With the departure of "red" Ken Livingstone from the London Mayor office (not too soon), the new Mayor, Boris Johnson, brings back some reality in the day to day workings. One of his first measures is to put an end to one of the most scandalous and perverse subsidies known to us, the one where Chavez subsidizes transport in London through discounted oil price. Yes, that is right, the president of one of the most run down cities in Latin America, Caracas, with staggering poverty problems, utterly deficient mass transit and irremediably clogged streets was subsidizing one of the wealthiest cities in the World, London. The sole reason for the deal was to shore up the sagging fortunes of Ken Livingstone while getting a pro Chavez propaganda office in London sponsored by its mayor. Birds of a feather.....
In one of these revealing moments, Ken Livingstone, who apparently is unable to get a hint, declared that Boris Johnson was crewing the poor of London. Of course, "red" Ken has absolutely no sympathy for the poor of Caracas, demonstrating that in populism some poor are more equal than other poor. Not to mention his cynicism in declaring that suppressing the traffic advisory from London to Caracas was affecting the poor here. Clearly, Red Ken never sat his sorry butt in a buseta at Caracas at peak hour.
Note:
The G400+ of Caracas of which I am a founding signatory has something to do with the speedy decision of Johnson. Not that we hope that the money that was sent to London will come back in improving Caracas transportation system for the poor, but at least the obscene deal is off and we slap Chavez and one of his most cynical supporters. We also helped show that Chavez eventually brings bad luck to whomever takes money from him.
-The end-