@leftedit both complex questions, I'm not going to give a solution because who am I to do that. But when you see that only 4 percent of the homicide that occurred ended in jail, then it seems that everybody can do what thy want. Then there is El Rodeo. When the Jail is owned by interns then there must be a problem somewhere. Its is complex to many factors. Now to the origins, in short with out writing a paper is the inequality of a social structure with 50 years of bipartidism and negligence of the poorest classes by the "puntofijismo". To bad Chavez didn't show up 50 years ago. Look what happened to Allende. Know social division is present all over America (the continent), so that alone must not be it. Personally I believe that in the streets there is a desire of becoming ritch from one day to another with the less possible effort. It is a metaphore to the oil scene in Venezuela. It was always o poor country and suddenly boom, oil. wuhu. well we can stop cultivating sugar and coffee and sell some oil. Lets buy a modernist city boom Caracas, Lets buy a right wing president boom, populism. Its all like that but now every year 1000 more death than the year before and its all boom boom boom. Sad really. Nobody knows how to deal with this. Chavez tried with more education and all kinds of "misiones" but the figures only go up. Medellin and Bogota seem to have turned up side down the figures from the 90's to now but I hear that there are a lot of people going missing over there, but I don't know much about those cities.

btw I also have the gh1 and think its great for documentary, I already had a camera stolen in Venezuela. With the gh1 If someone would rob me I would kindly ask for the memory card with the images and tell them where they can find the correct charger. That is why it is not a good idea to have one big memory card.

cheers

"Patria, socialismo o muerte, venceremos"

Hola! Sadly I wasn't able to watch the whole thing because of the slow Internet speed here in Damascus, Syria. But I fully share the idea of the story as someone who visited both Venezuela and Cuba more than once. Latin America is fed up with being American filthy backyard and it is now rising against the US colonialism. I've been to barrios and talked to people there. They love and support Chavez wholeheartedly. They, who could've lost their teeth by age 16 (malnutrition) before he brought in state financed health care, would literally kill for Chavez. You have no idea what it feels when people who were treated like animals for so long are getting their human dignity back. They will fight for it. Like Argentinians will fight if the global oligarchy instigates a default in December.

Capitalism means war. This is a hard law. We are nearing a point of no return. I've started a documentary project about the global crisis with the help of p-v.com some time ago, and I'm going to finish editing soon. Hopefully before the End of the World:) Hopefully I'll be able to share what comes out of it here too.

No pasaran.

@rikyxxx cool no biggie

@Tron you are taking the 'libertarian' ideology. As I said, im a socialist thinker. We agree on somethings, and I understand your position but I dont agree that this accurately describes the role of the state or class.

None the less good to discuss openly

@Vitaliy_Kiselev & @leftedit

I respectfully disagree on some idealogical points but I understand we all arrive at our own conclusions based on different life experiences and perspectives on the issues.

My point is simply that the US is living far outside its means, borrowing against future generations to subsist only for today, at the behest of corrupt politicians who pay out favors in reward for votes from their constituents. These politicians play a class warfare card that teaches their followers that they can not achieve so long as "the rich" remain unpunished. "The man" is holding them down as it were. This is an enticing message because it absolves the struggling person from any responsibility for their own position in life. The "Victims" can always point a finger at the rich man and say "you stole from me to get what you have."

This could be true if economics were a zero-sum game, but that is NOT the truth - wealth is created through productivity and investment. There is simply nothing productive about making accusations against those who are looked upon with envy due to an achievement of personal success. This is a misdirection designed to get voters off politicians backs while they fleece the country for their own personal gain by continuing practices like corporate welfare and campaign supporter kick backs. Being generous with other people's money is not virtuous, it is theft. I say teach a man to fish [again] rather than covet his neighbor's belongings, and you will inherit a tide of economic prosperity that raises all boats. Play the envy card and you will see the manifestation of a slow cancerous death where people lose themselves to the worst vestiges of the human spirit.

I fully agree that military imperialism should be reigned in. There was a time when foreign tyranny threatened our existence, but today we are more threatened by our own foolhardy economic policies. We would gain a lot more respect in this world if we lead by example with responsible free-market economic policies that help to stabilize, rather than threaten the entire global economy.

Here is an interesting thought on US stability - if a single [large] state like Texas were to simply say, "your reckless spending and taxation policies will no longer be tolerated, we hereby absolve any requirements that income tax be withheld from our citizens and sent to DC in support of these policies" - the house of cards falls overnight. US bonds become junk, and game over for the Federal govt. Economics trump all other cards, and when we get close to the tipping point many states will run for the exit. Never happen you say? Even if a federal move were made militarily, our bonds go to junk. No country in a civil war can remain AA credit worthy. The US constitution was actually designed to preserve liberty in this way because the founders knew the hearts of men were easily corrupted. At the time it was believed that federal cohesion would help ensure the survival of the great experiment by resisting dissolution from within or pressure from external threats. Unfortunately, big government inevitably reaches a tipping point where it becomes the same tyranny that it was design to protect against, hence the exit strategy to individual state level governance.

@rikyxxx Greetings my friend. ive wrote a mini essay... whoops! for those too lazy to read... sorry.

BIGGER REALITY

You didn't really address many of the real explanations I gave you in my last post - but you admit they are part of a 'bigger reality'.

Of course, I am a marxist, a socialist, an anti-imperialist, so my descriptions of society will always analyse the 'bigger reality'. I am a historical materialist and a scientific socialist. I don't claim to be anything other.

