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06/19/2006 Archived Entry: "The Venezualan monkeywrench"

LOL! NOW HERE'S A NICE MONKEYWRENCH. In Venezuela, the Chavez government has ordered radio stations to play a certain percentage of "folkloric" music.

The goal: preserving the country against American pop-culturalization. The method: dictatorial and idiotic. Ain't it just like a government to imagine you can order people to have an intact indigenous culture?

Seems one pop-rock station, to keep its young audience, has begun prefacing every required folkloric song with a comedy routine in which two characters dis the foolish edict. The station also seeks out particularly crude and vulgar "folklorics." It adopted as its theme song a ditty whose title might translate as "Brown-Noser" -- about a smarmy kiss-ass who does everything his obnoxious boss orders him to do.

Next target for Chavez: Movies.

This heartening little NPR report also contains a strong claim about the relationship between artists and all governments anywhere, to which I say a big Amen, Bruthah.

Posted by Claire @ 11:29 AM CST
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