alexist

Both the Independent and Guardian had articles on Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez yesterday.

The general line of thinking seems to be as follows:

1) Mr Chavez is a populist.
2) He positions himself as an alternative to neo-liberalism and the hated US government.
3) He has not (as yet) gone loony in Fidel Castro style, though he has imported Cuban doctors.
4) The US right wing hates him.
5) He was elected, and his opposition hasn't got very good reasons for hating him (at least as portrayed) and come off as rich racists.
6) Therefore, he is Good.

Personally, I'm more skeptical. His record on democracy is not as good as the British would like to think: he's dismantled the opposition as any real force and has packed the Supreme Court. He can afford the free speech the articles boasted about--because it's all talk and no action. He's also been busy buying arms and pissing off the Colombians by not cooperating with them (and the Colombians are afraid that weapons will end up in the hands of the FARC guerillas).

Let's not let our hatred of neo-liberalism/globalization/enemy du jour get ahead of us, eh?

I got my provisional licence in the post!

I've got a recommendation for an instructor, so set to go soon, I hope...

Don't worry, I won't be a fully licensed driver for a while yet--the wait for a test in North London is anywhere from 9 to 16 weeks! (I was looking at the DSA site) Mind you, I'm unlikely to be ticketed for driving on my US license. (officially you can only do that for your first year--but the police have no way to know how long it's been and I know of a lot of people who drove on their US licenses for years. Insurers [if they insure foreign drivers in the first place] don't care.)

Might ask my dad to give me a couple of stick lessons when I'm in the States. The Civic's had 2 novice stick drivers already so who cares if I screw the clutch up a little more, and I can concentrate on just learning how to use the stick instead of also worrying about British rules of the road.