I should write my plans for the blog before the result comes in tonight. There are two scenarios, one with a sub scenario.
Chavez wins.
By winning I mean Capriles recognizes Chavez victory. If this is the case my work is done here. I have written for ten years against the bastard, starting when hardly a few suspected his fascist nature. If after 14 years the Venezuelan people do not get it, if they prefer subsidy at the price of much degraded living conditions, so be it. I cannot waste any more time blogging, I do not have that many years before retirement and that is now my priority, becoming a bolibourgeois if needed. You want it? Have it! I cannot keep caring and fighting anymore. If what you want is to be screwed, I‘ll try my best.
But there is another reason why I would stop blogging as I did. If Chavez is reelected the loot is going to keep shrinking and soon enough there is not going enough to spread where it needs to be spread. Civil unrest/war will come, starting from inside chavismo and I really do not want to become a Syrian blogger soon after the death of Chavez, if not before. The blog was started to educate intelligent folks outside the country. This has been done successfully. Others will write the downfall.
The blog will not die, I will keep writing because I have the virus in me, but the topics will be of a different nature, to be decided at some point.
Capriles wins
There are two scenarios here. The first one is if chavismo tries to steal his victory. Then there is going to be frenetic blogging until the situation solves one way or another.
The second one is if Capriles victory is recognized. Then I will blog as now until he is sworn in which will coincide with my ten years anniversary as a blogger. But then I cannot keep up. I have become too good at panning Chavez disgrace and it would take quite a while to reinvent myself. I can do it, but I do not have the time, as explained above, if Chavez wins. I have never blogged for a living, never accepted an ad for this blog. This has taken a toll on my finances by postponing a lot of stuff I should have done.
I suppose the blog may become like a weekly newsletter supplemented on personal stuff that I never have time to write about, such as reviews of posadas or restaurants for those foreigners that slowly will start coming back to Venezuela for visits, once Capriles starts controlling crime a little bit. Blogging will become truly fun, a leisurely self-indulgent wandering.
It is the nature of things, ten years have been a long time. I do not regret a thing because as a history buff I have been given the chance to write about history in the making, being aware that I was living it in full. Few with my passion are allowed such a privilege, to go from history books to real history as unappealing as that one may be. And maybe return to books, perhaps writing my own one, now that Internet allows self-publications of selected pieces and commentary. Believe it or not, in French I have written a brief Venezuelan history that covers until 2004 but that I have yet to publish on line. Maybe the time has come.
Non, rien de rien, non, je ne regrette rien
Ni le bien qu’on m’a fait, ni le mal
Tout ça m’est bien égal.