Hurricane Hugo at the UN
by Mike Whitney
www.dissidentvoice.org
September 18, 2005



 

“Practically no one in the United States knows that we've donated millions of dollars to the governorship of Louisiana, to the New Orleans Red Cross. We're now giving care to more than 5,000 victims, and now we're going to supply gasoline, freely in some cases, and with discounts in other cases, to the poorest of communities, starting with New Orleans and its surroundings…. We've been helping. And we've been even rescuing people.”  

-- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Nightline with Ted Koppel, September 16, 2005

Hugo Chavez’s performance at the UN was greeted with the bucket loads of bile that one expects from America’s rightward-titling media. Washington Post hatchet man Colum Lynch provided a typical summary of the speech by dismissing it as “a rant” from the Venezuelan “bad-boy”. But, Lynch isn’t alone in his hostility. The outpouring of venom came from all corners, appearing in many newspapers across the nation, invoking the hackneyed expressions of contempt for any foreign leader who rebuffs Washington or who follows redistributive economic policies.

In fact, the speech was a brilliant and impassioned analysis of the current state of the world and of the United Nations. Chavez noted that the original intention of the gathering had been “completely distorted” by the so-called reform process introduced by John Bolton. The reforms are entirely designed to transform the UN into a cats paw for American power creating greater flexibility for Washington’s preemptive wars and for dismantling the foundations of international law. They signal the demise of the UN as a legitimate forum for world development and an invitation for Bush and Co. to act with even greater impunity.

The Bush administration’s maneuvering has successfully sabotaged the efforts made by the international community for real improvement. The goals of the Millennium Summit, to reduce hunger, poverty and ignorance, will not be achieved and the mission of the UN has been effectively torpedoed by Bolton’s machinations. Chavez’s speech draws this same obvious conclusion:

Friends of the world, The United Nations has exhausted its model, and it is not all about reform. The XXI century claims deep changes that will only be possible if a new organization is founded. This UN does not work. We have to say it. It is the truth.

Chavez’s remarks are not intended to disgrace the UN, but to offer a different vision for the future. He recognizes the pressing requirements of the new century and realizes that many of these problems “do not have a national solution: radioactive clouds, world oil prices, diseases, warming of the planet or the hole in the ozone layer. These are not domestic problems.”

Chavez proposes his own set of reforms for the UN, including expansion of the Security Council, greater transparency, increasing the powers of the Secretary General, and “suppressing” the power of one nation to veto resolutions made by the Council. But, he does not believe that reforms are enough by themselves and insists that the UN be transformed completely, beginning with a change of venue from New York to an “international city with its own sovereignty.” Chavez’s logic is inescapable: if the United States continues to flaunt UN resolutions and violate international law, as it has with the Iraq war, it should not be host to the world body. Chavez’s suggestion was not made to humiliate the United States, but to demonstrate the urgency of the calamity the world faces if action is not taken swiftly on matters of mutual concern. Chavez takes a keen interest in these issues even though Washington chooses to ignore them.

Ladies and gentlemen, we are facing an unprecedented energy crisis in which an unstoppable increase of energy is perilously reaching record highs, as well as the incapacity of increased oil supply and the perspective of a decline in the proven reserves of fuel worldwide. Oil is starting to become exhausted.

For the year 2020 the daily demand for oil will be 120 million barrels. Such demand, even without counting future increments, would consume in 20 years what humanity has used up to now. This means that more carbon dioxide will inevitably be increased, thus warming our planet even more.

Chavez cogently draws a straight line between global warming to the devastation of Hurricane Katrina: the first major city lost because of rising ocean temperatures. He deftly connects the tragedy to the neoliberal economic model that continues to thrust the world in a catastrophic direction.

It is unpractical and unethical to sacrifice the human race by appealing in an insane manner the validity of a socioeconomic model that has a galloping destructive capacity. It would be suicidal to spread it and impose it as an infallible remedy for the evils which are caused precisely by them.

Chavez also defended his record as a reformer and a man willing to take risks for the sake of his own people. In one particularly stinging remark, he noted the progress that had been made in Venezuela since 9-11, while the Bush administration was busy using the pretext of terrorism to violate international law and initiate hostilities against Iraq.

1,460,000 Venezuelans learned to read and write. We are 25 million total. And the country will, in a few days, be declared an illiteracy-free territory. And three million Venezuelans, who had always been excluded because of poverty, are now part of primary, secondary and higher studies.

17 million Venezuelans, almost 70% of the population, are receiving, and for the first time, universal healthcare, including the medicine, and in a few years, all Venezuelans will have free access to an excellent healthcare service. More than a 1,700,000 tons of food are channeled to over 12 million people at subsidized prices, almost half the population. One million gets them completely free, as they are in a transition period. More than 700,000 new jobs have been created, thus reducing unemployment by 9 points. All of this amid internal and external aggressions, including a coup d’etat and an oil industry shutdown organized by Washington.

Unlike Bush, Chavez’s record is backed up by a solid performance in nearly every area of social development. It’s no wonder the elitist American media, driven by their class-based ideology, has tried so desperately to discredit him.

Chavez’s oratory to the General Assembly will undoubtedly elevate him in the eyes of many as a serious futurist who offers genuine solutions for a war-ravaged planet. His personal fortitude and optimism are matched by his selfless conduct as President, working persistently on behalf of his people and strengthening global relations. His iconic image around the world is well deserved.

