TeeFor NoneHow Hugo Chavez is

making golf a game betweenrich and poor.

By Laurence Bass

To the American public, the speeches of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez often ring with the same eloquence of Nikita Khrushchev’s shoe-hammering performance at the United Nations in 1960. His words are fervent enough to garner attention, but he lacks the diplomatic weight to be taken seriously. The litany of declarations and condemnations Chávez

has made since his first term in 1999 is a bottomless well of material for punch line pundits and fodder for Sunday morning political roundtables. More recently, the enigmatic leader gave the stateside media more ammunition when he sized-up the latest threat to his beloved Venezuela—a small, white ball with a million and one dimples.

32 December 2009 thegreenmagazine.com