One of the more bizarre takes on Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s death comes from Associated Press business reporter Pamela Sampson (3/5/13):
Chavez invested Venezuela’s oil wealth into social programs including state-run food markets, cash benefits for poor families, free health clinics and education programs. But those gains were meager compared with the spectacular construction projects that oil riches spurred in glittering Middle Eastern cities, including the world’s tallest building in Dubai and plans for branches of the Louvre and Guggenheim museums in Abu Dhabi.
That’s right: Chavez squandered his nation’s oil money on healthcare, education and nutrition when he could have been building the world’s tallest building or his own branch of the Louvre. What kind of monster has priorities like that?
In case you’re curious about what kind of results this kooky agenda had, here’s a chart (NACLA, 10/8/12) based on World Bank poverty stats—showing the proportion of Venezuelans living on less than $2 a day falling from 35 percent to 13 percent over three years. (For comparison purposes, there’s a similar stat for Brazil, which made substantial but less dramatic progress against poverty over the same time period.)
Of course, during this time, the number of Venezuelans living in the world’s tallest building went from 0 percent to 0 percent, while the number of copies of the Mona Lisa remained flat, at none. So you have to say that Chavez’s presidency was overall pretty disappointing—at least by AP‘s standards.
Snowshoe
Maybe Pamela should spend a month living on two bucks a day…
Ben
outstanding, a crisis of values indeed.
smr
Are you f*cking kidding me? Bringing health care, education and sanitation to the masses “pails” when compared to a bunch of white elephant skyscrapers in an artificial city built on the backs of near-slave labor?
You should be freaking ashamed of yourself, the hell is wrong with you.
Doug Latimer
Of course, Sampson won’t be taking a vacation to visit those food markets and health clinics, will she?
JB
An amazing paragraph. I had to go read the entire piece. It falls in the category that Chavez wasn’t good for Venezuelans, that his economic policies did more harm than good. Elsewhere on the FAIR website, is an article about how the media in the US have coverd Cahvez. This observation is made:
‘The supposed economic ruin in Venezuela was a staple of the coverage. The Washington Post editorial page (1/5/13) complained of “the economic pain caused by Mr. Chávez,” the man who has “wrecked their once-prosperous country.””
So if you read the entire AP article by Sampson, it falls into this category. Amazing that someone could write that.
Marroosh
I seem to fail to see the validity of your comparison of Venezuela and the GCC nations. I think you have failed to see the investments in these countries done and being done in health care, education, infrastructure, money being spent in charity. All from the oil revenues. And so what if there is money to build whatever they want to build? Sorry but your argument makes no sense.
RasmusXera
Does the fact I laughed hysterically when reading this mean I’ve finally lost it, or am I just that cynical?
I mean… come on. This is exactly the type of thing you’d satirize if you wanted to joke about how the corporate media treats Chavez! It’s almost too perfect a joke.
Padremellyrn
Chavez increasingly turned against the United States, although he continued to depend on the U.S. for oil revenue. Oil shipments to the U.S. declined from 49 million barrels a month when Chavez took office, to 31.9 million barrels in February 2011. Citgo Petroleum Corp., the country’s U.S.-based oil company, operates three refineries in Texas, Louisiana and Illinois, and sells fuel through thousands of gas stations. Citgo has been used by Chavez to distribute discounted heating oil to poor American families in a high-profile program aimed at criticizing Washington’s approach to the needy. – http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=173521347 – the news article.
How did you guys miss this one, no wonder Corporate America hated his ass; he was bearding the dragon in it’s lair.
Donald
Is this a serious article or is it satire?
been there
Well, I think we can be thankful that at least one corporate media shill was upfront and honest, for the rest think the same thing, they’re just more careful and circumspect about how they say it.
Thanks Pamela! More please! — it’s refreshing.
Wheeler
I am absolutely 100% sure that she has her tongue firmly in her cheek when writing this article.
