Venezuela:Pride, passion, patriotism
Frankly Speaking...
Greetings fans and foes. Ignore the three P's in the caption above, if you wish. No political significance intended. It's just that I spent five days, over the last week-end, in Caracas, Venezuela and was extremely impressed with the expressive nationalism of those officials who shepherded me and my team around carefully selected places of cultural and historical interest. I am quite aware, of course, that five hectic days cannot constitute a period within which to assess properly or pass judgment on a people and their society. But I feel shrewd enough to sense or know genuine love of country and committed loyalty. Or to detect fakery or phony fronting for visitors' sake. My team and I were convinced that what we experienced was the true, active pride, passion and patriotism of the Venezuelans we were introduced to - and others whom we encountered or met. And I'll explain why I am sharing highlights of this visit with you at the end of this item - if it is not obvious to some even now. It is not at all to `show off'. The fact is my week-end television programme - `The Guyana Cook-Up Show' - conducted a competition featuring our position on the Guyana/Venezuela controversy arising out of the Venezuelan belated claim to our territory. After a somewhat prolonged delay, the show and two student winners benefited from the generosity of both the Guyana and Venezuela governments and our private sector. Thus the visit to the beautiful, mountain - and - valley Latin American Capital, Caracas. President Hugo Chavez, who has artfully manoeuvred himself into a leading player of OPEC - the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, that powerful `Cartel' of oil-producers who keep the world's engines and power turned on - had his own hectic schedule whilst we were there, and couldn't fit us in. Believe me, it was originally programmed but he was in Margarita with the Association of Caribbean States (Heads), after returning from Houston, Texas. And then losing one little (big) battle with the oil workers' representatives. Chavez, who called the Petroleum Industry's labour leaders `bandits', is not too friendly with the country's trade unionists anyhow. But the powerful Public Sector Workers Union would have joined forces. Anyhow, the eventual negotiations to end the oil strike proved to be a little loss for the still popular President who will surely remember his first real industrial challenge. Next time we'll discuss Chavez's near-impossible effort to spread the wealth of his oil amongst the millions of his impoverished supporters but let me return to the inspiring moments of my Caracas encounter. Look, after you're taken to the Salon de Patria (in the Palacio Miroflores - the Presidential palatial office), the pantheon of heroes, the Casa de Natal - the birthplace of the Liberator/hero of Venezuela and five or six other territories, and other such places of almost reverence, you are immersed in the exploits and achievements of such greats as Francisco De Miranda, Simon Bolivar and Antonio Jose De Sucre. So now, like any Venezuelan school child, I might be more familiar with the stories of liberation by those immortal Venezuelans, than I am with the heroic efforts of our own Arawak-African uprising of 1687. Or of Accabreh, Atta - or even of Ayube Edun! (Getting my point, slowly?) Whether beautiful, exquisitely charming, female Protocol Officers leading us around the museums, galleries or palace, or the older professor-type historian/curator, the knowledge of their history, the preservation of their legacies of liberation - Simon Bolivar is like a living, God-like legend - must inspire, even overwhelm the touring visitor. Even if bone-weary at the end of the visit(s), persons like us, from a little neighbour to the east, have to be convinced about those people's love of their past. It binds them together - at least in common heritage, whatever other differences are (surely) there. President Chavez has transformed his Ministry of Youth into the Fundacion Juventad Y Cambio! The Foundation for Youth and Change - intended to be the dynamic engine of youth and cultural development - operates now, out of the Office of the President. Next to the offices of the Elite Presidential Guards, a school has been established to sharpen the vocational skills and patriotic passion and fervour of the under - privileged, especially teenagers who suffered greatly after the deathly December Mudslides of `99. Right in the Palacio de Miroflores! (Fleetingly - and negatively - I wondered how these young Venezuelans would react if `advised' to proceed to the Zona de Reclamacion, our Essequibo. Perish such evil thoughts. But these are proud young Venoes...) I'll save the rest for later, but involved as I am here, in my own small way, promoting love of country - our Guyanese history, culture and heritage - my being cries out in despair at the time it takes to erect billboards, create dramatic museums of history, produce and air quality programmes to inspire unity and nationalism - oh dear me/us! Those Venezuelans have differences of wealth and class, rich and really poor - from condominiums to dangerous mountainside barrios - but they are all passionate about a shared heritage. Can we ever be as cohesive? Even in the face of a common threat? A common enemy?
Our Caracas mission Well, I have learnt that challenging as the work of that particular mission is, Ambassador Karran has a competent grasp of the historical genesis of the Venezuelan - generated `controversy' and claim as he has of the present - day realities of economic options and military considerations available to President Hugo Chavez. Our Venezuela mission's mission, so to speak, is therefore, to inform and perhaps mobilise international support from friendly nations and organisations with regard to the territorial controversy; to protect the interests of Guyanese immigrants in Venezuela - within the laws and conditions governing their status - and to promote bilateral relationships between the two neighbours in terms of trade, culture, education and the gamut of areas of co-operation now still alive and well. It is a tall order for a small mission but led by Ambassador Karran and Jennifer Wills-Tiwari, there is good reason for us to be assured of their diligence. Naturally the mission's confidential sources of intelligence, its capacity to analyse what it sees, hears and knows and its ability to mingle with, even influence our immediate (richer) Regional Colleagues in the Caracas diplomatic community, cannot be subjects for full exposure herein. But, in the tradition of Frankly Speaking, I told Ambassador Karran what some detractors and genuinely concerned citizens think about his ability to advise his ministry appropriately and in good time. He was gracious in his response. Some of it captured the fact that we're limited as a nation in our ability to finance a comprehensive mission with certain departments; that intelligence gathering and analysis requires art, technique and shrewd resourceful techniques; that he doesn't have to blow any trumpets and importantly that intelligent Guyanese should know that Venezuela has a lot to actually prove where her claim is concerned. His bottom line is: we have to co-exist with our Spanish neighbour, executing the various bilateral agreements signed in good faith. Diplomacy must replace emotionalism as military intervention is not an option whether on Venezuela's part with her jets - or on ours with our limited but sound guerrilla knowledge of the terrain claimed. More later.
Time flies... 2) Do you know Keith Hathaway or Simon Osborne? No? Well these two British - born gents are deeply involved in this independent nation's elections - even at this stage. 3) Assessor Hathaway will decide in November whether he thinks the elections can be held in January. Mr Osborne is here to lead observers from abroad who will assist in ensuring fairness. We need their money. So independence my eye! 4) Do you know now how to object to a name on the Preliminary Voters List? How to claim inclusion or to ask for a transfer? 5) The American opinion polls show Bush and Gore neck and neck. What do our polls show? Well in our town persons can make them show anything! 6) Reporting must be `balanced, fair and accurate'? When one camera shows only the attempted arrests and not what transpired before? Poor code of conduct! 'TIL NEXT WEEK!
 Follow the goings-on in Guyana
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