So, Chávez didn’t turn up at the event yesterday. For still unknown reasons, he was replaced all day by the less-than-charismatic VP, José Vicente Rangel. The problem with this is less one of settling for second best, but rather the way in which the substitution changed the tenor of the event as a whole.

My students—a cadre of revolutionaries in formation—were meant to be the center of the event. They were scheduled to meet privately with Chávez for discussions about the program, about how to radicalize it an prevent its bureaucratization. Rangel showed up and gave an admittedly touching speech about Planning Minister Jorge Giordani, and left.

Besides the fact that Rangel didn’t meet with the students, they were incredibly upset at the fact that not once did he refer to them during his speech (or perhaps once, in a general gesture). Moreover, the attention directed toward Giordani overlooks the fact that the school was more a result of the effort of others, efforts which were then rubber-stamped by the Ministry.

So, in the end, the event was a self-referential circle, between the VP and the Minster, that is, totally contained within the Presidential Palace. That’s no way to build a system of participatory planning…. The good thing is that all my students recognizes this immediately…