Saturday, August 20, 2011

Opinion opposing odium...


I guess we all should have such an opinion but it was interesting to read Herman Petzold Rodriguez's opinion in El Universal (Spanish) today, directed at the 'two tribes' that have made up the whole of Venezuela for the last decade or more: pro Chavez or Anti Chavez: 'Para ti que eres chavista', 'For you, the chavista.' loosely translated by Ows. "We live in a polarised country; a growing rift between us caused by physical and verbal violence." Too true, and later "You know very well that political differences cannot be so strong that we can't be friends and work for the common good." On the whole a good opinion piece: something really does need to change - I have predicted the possibility of things getting so bad as to reach civil war; at the very least blood on the streets - but with Chavez's poor health (combined with him winding his neck in a bit) things seem to be calming down. One paragraph caught my eye:
"It's about what each one of us does. Unsupervised. The decision we make individually...//...What act of humility and respect I can do to strengthen ties with others? How I can help others? How to stop judging someone for their political tendency?...//...When will we understand that a problem of our family, friends, companion or neighbours is also our problem."
Of course you should feel that is slightly familiar and you'd be right: there is no such thing as society...

P.S. Off topic but I was amazed at the numbers and percents of migration in South America; it's overall figures (2010), no information of how many were actual nationals returning home/leaving.

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