The Devil's Excrement

I have said little about the proposed content law that is being discussed in the National Assembly. Essentially, there is simply no space here to discuss the extent of what the Government wants to do. I have had the patience of reading both the proposed law and the introduction to it. It is not recommended reading, it is too long, it is too extensive and in my opinion, this is not what democracy is about.

            I would like to discuss just two aspects of the bill as proposed by the Chavez administration. First of all, it regulates content for media in Venezuela. That is, those TV stations that have some form of concession within Venezuela. Now, we also have Direct TV and Cable in Venezuela, some of which provide over 100 channels of television. By having to follow what the bill establishes, Venezuelan TV channels will be competing unfairly as the foreign TV stations would not have the regulations that the local stations have including among other things: i) Providing subtitles and sign language of all programs. ii) Providing three regulated schedules of programming, protected, supervised and adult. iii) Providing 60% of all programming made in Venezuela. iv) Providing three hours a day of Venezuelan music within the protected hour v) Broadcasting 60 free minutes a week for Government programming and vi) Prohibiting content which may attempt against the education of boys, girls and adolescents.

            I could go on about all of the regulations but I would just point out three things. First, any media that violates the law will be fined. Any media that is fined twice in five years can be suspended. Any media that is suspended temporarily twice in three years will have its licensed revoked. Now, imagine 150 articles of regulation with definitions, prohibition and requirements. It would be very easy for any Government that wants to regulate free speech to find a violation of an article or a violation that is subject to interpretation. The proof is simple; this is my translation of one of the prohibitions proposed in the new law:

“Any message that promotes, apologizes (??) or incites the disrespect for the legitimate institutions or authorities such as: Deputies of the Nacional Assembly, the President, Vice-President, Ministers, and Justices of the Supreme Court, the Attorney General, and the People’s ombudsman. the Comptroller, the authorities of the National Electoral Commission  and the Armed Forces, without prejudice to the legitimate exercise of freedom of speech and opinion, within the limits (??) established in the Constitution, in international treaties ratified by the Republic and the law”

Interestingly, if this text were strictly applied, the State TV station would have to be shutdown first as Hugo Chavez would be the first violator given his disrespect  for the Supreme Court. (Unless calling a Supreme Court decision “a piece of shit” like Chavez did is not disrespect). But obviously, the paragraph above would severely restrict what can be said about any public official, for fear of being shut down. Try to imagine Watergate, Clinton’s Monica affair or Irangate revelaed if the US President had had such a law behind him at that time.

From today’s Tal Cual Editorial entitled “Petrocide”:

“The number of people fired in PDVSA reached already ten thousand. It is more than a quarter of the company’s workers. A true labor genocide, a senseless and incomprehensible massacre.”

“Chavez appears to have no true conscience of the enormous economic and social catastrophe that the country is falling into. A conscious Government official would understand that a strike like the one the country has gone thru (even if it could have been questionable) reveals a sustantive crisis in the nation. That millions of Venezuelans participated in this work stoppage in  a way that The Economist has qualified as suicidal, as self-destructive, says a lot of the dimension, of the magnitude and of the depth of rejection that the coupster of 92 has generated among his fellow citizens”

This article describes the parallels between Atlas Shrugged and Venezuela, earlier I posted one that made the same connection.

(sent in by Ana Teresa)

From my brother the Tyromaniac:

First, they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then you win.
– Mahatma Ghandi

I sure hope Ghandi knew what he was talking about….we are in “they are fighting us” stage here…..

Fortune magazine has an article about the origin of the term The Devil’s Excrement (The term not my blog!)

Late last night, Movimiento al Socialismo Deputy Carlos Tablante, speaking against a bill that would control content in media asked rethorically: “You talk about Cuba and China, countries with a single leader, a single party, a single ideology, a single newspaper, a single TV station, a single radio station…is that what you want here?”. Remarkably the Chavista Deputies, who are a majority, answered in unison: “Yesssssss”

Do I need to say anything  else?

Last Sunday, a private organization managed to obtain signatures from over four million people to sign various petitions against the Chavez Government. Today, a “building inspector” from the Sucre municipality, showed up at the building where the petitions are being stored with a commando of 20 heavily armed cops/military to search the premises without the required order of a judge or the office of the Attorney General. The inspector is the sister in law of the Mayor who happens to be the son of the Vice-President Jose Vicente Rangel. The petitions include those to revoke the Mayor’s mandate. This was done at 6 PM on a Friday, how efficient, no? Fortunately, the people in the surrounding area who are lower middle class took to the streets and blocked the attempt to enter and search the premises and by now more people are showing up by the minute. (see picture below). The inspector then burned the supposed order she had to search the premises. This is simply another fascist act by an outlaw Government.

(The building inspector showed up later on a local TV station and was caught lying about her relationship with the Mayor, her knowledge about what was happening at this building and when she found out about it…)

After two weeks without foreign currency exchange, we now have a decree, that says very little. Basically, the degree prohibits just about everything, sets the exchange rate at Bs. 1600 to the US$, but says very little about how anybody will get them. The new ecchange office will be all-powerful to set the rules and decide. Of course, you will have to register, request, prove, beg and probably pay something if you are an importer. But the rules will be decided by a new office, since after two weeks there was no agreement on how to do it. Thus, it will be a while before the system actually starts working, allowing the black/grey/whatever market to flourish at around Bs. 2200 to the US$. Third time in twenty years we wil have exchange controls. Once again, it will be a disaster. As Venezuelans like to say, we have seen this movie before…..

I have been reading the delightful and imaginative book “Life of Pi” by Yann Martel. It is about an Indian called Piscine (Pi) whose parents run a zoo in India. As they get ready to emigrate to Canada, there is this paragraph which reminds me of the thoughts of many Venezuelans these days, even if the zoo example is not the one they use. I guess it resonated with my more somber mood this week:

To prosper, a zoo needs parliamentary government, democratic elections, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of association, rule of law and everything else enshhrined in India’s Constitution. Impossible to enjoy animals otherwise. Long-term, bad politics is bad for business.

People move because of the wear and tear of anxiety. Because of the gnawing feeling that no matter how hard they work their efforts will yield nothing, that what they build up in one year will be torn down in one day by others. Because of the impression that  the future is blocked up, that they might do all right but not their children. Because of the feeling that nothing will change, that happiness and prosperity are possible only somewhere else.

Hugo Chavez was on TV last night, his usual self, all the problems with the economy are the result of the efforts of the opposition. But, what really amazed me is that he showed graphs which are either false or he simply has no clue about what he was saying. He said that the Venezuelan economy was recovering in the third quarter of 2002, GDP growing by 5.5%, in reality, GDP contracted the first three quarters of 2002, and in that infamous third quarter it actually shrank, but less than the previous quarter. He also said inflation was slowing down, which is false and that unemployment had been contracting, also untrue. Long live the virtual revolution!