No, I don’t bring you the sorry news of Venezuela to mock Hugo Chavez. That’s just the icing on the cake. Like his plan to force the soap operas to start promoting socialism, I could crack jokes about how he should just hire Hollywood types like Sean Penn to spread his socialist message. But that’s getting so old. Plus, that’s not my point. My point is to watch what’s happening where socialism rules, and learn the lessons. They are only one short, socialist leap ahead of us.
Officials announced the nationwide electricity rationing lasting at least until May on Tuesday and said even schools and small health clinics would be hit in South America’s top oil exporter.
Venezuela mostly depends on hydroelectricity for its power and has been hard hit by a drought Chavez blames on the El Nino weather phenomenon.
“The rationing is at a national level and is for four hours every 48 hours,” said Javier Alvarado, president of the Caracas Electricity corporation, which was nationalized in 2007 and previously belonged to U.S. company AES.
One of the cities to be hit by the new electricity rationing is Maracaibo, the country’s second largest town and the capital of oil heartland Zulia.
Lights went out there on Tuesday from 3 p.m. (2:30 p.m. EST). The blackouts are planned by city district.
However, they should not affect vital oil fields and refineries, which mostly have their own generators. Major city services, like hospitals and trains, will also not be affected. …
Here we have an oil-rich nation who depends on one dam for the energy needs of the people. That, along with many other unpleasant things, is what you get with centralized economic planning. If you don’t see it happening here you aren’t paying attention.
Via memeorandum
Exactly LC. And for all you leftist/statist sci-fi geeks out there, to interpret the post to you; Venezuela is Wolf 359.
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I saw this on my FB page, and someone commented that Snopes says this isn’t true. I use to believe Snopes, but lately I’ve noticed that some of their “verifications” have a bias. Hope that doesn’t make me sound “conspiracy”, but I don’t really trust Snopes anymore.
What Chavez is doing is real, and if Snopes wants to bury their heads, oh well.
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I’ve heard that they’re lefties. And although most news outlets are biased, I doubt Reuters would fabricate such stories.
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Exactly. How can Snopes claim something is false, when a major news org. is reporting in real time that something is true. I had never heard Snopes was biased, but I’m very disappointed to come to this realization
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Chavez is a megalomaniac bent on power, not necessarily a “socialist”. Comparing Chavez to Obama(if, indeed that is what you are doing), is a bit premature.
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“Not necessarily a socialist”? Are you for real?
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I mean that he uses socialism to enrich himself and those around him with power and wealth. His “socialist” platform doesn’t really attempt to benefit the impoverished people of Venezuela. Your conclusion is reasonable as well, because he has unabashedly nationalized anything that he has been able to.
Also, a critical difference between Obama and Chavez is that the latter has taken more significant steps to undermining democracy. For example, Obama won’t be here more than 8 years and Chavez could be in power indefinitely.(hopefully this energy crisis finally boots Chavez)
A good blog, devilsexcrement.com(written by a English speaking Venezuelan, exposes Chavez as a fraud in just about everything he does
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