|
Chavez loses his marbles. Calls Halloween part of U.S. culture of terror. Ooga Booga!
|
View this Thread in Original format
| occrider |
Chavez: Halloween part of U.S. culture of terror
Sunday, October 30, 2005 Posted: 1748 GMT (0148 HKT)
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says Halloween runs afoul of traditional values in his country.
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- President Hugo Chavez urged Venezuelan parents not to dress their children in costumes for Halloween, calling it a U.S. custom that has no place in the South American country's cultural traditions.
Speaking during his weekly radio and television show Sunday, Chavez called Halloween a "gringa," or North American, custom.
"Families go and begin to disguise their children as witches," Chavez said. "That is contrary to our ways."
Chavez said he was urging Venezuelans to reflect on the subject. In recent years it has become common to see Venezuelan parents holding parties for children dressed as ghouls, animals and witches.
In one odd incident a week ago, authorities found more than a dozen jack-o'-lanterns left in spots around Caracas bearing anti-government messages and what appeared to be bomb-like fuses. Police and firefighters removed the pumpkins with caution, though the jack-o'-lanterns reportedly bore messages saying they were not explosives.
Paper skeletons bearing anti-Chavez messages also have appeared in spots across Caracas recently, and government officials have blamed sectors of the opposition with aiming to create chaos.
Chavez did not refer to those incidents in his comments on Halloween. But he urged parents to think about whether it was appropriate to dress up their children as part of a foreign custom, calling it "the game of terror."
He said that is part of the U.S. culture -- "terrorism, putting fear into other nations, putting fear into their own people."
Chavez, a tough-talking nationalist, is a fierce critic of President Bush who blames Washington for "imperialist" actions in countries from Iraq to Haiti.
Chavez says that he is leading a socialist "revolution" to help the country's poor, and that it should include emphasizing Venezuelan cultural traditions over U.S. customs that have been adopted in various countries and reinforced by images of American life on television and in Hollywood movies.
Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. |
|
|
| St_Andrew |
Funny you should mention it. Actually it's the same over here, or our government doesn't care , but many ppl have this mentality. "It's just an imported tradition, imported only for commerical reasons so boycot it" (10 years or so Halloween barely existed here!)
This usually pisses me off big time though, since pretty much all our major traditions are imported from other countries. So my family made a pumpkin outside the house and everything :toocool:
We also have this "religious" holliday next weekend, which makes it even better since it's somewhat overshadowing by halloween :disbelief |
|
|
| josh4 |
| I was not aware Chavez had found his marbles... |
|
|
| occrider |
| quote: | Originally posted by josh4
I was not aware Chavez had found his marbles... |
Touche |
|
|
| Fir3start3r |
| quote: | Originally posted by josh4
I was not aware Chavez had found his marbles... |
...as apposed to have marbles to loose in the first place...:p |
|
|
|
|
