The worst part of the day is the morning.

You emerge from the cattle car, er, "metro" onto Avenida Mejico and there's this fish mart that wreaks for a block in every direction. You can't hurry past since half the sidewalk is taken up by buhones, that is, the vendors participating in the country's vast informal economy, that is, people selling worthless crap.

Plus Caraquenos don't walk - they sort of just wander in a daze, wondering what they did in a past life to wind up here, so your path is always blocked. At any given hour traffic is completely gridlocked. Nobody's going anywhere, yet they sit behind the wheel in quiet desperation, blaring their horns for lack of any other available options. Oh, and that reminds me: I seem to be going deaf.

I'm also considering firebombing the fish mart. It doesn't have any customers anyways - nobody can stand the fucking smell.

It's been raining on-and-off for the past week. Since there's limited infrastructure and the sewers are all clogged that means the city instantly floods. Two nights ago I fought my way home and almost got washed back down the hill with the deluge. Plus, a saturated cemetary started belching up coffins and cadavers yesterday, New Orleans-style. (The best part was when they showed it on the local news.)

They keep sending me out to do street interviews for different stories, which makes me wonder if they've ever actually heard me hold a conversation in Spanish. Honestly, the only reasonable explanation is they're taking bets on whether I actually make it back to the office.


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Slowly but surely...well not-so-surely, I'm still reporting for a story on Venezuela media law under Chavez.

Just all-around wacky stuff: Today I headed over to the book fair to chat with the government's information minister after he baptized - literally baptized - this book/pamphlet they published. It responds to criticism that they've gone too far, allegedly attempting to stifle press freedoms.

Some of this guy's points make sense: Private media in Venezuela is deeply beholden to corporate interests - their coverage is deeply skewed, with hardly any original programming produced from within the country. This isn't reflective of popular democracy, hence the necessary government intervention. Sure, I'll bite - why not?

But then his assistant has to go and hand him a copy of the pamphlet on a silver tray, covered in roses. The minister takes a handful of the roses, and re-scatters them over the pamphlet as everyone around him bursts into applause.

Later, as I tried to interview him, people kept approaching and asking him to sign their copy of the pamphlet like he was J.K. fucking Rowling. Christ.

Then there's the other side of the coin - the corporate media lawyer I talked to several weeks ago. She emphasized the Law of Social Responsibility's more draconian features - the government reserves the right to basically highjack airtime every hour for "public service announcements" (read: propoganda), entirely free of charge.

Did I mention they're obligated to play the national anthem twice a day? Also, Venezuela's FCC equivalent recently began proceedings against radio stations that have aired offensive material that violates the law. I've seen the report, and some of the "offensive" material cited is political, nothing more. What was that about democracy, again?

But then she has to go and display that Fox News cap on her book shelf.

*sigh* Seriously, which is worse - the Fox News cap or the bizarre pamphlet-baptizing ritual? The jury's out.

Trust no one, fuckers...