[News] Venezuela - Quixote for all

[News at freedomarchives.org]

The Scotsman, Mon 25 Apr 2005
http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=438482005

Quixotic president's novel way to inspire his people

by CHRISTOPHER TOOTHAKER IN CARACAS

IT HAS been acclaimed as the greatest work of fiction ever written and
is the second most published book in the world after the Bible.

Now the Spanish masterpiece Don Quixote has received a new boost - it
has been adopted by Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president, as the book
to inspire his people.

The Venezuelan government is handing out a million free copies of Miguel
de Cervantes' novel and urging all citizens to read the classic tale,
chronicling the adventures of a knight who strove to put the world to
rights.

"Don't be left without your Quixote," Mr Chavez said. "We are all going
to read Quixote to feed our spirit with this fighter who came out to get
rid of injustice and fix the world."

He added: "To some degree, we are followers of Quixote."

Thousands of Venezuelans lined up in public squares across the country
this weekend for abridged copies of the novel that gave the world the
word "quixotic", an adjective meaning foolishly idealistic, and the
phrase "tilting at windmills".

Some 350,000 copies are being handed out in the capital, Caracas, while
the remainder will be distributed through schools and public libraries.

"We're still oppressed by giants, so we want the Venezuelan people to
get to know better Don Quixote, who we see as a symbol of the struggle
for justice and the righting of wrongs," Francisco Sesto, the country's
culture minister, said.

Whether in praise or in criticism, Venezuelans universally describe Mr
Chavez as an idealist. He has said he envisages a new world order in
which developing countries are free from oppression, inequality, poverty
and injustice.

In the book, written in 1605, Don Quixote sets out to right wrongs and
protect the oppressed, but he is obviously crazy, confusing windmills
with oppressive giants.

Mr Chavez's opponents, who have labelled him "el Loco" - "the Madman" -
said it was fitting that the government was distributing the tale of a
hallucinating knight errant.

"Chavez is always fighting against things that don't exist, like
conspiracies to overthrow his regime," said Juan Salcedo, 57, an office
worker who read Don Quixote when he was a university student.

"Our president thinks he can change the world. He can't. One man cannot
change all that he thinks is wrong in the world."

Mr Chavez's supporters have argued that the president - an outspoken
critic of what he describes as Washington's "imperialist" foreign policy
- should not be condemned for pursuing such grandiose goals or for
confronting the United States.

Maria Morros, who waited in a queue that snaked for several blocks
around Congress in downtown Caracas, said she was not familiar with the
novel, but she denied that Mr Chavez's objectives were implausible.

"I believe in his vision, and many of us share the same vision," she
said.

Mr Chavez has openly acknowledged that reaching his objectives will not
be easy. Besides his goal of a multi-polar world order, he aims to use
Venezuela's immense oil wealth to turn the poverty-stricken South
American nation of 25 million people into a prosperous, equitable
country.

During a meeting of his cabinet that was broadcast live on state
television last week, Mr Chavez said Venezuela was still poor more than
six years after he took office.

"Is Venezuela still poor? Yes, but now Venezuelans have better health
care, now they have schools in which children receive a good lunch ...
and programmes to teach the people how to read and write," he said.

To pay what Mr Chavez calls "a social debt" left by past governments, he
has spent millions of dollars on social projects, including a nationwide
literacy programme, scholarships to help people finish high school and
the sending of Cuban doctors to work in slums.

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