El sistema did not need to prove anything; nothing will change just by having a Guinness record.
I have been struggling in the last week or so to keep posting and interacting on Hive. It has been partly due to domestic affairs (house improvements and repairs, errands, etc.), work, and internet service failures. However, I think that one important reason has also been the recent events, which has caused in me some visceral reactions I decided to hold for a while.
From the farce of the campaign for upcoming elections (along with the arrival of the European Union’s observers), the visit of a representative of the ICC (International Criminal Court), a recent slaughter of a band of criminals in San Juan de Unare (government says 18 criminals were killed; people from the small beach town in the State of Sucre say they have counted over 100 bodies), and the bragged about Guinness Record for the largest orchestra, this past week was very eventful. My reactions to all these events made me doubt whether I should devote time and energy to bitching and moaning about more of the same.
Common sense says I shouldn’t , but I can’t help it.
We will have another questionable election process next Sunday and it will be validated by a bunch of idiots from the EU and the rest of the world. In practice, what is going to happen in Venezuela on the 21st is not very different from what happened in Nicaragua last week. Many countries have already expressed their rejection to the results, and yet Ortega and Murillo keep doing what they know best.
As we have seen in previous “free and democratic elections” a la chavista, most government candidates here will be elected, the number of votes will be altered (as they did when they elected their constituent assembly with less than 3 million votes that magically became 8 million), if any opposition candidate gets elected they will be contested or overruled, if they are allowed to keep their post, maduro will appoint a “protector” to make sure that the elected official does not get anything done and whatever is done is attributed to the government, and a long etc.
Even if the EU’s election observation mission finds some irregularities in the process, nothing they say (and I am betting they will say very little) will do much to stop maduro’s regime from continuing what they have been doing for 8 years now.
Karim Kahn visited Venezuela last week in representation of the International Criminal Court to officially open an investigation in response to allegations against maduro’s regime for crimes against humanity. The fact that since its creation in 1998, this is the first time a Latin American country is officially investigated suggests that it must be very hard for victims of human rights violations to make a case before this court (plenty of crimes against humanity have been committed since 1998 in our continent). I do not expect much from this investigation. If it actually leads to some trial and subsequent incarceration of at least some of the high-ranking officials in maduro’s administration, I may not see it, even if I were lucky enough to live 40 more years.
Mr. Kahn had not been here too long when the maduro military forces executed an operation to erase one of the thousands of organized crime bands that operate in every single town in Venezuela. This time, they chose to rid us from a.k.a Malony, the leader of a group that operated in the small beach town of San Juan de Unare since 2017.
Similar operations have been done in different areas of the country only when the interests of the very military who have allowed these criminal groups to act with total freedom are compromised. These gangs have plenty of weapons and ammunition in a country where only the military can bear arms legally.
These groups can kidnap, kill, blackmail, deal with drugs, gold, or humans, and pretty much rule the towns they settle in without any police intervention. There is no national or international instance that cares shit about the victims of these criminal groups.
The consolidation of these groups, even in the most remote and (formerly) safest towns denies the government propaganda about the peace and safety only they can provide. The only ones enjoying peace and safety so far have been the criminals. I do not question what they did in Unare or what they have done in many other towns. but they lie to the world when they just remain silent after each slaughter and they simply do not talk (and no journalist is brave enough to make them talk about it in public) about their involvement in the emergence and growth of these criminal organizations.
Statistics have shown Venezuelan communities with a functioning orchestra or choir to have measurable social progress in terms of crime, poverty or drug use reduction.
Venezuelanalysis.com
Last but not least, the whole country was “paralyzed” last Saturday to witness the breaking of a Guinness record. “We” put together the largest orchestra ever when more that 12,000 musicians performed Tchaikovsky’s Marche Slave. They just needed to play for at least 5 minutes, but the did it for about 12. Tecnically speaking the record is “ours”, although it takes 10 days for Guinness to issue the official decision. The previous record was held by Russia (with an eight-thousand-musician orchestra).
Even though this event should be seen as a national achievement, when you have lived under this neo-dictatorial regimes, you grow very reluctant to embrace any nationalist sentiment, especially when evidence proofs that the government could not care less about the artist (or students, athletes, etc. involved in any national achievement). They only care about PR and what those so-called achievement can do to clean their faces from any red stain.
Why do I feel so strongly against this?
Firstly, because records of this sort matter very little when issues of life and death are at stake. More importantly, freedom itself is at stake. Most of the kids playing that evening have little freedom to do with their lives and talents as they please (it would be nice to have the number of ex-members of el sistema who have been forced to leave the country). Any skeptic just have to visit every center where this kids receive their training (especially in small towns). The Venezuelan the System of Youth Symphonic Orchestras and Choirs, better known as el Sistema, works not thanks to the government, but in spite of it. This thing works simply because we have tons of talented people who have been accustomed to making sacrifices.
The group of musicians from my town who went to Caracas to be part of this waited for EIGHT hours for the transportation to be sent. They got some busses only after they protested downtown. We know about all the issues surrounding their poorly paid teachers, their chaotic locations, and the many times their meeting centers have been looted by criminals.
Why did they have to do this event in the patio of the military academy? How many more young musicians do the military have to torture, imprison, or kill in order for people to see the kind of relationship that exist here between the weapons and the musical instruments?
The event was politicized. El Sistema did not need to break any record (it probably already did with the number of kids who have become part of it and changed their lives for the better, even if they can’t live them fully here); nothing will change after “we” officially get the record.
It called everyone’s attention that the cameras could not get enough from one musician in particular: maduro’s son (heir?). I do not question his musical talent. If he at some point was part of el Sistema, he surely learned something; yet, in our context, his presence was just one more propaganda element. His performance, like that of every government official and military that evening was like the sinners who goes to church on Sunday so that they can keep sinning from Monday to Saturday.
Venezuela does have some horrendous records Guinness should created categories for.
Like the highest inflation in the planet, despite being an oil producer and exporter and not being invloved in a all-out war.
Or, the largest exodus in times of peace (more than 6 million according to some estimates).
How about the lowest salary? or the most expensive gasoline for an oil producer?
Or the largest number of military in high-ranking positions in an allegedly civilian goverment?
Maybe you want to go for the highest number of violent deaths or the highest number of unsolved murder cases
All these records have names and last names attached to them. We know who have been responsible for this. They have been cynical and arrogant enough to brag about what they can do with power. It's all in pictures and videos, and yet, Mr Khan and the court he represents does not still have any suspects and will probably see none with those legal and diplomatic eyes.
