Monday 23 February 2009

Just history
























Howard Zinn is a well known US American historian. I don't share his views on some parts of history but I do agree with his general approach and most of his views. Here you have an interesting speech of his.

Now the Chavez National Assembly also wants to rewrite history...once again (link in Spanish). They will try to see who else they can discover as "anti-imperialist fighter". I have no problem with that as long as they call thieves thieves and the bandits bandits, whatever the political creed. I wonder if they would be interested in inviting people who do not consider themselves pro-Chavez to a live debate. I wonder if they would welcome an open discussion with lots of professional historians.

5 comments:

  1. Woa!,
    Historic revisionism is a very messy affair. Anybody would agree with the need to revise things and call a crook a crook, but let's be serious:
    Nobody can expect the current government to advance pondered and researched historical facts. I personally went to the "Cipriano Castro" museum exhibit in GAN in january and was suprised at the one-sided, biased misconstruction. It all focused on his "patriotic" confrontation with the english, german and dutch, with no mention as to what brought on this pre-war.
    My exhibit 2 is the revisionist commision that'll dig up Bolivar's bones to determine "who killed him" (the colombian oligarchy, of course). When you name head of this commision a bus driver (Nico Maduro), you can't expect me to take you seriously. No mention of historians such as Caballero, Carrera Damas or Pino Itturieta; granted, they're crazy ramblers from the opposition but hell, they know what happened when better than a minister.
    Exibit 3 is a cousin who asked my family in law, who worked in petrol, if it was true Bolivar nationalized petrol, something taught to him in a bolivarian school.
    Alas, all this, plus the current curriculum that crosses out all history between 1830 and 1998 as a "dormant" period where Bolivar's dream hibernated and nothing good happened, presages a horrible, twisted, wiggish-1984-ish like, historical re-writing.
    Salut,
    Vinz.

    ReplyDelete
  2. No, I really don't expect them to do any pondered research.
    Have you seen how they want to portray us as a "mostly African-Indian nation"?
    The new Boves vision of things? How they want to call the Ávila as they thought Indians called it before?
    How they wanted to call Valencia Tacarigua when not even the Tacarigua Lake was called as such and there was no "Tacarigua city" ever?

    As for the Bolivar commission, I wrote a reminder of that here:
    http://desarrollosostenibleparavenezuela.blogspot.com/2009/02/quien-mato-bolivar.html
    It is a real shame. I feel tempted to write to that commission to ask how much they have spent and what conclusions they have drawn so far.

    "Exibit 3 is a cousin who asked my family in law, who worked in petrol, if it was true Bolivar nationalized petrol, something taught to him in a bolivarian school."
    Oh, my God! Really? Shocking, but still to be expected. Remember the time Chavez asked in Alo Presidente if mankind was 20 or 25 centuries old.
    http://desarrollosostenibleparavenezuela.blogspot.com/2009/02/quien-mato-bolivar.html

    He did his bachillerato in Venezuela. If after that and all he did after that he did not know mankind is older than that, what can you expect from the rest of his followers?
    Pobre país.

    I expect a disaster from their new revisionism.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Short note: The Ávila Mountain is already renamed to Waraira Repano. I went to "Ávila mágica" in january and there's all sort of memorabilia with Waraira Repano written on it. So check that one.
    I heard a bizarre rumor (I might come of as a vieja chismosa but whatever): Chávez is a "palero", a certain form of spiritism I won't get into. Long story short, he needs Bolivar's bones to perform the "Palo mayombe" ritual. You have to rub the bones against your body to achieve supreme 24/7 contact with the spirit.
    That's the real reason for the "investigation". It's just a silly pretext to be able to dig up ole Simoncito's remains.
    Ha. Wish I could see your face as you read this. Sit me that cockroach, my friend and spin that spinning top on the edge of your fingernail...

    ReplyDelete
  4. P.S.: Here's a nice psycho link:
    http://soloparachavistas.blogspot.com/2008/01/chvez-y-simn-bolvar.html
    cheers

    ReplyDelete
  5. I prefer not to think too much on those rumours.
    It would not surprise me Chavez is into that, but then it would not surprise me it is just a chiste de viejas either.

    OT:
    The tax unit will rise in Venezuela. That is a sign the government is looking for more money and my impression is it will try to get it
    via "punishing" non-Chavistas companies or the like.

    On another note, Sarkozy wants to be mediator between the US and Cuba. I hope he does not want to do the same with Venezuela as well. He can only screw up things more - not that the US Americans don't do that already. I read now the new CIA boss is talking about possible political turmoils in Venezuela because of the economic crisis...what is the purpose of saying that? Why should a US secret agency boss need to open his mouth to say that?
    (and yes, I believe there can be a lot of political turmoil in Venezuela because of the economic crisis, but then I am a normal Venezuelan citizen and not the boss of the CIA)

    Carajo, que se calle.

    Kepler

    ReplyDelete

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