I dropped off my rental last week from my two week visit to Houston. It was my Thanksgiving holiday slash business trip. Every trip to Houston for the past few years has been pleasure slash business. I’m still consulting and administrating the network for a clinic in Clear Lake, but I digress.
After being handed my receipt of transaction for my rental car, I made my way onto the transport bus that goes to and from the front of the airport. I quickly took my seat watching the rest of the passengers enter one by one. Quickly after moving on, the bus stopped for two more passengers.
“If Hilary Clinton gets elected, we’re going to send her down to Venezuela and trade her for Hugo Chavez,†a man exclaimed to this couple who sat next to him shortly after the bus reclaimed its route.
This random outburst bothers me. Where in the world does some random guy have the gall to a) say something so blatantly offensive, b) assume this couple was Venezuelan and c) assume they even cared to know what he had to say.
Surprisingly, the supposedly Venezuelan man responded politely, explaining that most Venezuelans he’s met are of two extremes in their feelings for Hugo Chavez. Those who don’t support him are absolutely against him. There are not many people who lean both ways, who are moderate about their feelings towards the president. The majority, he goes on, are in support of the president. The minority can’t stand him.
Supposedly, Chavez has created programs which help the poor class make more and work less. With this environment, it’s not surprising that there’s a large majority of people who support him. That, however, is my blind reaction having practically no logical foundation and is also a similar opinion that the Venezuelan man gave. I paraphrase his statement in pseudo agreement, only because it’s easy to close my ears to anything else I am not aware of about the conditions there.
Apparently, the people of Venezuela feel differently than the explanation from the man on the bus led me to believe. For as many apologists and supporters are in the top ranks of the country, there are just slightly more people (51% to 49%) who support democracy. I doubt this’ll be the last we hear from Chavez hoping to stay in power.
My education didn’t stop at the classroom. It continues through random conversations, even if the context bothers me.