People interested in history will probably remember the classic History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Historian Gibbon analysed at great length the probable reasons for the end of Rome. There have been other contending hypotheses about how that powerful political entity came to its end and even now the discussion keeps stirring historians worldwide. When we take a look at Venezuela, though, the reasons for the eventual fall of Chavismo become much clearer even now.
On April 2010 - according to government officials - an iguana caused a major power outage in Western Venezuela.
On 14 June it was a common opossum that - again according to government officials - caused a prolonged blackout in Ciudad Guayana, one of our main cities.
As Miguel writes in his latest post, it is incredible that such important electricity hubs as the one of Ciudad Guayana could receive such a poor maintenance that this happens - if the story is true, of course.
The pattern is there for all to see: the total collapse of Venezuela's electricity network - and hence of the Bolivarian regime - will undoubtedly lie in the teeth of an agouti
or perhaps of a tapir?
Like I was saying on Quico's article, just blame the "Empire" after all everything bad that happens to the revolution is our fault.
ReplyDeleteI don't say that out of spite or anything, but I'm surprised that they didn't blame the U.S. this time. My friend Daniel always said that.
Come on! You feel left aside, you feel left aside :-)
DeleteBut isn't an opossum sort of funnier?
Of course, it would have been better if the Chavista government had declared it was a Teenager mutant opossum - that would explain how a wee opossum could gnaw its way through those cables (not just a neighbourhood's grid but main cables responsible for an entire city) and, of course, we know mutant opossums could only be produced in the USA with its nuclear facilities.
Yeah the opossum is funnier. Maybe they could have found a way to link those and make the story more convincing.
DeleteIn the future, instead of saying "Cuéntame [contame] otro de vaqueros,” to indicate that someone is telling a tall tale, Venezuelans will say "Cuéntame otro de iguanas."
ReplyDeletePerhaps, Tejano, perhaps...but nobody would know where the iguana thing came from...that's the sad thing: traditions appear, Venezuelans don't learn
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