The Logic of some Venezuelans
By Aleksander Boyd
London 19.06.05 | Looking at the results of the latest poll, conducted by Datanalisis in May, I can't help but wonder about the logic of some of the answers given by my fellow countrymen regarding the situation in Venezuela. Let me provide a few examples.
Question: how would you evaluate the current economic situation of the country?
38.3% of people said "regular and improving" (regular hacia buena). This result was influenced by the fact that 57.1% of Venezuelans considered to belong to class D and 60.3% of those of class E (Chavez's core support base) thought that the situation is positive.
Question: how would you evaluate the current political situation of the country?
31.9% of people answered "regular and improving" (regular hacia buena). In this case 55.3% and 57.3% of classes D and E respectively think that the political situation is positive.
Question: In your opinion what is the principal problem of Venezuela at present?
Unemployment: 51% (up from April's 48.5%)
Crime and lack of personal security: 22% (up from April's 19.8%)
Economic recession: 6.8% (down from April's 7.8%)
Question: how satisfied are you with the performance of Hugo Chavez in the following aspects? (citing only the results of the three areas aforementioned)
Unemployment: 84.1% are dissatisfied to totally dissatisfied.
Crime and lack of personal security: 87.6% are dissatisfied to totally dissatisfied.
Economic recession (the result points to "promote private investment"): 48.3% are dissatisfied to totally dissatisfied.
Hugo Chavez did not fare well in terms of approval rates when compared to other actors -neither did his Cuban idol and his dictatorial model of governance. The Church and the media continue to have greater levels of approval amongst Venezuelans. 55.7% of those interviewed expressed confidence in Hugo Chavez, in spite of the fact that they feel dissatisfied to totally dissatisfied in the matters they consider relevant. There is a clear division between what it could be considered middle class groups and lower classes. Whilst 57.4% of the poll participants are benefiting one way or another from Chavez's social missions, the subsidized food one -Mercal- being the most popular by far, it seems rather clear that the poor are simply grateful towards Chavez owing to his populist missions, albeit knowing that the man is incapable of dealing successfully with graver issues.
Summarising, Venezuela's poor support Chavez; however they express even greater levels of dissatisfaction towards his performance and ability to solve the problems they think affect their existence. Now can someone please come forth and explain that logic to me?
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