¿¿¿Por que no te callas??? *Why don' t you shut up?*

[Nacho]

Hello... I just had some good laughs watching some animated gifs, specially this one:



My first question is: Somebody knows what I am talking about? I want to do a little experiment about the coverage of the news around the world... It should be cool if you post something like "Yes, I know what I is this all about, and I am from..." or "No... I am from ... and I have no idea what is all this about"

Hint: In Spain it's the hit parade of the moment, with full coverage, politones downloadable for your cellphone and all that stuff coming in when a new fever starts.

And now... for those who doesn' t know what I am talking about:

Spoiler

All this is about my King, Juan Carlos I, telling Venezuelan Prime Minister to shut up when he was accussing the previous Spanish president of being a fascist.

[close]

And now... the second part of the post: What do you think of the performance of the three main characters of this drama (The King, the Spanish President and the Venezuelan Prime Minister)? Who was right? Where does the freedom of speech finish?

Oh, and just to clarify... I don' t want to start a fight with the Venezuelans. I know some of them, and, as far as I know they might be closer to my King than his Prime Minister ^_^

But even if they are not, no offense, please, I will never allow politics to take me away from the mates, I promise 

[SSH]

Yeah, I saw about that. Kudos to Juan Carlos, I can't imagine our Lizzie defending Tony Blair's rep.

[RickJ]

Yeah, I saw the bit in our local paper.  My wife's family live in Bolivia where Chavez is causing many problems.  So three cheers for the king.

[edit]
The King was right.  Gratuitous name calling is a tactic of the ignorant and foolish, not worthy of national leaders.  In the end only the ignorant and foolish are influenced by this kind of stuff.  When you are speaking for yourself you can say whatever you like and as coarsely as you like, however, national leaders, speak for all the people in their entire country and so have an obligation to speak the mind of the people with respect, dignity, and clarity.  Gratuitous name calling is best left to late night comedians and the humble masses , IMHO.           

[cobra79]

Noticed it on the BBC, not much of it in our news though. Merkel/Bush in Crawford had priority. Kudos to Juan Carlos for saying what had to be said and to Zapatero for keeping his cool like a real statesman and demanding respect for his predecessor.

Spain 1:0 Venezuela  :

[Nacho]

No, no... this was not "Spain vs. Venezuela". This was "Polite vs. Unpolite"  As said, I think that many venezuelans are "victims" of this Chávez, in spite of his "devoted followers" (Acording to some chats I had and some interviews I' ve heard today).

[Candall]

In support of you experiment, Nacho, I am American and I did not know about this until now.

Truth be told, I probably would have still been the last person on the planet to hear about it if it had happened here in America... I'm not a news-minded sort.

[Andail]

Too bad Chavez has sort of fallen from grace lately. I still value the function he and his likes have had in south america in the past, as some sort of bastion against USA.

[Nacho]

***Just thinking aloud, Petter, since you seem to talk about Chávez' merits in past tense***

But some reflexions, not directed to anyone in particular...

Why being a south american bastion against the USA is good?

The countries which have "surrended" to the US, like the Dominican Republic, Chile, or Mexico, are relativelly wealthy and rich, whereas the "opositors", like Bolivia, Brasil, Cuba, Argentina and Venezuela, the most time "free from the Imperialist fist" are, the worst economy they have.

Chávez is a populist who is using the huge amount of petrodollars to survive, while his country is suffering his megalomania losing social services, like facilities and health care system (To make a brief, in every aspect that a socialist government should take care of, social services...)

This post is not even a critic to socialism... Chávez basically declares himself "socialist" and "anti American imperialism" because that' s what people wants to hear... At the same time, his pocket gets hypocritically bigger and bigger... Like Castro and Arafat did before... I see a pattern. 

We only need to know that the National Petroleum Company does not publish their data from 2003, Why? Even Lula, from Brasil, not suspect from being a right doll of the American imperialism, really, is advising him not to nacionalise the petroleum enterprises so fast, that the country does not have the facilities, and skills to do so without falling into unneficacy (=less incomes=lost opportunities and most poverty). Take note Evo.

Venezuela is not the 136th most corrupted country in the world (being the 73rd when Chávez came), the external debt has moved from 21,000 USD Billions to 41,000, and that it is placed 126th in the list of Economical freedom of the World... Oh! and kidnappings have been increasedd a 450%. :/

Last thought: Really... The "He is an anti-America, he is cool!" sentences must die. A person is cool or not, and in addition, he can be anti-american or not, both sentences mustn' t go attached per se (IMHO, declaring yourself Anti-nameofsomecountryhere, should redouce your level of coolness, but, hey... I can even accept that).

It' s sad to see that this form of xenophobia (anti Americanism)is, not only allowed, but cheered up by most of the world intelectuallity.  :'(

[Andail]

Sorry for being off-topic, but I felt Nacho's ramblings deserves some clarification.

If the USA had left South America alone in the first place, much of their problems wouldn't exist.
It has always been about protecting economical interests on USA's part. Especially in Nicaragua and Cuba, but in the entire region as well.

Any leader who's refused to let American companies buy and exploit every little resource they've got, has been economically and often militarily punished by USA; by terrorist factions funded by the American government or secretly by CIA (like the Somoza dictatorship or the Contras).

If there exist any sort of anti-americanism in that region today, it's nothing to do with "coolness" (I don't know where you got this from), it's because USA has more or less maintained a terror reign there, one of completely evil selfishness, one that more or less got Reagan removed, one that got USA sentenced to pay huge damages in the Hague tribunal (compensation they never paid, of course), and if those countries still opposing this americanism are poor it's probably related to trade embargoes and various sanctions carried out by the vengeful american state.

[Nacho]

Oh, yeah.. I' ve read that things before

Now I know why you wrote what you wrote. I didn' t really know why someone could had in grace someone like Chávez in grace, but now it' s clear, thanks.

I just don' t agree, but it' s ok. 

[zabnat]

No... I am from Finland and I have no idea what is all this about.
Can't say I've spotted anything of this in the papers, there could be very well be something about this in there, but I don't usually read news too much and I don't watch tv, so I've missed it if there was. Incidentally all the tabloids and headlines are still filled with stuff about a certain incident in one school...

[shbaz]

It's nice to know you don't hate the US Farlander, but in this case pretty much any country in South and Central America with a vengeful attitude toward the US is absolutely justified in that for some reason or another.  Our history with them is just dismal, though it's almost entirely under Republican leadership that these things have happened.

[Nacho]

Yes, Shbaz, and our history (Seen Europe as a unique entity) is the same, (or worst) But, as said, I am not going to discuss, basically because if I compare what the US does with what Europe does, I am going to be told that "Interactions from Western countries with less developed ones is bad, I never told that America is doing with South America something worst than what we are doing with Africa, etc..."

I don' t think that Petter was directly talking about"America", but about "Economy". (Petter, excuse me if I am wrong and I placed words in your mouth uncorrectly)

And I' ve chatted enough with him to know that we don't have the same thoughts about economics, so, as he is my friend, I will just say "Ok, mate, I know what you say, but I don' t agree". 

And now, Zabnat... To go on with the experiment... We had some coverage about the other guy imprisoned for telling in the internet that he was going to do a similar massacre to the sad events of the previous week, but nothing "big". How is the thing there? Are the tabloids focusing in that, as well?

[zabnat]

And now, Zabnat... To go on with the experiment... We had some coverage about the other guy imprisoned for telling in the internet that he was going to do a similar massacre to the sad events of the previous week, but nothing "big". How is the thing there? Are the tabloids focusing in that, as well?

Yeah, well this and anything related to take full advantage of people's interest about the incident.