humor, he taught and inspired tens of thousands of students. I wish I could say I was one of them, but I only know him through his books.
Being an idiot, Maradona may not have realized completely how he was being used, but that doesn’t make him completely innocent. He still HAD to have known that this major public announcement was not about him or football, and he should have excused himself and retired from the stage.
July 23, 2010 at 7:53 am
Chavez has been vocal about escalating US military presence in the region and mentioned Honduras, Colombia and Costa Rica. I’m going to comment on this:
Chavez is not having a good week make that month. The Empire is everywhere. In Peru, US Navy and Marines are conducting exercises with their Peruvian counterparts. US warships and amphibious landing vehicles included. In Miami, the US Navy amphibious carrier Iwo-Jima just left port for a tour of the Caribbean with port calls in Guyana, Suriname, Colombia and others. On board the Iwo-Jima is a compliment of Marines with amphibious landing vehicles. In New York this week landed the top drug pilot ferrying drugs from Venezuela to Africa. He’s a russian national captured in Liberia. Last but not least, on the diplomatic front the top US person for the region is on Caribbean tour for US-led Caribbean Basin Security Initiative which provides money and assistance to 15 countries.
Things have not ever looked this bad for Chavez
July 23, 2010 at 7:47 am
Yes Pueblo Unido, I dont like these paper heroes who have done little for the improvement of Latin America and please include Chavez in the list.
And I am not “you people” , as I said in the rant, I dont want power and dislike politics, all I want is for this poor country not to become Africa and to have a Government who cares for the people.
It is another feature of the Latin American idiot to blame our problems on the US. Venezuela a country which is not rich, should be doing much better than it has then and worse now, it is not the US’ fault is that ideology that has screwed up our lives. Bewteen Chile’s success and Cuba’s failure, I can assure you I take Chile’s success, which had something to do about the Chileans and little about the US.
Funny too that Chavez’ heroes are always foreign, no? Maradona had it all and gave it away, he was a hero, a great soccer player, but deserves no place standing next to a President like that, least of all for such an important announcement.
El Pueblo is not unido here, Chavez has divided Venezuelans and destroyed the oil industry, manufacturing industry, agriculture, gave Cubans a huge role in running the country and has allowed billions of dollars to be stolen by his buddies and cronies.
Eleven years running and people are worse off. Is that also the US’s fault?
No, it is the Venezuelan’s fault, who keep following empty paper idols who only want power.
July 23, 2010 at 7:27 am
Salam and Feynnman, and many others from almost every part of the world lead by example. To look for REAL change and good news for everyone in the world, turn to science and technology news. Politics, politicians, cops and armies generally produce real good news when they LET THINGS BE and WITHDRAW.
Chavez: Ever the showman, never the President. Anyone we can think of, CAP included, cuts a better Presidential figure. Why didn’t we make him audition for Sabado Sensacional? He is almost unmatched at finding the lowest common denominator and then breaking new levels under. There he leads the country, constantly breaking his own records for crassness.
I wonder if Maradona will become some “sort of” minister like Ramiro Valdes. How about heading the Oficina Nacional Antidrogas?
This Pueblo Unido character has quite a sense of humor… He should be humored a bit… Augusto Pinochet and DINA’s head Manuel Contreras: some consider them Latin American “heroes”. Why NOT? Because they “saved their country from communism” doing the worst things you can imagine to people?. Oh, but Fidel and Che applied “Revolutionary Justice”? did they? Please, keep this dreamer dreaming and tell him or her that the Revolution’s victims smell better than the Counterrevolution’s.
July 23, 2010 at 7:24 am
Kepler: I think it is Maria Gabriela Chavez, his daughter. And yes, according to Miguel Salazar, also the heir apparent. (Hugo denies this but yet he says he wants to hand power to a woman — who else?)
Pueblo: nobody is blaming Hugo for all of Colombia’s ills. As I understand it, the question is why are 1,500 FARC guerillas finding abode in Venezuela. I think it is a good question that so far, remains unanswered.
Miguel: great rant! Totally agree with you.
July 23, 2010 at 7:01 am
Is the woman next to Hugo his heir apparent? Is she the one of the notorious video?
She is showing up pretty frequently in every big event with the milico.
July 23, 2010 at 6:51 am
http://www.focus.de/politik/videos/eskalierender-konflikt-venezuela-bricht-beziehungen-zu-kolumbien-ab_vid_18893.html
From a German web site … they show the beginning of this speech of a statesman …. such an important announcement of any president in such a way ??????? They are both ingnorants, stupid men …..
July 23, 2010 at 6:43 am
Pueblo, your argument makes no sense. You said:
“In 1996-1997 you had FARC taking over army bases like Las Delicias, general strikes in the cities, peasant uprisings, and only billions coming in from the Yanqui Plan Colombia dollars kept the lid on things. This all happened before Chavez was elected incidentally, although he is being blamed as the source of all Colombia’s problems now.”
