The latest Santa Claus is United Nations-perfect international, and when he comes to the Bronx this Christmas, he'll be speaking with a Spanish accent.
For economically challenged and non-profit groups shivering in the cold of the Bronx, you can spell Kris Kringle, Hugo Chavez. The firebrand Venezuelan President, known as "the boss" on home turf, is guaranteeing eight million gallons of heating oil at bargain-basement prices in the Big apple.
With New York tucked into his Santa sleigh of goodies, El Commandante Chavez will press Rudolph (the reindeer, not Giuliani), through the coastal fog to Boston, to deliver a generous cache of cheap oil for winter-bound Massachusetts.
Giving cheap oil to all those american gringos may be too generous as far as Venezuela's poor are concerned.
"according to the Bureau of Economic analysis, residents of Massachusetts earn on average $42,102 per year. That's 10 times more than Venezuela's per capita income." (FT.com Financial Times).
Never one to check out a gift horse is U.S. Rep Jose Serrano, a Democrat whose constituency includes the Bronx. "The first shipments of low-cost fuel from CITGO will begin arriving in my district by late next week," said Serrano. (New York Daily News, Nov. 22, 2005).
CITGO is the Houston-based subsidiary of Venezuela's national oil company, which owns 14,000 gas stations and eight refineries in the U.S.
according to the New York Daily News, Chavez has a ready-made distribution system and doesn't need any special approvals from the White House for his project.
Politicians have been quick to accept the largesse of Santa Chavez.
an enigma for certain, it turns out that President Chavez has a Masonic side to go with his well-touted generosity side.
It seems that BeliefSys/Illuminism has Chavez pegged as a member of Bolivarian Masonry.
"We don't appear in public like a political party…" Inter Press Service News agency (IPS) was told by Victor Higuera the grand master of the (Masonic Lodge) in Venezuela. President Chavez, a former lieutenant-colonel, served in the army division headed up by Higuera, a retired army general.
"Masonic leaders meeting at the Bolivarian Masonic Confederation in Panama in august (2005) proclaimed that ‘Masonry as an order is essentially progressive, and therefore it is one of our vital concerns to participate in the vanguard of processes of social change."
Sounds like a plan to us.
Meanwhile, there may be a method to Chavez's ladling out oil to the american masses. The Santa in the Bronx and Massachusetts may look like the real McCoy, but he spells his surname C-l-a-w-s.
Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com
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