18tir
6th August 2004, 20:53
Oscar Heck: President Hugo Chavez Frias has opened the floodgates...
VHeadline.com commentarist Oscar Heck writes: I have been corresponding with a 22 year-old Venezuelan man who is very pro-Venezuela and very upset about the lack of peace in Venezuela. As far as I understand, when he refers to lack of peace he points to the fact that there is fighting between classes poor against rich, rich against poor, middle-class against Chavez, Chavez against the high class, etc.
* He, the young man, desires peace for Venezuela. He is fed up with all the arguing and all the screaming and yelling and the blocking of streets by the opposition (although he is anti-Chavez) and this is admirable.
I told the young man that I would respond to this issue in an article, and here is it.
The first thing that comes to mind is, How can there be peace in Venezuela at this time, or for some time to come, when it is the first time in Venezuelan history that poor Venezuelans are allowed to speak up?
Chavez has opened the floodgates.
If it hadnt been Chavez, it would have been someone else. Whenever a large segment of a population is exploited, abused, repressed and oppressed over periods of generations, something is bound to happen something big.
For example, French Canadians in the French province of Quebec (population about 7 million today), were exploited, oppressed and repressed by the minority English for many generations. Generally speaking: the English controlled industry, the economy, politics, banks and the health and education systems. French Canadians were treated as second-class citizens and had little access to university education and they were hired mostly as laborers, unless they learned to speak English and kissed-up to the English. The vast majority of English Quebecers (at the most, about 10% of the population) refused to speak French in a province where about 80% of the population was uni-lingual French. Furthermore, the French have their own culture and their own way of life which is very different than that of the English. Very different.
In the 1960s and 1970s Quebec went through major political changes. The French Canadians took back their province and many (most) of the English left the province, shut down businesses or transferred their businesses to other provinces, mostly to Ontario. There were periods of bombings, kidnappings, tanks and military people in the heart of downtown Montreal and curfew. The uni-lingual French Canadian population (the 80%), had finally gotten fed up and did something about it. Relatively speaking, there was no peace for a period of about 14 years, mostly between 1968 (the beginning of the armed revolution for the separation and liberation of Quebec) and 1982 (the latter end of the exodus of hundreds of thousands of English to other parts of Canada, and the subsequent economic depression).
During most of these years, there was screaming and yelling and arguments between people depending which side one stood: Pro-Canada, Anti-Canada, Pro-Quebecois, Pro-Separatist, etc. For several months before and after the Quebec referendum for-separation-from-Canada in the 1990s, the tension in Quebec was extremely high. If one spoke English in public, one might be stared-down as being pro-Canadian (pro-English). If one was a newly-landed-non-French-speaking-immigrant, one might also be stared down as being pro-Canada. Things were very tense. Life was tense. I believe that it is human nature for people to get fed up and begin, at some point in time, to fight for their right to live life in a dignified fashion.
Remember when the black population in the USA began to get fed up because of repression and segregation (as in South Africa)?
There was very little peace and this was in the 1960s not so very long ago!
This is the case in Venezuela.
Peace cannot exist until the mid-to-upper classes either admit to the fact that they were responsible for the widespread traditional abuses and begin to collaborate with the changes or, they do like many (most) of the English Quebecers did leave and never come back.
The poorer Venezuelans (the 80%) cannot forget what it is like to be treated like second-hand citizens, to be called monkeys from the hills, good-for-nothing drunks, stupid, unintelligent and classless. They cannot forget what it was like to live in constant fear of losing ones job or not getting paid even when working for minimum wage. They cannot forget what it is like to be a full-time maid at the service of the self-nominated middle-classes 6 days per week, to earn as little as $80 per month (in 2003). They cannot forget being bumped at bank line-ups by the mayors family, the governors friends or the doctol or the licenciado or the wealthy person who can afford to pay bribes in order to have quicker and better service.
For the first time in Venezuelas history, the 80% have a voice. They are finally allowed to speak up, to express themselves, to say how they feel and to say what they believe. They can finally go to a government office and get the necessary documents without being ignored or brushed off.
(Note: typically, if a poor person began to complain at a government office because of poor service or injustice, the town clerk would call the police and the poor person would be jailed women included )
It will take time for Venezuela to relax.
Heated discussions and arguments between people of different classes will continue for many years. There is no longer any way to avoid this, Chavez or not. There are people that want things to be as they were, where the poor laborer simply shuts his/her mouth and the mid-to-upper class boss does whatever s/he desires, within the law or outside the law (as was typical in Venezuela before Chavez) but times are changing. People cannot allow themselves to be squashed and spat on or to be treated as less-than-human. It is not right. It is also not right to sit there and ignore and let it all happen as if nothing ever happened.
