Victory is to those who believe in it the longest!

www.vheadline.com Posted: Sunday, February 16, 2003 By: Chile Veloz

Venezuelan radio personality Chile Veloz writes: I have always thought that I am not the ideal person to counsel others ... or to call others to reason ... or to conciliate ... although many people might believe otherwise. However, this time, and only this time, I am going to give advise ... I am going to call to reason, I am going to conciliate. =

What is happening is a mystery to no one, on the contrary, waves of anguish, rage, sadness and anger, of all those feelings human beings are capable of showing when things corner us, overtake us and crush us, in other words, when the rules of the game are changed without any explanations.

Let's go back. Our first error was not having permitted Carlos Andres Perez to complete his second period. This allowed for the puppet, Ramon Velasquez, to be designated for a brief period, to be able to call for elections ... the same elections that served as tribune for the ominous Rafael Caldera to be glorified with his discourse before the Congress, after David Morales Bello had asked for the heads of the 'golpistas' (coup plotters).

Do you remember? With his discourse, Caldera, practically saved Chavez from a sure death, physically and politically ... and more so ... to pay him back for the immense favor of having helped him reach his second mandate.  Caldera liberated Chavez and restored all of his rights, which in turn helped him to rise up as 'savior' of the country ...then (Chavez) asking for the retreat of the one who had been his political benefactor, in other words, to Caldera.

Isn't it true that this is more or less how things happened?

I continue. When Chavez calls for the next elections and wins them ... where were we, those who now disagree with him? I'll give you an example to show where we were. Imagine that you live in a building where there are 24 apartments. On the bulletin board of your building, you are called to a meeting of the members of the condominium, which will take place, for instance, on Tuesday at 8:00 p.m., and you (for whatever reason) do not show up…

A few days later, there's another announcement, calling for another meeting because other people, as you yourself, did not show up at the first meeting.

The next meeting is scheduled for Friday at 8:00 p.m., and you, as many others, do not come ... or just forgets ... or goes to the movies ... or just does not give any importance to it…

This is how, as per the condominium statutes, a third meeting is called for Sunday at the same time, and, according to the statutes, with whatever number of people attending (which could be three or four) it is agreed to paint your building in a bright green color with purple dots…

Then, you go out to work on Monday and when you come back home at night, you find that your dear building has been painted in a bright green color with purple dots…

Your indignation and rage has no way to stop it ... you go up to ring the door bell of the president of the condominium board and complain: "what the heck is this? Do you think this is the Gasca Brothers' Circus?"

Without even allowing the condominium president to respond, you insult him, and push him around and you threaten to sue him, ruin him, with whatever we always threaten … but you have not taken the time to think that you had three opportunities to vote to oppose, to advise, to call to reason, to conciliate, and did not use those opportunities as your combat weapon, YOU WERE SIMPLY NOT THERE TO VOTE…

This, my dear friend, this is Venezuela ... the same Venezuela that called us the tenants, the apartment owners, its citizens, to three condominium meetings ... and we did not go, we did not answer its call, we did not come to its rescue when it asked for help ... and now my dear friends, dear fellow Venezuelans, Venezuela, my Venezuela, your Venezuela, our Venezuela is painted in a bright green color with purple dots ... and now, what do we do?

At this point, nobody misses a condominium meeting (a.k.a. marches) and meeting after meeting we wonder when would it be possible to repaint our country in yellow, blue and red and decorate it with stars?  This is the dilemma, the grand question.

We could say that, if we were absent from the condominium meetings for over 40 years, well, as punishment we will have to wait another 40 years or more for everything to get back to what once was … but that is definitely a very pessimistic way of thinking. I believe that, in order to see things more optimistically, we must tell ourselves that we have learned our lesson and we have learned it in the hardest possible way: with the loss of human lives, wounded people, with a country economically and industrially ruptured, with a country agonizing of itself, with the lowest self-esteem in the world, with an embarrassment that faces us every single day when we see less and less cars on the streets, less consumer goods in the markets, less smiles on the faces, more tears in the lives and more hatred in the hearts. Of course, with this scenario there are actors who prefer the EXIT stage right (we already have more than enough of the left) and pack up their belongings and leave.

Certainly, that's a solution ... a very comfortable one ... but a solution nonetheless, but (the “buts” of always) not all of us -- who are majority -- can do that; therefore, we have to stay ... moreover I would say must stay, and why?

Not to be too much of an advisor, I will share with you the reasons which as Segeant Hunter used to say (remember the police series on TV?) “WORK FOR ME”: One reason could be; I stay because it is here where I have everything that I have: my house, my son, my family, my friends, my job, my things, my roots … and all of these might sound quite sentimental … but … to continue…

Another one could be; that if in an epoch we: greens, whites, reds, blues and all other colors of the spectrum were capable of living together, but not mixed up, with a certain level of peace, in a very sus generis harmony, very tropical, then I do not see why we could not go back to that … and this way, I could make a long list of reasons -- some more credible than others -- to explain to you why I do stay, but in the end, I believe that only one reason is valid:

I stay just because! I stay here because this is my country, my nation, my land ... and it will be that of my son and of his sons, and that is how it should be.  This is why I am not willing to leave it to those who do not deserve it, those who have made of her (here is the joke) a building painted in bright green color with purple dots…

Think that this is the only country that we have, and, if compared with others, we are a country; beautiful like no other, with richness like no other, with a territory to be developed like very few, with good people (because Yes, there are) with its own, unique and intimate, dearly and beautiful flavors, colors and scents.

If what I write here can help you think of whether to stay or to leave, then it was worth writing. Lastly, if your decision is to leave, please, I don't want to hear you complain, about anything, or anybody ... do not talk about Cuba because you are doing what Cubans did : they left their country alone. The resistance is here, now and forever. How long is it going to take? I do not know ... I wish I knew ... but whatever the length, it would make more pleasant the flavor of the triumph for those of us who were here when a condominium meeting was called.

I will finish here with one of those phrases that one would have liked to have thought of, but you see, in the world there are people who have lived situations like these and worse and are still capable of saying: “Victory is to those who believe in it the longest!"

Chile Veloz chveloz@927fmtotal.com

Note: If you know someone who has not attended the condominium meetings, copy this and give it to him/her, and tell them to remember that it is his/her fault if the building is painted in a bright green color with purple dots.  To never again fail to vote ... that this is not the time to complain, and that each time s/he is called again to vote ... to go and vote; that because by not voting, this is why we are now all painted bright green color with horrible purple dots.