Chavez wins constitutional referendum

Yesterday, the Venezuelan people voted in favor of lifting the term limits in office for elected officials. The winning margin was clear cut for Chavez, 94% of the people went to voting booths and 54% voted in favor. In 2007 Chavez lost a similar referendum, where he asked the people to vote on lifting the term limits only for him and not for all elected officials. Thus the president changed the terms of the vote in order to persuade the voters.
Following this vote, Chavez will be able to run for a third term in 2012. In this post i don't intend to minimize the achievements of the Bolivarian revolution led by Chavez, especially in terms of poverty alleviation, advancements into socialism, rendering Venezuela a regional power and protesting the Gringo(American) domination. Also the success of Chavez amongst the Venezuelan population has spurred reactions all over the Latin American continent leaning more and more to the left, we could talk about the election of Evo Morales in Bolivia, and Mrs Kirchner in Argentina who admires Chavez.
Nevertheless, i think that this referendum is dangerous to the future of the Bolivarian Revolution. In a matter of fact, by running again in 2012 Chavez is implicitly or explicitly saying that he is indispensable for the revolution to succeed, this by itself marks a failure. In fact, no successful revolution depends on one man! Hugo Chavez ought to learn from the failures of his predecessors all over the world: many revolutions, and social reforms have failed because they depended on one man who built upon himself a personality cult.
Hugo Chavez and all the leaders in Latin America who claim to be progressive ought not to reject the democratic process who brought them into power. The revolution should be institutionalized and not personalized, Chavez has to pave the way for others who can sustain the revolution. Otherwise it will end up like any other, a disaster! The Cuban revolution is now at an impasse after the illness of Fidel Castro. How many mistakes do we have to make in order to learn?

For more insigths read this article.

My manifesto..

In my first post i will try to explain what this blog is meant to be for.
First, Hanzala is this character you see in the profile picture, he was created by the late assasinated Palestinian caricaturist Naji Al Ali. He is this Palestinian refugee who is turning his back to the world and looking to Palestine. I identify myself to this kid...
This Blog will attempt to be a Hanzala but also a reverse Hanzala. it will turn its back to the world and look to Palestine and all the human values that it holds. Because Palestine is not a piece of land, but it represents freedom, justice, revolution, solidarity and human decency. Palestine seized to be a land in 1948, because it became a symbol and an aspiration to every oppressed person on this planet. But also the Blog will be a reverse Hanzala, because it will try to expose injustice, oppression, and the deception of the current world system we live in. it will not turn its back to this world but try to undress it.
Moreover, this Blog will be my channel through which i will tell my stories and experiences when i go to India and live there for six months. Stories that will not be only anecdotes, or a diary but an attempt to analyse and shed lights on some Indian realities.
My opinions, and words will never be neutral, they will be tainted with my beliefs and convictions. I consider myself a radical leftist. I see that the struggle in our world is clear. We live in an oppressing world economic system in which our economic, social and political rights are being smashed and violated in order to preserve the power of the capitalists who are operating through multinational firms, governments, parliments, and the whole spectrum of the polical-economic organization. I believe that all freedom and emancipation struggles on this planet are organically linked. The issue is clear cut, we should oppose this system, we should regain our rights in the economic and political sphere. we should refuse that the economy and our lives are determined by a small groupe of private individuals who thrive for profit. we should refuse wars that are being declared in our names, wars tainted with nationalistic lies created for deception. There are many other crucial issues that whill be exposed in my posts.
I am a person without a nationality, without a country, I am influenced by the culture i was raised in, but that is all. I see this blog as a simple mean to contribute to a larger contestation movement, but one mean amongst many others. Because the struggle in not an electronic one, the struggle is a human one, it should be taken to the streets. I believe that we should exploit every way in order to achieve our ideals, from non-violence to organized violence. We ought to seek and reach everyone. In this regard, my main fear and concern is that a lot of Blogs have their specific audience who largely adhere to the speech of the Blogger which limits the scope of the blog and its influence. Therefore a main challenge will be to reach the people who don't agree with our ideas.
Finally I hope that my blog experience will be a successful one, and that through this blog a space of dialogue will be created and not only a mere one way exchange where people will read what I consider important.
"Oppressed of the world unite, you have nothing to loose but your chains!"