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19th March 2009
This was the first time joining this Marxist group in ULU about the current situation in terms of the challenges of the socialist government in Venezuela. I was a bit hesitated about whether I should go or not because I have a very tight and challenging schedule for my literature review when my colleague, Ernesto told me this information. In the end I decided to attend because this practical case happening in Venezuela rather than reterating the marxist theory attracted me to understand what actually happened there about the conflicts. Ernesto asked me why I am interested in this topic. I have to say probably a sort of compensation for my previous ignorance about marxism and socialism and the immersion of capitalist ideology in the americanised society, Taiwan.
From the seminar, the speaker told us the implementation of socialist policies promoted the socialist government led by elected president Chávez since he took power in 1998 , have been facing serious challenges and blockades from domestic exisitng interest groups and overseas countries like USA. This also led to the unstable society and the unpredictable future, these tensions were revealed in the shortage of food, the rising price of commodities, the strike by oil reunions, the attempting coups, the corruptive mechanism going on, the limits of the soicalist policies at that context...etc. Despite the government made their efforts to spend huge fortune on tackling social and economic problems, it still could not effectively fullfil the ideals and have a lot problems to solve. For instance, I was shocked by the story that crazily high prices of milk came from relying on imported commodity because of the unproductive domestic supply and production. Then the domestic products were actually sold to local market by pretending imported products and therefore priced them corruptively high. Moreover, Chávez nationalised several industries and failed to successfully regulate rice price because the diverse mutation of capitalist rice products, for example, 10% of rice supply was under control while 90% the rest still can not be effectively regulated. I could imagine how hard it would be when the capitalism has rooted in the whole society with the exsitence of the dramatic rellions against the reforms.
As I told the speaker after the seminar, in Taiwan, we have different types and levels of pro-growth machines-local and central governments. I took it for granted and was convinced when I was working in local government about the out-sourcing policy. I thought I was a good government officier in terms of the understanding of the regulation and serving individuals and private companies efficiently. Of couse, that was my first job about building permmision. What I have to do was to give permissions by law not by me. So if their projects were violating the law, I rejected them and told them how to be able to get the permission. If the projects basically followed the regulation, I always gave the permmision pretty soon. The situation at that moment already presented a very pro-growth regime already. Probably in Taiwanese context the inequality has different faces and smaller voice. So I didn't really pay much attention to the impacts of these private projects. Later, when I was working in second local government, I started to be in charge of planning projects initiated by local government on decline coastal area in my county. That stimulated my curiosity what planning is and what is the best way to propose a project for the development of the area. Generally speaking, the reality was the answer towards the developmental strategy was the vision of Mayor. So I had lots of doubt when I was in cahrge of these jobs. He could achieve his goals by all administrative power. But the every 4-year electional mechanism has serious impacts on local government in Taiwan. The renewing the term of office gave rise to the biased security of people's loyalty by public spending. It really depends on whether the vision is a long-term or just short-term consideration. This also led to my study aboad now.
I know the context of problems in Taiwan and Venezuela are in totally different levels and have different historical background. The scale in this seminar was national scale about the whole system. Relatively, the issue in Taiwan is always around political tension with China. Economic issues are rarely becoming a big division between different parties. Rather, they are pretty the same in this regard- pro-growth, neo-liberalism, free-market...etc. In other words, Taiwan is a quite homogenious country in this sense. On the other hand, it seems that the economic colony and its relationship to the capitalism have caused serious poverty and the inequality in Latin America. That inequality should be an issue in Taiwan as well, just the degree would definitely not be identical. I need to know my country more......................A promising revolution or reform comes from the understanding of differnet context and the adjustment of socialist and capitalist approaches...I suppose.......
This was the first time joining this Marxist group in ULU about the current situation in terms of the challenges of the socialist government in Venezuela. I was a bit hesitated about whether I should go or not because I have a very tight and challenging schedule for my literature review when my colleague, Ernesto told me this information. In the end I decided to attend because this practical case happening in Venezuela rather than reterating the marxist theory attracted me to understand what actually happened there about the conflicts. Ernesto asked me why I am interested in this topic. I have to say probably a sort of compensation for my previous ignorance about marxism and socialism and the immersion of capitalist ideology in the americanised society, Taiwan.
From the seminar, the speaker told us the implementation of socialist policies promoted the socialist government led by elected president Chávez since he took power in 1998 , have been facing serious challenges and blockades from domestic exisitng interest groups and overseas countries like USA. This also led to the unstable society and the unpredictable future, these tensions were revealed in the shortage of food, the rising price of commodities, the strike by oil reunions, the attempting coups, the corruptive mechanism going on, the limits of the soicalist policies at that context...etc. Despite the government made their efforts to spend huge fortune on tackling social and economic problems, it still could not effectively fullfil the ideals and have a lot problems to solve. For instance, I was shocked by the story that crazily high prices of milk came from relying on imported commodity because of the unproductive domestic supply and production. Then the domestic products were actually sold to local market by pretending imported products and therefore priced them corruptively high. Moreover, Chávez nationalised several industries and failed to successfully regulate rice price because the diverse mutation of capitalist rice products, for example, 10% of rice supply was under control while 90% the rest still can not be effectively regulated. I could imagine how hard it would be when the capitalism has rooted in the whole society with the exsitence of the dramatic rellions against the reforms.
As I told the speaker after the seminar, in Taiwan, we have different types and levels of pro-growth machines-local and central governments. I took it for granted and was convinced when I was working in local government about the out-sourcing policy. I thought I was a good government officier in terms of the understanding of the regulation and serving individuals and private companies efficiently. Of couse, that was my first job about building permmision. What I have to do was to give permissions by law not by me. So if their projects were violating the law, I rejected them and told them how to be able to get the permission. If the projects basically followed the regulation, I always gave the permmision pretty soon. The situation at that moment already presented a very pro-growth regime already. Probably in Taiwanese context the inequality has different faces and smaller voice. So I didn't really pay much attention to the impacts of these private projects. Later, when I was working in second local government, I started to be in charge of planning projects initiated by local government on decline coastal area in my county. That stimulated my curiosity what planning is and what is the best way to propose a project for the development of the area. Generally speaking, the reality was the answer towards the developmental strategy was the vision of Mayor. So I had lots of doubt when I was in cahrge of these jobs. He could achieve his goals by all administrative power. But the every 4-year electional mechanism has serious impacts on local government in Taiwan. The renewing the term of office gave rise to the biased security of people's loyalty by public spending. It really depends on whether the vision is a long-term or just short-term consideration. This also led to my study aboad now.
I know the context of problems in Taiwan and Venezuela are in totally different levels and have different historical background. The scale in this seminar was national scale about the whole system. Relatively, the issue in Taiwan is always around political tension with China. Economic issues are rarely becoming a big division between different parties. Rather, they are pretty the same in this regard- pro-growth, neo-liberalism, free-market...etc. In other words, Taiwan is a quite homogenious country in this sense. On the other hand, it seems that the economic colony and its relationship to the capitalism have caused serious poverty and the inequality in Latin America. That inequality should be an issue in Taiwan as well, just the degree would definitely not be identical. I need to know my country more......................A promising revolution or reform comes from the understanding of differnet context and the adjustment of socialist and capitalist approaches...I suppose.......
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