| Re: "Opposing visions fuelled by oil," by Ashifa Kassam, Viewpoint, February 2-8, 2006.
Ashifa Kassam thinks Premier Ralph Klein could learn a few things from Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. "Invest in people," "embody vision" and "address the province’s skyrocketing rates of homelessness and child poverty" are apparently some of the lessons for Klein to learn. Why Chavez is championed as a shining illustration in regard to these issues is a question that Kassam needs to investigate.
Since coming to power in 1998, Chavez has failed to bring about much progress in Venezuela. The percentage of people living below the poverty line in Venezuela has risen to 47 per cent in 2004 from 43.9 per cent in 1998. Nearly half of all people in Venezuela now live below the poverty line. Unemployment stands at more than 12 per cent. Inflation is running at over 15 per cent. The national debt has risen by billions. The economy has rapidly fluctuated, dropping by 8.9 per cent in 2002 and 9.2 per cent in 2003, before bouncing back with the rise in oil prices.
Chavez talks the talk, but like most socialists, he doesn’t walk the walk. Randomly raising the minimum wage for jobs that don’t exist, subsidizing a bag of groceries for people to take home to their sheds in the shantytowns surrounding Caracas, and spewing irrational anti-Bush rhetoric isn’t going to help anyone in the long run.
If the people of Venezuela truly want to progress, they need to learn that socialism belongs on the ash heap of history and that the best way forward is a strong democracy, fuelled by capitalism and guided by conservative principles in conjunction with libertarian ideas.
In other words… more Ralph, less Hugo.
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