Livingstone and Chavez -- this deal stinks.

[Uwila]

Livingstone strike deal with Cavez

Is anyone else outraged by this? Livingstone is providing Chavez with London knowledge/expertise and in return he is getting cheap oil with which to fuel his buses. So, his costs are going down. Do you think he'll reduce the cost of a bus ticket? Or is he going to pocket the profit elsewhere in his budgets? My guess is the latter. I heard him on BBC London last night, nd he's done this "swap" because it's illegal to actually send Venezuala aid.

For those who don't know, Chavez is an evil dictator who is as corrupt as they come. This
is a sick PR move and Londoners should be well and truly ashamed of their Mayor.

Ken's Big Brother Deal With the Death Squad President

[ruty]

i always though Tito was a terrible repressive communist tyrant until i went to the Balkans. I have met Bosnians, Serbs, Croats, Macedonians and even some Slovenians [they are richer] who talk fondly of him. former Yugoslavia was relatively prosperous, certainly peaceful, and unemployment was virtually unheard of. I'm not saying he or Chavez was/is Mother Theresa, but don't trust all the right wing propoganda. Blu asks interesting questions re the Amnesty report. And as for cattle prods as a way of forcing votes, I'd like to see the evidence for that too.

[ruty]

oh and try googling amnesty international and George Bush. That throws up a couple of interesting things...

[Marina]

And me ruty. Have gone away and had a rootle about, and the BBC material on him, by no means uncritical, has no specific reference to vote-rigging by torture and intimidation.
Agree he may be no saint but in a region that has suffered grievously through Capitalist intervention in its domestic affairs, you can hardly blame him or his government really.
I think he has just been extremely rude about the UN though!

[FluffyCharlotteCorday]

He stole the oil industry.

Who'd he steal it from? How did the previous owners acquire it? Who did they steal it from?

[Uwila]

Fluffy, what about the venezuelans who worked in it and found themselves jobless?

[ruty]

i did like the 'whiff of suphur about' remark tho!

[Uwila]

Ah yes, Chavez and his oil humour. What superior wit... or rather twit.

[kiskidee]

lets seee.... after chavez nationalised the oil industry [ohhh, evil word nationalised.] the oil workers became employees of the state hence were fired by the state for not going to work.

air traffic controllers are employees of a federal agency in the US. they were also fired by the Gov't for striking.

see the parallell Uwila?

don't get defensive when a like for like comparison is made with a wholly american example. i am sure someone else can come up with an example of the same happening in Britain in the past.

oh, go on now, tell us how evil he is to nationalise the petroleum industy in Venezuela.

[Blu]

[Uwila]

No, I don't. Reagan did not create the situation that caused the strike. And Reagan has nothing to do with a conversation on the relationship between Chavez and Livingstone.

Now you can leave your tone of superiority at the door. There is still not parallel.

I haven't said a thing about the fact that petroleum industry was nationalised. Most of the world's oil is under control of state owned petroleum companies.

The air traffic controllers went on stirke and refused to go to work because they didn't like ther=ir existing terms, whereas the workers in Venezuela went on strike when theirs were changed without consultation. Quite a different matter.

[kiskidee]

"Now you can leave your tone of superiority at the door. There is still not parallel."

yes Mummy Dearest. [whiny and subservient emoticon]

lol.

[Uwila]

I take it you conceed the point since you didn't address it, Kiskidee.

[FluffyCharlotteCorday]

Um, workers here go on strike as well because they're not consulted about changes to their conditions.

Are their employers all evil?

[Uwila]

Have you ever seen an entire industry sacked for it?

I mean what if the next time the tube workers strike, Tony turns around and fires everyone who works on a train? Ticketing offices, drivers, cleaners, the whole lot.

[Uwila]

I don't mind a relevant comparison, Ruty.

[Uwila]

You are putting words in my mouth. I am singling him out because he is corrupt. And not anything to do with his extreme leftist philosophies. Whilst I do not lean to the left, I have not mentioned his political views.

He is currupt and evil. Tha tis the problem I have.

Now as for Ken, I don't like him him either becuase he is a tax happy socialist.... but that isn't my point on this thread.

[ruty]

well i guess you should do a poll in Venezuala to see what they think of him. As I said, I think GB is evil and corrupt.

[ruty]

and you have called us all pinkos Uwila so i kind of inferred what you think of his politics from that!

[Uwila]

I didn't call everyone a pinko. Just most of you.

But, if it wasn't bad enough. I've just had the shock of my life..... Hugo Chavez and I share the same birthday.

[ruty]

[kiskidee]

i concede to nothing. however, i succeeded in winding you up.

ps: the points you raised were either
a) misguided
and
B) take too long and waste too much of my energy to explain.

or rather: its kinda a like trying to teach a pig to sing. i would waste my time and annoy the pig.

[Uwila]

Think what you wish Kiskidee, but here in the real world you have not achieved much of what have claimed.

I much prefer to debate with those who can disagree with me in an organised and logical debate, yet go on to still be my friend. Like Ruty, she and I sooooo don't agree. But we can still in the end.

[kiskidee]

says Mummy Dearest from on high.