Tuesday, January 10, 2006
What do monkeys have to do with it?
I know there are some readers who don't care for this type of post but there is recurring issue that needs to be brought up. Although the Venezuelan opposition repeatedly denies that it is at all racist, or that there is even any racism in Venezuela at all, some of their propoganda belies that.
Take for example this rather funny parody of what Caracas is going through now that the highway to the coast is out of commission:
This cartoon shows donkeys or mules being used to transport goods over the mountains to Caracas (that picture is definitely not from Venezuela but it conveys the idea). It reads on top "Taking merchandise from La Guaira to Caracas" and on the bottom it says "Venezuela advances on route to Socialism" next to the initials of Minfra which is the Venezuelan infrastructure ministry. Clearly they are poking fun at the government and pointing out that in some cases the country seems to be going backwards instead of fowards. I personally think it is quite clever and funny and I got a laugh out of it.
Then I noticed that there was a monkey stuck on the bottom right corner. How did that get there and what does that have to do with the joke? To put what it probably means in context please look at this prior post which also has some disturbing monkey references. When looked at in this context it seems to be yet another racist allusion to this government not being run by white European descendents but by the inferior "monkees" that the opposition takes Chavez and his supporters to be.
Of course, the opposition will very strongly deny this. But their denials would be a lot more believable if monkees weren't popping up in their cartoons all the time.
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Take for example this rather funny parody of what Caracas is going through now that the highway to the coast is out of commission:
This cartoon shows donkeys or mules being used to transport goods over the mountains to Caracas (that picture is definitely not from Venezuela but it conveys the idea). It reads on top "Taking merchandise from La Guaira to Caracas" and on the bottom it says "Venezuela advances on route to Socialism" next to the initials of Minfra which is the Venezuelan infrastructure ministry. Clearly they are poking fun at the government and pointing out that in some cases the country seems to be going backwards instead of fowards. I personally think it is quite clever and funny and I got a laugh out of it.
Then I noticed that there was a monkey stuck on the bottom right corner. How did that get there and what does that have to do with the joke? To put what it probably means in context please look at this prior post which also has some disturbing monkey references. When looked at in this context it seems to be yet another racist allusion to this government not being run by white European descendents but by the inferior "monkees" that the opposition takes Chavez and his supporters to be.
Of course, the opposition will very strongly deny this. But their denials would be a lot more believable if monkees weren't popping up in their cartoons all the time.
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