# Pres. Chavez's War on Golf? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [August 13, 2009, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pres-chavezs-war-on-golf/506240 "2009-08-13T00:56:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![kitemaker\_chuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a88e4f/32.png) [@kitemaker\_chuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kitemaker_chuck)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pres-chavezs-war-on-golf/506240/1 "2009-08-13T00:56:38Z")
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? ---
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pres-chavezs-war-on-golf/506240/2 "2009-08-13T01:03:41Z")
> [@kitemaker\_chuck](#): > > What’s next, criminalising checkers (draughts) and playing solitaire? I don’t know about checkers, but banning solitaire would do wonders for productivity. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pres-chavezs-war-on-golf/506240/3 "2009-08-13T01:19:45Z")
I don’t see how any government can banish playing with…No, I can’t. I mustn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pres-chavezs-war-on-golf/506240/4 "2009-08-13T01:32:33Z")
no ---
**Author:** ![bannerrefugee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c68b51/32.png) [@bannerrefugee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bannerrefugee)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pres-chavezs-war-on-golf/506240/5 "2009-08-13T06:13:47Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pres-chavezs-war-on-golf/506240/6 "2009-08-13T06:19:51Z")
From [The New Republic](http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_plank/archive/2009/08/12/i-ll-tell-you-what-s-not-cute.aspx): > [@](#): > > It’s the kind of story editors can’t resist, and that’s perfectly understandable. It’s hard enough to get news readers to perk up and pay attention to anything that happens in Latin America, and golden opportunities like this one are not to be missed. > > It’s also the kind of story that drives me absolutely around the bend. Earlier this month, when Chávez ordered three dozen critical radio stations shut down over technicalities in their paperwork, nobody much heard about it. When the Colombian government revealed evidence that Venezuela has been passing sophisticated Swedish-made anti-tank rocket-launchers to the narco-terrorist conspiracy known as FARC, it was page 38, beneath-the-fold stuff. When Chávez’s Attorney General moved to make the publication of certain kinds of news punishable with four years in prison, it shot to the top of no one’s e-mail-this-story list. > > Venezuela’s slide into outright dictatorship isn’t cute. It’s not funny or colorful or folkloric. One of Latin America’s oldest democracies has mutated into the continent’s premier exporter of authoritarianism. Our reality isn’t email-this-story-friendly; it’s only grim. And cutesy stories about that crazee Chávez guy going off on some madcap crusade against golf break through the layers of indifference of first world news consumers only at the cost of making the end of our country’s democracy into a punchline. ---
**Author:** ![lalenin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@lalenin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lalenin)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pres-chavezs-war-on-golf/506240/7 "2009-08-13T13:31:56Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![sweeteviljesus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/898d66/32.png) [@sweeteviljesus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweeteviljesus)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pres-chavezs-war-on-golf/506240/8 "2009-08-13T16:52:52Z")
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](http://cnn.com). ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2009, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pres-chavezs-war-on-golf/506240/9 "2009-08-16T01:20:13Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2009, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pres-chavezs-war-on-golf/506240/10 "2009-08-16T18:45:18Z")
> [@ArchiveGuy](#): > > From [The New Republic](http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_plank/archive/2009/08/12/i-ll-tell-you-what-s-not-cute.aspx): > [@](#): > > Venezuela’s slide into outright dictatorship isn’t cute. It’s **not funny or colorful or folkloric.** One of Latin America’s oldest democracies has mutated into the continent’s premier exporter of authoritarianism. 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. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Moto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2009, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pres-chavezs-war-on-golf/506240/11 "2009-08-26T18:08:13Z")
> [@smiling\_bandit](#): > > 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. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2009, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pres-chavezs-war-on-golf/506240/12 "2009-08-26T18:47:05Z")
> [@Mr.Moto](#): > > 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. ---
**Author:** ![Stoneburg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@Stoneburg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoneburg)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2009, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pres-chavezs-war-on-golf/506240/13 "2009-08-27T15:35:25Z")
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). ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2009, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pres-chavezs-war-on-golf/506240/14 "2009-08-27T15:36:33Z")
What’s next? Is he going to declare water wet? ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2009, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pres-chavezs-war-on-golf/506240/15 "2009-08-27T15:41:00Z")
Actually what is next is banning violent video games. > **[Kotaku | Gaming Reviews, News, Tips and More.](https://kotaku.com/)** > > Gaming Reviews, News, Tips and More. Next thing you know Venezuela is going to be an oppressive state like Germany or Greece! ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2009, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pres-chavezs-war-on-golf/506240/16 "2009-08-27T15:54:02Z")
> [@Stoneburg](#): > > 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). There is no middle ground when a government takes control of the media. He is Satan with a capital “S”.