President Chavez's Speech to the United Nations
Representatives of the governments of the world, good morning to all of you. First of all, I would like to invite you, very respectfully, to those who have not read this book, to read it.
Noam Chomsky, one of the most prestigious American and world intellectuals, Noam Chomsky, and this is one of his most recent books, 'Hegemony or Survival: The Imperialist Strategy of the United States.'" [Holds up book, waves it in front of General Assembly.] "It's an excellent book to help us understand what has been happening in the world throughout the 20th century, and what's happening now, and the greatest threat looming over our planet.
Go to full speech.
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Caracas Connect wants to share this excerpt from last night's "Larry King Live" regarding President Chavez's speech:
KING: We are at the second annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative here in New York, and the president -- the former president -- is our special guest.
Before we move into any of this, do you have a comment on what President Chavez said today at the U.N., calling President Bush or likening him to the devil?
BILL CLINTON, FMR. PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think, you know, obviously, I think he made a mistake to do it. I wish he hadn't done it. You know, he's not hurting us, he's just hurting himself and his country.
It's okay with me if he wants to disagree with the Bush administration's policies. I disagree with a lot of the Bush administration policies. But this kind of personal demonization is the very thing I'm trying to stop. I'm trying to squeeze out of politics in the world today; that's why former President Bush and I, in part, did what we did with Katrina and with the tsunami relief and why I do this climate change.
I think that a lot of people are dying in the world today because of the careless words of people who think they help themselves by debasing other people. And I don't think this is good for the people of Venezuela. I mean, President Bush can handle it. I can handle it. People do that stuff to me. But it's not good for America or the world.
KING: Why -- you've studied people for a long time, and that's part of this initiative here that you're looking into. We want to discuss various facets of it. Why do we have so much of that? It seems more -- maybe I'm wrong -- more of that in the world today. CLINTON: Well, I think that it is the inevitable consequence of a divided world where people are demonized. And, you know, you dish it out and take it, and dish it out and take it, but the point is, it's a spiral. It goes on and it gets worse and worse and worse.
I think Chavez would be much more effective if he would say something that's true, like, whether you believe in trade or not, it doesn't solve all the problems and a lot of people in Latin America are still living below the poverty line, who bought into our democracy agenda and our trade agenda, and therefore I'm going to try to find a better answer that's more equitable for all these hard-working people.
You know, to me, that would be a much cleverer thing for him to do, where he'd really be doing something good, and he could say I disagree with President Bush, instead of calling him the devil. If you call him the devil, it might make you -- the problem with all this sort of divisive politics, wherever it's practiced, is, first, you can never tell where it ends, you know, or what you might be dealing with unstable people.
But secondly, it builds you, because of its emotional content, more support in the short run, you know. You might win a few close elections or, in Chavez' case, just build yourself up among anti- Americans throughout the world.
But in the end, it leads -- it leaves people hungry, because it doesn't do anything to change people's lives for the better. That's what I don't like, and that's why I think he doesn't serve his own people well by doing that.
Please see the following link for a full transcript: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0609/20/lkl.01.html
September 21, 2006 10:09 AM
This morning on the Long Island Expressway I saw a bedsheet unfurled on an overpass with this message in black paint:
Wake up and smell the sulphur
Wow! Is Hugo breaking thru?
October 03, 2006 11:22 AM
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