I saw in an AP news report that President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela has called golf a “bourgeois” sport.
Is this the end of golf in Venezuela?
Will minature golf have to go underground?
Does he have the power to abolish playing golf in his country?
What’s next, criminalising checkers (draughts) and playing solitaire?
I don’t know about checkers, but banning solitaire would do wonders for productivity.
I don’t see how any government can banish playing with…No, I can’t. I mustn’t.
no
My golf playing grandmum lived in Venezuala for many years. At least 2 years ago she was talking about Chavez taking over the golf courses. I remember her saying something to the effect of “it’s about time the had a coup on that pinko” I guess maybe she overestimated how important golf is to the military over there.
Anyway my Grandmum wouldn’t be down with golf if it weren’t a ruling class type passtime.
From The New Republic:
Hugo is following the Fidel model, although a bit slower. Golf clubs and golf courses in Cuba were closed in 1962, (some say because Fidel couldn’t play and kept losing), and golf was denounced as bourgeois.
Of course, now, 40 years later the first golf club since 1962 just opened in Cuba in Varadero. Naturally it is not available to Cubans, only tourists.
I just want to add that I read about Colombia’s complaint that Venezuela was supplying arms to FARC on the front page of cnn.com.
Meh, golf was banned in Scotland in 1457 but seems to have made a comeback. 
Archive Guy’s “New Republic” link makes a very good point though.
That is the only point where I must disagree. It is funny. It’s funny in a very sad way, of course, but hilarious nonetheless. Of course, I thought the Joker from Dark Knight actually was grimly, gruesomely funny.
What I find most funny is that people actually pay attention to Chavez. The man avoids being a raving loon only by virtue of having people pay attention to him. It’s as if suddenly everyone started listening to Lyndon LaRouche.
You’d pay attention to LaRouche if he was president of a country of 26 million and a major oil exporter, wouldn’t you? You would kind of have to.
Well, how did LaRouche become El Presidente of said country? People paid attention to him, listened to his madness and barely-concealed endless lust for power, and then put him in power, and then at least a significant plurality of them kept supporting him.
He just got my vote!
In all seriousness, there’s some serious trouble in getting good information on Chavez and his effect on Venezuela. US sources basically paint him as Satan, and other sources hail him as the Messias. From what I have gathered, there are some good things and some bad things (imagine my surprise when I found out the truth most likely is somewhere in the middle).
What’s next? Is he going to declare water wet?
Actually what is next is banning violent video games.
Next thing you know Venezuela is going to be an oppressive state like Germany or Greece!
There is no middle ground when a government takes control of the media. He is Satan with a capital “S”.