Simon Barnett
Does the shape of Burj Dubai (pictured, above) remind anyone else of the chart in the “Wealth Inequality in America” video that’s been doing the rounds? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPKKQnijnsM
Caustic Pop
Seen and unseen- people see the cool stuff demagogues achieve throwing lucre around, but don’t stop to question their sustainability. They put up a chart look at purchasing power which is dependent upon taking inflation into account, and then only show data up to 2006 before the worst bouts of inflation and sharpest currency devaluations. They put defining poverty into the box of purchasing power, and ignore how government interventions including debauching the currency and instituting price controls have caused domestic production to collapse, chronic shortages and sharp dependence upon imported goods and services. They ignore how such demagoguery and socialist nobility rely upon crushing the rights and freedoms of people and instituting massive state extraction and dependency. They ignore the consequences of all this in the past, in the present and in the future. They ignore the sustainability of such well-meaning “help” from the demagogue.
But you’re right, let’s focus on the lame comparison with an oil-producing autocracy that got wrapped up in a real estate bubble.
Simon Barnett
A small nation with oil doesn’t stand a chance against the might of a much larger nation whose sustainability relies on neo-imperialism.
gregorylent
a.g.e.n.d.a.
Casey Chapple
How do you get this headline? There is no value judgment in the AP article. It’s about the price of oil. The graph about people care vs lavish buildings is, if anything, soft on Chavez. He was good as he knew how to be to his population, but kinda dumb about managing the wealth of the country.
This is a cheap shot at the AP, as far as you can get from fair and accurate. Shocking and shameful.
Quivers
I understand the depth of your satirical rhetoric. But I am ashamed and furious on how you portrayed one of the best statemen who ever lived and basically repackaged what popular media have portrayed about him. I understand the logic that oil income should be properly spent on infrastructure and the development of industries, but what he is doing is an act of EMPOWERING the people to be able to do the former. The problem, although, is that he did not have time and the right people to do it. SHAME ON YOU, YOU HEGEMONIC PIECE OF JUNK.
tadzio
Well her ignorance is as huge as a skyscrapers and apparently she doesn t care for poor people thus she comes from where the money is filthy as herself. You don t understand what humanity is and the urge to help poor people giving them good education as first, good healthcare and of course food. God save you from your ignorance…
JK
How about killing the freedom of speach and democracy? That was the main goal for Chavez.
Guess you think those things aint worth saving.
Grow
Awsome. They gave US$3/day for each poor person.
This surely changed their lives…
+ 9hs/day (it’s true!) of Chaves on TV/Radio
– milk/meat/whatever in supermarkets.
Congrats Venezuela, country of the future…
Goldberg
In media, “corporate” stands for “controlled by Jews”.
Caustic Pop
Snowshoe, firstly, I never mentioned the US. You’ve inserted that straw-man hobgoblin yourself. Enjoy battling it. If you actually comprehended what I wrote you’d realize a lot of what I wrote applies to the US govt too.
Secondly, my post exposes the flaw in approaching the idealism of “providing every citizen with a reasonable standard of life and dignity” at face-value. There are consequences to what the Chavez regime (and other govts) did under such auspices, consequences which have wrecked the economy and made people poorer, and continues making them poorer. The fact that a demagogue threw lucre around does not a better life or economy make.
Alfonso Guevara
Chavez could have certainly done MORE with the most incredibly shower of money ever received in this country (Venezuela). I think that’s the point of the article. I don’t see it as “hey, Chavez could have built huge skyscrapers”. What the article is trying to say is “look, Chavez could have done more, could have built a better infrastructure for his country”.
And this is certainly, oh so certainly the case. Our infrastructure is crumbling: In Caracas, the metro (subway) service is all but collapsed. Trains trapped between stations for failings in maintenance and equipment is an frequent event. Our roads and highways are plagued with holes, like the moon, because of cheap asphalt (and we supposedly produce this stuff!).
