I've held some boring jobs in the past, and one of the ways I got through the day was to bring the inanimate to life - oh, the love stories between the table and the potted bush, and his hidden motives of letting his lover fall to the ground and crash apart, her branches to be formed into his compatriot. There's nothing like the monotonous to spark creativity, and I try my best to allow myself the luxury of becoming bored.

Where have you discussed a two-state solution? I am just getting the hang of hubski and am not yet sure how I would perform a search of your posts to find specific ideas.

"a leader who reacts to his citizens uniting in the streets by making it illegal to unite in the streets is in for a bad time and should know it."

I've noticed a trend in protests in state violence/repression which seems to simply throw gas on the fire. What I am, unfortunately, ignorant about is major protests which have not been answered with legal sanctions and violence. Do you know of any examples where protests have been quelled using other methods?

The discourse I have been most exposed to has been one of protests relating to violent crime rates and the idea that the government is not protecting its people from violence and criminals. The way it has been portrayed to me is that Chavez' social programs, while helping the impoverished and bringing a higher standard of education and healthcare, have done nothing to combat rampant violence.

Thank you for sharing a more nuanced look at the unrest. For a writer who is obviously emotionally invested, I found that it was surprisingly less biased than I would expect, with the unfortunate exception of the phrase: "Over the last 15 years, since the election of Hugo Chavez, wealth has undergone a massive redistribution – no question a positive thing in an extremely uneven and disparate economic landscape – and the Venezuelan rich have been pretty upset about it; they kinda liked all their money. " which seemed to be the type of black and white thinking that the author is railed against.