Stupid poor people…
A heartwarming story… Globovision had gone to a small cluster of tents assembled near the presidential residence, La Casona. Their professed purpose was to give voice to the concerns of these citizens, who had assembled in such a way to demand access to housing.
Note: their purpose, quite clearly, was nothing of the sort. The opposition press has never cared so much for the poor as it does now, during an election season.
The reporters were first dismayed by the fact that those assembled did not want to appear on camera—better put, on a Globovision camera—since they did not want to jeopardize the processing of their demands (which had already begun, it should be noted).
After a few moments in which these eminently well-meaning journalists insisted on filming people who clearly did not wish to be filmed, the guards of the Casa Militar approached them and confronted them. Evidently, at some point—only partially caught on camera—a scuffle broke out, and according to Globovision their reporters were "assaulted." (p.s. - I couldn’t care either way).
The best part came later that evening on Buenas Noches, when the nerdy sex symbol of the opposition Carla Angola was denouncing the assault. "The worst part," whimpered Angola, "was that the people who had assembled there to protest took part in assaulting the Globovision team." Huzzah for them.
Confronted with this inexplicable series of events, Angola was forced to fall back on the only argument she could, an argument that serves as the Rosetta Stone allowing one to grasp the most insane and incomprehensible of opposition arguments: poor people are stupid. Don’t they know that the press is there to help them, to express their concerns? (n.b. - Marx: "They can’t represent themselves, they must be spoken for.")
The argument generally goes thus (I have literally heard this several times): Rosales has a lot of support, and should win the election. What about the polls? Well, Chavez has support among the poor, and there are too many poor people. Does he deserve the support? No, it’s just that, to repeat, poor people are stupid.
One question, do you live in Venezuela? do you? I have seen these past years how the country deteriorates, in every single aspect, it did not start 8 years ago, when chavez came to power, but few years earlier. Chavez government has no stable future plan for this country, one day they say one thing, next day the say another. They have support simple because it was the only government in a lot of time that really cared for poor people, or at least it seemed so, one thing that governments prior to chavez regime didn’t do. Poor people in venezuela are NOT stupid, they just think about the present, which is receive free food, free healthcare, and other social programs. People should think about getting a job, and having a more stable future, than just depending on gov. support. Chavez plans don’t seem to think about that. Of course they support the government, if you would be hungry, would you be against that? of course not. However, The oposition thanks to chavez has improved, yes they have, and that is the good part, and no, you’re wrong, they don’t call poor people stupid, they never have.
Comment by Fred — February 21, 2007 @ 5:10 pm