When we passed the one year mark, Dave and I began to focus on learning more about Venezuela. I mentioned earlier that we've picked up a few books by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, a nobel prie winning author from neighboring Colombia. His books still intimidate me, and few other titles show up when we search. However, I have discovered a few interesting journalists through Foreign Policy magazine. These tidbits fuel my belief that we will arrive in Venezuela at a very interesting time in their history.
Caracas or Bust was published on Jan 9 of this year, and writes about the relationship between Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. It is my opinion that both men are a bit nuts, and that their meetings must just be crazy-making. They stand together as crazy men who hate America, which is not a particularly strong stance. Interesting, certainly.
But even more interesting was Peter Wilson's story from Jan 6 titled The Skyscraper Slums of Caracas. In the article, Wilson describes a stunning housing situation. In a country of nearly 28 million people, 8 million of those folks are homeless. Chavez has commandeered unfinished parking garages and office buildings to change into public housing, leaving the city without needed architecture and public works, and leaving far too many people living in unfinished parking garages... excuse me - temporary housing. The story is staggering, and the photojournalism of Inside David's Tower illustrates it strikingly.
My Venezuela library remains quite small, but my interest is growing rapidly.
Caracas or Bust was published on Jan 9 of this year, and writes about the relationship between Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. It is my opinion that both men are a bit nuts, and that their meetings must just be crazy-making. They stand together as crazy men who hate America, which is not a particularly strong stance. Interesting, certainly.
But even more interesting was Peter Wilson's story from Jan 6 titled The Skyscraper Slums of Caracas. In the article, Wilson describes a stunning housing situation. In a country of nearly 28 million people, 8 million of those folks are homeless. Chavez has commandeered unfinished parking garages and office buildings to change into public housing, leaving the city without needed architecture and public works, and leaving far too many people living in unfinished parking garages... excuse me - temporary housing. The story is staggering, and the photojournalism of Inside David's Tower illustrates it strikingly.
My Venezuela library remains quite small, but my interest is growing rapidly.
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