We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Friday, March 14, 2014

Behind the Lies About Venezuela’s Protests

Click here to access article by Garry Leech from Rebellious Independent News & Film.

US Empire directors seem to be on a roll with regard to "regime change", a polite term these directors prefer to describe their efforts at overturning governments that they don't like to new ones that will serve their mission of world dominance. An important component of this effort is always to prepare the home audience with a barrage of propaganda in support of these projects. In recent history we've seen this pattern played out with our war against Iraq, our undeclared war with Iran, the overturning of the governments in Libya, Syria, Ukraine, and now we see propaganda campaigns against the popular government in Venezuela. Leech fills us in on the details of this campaign and what is really happening in that country.

His description of the current happenings there are convincing to me based especially on my knowledge of Caracas gained from my two week trip to that country in late 2005. There are sections of Caracas that resemble rich neighborhoods of Western countries. I remember well a visit I made to a shopping mall located in one of these districts. I was amazed by the opulence of this mall which compared well with the most lavish that I had seen in North America. Not far from this mall were numerous people living in shacks stacked on the steep mountainsides surrounding the city. I was appalled and angry at the contrast, and slowly became aware of how rudely I was treating the sales clerks in a bookstore located there. I read some of the most malicious propaganda I'd ever seen against the government printed in their leading newspapers. Generally, I was left with the strong impression of two cities: a European colony intent upon asserting their dominance over the mixed race majority that surrounded them. It is on the streets of these European Venezuelans where these current demonstrations are occurring.