I did not say 'all Cubans are doctors'. You distort my position to fulfil your argument. My point is that the more privileged individuals are likely to want to leave, 20 miles to the USA, to personally benefit, and this will cost the Cuban society as a whole greatly and destroy its socialist model at this particular stage in development when capitalism and imperialism (an inferior model) are on its shores.

Freedom of movement of people, is a right. However if those rights need to be restricted in moments of crisis (i.e. collapse of USSR) in order to defend the societal model as a whole, it will be done. You might not like this but I can assure you this is whats happened in Cuba. However as I have said, its being adjusted.

Remember - in rich imperialist countries many people travel the world and enjoy the fruits of the imperialist pillaging of the world - Cubans can not enjoy this, but they are a victim of it.

INTERNET

You said 'Pretending Cubans with a FB account' - Im not pretending, sorry for the confusion.

To address the issue of government control of internet- I would like you to know that here in Britain (and the US )- the governments control the internet. At the moment it might seem 'free' but that is because the actual real threat of dissent in society is relatively low. When dissent is high (see: London riots/uprisings last year) - people have been imprisoned for 1 or 2 years for simply saying 'lets start a riot in the town' on Facebook. Yes, believe me it has happened! Even someone has faced criminal charges for putting up an image of a burning poppy (the symbol of WW2 vetrans but also modern day British imperialist troops abroad) on Facebook. How is this free? Free for whom?

Please understand that corporations controlling the internet is not better (which is current model). They are not democratic organs or do they have ANY POTENTIAL WHATSOEVER to be democratic organs.

'LANDLORDS'

If Fidel or Raul are the 'landlords' then you have mistaken the definition of the word 'landlord'.

"Landlord: the owner of property (as land, houses, or apartments) that is leased or rented to another"

How does Raul personally lease or rent anything? No. And he is not the 'owner' either, but it is 'public property' and this is enshrined in the Cuban constitution. This is what socialism allows - defense of public property. In capitalist crisis this is the first thing to come under attack - the very soil we live on.

Please also provide solid factual proof that Fidel Castro has personally benefitted, in any substancial or remarkable way, from being this 'landlord', considering his contribution to the whole of humanity. Where are his millions? Castro (either) does not have one cent to his name. Actually what you are writing is utter slander of one of the most revolutionary figures ever to grace history.

Why don't you focus on those vulture bastard capitalists who own entire swathes of land in Africa when they never set foot there? Why dont you focus on those bastard bankers who are stealing peoples homes and evicting them across the USA? This are the real 'landlords' which you say you categorically oppose.

WHO IS RIGHT? IS THAT RELEVANT?

I am not arguing with you for no purpose, but I would not want individuals being mislead due to being misinformed by your words.

I hope this gives you more insight into what the 'state of play' is currently, from inside imperialist nations and from inside those who suffer from it.

Of course this would assume you follow the understanding that imperialism is real and is a threat to all oppressed nations - you might not.

Correct, the difference between Cuba and Venezuela is big. Venezuela is still a capitalist system, moving towards socialism. Cuba has consolidated its revolution over 50 years. However, if you think Venezuela could have done this without Cuba, you are greatly mistaken (not to take away from Venezuelans, but it is a heavy influence in material and ideological ways). I dont see the point to try and compare them as if to undermine one or the other?

I am not here to argue, my words are to defend that small nation of Cuba (and Venezuela) because I am a socialist and I will fight to defend these nations as an act of international solidarity which I know is replicated by brothers and sisters in those nations for us.

@Tron

Your phrase very clearly captures a certain ideology - that the wealth of the few somehow naturally belongs to the few. But "other people's money" is wealth that has systematically been channeled to the hands of few, but is created by society as a whole. Using some of Venezuela's oil resources to fund programs that benefit broader sections of society is not "handouts to the poor" - this wealth should never have belonged to a small minority in the first place.

Also, please - this calling something in mainstream american politics "socialism": Doing so is not an opinion - it is either banal cold-war type propaganda or just ignorance. I understand a word can have many different flavors depending on the context - but this use is absurd.

@leftedit Congrats on your documentary with the GH1. Unfortunately, we have begun to live the "socialist dream" here in the States, and it has resulted in lower incomes, class warfare and shared misery that has stolen optimism and replaced it with dependency. Our country can no longer grow at a rate that is higher than inflation which means we are not creating jobs and people have resigned themselves to believe they can no longer live the American dream. I understand that when people live in poverty their savior easily becomes any Statist who provides handouts to the poor. Unfortunately the gravy train will never last, so enjoy the fruits of socialism while you can, as a collapse akin to what is happening in Europe and soon the US is what you can expect as you inevitably run out of other people's money to redistribute.

You can still grow up in Latin America and sound like you are parroting western media myths about your own country. For example, very often the oligarchs who own the media in South America will be linked back to the US, and US interests. In reality they are serving US interests.

Just for the record I should say our crew had no problems or trouble amongst the people in Caracas, or problems with any of its vast infrastructure.

Assurance, or insurance? Glad to hear about the bridge.

Not sure about parroting Western garbage...I grew up in Latin America and have lived here most of my life.

Glad you guys are doing so well, anyhow. Have they fixed the bridge from the airport, yet, or does it still take a 3 hour mountain detour to get into Caracas?

And I thought regime meant a set of political conditions? Everybody's got a regime.

The middle class and educated have been leaving the country, so that should help as well. :)

I know good thing about so called "middle class". Sometimes it is good if part of them are leaving the country.

@rikyxxx

but when cubans will be allowed to leave the country and get internet access w/o asking for permission

If you ask me, every normal country who care for interest of their people need big and good firewall.

I am all for fragmentation.