“We will fight for Venezuela, for Latin American integration and the world. We reaffirm our infinite faith in humankind. We are thirsty for peace and justice in order to survive as species…. Now is the time to not allow our hands to be idle or our souls to rest until we save humanity.”

His speech was received with thunderous applause.

(Note on “Operation Balboa”, the plan to invade Venezuela: President Chavez announced on Nightline (9-16-05) that, “I have evidence that there are plans to invade Venezuela. Furthermore, we have documentation: how many bombers will over-fly Venezuela on the day of the invasion, how many trans-Atlantic carriers, how many aircraft carriers need to be sent to (inaudible) even during (inaudible).” The US is carrying out maneuvers at Curacao Island, and Chavez claims to have documentation to back up his allegations. “The plan is called Balboa and Venezuela is indicated as its objective.”)

Mike Whitney lives in Washington state, and can be reached at: fergiewhitney@msn.com.

Other Articles by Mike Whitney

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* John Roberts’ Role in the Guantanamo Hunger Strike
* Jose Padilla and the Death of Personal Liberty
* Rodney King in New Orleans
* Rehnquist Paved the Way for the Imperial Presidency
* The New Orleans Looters Are the Bush Progeny
* The Devastating Impact of Hurricane George
* “Transformation”: How Rumsfeld Smashed the National Guard
* The Lords of War
* Robertson’s Fatwah: “A Whole Lotta Smitin’ Goin’ On”
* Turning Cindy Sheehan’s Victory Into Defeat 
* “My Son Died for Nothing”
* "Shoot to Kill": Tony Blair’s First Trophy
* Greenspan’s Role in the Housing Bubble
* Failing in Iraq
* Revving Up World War III
* Pretty Hot in Crawford, Pretty Hot in Hell
* Straight-Shootin’ George Galloway
* “Operation Community Shield”: Comrade Chertoff’s Preemptive Crackdown
* Kristallnacht: What Happens When the Public Says Nothing? 
* Burying Blair: Post-Mortem for the British PM
* “Withdrawal” from Iraq?: Forget About It
* The Globalization of State Terror
* Tom Friedman: Fabricating the Roots of Terror
* Doomsday: The Final Months of the “Housing Bubble”
* John Roberts and the National Security State
* Guantanamo: the Calculus of Human Misery
* Did Greenspan Know About the London Bombings Two Days Before?
* Another Casualty in Rumsfeld’s Information War
* Genesis of an American Gestapo
* Bush's Orgy of Carnage
* Goodbye to Sandra Day O’ Connor . . . and Good Riddance
* The Rumsfeld Solution: “Liberating Iraq, One Journalist at a Time”
* Show Your Independence on the 4th -- Burn a Flag
* "Up in Smoke": Bush Flops in Prime Time
* More Rumsfeld Lies About Insurgent Meetings
* Incinerating Iraqis: The Napalm Cover-Up
* Guantanamo: The New-World Icon
* The Bush Radio Address: More Delusional Blather While Iraq Bleeds
* The Friedman Solution: Reinstate the Draft
* Body Slamming the 4th Amendment
* Operation Desperation: Rumsfeld’s Baghdad Fiasco
* The EU Constitution: Don’t Believe the BS
* Protecting the Plutocrats
* What Was Laura Bush Doing at the Al Aqsa Mosque?
* Free Jose Padilla!
* Alberto Gonzales’ Kristallnacht: Purges for a Safer America
* Tom Friedman: The Imperial Chronicler
* Gods, Gays, and George Bernard Shaw
* A Tentative Strategy for Ending the War
* The Specter of Violence in America
* Free Speech in the Crosshairs
* Why America Needs to be Defeated in Iraq
* More Madness at the Bush News Conference
* Ratzinger’s Plan to Hide the Pedophiles
* Let’s Let Atheists Back into Politics
* Pope Ratzinger: More “Pie-in-the-Sky” for the Struggling Masses
* The Purveyors of Violence: The NY Times in Falluja
* Screw You, Paul Volker!
* Pope TV and the New World Media
* The Economic Tsunami: Sooner Than You Think
* Destroy Abu Ghraib!
* Terri Schiavo and the Battered Judiciary
* Railroading Moussaoui
* The Wolfowitz Appointment: A Red Flag for the Coming Wars
* “Economic Meltdown” -- Sorry, but We’re Toast
* John Bolton and the Road to Tehran
* Clearing the Way for the American Police State
* Challenging the Language of Violence
* Jose Padilla and the 10 Commandments
* Crushing the UN for a Stronger America
* Europe to Bush: “Hands Off Iran”?
* The Incredible Shrinking Dollar
* Assassinating Al-Hariri Fits Washington’s Plan
* Washington’s Plan to Foment Civil War in Iraq
* Condi’s Euro-Tour
* Folksy Tom Friedman and New Age Imperialism
* Government Without Consent
* The Desperate State of the Union
* Iraq’s Election Fiasco
* Boarding Up the “Window of Opportunity”
* KGB Chieftain Finds Home at Homeland Security
* Bush’s Grand Plan: Incite Civil War
* Pink Slips at CBS

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