"Violent" Video Games To Be Banned In Venezuela 420
An anonymous reader writes "The country that has bought Sukhois, tanks and 100,000 AK-103's, is planning to build a manufacturing plant of Russian rifles, and oppresses peaceful marches has decided to ban 'violent' video games because they 'promote violence and can alter the behavior of children.' The new legislation in Venezuela says, 'The violence found in video games is translated into the real world.' This new law affects people who sell, 'use,' produce, import and distribute these games. Video games as a whole have been labeled as 'a consequence of savage capitalism' by PSUV (United Socialist Party of Venezuela), which is the political party led by Hugo Chavez. Days before this law was approved by the National Assembly, Chavez promoted the use of traditional toys like the Yo-Yo and Trompo, and suggested that electronic toys like 'the Nintendo' be put aside because they promote 'egoism, individualism and violence.' Just today the AFP released a report showing Caracas as the second most violent city on the planet — even more violent than Baghdad. I guess all those violent gangs in Venezuela are addicted to video games."
Oh please (Score:5, Informative)
The country that has bought Sukhois, tanks and 100,000 AK-103's, is planning to build a manufacturing plant of Russian rifles, and oppresses peaceful marches
Venezuela's defense spending is just over $2B/year. Their oft-foe, Colombia, spends about $6B/year. And the US spends over $400B/year.
And, FYI, your "peaceful marches" involved a freaking coup.
Just today the AFP released a report showing Caracas as the second most violent city on the planet -- even more violent than Baghdad.
Didn't bother to mention that New Orleans came in right after Caracas, with only one less murder per 100,000 people, did you? Or that Caracas's murder rate fell dramatically since their last survey. Skew much?
Anonymous Coward (Score:1, Informative)
I've been to Caracas, only place where I've seen banks, car dealerships and even some nice restaurants have several armed guards with pump shotguns and automatic weapons.
Re:biased view (Score:3, Informative)
And this is the most scary part
, Chavez promoted the use of traditional toys like the Yo-Yo and Trompo, and suggested that electronic toys like 'the Nintendo' be put aside because they promote 'egoism, individualism and violence.'
Because we all know how -terrible- individualism is. But really when you look at oppressive regimes you see the death of individualism as a key characteristic. This just proved what most people knew: Chavez is a power-hungry dictator.
As an American who has been to Caracas, Venezuela (Score:1, Informative)
Chavez is a sick egotistical freak. I don't think he needs to be shot, per se, but he does need to be removed from power. Unfortunately, democracy is dead and the people cannot remove him with votes due to corruption.
Those people are quickly losing all their freedoms in a way that makes citizens of the United States appear to be crying about nothing. Americans are so incredibly self-absorbed that we tend to put our own problems above anyone else.
In Caracas, you can't stop at red lights at night due to the high probability of getting mugged. Friends can't stop by and talk for a few minutes in the street. You need to go behind a gate for your subdivision or apartment.
The police are corrupt. People working in any government industry are corrupt and since most industries are being socialized this is almost every industry at this point. I got ripped off $150 USD at the airport by trusting an official worker when I found myself trying to leave without the appropriate exit tax.
The saddest part is that Venezuelans are beautiful people with good hearts. To me they are ideal for the type of people I'd like to be surrounded by. They have traditional values and take care of each other. Most of them are trying to gain citizenship elsewhere.
Re:Hugo Chavez is a dictator and a thug (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Egoism, Individualism and Violence. (Score:2, Informative)
Don't make the mistake of interpreting venezuelan "collectivism" as anything of the sort you find in many of Europe's successful societies.
Re:Gotta love the straight-faced hypocrite (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Individualism? Oh, no! (Score:3, Informative)
The ONLY example of a truly oppressive "right-wing" government is ... () the national socialist party of Germany.
The Nazis were't socialist and neither was Hitler. And it's amusing that you try to equate them as being left-wing.
Re:citation needed (Score:1, Informative)
I'm well aware of what US foreign policy towards Latin America was like during the cold war. The cold war is over. Granted, there's no telling what conspiracy theorists will claim, but the coup was evidently a military action, and it's funny to note how Lucas Rincon Romero, the highest-ranking general at the time of the coup who spearheaded it and famously announced Chavez's resignation, ended up being minister of interior and justice and is now the Venezuelan ambassador to Portugal. Funny thing, that.
But I understand your need to deny anything that the US does that could be construed as bad since this might force you to take personal responsibility for your own life.
I'm Venezuelan, just in case you were assuming otherwise. It's quite odd, too, that you believe I see no wrong in anything the US does, seeing as I've implied no such thing; in fact, I hate the US's drug war, I hate US support for Israel, I hate the war in Iraq, I hate almost everything the Republican party represents and a lot of what the Democratic party represents, I hate all of the shenanigans of the Bush administration, and so on and on, ad nauseum. This has absolutely nothing, not a thing, to do with the fact that the coup against Chavez was strictly an action by the Venezuelan military as has always been throughout our long history of coups that dates back about as far as our independence.
