August 14, 2009

Just (about to get) married

Juan Cristóbal says: It's true. On Saturday, a week from tomorrow, Quico will marry his long-time sweetheart.

At the moment, Quico's life is a sprawling chaos of juggling inlaws, caterers, photographers, organists, guests and guests and more guests ... a total circus. And I won't be able to pick up the slack blogging because I'm driving out there with Katy and the girls to join the circus.

So this blog is going to be semi-dormant for the next couple of weeks while the nuptial parade rolls in and out of town. I'm sure you'll understand. We'll try to post once in a while, and we have a queue of Views from Your Window posts lined up, but don't expect much.

For now, to help Quico and his bride Kanako (the reason he's been studying Japanese all these years) adjust to married life, how about we celebrate them with the time-honored tradition of ... free, unsolicited marital advice!

The View from Your Window: Dublin

Dublin, Ireland - 6:23 p.m.

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Our (non)deliberative and (non)participatory (non)democracy

Juan Cristóbal says: - Quico and I are both swamped today, but we didn't want to the day to pass without highlighting that Chávez's National Assembly passed a highly controversial Education Law last night. We haven't had the chance to read the law carefully yet, but judging from previous drafts, there are serious issues with provisions regarding State interference in private education and limits on the ability of private providers to raise funds.

As if that weren't enough, it is believed the law also sneaks in provisions that seriously limit freedom of expression.

Disagree? Don't take my word for it, take the law's. Article 50 of the Draft Education law says,

Those who lead the media have the obligation to cooperate in the education of the population and must adjust their programming to achieve the objectives set out in the Constitution and in the present law. The publication and communication, in printed format or in other forms of mass communication, of printed material that terrorizes children, incites hatred, aggressiveness, lack of discipline, deforms the language and attacks the healthy values of the Venezuelan people, their morality and their good customs and the mental and physical health of the population, is strictly forbidden. When faced with an infraction, the governing bodies in the field of education will request the immediate suspension of the corresponding activities or publications, without precluding the possibility of further sanctions being applied based on Venezuela's laws.

As if this wasn't enough, they passed another law last night, this one regulating (eliminating?) private property in urban areas.

What are your thoughts about these laws? What do you know about them? Let the games begin.

The View from Your Window: Davie

Davie, FL - 16:08

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August 13, 2009

Quico hits AM Radio

Juan Cristóbal says: - Quico will hit the conservative AM radiowaves tomorrow morning to talk about Chávez. Tomorrow (at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time / 8:00 a.m. in Caracas,) tune in to Bill Bennett's radio show, guest hosted by former US Senator Rick Santorum. Check here for a live feed, here for schedules in your area.

Update: Quico was stood up! Our apologies.

Chavismo's Idea of Press Freedom

Quico says: This is what you get for passing out flyers supporting press freedom in Venezuela today. And I don't mean "today" metaphorically: this photo was literally taken today.

Amid shouts of "these streets belong to the people", a group of chavista thugs rounded on a group of Cadena Capriles journos on Avenida Urdaneta, in downtown Caracas. A dozen of them were injured.

And just think: most of the journos passing out those flyers work for the Chávez-friendly Ultimas Noticias. Think what an El Nacional journo would get for a similar "offense".

Ceci N'est Pas Une Innondation

Quico says: Caracas's unelected mayor-cum-chavista-viceroy, Jacqueline Faría, went all fascio on the media's coverage of the heavy rains that caused commuting chaos yesterday.

Taking the chance to - and you can't make this stuff up - politicize the weather, she started by needling the opposition, noting that only oppo run parts of the city seemed to be having any problems. But then, she took that extra-step from excessively thin-skinned politician to enforcer of authoritarianism by warning that the media's coverage of the flash floods was misinforming the public and creating a "situation of alarm"...leaving the rest up to each journalist's imagination.

In the media environment Chavismo is creating, such a "warning" from someone in a position like Faría's is indistinguishable from censorship. With the government flirting with laws that would jail journalists for publishing news that set off "panic", "alter public order" or commit any of another half dozen vaguely defined offenses, a statement like Faría's becomes something far more pernicious than a bit of freelance media criticism and comes right up to the edge of prior restraint.

