"Mr. Juan Carlos can treat his subjects in that fashion if they permit him to do so. But we Venezuelans are a free and sovereign people constructing our own future. No one can speak vulgar words to deny Venezuela's chief of state the right to speak. Nothing and no one will ever silence him [Chávez]." — Venezuelan vice-president Jorge Rodríguez, November 11, 2007
"Chávez's criticism of Europe was devastating. The same Europe which presumed to give him lessons in rectoría at the Ibero-American Summit." Fidel Castro, "Impressions on the XVII Ibero-American Summit," published in Juventud Rebelde, November 11, 2007
[In Spanish, rectoría means either "rectory" or "rectorship." We think that Castro must have invented a new word from recto, which means "honest" or "upright." Either that or he has confused "rectoría" with "retórica" (rhetoric)].
"Chávez's criticism of Europe was devastating. The same Europe which presumed to give him lessons in rectoría at the Ibero-American Summit." Fidel Castro, "Impressions on the XVII Ibero-American Summit," published in Juventud Rebelde, November 11, 2007
[In Spanish, rectoría means either "rectory" or "rectorship." We think that Castro must have invented a new word from recto, which means "honest" or "upright." Either that or he has confused "rectoría" with "retórica" (rhetoric)].
9 comments:
That's just castro being senile....
Lol Manuel maybe castro confused it with rectum, that seems to be his main concern now a days.
Manuel,
Castro must be remembering (if he can) the scolding he got at the UN when he was told to stop using insulting language to refer himself to the presidential candidates during his speech at the UN in 1960. He was called to task by the President of the General Assembly during his speech in 1960 for using words such as "illiterate millionaire" to refer hinmself to former President Kennedy then a candidate for the US presidency. He apologized and continued with his speech. Nothing like that occurred when Chavez insulted President Bush during his speech last year at the UN when he called him the "Devil".
Agustin, and for that admonishment to Castro's otherwise accurate description of Kennedy, Dag Hammarskjold fell to his death in a "plane crash" in a civil war are in Congo, on Sept 18, 1961. Hardly a coincidence, I would say....
Does it mean that Chavez will try to kill the King?
Yes.
He will.
I publicly make him responsible for whatever happens to the King, he, Kasstro, and ETA have been always in cahoots.
Agustín:
Thank-you for reminding us of this very apropos precedent. Castro actually referred to Kennedy as "an ignorant and illiterate millionaire." No greater truth ever issued from his lips before or since. Of course, Castro would later assert that Kennedy was his "favorite" American president and that had he lived there would have been a resolution to the Cuba-U.S. conflict. This was certainly not his opinion when he had Kennedy assassinated; nor was it Kennedy's intention when he plotted Castro's (ineffectually, as always).
I think he actually wanted to say "rectitud" but it was impossible for him to find the word in his damaged brain and came with "rectoria" instead.
Charlie:
Yes, "rectitud" would certainly fit the bill. But now I am more inclined to think that Castro actually meant "retórica" since he said that "Europe" (personified by Juan Carlos) was trying to teach Chávez lessons in a relevant schema of learning, and the most appropriate lesson in this case would be on the uses of rhetoric.
That could be the case, too.
The good news is that he's showing the symptoms of Alzheimers rather than dementia -he's forgetting not only in the memory realm, but also in the cognitive realm.
Charlie:
Also interesting is the fact that all along the chain of command no one dared to correct Castro's copy though this meant letting the error stand and all subsequent speculations upon it. Either his every utterance is now regarded as coming from the mountain top and as slavishly reprtoduced as it was received, or this constitutes a kind of sabotage which aims to tell the world that the emperor has no clothes and precious few brain cells left.
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