Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Caddies are people too.
One of the principle reasons that the rich hate Chavez is he has made all the people they are accustomed to waiting on them hand and foot, maids, butlers, gardeners, messengers and on and on, more expensive, harder to find, and, it has to be said, uppity. No longer can people be found to work 15 hours a day doing whatever some obnoxious rich jerk wants for starvation wages. Under Chavez so many new jobs and “missions” have been created that people now have other options.
Of course, while this makes life far better and more humane for working people one can imagine the frustration of those used to having slaves at their beck and call. And you can be sure they know who is at fault for this dire situation as this rich opposition whiner makes clear:
Of course, this contributes to the red hot political situation in Venezuela. As the pool of readily exploitable people grows smaller and smaller because Chavez keeps reducing poverty, creating jobs, and increasing people’s access to education, the opposition is likely to get more and more desperate.
Worse still, from the opposition’s point of view, with Chavez empowering working class and poor Venezuelans through community councils and telling them that they have equal rights they are getting more and more uppity.
Remember last year when the eastern Caracas elite practically had a nervous breakdown over their golf courses, which hog up prime Caracas real estate, when they were almost confiscated to build low cost housing? Well, they dodged that bullet when the government decided to leave the golf courses in place.
Yet thanks to Chavez and the ideas he has put in peoples heads they still can’t enjoy their country clubs in peace. The reason is that the 300 full time professional caddies in Venezuela have decided they need to form a union to fight for decent pay and working conditions. Some have worked for 30 years yet they get no social security benefits because the clubs deny that they are workers.
Just yesterday 100 of them marched on the Labor Ministry demanding that their labor rights be recognized. Apparently the country clubs have refused to even negotiate with the caddies and are playing hard ball, having fired the leader of the caddie union.
This is just one more example of how the earth has literally moved underneath the feet of Venezuela’s upper class. It rightly feels boxed in on all sides and its obvious paranoia is more than justified. As anyone who has watched “The Revolution will not be Televised” will remember rich Venezuelans had to form armed self defense groups to protect themselves against their own maids after they made the blood chilling discovery that many of them were closet Chavistas.
And now the caddies have been infected by Chavismo?!?!?! This has to be mortifying. Remember these people have the power to totally destroy a persons handicap by handing them a three iron when they should be giving them a six iron!
For god’s sake, if you can’t trust your own caddie who can you trust?
Look at what Chavez has wrought with the rich. On the home front they have Chavista maids. On the liesure front they have Chavista caddies. And on the work front there is barely any cheap and pliant labor to be found. Venezuela's rich are literally like a cornered animal. And as we all know, there is nothing more dangerous than a cornered animal.
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Of course, while this makes life far better and more humane for working people one can imagine the frustration of those used to having slaves at their beck and call. And you can be sure they know who is at fault for this dire situation as this rich opposition whiner makes clear:
Vuelvan Caras is a little dirty secret. In that mision people get paid, less than the minimum wage, but they do not have to work. It is enough for them to buy their cigarettes and beer. As a consequence Chavez has been increasing this group of jobless folks that do not need to look for a job and …, well, you can understand why service companies simply are understaffed….
Of course, this contributes to the red hot political situation in Venezuela. As the pool of readily exploitable people grows smaller and smaller because Chavez keeps reducing poverty, creating jobs, and increasing people’s access to education, the opposition is likely to get more and more desperate.
Worse still, from the opposition’s point of view, with Chavez empowering working class and poor Venezuelans through community councils and telling them that they have equal rights they are getting more and more uppity.
Remember last year when the eastern Caracas elite practically had a nervous breakdown over their golf courses, which hog up prime Caracas real estate, when they were almost confiscated to build low cost housing? Well, they dodged that bullet when the government decided to leave the golf courses in place.
Yet thanks to Chavez and the ideas he has put in peoples heads they still can’t enjoy their country clubs in peace. The reason is that the 300 full time professional caddies in Venezuela have decided they need to form a union to fight for decent pay and working conditions. Some have worked for 30 years yet they get no social security benefits because the clubs deny that they are workers.
Just yesterday 100 of them marched on the Labor Ministry demanding that their labor rights be recognized. Apparently the country clubs have refused to even negotiate with the caddies and are playing hard ball, having fired the leader of the caddie union.
This is just one more example of how the earth has literally moved underneath the feet of Venezuela’s upper class. It rightly feels boxed in on all sides and its obvious paranoia is more than justified. As anyone who has watched “The Revolution will not be Televised” will remember rich Venezuelans had to form armed self defense groups to protect themselves against their own maids after they made the blood chilling discovery that many of them were closet Chavistas.
And now the caddies have been infected by Chavismo?!?!?! This has to be mortifying. Remember these people have the power to totally destroy a persons handicap by handing them a three iron when they should be giving them a six iron!
For god’s sake, if you can’t trust your own caddie who can you trust?
Look at what Chavez has wrought with the rich. On the home front they have Chavista maids. On the liesure front they have Chavista caddies. And on the work front there is barely any cheap and pliant labor to be found. Venezuela's rich are literally like a cornered animal. And as we all know, there is nothing more dangerous than a cornered animal.
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