'Spent the afternoon at a new factory/health/recreation center on the slopes of Catia, a barrio on Caracas' run-down West Side. This is an installation that's been around for about a year, maintaining 27 co-ops in five different sectors: shoes, textiles, food service, construction, and agriculture.

The bureau chief suggested I check it out as part of this int'l junket - even though the press has already hammered these government initiatives into the ground - simply for my own personal enlightenment. What can I say. I'm a fucking rennaissance man so I said "sure."

These gov't subsidized co-ops are part of a term that gets thrown around a lot down here: desarollo endogeno, which loosely translates to "development from within."

Chavez is a nationalist; he's all about grassroots empowerment against those pesky exploitative aspects of globalization. 'Lots of socialist initiatives designed to get the poor on their feet, this factory being no exception.

You walk onto the textile factory floor and there's a definite energy about the place: Nearly a hundred female workers who are proud, happy, enthusiastic, optimistic. You take one look at the hopelessness of the surrounding Catia barrio and it's no wonder.

They are socios, not "employees," which is great given this country's history of outside exploitation.

*But* they each have an equal stake in the co-op, which means an equal wage for each person, regardless of performance. Uh-oh...now I'm no econ major but I think you could run into trouble with that one.

[Insert standard Cold War-esque debate between manipulative and greedy Capitalist forces versus inefficient and oppressive Communist forces here.]

While these co-ops are designed to become self-sufficient beyond their initial government funding, they don't take work orders from private companies - only the state.

[Insert Dickie shifting weight uncomfortably.]

One rep called the textile operation a "solidarity co-op," selling their product at below-market prices, in solidarity with Venezuelan's vast lower class against capitalist forces. And it's nice, but in terms of self-sufficiency in the long run, how can you expect that co-op to last when, as one journalist described it afterwards, "it begins and ends with the state"?

There was a reporter from China there. "This is what we had under Mao," he murmurred. Heh. Pinko commie bastards.

But the situation here transcends ideology. There's so much poverty and desperation, and it's clear...well, clear to me at least, that at least some state intervention is justified.

But with Chavez, the troubling question is how far will he go?

Christ, I dunno. Seriously, what the fuck do I know? Put a lid on it, professor. Look, I can make this a lot simpler, summarizing the dilemma in a package of spaghetti pasta.

That's right: spaghetti, motherfucker.

We visited this mercal, one of many subsidized grocery cooperatives in Venezuela - maybe you've read about 'em. In a nutshell: The poor get to buy basic foods on the very-cheap. It's really hard to argue with that.

Although, they had a full aisle devoted entirely to canned clams and sardines. It's really hard not to argue with that.

The AFP correspondent tossed me a package of subsidized spaghetti. "Read the back," he chuckled. It went something like this:

"In the late 1930s, in New York City, Orson Welles created a fictional account of martians invading the world. The result was mass hysteria - even a suicide - and that was all from just a radio drama! Can you imagine the power of TV, then? That's why it's important we only have impartial, accurate television reports, and why we need to be careful what we show our children. It is a right of every person, under the new constitution for the Bolivarian Republic."

Wow! And to think I just wanted a simple spaghetti-carbonara. I picked up a package of pasta shells - yet another public service message from your friendly federal government. A package of macaroni...a primer on the new Venezuelan constitution.

The AFP guy, ahead of me down the aisle, finally found a package without propoganda. "I enjoy my pasta ideology-free," he joked.

So that's it - that's the situation down here. Wrapped up nicely in a package of subsidized spaghetti. 'Gotta roll.