Chavez the chopper

Last updated on August 9th, 2017 at 05:03 pm

William W. Lawrence wonders why leftists won’t condemn terrible environmental destruction:

You never raised your voices or even an eyebrow when our communist neighbors, under President Hugo Chávez, went drilling and tromping all over the Venezuelan Rain Forest.

Venezuela holds about 151,000 square miles, some 3 percent of the world’s total of frontier forest. The tropical rainforests found in this area are some of the richest on earth, containing an estimated 15,000 types of plant species.

Venezuela has, so far, lost 41 percent of its original rainforest, and 37 percent is now threatened.

Right, it’s Bush’s fault.

You are not whining or shrieking about Fidel Castro proclaiming that his communist polluters will soon be drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf within 35 miles of the Florida coast. Americans are not allowed to do that.

Three bucks a gallon! Oh yeah, it’s Bush’s fault.

No idea if those numbers are accurate. Not that accuracy is ever a concern to environmentalistas.

1. Also in Venezuela.

   Posted by 68W40 on 2006 05 01 at 12:21 PM • permalink

1. Anti-American socialist bluster covers a multitude of sins. Remember: you’re talking about a guy (Chavez) whose greatest goal in life is probably to surpass Che Guevara in the left-wing t-shirt hall of fame. Lefty diehards are perfectly willing to overlook the occasional peccadillo committed by radical caudillos – like wiping out the rainforest – in return for their unrestrained, highly vocal condemnations of the U.S.

   Posted by paco on 2006 05 01 at 12:56 PM • permalink

1. Excellent, I’ll tell John Gay to give Gunns a nice new Spanish name, call President Bush Mr Danger, complain about imperialistic who-nots, and talk about the ‘people’ and BAM, us Tas RWDB’s will have those lefties eating out of our arse cheeks. Bwha ha ha!

   Posted by anthony27 on 2006 05 01 at 01:34 PM • permalink

1. Please.  Short brown men like Chavez are not capable of sin.

   Some years ago, I got into trouble in a comparative religions class for pointing out that Indonesia’s rain forests were being wiped out by, of all nations, Japan.  You wouldn’t believe the arguments I heard, chief among them that Japan is a nation of Zen masters who would never, ever commit the sins of white, Eurocentric America.  This was before 9/11, of course.

   Posted by RebeccaH on 2006 05 01 at 06:06 PM • permalink

1. It is easy to overlook the long-term consequences of a particular government policy.  We have allowed Senor Castro to sit off our shores for low these many years, causing us no end of worry and treasure.  He has stirred up the rest of Central and South America (I won’t even mention the ties to world terrorism Castro has had from the beginning) and caused no end of trouble.  Everyone counted him out when the USSR fell.  HA! he says, and HA! again.  Now he has new friends to play with.

   Not only do we now have Mr. Chevaz in Venezuela to contend with, but other South American countries are stepping into the communist ring of fire.

   In a breaking story, the Huston Chronicle writes:

   LA PAZ, Bolivia;  President Evo Morales ordered soldiers to immediately steal occupy Bolivia’s natural gas fields Monday and threatened to evict foreign companies unless they give me all their money sign new contracts within six months giving Bolivia majority control over the entire chain of production.

   ….

   Bolivia has South America’s second largest natural gas reserves after Venezuela, and all foreign companies must turn over most production control to Bolivia’s cash-strapped state-owned oil company…, Morales said.

   ….

   Morales said the government would begin putting pressure negotiations immediately with the companies to make sure they are willing to knuckle under comply, but said they could be stripped of their right privilege to operate their own companies in Bolivia if they didn’t sign new contracts within six months.

   ….

   Last week, Morales told Bolivia’s Valor Economico newspaper that Bolivia would have to “set up a new battalion, a new army of hit men and enforcers oil and gas specialists to exert the property right” for a complete state takeover of petroleum production.

   [Emphasis mine] “Exert the property right?”  What property right would that be?  The Kelo right to property theft?

   Experts say that the state run oil company can’t take over production without a massive cash investment, nor does it have the ability to tap all its natural gas on its own.  This is why, of course, Morales will allow his victims the privilege of working for him.

   Posted by saltydog on 2006 05 01 at 06:37 PM • permalink

1. Wonder what they’d do if the foreign companies secretly set some explosives, gathered up all their foreign workers, got on a plane and set the explosives off remotely as they flew over?

   Of course, depending on how computer-dependent the production system is, they could just trash all the computer systems and code (after sending a copy out of the country, of course).  Again, set it to crap out just after their plane takes off.  Make sure it’s hard/impossible to fix (without the original code).

   Let el presidente fix it.  Let Chavez drop over and fix it.  Show them what a complete bitch payback is.  Especially for ungrateful thieves.

   The foreign companies are losing their investments anyway; might as well go for broke.  Just make sure they’re out of South American airspace first.

   Dunno if it could work, but it’s fun to dream….

   Posted by Barbara Skolaut on 2006 05 01 at 07:46 PM • permalink

1. Lets face it, he could eat baby harp seals live on national tv and there wouldnt be a murmer.
   The only people to blame are white, wealthy, and western. Any other reason is irrelivant

   Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2006 05 01 at 10:57 PM • permalink

1. Saltydog,
   That’s the one property right of socialism, a very fundamental one.  It states “I’ve got the guns, therefore I’ve got the property right.”

   Socialism is theft, even when it isn’t murder.

   Posted by Michael Lonie on 2006 05 01 at 11:02 PM • permalink

1. Other sources suggest the rate of deforestation in Venezuela mightn’t be as drastic as that.  But it could be 100%, and Western greens would still hush it up for the sake of solidarity with the companeros.

   Posted by cuckoo on 2006 05 02 at 01:44 AM • permalink

1. #6 Barbara Skolaut

   Wonder what they’d do if the foreign companies secretly set some explosives, gathered up all their foreign workers, got on a plane and set the explosives off remotely as they flew over?

   No need. I’m sure Evo’s “cash-strapped state-owned oil company” will do that for them. Not intentionally of course, but the result will be the same.

   Posted by Spiny Norman on 2006 05 02 at 01:59 AM • permalink

1. #8, Michael Lonie,

   “I’ve got the guns, therefore I have the property rights.”

   The Founding Fathers of the United States understood this fact.  That is why they wrote the Second Amendment.

   Posted by saltydog on 2006 05 02 at 02:51 AM • permalink

1. Everyone knows it’s perfectly fine to be a Gaia rapist in the third person (“THEIR jobs-producing refinery”); but in the first or especially second person it’s catastrophic (“OUR toxin-belching smelting plant,” “YOUR dark Satanic mills”). Kyoto was based on that assumption.

   Posted by SoberHT on 2006 05 02 at 10:31 AM • permalink

1. I suspect that these little che wannabe’s <spit> will end up memorialized on hippie t-shirts soon enough.

   Anyway thanks for the ammo for my ongoing pissfest with a local coven of organic farmers who simply (key word) adore Chavez. Their hippie mis-leader has even been to one of those socialist pep rallies in Caracas.

   Now I know a bit more about their communal affinity for the current crop of marxist caudillitas. They have so much in common with each other in feeling no guilt over essentially clear cutting rainforest…Por la causa socialismo…And a tidy profit of course.

   Posted by monkeyfan on 2006 05 02 at 06:29 PM • permalink

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