Ain't no flower-power thing

Many people don’t pay attention to the occupy movement. They think it’s just a bunch of troublemakers, bored people who only wants to make troubles and have fun with it. Far from that; the occupy movement seems like those of the 60’s but is totally different. In the 60’s the kids who where in the flower-power thing could went to their parents home, eat some apple pie, have a comfy rest and then back to yell in D.C. Today, the parents of the kids can’t afford to make the apple pie, maybe do not have the house with a bedroom for the kid as it was part of the foreclosure wave and the bus ticket is too expensive. And the kids are right. They live in a world upside down, where the government helps the big corporations but not the people. Governments are elected by to people to serve the people. Who came with the idea of serving the corporations…? Oh, right, the elections. If you need to invest one billion to get elected, and that money comes from the corporations, you serve them. People can wait. No, is not a flower-power movement, it's “I’m not going to allow you to sell or mortgage my dignity” movement… without apple pie.

STUPID VS STUPID: WHEN PEOPLE DON’T WANT TO SEE THE BOMB THAT IS IN FRONT OF THEIR NOSES.

I have been stuck in Peru for almost 2 years. Yeap, not that I want to be here but I had to be for family reasons demanding my presence. So, in the meanwhile, while trying to survive and keep my sanity among this bunch of really crazy people - if you live in Lima, Peru’s capital, for more than 3 months you’ll understand – I have been watching how Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path), yes, the same bunch of delirious “we are the 4th sword, we’re going to make the Leninist-Stalinists-Maoist-President Gonzalo struggle into reality” of the 80’s come back. And what the Peruvian society is doing about? Nothing. Worst of all: What the Peruvian government is doing? Nothing. There are many reasons. First, the usual Peruvian structural stupidity. Second, a society that never tried to understand what Shining Path was and why they came to bombard the country and third, a governmental and military structure so corrupt, so unstable and so far away from reality that it’s not capable to understand the society they’re supposed to live in and protect. Peru, with all those structural weakness, is doomed. O.K. First, indeed, Peruvians are deeply stupid. If you’re and educated person who give your seat in a bus to an old lady… you’re a fool. If you see somebody’s dropping a 20 bucks bill and you shout “hey, a bill has fallen from your pocket”, you’re a big fool, if you deal with your partners in a company or whatever in a cordial and educated manner, you’re the king of the fools. You shout orders, you don’t ask. Peruvians believe that to do the right is a symptom of hardcore foolishness. How the same-old Shining Path is gaining terrain again. Actually they don’t have to make a big effort. Former SL leaders, who were on their late 30’s when prisoners now are free. A bit chubby, better seasoned ideologically, but ready to Rock and bomb. The authorities can’t do anything as they’ve already “paid their due to society in jail.” Well, sorry, SL does not think about time like the common people do or less the authorities: For them, they lost a battle; the war stills and is a long one still to win. In SL ideology, their war is one that can go for over a century. They’re sure they will win, no matter how many millions of people could die. Peruvian society never intended to learn what happened and don’t care what could happen. It’s a society where the people in the top just ask for another Margarita, the people in the middle for another Chilcano and the people in the bottom ask for another beer. Peruvians are proud today – and there are good reasons – for their cuisine and chefs. They have humongous food expositions, like “Mistura”, with an attendance of hundreds of thousands PER DAY. However, none of them, as usual, care that everything happens in Lima. What about those provincial cities that had grow so much in the last years? Where are the “Mistura?” They don’t care. Fine, great, enjoy. But that goes with what I mentioned as the 1rst Peruvian stupidity. Peruvians are like those animals that you just point them with a flashlight and they go mesmerized. So now everything is alright, basic groceries prices grow every day, but who cares, we have great food. Then, if you ask anybody in the streets about SL, you can get 3 responses: a) what you’re talking about? Denoting the failure of the governments to teach the kids what happened and why happened. b) Oh, those were freedom fighters but with a bad strategy. Between these people the new SL is harvesting. c) Kill them all! People who lived the SL times and before getting them back they are willing to allow a “go kill, I won’t tell” policy. Of course, there are people in the middle of every position, some even with clear mind. But in general, the majority, and the governments uses the majorities to justify any kind of action, lives like if they’re all in some kind of drug, like in a lot of ecstasy mixed with beer. SL is growing. Slowly but nonstop. They’re recruiting a lot of kids while other portion of the kids are, or trying to get, a job or having a lot of booze. In the meanwhile, what the Peruvian society, or the “thinkers” of it are doing? Nothing. And now we have a president who is a big ass, who's only merit was a stunt of rebellion when the Fujimori government was falling (before... he keep quiet.) He wants to please anybody that can helps him to stay in power, so, like the 3 monkeys, he let the corruption go forward and the big money make their day. So, get ready foreign journalist, in a short time you’re going a lot of work here. Luckily, now we have malls!

