Dreaming 5GW

The title of this entry may be misleading, but only because it’s sensational. Actually, an entry on NewsHog by Cernig suggests a possible attempt at psychological and economic warfare by Venezuela, through the wholly state-owned oil company CITGO:

It seems that Chicago Transit Authority have kept secret an offer from Venezuela and its oil company, CITGO, to provide discounted fuel oil - 40 or 50% below the current price - for CTA’s fleet of buses. The one stipulation, at the bidding of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, was that the CTA, in turn, pass those savings on to poor residents in the form free or discounted fare cards. [link: Chicago Turns Down Discounted Venezuelan Oil.]

This is stunning, actually. But Cernig berates Chicago’s Transit Authority and offers a quote from a poor resident of Chicago: “This is going to hurt the poor and the minority people, like me.” So not only is Chavez attempting to spread his vision for a socialist society via an export of his particular brand of populism, he may also be stoking the fire of racism (or at least, “minoritism.”)

Yes, folks, HUGO CHAVEZ LOVES YOU, unlike those corporatist American government officials who’d rather raise transit fees by 25 cents than lower fees for the poor.

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