Socialist Dreams And Beauty Queens

In this post I'm doing something I rarely ever do. I'm talking about a book I recently read. I'm doing this because most Americans have heard very little about the country of Venezuela since Hugo Chavez was elected to lead that nation. Instead of doing some in-depth investigating and reporting on today's Venezuela, most of the mainstream media just repeats what it is told by the United States government, and most of that has nothing to do with the truth.

The book is Socialist Dreams and Beauty Queens, and it was written by British citizen and world traveler, Jamie Maslin (and published by Skyhorse Publishing in New York). The first part of the title has an obvious connotation -- Mr. Chavez is trying to construct a socialist society and economy in that country. The second part of the title refers to the fact that Venezuela has produced more international beauty queens than any other nation -- a fact that makes the people of Venezuela very proud. In fact, beauty contests in that country usually have a larger television audience that sports contests.

The book is a rather strange mixture of elements -- being a bit of a travelogue, a history lesson, a social tome, and a political treatise all mixed together. That may sound odd, but it works very well and makes for a very interesting read. It is made better by the fact that Maslin is a talented writer who knows how to keep the reader interested. The story of his travels in Venezuela and what he learns about the country is a very easy read and holds the reader's attention to the very end. Personally, I hated to read the last few pages because I wanted even more.

Maslin travels the country by "couch-surfing". That means he stays a few days at a time on the couches of different Venezuelan citizens. This not only allows him to save money that would otherwise be spent on hotels, but also lets him get a good view of the country and its leader from the Venezuelan people themselves. And since he stays with people from all stratums of society, he is able to get a wide range of views about Venezuela and Chavez.

I must say that Maslin makes Venezuela sound like a very beautiful country. And the natural beauty he describes would make nearly anyone want to go there to see the wonderful scenery he describes. But it is also a divided country, and the more money a Venezuelan citizen has the less likely they are to like Hugo Chavez. That is because he has instituted a new constitution that takes more from the rich and gives more to the poor. It also gives rights to the country's indigenous people for the first time.

But I feel I must warn dedicated ideologues who want only to read what they agree with -- whether you are on the right or the left, you probably won't enjoy this book. That's because Maslin is more interested in finding the truth about Venezuela than in verifying anyone's beliefs about the country.

If you are a right-winger who is convinced that Hugo Chavez is a communist dictator who is destroying his country, you will be disappointed in this book because that is not the truth. The truth is that Chavez was elected (and re-elected) by a large majority in fair elections, and he is trying to make the country fairer and more democratic for all its citizens. And he has done this in spite of a right-wing coup attempt (funded and backed by the United States).

If you are a left-winger who thinks Chavez has created some kind of socialist paradise in Venezuela, you will also be disappointed because that also is not the full truth. Venezuela has some serious social problems like a rampant political corruption and a crime problem that is out-of-control (especially murders). Although both problems pre-date Chavez's rise to power, he has not been able to do much about either one.

But if you are interested in what Venezuela is really like and in what is happening in that country now, then this is an excellent book to read. I highly recommend it. In fact, it was so good that I'll now have to find and read Maslin's first book -- Iranian Rappers and Persian Porn: A Hitchhiker's Adventures in the New Iran.