In the country side, it’s even worse. Bridges are collapsing as well (lack of maintenance), and trips that used to take four hours (like a travel between Caracas and Puerto la Cruz) now takes the double amount of time. Transportation is dangerous, both for crumbling roads and everything else, and for the lack of personal security to the travelers (piratas de carretera, pirates of the road are awaiting for your money and goods)
And what about healthcare? Yes, at the beginning of his government Chavez did some things. Although, instead of reinforcing and renewing our old healthcare system, building more hospitals and renewing the old ones, he created a parallel system called Barrio Adentro (inside the Barrio) that was successful at the beginning (and also, drained resources from the old network of public hospitals), but now is also crumbling by lack of resources…
Now, how can that be, with all the money that has entered to this country, via oil revenues?
That’s the point of the article at leas in my interpretation, Mr. Naureckas. But, as usual, you see what you want to see, in a subject you know very little (Venezuela)
Caustic Pop
Alfonso Guevara, is there a way I can contact you? Do you have a website?
Caustic Pop
Sorry, Alfonso, I didn’t receive it. What’s your Twitter name? I can follow you? Otherwise email me: hardrainsa(AT)gmail(DOT)com
PolicyElite
Relax Guys! Its a tongue-n-cheek article. Jim was highlighting the rarity of world leaders serving people rather than serving corps!
Madner Kami
Stupidity on epical proportions. What kind of priorities do these people have? Gawdfuckinggeez, TV-education at it’s best. Raised by TV, friends only based on their toys, complete lack of social morality beyond having read and loving Ayn Rand. There ain’t enough facepalm-pictures available to describe how I feel about that Sampson numbnut.
Tony S
Satire be lost on all y’all.
Wayne
I checked the original article to see if you guys were quoting out of context. Sonofagun if the mentioned blurb hadn’t been INSERTED out of context in the first place. /8|
nbird.de
maybe it was some kind of sarcasm the author hide in the text because ap makes him write such bull
Seaofstooges
Relax, people. This article was clearly meant for sarcasm. There is no way on earth the author’s priorities are that skewed. If so, I’d suggest sending *someone* to collect Jim N. for a trial/case-study research on sociopathy. I’m telling myself that it was sarcasm, will help me sleep better at night…
Snowshoe
@Caustic Pop, your post didn’t “expose the flaw” in anything. It was a collection of loosely connected assertions without and backing or references. That makes it rhetoric. Also, in two posts you’ve used variations of “demagogue” four times and “lucre” twice. That makes it rhetoric.
It’s easy to take pot-shots looking retrospectively at any government – none of them are perfect. Chavez achieved some important things though – he insured a far wider distribution of the wealth than a lot of other leaders would have and he tried to educate people out of poverty. You don’t like it? Too bad! Nobody’s knocking down your door to run a country, are they?
Therion
I mean, what was wrong with the guy! He could have dressed up in poncy suits, driven around in flash cars and burned high denominational bills in front of beggars with his cozy little cabal of oligarchal droogies………he could have really fulfilled his life…what a sad waste….
Enalung
Just one quick comment. The building in the photo is the Burj Khalifa. It is located in the United Arab Emirate, à country where education is free. This article literally discredits itself by showing a photograph of this building.
Liz
How did so many of you manage to miss the fact that this is a beautiful piece of satire?
reader
the article never makes that claim. Please gain at least basic reading comprehension before you’re allowed to write an article
john
R.I.P. Chavez, all good presidents gets murdered by the elite :(
Snowshoe
@Enalung, the UAE has been built on imported labour that they pay peanuts for. If you think that just because the Emiratis provide free education for themselves it’s a fair and equal society, you’ve obviously never been there.
julian
if anyone is interested in actual numbers, the same world bank data puts venezuela at 23% poverty in 1999, when chavez took office. so I think the choice to display just those three years of decline (and not everything else that happened while he was in power) is more than a little misleading.
