Read the story at Huffington Post...really.
If this happens just for the power at a Venezuelan embassy, imagine what can happen for the position of president in a caudillismo-prone feudal Venezuela.
Now read what the Nairobi newspaper The Star wrote about the issue. It contains further details for a typical Venezuelan case: a bottle of Johny Walker and a fixer.
And meanwhile, the military president Chávez is telling opposition candidate Capriles - yet again - that he is a Nazi. In case you don't know: Capriles' maternal great-grandparents were murdered by Nazis and his grandmother hardly survived.
Still, German deputy Sahra Wagenknecht has repeatedly minimized Chavismo's anti-Semitic comments telling us Chávez's comments were taken "out of context". She considers herself an expert on the issue. I will return to that...also dealing with those "contexts".
Now read what the Nairobi newspaper The Star wrote about the issue. It contains further details for a typical Venezuelan case: a bottle of Johny Walker and a fixer.
And meanwhile, the military president Chávez is telling opposition candidate Capriles - yet again - that he is a Nazi. In case you don't know: Capriles' maternal great-grandparents were murdered by Nazis and his grandmother hardly survived.
Still, German deputy Sahra Wagenknecht has repeatedly minimized Chavismo's anti-Semitic comments telling us Chávez's comments were taken "out of context". She considers herself an expert on the issue. I will return to that...also dealing with those "contexts".
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| He would have written such a story |
As a german I'm always shocked how easy and without any knowledge of history the word fasism and nazi is used in latin america. About 15 years ago in a pharmacy in Colombia I was ask if I would be the sister of hitler, it was ment as a joke but it was one of the worst offence I've heard in my life.
ReplyDeleteHere in Venezuela the most people took the fact that I'm german implicating that I'm as well nazi and that this is nothing serious than a joke, they try to present me some germans living in Venezuela who still using the hitler salute. This makes me sick.
Sarah Wagenknecht (born 1969) was grown up in the eastern part of germany before the reunion of germany in 1990. The education of national socialism in this part (communists) was helt in the sense that all the nazis were and are living in the western part of germany and all citizens in eastern part where and are good communists. I grow up at the frontier in the western part and could see the television and hear radio of the eastern part of germany. Till after the reunion of germany a college who grow up in eastern germany thought that we don't know nothing about the national socialism, that we would have had no education in this. Born in 1962 my education in history where mainly based on all information about national socialism. We went to the concentration camps as well.
The only excuse of the instantly use of the words nazi and fachism in southamerica is the lack of knowledge in history, but if you don't know you should not use it.
Hi, Humboldtina...nice nickname :-) I have written a bit about Alexander in my Spanish blog. History and Latin Americans: those are two opposite concepts and that's why so many in Latin America believe in that idiotic Bolivar myth and know so little about everything else regarding our - regional and world - past.
DeleteI think the use of "fascism" as a swear word for every group is not exclusive to Latin America. I have heard that very often in Europe as well. The Nazi jokes are, I am afraid, very frequent in Latin America. Now: did you read my post about Hitler in Venezuela?
It's mental, isn't it? And the paradoxical part is that those most likely to use that name are the ones who would have been most hated by that criminal.
We need a revolution when it comes to analytical thinking in schools.
Ps. schöne Bilder aus Gran Sabana und Umgebung. Das ist wirklich eine wunderbare Region.
Hi Kepler,
Deleteyour statement "And the paradoxical part is that those most likely to use that name are the ones who would have been most hated by that criminal." reminds me on a journey to the Dominicanian Republic some years ago where I have seen a coloured man with a brown t-shirt. On his back where listet about 10 concentration camps each with a date. It was a t-shirt like they sell of rock-concerts with tour dates. An I thougt that this person would have been one of the occupants in these concentration camps in times of hitler.
Well I do my comments in the hope that the latin americans who don't know, will learn. And if I know someone who still love books, he will get one for birthday from me. (well the scarce of good books in Venezuela is another theme. Venezuela had a lot of cientific publications about birds, bats, mammals etc. before Chavez in 2000 released that stupid law that the price of a book can not be elevated, and this with the inflation rate.)
PS. zu Roraima habe ich gerade die letzten Bilder und Beschreibungen eingestellt, internetverbindung hier ist super langsam :); den Namen humboldtina hat mir ein peruanischer Freund gegeben
Humboldtina,
DeleteActually, the use of Nazi symbols can be seen also very frequently in Russia...they may often have blue eyes and be blond and yet you know what Hitler had in store for them...Once I got from the Venezuelan government (pre-Chávez) the possibility to have a credit to do a PhD in Europe. Shortly after that I got the news from the Germans that I could get a German scholarship, which was more generous. I went to the state employee to report I was taking the other. He asked me: and where is it you are going? Germany. Ah, Heil Hitler! Still: again, don't think it's only Latin America. I have heard the Heil Hitler stupidity from Spaniards or Britons making "fun" of Germans...da vergüenza ajena.
Books are indeed a rarae aves in Venezuela, more so now.
And those you can find are mostly about self-help or Coelho or about Bolívar with Manuelita. In the name of Venezuelans who do care I thank you if you give a good book, specially if it is to a young girl or boy. The potential among them is huge.
As a biologist you know better about the nature books there but even I, an absolute layman, was aware of those publications we had before...it was a pleasure to get them at the corridors of the UCV campus.
People in Venezuela could riot now if petrol prices increase, even if they don't have cars themselves. They don't realise, on the other hand, that their children should be getting books from the state and they should not be paying a workers' salary just go get the stuff one kid needs every year for school. The only public library of Valencia, my city - a city of 1.4 million people - has probably as many books as a public library in a town of 30000 inhabitants in Europe...but we have more whisky, mind.
Oh, don't get me started! This has to change.
Ps. könntest Du mir bitte eine kurze E-Mail schicken? Ich habe eine kleine Frage zu Venezuela-Deutschland.
desarrollososteniblevenezuela at gmail.com
Danke