Is Cavez Really That Dumb?

I've been living in Venezuela for all of the Chavez years and then some and I have to say its been both interesting and also very sad.

Venezuela enjoyed 40 years of democracy before Chavez; but lets be honest it wasn't exactly a shining example of democracy. It was a democracy where the haves continually got more and the have nots stayed in their place. Now what the haves didn't reckoned with; but Chavez did, is the fact that the have nots represent some 80% of the population and although the majority them didn't vote ( they didn't believe that they could make a difference ) and Chavez had plans to change that little fact. So along comes Chavez in 1988 fresh out of prison after having been pardoned by the previous, Caldera, for leading an attempted military coup against the then president Perez, and what does he do? well what he doesn't do is waste one minute campaigning to the economic power base of the country, the haves, the oligarchs as he called them, but instead spends all of his time talking to the poor majority, the have nots, and he tells them its time for a change, its time that Venezuela had a government that governed for the majority, the have nots, and not for the minority, the haves, the rich, the oligarchs. I'm here to tell you it was an easy sell and the rest is history. I don't have the energy to explain all that this man has done to destroy the economic base, the institutions, and freedom of expression and dissent.

In the approximately 12 years that Chavez has been in office, he hasn't actually done anything to improve the quality of live for the poor; the have nots still have nothing. However, he has been successful for the most part of convincing the have nots that he and his revolutionary government have done much for them; he is a consummate con artist and that's a fact. Over the years Chavez has said and done some pretty dumb things and I mean seriously dumb, far too many to go into here; but I want to share with you his latest plan, its a real cake taker if there's ever been one.

Two days ago Chavez announced a plan to combat capitalism from the bottom; his words, not mine. His plan is that the have nots should use "trueque" between themselves and in certain food markets owned by the state. What's trueque? Trueque is barter. Believe me, he is serious.Barter is how humans exchanged what they had for what they needed back before money. Money was not invented by capitalism; it was invent by humans to make commerce among themselves easier, to make their lives easier.Money was invented before Moses was born. Is tueque how Chavez sees Venezuela progressing? Is this Chavez's vision of "socialismo siglo veintiuno" ( socialism for the twenty first century? Try to picture this. Your a poor Venezuelen living in the country side where you raise a little bit of corn. One day your wife says that she wants to cook some beef stew for the family that afternoon but she doesn't have any meat. So dutiful husband that you are, you throw 30 ponds of corn in a sack and hump it to various neighbors or into the village market looking for some who has meet and is willing to trade some for some corn. And when you finally find someone willing to trade with you have fight it out over how many pounds of corn equate to a pound of meet. Ya, this is progress. NOT!!! So is Chavez really that dumb or is this just one more con in along line of cons. Stay tuned.