Saturday, August 06, 2005

Hay que votar and botar A little sense of humor always helps, here is Weil with his usual sharpness doing a play on words, in Spanish "vote" is votar and throw away is "botar". The cartoon says "You have to throw away" , refererring to the CNE into the garbage. You have to vote too! 11:41:32 PM    comment []

Three devilish years Today is the third year anniversary of this blog. I don’t want to make a big deal of it, but I want to note it because it has been a surprising trajectory. I began the blog out of curiosity for this new technology and I thought that I could write interesting articles about the distortions in the Venezuelan economy and other topics of my own interest. Well, while I do tend write often about economic matters, political events have led the blog into a very unexpected territory. It has been fun and it has been painful, the latter mostly because we seem to be even further behind the ideal Venezuela that I think we could have and I wish we had. But it has been fun, because by blogging I feel I do something daily to fight this autocratic Government that has destroyed Venezuelan institutions in the name of a personal project with no plan other than the promotion of its leader.. At the same time, the blog has had remarkable unexpected consequences. I have made good friends all over. Some I have met, others have become remarkably close friends despite their virtuality. Through the readers and the friends that I have made, I have learned a lot about people, about new ideas, received book recommendations and, in general, have received advice and suggestions that I think have improved the blog as well as its writer. Going forward I will continue keeping this journal of this terrible times for my country. It is simply a duty that I gladly assumed and will continueto assume, as long as I feel it is necessary and I have the freedom to do it. Thanks for reading me! 8:03:03 PM    comment []

To vote or not to vote To vote or not to vote, that is the question that many Venezuelans have pondered during the last few months. Today, many still remain undecided as to what they will do next Sunday. Curiously, even within the Chavismo, there is a movement towards abstention, in protest for the way the candidates were handpicked by the leadership. Within the opposition, many view abstention as an act of protest against an Electoral power who is so aligned with the Government that it not only allowed the violation of the law, but has violated it itself repeatedly in the last year. By allowing the "morochas" or twins, it will allow Chavez’ party to obtain more representation on the city councils next Sunday, than the Constitution allows or they deserve. This will allow Chavismo to have a large majority even in the cities and towns where political forces are balanced. Even worse, it will give Chavismo a simple majority in municipalities, where opposing forces are larger. There are other tricks ready. People who do not exist will vote, conveniently registered in municipalities where their vote is needed. Others have been transferred to other districts without them knowing it, despite the fact that these transfers were done after the time limit allowed for such transfers. And then there is the fact that they will fingerprint voters as an excuse to insure that you have not voted before, supposedly checking with a huge database where it will compare your fingerprint to all of those that have voted before you that day. Then I ask in my naviete: Why do they also dip my finger in indelible ink to show that I have voted?  The fingerprint machines continue to bother me intensely and immensely. There is something behind them that drives their utilization. For this election alone, the CNE purchased another US$ 20 million in fingerprint capturing machines. Why? Clearly, the biggest suspicion is that somehow the voting machines and the fingerprint machines will keep track of the order in which you voted, allowing the Government to know exactly which way you voted. We will all be “tagged” politically, as friend or foe, and one day it will come to haunt all of us in the opposition. Perverse? Have you ever heard of the Tascon list? Of course, others take a more cynical position, wondering what commissions the CNE Directors received for purchasing the equipment. But on Sunday I will go and vote. Why? Because I believe in activism. I don’t believe in staying home as a form of protest. It's too comfortable, too easy. If someone had planned some form of active protest that would have surely shown that the large majority was abstaining, then I may have considered participating in it. But I doubt that I would not have gone and vote anyway. I am a democrat. I believe in democracy and all that goes with it. Good and bad. Democracy is more than elections, even if the Chavistas seem to want to sell the idea that elections is all there is to democracy. Democracy begins with elections, that is why I can’t justify not going. If I am going to say my vote was stolen, I have to vote first! I respect those that will not be voting, it is their right. It is not “impregnated by the spirit of coups” as suggested by our Vice President. In fact, Hugo Chavez spent the years 1994-1997 advocating abstention, because one could not trust the electoral system, at the time led by democratic bodies with all parties having political representation in it. In fact, he was elected under that system that supposedly did not work and was unfair. I also feel I have a duty to support the Mayor of the municipality I live in. He works very hard. He does a good job.  By not voting I will endanger his ability to execute and thus provide me with all of the services that my municipality gives me. How would I feel if a city councilman from his party lost by one vote? Yes, we will be cheated. Yes, votes will disappear. Yes, we will be underrepresented. But one has to fight, even if your vote is swiped. Even if your choice is silenced. Even if your name is blacklisted. There is nothing to do but fight. So, I will go and vote. 12:35:54 AM    comment []