Last week, I went to a talk by the Ambassador of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to the UK. It was entertaining and interesting.

In particular, I discovered a new fact about myself. I must be colourblind. There was a lot of talk about how the Chávez government was a government of the people, of the indigenous masses, one that had finished with the rule of the criollo élites educated at foreign universities, etc. Yet the man standing before me looked rather white, and had been educated in Caracas (so far, so good), Boston, and Oxford. I think I suffer from a condition that prevents me from seeing how this is a departure from ‘the way things were before’. Who can help?

Disclaimer: I’m not saying the man is incapable of doing his job properly. What I am saying is that there is change, and then there’s “change”.