More Chávez diplomacy

The mayor of London announced an agreement with the Venezuelan government to cut bus fares in half for the 250,000 least well-off Londoners.

The scheme follows an agreement signed earlier this year by the Mayor, Transport for London and Venezuelan Oil Company Petróleos de Venezuela Europa. This provided a 20 per cent reduction in the price of fuel for London's bus fleet, which will be passed on to cut fares for some of the least well off Londoners. At the same time, London will provide Venezuela with advice and technical expertise in fields of city management in which London is a world leader such as transport, town planning, tourism and the protection of the environment.

This particular type of diplomacy is ingenious, and has already been implemented in the U.S. First off, of course, it directly helps poor people, and by circumventing anti-Chávez governments (i.e. the U.S. and Britain) it goes to the local level, where people in need are more receptive. In that sense, it recalls Fidel going to stay in Harlem in 1960 and saying he was more comfortable there (no doubt he’s talked about that with Chávez). This also calls attention to the ways in which the poor are marginalized in “developed” countries, the message being that they require assistance that their own government refuses to give them. The policy is also almost impossible to deny—if the U.S. or British government finds a way to block it, then they will be directly hurting their own citizens who need help.

h/t New World