Bookmark Jamaica-Gleaner.com
Go-Jamaica Gleaner Classifieds Discover Jamaica Youth Link Jamaica
Business Directory Go Shopping inns of jamaica Local Communities

Home
Lead Stories
News
Business
Sport
Commentary
Letters
Entertainment
Farmer's Weekly
What's Cooking
UWI/Eye on Science
The Star
E-Financial Gleaner
The Voice
Communities
Hospitality Jamaica
Google
Web
Jamaica- gleaner.com

Archives
1998 - Now (HTML)
1834 - Now (PDF)
Services
Find a Jamaican
Library
Live Radio
Podcasts
Weather
Subscriptions
News by E-mail
Newsletter
Print Subscriptions
Interactive
Chat
Dating & Love
Free Email
Guestbook
ScreenSavers
Submit a Letter
WebCam
Weekly Poll
About Us
Advertising
Gleaner Company
Contact Us
Other News
Stabroek News

Chavez's speech has been reduced to that one devil statement ...A dunce and a devil
published: Thursday | September 28, 2006


Melville Cooke

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called U.S. president George Bush a devil at the United Nations General Assembly last week..

I had already concluded that the man was a dunce and, with his Bushisms the stuff of stand-up comedy, if he was not such a dangerous man, I am not alone in giving him the 'F' for intelligence. (Remember, he did wave at Stevie Wonder, who for some strange reason did not wave back. It could have been that he did not recognise ol Georgie and thought a strange white man was trying to pick him up, but it may just have been because he is blind. But then, there was then U.S. vice-president Dan Quayle, who joked with reporters that since he was going to Latin America he would have to brush up on his Latin.)

But the devil, I had never thought of that. Put 'dunce' and 'devil' together and you get ... go to the head of the class.

As Chavez said, "yesterday, ladies and gentlemen, from this rostrum, the president of the United States, the gentleman to whom I refer as the devil, came here, talking as if he owned the world. Truly. As the owner of the world".

Now, bending our collective Christianised mind around the concept of the devil not only being a white man, but also living in a white house, and eating with a fork instead of sticking people with it, is going to take some doing, but you should consider other definitions of 'devil'. Such as "a personified evil force or attribute" or "a wicked or cruel person" and consider that this is a man who cheerfully orders the massacres in Afghanistan and Iraq, ignores those in need in New Orleans and was the equivalent of an old-time hanging judge as Governor of Texas.

Statement singled out

Think about it.

Chavez's speech has been reduced to that one devil statement, which is somewhat of a distraction. Because the man whose country's oil gives him a voice said much more. Such as:

"They say they want to impose a democratic model. But that's their democratic model. It's the false democracy of elites, and, I would say, a very original democracy that's imposed by weapons and bombs and firing weapons. What a strange democracy. Aristotle might not recognise it or others who are at the root of democracy. What type of democracy do you impose with marines and bombs?"

Without saying the word, he redefined 'insurgent', as currently tossed about:

"The imperialists see extremists everywhere. It's not that we are extremists. It's that the world is waking up. It's waking up all over. And people are standing up. I have the feeling, dear world dictator, that you are going to live the rest of your days as a nightmare because the rest of us are standing up, all those who are rising up against American imperialism, who are shouting for equality, for respect, for the sovereignty of nations. Yes, you can call us extremists, but we are rising up against the empire, against the model of domination."

And he called for the revamping of a, for all practical purposes, useless United Nations with:

"Let's accept - let's be honest. The U.N. system, born after the Second World War, collapsed. It's worthless ... We, the assembly, have been turned into a merely deliberative organ. We have no power, no power to make any impact on the terrible situation in the world. And that is why Venezuela once again proposes, here, today, 20 September, that we re-establish the United Nations".

Chavez said many things, serious things, but I suspect that the devil, in the White House or the hot house, is deaf.

Melville Cooke is a freelance writer.

More Commentary



Print this Page

Letters to the Editor

Most Popular Stories





© Copyright 1997-2006 Gleaner Company Ltd.
Contact Us | Privacy Policy | Disclaimer | Letters to the Editor | Suggestions | Add our RSS feed
Home - Jamaica Gleaner