Eva ... cool down girl ... don't keep digging your own grave on this silly subject!
VHeadline editor & publisher Roy S. Carson writes: An age-old adage is that when you find yourself in a hole, you stop digging ... so it is beyond belief that Eva Golinger should spray further high-octane gasoline on the flames she ignited with her tirade against Michael Moore's nonsense on a quickly forgotten US TV chat show. The New York Times got in on the act and from what I see of the international headlines today, Wednesday, a score or more publications from as far apart as New Zealand and the United Kingdom have given further publicity to her umbrage -- certainly, by far, much more than the incident warranted in the first place.
Eva ... cool down girl ... don't keep digging your own grave on this silly subject!
The key to the issue, however, seems to be what was highlighted in a Guatemalan editorial yesterday (Tuesday) where Gustavo Berganza neatly put his finger dab on what its all about! "No se metan con Chavez ... fieles chavistas no dejan que tocan a su santo" -- Don't mess with Chavez ... Chavez' faithful don't let you touch their saint!
The problem is that no truer words were said! By nature it appears that chavistas -- as opposed to their leader himself -- have very thin skins and seem to take any perceived slight as worse than heresy. Bring back burning at the stake, hang draw and disembowel them...
But why so touchy? Most readers who give a damn about what happens in Venezuela will already know that Chavez sought the podium, at the United Nations General Assembly three years ago to castigate George W. Bush (quite rightly) as the The Devil/The Great Satan ... and even went on to say that he could smell the stench of sulphur where Bush had been just a day before!
It's not as if the Beltway Bullies in the US State Department and Bush's fawning entourage, were tardy about levelling their own invective against Chavez and let's not even mention the Republican's propaganda TV channel Fox News in the melange of lies and outright insults against Venezuela and President Chavez that have been feedstock for the mainstream US media and its clones around the world for many years.
Discerning readers -- those who give a hoot about the truth of what they read anyway -- will already be aware of the crap spewed by the generality of politicians and the eagerness of the print media to pick up tidbits that may or may not help their dwindling circulation figures from going through the floor! See it from their point of view: while there may be more than sufficient to ridicule in their own USA political substrata, it's more convenient for the US media to pick on spurious events abroad to bolster their own and their readers' self-worth than to highlight the shenanigans of a local Mayor, State governor or even (God forbid) an elected representative in Congress ... at least until the brown stuff really hits the fan!
That's why the international media has been having fun with a supposed Presidential decree requiring all Venezuelans to cease and desist from singing in the shower! Nice story but it ain't true! It was simply a jovial quip to highlight the recommendation that Venezuelans should conserve precious water supplies and refrain from wasting time -- and water -- when roughly three minutes is what it should take!
Who the hell is going to police such a "Decree" anyway ... come on, get a life!
Of course it makes entertaining copy but does it really matter when hundreds if not thousands are dying of hunger around the world ... out of sight, out of mind!
Which is why Eva Golinger blowing her stack over Chavez supposedly downing a bottle and a half of Tequila is more than a mountain being made out of a molehill. Talk about an elephant being afraid of a mouse ... what really gives? Nowhere in the easily forgotten ABC interview did Michael Moore say/allege that Chavez himself consumed even a drop of tequila. Those of us who know that Chavez doesn't drink will automatically assume that it went down Moore's own throat ... but does it really matter in the context of the whole/hole?
Eva Golinger rasps on that Moore could have (bored the pants off) USA TV viewers by recounting a list of Chavez' achievements for Venezuela over the last number of years. But -- big yawn -- would they (the US plebes) have given a hoot when 100% of them actually believe that CITGO gas station franchizes actually belong to the Venezuelan government -- THEY DON'T! The great divide between Miss Venezuela/Miss World and 'El Presidente' is not just an expression of one extreme to the other in the world's most sexy 1-10 ... it's really about who on earth gives a damn!
Guatemala's El Periodico editorialist Gustavo Berganza certainly got it right with his headline and Eva's and Chavismo's continuing chastisement of Michael Moore apparently knows no bounds. But what is even more fascinating is that the outrage expressed over Moore's momentary nonsense only serves to highlight the fact some of Chavez' groupies go into insanity's overdrive to defend his honor?
Strange when Chavez himself goes into overdrive using the most indelicate of diplo-speak to describe Colombia's Defense Minister as "a mental retard" -- considering the latter's anti-Venezuelan stance it may be a useful medical diagnosis but it was scarcely endearing. And, of course, it gave fodder to Chavez' opposition to make hay while the sun shone...
Of course it didn't help that Moore also committed a secondary capital felony of ultimate heresy by confusing Venezuela's Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro as a presidential bodyguard! Could it have had something to do with Maduro's habitual demeanor? Whatever... Who really gives a damn?
What Eva has done by her nonsensical objection to Michael Moore's nonsense is to string out the mythology and to underscore, embed, the impression that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is able to dish the dirt but isn't so ready to accept the slings and arrows of contempt when those selfsame slings and arrows come back in his direction. Such a pity since Hugo Chavez is made of sterner stuff than all this!
Isn't it about time that some people stop chucking the toys out of their pram and grow up? There's a big bad, mad, world out there that needs fixing more than some perception of Venezuela's democratically-elected President as a Tequila-swigging buddy of Fahrenheit 9/11 filmer Michael Moore.
And the more Eva pouts and grows petulant about defending Chavez, the more distant she gets from her core belief that the US mainstream media should be peppered with detailed information about Chavez' revolutionary successes -- it just ain't going to happen!
The Venezuelan government threw $1.25 million plus $25,000 a month at the now-defunct Venezuelan Information Office (VIO) in Washington D.C. to do what any decent Embassy consular official or press attache should do according to their job-descriptions.
How much better if the "powers that be" in Caracas were to imbue their diplomatic staffers around the world with a sense of patriotic duty towards their country and their President?
Of course, it's so much easier for the amateur publicists to turn their backs on journalists they unilaterally label as 'escualidos' -- i.e. not born-again Chavistas who -- like the remaining 99.999% of the world's population -- may simply be more concerned with things closer to home.
And, as far as Venezuela is concerned, they don't really give a damn!
Matthew 7:3
Roy S. Carson
editor@vheadline.com
Constitution of the