If peace is to be complacent and to ignore human tragedy and human abuses, then it is only a faade, for in the long-run, eventually, something will blow up in everybodys face. Venezuela is at this transition-point and it is not an overnight event. It has taken years for the pressure to build up and it will take years for the pressure to dissipate. However, even with this pressure, life goes on, business happens, tourism happens, people go to work, people create and invent.
This is the time of creativity, where the vast majority of the population, who had been muted-out for generations, finally have a voice. They can now speak up with less fear and share their ideas and their creations. If one looks at people and at history, most inventions were created out of human-desperation and immediate need. Wealthy people rarely invent things, they usually steal ideas. The true inventions come from the oppressed people who have had no choice but to invent new ways to do things in order to survive: how to make a clothes hanger, a door-stop, how to make new clothes from old clothes, how to make enough money to feed the children.
* Peace, as was known in the past in Venezuela, where everyone knew their place, can no longer exist. Peace in Venezuela (in the past) was a complacent and ignoring peace, and excuse, a bad-habit a tradition.
Look at Jesus, as an example. He said that there will always be poor but he also stood up and gave the people a voice. He gave people dignity. He spoke to the poor, but not in a condescending fashion like the upper-class did. He gave them hope and he also gave them, through example, the courage to stand up for themselves and say, This is enough and we arent going to take it any more.
This is why the elite wanted to get rid of him. He spoke too much. Jesus was destroying the peace which had been around for (possibly) many generations where the poor had no say and where the wealthy did what they desired.
In the eyes of the Venezuelan opposition, Chavez is another danger another Christ. Christ talked against the corrupt Jewish church of those days and Chavez talks against the corrupt Venezuelan church of today.
Chavez isnt afraid to speak his mind when referring to the Venezuelan elite (and mafias), and neither was Christ.
* Now, I am not saying that Chavez is Christ. I am simply giving and example in order to bring out the differences in the interpretation of the word peace.
The questions are:
Is it time in Venezuela to tell everyone to shut up, to censor the newspapers, to jail anyone who speaks up, to assassinate people who are extreme thinkers?
Is this the way to achieve peace?
The result would be that everyone would know his/her place (as in the past) and all classes would live in harmony again. Not a word of argument would be said and meanwhile, as time passes, the pressure-cooker would build up pressure again slowly and the whole wheel would start to turn again and another Chavez would be born.
VHeadline.com commentarist Oscar Heck writes: I have been corresponding with a 22 year-old Venezuelan man who is very pro-Venezuela and very upset about the lack of peace in Venezuela. As far as I understand, when he refers to lack of peace he points to the fact that there is fighting between classes poor against rich, rich against poor, middle-class against Chavez, Chavez against the high class, etc.
* He, the young man, desires peace for Venezuela. He is fed up with all the arguing and all the screaming and yelling and the blocking of streets by the opposition (although he is anti-Chavez) and this is admirable.
I told the young man that I would respond to this issue in an article, and here is it.
The first thing that comes to mind is, How can there be peace in Venezuela at this time, or for some time to come, when it is the first time in Venezuelan history that poor Venezuelans are allowed to speak up?
Chavez has opened the floodgates.
If it hadnt been Chavez, it would have been someone else. Whenever a large segment of a population is exploited, abused, repressed and oppressed over periods of generations, something is bound to happen something big.
For example, French Canadians in the French province of Quebec (population about 7 million today), were exploited, oppressed and repressed by the minority English for many generations. Generally speaking: the English controlled industry, the economy, politics, banks and the health and education systems. French Canadians were treated as second-class citizens and had little access to university education and they were hired mostly as laborers, unless they learned to speak English and kissed-up to the English. The vast majority of English Quebecers (at the most, about 10% of the population) refused to speak French in a province where about 80% of the population was uni-lingual French. Furthermore, the French have their own culture and their own way of life which is very different than that of the English. Very different.
In the 1960s and 1970s Quebec went through major political changes. The French Canadians took back their province and many (most) of the English left the province, shut down businesses or transferred their businesses to other provinces, mostly to Ontario. There were periods of bombings, kidnappings, tanks and military people in the heart of downtown Montreal and curfew. The uni-lingual French Canadian population (the 80%), had finally gotten fed up and did something about it. Relatively speaking, there was no peace for a period of about 14 years, mostly between 1968 (the beginning of the armed revolution for the separation and liberation of Quebec) and 1982 (the latter end of the exodus of hundreds of thousands of English to other parts of Canada, and the subsequent economic depression).
