The Devil Came Here Yesterday

Though I do not believe in a devil, I thought that Hugo Chavez's speech to the UN was on point. I want to draw specific attention to his call that the UN be overhauled:

I don't think anybody in this room could defend the system. Let's accept -- let's be honest. The U.N. system, born after the Second World War, collapsed. It's worthless.

Oh, yes, it's good to bring us together once a year, see each other, make statements and prepare all kinds of long documents, and listen to good speeches, like Abel's yesterday, or President Mullah's . Yes, it's good for that.

And there are a lot of speeches, and we've heard lots from the president of Sri Lanka, for instance, and the president of Chile.

But we, the assembly, have been turned into a merely deliberative organ. We have no power, no power to make any impact on the terrible situation in the world. And that is why Venezuela once again proposes, here, today, 20 September, that we re-establish the United Nations.

...Point three, the immediate suppression -- and that is something everyone's calling for -- of the anti-democratic mechanism known as the veto, the veto on decisions of the Security Council.

Let me give you a recent example. The immoral veto of the United States allowed the Israelis, with impunity, to destroy Lebanon. Right in front of all of us as we stood there watching, a resolution in the council was prevented.


During the recent bombing of Lebanon we made a similar observation regarding the appartent useslessness of the UN in the face of a clear violation of International Law by Israel. I won't even get into the fact that the sales of arms to Israel that are used against civilians is against US law as well.

You can read the entire speech here:

http://www.counterpunch.org/chavez09202006.html

Edit 9:28PM:

ABC World News Tonight did the usual and completely misrepresented the speech given by Chavez. As expected Chavez's speech was labelled as a "tirade". In contrast U.S. President Bush was labeled as "Speaking to the People". In a medium that is supposed to be "fair and balanced" and "unbiased" these very labels themselves expose a pandering to the supposed US market. While ABC News chose to dicuss Hugo Chavez's reference to Bush as the Devil, the "News" agency repeatedly called Chavez anti-American. However; anyone who has read the speech linked above knows that he has repeatedly separated his position against the current administration from his position for the people of the United States. Let us not forget that while Exxon et.al. were making massive profits on gasoline and heating oil. Citgo, the Venezuelan oil company was offering cut rate oil and gasoline to poor people in Chicago, New York and the Gulf region.

Nor did the ABC "news" broadcast even discuss the fact, brought up by Chavez that the US government has refused to extradite one Jose Posada, an admitted and convicted terrorist. Nor did the so called "News Agency" dare to discuss the portion of the speech dealing with the US complicity in the Israeli bombing of Lebanon.

It is laughable how us "News" agencies repeatedly discuss how other countries press are "state run" when ABC News does the same thing.

Technorati Tags: critique, governance, Hugo Chavez, United Nations