Chavez and Good Deeds
When Rita and Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast and brought the question of poverty to the image market; when oil refineries were trashed, gas prices thrust into orbit, and oil companies were making a windfall off dire speculation; and when Pat Robertson was calling for Hugo Chavez's assassination - this is when Chavez suggested that he might offer poor Americans cheap gas and heating oil through the Venezuelan state-owned PdVSA (Petroleum de Venezuela) and its US outlets, 7-11 and Citgo. At the time, he was very nearly laughed off the second page. How would he accomplish this even if he were serious? He must be just trying to rub Bush's political problems in his face.
But Chavez is following through with his announcement. The New York Daily News has been on the case. Chavez revealed the details of his pilot plan in September, which was to start shipments to poor districts in Chicago and New York Citgos. According to the Daily News, shipments of cheap fuel will begin arriving in the Bronx this week.
With gasoline prices still very high, this act ought to play very interestingly in the media. Now, for the past nine months, we have seen a ramping up of Chavez news activity. He has been on the Bush/Oilies hit list for some time now, and this year, at least before Iraq/Hurricane/Plame public opinion went south, the Bushies had been mentioning him quite often. Chavez will remain on the edge of the public radar for a while. When the time is right again, I suspect that the powers that be will engage in a full-on campaign of demonization.
Chavez knows this, and he is staging a Robin Hood spectacle as a preemptive attack. He is aware that the real battle is the rhetorical one - who can claim the higher moral ground. With the spectre of poverty rearing its un-American head and Chavez emerging as the only one who seems to care, it will be tough to turn him into a wood-chipping Saddam Hussein. And the whole thing is polished with nothing less than an ironic coat of crude oil.
But perhaps this will only infuriate the wealthier majority in the country who have to pay regular price to fill up their behemoth SUV's. They are the ones you don't want to rattle. They will run your ass over on their way to church.
But Chavez is following through with his announcement. The New York Daily News has been on the case. Chavez revealed the details of his pilot plan in September, which was to start shipments to poor districts in Chicago and New York Citgos. According to the Daily News, shipments of cheap fuel will begin arriving in the Bronx this week.
With gasoline prices still very high, this act ought to play very interestingly in the media. Now, for the past nine months, we have seen a ramping up of Chavez news activity. He has been on the Bush/Oilies hit list for some time now, and this year, at least before Iraq/Hurricane/Plame public opinion went south, the Bushies had been mentioning him quite often. Chavez will remain on the edge of the public radar for a while. When the time is right again, I suspect that the powers that be will engage in a full-on campaign of demonization.
Chavez knows this, and he is staging a Robin Hood spectacle as a preemptive attack. He is aware that the real battle is the rhetorical one - who can claim the higher moral ground. With the spectre of poverty rearing its un-American head and Chavez emerging as the only one who seems to care, it will be tough to turn him into a wood-chipping Saddam Hussein. And the whole thing is polished with nothing less than an ironic coat of crude oil.
But perhaps this will only infuriate the wealthier majority in the country who have to pay regular price to fill up their behemoth SUV's. They are the ones you don't want to rattle. They will run your ass over on their way to church.
posted by thebaffler at 3:55 PM
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