During most of these years, there was screaming and yelling and arguments between people depending which side one stood: Pro-Canada, Anti-Canada, Pro-Quebecois, Pro-Separatist, etc. For several months before and after the Quebec referendum for-separation-from-Canada in the 1990s, the tension in Quebec was extremely high. If one spoke English in public, one might be stared-down as being pro-Canadian (pro-English). If one was a newly-landed-non-French-speaking-immigrant, one might also be stared down as being pro-Canada. Things were very tense. Life was tense. I believe that it is human nature for people to get fed up and begin, at some point in time, to fight for their right to live life in a dignified fashion.
Remember when the black population in the USA began to get fed up because of repression and segregation (as in South Africa)?
There was very little peace and this was in the 1960s not so very long ago!
This is the case in Venezuela.
Peace cannot exist until the mid-to-upper classes either admit to the fact that they were responsible for the widespread traditional abuses and begin to collaborate with the changes or, they do like many (most) of the English Quebecers did leave and never come back.
The poorer Venezuelans (the 80%) cannot forget what it is like to be treated like second-hand citizens, to be called monkeys from the hills, good-for-nothing drunks, stupid, unintelligent and classless. They cannot forget what it was like to live in constant fear of losing ones job or not getting paid even when working for minimum wage. They cannot forget what it is like to be a full-time maid at the service of the self-nominated middle-classes 6 days per week, to earn as little as $80 per month (in 2003). They cannot forget being bumped at bank line-ups by the mayors family, the governors friends or the doctol or the licenciado or the wealthy person who can afford to pay bribes in order to have quicker and better service.
For the first time in Venezuelas history, the 80% have a voice. They are finally allowed to speak up, to express themselves, to say how they feel and to say what they believe. They can finally go to a government office and get the necessary documents without being ignored or brushed off.
(Note: typically, if a poor person began to complain at a government office because of poor service or injustice, the town clerk would call the police and the poor person would be jailed women included )
It will take time for Venezuela to relax.
Heated discussions and arguments between people of different classes will continue for many years. There is no longer any way to avoid this, Chavez or not. There are people that want things to be as they were, where the poor laborer simply shuts his/her mouth and the mid-to-upper class boss does whatever s/he desires, within the law or outside the law (as was typical in Venezuela before Chavez) but times are changing. People cannot allow themselves to be squashed and spat on or to be treated as less-than-human. It is not right. It is also not right to sit there and ignore and let it all happen as if nothing ever happened.
If peace is to be complacent and to ignore human tragedy and human abuses, then it is only a faade, for in the long-run, eventually, something will blow up in everybodys face. Venezuela is at this transition-point and it is not an overnight event. It has taken years for the pressure to build up and it will take years for the pressure to dissipate. However, even with this pressure, life goes on, business happens, tourism happens, people go to work, people create and invent.
This is the time of creativity, where the vast majority of the population, who had been muted-out for generations, finally have a voice. They can now speak up with less fear and share their ideas and their creations. If one looks at people and at history, most inventions were created out of human-desperation and immediate need. Wealthy people rarely invent things, they usually steal ideas. The true inventions come from the oppressed people who have had no choice but to invent new ways to do things in order to survive: how to make a clothes hanger, a door-stop, how to make new clothes from old clothes, how to make enough money to feed the children.
* Peace, as was known in the past in Venezuela, where everyone knew their place, can no longer exist. Peace in Venezuela (in the past) was a complacent and ignoring peace, and excuse, a bad-habit a tradition.
Look at Jesus, as an example. He said that there will always be poor but he also stood up and gave the people a voice. He gave people dignity. He spoke to the poor, but not in a condescending fashion like the upper-class did. He gave them hope and he also gave them, through example, the courage to stand up for themselves and say, This is enough and we arent going to take it any more.
This is why the elite wanted to get rid of him. He spoke too much. Jesus was destroying the peace which had been around for (possibly) many generations where the poor had no say and where the wealthy did what they desired.
In the eyes of the Venezuelan opposition, Chavez is another danger another Christ. Christ talked against the corrupt Jewish church of those days and Chavez talks against the corrupt Venezuelan church of today.
Chavez isnt afraid to speak his mind when referring to the Venezuelan elite (and mafias), and neither was Christ.
* Now, I am not saying that Chavez is Christ. I am simply giving and example in order to bring out the differences in the interpretation of the word peace.
The questions are:
Is it time in Venezuela to tell everyone to shut up, to censor the newspapers, to jail anyone who speaks up, to assassinate people who are extreme thinkers?
Is this the way to achieve peace?
The result would be that everyone would know his/her place (as in the past) and all classes would live in harmony again. Not a word of argument would be said and meanwhile, as time passes, the pressure-cooker would build up pressure again slowly and the whole wheel would start to turn again and another Chavez would be born.