About Chave'z Venezuela and their pathetic middle class.

Today’s Hugo Chavez 3rd electoral win was for me not a surprise at all. I expected it. It doesn’t mean I support or like Chavez or his way of ruling, at all. I have been in Venezuela 3 times; the first at mid 70’s, the second at mid 80’s and the third at the mid 90’s. I didn’t like the country or the people. Too noisy people, too shallow people. I thought "I"m in the land of the Miss Universe queens, so the girls must be gorgeous." Not at all, just the usual girls, only more shallow than in other South American countries. Then somebody told me the cruel truth that all the Miss Venezuela’s misses should go through the plastic surgeon in order to get the OK for being candidates to that Donald Trump yearly show. There's a huge quantity of plastic invested in those girls. The countryside was the usual one of an equatorial place, except maybe for the near Andean zone, in Merida, nice place. However, what shocked me more, in all my 3 times in the country were the following: -In the 70's the huge squandering of money and resources by almost everybody (I was staying with middle class people.) There’s even a documentary called “MAYAMI NUESTRO”. It was then usual that mid-class Venezuelans traveled for the weekend to Miami in order to just… shop. There’s a line in the documentary were the then mayor of Miami says “without the Venezuelans our economy will plunder.” -Everybody from the middle class having 2, 3 or more cars, plus motorcycles and the cost of fuel way cheaper that the cost of a small soda. -Caracas, Venezuela’s capital, have like a bowl-shape, where like one quarter is covered by beautiful green woods, “El Avila”. However I remember asking for the other 3 quarters, with a brownish color. The answer was the same and with the same indifference tone “Those are the “Ranchitos” (the shanty towns.)” In those “Ranchitos” live almost ¾ of Caracas population and the middle class gave a squat for them. They didn’t care about them, at all. It was for them like the ugly spot in their panoramic view. In the 80's, when I went back for a short trip, Venezuela was in the middle of an economic crisis. It was not that they had less petroleum, it was simply that so much corruption and squandering took it's tool. I remember inviting for dinner over 20 people at the same time, with wine and beer included, and the tab was less that 80 bucks. I was pretty young at those times but I remember thinking, every time I saw those "Ranchitos" “if that people decide to take the city, they have the higher ground.” Well, that was what Hugo Chavez did. It was just a matter of time that years of spilling money, turn backs to the poor and make believe everybody that everything was just fine exploded. It happened in 1992, and Hugo Chavez did it. His attempt for a coup badly failed, and the government did him an enormous favor, as the German government did it at the beginning of the 20’s with a ridiculous guy with a funny mustache called Adolph: put him in jail, with access to all the books that he wanted, visits and, the best of all, TIME to think about why his coup failed and how to not fall again in the same mistakes in order to gain power. We all know the rest of the history: Chavez came out of jail, happy, chubby and ready to take what he didn’t took with the guns. And he did it, big time. Did the Venezuelan society changed while Chavez was in jail? Not at all. On the contrary, it grew in its inequalities to make the place perfect for a Chavez to come into power… and he did. So that’s why Venezuela has a Chavez. That’s why no candidate can beat him. I remember a close relative that lives in Venezuela and still don’t get it (he’s a wannabe, very dumb) telling me about the previous candidate against Chavez “he’s just an idiot, kind of rich peasant, but could be useful dor us.” That candidate lost big time. Capriles, the last candidate against a dying Chavez (yes, he’s dying, he knows it, all his entourage knows it) tried a smart move: instead of showing the face of a right-wing candidate in a country that wants something way away from the right, he “transformed” himself and his proposal into something more “progressive”, more “in the center and maybe open to the left.” Well, it was a smart move, but he lost, the people knew what actually he was: the old system trying to regain the power using a mask of "progressive." Venezuela’s problem is not a problem of candidates. The problem is that the old middle class wants to turn the clocks backwards. They can’t. They want to win? Move forward, even forward that Chavez, let Miami goes into the past and build an integrated society. Sadly, they can’t and don’t want, because they don't get it.