Rose-Marie Ingrid Lemessy-Forde
Folks this is a satirical piece. The writer is actually extolling Chavez policies. For proof just look at her comparison with Brazil on how dramatically Chavez brought down the poverty rate. Sometimes satire is lost on some readers. Clearly this is why this style of writing is so difficult.
Thomas Jefferson
yes, because for goodness sakes, never invest in your own people, they might, you know, get smart or something and be productive. Can’t have that!
Rose-Marie Ingrid Lemessy-Forde
Thank you Liz and Seaofstooges for recognizing a wonderful satirical piece. It really is a difficult style as I can tell by all the disparaging comments!
Dam Spahn
Chavez was despised by the US Oligarchy all during his presidency. As for AP, I’m not surprised to see such shallow, clueless, callow reporting. It smells of the underpaid armpit of a scribe who is in over her head, and either doesn’t know it or doesn’t care.
Anthony McCarthy
This AP garbage is what is known as journalism in the great United States, home of the freest press in history.
Snowshoe
Rose-Marie-Ingrid-Lemessy-Forde-whatever, on what do you base your assertion that it was satirical? If that was the case, I would have thought the author would have made some effort to clarify, given the controversy around her remarks. I haven’t seen any clarification, despite having checked her Twitter account and doing some other looking around.
Sometimes things are just as stupid as they seem on face value. Pamela-Anderson-Sampson has just had one of those moments.
DavLG
Yes, his greatest “crime” against true “liberal” values (exemplified by Mideastern democracies) was to reduce poverty levels instead of building sky-scrapers for billionaires.
That’s why he had to be removed.
TeaPartyPat
Marxist dictator Hugo Chavez pillaged more than $2 billion for his personal fortune (quadruple Mitt Romney’s net worth which, apparently, is what the Left says disqualified him to be President) from “Nationalizing” the Private sector (you know, millionaires and billionaires paying “their fair share”) or by way of simply confiscating their businesses and successfully implementing the Democrats ultimate goal of redistributing wealth as he (or they) see fit. But, I’m sure Hugo was always volunteering for charities and spending time with cripples and veterans the way Mitt does. This article is Pure Marxist Propaganda. AP=Pravda.
Snowshoe
@TeaPartyPat, did you look into that claim at all? I did and it lead me very quickly to here (http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/15278/did-hugo-chavez-have-a-net-worth-of-2-billion-dollars-at-the-time-of-his-death). It provides a link to the website where the claim originated. It looks legit… if you squint a bit… and ignore the 1990s look of the site… and the frequent use of all caps… and the rest…
Steve Wiseman
Not only did he not build sky scrappers, but he, like Hussein and Khadaffi gave his people health care, clean drinking water, free education , the opportunity to go to university, safe cities; and he did not oppress women, nor spend all his money on war weapons. And he certainly did not have millions in jail, on probation or on parole as does the USA.
Anna Woodford
He took such a appreciating move, in short he fulfilled his social responsibility as a honest person, and I think it’s not big deal for any big or small business owners to invest some part of their money in social welfare and in free health clinics, because as global warming is increasing harmful diseases and health related problems are also increasing, that’s why poor people can not afford expensive treatments. So that investing in free health clinics and modern hospitals is such a great idea.
jason
We all know AP works for the elite, and this is only garbage, we are smarter than yesterday!
Ella Wagemakers
Money spent on health care, education and the eradication of poverty is a waste? Either this is satire or else a completely monstrous distortion of priorities. Not that this NauWRECKas guy gives a damn, of course. Ah well, some folks think that this is the way to eternal fame. He’s just jealous of Chavez, for whatever reason, I tend to think. Chavez, for all his dictatorial tendencies, put his politics where his heart was. Can’t say this Nauwreckas guy will do the same. Rest in peace, Jim.
scott dodds
But here’s the point the writer missed: Those Arab oil-rich dictators for the most part DID also, first, provide healthcare and antipoverty program and business opportunities for their citizens. It’s just that those countries have such small populations and so much more oil money that there’s plenty left for these “vanity” projects.