After all, it's chavistas who will decide what "setting off panic" means in practice and a very highly placed one has just told you that the news you've just published comes perilously close to that.

Of course, you could take your chances: keep publishing the same story and look forward to trying to convince a provisional judge in a chavista court who can lose his job on the spot if he bucks orders from his higher-ups on the Supreme Tribunal that "causing alarm" is not the same thing as "setting off panic." Would you want to find yourself in that position?

And that, in a nutshell, is freedom of speech, Chávez style. It rains. Streets flood. You go on the air saying it's raining and streets are flooding. Some apparatchik feels threatened by your report. She silences you. Simple as that.

No need for a censorship board, for a highly visible regime...just threats vague enough but credible enough to make it exceedingly foolhardy on your part to keep reporting news the government doesn't want reported. It's the perfect censorship regime.

The View from Your Window: Bogotá

Bogotá, Colombia - 2:05 p.m.

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August 12, 2009

What I Really Think About that Golf Story

Quico says: Since so many of you seem - for some baffling reason - to care, I wrote up what I really think about that Chávez-hates-golf story in a blog post over at TNR.

(And yes, I realize this new rant is pretty much in direct contradiction with what I wrote this morning. My weak-ass defense? Different audiences!)

Three Farewell Parties in a Week

Quico says: The other ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) puts a skewer through the revolution. Worth watching as much for the lovely cinematography as for the (sometimes screwy) content.

Memo to ABC: "chavistas" does not mean "little chavezes"...now go write it on the board a hundred times:

The View from Your Window: Rochester

Rochester, NY - 12:30

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August 11, 2009

Chávez Gets One Right

Quico says: It's the law of averages...you can't talk in public as much as Chávez does without eventually getting at least one thing right.

Count me in, golf should be banned...

The View from Your Window: Halle

Halle, Flanders, Belgium: 8:10 a.m.

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August 10, 2009

Caracas Chronicles 2.0: Where We Are

Quico says: As many of you know, we've been working hard behind the scenes on a complete overhaul of this blog, starting with a new look, a new content management system, and a much improve comments system.

Once all of that is in place, the goal is to launch a new, Spanish version of Caracas Chronicles, hoping to create a platform for serious political debate the likes of which just don't exist in Venezuela at the moment.

For me, the ultimate goal is to change the way Venezuelans relate to each other politically on the internet, by creating a vibrant, substantive reader forum that can sustain serious, impassioned debate that doesn't get drowned out by the insane ramblings and hyperpolarized bullshit that dominates comments in all existing Venezuelan news sites.

What's more, we want to do that without actually having to delete any comments. And the way you square that circle, we think, is by giving you, the readers, the ability to enforce your own standards, giving extra visibility to comments that advance discussion substantively while lowering the visibility of those comments that tend to derail debate (but without deleting them.) We want to build a site that rewards those who make a substantive contribution to the online community, giving them more weight over the way the site is managed. Ultimately, we want the kinds of debates that happen on Caracas Chronicles at its best to be available in Spanish.

After much looking, we've concluded that the software you'd need to sustain such a commenting shangri-la just doesn't exist yet. So we're commissioning our own.

The new comments software will encourage you to take ownership of the online community you participate in, effectively crowdsourcing the task of moderating comments.

In effect, we're going to ask you to rate each others' comments, not just on whether you agree with them or not - which is what these ratings typically end up reflecting - but, crucially, on whether the comment advances debate and understanding even if you disagree with it. This is a big ask, I know, but until we get into the habit of mind of separating those two issues from one another, Venezuela's political web forums are going to remain stuck in the Noticias24esque rut they've been in so long.

The new site should be up and running by October, with the Spanish counterpart following suit quite soon afterwards. I have no doubt that the initial period will be somewhat chaotic - there'll be a lot of trial and error involved. I'm also sure we need to step up our game in terms of using the internet in these kinds of ways, and since no one else is doing it, we might as well give it a try.

The View from Your Window: Houston

Houston, Texas - 11:58 a.m.

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August 9, 2009

The View from Your Window: Mérida

Mérida, Venezuela - 3:20 p.m.

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