No, that is not a retraction. A retraction is a statement that what you wrote was inaccurate. A link to a response is just that: a link to a response, allowing readers to read the article and the response and determine for themselves what the reports mean.
So, why did yo use that term? At no point did I ask for data from a free market capitalist about Venezuela. I specifically suggested UN data or data from a similar neutral third-party. So why did you use that term in this context?
Yes, and that data differs significantly from Venezuela's own data:
DC said:
DC said:
would RCTV hire a journalist that is not on the tascon list?
I asked a direct question, hoped for a direct answer. So forget about it.
What do you mean given the state of capitalism in late 2008? Let's make certain that a couple of things are clear. Capitalism works and the nations with the highest HDI have considerable amounts of capitalism. No one said capitalism would never suffer reversals. America has been through a depression and many recessions. Please note however that it was the West that sent large amounts of grain to the East and not vice versa. Also please note that capitalism is not on the verge of collapse and thank goodness for that. Socialism has never shown itself to be an engine of economic growth. Only a means to provide security for many. By itself socialism has never been demonstrated to work on a large scale.
There's no reason to think it can't work for our future. There's no reason to think we can't solve our problems concerning credit and exploiting natural resources. And BTW, many people don't have a clue as to how many problems capitalism has solved. Malthusians had predicted our demise many times over. They like all prophets of doom thus far have been wrong. That's not to say that we are not in trouble now. I think we are in serious trouble environmentally and economically but I'm confident that we can solve those problems to.
All attempts to implement communism have failed miserably because it is fatally flawed. Human nature is what it is (forgive the tautology). Great thinkers and talented individuals often need motivation to solve problems. Why is it that Fidel Castro made an exception and let artists keep all of their earnings? He figured out that by doing so he would get better artists.
It won't be without capitalism that's for sure. We need to stop thinking in terms of capitalism vs. socialism. The idea that ideologies were competing is just nonsense. Let's knock it off and do what works.
You mean we need to have our cake and eat it to. The best way to solve the problem is let governments set regulation and do what they do best and otherwise get out of the way of capitalism to let it do what it does best. A healthy combination of socialism and capitalism is out best shot at hope.
Thanks.
And that is appropriate. I'm not sure why you think that is something to be dismissed. Communism (so-called) has caused more death, destruction and misery than just about any human construct. It's been a force of unimaginable evil. I'm not convinced that what we think of as Soviet Communism or Chinese Communism or North Korean Communism were in fact Communism but then I don't think Communism on a large scale is even possible. At best you can put guns to people's heads and force them to accept some form of it or kill them.
Unusual or not (and I don't think it unusual in the least), it's not a retraction.
Given that the numbers comport with your personal bias, that's not surprising. But I'm not interested in confirmation. I'm actually interested in the gathering of impartial data.
From the UN data, all that's done to date is that the reduction in HDI during the period of political unrest was undone, restoring Venezuela to the point it was a decade earlier. Whether that increase continues or stops can't be known until we get some objective data.
You are equating the idea of communism with the cruel reality of the attempts to bring it about. Wrong time, wrong place. Remember Chavez saying in the Pilger documentary that "nothing is so powerful like an idea whose time has come"? I heard an interview with Richard Wolff lately and he said that "communism is democracy in economics". I think that is a very powerful description (if you are interested, here, but skip the adds, they kill braincells). And that is what's happening in Venezuela. Chavez gives power to the people.
That reminds me of my all-time favorite poem by Heinrich Heine. It loses in translation, but anyway, for your pleasure:
... A little maiden with a harp
Entuned a common ditty;
The voice was false, but the pathos true;
It touched my heart to pity.
She sang of love and lovers' woes,
Of loss, and fates that sever,
Of meetings in a better land
Where grief is purged for ever.
She sang our mortal vale of tears,
The joys that end in sadness,
The world where souls, redeemed at last,
Attain eternal gladness.
She sang the epopee of heaven,
The song of loss and sighing,
With which they lull the populace,
Big booby! when it's crying.
I know the song, the text, and the men
Who wrote the song, and taught her;
I know that in private they drank their wine,
And preached in public water.
I will write you a new, a sweeter song;
You shall sing it without a quaver;
We will build the kingdom of heaven on earth
'Tis a better plan and a braver.
We shall then be happy and starve no more:
We whom the earth was spoiled for;
No longer shall lazy bellies waste
What busy hands have toiled for.
Oh, here below there's not only food
In abundance for every comer,
But beauty and pleasure and lollipops,
And the myrtle and rose of summer.
The sugar plums, as soon as they're ripe,
Shall to each and all be given,
And angels and sparrows may have our share
Of the vague delights of heaven.
And if after death our wings should sprout,
We'll pay you a visit with pleasure,
And help you to eat your tarts and cakes,
And similar laid up treasure. ...
I'm not a Marxist and I don't mean to speak for CE but it would seem that the timing was simply wrong. It's not very compelling though.