VENEZUELA: Nobody Here But Us Vipers

To Caracas, a sedate colonial capital only a generation ago, Venezuela’s oil boom has brought skyscrapers, gadgets, gewgaws and plenty of loose cash. Rubbing elbows with barefooted paupers, thousands of new-rich eagerly seek the things that money can buy. Last week in El Nacional, Editorial Writer Manuel Rodriguez Cárdenas scorched buyers & sellers alike with a searing blast of angry rhetoric:

“We have a weakness: that of being rich . . . Writers with a sense of duty warn of the disaster we are headed for through our bragging folly, and shortsightedness; but no one pays any attention. The whirligig of clothes, horses and refrigerators spins on. Now we have reached perfection. We bring in dwarfs and freaks to divert us … fighters with bellies like jugs, and women who wiggle their hips in a different rhythm from the rest of the body.

“An endless multitude pours in upon us: dog salesmen, false-teeth makers, confidence men, skunk tamers. And we greet them with smiles of joy . . .

“One of these days [the truth] will knock down this tin shop of absurdity and wickedness. Then the adventurers will take away their roulette wheels, their hair-curling machines, their good-luck charms. They will go away rich, and laughing at us. Here, amid the uproar, fighting to patch the sinking ship, we will be left alone, the disillusioned.”