I think Chavez's opposition has nothing better to do than complain about than the flag. They don't seem to realize that Chavez is there by the popular support of the Venezuelan people. However, many people are against the idea of him changing the flag because of the siple fact of wasting money on something as petty as a horse facing the wrong way, rather than spending it on something for the people of that country. Enjoy, its by the BBC:
Venezuela's leftist President Hugo Chavez has officially unveiled the country's controversial new flag.
Parliament last week approved changes to the 200-year-old design including the addition of an eighth star to honour the province of Guayana.
A white horse on the national coat of arms which appears on the flag now faces left instead of right.
The opposition has condemned the new flag as illegitimate saying there was no proper consultation.
Mr Chavez used the 200th anniversary of Venezuela's first flag to present the new one to the general public.
Ordinary Venezuelans caught a first glimpse of their new flag at a large military parade.
Soldiers carrying the flag goose-stepped past the podium of Mr Chavez who himself hoisted the new banner.
The eighth star was added in line with the thinking of Mr Chavez's idol, the 19th century independence leader Simon Bolivar.
Praising the new design, Mr Chavez said the white horse had now been "freed".
Rival banners
But on the other side of Caracas, around 1,000 opposition members were demonstrating against the new national symbol.
They say they cannot accept the changes because they were not consulted and spokesman Oscar Perez said the opposition would go on using the old banner.
"We will continue using our flag of seven stars, the flag that we democrats recognise.
"At this moment, the Venezuelans have two flags - one of totalitarianism, autocracy and communism, that is the eight stars, and one of democrats - that is seven stars, which is the only one we recognise."
The government wants to keep the changeover costs down by allowing a five-year transition period.
Within that time frame all public buildings will have to switch to the new flag.
Stamps, coins and passports will also have to be revamped.
"I think Chavez's opposition has nothing better to do than complain about than the flag. They don't seem to realize that Chavez is there by the popular support of the Venezuelan people."
I think you need to reevaluate your position and not be so inconsiderate. First off, the so-called "president" only has popular support because he has the support of the UNEDUCATED MASSES that remain uneducated currently for very strategic reasons (aka a guarantee to stay in power no matter what he does). If you look at the political division in Venezuela you would notice that the "opposition" is comprised of the majority of Venezuelans fortunate enough to get a college education and understand that his economic plans are ridiculous. Rather than bringing better education to the poor and helping to create a better Venezuela, Chavez has changed education in Venezuela to now include a ridiculous amount of political propaganda and a very biased/close-minded perspective...and that, along with many educated voters that have stopped going to polls because they have stopped believing in the honesty of the Venezuelan electoral system, is why you can happily plaster "popular support" in big bold letters behind Chavez. It's a bunch of crap.
I don't know how much of Venezuelan politics you really know...but from my guess you should probably do a little more research before you post something like this and paste such a strong opinion.
As for the flag...IT MEANS SOMETHING! Do you have any idea how inconsiderate you're being about treating it as "just a flag". For any Venezuelan (including myself), it is a matter of what that flag and the symbols within it represent. Chavez is slowly taking every single aspect of Venezuela that for Venezuelans made it a source of pride and joy, and destroying or changing any symbol of it. It may seem like nothing to you, but to many Venezuelans, it is a painful reminder of the sad reality ocurring in Venezuela under Chavez.
Greg, the so called "uneducated masses" in Venezuela, are the ones exploited socially and economically in Venezuela. Like you said, YOUR COUNTRY, the country of "your people," was the seed for all its social-economic problems today. Your people have killed Venezuela by creating social injustice. Now its time for the people to take their country back from people like you, and start a new Venezuela, were the MASSES educated or not take control of their own country, and hopefully send people like you to Miami. As for the flag, I think the masses (not you) might like this new symbol of hope. On the other hand its tooo much wasted money.
The philosophers have only interpreted the world in different ways; the point is to change it - K.Marx
People like me?...wow...I really love the personal attack.
I never said I supported the previous governments. They were filled with corruption and yes you are right, they exploited the uneducated masses to enrich themselves and did absolutely nothing to better the nation.
I wish I could agree with you and say that Chavez is creating "symbols of hope", but the things I have seen show me otherwise. Our international debts have skyrocketed...heck even President Rafael Caldera somehow managed to fund more low-income housing projects per year than Chavez has managed to do so since his presidency began with prices of oil/barrel at much lower rates than now (where is that money going? Cuba? the Colombian guerrilla? you tell me...); in the last 8 years Venezuela has managed to become the nation with one of the highest inflation rates in the world; Chavez has been linked with sponsoring violent internal Bolivarian circles to supress peaceful protests against the government as well as the Colombian guerrillas that keep people in Colombia and neighboring Venezuelan territorries in constant fear of being abducted or killed.
As a Venezuelan citizen, I cannot support a president that would resort to violence (in case you need reminding...he attempted to overthrow the government with a violent military coup in the early 90s, in addition to his new support of local terrorism). I cannot support a president whose economic policies are destroying what's left of what used to be one of Latin-America's strongest nations. I cannot support a flag that stands for empty promises...and masses that still remain uneducated and jobless.
So throw personal insults at me and my family all you want to if it makes you happy. I somehow imagined "progressiveU" was a site for something a little better than getting insulted for voicing my political opinions.
While I'm at it, I may as well take some of my own advice and apologize for calling you inconsiderate, regardless of what your opinion is on the Venezuelan flag. I was more just absolutely outraged by the fact that the flag had been changed...to me the 7-starred flag I've known all of my life has been and still is a personal source and symbol of national pride and love of country, regardless of politics. I can't just turn my back on the symbol that has represented "home" for me for so many years.
"Patria" - Por Ruben Blades
Hace algun tiempo
me preguntaba un chiquillo
por el significado
de la palabra patria
me soprendio con su pregunta
y con el alma en la garganta
le dije asi
Flor de barrio, hermanito
Patria, son tantas cosas bellas
como aquel viejo arbol
que nos habla y renueva
como el cariño que guardas
despues de muerta la abuela
Patria son tantas cosas bellas
son las paredes de un barrio
de su esperanza morena
es lo que lleva en el alma
como aquel cuando se aleja
son los martires que gritan
bandera, bandera bandera bandera
No memorices lecciones
dictaduras o encierros
la patria no la define
los que suprimen a un pueblo
la patria es un sentimiento
en la mirada de un viejo
son la entera primavera brisa de hermanita nueva
te contesto, hermanito, Patria son tantas cosas bellas
Greg obviously comes for a well-off family. Thefore his opinion of Venezuela or more specifically Chavez is going to be way off. He either doesn't know, or doesn't care about things like Barrio Adentro, and the educational Missions that now exist or are being built in every barrio. He obviously fails to realize that Chavez now has support of around 70% of the country; while 80% of the country is impoverished. So Greg, and those like him make up somewhere between 20 and 30% of the country. They like saying things like "Chavez supporters are uneducated, lazy, and poor," while the themselves don't seem to know the fact. They like to think that "uneducated"(i.e. not having a college degree) means "stupid." They don't realize that not having a college education doesn't mean that you don't know what's going on, or what will benefit you and your people. They're just scared because the rich aren't the only ones with power these days, don't mind them.