Monday, September 26, 2005
Sorry, gone shopping
It has been pointed out before on this blog that the opposition has had great difficulty organizing demonstrations recently. Is this really unexpected? No, for a couple of reasons.
First all the demonstrations they had a couple of years ago led to nothing as they could never pressure Chavez into resigning and then elections came along which proved that the opposition was clearly a minority anyways. Secondly, how much is there to really protest when most everywhere you look things are improving? When an opposition artificially tanked the economy through their strike maybe people believed the country was really collapsing and they had to do something. But with the economy booming that is clearly no longer the case. Hence, people have better things to do than attend meaningless protests to protest… what? That they are a minority and can’t win elections?
Nevertheless, there are always some who are not deterred and they were determined to carry out an anti-Chavez protest yesterday by Plaza Francia in the very wealthy section of Caracas called Altimira. Here are a few pictures gleaned from the Noticiero Digital website:
As can be clearly seen very few people showed up. In fact, quite a few opposition types were complaining that this “demonstration” wasn’t televised. Does every gathering of a couple dozen people have to get televised? Anyways, its hard to see what they accomplished except pissing of some motorists by blocking traffic. And of course leaving the obligatory piles of trash burning in the street for someone else to pick up.
However, the excellent blogger Luigino Bracci Roa managed to figure out where all the opposition types went – shopping in the upscale Sambil Mall.
Then again, given how Chavez has the economy booming again who can blame them? So here is some advice for my opposition friends. Next time you want to hold a rally instead of doing it in the streets, pissing people off, and making a mess try holding it in the 5th floor food court at the Sambil. I bet you’ll be a lot more successful. And even if you don’t have many participants you’ll have a good sized captive audience of people munching on their Wendy’s burgers and fries.
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First all the demonstrations they had a couple of years ago led to nothing as they could never pressure Chavez into resigning and then elections came along which proved that the opposition was clearly a minority anyways. Secondly, how much is there to really protest when most everywhere you look things are improving? When an opposition artificially tanked the economy through their strike maybe people believed the country was really collapsing and they had to do something. But with the economy booming that is clearly no longer the case. Hence, people have better things to do than attend meaningless protests to protest… what? That they are a minority and can’t win elections?
Nevertheless, there are always some who are not deterred and they were determined to carry out an anti-Chavez protest yesterday by Plaza Francia in the very wealthy section of Caracas called Altimira. Here are a few pictures gleaned from the Noticiero Digital website:
As can be clearly seen very few people showed up. In fact, quite a few opposition types were complaining that this “demonstration” wasn’t televised. Does every gathering of a couple dozen people have to get televised? Anyways, its hard to see what they accomplished except pissing of some motorists by blocking traffic. And of course leaving the obligatory piles of trash burning in the street for someone else to pick up.
However, the excellent blogger Luigino Bracci Roa managed to figure out where all the opposition types went – shopping in the upscale Sambil Mall.
Then again, given how Chavez has the economy booming again who can blame them? So here is some advice for my opposition friends. Next time you want to hold a rally instead of doing it in the streets, pissing people off, and making a mess try holding it in the 5th floor food court at the Sambil. I bet you’ll be a lot more successful. And even if you don’t have many participants you’ll have a good sized captive audience of people munching on their Wendy’s burgers and fries.
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