Antigua and Barbuda: Capitalism fails, ALBA bails

Antigua and Barbuda, the little Caribbean island group made famous as home base for megascamster R. Allen Stanford, isn't having a great year. After selling its soul to a fast-talking Ponzi schemer and watching the money it thought it had drain away it now finds itself in pretty dire financial straits and can't even muster the cash to pay its public servant payroll.

But fear ye not, island people, because where rampant kapitalism has failed you rampant socialism will come and save the day....with money (!?!?). ALBA, the organization built around Hugo Chávez's oil revenues to promote the cause in LatAm, has bailed out Antigua and Barbuda to the tune of U$50m so that ends are met and things stay afloat. A&B joined ALBA in June and has just got its first payoff for the decision.

All this does raise some interesting philosophical questions about the nature of money, politics, ideals and stuff like that. Unfortunately I'm too stupid to know what to make of it all (according to recent e-mails received, anyway) so work it out for yourselves.

Anyone for cricket?

Teenage Peru can't take its own medicine

VRAE base, Peru: ain't no gringos here...oh no no no no no no

In Peru right now, there's a congressional investigation going on about the so-called Casas de ALBA (ALBA houses), a string of social support offices and drop-in centres that are dotted all around the continent but can also be found in the poor, highland areas of Peru.

The problem Peru has with these ALBA houses is that the funding supposely comes from Hugo Chávez's Bolivarian Revolutionary Socialist (etc etc) Venezuela. The Peru of President Twobreakfasts doesn't like that, y'see. Definitely doesn't like the fact that somebody else cares more for its poor than the Lima-centric government of Peru. Definitely doesn't like the idea of Socialism propagating amongst "those brown people".

Back in November, your humble correspondent noted in this post that Peru was trying to change its laws to make it much easier to chuck out bodies such as ALBA. So right now busybody congresspeople are snooping around all the ALBA houses they can to build their case. One of the places the suits have recently snooped is Copacabana...

....a small town in Bolivia just a few clicks from the Peru border where up to 14,000 Peruvians have reportedly visited in the past couple of years to get free medical treatment in an ALBA house run by Cuban doctors. Especially popular have been free cataract operations performed by the team there (cos Peru...err...doesn't do that, y'see. No money = go blind in the land of democracy).

But the thing is, Peruvian congresspeople had absolutely no right to do what they did, namely go marching into Bolivia and demanding answers. So when Dr. Evo Morales got wind of Peruvians on his patch he threw a snarky barb over, saying that he'd like to send over a delegation to investigate the suspected US air base in Peru.

As thus Peru exploded (here's a link to 192 Spanish language news stories in the last day), Twobreakfasts calling Morales an interference, the Defence Minister saying there was no airbase in Peru like there is in Ecuador, that Morales was talking rubbish, that he has no right to blah blah etc etc. Or in other words Peru once again acts like an immature teenager stomping its foot.

In fact, there might not be a formal US air base in Peru the same as the one in Ecuador, but anyone who hangs in the right places in lowland Peru more than a week knows the VRAE airbase, supposedly Peru soldiers only, is constantly packed full of US soldiers, planes, copters and air crew. So Morales gave Peru an ironic dose of its own medicine and Twobreakfasts just couldn't hack it. The Twobreakfasts administration of self-congratulatory corrupt cronies finds it impossible to accept they cannot treat another sovereign state in the same arrogant manner as it treats its own people. Their shrill screams are laughable, and Evo does well to mock them as he does.

All power to Morales for sticking it to Peru where it hurts; directly in the pride gland. My stars they surely deserve it.