A different perspective

  I haven't been to Mérida, Venezuela, in decades.  (I haven't been to the one in Yucatán for about as long, either.)  I used to have an aunt who lived nearby.  She's long gone, and last I heard both her grown children (and their families) lived in Houston and Miami.  

Anyway, Gringa Diary is by an Australian socialist fervently working to further the triumph of the Bolivarian Revolution and turn back to the forces of imperialism.  I believe her name is Tamara Pearson.  It's a fascinating look into the Revolution, up-close-and-personal. 

Of course, her perspectives on the value of Mr. Chávez or the long-term impact of his policies on the poor of Venezuela are quite different from my own.  But she's so earnest about it.  Which is sort of touching, in a way.  More importantly, the true-believer tone infuses the blog with this sense of reading something for a parallel universe.  You read her stories, and more often than not find yourself scratching your head at her emotional reaction or logical analysis, so different from your own. 

But you can't get angry; she's so enthusiastic about it all.  Recommended. 

Comments

[Jussi Jalonen]

Ah. Another feminist who manifests her hatred towards the supposed patriarchy by worshipping her very own chosen strongman; namely, Hugo.

And judging by her presentation, her so-called socialist convictions seem to stem mainly from White Australian guilt.

Yeah, I'm familiar with these people. Move on, nothing to see here.

Cheers,

J. J.

[Bernard Guerrero]

I'll take a look, but, to be honest, I can't stand "enthusiasm". Earnestness makes me want to gag because my automatic assumption is that it is married up with a complete lack of critical thought. Very, very few things seem worth unreserved buy-in from my POV, and I'm related to most of them.

[Bernard Guerrero]

Love the juxtaposition of Spock, BTW. :^)

[Noel Maurer]

I was thinking of you and Carlos when I put it up.

I agree with you about earnestness, Bernard, and I agree with Jussi about the probable origin's of Ms. Pearson's enthusiasm.

That said, what I enjoy about her blog is a combination of two things: a ground-level view of the construction of the PSUV political machine, and her inability to recognize the machine for what it is.

So you get to learn a lot about both Hugo's political strategy and how he handles public relations, much more than you would if it was written by, say, P.J. O'Rourke in his younger days. Or me.

[Noel Maurer]

I should add her that if I took Chávez seriously as a threat, I'd get angry at her earnestness. I don't, though --- he looks increasingly likely to do serious economic damage to his country, but plenty of less theatrical leaders in that unfortunate land have pulled off the same hat trick.