Tony I
scott dodds, the FAIR writer overlooked nothing. you overlook that whatever UAE provides for its citizens, it provides none of these things for the hyper-expoloited foreign workers who create the wealth.
CCrown
Remember the time a Canadian official said over a live mike that she wished Americans would just shut up or something like that? Ditto that.
John McConnell
Pamela Sampson is Marie Antoinette with a pen. What absolute tripe! She must have grown up in a cacoon. Even most conservatives would wonder how she got a job with an international press agency. No one believes in building to the sky while the people on the ground starve or die from lack of food or healthcare.
Juan Jose Cervantes
IS There is a message!? Clearly!
BUT I am not sure if everyone can hear it. It is by design.
It is in line with the American Dream, and the false notion that “the one with the most toys wins!” No! The one with the most toys dies with the most toys! The ones speaking out about these false notions of materialistic desires are the plagues of vanity, greed and callousness!
This propaganda of misinformation fools most, as it is heavily invested my large marketing firms, collecting data on consumerism and human behavior. It is a science.
This makes us hate one another, to the edge of destruction: WAR.
Yet there are those with heroic nature, who will stand and fight honorably, and sacrifice by paying the ultimate sacrifice. Their lives.
The idea is to dummify the reason “why” one will fight for and pay the ultimate price is filled with confusion of these false propaganda’s message of consumerism!
WAR! I wish we would all stop them!
WARS! I wish they were all over!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yN4Uu0OlmTg
Again, those who speak out are either killed, or deemed a horrific title.
Night-Gaunt
That AP writer is sure steeped in the mind set of the Ayn Rand kind of selfish Capitalist. Do for things not for people. Very telling indeed.
Night-Gaunt
Sorry folks this is sober straight true reporting not satire.
Chavez invested Venezuela’s oil wealth into social programs including state-run food markets, cash benefits for poor families, free health clinics and education programs. But those gains were meager compared with the spectacular construction projects that oil riches spurred in glittering Middle Eastern cities, including the world’s tallest building in Dubai and plans for branches of the Louvre and Guggenheim museums in Abu Dhabi.
So this is how some people really think. I thought you knew? Why satire can get lost when there are those cold sober unfunny writers mean it. And this is in that category.
Tom Devaney
How could anyone who reads this not identify that it is a well written, satirical and thought provoking piece about the way the people of other oil rich states are being short changed in comparison to Chavez’s Venezuela?
Snowshoe
@scott dodds, you really need to spend a bit of time in UAE. The locals are fabulously wealthy and the imported labourers are almost slaves, bused back and forth to labour camps in the dessert. The vanity projects are because of the inequality of the wealth – some people there have a stupid amount of money.
Snowshoe
@Tom Devaney, on what do you base your assertion that this is irony? If so, why did the author not point that out in her Twitter account or in the comments of the original article? She just said something idiotic – that’s all there is to it.
TimN
Unfortunately, anyone who spends a little time at FAIR, or who just pays attention, knows this is not satire or sarcasm. Some commenters seem a bit confused as to what’s going on here.
Elizabeth Block
This is a real news story?! I thought it was one of Andy Borowitz’s satirical ones. Sometimes real life overtakes satire.
Rose-Marie Ingrid Lemessy-Forde
@Snowshoe. thanks for pointing it out. I was actually referring to the article by Jim Naureckas as satire. I hadn’t read Pamela’s trash. Now I have and I understand Jim was quoting her garbage. My mistake!
Rose-Marie Ingrid Lemessy-Forde
I think they should have put that piece about “Chavez invested Venezuela’s oil wealth into social programs including state-run food marke…” in quotes so people would know Jim was quoting from another article. This is probably the source of confusion.
