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From Zoe Clara Dutka [NACLA 10 Sept 2013] reposted in www.venezuelanalysis.com [http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/10012]:
In order to make sense of this foggy feeling, I spoke to someone who never labored under illusions of what the government's role is. The author Roland Denis was imprisoned in 1989 under the nefarious regime prior to Chávez known for its massive corruption. He later served as Vice Minister of Planning from 2001-03, and knows too much about administration to be surprised by the less appealing aspects of power.
"When you begin to analyze any government in depth, sooner or later you will realize it's a disaster," Denis said with conviction. He describes the state itself as an inherently conservative structure. The more resources it handles, the more self-serving people are drawn to it like flies to honey.
Last week a widespread power outage plunged 14 states and Caracas into panic, rendering the Metro temporarily out of order. Denis ensures that the blackout had little to do with a lack of infrastructure, as the opposition claims. "Of course its sabotage," he says. "Everyone knows that if you're chavista and you work in CORPOELEC [the state electric company], you have to keep your beliefs clandestine. What we're seeing now is what I call the subjectivity of resignation. They [the oppositional forces inside and outside the government] are creating a wave of chaos... people begin to complain about [public] services and scarcity, so that any change might be a welcome change. But if you can only see one faulty detail at a time, it will make no sense...."
-- --------------------- Michael A. Lebowitz Professor Emeritus Economics Department Simon Fraser University 8888 University Drive Burnaby, B.C., Canada V5A 1S6 Home: Phone 604-689-9510 Cell: 604-789-4803 ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