Re:citation needed (Score:1, Informative)
To put the above in perspective, the above poster is clearly rich enough to a) afford a TV b) afford a connection to the internet. The coup against Chavez was organised by the rich, and defeated by the poor. The TV stations he mentions are all for the rich, so champion low taxes and screwing poor people, basically it's Fox on every channel. The one that got shut down openly advocated the coup. That's like Fox championing freepers marching to the Whitehouse with guns, the FCC would have failed to renew Fox's license if they went that far.
As for the claim of Chavez thugs shooting at peaceful protesters, there are other camera angles showing 3 guys trying to suppress fire from automatic rifles with handguns while women and children (Chavez's thugs remember) scurry for safety because the anti Chavez crowd thinks it's their right to shoot poor people.
Re:Individualism? Oh, no! (Score:3, Informative)
Just wondering ...
How exactly does one promote "capitalism" as in the free and unfettered enterprise of individuals ... while eliminating individualism.
I suppose that you never heard of Augusto Pinochét? On September 11th 1973 he lead a bloody coup against the elected government of Chile and started a bloody oppression of the Chilean people while liberalising trade to allow the rich and powerful to become even more rich and powerful. At the time he got a lot of support by famous monetarists, such as Milton Friedman, who conveniently ignored his atrocities.
Re:banning make hulk smash! (Score:0, Informative)
This amazing fly on the wall documentary was made by an Irish TV crew that happened to be in the presidential palace at the time of the American backed coup and filmed it for future folks to see the truth.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5832390545689805144
That "documentary" was debunked. [salon.com] Don't let your anti-Americanism blind you to the truth.
The most dangerous form of violence Venezuela faces is from the USA. History shows how many have died on this earth due to the policies of the US military, political, and industrial hegemony.
My bad, I should have said reality instead of truth.
Re:Oh please (Score:1, Informative)
I donâ(TM)t know where did you get the budget figures:
2006 Venezuela's defense budget was $4.5 Billions
2007 $6.5 Billions
2008 more than $9 billions
Since Venezuela does not publish the whole expenditures because more than a half of the purchases are not part of the parliament bill (Ley Presupuesto Anual Aprobada por la Asamblea Nacional), these figures needs to be estimated from the press releases, the international contracts signed by the government and what the president himself says on his Sunday live show "alo presidente".
Colombia on the other hand, publishes all the expenditures under a "proyecto anual de presupuesto" which is the congress bill for the fiscal year. In their case there are not hidden budgets and the president does not control a private budget fund like Hugo Chavez does (called Fonden). ...
Regarding the marches, please note also that up today there are many, many open questions about the march involved the âoecoup dâ(TM)etatâ in 2002. There are not an impartial investigation about what really happened on April 2002, and the only prosecutions made donâ(TM)t clarify the Supreme Court (Tribunal Supremo) statement ruling out a âoecoup dâ(TM)etatâ, the President resignation announced by the military chief of join staff and posterior presidential comments about he forced the âoecoup dâ(TM)etatâ in order to consolidate the âoerevolutionâ. ...
Regarding the violence on the Venezuelan cities, in think is not fair to compare them with what happens on other places. On my opinion we need to compare with ourselves, for instance: do you know that we had about a 500% of violent increment (including murdering, kidnapping and drug traffic and abuse) during the last 10 years, which happens to be is the time Chaves has been ruling Venezuela.
Parent is one of Slashdot's most biased posts (Score:4, Informative)
Venezuela's defense spending is just over $2B/year. Their oft-foe, Colombia, spends about $6B/year.
Except that Colombia faces a bitter civil war. What next, will you compare with Israel?
And the US spends over $400B/year.
No, you will settle for the US, which has 43 times the GDP.
And, FYI, your "peaceful marches" involved a freaking coup.
Huh? Care to elaborate?
Didn't bother to mention that New Orleans came in right after Caracas, with only one less murder per 100,000 people, did you?
Maybe because such a comparison would be a textbook example of bias - comparing the "murder capital" of country A with the capital and largest city of country B? If you wanted a faint hope of impartiality, you would have compared Caracas with Washington, DC, or with a large and important US city such as New York.
Or that Caracas's murder rate fell dramatically since their last survey.
Sources? Comparison to previous years? (A comparison of two years is a really, really lousy way to establish a trend)
Re:Individualism? Oh, no! (Score:4, Informative)
More than any other country, Germany â" Nazi Germany â" then set out on a serious stimulus program. The government built up the military, expanded the autobahn, put up stadiums for the 1936 Berlin Olympics and built monuments to the Nazi Party across Munich and Berlin.
The economic benefits of this vast works program never flowed to most workers, because fascism doesn't look kindly on collective bargaining. But Germany did escape the Great Depression faster than other countries. Corporate profits boomed, and unemployment sank (and not because of slave labor, which didn't become widespread until later). Harold James, an economic historian, says that the young liberal economists studying under John Maynard Keynes in the 1930s began to debate whether Hitler had solved unemployment.
I emphasized the important parts bold. The part in italics isn't true. The autobahn was mainly built with forced labor. That's why unemployment sank. Corporate profits boomed (later on) because of slave labor and war (see IG Farben for example).
You may also notice, that socialism != stalinism. You may also find this [wikipedia.org] interesting.