No Difference
The paragraph from the original article by Sampson contains two sentences which I find to be a bizarre comparison, not satire, irony, or some other literary mechanism.
The first sentence talks about what Chavez actually did, and I am assuming that other, supporting data are also true about this; even if this is to be debated, the first sentence stands on its own assertions.
My question is why is the second sentence in the same paragraph with the first sentence? They are not even related topics. If this is to be interpreted as a union of two ideas, they do not comport with one another. It is a bit like adding 2 apples and 3 magnets; the result is still 2 apples and 3 magnets — there is no union of the two.
If this is to be interpreted as a contrast, it makes a little more sense, but that contrast is made up of two ideas that are not totally accounted for on both sides of the argument. On one hand, Venezuela invested in public goods, but the paragraph is silent on public goods investment in the middle east nations. The second sentence conversely focuses on the construction investment but is silent on public goods investment.
Obviously, there is plenty of shrift about the missing pieces scattered about elsewhere in the article, so I am not claiming the material was not covered or to what degree. I am just saying that the paragraph does not make a convincing argument because it fails to compare apples to apples and magnets to magnets, to continue my analogy.
I think if that one paragraph, which Jim takes off at, were written more clearly with a well-defined purpose laid out ahead of time, this entire article and these posts might have had a very different existence.
I don’t get any sense of irony, sarcasm, humor, contrast, or any other sort of literary or journalistic reporting convention. What I get is a poorly-worded and, moreover, poorly-planned article by Ms. Sampson. I will remain silent on my opinion of her work generally until I have had a chance to digest other articles.
I do not mean to dismiss the error, which is glaring, and very annoying as well. But I am not sure at this point if I want to jump up and down on this AP writer and break all of her bones just yet. I will post back if I change my mind, though.
As to Mr. Naureckas, I don’t know what to make of his critique of Sampson’s work (which, btw, I note was co-written with another author who is rarely, if ever, mentioned in the posts here). I do think he could make a valid criticism of poorly written AP releases at large, this being one glaring example. That I would agree with because I have read too many articles from AP that suffered from an urgent need for editing BEFORE release!
Guy Falkes
Pamela Sampson proves that functional psychopath can hold a job down as a reporter. Not a single thing human about her, she might even be an android!
Dale Patterson
“Chavez squandered his nation’s oil money on healthcare, education and nutrition when he could have been building the world’s tallest building or his own branch of the Louvre. What kind of monster has priorities like that?” . . . So tell us.
Eric
Good points, but I wish the chart wasn’t visually misleading.
It needs a zero base.
steve wright
first I thought this AP article was a sarcastic joke about Chavez…like how dare he spend money on The Poor People of Ven when he could have been doing what these Arabs have been doing…. but then I realized this reporter was really slagging him for spending oil money on heath care and helping poor ven’s – which is what he was all about anyway…an amazing psy-op articles from this Pamela Sampson.. “squandered” his oil money on heath care and food? hardly…sounds like this PS person is from where? somewhere not good where people that call themselves human but are not really?
Steve
Yank in Thailand 5 5 5
annie
America and Europe are totally screwed up. Completely condemned if the Bible is anything to go by.
Power Unseen
Excellent piece, I think she was being sarcastic.
Lele
What kind of fool would write such nonsense. If only the rest of the world’s presidents had the same priorities as Chavez…
Dave
The link to the AP story goes nowhere, and when I go to the AP site and search for Pamela Sampson, they have no links. Can you please post a working link for the original AP article? Seems fishy to me.
Jim Naureckas
Dave: Thanks for pointing that out. The link should go to a valid page again.
do pobrania
The next time I read a blog, I hope that it won’t fail me as much as this one. I mean, I know it was my choice to read through, but I actually thought you would probably have something interesting to say. All I hear is a bunch of crying about something you can fix if you weren’t too busy looking for attention.