So Uribe fixes most of the problems, and along comes Chavez to try and energize FARC again, by allowing them safe haven in VZ plus financial and logistical support. (All this proven long ago, but now finally coming to formal justice.)
Your timeline and descriptions of conditions pre- and post-Chavez on the scene are irrelevant to the current situation. And Colombia certainly isn’t blaming all of their problems on VZ–where the heck did you come up with THAT one!?
They’re only blaming Chavez for supporting FARC and trying to help bring Cuba-style government to Colombia.
What about this don’t you agree with? And if you secretly support FARC’s ambitions, as I suspect, how come you don’t have the cojones to just admit it?
July 23, 2010 at 6:35 am
they use Maradona but that’s not an excuse. I just think that if Maradona really knew the truth and knew who Chavez really is and the blood and rapes he has on his hands, he would sing a different tune.
CAP did so many things he never got credit… what about the 30,000 Cubans who migrated to Venezuela under the secret deal cut with Fidel.
Another deal CAP cut was helping Spain by allowing ETAs to live in Venezuela under new indentities. This is very different than what Chavez is doing. Under CAP these ETAs could not engage in certain activities and were monitored. Shit I think this program is still secret! Actually the files were burned when Chavez came to power.
July 23, 2010 at 6:03 am
I agree with Keppler.
FARC is only an outlaw capitalistic company dedicated to drug, kidnapping, terror and murder, like ETA and ELN.
July 23, 2010 at 5:48 am
So you are sure Gaitán was killed by the right? Proofs, please.
Could have been, but it was the best that could have happened to the extreme left as well and at the end to drug dealers who support either “side”.
“I am the people”, Gaitán said, as a new sort of proto-Louis XIV who did not come to be. Now we have military honcho Chávez claiming the same thing and warning about a “magnicidio”.
The only people benefiting from Chávez getting killed would be Diosdado and other boliburgueses waiting for their turn.
And you blame it all on the US Americans.
You know why Chávez is still in power? Because the price of oil is 70 per barrel and Venezuelans are happy as long as they have enough beer, whiskey and can dance menaíto and suavecito and all the other -itos.
July 23, 2010 at 5:38 am
We prefer to be out of this power.
The broke of relationships so rapid is clear probe that Chavez was unable to defend to accusations from Colombia.
Because Chavez support FARC, ELN, ETA and any terrorist movements. There is a book of a journalist from Spain to probe it. Chavez did not even take the work to probe the contrary.
No body with some human value or ethics, wants to be near or close to that.
July 23, 2010 at 5:38 am
Now, that’s a fine rant.
In my ignorance I cannot come up with a SA Hero of proper proportions to match the continent. My personal ones are J.M. Fangio and Johnny Paul Montoya. But they are trivial compared to their homeland. So I invoke Ecclesiasticus, Chapter 44.
July 23, 2010 at 5:15 am
Maradona is a jerk.
Anyone who has any respect for him lives in a different world than mine.
From reading the comments in ND & from personal contact it seems that most Venezuelans agree with me.
July 23, 2010 at 3:46 am
I know you don’t like Che Guevara, Fidel Castro, and other heroes throughout Latin America, but now you don’t like Maradona as well. The commenters here heap on Maradona as well. And you people wonder why you’re out of power.
If you think Chavez blaming his problems on the US is silly, Colombia’s leaders blaming Chavez for Colombia’s problems is even sillier. The Colombian right takes the hard line every time – killing Gaitan, Operation Marquetalia, massacring Unión Patriótica candidates and supporters when FARC tried to go the electoral route. What did it get them? In 1996-1997 you had FARC taking over army bases like Las Delicias, general strikes in the cities, peasant uprisings, and only billions coming in from the Yanqui Plan Colombia dollars kept the lid on things. This all happened before Chavez was elected incidentally, although he is being blamed as the source of all Colombia’s problems now.
July 22, 2010 at 11:53 pm
Me sumo a tu clamor! ojala cada quien siguiera a sus heroes/ idolos de su profesion/ admiracion con tu mismo afan!
Maradona, the tru latam idiot, excelent title.
My regards,
LuisF
July 22, 2010 at 11:18 pm
Absolutely love ur rant…don’t hesitate to rant again whenever you have the chance.
It is a shame too many venezuelan politicians do not use their God given talents to lead us by example to something more noble which would assure their eternal memory in our hearts but lead us to dreadful base examples that will ensure their eternal oblivion.
July 22, 2010 at 11:13 pm
Totally agree, I’m not even sure WHY people were complaining about your mention of Maradona. Does the man even have any redeeming qualities?