Opinion
- Editorial
Clyde
Griffith:
Lessons from Chavez
Hugo Chavez, who once served as the 61st president
of Venezuela and now serves as that country's 64th,
has taught the Caribbean Basin countries a number
of things.
The 52-year-old former career military
officer who rules this South American country of
about 27.2 million people has now launched what
is called the Bolivarian Revolution and is basing
his new approach on the principles of Democratic
Socialism, the "third path" espoused by
the late Michael Manley about 30 years ago.
Domestically, he is making a determined
effort to combat ills which ought to have been stamped
out long ago in a country which is the fifth-largest
oil producer in OPEC. His predecessors in office
have done a poor job of ensuring that Venezuela's
petro-wealth is spread across its population.
Problems like disease, illiteracy
and poverty are his targets. President Chavez must
be given great credit for going where the oligarchs
in the oil industry, because of their greed, have
hitherto refused to tread.
One is often left to wonder how
it is that some oil-producing democracies awash
in petrodollars still find themselves having large
segments of their population living in abject poverty.
Both Nigeria and Venezuela are classic examples.
Coupled with his domestic policy,
Chavez has staked out a foreign policy position
designed to give the United States administration
a herniated disc!
As a relentless critic of Washington,
he has shown his determination to support left-of-centre
causes, and to get in bed with those governments
whose policies put them on a collision course with
a conservative Bush administration.
This emboldened approach seems to
be paying dividends.
In both his domestic and foreign
policy activism, he has taught us lessons we can
ignore at our collective peril.
At the domestic level, in attempting to solve the
plight of the poor, Chavez has imposed controls
as a way of combating inflation and helping those
caught in the poverty trap. The end result? A shortage
of basics like meat and sugar.
Media reports out of Venezuela are
replete with stories on shortages of the staples
that poor people rely on to satisfy one of their
pressing physiological needs.
In response to his decision to impose
those price controls, the private sector has refused
to provide goods which sell at prices below the
cost of procurement.
This explosion of shortages resulting
from market manipulation is a lesson that all ought
to learn, since price controls have been one of
the remedies advanced to deal with inflation here
in Barbados. Our country's economic management is
sound, so we can live without price controls in
the face of constant criticism.
Even the cess, imposed by the government
as a short-term measure, was under attack by those
who refused to see it for what it was worth: an
attempt to dampen consumer demand for extra-regional
goods and protect our balance-of-payments position.
The Chavez experiment has taught
us this: price controls don't work!
In his foreign policy considerations,
in an attempt to wean the English-speaking Caribbean
away from Washington - a noble effort - Chavez has
introduced PetroCaribe.
PetroCaribe is known to the Caribbean.
Its acceptance by many Caricom states has demonstrated
clearly that despite the efforts at ensuring the
success of CSME, those participating countries are
determined to take decisions based on individual
national interests.
The decision by Dominica to have
a refinery installed is a case in point. With one
mothballed in Antigua, why do we need another albatross?
Our approach to PetroCaribe follows the same path
as Shiprider. The Bahamas has said a resounding
no to the Caribbean Court of Justice. Trinidad and
Tobago is dragging its feet on an arbitration-mandated
fishing agreement with Barbados!
The second Chavez lesson: a common
denominator is missing!
That denominator - a regional foreign
policy - is not easily attainable! Far from it!
The success of the recently-concluded
Caricom Heads meeting in St Vincent demonstrates
that the ingredients are there for us to have common
approach.
Must we wait for another Chavez
lesson?
Clyde
Griffith
is a former diplomat and Cabinet minister in the
government of Barbados. Petroleumworld not necessarily
share these views.
Editor's
Note: This article was first publish in Barbados
Nation, February 20th 2007. Petroleumworld reprint
this article in the interest of our readers.
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Petroleumworld
02/25/07
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