Chavez shelters homeless in palace
Thursday December 2, 2010
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has given shelter at the presidential palace to 26 families left homeless by recent heavy rains in the country.
The families had previously been staying at the Fuerte Tiuna, Caracas' main military facility, and were transferred to the Miraflores Palace. Chavez offered to let them stay for up to one year.
He toured the rooms in which his guests were to settle, including the kitchen where scores of children were having lunch.
'You will stay for as long as necessary,' he told the refugees on Wednesday.
'Unless they themselves decide otherwise, when they leave here it will be for a permanent flat or home,' he told reporters.
Chavez made it clear that he was reacting to an emergency.
'We have to set aside personal comfort and respond to the emergency that we are living through,' he said.
Heavy rains have claimed more than 30 lives in Venezuela in recent weeks, as well as destroying the property of thousands of people and causing major damage to infrastructure.
http://skynews.com.au/topstories/article.aspx?id=546759&vId=
Chavez can be proud of what he did to help the poor people of his country.
That's 26 families out of 100,000 homeless from the floods.
It's a stunt, nothing more.
I wish our leaders would pull "stunts" like that.
He's setting an example. If enough Venezuelans do the same for other flood victims, they will have temporary homes. That's what socialists do so easily and without giving it a second thought.
Compare that to a million Haitians still homeless and living in squatters camps almost a year after the quake. 1600 dead from cholera outbreaks. This is the"freest trading nation in the Caribbean" according to Washington. The aid money from countries around the world hasn't all been used to help desperate people there. Haiti has been pregnant with revolution for a long time. And it's the US Military and CIA's job to ensure that any signs of Haitian democracy are strangled in the cradle.
I wish our leaders would pull "stunts" like that.
Really? If Stephen Harper invited several displaced families to live with him at 24 Sussex, instead of just putting them up at a hotel, you wouldn't see that as a bit odd? And a bit calculated?
I would honestly find it super weird if Harper did something like that.
Please let us know if you ever see Stephen Harper put 26 homeless families up in 24 Sussex, a hotel, or anywhere at all.
Compare this substantial gesture on the part of Chavez to the Katrina debacle under the last neo-liberal idiot at the US presidential palace. The lucky victims, the ones who managed to avoid being shot on sight by the security forces, received a fly over and a wave from el presidente, along with toxic trailers in which to live in. Heckuva job by all accounts.
For a stunt, it's not bad. Might be disapproved by the wealthy of the world, for reminding homeless people that others have more palatial homes than they can count. Might give them ideas.
Please let us know if you ever see Stephen Harper put 26 homeless families up in 24 Sussex, a hotel, or anywhere at all.
They should scoop the fat out of Harper and make him a shelter for the homeless.