We haven’t heard much about Venezuela since President Obama’s pal Hugo Chavez left the building two years ago. But unfortunately for the citizens of that country, the dearth of news coverage doesn’t mean that all is well in the Marxist paradise. In fact things are downright awful; the economy is pretty much imploding – Venezuela rations food as oil crisis starts to bite ~
 

 
Things were already deteriorating rapidly last spring, mostly thanks to the state taking over large segments of the private sector, muzzling free speech and stifling dissent. Now, pushed by the rapid world-wide drop in oil prices, the nation is teetering on the edge of bankruptcy.
 
As Business Insider reports, according to UBS (a Swiss global financial services company) ~

… the country has an 82% chance of collapsing within a year. Venezuela will no longer be able to make payments to foreign investors without oil revenue at its historic levels.

It’s hard to fathom how things have gotten so bad in such a an oil-rich nation…

Venezuela has the world’s largest oil reserves. But it produces mostly thick, heavy crude that has to be mixed with lighter oil to make it usable. Problem is, Venezuela’s seriously mismanaged state-run oil industry isn’t pumping enough light crude […]
 
“You’ve got a country that has more oil than Saudi Arabia. And Saudi Arabia can easily produce 11 million barrels a day. Venezuela can’t even produce 3 million barrels a day.”

Last fall they actually had to start importing foreign oil (!) – two million barrels from Algeria. (Even worse, Qatar is now cozying up to the South American country, loaning them billions to prop up the economy: Venezuela: Qatar gives a band-aid. That can’t end well.)

Beleaguered Venezuelans have Chavez and his communist cronies to thank for crushing the middle class and for the destruction of what used to be a fairly stable economy.
And while we certainly sympathize with their plight, we should also be grateful for the clear object lesson Venezuela’s downfall represents. Since the transformation occurred so quickly, it’s not difficult to identify the direct cause for the disastrous effect (- as well as the ominous parallels in our own country…).

 
In fact, just this past week, a group of Catholic bishops was valiantly trying to let the rest of the world know what happens when a Marxist dictator takes over a country ~
Venezuela’s Bishops Have A Message For Pope Francis on Communism~

In a refreshingly powerful and direct statement, Venezuela’s bishops Monday blamed “Marxist socialism” and “communism” by name for the horrors and chaos gripping their country, according to a story in El Universal.
 
The bishops said the long lines of people trying to buy food and other basic necessities and the constant rise in prices are the result of the government’s decision to “impose a political-economic system of socialist, Marxist or communist,” which is “totalitarian and centralist” and “undermines the freedom and rights of individuals and associations.”
 
The Venezuelan bishops specifically stated that the private sector was critical for the well being of the country. The document, read by Monsignor Diego Padron in Spanish, said the country needs “a new entrepreneurial spirit with audacity and creativity.”
 
So not only did these bishops diagnose the cause of the misery correctly; they also warned that communism harms the poor most of all.

 
Let’s hope the pope – and other well-intentioned but misguided social-justice types – pay attention to the bishops’ message about the sad state of their country. Free-market capitalism may not be perfect, but marxism-socialism-communism is infinitely worse, especially for the poor and needy.

We know that facts don’t much matter to the Ferguson race hustlers. But if their merry mobs of malcontents had, at some point in their education, acquired a more comprehensive knowledge of history, they may not be so easily duped into following the likes of Reverend Al, so easily swayed by that destructive, divisive rhetoric.
 
Perhaps, as Larry Elder points out in this recent article at Human Events, if they had learned about accomplished Americans like Booker T. Washington, they wouldn’t be so quick to jump on the “Hands-Up-Don’t-Shoot” bandwagon ~

Booker T. Washington was born a slave. In his autobiography, “Up From Slavery,” written in 1901 — just a mere 36 years after the Civil War — Washington wrote:
 
“As a rule, not only did the members of my race entertain no feelings of bitterness against the whites before and during the war, but there are many instances of Negroes tenderly caring for their former masters and mistresses who for some reason have become poor and dependent since the war. I know of instances where the former masters of slaves have for years been supplied with money by their former slaves to keep them from suffering. … One sends him a little coffee or sugar, another a little meat, and so on. Nothing that the coloured people possess is too good for the son of ‘old Mars’ Tom,’ who will perhaps never be permitted to suffer while any remain on the place who knew directly or indirectly of ‘old Mars’ Tom.’…
 
“From some things that I have said one may get the idea that some of the slaves did not want freedom. This is not true. I have never seen one who did not want to be free, or one who would return to slavery.
 
“I pity from the bottom of my heart any nation or body of people that is so unfortunate as to get entangled in the net of slavery. I have long since ceased to cherish any spirit of bitterness against the Southern white people on account of the enslavement of my race. No one section of our country was wholly responsible for its introduction, and, besides, it was recognized and protected for years by the General Government. Having once got its tentacles fastened on to the economic and social life of the Republic, it was no easy matter for the country to relieve itself of the institution. Then, when we rid ourselves of prejudice, or racial feeling, and look facts in the face, we must acknowledge that, notwithstanding the cruelty and moral wrong of slavery, the ten million Negroes inhabiting this country, who themselves or whose ancestors went through the school of American slavery, are in a stronger and more hopeful condition, materially, intellectually, morally, and religiously, than is true of an equal number of black people in any other portion of the globe. …
 
“This I say, not to justify slavery — on the other hand, I condemn it as an institution, as we all know that in America it was established for selfish and financial reasons, and not from a missionary motive — but to call attention to a fact, and to show how Providence so often uses men and institutions to accomplish a purpose.”

 
America, her history, and her people are far from perfect. But by focusing on isolated incidents of racism, pretending they’re the rule and not exceptions, and distorting the truth, professional antagonists like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson have elevated grievance-mongering to an art form. And to what end?
 
Dwelling on the flaws, picking at old wounds, ignoring all the good this country has done and the difficulties we’ve overcome… is tearing the country apart. A national tragedy, based on falsehoods – and ignorance.