Fire and Brimstone

September 23rd, 2006 at 13:01 Björn Hallberg

It’s hard not to be impressed by Hugo Chavez’s antics in the UN General Assembly this past week. While he didn’t levy the most effective criticism, and while direct criticism of Bush is always running the risk of deflecting deeper and more systematic criticism of the US, the quip was nevertheless hilarious and there is always something really appealing about Chavez’s lack of decorum as it were. As opposed to say the US putting on its crocodile smile, boasting and speaking softly while raping and plundering.

As for discrediting the UN by “name-calling”, I recall the US pulling a few of those as well over the years, religious and otherwise. And how could one discredit a system that America infiltrated, broke already in the early 1950s and has since then dominated for its own selfish gain? And to hear John Bolton criticize someone for lambasting the UN is a bit much given what the same has said about the UN in the past. Plus, it’s hard to demand a measure of respect for the US government when the same is deeply disrespectful of Venezuelan officials, funding anti-democratic organizations and organizing coups d’état. Questioning Chavez’s polemic, bluntness is a clear expression of cultural racism in itself. To even suggest that people need to conform to a certain form of discourse, and indeed polemics, is a fantastic display of hegemony.

All in all a tough week for US dominance. Chavez, Ahmadinejad, Morales, Mugabe — even Lula — had something to say about US policies around the world. As one brought a symbolic copy of Noam Chomsky’s Hegemony or Survival, another brought a symbolic coca leaf to the debate. And as much as the US and Britain like to assert that the influence of their critics is limited, the Assembly was clearly of another opinion. It has been a while since the Empire faced such determined antagonists and one would be lying if one didn’t admit that it was all very exhilarating.

Entry 637 filed under: UN. This entry was posted 2 years, 2 months ago. RSS feed for comments on this post.