At last, it has happened: the oil for propaganda agreement has been signed between dictator Hugo Chávez and Ken Livingstone. Despite all the criticism, despite the fact that the poor of London are high-income individuals compared to the Maigualidas of Venezuela, and despite Venezuela having an alarmingly high proportion of malnourished children, with 54% of the impoverished scraping by on less than $2 a day, comrade Livingstone eagerly accepted the oil subsidy offered by Chávez. It was destined to happen; expecting otherwise was folly because neither party cares a whit about the rights-deprived—they’re merely political fodder or, as Chávez’s Planning Minister Jorge Giordani recently said, “the revolution cannot survive without the poor.”
Chávez will allocate up to $32 million per year to the wealthiest city in Europe. In exchange, he will receive guidance on transportation, urban planning, traffic control, and more. [Please do not miss clauses 6.4 and 6.5]. Some might wonder why dictator Chávez would go to such lengths and what political gain he sees in this, and the answer is propaganda. Ken Livingstone is the elected mayor of London, but he is also the head [perhaps appointed?] of the Venezuela Information Center, a propaganda outfit run by officials from the City Hall. In today’s world, there is no such thing as a free lunch. Unfortunately, the UK lacks an equivalent to the U.S. Foreign Agents Registration Unit. That means interested parties can never truly determine how much this propaganda setup in London has cost Venezuelan taxpayers, unlike what I’ve been able to do with the one operating in Washington DC. However, the recently signed agreement provides an interesting starting point for future calculations: up to $32 million a year, which is roughly the annual income of about 10,600 Venezuelan families. Not bad. Good old Joe Kennedy, across the pond, isn’t getting that much, but again, this is one of the most expensive cities in the world, hence the premium.
Update: I just got interviewed by ITV London News, which will air my views in the 6 o’clock news. In hindsight, I think I could have been clearer in terms of emphasizing the point about “… this agreement will not be interpreted nor is it intended to be interpreted as a services agreement,” as stated in clause 6.4, which serves to prove that this is nothing more than a farce that will not benefit Venezuelans in any way.