2008 Woodie Awards
Chavez speech gives no useful insight
Christopher Skeet
Issue date: 10/2/06 Section: Opinions
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They say hindsight is always 20/20, and had I known that paying Comcast for "premium channels" would mean I'd spend my nights deciding whether "Lone Wolf McQuade" or "Starship Troopers 2" were the lesser of two evils, I'd have spent my money on a more entertaining medium. Like a weather rock. But flipping impatiently through channels last week, I happened across coverage on the freakiest sideshow attraction since the Jim Rose Circus. I refer, of course, of the recent U.N. meeting in New York.
When I heard that a world leader had called President Bush "the devil," I assumed it was Iranian President Ahmadinejad. Since he denounces all the land between Maine and California as the Great Satan, it would only make sense he'd accuse our leader of being Beezlebub himself. But the accuser was none other than Hugo Chavez.
In a speech funded by you and me, Chavez began with a personal endorsement of Noam Chomsky's newest title to his oldest book (Chomsky hasn't had a new book, or idea, since the '70s). Chavez then used the word "devil" five times in four sentences to describe Bush, and ended his apocalyptic foresight with a complaint that the podium still "smells of sulfur".
But Chavez was just warming up. He laid out his U.N. reform package, which consisted of greatly strengthening the role of the secretary-general and abolishing the permanent veto. Hmm...give the executive vast powers while eliminating any system of checks and balances? This system of governance is commonly known as-what's the word?-a dictatorship.
It's no surprise Chavez prescribes the same "reforms" for the U.N. that he's implementing in his own country. But he did have one useful insight. He claimed the U.N. system is "worthless," and he's right. Any institution that puts tin-pot dictatorships on the same level with liberal democracies is worthless. U.N. summits have evolved into little more than opportunities for the rulers of countries like Venezuela, North Korea, Belarus, Zimbabwe, and Iran to rant about America and Great Britain.
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When I heard that a world leader had called President Bush "the devil," I assumed it was Iranian President Ahmadinejad. Since he denounces all the land between Maine and California as the Great Satan, it would only make sense he'd accuse our leader of being Beezlebub himself. But the accuser was none other than Hugo Chavez.
In a speech funded by you and me, Chavez began with a personal endorsement of Noam Chomsky's newest title to his oldest book (Chomsky hasn't had a new book, or idea, since the '70s). Chavez then used the word "devil" five times in four sentences to describe Bush, and ended his apocalyptic foresight with a complaint that the podium still "smells of sulfur".
But Chavez was just warming up. He laid out his U.N. reform package, which consisted of greatly strengthening the role of the secretary-general and abolishing the permanent veto. Hmm...give the executive vast powers while eliminating any system of checks and balances? This system of governance is commonly known as-what's the word?-a dictatorship.
It's no surprise Chavez prescribes the same "reforms" for the U.N. that he's implementing in his own country. But he did have one useful insight. He claimed the U.N. system is "worthless," and he's right. Any institution that puts tin-pot dictatorships on the same level with liberal democracies is worthless. U.N. summits have evolved into little more than opportunities for the rulers of countries like Venezuela, North Korea, Belarus, Zimbabwe, and Iran to rant about America and Great Britain.
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