MetaFilter posts tagged with Venezuela

The Rhythm is Going To Get You

micayetoca — Fri, 23 May 2008 07:47:59 -0800

The Youth and Children Orchestras of Venezuela have won the Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts. It might be in part due to their charismatic conductor, or very probably due to their unique style. What sets them apart from most orchestras, though, is their System, which the NYT referred to as "the most ambitious program of music education and orchestra training in the world". El Sistema Nacional de Orquestas Juveniles e Infantiles is a government sponsored program consisting of 120 youth and 60 children orchestras numbering approximately 100,000 youngsters, created by José Antonio Abreu. As a bonus, here is the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra's rendition of Bernstein's Mambo.

Paz sin fronteras

micayetoca — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 17:21:43 -0800

Peace Without Borders. Colombian singer Juanes put together a concert calling for peace, as a result of the recent crisis between Colombia and Ecuador (and tangentially, Venezuela). Remarkably, it was held from the bridge between Venezuela and Colombia, in what is normally a very problematic border, and it featured the great Carlos Vives, the Dominican Juan Luis Guerra, and others. Other appearances: Juanes himself: 1, More Carlos Vives: 1, 2, 3, More Juan Luis Guerra: 1, 2 From Ecuador, Juan Fernando Velasco: 1, 2 Alejandro Sanz: 1, 2

$150 a barrel here we come

humanfont — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 21:40:42 -0800

A high ranking FARC leader, Paul Reyes, was killed during a Columbian raid into Ecuador. Hugo Chavez, the president of Venezuela, responded and ordered ten battalions to the Columbian border, threatening a key regional ally of the United States. Some think it is just more bluster by Chavez. Meanwhile Air Force 2 is in Aruba; which is just 18 miles off the coast. Also Exxon-Mobil was recently cut off from Venezuela's oil.

If at first (or second) you don't succeed...

scalefree — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 17:27:24 -0800

Operation PLIERS. An internal CIA memorandum has been obtained by Venezuelan counterintelligence from the US Embassy in Caracas that reveals a plan to destabilize Venezuela during the upcoming constitutional referendum. The plan, titled "OPERATION PLIERS" was authored by CIA Officer Michael Middleton Steere and was addressed to CIA Director General Michael Hayden in Washington. The full text of the memo will be released soon for verification purposes. Many previously.

South/Latin American composers after 1900

invitapriore — Sun, 03 Jun 2007 11:37:01 -0800

While the first pioneering forays into atonality and free chromaticism were starting to occur in Western European music, the talents of Latin and South America were discovering the Romantic beauty of re-interpreting the past. [much, much more inside!]

Death to America

adamvasco — Wed, 09 May 2007 11:18:19 -0800

Two podcasts from the BBC. Around the world, by every measure, America's reputation and image has never been so poor. Part 1: Venezuela; Part 2: Turkey

A documentary on Llaguno Bridge violent events

elpapacito — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 19:08:39 -0800

Llaguno bridge is a documentary offering an alternative point of view on some of the violent events that took place in Venezuela during the coup d'etat attempt of 2002 [1]. Some local private television are accused of deliberatedly picking some facts in an attempt to support the ongoing coup ; different videos taken from different angles show how some people were wrongly accused of shooting at unarmed masses of demonstrators. Regardless of political preferences and actual events, it is an interesting documentary on how easily facts can be misrepresented.

Bullet The Blue Sky

micayetoca — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 06:33:50 -0800

Venezuelan State TV aired a show yesterday in which they complained about a certain videogame, in which the goal is to overthrow the "power-hungry tyrant who messes with Venezuela's oil supply." In Venezuela, people are a bit offended by the images of Caracas being destroyed in the game, outside, some people are offended because one of the owners of the controversial company that created the game is Bono, The Defender of the Poor, Bono, and they are trying to stop it.

If voting could actually change anything...

clevershark — Thu, 02 Nov 2006 12:25:25 -0800

The election isn't until next Tuesday, but already problems are being reported. It's not just in Texas, and not just in relation to everyone's favorite electronic-voting whipping boy, either; it's becoming clear that every vendor has its own unsolved security issues. In fact it seems that an increasing number of voices are warning that the US is in for an awful lot of contention from all parties involved after next week's vote, and that can't be good. Others are taking a non-disinterested rose-colored view of things and loudly proclaiming that there's nothing wrong with the system, or at least that no one should imply or infer or investigate the matter. Still others are quick to point out that there's nothing wrong with electronic voting, except when they're linked to a foreign government that doesn't get along particularly well with them. Whatever is true about the state of electronic voting in 2006, you can't deny that it has led to a certain plurality of opinions...

The Bolivarian Revolution just got interesting

loquax — Mon, 08 May 2006 10:26:11 -0800

Newsfilter: Chavez announces he may call a referendum asking voters to allow him to rule without further elections until 2031, well past the 2012 limit currently imposed by the Venezuelan constitution. Bluff? Naked power grab? Fatal mistake? Either way, watch what you say about it if you're in Caracas.